The Air Cathedral was as stunning as always, with the colors of its massive mural as vibrant as always, the gold and white-gold gleaming, the magical lights glowing cheerfully against the gray stone walls, and the giant stained-glass windows of the central chamber letting in as much light as they always did this time of day. It was also empty, but for two small and very out of place figures admiring the patterned windows all around them. With one of red fur, the other of orange scales, and both with features blending feline with draconic traits, the two youngsters were very obviously daemons, happily loitering in one of the five places plenty of dragons would not at all be happy to find them. But they were up to no mischief-- at least not this time. They only admired the glass and the dragons that flew within, flexing their malformed wings and wondering what it would be like to do the same.

"Someday I'll be the best gene artisan ever, an' I'll fix our wings so we can do that too," commented Aeta, the one in scales, and the younger of the two.

His sister, Akija, nodded agreeably. "That'd be nice."

Unbeknownst to them, they were about to be joined by a rather unlikely pair. A petite Light dragon carrying a very strange burden padded down the hall towards them, murmuring softly. The tall, bony, black-clad figure sitting astride her shoulders did not seem to be listening, looking around at the intricate design and mural-work with dark eyes. They passed into the vaulted, glass-walled main cathedral and there the dragoness paused, at first to let the beauty of the place sink in, but then because she noticed that they were not alone.

"Air dragons gots good wings to use as a base, I think," Aeta mused aloud, oblivious, examining the dragons in the glass and even being so bold as to reach out and trace the curve of one silver-sailed wing with a fingertip.

"Just don't go puttin' any silly-lookin' crests on our heads," Akija snickered, reaching over and playfully taking hold of the single horn that curved from her brother's forehead. "Silly as this thing looks, I don't think I could look at ya with a straight face if it turned into a big ol' fleshy mohawk!"

Aeta took a swat at his sister, but she released his horn and danced out of the way agilely, laughing. The daemon boy turned to follow her, grinning mischievously and preparing to take a pounce for her, never mind how some might be shocked to imagine a couple of daemons wrestling inside one of the cathedrals-- but his turn brought the two in the doorway into his line of sight, and he froze, his grin dying. "Uh oh."

Akija froze too, almost comically, caught in mid-bounce on the tip of her toes. She grimaced, her expression more disappointed than frightened. "Busted?"

"Busted."

"Dang."

As the two tussled, the Light dragon's passenger had somehow transposed himself to the floor and was making his slow, careful, twitchy way closer to them. The dragoness followed, ready to sweep him back from them if need be, eyes worried and flicking between her charge and the daemon siblings. As Aeta turned, he met the daemon's gaze, dead black eyes, with only a faint hint of life in them in the form of curiosity, staring directly and fixedly into his. "Vat... b-b-busssssst't?" he hissed, voice raspy and strongly accented, barely recognizable as dragon's common. Akija actually jumped, not surprised by the noise of whoever it was that had caught her and Aeta where they weren't supposed to be, but startled by the fact that the noise was an odd-sounding hiss instead of the angry "what are you doing?" demand she expected. She turned about, ears perked and stunted wings half-spread, and took a startled back-step at the very tall, dark man not too far away. Then her gaze went even higher to the face of the Light dragon behind him, and she grimaced again. Oh, it had to be a White, didn't it?

Aeta had his ears skewed and head cocked. Had there been a question in that hideous mess of a sound? "Say what?"

"He asked you what busted means," the White dragon said, the expression in her voice difficult to read. "Cacopheny, it means in trouble."

The tall man frowned further-- a frown seemed his habitual expression, though it was not a hostile expression-- dark eyes moving from Akija to Aeta. "Noh-- trrrroubool. Yess? P-play, yess?"

The dragoness sighed. "Yes, Cacopheny, they were playing. And I suppose if one were to play in a holy place, the Air Cathedral would be the best one," she added with reluctance.

"Oh." The one called Cacopheny didn't seem to understand, but he didn't question further, studying Akija and Aeta with his unwavering and thus-far unblinking stare. Then his eyes moved from their faces to the floor in front of them, and his frown deepened, as if something there was confusing or disturbing. The two siblings edged nearer each other, instinctively drawing together in response to this confrontation, however odd it was. Simultaneously their gazes snapped up when the Light spoke, back down again when again the man said something in his strangely accented manner, and then the two exchanged a glance. Aeta skewed his ears further and arched his fine-scaled brows, to which Akija shrugged in bewilderment. They'd been caught at their fun before, but not by a... a man who seemed to have trouble speaking, and a Light who was his... nurse, maybe?

They looked away from each other, and Aeta looked back up at the Light and tried on a grin both impish and innocent. If they weren't getting lectured already, maybe they could stave it off completely. The White didn't sound inclined to scold them.... "An' we weren't hurtin' nothin', jus' takin' a look around... y'know, in the quiet hours, so's not to bug anybody...."

