Family Reunion (Liza, Jula and Aero)

"Funny thing is I've been hanging around with him all day, then he and a friend of mine got separated from me during a race through the jungle. I've now gotten myself completely lost it seems." she joked with a smile. Really she was panicking, and she had no idea when she'd see another person. "I've been lost for a good hour, and it's kinda starting to freak me out." she remarked trying to hide her shaking. All the while Ger wasn't too far away and wasn't getting any closer to finding her, unbeknownst to the two on the beach at least.

Ger kept looking high and low, but somehow or another she kept going in circles. Finally, when she got frustrated enough, she gave a good roundhouse kick to the nearest tree and watched it topple before shouting out her feelings. Only after a long minute of yelling did she truly look around and find that she was within sight of sand and sea. "Oh Silence, where could you be?" she muttered to herself.

This Dmitri was not actually programmed to care about Silence's predicament, unfortunately. It was here to give her the message that he needed to give her. But, he tried anyway. "I am sorry that you are lost." Okay, that was done. Now to move on to the important part. "I need you to speak to Alec. I need you to give him a message. I cannot give him this message myself, because it will be too painful for me. Too painful for him. He cannot be allowed to try to change my mind."

He inhaled and then exhaled. "I am not a human. Alec knows.... he made me this way. I have been trying to live up to his ideals of his lost child. He expects me to be someone who I am not. But the truth has come out. I don't age... I'm not the child that he lost. I am his creation. I cannot live in the shadow of his lost child anymore. I cannot live, anymore. I am... I am fake. It hurts me to know that there is a soul that is living inside of me, one that's not mine. The soul needs to be released. I am only a prison for this person, the person that I am not."

He reached behind him and pulled something out of the back of his neck. When he showed it to silence, it was revealed to be a slim crystal.

"This is the soul that belonged to somebody else," he said. "This is holding my body together. I cannot bear it anymore. Please tell Alec - that man who has lied to me - tell him that he has given me nothing but an empty and hallow existence. I forgive him, but I cannot endure it any longer."

"Thank you."

He snapped the crystal - a wisp of vapor seemed to lift from it and vanish. At that very moment, the construct fell, lifeless. But, it wasn't just any dead body. Slowly, the construct began to melt and dissolve in a disgusting display of flesh, muscle, and bones. The smell of magic was piercing as the magic began to vanish from the creature.

Silence didn't even have time to respond to the rather mechanical message, and was shortly mortified into speechlessness. . .Followed by a blood-curdling, spine shaking scream. If one were to stand in Yarrowitz and be especially quiet, you just might have heard that scream on the beach. The level of horror that the girl had just experience was nearly enough to make her pass out, but not quite. The only things to rival that were the sight of her mother dying, and seeing her back when it was in the middle of healing and was covered in half-formed scabs that cracked open and bled at the slightest movement. This made #3 right under the morbid scene that was her back.

Not too far off, Geronimo felt a chill go up her spine at the sound of the scream. "Guhhh. . .That girl has the finest set of lungs to be found from here to Tarz." she muttered as she turned and followed the notoriously malignant screech back to the sand and sea. "Silence!" she shouted as she noticed the girl's signature orange top. "Great forge almighty what happened here?" she asked hugging the girl close. Silence broke down into tears and hid her face in Ger's shoulder to simply get all the negative emotion out and calm down.

"H-He melted. . .From skin to bone in two minutes. . ." she sobbed. That was rather strange, people didn't just "melt"! Geronimo was going to figure out what was wrong here, because it was obvious that this wasn't anywhere near normal.

Alec perked his head as he heard the distant scream. Fearing the worst for Silence, he did an about-face and made his way towards the beach, grasping his improvised pike to defend the woman.

He broke through the trees and onto the beach in a minute. Between Silence and Geronimo, though, it didn't like like they were in any danger...

