Set a little time after Relics of a Forgotten Age

Just remember, darling, all the while. You belong to me.

~ Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under't ~
~ Shakespeare

Hypnotised, lost, a wonder. The stars above danced in her eyes as she cast her gaze upwards, a child lost in the beauty of the that which calls to you and the terrifying unknown of it all. Often times, when she wandered back to store something in the confines of broken walls and the safety of rubble, she would stop in her path only to stare upwards. She could, perhaps, get lost in the moment and forget that one could feel the ticking of time slipping away.

"Archi!" A child's call out into the world, the fear of one who had lost their father in the aisles or the crippling sense of dread one feels after losing their favoured toy in the long grass of overgrown fields. Yet it was expectant, as if his whole life revolved around her and he would appear before the cub to do her bidding whenever she asked for it, for where else could he be but there for her? The girl was yet to realise she was no chosen monarch nor gallant knight. "Cool stuff has happened!" She was going to make her voice dry, at some point she would reach for its energetic and commanding tone and it would fall from her grasp to be replaced with the hoarse whisper of one who can no longer demand answers. She had much to tell the rat though, much that was chaos in her mind, biting into her skull and haunting her breath, it lingered in her dreams and clouded reality.

She knew not where he might be, after they had ventured here together - before the disorderly world took her into the stained pages of its story book - and had come upon the ruined remains of a forgotten world she had kept in little touch with him. She walked, now, towards the cold outline of stones that called out her name, she could sit atop them as she beckoned Archimedes, and oh, wouldn't she just belong there. Looking down and around at the strange, so very strange, buildings around. Built with precision, that she was sure on, but how and by whom? When? She would not quite grasp that it was a city, as unnatural as a floating chair, nor that a city was what she had seen before, there was no green shapes here to link the two so how could she draw a thread from one to the other?

Stood at the base of the Throne the girl stood, dwarfed by its mass, unable to comprehend what it was for nor who would use it. Yet, all the while, her mind's eye pictured herself sat upon it, the cub with her serpentine tail wrapped around herself and pride nestled in her heart, loyal followers stood below - just as how she was stood now - and gazing up at her with unquestioning servitude in their eyes. She could see them all. Hear their silence as she watched them. As she thought about such a thing, what a future it would be, a grin had crept up onto her features and settled in, practicing for when all those others would see it too and come to her with their questions. "You could be my right paw." Muttered to herself though it was Archimedes she imagined, the tiny rat grooming his face on the armrest of the throne as she was at the centre of it all.

@Archimedes

Her voice rang out, and he heard the distant echo--off near the Throne, he thought; and she had shortened his name, it seemed, to something like "arkee." He grimaced, at this, and called out of his own, hopping over in racing bounds for the Throne itself. It was a bit of a distance from the ruined city, and he did not like the idea of her lingering there--he wasn't sure of the motives, or motivations, of those who claimed that area but he knew that they were not him.

"Archimedes, please," he called out lightly, with a friendly lilt to his tone; and he noted the cub, still some ways off, staring up at the throne with... what, hunger? He studied her for a moment, the way she stood, and stared.

A pause, as he took this in, and thought about it. As he made his own, secret, private judgments.

"Others claim that throne. I'd avoid lingering here, unless you'd like to meet them. I don't know if they're friendly, or not," he added; he'd never spoken to them directly.

A nod of his head indicated the ruins a bit away, and he scampered some in that direction, speaking as he did so--then pausing, sitting up and glancing back, to see if Akaari followed. "Are you well? What is it that happened?" he asked, faint enthusiasm echoed in his tone.

@Akaari

Just remember, darling, all the while. You belong to me.

~ The world's a stage and all the men and women are merely players ~
~ Shakespeare

An ear flick at the sound of his voice, so ready to ignore him as if he was but a fly on a horse's leg, though it was her that had called him and thus it was her who was to answer. It would take such little effort to walk the other way, forget that it was his name that left her lips and the outline of a throne in her eyes, it would be so very easy. She was not powerful enough to make such a move without consequence yet. She did remain still for a moment though, knowing he stood there, feeling his presence, but she was not too happy with him anymore. A quick switch of emotions, one word from his lips and and her excitement had blown away on the wind.

