Leyaria was beginnning to recognize and appreciate the reality that the nightlife of Crocus was more of an acquired taste than one in which people immediately flocked to. At least, as she interpreted it. Those her age, perhaps those a little bit older, maybe they found solace and entertainment in the prospects of drinking from sunset to sunrise, but Leyaria was not such a person. Much like Hargeon, like Magnolia, like every other part of Fiore she had ventured to before, there wasn't any reason to believe that Crocus would be any different. Nor where there any reason to believe that the people would be any different either.

Drunken oafs, men deluded into believing themselves more and more charming the more they drank, and of course those who sought to capitalize on the madness all around them; More often than not, this was the company that she had to look forward to, the small minority that didn't fall into the earlier groups ironically enough proving to be more irritating than the drunken crowds. And unfortunately for Leyaria, there was no lacking to those kind of people within this place tonight.

It wasn't by design or her intent on running into them, but rather desperation that had her quietly passing through the crowds, hoping to draw as little attention to herself as possible. Her experiences thus far within Crocus had been less than reassuring, and as the outside world continued to get colder and colder as the night fell, it was getting to the point at which sleeping outside was not a feasible choice. But unfortunately too, it wasn't as though she was left with any other option; what little of the funds she had arrived to Crocus with had all but evaporated, leaving her with little more than a handful of coins to her name. Perhaps enough to cover the cost of a couple of drinks, but nothing even close to the cost of renting a room, even the cheapest of options. Taking in what of the warmth she could right now was the best option available to her.

Two larger gentlemen had gotten up from a nearby table, to which she rushed towards it like a hunter rushing to inspect its latest kill. Even in spite of the injury she had suffered to her leg, she still found herself walking all day through the city, and now the throbbing pain was getting to the point where standing was only causing more harm than good. Looking around for a moment, she adjusted the cloak that kept the greater extent of her body covered. For the best, she figured, lest there be a repeat of the night prior.

For several minutes, she sat there, alone, just watching the people as they went about their merriment. Every so often the occasional passerby found their way towards Leyaria, but very quickly they were sent back with a polite rejection. It wasn't until perhaps the third or fourth person had ventured back to their table fruitless that a barmaid made her way towards Leyaria's table. "You know, all those boys, you could have at least let them buy you a drink," the woman remarked, flashing a weak smile as Leyaria lifted her head to meet hers.

Leyaria couldn't help but smile weakly herself. She could have had them buy her a drink, but she neither wanted to set the wrong impression, nor give them any false expectation to further act upon it, especially in the event that she were to lose control and someone got seriously hurt. "That wouldn't have been right," her voice drifted as she lowered her head again slightly, almost ignoring the barmaid as she began to walk away herself. "Excuse me!" she called out, causing the woman to turn around, the smile that was once there now gone. "Could you get me one of those glasses, filled with, I don't know, something to drink I guess?"

The smile appeared again upon the barmaid's face, if not even larger than prior due to the innocence displayed in Leyaria. "Of course dear. Just allow me a minute and I'll be back with your drink."

Already looking forward to that drink, Leyaria looked around again, keeping herself on alert for whomever might have entered or for if someone had been watching her beforehand. But why would anyone do that, she thought to herself.

Maybe it was the fact that outside of being in Crocus, she pretty much avoided being in bars. She had worked as a bartender in the past, but that compared to this, compared to being approached by people, they were different entirely. She wasn't entirely sure if she liked it or not. Perhaps it would be something that in time she would know more as to if she was a fan or not, but looking around she could see that some people already had some strong opinions. In particular, Leyaria noticed a young woman, looking around the same age, maybe a little bit older than she was, with long red hair. Typically, it wouldn't garner Leyaria's attention, but it was the interaction, or confrontation, that she had with a couple of drunks that really got her attention.

She watched with a mixture of fascination and a bit of surprise as it happened, seeing the woman moving effortlessly, avoiding the attempted strikes by the men and delivering her own in response. Taking a quick look around, she could see that she wasn't the only one who was watching the fight as everyone seemed to have been cheering, some even looking like others were goading people into participating themselves. Leyaria even found herself cheering at one point, slightly shocked at the fact that she had gotten caught up in the excitement. But before she knew it, the fighting was over, the men were on the ground or otherwise knocked out, and the woman was simply seated next to her. Leyaria had to actually do a double-take, surprised that after that she'd sit with her.

