Feiruza

A) PREHISTORY

B) HOW DOES IT WORK? WHAT CAN MY CHARACTER DO HERE?

c) HOW CAN THE FEIRUZA BE LOCATED?

A) PREHISTORY

Take a ship - an impressive, yet somewhat antique looking three-master.

Add lots of books.

Stir well. Et voila!

The easiest way to describe the Feiruza would be to say it is a swimming bookstore. But...there's just a bit more to it.

After running Feimurgan for around ten years - and after rebuilding it even -, Lucind feels it's about time for a change. Her widely known store has become a home. Yet, in this unstable time where new clashes arise more and more often, where wars are waged on all continents, the Siren yearns for a retreat, a place which allows her to gather her strength after fighting at the front line. There, so she hopes, she will also be able to find some peace, that is, to come to terms with herself after the past events forced the woman to ask herself what her duty in this world really is.

Moreover, it's the heritage of Lucind's human father which is calling to her. Alleck de Bergeuc was an antiquarian, well known for his collection of rare, precious, even magical books. In addition, Alleck published a few books himself: twelve travelogues report about the secluded, dangerous or simply breathtakingly beautiful places from all over Gaia. When de Bergeuc died around thirty years ago, he bequeathed all his belongings to his daughter.

Most of her father's special books Lucind kept hidden, though, and only few people ever got access to the secret library section of Feimurgan.

But after returning for a short while - the fight against Victor Fah seems to be over while The Forgotten One still commands his dark shades -, the Siren finds a letter of his father: written while he crossed one of Gaia's oceans.

So, what do you do when you plagued by a longing you can't fully fathom?

You search for a way to still it. (And in the meantime you drink huge amounts of coffe and tea and pester your friends and your love.)

The chance - or do we want to call it a sign? - presents itself when an unexpected guest comes to Latent in search of the Siren: it is Tagis, the female captain who had brought Lucind, Sunstrike, Owle and Vahn safely to Azum and back, around one and a half years ago.

It turns out that Tagis has given up her high position at the military in order to defend her home country against the invasions of undead and shades coming from the West wherever it was needed most. In the course of events it happened that the Feiruza, the ship with which Tagis and her crew patrolled Azum's East Coast, had been destroyed almost completely. Since she had heard that many shipping companies of Gaia were still running and because things had calmed down in the East, Tagis had decided to come there - also to visit Lucind.

During a night full of good food, wine and long talks, the Siren gets to know that the other woman hasn't arrived at Gaia's coast alone: Prishazan, a monk of the order of Urdug, is at Latent's port, searching for a new ship - all the while carrying a wooden piece of the old Feiruza with him, and this piece allegedly contains nothing less then the ship's soul (though Lucind strongly believes it to be c**k-and-bull-story to add some spice). This means, as Tagis explains it, that they don't just want to find a new ship. They want to bring back the Feiruza. And finally, after more wine, a spontaneous idea turns into an offer Lucind can't resist...

Five months later, Lucind is ready to start her new store, her new "job" - and actually, a whole new chapter of her live: Participating in Heaven or Hell 2009 ends for her in finding her truth, her true identity by finally accepting all aspects of her Siren nature, even the darkest sides.

Thus, she returns stronger, happier - and more dangerous than ever before, looking forward to hunt rare books, help lost souls and...enjoy everyday madness.

The first stock of books contains carefully chosen copies from Feimurgan's secret collection, including her father's travelogues.

B) HOW DOES IT WORK? WHAT CAN MY CHARACTER DO HERE?

Once your character has been granted permission to enter the second-hand bookstore, he/she might...

• ...obtain a book*. But beware: Not all books are for sale. Some are too precious for Lucind to give them away. Other books might be purchased by offering a bribe or a special prize, something just as valuable as the desired book: it could be another book, a bottle of old wine, a magical object or just a piece of useful information. Try your luck!

...exchange books. Like mentioned above, this is one way to get a book your character desires.

...ask for information or do research. You don't necessarily have to buy a book - also because many aren't sellable, like mentioned above. Unless Lucind has a reason to not trust your character's motives (which can, of course, only be based on IC knowledge and intuition), you can browse through all books.

You can, of course, ask for information if you're looking for a special book or any clue (concerning a person/place/beast/etc.) that might be found in old, partly long since forgotten tomes and scripts.

...consult Lucind's help, that is, her Siren powers. Treatment (if possible) of mental distress/disorders, curses, possessions etc.

NOTE: Concerning the books' content

• Not all books deal with magic or contain spells etc. I'd say around 30% of all volumes fall under this category.

The other 70% of the books are diaries, bestiaries, novels, fairytale books, travelogues, non fiction (history, science, herbology etc.), biographies and so on.

Feel free to come up with titles your character stumbles upon. I also happily accept a PM if you'd like to initiate a plot that includes a special book.

But please don't let him or her coincidentally find a book with which you can call the end of the world. All books classified advanced/dangerous are in a special section (s. The Ship). Of course it can happen that Lucind doesn't know she's got a volume which is potentially harmful - but that's something we can, like mentioned above, discuss briefly beforehand^^

C) HOW CAN THE FEIRUZA BE LOCATED?

In the very first post you find the current location of the ship.

This will be either a town/harbor - or the open sea.

In the case of the latter there'll soon be a way to call the Feiruza. I'm going to introduce something like charms, holding a tiny splinter of the ship, which has been turned into a magical transmitter. Thus, those people who own such a charm - and I don't intend to give away too many of them -, can contact the ship (that is, Prishazan) and make it appear in a natural water source....which should ideally be a sea, ocean, lake or broad river.

• ((The Feiruza bookstore also holds many scrolls and scripts, but for the sake of making it easy and plain, I'm just talking about books.))

::LUCIND VARHETEL::

Siren

Female

About 90 years old

5'4"

Born in Gaia (Westcoast, Magpie Valley)

Task/position: Bookseller/book dealer, healer/therapist, taking care of one half of the crew's earnings

((Detailed profile))

::TAGIS::

Human

Female

31 years old

5'11"

Born in Azum

Hair: Deep black, not longer than 2inches, a bunch of dreads in her neck

Eyes: Grayish blue

Complexion: Fair, Caucasian appearance despite her birthplace

Build: Slender, less female curves than Lu, toned muscles

Task/position: Captain, looking after the crew/ship, 'normal' navigating, making money with trading

Else: Extreme agile and lively woman, whirlwind incarnated, hardly ever in a real bad mood - but if she gets angry with you, run for your life if you want to keep it

::PRISHAZAN::

Human

Male

Age unknown (looks like in his early forties)

6'3"

Born in Meshkat

Hair: Always shaved head

Eyes: Darkest brown

Complexion: Tanned, Egyptian appearance

Build: Broad, impressive, well-muscled

Special: A skillful net of Far Eastern patterns is tattooed all over his body, except from his face [[x]](http://www.up-tourism.com/destination/varanasi/carpet6.jpg)[[x]](http://www2.worthingtonlibraries.org/teen/blog/Image/8827-henna-patterns.jpg) (less floral, though)[[x]](http://www.instablogsimages.com/images/2008/08/05/hennaBNi7F7548.jpg)

Task/position: Navigating (especially when the weather's rough), protecting the ship (and the crew) with his symbiotic magic

Else: Prishazan never goes ashore; he belongs to the Brothers of Urdug, a monk order living in symbiosis with the so called "Vikra", an ancient class of sylphs; extremely quiet, not grumpy though, just speaks when he finds it necessary

[reserved]

Earlier that day

Most of the crates were empty - and those that weren't were emptied into boxes, unless the oceanic, that is fishy content wasn't edible anymore: then, all the fishes and seafood wandered into containers and from there ended in some process of annihilation.

Stands were taken down and all Lucind could hear from her point on deck were the rough voices of the merchants.

The Siren had bought devilfish and scampi which Prishazan would serve for lunch in a couple of hours. She had offered to cook herself but the monk had insisted he do it - he was in a particulary outgoing mood on that day. Lu even thought he showed the tiniest smile when she peeked in to see if her last order (snuggly bedclothes) had arrived.

Therefore, she was now climbing up to the crow's nest, where she would enjoy the soft motion of the main mast swaying from one side to the other. Once up there, it seemed she was observing the ships in the distant and those entering Latent's port, when in fact she listened to the news the two winds brought her: the physical one that touched her face and his spiritual brother which rode the waves of the lhor aven.

Three days ago, she had shattered every single piece made of glass within Maximos' suite in her wake, in her self-exoneration. Her soul still felt a bit raw from the intense strain, and Lu knew it would still tremble from time to time in the face of things her armor of twisted morality would've denied or repelled. But...she was free. She felt strong. The darkness in her no longer ridiculed her for desperately putting it in place. She loved and was loved. Unconditionally.

A life like she lead would never be easy. But it was good; a new chapter had just started.

Losing herself in this feeling, Lucind started singing, strong and proud. (She stopped, though, when she noticed that after a few minutes, a couple of the ships obviously had problems holding their heading. She chuckled and decided to be more careful in this area - otherwise they would've problems with anchoring in Port Latent.)

When Tagis arrived she left her place to greet her friend and business partner. And just like Prishazan, the short haired woman gave her the same look, the same serene smile until, when they sat together in Tagis' rooms over jasmine tea, she said:

"I see that now you're really ready to take over your new position on this ship. - I'm glad for you."

Later, Tagis would ask what had happened, but in that moment, she was more than content with the Siren's relaxed self and those peculiar swirls in her amber eyes.

"Yes.

Yes, I'm ready."

*

An hour later, the three of them had lunch while discussing the possible applicants for the remaining places on board.

At some point Lucind's ears wiggled.

"Someone's outside."

Tagis raised a brow. "Do we still have open orders?"

"Not that I know of."

Prishazan remained silent, enjoying the shrimps he had marinated in honey and mango syrup.

It was Lucind who got up to see who was entering the Feiruza.

Outside, she found Trey scanning the deck.

"Can I help you, sir?"

Lucind carefully took the parchment in her hands, examining it from all sides, testing its thickness and composition, as well as the ink, the font and the illustration.

"Where did you find this page? Were you given any hints concerning the possible origin of the book...not it's location, but where its home is? And the gauntlets..." The Siren held the piece of paper against the sun. "I should be able to recontruct the text, but maybe you already know their name or history."

She smiled at Trey politely, passing the page. "If you don't mind I'd like to keep this for a few hours. Afterwards I'll be able to tell you more - though I cannot promise to gather enough information for locating the gauntlets within a single day. This kind of parchment is rare, not made for mass publication. However, I fear it wasn't only used on this continent.

But you say you see these in your dreams - and that I call an omen one mustn't ignore. So I'll help you as best as I can."

The woman gestured towards the bridge.

"If you like I can show you around a bit so you can see your find is in good hands here.

Oh, speaking of which. Where did you hear of the Feiruza? I mean, the ship's been anchoring here for several months to get repaired, but so far we haven't even made it out of this port..."

The Siren assumed it partly had something to do with her being known for a book expert - and her book cafe and library in Latent. Aside from that, Tagis had a huge network no matter which town her and Lucind had visited together so far. Thus the long work on the ship, all those orders and calling upon all sort of services (be it for carpenter's or mage's work) to get the Feiruza ready for crossing large distances unnaturally fast, had probably spread the word of Lucind's new business before it was even officially opened.

((You couldn't know I hadn't yet opened the thread, but no worries there!! Thanks to almost everybody being busy with HoH I just didn't expect someone to post already. But yer very welcome!))

Some called it being fashionably late, others thought that if you arrived at place precisely on time you appeared far too formal. But for Maximos, who walked up eyeing his pocket watch, which clearly read five o'clock, it was another matter all together. Older watches just were not as accurate as these new steel magic affairs, and he had entirely misjudged the midday traffic.

Yet still, he arrived. Max wore a formal knee length dress coat, black, with a black vest beneath it, a white dress shirt, and a dark blue tie, which matched his dark blue hair. All he was missing was his top hat, but the shore was too windy for hats. Everything was of course pressed and clean, and while he walked, he held his pocketwatch in one hand, and two wine bottles in the other. Something about tradition when christening a new ship. Though it seemed a shape that the ship got all the drink, thus a second bottle.

Much to his shame, while inspecting the ticking device he had nearly entirely missed that someone else was also arriving. That was until she said.

"Maximos! How is it goin'?"

Almost startled he looked up, snapping the watch shut and slipping it back in his pocket so that he would properly wave. A smile spread across his face reaching all the way up to his mismatched eyes.

Hello there Miss Tagis!

Tagis, as an individual always surprised, and in a way impressed Max. She seemed so happy, so energetic, and with the way she spoke so very relaxed. But he knew better. Even if not for what Lucind had told him, he could see it on her. There was a look about someone, about their soul, about their face, when they've seen death and war. It marks you. Her hands were not the soft hands of an artist, but the worn and tried hands of a soldier. Perhaps she had found a way to be a person, after being a soldier. Perhaps she hid the darkness behind all that energy. Either way, it didnt matter, Maximos still found her ability to do so, so well, impressive. And it never ceased to surprise him.

The two met at the plank, and as could be expected Maximos very formally bowed and waved his free hand toward the length of wood and said.

Ladies first.

And would of course wait for Tagis to step up before coming up after her. That was simply the way it was done.

"Lucind will be here in ten, fifteen minutes. She was held up at a friend's shop."

Not a problem.

He warmly responded, after a deep breath, taking in the salty air. He'd always had a sort of fascination with the sea, but never had the opportunity to actually experience it as a sailor might. Already, the eyepatch in his breast pocket felt like it was stirring, egging him to let it be set free. But, as a true gentleman he resisted.

That gives me a chance to see what you've done with the place.

On deck, Max became a lost and curious child. He was almost immediately wandering off with a look of amazement on his face. He'd been on boats before, but not this big. His hand ran softly over the mast, it brushed against the ropes, he was about to trip over some stairs when Tagis spoke again.

"Could you do me a favor and bring this package to Lu's room? Just place it on her desk. That'd be really kind..."

Max, snapped from his reverie, turned to the woman with a bright smile and said.

Sure!

And immediately reached his hand out to accept the package. It wasnt until she placed it in his right hand that he actually realized something was askew here. A sort of chill shot up his arm, and down his spine. Maximos' eyebrow cocked, as he began to turn away toward Lucind's room. The box, felt like it was trying to eat him, but it was about as dangerous as a kitten gnawing at ones fingertips. It wasnt threatening, but it was interesting. So interesting infact, that it wasnt until Maximos had made several steps toward Lucind's room, that he made a realization, and spun immediately around on his heels. Embarassment flushed his pale cheeks as he spoke.

Excuse me, Miss Tagis? Em...where is, Lucind's room?

And then he was off. The ship was beautiful, every experience was a treat. From the dim candle and lamp lights, to the creak of wood, to the way the entire ship slightly bobbed in the weaker waves. It really gave one the feeling they were at the oceans mercy, at her whim, he could imagine how it would be sort of liberating. Swimming in the knowledge that no matter your worries or concerns or strengths, you are not bigger than the ocean, and it has you. The scent reminded him of home, of a quiet shoreline and a beautiful beach sunset.

There was a smile on the mans face that simply could not be put down. Even when he, according to instructions went upstairs, turned and proudly entered the room, and found himself confused as to why there was no desk. No office. No books. There were clothes, which Maximos, having seen Lucind without simply could not imagine her minding if he touched...But these clothes werent anything he had ever seen her wear. It took Maximos a good solid minute or two before his face turned blood red, and he exited Tagis' room, realizing he should have gone all the way upstairs.

By now, the package in his hand had begun to serious naw on him. There was something inside of it, but not something that was his. The Shadow was equal parts curious child, and gentlemen. Every curious part of him said he was close enough to Lucind to open it, but the gentleman said no. And thus, in his mind, there was conflict, which resulted in Max twirling the package eagerly in his hands as he climbed the stairway.

At the top, he was struck with familiarity in all of its forms. The room looked Lucind's style. It smelled like her, it even felt like her. Lucind...and home...It made him smile all the more. His eyes glanced over the rarer, more valuable books, and then, relaxed in the idea the conflict was over and the delivery was home, Max set the package down beside the recently used mug, sliding aside the crumb adorned plate.

His eyes were already returning to the book shelf with eager curiousity, but, no sooner than Max had placed the package on the table, it spoke.

"Mhh-hmm...!"

And as his eye snapped open wide and stared at it, it moved. And it fought, and it was trying to escape! Had she ordered them a snack? Was this some monster book of monsters? In an instant, the Shadow was at war. His inner conflict was now a full on battle. He had to know. But he couldnt. He wanted to tear it open. But he should probably have just left the room.

His hand, fell idly on the table, as his eyes darted back and forth from the doorway to any portholes, then back to the door. Fingers moved like spider legs to the fidgeting box. A fingernail carefully scratched at the corner of its wrapping...paper tore with a soft sound. Wood creaked and Max suddenly froze.

He looked back at the package, with its single torn edge. He set the two bottles of wine down on her desk, and with both hands pressed the torn edge down. Inside he chided himself for being such a child...

He let out a defeated sigh.

And then without further notice proceeded to, unless otherwise hindered, shred and rip and tear the packaging off of the actual package, in a rain of torn paper sprinkles.

Paper flew like confetti, the stately shadow had all but lost himself in the childish and utterly destructive act of tearing paper from the box. Bit by bit the box was revealed and when the package went mysteriously still Maximos was entirely sure the paper must have been enchanted.

And then suddenly it was still no longer. The violent shaking did not in truth phase him, but the enigmatic package took things a step farther...

"Let me out...c'mon! Lemme out!"

It spoke! Both of his hand suddenly leaped off the box as if it was scalding hot. For a moment everything in his mind said, exactly what it was trained to automatically say in the face of the supernatural. That is impossible. That didnt happen. This isnt happening. But there it was, shaking and rattling and moving all on its own. Box's dont talk. And either way, it was probably best to leave this box alone. Wood croaked and Max leaned back about to step away from the table entirely when the box jumped. Instinct overtook reason, his hands snapped into action and caught the box before it met a grizzly end. Something solid softly rattled inside.

And then, once more: silence.

Now it was in his hands again, as if it had leaped out to keep him from departing. It was still and silent, and in the wake of such silence Maximos all be convinced himself he must be imagining things. Sleep, was not exactly a commodity he had been indulging in recently, this was all in his head. This was just a harmless little old package! He wedged his fingers under the lid and slid whipped it open with a flourish. In a few seconds large tan cloud-puffs of wood wool lay on either side of the box, and Maximos was admiring what appeared to be a very stylized far eastern tea pot....brimming with low-grade hostile magic. And just when he was completely ready to accept that the universe was functioning in proper order, but he was malfunctioning...

"You're not the fastest, Mister, I have to say!"

The indignant voice come from within. Max sort of froze. His hands were splayed out on either side of the box, and he stood blinking. In shock. The creatures words did not sink, not at first, Max was still hung up on the fact that it spoke. And , the thing flapped its wings out all of a sudden, spreading some excess wood wool over the table.

"Or are you scared? Hah! Don't worry! I'm not as fearsome as I might appear to your eyes - I'm even worse - gruaaaah!"

Max might have stood in shock, with the fact that it was speaking, if not for the way it spoke. Its tone. Its choice of words, slowly they sunk in. And all together they grated against him. They were so...so...rude! Max simply could not tolerate rudeness. His annoyance, washed over his surprise and with it brought other realizations. That Maximos himself was a man from another world, capable of moving shadows, he had enchanted a hundred items for sale in his shop to everything from fly, to fight, he had met Death itself....he really shouldnt be so shocked. Instead of surprised, Max found himself experiencing another emotion all together. His arms folded across his chest, the box lid in one hand, gently wrapping against his arm as he spoke.

Possibly. I supposed if my performance was not satisfactory, I can always seal you back up nice and comfortable in that box and move you to a closet somewhere until I can deal with my overwhelming fear, and then perhaps release you in a more timely manner...

Something about this was off, and not just in a magical way. He didnt expect the dragon would answer, instead he simply cocked an eyebrow and let it continue, interjecting only where he thought necessary.

"So, where am I here, huh?

On a boat.

Where's that funny eared lady?

Pardon?

That question was, akin to walking out in the center of Durem Square, and asking where the meta-humans were. Over half the Gaian population had strange ears, and more over Max simply refused to concede to the idea Lucind's ears were strange. He had, from meeting her, always found them cute. Just as he was, from meeting it, finding this dragon quite...unpleasant. Max did not like dragons. Max did not like rude people. Together...

I was given to her as an additional payment - payment, me! Why doesn't she welcome me herself?

I do believe she may have been cheated.

Oh and, how much longer do you want me to stay in this...disgusting thing?"

A vein, like a fat worm was visible throbbing in Maximos' forehead as he coldly bit back.

Until you learn some manners.

Needless to say, Max had no intentions of removing it from the box, though he did remove more of the excess wood wool and place it in a nearby trash bin, so as to keep the talking kitchen accessory from making more of a mess. And inadvertently likely giving it a better view of its surroundings.

"Well, well. I had expected some more comfort. But I guess it could've been even more below my standards."

With a sort of frustrated grunt which rolled effortlessly into a sigh. If the dragon continued to talk, Max didnt respond, he had taken to rubbing his temples. And it went on like this until he heard Lucind's voice calling out for the others outside. The dragon fell silent - and the moment the Siren entered, it didnt move. Max's squinted at the box as if he could see through the lid at sneaky game the pot was playing. But if meant it was quiet, he let it have its fun.

"Hey."

Hello my dear.

Maximos said, as the smiling Siren approached. His voice warm and smooth. Her smile, was met by a bright one of his own.

"Ah, you already discovered my new teapot!"

Before she could continue, the gentleman in Max was already diving into a confession.

Yes, I'm very sorry, Ms. Tagis asked me to bring it up here and then...

And then he realized she wasnt angry, there wasnt a hint of even the slightest offense on her face. His words just sort of trailed off into silence.

"Cute, isn't it?"

Max's smile sort of flattened into a flat line, he was about to state an opinion quite opposite to hers when she wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned in for a firm kiss. Which brought his smile back, and a tad bit of blush. And a soft one that followed right after. Sort of like a signature.

And then she was off to hang up her coat, and his cheeks were flushed red. He watched her slide off her coat, and saw it almost immediately. Blame predatory instincts for allowing on the uncanny ability to spot a weakness. Max caught he wince, then found the bandages, and when her face turned at just the right angle he saw the slight lump on her head.

"You're looking good."

She said, she was examining him, just as he was examining her. As ettiquette demanded Maximos immediately said.

Thank you!

Which was not, in her current condition what he was thinking. What he was actually thinking was closer to what he said after the Siren responded...

"Guess I should change into something nicer, too."

...At which point Maximos brought up both of his hands waving the very idea away as if entirely unthinkable. Maximos did not see her injuries as flaws or negatives. He saw them, in the same way he saw scars. They were marks of honor, of survival, of strength, they were beautiful. He hadnt the words or breath to describe to her the poetry in motion that was her soft wince. She had taken them away both away. Without injuries she was beautiful. With them...

Not at all. You look absolutely astonishing, as always my dear.

And she did truly Lucind had a style all her own, and a real way with clothing. Most of Maximos' outfits were either designed by Walter or were things he had simply been trained in the art of wearing. A jacket, gets a tie, gets a vest, gets so forth and so on. The formality of his anachronistic garb, never struck him as formal at all. Simply, normal. And then, his mind was drawn from fashion to something far more interesting.

"Like some tea? Dinner won't be ready before six."

Indeed! I would love so--ow!

It. Hit. Him! Now Max was no wuss when it came to pain, but a hard possibly porcelain whiplike tail snapping ones bare knuckles...that stung! And he wasnt expecting it at all! With a swipe of his hand his fingers curled around the offending tail, and just under his breath he hissed down to the teapot on single word.

Manners!

But that did nothing to stop it.

"What?! You don't even greet me like I deserve and now you directly want to use me?? That is...that is...imperrrtinent!!"

Lucind whipped around, painfully. Max's mismatched eyes glared down at the two indented black holes the pot called eyes. If looks could kill, it would have shattered.

"..."

She stared. And blinked. And relaxed. And Max, with all the formality of an exterminator holding up a dead rat, Max heft the teapot unceremoniously up by its tail. Whether it chose to flail or speak, or remain pot-like, Max pointed at it awkwardly.

"Excuse me...?"

Lucind, dearest, I think you've received a tad bit more than you bargained for...

"I don't think Mrs Maeson had any idea what she had been using to prepare tea for all those years."

Clueless as to the identity of this Mrs. Maeson, Maximos simply cocked a curious eyebrow. This cocked eye however, quickly became a sharp deadly stare. The sort reserved for creatures at the bad end of a scythe. It, in every way, said to the dragon posing as if ready to bite, Do it. I dare you.

It didnt of course, instead it chose to go on a small tangent about tea parties. The Shadow suddenly found himself recalling a certain ancient text he had discovered at the bottom of a shelf in Barthavos. It spoke of this group of rebels and revolutions throwing a "tea party" for a certain tyranical overtaxing government which involved tossing a ship load of cargo into the sea. Brostin? Braxton? Regardless, as odd as the text struck him, it was exactly the sort of tea part he wanted to throw for this small pot. It spoke, and Max turned his nose up, and away as if was a smelly baby. All the while holding its tail precariously between two fingers.

The Siren was still staring, but a brow was cocked.

"So. What are you?"

Annoying.

Maximos helpfully added.

"What do you mean: What? I always thought it was quite clear that I'm teapot. Tea. Pot. Tss..."

Max's fingers were curling inwards. In a second, his two loose fingers would have been a fist of a grip, and after a flick of his wrist, and a shattering sound, Lu would have heard him explaining how he could enchant her something better. But instead of that, before he could make a fist. Lu exchanged a look with Max. And then she smiled.

It was the sort of smile that completely disarmed a person, before destroying them. It was a deadly smile. A beautiful flower, on an incredibly lethal plant. Max returned a grin. He shut his mouth, and held the teapot tight. It was in for a ride.

"Then tell me who you are...please."

Soft, sweet, silkly. Lace over a pit of spokes.

"I - am...I aaaaam..."

Max chuckled innocently, covering his mouth with his free hand. The little teapots flacid form, and child-like tone were hilarious. Hilarious in that showed, the creature was, so very foolishly mislead. The consequences if it said something like...

"I do not think that my name is of any interest for you."

...Would be hilarious.

Lucind seized it. In a few beautifully phrased, and viciously stated words she set the upstart kitchen accessory in its place. If Max was capable of something like a swoon, and if mayhaps it was not just a teapot, he would have swooned. She was gorgeous. The dragon was speechless, and Max was laughing, rather mockingly in its direction. A sort of, You got owned, laugh.

"Savvy?"

The teapot stared. Unblinking. Max snickered.

And: It blushed. Max could almost feel the hostility melt into something else. Something more spongey and pathetic. He nearly face palmed. He expected it to show another side after being set straight, and it did. Though that was short lived. He listened with folded arms as it attempted to flex its surviving drops of independence, but finally conceded.

"Well, well. My name, by the way, is Fletcher. Oswald Fletcher."

That...

Maximos again, very helpfully noted to no one and everyone.

...Is not a very good dragon name at all. It should be longer.

"I'm Lucind Varhetel. And this here is Maximos Dark. He practically belongs to the crew. For that and many other reasons I expect you to treat him with the highest respect, too, Mr Fletcher."

Instead of waving, or offering a greeting Max cocked an eyebrow at it. Him? Crew? He liked that idea. He liked it alot. It made a certain measure of pride well up in his chest. Once more, she leaned in close - the dragon blushed all over again. He shook his head. Lucind liked tea...but not that much.

"Max, any wishes for the tea?"

Yes, indeed!

The creature tried its very best to blow a raspberry, but it lacked a tongue, making the performance all audio. Max, in true Maximos form, countered by sticking his tongue out between his lips and returning the gesture exactly.

"Stop this instantly or you'll have to deal with this."

Max jumped, unsure which of them she was speaking to, until he saw the industrial sized teabag. He grinned. She was cruel. So cruel. He loved it.

Half a minute later, Lucind poured boiling water into a teapot which h ad become entirely still. Mismatched eyes immediately rose to the wooden door, as Lucind called the visitor in. Prishazan. The tall, muscular monk. His tattoes always made Max double take. The Shadow had met some very aesthetic individuals in his life. He even had a few aesthetic qualities himself, but he had to deeply admire anyone who could make the greater sacrifices like, Prishazan. Not only had he marked his body, but Max had never seen him step foot on land. And he barely heard him speak. The monk greeted him with a gesture, and Maximos immediately returned the same gesture and subsequent nod.

He passed Lucind the vial, and announced its contents.

"Thank you very much!" She smiled at him broadly. And so Max smiled up at him broadly, although as of yet unaware of the significance of the clean water. That was until Lu said...

