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If Emma had escaped anyone's notice she wouldn't have blamed them. She hovered behind the group, the hood of her sweeping green cloak drawn over her head as she faced to the ground. She had accepted Spook's paper, but had been entirely silent since then. She was embroiled in thought and kept coming back to one topic: The Marquis Dufor. Of course the thought of the Marquis was always near the surface of her consciousness, but now in the dark woods in the middle of nowhere led by a man that she knew nothing about they bubbled to the surface. 

[b][color=517BAE][i]Why did I run?[/i][/color][/b]

She couldn't help but feel she made a mistake, abandoning her life's work, her friends, her family, to traipse about the wilderness with a Traveler. But it was too late for regrets, so she pushed away those thoughts and another one came to her. There was one thing she always loved about botany: It was a science of exacts. A portion of this, a dash of that, a sprinkle of something would come together and they would always make the same thing. The contents of a draught or a poultice can be used to figure out everything about it, it's very character.

The same wasn't true of people. She saved this person, saved this person, saved this person, she killed Dufor. She wasn't a potion, the sum of her actions couldn't tell her what her character is. There was no arithmetic to tell her if she was a good person.

And so she left Enn, unable to face those she loved without knowing what she was. 

Her mental tangent was suddenly interrupted by the sounds of struggle. Suddenly the silence of the dark trail was broken, Spook and some sort of tree creature locked in struggle. Emma's hand darted to her hip, a dagger holstered to her belt. But she didn't know how to fight, doubly so against a foe like this. [b][i][color=517bae]I came out here to find plants, but this wasn't what I was hoping for.[/color][/i][/b] Lily called out, advising they run for the plains. Emma glanced helplessly at Spook and Alex and Meryn and the commotion around them, and then complied, sprinting for the light at the end of the path.