This talk was going a lot better than Elphaba had originally thought it would. Where her words had caught in her throat when she'd tried to say something to her friends, they flowed more freely here. There definitely was something to having someone outside her close friends to talk to. And she'd even made a joke, something that told her she could get over this. For a while there, she didn't think she could get over what had happened. She'd been locked within herself and threw herself into watching an unhealthy amount of television. On Demand was really addicting, especially if she found a TV series she actually liked, then she could get up to date with it.
But Elphaba was the type that couldn't run forever, she knew that. She could run from people and places, but she could never run from herself. At the end of the day, she would always be left alone with herself and her thoughts. And that's when the ghosts came back to haunt her. They usually came in the dead of night when she was the only one awake and aware that at that moment, she was alone. That was when she was the most vulnerable, and so many nights since returning to this place she'd been so afraid to sleep, so afraid to get out of bed. For her to be in public right now, using a spell to change her skin color to one that was socially acceptable, was a huge step. It was hard to sit there and not look over her shoulder, but the friendly presence Svetlana gave her was enough to calm her. Or maybe it was the tea. Or a combination of both. It was undoubtedly the latter. She would need to remember this tea so she could get some for herself. If anything, it could help her sleep better on those nights when she found herself struggling to relax.
"It is. I can't really properly express how grateful I am for that." Expressing gratitude was still largely new to her, but she always managed to find a way. At least now she wasn't so awkward in approaching the topic. It was much like she was far easier to hug now. Or at least she had been before the other Oz had happened, but she knew once she got a little further down this road, the hugging would come back. Which would be a good thing because Galinda liked to hug her at any given moment without warning, and she liked feeling far more at ease with it.
Elphaba heard the way Svetlana's voice trailed off, and she wondered if she should ask about it or not. She could tell just from the way the blonde was talking that she understood this topic to a point where she herself had endured something similar. But Elphaba also knew they had come here to talk about what had happened in the alternate Oz, and she didn't want to catch Svetlana off-guard. Elphaba knew better than most people how bad it was to catch someone emotionally unprepared for something. So instead of pressing the subject, she took another drink of her tea.
"One thing can be said, the experience is one that will make me stronger, help me to grow as a person." Even though she was speaking in the first person, she silently directed the words at the both of them. It was true, what didn't kill you made you stronger. "It's all about how you pick yourself back up afterwards that measures the outcome, I think." She was more stating a fact than actually directing her words at Svetlana or herself directly. But they were applicable to the situation.