"That... That was pretty incredible," Leyaria stammered her words slightly. There was certainly a level of charisma and talent to the red head. Without question a knack for fighting, and apparently winning too. A waitress came by and left a pair of drinks on their table, pointing to several people who shyly waved at Leyaria. Or were they waving at the red head? Leyaria simply ignored them and turned her attention back at the woman, "I thought that guys coming onto you was just par for the course. Can't say I ever expected something like that to happen. But like I said, it was something to see!" Leyaria realized that she was so far into her fascination that she hadn't even bothered with introductions, "My name is Leyaria. It's nice to meet you."

After the display she had seen only moments earlier, Leyaria wasn't sure exactly what to expect of this woman. Certainly someone tough, probably one of those 'macho' characters, someone with a strong sense of worth. She didn't know why to suspect that from this woman; perhaps it was the fact that she had seen her move so fluidly, so effortlessly knock out those men that she just assumed it to be an everyday thing for her. Hearing the woman speak though, Leyaria felt she was completely off. Granted, she did say that she played with them for her amusement, so she must have been pretty strong. She took another glance at the woman before looking back at the fallen men, then another back at the woman. "I can't help but worry when it's something serious. I guess now they're probably thinking the same thing," she said, pointing to the men, one of them very slowly looking like he was getting to his feet before falling once again.

The woman introduced herself as LeeAnn, a name that Leyaria couldn't help but smile at. LeeAnn and Leyaria, the two seemed to mesh rather nicely, she thought. What really intrigued Leyaria was that LeeAnn said she was a fire mage. I never thought that people would actually be proud of wielding this sort of Magic. She doesn't seem like the type... Leyaria stared absently for a moment at the woman, wondering if what she had was similar to what she was afflicted with. She wouldn't dare ask her outright, lest what happened to those people moments earlier happen to her as well, but she was curious. "Obviously seems to be. Not only did it ensure your safety, but made you sort of a celebrity!"

To an extent it was true, if only at least for the moment. Everyone had been every so often turning their heads, seeing if LeeAnn had left yet, if she had picked another fight, or perhaps even if they would able to fight her. However it went though, as time went, less people seemed to show the same interest, returning fully to their original plans. To some degree, it went along with what LeeAnn said, about people being interesting. There were those who seemed like they actually wanted to fight; whether or not LeeAnn indulged them being completely irrelevant. Even LeeAnn was interesting to Leyaria. She actually had control over her Magic, and seemed proud of it for that matter. "I've never looked at it like that, but I can sort of see what you mean." Leyaria took a sip from her drink, coughing shortly after as she took too great a sip. Once she had recovered and recomposed herself, she glanced back at the woman next to her, "So, your fire Magic. Is that like your fighting skills there? You trained that too? Like, can you control it? Use it and stuff?"

A Rune Knight. To some extent, it explained everything, or at the very least, it explained the woman's apparent proficiency in combat. Having grown up seeing firsthand what the Rune Knights are capable of, Leyaria was hardly one to question the potential of their power - and to a degree as well, the level of influence they carried. However, outside of what she had been familiar and recalled before of them, LeeAnn didn't seem to match that model. There was something different about her, something kinder, more innocent. She had a hard time picturing LeeAnn in that role, or within that organization even.

Leyaria took another sip of her drink, mindful not to take too great of one. Choking on it was hardly an enjoyable experience and there was still a faint trace of the burning that resided within her throat as a result. "You know," Leyaria started, her eyes still tracking on the men who had fallen earlier to LeeAnn, now having regained themselves and proceeding out of the bar as quickly and discretely as possible, "They're probably luckier than they even realize. I mean, you're a Rune Knight. You could have arrested them. A hangover and a bruise against the head are probably light when you consider the alternatives."

She listened as LeeAnn spoke, certainly not having any lacking of confidence. Between that swagger and her combat prowess, it was hard not to put together that she might have been a Rune Knight, though Leyaria might not have realized that herself had LeeAnn not say anything in the first place. Listening intently to what she had to say about her Magic, Leyaria didn't realize that she might have come off as too interested in the matter, until she herself found pressed with questions. "Uh," she stammered, not having expected to be asked herself, "I don't know. I guess I've just, you know I've heard stories before. Of people who I guess were mages but couldn't control their powers." She took another sip before continuing, "I suppose it just got me curious is all. Is it hard to control power like that or are things like that more anomalies? Figured I'd ask."

LeeAnn's words were kind, they were soft, yet at the same time there was a level of truthfulness to them that stung worse than even the most cruel words that Leyaria had heard in the past. Is that me? Am I weak? I must be... It was like a punch in the gut, realizing that this woman - even though she might have been trying to be optimistic - probably best described Leyaria's current state. And to hear it herself, it was painful to hear. "Weak... I see," she quietly muttered aloud.

