Kala smiled at wanderer. Did he just say an appointment with "us" instead of "me"? She wasn't at all bitter about the whole diagnosis thing, but it was good to know he now respected her practice, at least more than before. Then again alchemy was a lot less magical than it was chemical in some cases. Not too far off from making medicine actually, as it mainly consisted of different manners of mixing natural things together. Maybe burning or cooling them at certain intervals. Digressing aside, however, she turned to David and Devon and replied to their reminiscence with. "It's hard not to miss home isn't it? I know it's tough to understand that from me, since it's actually hard for me to say whether I miss home or not. It was a place where I was either mocked or attacked on nearly a daily basis for being what I am, but also the place where I learned to be who I am. She said, reminiscing about everyone she met there. Those alive, such as Slindis and Mel, but those also, who weren't so lucky. Letting out a soft sigh and a smile...
"I never really focused on the positives too often... but that's mainly because the negatives were rather overpowering. Then again, it's where I met Slindis and Mel. I never really said, but after that, things only got better. They were part of an organization I was unsuspecting to be so warmly welcomed to. I found work left and right with them, going places and doing things many people wouldn't have trusted me with otherwise. Eventually, even I was called hero. All this, however, only added to the knives under my skin." she said as her dish arrived, a bowl of rice and "General Tso's Chicken" Stirring it with her fork she recalled her confession about being a spy while fighting Jenny's shadow.
"Everything went right, when I painstakingly wanted it to go wrong. You see, before I ever even went to Stormreach, the place of suffering, both when I was mocked and revered... I was contacted by one who called himself of my own kind. That is to say a Tiefling. They offered me release from the contract that made me what I am. In exchange, I was to travel to stormreach, and become a spy for those who he claimed already held my soul." She said, continuing her story with
"I agreed" She stated. If there was any emotion on her face at this point, it was unnoticeable, but then returned to a slight frown.
"I hated the world in which I lived, just like it always hated me. Then I met Mel in, as strange as it sounds, a tavern." She said, hinting at the presence of alcohol, though Mel took no part in it of course. "She was even younger then than she is now, but it didn't take her long to figure out what I was when there was a paladin of the silver flame present who already knew. They have an uncanny knack for just outright knowing such things hmm? In the midst of him readying to attack me, she stuck up for me and he was escorted outside." She said, making no hint to the fact that it was more of the bouncers knocking him flat on is a** and throwing him out than an "escort."
"To think that someone who actually knew what I was would defend me was unthinkable given previous experience with demon slayers and the like. There she was though, someone who was willing to look past the red eyes and horns to see someone worth saving. It took some time, but I was surprised that her mother, Slindis of course, was equally open minded, though a paladin of the same faith to the man previously mentioned as my assailant. I guess you could say that's when things started to change. I found myself at conflict constantly. she said, her emotions returning to being a little happier.
"I worked for an organization that helped people, and had people in it that I legitimately began to care about... though my nature called me constantly to leave the weak and defenseless to fend for themselves, as they had done to me. In the end though, I started earning the respect of the entire city, but as time went on... I found less and less of it to be what I wanted. It's what they wanted after all. The one who sent me to that city in the first place. I dreaded the day he would make his move, no doubt Shavarath at his back, to destroy the place I then called home. The place that then accepted me, called me hero and friend and champion. I didn't want to betray them, not ever... but surely they would feel betrayed should that day come, and me be revealed to have helped them..."
She said, staring down and tapping her fingers on the table, clearly agitated by the memories.
"There was a time, when I would rather have died than let that happen. I started struggling to do the work I did in helping people, both out of feeling ashamed at earning their respect and out of actually wanting to... escape it all..." She said, scratching her neck and loosening her collar a little. "Instead, I eventually made my peace with it, only to find that when people weren't torturing me, and I wasn't emotionally torturing myself, and I had finally reached acceptance... the whole world... died. Everything I did was of little consequence, good and bad. It was all gone. Everything I cared for. Only I wasn't, tragically. Tortured by others, than tortured by myself, and then losing everything, assuming myself the last one standing. You know the rest, that's when I found myself here." She said, changing to a happier tone to finish things off.
"As odd as it seems though, I wouldn't have it any other way. Now, I find that all wasn't lost, and the two people who started my progress to peace are alive and well, and I am with them... and all of you of course..." She said with a chuckle "I'm glad I found myself with all of you in good company. The best friends I've ever made." She said before finally starting to eat the meal in front of her, still piping hot. "and maybe next time you all can tell your stories over dinner hm?" She said with a grin.
