Eyes... Eyes everywhere. Looking, piercing, searing. Hunting...

Tiara...

She isn't here...

The broken creature whimpered like a dog without his mistress, until a name, a face, flashed before his eyes. The last face...

Kagetsu...

A feral growl erupted from the creature's throat. He rose up, striking out at the eyes all around, fear crushed by sudden rage.

The eyes grew faces, and bodies... Had they always been--? ...Children? They scattered at his ferocity.

Insecurity, and fear, lapped at his mind like incessant waves. Graham sank to his knees, covering his head with the limbs his Partner... his Tiara... had bestowed upon him.

The children encroached once more.

Pitiable, fear-stricken, and lost, Graham curled in a tight ball and wished for his existance to end.

A calm and cool breeze slowly enveloped him. The desire for sleep became first and foremost on his weary mind. Sleep to renew. Sleep to heal. Only sleep...

He slipped into it with barely any prodding and did not feel the hands upon his battered body.

"Its appearance has not changed?"

"No."

One and Two turned their eyes on Three.

"Strong bonds... It must be very hard, dealing with such a thing."

One nodded agreement.

"Was it not completely freed?" Two queried.

Three regarded Two with an air of mild condescension. "Does it look free?"

No. The new arrival was at this very moment struggling with all its might to break loose from the inner room where it was being held.

Two examined the floor. "... My judgement was perhaps harsh."

"There can be nothing done of it now. However," Four turned slowly in Two's direction. "this matter will likely fall on you for a resolve. This _is_ your area, after all, and it cannot stay as it is."

"...I understand."

Fighting for breath beyond ragged gasps, Graham attacked yet again what appeared to be a door. It hurt, his body, even before his pounding on the non-metal substance comprising four walls, ceiling, and floor. Kagetsu.... Yes! Use the rage!

Unrelenting, both bare stump and right hand bloody, he would use his feet, even his head, if they would cave the door.

"That won't do any good." started a soft and rather bored feminine voice.

Graham whirled, crouching in the same move in preparation for an attack. There was a ... a woman in the room! A tall woman of blue hair and shear clothing. Shocked at the abrupt person, he faultered, took a step back.

"What are you called?" she asked, perfectly at ease.

He hesitated. "...Who...?"

The blue-haired woman bent closer, slowly, and asked again, "What... are... you... called?"

"G-... Ga--..."

The woman shook her head pityingly. "What a mess you are. Why hurt yourself so much?" She stepped closer, reached down toward him.

He folded, dodged the theatening person, and leaped right for her. Without his clawed arm, he had only his right hand and feet. Efficient enough, surely, to afford some protection as he lashed out.

None of them connected with the blue woman. He passed right through her and smacked into the floor. Rolling, he sprung up, at the ready. How...?

"If my presence disturbs you that much, tell me what you are called and I shall leave. I cannot before then."

What game was this? What new tactic was he seeing? His head felt hot, heavy. Hard to think it out. How to get out?!

"A name? Please." the personage tried, hating to have to sink so low.

Was it... a dream? She could not be touched. Could she touch him? Would she really go if he said...? His name...

He straightened. Name? No. Not that one. That was from before. He had only one name now.

Eyeing the woman with his one eye, feeling naked without his mask, without his claws, he faced the stranger fully and with a sense of pride. "Graham. I am Graham."

The blue woman gave no reaction. Her hand went up, and that was all he saw before light flooded in from everywhere! His eye!! Both limbs came up to protect it, protect him, but nothing came down. There was no attack. Only the bright light.

Then sound. Birds... No. Birds, and voices. Children?

His arm was grabbed. Gently but with great strength, he was tugged onward. The air was warm, the light was warm. Like summer... Fragrant blossoms on the air... He was outside! How...? This was no dream. So real... So very real.

The children pulled him on, laughing and carefree. They frightened him. Un-natural... He blinked the tearing from his eye, if only for a clearer look. This could not be a safe place. There were no safe places anymore. He needed to see!

They called his name in a laughing and innocent chorus that sent a chill down his spine. Just as this could not be a dream, these were no children...

