Welcome to Gaia! ::

"I... I should have learned everything as soon as I could, instead of assuming..." Again, Airi reached up towards her neck, though this time her hand faltered and fell before she could get halfway. "But you are all here. That makes it right. Doesn't it?" She looked unsure, then slowly began to regain her composure. Sati could see the change happening, as one nature overruled the other once more. "Yes, of course."

The blonde Fa'e sat up straighter now, more composed and aloof as usual. "Thank you, Sati. This helps so much... now I have a far better idea of the path that needs to be followed." Her voice was firm.

Airi frowned, just slightly. "I will need to plan," she said, but did not offer anything else. "And... my Guardian..." She wilted again. "The gem was taken from me again, by the lion child. Not so far away that I will fade, unless he leaves this world with it, but I am afraid it will fall into the wrong hands." Airi looked pleadingly at Sati. "Do you know where he is, this child? My Guardian?"

Airi's eyes grew wide. How could Mortimer have know that? The Anya gem? But the gem didn't respond, it wasn't consious, Anya's soul within had never given her an answer, no matter how much she had tried ... but that could have been the only way Mortimer would have known. Mortimer ... Her lips tightened. how could have a little bundle of fur and cooties have become such big trouble. Looking back up at Sati she met the woman's now scarlet eyes, searching it for signs of rage. She couldn't lie to Sati. But she was too afraid to tell the truth. Well, what was she to do now? Especially considering what she herself had just learned from Sati. Airi paused, for once at a loss of words ...

Sati saved Airi the need to answer by assuming that her silence was a confirmation. Embracing her own shoulders with her hands she looked at Sati with eyes so blue they seemed to be windows to infinity.

"Why?" - Airi asked quietly.

Airi looked down, and sighed.

"I did not know everything back then. Besides, I do not trust the Gods. They always wanted to be above everything else in the Universe."

Then she looked up at Sati with a pleading looks: "Doesn't everyone deserve another chance?"

Airi looked at Sati cooly: "Whatever the gods might think, you and all the Fa'e are not their pawns. They had their way with you all already. That is why you all ceased to be." - she sighed.

"And it hurts me very deeply that you, like my Guardian, like everyone else, it seems, will not be willing to help me in my goal. I am too weak, too little to do this on my own. But I will succede eventually, for I owe him that much. I have little to loose, I already lost everything I once was ..." - she nodded solemnly, mostly to herself. This was just like her talk with Anya a year ago, except then she didn't believe her Guardian's words about the madness of Chaos. But Sati confirmed her worst fears and also explained to her the strange things she had noticed before and had not been able to comprehend. Like the Legion. Legion made a lot of sense now ...

Floating in front of Sati, Airi looked like a ghostly apparation then a real being in the filtered sunlight of the room. Even though she was no longer fading, the ethereal quality of her body, her garments and her hair intensified the feeling that this girl child was not truly real. As Sati spoke, Airi listened carefully to her words, considering them, weighing them against the convictions within her soul.

"You do not owe me, Sati. If anything, you owe Chaos." - she smiled mysteriously. "As do I." She paused pressing her hands against her heart. "It will not matter if he consumes me. It will be like crushing a puppa's shell which was left behind after the butterfly already hatched and flew away into the world. But don't be afraid. I understand that the reason you and Anya and Mortimer fear Chaos so is because you fear that the World will be destroyed once he is free. I promise you, it will not come to that. Or, rather, I will not let it come to that."