<strong>Eshalu - on her way with Aeryn to meet Commander Vin</strong><br/><br/>The flurry of action all round her told Eshalu that matters were picking up. Perhaps she hadn't been the only one to have detected the jarring wrongness of the island. She had never heard of this Commander Vin, but since the name seemed to put a spring in Aeryn's step, she decided that it was someone sufficiently important to deserve her immediate attention.<br/><br/>She followed Aeryn, moving swiftly, soundlessly, just enough to match the human naturalist's pace. Outside, she caught sight of the Far-Sister she now knew to be called Reliyian. Perhaps she, too, though she was one of the forlorn who had abandoned the ancestral abodes, had sensed something out of place. Or perhaps the study of sorcery had long ago shut out the stirrings of the spirits. She resolved to ask her later, if their paths crossed again. Something told Eshalu that they would.<br/><br/>Aeryn's visible resentment of the woman commanding her presence before Commander Vin was understandable. It appeared that she had entered the Magna Sophia lodge without invitation. "I wasn't planning to," Eshalu told Aeryn upon being cautioned not to kill the uninvited and unexpected guest, "but if you asked me..." Her voice trailed off. Something in Aeryn's expression told her that the comment was not meant to be taken literally. Human humour was complicated that way.<br/><br/>She waited for Aeryn to prepare, wondering why a grown woman would ever be seen unarmed in public, and when, her human companion returned, she gratefully returned the lingering, wet kiss. Eshalu felt her pulse begin to quicken with anticipation, her grip tight on the shaft of her spear. This felt like the beginning of a hunt.