Aloia sat at her desk, twirling a writing stick idly through her fingers as she stared unseeing at the list of supplies on the desk before her. With everything that had been going on-- and for that matter still was going on-- the Sanctuary officials, including Aloia Laerir, had been on their feet for practically weeks on end. It made coming back home for paperwork seem unusually tedious, perhaps simply because she was tired. It was almost with relief that she greeted the sharp knock on her office door, looking up and setting down the writing stick. Rising, crossing the office to the door, she wondered who was here to see her.

When the door creaked open, golden hair pulled back and dressed in common clothes, wearing that same pleasant smile that never seemed to leave her face, she found herself faced with two dragons, a Fire and a Light, and a human hovering behind them, shrouded in shadow. "Hello, there," she began, but a second glance made her smile faltered for a second. She raised her eyebrows high, glancing around the Fire to the tall, looming human in the background. She hadn't felt that kind of aura since... well, it had been a long time. "Who are you?" she finally asked, no less pleasantly, but with obviously piqued curiosity.

"Ketvia Pariyani," the Fire said quickly, dipping her head respectfully. "We've met once or twice, I think, but weren't really introduced. I was on Tris'Hath for that whole rotten war thing until a couple weeks ago. So was my friend, Chiya Diemicana." She nodded to Chiya, who bobbed in a quadruped's curtsey.

Still curious, Aloia tried again to see past the dragons to the human-- or not human-- behind them, but he seemed to be standing in a patch of darkness, half-hidden behind the Light dragon. Then she let the curiosity fade; if there was a demon half-breed in Sanctuary, she would hear about it soon enough. Back to Ketvia her golden eyes flicked, and she nodded. "You'll have to forgive me if I don't recall. It's been a very busy few weeks." Her smile was at once apologetic and amused. "Do come in, though, if you don't mind changing to human form. Is there something you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry," Ketvia blinked, and suddenly she was no longer a twenty-one foot dragoness, but instead a six foot human woman with burnished skin and fiery hair. "Yeah, there's something I'd like to talk to you about. I'll come in, you can sit down an stuff. I'll get you in a minute, Chiya," she promised, patting the Light dragoness' elbow, about the highest she could reach.

Aloia ducked back into her office then, gesturing Ketvia to follow her. Inside, her office looked more like a living room than an office. There was a discreet desk at one end of the room that boasted a crystal data-storage orb, neat stacks of paper and voicepad, among other small items. More prominent were the armchairs to the nearer side of the room, to which Aloia went; far different from most official's workrooms. It seemed Aloia was used to visitors. "Come, sit," she suggested, seating herself in example. "So, Ketvia, what brings you to me today?"

Ketvia dropped gracelessly into the other chair and went straight to it. "Cacopheny. That's his name, that half-demon out there. He's why I'm here-- well, actually, Chiya's why I'm here, but she wants to do this, so. Here I am, to ask you to take a psychotic half-demon into your bonding program as a candidate." She grinned, a slightly self-mocking grin, as if she expected outright refusal, here on a hopeless mission-- and Aloia's golden brows shot up, hearing that particular statement. So this was about the half-demon boy standing out there, after all, but she didn't know what to think about just what the Fire dragoness in front of her was suggesting. 

Blinking, she tried to formulate a response, choosing her words carefully. Her usual smile had been dropped in favor of mild surprise, though her lips quirked up in response to Ketvia's grin. "Well... Cacopheny. That's an odd name." She smiled briefly, getting another grin, this time of agreement, out of the Fire. The idle comment giving her time to think, at least, but she continued before the silence grew too long: "I see. Does the young man himself want to bond a dragonet? Demons as a rule don't like our sort, and half-demons.... well." Her recovering smile was ironic, apologetic. "Not even to speak of what the Sanctuary officials are going to think of an unknown half-demon in their midst."

"He likes dragon kids well enough," Ketvia said with a shrug of broad shoulders. "Made a pretty good friend of one back with a bunch of Airs-- you might know her, she got entered as a bondee just yesterday, Enyi Credensin? And he sure likes Chiya, and seems to trust me, too. So that's something. As for the officials... well, I know they won't like it. That's why I came to you, first, in the hopes that we might at least get one official on our side. His side. Whatever."

Aloia's smile turned soft. "Yes, I will certainly try, if you think he'd be a good candidate. I know how much grief a half-demon can get, trying to do anything around here. I'll put in a good word for him, and see if I can pull some strings." Her eyes went wide then, earnest, as she voiced what she really wanted out of this unexpected encounter. "I should like to meet him, though. He's the only demon half-breed I've heard of for... oh, two hundred years now."