It took him a few seconds to find the mass of melted flesh next to her. He knew exactly what that was. His brows furrowed and he approached cautiously... slowly, though, he began to recognize that that hadn't been an adult. There wasn't enough flesh for a full-grown adult. And the Jacket that the flesh had melted on looked just... like...

"Dmitri!" Alec shrieked and he rushed forward, dropping the weapon and rushed forward on the beach, tears springing to his eyes in a moment. He tried to grab at the melted flesh, but of course it had no solidity to grasp. In a panting frantic rush, he felt around the pinkish goo until he found what he was looking for. He pulled it up in horror. The crystal. Well. Crystals, now. Broken into two.

He looked... so empty. So defeated. He held the broken crystal pieces in shock for about a minute, tears coming down his face without reserve, his breath choked in his throat.

Slowly, though, he turned to Silence, looking... completely frightful. "What... what did you do?" He asked accusingly, like a storm that was about to break.

"I did nothing...I swear I did nothing...!" she sobbed. She soon lost her ability to speak and Ger intervened. "She said that he gave her a message, rather mechanically, and that the boy just melted after giving it." She pulled Silence away from her body and dried her tears as best she could. "Silence, please, try not to think of what happened to him for a moment, try to recall the message and everything he did beforehand." She then looked to Alec and there was a certain spark to her eyes. "Forgive me for getting angry but accusing a hysterical girl of murder after what just happened is more than rude. I understand your pain, believe me I do, but surely there's an explanation that warrants higher spirits, yes?" Silence took a few more moments to calm down and stared at her hands, afraid to look at either of her companions.

"H-He walked out onto the beach from the jungle, a-and asked where Alec was. Said he had a message for him. I told him I had been in your company and that I'd gotten lost, but he made no effort to do anything except offer an emotionless condolence. He gave a long message about you forcing him to be someone he wasn't. H-He then pulled the crystal out of his neck and crushed it." At that point she hid her face in her hands and tried not to cry anymore, but failed miserably. The redhead was silent for a time, looking at the remains and trying to piece all the information together. "Alec, I'm not sure what you call something like that, but it doesn't make any sense that your son would say or do anything like that. The way you speak of him that's completely out of character. What can you tell me about all this?"

"YOU DON'T!" Alec shrieked at Geronimo. "You don't understand! You've never lost a daughter before - You haven't! I lost her..." His face was red and wet with tears at this point, and his speech dissolved into sobs. He took the two halves of the crystal and tried to push them back together, but of course to no avail. He leaned forward and fell so that he was supporting himself by his elbows in the sand, his head bowed so that it was resting against the ground too, his shoulders trembling and shaking with uneven breathes. "I lost her... I lost her again... again..."

He tried to breathe deeply, only half listening to Silence, hiding his face as he cried quietly, coughing with his sobs. About two minutes after Silence had completed her recollection of the tale, he took in and let out deep breaths, not moving for a while, just inhaling and exhaling slowly, and his breathing began to equalize. He sat up again, his face still looking like a mess. he kept his eyes closed, though, trying to breathe normally in spite of the trauma to his heart.

"No," he admitted. "That... that doesn't sound like her." He grit his teeth and lowered his face, keeping his eyes squeezed shut. "No... that's... That's ... I don't .. I don't know... I can't..." He hid his face in his hand, trying to make sense of it. "... forcing her to be...?" he murmured, and coughed up another sob again. "How did she...? That's .. I don't know. I don't know. I just... Is it my fault? That's..." He couldn't make any coherent sense of it. Not right now. "If you found out that you weren't human... if you found out you were just.. just an imitation... what would you do? I don't know... How would she find out? did Zold tell her? Oh god... Oh god, oh god... But she was my daughter. She was."

