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Cybele had a hint of free time in her schedule these days. It wasn't much, but it was enough that she could occasionally come out when the time wasn't edging towards dawn. She wasn't sure if coming out earlier was the most effective. She wasn't finding quite as many youma, but the nice thing was that the quieter nights at least had more interesting, non magical things to look at.

This evening, she'd wandered a bit out of her way and found herself at somewhere sort of in between the residential neighborhoods and downtown proper, in one of those streets that was packed with more boutique-y, independent stores. Some of them were even still open, and Cybele, not feeling any Chaos auras around, had decided to stroll by. It was late May, the beginning of the summer rush, and the stores were definitely taking advantage of that. There were flowerpots in front of most of the window displays with big tropical leaves and bright pink flowers. The window displays were just as colorful with swimsuits and sundresses and giant beach balls. It seemed like beach balls were just getting bigger and bigger, and as Cybele moved on to the next display, she realized that giant unicorn inflatable rafts now existed as well.

She found herself wishing that the beach was a bit closer, but her window shopping was interrupted as she felt a nearby aura. She took a step back and started looking around.

She saw him turning the corner moments before she heard his proclamation.It got a shocked, brief giggle out of her. There was maybe a bit of a blush as well but that wouldn't show in the glow of the streetlights. Hopefully. Anyway, Cybele was left blinking at the man in blue before her. The man, who, as it turned out, was quite attractive as well as surprisingly witting.

"I was," she said with a carefully contained smile. "It seems I've found you." She tried to look at the more practical aspects of things. he didn't have a tiara or too many frills, so he was probably a knight. He also looked about her age. Cybele really needed to stop thinking that every time she felt a first level aura it was going to be a scared fourteen year old girl.

It wasn't like she'd even been around all that many scared fourteen year old girls lately. It just seemed like she was still stuck on the ones she'd failed. She let herself smirk a bit at her present situation. Right now, she had this guy to talk to.

"I'm Cybele," she said with the little curtsy that had become a habit. "To who do I owe the pleasure?"

Cybele laughed, too, although her smile started crossing into forced territory as she started to realize just how full of himself her new acquaintance was. As someone who worked in the theater world, it wasn't completely off putting, just not what she'd been expecting here in front of this kitschy store in their magical clothing.

Still, she straightened with a smile. "I did, didn't I? It is nice to meet you, Alhambra."

She took a moment to feel for any auras that might be around. There were the two of them, of course, but there didn't seem to be any Chaos in the area at the moment.

"It looks like you're in luck, too," she said. "It's been a quiet night. The youma aren't out as far as I can tell. Also, I've been around for a few years now, so you could say I know the basics about the war and what's been going on, and I'm also all right with being pestered."

She gave a nod, but this was a hint of a smirk left in her expression. "So, do you have specific questions or would you like me to start with the basics?"

"There are some evil furries, you could say," said Cybele immediately before grimacing. That was a sentence she had not been expecting to say at any time in her life.

At least she couldn't blame the guy for not taking things seriously now, since he didn't know what was going on. It meant she would have to break the news to him, but he seemed the type to handle thing like this decently.

She took his hand with a smile, not minding the closeness, and she started to lead him down the street. "You've probably been seeing youma. That's what we call the monsters, the ones that tend to look like strange animals, but from what I understand, they're only the creations of the Negaverse."

Blanking for a moment, she realized she'd never before had to explain the Negaverse to someone with no background on them, and 'quick summary' limits was going to make this a bit of a challenge. "They're an army, or at least an organization, of people. They're, as a rule, evil, and I don't say that lightly. They can drain people's energy or kill them, and they've been behind most of the strange unsolved mysteries from the news, at least here in the city."

She glanced over to see if he was following.

She didn't mind the Page's casual attitude, but she couldn't match it either. She folded her hands in front of her and nodded, solemn.

"Yes," she said.

"I'm not sure about everything they use the energy for. They have a city they must need to power." That was said musingly and half to herself, and she nodded to clarify. "They have a city that can only be reached with magic. That probably takes a lot of it. The youma, too. I know they're always looking for it when they're around."

She pursed her lips. It wasn't something she had thought about too much, but it was probably important. They spent so much time gathering that they had to be doing more than just maintaining their systems. Then, what about the Dark Mirror?

That was a thought for another time, although the current conversation wasn't much easier. Slowly, she nodded again at his last question. "I don't know if it's always the case, but I saw it happen once, and I've seen the results of it a few others." It was something she tried not to think about too much.

She let her arms fall to her sides.

"So, yes, that's what we're up against."

Cybele talked about these things so much recently that sometimes it didn't feel quite so terrible. Sometimes, it was just news and lessons that she had to pass on. Alhambra's reactions snapped her back into the reality of it, and she gave a wry smile.

"Yeah," she said. "It's bad. It's a lot, sometimes. More than pest control." That got a sigh out of her, a deep one, with her eyes leaving the page's to flick across the ground. Fighting youma didn't bother her so much anymore, but she still hated the rest, the parts where she was helpless.

She didn't wallow too long. There was more to get through. "Let's see." She stood back up and squinted. "We broke into their city once. That's a story of its own, but it's likely too risky to do that again, even if we could. Otherwise, if you were around before, you probably have a basic idea. They still like to ambush public events, for some reason. They still come out on their own at night."

She gave a slightly bigger smile. "It would probably be easier to find them if they laughed more."

"All right," she said, when asked about the invasion. "All right." She pursed her lips and gathered her thoughts. It was the kind of thing that had had a lot of moving pieces. She hadn't thought much about it beyond the actual fight in awhile.

"Some of the magic involved even I don't fully understand. That's the disclaimer," she said, with an apologetic smile. "Although that's what happens, quite a bit. You think you understand and then something new shows up. That time, it was an alien, I believe? He's been their prisoner, but he had the ability to open a portal to their city so we could face the Negaverse head on. There were arguments about whether or not to trust him, but for the most part, we went in the end."

"I think there were some other things for people to take care of, but I just went to the castle to fight." Her face went a bit colder at that. She remembered the group she'd went with, how all of them but her had thought maybe they could just explore, or talk, even, and how they'd all left with blood on their hands. "It was a battle," she said simply. "People died. We won. We got one of their leaders, even. Maybe two?" Had Laurelite died? The end was a bit of a blur.

"Eventually, they got reinforcements, and another magical being, Cosmos, had to teleport us out."

She settled back on her heels. "That's the slightly longer version. The details get much sadder very quickly."

"Hmm."

At least he didn't ask more about the fights. Those were memories Cybele didn't want to dredge up more than she had, but Caedus's relationship with the Negaverse was something that she hadn't really thought about at all.

"Like I said, he was the only one able to actually get Order on the offensive in all the years I've been around, and he broke into their citadel at least once," she said, lacing her fingers together in front of her. "They'd want that contained, I think. I don't know why they'd keep him alive, though. To study?" She loosened up at that, shrugged, and even managed a smile.

"I'm not the one who would know. I didn't end up talking to him as much as other people, and he might even still be around himself. I think he went into hiding afterwards. His name is Caedus if you want to ask about him."