"That's why we brought him," Ketvia admitted. "Well, that and Chiya doesn't like to leave him alone for too long." She rose to head for the door, then paused and gave Aloia a bit of a grin, albeit a sad one that betrayed that she knew perhaps too much. "And yeah, you don't find too many demon half-breeds-- demons like how they taste too much. This one only survived because he was being used for a sex toy, basically. Hence why he's so screwed up. Well, one of the biggest reasons, anyway." The golden matron's eyelids barely flickered, but she winced gently. She knew the kinds of things demons did, but... hearing it, well, that always made it worse. She stood from her chair, a new sympathy in her eyes, to greet Chiya and Cacopheny, while Ketvia, with that last remark, padded back to the door to open it up. "Chiya, Cacopheny, you wanna come in and meet the lady Aloia?"

Chiya entered through the door Ketvia held open for her, shrinking down to a petite, shimmery young woman, leading the tall, bony, darkly dressed Cacopheny into the room by the hand. Shaggy black hair, straight and shining with what could only be a recent wash, partially hid his face, and light fell oddly across it, making his expression hard to read and his eyes all but impossible to see. Even so, he was staring fixedly at Aloia with an intensity that she could feel. Chiya led him in and saw him seated in the chair Ketvia had so recently vacated, standing behind him with one hand protectively, or maybe just nervously, on his sharp-boned shoulder.

"This is Aloia," Ketvia said, somewhat needlessly. "Aloia, meet Chiya again, and Cacopheny. We, uh, don't know his last name. Neither does he, it seems, since Cacopheny's all he told us." The half-demon shot her a sullen look, presumably for talking about him as if he wasn't there, but didn't say anything.

Aloia nodded to Chiya first, giving the Light girl an empathetic smile. She seemed protective of the half-breed, and looking at Cacopheny, Aloia could nearly see why. Or maybe, she mused, keeping her wry thoughts to herself, she was just seeing a younger version of her own Janus in Cacopheny's darkened aura and sullen silence. Declining to take the other seat, she took a careful step towards the sitting half-breed and gave him a gracious nod, trying to fill every movement and expression with reassuring warmth. "Just Cacopheny, then. Welcome to Sanctuary."

The half-demon eyed her a long, tense moment before the odd shadows about his face lifted, giving her her first few of his angular face and dead black eyes. "Ssssank yoo," he said, his voice heavily accented but understandable.

"He only just learned common a couple weeks ago," Ketvia explained as Aloia blinked at the strange forms of familiar words. "Seems demon-speech is pretty different, and he's had a hard time adjusting. Chiya can translate pretty well, if you need it."

Again Cacopheny gave the Fire dragoness a glare, turning in his seat to glower at her. "Ketvia," Chiya said softly, "it's okay. Stop apologizing for him." Ketvia flushed more red than was her natural shade, more with annoyance than embarrassment, but kept her mouth shut.

"Yes, that's fine," Aloia agreed, recovering. "I've gotten fairly good at understanding accents in all my years." The half-dragon brushed off Ketvia's apology with a smile, but her eyes and attention went quickly back to Cacopheny, and as she studied his sharp face, she spoke directly to him, never mind that he was busy glaring at Ketvia. "You certainly aren't the worst I have heard by a long shot, my friend. So, you want to bond a dragonet, do you?"

Cacopheny's attention jerked back to Aloia at her last words. His mouth opened, then closed, then he asked tentatively, "Vat?" 

Ketvia groaned, and Chiya hurried to explain, "We hadn't... asked him yet. We didn't want to tell him something that wouldn't happen, you see.... Cacopheny, Yihoto sent us here because of your voices. Remember, he said he wouldn't make them go away, but he wanted us to do something else? This is it, that something else."

"But... vat. Issss. It?" Cacopheny asked slowly and carefully, most likely because he wanted to be understood, but a slight cant of the words hinted at the aforementioned insanity that so far hadn't been obvious. Aloia's smile once again slipped into surprise, and she stared at Chiya outright briefly before recovering herself. They hadn't asked the boy himself? That was the whole premise of the bonding; candidates wanting to find a dragonet. 

"It's... oh, Lady Aloia, you'd know better than me... can you explain?" Chiya looked hopefully at the bonding mistress.

This could prove messy, especially since the part-demon seemed unstable. Would he even know whether he wanted to or not? It was a hard choice to make even for a stable being. But she supposed the least she could do was oblige. "Oh dear... I see," she finally said. "I'll try to explain, then." Looking to Cacopheny, she took a deep breath. "The bonding is the formation of a life-long mental connection between a young dragon and, well, another being. The two bonded would share things like thoughts and feelings. I've heard it described like the constant company of a close friend, regardless of distance. Most who have bonded like it very much, in fact."

Cacopheny watched her closely, with a frown of concentration that deepened as he began to understand. There was a long moment of silence, and then, still frowning, he finally repeated, "Reef-rong-- Leef-long mehntul b-bond? Sssen... vood sssey hear. My zhahdohwsss?"

