"Does Yaoke not like snake?" He unwound himself. He found his snakish form much more convenient when dealing with potential clients. It bespoke a nature most familiar to them when considering things like deals. Oleaginous in both form and word. But Yaoke was different. Yes. Very different. Without much transition, and in the blink of an eye, he became a black stag: something that other people might equate with nobility or honesty. "Does Miss Yaoke think she can find Aiko Mother without help?" He turned his head at an angle, the forest of antlers looking as though it might slide off his head. "Shad know answers, know all answers to everything Yaoke want, and only ask to pay price. Is only fair."

----------

Adja shook her head, perplexed. It made little sense when she considered what she'd learned about souls and angels in the nights past, and although her idea of what a soul was had been shaken somewhat by recent events, she was unsure of how these things match up. But the matter of whether or not Sophia had at one point harnessed a soul was inconsequential. "No, no," she said. "I mean, she took your memories, or that piece of your soul. But what were you the bargaining chip for? What did she leave behind? What did she grant to Arminos in return?"

Still, it was all unimportant now. "Look, a lot of things have happened in the past few days. Why don't you take a shower and change. I'll send someone to get some clothes for you and then I'll fill you in."

----

"Tell them... that I did not send Vulture to torment them. I sent her to protect Adja, to protect them both. And though she is a selfish creature, she will hold to her purpose. The three of them are going to need to work together, and put the past behind them if they are going to defeat Joel. Their trust has been broken, but it can still be mended." The stars began to fade, until the sky was nothing but black. "I must go now, before he discovers me. Don't worry about how to contact them: the Universe will always side with those with spirit... and has a fondness for redheads." His voice echoed against the blackness and he faded.

---

Martin was having trouble breathing. The circle of light made him even more aware of the two consciounesses than the salt had, and just how different they were. He found himself fighting it as if it were goading him into take the first swing, and he had to stop himself from taking a hand to it. It was difficult. And then Crowley began chanting again.

Indeed, he felt as though his body were like a casket six feet below the surface and he was clawing on the roof of it to get out. It was a swelling, like a cigarette butt in the neck of a beer bottle. Each automatic breath left him larger, larger, until he felt that he might shatter through his own skin. Everything hurt, everything itched. He was aware of every single flec of dust on his skin, every bone in his body and how it grated when it ground up against cartilage, every injury he'd ever sustained now felt as though it were fresh: his soul scrambling to escape through his old scars. Until finally...

Freedom.

His spirit shook itself free from the binds that tied him from his physical body, and rolled out onto the floor. For a moment, he was unaware that he had left his body until he looked over to his right and saw himself. He panicked at the sight of himself, looking dead, and jumped to his feet. When he saw the rise and fall of his chest he came to the conclusion that he was still alive, and relaxed. Jesus... do I always look like a damn corpse when I sleep, he asked no one. It was like a thought, a stray one, belonging to no one, and it echoed in this world of spirits.

Everything looked blurry, as if his eyes were catching it as it moved, and outside the circle of light, all he could see was the salt and herbs, and how it bleached the air. Through the cracks in the door, he was aware of the spirits outside in the hall, some bound to bodies and some not. He could even see aura's, much in the same way he assumed his sister did. Crowley's took up the entirety of the room. His own... or Vulture's, he surmised, festered like an infected wound. Perhaps she lived in this space when she needed to see, but that was a thought for another time.

He walked to the basin and peered in at Lixi, who was now mumbling to herself in a less frantic manner. She seemed to have calmed down, settling for leaning her body upon a corner in the solitary room. He stared at her, concerned that Joel might have taken her far from herself to play even crueler tricks. Lixi he said, longingly, and for once not even having to think about her angelic form as being the same redhead he loved.

There was the pull, like the current of the river, and he was in the room with her. He knelt down and waved a hand in front of her, wondering if the reason she couldn't see him was because he was invisible or because she was somewhere else. As a gesture of intimacy, he put a hand to her cheek just before his feet sank into the white sand of the oasis.

Lixi had been about to say something as everything faded. She felt like she was closing her eyes, falling asleep. She felt her body coming back around her, and she felt like she may cry as the pain of the current situation washed back over her, but then, a warm feeling, foriegn in the cold of the prison, like a soft touch on her cheek. Slowly, the warmth washed over her, and she opened her eyes to find herself not in the dark room of the prison, but in the soft, ambient light of the oasis.

