Welcome to Gaia! ::

((XD;; Yeeeah.. something like that... =D So therefore, I'm going to give Ai-chan something else! XD;; *at the nickname and wonders what she would think of it*))

Micoi nodded eagerly at the information and filed it away in her long-term memory as Neith spoke. So many elves (and at the same time not), yet still it was... Her thoughts didn't get any further because the maid had come back with a pair of boots that the Queen-to-be now slipped on.

"Background?" Micoi blinked at Neith as she adjusted the footwear. "What does that matter anyway? It's just clothes. Clothes as clothes, right?"

There was a low sound from somewhere inside the room and a moment later the door slowly opened, revealing a (by the looks of it) half (or less) awake Yellow Officer. One eye closed and the other half open against the brightness in the hall, Illusia had one hand in his hair, pushing the unruly fringe (no doubt a mornign thing only considering his otherwise neat hairdo) out of the way where it would have hung down to obscure the closed eye. The dressing gown was (thankfully?) closed properly with a sash but had probably been put on rather quickly since it hung a bit loosely and so reveal part of his chest down to the waist.

"Ai..." he said, blinking with the one half-open eye, stopping as if he had forgotten her whole name. Then he seemingly tried again. "Ai-chan," well, almost, "what is it?" If one were to conclude anything it probably was that that late night had been "somewhat" later than first imagined perhaps.

((o.o *blink* *is listening to Dixie Chicks "Not Ready To Make Nice" and suddenly got a small scene in her head* XD;;
Micoi: *after having had some kind of argument with Jett storms out of his office and slams the door behind her*
Some (foreign?) official: Uhm... is Lord Jett--
Micoi: No! *slams fist against the closed door* He's busy!
Official: ... With what, my lady?
Micoi: With being an a*****e! *storms down the hall*

XD;;; I don't know why or where it came from but... it was fun.))

Micoi titled herhead, looking over at Neith and then nodded slowly. That made sense... Kanak was like that too sometimes.

"Well... nothing too big then," she agreed. Hey, she could be agreeable and she could negotiate... sometimes.

((*reads Aiketh's post* ... o.o ...and sleeping in the dorms to the prior Black Dragon Officer... XD;;;; That somehow sounded... like they had a history. *laughs* Sorry, I've had dark chocolate. XD; *reads on* o_o;;; DID she have a relationship with the prior Black Officer?))

"... I am dressed..." Was he being funny? "...in a way." It still wasn't sure if he was joking or not.

Pushing the forelocks completely out of the way now and removing his hand from his head, the officer straightened. "Just give me a moment," he said before walking back into the room and closing the door behind him. A few minutes later, the dragon reemerged, this time completely dressed and looking more awake. "Alright, where do we go? Because I guess you don't want to discuss this subject in the corridor like some gossiping maids." Was he making fun of her, the maids, (young) girls in general or being serious? ...It was still a mystery.

Micoi smiled at the maid. "It's pretty," she agreed. "So... are we finished now?" she asked expectantly, eager to go. At least she had not been forced into one of those miniature hells of cloth and steel.

Illusia blinked and then nodded quickly, almost as if snapping out of some daze. "Of course," he said and opened the door again, walking in. Usually, the Black Officer didn't go into personal rooms but he guessed this had to be pretty important to warant this secrecy.

As the door closed behind them and Illusia gestured to two armchairs by one of the large windows, now free of the heavy curtains that not so long ago had been obscuring them. "So... how bad is this?" he asked, getting right to the point. Really, if it was as bad as it seemed there was no point in delaying it. Now it was all business.

((Siiiiis. =DDD *signals*))

Hurrying down the halls, finding the boots and semi-short dress extremely easy and comfortable to move around in (compared to what she had worn so far), Micoi stopped once to look around and locate herself. She still wasn't used to this place, but she hadn't been here for very long either...

Well, Neith had let her go, just giving her a light shake of the head and something along the lines of "be happy I'm not doing more to you, little missy"... But Micoi wasn't sure, she had already been on her way out the door by then. And now she was down one hall and... feeling a bit... lost perhaps? Looking around, Micoi gave a shrug and dove out the first door that had a green backdrop. As a result, stumbling out into the garden. Looking around, up at the blue sky overhead and listening to the chirping birds in the trees, she felt herself sweatdrop.

Greeeat... wasn't this place... kinda huge? Beginning to walk, concluding that you could only get so lost in a manmade miniature forest and that she eventually, or rather quickly probably, would find her way around. She was more used to these kind of surroundings anyway than the marble interior inside the castle.

The man had been listening intently, face serious, but now he froze. "The Queen-to-be? You don't mean that you suspect this happening because of the Lady? Or her upbringing and time in Arinas? We, especially we who didn't go with them, don't know much about the circumstance around them finding her... perhaps we should ask someone who went with them? Like Baran."

He was sure he didn't need to remind the other, but yesterday had been some show and that was what now made him worry and question. He just hoped that he was completely wrong. How had the Queen-to-be been raised? By whom? The youkai who unexpectedly came teleporting in and causing half the banquet guest body wonder if the Dragon Castle security and Light Shield was holding and as air-tight as their Secretary of Security claimed. He had not told Aiketh, and nor did he plan to if he didn't have to, of the gossip that had arose after she left running after the disappeared youkai and future Lady of the Kingdom.

