Upon his prompt of her own personal take away in her greeting with the Ethyrian alphess, Cassi was quick to continue. "I would say there is potential to establish a positive relationship with them. Honestly, she seemed a little skeptical of us." She hesitated, allowing that bit of information to sink in before elaborating further. "She was curious as to why she had never heard of a western pack before." Of course, Cassiela had only just been around for about a season now. So she wasn't able to give as clear of a response as she would have liked. The ashen fae felt there was no need to be dishonest in the response she have given. So she was as open as she felt she could be.
She also hadn't really been able to spend a lot of time making an evaluation. Which, brought her train of thought back around to the supposed gathering they were planning. "Since they are having a festival that's an open invitational, political alignment doesn't seem to be of concern to them. I would suspect that makes them more neutral than anything else." Cassi mused. But as the lull grew bigger, she felt it necessary to make an addendum. "-or independent might be a better way to put it." If you had nothing to hide, an open door certainly made that sentiment clear. "But by going to that festival, and seeing how Mistress Celeste interacts with other leaders present, you'd be able to gain a lot more insight. Perhaps just as much if not more from talking to her yourself." If one just paid attention to another's interaction, it should be fairly simple to tell if different stories were being spun for different audiences.
The problem with that though, being have to wait for the gathering. Withdrawing into her mind a moment, she worked out how she wanted to express the second option as she saw it. "But of course, they aren't too far off- practically sharing a border with us. A one-on-one introduction would be far simpler to arrange, and could be done in a timely fashion," She paused, refocusing on the intricate mask that the larger brute wore so well. "You would just have to figure out if she was tailoring the conversation to what she thought you'd want to hear, or not." Which in some ways could be easier said than done. Celeste was pretty good about not sharing too much and keeping a consistent expression. Blinking back to her recollection, she moved to finish her assessment in a bright tone. "So I guess it would boil down to how quickly you want to get to know your new neighbors." She finished, a one-sided grin tugging at the corner of her lips as she allowed a moment for her case to rest before moving on to a different subject altogether.
It took a moment to gather the courage, but she found her voice once more, equipping a more somber tone as she went. "There is something else I wanted to talk about ..." Cassi started, glancing away for a moment as she tried to figure out where to start. "When that woman challenged you-" she hesitated, before finally admitting the emotion that she was caught on. "I couldn't help it. I was so afraid." She finally broke, returning her attention to him. As she got going, things began coming a little easier. "Afraid for you. Afraid for Valhalla. Not because I didn't have complete faith in you and your abilities. I'm just a worrier, I guess- please don't be offended by it. But I just couldn't stand the thought of something bad happening." She admitted. Cassiela wanted to maintain eye contact, but it was far easier to talk to the walls in this instance. "I just kept thinking ... what are we going to do if this doesn't resolve ..." Not that it was a concern of her's. After all, she was just a guest. But in the back of her mind, she knew it ran deeper than that now. And with her next sentiment, she would put the thought into words. "It was then that I made the realization how important Valhalla was to me. I couldn't imagine having that ripped away."
Finally looking back one more, she watched him closely as her conclusion rolled off her tongue. "So, with your permission, I would like to officially join Valhalla."
