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The shop's door rang with the wooden twang of a quick knot. From behind the wooden door, there was a familiar voice arguing with another, a slight shuffling and a bark of command. Following quickly was a gap of silence.

The door creaked open and a humble looking soldier in a leather vest and a white long sleeved shirt with cuffs and high collar pushed his way through, shouldering the door away with his arms filled with brown paper packages tied up with string. Behind him came his demon, his arms folded upon his chest. This time, the Nameless was wearing a coat, Bassett's old soldier jacket, as well as a soldier's pants that were rolled up to his pale knees.

Smiling over his armload of secret packages, Bassett Ellery glanced around the shop, pleased to see it coming along so nicely. He had come in several times to help clean up the shop after it's destruction, helping filing away books while Pey stuck himself up in some corner and sang old war songs. Now, he had brought some things to help the last stage of the shop's clean up. Quite honestly, Bassett enjoyed being a helping hand simply for the sake of helping, of cleaning, something that he was getting quite good at after crawling through muck and sewer during his bleak past. His chest was warm with the thought of seeing the workers of Daemonology, but most of all, with seeing how much Odessa, his good friend, had grown since the last time he saw her.

"Hello!" he called out.

For a few split moments, Bassett stared at her, his amber eyes wide.

"J-just show me a place where I may drop off this load, that'll be just dandy," he managed to saw after he realized his self-created awkward silence. He shifted his arms underneath the boxes and tried to move them in front of his suddenly quite embarrassed face. He was almost speechless, struck stupid by her sudden growth and unexpected maturity! He had seen her grow from when she was wee, just high enough to hug his knee to this, a nineteen year old, just as old as he! It was surprising, a very hard fact for a mere human like he to swallow. But try and swallow, he did.

"I can't believe that you're nineteen already, Dessy!" the soldier piped with his cheeks pinched into a smile, "Soon you'll be older than me!"

Behind him, Pey scoffed and stuck his hands into Bassett's soldier coat, turning away from the disgusting reunion. It was terrible to see his soldier, his soldier, becoming so soft like this! If only there were some way to bring back the temper in him, to rekindle the fire of the beast that made his blood burn with rage and blindness...Then things would be a LOT more interesting instead of having to follow around a man's servant! Pey looked around the shop, inspecting the blackened damage from one who strove to defend the Queen.

"Medicine?" Bassett echoed with the raise of his brows and he was instantly reminded of the kind nurses who took care of him and his wounds in the war. Their white clothes so pristine, their tired supportive faces, their tender caring hands...Nurses were like angels and it was funny to see Odessa, his demonic friend, following in the footsteps of one, "That's great! You can help all those who hurt. I knew quite a few nurses and doctors and medics on the field."

Bassett took several steps over to the table and carefully lied down his armload of packages, some big and some small. He stretched his arms after having carried the heavy weight all the way from his master's mansion and then he glanced up thankfully at Odessa. The solder's cheeks were rosy-hued, bitten by the chill cold outside and his nose was cold-kissed as well. He reached up and began to pull his strawberry hair back into a short stubby pony-tail, just long enough to be held back out of his face.

"Well," he said slowly, trying to piece together the right phrase, "I think any age for a princess is fine, but 20 is good as well...Wait, you mean you get to choose when you stop aging?" The servant raised a brow at her as he leaned forward to start undoing some of the packaging. Then he chuckled at her proclamation, "I'm sure you will be, with work and practice you'll be the best of the best!"

The Nameless glanced down towards his feet were he stood over a particularly large blackened stain in the wooden floorboards. He pinched his nose at it, quite certain that the floorboards did not just speak with him. But a feeling of familiarity in his chest told him otherwise. He sunk the the floor and he felt the feeling grow stronger. Pey, a Nameless. the demon responded silently in the same way the bloodstains spoke with him.

Bassett, surprised, but all too hopeful, of her enthusiastic curiosity, peeled away the paper from the topmost paper package, the one that was easiest for him to reach. He opened up the cardboard and pulled out some book ends, made of pewter in the shapes of gargoyles. His face brightened and he held one of the twin book ends towards Odessa.

"I found these when I was in the flea market the other day on an errand for my master. I thought they would replace some of the ones that were damaged or at least do some help for the shop, so I bought them with some of my own money. Of course, there are more things as well!" the proud witty soldier reached into another box and took off it's protective coverings as well, "And here," he said with a smile, "Is some bread rolls and fruit that I picked up earlier today to fill the stomachs of the hard workers in Daemonology. I thought you as well as the others in here might do good with a snack."