He wrenched himself from their grasp, leaped away. He saw much better as his eye adjusted. The children...

Tiara... They all held the face of Tiara!

A strangled sound emerged from his throat. With a step forward, Graham immediately froze. He _knew_. None of them were Tiara. He knew!!

They were silent now, standing still, the breeze blowing their simple dresses in a soft dance. All watching him with their unwavering eyes.

"Begone!" he cried, swiping at the image before his eye. He couldn't bare the sight, covered his vision to darkness as he sank to the sweetly scented grass. Coarse sobs escaped him as he begged once more for an end. "...begone..."

"Their presence disturbs you."

The blue woman! His instincts for self-preservation cut through the breakdown. His eye swung up, scanned all about, body tense. No children. No woman.

"That is not their intention."

He could not see her. Could not tell the direction from her voice. Yet... He _knew_, just as he knew the children were false, that the blue woman was right in front of him. Again, he took steps back. She was too close.

The blue woman sighed. "I will not approach, Graham. You are too violent and unruly for that, which is why you have been placed here."

The woman's words stung bitterly. More than he could have thought. He felt their slice like razor wire to flesh! Pain, at mere words...?

She felt him an animal, a savage. He was not! He was not...

"You require food?"

A table, a chair, a whole affair appeared on the open grasslands. And food. Graham dove for the plate and scurried back to his position, warily examining the food before engulfing it. Hunger? Oh yes. He felt it as he felt everything. This gifted body was no mere vessel. It was he, and now all he had.

Graham all but choked during his ravenous eating. He saw a brief flash, from the Blue Woman's perspective. To her, he _was_ an animal. A scrounging, dirty, violent animal.

Then what was she?

He watched where he knew her to be, eating quickly but with less ferocity. It was not wrong to seem like an animal. It would be wrong to truly believe he was one... Tiara had taught him that much of himself, and for that, he was forever grateful.

"...Perhaps after a bath, you may feel capable of communication."

Rudeness. It reminded him inescapably of Tiara. How could he mind? He'd cherished every moment his partner spoke to him.

The Blue Woman's presence vanished from his senses, a bath coalescing in her place.

Graham's mind turned the events over greatly before ever coming near the thing. This was not his own world. Very far from it. But this was not the Guardian World, and it was not the Earth World either. This place... It was new to him. New things frightened him. He desired to return to Tiara's side, but as a banished one... Was such a thing possible? If Tiara desired it, anything were possible. Why then wasn't he by her side? Why hadn't she called him to her? Graham fought with himself, denying the possibility that she had forgotten all about him, had moved on. NO! It isn't true!! It can't be...

His jaws clenched, his right arm splitting as it did in fright or rage to slap upon the ground. She couldn't have removed him from her heart. He wouldn't believe it! So in this place where many things seemed possible, he vowed to find a way back to her or die trying. The arm reformed to normalsy as he calmed.

Eyeing the bath speculatively, Graham undid the remains of his clothes. If this was the only way to talk to the Blue Woman, he would do so, to learn of a way to reunite with Tiara. Always for Tiara.

Three was surprised to learn of it. "Has it no other motivations? No personal drives?"

"That is not known." Two answered regretfully.

"Then how did it arrive here as it did? Something is surely amiss."

Two sighed. "Divining that answer is another of my tasks. It will take much time with this one, I'm afraid."

"Take as much as is needed. We do not want a repeat of The Throne, after all." wise Four added.

"Truly. There is little desire for haste. I enjoy this one quite immensely." Five was all but grinning with gluttony. "Not as tasty as Yord, but this one leaves no aftertaste."

One executed a slow turn towards Five. "We are not here for snacks. And its presence is not for the taking. We will have none of that from you this time."

Berated, Five remained silent.

It was Four who opened the question, to Two. "Are you certain you can handle this creature? It seems very strong for one of its kind. Very difficult and counterproductive for our designs."

Two's head swung up, eyed the nobility of Four. "I have not failed yet. I do not intend to."

One bowed low. "So be it. We leave all to you in this matter."

