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She had just finished what he had had in his canteen when he arrived with a bottle, just for her, smiling warmly at the offered drink, "Thanks... as for another, I'm sure we'll be fine. I appreciate the offer in general. Looking back, it was wrong of me to have stolen this..." She passed him back his canteen, in spite of it being empty. "Sorry though... I did finish it..." She flushed just a little from a combination of embarrassment and light tipsiness.

She watched him expertly open his bottle with his tail, rather impressed. Shem on the other hand, sank a single fang into her own cork, leaning forward to hook the cork just a little and tugged it out, pulling it off the fang and tossing it. She had no intention of leaving this bottle with any contents tonight. Once it was open, she looked over to Zeren and held out her bottle, "To our fallen brothers and sisters in arms... may they rest always in the arms of their gods..." She said in respectful toast.

She took a swig of her own and sighed softly after, letting the bottle rest on her lap gently as her gazed drifted down, "Am I okay...? What a silly question to ask..." Her eyes drifted to the liquid in the bottle and she swirled it a couple times, watching it swirl and taking another swig of her drink. After, the bottle resumed it's place in her lap. "Twenty-nine perfectly innocent people just died and I find only myself and my lack of preparation to blame." Sighs softly, rolling the bottle over her scales now as she watches it, eyes unable to leave the glass object containing her numbing agent of choice. "Things could have been different... if I were a real General." She then looked over to him nervously, "Do... do you blame me for today? Like... like the others...?" Her voice was a tad shaky, like she might be on the edge of a breakdown.

She listened as he spoke, taking another long swig from her bottle and swallowing hard, but nodding in understanding at what he had said. It made sense, but... she still felt terrible about it, sighing softly. "You... you have a point I suppose... but still... I just can't help but feel like there was something I could have done better. Feel like I should have done better somehow... ya know?" She thought some more about her fight with the alpha and looked back to him again. "You probably could have handled him with that contraption you know... I saw those wolf bits after the fighting... last I knew there wasn't anybody here with explosives training... though... I could be wrong." She paused and took yet another swig. "Something like that... the alpha wouldn't have stood a chance against I do believe..."

She pondered a bit about his story, "That story of yours though... sounds... terrible... I'm... sorry you had to go through that. That they had to go through that... Monsters..." She sighs heavily before continuing, "That's why I always volunteer for the front-line defense... to avenge those whom have fallen for no good reason than to satisfy the Wilds." A low growl began in her throat, but she quelled it quickly with another swig of wine, almost half her bottle gone already.

"I don't get to see that much of the world honestly... I've not left the queendom before actually, always keeping within the borders and keeping things safe here at home... not that we don't have some beautiful places of note, of course..." She smiled softly and looked back down to her bottle, swirling the liquid within again. "Black powder... I've heard of that before... it's like... magic powder, yea? Raw magic essence of some sort? Of the fire variety from what I can gather." She knew very little of the subject and felt awkward talking about it, but was genuinely curious. "How does one procure such a thing? I've not seen it crafted..." She looked to him with one eye, "Do you need like... a magician or something?" She asked, hoping she didn't sound too ignorant for asking someone who obviously knew a thing or two about the subject.

This was all news to Valeria. She watched with in interested gaze as he spoke and waited until he had finished with a bit of a smile on her face, "That's... fascinating! I didn't know any of that! I always thought it was some strange magic powder concocted by mages. Something so simple as ground stones and chemicals though? Impressive. Does this mean you need to be a chemist then to concoct such a source?" She was fawning just a little, but at least it was taking her mind off the tragedy of the day. She didn't care if he went on and on about the subject, she would still be fascinated by this subject. May have even been encouraging it.

She nodded along once more as she listened. It was good learning these details she couldn't seem to pick up elsewhere. They had nobody capable of physical explosive work at the castle. A court magician or two could, perhaps, throw explosive spells. However, something of this nature was, to her, unfamiliar. Though, she had heard tell of such things in stories and the like, but no solid wisdoms such as this.

Magic though, she knew a bit about that... could even perform incantations with scrolls, but nothing of raw casting power. Something she lamented a bit about herself. This caused a slight dwindle in her spirits, but she smiled through nonetheless. "Is there anything of value that yours studies on such things have allowed you to glean about magic use? I, personally, do not appear to hold the gift, but I can use scrolls with the best of them. It's... a very exciting prospect actually... such raw power... it's... energizing!" She said to him, a bit of excitement noticable in her voice.

She chuckled right along with him. She had seen this person and cared to agree. Of course, much of their motley band were rather tough-looking these days. All the weaker or lesser beings had fallen easily to the wolf attack. Felicity was the exception to all of this, the only frail-looking member among them. Valeria glanced her over by a campfire, dramatically moving about as if she was telling a rather exciting story, a few members of their number watching with rapt attention. Good to see the troops were easing up a bit. Though it made her feel a bit of a pang that she couldn't cheer so easily. She pondered that a moment before turning back to her conversation with the incubus. "Well, I would love to see some of your books when we've a bit more free time. If it's not too much trouble of course." She paused a moment, she had not been this casual with fellow soldiers-in-arms, much less someone of a more civilian title. She was something of an anti-social lamia. This line of thought told her she was thinking far too much and needed to numb that sensation, taking a much longer swig this time and sighing it off, bottle resting upon her coils once more.

She thought for a moment before looking back to him once again, "What about this coach? This thing like your home? Did you make it? And... is there an actual place you call home?" She had lots of questions for him, hoping he would not mind. The more she spoke with him, the easier she found it to forget the horrors of the last few hours.

While she was intrigued about the Timonium parts; where he had found this vein and more into it's properties, only vaguely familiar with the rare and valuable substance, the change in his tone and demeanor at the mention of his home caught her offguard. She scooted a bit closer to him now, looking at him almost a bit concerned to match his demeanor. "I... seem to have touched on a sensitive subject. Is... everything okay...?" She asked him curiously. "You... don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. We can change subjects or something if it's hard." She gave him a concerned expression and awaited his response.