Russ smiled. Finnian was strange, but he was... well, there was something that seemed to genuine and kind, but subdued too. Russel couldn't quite work him out. He was still determined to find out what had gone on by the lake, what had gone on with Aonbharr. Despite that, he didn't trust himself to bring up the boy's guardian and question Finnian about him. Of course, he could be jumping to conclusions, Russell had been a bit out of it last time he'd seen Aonbharr, what if he was misremembering? "How long have you been living here?" Russell asked, hoping it was an innocuous question. "It's a nice spot, I'm surprised you don't get more visitors." Then again... had Russell ever seen anyone down here? He'd walked by the lake a few times, and he'd always been surprised by how quiet it was.
The boy's eyes lit up briefly with concern, but whatever had been up with Finnian seemed to be no more than a cold shiver. "Lapin, yes. I used to suffer from very bad fits as a child. By the time I turned twelve I had to be removed from school. For awhile it really didn't look good." He fidgeted a little as he spoke, Russ was used to repeating this story, but tended to shy away from explaining how ill he'd actually been. It didn't seem real, somehow, all of these years on. "Lapin was a very old friend of my parents, they'd lost contact so didn't realize he'd become a specialist in cases like mine. His treatment saved me, I haven't had a fit since. Recently Lapin changed my prescription, but I had an adverse reaction to it, that was what you saw by the lake." Russ regretted having to lie outright, but it wasn't as if he could confess the truth. Lapin was not an old friend of his parents, Russ, too young to be that ill had summoned Lapin and made a deal. Lapin was a creature of the mind, of thought, he'd been the perfect fit for Russ's problem, and by effectively signing over his magical talent to Lapin, the creature had been able to create itself a physical form, if one that was entirely dependent on Russel's continued existence.