Lina admired the level of illusory easiness the two were able to produce on demand. Machado just rested, relaxed, in a chair, while Freya slowly took off all the weaponry, that could take down a small fortress; when finished she grabbed the goblet again and positioned herself on a couch by the window, head and heels rested on the armrests. Though Lina was sure she still had a lot to defend herself with, it did give a certain message, that Freya was comfortable here, which was a good sign for her to relax a little as well.<br/><br/>She just took a chair by a table, on the opposite side to Machado and pulling one her leg to rest on the seat she propped her chin on her knee, taking only a small sip of the wine, noticing it was certainly better, than the monasterial excuse for a wine, but she knew she certainly didn't need much to get drunk and she wanted to avoid it.<br/><br/>“Well, respectable,” Lina pondered the words, “I suppose I do give that impression, but believe me, I understand the need… I’m just a little wide-eyed. Never been to a place like this before,” she admitted at last with a sheepish smile. "And to be honest, the swiftness of the departure... I just think I never realized the situation was so... grave."<br/><br/>Staring absently to the rippling red ocean in her cup she thought through and through what Machado demanded.<br/><br/>Kurrad had her facing the worst fears of hers, the only one he couldn't manage was actually the one she had just now: all the enemies lingering in the darkness around them, waiting to make a move or a strike. It required a state of permanent alertness, that she had never been forced to maintain.<br/><br/><em>"Fear is like fire: a good servant, yet a crude master,"</em>she heard him, as if he had told her so just yesterday and not three years ago. He had taught her to calm herself or to whip the fear as needed, use the drive of fear to strengthen her, not cripple her, like everybody. He taught her to recognize when her fear was just a childhood shadow of being afraid of a monster in the dark, or if it had had a solid base.<br/><br/>Still she knew she couldn’t have done justice to Kurrad’s tutoring today if Halik noticed her discomfort.<br/><br/><strong>"Lina, tell us of yourself, please.  I would like to know who you are, and what has befallen you.“</strong><br/><br/>Freya’s question caught her a little off guard. Unsure of what she could give out, she sought guidance in Machado’s look. He smiled a little to reassure her, so she reluctantly started to tell her story: “I was found as a few days old baby on a monastery stairs. Nuns took me in and nurtured me, educated me, but when I refused to become one of them, they shoved me out pretty quickly,” Lina couldn’t suppress a grin, that appeared on her face, but continued nonetheless, “So I set out, trying to find me some work and ended up with an old blacksmith, who could use a maid. He insisted on telling me a secret, when he was dying. I told him I didn’t want to know any, but he said I’d be hunted down either way just for living with him, so he’d wanted to make it worth the race. Turns out he knew Machado in the past; he gave me a letter for him and told me to seek his… guidance. So, here I am.”<br/><br/>Then she realized Freya might have been asking about something completely different.<br/><br/>“Or have you had in mind a recount of my training?” she asked with a smile.