'Archimedes, please.' Please. Of course! How could she ignore his request now? She could not say no to that, perhaps manners were the best lesson he had instilled in her young mind, though she still wanted to twist away from the truth, bare her fangs at such a friendly behest and tell him to stuff his please. Instead, she bit her tongue and avoided the subject; perhaps he would prefer Rat, though that was her tempestuousness showing.

"They claim it?" She was already following his instructions - what a confused little child - turning away from the throne to face him now, although the image remained firm in her mind. It took a little time for her eyes to adjust from staring straight to find the small rat, he blended in well with the stones. "Then it can be mine?" What can be claimed by others can also be taken by her. The 'who's and 'what's and 'when's of taking the Throne back could be addressed at a later date before she misplaced what her true motives were.

She had not forgotten her roiling emotions towards him, they way they licked at the lip of the cauldron, but she had more important subjects to tackle, his refusal of her name for him could take a back seat for now. Running after him silently she thought through what she would say to him and how she would get it all out, unlike with the others when she had first discovered it she had nothing she wanted to keep from him. She would probably spill her guts out in front of him if she thought it would be useful.

They paused and she furrowed her brows at his question. "No, I am Akaari, you are Archi...medes. There's no Well here?" He said his was not young, does one's memory begin to disintegrate when they age, or had he just completely forgotten her name? Well, she has reminded him of it now, hopefully he wouldn't forget it again. A big gasp of breath, for she had so much to say, before diving right in. "Much happened! I travelled, wanted to see more, and there was a cave with lots of water! I'm not sure we should go in the water, something bad under it, but shhhh that's in a later bit." Almost as if forgetting she could ever be too mad with him she was beginning to warm up again, eyes darting this way and that as she talked as it might help her remember and body in a repetitive dance of beginning to sit down before getting excited and standing up again. "There were things on the ground, and I wanted them! Others were there too but only one was helpful because it brought me an evil fish, she says it's not evil but I think she's wrong." Side tracked easily, this story might take longer than she had expected it to. "The things were: a weird stone, it had symbols on it but ahhh that's another later bit! There was a black heavy thing too, and a fish!" Talking fast she had to constantly stop to catch her breath, though in her speech she had at some point stood again and began to walk towards him in her excitement, she wanted to be close to him as if she was telling the most interesting fable in the world and he had to be near to understand it. "Ask me about one! I saw stuff when I touched them. Ask, ask!"

@Archimedes

A bit of a distance from the Throne, he turned and sat upright, facing Akaari. "'Well' means 'good.' I am asking if you are all right, if you are unharmed; content. Happy," he explained. A little smile in his eyes, a gentle glance, and then paws swiped idly through whiskers, Archimedes' ever-fastidious habits kicking in. That steady reassurance was audible in his tone, and he went on with his explanation. "They claim it. Why would you want it-? It is only a piece of rock. If you do want it, you will have to come to an agreement with them. A trade, or a deal of some kind, I'd assume, unless you intend to fight them for it--but that's an unnecessary risk," he added, mildly. "There's little point in getting harmed or killed over a piece of stone, after all." He sounded reasonable, and understanding, his tone tweaked how he wished it to sound.

He waited then, and listened to her story, dropping back down to all fours partway through. She shushed despite no interruptions, her excitement flowing, visible in the darts of her eyes and her fidgeting posture. And he tried to take mental notes, as she spoke.

A bad thing under the water, hm? An evil fish. A strange stone, with symbols, and a black 'heavy thing.'

Archimedes listened to her excited pleading, too, and his whiskers twitched as he studied her. "You seem very excited; it must have been quite interesting. Do, please, tell me more; describe to me this black heavy thing, the symbols on the stones. Tell me what you saw," he went on, and wondered about this. She'd seen things when she touched them-? Was that with magic, or had they been hallucinogenic, perhaps? Or her own imagination, running rampant-?

@Akaari

Just remember, darling, all the while. You belong to me.

~ The world's a stage and all the men and women are merely players ~
~ Shakespeare

A moment to look over herself, scanning her legs and pushing her face against her shoulder, she felt no pain therefore she must be unharmed. Content and happy were a little harder to quantify but she didn't feel like throwing herself on the ground and raising a storm. "Well, yes! You are well, too? We are both well!" If you couldn't tell she was enjoying the sound of this new word on her lips. Three words in one? Awesome! That awesomeness didn't last for long though, he was all about crushing her dreams today, wasn't he? "But it's a...cool rock?" She was having a hard time finding fault in his rationality, the only true answer she had to wanting it now was because someone else had it but she felt as if that would not be a good enough answer for him. "Maybe they'd just give it to me because I'm cute?" Not very confident about that but she could already see the image of all those loyal servants below her fading away and the feeling of the cool stone beneath her paws slipping from her grasp. All the while it was hard to shake the feeling that this was for the best, he was right, he was always right.