"What the fu..." she started to speak as she looked around in confusion, but stopped when her eyes landed on the source of the soft touch on her cheek. "Martin?" Lixi stared at him for a breif moment, studying him, trying to feel him out. Satisfied that it was actually him she was looking at, she practically jumped at him, tackling him backwards into the sand as she wrapped her arms around him. "God, Martin what are you doing here? What am I doing here for that matter? How?" She kissed him between each question, then settled, staring at him, smiling as though she'd momentarily forgotten everything outside of this place.

-----

Eyes closed, Crowley continued his chanting till he felt Martin's conciousness fumble past him, and disapear after reaching the bowl. Once he was gone, Crowley grew silent, and pulled a chair to the edge of the circle. "I know you're still in there spirit. Speak to me, I wish only to know you." He spoke with authority, as though he were chanelling something far older than himself. The colored irises of his eyes had bleached out to a pale yellow, which now overtook the whites as well. Only the pupil remained black. "Speak to me now spirit. The concequences if you do not will be dire to the body you are bound to. Mistake me not for the man who's body this is, and doubt me not in my capabilities."

Martin smiled as he was tackled to the ground. "Woah, woah... my mouth can only do one thing at a time," he said. He smiled as she slowed down, but still held her close. He kissed her, letting his lips linger on hers for a moment before speaking again. "Oh god its good to see you," he said. "I was worried about you."

He rolled over onto his side, reluctantly pulling her off of him. "Crowley did this thing with some... circles and salt... pff... I dunno. Some kinda magic and I got ta leave my body. How cool is that?" He looked at her, brushing a hair behind her ear. "We were both worried about you. I felt... I felt bad about having to leave you."

---

Vulture, enjoying freedom from the dolt to whom this body belonged, smirked. "I had an inkling he wasn't just worried about his angel friend. Though I can't imagine why he didn't just think to ask me." She was suppressing the discomfort she was feeling from the salt, which was making the skin she wore itch horrendously. She opened his eyes, which looked just the same as they always had; but the person behind them was sharper, calculating. "And to whom am I speaking, if not her dear, fat friend?"

Lixi's smile faded, and concern replaced it. "Shit... damnit Crowley." She practically growled as she sat up in the sand beside him. Her anger with crowley quickly turned inward. "Damn it... damn me... I knew I shouldn't have let you alone with him." She turned her head toward him, regret in her eyes. "He's just ripped you from your own body Martin. Vulture is completely in control of it right now. You're going to have to fight to get back into it, and fight even harder to get control back from her now. Before, when I brough you here, and when you fallowed me, you were still connected to your body. What Crowley did, didn't leave you connected. You're going to have to make yourself return to it when you're ready where as your body pulled you back before."

She contemplated it for a moment before asking anything else. "Did he say anything to you about her?" As she thought about it, about Vulture, the Mayhir's fathers message came back to her slowly, but she didn't mention it yet. She'd blurted out far to much at once already, bringing up his father would likely just be overload in that moment.

"No, I just don't like creepy guys. And you would fall into that category." Yoake replied.

What would I be willing to pay? She thought. She desperately wanted to know more about herself; why she was created, what happened to her mother, and why her name meant 'dawn'. From the way this creep is talking, he's making it sound like my birth mother is still alive.

Martin set his head back on the ground, disheartened. He made a frustrated noise in his throat, feeling every bit the idiot that people seemed to think he was. He sighed. "Fuck. He didn't tell me that. He didn't tell me anything other'n what to do and I followed. Jesus... can't believe I just screwed myself over." He didn't know if he could fight Vulture for control. Before it had been easier: he'd always been the dominant consciousness, and occasional moments of loss just brought him right back. But now that he was gone, truly gone from his body, there was no telling what he would be coming back to.

"Fuck. Shit. He was sayin' that I told you to go to Iron City because I was listenin' to Vulture and not knowin' it... and I fuckin' believed him b'cuz... fuck. I dunno. He'd know more'n I know about it. So I agree to do it because I was worried an' .... Jesus... I dunno anymore, I just don't know."

---

Another blink, and he was back to his smiling human form. "Ah, that something Shad no can change," he said. Well, that wasn't entirely true. There were things about his human form that he could tweak if he so chose, but he was certain that no matter what he looked like she would always see him as the snake. He would always be 'creepy,' and even before he had chosen this path his people had shied away from him until he needed to be evoked. Truth of the matter was, he was quite obtrusive no matter who he was.

