Snap Crackle

[Naelona Ezel]

Coughs came and went and returned with less frequency let alone severity as the instance before. Things were finally settling down and in Naelona's opinion, it was high time. On one hand it was peculiar to consider Shae would mind to keep his distance considering how weak she felt, yet perhaps it was finally his better senses catching up with him.

The Ezel was actually a bit surprised that Shae followed her beckoning and actually neared her. For a moment Naelona shut her eyes as her skin crawled at the diminishing proximity. Finally looking at him he was very close indeed. With a few breaths, she actually took a decent look at his face, momentarily blind as he may be. It'd been a long time since she had seen him this closely.

Quietly and with effort she raised one hand towards his face. Part way there she paused only to draw it back. The boogie took a moment to consider her impending actions when it was decided. Smack. Naelona suddenly struck him across the face with every bit of strength she could muster. Her palm stung from the contact, but certainly no worse than the mark she undoubtedly left on him.

"Never do that again." The words came rasped but with no less severity than was usual for her. Balling her hand into a fist the boogie pressed it against her side instead. With a shiver she pressed back against the wall and looked elsewhere again. A cue to add in some distance if there ever was one.

[Shaehern Azhrarn]

Here it comes.

In all honesty, Shaehern was expecting something a lot worse. Naelona's strikes were not considerably powerful, though Shaehern still felt the intent behind her swing. That she would willingly touch him for any reason spoke volumes. That and the gentle tingling sensation in his cheek told him just how serious she was.

Shaehern adjusted his face so he was looking forward when he opened his eyes again. It hardly seemed right to think that she would choose to slap him. He had almost drowned her, but as far as Shaehern was concerned it was something she had a long way coming. So he did not pull back just yet. On one hand it would provide some sense of gratification, and on the other it would give her another chance to slap him in the gratification annoyed her. That was just common courtesy, after all.

Some people might have considered the fact that he failed to leave her at the bottom of the pool a mistake. Shaehern could not help but wonder if the imaginary people would be right. And yet it would not feel right to breach the topic that she should be grateful he had a change of heart somewhere around three-quarters through.

Maybe he'd just kick her back into the pool and walk away. The thought certainly made him feel better about the whole ordeal.

Shae decided, if nothing else, to continue their conversation where it left off, but in a more reasonable tone of voice. "My parents are schemers. I was raised a schemer. Their scheme was going to hurt people, and I wanted no part of it. I agreed, and then walked away without a word. It is not the same."

[Naelona Ezel]

The next time Naelona looked back he was still there, still looking at her, still within an arm's length away. It was far too close for the Ezel's comfort but it would cause more discomfort to force herself to touch him to try to push him away. It didn't take much thought to conclude she probably wouldn't be able to make him move if he didn't want to, as unsettling as the notion was. Bite or not, there were some things she couldn't force another to do.

When Shae started speaking again it took Naelona a moment or two to catch back up to their conversation. What had been said the very last moments before being plunged into the water was a little fuzzy, but she remembered enough of it. He'd made a barb about her leaving her family, and she'd only returned it and from there..? It went into degrees of haze and cold.

"..what?" Nae's glare of death picked up a bit of confusion. Call her biased but his folks never seemed like the scheming sort to her. Either they weren't and their son had picked it up on his own, or they were just that much better about it. "No, it is not the same as being run out, however.." The concept of Wyzin and Cebil scheming to harm anyone didn't fit nor sit well within her mind. She still kept in contact with them even after all these years. It wasn't a frequent correspondence by any means, but unlike to certain others they weren't cut off, either.

Nae knit her brows together a moment. Was he telling it as it was, or was the trickster just becoming trickier? "Is that why you avoid them?" He'd always been more stubborn than an adolescent slave when it came to them. A thought lurked at the edge of her mind, but her thoughts were still too chilled to pick it up. Never mind he still hadn't moved away, another factor that was interfering. There were many different groups she was sure the Azhrarns were acquainted with. Too many to just presume one above another.

"What sort of people?" It took a few moments for her mind to finally get going, but with one question came many. There was also the consideration of what sort of harm if true harm at all, who it was meant to affect, if it was something still in the works, or maybe he was just fooling her for his own means and nothing more. He had nearly drown her minutes before.

[Shaehern Azhrarn]

Give the woman an inch and she would attempt to take a mile.

