"It's just I might get distracted, and I get lost kind of easily, and sometimes I have really bad days...when, you know, I just want to hide or scream or bleed or something, and...all that..." - Delirium, in Brief Lives, by Neil Gaiman

The world was peculiarly devoid of color that evening. Viki was determined to fill it. The night, with its black sky and dark clouds, seemed anxious to swallow the ground, the sea, the air" She had wandered into the Inn that evening with only the best of intentions: coloring the world.

"Good evening to you. What can I get for you?" The tender's voice was naturally polite, though he seemed unfamiliar.

"Uhm. Something in a particular shade of blue. Not light blue, mind you. I think perhaps there is a wine." Her eyes became little slits of nothing as she squinted at the wall.

"There is an Elvin sapphire I think highly of....let me get a goblet of that for you..."

"Thank you. Bel'la dos. Amvel." All three tongues came rushing forth in a mad fury.

Time ticked by slowly at first. Viki nursed her drink, sipping at the Elvin spirit intermittently. Color returned for a time. It had been long since she had anything to drink besides water.

The crowd murmured their quiet conversations. Nothing seemed of interest " not yet. Nothing cried for notice. There were no screams from anything inanimate or deceased.

It was only when Sid decided to join their ranks did the seer snap to attention, her eyes glittering with full alertness. A slow smile found its way to her young face.

She looked her way and blew a kiss.

A kiss! A kiss! The voices were back.

The girl looked amused. Perhaps that kiss took the shape of lips, red and full, lingering in the air in the spaces by the door. She traced it with her finger before the shadows devoured it whole.

But the shadows were busy creatures. Viki twitched at her perch.

You feel that. Feeeeeel that"

Indeed, a strange feeling had washed over her lithe body, and her spine set itself straight. Her head shifted, side to side, for a look around.

Sid was at the other end of the bar, surrounded by one Jack Scot, and Icer, and a strange boy Viki had never met. She slipped from the barstool and wandered near, stepping short just shy of Sid's circle.

"'ello, sweetlin'." Sid's smile was a constant presence.

"Vendui'. Hello." The girl blinked as several tongues spilled forth yet again, and sandman-speak was sure to follow if she hadn't stopped herself. "There are..." Her words trailed off, but she weaved concern between the pauses, and warnings too.

But the seer endeavored to convey the message again, even as the circle around Sid carried on separate conversations. They were a distraction.

"There are.." What were there" Realities shifted and memory rewound as Sight seemed determined to make its point. "There just are!" Alas, the girl was too frantic to do it correctly, and her head snapped side to side, with her eyes searching shadow.

"There be..." Sid began, urging her on with a soft smile.

"Penned poison things I think. They smell of ink. Fresh. Near."

Enemies taking notice, you mean.

"There be those?" Sid gestured to the front door and the men who stood before it.

Doors. Of course! Why had she not tried this word" But it was an opening, a passage within and without. Her large eyes set their sights upon them and the beings which lingered near.

"Why?" Concern for the ancient is obvious. It trampled across her face.

But Sid, even in an atmosphere of doom and gloom, seemed hell bent on pleasantries. Or, maybe she was simply playing it cool.

"Viki, I dun believe ye 'ave met me mate. Scottie. Scottie this be Tara Rynieyn Talomar's cousin, Viki."

"Yes. Cousin." The girl repeated the relation with something of pride. "Blood of my blood who is Blood."

Scottie's eyes were observant little creatures in their own right, and it was clear too, that he was entirely male. "Hello luv."

Only after the introductions were complete did Sid answer Viki's concerned "Why?"

"For me, sweetlin'," she began. "I believe I mus' 'ave done somethin' to yotz off the 'rents." Laughter followed. It was warm and dark and rich like honey, reminding her of Alma instantly.

Sid's laughter was not enough to soothe the seer. The girl's fingers had snatched up tidbits of fabric from her dress and began to twist it with growing anxiety. Her eyes grew too, wide for Sid's words.

"It be a'right, Viki." Sid said, gesturing perhaps to one man over the other. The first had gone to the bar, and seemed to drink and converse with the tender in a way that bordered on jovial. The other still lingered near the door. It was the latter that Sid addressed. "He be jus' wantin' to torture me a bit. Mayhaps smell me mate here."

"Torture." The girl's brows dipped into a sharp frown, and she leered at the man from afar.

"Packmate will come if need be.." She added quickly.

