Rosa
"Evidently true, Miss Vander." *Ehakli answered to the moon before lulling into slowly nodding along Melody's expressed considerations and aspirations.* "Well, perhaps Salvainia is more silnari yet than the Mentian Kingdoms, but they do share a root from their past under the thumb of the Old Silnarian Empire. Much has changed, but perhaps keeping that in mind might aid you in finding common cues as you adapt to the customs. The acknowledgment of the deitic heroes I think gives them a similar sense of independence as my own people that may prove to be the origin of most striking difference between them and of Mentia. The passing of coin and promise of financial opportunity, however, I think might be your greatest ally in understanding what motivates your average Salvainian the greatest; nearly everyone there wants their own little slice of the greatest center of trade." *A hand emerged from the water with an upturned palm at her side.* "Though I imagine it's only slightly more than from your home, or anywhere in this world, really."

*Bending in, the tholian rose to her feet, dripping as she stepped over back to her sword upon the grass, the texture of her midnight skin made clear of the goosebumps the chill water and night air encouraged. The curved blade, something between a sabre and a scimitar of silnarian make, reflected a mask of moonlight across her eyes as she inspected the surface for a moment, before taking a few steps back into the water, though not nearly as far or deep as she was earlier in their encounter. She began practicing her forms again, slower than before.*

"As for my leaving here, I'm never in Salvainia for terribly long. I occasionally come to visit scholars of the imperial academy just east of here as a student of Lymia's academy in Pepor. Usually I find those Salvainians in the towns between the capitol and my Republic," *She paused for a moment, realizing what she was admitting.* "Though I was misdirected this time, the results of a foolish girl I find myself rather too fond of. I frightened her in some way, or she lashed out from her own secretive traumas. It hardly matters, only that in courtesy I abruptly slipped away, traveling paths I was unfamiliar with. It cost me an opportunity for a coming voyage, but, Osin swallow it, its all only a trivial setback. I should be back across Republic borders this time tomorrow, and will feel leagues better when I do." *There was a strange coldness in her rambling of this encounter, though one such as Melody who works with laws, bounties, and the people they effect could likely tell that it was more of a sore subject than one Ehakli was simply indifferent to.*

"So, Miss Vander, what of Mentia? Do you feel your efforts left it a somewhat better place in your wake?"
Rufus
*Melody would listen to the woman explain how she could come to understand Salvania better, even offering some of her own knowledge to it. Her attention would be briefly caught by the hand rising from the water before she'd soon return to listening to Ehakli's reason for leaving here. So she was heading away from the Capitol, seemingly only here for a brief visit that must have been consistent enough with her most likely being a traveler doing business with others. Melody could respect that at least, knowing that some people came and went from the country each with their own reasons. Thus was the same for her when she left Mentia to come here.

As she brought up how she was misdirected by a girl seemingly lashing back from whatever trauma had caused it, Melody would tilt her head to the side a bit.*"She sounds like she needs help..."*The Centaur would say simply in her catching the coldness behind the woman's words. It was obviously a topic the woman didn't care to speak too deeply of and Melody was fine with allowing it to change.*

*She'd sit in silence for a while, watching the woman continue to practice her sword fighting before being asked about her efforts of Mentia.*"I feel as if there is a lot that goes on in Mentia that would be impossible to say it has changed for the better, but I do believe that I've helped the conditions there, even if it doesn't seem like much. It's the little things that matter in this world nowadays."*She'd offer a light smile to the Silnari.*"I believe there's still crime going on there, but I'm hoping that in my time there others have learned where they can help out, ensuring me peace of mind in continuing my work here. I can't be everywhere, but I'll try to help out where I can. Who knows? Maybe if everyone did it, things won't be so bad, don't you think?"*She'd say, asking the last portion. It always came off like it took a lot to make a big difference, but sometimes, the world just needed someone who cared enough for it to do what's right. Maybe it's the lack thereof that brought doubt, but Melody was willing to challenge that.*"It'll never be perfect, but if not somewhat better, I feel I've made a difference somewhere."
Rosa
"She does." *Ehakli simply put on the matter of Melody's assessment of the girl in the wilds, and would have seemed to have just left it at that in the moment.* 

*The tholian continued her slow motions with the sword, only changing in pace with brief moments of efforts to bring the blade to it's end position with a forceful stoppage of her arm to keep it suddenly still to the best of her efforts, which looked indeed in need of more refined practice in this regard. There was a humored puff from her nose when Melody had assessed there was still crime in Mentia, but kept silent for the rest of it.*

"There are a number of stories in many languages that tell of something akin to moving a single grain of sand over and over with the hope of building a mountain; I'm certain you've heard something of its moral in your own time and study. As one among a countless myriad of souls, to make even a sightless fraction of difference in anything is a feat in of itself."

*Then, with whispers from her dark lips, she skated the curved edge of her sword to kiss along the surface of the water, and from it, the vision of water reaching up in a thin sheet along the crescent between she and Melody would rise a few meters. Multitudes of tiny faces would appear and disappear in the sheet in fullness, a new one replacing another as soon as one receded back into the babbling water, almost like a boiling.* "Our time here, all of us, is so fleeting on this world. So many meet their end in bitterness of dreams unfulfilled. So many grow surrounded by the unfulfillment of others, threatened by it, cornered by it, that drastic measures are taken. Perhaps succumbing to the immoral they drown in, perhaps for the simple drive of survival that belies a more innocent context of what crimes against those around them they may commit, but in either fashion, it, in turn, spreads to create further misfortune of those around them." 

*With that, the faces began to fluctuate between sadness, and fear, and anger, with brief moments of bliss in one face that immediately sets the faces around them to woe. This pattern slowly grows through the hovering curtain of water, a spread of these negative expressions over the otherwise neutral or benign.* "Sometimes, if not often, law itself is unjust, but even then over the centuries it still seems to carry on this pattern." 

*A sudden glint of moonlight on steel, and in a flick of deftness, her sword slashed through the sheet, a rather large corner where the aforementioned spread originated from, the smaller section splashing back into the water in appearance. The faces at the edge of this all turned to woe and anger.* "Some consider it a tight urgency to simply cull where this miasma came from, but it always seems in history that such only spreads it faster, even if it gives it pause at first."

*Ehakli looked as if she tried to search for more words, but she eventually gave a subtle shake of her head, and gave a dismissive wave, the remaining sheet twisting into wisps of kaleidoscopic light before vanishing altogether.* "I'm certain you're not unfamiliar with these sorts of philosophy as it is your trade, but I do mean to agree that there is something to be said of spreading order and satisfaction through means other than authoritative conquest over peoples. And, indeed, if *That* Could spread as it does with its opposite, why, even an even split would be a noteworthy triumph that would demand many bored scholars like myself to commit to ink."

*She sighed, looking off to the waterfall in the distance.* "I fear my friend is suffering a great deal of harm from the spread opposite to yours, Miss Vander... Perhaps that is why she stows herself in the middle of Serpent-taken nowhere. She does seem to have at least a touch of emotional intelligence about her, if only she'd turn it into her own aid." *She said, the subject clearly on her mind despite her seeming to want nothing to do with elaborating on earlier.*