Convenient. No, not really. "You wanted a better sorcerer. And alchemist." He rasped at her, not taking his eyes off the hill. He wanted to go, yearned to go, but couldn't bring himself to take a step. He watched her walk forward with a twisted envy in his gut, when she turned sharply and asked about the doll. 

[i]Oh.[/i] Ruli paused. "Yeah." He admitted. "So, I suppose, try not to look like you're going to kill them." He wasn't jumping for glee, no, but he wasn't a nice person. Never had been, as it turned out. "I'm an ass." Ruli rasped. "They're not."

And she left, disappearing up the hill, leaving him standing alone and isolated on the very edge of the desert in which he'd always lived; so close to a lush terrain but unable to take the steps. 

The path was hard to see, but easy enough to follow. There was no time-worn path that indicated where to step, but the ground was barren, the trees struggling and short. The only sign that anyone had been here were cleared spots on the ground where weeds, stone, and shrubs had been pulled away. A fairy ring, it looked like, a large circle that Kire passed over; forcing her magic to tingle much in the way it had in Ziad when magic called to her. Not dark and lethal, but curious.