"This lump really gets on my nerves, because a keep on forgetting it's there...which means a lot of ouch when I brush my hair or lie down. - I'll use it right now."

Prishazan nodded at Lucind. Max seemed almost saddened that one or more of her lovely injuries was about to depart. He was about to ask if she had to use right now. But, Prishazan's eyes were on him, and called his attention away.

"Mr Dark, I don't know if you have decided to join our test journey tomorrow yet - but if so, I would like to ask a favor."

Test journey? I wasnt aware...I...

Max responded, cocking his head slightly to the side and looking to Lucind and then back to Prishazan. Instinctively, his right hand moved to his left fore arm, and to the absent space where just a week ago a FIGHTER bracelet had been.

Strangely, there was no sadness in its absence. Instead, that pride filled his chest again, and the eye patch hiding inside his breast pocket burned eagerly in the back of his mind. He could already smell the ocean air, hear the seagulls kawing, feel copious amounts of plundered booty pooling around his feet...the words practically spoke themselves. He met Prishazan's dark, ebony eyes, smiled bright and said.

I would love to. I'll be there. What can I do for you Mr. Prishazan?

I would love to. I'll be there. What can I do for you Mr. Prishazan?

Maximos said, and he meant it, thought it was tempered with something else. A hair of inhibition which scraped at the back of the Shadow's mind. He may have heard her wrong, there may have been a confusion in translation. But he was almost entirely sure Lucind had just mentioned travel, in the blink of an eye.

But here, the monk began to explain. When someone so silent as Prishazan began to speak, there was a power to their words. A certain reverence that comes with the occasion. Maximos fell silent, his full attention belonged to the monk.

"As you may know, the pact with a single Vikra allows my brothers and me to use the sea's elements to a certain degree."

Maximos did remember. And to show this, he stoutly nodded, but remained silent. Both the Vikra, and slyphs in general peaked his curiosity. Though, so did most things Azum and Siren related. This was an opportunity to observe both in action! Maximos was excited just listening. When Lucind described the usage of wind and water magics, Maximos had always imagined the two being combined to create an effect akin to those steel magic "Mortirs" or "Ungines" or whatever it was that made modern day boots move faster than stern winds would normally allow. With childlike excitement he even wondered how fast would quantify as an "eye blink".

"This here will be more difficult than influencing the ship's speed or maneuverability, or protecting us from climatic or hostile influences. If the Feiruza is called in a pressing matter and we want to reach our destination as fast as possible, I have to initiate a rite that might best be described with the common term teleportation."

Anyone watching closely, would notice his entire body tighten. That word, it was said at normal volume, but might as well have leaped out from the sentence to bite him. Max couldnt remember if he had ever told Lucind about the last days of the Destroyer. About the few mages who conspired to end his killing spree by removing him, and about the sloppily cast and alltogether unpleasant experience which resulted in him being teleported to the Great Desert of Vergan. Or the dimensional rift that tore him from Aria and landed him on Gaia...

The Destroyer was long gone, but the effects of the experiences still last. To this day teleportation makes the Shadow sick to his stomach. Literally. Max bore no ill will to anyone able to instantaneously travel, but this near allergy was the reason why Lucind might note how very rarely Maximos ever walked through shadows, despite how popular the ability was amongst other shadow elementalists.

Regardless, Maximos of whether or not an explanation was need, Maximos loosened although he felt a bit queasy already. Though, with the same grace and skill with which he covered over grievous injuries in combat with a grin, Maximos kept his warm smile, and did not dare disturb Prishazan.

He could not say no. Not only because ungentlemanly it would be, but because he simply would, and could not miss the opportunity given him! He reminded himself of how teleportation afforded a momentary discomfort, perhaps a lost lunch, but then usually ended amiably.

"A rite I haven't performed that often in my life, usually only in moments of danger. This is why I would like to ask you to assist me - just as I have asked Lucind: during this ritual, the general protection my Vikra and I provide for the ship will be weakened, especially until I gain some routine waving the wind tunnel. The sea itself bears many dangers, and other entities could use the moment of teleportation to attack. Therefore, it would be very kind of you to guard the ship, keep an eye on possible invaders."

Max was smiling, but it was fraying at the edges. He felt his heart rise into his throat, and then with a gulp it fell into a bottomless abyss, and or the pits of his stomach. They might be attacked? Enemies werent the trouble. It was that they would be teleporting...for an extend period...

No. He couldnt think like that. This was like visiting another country, and being invited to attend an ancient ceremony. And then having that honor doubled as your invited to partake in it. If he could fit with holes in his body and missing limbs, he could fight with an upset stomach. Without a drop of trepidation on his voice he said.

It would be my honor Mr. Prishazan, and a pleasure.

And he would very formally bow his head. Not only paying respect to the request given, but also to what to be the longest conversation he had ever had, or that likely anyone had ever had, with Prishazan.

With the monk departed, Maximos focused on his tea. He thanked Lucind as she poured it, and the placed his hands on either side of the cup, feeling the warmth pass through him. Lucind removed that magical water, and Maximos did his best not to let his disappointment show.

"Prisha cleansed it. It's like...blessed water. Have to admit I don't fully understand the process, but I think he removes all unnatural elements. What I can tell for sure is that the concentration of water sprites is extremely high - and it tastes wonderful! In fact, it reminds me a little bit of your life leaf tea...you know, the effect. It's not as powerful, but you feel really refreshed after a single mouth full."

In truth it did sound quite interesting. Max wondered what might happen if you used that purified water to make Life Leaf tea, while perfectly healthy. That single idea bloomed countless others and all together Max came to the opinion that...

I should very much like to try it one day.

With that, Lu walked over towards her sleeping corner, and Max returned to his cup of tea. Being a gentleman he gave her her privacy, which is to say that even though Lucind was not doing anything private, Maximos turned his head and looked at another wall, and sipped tea.

"I know you would like me to keep this little egg bump here. But for me it's nothing but inconvenient. - Also, I can think of sexier injuries."

Whereupon Maximos' eyes shot up and he nearly choked on his tea.

"So...you can always replace it with something else, if you'll miss it that badly."

As might be expected, as Maximos' head turned slowly, almost incredulously back to face her. His cheeks were the color of ripe tomatoes, his eyes were wide with shock.

But, even as he looked at her and let the realization sink in, the shocked look stretched into a grin so wide it threatened to slice his face in half. From across the small room Max pointed ominously and said.

I'll hold you to that.

And tossed Fletcher a grin that almost dared him to say something, before taking another sip of his tea.

南無阿弥陀仏

"Namu Amida Butsu."

Following that statement came the sound of a handful of gold coins scattering about on the floor of the docks in front of an emaciated old man who was no doubt homeless. The old man looked up, reaching out while speaking words of thanks in an unrecognizable tongue towards the Buddhist monk that had just given him alms and blessing. Not that the man recognized the tongue the monk used, either.

But what of this monk?

Tenkai Matsumoto stood at a somewhat average 5'8", which would actually be below average considering the two extra inches added by the wooden geta clogs he wore. He was dressed in the unmistakeable robes of a Japanese Buddhist monk. A large-beaded Buddhist rosary necklace hung from his neck, his head covered by a large straw shade hat. One could see that his semi-long brown hair was tied back in a ponytail from underneath the hat, but otherwise only his amiable facial expression was visible from the shadows.

The clacking noise from his footgear and beads as he walked down the docks were coupled by the chiming of gold rings clanging together at the head of his shakujo, or monk's spade. Although he was not disabled, he seemed to use it as if it were a walking staff, letting others know that a monk was nearby.

Tenkai had taken the time spent around the vicinity of the Heaven or Hell tournament to visit the merchant town of Latent, hoping to find something useful he could purchase. But he wouldn't simply go right to spending his gold when there were still poor, unfortunate souls to give alms to. He'd be a pretty terrible monk if he spent all of his gold on trinkets before giving back to the less fortunate.

Of course, it'd also be pointless to visit Latent with prospects of purchase if he emptied his wallet giving alms, as well. Tenkai's obligations held a span of more than just the duties of a monk. But for now, he was enjoying the relaxation provided by strolling along the docks. Looking out to the sea, he--

"Hm...what is this?"

His eyes were caught as he looked out towards the see as he saw a curiously docked ship, almost as if it was, for the time being, just an annex of the docks. As if it was expecting people to visit. That was when he caught a glimpse of the rather chimaeric figurehead of the ship.

"Hm. Interesting."

It wasn't very often for Tenkai to see a docked ship with the entrance ramp down without privateers busy unloading cargo. Anyone could just waltz right up onto the deck. Theives, children...or any manner of bizarre things in these lands that weren't thieves or children.

And perhaps a curious monk or two.

There was an odd air about the vessel. It felt as if the ship "wanted" to be visited. Tenkai found such feelings of mystery to be very intriguing, and he was finding it very hard to resist entrance. The only question was...how was Tenkai to enter? Even if he could walk upon the deck, boarding a ship made him feel like a trespasser. Technically he would be trespassing, but since there was no sign advising otherwise and the ship's boarding ramp was down, Tenkai saw no problem with it. Tenkai was not trying to be stealthy in his step, so his footgear would prevent him from arriving unnoticed.

Which would either earn him a warm welcome, or a stern warning, depending on the situation. It'd be best if he called out.

"Hello?" he said, calling out, "Is anyone here?"

A simple enough question, worded simply. For all Tenkai knew the crew was out to town, or on a part of the ship presently unseen by him. (In other words, if people are in plain sight and I don't realize it, pretend I haven't looked in that direction yet >.<)

((I don't want to interrupt anything, though. If you want to time paradox, that's fine. As for when this could be, I'd place Tenkai doing this after HoH...I'd guess. o.o))

Astonishing! Let me see!

He said, pushing his chair back and making his way around the table to Lucind, his right eye growing a bit whiter, just barely a glow in the shade of his brow.

Lucind turned to present her shoulder; she had pulled the straps of top and bra down before removing the gauze and the bandage. The stitched wound was closer to her back, fixed by thin, black threads.

"Max, I...I'm sorry, about the trip, I mean. I didn't forget about you're dislike for this kind of 'traveling'."

She raised her brow, gently sucking her bottom lip. The sound of which pulled Max from his inspection. The Shadow had a horrible habit of getting too focused.

I would love a samp--what?

"The way Tagis described that wind tunnel and how Prisha puts the ship through it, it didn't sound like teleportation per se..."

Oh that. Now that was hardly something Max expected her say sorry for. He shook his head, turning from her side and stepping so as to face her.

No, no, Lu...

"...after his explanation I'm a little confused, truth to be told. Think I'll-- "

Was all she'll would get out, before his right index finger softly pressed against her lips and Max said.

No my dear, you'll do nothing of the sort.

When his finger touched her lips, Lucind relaxed and calmly met his eyes.

Prishazan didn't twist my arm. We both know I could have said no at any time.

A smile spread across Maximos' face, and a soft chuckle followed that. He knew what she was doing.

...And we both know, I would never have said no. I would never miss a chance like this. If I can fight on the brink of death, I can fight nauseous.

Lu grinned into the soft kiss that followed, reaching up to brush one of his navy blue looks aside.

"What a bunch of pirates we'll be, hanging over the rail and Prishazan the only one left standing..." She let out a quiet and throaty laughter. Then her attention wandered back to her shoulder.

"Izette's knive did a good job, although I was able to twist and offer a less risky spot for a stab. The blade scraped along the bone, which is what still hurts most." Still peeking at the stitches, she passed the vial to him.

"The problem was that the medics had to start with the surgery before someone could get me fresh water - I had something with me but left my bag at the stable where we had our match. So, I could use the water only right after the stab was closed..."

Shortly after the rebirth, Lucind had found out (and also told Maximos) that even now the power to use water for self-healing wasn't much better than before. For some reason, the mothers didn't fixed that. Or, so Lucind had suspected, the five ancestral Sirens wanted to keep the balance of powers between female and male Sirens, for the latter were able to use water and wind in various ways, but lacked most of the mental powers that were an implicitness for their female counterparts.

"I think the threads could be removed now without the wound popping open. Have to see if the cleansed water reaches the bone... If not, well...I can deal with a bit of pain..."

The Siren moved to refill her cup, and Max followed offering his to the dragon with a not so innocent smile. And the teapot did his job, but not without grumbling. At this point, Lucind thought she would be very surprised if Mr. Fletcher had given up his rebellion already.

"I'd like to show you the rest of the ship - what do you say?"

By the look in her eyes, he knew she knew precisely what he was going to say. But, smiling wide Max said it anyway.

I would love to.

A soft smile. "I'll just get some gauze back on here." She nodded at her shoulder, then took the cup and walked back to the mirror. Some time later - during which Mr. Fletcher curled and uncurled its tail, watching Maximos with an almost pouty expression -, the Siren would reappear: she hadn't only put her sweater back on but also wore a long cardigan of the deepest green; furthermore, she had picked a hairband with which she was now fixing her locks in a loose bun at the back of her head.

When Lucind indicated she was ready to go, the dragon cleared his throat.

"Yes, Mr. Fletcher," she asked extremely politely.

"Well, since I am a resident of this ship as of now - and I don't have to mention that I am more part of the crew than he is...although I yet have to decide if that is a thing worth pointing out, because if I find this surrounding here is not to my liking I will have somebody take me somewhere else...!" He cleared his throat again. "Anyway. I would say I am entitled to see the other rooms of this boat, too."

Lu breathed in slowly. "Later on. Maybe." And since the teapot was about to protest she directly added, a bit more vehement. "I'm sure not going to carry a half full, hot teapot with me. Plus, so far you--" She looked up. Someone was outside, asking if anybody was there. Lucind even thought to know this voice that entered her room in low, muffled tones.

"If you present some manners along with your excellent tea brewing skills, then I might consider showing you the rest of the ship."

"Well, fine then..." Mr. Fletcher replied dryly (he nearly blushed again when he heard about his excellent tea brewing skills). He pretended not to care when the Siren knotted the cardigan's belt and walked to the door, thus vanishing from the teapot's sight thanks to the two broad shelves.

"Oh and," the Siren added. "If I were you, I wouldn't try anything funny. The Feiruza sees and hears everything."

Grinning ever so slightly, Lu stepped outside, waiting for Max to follow, before she walked downstairs to greet a man who stood on the other side of the narrow gangway: his clothes reminded her of what priests and monks in North Gaia and large parts of Azum wore; and she could swear she had recently seen him. But where?

Prishazan, Tagis and the sailors where nowhere to be seen, but the Siren heard faint noises coming from the bow of the ship, that is, from the rooms where they stored all kind of shipping tools.

"Can I help you, sir?

Please, come aboard!"

((Sorry it took me so long to get this out!

Posting order I'd suggest: Lu - Max - Tenkai))

"Can I help you, sir?"

Tenkai turned to face the voice that had acknowledged his call. To Tenkai's surprise, the voice belonged to a face that seemed oddly familiar to the monk. Or rather, it was not her face that was immediately recognizeable. It was her unusual ears. Of course it'd be incredibly rude if Tenkai spoke of them aloud, so he internalized that dialogue. He didn't want to insult whoever owned this ship. Her face and hair were recognizable as well, but he couldn't quite put his finger on where he had seen it. Maybe the change of clothes contributed to his horrible memory.

"Please, come aboard!"

Tenkai was just about to thank her for the hospitable greeting when a much more recognizable voice called out.

Mr. Matsumoto! Tenkai Matsumoto! What a surprise, fancy seeing you here!

The new clothes and additional arm were definately a detriment to his memory, but he had seen this face much more closely in the past and associated it with a voice as well as a name. It didn't take much for Tenkai to remember.

"My, my," the monk said with surprise, "It's good to see you again, Mr. Dark. Or maybe I should just call you Maximos."

Tenkai liked to be proper, but he knew some people hated formalities. Tenkai didn't mind much about what people called him save for anything insulting, or the original name of his birth. The former for obvious reasons, and the latter simply to keep things as clandestine as possible.

As Tenkai spoke, he carefully boarded the ship, maintaining an oddly stable sense of balance in spite of wearing such awkward-looking footgear. But Tenkai wore them so much that he hardly noticed the difference aside from a few benefits they provided...aside from the fact that they were a bit noisy against a wooden deck.

"Oh, I'm sorry," he said, stopping himself, "Should I take these off before boarding?" He gestured to his footgear, wondering if the noise was bothersome to his hosts.

Lu asked if Izzette was still holding his top hat: she had seen most of that fight but only found out about the item "exchange" when meeting the punker herself. Not without some amusement in her voice, she told Max that Ms. Prechtl had called him a comic book hero and had found the idea of them being a couple extremely weird and funny.

This caused Maximos' straight face, to crack, and then crumble into a fit of seemingly unwarranted laughter! I mean a giggle was one thing, even a chuckle. But this was a side-splitting belly laugh. He even held his sides as he laughed and suddenly broke the laughter to proclaim...

So thats why you said that!

Lu had very vehemently warned Izette of how close she had come to death in her match last round. Because of her boyfriend...this confused Max. Now the confusion was clear, and calming his laughter enough that he could speak through it, Maximos shared with Lu an explanation.

More specifically, he informed her how during Eclipse's match with Raptus Regulatier, Maximos had fought a Miss Nocere Poema, and Ryugi Kazamaru had fought Izette Prechtel. That Ryugi had been dubbed, "Comic Book Hero", a fitting title, once Izzy explain it. And that the idea of the Siren pairing up with the dragon was indeed quite hilarious. And that Izzy had, as she had informed him, left their match very confused as to why comic book hero guy was so very very dangerous. He also patted his jacket pocket, informing Lu that he had infact come "prepared", for a voyage. Which was to say that he had his eye patch and was ready to play pirate.

And then it was time for a tour. But first, a certain impromptu medical procedure.

After which, with her cheeks red, her eyes clouded and holding wickedness in their background, she looked at him, then down at her shoulder. There was a bit of blood from the unusual procedure which the Siren collected with her middle finger to directly lick it clean.

Max looked positively sinister. Oh he knew quite well what he had just done, and how abruptly he had ended the flow of such a moment. His eyes and matching grin were almost a challenge for her to do something about it. And he would then find one of her hands being placed on the nape of his neck. For a moment, Max's only regret was that he didnt lick the wound clean before backing away. Unless he had a reason to protest, and he didnt, Lucind would lean up quickly, almost forcefully, to kiss him. A kiss and a force he did not back away from, not one bit but infact pressed into. He could taste the irony sweet flavor on her lips.

Finally, she was pulling away, and eagerly his tongue slipped free and ran a wet trail along his pale, smirking, lips. So very close, so very intimately he heard her say.

"...then again, it's not really you who caused the wound in the first place."

But it would be my pleasure to take the blame. And to pay the price for it in full.

Though he only said half of that, smoothly adding on.

As its my pleasure to fix it...

Reaping whatever expression or comment he would give, Lu turned around to cover the still slightly bleeding wound: Max just grinned from ear to ear, like a satisfied cat after gulping down a mouse. Or maybe even an artist, looking proudly at a work of art. That bright hue in Maximos' right eye said that he was looking at more than what showed outside. When she was gone, Max looked at Fletcher. Smirked even wider, and just chuckled. He imagined that deep inside the dragon had just turned even greener.

Later, when he threatened the drake. And the embarrassed or ashamed or otherwise emotionally distraught creature stood silent, Maximos made it a point that he reach out to the suffering teapot...and that he pat it on its tiny head with his right hand, so that just incase it bites it would immediately regret it and patronizingly say.

Thats a good boy. Stay. Keep that nice and warm.

He was being a tad cruel. And a few minutes later, after a few exchanges, Max and Lu were off and outside back on the deck. And Max was greeting Mr. Matsumoto, who in term greeted him.

"My, my," the monk said with surprise, "It's good to see you again, Mr. Dark. Or maybe I should just call you Maximos."

Maximos smiled his trademark warm smile. The sort of smile that makes it seem as if hes known an individual for most his life and would trust them with the world. Even if they just met, and he said.

Likewise my friend, and Maximos is fine, no need for such formalities amongst friends.

Max chuckled a bit at the small issue of etiquette regarding Tenkai's most unique brand of footwear. As Tenkai boarded the ship, Maximos gestured to Lucind, and then to the monk and said.

Ah! Where are my manners! Lucind, meet Tenkai Matsumoto. We met during the tournament, just after eliminations in fact.

And then gestured from the monk back to Lucind, and finally made a passing gesture to the ship as a whole, adding on...

Tenkai, meet Lucind Varhetel. She just so happens to own this whole establishment. Infact, we were about to take a tour.

And with his gentlemanly duty complete, he fell silent allowing the two to, infact meet or speak as the case may be. Was there to be a handshake? A nod? A trade off of more personal information? There was obviously more to both individuals, and more to Maximos' interaction with either individual in question. But the Shadow had kept the information in the introduction to a minimum just in case. As versed in the rules of formal conduct as Maximos may be, the code of conduct on Lucind's ship, was hers to decide. Max was content to smile, and take in the ship as a whole.

"So, Mr. Tenkai. What can I do for you? What brought you here to this ship?"

"...then again, it's not really you who caused the wound in the first place."

But it would be my pleasure to take the blame. And to pay the price for it in full.

Though he only said half of that, smoothly adding on.

As its my pleasure to fix it...

Loving softness teamed up with velvet madness on the Siren's face when she heard his words and fathomed the outlines of his thought through his voice. She replied, right before turning around to cover the slightly bleeding wound:

"That is a daring wish to make, my love. But you will get your chance to comply with it...later on."

Max just grinned from ear to ear, like a satisfied cat after gulping down a mouse. Or maybe even an artist, looking proudly at a work of art. That bright hue in Maximos' right eye said that he was looking at more than what showed outside. When she was gone, Max looked at Fletcher. Smirked even wider, and just chuckled. He imagined that deep inside the dragon had just turned even greener, which was not too far from reality. And the teapot growled when the Shadow patted him. Mr. Fletcher wanted to bite, struggle, clamor, but he knew it wouldn't bring him anywhere - aside, maybe, from the offending defines of the box in which he came here, or something worse, darker and indefinitely harder to escape. Therefore, all he brought out was a hissed, Don't touch me.

Later on, when Lucind found out Maximos and the monk knew each other, she lightly bowed at Mr. Tenkai, then nodded in recognition as she had found the answer to the question as to where she had seen the man before.

"Oh! I knew you looked familiar!" said Tenkai, "You're from Team Mythos, aren't you? I've always wanted to meet you and your teammates. It's truly a pleasure."

"The pleasure is mine, Mr. Tenkai. That's right, I'm with Mythos - and I'd say you'd be surprised if you met the whole team: we barely know each other but still get along pretty well."

She chuckled and accepted the hand he extended from his robe, which was oddly covered in a silverish-looking metal gauntlet with leather padding on the palm side. He would bring his left hand in to close around the other side of her hand in a double-handed shake, which was very common in Japan. But since Lucind had never heard of that country before, nor of its customs, the way he greeted her only caused the image of him being open-hearted and friendly.

"So, Mr. Tenkai. What can I do for you? What brought you here to this ship?"

"I was actually just wandering about the docks," he said.

"So, you're the owner of this 'establishment'?" Tenkai asked Lucind, "Forgive me for my lack of knowledge, but what is your establishment upon this vessel?"

"Please, don't apologize. The business I started on the Feiruza is still at its very beginnings, so it's no shame not to have heard of it yet."

Letting her look wander over the deck before coming back to the monk, she went on: "Basically, this ship holds my new bookstore.

It is, however, not your ordinary location to purchase a nice bedtime read." Maybe Maximos would notice that here, Lu's tone changed ever so slightly - if it was intended or came unconsciously, one couldn't say -, as if she had just begun telling a fairytale, using her Sirenic charm to indicate she was about to introduce something special. And not enitrely harmless.

"The books I have here aren't of the kind you can purchase in a normal store: no mainstream, no bestseller huge stack titles. Many of the volumes the Feiruza holds in its belly are unique, some are even said to contain special powers.

People may come here to buy those or exchange them for another extraordinary book. But to meet the value of my books, the price, that is, the equivalent has to be extraordinary as well. And I'm not necessarily speaking of material quality..."

The Siren's smile was that of a woman who enjoyed playing the mysterious hostess. But nontheless, her words made clear she wasn't serving empty phrases.

"Like Maximos just said, I was about to show him around. Please, Mr. Tenkai, feel invited to follow us - unless, of course, there is other urgent business calling for you."

"Please, don't apologize. The business I started on the Feiruza is still at its very beginnings, so it's no shame not to have heard of it yet."

Oh, a business!, thought Tenkai. How curious... It seemed Tenkai was in the right place after all. He should have known that an establishment beginning in Latent, especially about a ship, would be trade related in some way. Tenkai wondered what kind of wares Lucind would be carrying on her vessel for just a moment, before she went into explaining it herself.

"Basically, this ship holds my new bookstore. It is, however, not your ordinary location to purchase a nice bedtime read."

A bookstore! Subarashii da ze! (Splendid!), thought the monk once more. It was just the kind of place he was looking for. Tenkai enjoyed books very much, and even collected a few of them. It was a quality many monks had across many different faiths. But the slight change in Lucind's tone didn't escape Tenkai in his excitement. Although he showed no difference in facial expression, he could tell from the subtle charm of the Siren's tone that these weren't ordinary books.

"The books I have here aren't of the kind you can purchase in a normal store: no mainstream, no bestseller huge stack titles. Many of the volumes the Feiruza holds in its belly are unique, some are even said to contain special powers."

She had said it herself, but such was a thought that suited Tenkai just fine. Maybe this could be it, he thought. Perhaps the Feiruza holds some of Dr. Van Helsing's more hard-to-find collections. There could even be anthologies I've never even heard of...

"People may come here to buy those or exchange them for another extraordinary book. But to meet the value of my books, the price, that is, the equivalent has to be extraordinary as well. And I'm not necessarily speaking of material quality..."

Ah...therein lies the rub, he thought. Although he showed no sign of disappointment, Tenkai was unsure of what he'd be able to trade for one of Van Helsing's works. But there were probably different prices that Lucind had in mind. Tenkai decided to save his questions for later. From what Lucind had said, it seemed the Feiruza held some very powerful texts in its archives, probably the kind Tenkai wouldn't wish to trifle with.

"Like Maximos just said, I was about to show him around. Please, Mr. Tenkai, feel invited to follow us - unless, of course, there is other urgent business calling for you."

He caught the grin from Maximos, as if to suggest that he stay to enjoy the tour. Lucind's explanation was already enough to sway the monk, and his curiosity would keep him there even without the Siren's charm. Tenkai had no reason not to accept this gracious hospitality.

"I'd be delighted," replied the monk, "I have no real urgent business at the moment. In fact, running into places like this was the reason I came to Latent in the first place."

He was ready to follow both of them whenever they wished to begin the tour.

Now Maximos, as often said, was always a gentleman. And while this shop, and renovated ship were new to him...he was at the same time closer to it than Tenkai would be. As Lucind said to Fletcher the Rude Teapot, Maximos was practically crew. As such, when Lucind stepped forward, Maximos stepped a bit to side and made a very small bow and gestured for Tenkai to follow.

Max knew, he was going to be spending a lot of time here. It was only proper, the monk get the better view and the brunt of the tour.

"My business is not the only the only way we're going to maintain the ship."

Maximos grinned a grin that was probably too wide and too devilish for the moment, but that fit the thoughts running through his head perfectly. Max might have chuckled, but did not, likely because he thought better of it.

"My friend Tagis, the actual captain, has gained some reputation in the trading of rare spices and fabrics. A clear advantage for me,"

Lu chuckled. And Max took the opportunity to chuckle a bit himself.

"As it gives me access to wonderous places, contact to all kind of persons all around this planet."

And a chance to steal precious booty, hang a black flag, and terrorize the worlds navies.

But of course, Max did not say that, he just grinned, and lift a hand to soft pat his jackets breast pocket, as if quelling something stirring within. Even though nothing magical or otherwise did infact stir within.

His eyes met hers for a moment. He imagined an arm around her waist as he swung from high ropes, he saw himself fighting on masts, cutting dramatically through sails. He saw himself swashing buckles, firing cannons, dodging explosions, battling epically sized tentacled beasts. And then as if none of these actions bore repercussions, he imagined calm evenings to follow days of adventuring in which he read rare books, studied ancient cultures, and perhaps dined at a far off restaurant or two.

Just Lucind's few words had him practically swooning. Ahh, a clear advantage indeed. She was gesturing to something else. Books? Swords?

"There we store tools and instruments we need to keep the ship in shape."

...mops? The imagery centered the Shadow, anchoring his imagination momentarily back on Gaia.

"Prishazan, our navigator, has his room next to the first storage, and from there you have access to the main storage down in the hull."

Boxes. Perhaps swash buckling box--No. No not quite. Max thought of Prishazan the monk, of his serious nature. Of the task that waited for them tomorrow, and his grin settled into a calm smile. High sea adventure could wait. He looked at Tenkai, curious of the monks reaction, and then back to Lucind.

