Darkest Before Dawn [Luther]

[Naelona Ezel]

It was night - or was it early morning? Either way the outside was still quiet, the halls still vacant, and the only souls alive should be well within their beds - save for one. Drifting through the halls Naelona was making old rounds. Poor sleep had appointed the random time, and aimless feet chose the direction. Reaching in a pocket her fingers brushed across an old silver item, noting its engraved surface and recalling it's long lost purpose. In a strange way, it was but a source of nightmares now.

Clenching her pipe, a cloud of blue smoke tinged the air from an irritated breath. It figured. Not even a few weeks after she resumes her position, a Ball goes to hell in a hand basket and once more there is chaos and ruins to assess, record, and correct. Such things were never an entirely fruitless events, but they often were painful - and costly.

The boogie had already made a round outside, and through most of the South Wing, the Library, Study, and Kitchen. The palace was a veritable tomb. Most of the slaves had been accounted for, either in their own rooms of off to those of their Masters. None had been found wandering where they shouldn't be, nor sneaking food, sneaking off, or any other punishable offense. It seemed this would be turning into a normal night for once, and Naelona was perfectly fine with that.

Pausing in front of yet another door of yet another room still to be checked, the fluttering cloth rustling about her feet fell still. She wasn't a huge fan of the Bathrooms. There was a lot of water - some deeper than others - and for such a revealing location some areas were very open. It wasn't horrible from a 'walk in and check on things' point, but it left something to be desired if you wanted to bathe in peace and privacy. It was why a number of boogies - such as herself - often chose to bathe within their own quarters instead. A simple fact that made the bathrooms all the more appealing to disobedient slaves. Especially at such an odd hour.

Without so much as a knock Naelona strode into the area, retracting shadows from a lantern she'd been carrying, and pressing back the natural shades of the room for an unnatural illumination. Faint sounds of ever-present water - and drops - met her ears. "Who is here?" came her voice in a cold tone with that frequent authoritative air, eyes snapping first to the known few slave passageways, and secondly to any other noticeable movement. No-one that wanted to be found if there was indeed a soul here, that much was sure.

[Luther Verhulst]

The hour that could not decide whether it was late or early was the best of times to wander about unseen and unknown. To walk unknown was something of an art in the Palace. There were many reasons to try and keep one's presence in the area quiet. Slaves did not want to be found by bored Boogies or caught sneaking about after hours if they could manage it.

Some, however, were not slaves and had no reasons to move about in such a fashion. Some Boogies were antisocial and preferred solitude to the company of their fellows. Luther despised dealing with other Boogies, but found himself unable to completely escape the Palace at times. The comfort of hot water was often too great to pass up after a particularly grueling day at work. Typically, those days were defined as the ones that required serious polishing of the breastplate and involved getting blood on his clothes.

The hot water had built up a large cloud of steam in the bathroom and the gray-skinned Boogie had pulled himself out of the pool moments before. His white hair hung in his face and still dripped water which ran in beads down the rest of his body. The beads followed the contours of his muscles down his chest and back. Between the dripping water and the fog condensing on Luther's body the large Boogie had the appearance of being covered in sweat.

Apparently, Luther was either a type of Boogie that did not grow bodily hair or he took the time to groom himself so that stray hairs did not pester his body. The scars of many a struggle adorned his body, particularly along the arms. Some of the scars were faded so that they were barely visible and some seemed more recent. His torso had fewer scars--likely a side-effect of wearing armor to cover the area.

A white towel was wrapped about his waist--one end tucked under the other to hold it up with nothing more than a little tension. One of his large hands rested just above it at level with his abdominal region. His eyes were shut as he released all of the tension from his body. The slow movements of his breathing were barely visible as he just lost himself in the moment.

A moment that would not last. His muscles tightened and his hand visibly clenched his side a little more tightly as someone walked into the bathroom; he could tell from the cool wind washing over his body. No one had business being about at this hour. Reluctantly he opened his eyes as a voice filled his ears. He could only managed one response to the question posed to him. "Feh."

His long legs spread forth as he walked, giving Naelona Ezel a good shot of his right thigh where the towel split. He looked down upon the little woman. Had she expected him to be some slave wandering about in the wee hours of the morning? "It's just Luther." It was not an answer to her question so much as a reminder that he hated frilly titles.

