Consequential Consequence

[Naelona Ezel]

Today was a normal day, but still a day that had not been seen in months. The sight was a very familiar sight, but had also not been seen in equally long a time. "Oh, the things I have missed.." Slipped a groan from the one and only Naelona Ezel. True to his word, the deceased Tristan Blackthorne had left behind files and records of the duties he'd assumed during her absence. Each detail down to the letter, which had been as surprising to find as first hearing the word of the files' existence.

Sitting at one of the largest tables, stacks of papers dotted across the table. It wasn't a bad style of recording - she'd admit - but it was entirely incompatible with her own system of records. Ever bit had to be painstakingly reviewed, sorted, converted and added to her own records. For as little as she had expected from him, it was turning into quite the task.

Glancing to the door she waited a moment, and turned back to her paper with the scratching sounds of writing. The was a slave who owed her an update, and by her elbow resided a black ledger for that very purpose. While Tristan had left her..salvageable records.. he had also left behind a few more physical matters for her to also contend with. Including several female ones at that. None she wanted to deal with personally.

Female slaves were whiny, moody, bad-tempered, feeble-nerved, belligerent, and prone to more illnesses than she cared to think about. That entire human gender was like a bad rash.. no matter the measures taken, it kept cropping up.. but that is why one kept slaves.. they were wonderful for minding such matters for her.

[Elric Vlarintos]

There was a silence as he stood there at the threshold once more. Janus was the Roman god of portals; more commonly referred to as doors. Doors were both an entrance and an exit and so Janus represented both a beginning and an end. Indeed, when he stepped through that door this moment now would be ending and a new one would be beginning. The new circumstances would require that he behave differently and respectfully. Neither of these created much of a problem in theory for Elric, but there was still the matter of mental preparations.

After a breath to compose himself he knocked on the door in a way that was neither too loud to seem obnoxious, nor too soft as to seem meek. Then he turned the handle of the door and pushed it open neither so slowly as to make the moment drag on, nor so quickly that the motion seemed nervous or spasmodic. Elric was good at maintaining self control in such situations--it was likely the trait that had made him a survivor.

Stepping into the room he found himself somewhat awed by the books, but the expression was only there for a moment before he moved forward to Naelona. Time had nod made him feel any more at ease with any of the Ezels, but Naelona seemed the kindest of them (if such a thing could be said of any Ezel).

Elric controlled the urge to lick his lips. It was a terrible nervous habit that sometimes overtook him when he thought too hard on something. Doing so might be considered odd or disgusting, so he always withheld the urge around Ms. Ezel. Elric did not speak, but he gave a bow and waited for the lady to address him before speaking. Needless blabbering would hardly impress her, he found.

[Naelona Ezel]

Naelona tutted quietly under her breath as after a pair of knocks sounded, the expected slave entered the study as had been requested. Naelona didn't look to him, nor lift the transferred thoughts from the paper until after he had presented himself with a bow - and even then there seemed no response from the female boogie. Well, at least for the moment.

The shelves of books was an impressive sight, and there did reside a small collection for casual reading, beyond of course the ones brought in by boogies themselves for one purpose or another. It was nothing nearly as impressive as a mere section of their library, but unlike the library the books didn't try to eat the slaves the moment they turned away from them. Yet again, it was a splendid reminder of the exact world they lived it.

"Higurashi, you found her?" The last word came off with a slight hint of distaste, even if it was unintented. Naelona had sent him out to find and contact the girl. Acquire basic information and report back to her. Now was his testing for it. "Or has she already expired?" There was no add-ons to the question. No hint of what she might succumb to, just blunt inquiry.

Naelona settled back into the carved wooden chair, one hand resting upon the edge of the ledger. Finally looking at the slave she seemed to scrutinize him just as closely as she had the first time. Whatever it was she was looking for he must of passed, as shortly after she opened the ledger and balanced it upon a crossed leg and started writing in it.

"Aione.. wasn't it?" Best of luck guessing whether or not it was rhetorical.