He gave into her questions and wasn't that just the best! "Okay okay, if you insist!" A shake of her body as she got ready to tell the story. "No one was around the black thing so I went up to it, right, because it was cool and I wanted it, yes? So I jumped on it, like this!" Rearing up on her hind legs she launched herself onto the ground - which was not a good idea as the ground was hard and full of rubble that poked into her stomach and sides - legs spread out like a pancake. "Bam! I was going under the water -" (~under da seaaaa~) "It was dark, but I could see these tall things that were everywhere." If only she was able to actually show him what she was able to see, that would make this so much easier, at the same time she was truly enjoying having all of his attention and listening to her own voice. "Right right right, on these tall things that were everywhere were these shape things, all squiggly, and they glowed green! I didn't like that green, there were monsters, or scary things, there that had green eyes too and they were going somewhere, but that's not what I was talking about." She was attempting to redraw the shapes she had seen on the towers in the ground, not that it was working too well for her memory was not that great, the sigils were too intricate and her drawing skills were not the best. In the space between them, as she talked about the green eyes, a singular wisp appeared between the rat and cub. As toxic green as those sigils and eyes she had seen in her visions but no larger than a small pebble. She grinned at it, thinking that it either came from Archimedes to add to her story or the rocks and old walls were helping her out. "Here comes the best part! I was not-me. I was some weird long thing that was trapped, I couldn't move and it was the black heavy thing that I jumped on that was holding me there! Something called me potent, it was behind me so I couldn't see it, but I don't think it meant it in a nice way. Well, I mean they called the not-me, long, black thing that I was potent, but it felt like me so I'm calling her me. What does potent mean?" She looked towards him intently, making sure he was still listening to her, was it real? How long ago did all this happen if it was? Could she still save the not-her? "And that was just the black heavy thing, I still gotta tell you about the weird stone!"

@Archimedes

The child was exultant in her own moment of glory, lost in her exciting memories, her enthusiasm overflowing and spilling, apparently, into her magic. Archimedes glanced at the (incredibly tiny) wisp, and then did a double-take, blinking. He did not yet, however, comment--mostly because Akaari was still babbling on, and though he did try, it was a struggle to keep up with. Let alone make sense of. He tried to note, to himself, the salient points.

One: they were both well.
Two: maybe someone would just give her things out of cuteness. That needs to be addressed, he thought, an urgency to it; it was something he'd need to jump on at once.
Three, there was some sort of black thing that Akaari had pounced on, which had dragged her underwater--or had it? Did that make sense? Archimedes didn't quite grasp this, but on she went-
-to Four. A description of a place. Dark, underwater, full of 'tall things' with squiggly shapes that glowed green, with 'monsters' about with similarly green eyes.
Five, that Akaari herself had become something other: a 'weird long thing' trapped by said 'black heavy thing,' and something had called her 'potent.'
Six, she wanted to know what 'potent' actually meant, and seven, she still had to tell him about the 'weird stone.'

When at last Akaari fell silent, Archimedes... took a moment, to try and focus. He thought back over all the places he had seen. Canis had 'tall things,' stalagmites perhaps; Eridanus and Cetus had trees that were certainly tall. But none of those things had glowing green 'squiggly shapes' on them. (Unless she means leaves..? he thought to himself, but that seemed unlikely.) And none of those, in any case, were underwater. Archimedes had never really been underwater. Perhaps she'd seen something there that he'd not-?

Forepaws passed through whiskers again, and it likely was a boring delay for the child as the little rat thought everything through thoroughly. When at last he spoke, his tone was cautiously measured. "So let me see if I understand: when you touched this black thing, you found yourself changed, underwater, in a place of tall objects that had glowing green shapes on them, er--'squiggly' shapes--and monsters with similarly-glowing eyes? And something called you potent, and you were restrained by the same black object? Can you describe the black thing, for me, please?" he suggested, thinking.

