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Garnet paused part way along the street just to try and clear her thoughts. Despite being in Torensten for a few days now, and having (she thought) acquitted herself quite well for a Queen who had arrived with nothing but the considerably valuable clothes on her back, she realised that she had been so caught up in the smaller things that she still had no answers as to what had actually happened.

She wasn't alone. That was good. The bad news was that Kuja was there. Kuja claimed no responsibility for what had happened, and Garnet was inclined to believe him, simply because she couldn't imagine a world where Kuja wouldn't choose to gloat over once again ruining Garnet's life if he had been responsible. Amarant was there too, and swore that he knew where Zidane was, so Garnet was very hopeful that she might find him soon, but she didn't entirely trust Amarant, and she suspected that he didn't like her very much. He seemed somebody who only cared about strength and violence, and those were two things Garnet was not particularly good at.

Strangely enough, she found herself missing Steiner a lot. Maybe it was because his own sense of panic and distress at such situations made her feel calmer by comparison, or maybe it was because despite his over-protectiveness, there was nobody else in the world who knew her as well as her knight. Steiner had served in the Alexandrian military since the day Garnet was born adopted after being found (sometimes, it still seemed strange in her head to remind herself that she wasn't the real Garnet Til Alexandros, because... she was... that was who she was, at her very core, but she had to remember, she had six years of life before that, even if they were only hazy, vague memories now).

She was broken from her concentration when she almost bumped into a child. She was about to apologise for being lost in her thoughts when she looked down, directly into the eyes of Eiko Carol.

"E-eiko!?" she asked, in sudden shock, before letting out a delighted laugh. "Eiko! It is you!" she beamed. She immediately reached down, and gave the girl a quick, dainty hug. Hugs weren't particularly queenly gestures, and it was one of the things that Garnet had found herself having to allow herself to express since her journeys. Lord knew she'd thrown herself into Zidane's arms enough times, but usually without thinking about it. She had to try to do it a little more consciously, and it was perhaps still a slightly odd and stiff gesture, but Eiko was adopted by Cid and Hilda now, and, well, she did call Cid her uncle, so that made Eiko family, didn't it? If it didn't, being the last two summoners alive surely did! It seemed appropriate.

"Are you okay? How long have you been here?" she fretted. The questions were probably silly. Eiko, despite more than half Garnet's age, was considerably more capable at surviving alone than Garnet ever was. If Garnet had been abandoned, even at this age, in Eiko's situation, having to cook and fish and look after moogles and clean, she'd probably be dead within a week. The young summoner was far more capable than her mere age let on. "I am so glad that I have found you! I have found Amarant, but, well, he is... Amarant," she confessed, smiling slightly. "Come, let us find an establishment wherein we can-" she paused, and then gave Eiko a small smile. "I mean, uh, cmon, let's find somewhere to grab a bite to eat," she corrected, slipping back into her 'Dagger' personae, and feeling rather proud of herself for the use of slang...