[Elric Vlarintos]

Elric waited patiently for Naelona to respond to him. He knew fully well that this was a Boogie who kept busy no matter the hour, and so she would get to him when she was ready. Efficiency mattered, but there had to be a hierarchy of efficiency. Elric reasoned that her own use of time would have be near the top if it was not on the top of her priorities. However, it was not in her best interests to make an inefficient use of the time belonging to her slaves as well. Still, that had to be somewhere much lower on the hierarchy. What puzzled Elric was where the time of other Boogies would belong on her hierarchy, or if she even considered such a thing. Before he could figure out the puzzle she was ready for him.

How did one answer the inquiry about Miss Higurashi? Elric was unsure if Ms. Ezel was aware of the tone her voice took when speaking the female pronoun. It was easy to see how such rumors sprouted up about her apparent dislike for female slaves. Details were important, and it was important to deliver them quickly and concisely. Elric usually ran the risk of saying a little too much rather than not enough when questioned by a Boogie. He found that many were more tolerant of speech when they did not have to pry for details.

"Miss Aione Higurashi has not expired, but is in poor condition emotionally and physically. She is currently confined to her room, room 5 in the south wing. This one rendered basic care services before departure." Strictly speaking that last part had not been directly in the order, but it seemed better to mention it in honesty than to leave it out. Might she scold him for it? Elric was uncertain, but prepared for it regardless.

[Naelona Ezel]

Touching ink to paper, the meeting was brief before a turn of her risk interrupted the contact. " 'This one?' " Naelona asked, raising a thin eyebrow at the boy. "Do you mean yourself, or the room? If you mean yourself say 'I', if you mean the room then indicate otherwise." The slight chiding went as quickly as it sprang up as she wrote down the collected information.

"Emotions are a sickness of the mind." Naelona murmured very quietly, tapping her finger idly upon empty columns left for height, appearance, and other statistics.. "Well then, being you know her location, keep an eye upon the situation. Inform me of any alterations regardless of effect. Take Kristopher if necessary. As soon as she is well enough to leave her bed and not result into a walking contagion, I want her brought immediately to me. Is this clear?" As much as she would prefer to just toss the slave aside, the boogie had still made an agreement.. how had this ever happened again? She didn't care to think of it.

"Now then. According to records Mr. Blackthorne owned a total of four slaves within recent times.." reaching across the table, Naelona plucked up a paper, skimming across the thin writing. "..one deceased, one lost - presumed deceased, and at least one more.. one called a 'Piper Wren'. I want you to find and discover what has become of them as well. Do you know of such a slave?"

Naelona wouldn't have been surprised, if upon further investigation discovered Tristan had owned several other slaves you weren't on record. Either recent acquires, forgotten ones, or stolen.. a known previous occurrance. "You may sit, if you'd like." the boogie added, pointing to a table chair. He very well might be here a while.

[Elric Vlarintos]

Scolded, but for a completely different reason than he had imagined.

"My apologies, ma'am. I rendered basic care services to Miss Higurashi." It had been a single slip of the tongue into a peculiar manner of speech. Occasionally Elric would slip into more poetic language as he attempted to be more articulate. Unfortunately, such a habit around Ms. Ezel was more of a liability than anything else. He would have to work harder to avoid such slips in the future.

Naelona wished to remain appraised of the situation. It almost seemed silly for her to care to know about something she did not apparently care at all about. Then again, perhaps that was simply a sense of duty or responsibility. That, and her comment of the sickness of emotions made it very easy to see her as a being of reason. It was hard to imagine that some Boogies could make such efficient bureaucrats when you realized how chaotic (and thereby counterproductive) so many of them were.

"You are crystal clear, ma'am." There were no misunderstandings on Elric's end.

Elric waited, since it was clear that Naelona was hardly done yet. Tristan had been Aione's master, and he had died. There had apparently been some emotional attachment there, or Aione would hardly have been phased as much as she was. Other slaves were mentioned, but Elric had been completely unaware of both of them (as he had been of Aione). However, there had been the one name Elric dreaded hearing. Piper Wren.

