"Well you can always ask questions of me," Zed replied, staring at Cara like this was something she should have known the whole time, he chuckled a little afterwards though, "Although I understand that it seems hard to ask questions around Aunt Ix." He added, rubbing his head a little as he walked, "But anyway, Aunt Ix? Definitely not from here.. Me and Shina though.. We were born just next to the border of Vale to the north. Our father was a merchant by trade, our mother.. Hm.. We didn't know her actually.. Father took us on one of his trading trips south into Austaros, but when we stopped for camp, Shina lead me away into the forest to play. We came back later and.." He stopped in place, lowered his hands to his pockets and stared away from them,
"I was two, Shina was five.. We didn't really have anywhere left to go, we wandered along the road, but we were too scared to go near people, in case they were bandits. Well, until Aunt Ix found us. She said we looked like a pair of pathetic mongrels. We were pretty dirty and hungry by then. Next thing we knew, we were on the Iskander." He thumbed to the ship in the cave, parts of it glowed in gentle colors, lighting the cavern along with the morning sunlight in an aurora of many hues both light and dark,
"She did treat us rough at first, but she also didn't talk to us much. She gave us food, made sure we were clean and dressed, she'd yell at us if we made mistakes, though if we did things right, she treated us too. After a while there was more yelling, but.. I don't know.. I look back on it now that I'm older and I hear what she's saying a little differently. Plus I think if she's yelling at you, or generally being loud and expressive, it means she cares, or feels comfortable around you. She usually just ignores you because you aren't worth her time otherwise. But then again, if she's paying full attention and doesn't say a word.. Then you're really in trouble.." A nervous look crossed his face, he'd had prior experience with that too.

He turned a moment and stared at the ship in the cave with a smile on his face, in spite of his condition, beaten and bruised up, he was still smiling widely,
"As for Hecate. I dont really.. Remember what it's like having a dad, but I kinda think he's what it's like. He isn't actually a person. He's.. Er.. How to explain.. He's a living thing made of metal but with no actual.. Life force? It's about the most accurate way I can describe it. But he's nice and when Aunt Ix is busy, he's always looking after us or training us in her place. But yeah, whatever he is, he is someone, not just something." He rubbed the top of his head a little, a slightly pained look on his face, "It kinda hurts when he does hit us though.. We were brats sometimes so he'd give us a good knock on the head.. Hands made of metal really hurt."

Zed climbed the last few steps out of the cave, it only took a few more to get to the edge and star out across the kingdom of Austaros. He pocketed his hands once more and looked out across the various settlements. They could even see Shilf, or rather a large scar and smoke where Shilf had once been. The areas further in were misted over already, just as predicted, the area around Thirsten was especially foggy, but so high up were they that it were possible to look down on the weather phenomena and observe it all,
"I bet the King himself doesn't have a view of the kingdom this good."