"I suggest I directly lead the way to the place both of you wish to see most."

She said, her eyes twinkled, the corners of her mouth smoothened for a moment, it was a deeply mysterious look. The sort that would have made shadows jealous. Max smirked, meeting it, and then followed her hand to the staircase. He remembered that, but not the door. The door was new, and bright in contrast to the room as a whole. The red was not particularly shocking, but against the surrounding wood grain it seemed to pop out, just as the brass of the knob seemed to cut itself from the door.

Once Lucind had walked down, with practiced ease. Max followed, remembering only that he nearly tripped here once, and braced himself by placing a hand on either side of the hall, just in case. He was waiting for a screech, perhaps a creak of wood or metal. But he found nothing. The door slid open as if it was not there. Silently, to silent to be natural. He cocked his right eye.

Then he saw it. A spiderweb of trails detailing lines from the knob out, over the door, and over Lucind's fingers. Then there was that wind, even the magic eye wind is normally invisible, but this haunting air drew silver threads in its wake. It spoke of older, safer, elemental magics. Perhaps something to keep the books safe down below. Perhaps something to keep out intruders. He would make a note to ask about it later, because just as suddenly and smoothly as wind blows it was already gone.

Lucind was turning on lights, but Maximos was already squinting, his eyes peering through darkness as one might peer through light. It didnt avail him much, save for allowing him to make out the stairs, the drawers, and a few books in the distance. More magics may have allowed him to see more, but that would ruin the presentation, woudnt it? So he didnt. He simply tugged the edges of his jacket, suddenly glad he had worn it.

"Please, wait here a second,"

Lu asked, Maximos nodded. And then, in the silent moments as her footsteps were swallowed up, he stepped up next to Mr. Matsumoto and offered Tenkai a quiet and yet entirely warm smile. The Monk, just might see the outline of a slightly luminescent white, right cornea as the lights went off before Lucind's voice called out.

"Don't worry, everything's alright."

And Maximos' turned to away to face her. The room, was suddenly more stunningly beautiful than he imagined. The lights were simply spectacular, they looked as sunlight might look if it was filtered through ocean water. The greens, blues, and teal shades all added a fantastic whimsical, almost surreal feel to the place. It made one truly feel they were standing in a magical library, where anything might happen.

Max found himself drawn to one of the melon sized lamps, placing a hand on one of the hanging shelves, as he stepped under it. The light source having caught his attention first, seemingly over the library. And then, slowly, his head turned away from the dazzling light to the sheer number of volumes present. Some of them had ominous titles, that spoke of age and magics unknown. Others had ominous designs. A book, for instance, which seemed to have teeth and not a binding most definitely hinted at something dangerous. And yet still other books he could feel, their magics wafted out like scent might waft from a bowl of potpourri, or smoldering incense.

He moved to the desk, to the far wall, several of the shelves, never stopping long at any one thing but instead walking by and running his right hand along it. His fingertips feeling out the object in question, his eye memorizing the room so he would know where to start back at later when he came through more in depth. He had a look on his face, like a child in an amusement park for the first time. Excited, and yet frozen with astonishment. Unsure where, or how to begin.

By Nocturne...

The words, an amazed Arian "My God", slipped from his lips without thought, whisping on the air, as his feet brought him back beside Lucind. She loosely crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"Welcome to my new store..."

The expression on her face put a warmth in his heart. It was a sort of happiness she did not oft get to express. A comfort, a sort of pride.

My dear...you have truly out done yourself...

He said, with no small level of awe still on his tone.

...this is...

Words, were supposed to follow, but the room as a whole had stolen them. Everything from the curve of the shelves, the light, to the way the corners were still dim enough to put a shroud of mystery over the whole room. Astonishing? Amazing? Awesome? Those were just a few, and none seemed large enough. There was a sentiment here that was just ineffable, but he looked at her with a smile stretching all the way across his face and somehow believed she understood.

The expression in Maximos' eyes.

Tenkai's exclamation.

The Siren chuckled, and the chuckle wandered through the library, hopping from one shelf to the next, bouncing off of tables, walls and wooden pillars, accompanied by a soft wind. But not only that: the light coming from those many, small lanterns flickered, hesitant first, then stronger, and...yes, it seemed as though the shades of blue and green changed along with the intensity of the room's illumination. All this bathed everybody present in an unpredictable play of twilight. On Lucind's face, streaks of darkness and wildness appeared with the staccato rythm of the flickering lamps; it could have been an optical illusion, but the monk, likely also the Shadow, would sense that not only the lanterns - or whatever was inside of them -, but the sea itself beyond reacted to the sheer presence of the Siren, her mood. Her will.

The display only lasted a moment, but its intesity carried an unspoken threat, not directed against any of the men, or anybody per se. It was the ocean's own primal force, its darkest secrets and the weight of this world's soul - personified in this woman who enjoyed herself...and what she was, the power she had. It was a freedom she had gained only a week ago. All those years before, two souls had been fighting in her, not literally, but in a way that denial and false guilt had almost destroyed everything she had.

"Why, thank you. I am glad you like what you see." Her low voice would end the phenomenon, the lanterns returned to emanate the soft greenish blue, steady light. Lucind left her place at the shelf to walk over to one of those lanterns and carefully ran a finger along the milky glass: inside, something responsed, a slim being, or tiny tentacles, leaned towards her hand. At the upper rim of the oval body of glass, a fine line showed the lamps were filled with water.

"An astounding type of sea anemones. Along Azum's west coast, especially on the belt of isles between Azum and Meshkat, these are used instead of candles or electrical light sources. Their bioilluminescence is not only eco-friendly, it's also much less harmful to my books and scrolls." Aside from this - and she didn't have to say it explicitly -, the Siren felt extremely comfortable in this atmosphere.

Lowering her hand, she turned towards the monk.

"So, Mr. Tenkai. What is it you're looking for?"

Oh, how whimsical and charming it was to the monk, and yet still full of awe. It was like being in Atlantis or some other marine paradise. It was beautiful and mysterious and yet foreign and untamed, as if the peaceful atmosphere could be disturbed at any moment by some sort of imposing sea creature.

Lucind's explanation of her rather curious light fixtures also filled the monk with wonder. How brilliant, thought he. Without using modern electric lighting or burning candles, she greatly reduces the risk of the books being harmed by fire. Though Tenkai wondered what would protect a sea-faring bookstore from having its archives waterlogged, he was fairly sure Lucind had ways around that as well. The Feiruza just screamed with the essence of the sea, and it was no doubt safe within its element.

But there was no more time for being lost in thought. Lucind had just asked him a quesiton.

"Oh, yes!" said the monk with the usual "Aha!" gesture, softly pounding his gauntlet-clad right fist into the open palm of his left hand. "I almost forgot. You see, there are some texts I am looking for, specifically the works of Dr. Abraham Van Helsing. There was one in which he wrote a treatise on afflictions of the blood, which is what I am currently searching for."

Tenkai had acquired a few in his travels, but it was far from a complete collection. Van Helsing lived to an old age and learned many different things about the creatures that stalked both night and day, so who knew what else he could have written about? Tenkai could trace the lineage of his pupil, Dr. Seward, but that would simply leave him with texts he had already read in the...annals of his past.

The thing was, however, that in spite of Van Helsing being a well known physician, it wasn't a terribly well kept secret that he was also one of the most famous vampire hunters in history. Why would a peaceful monk like Tenkai be after his works?

A word, it was the most he could manage. Maybe two, perhaps three. Sometimes his eyes scanned over and read a sentence, but the sentence never made it from his eyes to his brain without becoming little more than a meaningless assortment of words. He wanted to concentrate, but he couldnt.

That light, it was in every way like that alarm clock that does not wake you, but rather by being the single blaring light across the room keeps you from ever falling asleep.

It was there, and while Maximos knew in every way that he should be pretending that it was not, it was. It said Danger. It said, Warning. And in that same language, louder than anything else it said, Come.

Maximos shut the book in his hands. He had been reading it for several seconds, enough time to have read a few chapters, but the Shadow did not even know the books name. The volume was placed under his left arm, and Maximos made his way forward. It was not in the rack he was currently standing in front of. Not behind that one, or the next, or the next. Then, another shelf with only a single row of books but it wasnt there either. Propped against wall...Maximos' right eye flared momentarily, a plume of white whipping and then settling into a fierce round glow.

It was behind the wall.

Soft shadows stirred as Maximos right hand rose, as if instinctively, perhaps even accidentally he orchestrated them with his gesture. The gloved and bandaged arm reached past single row of books. His hand moved like a single sliver of black and then as it touched the wall, it spread. His fingers stretched outwards like the encroaching arms of an octopus. Tendrils of black peeked just barely beyond their natural light-limited lengths. He could feel it, he could taste it. His face split, grinning like a pale blue-green knifes edge.

Hello there...

Said Maximos, something of a chuckle in his tone. His hand pulsed.

...Whats this then?

She grinned. Giggled ever so softly.

Yet, her expression remained composed and focussed on the monk. Never would she be so rude as to pay less than full attention to a possible customer's wishes and explanations. But, oh, the sweet freedom she had gained finally allowed her to use wonderful tricks, mental twists and techniques she hadn't dared experimenting with before. Therefore, the Siren was able to take care of Tenkai's request with all the sincerity it deserved - and give Max an idea of what he would find behind that wall.

The Shadow could feel it, he could taste it. His face split, grinning like a pale blue-green knifes edge.

Lucind smirked, giggled - but all in her mind.

Upon probing and examining the wall, Maximos would feel the ship protesting mildly, and waves of that ancient magic they had witnessed when Lucind had opened the library's door brushed over the Shadow's hand in a gently reprimand that he wouldn't be allowed to enter until given authorization.

Hello there... Whats this then?

You can hear them, can't you?

As if she placed a hand on his shoulder and leaned up, standing on her tiptoes to whisper into his ear, her words would sound out in his head, though not after asking for access - she never entered someone's inner world without permission, not even the exterior level. ... Let me correct that. She would never enter a dear person's head without permission, or that of a customer...or someone useful, or... Anyway.

They're calling for you. I know. How they wish to be free... Believe me, some of them crave for lying in hands like yours.

Her voice. Almost a purr, thickened with amusement and lure.

Would you like to know what kind of precious little tomes I've got in there?

Yes, a completely rhetorical question.

I'll show you.

And he would see.

"I've read about Dr. Van Helsings works and travels ever since I was a child," said Tenkai. "I've learned much about the creatures of this world as well as different diseases by reading his studies, and oftentimes I try my hand at writing my own."

"Hmm, is that so", was all Lucind said for a moment, lifting both brows a little. It was more than obvious that the monk's answer only scratched the surface of what was his complete reason for collecting Van Hellsing's texts.

"Do code and tenets of your order stand in contradiction to your lifelong hobby? Now, if you're worried I might judge you for what you're really doing with the help of those writings, don't be - that's not my job. Of course, dubious motives might be a reason for me not to sell a book or give the location of a title. But it is taciturnity and dishonesty that definitely close the doors of my shop for a customer."

Lucind's eyes pierced his, all the while a part of her mind was keeping Maximos busy.

"What if told you I know where three original writings of Van Hellsing are? What if one was amongst them you don't own yet - and as far as I know, many of his essays and treatises only exist in a single copy after the others have been swallowed by time... What if?

What would you be willing to pay, Mr. Tenkai?

I am asking because so far I haven't found overly much passion in your words describing those texts..."

Maximos saw. And heard. And even thought to feel and smell every once in a while.

It only lasted a hand full of seconds, but they were enough for him to receive a bundle of Lu's memories, partly her own, partly borrowed; and each told a story about one of the books hidden in the secluded area.

A man sitting at a desk, dim light revealing his haggard, sickly looking face, covered in sweat, as he fervently scribbled something into a book which, flipped open, was around two feet long; three inches thick when closed. Every now and then, the man would guide the feather with which he wrote towards his chest and downwards, below the table's edge - his eyes twitched slightly whenever he did so.

Different scenes of the same man, in the same situation, followed. A full-faced woman entered, visibly scared, no, terrified. She tried to stop him from writing - but he didn't even notice her efforts, nor that she started screaming in horror the moment she touched his shoulders: Her fingers turned a dark purple, then brown, then black, withered, putrefied with unbelievable speed! Then, the process started running up her arms...

In the next scene, the man, even thinner, his eyes protruding from their sockets, he leaned back. But not to interrupt his obsessive work. He just lifted his left arm, which had been hidden behind the table's edge all the time. Now, calling it an arm was exaggerated. A blackened, half rotten stump was what he stabbed the feather into in his frenzy, mingling puss and blood in one of the many open wounds.

Somebody rushed into the room. Traces of death lay everywhere, undefined organic remnants, possibly human; another dark spot faintly reminded of a dog. The unknown person through whose eyes Max was looking pressed a cloth up against his nose and mouth, while he moved over to the desk, where the writer's corpse was hanging over the book, the face pressed onto the page. ...no, wait! His right hand - moved! The feather was gone, but the last grains of strength and will made his index finger move, writing invisible words. (But maybe the juices of decay had indeed allowed him a last statement). The strange intruder reached out for the as-good-as-dead, an amulet dangling from his wrist, but he didn't touch the manic writer. Instead, a soft green light emanated from his hand as he mumbled an incantation behind the cloth: The living dead started shaking madly, even sat up straight, before he went completely limp and fell to the floor...

Four, five more of such stories followed, not always as sinister as the first, but that didn't make them, that is, the respective book, less interesting.

There was a volume which, to innocent eyes, was nothing more than a collection of regional legends - but which confronted everyone else with his darkest secrets and crimes, the otherwise beautiful illustrations becoming alive to picture treason, betrayal, fraud, torture, murder, rape...

Another book didn't seem to have unnatural qualities per se, but had belonged to the head of a group of religious fanatics, who was revered like a god and whose every word became his zealous disciples' gospel, their life's only meaning...

Max learned of a bestiary that acidentally was turned into a medium of summoning, so that a small girl's first reading attempts killed ninety nine percent of a village's population by conjuring a pack of demon dogs...

The last story even showed a younger Lucind, her brother, another Siren and a mage or paladin. Together, they fought a generic looking book, covered in green leather and with lovely silver fittings. For the untrained eye, it didn't do anything aside from being an ordinary book. But obviously, it was giving the group a hard time taming it, directly attacking their souls. Only when Larhien had passed out and Lucind wasn't far from it, the others relaxed and the third Siren wrapped the book into a shawl...

Wonderful, aren't they?

Lucind whispered in Max's head.

And this was only a tenth of my special collection. - Many of them are dangerous beasts indeed. A challenge. Even for us.

...

Interested?

A low chuckle.

But not now, my love. Not now. Later. When we're alone:

These are to be treated with...discretion.

Tenkai didn't appear to notice the pull of the dark forces emanating from the wall, but he could feel the emotion in the air. Maybe it was the added connection of Lucind's piercing eyes that allowed him to feel what little he did. With the monk not focusing, it only registered as a faint pulse coming from Maximos. It was an evanescent feeling of peril and danger, the same feeling a child would have in quickly shutting a dark closet door to make sure the monsters didn't come out.

Only in this case, the monsters were real.

But the monk did not assume any stances, as if he or his hosts were in danger. Rather, he turned to the shadow, with the usual face of concern. Tenkai was completely oblivious to what had happened...all he sensed was that momentary danger.

"Is everything alright, Maximos?"

Maximos had turned to face Tenkai at roughly the same time, noticing the book in his arm. It looked as if he was just preoccupied looking at the books. Pleased, Tenkai would dismiss the vibration from earlier.

I suggest that you be as forthcoming as possible my friend. The Lady Lucind has quite the amazing array of senses. Hide, or lie, and she'll know it before you do.

Alas, Maximos was right. Odds were that both of his hosts had mental abilities advanced enough to know whether or not Tenkai was telling the whole truth. The more Tenkai kept things from them, the more he looked as if he could be some sort of malefactor. Tenkai wanted to avoid that confusion any way he could.

But Tenkai wasn't a witless holy man. It didn't require any special senses to feel the mysterious natures surrounding his new acquaintances. There may have been things Tenkai wished to keep hidden, but the monk had only scratched the tip of the iceberg with Maximos and Lucind.

It was of no circumstance, though. Tenkai didn't want to bargain his secrets for theirs. He was trying to bargain for Van Helsing's works. Quid pro quo didn't work in a two-to-one ratio.

"What if told you I know where three original writings of Van Hellsing are? What if one was amongst them you don't own yet - and as far as I know, many of his essays and treatises only exist in a single copy after the others have been swallowed by time... What if?

What would you be willing to pay, Mr. Tenkai?

I am asking because so far I haven't found overly much passion in your words describing those texts..."

It was obvious Lucind had a lot of passion for books. That much was for certain in some of the things the monk watched from his hotel room during the Heaven or Hell '09 matches, and it was made even more certain by Feiruza's very existence.

The monk closed his eyes and sighed with a smile. "I guess it can't be helped."

In order to show he had the same passion, Tenkai had to explain his life's situation properly. But how to put it?

"It does seem odd that a monk such as myself would want to learn more about Dr. Van Helsing's research," he began, "Though my order doesn't really impede in my actons." Tenkai put a hand on his chin, "To be honest, I don't think I really have much of an order. I'm not really considered a full-fledged monk, given my upbrining and spirituality." Tenkai ran some of his fingers through his hair to the back of his head, scratching it in a somewhat sheepish way. "And if I was, I probably wouldn't want to get a tonsure, either." The monk let out a light-hearted giggle.

Then, in a single moment, all lack of seriousness washed off of Tenkai's face, leaving him with a very solemn complexion. "Regardless, it would be rude of me if I didn't explain myself, and why I hold interest in the doctor's works..."

And thus Tenkai began...

(Amateur doujinshi powers go!)

"If vampire slaying was ever an art, then Dr. Van Helsing perfected it."

But Tenkai's knowledge of the doctor and his exploits were only half of the monk's passion.

"Like Dr. Van Helsing, I too am a slayer. Although holy men frown upon taking lives, to say that monks and priests have never killed things before would be a gross misconception. It would be like saying Hōzōin In'ei taught the use of the spear simply in jest."

"But killing isn't the same as bloodlust," he continued, "And times have changed much since the days of Van Helsing. I'm not one of those indiscriminate slayers who fights in some xenophobic, self-righteous crusade for humanity," That, in particular, was a phenomenon Tenkai had heard much about in recent years, "Nor do I play on superstitions for my own glory. I simply do what must be done to protect those who have no way to protect themselves, and if I can do it without needing to draw my sword, then all the better."

Oddly enough, Tenkai didn't look like he had any swords on his person. Either he didn't bring them with him or they were well obfuscated.

Tenkai closed his eyes once more. "I don't wish for any other child to end up with the same lot in life as my own...not if I can keep them from it. That is why I collect Dr. Van Helsing's works. I'm trying to learn what I can from his research as well as add my own observations and studies about all creatures that prey upon the weak and slaughter the innocent."

The monk looked back into Lucind's piercing gaze, and within his eyes she would find a passion much different from something that simply "burned". It was a smoldering sadness, the look only one who knew not the embrace of his own mother could give. They were eyes that saw much pain and suffering, the kind that brought about the guilt of past misdeeds to those who looked into them.

They were the eyes of an orphan.

Tenkai appeared sad, but his emotions were calm and solemn. "Alas, I do not have much I can use to pay with," he said, reaching into his robe and pulling out a satchel of gold coins. From the size of it, it looked like it held around a ten thousand gold, albeit in coins worth 100 gold units each. Lugging around ten-thousand coins would have been ridiculous.

"Even so, I can already tell it wouldn't be enough with how valuable your texts are."

Maximos was as silent as his namesake.

He listened through a discussion involving a doctor he had only read about in myth. He listened to Tenkai's story. He saw and felt the sadness in the mans eyes even from across the room. Something about it all made his arm twitch anxiously. He had to admit, he found the story interesting, but unfortunately not for reason he was likely meant to.

Mr. Matsumoto had just presented Lucind with a very emotionally moving tale. A story of monsters, and men and loss. And then, in sympathy, he presented what gold he had to pay for the texts.

Most shopkeepers would be moved by this alone and hand over all they had. But what would Lucind do? How would she react. Her initial response, a simple...

"Ah..."

Was unreadable. Maximos' arm folded across his chest, his right eye flared from where he stood like the head of a cigarette in a dark room. Lucind's eyes softened, Max wondered if her heard did as well.

And then she turned Mr. Matsumoto's gold down. He grinned.

In a moment, he saw something in her. Something not hidden, but something not overtly discussed. A hunger of sorts. It put a warmth in his heart. It was something he recognized, something that lived beside him daily. It made his grin stretch wide across his face. This was Lucind, unleashed as it were. This was the shape the woman he loved was taking. Her eyes met his for but an instant, but it was enough to share the sentiment.

All that remained was Tenkai's answer.

"I shall," replied the monk. "I am pleased that you did not accept the gold. Forgive me for thinking it would match the importance you put on these texts."

This was no lie, as was evident in the monk's face - and Lucind saw and heard all of it. The woman shook her head. "No, Mr. Tenkai, there is no need to ask me for forgiveness. You did not do me wrong. After all, the question here is not how I value the text."

When the monk got ready to leave, the Siren waited until he had said what he wanted to say and reacted with a smile: "The pleasure truly was mine. - There is, however, one last thing I would like to ask of you." A short pause.

"A lock of your hair. Just a thin strand. As a 'prepayment'...and a pledge of your honest wish to own Van Helsing's writing."

She would wait to see if Tenkai was ready to give her that small amount of hair. If he did, Lucind would take the lock - and while thanking him and explaining that in one week, the Feiruza would be at the same spot, an invisible wind would caress the hair to neatly curl it up in the woman's hand.

Eventually alone, her eyes stared at the door through which the monk had just left. The polite look vanished from her face to first be replaced by blankness.

"Did he even notice I contradicted myself", she mumbled, still holding the hair in her hald opened hand. "It's not about giving the right price to me...or whoever owns what they wish for...it's about them...always about them." She slightly tilted her head. "What are they willing to do? What...are they honest...? How many betray themselves? But here, they get what they deserve, and if they aren't honest then..." A throaty chuckle escaped Lu's throat. Lost in her thoughts, she whispered. "Oh, I won't hurt them. I won't betray them...they do it all on their own, if they aren't honest...although...though..." A sigh. She licked her lips. "Is it wrong to ask for their...I've got enough means to pay for a book...I won't even need whatever Tenkai is going to offer, likely not, no, he does that for himself, he has to face himself and his real wishes, but..." The free left hanging by her side slowly clenched and unclenched, her eyes narrowed to slits. "Is it wrong to want to taste...memories..." She breathed in deeply. "They sounded...delicious..."

Suddenly, Lucind straightened and blinked, even blushed when her head involuntarily turned around to Maximos, her eyes barely meeting his.

"Well. We have to see if Mr. Tenkai will be honest with himself. I hope he is. Nothing good ever came from a meaningful item purchased halfheartedly."

The Siren walked the long back wall of the library where her desk was. From a chest of drawers she took a pouch and from that a box which she lightly shook: something light pattered against the lacquer. "Fingernails of a mermaid. Together with the hair a perfect bait for the man who currently owns Van Helsing's text." With that, she put Tenkai's lock into a tiny sac and had it vanish in the pouch, together with the box. Both times, when she opened and closed the drawer, the same trails of ancient magic would scan her hand just as it had happened earlier when the woman entered the library.

"So, my dear..." Lu turned to look at Maximos. "Shall we go back upstairs to finish our tea? If Fletcher left anything for us, that is." There wasn't a hint of a smirk on her lips, yet it was obvious that the Siren had just offered a game. Both of them were burning to do something else than sipping tea, that is, see something else - and that was right behind them, merely hidden by a magically protected wall.

Lucind Varhetel Wrote:

This was no lie, as was evident in the monk's face - and Lucind saw and heard all of it. The woman shook her head. "No, Mr. Tenkai, there is no need to ask me for forgiveness. You did not do me wrong. After all, the question here is not how I value the text."

When the monk got ready to leave, the Siren waited until he had said what he wanted to say and reacted with a smile: "The pleasure truly was mine. - There is, however, one last thing I would like to ask of you." A short pause.

"A lock of your hair. Just a thin strand. As a 'prepayment'...and a pledge of your honest wish to own Van Helsing's writing."

She would wait to see if Tenkai was ready to give her that small amount of hair. If he did, Lucind would take the lock - and while thanking him and explaining that in one week, the Feiruza would be at the same spot, an invisible wind would caress the hair to neatly curl it up in the woman's hand.

"A lock of hair?"

A truly peculiar request. Tenkai had heard of spells and rituals requiring locks of hair, ranging the spectrum between benevolent and malevolent. But the monk had absolutely no reason to think ill of such a request. These sort of agreements were formed upon trust. If Tenkai couldn't trust Lucind with a few strands of hair, then he had no business being here.

"Oh, of course!" he replied. "I'll just..."

That's when Tenkai realized he was without a cutting implement.

"Hm..."

Well...maybe not totally without. He did have something hidden from view on his person that could cut, but it'd be absolutely ridiculous of him to take it out just for some hair. Besides, it probably wouldn't be very happy returning to it's sheath after such a request...

But Tenkai was not without resources. He could think of a way to--

"Ita-ta-ta!" ><

--or he could just pull a lock of hair straight out of his ponytail. A bit direct, but it did the job.

If not a little too well.

Gah! I pulled out too much! he thought as he looked at the clump of long hair strands in his hand. His face was wrenched with both surprise and fascination at his daftness. Tenkai had plenty of hair to spare, sure, but he probably should have been a bit more careful before just grabbing it.

But Lucind only needed a few hairs. Eyeing through the tuft, Tenkai took out the neatest of locks, separating them from any bent or ruined strands. He handed them carefully to Lucind, listening to her directions as she thanked him for the prepayment. Of course, listening to her set the terms for the trade had reminded him...

"Oh yes, I forgot to mention!" said Tenkai, softly pounding his right fist into the palm of his left hand to emphasize the sudden thought, "The name of the book is A Study on the Afflictions of the Blood and the Nature of Plague by Prof. Abraham Van Helsing. I apologize for not mentioning the title earlier."

........................

With their goodbyes said, Tenkai retraced his steps through the ship, leading himself out of the library area of Feiruza and back onto the deck. It wasn't very long before he was off the ship itself, constantly repeating to himself mentally the words that Lucind had spoken to him.

As he walked away from the ship, the monk couldn't help but stop himself and look back upon the vessel. It's majesty and mystery only caused him to further ponder the words of his mysterious hostess and her terms of their trade. He looked down to his chest, placing his gauntlet-clad right hand over it.

Something close to my heart...

What a powerful thing to consider, he thought. What did Tenkai truly consider close to his heart? Was it anything he could even bear to give up for the sake of pursuing Van Helsing's knowledge?

It all came down to how much worth he put into that book. How much worth did he give to the knowledge it could give him? Why have that knowledge in the first place? These were things that questioned his resolve.

A challenge of my resolve...

"So that's how it is..."

Tenkai smiled, thinking of the mysterious Ms. Varhetel and Mr. Dark. He was thankful that he had met them, otherwise he wouldn't have had this situation. Challenges like this brought up important questions that needed to be asked in order to discover one's true nature. As a Buddhist, it was something that Tenkai very much appreciated.

He let out a small, light-hearted chuckle as he turned, walking away from the docks.

((Exeunt TENKAI

I apologize if this was too short. The past few days have been difficult. ._.))

She was so still, so silent, so distant she might almost seem lost. For most this might have been a reason for concern. Was she offended? Was she something worse? Silence could mean so very many things, or it could mean anything. But Maximos was unphased, his calm not in the slightest shaken.

Lucind's form may have been as still as night, but her mind certainly was not. Over her should Maximos was so close to her busy he mind could almost hear it, almost touch it. And in truth, it was both physical and mental that Maximos found so irresistible. Her thoughts always seemed to place a different angle, a different point of view on even the most cemented topics. A small comment and anything seemed new, especially now as she slowly but surely awakened into something so very new. Maximos imagined, her current thoughts were a beautiful thing and he found himself momentarily regretful that he hadnt the ability to read and experience them for himself.

And then, the moment continued and physical overtook mental.

"Always a gentleman..." A sigh. She shook her head, now standing in front of the Shadow. "You do know your manners."

Gently her hand found its way around him and slowly the two rose. Her fingers were so delicate, the change from the rough feel of a punch or the grip of a sword was wonderful. His fingers curled slightly inward to match the contours of her porcelain pale face. Mismatched eyes fell on hers, and then his glove was been peeled up and her lips gently touched his skin.

They say love is being able to give yourself to someone completely. Max could honestly have said that in that moment he did not mind if he never got that hand back. If it made her grin like that, it was hers.

