On a tall pedestal at the back of the Hinoki Theater stood an urn. A priceless treasure guarded by a layer of glass that stood as a testament to those who helped make the place possible. It was a smaller urn, never really big enough to stand out to anyone watching a play. Most people noticed it once and never looked at it again.

"Yo, I kinda want that urn." Zane's voice echoed within the confines of his mind to Beelzebub. The lord of the flies responded with a chuckle. "You noticed it too? It's quite nice. I don't think there's any way to buy it, though... some humans are silly enough to hold enough sentimental value to things as to not be willing to sell them." Zane sighed as he continued watching the play. It was a rather boring production, one of the least interesting ones he had seen in a while. Perhaps he just came on a bad night. "Yeeaahhh, you're probably right." Tapping his finger against his forehead, Zane thought on the situation. Him and Beelzebub were out to get everything they could, right? There was no way they would let this chance slip by them. Still, Zane wasn't exactly the most stealthy person in the entire world. "We'll come back here later tonight, see if we can't sort something out. Too bad I haven't been able to use your wings yet." The two had barely developed their transformation abilities. Most of their time so far had been spent plotting inside Zane's head. "Probably won't be seeing those for a while. Still, with our combined intellect it shouldn't be too hard to find an alternative."

The play ended an hour after, Zane taking a little bit of time afterwards to wander around the streets of Hosenka. Once the clock had hit 2 AM Zane would make his way back outside of the theater, a sub sandwich in his hand. Looking around the area to confirm there was nobody in plain sight, Zane began to talk to himself. Or, well, Zane began to talk to Beelzebub. "Alrighty, let's see what we can do here." Zane spoke while still eating his sandwich, perhaps being far too casual while he planned to rob a place. "To the back, my friend!"

Making his way to the back end of the theater, Zane was met with a few options. There was a window that was locked tight on the first floor. Not knowing how to lockpick and not wanting to make too much noise by breaking it, Zane decided to skip out on that option for the time being. On the second floor there was a balcony he could use to his advantage somehow. He would only have to manage climbing up there...

Taking a deep breath in and out, Zane stretched a bit as he prepared for his epic break-in. "I'm not sure if you can truly make that climb, Zane... those tacos and subs have been taking a bit of a toll on you." Zane huffed at the demon's words. "Relax, I look no thinner or fatter than I did a month ago." Beezlebub grumbled within the confines of Zane's head. The demon knew that there was no way the two of them were making it up there. Zane wasn't a very good climber these days. In his youth as an elf he would've been able to make this climb easy peasy, but as a human man approaching the age of 30, well... things weren't looking so good.

Placing his hands on the wall, all Zane needed to do were a few simple steps. 1: Kick himself from the wall up to a little ledge he could grab. 2: Pull his weight up from the part of the ledge he was holding onto the ledge itself. 3: Cross over the little railing on the balcony. Preparing himself to prove Beelzebub wrong, Zane attempted to kick himself off of the wall.

Zane's kick sent him in the totally wrong direction: somehow he had managed to only go downwards rather than upwards. His body hit the grass hard, Zane letting out a noticeable little grunt of pain as Beelzebub mockingly laughed at him. Frustrated, Zane sat up as quick as he could. "Hey, shut up! That was just the first try!" Beelzebub's continued laughter echoed in Zane's head as he once against put his hands on the edge of the wall. Taking a deep breath, Zane kicked himself upwards. This time the plan worked, entering the second step. With his arms now on the ledge, Zane's legs hung a few feet off the ground. Zane laughed after taking a moment to catch his breath. "Not laughing anymore, huh?"

Beelzebub's voice still held doubt for their success. "You do notice this is the hard part, right?" Zane couldn't help but feel the fly was right. Grabbing a ledge was much easier compared to lifting himself up. Attempting it a few times, Zane's efforts were only met with a pathetic grunting coming from himself as he managed to barely lift his torso up a few inches. Exhaling, Zane decided to just hang there for a moment instead of continuing his efforts. "Oh god, I need to rest, I need to rest..." Dropping down from the ledge, Zane's feet took the ground once more. "Alright, maybe I'm a little outta shape..." Placing his hands on his knees as he bent over with heavy breaths, Zane wondered if he would actually ever be able to make it up such a stretch. Still, he had to try.

Making a few attempts more at kicking up the wall, Zane spent minutes going through various attempts at trying to break into the building through the 2nd floor. Anyone who would pass by would most likely be weirder out by a 6 foot blonde man wearing an eyepatch talking to himself while trying to do parkour. Then again, there was nothing back here but this wall. Nobody would be coming here - unless they had a similar idea to Zane.

The Voidling adored Hosenka. The eastern city below the mountains had charmed Nuala with its colourful fireworks, oriental buildings and mesmerizing vibes; the citizens were reserved, pleasure-seeking people with formidable taste in arts, crafts and food. Clad in her usual, eerie-looking black attire the thief snuck through the night without a sound. Her intentions were mischievous and Nuala’s amethyst eyes were looking for trouble – until the Captain arrived, she’d allow herself to cause a little chaos here and there and enjoy herself thoroughly. The City offered many notable spots, and was especially attractive for tourists hailing from more plain areas, such as Marigold Town and the likes. A place Nuala was glad to have finally left behind.

The hours went by in a haste, and the Voidling had left the dark alleys and streets to climb up to the roofs above Hosenka City so she could gaze at the moon and wonder about how she wanted to pass more time. It was then when her ears caught some huffed sounds, quiet mumbles and what sounded like the dull noise of something (or someone) falling. Her eyes searched the area surrounding her, and with relative ease (and thanks to her night vision) the Voidling spotted what appeared to be a blonde human struggling to enter the Hinoki theatre, a place known for its classic and popular stage plays.

Now, Nuala was old and experienced enough to know a failing thief when she spotted one and this one–whoever he was–was most certainly a newcomer. Amused by his physical limitations and obvious struggles, the rogue swiftly jumped off the building and silently landed on the ground, only a few steps away from the young man. Intrigued by what she might learn and find out about both, the unsuspecting theatre and the person who looked so very out of place and kept talking to himself, Nuala crossed the distance between them and crouched down behind him while he was still on the ground.