[Naelona Ezel]

"Feh. It's just Luther." The first note was all she needed to tell exactly who it was, and the following statement only confirmed it. A bitter stone sank into her gut. Of all the bad luck, karma didn't seem to be done with her quite yet. Holding the lamp up into the air she looked for the source of the voice, just in time to catch him rounding the corner considerably underdressed. He seemed to be just fresh from the bath, no less. Wait - this brute of a boogie? Bathing? Naelona almost snorted at the thought. What a sight indeed - Shae would never believe her. Who would assume it? Apparently the creature bathed after all.

"Yes.. yes it is." It was just 'Luther', and nothing more. For some reason he objected to proper titles, yet rejected the acquaintance requirements that such informal name-use required. With narrowed eyes Nae glanced him once over, noting his form and the numerable scars upon it. So was a life in the Labyrinth, she supposed. Strange to think even one such as himself could survive in it. Out of condition she caught the flash of skin that was his thigh, and with a glare averting her eyes to seek elsewhere just as quickly. He was of decent condition for a boogie, but there were some things she didn't desire to see. It didn't assist nor relate to the point of her search tonight. At least he possessed the decency to wear a towel.

Across the baths she scanned his little corner of the baths before moving to a few small wooden doors. They were designed for child slaves to enter and leave without interfering with their Master's - or anyone else's bathing. They'd fallen into disuse decades ago, but that wasn't to say they remained entirely deserted. Pulling one open she shined the light down the tiny bleak corridor. It was empty. Moving to the second the door opened with a protesting squeak, but it too was devoid of any life. Well - any human life at least. It seemed there wasn't a slave here to be found after all.

Fanning lightly at the steam Naelona neared his corner, yet still kept more than a healthy distance from where she'd last seen him. Silently she cursed the fog and dimmed the light. It wasn't helping visibility in this circumstance whatsoever. "You are alone, here. Are you not?" She highly doubted he brought any slaves in with him - save for maybe a snack. It was doubtful he even owned any in the first place. Spotting him it was only a moment and she quickly turned her eyes elsewhere, simply turning her back to him. He was still wearing just a damned towel. Most changed after bathing. That was another thing she sh- didn't care to be seeing.

[Luther Verhulst]

Truly there would be no worse guest in the Palace to interrupt Luther's bath. The baths might have been intended for slaves more than Boogies, but Luther never cared to take a set of quarters in the Palace. Allowing his body these comforts on a regular basis likely would make him soft and render him incapable of completing his job. Also, bedrooms were meant primarily for sleeping. That was hardly an activity Luther felt comfortable doing--least of all in close proximity to people.

Naelona seemed to think that Luther's senses were either faulty, or she was too proud to ask him if there was anyone else in the baths with him. Not a soul had been here when he entered, and Luther thought that there would not have been a soul who had known he was here when he left. That was the way he liked his baths--a private affair between him and scalding hot water.

The little woman seemed to purposely avert her eyes from him a couple of times and to avoid his position in particular. Did the sight of the monster of the Labyrinth offend the little girl's senses? Luther sheared two of his sharp canine teeth against one another at the consideration. Too bad for her.

"No one other than you has shared this space with me this evening," he finally offered when she asked him. She was stubborn, but perhaps not as stubborn as he initially thought. Yet, it did not matter what she had said, because her body language was still as one who was offended by his presence. She even turned her back on him--some would consider that a horrid choice. Luther just snorted at the gesture.

"You have some kind of warped sense of decency that I'm offending?" Too bad. She would have to get over it. Luther was not going to wait around for her to leave to change into a clean set of clothing now.

He almost ripped the towel off of his waist and leaned over to finish drying off his legs. Flipping the towel over he let it rest on his neck before grasping a nearby pair of pants and slipping them on. Maybe now he would not offend her senses, but he doubted it.

[Naelona Ezel]

"Good." Nae doubted any slaves would willingly try to remain around Luther during any circumstances, and least of all after the Ballroom incident. For once Wonderland seemed to be quiet and in proper order, if only for that time of morning. Feeling a bit smug at that prospect Naelona stood a bit straighter with a slight curl to one side of her mouth, before it turned to assist a glare at a far wall. Or it could all be a ruse.

"You have some kind of warped sense of decency that I'm offending?" Offending what too soft a word, and 'decency' didn't even begin to encompass the category. "You even care to ask?" The answer should be obvious to anyone with a rightful sense of decency - something he apparently lacked for the most part. "It is not inasmuch decency, as propriety. You're a boogie, not a slave." Were he a slave she wouldn't care - not even that - she'd be kicking them out. "Unless you would rather I treat you as one." It would make things much simpler.

