Thais didn’t understand farewells. When she was little, she never bothered with them, constantly reprimanded how impolite she was. As she matured, she learned the mannerisms of farewells but never encountered with a true farewell. The farewells she used were light, as she would assume to see the person in the hallway the next day. Even though she lost the few friends she had amongst the revolt during the Blight, she never gained a full understanding to the meaning a farewell had. She hadn’t said farewell to Athanael before he passed away. In fact, she had refused to give him a farewell, simply walking out as if she would be back any second. It never occurred to her that she would have nothing to walk back to. Even though such memories constantly nibbled at her thoughts and invaded her time in The Fade, Thais tried hard not to dwell on them, they were depressing. Instead, she moved on.
No, Thais didn’t understand farewells. Thus, when it had been time to depart from the Keep, she did not seek anyone out to say farewell too. The early morning departure made for her avoid speaking to those in the other groups. The woman wouldn’t know what else to say except a simple bow. Yet, she didn’t have much to worry since none approached her for such a gesture.
Since they departed, Thais was having difficulty distracting herself from her own thoughts. Compared to the previous travel group of mages and templars, this group was much more varied but it still had an uncomfortable atmosphere. She avoided making eye contact with Bethen, who walked beside her, and wasn’t able to even glimpse at Constans since he was expertly blocked out of view by the younger girl.
Instead, she made do to keep her gaze ahead. Occasionally she would stare at the dwarves in front of her or look back at Templar Alderic or Lucressia with the cart. On silent moments, her gaze would linger to the dwarf woman in the front. She wondered how come the woman had no hair. It was disconcerting to Thais that a woman, even a dwarf one, would feel the need to get rid of something that so defined a person... though after the first day of walking, Thais came to the conclusion that by getting rid of it, the dwarf was defining herself in a completely different way.
She didn’t try too much to make conversation with her party members. The woman had tried with the templar that walked beside her, but the conversation was as dry as if they were back in the tower. She didn’t want to talk to Bethen and Constans wasn’t much for riveting conversation either. Thais was vaguely intrigued by the dwarves, but felt much too unknowing about dwarven lifestyles to try and speak to them. She was also intrigued by Lucressia but hadn’t gotten a moment to speak to the other woman. Besides, most of her thoughts that popped into her mind as she walked were foolish ones, questions that shouldn’t be asked by an Enchanter of the circle. It was expected that she knew the answers to most of these things and she didn’t want to give away that really she had a fairly small amount of world knowledge. She thought she understood what it would be like before she left the tower, but since then everything was not as it seemed and she no longer knew what she could rely on anymore.
The woman brought her gaze to the ground in front of her. She felt light-headed, but it was nothing terrible. It was most likely from all the fresh air that she was getting use to. She was accustomed to the more stiff Tower air. That had to be the reason for the dizzy feelings that kept reoccurring through-out the journey.