<span class="fixed-color" style="color:#99ccff">It scared her to know that she had to leave. She had become comfortable here, as Clio, had grown into her new role as surely as if she had been trapped in a cocoon and needed to grow. Her phases had evolved her each and every time, but her past was hidden away somewhere dark and forgotten. It was something she never wanted to dredge up. Even thinking on it, her old name, her old life, squeezed her stomach up tight with anxiety until she felt ill. The Lady Caliente Kavnoak. The Lady Dark they called her while they made threats to hang her by a noose, a set example of heresy wrought. She almost preferred that particular shame to what came next; that part she truly did keep locked away, trampled down beneath the surface, a beaten and bruised self that was just now beginning to be forgotten.<br/>
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Until tonight, of course. Her fingers reached up to touch her throbbing cheek. Dark eyes went blank for a space of a few minutes as her memories carried her away to someplace other than the tent. When that fathomless gaze snapped back, her features had crumpled just slightly, as if she were about to cry, but was biting back the tears with a resolve she wanted to be made of steel, but was instead made of glass; breakable. Some sort of resolve leftover from deep within her soul, sparked by something that fled across his face, stiffened her spine and ignited with a faint flicker. A look of near mischief crossed her features as, emboldened, she reached out and snatched his hand up in her own.<br/>
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“You must think me quite odd,” she offered as her other hand shifted aside the tent flap and her head poked out, looking toward the festivities. Tugging him along, she stepped out into the brisk night and, eyes wide and wary, began her trek behind the tents through the maze that was the encampment. The air had a chill to it that was stifled inside the confines of her tent, causing her to tug the gaudy robes more tightly around her frame. Once more, she seemed distracted as she navigated them through the flickering dark, with only her hand warm inside his, and the melodic flow of her voice that suggested she was even there at all. “Do you have a name? I am called Clio here, but will choose a different name if we are to be leaving. You especially will need to leave, sirrah, after stumbling through a fae ring; why, you should not even be here at all. But first we will help you on your plight…” She gave his hand a squeeze, then released him as suddenly as she stopped in front of a dark row of tents on the outskirts of the encampment. <br/>
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For some reason, even though she could read into his darkness as surely as she could read a book, she was not afraid. In a way, she felt that they were similar in that regard; she also did not belong here, among mortals, cursed as she was as an Other. Changeling. That was what she was called and still Clio did not fully fathom what that entailed. Only that she was sensitive to things, that she could read into a person’s very selves.  Among other things. Peeking up at him with a frazzled, almost puzzled expression on her face, she pushed the flap of the tent open. <br/>
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“Wait out here, if you could. I do not want to create a fuss, but I at least need to tell Risha that it is my time now. Tomasin will learn his own way, I hope. I see this only as a sign that, perhaps, it is time for me to find a new way as well. What of you? I enjoy your accent. Were you running from something or towards something new?”<br/>
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Another hint of that small file flickered across her otherwise somber features before she ducked into her tent. A few moments later and a light blazed to life inside, silhouetting her petite figure inside. Even though the lining was thick, the blurred outline of the girl could be seen as the shadowy figure of her arms lifted to cast the robes aside and the outline of her nakedness could almost be seen. It was gone soon, a tease only, once she replaced her former adornments with something new. From there, she made quick work packing a meager bag of her belongings. Her head popped from the tent flaps to peer at him. <br/>
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“Well, come on in, I have only this letter to write and deliver, then we can be on our way.”</span>