"She doesn't always go around as a whale, though that's what she normally is. But- well, when we met, she'd been injured in a harpoon blast,"

The same one that had killed her mentor, she doesn't add. Even with Nerdanel distracted, describing more death is not what the elf deserves to hear.

"And I did one of the bigger healing wizardries I could to heal her. We shared blood - not all of it," she hastily adds, "But it means taking on the shape of each others' species is easier for the both of us."