The warm water felt very good. He didn't like it, that feeling. Only Tiara should be able to create such things. He hated that his tormented body eased in the calm steam. He shouldn't enjoy something that did not come from Tiara. Yet... His body refused to tense, refused to let him thrash about and disturb the calm, the simple pleasure of soaking clean. He hated that it liked this, yet could do nothing.

Retaining an unsettled mind in the warmth of calm was very difficult. Questions lingered only. Graham considered each one, mind bobbing idly as his body remained submerged.

Where is here?

What is here?

Who is the Blue Woman?

How does one create something from nothing?....

Creation... Destruction... The essence of being a caretaker of existance. Such foolish thoughts. The Blue Woman could not be a god. He would not believe it.

But... Tiara... Was she not his own God? Creator, Destroyer, Tormentor, Joy-Bringer. Limited power, but unlike himself, rife with frailties, she was perfect in ways he could not comprehend. It was not his place to comprehend. Simply gazing upon the forbidden face, or to touch her--

Useless! Such thoughts were useless. He was useless!

Graham sat up quickly, water swishing nearly over the edge in reaction. Enough bothersome calm. He reached over the edge for the hanging towel...

And noticed for the first time that his tattered garments were gone.

He leaped from the bath, unconcerned with his bare state. Those garments had come from Tiara! Where...?!

"Where are they!?" he demanded, senses attuned to the first hint of another presence.

There! Mere steps away!

"What?" The abused clothing appeared hanging in the air. "These?" Dressed once more in the shear clothing, she appeared even taller than last time. Her slender hand coalesced around the clothes, holding them in place just above him.

He dove for the cloth, but simply passed through it.

"GIVE THEM BACK!!" he screamed, launching himself time and again to attempt vane snatches.

A sigh fluttered past the Blue Woman's thin lips. "Futile."

Waiting until he had exausted nearly all strength in his attempts before continuing, which took some time, the personage observing Graham reflected. Two was really quite patient for one of their caliber.

Gasping for breath, Graham was confused. What happened to his strength? Why couldn't he take back what was his?

"Have I your attention now?" she asked.

"Please..." He would beg if he had to.

"I will not hear you until you have properly clothed yourself." Blunt and to the point were the snapped words.

Jaws clenched, he was about to make a retort to the contrary, and lack of cover, when a set dropped on top of him from above.

Suppressing a growl, he tried his best to rip the finery, jabbing arms and legs in the appropriate slots in order to tear them. It didn't work.

"Graham," The Blue Woman's eyes settled on his one. "We do not often receive creatures such as yourself but we are not unprepared. How does it fit?"

"My arm?" He held up the short and misfigured left.

"I do hope you're asking if we've appropriate impliments, as we do not take kindly to requests of bioregeneration here. Unfortunately, if you thought to arrive wearing any previous adornments or aids of metal or magic, no such thing could arrive here. Regrettably. I'd care to have a look at them myself."

"Take me back."

The Blue Woman stared at him blankly, then laughed. All-out unbased laughter. "Take you back? You haven't the slightest idea where you stand and yet you make such a demand, without knowing what rules you wish to cross! It is the funniest thing I've heard in quite an audacious amount of time!"

"Stop laughing! I can't stay here! I'll go mad if I don't--"

"See Tiara? Hm. So we've heard." The Blue Woman had sobered in the blink of an eye, her piercing cold eyes seeing right to his very being. For one moment, for the second time in his existance, Graham felt completely naked.

"Please, will you help me?"

"That is all you can think to ask in the time you've been here?"

Her stare sent chills across sensitive flesh. A new sensation. There was something so awe-filled and terrible about the being before him. She at times filled him with rage, then fits of terror. The urge to fight and to flee vyyed considerably within him!

"Who... Who are you?" Fear won.

"Hm." was the only reply given.

He began to tremble like a scared animal as the cage not before seen seemed to close in on him. Fear of no escape, no release from his captors, nor any hope of returning to the wild of Tiara's eyes.

