Given that he'd found her curled up, rocking and all but muttering herself, the satyr had a strange idea of 'none the worse for wear'... but then, given what he was, and her condition already, perhaps it wasn't really that much of a concern. Gods knew they'd found her in far worse condition, and that her behavior and moods had been erratic at best even after they'd chased the worst effects of the bitter winter cold from her bright flesh and delicate bone.<br/><br/>"We are alive and we are free," she agreed with a small but grateful smile, stifling a little gasp as a sudden flash of a huge dark cavern, a small mound of stone lit in the center of an endless pool of water, came to her and abruptly was gone. "Free," she repeated in a firmer whisper, more for herself as she slid her arm into his own and accompanied him out of the library room, through the halls that were too long to be contained in the single wagon that gently rocked them, toward the distant door where there was waiting the ringer of the bell.<br/><br/>Pylea. The girl who had taken it upon herself to be both companion and tutor to Ember, was still a bit of a mystery to the young woman (though, to be truthful, many of her rescuers were a puzzle in one way or another). She seemed flighty and carefree, and yet had with no apparent prompting taken it upon herself to spend time with Ember daily, tutoring her in something that, to the world they were passing slowly through, was not a common subject for any student.<br/><br/>It helped to no small degree that Pylea was, or seemed to be, Ember's own age; like so many things about herself, Ember could not say for certain just how old she was. Sometimes she felt like little more than a teenager. Other times, she felt as if she'd suffered something for a number of years that would have raised Methuselah's withered brow.<br/><br/>Not that any of this was on her mind as they reached the door and, impulsively, she reached out to open it with a smile before Niko could do it, looking forward as always to the lessons that let her spend time with someone who gave her a sense of belonging.