"Yaoke has many choices, many things to trade. But only by choice. Shad not force." The smile became sinister. "Unless she want Shad to."

The yellow eyed Crowley had taken a seat in the chair he'd brought over now, and peered in at Vulture through the red circle of light. It had dimmed a little, allowing them to see each other far more clearly. "Who am I?" it questioned, sounding almost insulted that she asked. "It is disheartening to know we have been so removed from this world that not even the spirits of it know us for who we are. I am he who's brother made the pharoahs strong. I am he who shephards the souls of the dead to the promised realm beyond, he who free's men from their earthly bonds and takes them to their judgements beyond. I am Osiris. Now tell me, spirit, to whom, to what, am I speaking?"

----

Lixi slid her arms tightly around Martin, trying her best to comfort him. "Don't be mad at yourself. This is my fault. I left to hastily. Besides, you are stronger than her Martin. It will be a struggle to take control back from her, yes, but it's nothing you can't handle. You're stronger than you give yourself credit for love. I'm sorry if I've upset you, I didn't mean to make it sound so dire. I was just mad at myself, mad at Crowley and his ridiculous gods." She held him tightly, resting her head against his chest, and repeated again, "You are so much stronger than you know. Your sister isn't the only one with gifts, yours just aren't as easily noticed at first, and you're more important in this than you know, than even I knew untill a just few moments ago."

Yoake shook her head. "Nope." She replied. Do I really want this knowledge if I have to give up something precious of mine?

"Then Shad not force," he said in an uncharacteristically sweet cadence, like a cheerful song. He wished he still had his flute sometimes: to dance and sing again and do his work around the fire... "But Shad say... not much time if Yaoke want to know more. Window is closing, world changing. What does Yaoke want to give to Shad?"

---

"Come down off your throne, have you? Must be nice to still have one," she said. The discomfort of the salt was something that she was beginning to get used to now, and she felt that she could move. She propped his body upon his elbows to get a better look at the ancient God inhabiting the body of Crowley. There was bitterness in her voice, and it was clear that she did not care for his success as a deity, where she had failed.

"My name was once Kosti. I lost that name in the ethereal war. Lost my name, my followers, my land... My people now follow the God of Muhammad, and my throne has been given to a God who does not fit it. I was the Goddess of Bones, but now I am only what feeds upon them."

---

"What, you mean this," he asked, stretching his fingers out. He felt very real in this space, that he was actually there, that this was his body and not the heavy thing that lay decubitus an ocean away. "I didn't do this. I mean... Crowley did all the real work, I just laid there. You sayin' everyone can't do this?" It should have been obvious that what he was doing now was far from normal, but it seemed so natural to him to be outside of his body... more natural than being two minds.

A few moments ago? "Wait... what happened a few moments ago?"

Yoake was indecisive. Clues to my mother...clues to my purose, which will I chose? She thought. She gulped. Here goes nothing....

"My left eye." She said. "The vision in my left eye for why I was created."

"Power, yes, seat of power. It is a shared power. Shared so that we might persist, where others, alone, have failed. Dorment, quiet, distanced. But we do yet persist, and we will persist beyond the gods Yahwey, or Muhammad." The yellow eyes closed, as though listening to something internal for a moment. "Bone...eater? You are bound to your humans body. Your host allows you to do this?"

-----

"Yes... this." Lixi turned to look at his hand as well, placing hers in his and entwining their fingers. She ignored the last question for now, still unsure how to bring up his father, and more than a little fearful of his reaction. "Most people, regardless of method by which they make it onto this plane, are... well, less than solid. Ghosts. Most of them are barely even aware that they're here, those that are tend to be incorporeal. It didn't stand out to me at first because this place, directly, is just my own little place, my creation, and I brought it to you as much as I brought you to it. But, this, that you can navigate this well, that you're completely solid here, this is special. What I am alows me to exist in both worlds at will effortlessly, but for you to do it as a human, well, for a human, it's very very nearly impossible."

"Yet, here you are, and more, I didn't bring us here, which means... you did. That's something that untill today, only 1 person has been able to do, and that's Joel. Now, I've ffound myself pulled through the universe by two people who I was unaware had the capability to even navigate it." Even in her ethereal body, which had no need for air, she drew a shaky breath before finishing the though, and turned to look him in the eyes again as she spoke. "It... it must be." She tried to hold eye contact with him, but failed, and looked nervously down at the sand. "It must be genetic."