“Hello,” she spoke quietly and exhaled sharply through her nose; her voice was calm, icy but not threatening and before he could respond she swung herself up the balcony he’d been trying to reach with relative ease – acrobatics weren’t difficult for a rogue after all. Leaning over the rail and looking down, the bright-eyed woman pulled back her hood and allowed for her long, purple hair to fall out and flow down. The marks on her face shimmered in a colour akin to her hair and as she looked at him, she flashed the human a crooked smile. “There’s nothing up here,” Nuala concluded and gestured around. “But I suppose it’s inside you are trying to get. Why not visit during the opening hours, like a normal, inconspicuous person?” If there was something inside that theatre that was interesting enough to make a clearly untalented, inexperienced, sober person try to break into a public building, the clever thief definitely wanted in on it. Nuala simply couldn’t help herself with that – old habits died hard after all.

Another fall. The grass had felt as though it was a home to Zane now. Perhaps it was a metaphor for the youth of society, those who struggles to leave the nest due to completely reasonable issues that were created by the broken and disconnected society that young people were "Zane, stop your fourth wall breaking inner monologues for a second! I heard someone land behind us!" Sitting up in a bit of a panic, Zane turned to look over to the woman that had greeted them, his eyes locking with her's as she crouched down to look at him. "Oh shit, this isn't good, Beelzebub! That was easily within my top ten least cool moments back there!"

Waving nervously as Zane stayed quiet for now, he couldn't help but admire the woman's long purple hair. Damn, now he REALLY wish he hadn't of looked so lame back there... A bit nervous, Zane was questioned by the woman as to why he was even trying to get up onto the second floor so much. "Well, you see..." Zane wasn't entirely sure what this woman wanted. Staring at her a little bit, he went over some of the likely possibilities in his mind. She didn't look like any kind of law enforcement to him, especially given the hood she was wearing. Was it possible that she was here for a similar thing as him? Or was she just an incredibly curious soul who wandered behind theaters at the middle of night? It was hard to say. If she really was just an innocent soul then Zane could be making a huge mistake by telling her about his plans. Perhaps she could bring him to law enforcement, disgusted with his actions. If she was also looking for treasure inside the theater though... maybe she could help him get inside. Oh, and, once they were inside, Zane could impress the pretty lady with his actions.

"Don't tell me you're actually going to do this, Zane..." Beelzebub asked, his voice having a tone of great disapproval. "C'mon now, Beelzebub. I know you're probably thinking "oh wow haha stupid human want to impress female" but there were probably some demon girls you were going after back home, right?" Beelzebub chuckled at the thought. "No way. The only female demon I ever interacted with on the regular was a whale." Zane couldn't believe his partner would say something like that, even if he was a demon! "Wow! That's actually a very offensive term, and I really don't think you should ever say that about a lady no matt-" "No, she was a literal whale. Giant sea monster, you get the idea." "Oh, okay."

Now noticing that his internal monologue had left him with a lot of time spent just staring off towards the woman, Zane became a bit flustered as he quick spat out what he was going to say. "U-uh, urn!" He blurted out, not realizing that he had forgotten how to say any word but urn. Clearing his throat, he nervously chuckled as he sat up more straight on the ground, turning his legs to cross over each other while he rested there for the moment. "As in, errr.... urnderstandable that you'd question why I was here. But, theoretically, let's suppose you are also in this random theater backyard tonight for some kind of non-normal person reason..." Zane pointed to the woman now, trying to make it clear that she was also rather suspicious herself. "Then perhaps it might be for a certain special treasure of the vase variety, or one of the other countless special artifacts that could be right behind that window." While Zane didn't know if the place held a LOT of value, it was probably safe to say a fair amount of other valuable things were contained in its walls. Looking back to the window and nodding his head towards it to let her know that this was THE window, not just any window (though this was the only window the building's first floor had on this side). Eventually turning back to the woman, Zane tried to give her his best smile, one that was charming enough to hopefully let his good looks at least do SOME lifting here. "Then if you knew some way to get inside, I'd most likely love you forever and ever! Think about how tempting such a thing sounds!"

Nuala’s lips thinned into a smile and she squinted at the blonde human. This one talked quite a lot, but she didn’t seem to mind the casual and nonchalant interaction – if anything, it was quite nice for a change. There was a long moment during which it seemed as though he was entirely spaced out, and the Voidling wondered what was going through his mind. When he proclaimed that there was an ‘urn’ inside the theatre, possibly one of great value, the thief was sold on the idea of helping him out, just to see where all of this would lead.

“An Urn?” She asked and began looking around for a better option, because there was no way she was going to get that guy all the way up here. She could throw him up of course, Nuala definitely had enough strength for that, but after some reconsideration the woman came to the conclusion that it would make too much noise all together. And if he fell again, he might break his neck. Not that that was any of her concern though. “Stealing what might hold someone’s ashes is low, even for a thief,” she continued and jumped back off the balcony. With a rogue’s grace, Nuala safely landed on both her feet.

“I like it. Lets go,” she flashed him a grin and pulled out a lockpick, gesturing him to follow her to the first floor window, which both of them could easily reach. Nuala hadn’t had any plans to break into any buildings tonight, nor did she think about going on a heist, but after spending some time in Hosenka the thief had quickly come to realize that the city was a hotspot for criminal activity – a dreamland, really. The area was filled with noble and wealthy tourists and citizens and the blackmarket was vast and easily accessible. Whatever this urn was, if it held any value at all she’d surely be able to sell it there for a decent sum. But first, to do a good deed for the day. That way not even Kazimir had any room to complain about her actions. With the lockpick in hand, Nuala fiddled her way through the the lock of the window until it quietly sprung open. Pushing back the glass, she peeked inside and looked around.

“No one home,” the woman finally concluded and then, without any warning, grabbed the blonde human by the collar of his jacket and shoved him inside. “Who are you anyways? And why are you so bad at this?” She asked casually and followed right after him. Nuala then pulled the window in so that it wouldn’t arise any suspicions before taking another look around. She could see perfectly fine in the dark, and everything she couldn’t see she could hear – but it seems that there was no one else around. And why would there be? This was just a normal theatre after all. If the human showed no intentions of leaving, she would shoo him towards the inside of the theatre.

“Hush. Go find your urn.”

Oh, right. Urns had ashes of people in them. Zane and Beelzebub actually kind of forgot about that point. Still, Zane was usually able to find some bullshit excuse in his head to justify such things. Beelzebub was a literal demon. The two probably wouldn't be worrying too much about it all. Still, the way the woman worded it made the pair worry... at first. Both felt relieved at her words soon after, Zane's being quite visible if one were to simply look at his face, a sigh of relief also coming through. "Yes, let's!" he responded, giddy to finally be able to get into the building after spending so much time with Beelzebub laughing at his attempts in his head. "Seems the pretty lady was a thief after all. Just be careful she doesn't try to steal your wallet, Zane." Nodding to himself as he took Beelzebub's words into account, Zane stood near the woman as she got to work with a lockpick on the window that he had given up on.

