As she gave him a demure smile at his comment, Raziel noticed the lack of nervous energy between them. They were creating a relaxing atmosphere. There was no judging or any disturbing signs, nothing that set off senses to retreat. She blinked as something light touched her nose, tickling her slightly. Regardless of not being able to see it, she held her breath as Bryce chuckled. As suddenly as it was there, it was gone. The chance to ask what it was nonexistent as a question kept the topic upon herself.

Raziel shook her head lightly. "You assumed correctly, but it was a rather difficult lesson to lead to that decision." She picked up a strawberry and began to idly pick off the sepals slowly. At first, it was as if she wasn't going to talk about the lesson at all until she began to speak hesitantly. "I had been debating the topic with my mentor heavily when… a set of sickly twin orphans came into our care." Raziel swallowed hard, trying to keep the lump from forming in her throat as it always did when she merely thought of the twins.

"My mentor suggested I heal one with magic while he healed the other with herbology. I was arrogant and confident. The twins thought it was cruel, and perhaps it was… To have one healthy while the other slowly healed. Over time, the twins kept getting sick. We kept to our deal. I began to notice that each time they got sick, the one healed with magic seemed more sick than the last… Until one day… the child… was… before we noticed they were sick again…" With all the sepals picked off, Raziel began to pick at the stem as her dead eyes sadly gazed at absolutely nothing. "The body did not have the chance to build up defenses. It relied too heavily on the magic… Three days later, the other child took their own life, and I swore never again."

Not even for herself did she allow such luxuries of a quick heal. Her body reminded her of this as a hand seized, resulting in a sharp intake of breath. "I'm sorry… give me a moment…" she nearly whispered. Replacing the berry back on the plate, the angel reached into her bag and pulled a small bottle out with an almost clear liquid inside, her thumb carefully running over the surface of the bottle. The angel had to use her teeth to help uncork the bottle. A cautious sniff at the contents double verified it was indeed what she sought. She poured a small amount of the eucalyptus oil onto her hand, carefully corked the bottle back and began rubbing the oil into her seized fingers. It was bad enough to be blind… but someone tried to blind her further and nearly destroyed the angel's occupation in the process.

At first he believed the discussion was too difficult for her to talk about but then she began to explain more. Bryce listened quietly with his attention fully on her. He wasn't even eating at this point as he was too invested in her conversation to care about that. The noble couldn't imagine Raziel behaving with any arrogance or confidence. She always seemed to be meek and mild, with a dash of confidence. Then again, he'd seen how people change and adjust with time. Anything could make people change be it a small word or a huge event. Raziel told of how the children kept getting sick and how both of them ended up dead. She seemed to blame herself for the entire event and has never used magic for healing again. Her breath was sharp and she could only whisper as she pulled out a small bottle of a clear liquid and poured oil onto her seized fingers.

"It's alright. No need to apologize." Bryce said, "That sounds like it was a very difficult experience."

The noble couldn't imagine what that must have felt like but….he would someday. Ruling over an amount of land and people was a difficult job. If he ever began a leader, he would have to deal with the consequences of his actions. All it took was one mistake or one misstep and a person's life would be shattered. Byrce took his job very seriously but he knew he wasn't perfect and one day he would make a selfish decision that would ruin another life.

"So you now travel if I am remembering correctly?" He mentioned, "Are you traveling to any specific place or just exploring?"

The atmosphere was growing grim and he didn't want to make her feel worse by digging up past trauma. Bryce had listened well but he knew the difficulty of bringing up past emotional experiences. If one wasn't careful, one could overdo it.

"What about your animal friends? How did they come about?" Bryce inquired.

While she worked the oils into her skin, Raziel opened her senses up to the breeze as it whispered through the tree above them. The leaves rustled softly as the willow branches swayed gently. Birds twittered in the warm afternoon sun. The distant calls of merchants and people chatting reminded her that people usually had a laundry list of things to accomplish, tasks to complete. Bryce would be no different, yet he was lazily spending his time with her. Would he catch some kind of flak for showing her an act of kindness?

Raziel smirked toward Bryce with a small shake of her head. "Is this some kind of interview?" she joked with a small laugh. "But, to answer your question, it used to be both. Always searching for something but couldn't ever catch more than a whisper of it. Now that the original task is complete, I'm mostly just exploring. The mountains… The mountains may have been my home growing up, but they no longer have hold of my heart as they once did." At the mention of the animals, Mikhail sat up, his tail thumping the earth excitedly.