Shaehern groaned mentally at Naelona's stirred interest in the matter. Clearly it was a subject he had not been willing to discuss for more than a century. He did not suddenly have a change of heart and decide to spill the proverbial beans after forcing her through a near-death experience. Such folly was the domain of fictional stories written by authors seeking only to create convenient exposition.

To Shaehern it was obvious that she had no understanding of the circumstances. He did not seek to rectify that situation. "It is better that you do not know. You have existed perfectly well in ignorance this long."

Shaehern pulled his face back a little bit so he could sit up straight. There was only so much leaning he was willing to put up with at this time. He felt his bones shift slightly to accommodate the new positioning. His nails tapped against the ground in a jittery fashion as he considered things.

"You seem to think they are good people." Shaehern found the thought to be absurd. "I will not press or challenge your opinion of them."

His eyes quickly darted around the horizon. He shifted one way and then the other. The motion hinted that he was considering just getting up and walking away. For some reason, however, it seemed hypocritical at this time.

[Naelona Ezel]

Ignorance only got a being so far. It didn't diminish a threat by any means, if there was even one to be had. "Yes but that may well be by luck or fortune. If it is something truly harmful to anyone I have every intent and reason to know of and understand why, Shaehern. I cannot turn a blind eye to a matter that maybe threatening." Naelona didn't keep meticulous and extensive records of Wonderland for nothing.

How could a danger of any sort be avoided or averted if one didn't know anything about it? The Ezel had to consider the brief visits she did take on the rare year. Just perhaps another was in order. Shae wasn't the only one who kept mum on certain matters.

So help her she was going to slap him again if it turned out to be something anticlimatic and childish. Of what she knew of the pair, that was the only way her guesses could go. Between what she knew of them, of Shae, and what Shaehern was saying it simply wasn't adding up. Figures. It'd be just like him to spin up such a web.

"Minutes ago you contested my opinion of them and spoke ill of it. Which is it?" Naelona echoed an earlier statement, sitting a bit straighter against the wall folding her legs up by her. Watersoaked clothing was heavy and in this cool spring air - cold. Methodically she started pressing water from the fabric. If this conversation was going to take a while, so be it.

Looking over at her strange acquaintance the boogie canted her head to the side with a thought. Was it even a relevant scheme anymore? Two hundred years is a long time. She'd suspect something would have been done by now yet his aversion to all things home and parental questioned otherwise. He was so damn persistent about it, even when she first found him.

[Shaehern Azhrarn]

She was poking and prodding at the whole situation to satiate her own curiosity. Never mind that it was a festering wound that had never quite healed so far as Shaehern was concerned. It had long since scabbed, but poking and prodding would break the scab and it would ooze out in a disgusting manner.

At least, that was the closest analogy Shaehern could come up with. Regardless, the topic left him drained and disgusted and he would rather not talk.

"I mean both things that I said. You do not know them as well as I do, but far be it from me to ruin your relationship with them. I'm certain they genuinely like you. Maybe." It was hard to tell such things, but Shae had that impression. Of course, it had also been years.

"It doesn't matter how much you prod at the matter, I simply will not tell you." He slapped his hands against the ground and pushed himself to his feet. This was not a discussion he was going to have, and if stubborn Naelona could not move beyond it, then he was not going to stick around for it.

"Even if you offered to pay me, I would refuse." He did not anticipate such an offer, but it was best to get it out of the way now. There would be absolutely no confusion on the nature of the topic now. At least, he hoped it to be the case.

"You should hasten to a hospital or physician or something. A few minutes of care now might save you lost time if you were to become ill later." That was friendly advice from her acquaintance. Shaehern steadily started to move away from the woman.

[Naelona Ezel]

Well someone was being stubborn today.

If he was going to up and leave there was little Naelona could do to stop him. He'd completed nothing but only piqued her curiosity if not add in a dose of concern. It was something that had an effect on him of some measure. That in itself was reason enough to question it's nature. He wasn't known for having knowledge that just sat on the 'no sell' shelf.

There was also something else different than earlier. It lurked like her shadows did. Naelona had to keep her tongue still. There was something peculiar going on. A 'simply' here and a 'hasten' there.. it didn't sound much like the Shaehern she had to endure on more troublesome days. Naelona paused in what she was doing, opting to cast a scrutinizing glance as he left instead.

The 'friendly advice' wasn't lost on her. Is was sensible enough and the shivering and occasional cough only supported the idea. For a moment the entire little cycle came full circle. Things he had said earlier would could cause her to loath him, yet ears and such 'advice' at times convinced the Ezel to think she could still count him as one. 'Know thy enemy' was the only line she knew of to make sense of such behavior.

