There was a lot that Simon would have to consider in the answer that he received. Lilia had come because she had thought Cassandra was worried enough that it had bled through the letters of ink despite her trying to not show it in those words. It was the first thing that suggested that her reasons for being here might be selfless, but not necessarily for the right reasons. Not the right ones for Simon, anyway. They were reasons that could be understood, but they were those that were based on expectations and pressure rather than one's will to do that thing. Yet it did not count out the latter possibility either. His mother, or now that he was looking for his true origin perhaps "mother" would be more appropriate… no, none could take the title she had well earned from her. But yes, his mother, she had taught him well in this one thing, that he shouldn't do things just because others expected them of him. That what was expected of him wasn't what he would want to do, if one put it more severely. And in Simon's case, that could well be the case. Most would want him dead, which he was under no illusion would be any different. He was an outcast, a witch and something beyond human in the same package. It echoed a certain strangeness that would never sit with the common people.<br/><br/>But Lilia soon had shared some snippets about her dreams for the future, dreams that had not an unusual ring to them, but not the kind of dreams that Simon might have expected from someone like her. Or what she had been like when they had been children. Or did he misremember? It had been so long with him only with his memories. But people changed too. There was nothing strange in change. It was inevitable. That was why he was out here. Everything couldn't stay the same eternally. And Lilia was right. It was important to help those that one cared about, and to leave those dear to oneself to struggle, that was no way of living with oneself. She was here to help him find his freedom, she said, and that would mean she had done right by him and his mother. Food for thought, Simon accepted. Food for thought.<br/><br/>He was about to reply in some manner, but Lilia had already turned her eyes away from his and continued. Simon's lips were slightly parted in the beginning of the beginning note to his sentence, slowly closing as he again nodded. So she had felt lost out there. "It wasn't the place where you could find your own dreams then?" he suggested carefully, not sure if that was the way she had meant that. "If you seek to do right by me, I will try the same for you. I'll do my best to help you reach your dream in turn. It won't be easy for you to settle, but the same goes for me. If I even want to settle. What do I know yet?" he promised, following suit in turning his gaze away from the one he was conversing with, drinking in the small ripples on the water surface with his eyes. "But we both know there will be a lot of searching before that." For when had finding someone that did not want to be found easy? And what reason might Simon have to assume the Alchemist was an easy target? Better come prepared for the worst.