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Gone was any pretense that Ai was in earthling territory for any other purpose than to hunt. After leaving Iona behind the alkidike had left Awat on rumors of a shifter and her hybrid charge southbound. She hadn't dawdled long in that little village; once her sister's antennae and fingers were secure in a pouch at her side she'd gone on to her next target. If she was discovered and healed then fortune was on her side. If not...well, that wasn't Ai's problem anymore.

Without Lucijah by her side to temper her the alkidike was able to travel using her own methods. She stole when the opportunity arose, threatened when necessary and generally tore through the desert like the Dretch. Whenever false information came her way and inevitably threw Ai off track the alkidike's ire would rise. It was like searching for Iona all over again, but without the distraction of a companion by her side. Lucijah gave her something solid to hold onto; something to keep her there. She wasn't entirely sure what to call that, but with every moment that the shifter strayed further from her Ai worried more that she would be lost forever.

Her journey brought her to the beaches of Matori. She'd expected to backtrack to Jauhar, where the safety of Lucijah's people might protect her, but when her information went south Ai followed it. Of course she wouldn't go there; she had family, of course, but it wasn't as if they'd come to see Lucijah while Ai had been there. Did they really count, then?

Reports of shifters came more frequently than Ai would have liked, but she tracked them all to fruition. She didn't dare give out a description of who she was looking for in case word got back to her. What if she found out Ai was looking for her and fled? So, as infuriating as it was, Ai went to every beach, every boat, every cove....All the while coming up empty.

When she came to Sald she'd all, but given up hope. This was the last lead that she had; the last shred of finding Lucijah. At least, for the time being. Ai was nothing if not persistent and if it took the rest of her life to hunt the shifter down then she would.

The fire illuminated the dark figure as she stalked the sands. Bodies moved about her like shades, dancing and clinging to each other with little regard to the killer in their midst. What few that really looked at her back away with sharp breathes, murmuring to their partners and pulling away. She didn't waste time with them; instead, she went toward the only thing that had sparked a light in her.

The one thing that glowed atop the sand when nothing else did. A familiar form that was turned away from everything else and as angry as Ai was to see it she was also....relieved? Elated?

Pissed?

"You suck at hiding."

"You had to have known I would come." Ai quirked a brow, her eyes taking in the distressed display. There was something so openly vulnerable about the way Lucijah was presenting herself. She didn't appear any weaker to the alkidike in that moment, but rather somehow more open in her emotions. The longer they had traveled with one another the more Ai had begun to know about her, but not as much as that singular moment. With the shadows of Ai's looming body blocking the firelight and only the stars to illuminate her Lucijah looked ethereal. Terrified, truculent, beautiful...

Instead of squaring up and preparing for a fight, the alkidike closed her eyes. When she opened them it was on a long, calming exhale where she held her arms out to her sides. "Iona lives. If you need proof you can go back to Awat yourself to see."

Instinctively a part of Ai wanted to scream; to rage until Lucijah bent to her will. And yet...the larger part of her didn't. What would have been the point when the very thing she admired about the shifter most was her ability to fight fear and stand toe to toe with a monster?

While Ai was completely understanding of how confusing the situation must be she wanted this part of it to be over. She didn't like the vulnerability that came with being so open with another person and yet, if she wanted her true goal then she would have to. Regardless of what became of it all.

Ai carefully untied the pouch at her side and held it up for inspection a moment before tossing it at Lucijah's feet. "I got my pound of flesh. Three fingers from her left hand so that she'll never hold a bow again, and the antennae that mark her as Aishan." She didn't expect the shifter to open the bag; if anything she might walk away from it, but to Ai it meant something. She'd sacrificed a kill for an earthling.

"I'm not hunting you; I'm..." The alkidike took a deep breath and mulled over her words carefully. "I was hunting you, but not for the reason you think! I don't want to kill you; I don't want to hurt you." More than I already have. Because surely if she'd left the shifter with positive memories then she wouldn't have been ready to defend herself. She wouldn't be standing there with the same look as so many others before Ai tore through them...

"I let her live because I thought that maybe if I did you wouldn't leave."

She was laughing. Ai's face immediately clenched and the core of her being recoiled at the act. What had she expected? The alkidike wasn't upset at the shifter just...embarrassed, maybe? Exposed? There was a tension just under her skin like tendons that were thrumming against the edge of a blade. It gave her a nauseous feeling that Ai could only attribute to nerves; a feeling she hadn't had for many, many years.