Her drawing had done little to clarify things, but Archimedes nodded his quivering nose toward the wisp. "And is that yours-? Your magic?" It was tiny, but it was something, at least. "Do feel free to tell me of the other thing. And when you are done telling me everything, perhaps we can have a talk about one of those things I said you would only understand when you grew older: in this case, about others giving you things because you are 'cute.' I have a secret or two for you, there," he went on, mildly. He'd tried to dangle a lure in it, a casual idleness that promised hidden doors to be unlocked; all Akaari had to do was choose to turn toward them, and try their handle, and Archimedes would oblige. Yet his tone came out almost dismissive, instead, his words briefly fumbling, and in the end it sounded as though he was perhaps too eager, that his dismissiveness was somehow false...

A brief wash of whiskers, and then his dark eyes flicked back up to the cub. "Ahh, and 'potent' means... concentrated power. A potent poison might be particularly deadly, for example; potent magic might be very strong. A lot of something in one place, strong, is 'potent,'" he explained--and forgive him, he was doing his best, but it was a difficult concept for him to lay out before one so young, with a limited vocabulary.

@Akaari

Just remember, darling, all the while. You belong to me.

~ The world's a stage and all the men and women are merely players ~
~ Shakespeare

He would be correct that the delay in their conversation, the stretch of silence between the two that felt like the vibration of cricket legs in the night, was boring to her. Impatience thrummed in her veins just as calm reassurance exuded from the rat, only in control of herself long enough to keep her mouth shut and tongue tied. It was difficult, so very difficult, that she ended up chewing on her wrist just to give herself something to do, watching him all the while as he thought through her blabbering and asked his own questions. The fur filled her mouth (not very tasty) and her tiny teeth were barely felt against her skin but it was enough for the few minutes it took the old rat.

Even his voice sounded as if it was dragging out the moments, each syllable longer than she had previously thought (or she was lying to herself for she couldn't stand waiting) and it took everything in her not too jump up and tell him to understand faster, speak faster, do everything faster. "Yes, yes, exactly!" As the cub placed her paw back down - all wet and slobbery around the wrist - she looked around at the crumbling walls that surrounded them and thought about how many there were in this cave and the way they were placed. Not sure quite how to explain a city, especially when the one in her vision held many more pillars and spires, she had to just settle with using the bunch of buildings that lay around them as an example. "Like, think of these tall rock things -" Leaning against one of the walls of the ruined city, some of the stone crumbling against her weight, maybe there was a history to these too (can rocks have a history?) but she wasn't sure quite how she had received her visions yet. "There's so many rocks on rocks on rocks, like this place but instead they were tower things." Having seen the tower here, though not spent much time around it, only in passing really, she could say that pillars and towers were sort of similar. She doubted that her description of the city made any more sense so how badly is her description of the chain going to go?

Akaari was the only to lapse into silent thought for a moment, she could see the chain in front of her, the way it was lying on the ground and how it was such a fuss to carry around, maybe she could bring it to him in the future though she doubted that he could get much more out of it than she did. Yet, she didn't quite know how to put that into words. "It was dark..." Well done, not like that's obvious. "It had more than one part, it was made of lots of little parts holding each other -" Perhaps the best way she could describe the interlocking feature of a chain."Ummm, it was broken at one end, I think that had something to do with not-me, maybe she's still alive and got free and we can help her!" A shake of her head, stay on track! It was not like she knew how long ago the vision was truth, to her it could have been the day before and only a few seconds before. "It really hurt my teeth to drag and it didn't move like a solid thing, like I could move one way and one end would be straight and another bit would be curved!" Remembering the feeling of metal against her tiny teeth was not very pleasant, but she supposed it was a necessary pain.

The wisp was almost forgotten, though it only appeared mere moments before, but he drew her attention to it once more. The way it just bobbed there above their heads, she wasn't too fond of the colour, seeing the eyes of the monsters staring straight back at her, but she wasn't too sure she was the one controlling it. "Mine? I thought it was yours, mine let me see the images in the objects, right?" By the way he didn't exactly know everything she was talking about she had gathered that seeing visions by touching things wasn't done by everyone, but she couldn't do that and make a cool looking light thing, that seemed like a lot of magic. Not that she would complain about more power.