"Well then, let's go and say hello." And it was hers as she led him. Maximos' own anticipation was enough to make the moment, the journey, no matter how small seem unbearably long. But all of this was made worse by the light show produced by Lucind's soul and the fluttering beat of her heart. She knew what was in this room and yet still she was so very excited, Max wondered if he would be able to contain his reaction at all. Possibilities swam through his mind.

Too fast, or maybe too slow, they were at a door. Lucind had suddenly become tense and quiet, adding a whole new level of intensity to the moment. Latches were being thrown, doors were opened into darkness and...Maximos did not know what he had been expecting, but it certainly was not this. Mops? Brooms? Cleaning supplies? There was very clearly something at the end of the hall, hinted by the stone wall with its faint arcane outline, and the lengths taken to hide the truth of the place...perhaps too well. The darkest collection of books in likely most of history...broom closet. It took everything in his power not to break out in deep long belly laughs. Lucind's seriousness restrained the entire rush of chuckles behind a grin that stretched ear to ear...save for maybe a few snickers. But even that vanished as an unnatural breeze carried the scent of fresh blood by his unsuspecting nose.

Max was no vampire, but if blood was involved, the situation demanded a healthy level of seriousness and respect. Flesh magic was the oldest and strongest kind there were and Lucind's involvement in it made him quite concerned. Suddenly there was a flash of cerulean, a burst of lines and shapes shining brilliant against the darkness. The magic formed an intricate web, a sort of tapestry of unspoken power. Max tried his very best to decipher it, but it was gone before he gathered anything more than a blurry concept. All that remained were the lines detailing the new door. And then it was time to move again and Max followed in respectful silence.

He would have walked fearlessly into the room if Lucind's hand had not stopped him. Crossing the threshold was like running into a solid thing. Maximos almost immediately gasped, there was arguably as much magic in the air, as air itself. His right arm, a hungry beast, was suddenly alive. It quivered at his side fighting against his control as it attempted in vain to thrash tear its way through the room. Even held down his fist opened wide and then closed, over and over, as if taking gulping starving breaths. Occasionally his finger twitched and spasmed like the long white legs of a trapped spider.. This place, so very rich in the arcane felt intensely different than Gaia proper, it felt like...home. Like Aria. Like a place populated with millions of beings all pumping out raw arcana should feel.

When it breathed, it was a deep lung full as if he had been holding his breath for decades, his head swirled for a moment and only then did he realize how very dark the room was. Slowly the pale natural lighting that filled the library proper began to permeate the room. There was something about this sort of light over the usual florescents that Maximos really liked. He assumed it was the way it only seemed to dimly move the shadows away, as opposed to casting them violently away in a sudden burst of white. Darkness was separated from light, but not banished.

Now, they were revealed. Like a cloth torn off a banquet, here were so very many tastey morsels. Slowly, the Shadow let his control slip, and carefully he stepped forward, scanning over book covers and titles. Some he could, some he could not. His right hand carefully rose and became still and compliant as it was allowed to taste...not feed, but taste. Malice. Rage. Pain. Fear. Hunger. Such powerful sentiments, such rich magics. Some of these tones were nothing more it seemed than the epitome of a single concept, dark or light regardless, such raw purity was an incredibly powerful thing. Maximos' senses were suddenly very sharp. Violet sparks danced between his fingertips and across his palm as he very gently ran a finger alone the chain binding yet another book.

"Welcome, my love." Her words stole him away from his reverie. His mismatched eyes fell on her with his right eye a stark white, glowing like a cigarette but in the dim light. Behind her in a bowl, and faintly tracing her hand was a sort of white magic, he might not have seen it before but at the moment his eye was hypersensitive to it all. Maximos was elated, his features made it almost look like he was in a daze, or heavily distracted. He fought to hear her voice when so many other pulls were tugging him in so many different directions and each one called to an instinct deep inside of him to his core, to feed. To hunt.

As opposed to letting his love and his hunger battle, Maximos used on to assist the other. A smooth sort of smile crossed his face making his teeth gleam. It was a smile that hinted he was up to something and yet gave no hint or scale as to how good or bad it might b e.

"Any wishes concerning a...private handshake?" She said, and without missing a beat Maximos responded. "Yes, actually."

He stepped forward gracefully, in no visible rush. His left gently touched her belly as he stepped beside and swooped behind her letting his long arm trace a path around her. The sparks dancing around his right arm had silently increased and then ignited into a very dull miasma, sort of like the opposite of a glow. The arm stood pinned at his side.

"You have so very many here, and you know them so much better than I. But out of all of these..."

And then his right arm rose, Max stepped around and beside Lucind, running his left arm up her back and across her shoulder were it patiently waited while his right fanned out across the room. "Will you show me your favorite?"

From their first encounter so soon after his resurrection, Max knew with undeniable certainty, Lucind had exquisite taste.

"...no."

His eyes widened, his face stretched to a curious smirk, and she chuckled throatily. It was a beautifully dark sound to hear, like the eerie gust of wind through the woods before a storm that told you something was coming...just not what.

"Not just like that." Turning her head, amber eyes squinted at him. Maximos' smirk stretched into an ear to ear grin.

"You always want to go directly for desert." She knew him so well. Could she blame him?

"Understandable." Of course not, he chuckled softly himself.

"But...let's strain your patience by having an appetizer first." Very dramatically the Shadow pulled the ends of his mouth down into an upside down crescent. Lucind, he trusted, knew him well enough to understand he'd never be so unappreciative so to pout.

"You know, I guess I shouldn't have a favorite among these, like a mother. Love them all the same...but that's not true." Tilting her head back again, this time far enough it came to rest against Maximos' shoulder so that she could inspect the volumes at the ceiling. Maximos' hands in turn slid down to her waist as his head craned up in the same direction as hers taking in the volumes, scanning them with the very many sights granted to his all too curious eye. Which one would she pick? That one looked particularly dark. That one however looked too bright, it was hiding something. And that...he just didnt quite know how to describe that one. Despite his hungering curiosity, Maximos would never be rude, and his attention never left her.

"So either I'm a mother feeding off of her children or a dungeon keeper with a twisted sense of affection." Maximos chuckled and immediately responded.

"Or both! Perhaps an affectionate mother who keeps her children in a dungeon? They say you always hurt the ones you love you know."

"Ah...there we go."

And then suddenly the hunt was back on, Lucind was whispering something in that sweetly melodic mother tongue of hers that Maximos did not even almost understand but enjoyed all the same. Now a book was descending from the ceiling. Maximos had to say that Lucind beyond the shadow of a doubt had a serious knack for showmanship. He did not doubt the fact that the pearls, and the worlds she spoke all had deeply significant meaning. And he did not in any way even almost believe the magics at work here were not older than himself and completely necessary, but even though the event was already grand something in the way Lucind presented it made it seem that much more so. Maximos was looking at a book descend and watching the Siren put together a make-shift podium, but he felt as if he was going to visit a King. It was, all in all, a wonderful experience. The outcry from the other books, or rather, the spikes in essence and aura only made the presentation that much more complete. And then Lucind was speaking, and Maximos dared not do anything but listen.

"We're safe with this here. Well, almost. A lovely thing it is. Not exactly the most lethal one among my special guests, but there's something to it I can't help being attracted to." She was right, as raw magic went this one was in comparison dull, and yet it still had a life of its own, and a hint of something to it...something unseen beneath the surface. Maximos peered at it deeper as she continued. Isaiha's Remedies, and it smelled delicious, almost like tea. Maximos' hand reached out for it and as Lucind stepped aside, he kindly and smoothly filled the space she left behind.

He let his right hand run over each page, not devouring, just tasting and testing. Not reading the pages, but the books energies. At first, he recognized a few herbs, and even thought he may recognize a concoction or two from research for his shop but...there was something more here. He had never imagined combining these this way. Even herbs he thought were entirely innocuous he saw being used in only the most dastardly of ways. He flipped farther and faster, gentle and yet expedient, scanning each page with a wicked grin across his face.

"I find it really lovely."

"Its astonishing." He replied, almost with a gasp, never looking up from the pages. "Isaiha seems to have found some of the very most lovely ways to remedy an individual...of their life."

"Also, what I found out soon after examining it is that..." A soft grin appeared on her face. Maximos could almost hear the hinting edge in her voice, his hand stopped cold on the page he had reached. "The book is poisonous itself. The longer you work with it, touch it, even smell it, the more it affects your nervous system. "

The page slipped from his hand. She said they were safe, but safe is a point of view isnt it? He could still walk and talk fine so he had to be at least that safe. But curiously Maximos seemed to be examining his fingers. Twiddling them before his face as she continued her explanation, and when she finished he turned to her with a smirk and said.

"So that explains why my fingers are numb." A poison agent, and then an accentuating smell, so that was the magic he tasted. Interesting! Maximos skimmed another few pages before closing the volume and meeting Lucind's eyes with a smile. While he dare not say it, his eyes asked if he had been patient enough yet.

"So much for the appetizer. What about a delicious entree?" Maximos' only response was a grin that split his face in two. Lucind turned and as she moved to the next tome she seemed to harden, and darken. Not visibly and yet, very visibly to Maximos' trained eye. She was suddenly dark and deadly, as if she were preparing for battle. Maximos wondered if they would have to fight, should he have his sword drawn?

Chains bound the chosen book so tightly that only flecks and glimpses leaked through, but they were enough. He knew that book. He knew it as if the memory he had seen was his own. His fingers wriggled and thrashed like five individual hungry limbs waiting for a taste of something truly delicious a rare one of a kind delicacy. This...was darkness, true as it came. The audience, was going wild. For a moment, Max felt like one of them. Hungry and waiting, bound by his manners, unable to partake. They say you cannot judge a book by its cover and yet this books cover spoke of murder, gore, and pain, he felt its cover spoke rather clearly of its contents.

"I still haven't figured out...," He could even see the books own black aura lashing out at Lucind as her own toyed with it. Her mental defenses were as spot on as always, Max almost envied her that ability. Maximos stood opposite the podium, across from Lucind.

"What is it? It's a curse, for sure. This book is evil...but..."

"Well then, lets see if..." Maximos' hand moved almost automatically to slid along the brittle cover while it was in reach, it stung at his fingertips, and yet the sensation rolled from pain to a tingly warmth that ran down his spine.

And then the book opened. The collected agony, torture, insanity, bloodlust of hundreds of years combined with unholy magic swooped up, running havoc, crashing and storming against the two persons who had dared waking it. The emotions the raw sensation pounded in his skull and then, all at once the storm focused, every individual emotion a piece of a whole voice that said.

Write! Write!

Max heard the voice seep through his mind like water seeps through stone, or like roots crawl through soil. He had mental defenses of course, though not at all like Lucind's. Maximos was no psychic, in his mind were fragments of lost souls. Millions of damned souls working in unison as on solitary metal wall, or in fragments as a thousand pieces of jagged glass one had to wade through. To one invading Maximos' mind each fragment was like a channel. And the channels kept changing, over and over faster than a blink. To control his mind you either to have a key in...like Lucind, or you had to be able to forcibly seize control of each channel as they switched. Over and over, wrestling control of nearly 3 million different fragments.

And thats precisely what it was doing. Whether it was simply so powerful, or whether the hungry siv that was his arm's devouring nature that cut through the defenses around the book, with every heartbeat the voice was louder and louder.

WRITE. WRITE. WRITE.

Maximos' eyes shifted from intently focused, to slightly hazy. He saw the book but he did not see the words or the emotions anymore, he only saw himself writing in it. It would feed his unbreakable arm delicious magicks such as it had never tasted before, and he would feed it beautiful words. Dark. Old. Magick words that only shadows spoke. Words of power. Words of fear. Words of darkness. Words that were never meant to be shared.

"I'm sorry, its rather a little rude, I fear. Once a month I feed it with blood. Not my own, mind you. But otherwise it would start falling apart quickly which...would be a shame really."

WRITE! WRITE! WRITE!

"Or what do you think?"

Lucind's voice was a whisper on the wind, his fingers were already curling to accommodate a pen. Blackness swirled between his fingertips and made a pure ebony writing utensil and began lowering it to the page. She had ended her sentence in a question, he knew that. Somewhere in his mind an unbreakable core of gentlemanly training said he should respond. With glossed over eyes and a desperate, almost needy voice Maximos answered her, lowering his hand to the page and beginning to form his first letter of something truly horrible.

WRITE! WRITE! WRITE!

"Write...write...write..."

What was really happening here? In a moments notice what was a seemingly simple game of show and tell had spiraled drastically out of control. This was Chaos. But some may argue that chaos is nothing more than an order not understood by those present. Maximos may have been lost. Lucind may end up alone, hurt, or worse and what were the ramifications to the Shadow's already unbalanced psyche if such a thing were to happen? Would it be worse that it was all by his hand? And while this outwardly appeared to be a bad thing...wasnt that just a point of view? If you subtracted the emotions of those present from the occasion, the situation took on an entirely different shape.

This arm would be far more difficult to destroy. Its owner would be much more enduring. And as he survived he would fill its pages with dark and ancient shadow script. And then, inexorably a contest would arise. Would Maximos be slain? Or would the paladin of Nocturne fill its pages with so much arcana that he would claim the nightmare tome for the Lord Of All Nightmares? What horrors would follow when its immeasurable evil blessed the hands of the eternally dark god? Could Maximos hope to stand against the Father of Shadow's will?

"No."

Maximos was not one to take commands but her words struck him with an almost tangible force. His body jerked backwards a step as if forcibly shoved away, for a moment Maximos' eyes left the tome and fell on Lucind. For a flash, for little more than an instant something in those mismatched orbs hinted at recognition, as if the glaze had faded and for a split second he saw Lucind. And he looked confused. But if the Shadow had anything, he had willpower and he had it in spades...even if it was not his own. His taller form pressed forward again, his right hand reached out again a perfectly formed black metal fountain pen in hand. No, not soft edged ball point kind but the kind with an edge like a knife. But it was not paper the tip of the pen connected with.

"No."

But this time she would feel the assault thud off of Maximos' mind like a baseball bat thuds against a rubber tire. Loud, but ultimately ineffective. Maximos' movements were strong, and yet lethargic, he did what he did with force but did it with no perceivable life lacking the smooth fluidity that befit their owner.

"No my dear, now is not the time to play", but a no saying, "I won't let this happen. I won't let you run into this trap when I can't predict the result." Maximos' hand stirred against hers, writing even as she held herself between it and the page. The book lashed out and it seemed, as if he was an extension of its terrible force Maximos' own aura shoved itself against her. A hungry, primal thing, the face and spirit of a monster.

The pressure of a sharp pen may sting, but the actual mark left by Maximos' still moving, still writing, hand would burn. The black lunaic words immediately attempted to seep into her skin, instead of resting atop it. Sort of like a tattoo.

Just as soon as one hand was captured, the snapped to life. It moved like a marionette, his fingers rose awkwardly on invisible strings and curled inward. Between his digits blackness began taking shape, and then suddenly her hand found his. Their fingers intertwined and snuffed out whatever was about to be formed.

The realization was slow, but the moment it dawned on the lumbering Shadow that his hands were not doing what they were supposed to, but were instead held up between him and Lucind there was an immediate change in his demeanor. All at once his face contorted from drull and focused, to something fiercer and darker. His mismatched eyes met hers with frightening intensity and clarity of purpose. She would be able to see his pupils, at the center of both eyes, begin to twitch and warble like overstuffed water balloons threatening to break. His lips pulled back over his teeth and a sound like a snarl came from deep in his throat.

Where moments ago her fingers were intertwined with his unwilling, now his hand began to squeeze hers. Slowly, like thunder rolling steadily across the horizon he began to exert force, both hand shoving into hers in a sort of odd arm wrestle. Maximos' eyes were clear, and yet still perceived nothing. They saw, but were blinded by an uncontrolled and unexplained fiery rage. It was as if the thought of moving her aside hadnt even entered his mind. His right arm pushed harder than his left, almost trying to shove hers backwards and to the page. He had every intention of writing through her.

Maximos was overcome. His senses were drowned in an all too familiar killer instinct. His breaths were deep and gasping, starving breaths of a man who had never tasted air before. The urge to write was an agonizing fire, and he knew nothing but to satisfy the need. This was not the first time Lucind had stared down the Destroyer.

And so, as fast as possible, Lucind forced her will between that of the book and the Shadow's captured senses, bit by bit blocking the tome's urging voice. Words of Seireneia echoed through the room once more. Her soft words were cool water over searing hot coals. Lucind and the soft Seireneia was the music playing in the background. The music that slowly but surely steals away your concentration and focus until it is all you can hear. It embraced him like ocean waves and bore him along softly and gently away from a dark place he did not ever remember entering. And the chains became alive. The book was closed. All at once it was all gone.

Maximos blinked. And then blinked again. The fire in his eyes was gone as was the haze, all that remained was confusion. He blinked again, and this time his eyes truly met hers and the pose they were currently placed in. Before a third blink he felt the sharpness of his teeth with his tongue and knew exactly what danger signified. Maximos hurriedly backed away, his form a momentary blur.

"Oh..." He said, looking at the stained pen in his hand. The memory rushed back in a flash and the pen fell to the floor. "Oh, by Nocturne, Lucind I'm so sorry...I..."

He moved to step forward and then suddenly stopped, he pulled his right hand back to his chest, holding it with his left. His fingers opened and closed in sync with his breaths, as if the hand was tasting the air itself. The book was away...but it knew where...Maximos was sorry, but they had both played with the proverbial fire, this sort of thing was bound to happen. Now wasnt the time to admit that it was a bit thrilling, now was better spent reassessing the situation.

"I...need to be more careful." He said, taking another step away from the Siren. His eyes fell to his hand stared at it intensely as it "breathed". And then slowly the breath faded and Maximos looked up at the Siren, a fine layer of sweat glistened on the Siren's temples and above her lips.

"..."

"Thats twice now, I sincerely hope this isnt going to be a habit whenever a dangerous book enters our lives."

Maximos ventured a smirk. His teeth raked across his bottom lip. From observing him, she would know it was not a nervous gesture so much as a thoughtful one. He was planning something, his left hand still holding his right. His eyes seemed to be scanning the room for something, and then finally he spoke up, gesturing to one of the bound books with his left as he said, "May I borrow a length of that chain?"

"Only if we stop asking for trouble." Maximos paused, he seemed to be dolefully considering this for a moment. His hand actually even moved to his chin, and rubbed it in deep consideration. And then, after the sort of pause that almost always followed a deep and meaningful response Maximos said. "Well then. We're quite doomed."

And then Maximos grinned and laughed lightly, and continued with his previous request. It appeared, while Maximos dare not venture too deep into the sea of the woman's soul, that she wasnt as upset with the occurrence as he might have imagined. And then, Lucind nodded and upon her word, a new one sprouted from the floor. The growth would stop after the chain was around four feet long. "Is that enough?"

"More than, actually. Thank you dear." The walls sprouting chains, Maximos had to say, was a wonderful touch. It added this sense of uncertainty to the entire situation. If he had gone too far out of control, would she have summoned chains to bind him as well? What else could be bled from the stone? The mystery of it all fascinated him to no end, so his grin stretched rather wide as he reached down to pluck the chain from the ground. He wondered if it would come free of its own accord or if he would have to tug it loose like a weed.

With a soft pop, the buttons on the wrist of his jacket sleeve were loosened and the length of cloth was pulled up to about his elbow. Wet splotches of black very clearly stained the white bandage in various shades of gray and pitch. Maximos didnt plan to restrain his arm persay, so much as...limit it. Originally he imagined a bracelet, but this was likely safer. Max took the chain and pinched an end with his thumb, and then coiled it down his right arm to his elbow, and back bringing the opposite end to meet the first end being held by his thumb. There was a spark of black and the two ends were met in a loop. The miasma of black swirling around his arm just moments ago immediately degraded into a thin black warbling skin over the cursed limb. Almost immediately the chains were stained a midnight black, transitioning from pears to obsidian in a moments notice.

As Maximos began rolling his sleeve back down, Lucind began to speak. He lift his head, meeting her eyes as he fixed his sleeve blind. "Speaking about trouble: Am I in some now?"

With that, she stretched out her arm to show the Shadow that the words he had written on her skin were still there. Maximos' lips flattened into a tight line, and his brow furrowed slightly. A single symbol could be deadly. What had he wrought? He stepped forward, extending his left hand and sliding it under hers, softly guiding her hand toward him as he in turn stepped toward her. His mismatched eyes met her hand with all the intensity of an aged palm reader. His left thumb traced the lines carefully, but he didnt speak. Bad, good, he didnt say.

And then his right hand moved, hovering over hers with its fingers outstretched. The mark, tattooed into her skin began to slither and squirm and then all at once peeled off her palm. The word, the symbol, the rune, hovered her hand and in the space between both palms, and then his bandaged fingers moved forward closing around it. His fingertips dragged along her palm, as cold as ice. Maximos' eyes finally returned to hers, something of his old smile had returned but it was tempered with a mote of seriousness.

"You should be fine." He said, pulling his right hand away and pinching her fingers with his left hand, bringing her palm up as he lowered his face to plant a kiss where the mark once lay.

"But, if you have any odd dreams, tell me immediately." Then her eyes searched for his, search ending in success as soon as it began. Lucind spoke, and Maximos listened.

"Do you...want to go on? You asked me to show you my favorite book. And I'd love to do so. But I fear you might not find as attractive as the last one." Maximos cocked an eyebrow, his grin skewing in an trademark wicked twist. He was so hoping she'd ask. Doom, and death should never come between these two and fun.

"Yet, on me it will probably have an effect similar to what happened to you just now." His grin automatically split until a full set of white teeth glinting pale in the strange light, were visible. Remembering their momentary confrontation, ideas swirled in Maximos' mind that were likely not proper to actually say. He stepped forward, shrinking the distance between them, but yet still holding Lucind's hand in between both of his own as if it were a most delicate piece of art. His right hand still cold as death. "Lucind, my dear, I dont believe I could say no to such an offer, even if I tried."

Here, she laughed softly. "I always have weird dreams...!" This was a humor Maximos simply could not return. He had not forgotten her connection or the unique way in which her mind endlessly worked. It was precisely that connection that he feared for. First hand did he know of the horrors of the child god. First hand had he felt his restful night hours turned against him, trapping him in monstrous vision after vision, warping, twisting and churning what he was. His mind had been the devil's plaything and he would not allow the same fate to befall her. He did not frown, and he did not scowl. Maximos did not show any outward negativity except that in the face of her levity, his face was an unmoving, and somewhat solid mask. The ends of his mouth twitched at an attempted smile...but the attempt never became more than just that, an attempt.

But now, Lucind nodded and said. "I'll let you know." And Maximos' smile sliced its way across his face yet again.

Lucind, if he put her personality and beauty aside and focused solely on her, she was a magnificently unique creature. Perhaps not completely alone in that there were others of her kind, but still unique in her own right. The Shadow for one had a way of working his mind until it simply burnt out, and then sleeping for extended periods of time until it was restored. Lucind's mind never truly slept. At all times she multitasked, at all times she managed so much...it was beyond fascinating.

And it was that very fascination that made the smile on Maximos' face split when he caught her very powerful mind entirely, and yet absentmindedly, locked on one of the basins. He wasnt sure until she blinked and he saw the recognize click in her eyes, but when he was sure he chuckled ever so softly to himself. He knew she would hear, but perhaps the effort in trying to not laugh so loudly would yet still be appreciated.

Lucind was moving now, each step was a meaningful pace in an endless march. Maximos could see the bowl, he could see the glimmer of the pearls, he understood and appreciated its beauty...but at the same time he knew he was missing something truly amazing. There was something here that shook her, something vast and amazing, and it was just beyond his grasp.

"This is ridiculous... Why am I scared stiff of what I want most?"

Arent we all?

Maximos thought back to himself, but he said nothing. Lucind was growing, she was maturing and gradually filling the skin she was born in. This was not something she could be lead through, she had to come to certain realizations and overcome certain boundaries all on her own. For this reason, Maximos did not attempt to answer her but instead silently followed a few steps behind her.

Fear, trepidation, the air was rife with it. When her hands came to rest on the basin's brim, she hesitated another moment. Maximos watched with eager anticipation from a few paces behind, wondering if she would or could actually do it. And then she finally slid both hands into the mass of pearls. From the bottom, she carefully dug up a book not as large as the previous one, but thicker. The tome was beautiful outwardly, someone had taken great care in its construction. It bore words and symbols that while Maximos did not immediately find legible, he realized he could. He did not know these tongues but he knew similar tongues likely all related to base tongues and with time he might have been able to translate and yet...he imagined that the words in this book had little to do with its importance and he did not try.

The book was like a doorway with a light behind it, in a very dark hallway. There were clerical spells and arcana that bound the book, but hints of its power show through the seems of the door frame. The light was never enough to illuminate the hallway, and never enough to reveal where the light came from and how, just that it was there...and it teased. To say he was curious, was to say the ocean was "a little wet".

Turning around, the book in her hand, Maximos had the image of waitress with a too huge order balancing on a tray in her hand. The book was not too large for Lucind, the Siren was plenty strong and yet her mannerisms and the way in which she signaled for his assistance with her eyes, not her hands or mouth, as if such things would tip the tray and send her crashing to the ground a mess. Despite his curiosity as to what would happen if he did not, Maximos moved to set the podium back in its proper place. He found that it stung his right hand to touch it, it was like drinking salt water. He attested this to the pearls and then dismissed it as soon as his Siren began to approach.

Her heart was beating so hard that he could hear it, and Maximos did not possess super human hearing. Her breaths came out ragged, her hands were shaking and yet were locked on the book as if her very next moment depended on its release. And then it was released, a beautiful thing, and she let out a shuddering breath. He knew that sound. Maximos immediately saw himself a few weeks previous, he remembered with sharp clarity the way he had tasted so many a soul and how every inch of his flesh burned for the spark of essence and the elation that followed. And when he had it, he breathed that breath exactly. Part of him wanted to help her. A greater part of him told him to stay back and observe. Maximos' right arm moved across his chest his left, resting on his right, adjusted his glasses and then cupped his chin. A faint spark of white came from his right eye, glowing like the dying embers of a flame.

This book was different than the two before. It was neither black nor white. But it reeked of...something. Maximos had never seen an energy like this before. The glow from his eye increased, then shrunk, it even changed colors to faded violet and a blue, but still nothing. And then he saw them. Souls. Lucind might not have noticed but Maximos' entire form became rigid, the smile on his face flattened momentarily into a sharp line. Souls should not be in books. Souls should be, at all costs, entered into the cycle of life and death. What Maximos was staring, he immediately recognized as exactly the sort of thing he was employed to destroy. This, was a violation.

Maximos stepped forward, just a single step at first. His hands peeled off his chest slowly, his thoughts began to turn toward his scythe. It was never far, one thought and it was in his hands. One swing and the book was finished. And then mid-motion he stopped.

Something was missing here. There were no screams, no howls of injustices, none of these souls was burning with the stink of necromancy. No dark magics were at work here...these souls were imprisoned voluntarily. Like a noodle in hot water, the stiffness of Maximos' form melted away. His arms, partially off his chest laid back to their resting positions, his eye dimmed to a dull ignition. His thoughts moved from his scythe, to her. As a wise man once said; Damnation is a choice. Judgment had already been cast on these hundreds.

"I stumbled upon this by chance," she began to explain, her voice coarse and feeble. She was pushing herself to the limits, and Maximos guiltily was curious what they were. "Several years ago, while traveling the South of Gaia, following a clan mission. A Bedouin sold it to me for a pearl necklace and my complete stock of Northern herbs. I...am not sure, but I think he had an idea what the book really was, because he said something about not becoming lured again when it is my position to lure...weird man."

The Shadow pondered this for a moment. It was not the first time had heard of an ancient and powerful thing being held by a seemingly clueless and innocuous seller and sold for something far less than its value. Many had met them, and yet he had not. In a moment, Maximos wondered if he was destined to come across such a man in his time. And then, as his thoughts flitted to his shop and back, Maximos realized with no small amusement that the answer was no. He was destined to become such a man.

"But frankly, it nearly killed me holding myself back from opening it during my travel back. I knew I would not be able to handle it, but just...the taste of it drove me insane."

Her fingers gently ran along the edge of the cover. The back of his mind, Maximos noted that it was nearly killing her now. He wondered if she would be able to handle it. Would he meet his first Mad Siren?

"It stood for all I could not be. All I secretly wanted to be - only that at that time I was far away from realizing."

Maximos nodded solemnly in memory of her self-imposed moral yolk. She seemed to linger on that memory for a while, and then like ripping off a bandage in one pass, or diving head first into a cold pool, she opened the book.

