<blockquote>Atti’s gaze drifted to the splintered cracks in the damp wood walls of the church, pale slivers of rain-suffused light glazing the floor. His eyes were focused on nothing; they were fixated on something in the past. He was no longer seeing the present, but some damp, blackened memory. The muscles in his face jumped, and his clenched hands trembled. He spoke in a voice that was not usual for him; it was dead, dead, cold as stone – a flat monotone. "The sky was white the day my mother died." Like this. Like now. His gaze snapped away from the floor and back to Jaceen’s masked face. "I’m sorry. That happens sometimes… my mind just leaves. But yeah – one of my friends lost half his hand once in a shapeshifting accident." He smirked; it was funny, in a cruel kind of way. "You can… wow." He gazed at her in admiration. "That’s pretty cool."
Jaceen's grip on herself tightened when Attrius spoke again. His voice had altered dramatically. Instead of rising and falling, it was flat, and very, very dead. It was enough to make a shiver run up her spine despite the heat of the fire. Everyone had their problems, and Attrius was no different. Folks just had their own ways of dealing with things. “It's okay," Jaceen said with a slightly forced smile. It wasn't that Attrius had made her uncomfortable, it was that he'd managed to give a few thoughts in her mind kick starts. “Don't get me started on the horror stories I've heard about shapeshifting though. The worst usually happens when overzealous learners attempt things that they couldn't conceivably get right their very first try. It usually ends up in mutated limbs, and them looking like an odd breed of lukuo." Jaceen paused for a moment. “Unfortunately my ability to dissipate things really can't help them there. Luckily I know at least one or two pendragons who can help reverse shapeshifting effects. Beginners really ought to stick to learning how to change their colours at first." “Dissipation has benefits though. The amount of kids who have almost blown themselves and others to bits is a little startling. For the most part though, the elements are my friends. Except for maybe wind and its close relative, lightning. They can get a little scary." After all, Koani was wind and lightning. Jaceen would not have been surprised to discover that it was Koani who caused all those forceful winds and storms up on Ajita.
<blockquote>Crouching like an animal, his hands clutching onto the worn material of his jeans, his knees bent around his ears as he peered up at Jaceen, a low click of disapproval echoed from deep within his throat, magnified by their aloneness. "Think the rain will stop anytime soon?" he asked, his tones dulcet and smooth, well-oiled; eerily so. Atti then sat on his rump, knees drawn once more to his chest, fetus-like, his broad hands intertwined around his bandaged shins. "So... uh, what's Koani like? My friend Dylan - guess he knows her really well - he's told me a little bit about her." He shrugged absently, fixing his near-achromatic gaze on her own blank one, and dragged a clawed, nimble fingertip over the top of his mother's skull. With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade, and went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten, and drank coffee, and talked for an hour - bin gar keine Russin, stamm' aus Litauen, echt deutsch.
Jaceen stifled a yawn with the back of her right hand. Her eyes were starting to burn a little as well; a combination of the fire's smoke, and her own exhaustion. Still she managed to ward off sleep. “I hope it stops soon," Jaceen said, her voice not much louder than a whisper. “I, what? Koani? Um." The sun coloured Lapices stammered. Attrius' question had caught her off guard. It seemed rather out of place positioned right after the almost casual comment about the weather. That, mingled with the fact that her mind had already briefly touched on the thought of Koani caused her to feel uneasy. After all, to know Koani, at least as well as she did, was to lie for her. So many lies. Yet the two of them were deadlocked. Jaceen could never come clean, and Koani would never make a move against her. Mutually assured destruction was what made them both tentative friends, as well as enemies. “She's nice. I only really know her through my brother and nephew though. She didn't tattle on me when I hurt her way back in school, so I guess she's also pretty cool." Jaceen wanted to shrug nonchalantly, but the proposed movement came out sluggish and awkward.
<blockquote>In the shifting light of the fire, Attrius was a black shadow, entirely lightless, a piece of fabric cut from the oblivion of night. From the neck up, however, he was luminous - dark and perfect and superbly handsome, his eyes were liquid lightning, calm with the illusion of depth, somehow, inherent to their coloring - endless, deep. Entrancing. The pendulum with which the mystic worked. He coughed once, twice, his lungs bothered by the combination of smoke and three years of nujeq and hand-rolled cigarettes. "I don't mean to sound... forwards, but I wouldn't mind if you stayed here until the weather clears. I personally have no qualms about it, but I wouldn't want a lovely lady such as you to get soaked," Atti said, a little of his old chivalry seeping through his thickly-woven veneer of stoicism. "You what?" he cried incredulously, shaking his head in a deep, rolling laugh. "Hurt - of all people - Koani Grader?"</blockquote>
Jaceen's face grew hot underneath her fur, this time not because of the fire, but because of Attrius' innocent compliment. Those types of things always left her feeling flustered and unsure of herself. She'd never been able to take a compliment well. “Oh... haha," she laughed nervously. “It's alright, you don't sound too forward. I hope I don't sound that way either... because I really wasn't planning on going anywhere else for the night. I'm pretty beat." Attrius' deep laugh in response to her comment about Koani startled her. Jaceen's ears shot up and her eyes widened in surprise as a shot of adrenaline catapulted into her system. What was wrong with her? She was nearly dead tired. All she really wanted to do was curl up in a little ball by the fire and replenish her reserves with some sleep. Yet here she was, put completely on edge by Koani's name and Attrius' laugh. She frowned. “Well... yeah," she began slowly, still wearing the frown. “I mean, it's not like I really did it on purpose though... and it was back in school. So she didn't have that um, entourage like she does now."
<blockquote>Attrius turned his pale gaze to the floor as Jaceen's face flushed - his was far to dark to show the blood rushing to his cheeks - the discomfort of others brought discomfort upon himself. "It's alright, you don't sound too forward." Not only did all embarassment disappear, but some other slight rind of icy formality disappeared, as well. Att blanched comically and placed the back of his hand to his forehead in melodramatic malaise. "Sigh! The only problem with our grand scheme is - what will we have for breakfast?!" Such humor was uncharacteristic for the half-Yki, but perhaps it was the joy of sentient company as opposed to a pile of sun-bleached bones. "The fire should stay put. There's some curtains over there in the corner, if you wanna use them - " and ere he pointed to a pile of faded, tatter-edged swathes of cotton. " - but I think I'm gonna go... uh, bury my mom right now."
Jaceen's smile was thin despite her best efforts, yet it was genuine. Attrius was a decent sort, and she was glad that she had run into him way out here in the middle of nowhere instead of someone else. Although his recent bout of goofiness made her think warmly of her friend, Straken. Friendly, powerful, but with a certain string of innocence that knew no bounds. It was from a faraway place that Jaceen vaguely heard Attrius' words. At first they were words of reassurance, and then, to Jaceen, muddled strangeness. She thought that she had heard him say that he was going to go and bury his mom, however her logical mind completely dismissed that. “Don't... stay up too late," she murmured, instead of reacting fully to his words like she would have normally done. Jaceen's exhaustion had swept over her, numbing her mind and blocking all sensory inputs. Her tight hugging grip on herself slackened noticeably and before she even realized it herself, she'd fallen asleep.