Akija, however, watched the man. He smelled of magic, but not a kind she knew. She frowned back at him, thoughtfully, and curiously looked at the floor when he did. Then back up at him after a moment, then again at the floor as he continued to stare there, and then picked up her feet, one at a time, to see if she was standing on something she ought to have been concerned about.

"I don't imagine you could hurt anything," the Light dragon said, voice tense, as if she were trying very hard not to be rude but desperately wanting away from the whole situation. "You aren't strong enough to break any windows, and you're too small to take enough of the holy magic to make any difference-- and besides, Lord Makani could always put it back again."

Ducking his head to try and appear harmless and half-cowed-- half an act and half not, because the relief he was beginning to feel was definitely genuine-- Aeta smiled embarrassedly. "Shucks, Miss, like we'd go leechin' offa the cathedral... that'd just be rude. Hones', we just came to look. Y'hear so much about 'em an'... an'...."

But he trailed off as his downward canted gaze caught sight of Akija, watching Cacopheny, watching the floor, and he blinked, not sure what to make of the situation at all. While the dragoness had babbled, Cacopheny had crouched down, making himself shorter than the daemons-- though not by a whole lot-- and took two awkward steps closer, his eyes darting from where Aeta stood to where Akija stood, face growing more and more puzzled, almost distressed. The dragoness finally noticed and reached out to block his path with a paw. "What's wrong, Cacopheny?" she asked softly, trying to make the question private even though the daemons could obviously hear them.

"Sssey arrrreh sssssso kigh-et," Cacopheny rasped, still staring over the dragon's fingers at the daemon's shadows.

Akija, having assured herself there was nothing on or under her feet, was back to frowning at the man. She took a half-step back for his two shuffled ones closer, blinked at the man, and stared at her feet again. "You see anything, Aeta?" she mumbled sideways.

"Don't think so..."

Then the two started a bit when the Light's paw slid between them and the man, mirror images of one another with their tilted heads and cocked ears. "Kiii... ky... ky-et?" Akija mimicked, trying to make sense of it. "Quiet?" She blinked, and tried, yet again, to follow the man's gaze. From her angle, it still looked like he was staring at her feet. "Uh, well, no, my feet don't really talk much... that's usually my voice's job."

"Not your feet," the dragoness snapped, more out of nervousness than maliciousness, for Aeta's honest apology and at least minimal reverence had softened her a bit. Even so, Aeta that cringed a bit, flushing under his scales for snickering at his sister's remark, which the dragoness had not seemed to appreciate, nervous or not. "Your shadow," she continued, explaining. "He hears voices in shadows.... I'd think it's a good thing that they're quiet, Cacopheny."

"I... too not knoo. Yes-no, meh-b-be...." He continued to stare, but after a moment his eyes twitched back up to Akija's face, meeting hers and staring into them, as if looking for something.

"Cacopheny, let's let the poor daemons be," the dragoness pleaded gently. "I'm really sorry," she added to the two. "He's... well, he's had a hard life, and it's left scars." Cacopheny seemed too distracted to notice her talking about him, and he leaned on her fingers as if taking support from them, frowning at Akija.

But Akija was too busy squinting at her shadow, now, wondering why it should have been talking... but rather glad it didn't. It'd probably be annoyed at her for stepping on it all the time. Maybe it was some kind of shadow-magic the man smelt so strongly of? What would it taste like? Could she use it?

Wait a second. Since when did humans smell of magic? Yeah, some humans were learning magic nowadays, but weren't they all younglings like the two blondes she'd seen and learned of at the bonding complex? And his magic didn't smell half dragon... Maybe he was an off-worlder, hence the accent? Had one of her artifacts powered the portal he'd used? She went from peering at her shadow, to frowning thoughtfully at the dark-haired man crouched behind the dragoness' paw. She was curious now, and wanted to ask a hundred questions, just to see what the answers would be... but what underdeveloped sense of restraint she had warned her against upsetting the anxious White anymore. Then she might actually get mad at them, and that wouldn't be good! Weren't Lights supposed to be all self-confident and stuff?

Then the man-- was his name really Cacophony? What a name!-- was frowning back at her. For a moment, they exchanged frowns... and then Akija got tired of all the scowling and made a face she was more comfortable wearing: she gave the man a grin and a cheerful wink, just because she could. The man gave a startled twitch and, finally, blinked at her. Then, with the air of someone mimicking someone else, he offered a tentative smile back, revealing that he was probably something other than human, because he had some rather large, sharp eye-teeth. Akija's grin got a bit wider when the man grinned back, terribly amused by the monkey-see-monkey-do.

"Yeeesh!" she heard Aeta breathe; unsure of how to respond to such a "too much information" comment as had been included in the White's apology, his eyes had dropped again to see what his sister was doing, and he'd caught sight of Cacopheny's pretty impressive fangs. It didn't matter that every one of his own teeth was that sharp-- humans weren't even supposed to have one tooth like that.