Her skill with the tool was quite something. Zane might have to ask for lessons should he ever bump into the woman when they weren't breaking into theaters together. Zane had little time to congratulate her on the window being opened though, soon being grabbed by the collar of his jacket and shoved inside forcefully. He felt like a beautiful maiden being swept off his feet for a second there, only to remember that this situation wasn't really like that all. He supposed his fantasies would have to wait, most likely for many years... Beelzebub felt very unlucky to have to share the same headspace as Zane at this moment. Stumbling a bit as he caught his footing after being shoved inside, Zane found his way upright and looked back to the woman as he answered her question. "I'm Zane. And, er, I'm not bad at this! You just caught me on a bad night! That's all." His lie was about as obvious as the fact that the sky was blue.

Nodding at her instructions, Zane made his way through the hallways of the theater. There were multiple paintings adjourned against the wall. Several of these were worth a decent amount, something he felt he should point out to the girl. "Don't." Beelzebub chimed in, not wanting Zane to miss out on paintings the duo could otherwise have to themselves. "Don't worry, I know a bit about paintings. None of these are one of a kind, so we could still steal other ones. Stop getting your wings in a twist, stupid fly." Grumbling to himself, Beelzebub allowed Zane to share art knowledge. Zane hoped said trivia would make the girl behind him at least somewhat impressed. Running his hand along the wall as he walked slowly down the hallway of paintings, Zane spoke to the girl behind him in a somewhat hushed tone. "These paintings are pretty rare, you know. Not Majura Gallery level stuff, but certainly up there." The way Zane worded it suggested that the girl behind him might want to take one of them if she really wanted. Zane obviously wanted everything, but he needed to save his arms for urns and other possibly more valuable treasure.

“Then today is your lucky day, Zane-who-is-usually-not-bad-at-this,” the Voidling responded with a mocking tone; her eyes darted around the area and when they couldn’t find anything of particular interest, they settled back on the blonde human. Nuala followed after Zane, careful to leave a few steps of distance between them as he’d be within her hearing distance regardless of how far away he went. The hallway ahead of them was adorned by several paintings and the thief stood still by a few of them, running her fingers along the frame to see if any of them had gold embedded inside or were made from expensive wood – some indeed were. “Yes, I agree,” she muttered in return, her voice quiet and her amethyst gaze focused on the art. Nuala realized that she didn’t actually know whom this theatre belonged to; from what the thief had gathered, this place wasn’t part of any crime organizations in Hosenka.

When Zane mentioned the Majura Gallery, the Voidling’s ears perked up and with a few silent steps she’d closed the distance between them. “I know about that place,” said Nuala and put on a thoughtful expression–considering their situation, the thief was being almost casual with the human. He didn’t seem to mind it much. “Oak is quite far away from home, and I have never bothered to take anything from there.” And truth be told, Nuala hadn’t received any requests for art within said gallery from her clients either. “You see,” she whispered and leaned forward and closer to Zane. “They say it’s haunted by the ghost of its former owner, and haunted paintings don’t sell that well. No one wants to have something cursed hanging in their house, right?” Her words sounded ominous and she gave him an all knowing look before continuing up the stairs, to where she assumed his precious urn was.

“I’m Nuala, by the way. Master Thief at your service.” She even sweeped a curtsy on her way upstairs. There, on a tall pedestal, it stood. A golden urn. It was shielded by a glass cube, but otherwise unprotected. Unaware of what it held inside, the Voidling walked around its cage a few times to thoroughly inspect the item and honestly, she couldn't see its value. If anything, it seemed like a family heirloom and if it truly held the ashes of another person, then that made it all the more complicated to sell. Unless that person was famous or Zane was into some weird stuff, like selling said ashes to be made into medicine. Either way, the purple-haired maiden wasn’t one to judge.

“That’s the one, right?” She asked and pulled out a sharp dagger, pointing at the thing and her gestures suggested that she’d simply cut through the glass if he needed her too. “What exactly do you want with it anyways? You’re not one of those grave robbing weirdos, are you?”

"Ghost?! Woah..." Seemingly shocked at this information, Beelzebub sighed at Zane. "Don't tell me you actually believe in ghosts..." Zane moved his hands away from the paintings on the theater wall, perhaps a bit spooked by the idea of haunted paintings. "No, I don't believe in them at all! I was, uh, just pranking you. Really got ya, haha!" Still, Zane couldn't help but look back at the lady he had entered this gallery with. Her art knowledge was impressive. While a lot of people knew of the death of Mr. Majura, he had never heard of people not wanting to purchase paintings because of it. It made sense, though. Maybe the staff at the gallery could use it to their advantage somehow: "Majura's Haunted Gallery". Had a nice ring to it. Good marketing idea, especially for the upcoming fall.

Looking back to the woman, Zane found it oddly cool how the woman curtsied while introducing herself despite the situation they were in. Maybe he should try being that classy... still, he had little time to admire that for more than a quick 2 sentence portion of the post. "There it is..." The golden egg. Well, it actually wasn't an egg at all. It was just an urn. "Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes Calm down already, illumin christ..." Zane's mind was so filled with the sounds of Beelzebub going crazy that he could barely hear what Nuala was saying.

Suddenly, the worst happened. Zane didn't even bother to think of the light. People forgot to turn lanterns off all the time. Zane couldn't even hear the boy's earlier sounds thanks to Beelzebub's ramblings becoming so loud. This was interrupted however, both Zane and Beelzebub breaking out into a scream (Beelzebub's scream only existing inside Zane's head, of course) that echoed through the theater. It was the ghost! They actually were real! "Stay back, specter!" Zane called out, stepping back multiple times in an attempt to distance himself from the ghostly apparition. Beelzebub's echoing went from a flurry of "yes" to nothing but a prolonged scream, as if the cover of Home Alone 1 had sound - a sound that played forever. Zane was always more of a fan of the second Home Alone, so the fact that he had be reminded of the objectively inferior cinematic experience while all this was going down only made it worse.