He had braced himself for it, and so did not visibly flinch at the mention of his acquaintance. The question was a difficult one to answer concisely because it was a complicated situation surrounding it. "I know that slave, Piper Wren. The two of us have spoken on several occasions." Had spoken. Past tense. Elric was hardly certain that she would want to speak with him anymore.

Being offered a seat presented Elric with the dilemma of declining respectfully, or simply accepting it in grace. It took him only a moment to accept the seat that he had been offered in a gracious attitude. "I will look into the others as well, ma'am." Something harder to do, though speaking with Aione might allow him to glean some easy information in regards to other slaves Tristan may have had.

[Naelona Ezel]

"Good." It was fortunate that Elric knew who this Piper was, and believably would be able to find the aforementioned slave once again. "Now, this Piper.." Naelona frowned at the paper. "..probably female, isn't it.." she murmured. "..the next time you find this person I want you to bring them to me. Later today even, if you can manage it." The boogie wasn't entirely excited about the venture, but it had to be done. There were statistics to be taken, observances to be made. And of course - the matter of what to do with the slave afterward.

Naelona nodded at length, El keeping an eye out for any other slaves could be helpful. "The only others listed is Ashton Goode, and a Haruko Mionette.. Ms. Goode's fate is unknown though apparently she has not been seen in some time, but this 'Haruko' is definitely deceased by fate of the labyrinth for apparently.. unknown reasons." Flipping a few pages back, it was evident she wasn't saying all she knew, nor believed it was truly 'unknown' at all.

"Now then, before you professed a possession of literacy and writing, did you not?" It was more of a statement, than a question. Picking up three sheets of paper, Naelona picked a spare pen and held them out to him across the table. One page was written in English, one was blank, and the other.. was something else entirely. Some of the letters might seem similar to the boy, but others would be - unmistakeably - very, very, different. Fortunately there seemed to only be about a paragraph of each. "Copy these two pages and place them aside when you are done." she stated with no room for argument.

With that Naelona then ignored him, resuming her own tasks as though he had never entered in the first place. Within moments the only sounds was quill to paper, a rustle of cloth, a turn of a page, and scant murmurings of 'idiocy' accented with the brief drumming of nails. She was determined to get through the old files, yes, but like their author they were a maddening, maddening bunch.

[Elric Vlarintos]

She wanted him to bring Piper to her the next time they met. That was a hardly pleasant thought, since it would mean that inevitably he would have to seek her out. Even if she was willing to talk he doubted that she'd be at all impressed with what his opening line would have to be. Elric did not sigh, but he really wished to. There was nothing to offer but agreement. "It shall be done." And it would be done at earliest convenience. That was not to be confused with earliest comfort.

Keeping track of everything Naelona wished seemed a little overwhelming at first. After a few moments of taking in each request one could realize that it was not nearly so much as it seemed, and none of it was difficult work. Some of it would hardly be easy, but none of it was difficult. From what Naelona was saying it sounded like the slaves were dead or gone, but she would not say anything about them out loud if she did not want Elric to know these things. Either she did not believe the fates that were written down, or there were not to be a concern for him.

What came next was something of a surprise. It was a question, but was it rhetorical? Elric decided that nodding once in affirmation was best. He remembered telling her that he had been literate, but he could not recall if he volunteered that information or if she had asked. Regardless, she knew and apparently had a task in mind for him. It felt like a very unusual command coming from a Boogie. Rare was the time when he had been used for anything that required anything more than strength and endurance. Metalworking had required skill, but had been a rigorous activity in of itself.

Now it was time to put his reading and writing to the test. He hardly saw the greater purpose in copying pages that were already down, but he did as he was told. One was in English, and that would be easy to copy. The other looked familiar in some regards, but was drastically different from any language or alphabet of which he was aware. There was a sinking feeling in his gut as he began to copy the pages down in painstaking detail. He was careful not to make any writing errors on the English page, but the other one was something that drastically confused him.