Begnning to grow excited about continuing her story she almost zoned out of the rest of his dialogue, yet his voice sounded as if he was chiding her already and she couldn't quite shake the feeling that gave her. There was the lure of a story there, and usually she would take the bait like a starving fish and be next to the slaughter, yet this time his words fell limp on her mind. She started quietly, unable to stop thinking about the fact that once she was done he was probably going to have not very positive words with her. "The stone had weird lines on it too, like the ones that were on the tall things. When I touched it with my nose, because someone else was near it so I couldn't jump on it, I was under the water instead I was still stood there. But everyone else that was there suddenly went...I don't know where they went but they were no longer there, instead there was only two but I couldn't really see clearly, I could hear them though!" Their words were not crystal clear in her head, impossible to remember everything that happened, but she would try to get the point across. "They said they wanted to lock away a city? I don't know what a city is but they didn't want something to escape because 'she's' loyal to them. They didn't say what she was loyal to though or who she was. I remember they mentioned Polaris though I can't remember why, and a key? I don't know what a key does but I think it was the stone thing." She could have cried in frustration at that point, threw up her hands and tugged at her hair if she had them. "There's so much I don't know, why did they say all those things and what did it all mean and why could I hear them because they disappeared after that and everyone else that was there before was there again."

She only really took in 'strong' and 'power' with the description of potent, for that was all that really mattered, but she said nothing about it. Falling silent now, with her head held low, as she waited for this 'talk' that she was quite sure she wouldn't like.

@Archimedes sorry these are getting so long!

She'd hadn't expressed much interests in his 'secrets,' and he wasn't about to force it; instead he thought about the rest of what she'd said. It still didn't make much sense; conflicting imagery struggled to shape itself in his mind. He gathered that she'd seen some sort of underwater ruins; was that her magic, then? A view of the past? That could be vaguely useful, but not in the way he'd been hoping.

Hm.

"Why, you're making magic you didn't even know you have," he offered, looking up, praise in his tone. Admiration, even; and he was slathering it on thick. "Uncovering secrets--and I wonder if someone was trying to hide them from you? Or if they were merely lost? Either way, you've found them. Well done," he added.

"What do you think it all means, then? What do you plan to do about it? And did you come to share this excitement; or did you hope I might have some ideas?" he added, curiosity now evident in his voice.

@Akaari
It's perfectly fine!!

Just remember, darling, all the while. You belong to me.

~ The world's a stage and all the men and women are merely players ~
~ Shakespeare

Visions of a past long forgotten would confuse anyone's mind, especially if they know nothing of the world they claim to inhabit, and when one's only goal (thus far) in life is to know the unknowable such secrets are sure to twist the mind into convoluted shapes and manipulate that which was seen into something far more comprehensible. Whether the new idea is right or wrong. "I don't know why I wanted to tell you -" And she did not like that, why him? It was not like they had known each other long nor they had some forsakes connection that was above everything else and yet it was he who she wanted to be the first (outside of those who were there, that is) to hear her ramblings that had a resemblance to a lost-man's mind. "Maybe we could work it out together! Have you ever heard of a key or someone locked away?" But what was she planning to do about it? What was there to do? "I have only really thought about knowing more, maybe I could set her loose? I think she would like that." She was not sure about what it means though, she didn't want to place an assumption on something when she only had fragmented parts of the story. For all she knew there was no whole story to find and this was all she was going to get. She was not a fan of that option.

With a mind locked on the what was she had almost skipped past the what is, his praise had flown over her head, though, she caught at it now. Grasped the words in both paws and pressed them against her gemstone heart. She had never heard words so sweet and if she wasn't sure she might crush him the cub would have rushed up and wrapped her clumsy paws around him. Such a display of affection was not what she would put into the fun pile though, and she doubted he would appreciate it either. "No one should hide secrets! That's...that's as wrong as not saying please and thank you!" atrocious really, if they had written laws and ten commandments she would demand that hiding, or even keeping, secrets should be at the very top. She closed her eyes then (more akin to scrunching them tight, really), a wild grin on her face, and her tongue poking out in concentration. She felt something in her heart flare, burn, then explode. A cry out, more in surprise than any true pain, and stumbling back so much and so quickly that she fell onto her hind-quarters. Her head began to pound with some sort of complaint and the magic she was beginning to think trusted her fought against her wish and made her beating feel as if it missed a beat. In this lapse of everything, a haze coming over her mind, the already formed wisp would explode too (much like a tiny firework) the green light sending out their own even smaller wisps before fading into nothing.