Tripping on his way back, Zane fell flat on his back, holding it out in pain. All those tacos he was eating in Hosenka were really getting to him, his body becoming so out of shape that his small little fall felt more like dying. Of course, this was all just in Zane's mind: he wasn't going to die. He didn't even sprain anything. He was just being a baby. Pointing the young man, Zane tried to figure out what exactly his backstory was. Why was he haunting this theater? Was he the boy who's ashes were in the urn? Beelzebub's screaming had finally calmed down a bit, Zane speaking out loud to the young man. "Y-you can't just scare us out of nowhere like that! Jumpscares are a cheap tactic, you know! Real horror is built from a sense of suspense and anticipation!" It was true. This was extra relevant considering the fact that they were in a theater. Now wishing he had brought some sort of method of defeating ghosts, Zane now only hoped Nuala had some sort of way of protecting him. Only the pretty thief lady could save him now... in the meanwhile, Beelzebub couldn't help but feel something interesting about the boy who stood there. He just couldn't place his (metaphorical) finger on what exactly it was...

The Voidling heard soft footsteps in the distance, quietly approaching until a small figure appeared from the darkness. Nuala took notice of Masami before he came into sight; her enhanced hearing and night vision allowed her to spot things others might not, and keeping silent about it was just a way for her to tease her blonde companion, who had started screaming and squealing at the sight of the ghostly child. With a flick of her wrist, the rogue retracted her dagger and took a step backwards to help up the struggling Zane, who fell on his ass the moment Masami came walking out with his lantern in hand. She could hear Zane’s pulse racing, his heart beating quickly inside his human chest and it was completely beyond her how he had become so scared of basically nothing.

The woman shook her head, uttered a sigh and made sure that the young lad was back on his feet and not further embarrassing himself. “Speak for yourself,” she barked at him and arched a brow. “You are the only one who got scared, and for completely no reason too – it’s just a kid with a lantern!” When Nuala shook her head in disappointment, her violet locks danced around her face and shimmered in the light radiated by Masami’s lantern. Her eyes and the marks on her face both radiated a purple gleam, and her deep voice echoed back and forth between the now empty halls of the theatre. For a moment there, she couldn’t help but think how lucky both boys were that Nuala was a Voidling and not a Vampire.

The child, being able to read their intentions from their actions, immediately put himself between them and the golden urn, vase, egg–whatever it was–and Nuala had to applaud the little one for his bravery. “Oh.” When Masami explained the purpose of the urn, Nuala couldn’t help but raise her brows in surprise. It was a theatre prop, of course it was. This was a freaking theatre after all, what else did they expect to find here other than fake valuables and self-made treasures? Rolling her eyes at Zane (and also a little bit at herself), the thief dismissively gestured towards the urn and Masami.

“We totally didn’t know,” Nuala said to the little one and gave him a shallow smile. “If that’s the case, then we can’t take it home I suppose. The theatre needs its props after all, or else the plays won’t be good. Besides, making something that looks so real must have taken a long time.” Her last words were directed at Zane; hopefully the man would realize that there was absolutely no point in stealing a fake golden urn from a theatre.

There was still the question of who the hell this golden child was, and why he was wandering around the theatre at night. For all they know, he could be just another thief trying to distract them from the urn and its value so he could snatch it for himself! Nuala quickly dismissed that thought when she noticed that the kid was close to tearing up, and not wanting to cause any ruckus (or for anyone else to show up), she gave Masami a hesitant pat on the head. “There there. We won’t take your precious urn. It’s all yours, you can keep it.” Nuala shot Zane a demonic glance, silently requesting him to say some sort of apology or a few sensible words to the little one. It would be very inconvient if she had to murder this child just because it was crying too loud after all.

Gulping, Zane shamelessly took Nuala's help to get back up. He was so scared that he no longer was thinking about how to impress the pretty girl in the room, something that was previously thought impossible for Zane. Some shame certainly came back though, Nuala's scolding causing him to shift his eyes away in embarrassment. "I mean, kids with lanterns can still be ghosts..." This was indeed true, at least when you assumed ghosts exists. That was certainly not a can of worms that Zane wanted to open on this forum however. They were definitely 100% real though.

Listening to the conversation, Zane and the fly living inside his head were eventually able to piece together that the urn was just a stage prop. Both sighed in disappointment at this news. "We're supposed to want everything, but I don't know if this is exactly worth wanting..." Zane looked closer at the urn, realizing now that it was never as grand as him or Beelzebub deemed it to be from afar. "It's not really all the nice, now that I take a good look at it..." Noticing Nuala's cues, Zane nervously cleared his throat as he moved towards the kid. This was awkward. Could he really be sure he wasn't a ghost? "Oh, uh, yeah! Sorry kid..." Zane nervously moved his hand downwards to give him a pat on the head as Nuala had also done, his hand moving veeeerrrryyyy slowly. There was definitely a chance this boy was a ghost, and by extension a chance that Zane's hand would go through him. Zane was too dumbstruck to notice that Nuala's hand was on the kid's head too - or maybe she too was a ghost?

Zane's heart would beat faster and faster as his fingers approached the top of the boy's head. 3 centimetres. 2 centimetres. 1 centimetre. 9 millimetres. Not being able to take the suspense anymore, Zane just rested his hand down faster, covering the MASSIVE length of 8 millimetres instantly. His hands now rested atop the boy's skull, his hair on his fingers. A sigh of relief let out from Zane. He was definitely not any kind of ghastly ghoul. "Phew."

A new challenge presented itself. As the kid asked the pair how they had even gotten in, Zane nervously looked over to Nuala. What would they say? What would they do? Looking back to the kid, he hoped a simple lie would work in this case. He looked young! Maybe he was more gullible. "Ahh, we saw a little door open. Curiosity kills the cat, ya know?" Zane chuckled a bit at it. "I didn't know that actually. Are they allergic to it?" Zane ignored the lord of the flies, not wanting to explain every metaphor or figure of speech that came their way. 'Raining cats and dogs' had already taken them over 2 hours just the other day.

The next story spooked Zane a little bit, his expression changing to more of a nervous one once again, though this time without the tripping and yelling. Unlike the last time ghosts were involved though, Beelzebub was seemingly much more interested in the situation. "Oooh, this sounds like a lot of those yokai stories. You know, if you look into Joyan culture, you'll find that a lot of their tales, both real and fictional, are a lot more sophisticated than those created by the western world. Personally, if I was a human, I would choose to be Joyan, just off account of their superior tastes and intellect. I've actually even considered learning their language, and I plan to one day make you purchase their armor, and also perhaps get you to obtain all volumes of a joyan known as "Marato." It's about a boy who has a demon sealed inside him, so it's something the two of us could relate to! The series is a worldwide phenomenon, oh, and there's this character called Beibara..." Zane tuned Beelzebub's Joyan fanboy, or "joyaboo" ramblings out of his headspace for the time being. There was only so much of that he could hear.