An outburst of thoughts and memories exploded from empty pages, crashing against Max and Lu, hundreds of voices, old and young, male and female, all kind of races, all sort of languages - they all spoke at once, whispering, explaining, arguing, asking, pleading, suggesting...And suddenly he understood. The power he had seen earlier and not recognized was this. Not life, but knowledge, knowledge pooled together supernaturally in such a pure concoction that it manifested itself energetically. The souls had awakened from their slumber. Maximos wanted to hear them, he wanted in some deep and overly curious part of his mind to question each one. He felt, almost, as if that was there purpose. And yet he could not. The wave crashed on his mind, and the walls of his consciousness stood, even against his curiosity. He felt them like numb whispers, filtered and distant too far to be touched or tasted or sampled.

He understood now what Lucind had meant. This book was appetizing, but the way in which he would have hungered for it would have been a waste. Maximos could have eaten these souls like grapes off a vine and with each grape swallowed the knowledge it held would have been snuffed out. Eventually he would grow tired of grapes or of the high, and the book would be useless. So much knowledge wasted but for a being in tune with the thoughts and minds of so many...

Hunched over the lectern, Lucind closed her eyes, new sweat appearing on her forehead. He heard the voices fade, he saw that new essence, pur knowledge focused on her. She had forced all attention on herself. It was a desperately difficult effort. The weight of her mind taxed her body and left her hanging the make-shift stand like a marionette with its strings cut. Maximos watched, like watching a foreign movie with no subtitles, as her soul fluttered in anxiety and her mind battled the onslaught. It lasted for a split second - before it became still. Deadly still. Dark, and deep. And then just deadly.

Not deadly as in dark and evil. But deadly in the sort of way Maximos or rather...Uriel, was when dressed in his cloak and baring his scythe. He then, her now, was not a malicious force but rather a resolute one. Like the deepest depths of the ocean. Like a crashing tidal wave, like a typhoon, or a hurricane. Forces, perhaps not of nature, but forces no less absolute in their destructive potential and danger, despite lacking any malice.

And like any force of nature, like anything that truly channels that cold destruction, instinct guided those threatened to flee. A man does not sanely stand before a tidal wave. A mortal does leap off a boat into a typhoon expecting to survive. Humans had fear, they had preset guidance that told them to flee certain kinds of danger. It was precisely the sort of scent and sensation a predator gets when closing on prey that knows it is being stalked but has no idea how to defend itself but to run. Maximos knew it only too well. And in the passing moments, Maximos that sensation, that taste, that touch, that experience flooded in from the dock and even the ship itself as so very many mortals took flight. Needless to say he was beside himself with the joy of it all, Lucind was doing something absolutely amazing. Nature responded to nature, even the water was effected by her call.

"Now, now....what do you have for me today?" Suddenly, she was alive again. Did Lucind have a grip on the book? Or the book her? With her soul as deep and dark as it was Maximos did not know. Her hand slid over blank pages that, as she turned them, seemed to suddenly ignite with life. Glowing text not in any language Maximos had ever read. Infact, he was not sure if the text was actually written, and not just thought made manifest as text to the eye so that the mind could try and grasp the concept of pure untranslated knowledge existing on a page.

"They're called seekers, an order that lives to unravel the secrets of this world...and others." Was she talking in common tongue or Seireneia? It was hard to tell, as well was the direction from where her voice was coming. Sometimes it would seem as if she sounding right within Maximos' head, then as if she standing behind or next or in front of him. And yet somehow he understood. As if Lucind's voice was not speaking words, but like the book was communicating information. He blamed his own mind for not being a worth or suitable receptacle for her to simply transfer the information or sentiments across without having to sully them with actual words. He imagined that the confusing dual nature of the words came from the difficulty in filtering something so very pure.

And as a reaper, Max should be able to make out all those souls, all of them equiped with a thirst for knowledge that made them true Faustian brothers. Some of them were not even born on this planet...Each entry was a soul...this book was humongous. A small city perhaps. But it was her city. Every brick, every inch, and she managed it masterfully. She extracted what she wanted, when and how she wanted, and yet much like a city Maximos understood that there was no way she could take in the whole thing at once.

He wanted to ask her what it was like. And yet he felt inept in that he had to use words to do so. The question was impossible to answer. It was like asking a spider to explain what it is to build a web. Oh, sure, the creative process was easy to understand, as was the mechanics of the thing. But the actual feel of body grown silk passing through you in thin and properly sculpted lines. The orchestrated dance that was making the web into its famed shape. The way one had to balance eight (six while spinning web) legs on a tight rope of incredibly thin line...

Impossible.

And that is what Lucind was on. A tight rope. Below her was a very deep and very dark fall into a place that Maximos was not sure he could retrieve her from. He could feel its unnatural gravity as surely as he could feel her own. Alone on this rope, Lucind had no net to save her, except him. And yet...would he? Could he?

Suddenly her head was jerked up and to the side. Somebody tried to interrupt her.

Max saw that it was the ship itself, no, he saw a connection that encompassed the ship. It was the Vikra, the water spirit residing in Prishazan's body that lashed out at the Siren - with the result that Lucind hissed something in her mother tongue, her upper lip revealing her teeth, something cold and almost deridingly. How dare it? The rudeness! Maximos himself wanted to plunge a hand into the thick wood and teach the upstart spirit some manners. Age did not justify rudeness, to a Reaper, age was nothing more than evidence of how long ones errant behavior had gone unchecked. His left hand moved to the black pearls on his right but before he could act Lucind already was.

Max couldn't understand her words per se, Lucind was beyond words at the moment but the meaning was very obvious:

Don't you dare touching me.

Maybe I can't protect these books from drowning - but do you think you could protect your host from me?

The ship fell silent.

I didn't think so.

Serves you right, the shadow thought to himself. The light in the room had darkened, as if Lucind was the center of a black hole and pulling in everything around her even illumination, or perhaps just the life of the small creatures that provided illumination. For a moment it seemed Lucind wanted to go back to "reading", and then her eyes found him.

Her eyes seemed off focus. He wondered what she truly saw. Was it him? Or did she see the collections of thoughts and knowledges within him all available, save for a few, to one with access as unbidden hers. He wondered, perhaps if she saw him as something entirely else.

"...so...so..."

Slowly, she walked over to him. And deep within the pit of his stomach Maximos felt a bit like a sailor at sea guided home by a beautiful voice only to crash on the rocks in a violent end. But in this case, instead of him sailing toward the voice it was coming toward him. Was it bringing its violent end in toe? Fear did not fill him, but something far more exciting. He was hers, as she was his. His arms opened wide, accepting. His mismatched eyes passed over her, fully enveloped in the books influence. His lips formed the words without thought, his tone laced with invitation beckoning her to finish the sentence she began and whatever thoughts spawned it.

...So?

He felt her coming like a tidal wave. What meager defenses his mind had were driftwood on the beach. And yet the beach of his mindscape was empty of even such refuse. For her it home only to Maximos with open accepting arms.

"...So?"

"So beautiful."

Needless to say, he blushed. Although in this lighting and on a face as pale as his own it might have been almost indistinguishable, it was there. He had been making progress with his previous aversion to physical contact and yet still, this made him blush. Her hands were so close even though they did not touch, that lack of contact did not constitute any lack of sensation. He could feel her even if he could not feel her.

She was touching him. She traced the edges of his mind with fingers he could not see. She gently touched parts of him that were not touched, that had never been touched by one as psychically unschooled as himself. Maximos was silent, which is to say he was speechless, his mind could not find the words and yet in his mind she would find the sentiment. And then, from that starting point she crept inwards.

Luring, bit by bit, like waves on the shore, each time reaching up the sand a little farther, she occupied his mind. His eye ignited not in panic or alarm but in curiosity. He had to see her, he had to see her like this, and know her as she would now know him.

There were parts of Maximos' mind which could not be seen. Protected not by himself, but my his occupation. Reaper targets past, present, and future, the times and names shown to him by his pocket watch, and so forth. These were the dark corners, the pockets of pallor filling his mind constantly. And while Lucind could not enter these, she could wash over them. She was a cool and steady stream that filled nearly every corner and space of his mind...and there were plenty, and in doing so she made him...no....

In doing so she let him, even for just a blissful moment, forget. There was her, and only her, and nothing else, and nothing mattered. The water was everywhere and he was drowning, and yet he could not bring himself to be anything other than utterly relaxed. As if he saw the sharp rocks coming to smash his vessel, but made piece with them and that ultimate fate, if it would just grant him a minute more. Her heard nothing, save for her voice. He saw nothing, save for the entrancing dark blue of the Siren's deep soul. He felt nothing, save for warm touches like the legs of some gentle pair of spiders creeping up his neck. He smelled her, like saltwater and tea. He tasted her soul, knowledge unladen. Blue washing over black which was pulled forever deeply into more blue. In a thoughtless moment his senses were lost and he wondered if he had let them slip or if they had been stolen. And yet, where there should have been panic there was her. And that made it all alright.

Maximos' form relaxed in her hands. Not lifeless or lethargic but calm. His breath evened into calm drags in and out. Only one eye continued to see, as that was its single purpose. To see, and make it so that blindness never kept a Reaper from his rounds.

"Breath taking...and so...so..." Her words resounding through him as if he were a long and empty hall. Here, her mental self leaned in to kiss the outer wall of his soul, and Maximos would have tried his very best to in some way return the gesture...but had no idea how, he only hoped she would catch and appreciate that thought. And then she flicked out her tongue.

"...tasty."

Lucind chuckled and Maximos in turn broke into laughter. She was retreating now, he knew it before he saw anything. He felt the cool water seep away, he felt the darkness shrouding his senses lift. At first it was as if he was seeing and hearing from underwater. As if he had plunged himself into the ocean and opened his eyes to see the surface. Slowly the warble began to fade, his vision began to sharpen and focus.

A warm moving sensation ran along his cheek and another smaller yet similar sensation brushed along his chin, by the time her fingers stopped the feelings had refined themselves into recognizable forms. Fingers, a thumb, but before he could react or even comment Lucind stepped back. Something in her posture told him that her decision to retreat may have been as much for herself as for him. Was he in more danger that he knew? Could he have been able to defend himself? Would he have wanted to?

"There is one more thing I'd like to show you." She said, and his questions vanished with her voice. She turned back around to the book, whose souls had calmed down a little. "You have to hear them sing. It's marvelous."

"Sing?" A singing book? And without a single though more the song began. This was a Siren song. But at the same time it was not. Maximos did not speak Seireneia, and yet one does not court a Siren and not hear the language enough to recognize it. But the tempo...the melody...it was different and yet familiar. So familiar in fact that it tugged at some deep part of him and begged to be recalled, just as it begged to be left forgotten.

Maximos was so focused on the melody that existed on the edge of his memory that the gentle slosh of water that was against the tune caught his attention. It was another symbol...and he knew that symbol. He knew it from memories before Lucind, and he knew it as he knew the canvas of her form. He remembered the mark on her chest without even having to look.

And thats when the memories came. And they came like a gushing torrent carried on the soft melodic flow. There was a city, and it was a bright and immaculate city. There was a library, and in charge of it was an ageless and seemingly genderless blond individual with six spotless wings and an unnatural glow about them. And they were humming this. And yet even their soft humming voice out performed any orchestra, any singer, any beautiful sound or sight Maximos had ever heard.

And then the souls joined. Maximos heard the too familiar voices of the dead. His memories flashed backwards. He remembered himself in his room. He felt his sword in his hands. He felt cold steel kissing his neck, and the single bead or red that ran down his shirt where blade met skin. A flash, a blur. Maximos remembered the sight of his Heavenly quarters turned sideways. His face was resting on the floor, his extremities were numb and cold, and his warm was spilled out in front of him like a river. Warmth flowed across wet stains down his chest and shoulder. And in that moment Maximos remember Lucind, and his soul, and telling her to "Tell them I'm sorry." In the real world Maximos lipped the words he lipped the apology he had spoken to her in that final moment.

And then, like pouring water on a canvas all the colors began to mix and swirl. The image blurred at all of its edges, and in much the same manner as a bad stain it dripped away. More voices joined in, and it came back, only different. Something in the memory made him smile, he remembered how bottomlessly empty he was then. How alone, and how full his life was now. He remember the worst memory as a reminder of a time that was now over.

Outside Maximos was smiling, not just grinning or smirking but smiling a warm charming thing. A smirk hushed over Lu's face. And then he saw, how for a third time, a film of sweat appeared on the Siren's face. The sight of her strain brought him back to reality. Lucind dark and blissful back on that tight rope and now she was beginning to sway. Her body began to shake. Spiritually and physically he saw the strain those final few words gave her. And then the music stopped. Lucind's legs gave out, her hands and reached out for the basin but they would never reach it. Instead they found support in Maximos' arms. One of his arms under each of hers firmly holding her waist-line, her center of gravity. If she would fall, completely he would guide the fall toward him, he would keep her standing and on her feet. And he was smiling.

Lucind reached out to close the book, but could not let go long enough for on arm would not carry her weight. Maximos stood between her, and the tome. For a moment, it seemed his blocking posture was intentional.

"This book is heavy..." Maximos said softly, carefully, lovingly, and yet there was a mote of something dark in his voice. "...isnt it? Is it trying to crush you? It stands in your way."

His left hand pulled her closer, she could lean on him if she wished. His body turned ever so slightly so that his right arm could move along the path her hand had begun but did not finish. As it moved he continued.

"I am taught that what one knows best, they observe the least. I am told that the faithful are most hurt by the objects of their faith." His fingers reached the edge of the lectern and stepped like black stained and chain-bound spiders up its edge and onto the book where his hand sprawled across its open pages like a large cat might stretch across a comfortable spot. "I had once learned that love is giving someone the power to hurt you terribly...and hoping they do not. And that we never trust anyone as easily as we did the first time."

"I know what you are feeling. I've felt all too recently myself. It threatens to overtake to control and yet feels like nothing else does. I see your struggle, and I see your control, and the thought of denying you the release of being even momentarily free of it...it pains me." Maximos leaned forward and planted a kiss on her sweating forehead. If this was a game he was playing, it was a dangerous one. "Do you trust me Lucind?"

"Because I feel together, we can lift this...together we can lift anything." And with that, Maximos' hand would begin to draw. Hundreds...hundreds on hundreds of voices...but Maximos could not feel the voices. Maximos could only hear them, and taste their life. And taste he would. He would taste of all of them, he would taste of each of them. Any that spoke to loud found a ceiling to their voice, where as they reached out something sapped their strength and their howls became soft spoken whispers. Maximos' right eye seemed to explode with life, from a small flare it moved to gushing torch billowing out white in gouts along the side of his face. Sparks ran up and down his right arm and yet each time the black miasma enrapturing his cursed limb began to pulse the black chains choked it back down.

"Because...I have something to show you." Not a single soul was lost. It was not as if Maximos was eating the book. No, it was if Maximos had just turned the volume down. Lucind could feed without restraint, and in this moment when her restraint was failing perhaps she would be drawn too. And in that, she would gain another understanding of what it was to live without fear of ones self. Or ones nature. Of what it was to be a monster. Of what it was to be free. And now, Maximos was letting the volume steadily increase. "Drink...my love."

To say this was not what Maximos expected would be to use entirely the wrong sentiment.

Maximos did not expect this, but he didnt not expect anything. Expectation was contrary to freedom. Planning was opposite of liberation. The only thing Maximos expected was that he would have to pay close attention, and be ready for when the moment came to act. Until then, every moment. Every heartbeat. Every passing second would be some of the most intimate he had ever had with his lover.

Lu kept on staring, as her eyes began to hush from right to left, Maximos teased the proverbial volume letting it spike to taunting highs and then swoop to teasing lows. Could she? That was the question at hand, her eyes held the hunger, the exhilaration that comes from standing on the edge ones self imposed lines. Lucind was on the cusp of a boundary, what lie beyond was a precipice. A valley of foggy shadows dotted with unknown and unseen shapes formed by the mythologies and stores in the back of her mind that gave her glimpses an ideas into what would happen if she simply...stepped...forward.

Like a drowning person she clung to her lover. The Shadow was not a cementing post by which she could keep from tumbling over the edge. Maximos was a thin path into the obscure. A single concrete and definite thing that could guide her into the unknown, and hopefully back. When she clung to him, he held her just as tightly and yet he did not secure her to her spot in the forbidden library. She was close, but free to advance.

And before she knew what she was doing, another part of her had given her mind a nudge to step forward, take the next best soul and - taste. And as she slipped forward, the Shadow watched, the volume raised.

It was a hesitant sip first. Baby steps, as it were. The first few questioning foot falls that tested the ground ahead and made sure it was safe. If Lucind simply dove into the book with reckless abandon she would not be the woman Maximos so loved. Fear was there, and yet fear did not dominate. Any achievement reached despite fear was so many times more meaningful than one achieved without it. Within moments, Maximos watched her shuddering stop. He watched her strength return and solidify. The here to for bottomless vortex of blue and black that was her soul, had its bottom drop out revealing depths that Maximos could not put into words. Lengths he could not fathom, and yet this depth was not his to experience. There was a smile on his face that should could not see, as she dove to the depths of herself that he may never see.

Lucind was back on her own two feet, still her hand held on to the Shadow's arm. This was perhaps the most meaningful touch they had ever had. Not a passing caress, or a near automatic embrace. This touch had meaning, this was Lucind experiencing herself fully while still retaining a tether. He was her lifeline. She trusted him with her life. What could be more meaningful? He could taste her bliss, her cobalt and navy ecstasy. Could she feel his? In this moment, Maximos was experience a truer Lucind. He was seeing his significant other for what she was, inside and beyond the barriers. Beyond the physical. Past the flesh. What could be more intimate?

There was a wicked grin playing around the corner of her mouth, her entire demeanor had changed. Lucind moved from a babe testing the waters, to a hunter stalking them. She cornered and snagged the souls. The more she drank, the higher the volume became, and the more she received. When or if any soul became to close to being devoured Maximos hushed its volume to near silence and raised the voice of another stronger life force, thusly steering the huntress toward better prey.

Maximos could not hear the other Siren voices or sense the presences that warned and validated Lucind. But, at the back of his mind he knew what was coming. The similarity of it sent a chill down his spine. It was unavoidable, but this...was the true face of what he had wanted to show her. With each gulp, Lu became colder, her soul vaster - but to the same extent, something else grew. And that was greed.

That was the desire that over months had stalked the Shadow in his deep and secret places. This was the greed that was coupled with a gluttony, that ate at ones self just as it ate at ones prey. Maximos knew it too well. It had reduced him to a jibbering fool in many a dark alley, it had turned away friends and family alike. It had made him appear a mess. It was a monster. It was his monster, and her monster, and it pulled the edges of his mouth down.

Her mouth was slightly opened, her breath began to quicken once more, and her hand slid off of Maximos' arm. And he let it. She had to see this. She had to be this. Lucind was not lost, but she was very near it. The call of what lie beyond the path was very strong and she was about to teeter off.

And when she found a particulary old, beautiful, delicious soul, the last tie snapped. She drank. And drank. Deep, full gulps. Lucind fell, all limitation was tossed to the wind. Humanity and control were memories. This was the monster, the legend, the beast within. This was its true face. Just before death the old soul seemed to vanish and another morsel appeared, so much more louder and tastier as Maximos led her. She was chuckling now, engrossed in the experience. Every vestige of hesitation was gone. She was the sort of creature that would sink ships, ruin lives, crush souls, and simply lavish it all for the sake of her own enjoyment. She was Lucind, but not. She was a monster.

Another mouthful of soul essence ran down her mental throat. And another one. Another one. And...

BOOM!

The book was slid out from under her and slammed shut. The life line jerked Lucind from the depths. Maximos could not speak the Siren tongue, but he hoped that as his right hand offered the book to the water that the ship would know what to do. And he hoped it was smart enough to know not to bring it back if she so commanded.

In her moment of return, Maximos was beside the Siren. His right hand was placed on her back, his other free and ready to move where it might be needed. And he spoke.

"To be without fear of yourself, you must know yourself truly. You must know, what darkness you are capable of if you are ever to harness it." There was a handkerchief in Maximos free hand, it was jet black and soft as silk and had appeared from seemingly no where, and now it was dotting Lucind's forehead. "It is not enough to simply know with your mind, you must experience it. Feel its strength and pull."

"And now you have. For a moment there, my dear, it seemed you were a Siren in earnest. Tell me, how do you feel?"

He could feel it, it seethed off of her like heat from a flame. That offense, that incursion. It was like stealing a Lioness' kill and imagining that there would be no repercussions. And yet, Maximos knew there would be, and in a deep and dark place he even wanted them. In a whirl, a hand was at his throat and a weapon was drawn. The Shadow made absolutely no defensive moves, his body did not even seem to follow the natural instinctive principals and recoil or pull away. Her choking grab and threatening grasp may as well have been a passionate embrace. He accepted it with eyes eagerly anticipating what could and might come next. A mismatched gaze was locked on hers, unmoving even as his grin etched and uneven path across his face.

"...!"

And then, like dousing a fire with a bucket of water it was gone. The madness in her eye, the insanity, the darkness, it faded. Lucind began regaining control over her actions. His smile evened, not vanishing but rather ironing out all of its unnatural kinks and returning to something more...human. Both her hands sank, the eshaton disappeared. Lucind took a step back, still gazing at him, her face blank. Maximos tried his very best not to look disappointed. It was a very intense moment and he had been working very hard at teaching himself not to hide what emotions did surface around her. And so, it was difficult to say how he actually appeared.

And then the book was gone. And then Maximos was speaking, attempting to warm Lucind against what she had just felt. It was a scary thing he imagined. While he had kept his own personal monster in check, it had, at a few times and once for a very long time broken free. The experience was not something he could ever forget. Lucind however had lived far longer, and held her darker side in a deeper and more secure check. Maximos spoke and acted as gently as he could with this in consideration, but not so gentle as to make her feel he was patronizing her for a mistake.

"And now you have. For a moment there, my dear, it seemed you were a Siren in earnest. Tell me, how do you feel?"

She did not react. Her eyes were focused, and yet unfocused. They saw, and yet they did not see what was in front of them. Maximos could only have assumed that the effects of the "trip" were still being sorted through. Lucind's soul read something like a large gunshot. There was a sudden and wide open space, and none of the life that previously surrounded the area. She reminded him a bit of a snake that stretched itself to fit a whole egg, only now the egg was gone and the snake had yet to contract again.

He didnt know that she would ever "contract", or "shrink", or that Lucind would not simply be scarred...no that was a bad way of looking at it. Maximos did not know if Lucind would not be changed by this forever. New room, a new perspective. And while he thought the Siren closed her eyes, she breathed out slowly and then when her eyes opened they seemed to have regained their focus. Only...there was something different about them, the eyes were the window to the soul and perhaps with her soul changed her eyes seemed...altered.

"Alive." She reached out and took one of his hands, his fingers curled around hers. "I feel...alive."

The touch made him smile, and yet at the same time it was very reminiscent of her touch moments ago. Not around his neck, but around that very same arm. It was as if she was alive...and that was something she had no idea how to handle. He felt like something of a lifeline out in the darkness. It made him even warmer inside. It was something he was proud to have the chance to be. Proud and happy beyond words to be able to share with her.

Lucind stepped out, to a place from where there was no stepping back. Well, not sanely at least. She could deny everything she had seen, lie to herself and hide behind those lies. But that would do her no good. This, was the moment in which she had learned, and then breached her own limits. It was a changing point, a growing point. Her comfort zone was shattered, from this step she could truly advance. Everything was more real, everything was truer.

Lucind's eyes spoke of the desire to move, to leave, Maximos understood. His hand gripped hers tighter, even as she did the same. He slid himself a bit closer, bringing her hand to his chest.

"Do you have a recipe against bursting inside?" Maximos smirked.

"As a matter of fact..." His hand moved to slid a stray length of hair over her ear, his cold cursed fingers brushing her cheek. And then they lingered. "...I do."

And then he kissed her. His hand squeezed her hand tighter, while the other slid through her hair and behind her head holding her close. Now, from here Maximos' hand could have drained off any amount of energy straight from her mind. Infact, there were really a great deal of things that hand could do just by touching her. Lucind had been in his mind, she knew. There were any number of remedies available to her in this moment, but the Shadow left it to the Lady Lucind to choose.

This was the dust settling on a city after a controlled demolition. In the aftermath everyone knows the city will be forever changed. But how exactly? What will be the shape of the new world. The explosion and the destruction can be seen in both positive and negative lights but despite all of that, and regardless of ones opinion on the change one must pay a certain amount of respect to the old way and what was lost. Lucind and silence and appreciation, and a draw, but she did not lose herself in any of the sentiments the moment presented and for that Maximos was greatly impressed.

Oh, there would be hesitation. But not because of a shapeless bland fear, but now because of a very real and present threat that she had experienced the shape and form of. And a threat, that doubtless she would face again.

"Do you have a recipe against bursting inside?" Maximos smirked.

"As a matter of fact..." His hand moved to slid a stray length of hair over her ear, his cold cursed fingers brushing her cheek. And then they lingered. "...I do."

And then he kissed her. And Lucind was understandably cautious in allowing him to drain her, but she would find the arm was very reserved. It was very much like an animal, ferocious in its attack, but once its been fed its docile and obedient. It drained as it was requested to drain, but it did something else. With every drop that it gained, it gave. Maximos was no psychic, he could not transmit his thoughts. He did not know how to manipulate those sorts of mental energies, and yet just as his cursed arm was gifted with the ability to drain the soul, and life, and emotions, it given the ability to give them.

For every controlled bite that Lucind fed it, the arm fed her something back. A taste, just a touch, a sample, of the feeling Maximos had felt looking at her just moments ago. The elation, the happiness, the intimacy of her slightest touch. They were flashes and tastes, and nothing more, giving energy in such a controlled way was not something the Shadow was used to. The effort subtracted a bit of his concentration, and what he lacked was made up during the kiss as the emotions her touch inspired were refreshed.

It was like sharing an image with no outlines. The Siren would not be able to see his thoughts, or see any words or knowledges, but she would see the colors and feelings that the moment brought. She would see the way she made him feel. As her monster had allowed Maximos to see a truer her, Maximos' monster would allow Lucind a window into a truer him.

She would, if she allowed, feel this kiss how it effected him, how it made him. And then as she deepened the kiss another sentiment would squeeze through, albeit accidentally. The idea, that perhaps, this kiss and touch while wholly enjoyable was not the idea remedy he had in mind for curing her bursting energy. Maximos had thought of, but been too shy to suggest another method...which also involved touching, and kissing, that would almost certainly burn up alot of energy...but would also require a certain teapot be removed from her bedroom for privacy sake. Lucind would likely be able to understand why, as the kiss slowly parted, Maximos' cheeks were turning a tad red.

Proud. Maximos most definitely felt proud. This was not the sort of pride that puffs the chest, or fills a hat with feathers or earns a man any amount of swift pats on the back...no. This was the honest and silent sense of accomplishment. Maximos had accomplished something to day.

Maximos felt he had truly accomplished something with Lucind. And no, by that he did not mean that he had accomplished Lucind. But below, he had truly helped her open her eyes. He felt a pride similar to that day outside of his suite, standing in a diamond dust of shattered glass as the Siren, as his Siren approached. Today, was like that day, a bit smaller perhaps but just as deep. Lucind was a new person. And laying on his side, he took in that person. His mismatched eyes passing softly over the outline of her form encasing the new shape of her soul.

His eyes did not glow tonight, black and white wet orbs softly reflected what little illumination there was and ran twin paths up Lucind, and then down her arm to where their hands loosely met. Maximos smiled, a soft innocent smile. The Shadow, was content. Here in bed beside her, he was at peace. He was happy. And while they could not lie here forever, that did nothing to diminish the value of the moment.

The only thing that might have diminished it was whatever had caused the mote of concern in the woman beside him. And yet he waited patiently for her to share it. When she spoke, his eyes did not dart to her face but rather ran softly up her arm, across her shoulders and neck and then rest on her own. He listened, but did not speak not until she posed her question. It was an honest concern, and losing the monk would have been a sad thing but...Maximos' smile did not fade not even in sympathetic concern. Instead, he just responded.

"No." His voice warm and reassuring, and yet definite. The complete lack of doubt in his words making itself known. "There is no price to pay for being true to yourself."

His fingers tightened a bit around. He was laying on his side with his head propped up on his arm, but for a moment he slipped his hand away from his cheek and ran his finger gently along hers. "There is a scripture written in a human holy tome that says, 'The truth will set you free'. I've found these words are absolutely true."

"In truth we free ourselves not only from our own self-defined confinements, but from those of others. Anyone who claims to value you, my dear, in any regard must come to know and accept you as you truly are. Savior. Sinner. Siren."

With each word he tapped one finger against her hand, as his hand slid back to his cheek supporting his head. "If Prishazan cannot trust you, as you truly are, then you are better off without his trust. Better to be truly untrusted, then for him to trust a lie and suffer when he relies on the image of a person that does not truly exist. Better you cope with the idea of being considered a danger, than hide and be an actual danger to yourself and others."