Naelona was glad she hadn't looked as she almost had after his question. Odd to think he would even pose one. The sound of the towel had literally warned the ears and saved the eyes, for which they were thankful. As if there hadn't been enough imagery burned into her retinas already.

While she waited, she reached into her pocket to find the old watch within it. "You were there, but there was another." she had been told "You know only a part of the tale. Ask the man who pulled you out of that hell hole for the rest." It had taken considerable time and patience to piece it all together from aged and fragmented memory, let alone accept it. Naelona didn't even remember him, and Anolean was too young to travel through shade at the time, but she must have left somehow. Perhaps this encounter wouldn't be an entire loss after all.

"Are you finished?" After a moment Naelona risked a look, peering over her shoulder, watching a moment. At least now he had pants. It was a great improvement from the towel for a multitude of reasons. "I have a question for you, before you leave. It pertains to old events, and what you know of them. Namely of when you found me." Deaths aside, it would probably be the simplest way to remind him.

[Luther Verhulst]

Truly this was a bothersome woman. She made it difficult to categorize her behavior since she seemed to sway back and forth between a mature personality and that of a child. Here she had some authority and Luther was only barely willing to acknowledge it. Having power was one thing, but legitimately holding it was another entirely. So far this Ezel had not shown much of the latter.

Shock at his asking her about decency seemed to rile her up. That was no skin off of Luther's back, but it irked him that she would let herself get so worked up over something so seemingly minor. She replaced the concept of decency with propriety. Those were two completely separate concepts, and Luther could possibly understand how he might offend someone's sense of propriety with his behaviors. Of course, there was something to be said about propriety, and Luther was not the type to hold his tongue.

"Ironic that you would offer me the opportunity to be like a slave, especially considering that your propriety is little more than a mockery of theirs." Decency and propriety seemed to be largely alien concepts to Luther, but he understood them well enough. "Clothes are utilitarian. Humans are the ones who attach values of 'right' and 'wrong' to how they are used or not used."

Luther found that he had wanted to hunch over so he could stare her in the eyes, but her back was still turned. He flashed her his fangs for a moment, even if she couldn't seem them. An argument like this could go on for hours and they would never move away from it. The bathroom hardly seemed a fitting place to hold a shouting match.

Luther listened to Naelona's question, but it seemed a non sequitur. He pondered for a moment in silence as he brought the towel to his head and ruffled his hair somewhat dry. When had he found her? Was the question pertaining to the one night in the Labyrinth? Why would she ask him anything about that night?

"I pulled a small, frightened, crying child out of the maze. There was another in there, but they did not make it out alive. The rest are impertinent details best left to the realm of your nightmares." Recalling the full story reminded Luther of his own ghosts from the past.

Luther set himself on a bench and pulled some socks over his feet. Then he proceeded to fiddle with the laces on his boots so he would be able to fit them onto his feet.

[Naelona Ezel]

"Would you rather we run about like animals? Stealing and fighting amidst each other like our ancestors did?" The boogie frowned at what he had to say of clothing and slaves. They had little if any sense of right or wrong. It was why all slaves had to be trained. "An untrained child is just as much a little beast as any other creature. Right and wrong is not innate to them. It is taught and learned, it brings forth order. You would not be able to enjoy your baths, were it not for it. It is the basis for a system by which even you comply, however slightly. Things are better for it."

It seemed he was indeed done, so she turned about to face him fully while he went for his socks, and consequentially shoes. They could go about in circles, sparring remarks while just missing what the other was truly saying. But this was not the time or place for it, and the lack of rest bid Nae decline from fully indulging in such a pastime. Even if the opportunity was rare.

"I know she did not survive. My soul was with her in the days after, until my recovery." In a manner of speaking, it felt as a bit of Naelona had followed after wherever Syeira had gone. She'd dreamed extensively of the woman in the days after, mutterings in her sleep. Or so Anolean had told her some time later. "What I do not understand, is why you should save such a child at all. You detest others, and if I'm am not mistaken, all contact. Why you would retrieve a child not far from death itself is beyond me."

