It was one thing to have Akija say "good for you!" in regards to Lanithro and his new obligation to teach him, but it was quite another for Sentio to say, enthusiastically, that he was proud of him. Actually, it was more than a little embarrassing, and a little irritating. At least after Flash made a very rude suggestion of what he could do with his condescending pride, he'd toned himself down and kept his suggestions to a minimum. It was rather more gratifying that he'd been indignant that Shijzet had been so inflexible and annoyed.

He had, at least, said he wouldn't go with him to meet Lanithro, though he obviously wanted to. "I have to work," he said. And you oughta go yourself, anyway, his shadow added smugly. It made Cacopheny rather want to bite him, and he promised himself he'd stay abed until Sentio was gone the next morning, so he wouldn't say something scathing to the well-meaning dragon.

As it was, he'd stayed up so late the night before trying to work out how he'd start teaching Lanithro a whole new language that he slept well into the morning and so slept through Sentio's departure the next morning. It had taken Akija pouncing him laughingly to get him up in time to get a shower and a decent breakfast before he had to meet Lanithro. And then he'd had to rush, anyway, because dammit, Akija should not pounce him first thing in the morning if she didn't want to get a sleepy growl coupled with turning the tables on her in a counter-pounce and then some very personal attention. And since that sort of thing was reserved for night-time only, because Akija required cuddle-time afterwards, once he was clear-headed enough to realize that was where he was undoubtedly headed, he had to hastily abort. As much as he liked the idea of her falling asleep on him afterwards, he had places to be and she probably wouldn't be interested in napping when it was bright outside.

Thus, he wound up having to take a longer and colder shower than he might have otherwise wanted, so he still had to skip breakfast entirely to get out the door in time. He even had to slip through a couple shadows in the trees on his way-- not that there were many, with the trees mostly bare. Given Lanithro's obvious dislike of Dark demons and their magic, though, he made sure that he was actually approaching the Light Cathedral on foot and with as little shadow clinging to him as possible. He'd even thought to wear not a hint of black, just gray and purple and blue.

Shoo! he told the bits of magic still trying to hang on as he headed out of the skeletal trees and up the well-worn path to the Cathedral door, brushing it off with his hands and turning a deaf ear to its childlike whining. You won't like it inside, anyway.

Which was true. At the presence of all that opposite-aligned magic, the little bits of shadow-magic positively fled. Cacopheny peered up at the Cathedral's shining steeples with a little sigh, pushed his sunglasses further up his long nose to shield his eyes, and went inside.

Of all the Cathedrals, Flash grumbled as he hunched a little, uncomfortable and half-blind surrounded by so much light, you had to say you'd come to this one.

Once in past the foyer and into the actual temple itself, Cacopheny had to stop and squint, even through his sunglasses, to try and find Lanithro. The half-dragon had worn all white last time he saw him, and apparently this time was no exception, and white plus white hair and skin as pale as his own all but blended in with the Cathedral itself. What he wound up finally spotting-- after the large, red-tinted priest at the altar, anyway-- was Shijzet's dark cloak and the deep purple hair of a shape-shifted older dragon, one on either side of the blur of brightness that was Lanithro. They were in the front row of benches-- the claws-damned pew right in front of the gleaming statue at the front of the room with its beacon of magical brightness-- practically silhouetted against the pure light. He could hear it humming from where he stood, already.

This was definitely a mistake, Tek sighed. How are you supposed to teach anything if you can't see?

Cacopheny had no idea... but he figured he might as well try. Maybe, if this lasted-- if it worked-- Lanithro would get more comfortable with him and could meet somewhere else. Even the Earth Cathedral, which was of comfortable wood and stone rather than blinding whiteness. Until then, he could squint. Lanithro was the one who needed catering to, after all; he'd been free a matter of weeks, compared to Cacopheny's years.

So in he went, heading down the center isle and ignoring the occasional dark look he got from other patrons of the Cathedral. He got more of them in this building than anywhere else in Sanctuary, for some reason. He was used to it, but admittedly he'd come to avoid the Light Cathedral for more than just the incarnation of the element. Instead of being annoyed at that, though, he focused on the trio--

Trio?

Why the hell is it a trio?

Who else came?

--waiting for him. Shijzet and Lanithro, facing front, and the unknown, purple-haired Light dragon, facing him. He was leaning on a crutch and wearing light gray, but that was all Cacopheny could make out against the light behind him. When Lanithro and Shijzet turned at his obvious indication that Cacopheny had arrived, he couldn't make out their faces, either.