Lucind had seen what she was capable of earlier. What if that broke loose? What if she had never seen its true face and then it bucked and broke her fragile control? More would suffer. It was at this point however that Maximos realized he was becoming entirely too wordy and contented himself with pulling her hand to his and kissing the back of it softly. Enough talk of monsters for one day.

And then his stomach growled like some sort of ferocious beast, and in the darkness the Shadow was glad his embarrassed face was mostly invisible.

She knew, and he knew she did. If Maximos could be said to have a talent in these sort of things, that talent did not lie in teaching, or bringing to life new and unexplored realizations. Maximos' only ability, as far as he could see it, was to put words to what someone already knew letting them see it once again. If his words had weight, that was simply because the sentiments they described had weight before language brought them to the foreground. If Lucind didnt know at the very least at some core level, then there was likely no reason to tell her, she would not be ready to understand. And yet, she did. And seeing the smile on her face only filled his heart with warmth and made his chest tight with an emotion he simply failed at being able to express. No smile seemed wide enough, no kiss deep enough, no embrace long enough.

Love, at its core, is selfless. But in order to give away self, to put self out of the equation you must first have a self. That was what made this so very beautiful. Lucind was a stand alone creature. She could survive on her own. She loved him and at a level needed him, but no so much that her life depended on it like some sort of vicious drug. When love becomes dependency it becomes a habit, and stops being a relationship. In Lucind, Maximos found a companion, a friend, a match. They could walk together, neither entirely leaning on the other, both capable of helping each other. It was beautiful. Every part of him yearned to express the feeling, and yet had no tools. Like a painter without a brush or paints, just a canvas and an idea. The words escaped him.

And then she kissed him. A kiss, a lovely trick designed by nature for when words become utterly superfluous. And then there was another, and then another, and Maximos smiled ear to ear. This, was a perfect moment. And then his stomach roared, and the moment was gone. Lu's whole body trembled and then she was giggling and Max's cheeks were so red he was likely just a few shades from actually glowing.

"Shouldn't you ask me before inviting somebody else into my bed?"

"I..I..." He stuttered for a response and felt his arms twitch at his side. His arm, his monster, his hunger. It was an automatic connection. He lift the hand, his fingers wiggling and said, "But, you didnt seem to mind a few moments ago..."

Yet Maximos seemed completely oblivious as how that comment could, and might be taken. All further words of explanation were cut off with a kiss, and a grin, and the Siren moving to dress herself. Understandably, from a strictly male point of view putting clothing on was not as enjoyable as the reverse and so even though the look on her face when she eventually found her socks made him smile, Maximos leaned back placing his arms behind his head and simply stared up at the ceiling clothed in his sheet.

After a few moments the Siren slipped away and the Shadow was left alone with the darkness, and his thoughts. Part of him felt wonderful, and yet at the same time part of him felt more guilty than he had words for. He was enjoying himself, he was happy. And yet what had life taught him about happiness and its costs? He was helping Lucind be free...or was he simply corrupting an innocent so that he did not feel so damned alone? He was happy here, he liked it here...and yet he had promised to much to another world. Promises, that had never advanced. What right did he have to be happy when he lived his life removing life from so many others and robbing them of their happiness? The questions, and their answers did not change his mood so much as they caused him to question how he felt about his good mood. He was doubtful as to what side of the alignment he now fell on. If any.

When Lucind returned, she would find Maximos with his arms neatly folded behind his back, standing by a porthole and staring out into the moonlight. He had returned his pants, and socks, and his belt to hold his pants but had left his shirt, jacket, vest, and tie, laying over a chair beside the bed. Silver light played over the swirls, curls, and lines of his tattoos bringing out the contrast between them and his bone white skin. As she entered, he seemed to snap out of a reverie and turn to her wearing a simple smile. Of course, she was smiling too but...it was different.

"Oh my, you've out done yourself," That smile..."...did I miss something funny?" He said with a c**k of his head as he approached her and began pulling items from the tray, not to eat, but so as to move the tray from "overfull" to just "full". Not knowing the layout of the room as well as he might of liked, he simply followed a few steps behind her. The Siren looked over her shoulder at the Shadow after putting down everything on the table.

"We're setting sails around eight tomorrow." Maximos nodded, placing the extra items on the table around the tray and cheerily said, "Excellent. I would assume your going to sleep then after this?"

"I...uh..." That smile. There was, whatever had caused her smile originally, but there was this certain look in her eyes when the expression on her face was being caused by him, and yet not by anything he said or did. This, as always, made the Shadow flush red and yet thankfully the light pouring in from outside fell in just a way that the shadows dance along his face in an attempt to vaguely hide the embarrassment. His eyes immediately fell to the table, and the food on it.

"I just met Prishazan in the kitchen." His ears perked, and despite his embarrassment he turned to face her square on. She was smiling, but there was always a chance he had misread... "And...what should I say. All is well. I almost feel a bit guilty for half expecting him to leave."

Max chuckled and nodded approvingly. "I'll admit, I had my doubts. That man is so stoic, so absolute sometimes that I wondered if his convictions gave him any room for variation. I have to give him more credit."

" - He cooked all this, by the way." Mismatched eyes widened. "Alot more credit."

And then they were seated. Max found himself swallowing alot more than usual even before he ate, in anticipation of what was to come. He had all but forgotten the dragon teapot from earlier. Out of sight, out of mind. And while the table was small, it was also cozy, it made the dinner seem more intimate and thusly he liked it.

"We're setting sails around eight tomorrow." Maximos nodded, placing the extra items on the table around the tray and cheerily said, "Excellent. I would assume you're going to sleep then after this?"

"And I thought my company was pleasing you", Maximos' eyes snapped open wide lifting from his plate. That wasnt what he meant! But her eyes were smiling a smile that moved to his lips. "But now it seems you can't get off board soon enough." Her head fell forwards and she sighed dramatically, Max placed a hand over his chest and gasped in an equally dramatic show of apology.

"Maybe not directly. But I know my bed will have me back soon tonight." She was tired indeed. He saw it in her eyes, and she would need the rest for tomorrow. Maximos nodded, still smiling and then replied. "Excellent. I've had all the sleep I can, but I have a few projects that need doing for my shop."

His eyes wandered up and to the side, as if visually recounting the projects. However many he remembered, he knew their were more. "I would hate to go, I was wondering if perhaps after you retire for the evening if I could stay and perhaps work..." He gestured to the table. "...here. I promise I wont disturb you. You wouldnt even know I was here...unless you wanted to."

--

Lucind was off for a second, while Maximos finished his second. The Siren returned a few moments later with two filled glasses of water. Maximos, found himself silently amazed. Wine, water, and a freshly prepared meal such as this...in his day, these were things that befit royalty. And yet here they enjoyed them as a midnight snack. It made him smirk, and remember a simpler, older time. And yet, made him appreciate the modern era that much more. Because for all of its greatness, Aria never had her and...

She was touching him. Nothing so odd about that, save of the fact he hadnt expected it. Her soft hand cupped his cheek, Maximos' mismatched eyes found hers and he smiled softly. But then she frowned, and concern flashed over his features. The frown was as unexpected as the touch, only a frown was never good. The concern diminished as her thumb traced across his face, but never faded. And then her smile returned. He let out a pleased hum when she kissed him, but as she pulled away his eyes fell on hers again.

She was blushing for once, and seeing the tables turned brought a small laugh out of him, yet still just to be sure, he said. "Is everything okay?"

"I...would love that." Maximos face became the very picture of an angelic smile. Child-like and innocent. This was the boy about to open his presents. "Very much so."

It wasnt that Maximos believed no one took an interest in his work. He knew Lucind was interested, he knew some of his customers wanted to genuinely know how it was all done. But he hardly had the opportunity to share. And this was so much more than just a job, or a hobby, this was his passion. It was something he loved. Just like Lucind was someone he loved. And wasnt that one of the greatest joys of being in a relationship? That you could share your life with someone else, and share those very things close to one's heart? And then to know they cared as well, or at the very least tolerated while you silently wished they actually ca--

"And you don't have to be completely silent. Actually, I think I'd love hearing you work." Oh she was just too perfect. Maximos was grinning, and grinning like a fool. He tried to hide it behind a glass, or in a quick mouthful. But even chewing he was grinning. He was, as always, excited to be able to work, but now he was doubly so! "Don't be afraid of waking me up. Nothing will keep me from sleep tonight."

-|-

She was blushing for once, and seeing the tables turned brought a small laugh out of him, yet still just to be sure, he said. "Is everything okay?"

For another second, Lucind stared at him, before it bursted out of her:

"I'll be there."

She said rather suddenly. Maximos' eyes opened, what did that mean? And then they slanted as if trying to squint the meaning from her. Of course she would be there. She would always be there. But...she was blushing. And blushing more by the second. In the moonlight her skin was ivory pale, so the rose tint showed through rather clearly. This in turn made Maximos grin, and chuckle softly.

"I know that this here", she gestured at the width of the room, "it will give us less time to spend together." Oooh, he understood now. Maximos' grin only widened.

"But with the teleporting ability - or whatever it is that Prishazan's sylph gives us, I don't expect us to be away for longer than a few days in a row...gonna be more here and there, of course...but..." And then she sat down, brushing her hair behind her ear. This had quite the familiar sound to it. They had had a similar conversation months ago. Only, back then they were discussing a single trip for a short time. Now they were discussing several trips over an indefinite period of time. But that wasnt the only difference...

...Back then Lucind was still in her shell, hidden inside herself and Maximos was no better. Now, they were truer, closer than ever before. In memory of the moment, Maximos hand moved to rub his chin even though he knew there was no, and could never be any stubble on it. And then, with a smirk he met her eyes and in a likely all too familiar manner he said. "I know."

-|-

Later on, Lucind went to change, and Maximos immediately went to her desk. He moved the trays from dinner first although he kept the glass of water, and then slowly but surely and extremely neatly he moved everything from on top of the text into a small black box beside it. A box that surely was not there before, and was most definitely blacker than any earthly material, save for the material Maximos with the most, should be.

While Lucind visited the bathroom Maximos worked at preparing his tools and what would be his temporary workspace. By the time Lucind exited, she would find that her desk was now home to a set of paint brushes, several jars, a few sealed boxes, and beside it sat some imperial blue wrapping paper and several black gift boxes with dark plum ribbons nearby. A sheet had been spread over the center of the desk and at its center was a lump of clay and some twine. And Maximos was idly flipping through various matching sheets of paper with text scribbled on them. Orders on order forms presumably.

As the Siren made her way to bed, Maximos stood approached her, stole a kiss goodnight and absolutely insisted he be able to lay the covers over her. It was some sort of Arian tradition. By the time he reached the desk, he realized he had forgotten to actually say, goodnight. But before he could, he found her fast asleep and so he whispered it instead.

He took a small moment, or perhaps a long moment, he did not measure it, and yet he took it, and in it he took her in. Lucind, body and soul in his mismatched eyes. Today had been quite a day, alot had been accomplished even if immediately it did not seem as if alot had changed. Everything had changed. Everything was changing. It brought a smile to his face, and it was with that smile on his face that Maximos turned to work .

Despite the Siren's words Maximos was as quiet as could possibly be. There would be sounds. Like the tap of a pencil, stencil, or brush touching the table, the sound of a brush being whetted, the sound if miscellaneous ingredients being pinched or poured from different containers. Occasionally there was a magical crack, or a soft magical pop and frustrated breath or two. But all and all the room was spotted with the sound of a man who truly loved his work, enjoying his work. Even the whispered "fleebs" and "damn" were testament to his love. He hated the difficult moments, but only in that he loved the way he hated them. He loved being able to hate them. He loved losing himself to the ability to simply create, for hours and hours on end. If he felt his inspiration run dry he looked up at the figure sprawled across the bed, blushed and continued working.

*

The next day, Lucind would awake to find Maximos beside her. Not asleep but, reading. Her desk had been put back exactly the way she left it, save for one addition. A rifle lay across her desk and a small back pack. Both belonged to Maximos in preparation for today. Beside the desk were several black gift boxes tied with plum ribbons. Each had a tag with a name on one side, and M.L.D. in bold stylized ink on the other. Maximos, however, was reading. His shoes missing, his book in his hands, and a smile on his face. And it was time to start the day.

Maximos was at the very back of the ship, on deck, as it moved. He wanted to see Latent vanish. And then it was time for breakfast. Even though he had eaten a few hours earlier, Maximos ate as if he had never eaten before. And for Maximos, or anyone used to him, there was nothing odd about this. Then came lessons, lessons he certainly did not expect but enjoyed thoroughly. This was how a boat worked. It seemed so simple now that she explained it. Some of the whimsy was lost, and yet replaced with the prospect of challenge! He could learn to master this craft! Lucind seemed just as excited! Or perhaps she was excited about something else. Likely something else.

Maximos imagined himself a Captain. Standing tall on barrels, swinging on ropes, tying sails in an emergency and ordering crew around using fancy titles and ranks that he did not fully understand and which Lucind never used. Maximos had decided, it was time to see the bridge. He wanted to see the steering wheel for himself, to command, to steer, to pilot as he knew he was always destined to--

"Oh, by the way", she addressed the Shadow, while wrapping a scarf around her head to knot it in the back of her neck. Max turned to look at Lucind over his shoulder, his foot on a barrel, his rifle behind his back hanging from a black leather strap, and his arm thrust in the air as if holding a rapier...while holding nothing. "Hmm?"

"I fear I mentioned to Tagis at some point what happened the last time you took over the steering of a sailing ship." Lucind turned towards him, grinning almost apologetically. The smile on Maximos' face inverted almost immediately. His arm dropped, his shoulders slouched forward. He knew what was coming next. "I wouldn't expect her to invite you into the control cabin any time soon."

"Oh..." Max looked out longingly at the bridge, utterly dejected. He saw a crewman rising up, to the top teir of the boat and toward another steering wheel. His eyes lightened, readying to sprint for it. And just as he was about to take off...

"Or up there", she added quickly. At which point he promptly deflated, letting a theatric sigh. "Not even for a little bit?"

"I'll talk to her."

Victory! And all it cost was a little sad face! Max even indulged the moment and when the Siren's lips touched his nose, his face scrunched up in a most child-like manner. Either Maximos had spent too much time with D, or D with Maximos, either way when Lucind responded moments later with.

"Says she's got to think about it. I'd say she'll give in soon. But when she does, please follow her instructions." Maximos' ear to ear grin was all he could do from openly cheering. There was something after that about safety, but the Shadow honestly never had much interest in that word and wrote over it entirely with vision of high seas adventures.

Maximos could hardly contain himself, watching Latent vanish was like watching the sun set. And for a shadow, sun down is a very exciting time. He wanted to leap from mast to mast! To slid down the sails! To run up the staircase banisters and then swash a buckle back down! But even his exuberance seemed like a candle held up to the sun when compared to Lucind. It wasnt that the woman was hyper per say, or even that she on the tip of an outburst. It was the purity of the sensation, though he could not feel it, he could see it. Gorgeous and indescribable. This was Lucind in her natural environment and there in lie a connection he simply did not have the words for. He imagined this was how a bird's soul might look when it took flight and became one with the air, simply letting itself go so as to float on its whims. And yet that was a simple bird, and this was so much more.

And then, intermingled in that beautiful unison, he saw the dark. The endless depths of yesterday's experience down below. He could have spent hours, lost in that vision.

"Oy, Maximos!" Alas it was not meant to be. He knew that voice. And he knew exactly what that meant. With a wide toothy smile Maximos spun on his heels to face Tagis.

"Aye captain!" He called back.

"Still interested in trying your luck?"

"Am I ever!"

There wasnt even time for another sentence before Max ran forward, kicked off a barrel, climbed up a mast like a monkey and leapt off to land near Tagis, still grinning and almost uncomfortably excited grin. With that cigarette and her dark hair, Tagis reminded Maximos of someone. He imagined the woman just needed an eye patch to complete the look. The thought of that made him chuckle softly to himself.

Within moments it was lesson time. Maximos expected a compass and he expected his use of the controls would have some effect on the sailors and the sails, though in truth the exact nature of that connection eluded him. What Maximos did not expect was all the steel magic. Screens, monitors and readouts. No, that was all wrong. In his day, every boat he had ridden had safely reached its destination without any of those things. Those men could read the sea! They could predict the waves and the weather with only their five senses. That was what he wanted to learn! And learn he did.

It was a rocky start. Max began by over compensating for the wind and turning the ship too far and too sharply. Sure, he looked the part of a movie captain, but it wasnt very effective. And yet, despite his rough beginnings Maximos learned rather fast. Within minutes he had a good grip on how to turn the wheel and how to manage course and direction. He even showed how interested he was by raising his arm up and into the breeze and then turning to Tagis before she gave instructions and asking her thoughts on a course of action. Should I turn into that current? Is that a good wind? If a turn like this, is that right?

And there was Lucind! Her energy was like a storm, a typhoon thrashing away at sea. It was glorious! There were just no words. He gave a smile in response to her own and then considered jerking the wheel just enough to give her a jolt as she climbed. But he couldnt, he just could not bring himself to ruin the moment. There was something powerful in her cry. Something more than magical. Something real. Something right.

Today was going to be a good day.

-|-

When Tagis asked Max to hand over the steering wheel to her, he seemed reluctant. He had been at it long enough, with almost no accidents, and only a few pranks, he knew he was doing a decent job. But...

"Prishazan is going to do the warp now." Was really all she needed to say. Maximos felt a sinking feeling in his gut and with nothing more than a nod took a step back from the wheel.

Lucind was nearby, and the two women share a bit of banter which made Max laugh, but only slightly. There was a cold tension in his stomach that went beyond fear of incident. He had been lost "hopelessly" before. Creatures he could battle. Death he could fight. But something else...Maximos' arms folded across his chest.

"...Warp." The word came out a whisper, drifting off his lips as he slouched forward slightly letting his arms rest a bit more on his stomach than his chest.

"Can we stay up here?" The Siren asked. For a moment the nervousness showed in her voice. She seemed calm and collected on the outside. But just beneath the surface she was concerned. Maximos would have guessed that she was sure the monk would make the procedure go right. But, that she was concerned about exactly what right entailed.

"Aye." Maximos responded, replying to both woman at once. "I'll be staying right here."

Maximos had chosen a nice corner of the bridge with a safe view of most of the ship and of Lucind and Tagis. If he was going to be of any use as a defender he would need to be able to see his battlefield. And yet, the way Maximos did not arm himself or move his arms from across himself seemed to belie the idea he would be defending anyone, at all.

And the chanting began. Maximos' right eye ignited in a dull faded white. He could more than hear the words, he could see their power. The essence they summoned and commanded swirled around the monk, the magic formed into words hovering around his face and then willing forth the Vikra. There was power here, and alot of it. Pinned under his left arm, Maximos' right began to itch and fidget. His fingers tapped along his side involuntarily.

The Vikra's aura was a miasma, thick and almost choking. Its presence was every and everywhere it was intense and crushing. Maximos felt like he was back in that most private library before, only now the library was a can at the bottom of the sea and tightening its grip around him. His right arm jumped once, and then twice, but remained pinned. It wanted to eat, and while the Shadow was only too sure that it could, there were consequences for such a thing. The look of it, the taste of it, the very shape of it...

...This was nothing short of phenomenal. It deserved its moment of glory, and its moment it had. The creature began to transform, or rather, to form into something more completely manifest and then...

His fear was realized...Maximos couldnt have really told anyone what happened next. His stomach felt as if some had scrunched his internal organs into a tight ball at the core of his stomach and then punched them with an ice cold fist. His head felt light, and everything of any substance inside his skin felt airy and hollow. His legs felt as if they were made of tissue paper and gave out just as quickly.

The Vikra was doing something absolutely astonishing. Max saw glimpses of something veiny and transparent like insectoid wings. He saw glimpses of green, and ocean tones and yet all of it was seen through blurry eyes. His face was teary, but not from pain or beauty, but from the rather vicious attempts his stomach was making at emptying itself of the contents it simply did not have as they had been digested hours ago. It was something like having a hang over, only for a shorter time and a longer duration.

And then, it happened again. A punch to his stomach, twisting his guts into mush and...

...well, Maximos did not remember much after that. He opened his eyes a few moments later when voices roused him back to consciousness. "Wasn't that a helluva trip?!"

Tagis sounded entirely too cheery. It somehow made the Shadow feel even sicker.

"You can say that again." Lucind added.

"But dont." Maximos finished in a voice nothing short of weak and pathetic.

The Shadow could flip, back flip, triple flip, in as many directions as their were at blinding speeds without hesitation or consequence. But take him and suddenly transport him and he was a mess. The nearest comparison was to say that the Shadow's internal Arian magical circulatory system was a constantly swirling engine, something like the whirlpool at the bottom of a draining tub. And teleportation had the effect of a hand splashing through that whirlpool leaving it a wishy washy mess until its current could be reestablished. Instant teleportation left him whoozy, but older, longer, more complex transportations like this...

...Well, anyone looking for Maximos would find him groaning in the corner with his knees pressed up to his chest, laying on his side in the fetal position and very happy he had kept from throwing up. His face already pale face seemed even more pale and had taken on a greenish blue tint reminiscent of Lucind's bioluminscent lamps down below.

But at the moment, the Shadow was anything but bright.

(Time Paradox: Three weeks before the (ill-fated) Heaven or Hell Tournament)

It had been a long while since Tenkai last visited the Feiruza. It was long enough that he almost forgot that it was a ship. The port of Latent was buzzing with ships now that the tournament was only weeks away, and Tenkai had found himself in town once more. But he hadn't arrived early simply for preparation. He had other business to attend to that was pertinent to the Feiruza and its owner, Lucind Varhetel. His left arm was somewhat hidden from view inside the sleeves of his robes, as if he was carrying something inside of them that he didn't want to be seen so readily.

The closer he came to the Feiruza, the more his memories began to knit themselves together. He could remember boarding the deck and heading to a door made of an entirely different kind of wood from the rest of the ship. It seemed that same door was there, just as he had remembered it. It was of a strange carmine hue that was almost similar in shade to blood, but Tenkai didn't let it unsettle him. He was in the presence of friends after all, wasn't he?

Slowly he twisted the knob on the door, which glided open almost eerily. He remembered the feeling of the winds of magic flowing from the door as Lucind opened it, but now that the monk was the one opening it, the sensation was a bit stronger. He paused for a moment, closing his eyes as the ancient elemental magic flowing from Feiruza passed around him like a calm breeze. His sense of magic wasn't the same as an actual mage, but he could sense the current flowing through the Void as he calmed his mind. It was a relaxing feeling, like that given in the presence of a noble spirit. A smile came to the monk's face at the familiarity.

As Tenkai walked forward, another memory picked at the back of his mind about the stair--

"Ngh!"

-case. Yes, the stairway was rather steep. Tenkai had stopped himself on the railing before putting his weight down on his next step, preventing what would have been a rather unfortunate fall.

Of course, now that he was heading down the stairway, Tenkai had felt as if he had taken a few steps too far in welcoming himself in. It would have been more proper for him to knock on the door first. He wasn't sure if Lucind would be able to hear him knocking from up on the deck if she was down below, but that'd be a stupid thing to assume. She was a siren, after all. Her understanding of sound was no doubt leaps and bounds beyond Tenkai's own hearing. She probably knew he was here regardless of where she was on the ship.

Still, it would be nice of him to announce his presence formally.

"Ms. Lucind?" he said, not too loud but definitely not a whisper, enough that she could hear him if she was inside. "Are you there?"

"Come on in, Mr. Matsumoto."

He would find her standing next to her desk at the other end of the room, sipping tea from a tiny, earless cup. She greeted him with a warm smile, the sour face from before wiped off.

"Welcome. How are you, Mr. Matsumoto?"

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything," said Tenkai a bit sheepishly, if a but unwarranted. Lucind didn't appear to be with company, save for the tea pot whose sentience Tenkai seemed unaware of. Of course, for all he knew, Lucind was taking a much-needed break from her work based on the tea she was drinking. Above all else, the monk didn't want to be rude.

More or less, Tenkai appeared the same as he had when he first visited Lucind. It would have been expected for his clothing to have signs of wear over the course of time, but oddly enough Tenkai's robes were very clean. At first it'd seem like he treated them well, but if Lucind's memory was clear enough she'd notice enough subtle differences to determine it was an entirely new robe, albeit identical to the last one. The monk smoothed out his robe in a moment of self-consciousness as he thought of this. Little did Lucind know of how often Tenkai lost said garments.

Of course, he'd keep that thought to himself, noticing how wrong it sounded.

The beads around his neck were definitely the same, as was the glint of steel from his right hand, armored in a silvery gauntlet. His left arm was still inside of his robe, obviously holding onto something he had been keeping from sign as he walked the streets of Latent. As he walked up to the desk, the soles of his sandals made quiet taps against the wooden floor of the Feiruza. It'd be obvious enough to Lucind by the sound that they were not made of straw, nor were they the blocky wooden clogs some Japanese travelers wore. If she looked down, she'd notice the dim light reflecting off of the instep of his feet as they passed his robes. No doubt they too had some sort of armor as well.

Tenkai was indeed a strange sort for a monk, or at least for one who went around calling themselves such. Walking around with bits of armor wasn't an uncommon practice for people around Gaia, but it was unusual for a holy man. No doubt Lucind had realized this ever since he had come towards her with his strange request. It was obvious Tenkai wasn't seeking knowledge about vampires and other creatures simply out of curiosity.

"You look well," he said in a friendly tone she would remember from the last time they met. He didn't seem to be aware of any of Lucind's previous stress, as she had hid it rather well. "I hope everything in the shop has been good as well. Everything does seem to be in working order..."

Tenkai took a moment to look around at the calmly lit bookstore, still as amazed at its mystique as the first time he had visited.

"But I digress," he said, getting down to business. "I remembered the arrangement we made and wanted to fulfill the terms you laid out for me." The monk began scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "I hope you can forgive me for my lateness. You had said it'd only take a week to find the book, though I seem to have taken much longer on my head. The decision was rather difficult."

Tenkai didn't want to assume that Lucind had succeeded in procuring a copy of the text he sought. That would make him feel like he was demanding it from her, which would be rude of him. However, it'd be just as wrong for him to assume she hadn't found it yet. To do that would just be undermining her skill. Even though Tenkai didn't know a whole lot about her, he could tell Lucind was great at what she did.

"If you're on break, I can come back in an hour or so," he said, still trying to avoid interrupting Lucind's personal time.

Lucind shook her head reassuringly. "That is perfectly fine. To be honest with you, the hunt proved to be more demanding than I had anticipated. But before I go into details - may I offer you some tea?" Leaving her own cup on the desk, the Siren walked over the shelf that wasn't meant to hold books but run around on of the horizontal posts stabilizing the ceiling. She heaped the soaked tea leaves onto a tiny metal plate. "Highland Oolong, first flush." If Tenkai accepted, she would fill a second earless cup for him.

"Oh, of course," Tenkai said happily, "Thank you very much." He accepted the tea graciously after she poured it, not being one to refuse a cup of tea when offered. He took a moment to take in the aroma before taking a quiet sip from the cup. "Ahhh...very refreshing," said the monk.

"So, your decision wasn't that easy?" Lu nodded, then refilled her own cup.

"Most definitely not," he replied. "It's hard to part with something that carries so many memories."

"That's good to hear. You wouldn't believe how many of my customers try to pacify me with halfhearted offerings that don't match the desire that made them come to me to find a book or scroll or whatever in first place.

"For something like this", she nodded at the torn volume on the desk, "I do accept money. This is a mere service, in most cases. But I'm sure you understand why plain currency doesn't suffice for tracking down one of van Hellsing's writings."

"I do indeed," said Tenkai. "Van Helsing was a very powerful slayer, and not by any means of special abilities or martial arts, but by virtue of his own knowledge. The knowledge he had about vampires and demons was beyond the scope of even the Vatican's best hunters. His treatises and dissertations are sought by both hunters and vampires alike. I apologize for any inconvenience I caused you in recovering it."

"After five days, I was sure to have found the book. A physician in the northeast had been priding himself for owning two of the rarest Hellsing texts. Turned it, however, that one was a work by a pseudo-Hellsing, I suspect a student. I almost didn't notice that the handwriting, despite almost perfectly mimicking the master's, showed individual traits. The second text was simply fake. A crude compilation of other Hellsing texts and own thoughts. It seemed to me this archeologist knew something was foul, but as long as nobody of his friends realized the huge discrepancy between both books and he didn't came across someone familiar with van Hellsing, he could simply argue he owned a very early work of the doctor, thus excusing the slightly different handwriting."

