The drink was good, Arialla discovered, its warmth and flavor making her smile. She focused on the drink while the bartender was gone, then returned her attention to the woman when she approached again. Arialla might be alone at the bar, but she certainly wasn't averse to some company.
"I lived near the ocean," Arialla said, glancing out to sea. "It was like Torchline in many ways, but there were differences, too. We didn't have as much in the way of monsoons, and we didn't have LongNight at all."
Arialla paused to consider the differences between her home -- her former home, she reminded herself -- and Caido, or at least Torchline. "I lived in a small town where most families earned their livelihood through fishing. You didn't see the kind of, mm, not-so-aboveboard activities that you do here. It was ... sleepier. And the gods didn't speak to us as much. You didn't go to a shrine and ask for a conversation with a god; one person in a thousand might receive a true blessing, if they were incredibly lucky."
She didn't mention, yet, that she had been one of the lucky ones.
please don't take my sunshine away
