Half an hour later, everyone was settled again inside: Akija in a wicker chair with some tea, and Cacopheny on the floor at her feet with some magically-frozen ice in a washcloth applied to his colorfully bruising nose. Akija apparently thought that was very sweet, "running to her rescue" when he'd thought the shadows had her. Her response when she'd gotten the explanation from Deiv as to why his nose was bruising so badly-- or bruising at all, really-- had been to grin and say, "Guess that really does make ya my hero." He'd been glad for the ice to hide behind, because he thought he was blushing. He wasn't any kind of hero-- at least, so he thought; the only things that came to mind with the word was someone plated with metal carrying a thing called a sword, and the vague feeling of helpfulness and rescuing from death and disaster-- but since it seemed like a good thing to be called, he was both pleased and embarrassed to be called it. 

Deiv escaped to the kitchen with Chaith, leaving the two alone in the living room until the dragons got home from class. Since magic-lessons hadn't taken as long as usual, they still had an hour and a half or so; once Sentio got home, he would likely want to heal him up in return for hearing the whole story, but until then, they were left alone. Akija was sort of sleepy, but since Cacopheny was still mulling over the afternoon-- and had a hard time talking with an ice pack on his face-- that was all right. And, since the daemon family's shadows were all quiet again, and Cacopheny's own were unusually quiet, the house was definitely... quiet.

Cacopheny had been appropriately meek while Deiv got Akija situated, and had accepted the ice from Chaith gratefully and without any comment further than a shy "thank you". Deiv got nothing but that apology, at last, and slightly anxious looks, for which the shadows scorned him, but at that point he didn't care. It was a relief when he finally withdrew to the kitchen. He didn't know why he was so nervous; Deiv was not a cruel person, and he seemed to have taken Cacopheny's oddities in stride. But he still did his best not to anger or offend the daemon, for whatever reason.

And when Genner tried to work out those reasons, Cacopheny pointedly ignored him.

He was distracted from his own thoughts-- largely about Akija's reasons for her mage lessons, if her shadow was to be believed-- by a quiet giggle from Akija, half-hidden by her tea cup. He glanced up at her, but didn't ask what she'd been giggling at. She looked sleepy, despite whatever was amusing her, so he didn't need to pester her with questions that weren't particularly important. Especially since he had more important things to ask her, before she actually nodded off.

"Akija..." he began hesitantly, and she blinked owlishly over her cup at him. "He... your fasser... he toes not do ssiss to you. Often. Yes?"

"Naw... that was the first time I ever got a workout that...." She started to trail off, either losing her train of thought of unable to find an appropriate word. She finally finished with, "tough."

"To you... rike it? I mean-- you ton't... you ton't have to do ssis. Not forrr me. Not if you ton't rrrr-- rrr-like it."

"It's defense training," Akija murmured, closing her eyes. "Doesn't matter if I like it, cuz I'll be damned if... if...."

She fell silent. Frowned. Squinted one eye open and stared blankly through the vapor rising from her cup of tea. Cacopheny watched her, shifting the icepack to his other hand to relieve his cold fingers. He thought that she was thinking, this time, rather than losing her train of thought. Finally, she looked down at him with drowsy bemusement. "How'd'ja guess?" she asked, and he blinked at her.

"Tidn't kess," he answered, a little surprised. "You sait-- no, vait...." He paused, thought back, and smirked a bit as he remembered, putting down the ice. "No, you tid not, tid you.... Your zhadow sait it. I hert it. Ven you vere toing ssose... rittle spells. At ssse bekinningk."

Akija wasn't so tired yet that her eyes couldn't pop open, momentarily wide with astonishment, though she was still drained enough that her reaction came out at normal volume, rather than the squawk it probably would have been any other time. "It talked?" She blinked again, this time down at her lap, at the faint shadow cast by her cup-holding hands. Cacopheny smiled some, following her gaze and anticipating her next question: "Is it still? Talking?"

"No, no," he assured her. "Stopp't ven sse magic stopp't. But it tid talk a lot. Durrrrringk. Durringk sse lessons. Not mostly to me, mostly to you."

Akija frowned again, staring fixedly at her cup, now, rather than the shadow it made. "Stopped with the magic... talked at the beginning... magic makes it talk?"

"Isss possible," Cacopheny acknowledged. The thought had crossed his mind, at least when it came to daemons, though he often heard voices in shadows of inanimate objects-- and, of course, that didn't explain his own shadows.

"Dad's always working little magics," she murmured, presumably thinking aloud. "Dragons are walking magic... and daemons have none 'til they take it... but when we do...." Her voice trailed off into a yawn, and Cacopheny rested his cheek against the wicker rim of the chair, replacing his ice pack as, with the relieving of the chill, it had started to throb dully. He didn't anticipate further questioning, given how sleepy she seemed to be, so was surprised when she asked, "Why talk to me? Wha'd it say?"

"Oh...." He paused, thinking back. "Jzust like you talk to. To yourself. Any osser time," he explained haltingly, trying to put the various snippets of shadow-speech he could remember into some kind of order. "About vat you vere toingk. Ssough you tid talk to me, sssome, ven I tidn't understand ssssomesssingk."

Akija made a sound like she understood, and he shifted to put his chin on the chair's rim instead, so he could look at her. She did, indeed, look sleepy... sleepier... it was kind of sweet, actually. "Mmm," she said, "and it said I was doin it fer you... cuz shadows're honest... an' it's true... cuz... cuz...."

She trailed off, eyes drifting shut and chin sinking down against her chest. Cacopheny blinked, and thought maybe he should catch her cup before she dropped it-- but before he could do more than twitch towards doing so, she snapped back up and opened her eyes just enough to prove she was still awake. "Cup," she muttered, holding it over the edge of the chair. "Canya put... on the floor?"

"Rrrread my mint," he replied, taking it gently from her and setting it down.

No sooner was the cup on the floor, than Akija's eyes were closed again, and she shifted onto her side, curling up in the chair's cushioning like a sleepy, contented cat-- only a cat with a wing tucked around her like a too-small blanket, of course. Before he settled in to, as Deiv had jokingly said, watch over her, he caught one last murmur before she actually fell asleep: "An' s'true cuz... somebody's gotta... fight fr'ya...."

No... nobody has to.

But I don't suppose we'll mind if you think so.

Cacopheny shook his head a little and then laid it down on the cushioning next to hers, ice still held to his aching nose, and let her sleep without any shadows to bother her.