Martin was perplexed. He understood now that he was special, and that it wasn't just the work of Crowley that made him this way. That he, like his sister, had something otherworldly about himself. That was not a hard conclusion to come to. But it was the way in which she had come to that conclusion that confused him. "Wait... wait. What are you saying? Lixi, what the hell is going on?"

---

"Yaoke's left eye..." he said, smiling. He put a hand to her face, and with his fingers made a pulling motion, as if drawing the sight out of her eye. The color of her iris swirled, thinned, disappeared, followed in the same motion by the pupil. With the deal sealed, he at once became phlegmatic. His eyes moved rapidly, searching for the answers that he knew were there. He saw visions of Chu Kwai, sinking into the shadows as his followers did all the dirty work, and the mention of a plan. He finished his search here, with Chu Kwai speaking with the human doctor who had aided Yaoke's mother through the pregnancy. But this was before that... long before. Aiko had just been chosen for incubation, and they had discovered her strength, her fire... "She will be strong enough to survive more than simply the birth. If we are to do this, then this is the one to do it with," the doctor had said. And he saw a great many things in this, but for the most part he saw a plan. That when the time is right she would open the door to the underworld.

"Oh-ho," Shad said when his vision ceased and he returned to some semblance of normal. "Miss Yaoke is reason why we here. Tick-tock, tick-tock. Wound together like string in cloth, make a tapestry of darkness we do. Joel have beard-man summon Ancient One, but Miss Yaoke let it in: hold door open for... Devourer."

---

"My presence here is marked with a price. Since the girl bound me, I must sustain myself. If she had simply allowed me to take her rather than fighting, the toll would have been less and I would have been free to share with her the secrets that I know she desires. But that is the past and here I am. My purpose was to protect the children from the evil that their father sensed, Osiris. To deny my purpose would condemn me for a thousand years in the Void. And to let myself fade would leave them vulnerable. So here I am: both protecting them and slowly, slowly eating at his strength." She shifted uncomfortably on his elbows, feeling that she had revealed too much about herself. She was certain that with the knowledge she now divulged, her premature exorcism was inevitable.

Lixi pulled her knees up to her chest as though balling herself up would make it easier to speak on such an uncomfortable topic. "I don't know all the details myself, honestly. Short version of the long story, from a few minutes into the IronCity adventure, something was whispering to me, calling me, trying to pull me through the viel into this plain of existence. It was making me crazy, I could barely function. Yoake and I locked ourselves in the old prison, and I took your advice and closed myself in a big iron box to try sort it out. As soon as I stopped fighting it, the force pulling at me drew me out of my body and up above the city to speak to me, to have me deliver a message. A message to you and your sister. The one that coaxed me out of my body and gave me the message for you, well, it was your father." She still hadn't looked at him again, afraid that he'd be upset with her for the situation by proximity, opting instead to keep her eyes forward on the sand and stones of the shaded oasis floor.

-----

"I see, you feed on the hosts bones to sustain the connection. This is of less consequence to me than if you caused the host to feed on the marrow of humans. Your presence here concerns me little, but the evoker would have me know how it is you can protect them when you have so little control or capability with the body you are in?" the light of the circle faded even further, and Crowley's body moved to where the unpoured entrance had formerly been at the northernmost point as he questioned Vulture.

Yoake put her hand to the left side of her face as her eye became blind. It was still there; she could feel it through the eyelid. If the color has left my eye, then I might get a pair of colored contacts to keep it from looking so strange, she thought as Shad went into a fit. "Hold the door open for the Devourer? Wait, are you saying that I'm supposed to let some kind of ancient monster to destroy the world out?" She asked.

Shad nodded. The grin was still there, but it retained a certain amount of solemnity to it. "Hold door, yes. Let Ancient One to Earth. " He had long ago sworn his allegiance to the side of darkness, but it was not hard to tell that he did not approve of Joel's plans. Though he was his master now, the Earth had been his master for much longer, regardless of how she had forsaken him.

---

Martin was silent while he thought about this. While it made perfect sense for the ease of his detachment to be explained by his father's abilities to do the same, he was perplexed as to why he would contact Lixi more readily than himself. It would have frightened him to see him in his head, probably, but he would have learned to deal with it somehow... he assumed. Possibly. Maybe. But then it occurred to him that he didn't know how hard it would have been to contact him: between Joel always watching him, the fact that his father probably had no idea where he was and if he did there was a slim chance he would have been able to find him through whatever shield Patriece or Crowley had over the place, perhaps it was just easier to reach someone who was... closer. Of course, Martin did not know the intricacies of the Universe like his father, and how he and Lixi shared the same branch of a root, much closer even than the same root that he did with his son. In time, he might understand, but now it just seemed like everyone important in his life was closer to him than he was.

