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*Kaiori smiles softly again, gracing the world with her features lighting up, for one last time.* Than, you are not yet a man. You only care for me because now I lay before you. When really, I have suffered a great deal before and you hadn't even bothered to enquire over my whereabouts. You may seem to care for me now but I know this to be a hollow caring. What you are feeling now is merely the selfishness that makes you a child. Do you not think I would know when I should die? Who are you to try to keep me alive, you are no god. *With a grunt as soft as a baby doe's she rises to her feet. Such great emotions spill over her like the blood spilling from her wounds. It wouldn't be long now. Her eyes are an icy blue. Her body rejects his magic as she rejects his false caring.* Though you claim to care for me you never have, or will. Children learn only over time to consider other's feelings over their own. *Her black and white hair spills over her shoulders and drags on the ground. Her ivory skin is tinted red with blood and yet she continues to breathe.* If I want to live I'll do it on my own, with the help of someone who is truly an adult.

As Kaiori rose to her feet, Than was overtaken by her words, and he remained on his knee while she rose to her feet. Though her words would seem harsh to him as he had been, after all the solitary time he'd now had to think to himself they were, no less, exactly what he had wanted to hear. Slowly, Than rose to Kaiori's level. "You call my caring false...... and you would be right, but there's a better word for it." His aura disipated completely and he stared right into Kaiori's left eye with his right. "And false or true.... it would still be caring. But that's not what'd drawn me out here, I can see that now....... it's penance. Of course I don't understand how much you've suffered; even when I look into your eyes like I do now I can only glimpse it, and in the past one of us was always too afraid of me understanding it for me to get close to your past. And now.... I can admit that everything I did was for the you who I thought you were and not that which you are. You're right..... I have been and probably still am a child in my understanding, but at least I've realized it."

Following, Kai would notice a change in Than's demeanor from worry to anger, from looking down at her dying form to staring at her as if she were equal or above him. "And just who do you think you are to judge who I am, now, much less what I will be. I believe that I can still change, even my feelings towards you. Yes, I never saw you for who you really were before it was too late; yes, I only stood by you because I cast onto you the image of the person I believed you were; yes, I was every bit as malicious as Xol, Truinthil, my father, Galette, Dom, and Apollo; yes, I lied to you, myself, and everyone when I said I loved you!" The last clause he said with almost a hateful tone, perhaps towards himself, and then his voice took on a more somber tone: "If I remember right..... that's what the French once said, that love begins with the illusion being more real than the woman....... but whatever I was or did in the past, I've realized the fundamental falsities in my beliefs and the reason I stand here besides you now is for no other reason than my own penitence, my selfishness as you put it. That's why I'm here, why I don't want you to die, but ultimately I'm not powerful enough in any way to stop you from doing that if you won't accept my regret over everything that I know I've wronged you with."

No tears beaded in Than's eyes as he spoke, because he finally felt fulfilled in having heard Kai acknowledge that she knew, as well as he did now, that he had still much to become and even more to learn, realize, and understand. This above all was something that he wanted to do as a return for all that he now despised about his childish nature. He wasn't sure he completely understood what it was that brought him here now, which was real and which was his illusion cast over Kaiori and unto himself; he just knew that he didn't want her to die.

"What is it you really want to happen, Kaiori? If you really wanted to die then why have you not already succumbed to those wounds? I don't believe you came here because it was a wonderful place to die; that's a load of crap. If you wanted to elect your own fate, then why let yourself die now?" It just seemed so unjust. Why did Kaiori have to appear to him again at the time of her death, and why near his home of all places. None of it made sense; little of him thought that Kai really believed death would grant her a respite from the suffering which he knew nothing of. He knew full well that he was asking Kai a second chance to know her for who she really was, and he did hope that in some way he might be able to offer her a reason with which she could justify prolonging her life.

Every stranger is a friend waiting to happen... The voice purred softly into Mugiri's mind, enjoying the brief conversation for what it was. The voice had allowed a few moments of silence as it contemplated the second question, before it continued. As it stands, I am unable to enter the vast city, as I once did in my childhood. Though of course I invite you outside to speak on more personal terms, lest you have intentions of letting me in. The voice giggled slightly at the last notion, knowing full well that he wouldn't be allowed into the Citadel, but there was no harm in teasing.

Mugiri tapped his chin thoughtfully. "I am Mastema's new apprentice, maybe he would let you in if I asked. I am unable to go out, however, because I don't know where the hell I am, honestly. In relation to where you are, that is."

"WTF?" were the first words out of his mouth as re-entered the body left behind in the physical, his minds going in every direction but straight.

"I gotta find people and quick. This place with all the shinny and isolation and loneliness is bringing back too many thoughts, too many feelings."

He began to to fade out of existence within the Citadel, leaving no trace of himself ever being there save for the faint essence of the emotions that griped him during his sleep.

(((Continued in the 5th Dimension)))

Mugiri's neck prickled. "If my master wants nothing to do with you, why should I be talking to you? Mastema seems a great scholar, and I am almost sure he is on the side of truth, and if you were who you say you are, he would beckon you." Mugiri paused, thinking of how Mastema had belittled him. Not even aparing a shudder at the horrible vision of hell. He turned his thoughts back to this person. "What is a truth my master has lied about?""

Cole is aggravated, sending a little more strongly to Mugiri.

"You really don't want any part of that! Anything he tells you will be a twisted truth, don't use your mind to talk to people if you aren't going to use it to think too!!!"

Cole realizes that the same could be said for him, but doesn't bother adding it. The same thing applied, this other, loud, person shouldn't really be wandering around all innocent like anyway. He sighs loudly in exasperation, then starts looking outwards again. Whatever this other person decided to do, he didn't want to be privy to the voice. Too creepy.

He passes through the rooms and hallway again, looking around for anything new. Nadda, great. With another sigh he centers his view and drifts outside, wanting to get another look at the barrier.

O_O At least, that was the plan.

"Um... I hope that's normal..."

Cole, still wanting to make better on the impression he had started with the man in the room above, kept silent. However, apprehension had become expanding off of him. Shadows didn't normally do that did they? Maybe this was another not-normal normal.
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