Akija couldn't miss seeing those impressive canines either, and they too were part of why her grin had only gotten bigger. She had no idea what was up with this fellow, what with his strange magic-smell and accent and manner of speaking and moving... but she was captivated, like a child with a new toy, wanting to poke and prod and see all of what it could do. "Sorry my shadow ain't talkative," she told him, her grin as much in her voice as it was on her face, "but she prolly wouldn't have anythin' in'tresting to say, anyway."

"Oh," Cacopheny answered, "ssssey sssssay a loht. Eeenturressteen or not. Yooooursss isssssssss tiffurrrent." Again he frowned, thinking, eyes straying back down to the silent shadow.

Akija perked her ears in the man's direction as much as she could get them, her tail flicking happily as she listened, trying as best she could to hear past his accent to the words it disguised. As entertaining as it was to just listen to him hiss and hear how it turned words she knew into things half-unrecognizable, if he was going to talk to her about these funny talking shadows, she wanted to hear what he had to say! "Different, huh?" She dropped to a crouch of her own, balancing awkwardly on her digitrade paws but determined to get a closer look at her own shadow, as if she could potentially see or hear what made it so different from other shadows. "'Cause it isn't talking to you? Maybe she wants to give you a break from everyshadow else's yammering," she snickered, not even sure herself if she was teasing, playing along, or really being honest. Because hey, maybe shadows could talk! You never knew!

Her brother nudged her with his foot, and she registered that he and the dragon-- Chiya, she'd called herself-- had been talking. "Say hello, sis," he suggested.

"Eh?" she glanced away from Cacopheny, and caught her younger sib's meaningful nod toward the dragonness. "Oh, yeah. I'm Akija," she grinned up at the Light, then back at the man. "Nice ta mee'cha."

"A pleasure," Chiya said, sounding fairly sincere, at least. "And you've obviously met Cacopheny...."

Who was paying the introductions no attention at all, thinking hard about what Aki had just said, apparently, for he answered once said introductions were over, stil peering over Chiya's idly resting forepaw. "Sssey never vant to. B-be kigh-et... not b-beevoor. Jzusssst nooh. Sssey alvayss t-talk. Leek... even if sssere issssss no vone too lissssssen. I jzusssst hear ssem."

"Maybe I do enough talkin' for her," Aki suggested, while Aeta and the dragon Chiya exchanged a few more words. "Or maybe daemons just got mute shadows, or somethin'." She looked down at her shadow, and poked the floor at it, as if that could stir come kind of reaction out of it. "Must be annoyin', though, if they're always talking. Can you talk back, tell 'em to shut up?" she snickered, imagining a world where shadows talked as much as a gaggle of Waters. The shadows in her imaginary world were friendly, of course, except when they squawked at being stepped on.

"Yesssss," Cacopheny said with a quick series of nods, making his tangled hair bob about his face. "I t-talk b-back. Ssssey too not alveysss lisssssen. B-but I talk. Mossstly to my zzhadowsss... ossserss sssseem to ssssink. I am-- I am-- rrrute?" As if uncertain that were the right word. "Ssssey zzzhout at me."

"Well that's not very nice of them," Akija snorted, now imagining shadows shouting at anyone who could hear them. It made for a very noisy world. "Don't know why they'd shout at ya... ya don't seem rude to me! I like ya, even!" she grinned again. Dark brows came together over Cacopheny's black eyes, but before he could answer, another nudge from Aeta's foot distracted her. 

"Er, heyla, 'keej?"

"Wha?"

"Don't you still have some artifact at home Pop wants ya to help finish enchanting?" Lame and see-through, but whatcha gonna do? Akija looked up at him, her expression clearly 'what the heck are you talking about?' He flicked his tail in Chiya's direction. She arched a brow. Aeta dropped his arms with a groan. "Come on, 'keej... we're lucky it was a nice dragoness like Chiya that stumbled over us this time... I know you're talkin', but we should go before someone mean comes along, yanno?"

Akija glared. He set his jaw stubbornly and stared back. Finally, Akija sighed and stood up. "Fine."

Aeta sighed in relief, and flashed one last grin up at the White. "Well... nice meetin' ya!" he chirped, taking hold of his sister's shoulders. "We''ll get out of your hair now-- have a nice day!"

Then he shoved, and Akija squawked, and was unhappily pushed around dragoness and charge, and towards the hallway.

"Byyyyye!" she called, waving back over her shoulder, and then Aeta shoved her around the corner, leaving only the echo of her voice and two perplexed faces behind. Cacopheny's black gaze seemed to follow her, and the light seemed just a little dimmer until they stepped out into the sunlight, as if his "shadows" had followed them as far as they could.