Her gaze was captivating or perhaps just curious considering he had never really realized how concerned she was about his welfare. A small smile cracked his lips but of course that tiny bit of curvature could never be detected in the dimly lit Basin.

He was pleased by such an advantage.

“As well as any I guess you could say. Keeps me entertained since patrolling the borders can be a tedious job if not entirely mind-numbing.” There was nothing spectacular about being a soldier in any regard, but at least it allowed him these arbitrary encounters with pretty faces such as the Nurse. The darkness made good on its promise to conceal them from pesky bystanders and Déodat was confident enough to use the opportunity to draw closer, his head low and ruby horn extended outward in a silent, deadly greeting. When he had sufficiently closed the distance between them, he cast his longing gaze out over the serene waters of the iceless lake, content to ponder its mere existence. The beast was unsure if he felt the need to continue conversation with the nurturer only because the bliss that folded around them was enough to imprison any words volatile enough to find their way to his lips.

However, the chiming in the back of his mind had decided to lift its ugly head from the dark depths of his wonder and though he could not name from where it originated, he knew that it was certainly there, persistent as ever in spite of the irritability it left in its wake. For a moment he debated on whether or not to ask Lena to hum him a little tune to make the trilling cease, but of course he could not find the courage to indulge her attentiveness to his wellbeing.

Somehow it made him feel selfish… and so the ringing remained.

“You look quite well even in all this darkness. It suits you.” There was nothing in his tone to suggest anything other than a frank amiability behind such a compliment in spite of the fact that he found sweet Lena to be a creature of beauty. If there had been any other way to go about expressing himself, he certainly wasn’t aware of it and held no future intentions of changing it. A man set in his ways would only be such a man and Déodat was certainly a man who clung to the idea that as such a man, he was not limited to the formalities of friendship or anything of the like. “I hope you don’t mind the company, I could use a break from the insanity I’ve encountered today.”

Confutatis was still on his mind, even after she had disappeared into the ice and snow of the Steppe. However, her words still hung in midair like a shadow waiting to engulf him in its perilous embrace. Déodat couldn’t understand why he felt so perturbed by her threats, but he could only ignore them for so long. As he tried to harbor his emotions, his wonder, and his spite for the wolfish creature with a skull-painted face, he noticed that the incessant ringing grew in volume. It was a sickening thing and as he tried to deal with the ramifications of such an encounter, he closed his eyes to the Nurse hoping that she would miss the loss of reflection in his deadened eyes.

When the trilling seemed to subside for a time, the painted lord invited the world back into view. He wasn’t sure if he’d been tainted by her extortions or by his own anxieties alone, but while he sought refuge and calm from the catastrophe that he had endured only a short time before, he could not escape the guilt that wound around his heart. He had been weakened by the primal need for release and now, not only would he have to deal with his own dirty secrets, he would also have to evade one of the purest creature known to the Basin.

For the first time in his life he was truly and utterly fucked.

“If I asked you to sing me a song, would you promise not to question why?”