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Lan was not used to ghosts of the past showing up here and there. Jing and her brother were unexpected enough but to see another ghost of her past? She wouldn’t have expected it. Much less a ghost she didn’t know yet she knew in passing. Zhong had introduced the soldier to her as his friend, and he’d been a kind man; she knew him in that friend of a friend way, her fallen fiancé had spoken highly of him. The cut of him was unmistakable. If there was one thing Lan was good at, it was remembering those she met. So to see him had her pause in her walk, gold eyes narrowing as she speculated if her gaze was playing tricks with her. When she assumed not she walked over, asking only his name.

“Xiong?” It did not help that the tiny gold noble was always looking up. It made her have to look harder to see details at times.

The bow was met with a small one of her own. It seemed he recalled her, if perhaps like her, in part. Often she felt like like those memories were years past. That they too, had been lost. If just in part. Perhaps the worst feeling to suffer, that something was missing and faintly out of reach, that a memory might be mistaken of all things. It was yet another form and effect of grief, to question. Lan tried to rationalize really, but it was debatable how well it worked.

Smiling softly, a nod followed. "Well enough. Even if some illness were to come I have my duties to attend to, as minor or great as they might be." She looked around, gold eyes finding nothing pressing. "Thankfully this day they are minor." The lightest moment of consideration. "It has been a long time since we spoke last. Walk with me?" She made it a question, if he had other matters, she would just seek him out for idle chatter later.

Lan began to walk, feet taking her in the direction of what looked to be an ongoing attempt to garden. The tilled earth hosting sprouts and saplings. All plants native to their once lush island. It was not a garden proper, nor anything near a pavilion those of conquest were used to from the building going up nearby. It was however a start. Each little bit could be improved on and in time, it might flourish.

Time, one thing they had in spades.

"You may call me Lan if you like." She paused their walk in front of a small ditch lined with stones. A future pond perhaps. "A bit informal perhaps, but I do not feel I am anyone's lady. Simply another noble lost in these tides of change." There was a whistfullness to her words. "Four to one, I still find it... All very difficult in this transition."

She shook her head in silence. She’d not quite call it mistake as simply falling back to formalities. They had been brought up one way, and while that way was lost, it remained in their minds. Lan was to address those below her one way yet now… she was a noble with no house and sleeping with those who had once served under in the same tent. Thankfully, in her own ‘space’ but still. Her and Mengyao were in an awkward place. “There is nothing to forgive Xiong. We all fall back into old habits here. But if it helps you be more at ease, you may call me as you like.” She smiled a bit. “Granted it is nothing rude or vulgar. Though I doubt I have to worry of such things.” From some perhaps in playfulness, but Xiong had never stricken her as such a horseman.

Resuming their walk, it was a bit depressing she mused, that they would never be able to make Halloween as grand as their home. The lands were ill suited for their kind. The plants not native and thus, slow to take. Years and years, though the vision Medea had shown them had promise. Promise of things yet to come. Or a return. One day perhaps. Perhaps even in her lifetime.

Granted one lifetime could be a whole millennia.

“It was suggested to me to attempt trance. It was… Not suited to me. My emotions were too strong and I fear they still are. The memories of what I lost, even now- they are fresh. Time is slow to mend matters of loss, slower still to matters of the heart.” It was at least, getting a bit easier to speak of it. “But it could aid you. If not trance, I have found spars… relaxing. As well as the tasks. Fear harvesting is always refreshing. But then, fresh raw fear often is.”

His laugh was nice to hear. Lighter things to lighten the spirits. Small ways to remove the mind from depressing this or that. "Humans say they will never bow, we say we will never die-never is a word of willpower. So long as the will is in place, the word may prove true. At least those are my thoughts. Still, I believe in you. Just as I believe in the clan. We will never content ourselves with this place. Could never." She echoed his words. "I travel with my meanings and thoughts. forgive me."

"As for Trance, it supposedly helps us see the past, possibly lets us see what could have been. All in all... As I know it... You go to the death priestesses and they help prepare you for the ritual. It is like dreaming without dreaming. You close your eyes and well." She gave a small shrug. "It is hard to explain, but it's not suited everyone. If you think fear would be the best route? Try it. There was a lovely village I recently went to, decimated a party of humans in mourning. A bit of a mercy. To end their suffering over their loved one and getting FEAR all the while. There are other ways. But hunters plague us. Going alone is... ill advised, even now."