Oh you have never called him that before, have you? We wonder if Domikai feels the same. You are but his second, and beta.

"An' than' ye, Viki. Let us hope to keep others out o' harm's way for as lon' as possible. Aye?"

"Xas." Viki only half understood these dealings, from both the Ancient's words and the sights and sounds and sensations she felt, both in the physical and in the psychic. Her thoughts were clouded, muddled"

After that, Sid seemed all for the attentions of her mate, Scottie, but perhaps she watched the man by the door from the mirror over the bar. Viki was rather terrified of mirrors and averted her eyes at all times.

Do you think mirror girl is still watching you?

Instead, veering far from Sid's discretion, she turned herself fully toward the stranger. Her eyes were sharp and bore teeth. She lifted a finger to trace his outline. She would have him fully etched into memory before the night was through. Blue-green swirls of color shone brilliantly in their task.

"Viki, sweet?"

The Ancient's voice calls.

"Xas." But the girl's head did not turn toward Sid, and neither did her eyes.

"Be careful o' tha' one's fingers, Viki. Ezpecially if'n he moves to kiss them at ye."

But did the Ancient not do the same upon entrance" What has she taken from you, little light"

It didn't matter. And, unfortunately, Viki had already attracted his attention. He was deep in his study before Sid's warning could be processed, though he did not move to blow her a kiss. Not yet.

"Blood of all the same color.." Her words fell to knowing ears, and she nodded quietly, but to no one in particular. "Fingers" Spider-things." Her eyes darkened, and her brows tightened and fell into place, deepening that severe little frown.

Revelations came quickly in Viki's study of the stranger, too.

"Why if they fly do they walk?" She asked of Sid, taking her hands to her mid-section, then pinning them together at their sides. She waved them awkwardly, like wings perhaps.

The Ancient knows these things. Look up. Look who is coming for you.

Sure enough, the man in question was closing the distance.

"Very intriguing. You must call me right before you die, you would make such an excellent servant." He spoke so very softly to her as he drew near.

Gabriel.

"Name like bells.? Viki said as the soft tones of his voice graced the elegant curves of each odd earlobe.

Sunrise always burns my eyes But I'm not tired No, I won't sleep for hours This city's old and full of ghosts I can see their skulls It makes no sense at all - Kill Hannah

Viki's eyes were large and clouded with memories of other places. Tina. Tina's voice was calling her name, or some term of endearment.

"Tina..." The seer's voice was small and soft. "Where are you?" She could hear the younger girl, but could not see past the visions.

"Here I am, bee eff, big as life and twice as mean." Tina positioned herself in front of Viki and waved her hand over her eyes. In an instant, the motion had broken the seer's focus, and with a mixture of relief and gratitude, her eyes met Tina's.

"Do naut call his name when I die." Victoria gestured to the departing figure, but by then, he was nothing more than a shadow, and soon that was gone too.

Sid's voice broke her world next. Viki snapped to attention. Her eyes were wide and wild things, burning with knowledge, but in a confused and disordered timeline. Her face was full of questions.

But it was Tina who spoke. "You ok there girl" That sonic blast of a scream of yours put some real hurt on him!"

"Was that voiced" I did not realize." Viki considered the newest revelation with a finger to her lower lip.

Yes. You were screaming. Do you not remember" We heard you for miles and miles. Who knows what that scream will later attract.

"Aye, Viki. An' I than' ye," said Sid, who overheard Tina's comment about the sonic scream.

"Yep, him and the Doggie guy too, that's a great pair of lungs you got there!" Tina's words were bubbles but her face was still full of concern.

You see" You did attract the attention of another. And another still to come!

"Packmate must know," said the seer.

And there you go, calling him that again. We wonder if the other mate will be so pleased.

"I dun wan' ye hurt, or him, Viki. If'n ye mus' tell, do so but keep safe. An' keep ye packmate to promise the same." The Ancient said softly. She was now carefully curled about her lover, Scottie, who seemed to recover from the blow Gabriel had dealt just moments before.

"Do not call his name when I die. Must tell Skado." Viki's face darkened, and something crossed it. Fear"

"He willna know ye time, Viki," the Ancient promised.

Viki nodded gravely. "You will take me then. To the lost one, the one of gold and blue. I want to be with her." These were half things of the past. Sid would understand, and if not, Tara definitely would. The seer was perhaps relieved by this information, and smiled in spite of everything else.

Gold and blue" Kat LeFay. But we cannot hear her, and neither can you.

