She released pressure from the stick after it cracked. The young feline knew better than to announce her presence when she didn't want it to be announced, especially with felines that were more prone to bite than bark. It was a very purposeful decision, then, to alert the older feline of the snowy feline's appearance. She had crossed paths with Vera on her way to the Garden, and had decided that it was best to check in on the feline. After all, some time had passed since she last spoke to her aunt. Xithymia thought this almost negligent of her; what good doctor ignores her patient? It was this thought that had prompted her to watch Vera at all, and, after witnessing the strange interaction between prey and predator, she had observed in silence long enough.

"How are you fairing?" asked a small she-cat, one who's personality had grown even more resolute and detached with age. She had aged quickly, both of nurture and nature. Nature marked her from birth as a force to be reckoned with, a creature made for one position and one position only. Nature ran it's fingers across her pelt and expressed that she would be quick to learn and that soon her pale blue eyes would hold entire universes in them. Nurture made these lessons, these backbones of activity, and it gave them a backbone, a solid base. Nurture had provided a necessity in which the young cat would have to grow, a necessity that was unlike the necessity of any mage before her. She had only been four or five moons old when the plague first hit, and nurture provided that she had to play just as much of an active roll in it as her mother. Nature and nurture, prophecy and neccesity, they had come together to craft her, to paint each one of her markings by hand.

There was a part of Xithymia-kun that expected that her aunt would not take this question very well. After all, there was an implication to it. It was an acknowledgement that there was a reason in which Vera E'tani should not be doing well. Yet, the way she asked the question did not make this a pointed fact. She didn't ask it with even a hint of concern in her eyes, didn't for a second reveal any doubt in the Nemesis' answer. It was almost as if she asked it simply because she had to, because it was part of her job. Of course, this was only half true. Although it was her job, yes, to make sure the Nemesis was reacting well post-recovery, there was more reason than that that prompted Xithymia's almost bored-sounding question. She had just witnessed her aunt do something truly strange. Xithymia had been observing her for a moment in silence before she snapped the twig, and she found the actions of the bengal cat to be odd at best. Why had she reacted so strongly to her kill? Vera E'tani's reaction was just as curious to Xithymia as the mouse was to Vera E'tani.

The mage passed the young cat a cool glance, one that contained in it no emotion in her pale blue eyes. They narrowed slightly, the radiant blues dimmed by the backs of her eyelids. Although she had no place to judge, was she not a kitten trampling around the Garden on her own not very long ago?, there was a discomfort she had with the kitten speaking to her aunt like that. It had been two moons since this creature had arrived to Primal Instinct, meaning that her birth order provided that she was little more than a rogue in her eyes. Thus, she had no business speaking so blunty, looking so bluntly, to a feline who had graciously allowed her to stay in the League. She also interrupted what would have been a "grown up" conversation, one between members of the government.

"It appears we have more company that I thought," mused the snow bengal as she glanced between the two felines. "Perhaps it is a bad time for my inquiry." This was said with a momentary hiss of irritation, one clearly not directed towards her aunt, but rather the creature that made her presence known after Xithymia-kun had started to talk. Her tail flicked, showing this passive irritation, before all signs of it left her body language. She had a way of doing that, eliminating all facets of emotion from all parts of her body. It was an uneasy trick to watch, to witness a cat go from fully animated to completely devoid of all emotion.

"I do have to say, though, I was wondering a similar thing. Although I was not paying attention to olfactory differences with the prey, I noticed your recoil from it." Xithymia-kun did not let her relief that someone else may have experienced a similar problem show, however she felt its tendrils streak across her body. Of course, Mink-chan could have been lying to gain approval. This was always a possibility, but it seemed doubtful due to the look Mink-chan had in her eyes when she first approached the bengal duo. This meant that perhaps, this wasn't just another hallucination, which Xithymia had almost been suspicious of. After all, cebris pesti was a new plague; what if the symptoms of it had traveled with her across lives?

Xithymia knew that she could easily answer her own question about whether the Nemesis was experiencing a true reality, however she made no move to smell the creature herself. Now that there was a crowd, it would be difficult for her to completely determine what was the odor and what was smelly youngling, especially due to the seasonal allergies that even though she was becoming more accostumed to, she was not fully yet able to overcome. It would be better, she mused, to allow Vera to explain it herself. After that, if the necessity presented itself, she could always take the piece of prey back to her lab; after all, if the smell was horrendous enough coming from just a faint pinprick of blood, it was obvious to at least the Mage that it should not be consumed. That meant that the examination of it would then befall the medical team. This excited the feline slightly. Although she wasn't a fan of odors, she thoroughly enjoyed getting her paws deep into a dissection.