There was no light in the narrow, human-sized hole in the ground. Even the light from the daytime forest outside didn't seem to reach there. Sentio had to call up a pinprick of light just to keep from running them into a wall or tripping on something, bathing their immediate surroundings in a soft blue-white, but beyond the small influence of his magic, the darkness was still complete. He kept close to Akija's legs as he walked, his wing brushing her louse trousers with every other step, ostensibly so as not to loose her, but it was comforting to know she was there and he wasn't alone in creeping into the dark.

The tunnel, though it felt long, wasn't really. Before he knew it, they'd reached a wider chamber. Sentio thought that a bear or a hermit daemon or something must have dug it out; certainly Cacopheny couldn't have. He paused there and extended the light a little at a time, tentatively, to illuminate the room. The walls were scraped dirt, uneven and unfinished-looking, with rock occasionally peeking through to reflect the light just a little. It looked empty, deserted, and certainly not inhabitable by anything other than a wild animal. But then, there had been those who had thought that of Cacopheny....

When the light finally reached the opposite wall-- the den, or whatever it was, though not very large, was larger than he'd thought it might be, at about the size of his parents' bedroom-- he spotted the black and pale that was Cacopheny, seated on the floor, leaning on an even more uneven patch in the earth walls, gazing vacantly away from them, face in profile. He still had his father's bathrobe wrapped around him, though it was dirty, tattered-looking, torn in places, and looked bloodstained. He hadn't noticed them yet, if he was going to at all.

Sentio felt Akija's furry hand on his shoulder, and realized who it was only just in time to keep from jumping, he was so tense. He gulped a little and took a tentative step closer to his bond, taking his light with him and brightening it a little more, mostly for his own comfort. "Cacopheny?"

For a moment, the half-demon still didn't move, as if he still didn't notice them. Then, with one of his familiar little twitches, he turned his head to blink blindly at them. The look in his eyes was alert, almost hopeful, and certainly expectant. Once he adjusted to the light enough to actually see them, though, the alertness died into a vague kind of disappointment-- but at least there was recognition, and there wasn't anger. "Oh... hello," he said absently in demon-speech. Sentio tried hard to keep his fur flat.

"Hello, Cacopheny," he answered carefully. "What are you-- what are you doing out here? In the middle of nowhere?"

"Waiting," he said simply, trying to look past them, as if there was supposed to be someone else there he would much rather see.

"For who?"

"Her. She left for a little while, but She said She'd be back."

Gulping a little, he translated for Akija, ::He said he's waiting for-- for that demon. That she said she'd be back.:: His only answer was a frown that went from anxiety to concern, focused on Cacopheny. Sentio couldn't help but agree.

"Cacopheny... you haven't seen that-- that person in months. Since Ketvia and Chiya brought you here. Remember?" He didn't know if Ketvia had told him she'd burned the demon into nothing but ash, but he doubted it, unless somehow Cacopheny had forgotten. Even so, it didn't seem... safe to mention it just yet.

"Of course not. She was just here...." He shut his eyes momentarily with a dreamy little smile unlike anything Sentio had ever seen on his face. "She's been calling me for... for days now. I finally came." Then the smile faded, replaced slowly by an echo of thought, even concern. He looked at them again, this time as if he was actually seeing them and not just someone who wasn't the demoness, and took in that Akija was there, as well. His brows furrowed faintly, and he switched to halting dragon-speech, presumably for her benefit: "You. You arrre not. Sssss'ppos't to be. To be. Here. I left, I left, ssssso ssat, ssso ssat. You. Ssafe. You voot be ssafe. Not sss'poss't to be herrrre."

"Yer not supposed t'be out here, either," Akija countered. "You should be home with Sentio, not out here in the woods."

"No, no. Ton't unterstant." He shook his head with something like impatience. "Trrrriet ssat, tit not vork, tit not. Assk him," he said, focusing on Sentio again, suddenly more eloquent despite the sibilance. "He knowsss. Hiss toor, at night, treamingk. If Zhe hat sait kill him, ant I could ket to him, I vood haff. I know ssat, ant sssssso I left. I hat to." Remembering the senseless pounding on his locked door, Sentio shivered, hunched down on the cold cave's floor, trying very hard not to reflexively knead into the dirt with anxiety. So that's what he'd been talking about outside his room....

Probably noting his obvious nervousness, Akija crouched down beside him and threw an arm gently over his neck and shoulders in comfort, though her eyes were still on Cacopheny. So were Sentio's. For a long moment, neither of them could think of a single thing to say, and there was silence until Cacopheny broke it himself, smiling faintly, almost bitterly. "Ssssssee? I tit goot, leafingk, ant you follow't me. You zhoult leef, peforrre Zhe comess back ant ssseess you. I tolt you I to not trrrusst myself. I still to not."

"But-- maybe if you came home," Sentio tried, "maybe if you gave it more time?"

"Not if Zhe sstill vants me. Zhe vill not let me pe, effen if I coult leaff Her. Ant next time, I might not varn you to lock ssssee toor. I might not know. I might pe in sssee. In sssee. Classsssrroom. You zhoult go."

Part of Sentio wanted very badly to do just as Cacopheny said and leave, run away and let whatever delusions his bond was subject to wear themselves out in their own time. The rest of him knew that was stupid and they needed to get the half-demon home, before he starved to death waiting for someone who was never going to come. Akija, apparently, felt the same way. "Maybe we should," she began, then continued firmly, "but we won't. We didn't come looking fer you just t'leave you."

"Sssen. Zhe vill hurrt you," Cacopheny said, trying and failing to sound indifferent. "Or. Or. Or. Make me hurrrt you." The stutter said that, even as distracted as the half-demon was, he did not like that idea. It was reassuring, in a way. 

"Then come with us," Sentio suggested again. "She can't do anything to any of us if we're not here."

"Yes. Zhe can. Zhe hass."

"But--"

Cacopheny suddenly blinked and looked away from them, past them again, like he had before they'd managed to actually capture his attention. Whether his expression was afraid or anticipating was impossible to determine, as if it were both simultaneously. "Too late," he breathed in his own tongue, but before either of them could ask what he meant, the room itself began to change. Startled, Sentio scrambled to his feet, taking Akija with her arm around him with him and making her swear like a shadow, as the floor suddenly became marble, the walls suddenly became covered in tapestry, the light that dominated became red rather than blue as his own spell winked out, and the irregular patch in the wall that Cacopheny rested against became an ornate gold and ebony chair.

"Well, well, well. Company. How lovely."

The voice was terrifyingly familiar: Sentio had heard it in nightmares and memories, and now that he heard it in the flesh, he knew it. It was "Her".