"Ye 'ave nae call to worry o' tha', sweet. Gentle arms be rockin' to ye final dance." Promises and kind reassurances glided from the Ancient and filtered into the air about the Seer. Viki's eyes fell shut as her words were processed, their warmth apparent. Her body shifted in step, as if to sway in said arms, and she nodded softly.

Sid and Scottie began to take their leave of the Inn. The number of patrons had trickled to a few fifteen, and the tender was still obviously steamed about the bar brawl on his watch. With Gabriel gone, it seemed a good time to go, but first, Scottie approached the seer.

With open eyes all for Sid's mate, Viki turned to Scot, who held out a bright green ribbon in offering. She studied it, and him, for several moments, before accepting it with some quiet curiosity.

Grass green mysteries. He means to fix your broken luck.

"Amvel." Sandman speak had taken her tongue again, and Viki weaved the ribbon into the fabric of her dress. Later, it would be sewn and stitched, forever a part of the material. This was a special dress.

When the Ancient and her lover had finally left, Viki snagged a hold of Tina's hand and small footsteps carried her and the girl in tow toward Tasha. She wanted to be near Tara's family " Bloods. She wanted blood. Warmth. Familiar and familial, even if she was not Blood. Tasha was seated across the way, speaking to the one Tina had referred to as "Doggie," and the other stranger, whose name also sounded like bells. Viki's eyes were heavy things when they fell on the latter.

Her ears were keen, too. She heard things in parts and pieces:

"Ruination has ye to visit the realms of mortality, my friend."

"You have knowledge of ruination. You have been there once. I know what you are. As you obviously know what I am. But the ones you have met....are they like me truly' As I said in the prelude of this conversation, creature....I am unique. I am true."

But Tina disrupted the eavesdropping by taking her leave. The girl had an appointment, perhaps, and she apologized with a kiss to the seer's hand.

The conversation continued. It was Tasha who spoke next.

"Daugie there is a Dracolitch Cam. Not just a creature. The thing that attacked us the other night..."That" was a creature...Daug's just...Daug."

Their words brought new illustrations. With every breath, Viki struggled to make sense of their reality, and the new one that bloomed in her brain.

She saw much.

"Tasha." Viki's singsong voice was frail and broken.

"Yeah Viki?" The woman's hand landed on the girl's shoulder with a gentle pat.

The seer shifted her focus, then slipped to Tasha's side, pinning herself there.

"Danger. Dark."

Tasha's arm drew around Viki's shoulders. She merely nodded.

"Blood of blood.." The seer continued, and distorted bits of prophecy were quick to follow. She said something of "two wars" and then a steady stream of nonsense.

"I know and means we all need to be careful," Tasha said.

"My cousin Tara.." The idea began, but it broke into pieces. Its ruination is not quite final, and maybe it could be resurrected if she blew on it hard enough. So she did. Her lips puckered and spilled air.

"Is Tara alright Viki?"

But the girl only nodded, the movement shifted curls which bounced over a set of too-blue, too-green eyes. "Fine, but Blood. I am not."

There is something else within those words, woven to the family name. There was a twitch, and a loud sigh, before words followed: "Amthy dies...Tara loses...her way. It's all chopped up. Like carrots."

Viki liked carrots, usually.

"Your related to Tara therefore you are protected by us too Viki." Tasha assured her.

"Bloods," said the jovial one whose name also sounded like bells. "A legend for young children...souleaters and those who commune with the dead."

The seer's eyes lifted suddenly and settled on the stranger. Perhaps they stole pieces of him, small bits of his aura as they stared.

"The dead say' hello."

Was that a bit of humor in her voice" Not likely. It was more likely that they were surrounded by small spirits, all of them offering a greeting.

"They never say hello back." The stranger grinned. Viki nodded to Tasha, grateful, and sat back, no longer glued to her side.

"I would be so...there to catch...family-but-not," the girl added.

Tasha and the stranger exchanged more words, but much of it was lost. The outside was spilling inside again, bringing with it stranger curiosities, and stranger people still, and a newcomer had set his sights right on the seer. His name was Mr. Howe, but Victoria did not know it yet, and the shadows refused to give it up.

That was fine. She picked up other things. Her eyes were sharp, keen things, and all for his aura.

"Firefly?" Confusion and fear crossed her face all at once, because some kind of green light had clearly crossed his.

Not his face. His mind. It is full of her. Amthy.