Elohim was the first to notice the woman, but Esther was the first to react. Still a child, she could not help but recoil at the sight of the stranger; she straightened, but leaned into her father. She watched Lamia closely though, with wide and hungry eyes. Elohim, however, hadn't reacted immediately. Instead, he had simply watched her closely, quietly assessing her as she prowled forward. There was something familiar about her. Her eyes, he thought, reminded him of Natiya's, and by extension, those of her kin. Still, they were warmer somehow, or perhaps they simply appeared less cruel. Either way, Elohim's head tilted as she came closer, and it was only when she paused that he shifted his weight to indicate his readiness to intervene if she so much as glanced as Esther with any kind of malice.
"Do not fear the unknown in the world," he said quietly to Esther, though his eyes did not move off Lamia. Typically, he would have spoken in the Latin of his family, but he figured the familiar-but-not woman would benefit from knowing his perspective on whether she was a threat or not. She was neutral, for now at least.
Esther seemed to perk up at her father's words, as if they gave her permission to be well and truly curious. She peeled herself off of him and steadied herself next to him instead, standing tall as she gave Lamia a look both inquisitive and cautious as she spoke.
"Like prey?" Esther asked, frowning. Lamia's words had reminded Esther of what she had been taught about prey and hunting: it was instinctual, something that both prey and predator had to experience because they existed. With that in mind, the answer bothered her. Elohim had always been firm in disarming any talk of fate, adamant that all individuals could make their own choices and were not bound by some intangible tether, but now this woman had come to argue against that. At least, that was how Esther saw it.
Elohim, though, couldn't help but smirk. "Ah, spoken like one who knows," Elohim replied coolly. "Are you one who catches her eye, or her eyes themselves?" His head tilted to the opposite side. He was unwilling to take his eyes off the woman, trying to pinpoint why she was familiar. Had he seen her in Glorall before? The colours were wrong, but the markings were familiar. Like Matianak, which was a thought that made his brows furrow. He made the revelation obvious enough, but he did not speak it aloud. That, he thought, might make Esther nervous, and they did not yet know just who the woman was, or what she wanted.
"Who are you? Familia? Aut non?" Esther had grown bold. She had stepped to the edge of the boulder, ahead of Elohim, and addressed the woman confidently despite the thrumming of her heart in her chest. Elohim held himself back, not flinching, though he wanted to grab the child by the scruff and place her back where she should have been. With Lamia though, Elohim decided to choose a neutral path, one of feigned confidence in her. Until he knew for certain, he would treat her as a potential ally, or a potential nobody. If he acted rashly, and she was neither of those things...Well, Elohim was ready but he did not wish to be.