Ger let go of her weeping friend and grabbed Alec by his shoulders. "Alec. Alec my friend listen to me, please. I think someone's being very very cruel to you. The fact that whoever this impostor was was acting more like a wind-up doll than an actual person tells me that this is all just a sociopath's game. Sssh, sssh." she murmured hugging him close. "I don't think this was really Dmitri that spoke to Silence. I think it was a copy of a copy. This might just be a fool's consolation, but I think your child is still alive. You also forget that several years ago I lost the dearest person in the world to me, only to have her turn up at my doorstep. You mentioned Zold. . ." At the name she frowned, for where he'd helped her find her lost friend, he'd also caused a lot of mayhem in the process. "Does he have a way to create things like this when he pleases?"

The dead quiet after the storm had begun and Silence walked over to Alec to hug him. "Might as well call me a fool too. Ger's better with things like this, she's a good bit smarter than I ever was, but I'll help you find Dmitri. I don't look it but I can make a dead man speak his secrets when the mood strikes me." The gypsy was indeed a force to be reckoned with if you got on her bad side. "Well Alec? Shall we take our leave and head for home? We'll come up with a plan to deal with this after we've all calmed down and had something to drink, hm?"

Alec straightened up at this touch of hope. He wiped his eyes with the palm of his hand, letting his fingers linger on his face for a minute. "Maybe... maybe. That's why he needed me. I was the engineer of the operation. We did it together... not really.... not really willingly, mind you, but that's what it was. That's what he does. He has the magic to seal somebody's soul inside one of those bodies, and keep the body fresh, but putting the body together, that was my job. I know how all the muscles work, I know how they operate, I know how the blood vessels go together, and he has the magic to keep them from decaying when there's a soul in them. That's... But he can't do it without me..." He furrowed his brows deeply. "What if he found her... what if he... what if he reprogrammed her somehow, altered her soul..." His eyes burned into the sand in front of him.

"You don't understand," he said quietly, now looking at Geronimo desperately. "He needs a dead soul to make them. I ... I thought it was the only way to save her, she was dying... she was so sick... so sick... So that's why I started working with him. To save her life. What if he ... what if he had her all the time? What if she was a hostage and I never knew it? What if he... went into her mind..." he grit his teeth and shut his eyes again. "And reworked her to do what he wanted?" His hands dug into the sand, before tightening into fists, his jaw clenching and throat tightening.

"I may look and act the part of a man, but I've a woman's intuition. I really do think she's still out there, Alec. No more what-ifs with horrific consequences, alright?" She pulled away from him and let Silence work her magic, the girl was much more at home with this sort of thing than the warrior was. "Even if he has her hostage, you can count on us to get her back. I swear by this that I won't rest until we find her and get her back to you safely." She brought forth one of the two crystals she had from her first cave expedition and smiled. "I swear to you by this crystal." Once all that was out of the way, Ger cleared her throat. "Come on, let's head home. Even if we don't attend the gathering tonight we'll likely have to leave and confront this mortifying issue that's arisen."

Silence wrapped her arms around Alec's shoulders and hugged him tightly. "Come on, Alec, let's go before it gets dark." The way back was full of tripping, and laughs from Ger and occasional remarks from Silence about how clumsy and awkward Ger herself used to be. "Alec you'd scarcely believe that the towering warrior you see now used to be a gawky little tomboy with a bright red mop on her head!" Ger then retorted. "You were the skinniest little rail I'd ever seen, to think now you have trouble finding shirts that fit!" All of it was with good intentions and made to make Alec forget what he'd just seen, but they both knew it wouldn't be that easy.

Unfortunately, Alec was not in the mood for joking and laughing. He let them reminisce, but not surprisingly, his thoughts were elsewhere. His eyelids were heavy from the crying he'd done. He had been very quickly emotionally drained. That entire experience - true or fake - was more than what a person should have to go through. He was doing nothing but dragging his feet, his head bowed, his previous demeanor of being good and upright having melted away into somebody who was just depressed and lacked all hope. He just leaned into whomever was helping pull him home, because his heart just wasn't in anything he was doing right now, like walking.