Listening more to LeeAnn speak, Leyaria wanted to find optimism in her words, but struggled. By all accounts, Leyaria imagined that everything this woman was saying was probably true, but some of it seemed utterly impossible for Leyaria. How could she ever love the Magic that had afflicted her? All that it seemed to do was leave destruction in its wake, and the worst of it all was that she had almost no control whatsoever to it. If she could control it, she would have; perhaps then she could have prevented the deaths which took place in Hargeon, in Magnolia, and in every other place she had been to before. "Was that how you did it? How you came to control your Magic?"

Leyaria rose her arm as a waitress walked by, indicating to her that another drink was needed. She didn't have much coin, but she felt that it was only right that it go towards LeeAnn. After all, for the first time in a while it seemed like Leyaria had found a friend, or so she might have thought. What the redhead said of joining a guild, part of Leyaria was terrified of the prospect. It wasn't being in the company of other mages that scared her, but rather that she have another incident and seeing them suffer as a result. "Were you a part of other guilds before joining the Rune Knights?"

She took a sip of the latest drink which had been placed on their table. This time it seemed to go down much more smoothly than it did before. It was even starting to taste better too. One of the things Leyaria did recall during her time traveling from place to place were the stories of the guilds. It seemed like no matter where she went, there were plenty of stories of the guilds that were located there. At times she wished that she could have been a part of them, but was that really for the best? According to LeeAnn, it would have been. But she couldn't know what it was like, what it was like to be cursed as an effective living bomb. She wondered that if LeeAnn knew, would she be so quick to think what she does?

Hearing her story, seeing the marks - the scars of times past - on LeeAnn, it was eye-opening. With everything that had seemingly befallen her up to this point, Leyaria had become convinced, whether or not it was rational or not, that the overwhelming majority of mages, those who actually took joy and pride in their Magics had acquired them easily. That there had been no sort of suffering or anything to which they had to feel bad or regret about. Hearing LeeAnn's words, recognizing the pain echoed through them as similar to what she had experienced time and time again, it dispelled that notion for Leyaria.

As she put down her mug, there was a bit of a personal pride within her, seeing that she had managed to down the drink without any real issue. No sick feeling, nothing like that. When she turned her head, she was a bit surprised to see LeeAnn looking at her, almost concerned. She gulped as she tried to explain, or rather, as close as she could to not explain but actually explain the situation. "It's nothing..." She began, a part of her immediately feeling sick for lying, wanting so desperately to just unload everything unto this woman, to confide in her all the guilt that she had come to feel over the past several years. "Uh, you've probably seen a lot of terrible things since you've joined the Rune Knights I'd imagine. The worst of it, the people, what do they feel? I mean like, do they ever show guilt or anything? Does it seem like they change at all?" On the outside, it might have been morbid, perhaps even a sickly question to ask, but that was all because she struggled internally with how to ask. It wasn't as though she could just say, "Am I redeemable even though I've probably led to the deaths of countless innocent people."

That ran through her head as LeeAnn spoke of some of the guilds that existed within Fiore. Leyaria had known that there were a handful of them that existed, some cities even having multiple ones, but the ones in particular that she spoke of, Fairy Tail, Lamia Scale, those were ones that she had heard of before. Legends to some degree, infamous in other parts - and as much depending on who you ask - but undisputedly held to a high standard within the Magical world apparently. "I've heard of them, when I was... traveling. I've heard a lot of people say really great things about them. You liked Fairy Tail, when you were stationed there I mean?"

It ate away at her, more than perhaps what she ever could have imagined it would have. The pain she kept hidden, it was hardly new to her. She had felt like she had spent so much of her time lately doing just that, keeping things hidden. The pain - and guilt - she felt, the marks which had come to overtake her body, it had become second nature for her to hide these things from others. But then why did it torment her so much right then, sitting beside this woman - who clearly wanted to help - and simply looking for a way to spin around her question, to evade saying what she honestly wanted to. She lifted her head slightly, just enough to catch a quick glance at LeeAnn, the smile of her reflecting upon her time in the company of the Magic guilds being a rather nice contrast to the display of conflict that was emanating from Leyaria's.