Setting the lamp upon the floor, one hand tucked within her pocket while she tasted the metal of her pipe and smoke. The entire Labyrinth was one ongoing nightmare. She was reminded nearly every time she slept these days. "Kazn persists that there is a side I do not know, yet refuses to tell himself. He bid I ask you instead." Crossing one ankle by the other, the dark boogie resided for leaning against the corner of the wall while he finished. "I want to know the rest of the tale, so you know of it."

[Luther Verhulst]

Luther might have just spat on the floor. Naelona had a point, even if Luther would never concede it to her. His original point had been simple--clothes were just another tool, and in this place were nigh useless. Choosing to wear clothes or not had no bearing on anything else. Of course, outside where it was not quite so warm clothes were a necessity for a survival.

The bath was not a necessity for survival. Luther might have walked around smelling of blood and rust and even less savory things all day long without being bothered. However, a distinctive scent of blood had more than a slight tendency to excite the creatures of the Labyrinth. Reducing the excitement his presence produced in the Labyrinth was a useful part of his job. The water here was much warmer than the water outside, though Luther might have been able to take cold baths out there fore a few weeks longer.

"You can play your civilization games all you want here. I'm simply taking a few comforts that enable me to better perform my duties." Luther glared at Naelona. "I play my part in your game so that the rest of you don't have to live like our ancestors. You might consider appreciating it once in a while." Appreciate it or not, Luther did not actually care. He just wanted to get one last snap in at her.

His boots were now on his feet and he tied the laces. Recounting the story would be miserable, and Luther was not much of a storyteller. She would get the only version Luther would be able to tell, and likely it would not contain anything that she wanted to hear.

"You would be correct in assuming that I would not stick my neck out for someone else. I know for a fact that two people went into the Labyrinth that evening. It's a death sentence, and I would not bother interfering normally. Your father seemed to have another idea, though. He was panicked and he asked me if I saw anyone go into the Labyrinth. I told him that I had--two people, in fact." The sky had been fairly clear that night, but Luther could not recall if there had been any moonlight or not. It never seemed important, and it would have been just another day in his memory if it were not for a few things.

"Your father is very picky about protocol, and protocol is that I don't bring people out of the Labyrinth without good reason. Kazn wanted me to break protocol. It took some convincing on his end. I went into the Labyrinth, but the beasts were already on the move. Black Dogs have a tendency to strike first in there. Sometimes you hear stories about how time stands still for people? That's how I remember it. Dogs in the air bearing down slowly on a little girl and a grown woman laying on the ground. I had to pull one of the mutts off of you, but the woman was already dead when I arrived. She felt like she had been dead for a while, but..." Luther trailed off. There was something he suspected, but he wasn't sure it belonged there.

Luther felt like the story was already too long, but it needed a finish. "I discussed it with Kazn later. We agreed to keep a couple things silent about that night. Too many unknowns. None of you left that place the same."

[Naelona Ezel]

"You do have your role.." Naelona admitted. "..as we all. Considering without you, my role would cease to exist by means of numerous deaths.. yet without me there would be no order here, no 'game' for you to protect." If he desired a bit more respect or acknowledgment for the brief times he was ever out of his.. habitat.. it wouldn't kill him to actually show some himself.

For once, Nae remained silent while the beast re-accounted the tale. Leaning against the wall she leaned her head against the cool stone with a slight frown. The things he was saying concerning her father didn't sound like Kazn at all. For a brief moment two things plagued her, one that he'd even consider breaking protocol for anyone, and secondly that retrieving two boogies apparently didn't qualify as a good enough reason, save for the risks opening the gate always posed.. She could understand loyalty, but there were some things that were never meant to be broken. And no reason - in her mind - that he should break them. He hadn't been thankful for anything that'd been returned to him anyway.

At once it occurred to her how ill her father had truly been. How ill he still was.

As Luther described the scene, it very well came alive within her mind. It was something Naelona did remember and remember well. For some moments she stared off, while her mind followed memories. Time had slowed. She still recalled the haunting eyes, the chilling howls, not to mention the mud, blood, claws and smell of death.. Meanwhile, behind her across the pools of the baths, dark things appeared to move within the waters. At some a thin arm black as ink reached out of the water, while shapeless masses rose from the surface. Even her lamp seemed to flicker and dim.

With a sudden flinch Nae grasped the silver keepsake within her pocket, returning to her senses while the dark forms dissipated and the lamp flickered brightly again. "But.. what?" Naelona felt he was skipping out, leaving behind details she wanted to know for the sake of timing and shortening what forced time he had to endure her. If that were the case, so be it. It would be shorter for him to just tell all he knew and be done with it. "Like why she went there in the first place?" A mystery even Naelona didn't know for sure, but had her strongly biased opinions.