"You'd like Eva- ... You'd like Dmitri, " Alec said lightly. "she ... if she is alive... she never wanted to be a girl either. She was very intent on dressing like a boy..." he sniffled a bit. "I never liked it. I have to be honest. I just... she was my beautiful little girl. But she made me so proud, too, wanting to be strong... wanting to take care of herself, not wanting to be coddled, learning how to fight with a sword... it's scary though, too. I think... I think she might get into situations that are just too much for her to handle, but she wouldn't see it like that... she never would."

Anyhow, he just let himself be pulled along home. He had way too much to think about. Too much on his mind. He wanted to discover what the truth was, but he was fairly sure that Zold would be the one who had the truth.

Ger opened the door to the house and made sure that they both had rooms ready before getting them sleeping clothes. "Right, Silence your room is at the end of the hall on the left, Alec yours is right next to hers. Mine's directly across from the both of you, if you need anything just knock, okay?" With that she headed upstairs to change and settle down to sleep. In the middle of the night, Silence shuffled to Alec's room and rapped on the door lightly. "A-Alec...? It's Silence...Can I come in?" She'd had horrific nightmares since her head hit her pillow, and was a long way from actually falling asleep.

She leaned against the wall and wiped her eyes as best she could, her hands shaking as well as her shoulders from sobbing. Eventually she slowly opened the door and called out quietly, "Alec? I'm sorry to bother you...b-but I can't sleep..." She shut the door as softly as she could and slumped in front of it, unable to will her feet to go forward anymore. She was truly exhausted from the entire day's events, and nightmares or not she was on the verge of passing out on the floor. She'd gone through much the same trials when her mother died, and then again during the nearly year-long healing process she had to go through after the attack. It was all just too much for her to handle.

Alec answered the door and beckoned her in, closing the door behind her as she stepped in. He looked exhausted. His eyes were red, and there were dark bags under them, and his long hair (Normally pulled back in a tight pony-tail) was a frazzled mess. He sat down on the edge of his bed, and patted it lightly for her to sit down, too.

"I couldn't sleep either," He said gently. "I'm sorry you saw what you saw." He swallowed, as he recounted the events of just seeing the melted blob there. Without a doubt the tides would have come up and swallowed the mess away by now. He still had the shattered crystal, though - the two halves of it were sitting on his night-stand, by the oil-lamp. "Whether that was Dmitri or not, I can imagine it would have been traumatic to watch anybody give you their last words and then melt away. I'm so sorry we didn't find you sooner.... and.. and I'm sorry I rushed on ahead. That was careless of me. If I had stayed behind, if I had stayed with you, maybe I could have been there when Evalyne came up, maybe I could have stopped her and could have figured out exactly what was happening." He was apparently forgetting that Silence was here to look for him for comfort, instead of the other way around. He rubbed his eyes tiredly with his fingers.

Right, but Silence WAS here, because she couldn't sleep. "well... do you want to sleep in here tonight?" he offered. "I'm certainly not going to be sleeping anyhow. I have too much on my mind. I can watch over you if you'd like."

On shaky legs, with even shakier eye sight, she actually TRIPPED over the bed and face-planted in it with an unamused groan. "Usually I'd sooner strike a light than curse the dark, but I'm cursing the dark this time." she growled to herself. After sitting up she moved to sit by Alec and hugged him again, "I've long since learned that dwelling on the past only brings sorrow. Also wishing I had a father like you growing up. I had a very cruel stepfather in lieu of a male guardian. Spent my 13th year on the streets, and from 14 to now I've been part of a circus that's become my new family. It doesn't quite fill that void, to be honest, but I love them anyway." With a shoulder to lean on, one that reminded her of the father she wished she'd has as a child, fatigue and stress soon caught up with her and she passed out.