Still, this new tale seemed pretty spooky. Zane gulped. A beautiful woman that was actually a spirit in disguise. Looking over to Nuala, he had to wonder if their meeting here tonight really was coincidence. His eyes going back towards the child, Zane pleaded with him. "Yes! Tell us!" he said, almost instantly noticing how much his fear was apparent. Clearing his throat, Zane calmed down a little and tried to maintain some sort of image despite the fact that anything resembling it had already fallen into the planet's core and out the other end by now. "Uh, I mean... I would very much like to hear the rumors, young man. Please, share it in detail."

Nuala was going to tell Masami that she had simply unlocked the window, but her human companion decided that it was best to keep quiet about the break-in. The child, if it was truly a child at all, seemed overly suspicious of the two of them (which made perfect since considering that they’d broken into a closed building in the middle of the night), and the thief couldn’t shake the feeling that the little blonde was something special. The older blonde not so much however, and when Nuala shot Zane another glance the man was once again struggling to make it through this mild (but admittedly awkward) social interaction.

Humans and their silly quirks, she thought to herself and an amused smile found its way to Nuala’s lips. She liked mortals, they were entertaining. While the two of them interacted, the Voidling silently stepped away and disappeared into the shadows. They were still within her hearing range, and she could hear Masami tell ghost stories about a woman haunting these halls. If there was truly a spirit like that, the rogue would be happy to meet her and stab her in the face, just for the sake of Zane being at peace both mentally and emotionally.

The theatre was quite beautiful, and definitely in a better condition than the one in Marigold Town had been. The joyan architecture was very prominent in this building as well, and while it seemed like the perfect place to visit during the day, Nuala couldn’t actually spot anything worth bringing back home – it was mostly props, chairs and decorations just like the kid with the lantern had said. The Voidling made no sound when moving, and unless the two of them were moving around it was perfectly quiet in the theatre minus the conversation. Nuala enjoyed the silence for a bit before walking back to where the two blondes were still standing. Emerging from the darkness, right behind Masami, the woman pulled his earlobe while he was still talking.

“Don’t tell lies, you are only going to scare him,” she scolded the kid and gave Zane a pitiful look. “There’s no such things as ghosts, but if there were then that lady would without a doubt be the most interesting thing in this theatre – at least at night.” Not wanting to offend anyone at this point (mostly to keep the kid from crying and to keep Zane from shitting himself), Nuala put on a thoughtful expression and made a reasonable suggestion. “Perhaps we should come back during daytime to watch a play. Can you recommend it? Oh, and who the hell are you anyways?” The last bit of her sentence was directed at Masami. Truth be told, with his eerie aura, youthful appearance and old-school lantern the little one looked just as out of place as the rest of them.

“And how did you get in here?”

29 wasn't really too old for an elf, so perhaps Zane's more childish behavior was a result of spending most of his life as one. It could also explain why he got along seemingly well with the ghostly looking boy in front of him. Not aware of Nuala's disappearance into the shadows, an attentive look filled Zane as he listened to the young man's explanation, not wanting to miss even a single droplet of the holy water that was the kid's story.

A surprised look soon came upon Zane's face not too much later however, an audible gasp coming from his mouth. A woman who looked around for those with lonely souls? Maybe it was finally his time... standing up straight as if he was in attempt to impress any possible deceased female spirits in the area, Zane's hair was quickly straightened with his left hand. A moment was also taken so that he could adjust his eyepatch a little bit.  Making sure he looked good for the dead ladies was especially important given the fact that the living one probably wasn't too interested in him anymore, at least from Zane's expert guess. All of this hype would soon come to an end though, the disappointing news of the woman's tendency to kill people coming to light. Zane's face turned to a frown. He supposed it was true how complicated women could be though. Er, to most people anyways! Someone like Zane was so experienced that he perfectly understood how women thought, right? R-right? "That sucks! Damn... do you think she would let me live even if I had no candy? Since I'm so handsome?" Zane didn't need anyone to agree with him on that comment, but he certainly hoped at least one did. Preferably Nuala.

"Where did she go anyways? It's like she just vanished..." Thinking on it, Beelzebub was right. His eyes now scanning the room, Zane was shocked soon after when Nuala appeared behind Masami. That was so cool! A bit of a gleam filled Zane's eyes at the way Nuala acted. He wished he could be that stealthy. Soon shaking his head at her words, Zane disagreed with Nuala's opinion. "Ghosts definitely exist! We live in a world full of demons, dragons, vampires, guys who don't think eyepatches are cool... anything is possible at this point."

Now that Zane thought about it though, Nuala had a point. Who was this kid? Not everyone was the type to hang out in a theater at such a late hour. Maybe he was coming thieving too? Nah, even Zane knew that was too risky of a thing to suggest... thinking on it though, the way the boy talked about the theater made Zane think that he worked here, especially when he was speaking on that stage prop. "Ooooh, are you an employee here?" Zane smiled giving a thumbs up to the boy. It was always nice to see the young ones getting experience with jobs early. "Nice! When I was your age, I had a job too. It was a really nice cafe in Baska. Sometimes I miss the days of cooking..." Reminiscing, Zane realized that he didn't care too much for cooking these days. That aspect of his character had admittedly became kind of forgotten at this point. Whatever happened to that notebook he had? That used to be in a ton of posts.

Still, it wasn't like any other employees were here. Zane wondered just what this boy did. Snapping his fingers as though he had just thought of the smartest guess in the world, Zane took a bit of a stab at figuring out just what the kid did here. "Are you a writer? For plays, I mean!" Zane said that bit as if a writer in a theater would be creating something for anything else. "You know about the props, and about that horror story. Plus, writers stay up at night and think really hard on ideas, right?" Zane figured that was what writers did at least. He'd never actually met one, but he was sure that stereotypes he saw about them in fiction were all pretty much true. "Oh, can you write a play about me? I'm sure my personality would be really popular with viewers. Especially the female demographic! Er, probably anyways..."

When Masami grimaced, the woman rolled her eyes at the young child and shrugged. The blonde adult seemed to agree with his younger counterpart and Nuala uttered a sigh in response to both of them. “Fine, tell your ghost stories if you must,” she muttered under her breath, audibly cracked her neck and began circling the golden urn. The thief was no longer interested in the item, although the fact that a mere stage prop was hidden behind a class cabinet was rather suspicious. If there was nothing else for her here, then why wasn’t she leaving? Surely Nuala had better places to be, with cozier company and perhaps some snacks and a drink – but the two blondes were interesting, captivating in a way she couldn’t quite place. That, and it was nice to have some new company for once.