"How did he convince you to break rule in the first place?" Of all the boogies one might expect to uphold something, Kazn was one of the last Nae would have considered to willingly want to discard one. A second question would have been 'Why?' but knew Luther would be unable to answer that.

[Luther Verhulst]

People who wandered into the Labyrinth did not wander out. That was as good as law in Wonderland. Luther's duties included keeping the gates closed and keeping everything that was in the Labyrinth, inside of the Labyrinth. He made frequent forays into the maze, but rarely stayed longer than a few days at a time. Luther had seen things that other people could only talk about and imagine. Those experiences meant he had nothing in common with anyone.

Except for other survivors from the Labyrinth.

Luther was unconvinced that this 'survivor' actually had anything in common with him. The one time he pulled her out the Labyrinth was nothing more than a short dose. Her second run-in with the terrors from that place had been cut short by Luther's intervention once more. The first time he had been asked to do it. The second intervention had been a personal decision. Why did he do those things? The answer seemed so very simple to him, but he doubted that anyone would ever understand it. Nothing would ever make him tell, either.

"I said that it was decided some details were best left undisclosed. That being said, I never had any idea why that woman would have gone into the Labyrinth. Just given the circumstances I found you two in, I would have thought she was chasing you." That, however, was nothing more than speculation. Luther did not share that speculation with Kazn, though the man might have reached a similar conclusion from the details Luther shared with him. The groundskeeper always figured that Kazn knew why the two had gone into the Labyrinth.

"A lot of people try throwing themselves in the Labyrinth. It's either a fit of insanity or suicide, or perhaps a bit of both. I don't make it a point of understanding why people do it." That was truth and Luther liked truth. It was not tangible, but it still had a solid quality to it.

"As for how he convinced me, that was another detail we agreed not to share. Since he sent you to me I will tell you. He begged. Got on his knees and begged me to go in and break protocol. A man like Kazn does not beg. I never had seen it before, and I doubt I will ever see it again." That still did not explain why Luther was convinced by the act of begging. Once again, that was a detail that Luther would not share with Naelona no matter how much she pressed the detail. She also failed to ask for that little tidbit in the first place.

[Naelona Ezel]

"I was chasing her." It'd been Syeira who'd gone in first, and a very young, startled and naive Nae who'd ran after. Even the pair of slaves that were watching her couldn't catch her in time. The child had been one of a hellion pair, and with good reason. Her and Anolean often lived up to the claim when they really wanted to. "Kazn always mourns her, yet he is the one who drove her in." An irony she never quite understood, but it did make sense. After all he always blamed her, she who followed, she who tried to save..

"A boogie like Kazn never begs.. He's an Ezel.." Ezels did not beg. They did not plead. They gave orders to be followed, and expected them as such. They had pride. Pride didn't permit them to beg. It kept their heads held high and respect upon their backs. It prevented from committing such humiliating things. But.. this didn't sound to be the case at all. He'd begged. From the sounds of things - ..begged like a prideless man.

A boogie of standing with no pride, an Ezel.. with no pride.. was not an Ezel. Were they a lesser being it may have been permissible.. save that even so she knew he had only wanted one thing. Yet the thought occurred.. perhaps she had lost more than just her mother that day.

"What else did you two agree not to disclose?" If he would tell her one thing solely based on the fact Kazn had sent her to ask, perhaps he would also share more.. if not the 'rest'. Whatever the rest was. And whatever it was, she wanted to know it. All the monsters that'd been stemming from a dark chest of things left brewing for some forty decades. If there were but a way to axe it open and air it out, so be it..

"There is one thing I do not understand. That - if you knew it was against the order of things, protocol, and so did he, then why did you agree to do it?" Naelona would have surely died if he hadn't, she knew this. It wasn't a fact she was any less thankful for - if Ezels ever were thankful, but in anything she was glad to be alive. But that wasn't the point. He had a duty, a job, a role to take.. why break that for anyone.. least of all from a begging man.

