The now-revealed story of the tiefling's extraplanar heritage was an interesting one, and when she heard it, it certainly helped to reveal the meaning behind the mindflayer's cryptic words to the shifter, back on the ship.  The warrior sensed that her companion still seemed to feel some shame over her heritage, though, that it was something of a sore spot and probably something she had kept a secret out of worries over what revealing it would bring about, and so she decided to confess to some of her own darker secrets to help set the woman at ease.  First off, on the matter of heritage...<br/><br/>"If it helps, you're not the only one with some unusual, non-human ancestors."  Rose commented, smiling warmly over at Aria.  "When I first made contact with my family, I soon found out that I've got some half-dozen different lycanthropes in my ancestry from various points in history.  It's been diluted by human blood, elven blood, and even a few orcs have contributed over the generations, but the signs of my heritage are still there, as I'm sure you've noticed.  I've been the subject of some suspicion countless times in my travels around Toril, though it was usually at least easy enough to convince everyone I encountered that I wasn't a threat by explaining that the power of the lycanthropic curse had been weakened considerably with all the mixing of bloodlines.  If I'd gained the proper training, I probably would have eventually been able to turn into a tiger, but even then I wouldn't have been able to pass along any sort of lycanthropic curse.  As it is, though, all I can do is that trick I showed you with my legs earlier."<br/><br/>There was that matter of her heritage revealed, and in a slightly less wordy way than when she'd explained it to Luneth, at that.  It made her sound a bit lucky, though, since she had never had to worry about becoming some evil minion aboard a pirate ship...  Which was why she then added in a second little detail about herself, a secret that resulted from a brush with death with a strong evil.<br/><br/>"You also have the benefit of being able to speak to a paladin and get proof that you've managed to overcome the evil tendencies of your ancestor."  She added in, her face now taking on a more sober expression.  "...I'm afraid I can't be so lucky any longer.  At least, not since a time where I briefly toured the lower planes, anyway..."<br/><br/>It had been part of a raid being conducted by this priestly order.  Help to liberate the soul of a trapped saint from some lower-ranked fiend's clutches while his Archdevil master inspected forces in the Blood War, or something like that.  She didn't quite remember all the details, but the basics had been lowered security and a strong need for<em>immediate</em>assistance, and she'd somehow wound up not being swift enough to make it back to the portal before it closed.  So she'd crept carefully around the Hells and one or two layers of the Abyss for half a year, until finally hijacking some wizard's planar summoning to get back.  That had been a difficult time.<br/><br/>"I was stuck there for a while, you see."  The shifter explained, as the walked along.  "I'd rather not go into the details, but it was basically a rescue mission that went fairly well, except that I didn't make it to the exit in time.  I had to figure out a way to survive somehow, and one of the most common abilities among the demons and devils who were too powerful for me to defeat in a straight fight was this spell-like ability that I later learned was called Blasphemy, alongside a few other, weaker versions of it.  It's a spell that stages a powerful mental assault on the minds of all goodly creatures, while leaving those with evil hearts untouched, and in order to learn to deal with it, I wound up turning to the plane itself, studying it, learning about the very evil it was made of, and how to... mimic it, I guess you might say.  I like to think that I'm still a good person on the inside, but as far as both harmful and helpful magic is concerned, I'm about as evil as Baator itself.  It's part of why I always wear that Hat of Anonymity I had on earlier today, though the fact that there aren't likely to be very many paladins on a plane like Brightwater is why I feel safe enough walking around without it right now.  About the only consolation I have is that the last time anyone cast a spell to detect goodness in a person's heart, I was still picked up on that spell, as well.  And that was a problem at the time, given that I was trying to sneak into this evil warlord's fortress."<br/><br/>Plus, that had been a good year ago, though Rose didn't mention that fact out loud.  She wasn't fishing for sympathy, after all, just trying to help Aria feel better about herself and who she was.  She'd already come to terms with that little bit of darkness within herself, so the fact that she could use it to shield herself from more powerful evil meant that it was something she would put to good use while protecting others.<br/><br/>That was her philosophy on it, anyway.