Okay. She could do this. It wasn't so bad, right? It was just a creepy staircase, leading into a slightly glowing room. That wasn't anything dangerous! No, not at all. Years and years of learning from horror movies and video games found themselves blatantly ignored as she tried to convince herself it was a good idea to do what she was doing that moment.

Thankfully, some of Dylon's parting words - and his parting promise - helped. Apparently, she reasoned, without this creepy trip to this creepy glowing room, she'd be partner-less, and without a partner, she'd die pretty quickly. Avoiding death was always the universal motivator (next to money and boredom, she supposed), and with that running through her head like a mantra, she managed to make it down the stairs and into the small room. She glanced around it, her hesitance melting away into pure awe as she took in the sight of the lined tablets, marking every free inch of space in the room, and all of them were marked with glowing symbols. Most she recognized, others she did not, and she couldn't help but reach out to brush her fingers along a few of them. All she felt was cold, and the breath of a whisper from a voice that could not have existed. Perhaps should not, as well.

The more she looked and the more she inspected, the more she realized there was something calling out to her. She was being drawn slowly to one corner of the room, where one tablet was glowing a little brighter than the rest. It was becoming increasingly clear to her that this was the tablet that was going to be her partner...

...So it made perfect sense that it was well out of her reach.

She stared up at it through her shutter shades, and sighed. The one she wanted to get to was up high on the wall, and though she was a tall girl, she doubted she could get there easily. Jumping was likely out, she still kind of felt like a newborn deer. She lifted one hand to pull the shades off her eyes, pulling it back to rest on the top of her head before her hands went on her hips. It was a challenge now, and one she was going to solve. There was nothing on the room she could have used to get to the tablet, and she didn't know the layout of the building well enough to know where she could grab a chair or anything.

A fourth survey of the room and she realized that there was a torch on the wall. A little inspection later showed that it had a pointed end, at least the end that wasn't on fire. She pulled it free from the wall, and smacked the flame end against the ground a few times; it resulted in a much darker room, but at least now she wouldn't set herself on fire.

Picking the tablet from the wall was much easier now, though she had to lean up on her toes and jimmy the sharp nd between the wall and the tablet itself. It took a little shifting, and a lot of loud cursing, but eventually it pried free, and fell into her hands, the torch falling uselessly to the floor at her feet. There was a strange whistling noise, and suddenly the tablet in her hands was much, much heavier.

Something massive landed on the ground with a metallic clunk that was accompanied by a startled shriek from the new Trainee, who had doubled over as whatever was in her hands pulled her down. She stared in the darkness, following the shape in the glow -

She was holding an axe. A giant axe with what looked like glowing red eyes -

The axe had eyes.

The whistling in her head continued, an almost excitable whistle that was filled with promise, but not one that was entirely understandable. At first she was okay to ignore it, imagining that it was from the wind that was no doubt kicking up with this entirely magic performance. Instead she focused on the axe, lifting it up and down; it was heavy, but not as heavy as it looked. She needed both hands to wield it, but that was understandable. It was - it was - so cool!

The whistle sounded agreeing.

"...Wait." Dylon had said something about a second voice in your head...right? "...Is that you? Are you...talking...to me?" The Whistling had stopped as she spoke, and continued again, as if answering. Alas, there was nothing there that was distinguishable, but the tone was present. "...Say that again?" The same tone of whistle, all the way through. "...In english?" Again, but a little more angry now.

"...Okay, this isn't going to work." The problem at hand made her forget momentarily that there was something else in her head. "Can you tell me your name?" Whistling. "...Can you spell it?" More, this time fragmented. "...Okay what If I run through the alphabet, and you make a noise when I hit the right letter?" A noise of agreement was heard, despite the annoyance behind it.

And that was how Harley met Lament, and spent almost half an hour doing so.