A note escaped her. It might have sounded of faint amusement had it been a lighter situation. "I was wrong." Naelona shifted and sat forward to lean against one knee through the soaked skirts. "You've hardly changed." He was just as avoidant then as well. Tilting her head she kept an eye towards the direction he was going, but didn't get to her feet just yet.

"I remember.. when I first found you. You were equally mum then." At the time she'd merely been trying to make simple conversation. The result hadn't reached nearly as it'd been intended. "And.. no matter how many times I recollected my tale, I've come to doubt you ever believed it." The past was generally an unpleasant topic, but similar reactions to a similar pondrey did warrant peculiar considerations.

Memory was hazy given it was nearly half her life ago. A better sense knew than to contemplate heavily upon the time, but a brief recollection was of no ill. Even then she'd quickly gained the sense not to bring up his family. Ignorance was only beneficial if knowledge could affect her. Why not paint Cebil the victim? Shae had stopped from saying something pertaining to the two women. "Does this have something to do with me..?"

[Shaehern Azhrarn]

It took a few moments. Shaehern simply knew that Naelona would opt to have the very last word in this interaction. It was one of her predictable character traits that could either be perceived as endearing or obnoxious. At this particular moment it was going to be the latter, but expecting it lessened the impact when it eventually happened.

The only thing he needed to hear was that she seemed to think he had not changed at all. His pace did not slow for one second, but he meandered around and started walking back in her general direction.

He would let her have all the words and all the time she wanted to talk now. Shaehern silently congratulated the drenched little woman on bringing him back to a conversation that he thought was going nowhere. The new direction was not much more promising, but infinitely better than the old one.

He forced a smile at her once she was done talking. "No. I. Am. Different. Now. See?" He laughed a little bit, but despite the smile it was not terribly boisterous. At the very least his manner could be described as overflowing with rage. "Time has passed. I have changed. You have observed one similarity."

Shaehern supposed that there was a great deal more than one similarity, but such were not features he made a point of advertising. "Years have passed since that time. I did not believe you then. I wanted to believe you, but I could not. Now I believe you, but belief does not change the circumstances of the world around you." Each and every sentence had a definitive beginning and end and each carried a heavy emphasis.

"Perhaps it has something to do with you. I did not say it did, but I did not say it did not. If I have changed, but my behavior towards you has not, then logic mandates that whatever governs my behavior towards you has not changed, ergo it relates to you, if only tangentially."

[Naelona Ezel]

Listening to Shaehern it was a bit as though he were saying several things while trying to dance around them all the same. Using the wall for balance Naelona teetered to her feet, coming to lean against the stone structure for support. His laugh sounded fake and the smile looked forced. It was unnatural.

"Your appearance and public conduct has altered greatly, but 'change' and 'difference' are not the same. You aren't even aware of which similarity I am thinking of." Were he truly different there would be no need to reinforce such a front. It would flow off of him, not flake off in brittle fragments. At least he believed the truth now. It was a pity he hadn't sooner. It might have actually saved on the drama some twenty decades ago, an instance promptly shoved from her mind.

Shaehern and logic, not two things often matched in reference to his person these days. Naelona listened idly, leaning against the wall and balancing so water could run out of one booted foot and then the other. Her muscles felt stiff and were reluctant to move. His 'behavior' towards her hadn't really changed despited as altered as he'd become.

"So I am related, and given your behavior it is a governing you still see fit to adhere to despite some two centuries and your self-imposed estrangement from your own family." As far as she was aware, the two parties hadn't spoken since his departure. With consideration Naelona paused a moment with a thought. It made quite viable sense given their upbringing, but she then discarded it. She could think of nothing worthwhile to extend over two-hundred years and past several social alterations for any sensible conclusion.

Still how they possibly intended to 'harm' anyone still eluded her.

With a shiver Naelona rubbed her sleeved arms and tested her balance upon one leg and then the other. She teetered for a moment but gravity seemed to be remaining in one place. "You concern me." The Ezel said lightly, seemingly to herself while taking a few moments to shuffle over and pick up the dropped broom. Her body felt sluggish and cold, but she couldn't just leave things as they were. She never could.

[Shaehern Azhrarn]

Shaehern Azhrarn had come to understand that everyone, in their own way, operates on logic. There was no such thing as independent and objective logic. Mathematical formulas came close, but Shaehern's mind never quite grasped anything beyond the basics. It was a foreign concept and largely unnecessary for his understanding of the world. He could not experience math.