Zane made a good point on top of everything: if vampires, werewolves, demons and whatnot existed, why wouldn’t ghosts exist too? Sometimes Nuala even forgot how special the Voidling herself was, and how unusual and rare her existence was. Of course Masami and Zane wouldn’t find out about that however, at the very least not tonight. The purple haired female wasn’t in the mood for sharing secrets, but she couldn’t help but to be interest in the stories Masami had to tell – they were both interesting and intriguing and the thief began to wonder how she would deal with a ghost, should one actually show up. Hosenka City certainly seemed like the place where something like that could happen, and the scenery of an old, creepy theatre made things all the more suiting and interesting.

“Kuchisake onna sounds like a relatable person,” the Voidling snarled, and loud laughter echoed through the almost empty halls of the Hinoki theatre. If the ghost preyed on lonely souls, Nuala truly had nothing to worry about. She was neither lonely, nor did she still have a soul (at least not to her knowledge). The part about showing how complicated women were, and how easily they could be persuaded with hard candy and money seemed both contradictory and hilariously accurate at the same time. If Nuala had learned anything from being in an all-female guild, it was that women were in fact very complicated. So much that the sneaky Voidling had chosen a male over a female presence in her bedroom recently, and considering her actual preference that meant a lot.

Still, with the urn not being valuable, and none of the paintings being worth the trouble of being stolen, there wasn’t much left here for the thief. Masami seemed resistant to spitting facts, and when the child played dumb and refused to say its name or reveal its relation to the theatre, Nuala merely waved her hand in a dismissive manner and began heading down the hallway. “There’s nothing in here, Zane,” she said to the tall blonde and shot him a glance over her shoulder. Nuala’s eyes and the markings on her cheeks were glowing purple in the darkness. “Perhaps I’ll look for a human trafficker tomorrow and come back the next night to steal pretty children instead – seems that I’ll have more luck with that in a place like this.” Nuala flashed Masami a toothy grin and went on her merry way.

One man. One eyepatch. The two had been together for a couple months now. During that whole time, Zane never once received a true compliment concerning the look. People had certainly noted it, pointed it out, perhaps even mocked it a little. But not a single person had ever said his eyepatch looked cool. Despite the fact that Masami questioned the quality of his near flawless skin, Zane felt only joy in this moment. Pumping his fists up in the air, Zane happily exclaimed "YESSS!" towards the sky, feeling the bliss of a true compliment coming from another human being. Was it from a kid? Yes. But that was alright! Kids were people too. "Take THAT, Tomoe." Was another thing he made sure to quickly exclaim, the red haired man being the first one in Fiore to truly diss Zane's eyepatch wearing tendencies.

"The whole theater?!" Zane was about as surprised at the news as anyone could be. Who in the world would expect this young lad to be the owner of a fine establishment such as this? "This is good, Zane! You're friends with the owner! We can come and see all the plays we want for free, probably!" Beelzebub happily noted, Zane nodding to himself. Nothing had been promised yet, but Zane was sure he'd find a way to figure it out. He could tell the young lad thought of him as cool. Now that Zane thought about it, the compliment about his eyepatch had even more meaning knowing that it was from the owner of a place like this. "Owner of a place like this at a young age, huh? I suppose Majura gallery's deceased owner was also a teenager when it was founded." Zane's mind also began to wonder if this was something the boy had inherited or raised on his own. He definitely thought the latter was more likely, but Fiore was certainly full of a lot of genius young folk. Either of the possibilities could've been true. Masami did seem like a pretty smart kid as well.

Frowning, Zane didn't really want Nuala to leave. He had come to enjoy her company a little bit, even if it did seem that she most likely thought of him as far too silly at this point. "Awww, c'mon Nuala. Can't you stick around for a little bit longer? You're pretty cool! Almost as cool as me, actually." Making his way towards where Masami and Nuala now stood, Zane kept a little bit of a distance from the pair, not wanting to inset himself in there just yet. While he was indeed pretty tall, Zane doubted his ability to stop Nuala in any meaningful way. If anything, he was scared that the possibility of getting beat up by the woman in front of this starry eyed kid who very clearly thought of Zane as a cool dude. The next part of the conversation was one that definitely piqued Zane's interest especially, though. Blinking at the thought, Zane wondered if this girl truly had any relation to Masami's mother. "I gotta say Masami, I don't really think you're on to something here." Looking Nuala up and down and then bringing his eyes to Masami and doing the same, Zane put his hand on his chin. "If Nuala's your aunt or something, the family resemblance is definitely in the negatives...

When Masami finally introduced themselves, the Voidling halted and glanced over her shoulder. “Masami,” she repeated after the child, and gave the name some thought. It sounded familiar, but Nuala was unable to properly identify it. Although the woman had every intention to leave and spend the rest of her night elsewhere, she was stopped by both the child and the man, who suddenly addressed her personally. Unnecessary, she thought, but that’s what she got for following strange men around and helping them break into buildings. He asked for her name, and the thief decided to play along and respond.

“Nuala,” she said and turned back around to properly face the blondes. “My name is Nuala.” The Voidling didn’t know if her reputation preceded her yet, but she dearly hoped it didn’t – considering her profession, race and relationships with good-hearted military leaders, Nuala preferred to keep as much privacy as possible.

Masami continued to speak, and slowly began to answer every single question Nuala had previously asked. Much to her surprise, the child introduced themselves as the owner and manager of this theatre, both of which were prestigious positions usually assigned to adults with a plenitude of experience. Still, it wasn’t like the Voidling to underestimate a stranger and so she simply shrugged it off. “I suppose that makes this an ironic coincidence then,” she said and looked over at Zane’s, whose obsession with the Majura Gallery in Oak still hadn’t died down yet. With how frequently he kept mentioning it, the thief couldn’t help but wonder what his deal was and if she should check the gallery out for good to see for herself.

When the child had the nerves to ask for an entrance fee, Nuala rolled her eyes and ungently flicked her fingers against the blonde’s forehead. “As if,” she said and vehemently shook her head. “The entire point of a break in is that it’s free and the owner of the location has to suffer all the consequences.” Her explanation made sense, at least in Nuala’s mind. Either way, the conversation quickly changed pace and direction when Masami made mention of a guild mate of hers, a Nephilim named Kurisa. Kurisa had joined Daeva Eye approximately a year after its creation, and while Nuala had never met the woman personally, she’d heard of her from the others – and the things she’d heard didn’t impress her much. She was kind-hearted, too kind-hearted to match with someone like the Voidling, but at the same time she understood that it was a Nephilim stereotype.