He could not read this language, nor did it look quite like anything he had studied or read about. Was this an archaic form of a modern human language? Did the Boogies have their own individual language? That possibility suddenly seemed all too likely. Rather than have humans learn their language, though, they had chosen to learn human languages. It was a similar situation to Latin, perhaps? But then these characters would be the alphabet to a unique language. Some letters seemed vaguely similar. Had there originally been no written language until contact with humans? Did some humans learn writing from Boogies? Was the alphabet phonetic? Could the origins of it even tie all the way back to the Phoenician alphabet?

Elric had to stop his thinking about it. There was nothing but terribly large amounts of speculation with no hopes for any answers. He would just have to copy it as best as he could without understanding it. Part of him wondered if he could learn the language given enough resources. They wouldn't like that.

His pace started off slow every time he touched upon an unfamiliar character, but gradually his work started to speed up with a few repetitions. He did not look up from his work at Naelona, though her own habits served as a tugging distraction. If he looked up and around, then he would not be working. That simply was not tolerable.

Eventually he finished and set the papers aside as he had been commanded. As he had expected, the unfamiliar writing had taken longer, and he could not be certain of the accuracy of what he had copied. However, it looked right.

[Naelona Ezel]

The paper Elric set aside barely brushed the table's surface before Naelona picked it up, sat back once again and scrutinized the writing. Picking up the two original papers she compared the English copy, then the other. Given her posture and expression, a pair of thin spectacles would've been all she needed to completed the picture.

Tutting under her breath Naelona said nothing for several minutes, before setting aside the paper written in English with a solid sigh. Looking over the other writing, her existing frowns only deepened. "Pfft.. rubbish." Pairing a blank page once more with the foreign writing she handed it back to him. "Copy it again. Thrice. Use the space on the back if you require it." Once again the boy would find himself ignored.

While she waited for him to be done Naelona took a paper in each hand, the copy in one, the original English in the other. Taking her time her eyes re-followed over each line and stroke. Every crossed line, every dot, comma, quote, colon, each notation.. everything that had been recorded.

"Inform when you are done." Spoke Nae abruptly, rising from her chair and closing a few folders, stacking them neatly together in perfect order. Some of the folders were old, and had some use to them, and others by comparison looked rather recent. Making small notations upon each bundle the boogie gathered up several and disappeared around a bookcase.

The study drew silent, save for the distant sounds of something being set away into it's proper home - where ever in this sizable area that may be. Then from the other side of the room something creaked. If El looked he might catch the door swinging slightly, but no culprit in sight. Some moments later a clatter could be heard moving here.. or moving there.. across the floor one moment, the sounds followed up a wall, and sharp somethings clacked against wood from above. Nearby upon a large bookcase a pair of beady eyes watched the pale-haired boy, a tail poised and lips pulled back to reveal a small pair of sharp teeth. It's small muscles tensed, eying the slave boy, when-

"Mar!" Naelona barked at the familiar, suddenly not far from the boy's side at all. "Get down from there." The boogie hissed at the monkey, before crossing the floor to her rightful seat. With a pitiful sound Mar dropped the distance to the floor, bouncing across and climbing up the back of El's chair regardless, coming to sit upon one of his wide shoulders. "Off." Came the command, and the monkey promptly obliged by scrambling across the still paper-laden table, scattering sheets in it's scamper until the solid metal of a pipe sent the creatures momentum in a suddenly sideways - and off the table - direction.

Irritated Nae shot the dirtiest scowl at the familiar as some dark creature shot out of the floor - and with a screech from the would-be prey - chased Mar out of the study. Sitting back down composedly, it lasted only a minute before she threw down the pen with an frustrated sigh, glaring at the now messed and scattered papers. "..rubbish.." Pinching the bridge of her nose she shut her eyes a moment. It wasn't all of them, fortunately, but it was a lot of them.

"Tell me.. are you a thinker, Mr. Vlarintos?"