***

As the sun filtered past the drapes of the guest room, Silence sat up and stretched her arms. Remembering last night, she looked around for her comforting roommate. "Alec...? Where did you go?" After passing out the previous night she slept rather easily, only just getting enough sleep to bring a smile to her face that morning, that and the smell of breakfast being cooked downstairs. "Honestly where have you got to?" she called looking around the room for him. With a soft laugh she set her hands on her hips and went back to her original room to grab a robe. "Ger Alec's gone missing!" she informed the ginger as the warrior emerged from her room with frazzled hair. "Oh he'll turn up for breakfast don't worry." she grumbled.

It was another thirty minutes before Alec emerged from where he had been hiding. Apparently, he had been hiding outside. or, more accurately, after having watched Silence sleep for an hour or two (and had tucked her into bed after she fell asleep on his shoulder), Alec decided he would rather spend the rest of the night roaming outdoors, walking, and thinking. So now it was time for him to return, now that the sun was up. He knocked on the door politely before he was let back in. He was just a mess. He hadn't been drinking, but he looked like a person who was coping with sobering up. He had changed into his normal clothes for a walk, but his hair was still a tangled, free, frizzy mess. His nose was understandably red, both from the chill outside and from all the sentimental thoughts he had been dwelling on. He hoped Silence hadn't woken up in the night. That would have made him feel right rotton.

Anyhow, re-entered looking like he was about to pass-out but he trudged on forward. He located the two ladies and he gave them a polite bow. "My deepest apologies for vanishing," he said quietly. "I had to walk for a while, I hope I didn't worry either of you." He was clearly very stressed out though. He sat himself at the breakfast table and just sunk his head into his hands with exhaustion.

"Well," he said a bit flatly, "What are your plans for the day?" That was directed at Geronimo and Silence, but he didn't look up to address them more properly. He was too distracted.

"Alec! What in the world were you thinking staying out all night?!" scolded Silence. "You look like you're catching a cold!" Ger promptly covered the girl's mouth and sent her to the kitchen. "While I won't have an outburst like her, don't just leave like that you're causing us to worry. If you're up to it we're going back to Kaionar to get some answers. The sooner you find the real Dmitri the better. I can't stand seeing you like this, and the longer you stay sulky and depressed the less I can guarantee Silence won't try to smack you out of your negativity. You've become quite important to her you know."

Silence meanwhile had kicked the maid out of the kitchen and was preparing food herself, much to Ger's surprise. "I see you've sent the maid out in a bit of a frenzy, haven't you?" She simply ordered Ger to sit, which she did with a rather shocked face, and continued to cook. "I'm determined to get him to smile, and I don't care what kind of mug he gives me until then!" Several minutes passed and she set out plate after plate of food before walking over and handing out tablewear. "Dig in you two! I promise I'm a better cook than I appear."

"That might have been the real Dmitri," Alec reminded Geronimo. "Zold - he can't make those things without my assistance. He doesn't know how the body works well enough... I appreciate you trying to give me hope, and I'm happy to have hope, I just... don't want to be disappointed. If it turns out that was the real Dmitri... what can I do?" He kept rubbing his face. "I just had to walk... and think..." he repeated. "I am truly sorry for making you both worry." He wasn't that sorry. He had his own things to worry about rather than to think about some people being concerned about him. HE wasn't the one who anybody needed to be concerned about.

He nodded a thanks to Silence as he was served food. He wasn't hungry. At all. There was too heavy of a knot in his stomach. But he knew he had to eat, so he did. If he had been in any kind of better mood, he would have appreciated the taste of it, but as he was not, he couldn't taste anything. But he ate until his plate was cleared, and he gave another nod to Silence. "It was very delicious," he said politely. "thank you for cooking for me. I do appreciate it."

Well with that done, he stood and straightened his jacket, and half-heartedly tied the leather strip in his hair to keep in out of his way to try to make himself look a bit more presentable. "I can go back to Kaionar. I'm 'up' for it," he asserted, still with a deep rage boiling deep in his chest with thoughts about Zold. "If at all possible... do you have a spare sword that I might equip?"