His own logic was, at times, twisted beyond all recognition, but it was still there. What had just transpired was a product of his older logic and, because of this, was more easily understood. The intent was not veiled, save for the thin guise necessary to protect himself and his intentions.

"It was impossible," Shaehern added simply, though he did not specify what was impossible. It was hard for him to peg his own feelings on the matter. Was it pity? Perhaps it was sorrow.

Shaehern mindlessly drummed his fingers against his thumb. There was something about Naelona at this particular moment. "You know what? I am glad that I concern you. Is it my behavior? I work so hard on it." Shaehern almost did a little jig on the spot, but that felt like it might be just a little too strange for the moment.

"Why don't you tell me what it is about me that concerns you most? Maybe you think that I'm the biggest threat to the order here?" Everything about Shaehern suddenly seized up. It looked like a nasty spasm and after it passed he loosened up a little more.

"Or maybe you're just concerned about me. It would be thoughtful to think that you worry about me, but that really would not make any sense. I have never acted in such a way that deserved it. Not from you." Shaehern seemed to shamble a little further away. If anything, it felt better than pretending to be happy while he talked about this whole sad story.

And so, even if Naelona was willing to forgive him Shaehern was unwilling to accept such a gesture. It was for her own good, so far as he was concerned. The moment it all made sense years and years ago had not been pleasant.

[Naelona Ezel]

Picking up the broom, it felt heavier to Naelona than it had earlier. A thought crossed her mind of it being too bothersome to bother putting away but it needed to be done. She felt chilled and it would be best to go inside soon, but duty demanded at least a few more things be taken care of.

Whatever was impossible, Naelona could care less to put more than a moment's thought to it. What was impossible was pulling the blunt truth out of him. Being straightforward and to the point was such a much more effective way of going about things. A trait some passed up for games and childish things.

Games and guesses were the natures of past times and empty afternoons. None of which assisted in the progression of anything useful. True, a being couldn't work all the time, but there were times when play must be set aside. It was debatable which of those this was - and for who. A debate Naelona didn't wish to get into. It was always rather clear.

The urge to plant the broom handle into his cranium was rising again. His behavior was an irksome thing but not worth some of concern. There were stranger figures in Wonderland to keep an eye upon, and a number of them were harmless at best. Considering Shae as a threat to anything other than momentary health and sanity was pointless. Naelona snorted at the concept. Unless he suddenly straightened up, he would be no more a thread but to slaves and innocent eyeballs.

Cripes, he was harping more over this 'concern' of hers than she had his entire history. "Why does it concern you that you concern me? It shouldn't matter to you. Nothing ever has." The last bit was more muttered, but present none the less. "You concern me. Always have." Nae spoke sharply, replacing a word with their own language counterpart for clarity. Maybe not 'always', but he had for a long time.

"And no, you are correct you do not deserve it. Not a single bit of it." Whatever bad mood has briefly passed with the dousing was quickly resurfacing again, judging by her bitter tone. It wasn't something she cared to get into, but it came with knowing others for too long. "You're deflecting the matter at hand." Naelona added curtly, briefly reaching around a corner to put the broom away. He might take the opportunity to split while he could, she wouldn't be surprised if he did. Naelona muttered some incoherent things under her breath back to the pool. At least her temper keeping her from feeling completely chilled.

[Shaehern Azhrarn]

The way the wind blew through his robes made it look like he was just floating there. It was all a very somber scene, or Shaehern imagined it to be so. He moved his face so that the wind would blow his hair backward. He didn't feel much like monkeying with it going into his face at this particular moment.

His fingers had stopped moving entirely, which was a very unusual thing for Shaehern. He stood there in what was almost complete stillness. It was like he was waiting for something, but he wasn't sure what it was.

The longer he stood still the more obvious it became that he was not going to get whatever it was for which he was waiting. It was a tragic sort of tale, like the woman staring out at sea waiting for a sailor to come home.

"You're right." He finally just admitted weakly as Naelona started to put away the broom. "How silly of me." If nothing else, then that was his cue. Perhaps it was what he had been waiting for, but he hoped it was not. He hoped that maybe he had higher standards than that.

"Nothing really matters to me." The wind changed direction and Shae turned with it. There was no longer any point in speaking or staying here. The conversation was over and he was gone.