At the very least she was being heard which was more than Ai had expected. Lucijah had laughed, but she was also watching, her eyes moving toward the bag before turning back to Ai. She hadn't left yet, hadn't screamed for one of the surrounding earthlings to aid her and that said something. In all honesty she could have had then attack en masse, but....Ai was safe. For the moment.

Still, that didn't mean she liked being around all of these earthlings so casually. Looking over her shoulder Ai took in the setting before turning back to Lucijah with a raised brow. "No...I haven't. Would eating help?"

Ai flexed her hand - the very one that was missing fingers - with a sardonic look. "I can handle myself." Still, there was the hint of a pout to those words. Surely she didn't eat quite as well on her own - mostly out of the sheer need for sustenance and not a love of food - but she survived. Admittedly she did miss the meals that Lucijah made, though. The sheer fact that she could make something edible with spices that would have otherwise repulsed her made her wonder if it wasn't witchcraft.

"Ah." She passed a look at the closest earthlings and fixed them with her dark gaze, silently reveling in the fear that seemed to seep from their skin. The fact that she could have slaughtered them all wasn't lost in the alkidike. For now she didn't want to, but if one of them had tried to interrupt this meeting...well, her patience may have worn thin.

While the cabins may have held a comforting appeal to them they clearly weren't build with Aishans in mind. Ai had been forced to crouch just to go through the doorways and she removed her headdress to walk in the rooms without issue. If she'd been taller then she might have had more problems, but this was the one time in her life she'd been grateful she was shorter for her people.

Once she was settled with her food - one foot hanging off into the water and the other curled underneath her - the real discussion began. She picked absentmindedly at a shell, passively popping it open to reveal the muscle inside.

"...In the beginning, I planned to kill you." She lifted the shell and slurped back it's contents. When she was done she tossed the remnants into the water. "When she was gone I was going to end your life...and mine." Ai passively looked down at the water lapping at her leg. "They haven't said as much in Zinris, but my kind are relics. We were needed for the war, then we lost but they still needed us to protect Elzira and now? The Elaria have made peace with the Alkidike. I even learned in Oba that there's a new tree in Belrea and I can only assume that the ones who ran off with Elizira's seed have a tree of their own..."

She brought one of her arms behind her for balance and leaned back to look at the sky above them.

"War was what made me, and I thought that was my purpose. I was to live as a warrior, take the heads of those who threatened my people and give my life to my goddesses. I never questioned that...before you."

She turned her eyes to Lucijah then. "After my sister died I was fully prepared to end it. I'm not needed in Zinris anymore; they want peacemakers and I'm a reminder of a past they're trying to push away. Spending time with you was frustrating. I got angry a lot, she got angry, we fought and fussed, but...it didn't feel bad. It felt nice to have someone see me and not dismiss it."

Ai took a deep breath and exhaled. "And then it was over...."

"More or less."

With one arm still braced upon the deck, Ai reached for her headpiece and gently removed it. Her antennae slipped through the skull's eye sockets as seamlessly as a blade through steamed flesh. For a moment she sat a little straighter, if only to smooth back the fur, before setting it to the side.

"I have to return to Zinris. My sisters should know I haven't abandoned them, and I...would like to see Fiya." The thought of her adoptive daughter growing under the tutelage of yet another huntress after already losing one mother irked her. And yet, she mostly just found herself missing the girl. She'd been so bothered by the child's willingness to trust and her loving nature that she hadn't considered how deep a hole it would leave when she was away.

"After that, we can go wherever you like." A thought gave Ai pause and she grew a little more somber. "It may be safer for you to stay here until I return. If you come to Yael and we're spotted together it won't end well."

Now it was Ai's turn to raise a brow. Honestly, she hadn't expected any less and would have been disappointed in Lucijah if there wasn't pushback. There was a reason she'd come all the way to Matori for this shifter and it settled her some to see that her choice hadn't been made in vain.

"You wouldn't be allowed in Zinris, but so long as you're prepared to handle the backlash then so am I." Traveling with an earthling into Elarian - extremist - territory might not have been as treacherous as it once was, but there would still be obstacles for them. Ai wasn't worried about verbal lashings so much as hidden blades in the night, but Lucijah was a capable woman. If they needed to take shifts sleeping at night then so be it.

"Is there anything you need to finish here? Or are we cleared to sail whenever we can?"