"What did he want," he asked, as if he were treating one of Jordan's clients.

---

She sighed. "I am weak." She brought his knees up to a more comfortable position, the feeling that she would be interrogated for a good while before Martin's spirit came back. "But I am not powerless. I have influence, as small as it might seem. I guide him. I am little more than a voice in his head, but I am a voice that he listens to. If it had not been for me, coercing him to fight his way through Iron City, he would have been wiped out by the angels along with the rest of his human friends. I have been keeping him safe... by keeping him underfoot. As for the girl... she was perfectly safe in the asylum. I would put her back in again if the boy weren't so stubborn about it."

Yoake grinned, her demon fangs showing. "Well, I'm not gonna let that happen. I rather like this world, even with it's flaws." She said. "Ain't no way in Hell I'm gonna help the Earth get destroyed."

As much as her words comforted him, he had his alliances to think of. He didn't want the Earth and all of its children to meet the Devourer of Worlds, as little as he knew of the being himself. It was a frightening title, and such things do not gain a title of that magnitude based upon a misnomer. He was pleased to have never met that particular Ancient One.

But pleased or otherwise, he was still for all intents and purposes a demon. "Does Miss Yaoke think she has choice?" He resumed his menacing glare, putting himself closer in proximity, moving like an ancient smoke. "Yaoke is demon, no matter what mother is, she must feel pull towards darkness sometimes."

"Yeah, and you know what I do whenever I feel that pull?" Yoake countered, though she'd never really felt anything strong. "I remind myself how fucked up demons are, and who I've become. Well, blowing shit up online certainly helps too."

Slowly standing, Lixi sighed and walked further into the oasis. He sounded so cold, professional, and she knew what she was asked to relay would only upset them. She hand't even had time to fully process it herself, and for the first time so far, she actually found herself wishing she was talking to Adja about it first.

"It's about Vulture. Why he sent her. He said she's supposedly protecting you, both. He said..." she leaned against a tree, closing her eyes and swallowing hard. "...he said you have to work together, with your sister, and with... her." The words made her feel ill, not because the idea was hard to deal with, but because she dreaded his reaction.

------

Crowley's body shook a little, as though Crowley himself was violently protesting, but Osiris gave no indication as to where the contention came it. "Very well. But, if the boys gift is spiritual, and you are left behind when he uses it, aside from putting his body somewhere safe, I ask again, what good are you? Especially if you've made the sister resent you so. She won't listen to you, she won't take your guidance. She'd end you had she the power, which, she soon will. Does this not bother you, spirit? Self preservation should keep you from ever wanting her to gain the power which she now learns." With one foot, he slowly began brushing the grit to the side, not enough to dis-empower the circle, but the suggestion of it's possibility was there, even if the reason was not suggested with it.

Martin gritted his teeth. This wasn't something he wanted to hear: that he would need to find a way to get all three of them to get along, even for a brief amount of time. It seemed like it could be simple if it weren't the people in question. Getting Adja to listen to him was hard enough: he couldn't fathom trying to get her to listen to Vulture. And now that he knew what the voice in his head was, he didn't know if he could get along with her much, either.

And protecting them? "Well, she don't seem too good at it," he mumbled. He pulled his knees up, curling himself into a ball. "I dunno if we can do this, Lixi. I mean... she's off learning her magic stuff... she's not gonna like the idea of working with either of us. I think she's gettin' used to the idea of handling it on her own." It hurt to refer to him and Vulture as 'us.'

---

"I never said I was particularly good at my job," she said, eyeing Osiris as he blurred the lines of the circle. She wondered what it was he might be up to . "My summoner was in a hurry, and desperate: grasping at the tenuous ethereal threads for anyone who would stand up and take the challenge of protecting his children. Who in their right mind would purposely seek out the help of something known as the 'Bone-eater?" She contemplated taking control of the body and suffering through the weakened spot in the circle. "She hates me for one instance: when her abilities began to show I became greedy, cocky. I could better serve both my purpose as a protector and touch the magnificence of godhood again with the power she had. She detests me for the one time that I tried to take her. And yes, it does bother me how much she torments me, tries to break me. Which is why," she smiled. The way he shuddered when she spoke of harm to Adja was clearly Crowley fighting for control over his own body. "If I'm to be banished to the Void regardless of what I do... what is to stop me from retaliation?" It was a bluff, she knew it. She had tried before to settle the score... and each time she had been pushed back. But even if Osiris knew that, it was Crowley's reaction that she was seeking.