"I'll see if I can find anything, otherwise you might need to ask Silence." she replied with a laugh. "That girl could keep a battle axe on her person and you'd never guess it." Silence pulled a pout and smacked Ger's arm with a painful "whack!". "Oh shut it you!" She watched the man straighten himself and kissed his cheek with a smile. "Good to know you like my cooking, I'll be right back I can't go fighting in a nightgown." Her gracious host had some decent clothing put out in place of what she'd arrived in. A crisp white shirt, boots and pants, and a waist cinch. In a bag at her back she kept a few small valuables that she either didn't leave home without/would come in handy later with her own inquiries. There was also a spare set of clothing from her trunk she kept in her tent at the circus.

Ger went off to change after Silence returned, and to look for a blade as well but that went without saying. Silence could tell what the look on the man's face was about, she'd worn that look before. "Breaks my heart to see you like this. I know you likely don't care about that at the moment, and in times like these I can understand it, but really you are being too negative. The young woman I encountered didn't seem normal even for what they were. I don't know how you make them, but I know what they're called. It simply strains credulity to think that this man you're after got a hold of the original and re-programed her to do something like that. The one I met might've been made improperly and thus you might find her wandering the country side on the way down to the city. Chin up old man come on!"

Alec wanted to stay optimistic. He did. But he also didn't want to get his hopes up, either. He saw the evidence for himself. He saw the cracked crystal. Zold didn't know how to make these kinds of things without him... but what if he had learned? Maybe that was why Zold was so willing to part with Alec.... or ... well, he didn't know. He had no way of knowing. But those had certainly been Dmitri's clothes, and it was about the same mass that Dmitri had been. He kept rubbing his eyes and sighed, then stood. "It's a golem. They are very complicated to make. I wouldn't know, not really... I've seen it a few times, but I just don't know the magic behind it."

Just as an FYI, if he was given a sword, he would most assuredly be killing Zold - or trying to. When it came to that man right now, his morality was out the window. It was time for some sweet, sweet vengeance. Or answers. Or both. For all he cared, his daughter could live a fatherless life evermore.

"I'm sorry it hurts you to see me like this," he said flatly. "I appreciate your hospitality. It's a lot to take in, you understand. You keep saying that that might not be the real one, but what if it is? What am I supposed to do then?" He shut his eyes. "Let's just... let's just hurry up and get to Kaionar and learn the truth, one way or another." He started outside and saddled onto a waiting horse, still rather broken hearted from the ordeal, his spirit all but dashed except for the thought of hurting Zold and destroying his family.

The girl quickly followed him to his horse and grabbed him by his shoulders. "All the vengeance in the world will not heal your broken heart. Saying what if constantly will not help either. I may be just a child myself but I am not blinded by hatred in this ordeal, nor am I clouded by anger and sadness. Going after revenge will not bring you peace, and I would be a damned soul indeed if I didn't warn you to think about what you mean to do in retaliation. Whether your daughter is alive or dead is not my point, it is what you intend to do with this Zold you speak of. I may have never lost a child, but I have lost a lifetime of memories and loved ones. It's with that in mind that I encourage you to seek the truth and forget this foolish idea of needing a sword for this endeavor."

Geronimo remained hidden in the shadow of the door as she listened. She'd known the entire story for quite some time, but the way she spoke of it reminded her of the endless suffering it had caused. She remained hidden a while longer, just until someone inquired about her. "I wanted to kill the dragon that stole my world from me, and I admit it's a far cry from killing a person, but I was angry enough at the time to risk my neck over something I would eventually come to terms with. I don't want to see you turn into someone you aren't. You're not a killer, you're not a selfish ass." She pulled him close and hugged him and tightly as her arms would allow. "Please, please remember what I said."

Ger chose that moment to come out of the house and sighed. "Well I found a sword, turns out I had one on a wall mount that's battle ready. I'm not too careful about what I put on my walls. Let's get going then shall we?"

