Let's talk through this one, shall we?

She could tell her friend was really upset with the whole mess, and a big part of that was, she knew, her fault. This was another one of those times that she knew she was missing something and wasn't entirely clear what. But she was learning - trying to learn - to temper herself, and that meant reaching out with more than just a fist. Kallista had asked her to be with her on this one, and she needed to figure out what that meant. So she's gone away for a bit, after things seemed more settled, to meditate and try not to fall into brooding. She was sure Kallista was going to be too worked up to sleep, so once she was ready, it was just a matter of tracking her down.

She didn't try to hide her approach once her wandering through the unfamiliar complex finally paid off. Of course, by that point she'd hoped to have worked out better what she thought she needed to say, but that was apparently not the case, so she just shrugged when Kallista turned and looked up at her.

"Hey."

Kallista had spent a while trying to talk to the young tieflings, but there was little enough she could say to them, and they mostly didn't seem ready to open up yet, so after assuring them - for what it was worth - that she would help them, she finally retreated to sulk quietly in a corner of one of the smaller rooms, resting her back against the cool stone. She was deeply lost in her own thoughts when she heard the Shadar-kai enter the room. She looked up at her friend and sighed.

"Hey," she said without any real inflection.

She folded herself into a sitting position on the floor across from her friend, quiet for a moment, he brow creased in concentration as she tried to feel her way through this uncharted territory.

"Look - I'm sorry, okay?"

Kallista nodded as the wiry woman sat down across from her.

"Are you really?" she asked, "Or are you just trying to make me feel better? Do you understand why this is so important to me?"

Once again, she took a moment to think through her answer before just spitting out the her words.

"I'm sorry I upset you. As for the rest - I don't know, maybe I don't."

Kallista heard the hesitancy in her friend's voice. She could tell she was trying - really trying - to be on her best behavior right now. She deserved an explaination, or at least as much of one as Kallista could offer.

"Those kids..." she began, catching the Shadar-kai's eye, "And yes, they are still kids... they've never had a choice before. They didn't ask to be born here. To grow up here. They never wanted to be part of a group that terrorizes and destroys and murders. I know what they are. I know how they feel. I was in the exact same place eight years ago. If a few people hadn't given me the chance to be something more... something better... I might have ended up just like Annibal."

The tiefling's voice cracked slightly as tears welled up in her eyes.

"I want to... I *have* to believe that they can come through this. That they can be saved. Because if they cant...if they can't, then what chance do I have?"

"Kay..." She could feel herself getting harsh again, and breathed it out. She knew there were points it was worth arguing right now. Instead she reached her hands out palms open. "At the very best, you're looking at this backwards, because if you don't believe you have a chance, what do you think you're offering them? But they're not you. Their fates are not tied to yours, not like that. You have to walk your own path and so do they."

Kallista hesitated only for a moment before reaching out her hands to lightly clasp Tzesira's. She sniffled as tears continued trickling down her dark pink face.

"All I'm offering them is a chance. They deserve that much. I know it's gonna be hard for them. It's been hard for me. I can't walk the path for them, but I can at least show it to them. If we don't do that, if we just turn our backs on this, and if there is even the smallest chance that someday these kids can become something better than they are now... then it's the same as if we'd killed them ourselves... We'd be no better than their parents."

Kallista took a ragged breath and tried to calm herself.

T... if I... if we don't take them in they're going to die. I can't let that happen. Not before they've ever had a choice."

She squeezed her friend's hands. "Del had a good idea. Someplace like her dojo will be good for them, if her Master will take them." She didn't add her other thoughts, that it was better than the union, where they'd still have a good chance of getting killed, and miles better than Kallista trying to take care of them herself. "But listen to me, okay? You can't keep thinking of them as just kids. They're not. They know how to kill people. They're not innocent - but that doesn't mean they're hopeless or lost, or whatever. It means they deserve your respect, and not just your pity."

Kallista breathed deep, wiping her face on her shoulder with a shrug.

"I don't know... I just... I just want to help them...."

"I know Kay, but you can't do that by pretending they're something they're not. They're tough - that skinny one may have been as terrified as shit, but he still tried to make fire eat my face. I've seen Warryn pull off shit like that and he's a level six Warlock. They put up a good fight. You say you know where they're at, but do you? Because it looks to me like they might have started their snake-strangling classes a little early out here."

"What do you want me to d then, T?" Kallista shot back, her voice rising in volume, "Let them figure it out on their own? Abandon them because they know a couple of magic spells? If anything, that's more reason why we should help them! We need to teach them to use their power responsibly, not..."

Kallista sighed and shook her head, slumping slightly. When she spoke again the fire had gone out of her voice.

"We can't just abandon them. We have a responsibility for them. We didn't ask to find them, but we did. I..."

She hesitated, as if uncertain if she should proceed.

"I know you follow the raven queen, but you know that I worship Avandra... lady luck. I can't say why, but I feel... I feel like this was meant to happen. Like she wanted us to find them here. Maybe that sounds crazy to you... I wouldn't blame you if it did... but I can't ignore that. A feeling like that was what saved me from the Geyr Hextor a long, long time ago. I can't deny anyone else the same chance I had."

Tzesira snorted. "The Raven Queen is the goddess of fate, Kay, of things that are 'meant to happen', not your Lady Luck. Fate I understand. But you're not listening to me. I didn't say anything about abandoning them. I said - you're making a lot of assumptions, and if this is about helping *them*, then that's not fucking fair."

Kallista took her hands back from Tzesira and pressed them to her face, leaning back against the wall in frustration and exhaustion. After a while she sighed and dropped her hands to her side, tears drying on her cheeks.

"What do you want me to do then?" she asked flatly.

She hadn't drawn her hands back after Kallista had taken hers away, and after a moment she spread her palms open again. "Come with me and get some sleep." She tried sounding gentle, but it didn't come out quite right.

Kallista looked up at her friend, her yellow eyes shot through with red from crying. She knew - rationally - that her friend meant well. It was her way of showing that she cared. Somehow, though, it was little comfort to her at the moment.

"I'm not tired," she said, sounding perhaps a bit harsher than she meant to. The defeated look on her face gave the lie to her statement.

"Yeah?" The harshness slid off her, or at the least didn't seem to have its desired impact, and she even smiled a little. "Bullshit. And you need to be on top of your game to deal with this shit, Kay, not feeding the Shadow with your sorrows."

After a long pause, Kallista sighed and extended her hands to Tzesira, allowing the muscular woman to help her unsteadily to her feet.

"Why is it..." she asked tiredly as she clasped the Shadar-kai's hand, "That stabbing someone is so simple and every time I try to help someone... it's always so complicated?"

She kept hold of her friend's hand, but shrugged as she steered her back towards their temporary quarters.

"Stabbing is over faster."