"NnooOOOO!!!" His roar crescendoing, it echoed against surfaces that were not seen, mountains that were not real, vibrated through even his own body. He wouldn't let that cage close. He'd die first!!

Eyes locked with singledminded determination on the wrecked garments still suspended in the air, Graham focused every part of his being on that one target and--

They burst into flames and shrivelled into a puff and whisp of smoke in all but a blink of an eye.

"No. Noooo..." Graham's muted wail was pressed into the ground as his knees gave out and he fell. Shattered.

Fading away from the sight, Two doubted it could understand the motives behind the act. That was entirely the problem. And, unfortunately, it was therefore Two's problem. Didn't the others realize how difficult it was to wield the full potential of compassion effectively?

Two sighed, shut Graham out of all thoughts. Just for the moment. It was needed, though Two returned to consideration of the beguiling creature soon enough. Such an unusual find, it was. Not like Yord, as the others thought. No, Graham was quite a bit different.

Gone. Gone, gone gone...

He no longer wished to be free of his mortality. It was the last, the only thing remaining of Tiara's gifts that he could see, could feel. In a place so terrifying, he feared every second that passed would bring the Blue Woman again to take even that from him. He was powerless!

Like he'd been before realizing what Tiara was to him.

No! There is nothing before Tiara!

It did no good, his denials. The thoughts were prodded up, as if one wished to see the memories he held buried for the sole reason that he couldn't bear to look at them.

A grey plateau of rocks swam up from his recollections. It rushed by so fast, details were hard to make out. Needn't. He knew the area quite well. Almost as much a part of him as the air he currently breathed in and out. Rapid breath... He was running, though he looked very different from his current form. He wasn't afraid, was never afraid at this point in his life. No. He was in the chase. It was thrilling! He struck out at his target, feeling extreme satisfaction in catching his next meal.

Gradual pain, both emotional and physical, oozed onto the memory and coated it to darkness, seemed to eat away at his mind as the hurting intensified. It began to pound like the loudest of drums!

Grabbing his skull, the tortured creature howled. "Stop, stop, STOP, STOP, STOP!!!"

And it ceased.

No pounding. No drumming pain. No memories.

Why... Why does it still hurt?

Graham's weeping flowed across the grassy field, his first heartrending solo.

A gentle touch brushed sweaty hair from his anguished face. Graham froze, waited, sensed nothing. Was it the wind? The wind...

A sigh. His own. The torture had passed. All of it. The wind caressed his face. He did not hate its feather-light compassion. Such delicate sympathy... There were such things in this world? He lay still, at ease, and took slow breaths of the cool, fresh air. Another first, for him to welcome such kind things. It brought something else that was new. A feeling he did not know. Like determination but without the ferocity. Instilling the belief that things may become easier here for him. Graham had never known the feeling before, though any other would immediately name it hope.

He lay on the ground and examined the feeling with the curiosity of a child, doing nothing more. To touch it or look at it too closely might scare it away. He... He didn't want that. He liked this feeling. It didn't frighten him.

An animal-- a small scurrier-- wandered into his view. Eye latching onto it by instinct, he merely watched it.

How did a mitchuu come to be here?

Strange. He felt no desire to snatch it up and eat it. They were very good in fact, yet he wanted only to watch it.

The little furry crept closer, nose twitching as it studied him. Deemed him unthreatening, too, and placed a tiny paw on his incomplete arm. It cocked its head at him, large funnel ears tweaked his way. He gazed back with his one eye and they remained so for some time.

"NEVER interrupt me!" Two declared as soon as was allowable.

Five cowered slightly. "I was only looking."

"You know as well as any that such is not allowed during a bend." Sighing, One glanced at Two, confirming the other's ability to calm and let pass what disaster had nearly occurred.

"Progress was being made. Need we sequester you during its time here?" Three posed. "You've made it very difficult already. We cannot chance it finding us."

"Ridiculous." Five scoffed, though for Three to suggest it...

One rose, becoming bored with Five's antics. "You would be greatly surprised. I am, at the fact that you did not see the potential within the creature yourself, as you've had the second-best look inside."