The wolf stood and approached, laying back down with his head in Raziel's lap, who jumped in response before settling back into a relaxed state. "Mikhail is not the first wolf I've trained, and likely will not be the last. I've always had a wolf by my side to be my eyes, my shield. Mikhail was a gift since Xander was… taken from me. Azula is a mystery, however." Raziel could almost hear Fenriz's voice as he talked about Azula when she suddenly came to them. "One day, around the time Lady Angela was giving birth I believe, Azula appeared and never left. But… I owe her my life. Without her, I wouldn't be here today, and Mikhail would grow up wild." How far had Azula flown when the angel was kidnapped to find the one person they both knew could save her? How had Ensarrian even understand Azula to save her?

With a sigh, Raziel clasped her hands together and plopped them into her lap as she deliberately turned her dead gaze to his direction. "You have heard so much about me, but I know nothing of you! The son of a baroness, was it? Do you have sisters? How many brothers exactly? What are some of the tasks of a baron… But I think my most important question is… What exactly do you do for your family with the trade deals?" She wanted to hear him, his voice while she painted a mental picture of him. But there was another question that burned deeper, brighter. It was more personal, one she did not ask of many people. Ensarrian had been the last and even that had been some time ago. So Raziel tucked it away, trying to ignore it… for now.

The fact that she trained the wolf demonstrated her talent with animals. Then there was the strange owl who apparently showed up when some woman named Angela gave birth. It was strange but he couldn't give any explanation for it. Perhaps the owl just appeared for no reason at all? Animals were incredibly unpredictable. He genuinely didn't realize he had been asking so many questions, as he was genuinely curious about her and wanted to know more. Suddenly, she began asking him a whole bunch of questions. It was only fair, as he had barely explained anything about himself.

"I am the youngest son of Baroness Isabelot Thiphania Trivon of Adeluna." He said the mouthful of his mother's name, "I have four siblings but have only ever met my brothers. My oldest brother Clifton is the smartest of my siblings, though that is like being the tallest of dwarfs. My second eldest sibling is Bentley and few things go on inside his head except for jousting and tournaments. The third is Layne and he has charm on his side but doesn't know when to quite. Then there's Mariana…..she disappeared before I was born so I never had the chance to meet her. So that's my family."

Bryce took off his signet ring and handed it over to Raziel so she could feel it. The ring was made of fine silver and had a beautiful design carved into the metal. There was a sparrow perched with a depiction of the sun behind it. This was their family crest and the symbol that indicated who they were for all nobility. This had been their crest for many generations and each member of the house of Trivon had that symbol.

"This is our family crest. The sparrow represents hard work and productivity while the sun represents power and growth." He explained, "These are the ideals we try to live up to and encourage for our people. Only direct daughters and sons of the baron or baroness receive these. We use them to sign documents and they are difficult to create so we don't have to worry as much about forgeries. I brought mine to sign one of the documents for the trade deal."

He then remembered that she had asked about his trade deal. It was difficult to talk about such a deal, since it was fairly dull. There were thousands of terms and conditions he had to sift through during the setup of the agreement before he even came to the city. Then there was the endless talk and political discussions where he had to be polite and courteous while maintaining a firm stance. To him, it was a delicate dance but to anybody else it would seem completely boring.

"I'm afraid its not as interesting as it may sound." He said with a slight chuckle, "Basically I had to go through the papers and agreements before I even came. Then upon arrival I was treated as a guest in this merchant's household. There was food, dancing, and some singers to entertain but the heart of the deal was when I sat down with the merchant, he tried to sell me on this deal. Twenty percent off for all products being sold to the Baroness' land in exchange for lower import taxes. He must have thought me an idiot! That percentage is not the equivalent of the taxes. The sale would help short term wealth for our people since they would save more coin but the loss of taxes to be used for public systems such as schools, parks, and food storage would damage them in the long run."

He had gone on a rant, passion filling his eyes as he explained this to Raziel. Bryce had forgotten that not everybody was aware of economics of trade and how to deal with merchants. She was a healer, and though she was very intelligent it was doubtful that she had any experience in economics. But he didn't seem to notice and just rambled on as though she would understand it all.