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Of course the answer had been a yes, even if Jamie's particular brand of yes was hesitant and unsure. It wouldn't have come across in the text, but now that they were here, it was obvious he was nervous. Part of him didn't want to be here. Other Ashdown was spooky in that pretty sure you're gonna turn a corner and die sort of way, and Jamie was already keeping close to both Chris and Shiloh before he'd even been told to. Still, reservations aside, he'd decided it was something he had to do.

Why? Well, Jamie sure knew next to nothing about the moonwalker he'd become, but what he did know was this: avoiding Other Ashdown altogether was completely impossible. Losing his mind with pain and attacking anyone and everything in sight was not an option. So, now he had a choice. Run, hide, and pretend his life was normal—which, to be fair, would've been nice if it was a good choice—or learn what he could so he could actually do something other than fear himself and all these things he didn't understand.

Jamie's only salvation was having people to take these steps with him. He wasn't alone.

"Where do you think we're going...?" he whispered off-handedly, more to Shiloh than anyone, if only because Chris seemed so pinpoint focused that he was in his own world. Tugging Shiloh's beanie (his beanie now, really) further down, he peeked up at the rain through his clear umbrella and sighed.

Heliodora was in her grove, in her mossy mangrove throne, dozing. Her hands lay still in her lap, and her face was peaceful despite the ice that was slowly growing and taking over her body. When she was still, it was easy to see the tendrils pulse in time with her heartbeat.

She opened her eyes when Chris and his two students entered the clearing, and offered a groggy smile. Her eyes proved to be bloodshot and swollen from crying, and her smile shook apart as she looked at Jamie. Heliodora turned her attention to Chris: "Mr. Watts. Hi!"

The worried look on Jamie's face had melted into a temporary smile at Shiloh's compliment. "I dunno where," he'd replied. "I just kinda found it, I guess."

Any semblance of normalcy, any fun and games between friends, had gone straight out the window when they came upon Heliodora, though. Mr. Watts reacted in that same calm, collected way he always seemed to, acting as if none of this was at all unusual. Jamie wondered if he'd ever feel that way about the things they'd seen. He wondered if meeting a woman, her body grown one with ice, was something he just should've expected by now.

"Heliodora..." he repeated the name Chris had revealed under his breath, eyes locked on her. Was it just his imagination or did she not seem all that happy to see him? He shuffled closer to Shiloh nervously.

"Hi," said Heliodora to the pair of boys. "Shiloh… Beaumont, right? We were in bio together, before. I think." Her attention drifted to Shiloh and she looked at his coat. "I'm alright. It's very temperate here for me."

She closed her eyes for a moment. "I'd love new books, I already finished all the ones Mr. Mixlin brought me like, five times."

Somehow Shiloh always knew what Jamie needed to start settling down, even if it was just a firm, reassuring pat on the back. Or maybe it was because it was Shiloh. Maybe anything would've sufficed.

"H-Hello... nice to... meet you..." was his best attempt at a predictably formal response.

Of course, he was still a tad on edge, and seeing Bergamot shoot out of Chris's bag and immediately over to Heliodora made his stomach twist for reasons he didn't want to admit. "B-Bergie...!" he stuttered and took a small step forward. Except he caught himself and immediately took that same step back. He was the guest here, Jamie reminded himself.

Clamming up, he let his eyes drop back to his shoes, hand squeezing tighter around the umbrella handle.

"Oh, hello, you precious thing," said Heliodora, plucking up the kitten and settling him in her lap. "I think I met your brother, didn't I?" She was completely smitten with the cat, which was an average reaction to cats for her, not that Chris would know that. "Of course you can teach here," she said. "I'm bored and lonely when Pax isn't around." Which was more and more often lately, but her handmaid often got restless around mid-month.

Heliodora smiled at Jamie and Shiloh. "I won't hurt him. He was born here, you know."

There was a noticeable slump to Jamie's previously rigid shoulders when Shiloh bumped against him. "You might be right," he ventured, not sounding overly enthusiastic about the joke, but hey, he was trying. It was hard when he found himself standing there, unsure what exactly to do, a slurry of nervousness and worry in his gut. This had seemed like a good idea at the time, and honestly it likely still was, but Jamie never failed to hit that awkward wall when the time came to actually accomplish a difficult goal.

"O-Okay..." was the response he muttered for Heliodora, trusting more in the fact that Chris believed in her than her own words of assurance. He felt bad for doubting, but anything unusual about Other Ashdown, including the woman incased in ice, was taken with a suspicious grain of salt.

"Who... is Pax exactly?" he asked. "A-And... what is this place....?"