It certainly was good (quite literally) to have someone like her in the guild, but apparently there wasn’t much she did other than reproduce way too frequently and Nuala didn’t think she and Kurisa would make great friends. Still, guild mate meant loyalty was a given between them and no matter how she’d truly feel about the Nephilim once they met, she’d treat her the same as everyone else. “I’m definitely not Masami’s aunt,” the Voidling snarled at Zane and gave him the if-you-speak-more-nonsense-I’ll-kill-you-look. “Kurisa is a guild mate of mine, and we are affiliated through Daeva Eye. But besides that, I doubt she and I have anything in common, especially not in terms of presence.” Considering that Nephilims were divine creatures of the heavens and Nuala was a dark creature from the void, her statement was very factual. “If you’re her spawn, then why aren’t you with the guild?

Zane got a look from Nuala that gave him the impression that shutting up for a moment or two was probably the best way to avoid pain. "She's scary, that one..." Zane figured that it was probably a good idea to believe Beelzebub on that point. Demons weren't the type to get scared just by anything. Only ghosts, really. Or Joyan boys that could be mistaken as such. Zane couldn't help but note how Nuala seemed to talk about this Kurisa person. It seemed to him that the only true connection they shared was being part of a guild called Daeva Eye. Wait a second... Daeve Eye... where had he heard that name before?

Kaiser wrote: “I lead a guild of strong-willed women called Daeva Eye now. This has all the information you need to find me. I hope we meet again, Zane.”

That was Kaiser's guild! This was the first member of it that Zane had met. Well, the first one met that revealed their affiliation to that guild anyways. Zane's eyes lit up a bit, excited to finally meet one of the strong willed women his friend had told him about. Zane's tone was a bit lighter now, excited to hear about how his friend's guild was going along. "Ooh, that's Kaiser's guild! I've never gotten to meet any of her guildmates. What a coincidence!" Zane's voice sounded far too excited and giddy. He had been wondering about the guild for quite a while now. Kaiser certainly wasn't kidding about the strong willed part so far, given Nuala's personality. "I hope she's been doing well these days. It's been a few months since her and I last spoke. Tell her Zane said hi if you see her soon!"

Beelzebub found it a bit weird to see Zane so happy. "You must be really good friends with this Kaiser person, huh?" Zane quieted down a bit while listening to Masami and Nuala continue their conversation, half-listening as he spoke to Beelzebub in his head. It's rare that I make many friends in Fiore. Most people I know I only ever really meet once. She's one of the few exceptions." Beelzebub felt some level of jealousy at the situation. He hoped that Zane didn't like that girl more than him...

Zane's thoughts on the matter of Daeve's Eye were quickly overshadowed by another revelation. Masami also knew a Tomoe, presumably the same one as Zane did, given the eyepatch comment. Turning to face Masami, Zane nodded. "Yeah, he did... he's an alright guy, but his taste in fashion is truly not his strong suit. He could never understand my amazing style." Zane said the last part of that sentence in a significantly less confident way, as though not even Zane understood his own "amazing style" he had just claimed to have. Zane smiled at Masami's comment, happy to finally have one person in Fiore who appreciated his getup. Zane was in fact so touched that small bits of tears came to his eyes, his fingers moving upwards to wipe them off. "You are a truly intelligent young man, Masami." Something about what Masami said did have Zane wondering though. Looking to Nuala, Zane took another look at her face. Now that he thought about it he had no idea what was up with her face paint. He assumed it was face paint, anyways. Most people definitely would. "I've actually been wondering what's up with the paint on your face too, Nuala. Err, is it paint? It looks like it at least."

Masami was an odd child; not knowing much about their own mother, what organizations they were affiliated with and such, was strange. Nuala didn’t know what to make of the little blonde, but at least he wasn’t as annoying as most children she’d met, thus making his presence bearable. Zane was much different, and if the Voidling had known about his elven heritage, perhaps she would have been able to make sense of his childish persona – for an elf, he certainly would have been young still. Much to her surprise he knew about Daeva Eye through Kaiser Bo, their guild’s master, and when he said her name the thief arched a brow and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

“That’s a surprise, she’s usually not the type to mingle with mortals,” Nuala said. Kaiser hadn’t been seen for some time now, and no one at the guild was able to get a hold of her. Nuala didn’t know if something had happened to the vampire, but considering her remarkable strength she didn’t think so. If Nuala had to take a guess, it would be that the vampire had grown tired of mankind, hopped into a coffin and thrown herself into the ocean to take a nap for a few decades. Honestly, she couldn’t blame her. It was a tempting thing to do from time to time, especially if you were immortal. No matter where she’d gone, by the time she returned Nuala would still be here to welcome her and that was really all that mattered to the Voidling.

"I'll tell her you said hi,” she finally gave in and shrugged it off.

After that the conversation moved on to another topic, and both spoke about a person Nuala had never met. The name Tomoe meant nothing to her, and since neither Masami nor Zane bothered to explain further, the thief decided not to press it. Her eyes fell back on the golden urn, and for a moment she couldn’t even believe that the reason she was out here tonight, having idly conversation with two complete strangers was because of some urn that turned out to be entirely worthless – and without ashes! Still, meeting new people and building connections could be useful in the future, so Nuala decided to play along for a bit longer.

The conversation took an interesting turn when Masami pointed out the rune markings on her cheeks. Nuala had those markings all across her body, down her legs, arms and even back – but of course neither of the two would know about that, seeing how she was fully dressed. Occasionally Nuala’s marks did glow in the dark, but it was only when the Voidling decided to channel her energy and potentially switch over into her true form, none of which she was planning to do. “Why, thank you.” She offered a crooked smile. “It’s not paint,” she responded to Zane and took a few step backwards into the darkness, away from Masami’s lantern. “It’s.. I suppose you could call it magical tattoos.” For a short moment, the markings on Nuala’s forehead and cheeks would flare up in a deep purple color, similar to that of her eyes and hair. She wasn’t going to give them the real explanation for what they were, because it was honestly way too complicated and would take too long.

Uncertain as to what to do next, Nuala decided to swiftly change topics. Staring down Zane, the Voidling gestured towards the window they had entered through, wondering if he ever planned on leaving. Besides, wasn’t it way past Masami’s bed time already?

