Moonspear Where everything's safe and it doesn't get worse

Her automatic reply, if things were different, would have been teasing. She’d have given him shit about wanting to be a counselor when all he seemed to want was good news, but she was too tired of fighting with him to risk him taking it the wrong way. So she opted for the edited version again.

I barely remember them. She said first, that part honest. Thinking back, she remembered the Copse most, and it wasn’t a place she would ever choose to revisit herself. Maybe if she was passing through, but her time there hadn’t exactly been a good one, waiting for her family to reappear and expecting the worst. The only real good that had come out of it had been Penn.

But I’m glad, that you found something you enjoy. There was so much she could say to that. It didn’t make any sense to her that it was the path he’d choose, knowing how much he struggled to listen anytime she tried to share, but she did at least know that some things were easier with strangers. That was part of why she preferred giving fortunes to complete strangers - she didn’t need to know how things turned out and could spin whatever bullshit she wanted, regardless of outcome. It was easier when she didn’t need to care. Maybe the same was true for him.

You always did like helping. She added, still neutral, but not wanting to end on something quite so cursory. She was glad he’d found his calling. She just wondered if he heard the same slight irony in the words.