[Elric Vlarintos]

Awaiting the judgment of his Mistress was not something he was looking forward to. Inevitably, she decided that his work on the strange script had not been sufficient. She wished that he would do it again. However, she wanted it done again in triplicate. That provided credence to the idea that Naelona was testing him. Perhaps she did want a good copy of the work, but copying it all on the same piece of paper made him wonder about that. The text would be scribed three times more without question.

He nodded as he accepted the paper and went to work again. His Mistress seemed to vanish into the shelves of the study. It hardly mattered since Elric had to busy himself with the painstaking labor of improving upon what he had already thought was an adequate job for his first time. The characters were no longer quite so strange to him, but the meaning behind them was still thoroughly lost on his first of the three repetitions.

The second repetition brought a sort of familiarity with the text itself. It was so fresh in his mind that he had to be careful about finishing off what he had presumed were words. His cautious work was interrupted by the door. Normally not one to be distracted from his work Elric still found himself bothered enough to look up at the door. No one was there. Had Mistress Ezel departed without a word? She certainly would have not needed to say anything about it.

The random musing, however, was interrupted shortly by another sound, and then another. It was all a very noisy and bothersome racket, and would have made focusing on his work all but impossible. Those were the sounds of a creature loose in the study. Gauging from the volume and speed of movement of the noises it was coming from something small and agile. Elric was fully prepared that he might miss seeing what it was until he caught it staring at him from the top of the bookcase.

There was a brief moment where Elric's muscles tensed up in anticipation of self defense. Those teeth it were showing was hardly a friendly gesture. It looked like it was about to dive at him. Elric figured that his best hope of self defense was snatching it out of the air while its mobility would be limited.

Whatever was going to happen between the two of them did not, since Mistress Ezel's voice pierced through the room. Mar? Was that the creature's name? It might have been her familiar, or the familiar of an acquaintance seeking her out. Perhaps she would not have taken kindly to Elric considering slamming the creature against the table if it had leaped at him.

The creature scampered across the floor, and up his chair. Eventually it reached his shoulder. Elric very nearly grasped the monkey by the scruff of the neck and threw it at a bookcase. It certainly would have served the little monstrosity right for baring its fangs at him. This was a primate cousin that he would never want to invite to dinner.

It jumped from his shoulder onto the table and scattered papers about. Elric moved quickly to catch what he could before it flew off from the table. That wretched little beast certainly was making his life exponentially more difficult with every moment it stayed in the room. He could hardly save all of the papers, but he did manage to keep the ones he had been working on as well as a few others. He thought that he might have caught Naelona shooting the beast a dirty glance of her own. She might have been even more displeased with the monkey than he was.

She was caught in her own frustration for a moment after Mar finally left the room. Then came a sort of question he had never expected to hear from one of the Boogies. "Tell me... are you a thinker, Mr. Vlarintos?" The title felt really odd to hear in front of his surname. The implications of such formality were numerous and Elric did not bother with them at this time. However, there was the main body of the question and request. Was he a thinker?

Certainly that could be construed as a dangerous sort of thing to admit to in this world. Elric, however, was far too honest for his own good. "I think about a great deal of things, ma'am." It was the truth, but a little more vague than most of his answers to her were. The full answer was long and he should not bother her with the details unless she asked for them specifically. He moved his attention back to finishing up the task she had laid before him previously.

[Naelona Ezel]

"Why do I put up with such an infuriating creature.." Mar seemed to be a handful sometimes. The creature also seemed to know it, and pull every little string it's grubby little hands could find and pull too. It was getting to the point even she entertained the thought of punting the little beast out a window sometimes.

Glancing across the table, she noted what papers were now scattered, and what ones had surprisingly been saved. Some papers lay upon the floor, others smooshed into a neighboring stack. Some were in English, some in their own tongue, some were mixed. It was all so different. And regardless of what Tristan had told her, some of it had taken a bit of referencing to understand. During her vacancy, her studies had slipped.

With a sigh Naelona began gathering up the papers and returning them to their proper places, and creating a new pile for the ones she couldn't place and were now lost from the proper order of things. Gathering up the lost sheets Naelona briefly watched over his shoulder as he wrote. "Do you even know what you are copying? Extend that line further." she said abruptly, pointing to a particularly curious little symbol.

