His smile didn't falter, although it was still weak.  She seemed intent on putting up a strong face, an image of cold hearted indifference.  Likely one she had maintained for years, although he had no way of knowing just how long she had been doing it...he might assume a handful, as, at first glance, she did appear younger then he was.<br/><br/>His expression remained warm, and he managed a brief chuckle that ended rather abruptly with a mental note to avoid laughing for a bit longer.<span style="font-weight: bold">"Worry not, young miss.  I'm rather accustomed to injury, I sincerely hope I need not bother you for a trip to the privy."</span>He was attempting for a comforting joke, to help shed any concern of his well being; he'd be fine, given a few days rest and a few weeks of taking it easy.  Of course, he was also on a mission; weeks to rest was a priveledge he did not have.<br/><br/>He let her little slip go by unmentioned; clearly it had been a while since she had last had visitors.  Perhaps the conviction she had held herself with when she first came to live in the mountains had slipped over the years, but it was not his place to pry.<span style="font-weight: bold">"I've no claim to titles, so please, just Kaiyse is fine.  Have you not heard?  It's been building slowly for years, decades perhaps, so slow that it has gone unnoticed until now."</span><br/><br/>He frowned, closing his eyes briefly.  His voice was quiet still, without it's usual strength and tone and even just holding a conversation seemed rather tiring.  Not that he minded much, young Maki clearly didn't get out very often, but still...she must have noticed what was happening in the world?<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold">"The Priests say it could well be the End Times.  Rivers have stopped flowing from the mountains, crops falter and winters are longer every year.  Our world grows cold.  Famine has strangled the northern provinces for years, and now driven on by poor hunting and weak borders, all manner of beast and monster are south bound.  You cannot fight the cold; cold snaps kill the crops, and with the rivers frozen solid here in the north, even the great plains far to the south have begun to dry.  Deserts grows as the rain falters."</span><br/><br/>It was a truely insidious threat; one that could not be combated with might of arms or arcane prowess.  Certainly, Wizards could bring forth rain, but that would then only deny another region that those few sparse clouds had been bound for.  Deserts destroyed once fertile farm land, and constant raids and border disputes over what few rivers still flowed, what few granneries were still full, chipped away at the foundation of civilization.