Gracious Spirits, he sighed mentally, he sure as nadil was dead hoped that he was wrong and most, if not ALL, the rumors that had started (and he had done his best to kill most of them before they evolved too far or got anywhere beyond the great hall's walls) were true.

((It liiied to ussss! *hisses* Kill eet! XD;;; ))

Illusia nodded as Aiketh spoke, but he didn't completely agree with her on some point. He would tell her, of course, but first... her question. Their Lord, he felt, was a more pressing matter... always. "He is... he was rather unease during the evening after you all left, which is understandable. But on the overall he's all right. This odd development worries him just like it does us, naturally, and none of us really knows what to do about it. We spoke... about it, about what happened when it took control.

"He said it was like someone else was overriding his control and he could only watch, like when you read a book or watch a play... and the feel, he said... the feeling he got from it was dark, like a youkai. Or worse," the officer added his own thought at the end, raising his gaze to stare directly at Aiketh from the point in the floor he had been gazing upon. He had been speaking but at the same time, she could see in his pale yellow eyes, he had been playing the conversation all over again in his head. This didn't bode well...

Blinking, after what seemed like an unnaturally long stare, even to himself, he changed the subject back to their initial one. "Aiketh," he said seriously, "this might sound very cruel and political but as the Secretary of the State I have to do that sometimes... I do not think we should speak to Celia, she has..." He shook his head lightly, rephrasing his thoughts. "She may be very kind and understanding and, most of all, honest... but she has taken a liking to the young Lady." He shook his head again, this time slowly as if to show his disagreement.

"When you like someone you tend to bring up more of their good traits and actions, same goes, although the opposite of course, when you dislike someone. We need to speak to someone who has a neutral opinion about the Queen-to-be. Therefore, as it is more politically sound, we speak to Baran and only to Baran to begin with. If we have to, we will make him privy to some of the facts, but not else. If we have to, we might have to buy silence..." He let the words hang, knowing full well that she understood what that meant. Raising the rank of the man in question. In a higher position than Baran's current normal soldier role he would have more responsibility and duty to protect the castle and its people... and most of all; the Emperor. Every fighter had indeed swore to protect the kingdom and their Lord, but... any of them could request to be released from their position. A soldier of rank had more pressur on him, more that mattered and so they could put more demands on such a man too.

Illusia studied the woman across of him, waiting for her answer. She probably knew, and understood, why the Yellow Dragon Officer was choosing such a path as he now did.

((Hmn... XDDD Somehow I feel like I have just taken this a level higher. >w> Palace intrigues!! XD Wohoo! ^^; ))

The young dragon seemed to notice his presence quickly enough, very quickly to be sure, and she began turning around just before the Knight spoke up. Either she was sensitive or she was just that good. "Hi," the golden eyed female smiled easily, one of those smiles that Liozu (the original) himself often displayed. "Naah, I'm used to these kind of things," she replied, her speech was really casual for one of such a stature...

"And, actually... yeah, kind of," she agreed to both 'exploring the garden' and 'being lost'. "I can usually make my way through more or less any terrain but when it comes to manmade such..." she rubbed the back of her head, slightly embarrassed, "I'm rather bad at it. Aaaand I've not been here so long. But, you are...?" she asked, titling her head. It was a bit annoying when people knew your name and you didn't know theirs.

Celia had, once again in her half-asleep state, gotten completely lost in the castle. Sure, she had certainly spent eneough time there to get around when completely coherent...But after just waking up, not so much.

'How did I end up over here...? I thought that the kitchen was left past those stairs, and...Maybe it was a right...?"Her stomach hurt. Now, she really wanted to find the kitchen. She sighed, and pulled the ornament from her hair, letting it drop to its full length behind her. The knight ran a hand through it, combing it just a little with her fingers.

She stopped, and tried to get a sense of where she was exactally in the castle. She looked at everything around here, and then closed her eyes, trying very hard to think of where it all should go if it were to be placed on a map...That was usually how she found her way when lost.

Usually, that is how it worked...This time, something was different. She tried to picture the castle in her mind, but different colored lights started to pop up...

There were two...more or less where she thought they should be...A white one, and a blue one...Two were together, in a room...A dark blue one, and one that was kind of tealish...a large group of the lights was down in what she knew to be the training area for the fighters...Another pair, a light violet one, and...What was wrong with that light? It was two colors...

Celia didn't like it. Her eyes snapped back open...She didn't like the feeling she got from...Whatever had just happened. She couldn't help but kind of wonder though, what the lights were...They couldn't actually be people, right? That would have explained why there was that large grouping...and...the white and blue pair would have been her and Kahaku...but...No, she was probably just too hungry, and halucinating or something of the sort.

...However, halucination or not...That one light with the two different red colors made her feel uneasy...

"Come on Kahaku, I think its back this way..."She said, sounding a little bit distracted, as she walked back down another hallway.

Kahaku said nothing in reply, but seemed to smirk to himself, just a little.