Cliff was personally glad that whatever annoyance Rounder felt for him--which he understood was due to prior mistreatment--didn't extend to all and sundry. He was confident he could change his familiar's mind about him with time and care. Both which he had an abundance of.

"Neither have I! Then again, at home, my golems were made from earth when I constructed them...and pretty much dumber than the ones here. I didn't do it that often, only when I needed something, though." Like a pack mule. He nodded to Atem's thought that it was different. Things were, here.

"In some ways it does, and in some ways, I'm not homesick at all. Take out the magic, and it's a lot like where I'm from, really. Our magic was different. I was a geomancer, at home, which meant I could control the earth. And do a lot of things with it, really. Find gems, make golems, meld with it...really too much to mention. I'd just graduated from school there, too. So I'm kind of amused that here I am again." Cliff shrugged, then. "What about you? Was your home very different than here?"