[ So repayment for a good deed done in turn. It urges her guard to come down just a little, for the sarcasm to fade away. He doesn't need to even ask for her help at this point; she'll give it freely enough. But to request it is just one more notch, and Mel nods as they walk, her eyes skimming the landscape for their quarry.

She doesn't voice her assent further. She hopes it'll be enough. But to his question...

Mel glances briefly at her hands, where gold lines have laced over her fingers like living decoration - or armor. ]

...I'm not sure.

[ It's not meant to be vague like this, but as she's only come into these powers, this magic, only in the last few days and weeks... She truly doesn't know the implication, the depth of it, and what answers she's been given were told to her by a deceiver, and so she doesn't know how much she can trust. ]

Something happened to me, not long before I came here. [ Guarded again, but not because of him; Mel has always held her heart close to her chest, tried to cover her insecurities. But she is being honest. ] And I found this power, this strength within me. But I don't understand it, and now it's gone, and there is no one who can explain it to me. [ Not her mother, not any other mage. No one. The few who did know didn't seem to know the depths of it, and were not to be trusted. ]

I don't trust whoever's taken it from me, though. And I do not want to be helpless here.

[ But that begs the question... ]

What have you lost that brought you here to help me in turn?