Pherria slowly opens her eyes and begins to raise in the bed to stretch herself awake at the sound of Khemed's voice when she realizes her head feels a bit lighter. Frantically she looks around and finds the helmet on the mattress next to her pillow where Khemed had placed it. She carefully places it in her lap as she sits up in the bed moving her legs over the edge. Looking down at the helmet with a saddened look on her face she answers him. "Yes, like I said earlier, the others can't understand because they don't know how it feels to be so alone and so afraid every day." A slight glimmer of light reflects from the bottom of her eye as a tear begins to form.

Noticing the tear beginning to form at the corner of Pherria's eye Khemed hands her a waterskin he had hanging on the edge of his chair "Here, even without those tears I'm fairly sure you must be thirsty. It's been a while and you didn't eat or drink much yesterday after we got out of that.... place. You're not going to be any good to anyone if you collapse due to dehydration or malnurishment"   after handing the water to Pherria he begins pacing through the small room while looking at the ground, occasionally glancing in her direction before continuing "This isn't exactly my area of expertise, but I can see you're not in a good place right now. I do know what it's like to think you've finally found a place you belong, someone you look up to as a mentor, a guide, maybe a father even, only to have that all ripped away. I've come to realise over the years that it's not something I, or in this case you, did. Krieg did this to you, he never saw you as anything but a tool, something, not even someone, to use and discard as he saw fit. I still don't fully understand exactly what he wanted out of you but that's irrelevant anyway. He betrayed you and I suppose by extension, Torm. If anything I think this should make you furious."

Pherria reluctantly takes the waterskin and begins to slowly drink but a memory of her not having water for days floods her mind and her thirst takes over and she starts to guzzle the water. She catches herself and quickly removes the waterskin and splashes water on her lips. She raises her sleeve to wipe it dry and her cheeks begin to flush in embarrassment. She contemplates Khemed's words, "He saw you as a tool." What he didn't realize is that she thought she was a tool, a tool for good, a device to help everyone out of this mess. But that wasn't the case. A tool? More like a toy to play with and toss away when finished. Mindlessly she grabbed her skirts with her hands and squeezed them into fist. She was angry, but she was angry at herself. She'd let her guard down; she trusted him; worst of all she defended him and couldn't conceive that he would be a part of all this. He had to be an unwilling participant playing a part in order to survive and that she would prove his innocence because how could the man that saved her, that introduced her to Torm and safety be so evil? But Torm was clear in his visions of the past. Kreeg was evil to the core and was a happy participant in this scheme, but it felt like it went deeper. But every time she tried to think about what she saw in that vision, she remembered the day they met. He took mercy on her. He smiled so sweetly. He encouraged her. He protected her. But he was nothing more than a wolf in sheep's clothing, a viper waiting to strike and she was his toy. And now he had no use of her, he discarded her like everyone else had done before. She tried to stop the tears, she tried to be strong, but the scared child she was on that day wouldn't let her have control.   Still looking down at the helmet and her distorted reflection in it, she addressed Khemed.   Softly she said, "I was never his tool. I was nothing more than a toy to him." She took a ragged breath and continued, "A toy he no longer needed so he tossed aside." Hearing these words out loud made her clench her fist tighter causing the blood to leave her knuckles.

stopping his pacing at the foot of the bed Khemed turns to face Pherria and looks at her   "a tool, a toy, same basic principle really. The end result is the same. He used you or played with you. He played everyone for a fool. Your god saw fit to show you this so that your eyes may be opened. No idea why he decided to waited until NOW instead of doing something before everything went to shit, but that's gods I guess. The real question is, what are you going to do now? staying in here is basically giving Krieg what he wants. No one else seems to be doing anything to resolve the problem and I've seen what you do. you're smart and you balance out our little group. You wanna make the bastard pay? let's see what we can do to get the city out of this hellhole and back to where it belongs. Maybe we can even arrange a meeting between Krieg and Torm?"

She loosens the grip on her skirts and places her hands on the helmet once more. She gently caresses it and runs her fingers over the stone once more. She then wipes the tears from her eyes with her sleeve feeling the dampness against her arm. Trying to gain her composure she speaks. "When this happened to you, what did you do?"   She met his eyes with her own and awaited his response.

utterly failing to surpress a laugh Khemed lets out a short bark "I moved to Elturel. Turns out it's pretty hard to go against the shadow thieves guild, especially when they somehow manage to get the cowled wizards involved too. I'd tell you to do the same thing, but uh, I don't think that's really an option while we're stuck in Avernus, unless you happen to know of a one way portal back to the material plane?"

At hearing that Khemed's laughter she smiles a bit. So that's why he's so distrusting and got a chip on his shoulder. I see it's still a fresh wound. She picks up the helmet and places her forehead against the helmet so that the gem is touching right between her closed eyes. She whispers softly, "Are you still with me?"   She places the helmet on her lap again and takes a deep breath before addressing him once more. "There is so much to unpack. We have the crystals, the portal, Gideon's notes. Then there's the demons and their role in this. The conspiracy is so deep." Holding the helmet between her hands, she stands and begins to pace the short distance of the room trying to recall everything the visions had shown them.   "What was that Trumpet we heard? Where did the light come from? So many questions?" She stops and turns to look at Khemed. She examens him noticing the dark circles under his gaunt eyes. "Did you sleep?"