Lucind's story gave Tenkai much to think about. A book written by one of Van Helsing's students? He knew of Dr. John Seward, the head of an insane asylum in Carfax whom Van Helsing had mentored. He was one of the men who assisted Van Helsing in slaying the Lord of Darkness himself. Could he, too, have gone on to study vampires and other creatures after Dracula was slain? There had been no stories of such, so it was much more probable that this was simply another student of Van Helsing.

"But I don't want to bore you with every little step of the hunt. The first text contained valuable hints that finally sent me in the right direction.

So yes, I found the book you are looking for."

Tenkai smiled. "That's quite fortunate," he said. "I knew you were good at what you did."

After setting down her now empty cup, Lucind slightly cocked her head and showed another smile, while her amber eyes bore a severity that announced one last test.

"Do you still believe that whatever you decided to be your payment is the right price?"

For a moment, Tenkai actually had to think about it. He was worried at what Lucind might think at the exchange he had decided upon. Even if it was an item of comparable worth, was it something that Lucind wanted? Or was the value that Tenkai placed in it that made it worth something to her?

There was only one way to find out.

"Yes. To me, at least."

Carefully, Tenkai removed his arm from his robes, taking out a book.

A very old book.

It was bound in a weathered leather hardcover like a tome from the late 19th century. The leather had aged well, still carrying a rich mahogany color for the most part in spite of the small faded areas brought on by dust and wear. Its pages were a dull beige color, and appeared to be disheveled and uneven as if some of them were torn or folded. Upon closer inspection, however, Lucind would notice that the pages sticking out of the sides of the book were not pages at all. They were notes, written on pieces of paper much different from the pages of the book, stuck between them like bookmarks or references. Whoever had owned the book had studied it eagerly, leaving behind bits and pieces of their own thoughts and experiences. The tome was so brimming with knowledge and memories that it almost felt like it had a mystical aura of its own.

Tenkai laid the book down upon Lucind's desk, not saying a word. He wondered if Lucind could tell what the book was just by looking at it. After all, she had seen something just like it only recently. The cover itself bore no title, nor did it have anything written on the spine. The book was closed tight by a pair of weathered bronze book clasps, but it didn't appear to be locked. Once she finally opened it, the words inked on the first page would leave her little room to wonder as to what the book was.

Wanderers in the Outer Darkness

Vampires, demons and other dark creatures

by Dr. Abraham Van Helsing

Tenkai took a moment to take in the sight of the book Lucind had laid before him. It wasn't identical to the book he had placed on the table, but it was very similar. "Rare fruit" was a fitting word to describe it, as it was ripe with age and knowledge. He could tell before even opening it that it was the book he sought.

Carefully he opened to the first page, where the title spelled out the name he had been searching for. This was Van Helsing's study on specific diseases and maladies that affected the blood of human beings. Within it lied the knowledge he attained in studying vampires and other once-human creatures that had been turned by infections or curses attacking their blood. It didn't hold a cure for undeath, but he knew Tenkai could save some lives in his journeys with the information it contained.

Tenkai noticed the blood on one of the paged, a grim thought crossing his mind as he looked at it. There was no telling how that got there, whether by violent means or something as innocuous as an accident with a letter opener. At least the stain looked old enough that he could safely say it wasn't Lucind's.

"Thank you," said Tenkai. "I'm glad my contribution was sufficient, though I have to admit, I almost benefit just as much from giving you that book as I do receiving this one."

A confusing statement, but one Tenkai would not leave unexplained.

"It's truly difficult to part with something that has so much meaning to me," he said sadly. "That was the first Van Helsing text I ever read, back when I was in Rome seven years ago. Ever since then I've been studying and making my own notes based on my own experiences. Although the memories are just as much a part of me as they are the book, I guess over time it's built up its sentimental value."

The sad, nostalgic feeling in his voice suddenly shifted to a more serious tone.

"But you know as well as I do how dangerous this knowledge can be," he continued. "Although I've protected it all this time, it needs to be kept somewhere safe. Somehow, I feel I can trust you to keep books such as these away from those that would misuse their knowledge."

Of course, the safest place to keep this sort of knowledge was in the Vatican's archives, but Tenkai was a long way from Rome. No doubt the Vatican's scribes had made their own copy of the text before it found its way into Tenkai's hands. They probably had their own personal compilation. Nevertheless, the texts were still rare, and he was sure that the Vatican wouldn't be very happy if they knew he was placing it in Lucind's book store. Still, he had faith in Lucind's ability to guard dangerous knowledge.

"There's also the matter of posterity," he continued. "Although it's a rare copy, there's more than just Van Helsing in that book. All those papers contain notes made from my own knowledge. I'm not famous like Van Helsing, but I'd still like to make sure my knowledge is kept safe as well. Even if something like that belongs in the Vatican's libraries, I want you to have it. I can't really call it a gift given our exchange, but you still seem like the right person to keep it."

"Well, knowledge holds the key to all power, I wholeheartedly agree with that. But knowledge itself is relative. Society defines what we conceive of as valuable knowledge. And in private situations, the importance of knowledge may lie on areas seen as nothing more than a trifle by the rest of the world.

I am aware that this book means a lot to you. It has been your companion for many years, and you shared your thoughts with it. In return, these pages tell me that you are bound to it on an intimate level. I do not own the skill to draw detailed memories from personal belongings - yet I believe to understand why you follow the path of working against vampires and similar beings."

Tenkai listened silently to Lucind's words, nodding slightly as she spoke.

"However, I do not estimate these writings as dangerous as you apparently do. From what I have heard and read, van Helsing was a master of his field, but a lot of research has been done and published especially over the last hundred years - and as a result, van Helsing is no longer an insider tip. Plus, in these days, where magic mingles with high-tech, knowledge is barely ever safe. I mean, truly safe.

You said it yourself, this copy of the Wanderers is not the original. Van Helsing had a student or maybe several. Who can tell whom they passed their knowledge on to? If I only searched the siren plane long enough, I sure would find stored memories filled with related information."

Tenkai had to agree with Lucind there. They lived in an age where technology rendered the old ways of securing knowledge obsolete. Van Helsing had lived a long time ago, and even though his understanding of vampires was deep, there had been others after him that have followed in his footsteps.

At first he was a bit worried that she was trying to tell him his book was not worth the exchange, but that was a bit of an assumption. She had already told him it was a worthy price given how personal the item was to him. She was merely discussing the matter.

That was when Lucind caught him entirely out of the blue.

"What if someone with my powers decided to feed on you? Are you able to withstand psychic attacks?

What if someone overpowers me? I, too, have my limits.

And do you believe vampires and their folks haven't gathered knowledge over the centuries, to protect themselves?"

Tenkai appeared speechless, even if he was supposed to be silent. He had a surprised look on his face, as if the thought hadn't crossed his mind. Tenkai's spiritual capabilities gave him some measure of defense against psychic attacks. It was something he required in order to contend with the kinds of things he encountered regularly. But should he tell Lucind this? Would such a thing give her any sort of mistrust in him? Tenkai knew well that the darker beings of the world had evolved over time to preserve themselves, but Tenkai sought the book to help people rather than specifically hurt any one species.

"Don't get me wrong, Mr. Tenkai. I like you, and with what I just said I didn't mean to devalue your book. It really fulfills our deal. Furthermore, I think you are pouring your heart into an honorable cause. I believe, though, that your own notes are probably more worth than the book itself, from a rational point of view. And usually I would say that it didn't matter, because you paid with something close to your heart."

For a moment Tenkai was relieved. He was almost afraid he had upset Lucind with what he had said, but it seemed that the fact of what he was didn't cause her to lose trust in him. His face flushed a bit, flattered by the thought that his notes were worth more than the book he had given her. He didn't think himself to be nearly as famous to warrant such praise.

"However, I fear there is a misunderstanding. You say you hope to have found a place where this book is secure. But safe keeping is not part of our deal. When I receive a payment, it becomes mine, and I can do with it whatever I see fit."

It was this statement that really struck Tenkai hard. He frowned sheepishly, not exaggeratedly but enough to show he was ashamed of himself. Although he hadn't intended it, he was asking too much of Lucind by what he had said. Now everything she had just said made perfect sense.

If these books were as sought after as they were, even if their knowledge wasn't particularly dangerous, who was he to ask Lucind to guard it safely? He had meant it simply to convey the trust he had in her, but it sounded like he was adding conditions to their deal even after the transaction had been completed. Fighting against those who would use such knowledge for ill was his path, not Lucind's. He couldn't thrust such responsibility onto her. What if someone were to overpower Lucind? Was giving her this book putting her in some sort of danger?

No...that wasn't the core of the issue. The truth was that it was wrong of Tenkai to dictate what she decided to do with the book he had given her. It wasn't part of her deal. A swordsmith might forge a sword only for those who used it for a particular purpose, but such a smith always included those caveats in their deals. Asking Lucind to guard the book would be like Lucind telling him what to do with the book she gave him.

"You see now why I don't really believe in safety of knowledge. It isn't impossible to keep something absolutely secret, but that rarely ever is the case. And when you held books in your hand that can kill thousands of people by turning a single page, you have problems putting a van Helsing treatise in the same risk category."

Perhaps that was why he trusted Lucind so much. He didn't know what her library contained, but he could feel how much the Feiruza was suffused with magic. She probably guarded tomes a thousand times more dangerous than simple information. Even if information held power in its own right, some books simply held power in a much more raw, tangible sense. He had faced such a book a short while after he made his deal with Lucind, back in the Heaven or Hell '10 tournament. Could more tomes like it exist in the world?

"But let's say there really is someone who badly wants to get his or her hands on this book." She waved her hand in the direction of the Wanderer volume. "Someone dangerous. Really dangerous. He or she finds out about where the book is, which is totally possible. There are many other book hunters out there, some as good as I am. Then a ton of other persons who simply have a knack for digging up hot information."

Once more, the siren's eyes pierced his. "Do you expect me to defend this book with my life? Do you expect me to do that, Mr. Tenkai?"

Tenkai did not shy away from the siren's gaze, in spite of how ashamed he was for his folly.

"No, Lucind," he said solemnly. "It isn't my place to ask that of you."

He had already decided that as she explained it to him before. Such things were his duty, not hers. Requesting that of her would go against the very reasons he walked the path he had chosen in the first place.

"It's not that I wouldn't ever do such a thing for a book. But not only would the reason for me to enter such a deal have to be...well, convincing."

A sip of fresh tea ran down her throat. The small but sincere smile was back.

"If you have to pay with something close to your heart in exchange for a text like this, what do you think the price would be if I agreed put my own life on the line?"

"I must apologize," he continued. "I never intended to suggest that you should put your life on the line to protect this book. I'd never ask that of anyone. Buddhist like myself believe that attachment to material things leads to suffering. If it came between protecting a book and losing innocent life, I'd sooner burn the book myself."

Tenkai had hoped "innocent" wasn't a word Lucind would misconstrue. He knew that even the most stoic of persons in this world would not consider themselves innocent, but this case was context sensitive. He simply meant that Lucind's life was worth more than the book.

Tenkai sighed as he began to pace, continuing to speak.

"You might not have intended it to be, but what you've just asked me is a trick question. There is no price I could pay to have you put your life on the line. Nothing closer to my heart could be proper payment for such a responsibility. Putting your life on the line is a sacrifice, a choice made by the person willing to much said sacrifice. I can't devalue such an act by putting a price on it. I can't ask you to do something that would require nothing less than your own personal devotion, especially not over something like this book."

Tenkai was unsure what all of this would mean. If Lucind did not intend to keep the book, what was she going to do with it? Would she burn it or dispose of it in some way? No...that didn't sound like Lucind at all. She loved books, that much he had gathered when he was watching the tournaments through his investigation.

Perhaps she intended to sell it, as the Feiruza was a book store. It was within her right to do so, and no doubt she would ask said person for their own sacrifice equal in value to the one Tenkai had made. But if for any reason someone seeking the book were to try and take it by force, the last thing he'd want would be for Lucind to give her life protecting a material possession.

"What I had meant was that I trust that this book is safe in your hands, regardless of what you choose to do with it. I did not mean for it to sound like I was requesting that you guard it with your life. That would go against the very reason I walk this path."

Had Lucind decided to look further into the book, either in between her conversation or after Tenkai had left, she'd come across a few notes left in one of the earlier pages. It was dated somewhere seven years ago, written in shaky handwriting. It didn't look like the writer was nervous, since the letters fumbled inconsistently. It appeared as if it was written in a turbulent car or plane.

---

((FLASHBACKFLASHBACKFLASHBACKflashbackflashbackflashback...

I know I'm going to change a few of these appearances once I actually take the time to flesh out some of the artwork. ><))

A memory would surface, a time years before the first Heaven or Hell tournament. A young Tenkai, twenty years old at the time, sat in the holding area of a large transport truck. The inside was dimly lit, the dull grey metal emphasizing practical construction. It was obvious he wasn't there to relax, in spite of the calm, studious smile upon his face.

Tenkai looked the same as far as his face and hair went, but that was where the similarities ended. His outfit was far different from that of a monk, or even the clothes he wore in battle. He was dressed in a black sneaking suit that clung to his skin with pads of armor covering his forearms, waist and chest. A black, long-sleeved overcoat with silver trimming was worn over this suit. The lapel of his coat bore the coat of arms of the Vatican, as well as the emblem of the Vatican's Operatio Arcanum. A long Buddhist rosary necklace was draped around his shoulder, an accessory that clashed with the generally European look he was sporting.

In his lap was Muramasa, resting in its sheath as if it were a pet dog taking a nap as Tenkai wrote out his thoughts in a notebook.

December 8th, 2X04

It's been almost a year since I first started serving with Arcanum. I was fortunate that Father Faulkner was there when they evaluated my skills, otherwise it'd take another year before I could put them to good use. Even though I'm still auditing at the academy, I don't find it displeasing. Genshinsai-sensei told me I should remain open in my endeavors, and I've learned a lot in the past few months. The book that Father Faulkner gave me has taught me a lot about vampires, and so far that knowledge has helped me when I've least expected it.

I don't seem to have any sort of permanent team placement, but that's simply how it works, I guess. Different operations call for different kinds of skill sets. I'm in no position to make suggestions, so it's best that I leave that job to higher-ranking operatives and handlers. Of course, I'd be wrong if I said that was the only reason. I was one of the few that survived in the Marseilles operation. I can't seem to find myself fortunate for my capabilities without feeling a deep swell of regret.

This next mission takes me to the border of Romania. The Vatican received word of a few incidents regarding abduction and grave robbing. It's been going on long enough that the Administratio has warranted an investigation. They don't think these are just isolated incidents, and I have to agree with them.

As Tenkai wrote, the other agents assigned to the operation sat around preparing themselves. A grizzled-looking half-shaven man shot a sour glance at Tenkai as he happily wrote in his notebook. Another agent, a slim bespectacled man with a priest's collar mouthed a prayer to himself in silence. A heavily-built, stoic-looking dark-skinned man silently cleaned his gun, relishing in the silence.

A silence that was interrupted by a young man sitting next to Tenkai.

"So you're him, aren't you?"

Tenkai broke from his writing, turning to his left to see a young man, most likely an adept from the Academy, with a slim, athletic build and short, ruffled black hair. The tone of his voice was amiable with a hint of bewilderment, as if he didn't fully believe Tenkai was sitting right next to him.

"Hm?"

"You're that guy they were talking about," he continued. "I can tell by those beads. Not a whole lot of people working for the Vatican wearing Buddhist rosaries."

Tenkai was almost surprised the young man recognized his rosary. He shouldn't have been given the education standards at the Academy, but most people paid little mind to it, save the few that wished to challenge Tenkai's religious views. As hard as it was for Tenkai to explain his spiritual beliefs between Christianity and Buddhism, he enjoyed philosophical discourse as long as it was peaceful.

"People talk about me?" he asked.

"They say Father Faulkner got you on the fast-track through the academy," said the young man. His choice of words denoted a much more comfortable attitude compared to the studious and disciplined priests. "Something about some foreign training or something like that."

Tenkai was a bit uneasy at the mention of his place in Arcanum. There were a few of the younger adepts at the academy who thought Tenkai had been privileged and was simply railroaded through without needing to do any work. They hadn't realized all of the training he had to do for ten years prior to that to attain the skills he brought to the Vatican. He certainly hadn't been the first, but to many of the younger agents it looked like Tenkai's very presence undermined their hard work.

"Oh...yes, I guess I am that...person," he said, finding it difficult to refer to himself as "that guy". "I know what you must be think-"

"Naah, I'm not judging you," he interrupted. "Some of the others think its unfair, but I know better than that. I actually admire some of the things you've done."

Tenkai wasn't used to that sort of praise. He had heard people say that before, but he never let himself get used to it. Pride led to overconfidence, and overconfidence invited failure.

"Thank you...um..." Tenkai replied, trailing off on the place he would say a name.

"Anderson. Anderson Masters."

"Pleased to meet you," replied Tenkai, shaking Andrson's hand. "My name is-"

"Tankai, wasn't it?"

"Tenkai."

"Oh, right."

A few minutes later, Tenkai noticed Agent Masters looking over to one of his fellow agents at the far side of the holding area closest to the front of the transport. It was a young woman, around Tenkai's age, wearing a fur-trimmed winter coat over a form-fitting special operatives suit. She was very attractive, with a head of long, wavy dark-brown hair and a strong yet femenine build. She must have been another agent from the academy, like Anderson was. She regarded him with her bright hazel eyes and smiled, raising her hand slightly as if to wave to him.

Tenkai could hardly help but notice.

"A friend of yours?" asked Tenkai.

Anderson immediately straightened himself out. "Hm? Oh, you mean Hel-..err...Agent Sherman? I guess you could say that..."

Tenkai smiled at the thought. "I see," he said in a "I think I get it" tone of voice.

It took Anderson a while before he realized what Tenkai was insinuating. "Hey, wait," he said in a whisper. "I mean, it's not like that. We have more of a professional...uhh..."

"It's alright," said Tenkai. "You don't need to explain."

"I dunno, though...maybe when we get back to Rome I'll take her out somewhere. There isn't a rule against that, right?"

"Not to my knowledge," replied Tenkai. The people running Arcanum would probably frown upon such relations between co-workers, but that never stopped anyone in the past. If they had, Tenkai might never have been born.

---

It all happened so fast.

The memory shifted, the peaceful quiet of the transport shattered by feelings of pain and horror. The sound of gunshots rattling through a corridor, cries of pain as men screamed their last breaths, all coalescing into a chaotic mess of noise. Tenkai was on his knees, clutching a wound on his left side, his suit spattered with gore. His overcoat had been lost in the ensuing conflict. Muramasa was covered in blood in his right hand, his hand trembling as the sword reveled in its own bloodthirst.

Through a damaged eye Tenkai could see another agent, sprawled onto his knees next to something lying on the floor. It was Anderson, sobbing uncontrollably over the torn body of Agent Sherman. She was little more than a torso now, as if some thing had just cleaved her in two with a single stroke. Tenkai couldn't tell if Anderson was injured, with much of the blood covering his body not being his own.

"Helena..." he cried bitterly with a face contorted in pain, clutching what remained of Agent Sherman in his arms. Her dead eyes looked through him blankly towards the ceiling, her skin already starting to pale from blood loss. "I'm sorry...I'm so sorry...I couldn't--hurrk!"

THUD

Just as Tenkai's eyes began to regain their focus, he watched helplessly as a large, grotesque foot twice as large as a man's kicked into Anderson's throat and crushed it into he floor, killing him instantly with a snap of his neck.

To say the foot belonged to a creature would be mockery, for it was obvious this foot did not originally belong to it. In fact, just about every part of the monstrosity that stood before Tenkai belonged to someone else in the past. It was a hulking juggernaut of undeath, stitched together from the skin, bones and sinew of dozens of other corpses. This was one of the results of the kidnappings and grave robberies that had drawn the attention of the Vatican, with other experiments being held off by the other operatives nearby. In its hand was little more than a large slab of iron crudely fashioned into a blade, still dripping with the blood of slain agents, including Agent Sherman's.

Tenkai winced at the pain of both the wounds he received and the tragic deaths of his fellow agents. He remembered how Anderson wanted to take Agent Sherman out somewhere when they returned to Rome, how he would have told her how he felt about her. And Agent Sherman...her name was Helena, wasn't it? What sort of dreams had she aspired to before she met such a gruesome fate?

In spite of everything Tenkai knew that kept him alive, he had failed to keep his fellow agents from dying. Although it was as much their job to protect innocent people as it was Tenkai's, he couldn't help but blame himself for not being able to prevent their deaths. So capable, and yet so weak at the same time, just like every other time in the past...

The construct let out a furious, inhuman roar from its unnaturally-made lungs, stretching the stitches that held its jaws in place, staring at Tenkai with a single eye and an empty socket. The sound turned Tenkai's despair into anger, and his eyes lit up in burning fury as his strength returned to him. He pushed off of his leg into a charge, Muramasa ablaze with spiritual power as he cried out...

---

"I chose this path so that others wouldn't need to suffer or give their lives needlessly," Tenkai said to Lucind. "Do what you feel is best. I trust your judgement."

One of those days

II: Now

(Taking place a couple of weeks after the meeting between Maximos and Tommorrow on Shadow Island)

Arriving at Latent's train station was unusual for her. A duffel bag landed on the platform with a dull thud before a pair of heavy boots followed. She took a moment to turn her head in both directions, and her breath drew a steamy trail. It had been a wise decision to stock up on warm clothes before coming back. There was a pair of thick, fingerless gloves which she put on and a hood she pulled farther down her head. Finally, she shouldered the bag, bending her knees when she did so, and followed the last passengers towards the exit.

The clock in the lobby stroke midnight. She stopped to let her gaze wander again: a few shops and cafes were still open, you could even buy a bouquet at this time. Lucind wasn't interested in flowers or other gifts but was headed straight at a counter in whose glass belly pastries and sandwiches presented themselves. The clerk turned around to greet her while working the espresso machine, yet his smile and whatever courteous phrase had been on his tongue died in an instant.

"What...can I...would you like to..."

He was fishing for coherence and didn't notice that hot steamed milk scalded his hand.

"A double cappuccino."

The man jerked his hand around, as if he expected to find someone standing right behind him with such a raspy, low voice.

"Please."

He looked back at Lucind, eyes wide open.

"It's alright, you can do that", the siren added, apparently forcing some encouragement into her words which where thick of her accent and a subliminal vibration that could cause dizziness in some. Lucind didn't see cold sweat appearing on his upper lip, nor the way the clerk almost crushed the paper cup he took from of stack. She felt it. If the people around her got the feeling the dark clad woman was looking right through them - if they happened to meet her eyes at all -, they weren't too wrong. Lucind's sight was almost completely dominated by her siren sense. All beings where watery ribbons for her, their shape and vibration replacing mimic or posture. Aside from that, soul signatures and voices offered everything she needed to orient herself.

Somewhere in the lobby, a child began to cry. A man leading a bulky dog on the leash tripped over when his companion ducked low suddenly, then pulled him towards the main exit which lay opposite of the coffee shop. When Lucind turned around (the clerk had huddled into a corner after passing the cup), the dog whimpered. Like a positive magnet in a box of negatives, she was evaded on her way out and in all streets that followed.

The cappuccino didn't work. The siren entered the main street and mechanically drank one sip after the next, but the warmth didn't arrive in her stomach, and the taste wasn't registered by her nerves. She still held on to it.

There was a group of people leaving a shop of some sort, one of them locked the door. A woman cleaned her glasses with a cloth. Something made her shudder and when she turned her head and put her glasses back on, she found Lucind staring at her from the other side of the crossing. Let's go, come on, hurry, the siren heard her whisper. Only when she caught herself licking her lips as she measured the flavor of each soul, Lu turned and vanished between two buildings - a short cut on the route to the docks.


A hint of familiarity embraced her when she walked through the quarter that was the last one featuring inns, pubs and a frequent street vendor before the restricted port area began. She blinked, but her view wouldn't clear, the world was still hidden behind a water veil. In many a dark alley, unknown creatures shrank back upon approaching her, and people inside houses felt the inexplicable urge to escape to...wherever. For Lucind it was as if the bottom of the ocean had followed her onto the land. An under water dream, only that she was very much alive and alert. A natural force taken from its habitat. But it was enough now. She wanted to go home - feel home. The transition always took a while, and six weeks of hunting and fighting with her siren senses running on full power were even harder to shake off.

She chose a random tavern and sat down in a corner, ignoring alarmed and scared looks and customers leaving, despite their drunkenness being beyond good and evil. Lucind just sat there, staring at her hands until someone put a plate and a pint in front of her. She slowly raised her head and saw a woman who had Maximos's height at least. Very muscular. Gone through many armored battles muscular. Blond locks were kept out of the face with braids.

"You look as though you could need it", she explained her unrequested gesture, and wrinkles appeared around eyes and mouth as she smiled at the siren.

Lucind gazed at the things on the plate - stew, mashed potatoes, some vegetables -, at the huge mug - probably beer. The waitress hesitated a moment, then chuckled and returned behind the bar.

"Thank you."

The tall woman nodded, showed another smile. "You're welcome."

The siren pushed back the hood that actually wasn't part of her knee-length thick coat, but was fastened to a stole that easily warmed half the upper body. She proceeded to take off the gloves and noticed the steam of the hot meal translated into different smells once they reached her nose. What the cappuccino couldn't do, this homemade dish did: the connection to her surroundings began to return, the steady noise of a myriad of voices settled until only those in her immediate radius remained in the foreground. Lucind tried to savor every bite and mouth full. Tried to concentrate on herself, sitting in a tavern, eating delicious food, drinking refreshing beer. Tried to remind herself that she was here and that she had to readjust her senses.

Before leaving, she thanked the other woman again and paid too much but pretended she didn't hear the protests.

Another fifteen minutes walk brought Lucind to the Feiruza. When she closed the library's door behind her, she felt at the right place and yet still separated from everything. The lanterns ignited since they sensed her presence, therefore the siren took off the hooded stole, gloves, pullover, and coat in the dim greenish blue lights the lanterns' organisms created. Her clothes landed on the floor.

The ship was empty aside from Prishazan whose signature she made out at the other end in his cabin.

What now? She was exhausted from the travel, exhausted from research and book hunt, from unexpected negotiations with siren clans. Exhausted after fighting and taking a few lives in battle. What she had done, she would do again. But now she longed for nothing more than doffing this official side of her. A trip to Azum was always nice, one way or another. But now she wanted to be nothing more than a book loving siren in her own four walls.

After walking here and there without a plan, Lu lay down on the floor, right on her clothes, still wearing tank top, cargo pants, and boots. A groan escaped because she felt every bruise and contusion that hadn't fully healed yet.

Beneath her the sea formed stronger waves than before and she knew there were a lot of fish circling her aura. She stretched her arm towards the ceiling, watching greenish blue specks of light seeping through her fingers. A focal point. That was what she needed. Concentrate on something that would make her mind follow her body home. Her thoughts took intricate paths, swayed and swirled, memory after memory, picture after picture. Whenever she thought she had tamed her mind, it slipped away again to enter another mental rollercoaster. But behind each flash of information, the outlines of the same face appeared: dark hair, mismatched eyes, the broadest smile. She wasn't aware she was still reaching out.

"I'm back."

Could there be anything more dangerous? Maybe. Maybe, under the given circumstances, not. He should really be turning away now. But he didn't. By now, she heard him, and amber eyes stared ahead, out of focus, while the outline of a delighted smile grew on her face. But by now, he could see her and made his way directly to the door where he pulled back his fist and -

Knock, knock, knock, knock.

Knock.

Knock, knock, knock.

Silence. And if he tried to see her, she would still be there, but her location wouldn't make sense. She was here and there, then her soul seemed to expand and fill the entire library. The Feiruza was gently swaying from one side the other, pushed by waves that were too strong for a secluded port and no stormy weather fronts in days.

The door opened on its own account, and an even deeper silence followed past the threshold.

At all times, the library was conditioned to a moderate room temperature, not more than sixty six, sixty seven degrees. But with the current cold outside, it was pleasant inside. Comfy, even, with the semi-darkness, green and blue specks coming from the lanterns, creating restless patterns.

Maximos would find the siren's clothes on the same spot on the floor where she had left them, now including her boots and socks. But where was she? Maybe the shadow would think of the hidden room for a second, but her soul signature marked the library itself, that was for sure.

Finally...

A whisper, physical and mental in its nature, brushing the nape of his neck and echoing in his head. It came from everywhere, and nowhere.

What took you so long?

...took you...

...took you so long?

In the corner of his eyes, her figure appeared as an indistinct form, but she wouldn't be there when he turned his head.

I searched for you...

...searched for you...

...I searched...

...for you in the shadows.

The library was on the ship's lowest level, adjacent to the storage and the sailors' bunks. Therefore, when something began to bump against the hull, Maximos would feel it, only softened by the last layer of space and wood separating his feet from the water. Creatures of the sea scraped along the Feiruza's belly, in all forms and sizes.

Maximos...