[Luther Verhulst]

The daughter had been chasing a dead woman. She might as well have been a ghost by the time she entered the Labyrinth. For all Luther cared, she was dead the moment she started running for the maze of death. It was a place where some of the lowest creatures in the order could swarm you first and leave you nothing more than a husk, a pile of bones, or little more than a quivering pile of flesh devoid of any intelligent thoughts. It was a nightmarish landscape, but apparently not so terrifying as to keep everyone out of it. Naelona Ezel's mother had apparently wandered in of her own free will, and the young girl followed.

"If you're thinking an Ezel never begs, then I'd agree with you. A broken man, however, will beg." Luther long suspected Kazn had finally been broken that night. Perhaps the woman had been broken that night as well. If the child that followed and her sibling had not been broken yet, the daughter certainly was before too much longer.

Luther reached up and grasped as some of his white hair. Slowly he squeezed water out of it and watched as it dripped onto the floor. This was beginning to feel less like Luther telling a story and more like an interrogation the longer it went on. Luther shifted his head about and the dim light reflected off of the back of his eyes. In some ways it looked like his eyes burned with fire for just a moment when he did that.

"Mostly it was sensitive information. Things Kazn wanted to keep off of the books. The lengths he went to get me to open the gates, the fact that the gates had been opened at all, a few strange happenings in the Labyrinth at the time and other similar things." Luther stared at Nae from his sitting position. He could swear that he still felt as tall as she looked from his current position. It was an odd thing to notice. "He demanded I open the gate first, and I refused."

There was Luther's confession. When it had come to duty he had been less willing to bend the rules than Kazn. Of course, it was also a confession that two lives were not worth opening the gates. Rather, it might as well have been two deaths by the time Kazn had given the order. "You both should have been dead by the time he told me to open it. I was convinced of that and did not wish to be bothered with clean up. The beasts would have left nothing of either of you by morning. I explained that to him."

Luther started to remember the scene very clearly. It had been raining heavily recently. Luther hated the rain. However, it had let up and he had built a fire outside to dry some things out and have a bite to eat. There had been an intrusion into the Labyrinth and Luther had been forced to make sure the gate was securely shut before anything escaped. Sure enough, fifteen minutes later Kazn had appeared before him and his fire. Still dressed in fine clothes as always, but the clothes were in disorder and he was red in the face, as though from running. He was a much younger man in those days, and still with the quality that made him seem so much older. Luther was younger still, but it hardly mattered.

Kazn had ordered him, and Luther calmly had explained why it could not be done. Kazn had actually threatened him at that point. That threat seemed so hollow that Luther couldn't help but laugh. In some strange way, that had tickled Luther's dry sense of humor. Moments passed and his desperation seemed to grow...

"The details behind my decision are hardly necessary for your understanding of the events. If you cannot understand why I would help that man when he tossed away the only thing that had never let him down on your own, then it is hardly my place to explain it to you."

[Naelona Ezel]

Naelona's hardening gaze didn't much waver. Ezels did not break. They did not waver. They were akin to an anchor for the remaining Wonderland to heed and follow. With so much chaos, something had to pin the land in place. To consider such a thing could even waver.. let alone shatter.. become completely ineffective and broken was akin to blasphemy, in it's own.. peculiar, twisted way. A very Ezel sort of way.

They both should have been dead by the time Luther had reached them. Syeira certainly had some minutes before, though at the same time her life had passed only by small mere moments before.. or rather, as..? As he had arrived. Settling her lips into a line, Naelona kept silent. There were some family affairs Luther didn't deserve to be aware of, despite being involved in the situation. In the mystery. There were things Kazn desired to be kept mum, and for once Naelona agreed. Besides, if Luther already knew, it served little purpose to reiterate what he had already knew.

Peculiar they would want to leave out - as Luther put it - certain 'strange happenings'. It was a Labyrinth. Everything that happened within it was strange and horrible. Listening to the bathwater, and watching the lamplight flicker her rational couldn't unravel his explanation. If Kazn tossed away the one thing he had, that was foolish. Naelona didn't understand even in the light of everything, even considering it was her mother. Save.. she had ran in after, committing the very action he was unable to pursue. Hadn't even she, as a child, followed her mother through fear though Syeira had gone into that 'bad place' the twin Ezels had always been warned of?

Could she really say she would not follow her in again?

Taking her pipe back in hand, Naelona turned away and picked up the lamp, turning out the light with a twist of a knob on it's base. For a moment Naelona regarded the boogie in the dark. "Thank you for answering my inquiries." With a pause she considered if he was even still there, or maybe it was her mind playing tricks at the odd hour. But there, he was still visible. Having such light hair and pale skin did little in terms of hiding from boogie sight. She could still make out where he was. It became easier by the passing moment as her eyes adjusted to the lamplight-less room. Even with that conclusion, she looked elsewhere.

