Well one thing could be said for Svetlana, she was observant. It was probably why she was so good at chess. She could see things that didn't need to be said, simple things that made it so she knew what to expect. So knowing the way people were meant she knew that green skin was not acceptable. True she hadn't known Elphaba had a way around it, but if she did, it made sense that she would use it, as she had. But Elphaba was right in being constantly anxious wasn't a good thing. Svetlana knew that one first hand. Her paranoia was running rampant no matter how hard she tried to keep it controlled. Thankfully the only one who knew what to look for in regards to that was Anatoly, but she still worried that one day she'd betray herself.
The comment on talking not being a strong point gave Svetlana pause and a slight smile.
"That I understand as well. I am more used to expressing myself through pieces on a chess board..." It was true, and somehow Svetlana felt it would always be true. It worked, but it also made what was going on in her head hard to express as well, that couldn't be expressed through chess. The fear, sure, but what happened? No. But at least Elphaba seemed to like the tea. "You are welcome. It is one I have found to be helpful when I am upset."
Something else Svetlana knew? Tea. Because it was her choice of medicating herself. It didn't matter if she was physically sick or if it was emotional. Whatever the case, Svetlana preferred tea to any sort of therapy. Tea over chess was just intensifying that. And then the question on if she knew Wicked or The Wizard of Oz.
"I have heard of The Wizard of Oz. It was a book turned into a movie I believe, but I have not seen it...." True, most would have seen it, but again, Svetlana was from a place where censorship was rampant. And things such as a road made of gold or a city made of emerald would not exactly go with the whole communism/socialist regime she had come from, "Forms of media were highly censored where I am from..."
Perhaps that was why she and Erik had always turned to chess. They couldn't censor a game of chess, the strategy involved. It was the new world order. And it was what had saved her life and destroyed it. Funny, that.