"His voices," Chiya murmured. "He hears them in shadows, the same way his magic works."

Voices. The boy heard voices. Though she looked up when Chiya spoke and nodded her acknowledgement now, it was back to the half-demon boy that she once again looked, as if he were the most important person in the room right now-- which, in fact, he might have been, if all of this were true. This just kept getting more and more complex, it seemed to Aloia, but at the same time simpler. Her mothering instinct was stirring; the poor child deserved a chance, and if Aloia could give it to him, she would do everything in her power to do so. "Yes, if a dragonet bonded you, he or she would probably be able to hear the same things you do," she told him warmly, despite the subject matter.

Another long pause, as he thought, obviously hard. His eyes flicked to the floor behind Aloia, then back to her face, then to the side, as if he didn't want to look at any of them. "Ssssey vood not leek sssat," he stated at last. "Sssey vood... rrrregretuh. Me. Ssssee b-bond. Eef ssssey heard sssem. I sssink."

"Not necessarily," Chiya interrupted hopefully. "They might be able to help, make it so you don't hear them as often. And you could warn whoever might want to bond with you, too, so they'd know. Right?" She looked back to Aloia. "They get to meet the dragonets first, several times, don't they?"

"Yes, yes they do," affirmed the golden woman firmly. "All three days before the bonding itself the candidates get to meet with the dragonets, get to know them and such. I think...." She paused to consider, chewing on her words and regarding Chiya levelly. "I think that maybe, yes, the stability of another mind could help with those kinds of voices. That's an application I hadn't thought of before." Then she smiled, at both the protective White dragoness and the unsure hybrid. "Yes, I think it could help. Do you want to try it, Cacopheny?"

The half-demon's gaze flicked back down again, to nothing Aloia could imagine he would be looking at, then he took a moment to glare across the room in thought. The dragon-woman's eyes were locked on Cacopheny's, and she waited almost with tension for his answer. "I... too not know... yess-no, but vood b-bee... nisse, maybe." The black eyes fixed back on Aloia. "Too yoo sssink yess, sssen?"

Aloia's smile grew. "It's up to you, dear. You don't have to decide right away, unless you want to get into the bonding a few days from now. If you do, I'll try my best to get you accepted."

"I don't know about him," Ketvia spoke up, "but we can't keep toting him around with us for another six months... so unless you have something else we can do with him, it'll have to be this time."

"Ketvia!" Chiya hissed, very nearly scandalized by her friend's rudeness. Ketvia held up her hands as if to say, "only the truth, sorry!" and the Light sighed. "She is right, though...." Cacopheny glanced to her, as if this were the first he'd heard of it, too, and she shrank a little. "Nothing I'm doing is helping you," she said, trying to explain. "And you're not in any shape to go follow us back to Tris'Hath... there's a war going on there, we only came back for a few weeks."

"Oh," the half-demon murmured, brows coming down again. "Sssen... maybe I zhoold trrry. If sssey too not leek me, sssen I vill know."

Aloia followed the conversation back and forth, as always returning to the seated young man. Something about the whole exchange seemed sour to Aloia, however honest the dragons were being. Realizing she was being over-protective of someone she just met, she chastised herself wryly, and drew herself up again. "I'll do my best to get you in, then. You can stay in the candidate dormitories if you need somewhere, in the meantime." She smiled. "I'm sure no one will mind if I put you there a bit preemptively."

"He's staying with us," Chiya said hurriedly, as if she could tell Aloia didn't approve. "I don't know... would you be all right here, Cacopheny? Without me, in a room here?" When he hesitated, she continued, "There will be a lot of dragons, mostly young ones, nearby, but you don't have to talk to them before the meetings if you don't want to."

"And it isn't like there aren't dragons all over the place in the rest of the city," Ketvia added wryly. "Come on, Chiya, he's a big boy, he can survive without you during the night."

Flushing under the iridescence of her cheeks, Chiya looked down. "Whatever you like, Cacopheny...." Aloia in couldn't help but glance between Cacopheny and Chiya. It wasn't her business to pry, and it was certainly unlikely, but the girl seemed kind-hearted.... She had to quirk a smile. 

Looking between the two dragons, Cacopheny finally answered, reluctantly, as if not to upset Chiya and hesitant to agree with anything Ketvia said but still as if he wanted to, "I vill. Sssstay heeer. Ket ussss't too t-t-drahgonsss I mussst, yesss?"

"Alright, wonderful," Aloia replied. "Whenever you're ready, myself or anyone else here can show you to an empty candidate room."

Struggling to try and be the "big boy" Ketvia said he was, Cacopheny rose carefully, as if afraid he might break. Halfway up, however, he looked abruptly to one side, eyes going sharp, as if he saw something there. Then his shoulders twitched oddly, and he looked back at Aloia, straightening up the rest of the way. "Sssssiss issss all I have."