Alec listened well enough - he HEARD her anyway - but at this particular moment, his anger was taking the place of his sense-making. He returned the hug half-heartedly and let out a deep sigh. "I'll try. I'll try... But this isn't for vengeance." that was mostly a lie. He coudln't see it, though. It was dead truth to him. "It's to stop him from doing this to anybody else. If ... if that was my daughter, then who's to say he won't do that to anybody else? And if that wasn't my daughter, then he had to kill somebody to pull this off, just to get to me. He's a murdering scoundrel, and local authorities aren't doing anything because they can't prove anything."

Well, even if he wasn't supplied a sword by Geronimo, he knew where all of Zold's swords were.

He got onto the horse that was provided for him and started towards Zold. The ride was a long one, to be honest. Alec may have half nodded off for minutes at a time during the ride. After all, he hadn't gotten any sleep yesterday. Moving towards fate, moving towards answers. He was just in a bad place and in a bad mood. So onwards towards Kaionar!

"Same bloody thing!" she snapped as she took off after him on a horse that Ger thought wouldn't give the girl any trouble. Turns out said animal was the moodiest in the stable, but you wouldn't know it given how Silence commanded the beast with the same poise and grace as she would a dance partner. It was quite a shock to the ginger warrior that upon learning which horse she was on, she didn't seem to worry. 'Never met a domesticated creature I couldn't handle!' Was what she used to say when she was younger. Ger followed behind and sighed at the snappiness in her friend's voice. The next week was going to be the worst nightmare in the world in terms of tension.

"You'd think we were going to a funeral or a heist the way you two are acting." she remarked. She'd long stopped trying to speak to Alec, it just made her depressed. Silence too had finally started to live up to her name, and that was very foreboding. Collective speaking was the only thing that provided any conversation between them. This time however, when they stopped traveling for the day Silence wandered to the edge of camp and pulled out what seemed to be a stack of paper about four sheets thick. If it was important to all of them she was sure her friend would mention it, and dismissed any ideas of asking about it. Silence meanwhile made herself comfortable up in a tree to overlook the fire and spent a good deal of time studying the papers.

What the papers contained was a variety of rather cryptic information, from clues about her father to the details of her inheritance which included the rights to a wine label, a portion of the property she'd grown up on, and a few various things scattered about the island in her mother's name. What she was focusing on was the information about her father, and how to explain all this to her friends without everything falling to pieces. She had little use for the property and would likely sell it, but the chest her mother left her would be passed down as an heirloom from generation to generation. As for the label she had little use for it either, but until she could find someone worth giving it to, she'd settle to deal with it. "A-Alec, could you come here, please? I have a few questions if you promise not to get angry..."

Alec remained anti-social for the remainder of the first day, just lost in his thoughts. He didn't mean to be rude, he didn't. He just didn't care enough to put forth the effort to humor anybody or be particularly polite.

Alec, by this time, was quite sleepy, and although his own depression was overpowering any real emotions, his physical body was starting to put his concerns on the back-burner in favor of getting a good night's rest. So in a way, he had sort of calmed down. But his mind was plenty foggy from the sleep deprivation. He rubbed his eyes and stood, moving over to Silence and sitting down. "Why would I...?" He asked, and then shook his head when he realized that he had been angry at her earlier, accusing her of whatever it was that had happened to Dmitri. He shook his head. "I'm sorry, I ... I owe you an apology, I shouldn't have shouted at you earlier, and I shouldn't have accused you of such a thing. I didn't realize I hadn't apologized yet... I guess it slipped my mind."

He settled next to her, and squinted at the paper, before pulling out some glasses and putting them on. He also pulled out something like a glass Jar - how hat had failed to get crushed between their meeting and now was a mystery - but he pulled out two little vials, dumped them in the Jar, and shook it. The fluid in the jar began to glow brightly, to give them enough light to read what the papers contained. "What's this?" He asked. "Is this... a will? Inheritance? I'm afraid I'm not much good for Legal Counsel... how can I help you?"