And he quickly decided he preferred that, because seeing the unhappy faces that went with Lanithro's fearfully tittering shadow and Shijzet's not-quite-intelligible growling, and the unfriendly face that went with the stranger's roughly curious commentary-- Cacopheny had never before been refered to as a "beastie", and he didn't think he liked it-- would make approaching them much more difficult. As it was, the smile he offered when he reached them was a bit thin, but he did at least manage to speak more clearly than was his wont, paying careful attention to the Ls: "Hello."

And, for Lanithro's benefit, he added in demonic, "That means 'hello'. I don't really know how much dragonic you know."

Those dark glasses-things are intimidating, Lanithro's shadow whimpered.

Too fucking bad, Flash growled.

Though that was unfortunately exactly the case-- he could barely see now, much less without the sunglasses-- Cacopheny still twitched uncomfortably, hoping no one had heard that, trying to ignore the inspection he was getting from the older dragon and Lanithro's nerves and the glare from the Light dragon behind him that was boring into his back.

"Jumping right into it, are you?" the older dragon grunted, and his gaze jerked to him. He still couldn't see his face very well, but his left eye looked wrong, somehow. It didn't glint right in the light. "Good day, then. Tell me, you looking to get paid for helping my grandson, or are you just doing this beastie to beastie?"

Cacopheny frowned at him-- Lanithro's... grandfather. Grandfather. Like-- like how Aedelian was Enyi's grandfather. Father of her mother, or maybe father. "Paid?" He took a breath and thought out his response before saying it, to minimize the accent. "I didn't even ssink about paying. I jzust ssought I vood be able to teach him better. Ssince he can understand me."

Lanithro shook his head sharply, distracting Cacopheny into glancing at him as the half-dragon looked back almost nervously. What? Wait, what? his shadow cried unhappily. Don't hurt me.... Trying not to wince, wishing he knew what brought that comment on, Cacopheny felt one of the shadows stir restlessly in him, but this time no one said anything, so he tried to ignore them, too.

"Hmph," the older dragon grunted again. "Out of the goodness of your heart, is it?" Well, he wouldn't exactly say that-- he didn't know how much goodness there was in him, honestly-- but he wasn't given a chance to answer the question. "Well, see how he does, then, but so much for that if he runs out on you. He's almost as much of a coward as my son, though I can't see him getting out of the Caetran territories all on his own. --You beasties have fun, then," he finished with a nod. "Don't keep him all day."

And with that, to Cacopheny's mild shock, he brushed past him and hobbled off down the isle, leaving the new trio alone.

Well, at least he's not going to hover, Flash commented as they all stared in bewilderment after him.

"What was that about?" Cacopheny asked Lanithro, confused. "Was he expecting a blood-thirsty monster, or something?" So many of them did, but that didn't seem like the usual response, if so.

"Grandfather was the only one who didn't," he confessed politely, "He just... wanted to see you for himself."

Ha, because you're a freak!

What did they do, panic?

Sounds like it, from what the kid's thinking.

Freak freak freak!

Freak show.

The prospect of a panicked family and being thought of as "something to see" made coming up with a reply a little difficult. He finally wound up with a somewhat bleak-sounding, "Oh," and coming around the pew so the light was no longer behind Lanithro, making it impossible to make out his face. He felt even taller than usual, with Lanithro sitting down, so he dropped to a crouch with the worst of the light behind him, since Lanithro was sitting on the isle and he didn't really like the idea of sitting next to Shijzet, who Cacopheny was sure had a hand inside his blanket on that little knife of his.

A subject change seemed in order. "I'm sorry about these," he began, pushing the sunglasses further up his nose again. They'd slipped down a bit, as they sometimes did when he was looking down at people. "I know they're strange, but I don't see well in bright light. These help."

"Do they make ones for seeing in the dark?" Shijzet asked after a pause that was just short of awkward, making a valiant effort at continuing a conversation he obviously wanted no part of, for his bond's sake. At least he wasn't growling.

This is going to be extremely tiresome, I think, Genner pointed out wearily.

Why did he even bother showing up if he's too damn scared of you to learn anything? Flash muttered.

"I don't know," Cacopheny answered patiently. "I expect you could find some spelled that way. Akijza is working on some to see magic with-- er. Akijza is my-- she is--"

How the hell do you describe Akija?