She then let him finish his task, continuing to arrange the papers as best as possible. Pausing now and again to check how far he was, something seemed to be on her mind. Naelona busied herself in the meanwhile.

"You told me you understand Latin, yet many have told me it is but a dead tongue in your world. It's curious that you should know it." Picking up the paper of the first copy he'd made the boogie then wrote some words in an open space upon the paper. "Tell me what this means." She said, handing it to him. Mobilis in mobili lay scribed stylishly in a corner. The boogie had known of the phrase for years, but never learned of it's meaning.

[Elric Vlarintos]

At least the distraction that had been the squirrel monkey had vanished. For now. Attention called him back to his scribing work. Writing in such a language that one did not understand was challenging, but growing familiarity with the symbols was necessary. It was through practice that one could standardize writing within acceptable parameters. Elric understood now that his first job copying had been horrible simply because there was no familiarity with the characters. No two would look exactly alike, nor would they have appeared much the same. The resemblance to the original must have been horrific.

Naelona saw fit to correct him and he took her correction and adjusted it accordingly. There was no use in complaining, though he was convinced she was holding him to a higher standard than should have been expected from a novice. There was no way he could be expected to understand the meaning of the symbols in front of him.

His work continued carefully and he was just starting his third time through the script. He payed much greater attention to the nuances of the symbols when copying them this time through. Whatever arbitrary meanings that they held were clearly understood by Ms. Ezel. Unless this was some kind of initiation test, and the symbols actually were meaningless. The vague idea seemed almost a cruel sort of thing to do to a slave--make something that looked like an alphabet and then have no meaning attached to it whatsoever. The only meaning would have been the meaning attached to it by the mind of the observer.

Naelona inquired about something else now. This was not something Elric recalled mentioning, but he must have said it to her when she was questioning him that one day. The knowledge that he knew a little bit of Latin was something to which she was privy.

She handed him a piece of paper. It had the words clearly written out in a neat and legible script. Mobilis in mobili. Simultaneously it was a phrase in Latin and a literary reference. "It means several things." That was the truth. Likely Naelona would want to know those meanings. "At its most basic form it means 'moving within a moving thing'. Taken in a poetic sense it would mean 'changing through a changing medium'. It is referenced in a book of fiction." Naelona did not seem the type for poetics or fictional writing, but he included those notes regardless.

The world around people was a changing place, and one had to change with it. Almost effortlessly it brought to mind the Red Queen. However, that was another fictional work and Elric very much doubted Naelona would find the comparison interesting. Also, it was hardly what she had asked him, except in a broader sense.

[Naelona Ezel]

"Changing.." Naelona worried her lip a moment, frowning at the paper. "How useless." That was all it meant? What a curious thing. It had been a curious enough tale, granted. A bit absurd, if not fanatical. "Of course it is fiction. I heard it years ago, and destroyed the book shortly after." Naelona didn't elaborate much more but took the paper instead, crumpled it up, and promptly tossed it into the fireplace.

Picking up his finished copies a neutral note came from her throat. Repetition would help as there were improvements, but was it wise to peruse such improvements? She could certainly use the help.. but such help often led to one's downfall. "Why would you know a language that was no longer spoken?" It was strange to say the least. Almost as strange as these transcriptions here, in the present Wonderland.

"One more thing." The boogie declared, turning the thick paper over so he couldn't see what had been written earlier. "Copy it once more, from memory." With a sharp tap of her nails to the desk she left him once more. Only now she gathered up the papers. Setting more into neat folders, and folders into small stacks. Carrying them away to their respective homes until the table was very much bare save for a few sheets, a pen, and her ledger.

Sitting back in her seat, fetching a clean paper, the boogie started diligently writing what appeared to be a sort of list. At moments she would pause, think and sometimes count before continuing it. Unless it took Elric an unreasonable amount of time until he was finished, odds where she would still be working on it by the time he was done - or just couldn't remember any more symbols.

