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She was ready for this.

Okay, so that was a pretty big lie, but Lifen was really good at doing that - using her words to pump herself up. This would be an awkward one - but she had promised two people, who may - or may not - have existed, but definitively deserved a little finality, right?

"Mjoll~" she singsonged lightly as she opened the door, happy that one half of her invited pair had been there. "Welcome to my humble abode, I hope it sees you well." Secretly, she was also happy to have a little party with more than one person - it was usually Mengyao or Lan, sometimes Soren, and now Bao Yu. Never two people.

So exciting!

Mjoll hadn't expected Bastion to show up, honestly she didn't even know that Lifen was going to invite him. She was looking at him sidelong before Lifen opened the door.

"Hello Bast...." She paused she knew his name but did she ever say it right? Well she left it as is, mentally shrugging hoping that was okay with him, "Lifen." She added with the smallest of nods now more curious about this meeting and feeling perhaps a tick more self conscious than she'd allowed herself to on the way over.

"As well as can be." Mjoll answered as her wings twitched slightly, "Thank you for the invite. Had I known there'd been more than just us, I would've brought a little something to help out." She had after all thought about bringing some sort of snacks just in case, but wasn't sure how Lifen would've taken it.

Bast.

Bastion refused to cringe at the shortening of his name; because in truth, he assumed she could only remember that much. He just attempted to remain as civil, respectful, and courteous as possible.

He entered Lifen's home when they were invited in, and took a seat as quickly as possible at the table she directed them towards. It was there that he realized she had set the tea for three, which meant Mjoll and himself were the only guests arriving. This was no little party for friends, nor was it a private meeting. It was just her, and.. them.

And Bastion suddenly became very, very suspicious.

Others had tried to coerce him to talk to Mjoll before. Certainly his cousin had tried a million times to build up his confidence, but none had ever succeeded. Things were as they should be, with him in the shadows and she in the light. Lifen's introduction into their equation proved a mystery to Bastion, and he wasn't sure he was prepared to discover what that mystery was.

He wanted to say something. It felt important to say something, at that moment, but he couldn't manage to think of what to say. So he just nodded, awkwardly, ducking his head in a shy motion. Whatever she had to say to them, he was willing to hear - but wary, as well. Always wary.

Well, if there was anything to be said about this, it was that she could probably cut the tensions between them with a serrated knife, and still have layers to go through. Of course, though, this was Lifen, and she wasn't deterred by little things like that.

Going to offer them both a cup of tea, she lightly sat down again when she finished the action, giving them both a soft look - they were both crafters? Well that just made it all the sweeter, a soft chortle breaking the quiet aura between them before holding her cup up and sipping it, the perfect example of a calm body.

"Have either of you heard about the Seven Kingdoms?" She asked after a quick sip, living them both a little guarded look, hoping for some kind of reaction. "Specifically, the colours of the Kingdoms. Gold, I suppose." She talked, mostly to herself. It was a bit of a long stretch, but she needed to know where both of them stood, and if either of them even remembered the lost kingdoms, and lost lives.

Mjoll sat there with the cup of tea trying not to look as if anything was going on in her head. Her eyes were down on the cup itself, and she was thinking about prom; when Lifen spoke her eyes lifted briefly. She shook her head, a little from side to side before moving a strand of hair from her face.

Bastions' fingers wiggled and she watched as he was trying to choose a cookie before her eyes fell again to the cup. "Was there something important there?" She finally managed, having trouble settling her back wings completely as they twitched. She finally allowed herself a sip of the tea.

Lifen was telling.. a very pretty little story. But to Bastion, it was nothing more than that - just a story, perhaps a dream she'd had, or even more likely a trance delivered by the hands of his own goddess Medea herself. He listened politely, sipping his tea at times and trying not to eat his cookies very noisily. He had the patience to listen, and the patience to accept that Lifen obviously believed in whatever she'd seen.

But that was as far as his patience went.

"This all sounds interesting, and I mean that, truly. But you have a few things confused, and I think it should be my job to clear them up, if-" He looked to Mjoll warily. "If it's all right with you?" Returning to Lifen, he bowed his head politely before putting his cup down and folding his hands in front of him. He looked somewhat businesslike. And always polite. In fact, with her mind so caught up in the world of the Gold Kingdom, these things would seem foreign, on him. His counterpart had lacked these qualities, always.

"First, and foremost, I want to clarify - I do regret it. I regret the last years of my life. It's too late for that, now. And second, there is no relationship. If you're saying that the couple you witnessed in your vision was together,"His cheeks flushed and he looked away, tightening his voice to keep any chance of emotion out. Then lucky them. But that is not the case here. Mjoll can't even remember my name. So your promise will have to go unfulfilled."

He leaned back, and gave Mjoll another wary look, before picking up his cup. "Though I have to agree on one point, and I hope I already made this clear that night. You are going to miss out on life if you don't look beyond your work, Mjoll. I'm not asking you to look at me. I'm telling you to look at what's ahead of you. Whatever, or whoever that might be."

He took another sip of his tea. "This is truly good quality, what flavor is it?"

It was clear Bastion did not feel the Gold Kingdom was a life changing vision.

"How can you be so sure that it's real?" She quipped lightly at him when he asked what flavour of tea it was. She may have been a little bitter about his sudden discouraged statements, debunking what she knew as true, but beyond her words, she didn't show it had affected her much. Lifen was the queen of her emotions (beyond much more.)

Sighing out of her nose, she looked to the female jewelcrafter before her, eyebrows raising a little. "I can give you many names. Right in our homeland, there's Mengyao, who was the Emperor, and Lan, who was my advisor. Kiwi was there, and finally Shaheen. So I mean, you can always talk to them." She admitted, giving factual names, not beating around the bush, puffing up a little, before sighing out of her nose, looking down at her own cup.

"I cannot tell you to believe me, but I know what I saw, and who I talked to. I will not push it further, just know that I do not lie - and I made a promise I intend to at least fulfill, information wise." she murmured to them.