"If asked, could you.." ..that wasn't quite right. She bit her tongue and rephrased it. "Would you be able to recall the exact place it occurred?" Perhaps her last question of the evening. Her voice was considerably controlled and still, even for an Ezel. Perhaps even forcefully so. It was - quite possibly - one of the most important.

[Luther Verhulst]

What was it rising at the back of his mind? He recalled restless nights filled with madness. His father had been a man of faith, but it did not take more than one night in that place to shatter any faith that his father might have implanted at an early age. Naelona Ezel must have a terrible time recalling her childhood, but it was an even more difficult task for Luther. In the mind that preferred to leave details unexamined a random musing was nearly unheard of. When the touch of curiosity finally touched him Luther was unsure what to do with it.

Luther Gethsemane Verhulst did not ask questions.

It was easy to see Naelona's skepticism over Luther's words. However, if anyone had ever been able to know Luther, then they would know that he disapproved of deception. Kazn seemed okay with deception. It was the job of a politician to deceive. Father had always said something about politicians. Then again, father had said a lot of things that were really stupid.

Luther was done with his stories and he had not omitted anything of importance. He pulled a sharp knife from his clothes and held it in front of him for a moment. The giant turned his head slightly to get a good glance at his face in the mirror. With his free hand he pulled the pale white hair back and revealed his full face for just a brief moment. It looked like he was pulling all of his hair back into a short ponytail. Water dripped rapidly out of his hair from where he was gripping it. He used his image in the mirror to position his knife and then chop a couple inches off of his hair.

There was a rough shake of his head and a few droplets sprayed about. He did not go out of his way to hit Naelona, but he hardly avoided it. There appeared to be one more question that the little girl needed answered. Luther turned and wondered why she was still here. This question made no sense in any sense of the word.

"I will say this as clearly as possible so that you may understand. That place... the maze... is a place of madness. The walls shift and paths change in such ways that it is never the same puzzle. So whether I could or would, while they are two different questions, they both have the same answer." Luther simply pondered on what that answer was going to be.

"I remember that corridor of madness. Given time it could be found, but why would I find it?" Now it was Luther's turn to ask questions. The other question that nagged at his mind was brought forth once again, but he pushed it back once more. Now was hardly the time to bring it up. That was much more a topic to bring up when they were parting ways, if it should be brought up at all.

[Naelona Ezel]

Naelona remained where she stood, unflinching while Luther cut his hair. Water was water. A scissors, a comb, and some good lighting would do a better job. If one were to wager, the boogie probably hadn't laid eyes on such items in years. At least for now he wasn't purposely trying to antagonize her, she could at least spare any beratings a short while longer.

She could believe the cursed maze shifted and changed. It rendered it some small wonder that the place was even contained within the same outer walls. Like some writhing creature of stone and earth that could never quite escape. It was a strange and bewitching place, and deserved every bit of fear and mystery it earned. Little wonder beings went in and never returned. Yet this one did. Lived there even. Rather well too, evidently.

But why indeed? Nae watched idly for a few moments, and might have been amused were she a less-serious being, or this a less-dark situation. Hadn't he asked something akin to that once before? Out in that shed of a building when those cursed beasts had shown up. He'd delayed removing such a creature to pose a similar question then. He had no reason then, and she doubted one existed now. So why bother even asking? For being one so removed from the rest of proper society, why ask anything of 'could', 'would', or 'why' at all?

Perhaps a reason existed.

"Because you can." Nae was faintly amused, even if in some minute degree. "You said they had the same answer. So if you can find the one, then you can do the other." A little cheeky, yes, but it wasn't anything he hadn't said himself. "So I'll request it. Find that place and inform me, wherever it has gone to." Means could be arranged for him to do so without having to enter the - for him - loathsome palace as honestly she rather he didn't.

With that out of the way, the cooling lamp clinked in the dark with the rustle of moving cloth. "I'll leave you now." Her gray eyes settling upon the door across the room, and the path she would take to reach it. It was high time she left as it was. The Ezel had remained near the loathsome creature longer than wanted. Never mind he was still only partly clothed. The pants had been an improvement but he'd still left his torso bare. Some might not object, but others with enough sense certainly did.