"--she lives with me and my bond."

Lanithro wouldn't look at him; he just glanced at him out of the corner of his eyes. "You have a bond?" he managed weakly.

"Yes," Cacopheny nodded. "A Light dragon. Assskan. His name is Sentchio, and he works in the city library."

Though he was looking at the statue behind him, Lanithro at least processed the statement, and frowned faintly. "You were... at the bonding complex?"

"I lived there for about three months, actually," Cacopheny shrugged. "In one of the candidate rooms all the way in the back. Until I-- Sentchio thought I-- might do better at his house."

Did worse, as I recall.

Ugh. I'm glad that's over.

There was another uncomfortable pause, but then Lanithro just sighed and hugged himself, asking, "So what will you be teaching me first?"

Progress, maybe?

Who knows.

At least we can stop talking about ourselves.

"I need to know what all you know. How many words-- whether you can read demonic-- that sort of thing. Then... I supposed we'd start with the alphabet and working out how best to say all the sounds we use differently in demonic, maybe how to make a sentence if we get through that today."

"Mother taught me the names of the Asandae and Sanctuary," Lanithro answered, and the speaking came easier now that he was answering a question or command. "Here I've learned only a few more. For hello, please, thank you, goodbye...." He actually deigned to look at Cacopheny again. "And I cannot read."

Well, that just meant that everything would have to be vocal... which he supposed might be easier, though it'd be harder to give "homework". Cacopheny didn't try smiling again-- he really didn't feel like it, and it didn't ever seem to reassure Lanithro, anyway-- but he did, at least, get down to work. "You're already farther along than I was," he told him, trying to sound a little encouraging. "And you can at least say your Ls and Ssssss... Ssssssth... I can't even say it. Your name-sounds. You just have to learn how to put them in other places." He settled down from his crouch to actually sit on the floor. "Why don't we start with those."

Despite his "head start", Lanithro still had trouble putting the sounds he knew how to say in different orders and in combination with other sounds. Cacopheny ran him slowly through the dragon-language's alphabet, testing each sound and explaining that the "rules" for each sound were much looser than in demonic-- you could put an F anywhere you wanted, rather than just at the end of a word, for example, and it very rarely mattered what vowel came after a certain consonant. At the same time, the rules for making up a sentence were stricter: word order determined everything except verb form, not variations of or additions to the word or sentence. Once one got it through one's head that one had to put the words in that specific order, though, it was actually easier than demonic, because there were no word-markers to remember. And the whole lack of a gendered word system made it that much easier, too: while there weren't exactly fewer words to remember, given how verbose dragons were, at least it wasn't necessary to remember what type of word to use where, how to adjust the rest of the sentence to fit the word, or which form of a word-marker to attach to it.

Really, when he thought about it, most of learning the dragonic language was memorizing vocabulary and verb conjugation, which was remarkably regular compared to demonic verb conjugation, and adjusting the mouth to fit the different sounds.

After describing the differences, though, and working through the alphabet and trying a few sentences in dragonic grammar with demonic words for practice, Cacopheny thought Lanithro had, had enough. Claws, he'd had enough-- enough of the whining shadow, the wary looks from Shijzet, of the blinding light everywhere, trying not to snap or growl with frustration at Lanithro's submission and nervousness, of being patient and kind and clear. His own words kept trying to come in fits and starts, after so much talking and so much effort in the talking, and he knew that if he kept trying for much longer he'd wind up rambling and stuttering confusedly.

"Why don't we come back tomorrow," he suggested at last, rubbing at his forehead, where all the light seemed to have lodged between his brows in the form of a headache. "And start on some words." He might have to teach Lanithro to read, if just to give him something to take home with him to practice with. "If you're all right with that."

"Noon, again?" Lanithro asked meekly.

Resisting the urge to snap at the half-dragon to stop cringing-- reminding himself again that he used to be like that, so he had no business being angry at someone else for being like that-- Cacopheny nodded and stood up. "Noon. Is fine. I'll-- see you then."

If one of us don't see him first, one of the shadows, just as frustrated as he was and rather more vicious about it, hissed.

Cacopheny twitched, winced, and blurted, "I need to go," before slipping past Lanithro and hurrying for the door, away from all the light. It was with definite relief that he left the cathedral behind, found the first shadow he could, and vanished.