---

Shad ignored the comment about 'blowing shit up online' simply because he didn't understand. [sienna]"Surely Yaoke not mean all demons,"[/color] he said, circling about her as if he were still a snake. "Does Yaoke ever feel... tired? Need to rest, stop fighting? Must take much energy to be angry all times." He knew that what he was doing was against his principles, but his principles didn't matter anymore: only the whims of a madman on a roof. And now that he owned the sight from her eye, he felt the tingle of power: that he might ascend past his position to what he once was. Life as his underling had taught him this: he needed to be selfish if he was ever going to survive. And letting this girl fall might bring him a place of power again. The Earth might be devoured, but he would be safe.

"It's gotten to the point where I ignore it now." Yoake said. That wasn't entirely true; when she'd escaped from that hell she'd spend her childhood in, she'd been put into foster care and eventually adopted and made close friends. She didn't know the anger she had at the demons then, having been given the chance to be normal and make friends. She'd even told them that she was half-and-half. She didn't tell Shad any of this though. "And, I hate to tell you, but the only demons I've met are fucked-up, twisted bastards."

"You break Shad's heart," he said with mock sadness. "Break it into tiny pieces." He mimed a motion of tearing a piece of paper, and then tossing the bits into the wind carelessly. "But no matter. No matter. Shad has many lovely ladies, but none quite so... alive. Tell me: does Yaoke ever think what she like if she not half-demon?"

Yoake stepped away from Shad. "Okay, if you're hitting on me, forget it. As for if I was never half-demon, I figured my head wouldn't be quite so fucked up and I'd have lived a normal life, but I don't dwell on it." She replied. "This is how I was born, and ya can't change genetics. Besides, I like to think on the on the optimistic side. I guess you would say that I've got the best of both worlds. Now, if you don't mind, I wouldn't mind you scramming."

"Scram? What means this scram," Shad asked. It was a word he did not know, and he couldn't infer it from context. Not quite his snake form, but still not quite taking upon the visage of a human, he twisted himself: above her, below her, coiling around her without touching her just yet, whispering in her ear. "Demons only way they are because that is what they taught is right. Can Yaoke say that humans is better? Humans judge Yaoke without knowing her." His head was behind her now, his feet in front of her, body winding in a spiral. "But to demon," he said in a low whisper. "To demon, Yaoke is thing of beauty. Appearance not matter to demon, only power. And power... Yaoke has."

"I... may be able to help with that... Making a true enemy out of Adja isn't an idea I'm fond of, especially with what she'll be able to do soon to beings such as myself, but if I take the blame for it, I really think I might be able to convince her to deal with it." Lixi had moved closer to him again as she was speaking. He looked lost. Dropping back down to her knees in the sand behind him, she shuffled a little closer, and lay one hand on his shoulder. "Tell me what I can do... how do I help you Martin? I'm as lost in all this as you. What do you want me to do in all this? It's your family we're dealing with now, so I'll fallow your wishes, whatever they may be." She wanted to wrap around him, hold him close, make him forget what troubled him, but instead, she just hung there, hovering behind him like a stray.

----

Suppressing Crowley a little longer, Osiris emotionlessly eyed Vulture, peering past Martins body now to see her for what she really was through the now weakened circle. "Foolish creature. If you believe provocation of one who has the power to offer you either an alliance or damnation is wise, no wonder you failed in your time. You may walk freely, but you may not leave this space. I wish to see you as you are before your host returns. But know, it would be, most, advantageous, for you to behave peaceably and try to reach some accord with me before I relinquish my hold over this servant. I do not control my servants, I only use them as a vessel when it is necessary. This world is changing rapidly, I am in this only so far as to ensure our continued place in the fringes of it. Either you are of use to me, or you are not. That is what I have come here to determine." With that, he kicked away the rest of the ring of granules in one small space, and it's light died entirely. With the ring gone, and the light of the few candles being all that remained, the human bodies seemed barely a mask warn to both, and every mirror showed them for their true reflection. "Now, tell me, Bone Eater, will we be able to reach some accord tonight? Or are you merely waisting my time?"