The cub opened her mouth to complain, still sitting on the floor in a pile of annoyance, but all that came out was a huff and a pout. That was not very nice. "Tell me secret now." Get her mind off the embarrassment of failing in front of him, even if she didn't care too much about what those secrets he said he had were for he did a terrible job of making them sound interesting, but she would listen to anything at that point as long as it didn't require her to do anything. "Please."

@Archimedes

He listened quietly, occasionally lifting paws to brush through his whiskers in that thoughtful gesture he'd obtained. Or was it more of a tic, now-? Hard to tell; but his attention was on the cub, and not himself. 'Maybe we could work it out together! Have you ever heard of a key or someone locked away?' Archimedes considered, for a moment. "No, I don't think so," he answered, and thought a little more. "But if it's a puzzle you're trying to get to the bottom of, let me give you this bit of advice: it might help to know who locked her away, and why." A moment of thought and trembling whiskers gave way to further words. "You mentioned hearing about loyalty. Loyalty is very important." Dark eyes rested on Akaari as Archimedes said this, allowing another pause to punctuate the point. "There's nothing more important. Family; maybe she had family. It might do you good to find out--it might tell you who she was loyal to, and why. It might help in getting her free," he explained.

It was just a thought, and not even particularly original; it was simple "find the motive to find the killer" logic. He wondered, vaguely, if it would be of use.

"But you're very right. Secrets... Well, there's a time to keep secrets, but this is certainly not it," Archimedes explained.

But Akaari was asking, now, of the secret he had kept; and the rat sat a little more firmly, his voice low and hushed--secretive, as if there was some conspiracy he was about to let Akaari in on. "You said that someone might give you something 'because you are cute.' You aren't wrong, Akaari," he began, praise again sprinkling his tone. "I've done a lot of watching, in my time." Watching, yes, and listening; listening in on the thoughts of dozens of other Gembound linked to his own mind, before he'd chosen to sever that bond. He'd learned a great deal, in that time, about motivations, decisions, and emotions; it was information he'd clung to, examining with an intensity reserved for those with grand plans in mind. "Gembound do things for many reasons. Curiosity. Fear. Anger, love. The more base things, too: hunger and weariness, the demands of the body," Archimedes explained. "The trick is in finding the... motivation best suited for what you want, and what they want. That means you need to learn others; to learn what they want, and how to best approach them. The best sort of deal is the one that benefits both sides, of course."


The little rat hopped closer, looking around until he found two small stones. He pushed these together, the plain brown pebbles nothing special to look at--just pieces, it seemed, as if on a playing board. He touched them with a quiet click, and looked to her. "When both you and someone else get what you want from one another, that's a benefit to both. It means you both walk away happy. An exchange--a gift for a gift. If I am hungry, and you want something beautiful; and I have a diamond, and you have a fish, well. We can make a deal. And then in the future, maybe we'll come back to do business with them again; a bond builds up. Trust. You know they'll pay you fair. That's where loyalty comes in, see; and a betrayal of that is a terrible thing."

Archimedes pulled the stones apart, then, and then smashed them together--as hard as a tiny rodent could, anyway. "But if you have to, you can take things. Steal, or hurt someone to take what they have. The problem with that, Akaari," and a glance flashed to her, and then more stones--gathered up from all around--smacked into the pile. "The problem is that when you start attacking others, they attack you back, and many might come--a good many. So make sure you have enough friends... or you don't get caught, he warned, with what might've been a single wink. "The best thing to do..." and here the stones were pulled away, leaving two again, "is to find out what someone wants. Or what they think they want. Or you can convince them that they want, or need, something; and then offer it to them for what you want."

He sat back again, forepaws brushing once through whiskers. "'Because you're cute' might do it for now, but in the future, 'because you protected them,' or 'because you brought them a rat,' or even 'because you didn't kill them' might all be very useful offers."

Archimedes eyed the little cub. Would this be too much for her to take in, as yet-? For all his words, he was uncertain the effect this speech might have; it was certainly a risk, but he hoped, a well-calculated one. Or had he come across too slimy, too oily, too urgent in his ramblings? Too confusing, perhaps, or too needy, or had he sown the seeds of Akaari's own betrayal..?

@Akaari