"If you have a question, you may ask it." The list she created grew to some length, and once in a while an entry was scratched out and re-written. Looking it over once or twice she seemed satisfied before making a final list, with ample space between each thing she wrote. It contained some of the very same symbols that Elric had been copying earlier, and many different ones, each painstakingly drawn in perfect script. A low wall of shadow ensured he couldn't cheat by peeking at it, at least not until he finished.

[Elric Vlarintos]

Naelona did nothing but cement Elric's suspicions about her behavior. She seemed less than impressed with the meaning behind the words. However, the meaning behind words was in how you used them, not in the individual meaning of words. It must have been something that she had been considering for some time, so to receive such an ordinary sounding definition must have failed to meet her expectations. Elric was also convinced now that Naelona disliked any book without a basis in hard facts. Was there really no poetry beneath her hard shell?

It was no matter. She inquired as to why he would know something such as Latin. The idea occurred to him for a moment that she was worried that he could understand what he had been transcribing. If she had such expectations for him after copying down what may or may not have been words four times, then she expected much too much from him. However, her initial question deserved an answer.

"My family was old-fashioned. My father insisted I study it, even if it no longer seemed useful." That was, as far as Elric could tell, the reason his father had made him study Latin. Sometimes doctors and priests would study Latin, but most everyone else got by perfectly fine without it. The number of times he had actually used what little Latin he knew for something outside of study could be counted on one hand.

Having finished his third transcription anew he felt quite pleased with it. However, he doubted that Naelona would be as pleased with it as he was. Her glare was neutral, at best. The next command seemed a harsh punishment. Once more... from memory. "Yes, ma'am." It hardly seemed right to force him to do such a thing and expect any progress from him.

It seemed a cruel punishment as he tried to recall the passage he had transcribed from memory. Some of the patterns he had noticed earlier suddenly became very difficult to recall. Symbols were scribed slowly as he tried to recall the shapes and the order they had been in.

She had offered him the right to ask a question. The question nagging at his mind was one he dared not ask. What does the paragraph I have been transcribing say? That seemed to be a waste of a question. In fact, there was no question Elric could conceive of that did not seem a waste of his question. One question seemed very limiting. "If I am not a bother, may I ask more than one question?" A peculiar selection for his question--it was an easily refused request. However, of all the questions he might have asked it was the one that potentially yielded the greatest reward, while his losses would be the same no matter what question he asked, or did not ask. It was an interesting gamble.

He did wish he could manage better at this final transcription. It was going slowly and he had hit a dead end after the first line. With great effort he was able to recall the next symbol, and the one after that. However, after that there was nothing. It was likely he had already made errors. This seemed a fruitless endeavor.

[Naelona Ezel]

"My family was old-fashioned. My father insisted I study it, even if it no longer seemed useful." Wise man, Naelona thought. Old knowledge was always useful, the only time it wasn't was when it was discarded. Apparently that World had a lot of languages in it. A boogie had to be selective in picking a slave sometimes, they otherwise didn't always get what they were seeking.

Once she was satisfied with her list Naelona held it up to the windowlight from behind her. If there was at least one thing she could do well.. but again when it came to writing, she was extremely specific on how every symbol must be. Sloppier work could be read - to be sure - but carelessness was pointless when a better quality of work could be done.

"If I am not a bother, may I ask more than one question?" What.. an odd thing to ask. It wasn't one that Naelona had expected she might hear, and were she in lighter spirits that understood the concept - she might even have been amused. "You may." She responded at length. She would answer what she wished, and would ignore and dismiss at will. "Presuming you have more than one question to ask." It almost seemed like a Kristopher sort of thing to ask, but it certainly wasn't a bad thing.

"Are you finished?" Naelona asked, looking at his unfinished page. She didn't expect him to replicate the entire paragraph. Knowing slaves and their capabilities it probably wasn't even possible. Either way it was interesting to see how much he could recall. More so how much he would be able to recall a day, or even a week from now - if anything at all.