Pey tilted his head at the floorboards, letting his rolls of blood red hair trickle over his shoulder, "Attis...Your name rings familiar but I cannot place a face. I do hear you, whether or not I counted or expected upon it, I can hear you."

Then that soft question.

The Nameless watched the floorboards, as if expecting them to unveil the fallen warrior, for he felt his presence there. Here was a demon he respected and felt familiarity with! What kind of demon wouldn't love the Queen? Not I. I may be a carrion crow, a vulgar scavenger, and a low-runged nameless, but that does not mean that my faith and loyalty lies with the Queen."

Pey leaned down real close to the floorboards, noticing all too well as the blood stain's edges began to feather and disappear. He frowned at it, enjoying the company, and he thought it was too soon to have this presence leave. So, out of curiosity and something other that was indescribable, Pey licked the blood stain with his long tongue. It's bitter taste touched its tongue as well as the dry metallic tinge of blood. An assassin's blood.

Then he thought over the information. Father. His father did it, but who was father to Attis the Master of all Assassin's! What must I do? he asked, out of curiosity instead of duty. His blood stirred at the thought of fighting the killer of the Queen, Father? My father is a puddle of blood and a soldier's strangling rage, what...Or who, is yours? Pey kicked himself for not knowing all the history and politics he should about his home realm.

He opened up more of the packages and the soldier jumped a bit when he felt Odessa's arms slide around him. He felt a slight warmth jump to his cheeks and then he patted her head, feeling quite awkward now that Odessa was his age and not the little girl he first had known her as. "I wanted to help the shop for helping me. This is the least I can do," he said in return. He finished another cardboard box and opened it to reveal an armload of towels, "This is to help clean up whatever mess there is left." He dug his arm to the bottom of the box and pulled out something else, "And this is a coat! I think it should fit you." He held it out for her to inspect. It was a nice knee length woolen coat made of nice died wool, "I though you might need it for the winter."

Pey lowered himself down to the ground so that he was nearly pressing his entire being with all his white palid flesh to the stained floorboards. The Nameless was pleased that the remains of Attis remained for just a little while longer. It wasn't in his nature to leave a soldier behind, especially when it was one like him in so many ways but some.

He listened to the fading voice as much as he could and his brows raised when the other mentioned the blade, Fragarach? That blade is still sharp? And it is the slayer of our Queen?

If this were to be true, Pey had a plan to get Bassett on the move and bring back his soldier like properties!

Bassett grinned widely, quite like a youth who had just done something incredibly good. He gave it over to her and continued taking things from the boxes, "The last of it is some bottles of ink and paper that might help replace the papers that can still be salvaged." The soldier proudly opened the boxes displaying them for Odessa to see. He had come to see the shop as a place he could go to beyond the comforting home of his master, Galvin. While the soldier deeply respected and cared for his master, he found another haven in the walls of the old store filled with scriptures and volumes of old forgotten lore.

Lilith not gone? The Queen is not dead? Thrown from mortal body into a state without skin? The Nameless demon shivered with anticipation, leaning so close to the wooden grain that he nearly pressed his face upon it. His inversed eyes were wide wide open, swelling with the knowledge passed onto him as if he were reading a message pressed upon him by a carrier pigeon in battle. Footsteps, and Pey snapped up from the ground like a spider about to attack at the first sign of the store owner plodding down the stairs.

How dare he step over his body as if he were a fallen soldier?!

Answering Edward's statement of gratitude, Pey's throat rumbled with a growl. Almost immediately, his demon's eyes narrowed and his thin blood moistened lips turned into a snarl. There, the blade of yore, glimmering wet from the desk, exactly as Attis had told him!

Bassett perked at the sight of the store owner, a man he had come to respect as well as look up to in times of need, well, when it came to things of demonic doing. Otherwise, the servant looked up to Galvin. Picking up a box of paper and ink, the enthusiastic youth walked over to Edward, glancing over his shoulder at Odessa with a smile, "Edward! Look what I brought for you!" the soldier piped. "Papers and inks and more! i thought it might do some-"

All of a sudden, Pey leaped up and threw himself into Bassett, sending the soldier over the desk, knocking over many of its things, and onto its other side with a thump. The startled soldier yelped and threw his box into the air, paper and ink scattering wildly like snowflakes in a blizzard. He placed himself between his summoner and the sword, and with a hiss, cried "DEMON-KILLER! YOU KILLED ONE OF MY OWN! THAT CURSED SWORD HAS BLED THE BLOOD OF MY KIN AND YOU WILL PAY!"