She nodded, pensive. "Huh. Well. Is it just you helping out when you can, or are there more of you?"

The princess's expression shuttered briefly and she let the question hang in the air for a moment before crossing her arms and replying, "Hypothetically, if these things were to crop up outside of Altair someday, it'd be useful to have an idea of who to call on."

"I am," she glanced at the leg, then back to him. "Which is why I'm asking: are you up for hire? Can you teach anyone else?"

Parisa tilted her chin in acknowledgement, then asked, "Why even do this? Stay here when you could be safer outside?"

"My cousin arrested me for regicide so I tried to marry a king, but then he imprisoned me, so now I'm laying low." she replied flatly. "I don't think we have the same story."

She knocked her shoulder against his, scoffing softly. “C’mon Feo. This stuff’s in your blood.”

When she stepped outside, the breeze lifting her hair and smattering snow across her throat, she realized just how stifling the house had been. It was getting darker outside - and everyone knew the dark was unsafe in Altair - but it felt better than the inside of the manor, right now.
She glanced down at Feofil, then brushed some snow off the stoop and perched beside him, hoping that when she got up, she wouldn't have a damp ass. "Hey."

But Parisa shook her head and, with exhausted unease filtering through her voice, admitted, "I don't remember anything about them."
Roo's gaze softened sympathetically. "Then they were ghosts."
"Oh. Ghosts. Of course there would be ghosts here."
"Well, they're not really... ghosts." Roo said. "They're like, hmm. They're inconsequential. They can't harm you, and most don't want to. The forest children are common... a lot of kids died out here."
"Feo said they were from the next village over."
"Yes, there used to be one, about a decade before I was born. It was razed to the ground overnight." Roo flexed her fingers, then sighed. "They're mostly looking for a warm home and some kindness. A memory of what they used to know, maybe. Or maybe a last wish, something they asked the gods for when their lives were taken from them."
Pari's throat clenched but she didn't say anything as Roo turned away. "I should help Giovanni."
"Right." she muttered. "I'll go out to Feo."

"That's fair," she exhaled. "... do you think you'll sleep tonight?"

"Aw, come on. You faced a demon but this is what gets you?" she jabbed him again.