...Max...

...Dark...

What did you...

Maximos Lucilien Dark.

What...

...did you come...

What did you...

...Max...

What did you come for?

Why are you here?

Would he catch her finally approaching? The monster always loomed in the corner you weren't watching. So, unless he broke through the net she had thrown over his senses, her arms would suddenly wrap around his waist from behind. But not just literally. Her soul followed her body, eager to embrace him, fiercer in its grip than her muscles. It was like standing in shallow water, when an unexpected wave hit you, forcing you into a lunge, or at least to use your arms to gather your balance. Months earlier, Lucind had flooded this man's mind gently, careful not to cause any disturbances. But she couldn't think of any kind precaution now. No filter. No cushion.

For a moment, it felt as though Maximos had walked into his demise indeed. Her arms, and this ship. Drowning him. Pulling him down, leaving no air for a cry or a plead. Down...down...

But the world would clear up around him eventually. They were still in the library. Above the surface. She stared at him. Only stared.

If he came to look at her, he would see dark circles under her eyes, her hair in a mess. There were tiny cuts on her arms, one along her jaw line. And if the shadow happened to catch a glance at her back, he would find that her tank top didn't cover the beginning of at least two deeper cuts, slashes rather, that had only started healing.

She felt his panic twofold. How his mind raced, trying to find a way out. How his fingers gripped her arms hard, but she barely noticed the pain caused by squeezed bruises and cuts in that moment. She heard him gasping in panic, his soul and brain fooled by her psionic embrace.

When his legs gave in, Lucind, too, had to kneel down, trying to have him sink to the floor as gently as possible. But she was pulled down by his weight, and so they both slumped down, right in the middle of the library. She held him, held on to him, watched him as he finally relaxed. In her eyes and on her lips, there gleamed a dark fascination, tinted with barely hidden desire. If anyone was to witness this, seeing this woman, who had obviously gone through some sort of fight, being completely engrossed in waiting for Maximos returning to full consciousness, he or she likely would have expected this dark clad man to be the victim - which he was, in a way. (Only not.) But that these two were actually lovers, a couple?

She loomed over him. In a corner of her mind she noticed how long her hair had gotten again, the way it framed his face and pooled on his chest. Whenever she spent an extended time fully emerged in the lhor aven and using her abilities almost all day long, it increased the growth of her hair, a side effect she hadn't yet fully figured out.

Eventually his eyes opened, blinking away blurs and confusion, failing utterly to separate the real from the imagined. He looked up and saw her eyes, just her eyes, staring down at him. Remnants of dark eye liner created a stark contrast to her amber irises that seemed just a shade richer than usual.

When his hand rose shakily upwards to loop around the back of her neck, a smile began to form in the corners of her mouth. From there, he pulled himself up and crashed his face to hers for a long, deep, and hungrily passionate kiss.

She let him have it, all of it. All of her. Once more, the sea creatures outside became excited, and for the duration of the kiss, the bumping against the hull was the only sound. But then, silence followed. The water calmed down. The bioluminescent worms in the library's lanterns ignited fiercely once more, before simmering down to a dull twilight. Her darkness was still present, but it now resided in her, palpable and free for the shadow to handle it. No more psionic tricks for the rest of the night.

When they finally parted, now both in need of oxygen, Lucind shifted her weight on the hand resting on his shoulder, while she lowered her head to first run her her lips along his jaw line. Pushing him back down, she proceeded to lightly bite his throat, unable to hold back a chuckle.

The siren sat back, but only to remove her top in one swift motion, revealing another cut that ran across her stomach.

"I'm glad to be back home, too," she mumbled, before leaning back down.

She had been able to ignore the slashes all over her body while the two of them were celebrating their reunion. But now they were burning all the more. However, that didn't stop her from stretching and sighing in delight.

"So..." She turned her head to look at Max. "How were your last seven weeks?"

She buried her face against the side of his chest, taking in the damp scent she had missed dearly, while an arm and a leg loosely wrapped around his body. He would feel how she drew in her breath, arched her back ever so slightly as he traced the cuts, whose edges showed signs of an inflammation. But it was the remnants of arousal that turned the burning into a bitter-sweet dessert for the senses.

"Weeks."

The way he phrased his answer made her smile. She waited for more to be said, but the siren had a good idea what the time they had been separated had looked like for him. Plans, ideas, visions, constructions, sketches, strategies revised and revoked. Sleepless nights. Mad nights. Nights of dark.

"Has it been weeks?" He said softly, leaning in just slightly to kiss the blue hair at the top. "I think I was trying to save the world, or something like that."

Oh, and then that, of course. She chuckled and craned her neck to peck his chin. Lucind had noticed his reddened eyes, and how long it had taken for each of his muscles to relax, and for his mind to let go. But in this, they had been equals this night. Being with the shadow changed the pace of her reality and eased her soul. Not a myriad of thoughts, questions, or memories running through her brain. Not a cacophony of voices, both corporeal and spiritual, that split her mind thousandfold in order to assess and evaluate. This kind of silence, of singularity she found at his side, Lucind had not found with anyone else in her life.

"How about you? What did you do?"

She took a moment, before she said: "I went to Azum as planned. I found books. I lost books. Had the usual quarrel with my kind."

Then she raised her body enough to look at him, and Lucind gave her best shot at making a dead serious face to add:

"And - I fought unicorns."

"Uwah!?" Maximos' eyes snapped open, he gasped very much like a child shocked and amazed to hear that Santa Claus had been in his room the night before. And it made the siren chuckle and smile from ear to ear. Sometimes she still asked herself how it was possible that, after everything he had seen and done, the shadow was able to keep this boyish side of him alive, to cherish it like this? But Lucind knew the answer. Just look at us, she thought. Just look at us. We made a decision, you and me. For life. And love. Self-fulfillment. Balance. Fight. Darkness. ...and, every once in a while, for chasing each other, armed with paint dripping brushes. (Lucind still had vivid memories of the confused look of a customer who had stopped by at Maximos' shop unannounced some months ago, as well as how her skin burned after she had had a hard time removing those stains.)

"Really?! I didn't know those really existed! Is that how you became so hurt? Did you save anything from them?"

Here, she wasn't sure for a split second if he was trying to make a joke with his first question. Yet, there was no such notion in his voice. The confused look on her face vanished, she shook her head slowly and grinned.

"How you can make it here without caring about newspapers or chronicles or encyclopedias...it amazes me time and again."

Lucind leaned forward to kiss him. Then she nodded.

"Yes. All those wounds are from them. If I learned anything, then that taking on a group of angry unicorns is not a good idea. But their anger was understandable. They thought I was going to harm them - bewitch them, actually. And then I...sort of..."

She shifted her eyes. "...killed the lead mare. - Want me to show you?"

The siren seemed to hesitate a second before saying: "Yes, we will need some. Just a moment."

The other option would have been a direct link to his mind, but... Lucind knew it would be tempting. A little too tempting after everything dark, deep, and emotional inside of them had only just settled. Therefore, she got up, not bothering to put on anything; lying on their clothes was better than on the bare floor anyway. Every now and then, the tiniest change in her expression revealed that her whole body was now burning. She would have to do something about the wounds she received from the unicorns before the inflammation reached a more severe state.

She didn't have to go far in order to get some water. Behind her desk was a wardrobe, not much taller than she was. She opened both its doors: Inside, there was room for some coats and jackets, but also a narrow shelf from which she took a silver bowl. Lucind then turned to her right, reached out for some vessel standing on the wardrobe's bottom - when her eyes caught something in mirror that was fastened to the inside of the door. The siren froze. Frowned. Straightened. Examined first her arm, then her shoulder and back. That mirror was partially blind and a tiny crack split the reflection in two. But it did its job well enough for Lu to realize she had received new "markings": Round and jagged, sitting in between the cuts. And not just on her back side.

A smirk and an eye caught Max over her shoulder. She didn't say anything, yet to herself, Lucind thought: Just wait until you see your back. And the siren's look ran over her finger nails when she finally leaned down to pick up a handy clay jug. Quickly walking back, Lucind proceeded to fill the jug with water, after she had passed the bowl to Max. The water, so it seemed, flowed directly out of the ship's wall: The siren pulled out a wooden panel that revealed a faucet. And after mumbling a few words in Seireneia, a stream sprang forth and right into the vessel. Magic? In a way. The shadow would feel what he had often felt before on this ship. The vikra, the sea spirit that was the Feiruza's very soul, stirred and reacted to Lucind's voice. But differently than before, the sylph like being didn't defy the siren. There was still this somewhat "grumpy" aura, but a situation like the one Max had witnessed months and months ago in the secret room seemed to be bygone.

She sat back down right next to him. But Lu didn't fill the silver bowl right away. Instead, one of her hands cupped Maximos's face. What seemed to be a mere gesture of affection turned into a gentle examination, however. Her thumb traced wrinkles on his face that couldn't be seen but that she felt: on his forehead, between his eyes, next to his nose, along his chin. Amber eyes followed each touch, and Lucind's smiling voice betrayed a deeper meaning in the words she spoke.

"It seems saving the world came at quite a cost this time..."

She dropped her hand and looked at him briefly, before she moved on to pour clear water into the bowl, letting silence hover between them for a short while.

Eventually, she would reach into the water and, under her breath, sing a short incantation. Just like he had seen it many times before, the water first crawled up her hand and arm, then fell back with a splash. Concentric circles formed, grew into ripples, rose like a tiny fountain that then thinned out. With Lucind's mental powers, her commandment over the water also had increased, and where the watery surface had used to take the shape of a hemisphere, it now turned into an almost rectangular veil - very much like a real screen.

"Alright, here we go..."

"Ready? Or should we get milk and cookies first?"

"Aaalways prepared. You know me." The siren chuckled, then got up again to step over to her duffel bag: "Guess it's time for souvenirs," she added softly and sat down on her heels.

Before reaching whatever she intended to present Maximos, Lucind had to take out some more clothes and a few precautiously wrapped items that seemed to be books. Finally, she placed a larger, yet soft package next to her, removed the string that was wrought around paper and inside, as the shadow would see, was what first appeared to be one large piece of clothing made of black silk. When the siren picked up the top layer, however, it turned out to be a robe, the seam of which was adorned with copper sequins and beads as well as embroidery in matching shades. She slipped the light garment over her shoulders, then handed the other bundle to Max: It was a second robe. Larger, of course, but almost identical in its design.

"I got these from the Gurusteo, an indigenous tribe from the Magarja rainforest in Azum's west. They live in close relationship with the unicorns...which makes them the only humans, or the only beings the unicorns are fine with having around them."

Maximos would see that, even though the silk on the outside was cool and a little rough, the inside of the robe was lined with a fabric which was black as well, yet soft to the touch. And despite the light design, the robe warmed his skin within moments. The design was finished by a simple belt hanging from three loops.

"I guess you can say they're living in symbiosis." Lu went on rummaging in the bag until she pulled out a thermos flask and two satchels.

"The unicorns provide protection. Even offer transportation every now and then. And the Gurusteo do their best to protect the forest, help the unicorns get enough food should there be a shortage."

She placed flask and satchels next to the shadow and went to retrieve two small cups and a box of chocolate cookies.

"And even though unicorns - or these unicorns, anyway - have amazing abilities when it comes to healing others, they are depending on external help for every wound or affliction that goes beyond a basic abrasion, sprain, cut or what have you."

Lucind sat back down and opened the box as well as the satchels, which were filled with dried fruits and nuts. Then she filled the cups with a thick liquid of a buttery color. Without further comment, he silently asked Max to give it a try. It was milk, but not your ordinary cow milk. It was thicker, richer in fat, nourishing sweet, yet tangy. Together with the other snacks, it created a taste probably different from any other milk-and-cookie session the shadow had had until now. Lucind hoped he would like it. Not just because it always made her happy if she managed to brighten his mood with her travel gifts. His body was basically screaming for food and energy.

She took a sip herself, reactivated the water screen which had returned to a bubble like shape, and finally began to transfer her memories.

Maximos would see places he had seen years ago, when the siren had told him all about her trip to Azum, followed by Sunstrike, Owle, Vahn, and Larhien. The Port of Semyon was as colorful and crowded as ever. Nikalanta, the underground metropolis, seemed unchanged, too, with its clash of high-tech and tribal simplicity. It hadn't been Lucind's first return to the eastern continent, but definitely the longest. There were scenes from different book stores, libraries, and shady corners where the siren browsed through books and scrolls, and purchased or traded a few titles here and there.

"No big catches this time, least not in terms of new additions for the secret shelves. But some texts that will cover my living expenses for the next few months." She smiled and tilted her head while nibbling on a piece of dried fruit. "That's something, I'd say."

For a short moment, the screen showed the Nikalantean houses of healing where the Aishwarya sirens where still offering their aid to ease afflicted bodies and souls. "Unlike on Gaia and the other continents, the Second Awakening didn't cause as much panic and disarray among the sirens there on Azum. Having been outsiders for centuries, their feuds and conflicts were overcome more easily." The Second Awakening. Max would knew by then that this was what sirens called the day were the l'hor aven had been replaced by an update, newly woven by the five great mothers of all sirens. The day were Lucind, along with all of them, had vanished from the earth, only to reappear at dawn, walking out of the ocean. Changed body. Heightened senses and skills. And the chance for new insights.

Pictures of Fezi appeared, but were replaced by Larhien, Lucind's brother immediately. He laughed at his sister, proudly presenting a bundle in his arms that, in fact, was a baby. Its light blue hair and tiny bat like ears couldn't hide the fact that both parents were - now - full bloods. In her memories, Lucind turned around to hug another female siren. Maybe Max would remember her: It was Yaranahe, the siren warrior who, back then, had been the bodyguard of the Aishwarya's ambassador.

"I still can't believe it..." She chuckled. "He's still a kid himself!"

On the water veil, Larhien made all sort of funny faces at the baby, who apparently liked it. A pair of miniature hands reached out for his hair, that was no longer short and spiked like it used to. Lucind shook her head, but the look on her face unmistakably said she was extremely proud of her twin brother.

The sound returned - Lu was now able to control if she wanted to reveal the visual or oral aspect of a memory - just in time for Max to hear Larhien remind his sister to say hi to him, Maximos.

"Which I hereby did!"

"After about a week, I traveled westwards, until I reached the Magarja forest. I'm actually surprised the mosquito bites healed that fast. I swear, the kind of mosquitoes they have there..." Lu raised her brows. "Huge. Not kidding. They tried to eat me alive, stupid bugs. I have to find a real good thank you present for Yaranahe, because she gave me a lotion that smelled anything but nice, but worked perfectly. However, until I had covered nearly every inch of my skin, those creepers had found a way to snatch some blood."

Even now, the irritation was alive in her voice, while the water screen showed a very unnerved siren fighting said evil mosquitoes.

The tip of her tongue found a trace of that foreign milk on her upper lip, while her eyes darted over the shadow's profile. The siren took another of the dried fruits and Max emptied almost his whole cup in a single gulp. She expected his stomach to growl any second and wondered why it hadn't happened yet. The hunger burning inside him, churning his guts. It made his soul tremble and ache to be refueled. Even his question - "...is this unicorn milk?" -, the timbre in each syllable told her these few treats wouldn't be enough, even though Maximos would experience the special qualities of the beverage within moments.

"Part of it is. Unicorn milk is extremely valuable and expensive. And potent. In its pure form, it is used to heal all kinds of ailments and inflictions. But the pact the Gurusteo made with the unicorns forbids them to give away too much of it to strangers. Which in return", she added, raising her brows, "makes it an even more attractive drink for other healers and thugs alike."

While Lucind was speaking, the milky mixture they were enjoying spread a warm and soothing sensation throughout their bodies, and for a short while, Maximos' hunger would be alleviated at least a bit, and the siren noticed the cuts' burning subsiding.

She had a hard time keeping a straight face when she witnessed the shadow's reaction upon seeing the baby. It wasn't the first time she saw this kind of confusion and unease on his face, but although Lu knew she should have felt more sympathy, she just couldn't help biting her lip before patting his shoulder: "It's okay dear. This...is a good thing. And should you get to meet Larhien during the next time, just congratulate him - even if you don't share his enthusiasm." Her grin vanished. "New sirens. Gaia needs them..."

When the images on the water screen changed, Lucind got up.

"I'll be right back. Keep watching. I just have to check something real quick."

With that, she walked over to her desk, took a PDA like device from the drawer and started running her fingers over the touch screen. Only when Max's expression displayed a certain amount of horror in view of the mosquitoes, Lu raised her head and smirked in a told-you-so-didn't-I fashion.

Her memory movie kept on running, but after a couple of minutes, the loss of focus caused a fast cut of scenes, some older, here and there images of shadow and siren, other moments on the ship. And time and again, Fezi, back in Azum. She didn't look happy. In fact, it wasn't exaggerated to say that the young siren, who had barely aged since Max had seen her the first time years ago, looked downright disgruntled, sad even.

As soon as Lucind returned, the memory stream continued showing her travel through the Magarja forests. "Sorry for that. Not too good with multi-tasking." She chuckled, then added quickly: "Seems Fezi's hitting puberty. Not that easy with her anymore."

Lucind knew she was doing a bad job at hiding hurt feelings which didn't quite fit her attempt to downplay the previous images. But right now, she just wanted to finish the story.

Max would see how Lucind on the water screen eventually came across a unicorn. If the shadow had seen any of the stereotypical pictures or descriptions of unicorns, he would now come to realize that the artists and authors of those drawings and texts had been visually handicapped in some way...or stoned - unless there actually was more than one type of unicorn. The one he saw lying on the mossy ground was indeed relatively light and small in its built - its back was probably on the height of the siren's nose -, but its coat wasn't white or silver, but dark brown; there was no sparkling involved; the horn, maybe two feet in length, even seemed a little crooked.

And aside from that, this unicorn seemed to be in pretty bad shape. It looked rather...diseased.

Forest noises could be heard. Foreign birds and other animals out of sight. A couple of bugs landed on the unmoving body of the unicorn, which seemed to have fallen asleep while comfortably resting on the soft ground, its head resting on its forelegs.

In her memory, Lucind hesitated. Lucind, sitting next to Max, commented:

"It was still alive. Barely, though. And something felt wrong. There was no ordinary wound or illness involved, no dying of old age. When I checked out the soul signature, I tasted...decay. Reminded me of certain curses or...other very crude black spells."

Finally, the siren inched closer. There were more insects crawling all over the unicorn, and upon an even closer look, the fur didn't only look greasy with sweat and dirt, but also strangely lose, even forming wrinkles here and there, as if there was way too little muscle mass underneath.

She knelt down, covering her mouth with one hand. Max would hear her gulping. With her other hand, she pulled a piece of cloth from a belt-bag which she would wrap around two fingers. Gingerly, she reached out until she touched the animal's shoulder. The coat gave in under the slightest pressure, visibly sliding along when Lu moved her fingers up an inch or two. She mumbled something in her mother tongue - apparently confused when---

A jolt ran through the unicorn's body. Its eyes shot open, but they were awkwardly turned out of position. Neck and head jerked around - and a sound escaped its throat: It maybe started as neighing, but pain, gurgling, and something...else...distorted the mythical horse's exclamation.

Lucind gave off a strangled scream and shot up, almost making painful contact with the horn that aimed for her. Flailing, she took a few steps back until she regained her balance.

For a few seconds, only the siren's quickened breath filled the scene. The unicorn had stopped moving again after putting the last bit of energy into lifting its head in defense. Only its nostrils were quivering ever so slightly.

Finally, Lucind knelt down once more.

"She asked me to kill her. I wanted to find out what in the Five's name had happened to her. But her pain was unbearable...and it threatened to infect her soul. So I cut lose the last few strings that still attached it to this rotting body."

Max would see and hear how she spoke a prayer and sang a short incantation - meant as a farewell and guiding light for the unicorn's spirit.

She got up and, after another moment, began to walk away. She didn't make it too far, however.

From the water screen, a groaning and moaning sounded out, and maybe it was because they had the ocean right underneath, but just as with a dolby surround system, it really was as if those sounds came from behind Lu on the screen and from behind the two watching the memory movie.

The siren stopped. Someone else would've turned around, but her ears, twitching ever so slightly, told her what was going on.

Gargling, crunching noises accompanied the groans. Ripping, splashing, wet masses falling to the ground.

She exhaled. Very. Slowly.

And looked over her shoulder.

There was the clearing she had just left. And the unicorn. Only that said unicorn was no longer dead. Or...well...it was. But it was standing on all four hooves now. Pooling around them: heaps of hide and flesh, probably a good third of what the poor thing had to offer. In addition, it looked very much like some of the vital organs tried to escape their old home. Half of the nostrils was missing, creating a rather unpleasant grin.

Very dryly, Lucind stated:

"Awesome."

"Undead. Undead lead mare...of the unicorns. You neglected to mention undead."

"Oh." She cocked a brow. "How could I have missed that?"

On the screen, the risen unicorn staggered towards the siren, who in return took a few steps back. The soulless image of a half rotten horse continued to make strangled noises, and every movement, every twitch appearing on its body - all of it looked horribly wrong. Someone or something was pulling the strings but was unaware of equestrian anatomy. But despite the uncoordinated behavior, it became faster and threatened to close to distance between itself and Lucind.

"I wondered what was the best way to bring it down...I had only read about undead creatures of this kind and every self-called expert has his own favorite method of extermination."

Maximos would see how, without further ado, pulled her gun Isebel, aimed for the unicorns head, fired. Right between the eyes. The unicorns head was pushed back with quite some force, causing the skin along throat and neck to rip some more. It stopped for a moment. But other than that, nothing happened. The undead unicorn continued to head for the siren.

"Noticed the teeth", Lu asked. Sometime between the initial transformation of the unicorn and the shot its teeth had changed their form. It was a miracle they where still embedded in the putrefied gum, but their new, sharp and pointy likeness did give the impression that the newborn horse zombie felt the need to feed on something fresh. In addition, whatever was controlling the risen, it had became much more confident: the unicorn gained in speed.

On the screen, the siren activated her staff. She wasn't going to use the forked end, however, but instead turned the weapon around and called forth the shadow blade Maximos had given her years ago. The same blade with which Lucind had beheaded a high rank siren from her former clan, after she had challenged Lucind to a death fight.

"The plan was to circle the thing to get a good swing at it...but...well, see for yourself."

Right when she jogged, half sideways, half backwards, in order to get into position, one of her feet got caught in a root - and Lucind fell, siren curses following right after. The zombie unicorn lowered its head: If it wanted to stab the siren with its horn or just get a mouthful of flesh was hard to say. But this situation pled for a way out.

"Call that instinct", Lu commented, and the image on the water screen got blurry for a moment when the siren released a sound blast, the strongest vocal attack female sirens can make use of.

In an instant, the unicorns head exploded, and Lucind shielded herself, the screen turned dark for a second. The siren hastened to get back up, realizing she had rotten unicorn all over her body.

"Bad instinct. I really worried that contact with this stuff would make me sick - or worse."

So, the head was gone. Mostly, that is. There were remains of the trachea, a few muscle strings and ligaments. But pieces of the skull including the horn were spread in a large radius.

One problem remained, though. The thing was still moving. Although with less orientation. But still.

"On top of this I felt a group of unicorns approaching. Or heard them, rather, because unicorns are one of the few races which can vanish from my radar almost completely."

The siren tried to have an eye on the risen unicorn while looking to her right from where she knew the other unicorns would soon appear. When they did - all showing hides in different shades of brown and with horns that were just as crooked as that of the now dead horse - they just seemed to skim the scene, then headed straight for Lucind, not stopping in their pace.

"They thought I did this...yeah, I know. But from what I got from their mental messages, this had not just been the lead mare of their herd, but also their grandmother. They simply ignored anything I tried to 'say' to them. But I still didn't want to seriously hurt them. At some point I managed to daze the weakest." She looked at him. "Unicorns can hide their soul signature from me, or most reach near perfection in it. It is something that we have never been able to find an answer to, but unicorns seem to be, well, immune to psionic interferences. I can communicate with them, but there are only legends of sirens who were able to get inside a unicorn's mind, let alone their soul. Amazing creatures."

What followed was a dance of the unusual kind: Lucind had to avoid three pointy horns, and three sets of hooves that could deliver fierce kicks. (And the headless zombie unicorn was also still wobbling around in the background.) But despite her being extremely agile, despite ducking, rolling, jumping, and blocking, the siren received many blows, mainly horn slashes, so now Max knew where his lover had gotten her wounds from. Using some of her last strength, she used a milder vocal attack, causing two of the horses to falter and halt their attacks. The third one, however, seemed unfazed.

Just when Lucind was almost unable to defend herself and her actions reached a level of despair, a high pitched voice sounded out from the other end of clearing where the siren had first found the dead mare. It was a girl with short black hair, olive tinted skin, and light clothes in the colors of the rainforest.

"Stop!! It wasn't her - leave her alone!"

Several necklaces of different colored beads shock around her neck when she ran over to where the siren was half propped against a tree: The last unicorn had just tried to pierce Lucind's throat. She had been able to avert the stab, but blood trickled from a wound nonetheless.

"Stop it right now", the girl cried out once more, now sounding angry. And it worked. Her voice made the unicorn step back. "It wasn't her, you know I would never lie to you. She found Almarra when she was almost dead...right before she transformed...into..." Tears welled up in the girl's eyes, and she looked back into the direction she had come from: The beheaded horse corpse was still stumbling along, much slower now.

"It turned out Shal had been in one of her people's tree houses about a mile away from where she had overseen the forest using a telescope", Lu commented.

The girl continued talking to the three horses, which finally calmed down. She also offered Lucind something to drink from her leather bottle. At some point, the siren dared asking: "How can we stop..." And she nodded towards the zombie unicorn. A second later, her head shot up and around: Another unicorn had appeared. It was of the same build as the others, but its hide had turned gray on various spots, the mane was thinner, and the hip bones stood out visibly. "This was the lead mare's husband, so to speak. Later on, Shal told me that he must be several hundred years old, but nobody knows for sure. - The reason why I perked up is that he spoke to me. He answered my question: 'We have to take her heart'."

"He explained that around half a year ago, a mysterious sickness had started spreading among the forest's animal inhabitants. Usually, unicorns are immune to basically everything, so you can imagine how scared they were when the first of them caught this horrible disease. Some believe it's a curse, that they somehow angered the spirits of their ancestors. However, Shal told me that the Gurusteo believe this plague was man made. They accuse certain people 'from the city', as they always do, because they connect 'the city' with people who want to buy their land for economic or industrial reasons."

Lucind fell silent when on the screen she could be seen wrapping a shawl around the lower half of her face, before approaching the undead mare together with the old unicorn. "He said we would have to take the heart. And that is what we did."

The male unicorn waited a moment, surrounded what used to be his beloved mare. Suddenly, he dashed forward, lowered his head - and rammed his horn through the risen's base of the neck, pinning it to a tree behind.

The siren had already loaded her staff with sound waves and now caused a massive slash along the lower part of the chest, using the shadow blade, which almost cut off the left leg. In this area, the flesh had turned dark, and the further Lucind cut her way into the risen's chest, the darker it became. Finally, she reached into a chunk of flesh and removed a grayish, wrinkly lump the size of a peach.

The moment Lucind took the mutated heart of the former mare, the zombie became limp. The stallion stepped back, pulling his horn out of tree and neck, and the heap of flesh and bones sank to the ground.

The last thing the water screen showed before going blank was Shal pouring water over Lucind's arms and the shrunken heart in her hands.

"Well, that was that. I took some samples of the rotten flesh and sent it to some friends, both on Azum and here. I hope they find something." Lucind frowned. "The unicorns think it's a curse. The Gurusteo believe it came out of a lab. If you ask me, they are both right...- oh, delivery arrived!"

This sudden change of topic probably confused Maximos, but Lu had sensed someone coming aboard. She got up, pulling the robe tighter around her, and left the library for a moment. When she returned, she was carrying at least three bags, all filled with different sized paper boxes. She also brought in the chilly evening wind, and she shivered ever so slightly but grinned all the more: "I hope your stomach has some room for real food!"

Neglecting her desk altogether, she settled back down on the floor and began to unpack what turned out to be a variation of dishes: sea food, pasta, baked goods, fruits, sausages, baked potatoes, stir-fried vegetables - and several rare steaks. Lucind's stomach growled. She only got up once to fetch water for them. But then she dug in, wondering where the meal she had had not two hours before had vanished to.

The siren mainly ate with her hands, only used fork and knife to taste a steak, but she liked the way most Azumerian's ate (although they washed their hands first, but Lucind was just too hungry) and was sure that Max wouldn't mind.

"Oh, you have to try these!" She had picked a square piece of pastry which had pieces of nuts in between the layers and was dripping with honey. Lu licked her lips and fingers and she glanced at the shadow from under her lashes, apparently quite comfortable despite the gruesome story she had just presented.