"Yes." Two interrupted further debate, if indeed there would have been. "This one has that potential. That must be why it is here."

Four considered that. "Perhaps. And perhaps not."

One drew a semblance of concern. "Do you see something more?"

"Hm."

"If there is something more, I must know." Two closed in on Four.

"Not... at this time." Which was all Four would say.

He must've fallen asleep, for he opened his eye on a night sky. The mitchuu was curled up beside him in a furry ball. Warm. Hot.

Graham attempted to rise but felt a great ache throughout his body. A throbbing pain that had him flat on his back again. The mitchuu had scurried away at his first movements and regarded him curiously, and with a sense of pity as he groaned. What was happening to him? Why did he hurt so?

Then he heard them. The soft step of the returning 'children'. He would have moved away just as the mitchuu, dashing out of sight, but he could not stand. The children came too close.

"Stay back... Please." On his back, he held up his only hand to push at their outstretched arms.

"Graham, let them help you."

The Blue Woman's voice was some comfort, oddly enough. Not that he had any strength to stop the small beings from picking him up and carrying him off. He watched the night sky stroll by as they moved him to a structure that had not been around moments ago. Inside, he was laid out on a bed. The children bowed and backed away.

"It seems you have developed some type of sickness here. We will try to make its removal painless."

Sick? He was sick? It made some sense, to his throbbing head. And it did feel good to lie out on a soft surface; close his eye...

He did not resist the urgings to sleep pressed upon him.

Graham woke again, the sun warm and healing. He sat up, feeling able to do so, and stared around at the richly decorated room. He flexed his arm, frowning. He felt no pain, no weakness. What had happened?

A flash of movement drew his eye. The mitchuu leaped up to his bed.

"What am I that so fascinates you?" he asked it quietly, extending his stump slowly. It gave a little squeak and rubbed against his deformity.

Brows raising in surprise, Graham regarded the curious furry. Again, he had no desire to eat it. Especially not a thing that seemed to want to be companionable. He'd never had a friend before. Not even Tiara--

Gasping at his blasphemy, he gave himself a sound clout upside the head. How dare he even think so lowly of Tiara! How dare he feel himself fit to judge his creator!

"She was not a creator. She was a Summoner."

The Blue Woman! To his left, and at a distance, but he could sense her presence. She could hear thoughts.

"There are no secrets hidden from us here."

"...Us?" he dared, as she terrified him still.

"Us." Her words pointed unerringly to the mitchuu. "I apologize for taking so long in waking you. Your sickness was a bit more than we thought. It took time to dispel."

"Where am I?"

"A place not many see. More will be told another time. You should eat."

Food once more plentiful at the Blue Woman's willing, Graham was not shy in accepting the sustenance.

"How did I come here?"

"Ah, that is the question. What do you remember?"

"I was banished..." And his fist clenched at the thought of Kagetsu.

"Yes, so you were."

"Do all banished come here?"

"Yes."

"Then you were also--?"

"Yes."

It made sense, yet he was confused. This was where the banished ended up and spent their lives? In a dream place? He didn't understand.

"You will, Graham. In time."

He kept her always at a distance. Now visible, she flowed along beside him as if her legs were water. She was to show him something today.

Graham did not know how long he'd been here. His arrival was growing fuzzy in his mind. He could sense it and the frightening things that had happened, but something continually pressed him to forget, clouded over the actual substance and leaving only the vague haze. It was a bothersome itch he was also pressed to ignore. The Blue Woman helped.

He knew that he had been sick for many days, and the female spectre's teachings had started three days after. She taught slowly, perhaps believing that he could not learn so quickly. It was not true. Every day he learned new things on his own about this strange place and about himself. They were small things, with immense impact. But what he learned, she would know also.

"You are correct." she commented on one of his thoughts as they walked over yet another grass-covered hill. "The children that you have seen were like you at one time."

"And you?"

"You are a perplexing matter, Graham."

Always, she would change the topic and never say her name, her origins, even her business here or with him. It was frustrating!

"You have been here for quite some time and still cling and linger on the matter of returning from whence you were stripped. You cannot return."