"So far," Chiya added nervously, still afraid of Aloia's disapproval, this time of him only having one set of clothes. "We haven't had much time to get a wardrobe," she explained.

"Yess," Cacopheny agreed, nodding rapidly. "Sssso ver eess ssssee room? Aloia-lady."

"Lady Aloia," Ketvia corrected.

"Yesss," Cacopeny agreed again.

"That's all right," Aloia told them lightly, having watched Cacopheny with a kind of sympathetic interest, then turned for the door, beckoning them along. "This way, then. Chiya, Ketvia, you are certainly invited along. It's better you know where he is if you need to get a hold of him," the half-dragon told them idly as she moved.

"I promised we'd see the cathedrals," Chiya said softly, keeping her eyes mostly down. "So I'll at least need to know where... that is, if you still want to?"

Cacopheny blinked at her. "Yesss," he said again, one of the easiest words for him to say, apparently. "Sssssey sssssount be-be-be-- p-prehttee." He gave up on "beautiful". Chiya smiled a bit, a little reassured that she hadn't done something horribly wrong, and Ketvia opened the door for them all, as the closest to it. She gave Chiya's hair a tousle as she passed, startling a laugh out of the Light dragoness, and then a fond smile. Aloia spared their interaction only a glance and a small smile for friendship, listening and staying silent, as always. Cacopheny watched them both quietly, ducking his head and slouching again now that he's on his feet, as if he simply felt too tall, or his head felt too heavy. He followed Aloia out, and Ketvia closed the door again behind them.

The dorm rooms were off the main meeting rooms, just up the hallway from Aloia's own office, and she pointed the different parts of the complex as they passed. The circular meeting area, the door to the kitchens, the classrooms where the bonded would learn all they needed to know, and then the candidate dorms. There she paused, considering, but led them on past some doors that were ajar or had lights streaming from beneath them. Finally, at the second last door to the left, she stopped.

"Here we are. You're lucky, Cacopheny; you get a room all to yourself." She offered the slouched young man a smile once again. "All the others so far have to share. The door locks from the inside and the bathroom is through the door at the back; meals are taken in the kitchen, and other than that, you're allowed to wander wherever you want within Sanctuary unless someone tells you not to."

"Meeelss," Cacopheny echoed, as if the word mystified him. Chiya paused, obviously hesitant to say what she felt, but Ketvia was more practical and less concerned with irritating or upsetting or even embarrassing.

"He's never eaten with anyone else before," she said simply. "In fact, he hasn't done much of anything with anyone else before, except us and his friend Enyi. We haven't had much time to teach him manners or social niceties. If it could be arranged that he'd get his meals in his room, that might be best for all around. Especially if you have dragon cooks, and all. --Don't look at me like that, Cacopheny. Remember the last time you spent more than a minute or two with a large group?" The half-breed actually emitted a low growl, glaring at Ketvia, but the Fire dragoness did not seem phased a bit.

Nor did she seem inclined to explain to Aloia, and Aloia herself decided it was safer not to ask. She merely raised her eyebrows and quietly speculated while nodding an affirmative. "I'll see what I can do."

"Wise of you," Ketvia said, giving Cacopheny a sweet smile, which he returned by a show of fangs-- oh dear, he had fangs. "Oh, get over yourself, boy," Ketvia snorted. "Go check out your new room, why don't you? It's a lot nicer than the one you had back at Aedelian's, or with the demons." That seemed to distract him well enough, for the snarl faded into a surprisingly meek expression, and he skittered into the room.

Again, the golden matron decided against commenting, merely allowing an amused bend to enter her smile. The Fire and the half-demon... of course, they didn't seem to get along very well, but despite the fangs and growls Aloia wasn't alarmed by it. That boy seemed like he could be dangerous if he truly wanted to, rather than just the posturing he was threatening with now. "Well, then. Shall we leave him to explore his new quarters?" Aloia suggested softly to the two dragonesses.

"Might be a good idea," Ketvia agreed, equally quietly.

Chiya watched Cacopheny prowl around the room like a dog inspecting its cage, eyes hooded and the shadows darkening around him as if, now that he was not trying to seem "normal", everything strange about him was coming back full-force. "I guess so," Chiya finally said. "He won't think about us for a while, probably...."

Aloia saw them out, watching Ketvia sling an arm around Chiya's shoulder and try to bolster her confidence with brave words, then turned back to peer in the direction of the dorms and their new, unpredictable resident. She would have a lot of explaining and arguing to do to the other officials-- but at least it would not be boring. 

Remembering Cacopheny's dark eyes, sharp teeth, and his voices in the shadows, Aloia thought, No, it will definitely not be boring....