[H3][color=goldenrod]Anathema Dunn[/color][/h3]
[Color=goldenrod]Time:[/color] Early Morning, [Color=goldenrod]Location:[/color] Communal Hotspring
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Anathema noticed, curiously, that Céline appeared to have become uncomfortable as Anathema spoke. Was it [i]her[/i]? While Anathema probably wasn't the warmest individual, she had never been described as imposing. She found the possibility that she was making the blightborn uncomfortable strange, opposite to what she had been advised. Had she simply somehow been rude? This was a dreadful thought, and she chose not to probe at it for the moment. 

Despite her apparent discomfort, Céline offered her company and returned to sitting on a nearby rock. Perhaps Anathema had imagined it. Either way, Anathema took a seat beside Céline on a neighboring rock, delighting in the fact that the hotspring had kept the rock warm without regard to the nearby snow. 

[color=60cf11]“I must also apologize for assuming you were one of the townsfolk. You approached me so calmly that I figured I wasn’t the first blight-born you had met, though still that might be the case anyway. Personally…you have me curious, what are your reasons for coming to Dawnhaven?”[/color]

So close to Dawnhaven, Anathema hadn't considered that her apparent comfort in the presence of a blightborn might be odd. She thought of the stagedriver who had been adamant that he bring her no further, and of how many hadn't come to Dawnhaven as willingly as herself. It occurred to her now that her behavior could certainly be considered odd, that she had been naieve to expect otherwise, and that, perhaps, Céline had been expecting a murdering zealot. 

[Color=goldenrod]"No apologies are necessary."[/color] Anathema began, [color=goldenrod]"You actually happen to be the first blightborn I've met, but I am a sage--a researcher--I've come to Dawnhaven to study the blight and, ah-um, those affected by it."[/color] she tried to choose her words carefully, hoping not to be insensitive or to come across as if she considered these people as nothing but specimens. She didn't go into why she wanted to study the blight and those it recreated. The simplest answer was curiosity. The more complex answer involved an idea which Anathema would not share until she was convinced she had evidence of enough merit that it wouldn't be immediately ignored, and that it may avoid holy fire. [color=goldenrod]"I just feel it's too late for me to be afraid. I've come all this way, by my choice, afterall.[/color]

Anathema nibbled her lip, considering questions she might ask Céline. The woman's only transformation, at least which Anathema could tell in the moment, were her towering ears. Perhaps her hair and eye color, but in the darkness Anathema wasn't sure. Anathema wondered what determined a person's transformation once killed by the blight. She wondered how else the blight had changed the woman beside her, but she didn't know how to ask such questions without prying. It was rude to pry, especially into something that could be as traumatic as dying. 

[Color=goldenrod]"You said that you're a doctor. Do you mean that you use healing magic?"[/color] she wondered whether  and how magic strengthened by the sun, weakened in the current permanent night, had been affected by its user's blightborn nature. Was it weakened as her own or did it remain strong?  Instead, she followed, [Color=goldenrod]"Do you also come here from Aurelia?"[/color]

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Céline [@SkeankySnack]