"But why? There must be a way!"

"It is impossible. I hope to show you a better alternative, here. You will have a place here, Graham, where you will not be treated as poorly as in the past."

"I was not mistreated!" he growled. Fear had left in the first few days, but that did not mean that he trusted the apparition who seemed set on guiding him away from any thought of Tiara.

"As you say..."

"And what would I become here? A slave like those... those false children?"

The Blue Woman gave pause. She turned in a liquid move and faced him. Stood right in his path to halt him as well. "We are not in the business of slavery. It is only the animal which sees the cage who feels trapped. You are looking from inside. It is we who are outside of the cage, Graham."

Her voice, as it had in the beginning, sent shivers down his spine. Such a powerful being he kept company with... Not like the little mitchuu who seemed content to skitter along with their progress, nibble a bit here and there, and sniff the air.

"Take advice from the little one. That one knows how to live." she said in brevity, floating forward ahead of him.

Yes, the mitchuu seemed to keep to a simple life. It was a simple creature. But he was not like he used to be. His life was complex now that he had a human shape, a human mind, and a human heart.

He thought he heard the Blue Woman hmph at his inner comment but it may have been the wind. It grew increasingly strong as they approached what he saw as a sharp precipice. She floated just above the edge, her clothing wisped in the gusts of wind pushed up from far, far below. Graham eased closer for a look down. No building he'd ever seen had the height of this natural drop! Beautiful, dangerous, yet why would she wish to show him this?

"Impressed?"

"...Yes?"

"Then follow. This is not our goal today." And she moved up and over the edge, descending rapidly.

"But... How?? I cannot simply leap off!"

The false children appeared in a closing half-circle around him.

"No." he told them. "I'll fight you if you try to force me over." And he did crouch into a ready posture as they smiled sweetly at him. At least they did not retain Tiara's face to torment him. Still, their threat was as plain as they standing before him. He would not allow them closer if they dared.

They did not. Their hands went up and clapped once. There was a great shaking of the earth. Graham fell to his knees and wondered how the children could remain standing. When he did look at their feet, he saw they did not touch the ground.

The earth rattled and shook and cracks broke the surface. As the tumult subsided, Graham uncringed. A strong breeze and sickening sense of downward motion had him grasping at grass as the perfect half circle he floated on descended with the ring of children controlling it. Only when they'd stopped did he take a definite look around. The precipice cliff was all but vertical and pocked with cave after cave. A shimmer of blue heralded the direction of the blue woman. Shaking off rattled nerves and eyeing the unperturbed children, Graham stepped off his floating conveyance and into the dark den.

A single eye he may have but with it he saw more than any mortal with two. She had stopped just a ways in, the Blue Woman. He met her at a junction in the cave.

"Which do you choose?"

Graham glanced left, then right. "There is no way to know a right answer."

"Is there one?"

"Isn't there always?"

"Make your choice."

Graham moved down the left passage, glancing back at the Blue Woman. She did not follow. Had he chosen incorrectly? Her lessons sometimes came with tests. He gathered that this may be one such test.

A small shadow darted past him. He tracked it, wary, but it turned out to be only the mitchuu. How had it come from so far above? True, mitchuu dwelled underground, but this seemed all rock. They burrowed in soil. He'd played games long ago of unburying their burrows to get at the tender creatures....

There were the dredged-up memories again. He ground his teeth, pounding them back down. Another life wrenched away from him which held no promise in this new place. Another life he had no hope of returning to. But he would return to the Guardian World... Somehow.

Hm.. Perhaps the mitchuu knew the interior here. Stranger things he'd seen here, and it seemed to know where it was going. He followed, having little other initiative or direction.

The passage narrowed to the point where Graham had to crouch, then crawl. Finally, there was only a space small enough for the mitchuu. A small hole into which it had no reserves in leaving him behind and dashing through.

Graham lay all but flat against the rock to peer through, to see what might make the mitchuu proceed through. There, on the other side, lay a solid network of mitchuu-made burrows, and hundreds of mitchuu.


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