She took a deep breath, conceding whatever might happen next within this moment. "LeeAnn..." Her words trailed, a weakness present in it that was very quickly drowned out by the loud voices around them. Leyaria sat patiently, waiting for them to die now for a moment; what she was about to say was tough enough, and she doubted she had the will or the strength to repeat it a second time. "This... This was what I wanted to show you..." As she began to remove the gloves that she had come to wear so often, the very beginning of tears started to form within her eyes, the fear of the absolute worst case scenarios already playing before her in her mind. As she took them off, she placed her hands against the table, the blackness which overwhelming consumed them sticking out wholely against the brownish wood.

"I wanted to save my sister. I.. I thought that, that it would have done something..." A tear began to descend down her cheek, "But it didn't. Now, I'm just this... this freak! This monster and there's nothing I can do! I don't know how to control it!" The guilt of what she had done, whether intentional or not, it ate away at whatever walls she had built up to this point. Sitting there, confessing what had been plaguing her for so long, it wouldn't have mattered if LeeAnn were a Rune Knight or not. The consequences of what she had done in the past meant nothing to her, as compared to what she believed she was going to lose in the form of her friend, LeeAnn.

She took in another breath, ignoring the tears that continued to flow, "Now... now when it happens..." Unable to continue, she found herself turning around and reaching hold of LeeAnn, wrapping her arms around her as she cried out into her shoulder. Leyaria didn't know what to do. It was as though everything that had elapsed prior to her arriving in Crocus had finally come to a tipping point, that moment being right here. "Everyone around me keeps dying... I'm scared... I'm scared and I don't know what to do!"

To some degree, things had very much become routine for Leyaria since she had arrived within Crocus. Her nights typically ended up like this to some degree, her ending up in a bar. They were some of the only places in which she felt some sort of solace and safety. The streets seemed to offer little, and truth be told too, there was little to be found in these areas. However though, there was at least sort of mental security that she felt when she was there, just not being alone. And ironically enough, in the company of LeeAnn, the woman who she had just met earlier this night, she had felt the most safe in however long it had been. She didn't for how long she cried, only that right now she felt at peace.

She heard soft words as tears continued to flow, the hardships that LeeAnn had endured combined with the sympathy that she was showing Leyaria to be a uniquely powerful one. It almost made her want to cry more; who was this woman to waste her time on someone like Leyaria, she almost found herself thinking. As she really listened though to what afflicted LeeAnn, Leyaria lifted her head slightly, her eyes red from crying, a shocked expression on her face. This woman had endured a terrible hardship, one that Leyaria wasn't sure she could ever hope to survive living with. There was a pain associated with her Magic, both in respects to physical and emotional pain, but something like what the Rune Knight had to endure, that was different entirely. Leyaria might have been an outcast by the standards of society and appearances, but LeeAnn, she was something else, a monster to those.

"I... I didn't know..." Her words were soft; she hadn't been aware of it, but she couldn't help but feel guilty for it nonetheless. As she imagined it must have been as difficult if not moreso difficult for her to speak about such a thing as it was for Leyaria to talk about her Magic. The faintest indications of a smile appeared on Leyaria as she marvelled at how similar they were, at least to that extent. The contrast though, became all the more apparent when she heard LeeAnn had a fiance. To an extent, she was jealous; outside of her sister, Leyaria never knew anyone who had shown any sort of care, any sort of genuine love towards her. This woman, LeeAnn, whether she knew it or not, she was much luckier than she made herself out to be.

Leyaria took a deep breath as she looked down at her hand, the blackness not appearing quite as horrific as she had come to know it to be. Perhaps it was that she was becoming jaded, numb to it. Or perhaps it was that she was coming to accept it? The latter scared her, but so did the former. If she stopped caring, what else did it mean she could stop caring about? She turned her attention back to LeeAnn as she was asked about what sort of Magic she used, "Fire. Or at least, I think it's fire. But it doesn't look like it. It's white, everything just melts away," it gave her goosebumps, having to reflect back on what she had seen her Magic do before, bodies burning apart right before her, buildings literally crumbling down into nothingness, leaving her alone in the ashes, "I don't feel it. Nothing. It doesn't burn me; I don't even feel the heat from it."

She looked down at the table, the drink which she had ordered having remained there, largely untouched. For the first time in what seemed like forever, she reached over to grab it, the corruption on her hand exposed and all, and took a sip. It felt good as it went down; not so much with respects to taste, but just having it to numb the pain she was feeling on the inside. Putting the glass down again, she looked right at LeeAnn, "I appreciate the offer," her face was stoic, "But I'm worried ..." A lone tear began to fall, "I'm worried that if you try, it'll claim you too..."