Riselin blinked again as Kenna's sudden wave of exposition broke over her...and suddenly she was laughing, rocking back and forth and hugging herself as she laughed and laughed as if she hadn't done so in years. It took her some time to calm down, but she managed it, wiping away tears with one hand.<br/><br/>"Sorry, it's just..."<br/><br/>She had to fight down another wave of merriment, leaned back, regarded Kenna with an odd little smile that kept blossoming into a larger one. This made her look both younger and far less severe.<br/><br/>"You are so completely unlike anyone else I've ever met," Riselin said, trying to school her face back into her long-accustomed impassive mask but unable to do so. "That's a good thing, I assure you! Do you always speak your mind so very openly and thoroughly?"<br/><br/>Then she raised a hand,<br/><br/>"No, no, answer me not. I'll start laughing again and then we'll not get anywhere." She took a deep breath.  "I suppose I should reciprocate. As I mentioned, I failed the ritual examination to become a noble, which means I'm just an extra mouth. I have no artistic talent of which to speak, no head for business, and as much magical aptitude as your average cobblestone. Thus and so, I am a disappointment to my family."  She sighed, tilted her head. "Hence the epithet with which I introduced myself to you, Kenna Falis of Underleaf. But I do possess some little affection for scholarly matters, not all of which are as useless as my kin seem to think even if they are not magical matters."<br/><br/>Riselin fell silent for a long moment, her eyes appraising Kenna openly.<br/><br/>"I suppose they did not even ask if you were at all interested in other women. For my part, I admit it freely. I'm<em>caria</em>. But, ah...not fond of people in general, you understand?"<br/><br/>She reached out, her hand coming to rest on the blankets very near to Kenna's own, a silent invitation.<br/><br/>"I, too, prefer to be something other than useless, but I am not so energetic as you. And..."<br/><br/>Her eyes dropped.<br/><br/>"It sounds as those your parents care for you very much."