She relaxed a bit and fidgeted with the paper. "My mother's will, yes. Apparently she owns a few things of value and they're a bit scattered, but there was information concerning my father that's got me worried. The way she speaks of him, Zold might very well be my father. To be quite honest she was by no means direct in telling me his identity. My mother 'did' grow up in Kaionar though, so I guess naming names and pointing fingers wasn't really her preferred method of informing." Her heart pounded at the prospect of what the older man might say or do in reaction to the idea that he might be traveling with his enemy's daughter. "I don't care if he is, if he really cared then mother wouldn't have remarried. I just want closure." She'd spent her whole life without a real father figure, having one now would just be rather backward.

"You can still do what you wish to him, I doubt any of it will really phase me." After looking over some of the list her mother left her, she sighed. "Don't suppose you know of a woman named Aerlyne*? If you've heard of her I'd be grateful for any kind of information you could give me. I can't pronounce her last name though, Xer...Xer-something." she muttered. "I'm not quite sure how anyone says that name." With a heavy sigh she set the papers down and looked over at the fire. "My father can rot in Hades for all I care." Truly she hadn't any idea if her father cared or not, but odds were he didn't, and if that were the case she'd just go on living like she'd never met him to start with. "This feels like some sort of nightmare."

[OOC: *Pronounced "ire-lin"]

"Zold.. your father?" That was surprising. Well, it shouldn't have been. .... Except it kind of was. He didn't like Zold but he never really witnessed Zold doing a lot of sleeping around. Though Silence was about 20 he suspected, and Zold 20 years ago was probably very different than Zold today. "Are you sure about that? If that's true... well, then you have a half-sister. Or maybe a full sister. I suppose I wouldn't know if you and Rose share the same mother or not. Does he know that he has another daughter?" He asked her. He didn't seem too upset by the fact. He was especially less upset because she had stated clearly that she didn't care what he did to Zold. Well that was good. He was still planning on killing him. They might have some conflict if she had said 'But don't kill him!'. So this made things easier.

"Aerlyne?" He rubbed his eyes tiredly as he raked his memory. "Aerlyne... hmm.." He shook his head. "The name doesn't sound familiar. But I'll keep an ear out. Why?" He asked. "Is she a relative too, or ...?"

He shook his head a bit. "Don't think of it as a nightmare. You don't have to let it change you at all, and you certainly don't have to invest in anything. I'm truly sorry, though, I suppose if you were expecting a warm and welcoming father.. I guess that could be disappointing. I am sorry. But you still have friends that do care about you. You don't have to let people who you've never met define you at all."

"I doubt he does. Though if he did he obviously doesn't care about me, and to Hades with any half-siblings I have. Aerlyne's my mother's name, and it's the people who weren't there that made the most difference in my life. A father I've never known, a stepfather who'd sooner have had me dead, and a mother that I lost far too young." She studied the name "Xerceis" for a good few minutes and finally mumbled it properly. "Xerceis. My mother's maiden name is Xerceis." It took a moment for it to sink in that Zold had a daughter named Rose, and when it did she shook her head. "It'd be all the worse then if he's my father, because you'd have to wait till I'm finished pummeling him." The thought alone made her blood boil and it was enough to make her want to scream. "I don't really care either way, I'm just trying to find out who he is so I can take out my anger and frustration."

The second portion of her statement was true, but in all honesty she was beyond heartbroken that she didn't have a family that loved her. Would she let anyone see that? Absolutely not! Only person who really knew about that was Russell, and perhaps Ger but she knew the ginger would keep quiet. After folding the papers back up and putting them away, she moved over to the fire and blew a small puff of fire into it to get it going. In the process the light illuminated the topmost edge of the claw marks on her back. Her skin tanned to a point, but the scarred tissue remained a constant lily white and she was thankful that her hair was usually covering what her shirt didn't. In this case it didn't, and she hadn't much of a clue.