"Angela mentioned that you lost a lot of time to death… I wasn't sure I understood what she meant by that. Though, I find it reassuring you are almost as new to this world as I am," Iris smiled. 

She looked at him, trying to understand what he meant. Nathaniel himself was the same as the one who had been in the otherworld, which answered Iris's unasked first question. Angela, however, had taken her other world self into her and became a singular entity as they had previously discussed. In essence he was about as family to Angela as Iris was in that sense. 

"It was just something I overheard in the library while I was re-shelving books. They said it was a shame we were related otherwise they would have expected us to become a 'thing'. I'm not sure what they meant. I do know that marriage to siblings is not out of the ordinary in Canelux, especially if it means keeping bloodlines pure and keeping royalty and nobility within certain families, but outside of that it seems relatively unheard of…" she shrugged slightly. "Parvpora has a slightly different outlook on the idea though, and I know it is an outlook that Master Drae has more or less adopted."

She looked at Nathaniel. "What did they mean when they said they thought we should be a 'thing'? Do they mean transforming and becoming some sort of inanimate object?"

“Aye, I’m sure you heard of Drae’s patron Cyprus. In the other world, she manipulated me and destroyed me… I did many bad things and my sister ended up killing me because of Nemesis. I’ve been dead for a long time until recently so… That is what she meant.”

He took a good long look at her for a moment and started to laugh. “Rosenites are a bit different I am afraid. We aren’t exactly made like most races because of the mashing of everything that went into our creation. It’s why my mother and her sisters look so different despite having the same parents. Though it is frowned upon for siblings, we are most close to being step siblings then actual siblings. Step siblings sometimes do get married.” He shrugged a bit and thought about her question more.

He crossed his arms and closed his eyes. “A thing is more like… Mother and Drae are a thing. Foxglove and Dart are a thing. Nerezza and Kaiser. It’s used to describe a couple. They are saying that they expect us to become a couple.”

"Yes, I know of her. I know of her as well as Master Drae does. She almost manipulated him too," Iris said softly. She knew all that Nathaniel had done, but she hadn't realized that it had taken place in the other world. "I think I understand."

"I know that Rosenites are different. The variation in appearances makes sense just by looking at normal plants. A fruit tree can bear a variety of different fruit if branches from other places are grafted in, and flowers come in all sorts of different colors and shapes despite being of the same genus simply because of cross-pollination, and it does not adversely effect the plant," Iris prattled on. "Obviously I made the mistake in my argument of forgetting that Rosenites are not in fact human at all. Just in appearance," she said with a sigh. "Though you make perfect sense about the step-siblings, since there isn't technically any sort of blood relation there…"

She looked over at him as he folded his arms across his chest, eyes closed as he explained what a 'thing' was meant to be. She looked him over, thinking he looked both dignified despite his relaxed manner. As she looked at him, she couldn't help but think about how long his eyelashes were. She'd seen them up close like this before just once. The urge to touch them overrode her senses and she lifted a hand and lightly ran her finger over his eye. It felt like her fingers were brushing over a soft feathery fan. When she realized that she was very much invading his space she quickly withdrew her hand.