Redsand Canyon where habits have teeth and the words carry knives

She saw the way that her brow lifted at the mention of the rules set in place by Aquene’s father… she was not surprised. She had garnered a wide variety of reactions to such news, from Germanicus confirming his own birth pack had been the same way to the shock this woman was now facing from it. She could not change the conditions from which she came, but what she could do was learn and grow, closing the deficits that had been forced upon her from a young age. She wanted to be the best in all that she did, and that now included fighting. She had learned much from the Imperator, and from Kallik as well. She’d learned from Glaukos too when he escorted her beyond the borders. She had learned how to best guard while on an assignment through the interruption of the strange man.
 
She let an eager grin onto her features when the woman agreed to help her. She was relieved. There was a part of her that worried the woman might turn her away because she was a civilian. Kallik sparred with her, but Kallik was also a friend, and she had yet to seek out any of the other Auxilia. She had no doubt Arsenio would indulge her, but Diesel and Glaukos were a whole different pile of worms to deal with. She had no connection nor rapport with them. “Aquene.” She offered simply, leaving her lastname out of it. She had considered removing her last name altogether from her life because she no longer felt that connection to her family that she once had, and her last name no longer held any sort of power like it had at the Trail. “Thank you, it’s an honor.” The formality leaked out in her tone as it always did when dealing with strangers, which Towhee still was, or positions of authority such as the Imperator or Matrona.