Not the type to mingle with mortals? Zane clammed up a bit while he wondered just what that sentence was supposed to mean. Kaiser was a mortal, wasn't she? As far as Zane knew, she was a human. And she seemed to have no problem interacting with mortals from the time he met her. Perhaps Kaiser's personality had changed over the year or two Zane had not seen her? It was something that was worth an ask next time he saw her - if he even saw her again at all that was.

The sight of Nuala's tattoos put a gleam into Zane's eyes. So cool! The moment Zane saw them light up was when he realized that he wanted them as well. Beelzebub wanted them as well, but that was natural for a demon who embodied the sin of wanting literally everything. "Woooah! That's so cool! I wanna get those too!" Zane was almost tempted to go and run his hands along Nuala's face, but his common sense told him that he would most likely be going home with a broken arm or two if he dared try. Zane's excitement was halted with a bit of reality though, Nuala's gesture reminding him that they probably shouldn't linger in this theatre for too long. Just about ready to say his goodbyes, Zane didn't have the chance to speak before Masami himself would start speaking up.

Masami's question to Zane was a bit more childish in nature. "Ahh, I think maybe that could wait for another day." Soon after, Zane looked to Masami's face as he began to turn to Nuala. Zane grew pale, both him and Beelzebub instantly noticing something was up. His face and his words both seemed to have a much more darker tone to them, his face especially. "Something isn't right here, Zane." Zane couldn't help but agree with the demon inside of his head on that one. He watched even more frightened as the young man began to talk of proving how cool of a guy he was. What was this feeling? Zane instinctively took a step back. This wasn't the type of goofy fear he had felt earlier when he and Beelzebub mistook the kid for a ghost. At this point the two of them would've much rather Masami have actually been a ghost. "Uhh, I don't need to prove how cool of a guy I am, right? I'm already cool naturally after all, haha... hey, I know! How about a story!" Zane quickly thought of a story to tell the kid while him and Beezlebub debated on their situation in Zane's mind.

In Zane's mind

Beelzebub, what do we do?!" Zane panicked. This was probably one of the oddest vibes a person had ever given off near him. "I have no idea, but something about that kid has been bugging me since we first saw him! There's just some odd aura about him, so to speak! No other person we've met in Fiore so far has given it off." Zane looked Masami in the eyes as he continued telling his story. "Let's just continue telling the story for now. Maybe Nuala will butt in and help." Beelzebub groaned at Zane's "solution". "Really? You gonna just rely on the pretty lady to swoop in and save you?"

From Zane's mouth

"So, there once was this dude that I met in the city of Era. You know the one, right? It's where all the Rune Knights were. So uhh, there was this revolution of sorts happening with these clowns. It was officially a strike, but it was certainly one of the most intense strikes I've ever seen..." Zane continued, recalling his encounter with a man there. "And so I met this guy in some ramen shop. It was the only place the clowns didn't frequent after all. He was hoping to try and like, I dunno, fight back against the clowns... what happened then? I can't remember..." Zane remembered almost nothing else about his encounter with Finn that day. He'd just make up an ending. "Oh right! We dressed up as clowns ourselves and overthrew the clown leader, then stopped the clown strike and returned peace to Era. Pretty cool, right?"

Now that both his mind and his mouth were back on track again, Zane wondered if the story he gave was enough to satisfy Masami. That wasn't a bad choice to tell, right? Most kids liked clowns. At least that was what Zane thought was the case. Nervously laughing, Zane scratched the back of his head. "Pretty good, right? A story worth a million jewels, truly!"

Two mortals and one Voidling. An odd combo, right? Nuala met many mortals in her eighty years of wandering the realms, few of which she actually bothered to interact with and even fewer whom she befriended; it wasn’t impossible though. There was something about these two imps that the thief found to be intriguing, and even though one was an oddball and the other one a creepy child, both shared an unspoken similarity – something the woman couldn’t quite place, but wanted to know more about. It’s not like Nuala had anything else to do anyways and the night was still young. Her instincts told her that staying a little longer wouldn’t bring any harm, and if it did the Captain surely wasn’t too far away. He could always just swoop in and save her in his usual, divine manner. Like her personal guardian angel.

“I’m already staying with someone for the night, or whatever is going to be left of it at the end of this,” the thief snarled at the child, amused by his assumptions. Of course they made perfect sense, but against all odds Nuala hadn’t stolen for the sake of money in many decades. Nowadays, the Voidling did it purely for the thrill, the excitement and the curiosity. There had been quests in the near past that by all means required her to snatch one or another item, but outside of that Nuala had been living the life of a very unorthodox thief. In the end she was a void creature before anything else, she supposed.

Taking notice of Masami’s absurd smile, a shiver went down the woman’s spine as she took a step backwards from the child. Gross, she thought to herself, but didn’t comment on it further. The last thing she needed was Kurisa scolding her for making her spawn cry. Really, she couldn’t understand why the Nephilim took the time to take in all those brats, and even have some of her own on top of that – certainly a woman like that had better things to do, but what did Nuala know. “People don’t pay for entering, they pay for seeing the play. We didn’t, so you can be quiet about it now,” the woman barked at the small blonde when he brought up the issue of money again. Was Kurisa not giving her little hellions enough pocket money?

Anyways, Zane then proceeded to tell a pretty awful tale and Nuala hated every moment during which she was forced to listen to it. By the time the human had finished speaking, she uttered a sigh and shook her head in disbelief. “That story sucked,” the Voidling said and walked over to a wall so she could lean against it and look cool in the dim light radiating from Masami’s lantern. “I can’t believe you made me listen to that with my own ears.” Nuala pulled out a cigarette, lit it and began smoking. She hadn’t seen any no smoking signs in this area, so she figured the brat wouldn’t mind. And if he did surely Nuala would find out very soon. “I’ll tell you a story, and this one is true. You can read about it in the big library in capital Crocus.” It was true. The Voidling was surprised to find that there were indeed a few books in this country that told her story.

“I’m from Savannah. In my homeland there’s a tale that’s often told to young children to keep them from staying out late or running off into the wilderness, but I hear it’s based on true events. The tale says all over the country, during random times of the year, a rift opens inside the earth. The ground breaks apart and sucks you inside, where you’ll be falling for many days into a place that lays deeper than hell."

She took a puff from her cigarette.

"Somewhere further than where demons are from and the abyss is, where no intelligent life exists, only primal monsters. It’s dark and gloomy, monster-ridden, it’s never safe and you can only leave if you learn to survive. Decades can pass before you ever make it back to the earth – if you ever make it back at all. And if you do, it will only be because you have been turned into a monster yourself. They call that place the Void, because it's empty of life and purpose.”