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Carda nearly overshot Sosiqui's house, so deep in thought he was. It took Seraphim tugging on his collar to break him from his thoughts and look around.

"Oops. Guess I should watch where I'm going, huh?" Carda muttered, embarrassed.

"I still think you could have just called on the telephone."

"Seraphim, I don't HAVE a telephone."

"Well you need to get one so you don't have to walk everywhere just to talk to people!"

"Hey, I like walking," Carda replied defensively as he walked up the front walk to Sosiqui's door. He shifted the backpack on his shoulders uneasily as he moved to ring the doorbell. His finger hovered just short of pressing the button.

"Okay, what's the worst-case scenario here?"

"She slams the door in your face."

"Thanks for the reminder."

"Well you asked I just answered your question."

Carda pushed the button and heard a pleasant chime echo from inside. He looked away from the door, as was his habit, while he waited for a response from inside.

Carda still couldn't get over how much this Sosiqui looked like the one from back home. This thought was immediately interrupted when Seraphim elbowed him in the ear. "You're staring."

"Oh. Sorry." Carda affected a lopsided grin in an attempt to break the awkwardness. "Hey, I want to apologize again for what happened the last time I was here. I know we didn't get off to a very good start, and that's mostly my fault. I shouldn't have come here with the expectations I had at the time, and it wasn't fair of me to expect you to be who I thought you should have been. I'm sorry about all that."

Carda took a deep breath. "Listen, a lot has happened to me in the past week, and I just needed to talk to someone. There's something important I've got to tell you, as well..."

Carda unraveled his scarf from around his neck as he stepped inside.

As he moved to peel his stocking cap off his head, his hand brushed against cold metal. Of course! His headband! How was he going to take care of that...?

Then again, this probably wasn't the best time for that. There were other, more important issues at hand at the moment.

Seraphim, who hadn't really seen much of the house on the last visit, took the opportunity to take a self-guided tour of the place as Carda settled himself down on the couch... only to realize that his staff was still strapped to his back. Embarrassed, his stood up again, set the staff aside, rested his gauntlets next to it, let his backpack flop down against the stack, and sat down again.

He leaned back with a determined look in his eyes. "I know you were concerned about the past history between our people, but... I want you to know that you don't have to worry about any grudges I might be carrying. Not only do I think it's incredibly stupid that this conflict has gone on for so long, but..." Carda sighed as he locked eyes with Sosiqui. "I'm quitting the Delta Striders, here and now." With that he yanked the headband from his head and cast it aside.

"Huh? Well, yeah, of course. Sorry, sometimes I get all poetic and stuff when I really ought to just say what I mean."

With that Carda picked up his backpack and started rummaging through it. He began to pull his locus pens out by the handful and stack them semi-neatly on the coffee table.

"Stupid book's in the way," he muttered as he pulled a medium-sized, leather-bound book out of the bag and set it off to one side. He then continued to keep looking through his bag.

Carda kept right on pulling his pens out as he replied. "Sorry, I don't have much time. I need to get rid of every single Strider signet I've got as soon as possible. The Strider Council isn't exactly fond of people who break the Oath. They treat rogues the same way they do heretics..." The thought of the truth behind that statement gave Carda a strong desire to call the Council members' lineages into question.

"Do you have any way to dispose of these? Not the trash, either; I'm afraid that if you do that they can still track my signature to Gaia."

Seraphim watched the exchange with some amusement. It was obvious to her that these two would become friends. It just might take them a bit to get used to each other...

Carda, on the other hand, was currently looking at Sosiqui as if she had lost it. "Oh yeah, THAT is going to be SO helpful. When I said 'dispose of them', I meant 'destroy them'. Just chucking them out in the snow is going to do jack SQUAT for either one of us. If anything, they'll track me by those pens and show up right in your front yard. The Striders' trackers aren't the friendliest houseguests to have, either. Especially in YOUR case." His voice had risen rapidly in pitch through this entire statement.

Carda looked Sosiqui dead in the eye as he added, "They may come here looking for me, but if they find you, that's just a pleasant bonus for them. I'm doing this as much for your sake as my own."

Carda blinked. Multiple times, in fact.

"Hey, next time you plan on doing that, mind giving me a little heads up? I can't see anything but a big dark blur now."

Carda blindly stumbled in the general direction of his equipment. Unfortunately his staff was at just the wrong angle where it rested against the sofa. Carda's toe caught it full force, which caused it to swing around in an arc. The opposite end whacked Carda in the face.

Normally that wouldn't have been a problem, except Carda was already somewhat off-balance from the temporary flash-blindness. The staff finished the job, sending Carda to the floor. One flailing arm caught the book he had pulled out of his bag and sent it flying, where it landed at Sosiqui's feet.

Carda lay where he had landed. "This house must be cursed or something," he mumbled, not bothering to get up for the moment.

Carda sat up, rubbing his face as he did so. Well, at least his nose wasn't bleeding. A broken nose was the last thing he needed at this point.

Seraphim, giggling uncontrollably, fluttered down and rubbed Carda's closed eyelids. As she did so, Carda felt a strange sensation. When he opened his eyes, the dark blur was gone. Seraphim zipped away, still giggling.

"Oh sure, laugh it up," he griped. He made a mental count. Not counting the locus pens he had left in other worlds, as those could always stay where they were as false leads for the trackers... That should have been all of them.

Wait. He'd given Sosiqui one of those pens as well.

"Hey, what did you do with that pen I slipped into your belongings?" he inquired as he stood up.