"What is this?" Droullin wonders one day when Vitalis wanders over on a break from sparring beside the guild hall. It is not a coincidence that the vestal has been hovering nearby. She finds it inspiring to watch the other woman train. She has become curious about her methods since their brief talk in the tavern.
The hellion looks down at the object Droullin had indicated: the amulet around her neck. It is on full display, as she has divested herself of all garments but her chest wrap and leggings. Droullin would be lying if she said that her eyes had been on Vitalis's chest because of the amulet initially, but she pushes such thoughts from her mind.
The necklace consists of a bird's skull strung by the eye-holes onto a braided cord. Droullin has always assumed that it is a symbol of some pagan religion, but she no longer wants to assume. She wants to know why this ugly totem hangs around her compatriot's neck night and day. She wants to know anything about this intense, guarded woman whom she fights and lives beside.
"Something from home," Vitalis says, and Droullin thinks she should have expected such curtness.
She wills her eyes to keep from drifting to the hellion's bare, muscled arms. "Where is home?" she asks.
"Here is home, now."
"Where was home?"
"Far away." Vitalis looks away.
Droullin accepts the dismissal. Instead of pressing, she reaches up tentatively and runs her finger along the bird's beak. The gesture is a truce. It is also a chance for Droullin's fingers to graze Vitalis's sternum, barely. "It's lovely," she says, and does not mean the amulet.
In the moment afterward, Vitalis does not smile—Droullin does not know if she can—but her eyes soften, and that says more than enough.
…