"Where...where I'm from...?"
Mei practically lit up at his question, eyes widening. He...he had asked...oh gosh! He asked to learn about where she was from! A topic she knew all about! A topic he was lacking knowledge in! A topic she could impress him with!
YES.
Straightening up and setting down her finished Mei 'n' Shea Special, she cleared her throat imperiously, fist in front of her mouth. This was going to be long, but luckily he had a whole bottle of wine there to keep her from growing parched. Good thinking, Shea!
"It's a long and tragic history," she began, shaking her head. "Thanatos, that is. Which is where I'm from, but that's not really where we're from. We're from what your people call the 'mainland'--a very egotistical thing to call something, really, as though it is the center of the world! Which it's not; there's no real center because as the Essyrni have pointed out, our land is a sphere, though we have yet to explore the entirety of it! Probably just a small fraction, actually. Maybe like 20%, some theorize. But that's beside the point!"
She took a another gulp of wine and swirled it as she spoke, needing to do something to occupy her hands, because she was practically vibrating with excitement. It was so rare that anyone asked her about these things! Most people thought it was dull for some reason! She never got to use this knowledge for much of anything!
Now she could unleash it all.
"We came from far, far away, somewhere on your--" She did one-handed finger quotes. "--'mainland', but far beyond it! Up past Serendipity and Connlaoth and all of that, a place that is long lost to history! We kept oral records back then, and when we made our home down in what's now Connlaoth, the people hated us and chased us out. So did Serendipity's people. We were fractured, and much was lost. They thought we were necromancers!" she scoffed, wrinkling her nose. "Just because some of us can speak to the dead! And sure, there were some necromancers. There's always bad eggs in any group, and unfortunately I get it, there's a societal trend of focusing on the loud, bad ones and forgetting about all the perfectly normal, quiet, average ones just going about their lives. But I'll point out necromancy isn't specific to any one population and there have been plenty of cases of it even today in places like Serendipity! They even have a whole organization dedicated to hunting creatures of the night! And yet they blame us!"
Another deep swig, draining the glass. She set it down and reached for the wine, flashing Shea an inquisitive look. A quick, "May I?" was her only warning before she topped off his glass and poured more for herself. It was only polite.
"They called us awful slurs and killed us and hurt us and excluded us, and we weren't safe anywhere. We couldn't integrate into society because, well--" She motioned at herself, forgetting the wine glass she held and sloshing a little onto her hand. She didn't seem to notice, except to take another sip. "Hard to blend in when your hair and skin and language gives you away. So eventually, my ancestors I suppose went--ahem, pardon my language--'sod the lot of you,' and took off. They took to the sea."
Oh, that wine was good, and Mei was starting to feel warm. Maybe that was just her blood pumping through her; this topic always got her worked up. "I don't know what their plan was if they didn't find land. That wasn't written down. But I suppose if you're so desperate and tired of being murdered, possible death by dehydration or drowning or sharks--though shark attacks aren't actually that common--doesn't sound half so bad. Especially if there's a chance you might actually get lucky and, you know, not die! And if there's one thing my people also have, it's a predisposition for luck. Well, some do. There's entropymancy, which can influence that. So perhaps the leader was just particularly lucky and figured, why not? Anyway, our first Maharani was the brave leader of said expedition, and her name was Yindira, and she was beautiful and brave and--" She stopped to fan herself, letting out a sigh, and chased it with more wine.
"Sorry, she just gives me the tingles." She cleared her throat and sat back, smiling, her cheeks a little flushed. "I want to be like her. Discover a new land. That would be so amazing. Anyway, she and her people arrived onto what is now known as Thanatos, which is a frightening name that means 'death' to the people of Connlaoth and Serendipity. But Yindira was smartandbeautifulandamazing and she came up with the idea of naming it something awful to keep other people away. Because she had found paradise, a new fruitful home, and it was unclaimed by man and thus all ours. But she knew others might try to take it away if it had a pretty name, so...let them think we had exiled ourselves to some barren wasteland! It worked for a while. And it stuck."
Mei paused then, raising her eyebrows at Shea. "You're getting all this, right? Tell me if I'm going too fast and feel free to take notes. There'll be a quiz at the midway point, and a test at the end. Just to make sure there's no gaps in your knowledge. Anyway...where was I...?"
She tapped her lips and cocked her head. Mm. Maybe that was the wine, after all. Her head felt a little fuzzy. Too much, too fast, it seemed. No matter! She just had to push along, as was her duty as an educator and scholar!
"Ah, yes. The formation of our great country, Thanatos! Well, as I said, it all began with Yindira, and..."
It was going to be a long night.