Closed Nearer the sky.

[Ayosel]

Spring 3 521 AV

After the events at the Azure Market Ayosel was happy to find some measure of seclusion in the city and happier still to feel the faint pressure-warm-running of freshwater on the cusp of her awareness, again lingering in the periphery of her mind like the ghost and child now were.

The walk had been short enough that it was perhaps a bell or so for her to meander her way this way but it was much too long for someone who felt suddenly exposed under the open sky, suddenly feeling like a snakeling about to be picked off by a bird even though things like that didn't happen to human shaped people let alone to a snake of her proportions when she assumed the shape. It was a silly fear that she felt ashamed to experience and resolved to overcome; the open sky above held no enemy, merely Syna and Zulrav and Makutsi, three deities she respected if not wholly revered as cousins and elders both.

The park was a significant reprieve from that exposure, the overgrown boughs of colourful leaves obscuring some of the sky from her. As with the Azure Market the trees here that she'd learned from her dear companion, nameless and forgettable were he not always just within sight, had said were called fadeong. She could see why the inhabitants loved them so and had built a park to contain them in, poor thing not quite understanding the architecture and what it meant to be perched atop a mountain enough to understand that this 'park' was actually growing from the side of it and open to the wilderness enough so that she could even spot, just once, a small mountain cat, and could hear the chattering of squirrels bickering over nonsense squirrel business. Those animals were unfamiliar to her too and she was nearly convinced to stop and watch for them but the gentle coaxing promised by some kind of freshwater kept her moving.

It was when the pond came into sight that Ayosel was properly stricken into awe. She'd learned of skyglass by seeing it on important fixtures, by crossing the bridges, recognizing its presence by the crystalline effect of refracting light, but in this forested little nook off the peak of the Zintia where the trees were already cool dusky shades of red and violet, the effect was appropriately dazzling. Beautiful. Effervescent. She approached cautiously to investigate, noting that the source of the glittering was the benches around the large pond in the centre, the path she'd been following circling and branching off in different directions.

It was a long moment before Ayosel moved, stepping forward to settle next to the pond itself as if the water were irresistible, sitting so she could extend an arm and trail her fingers through the water and be reminded of reality. This was not a dream, the water seemed to say to her, this is real and you are safe.

[Moritz Craven]

3 Spring 521

Having finished his shopping and heading out from the market Moritz turned to Julan. His new purchase was tucked with his things in his pack, and the young kelvic was admittedly feeling a bit restless. He was still a bit confused on what had just happened, likely compounded by his nature of questioning and arguing which not everyone took well.

But then, Moritz reasoned, how was he to find out anything if he did not ask questions?

"Alright Julan, we are done. What do you want to do? I think we have time, we could play a game or do something. Know any good spots?"

Once more Julan became excited, his earlier meek performance gone. For some reason he was raising a hand, perhaps as if he was in class, and let out an excited "Ooh" sound.

"A park! There is a park, its not too far from here! We can go play there. And I know, we can try the special hide and seek game we played before!"

Moritz thought on this, knowing the importance of training, but also in training in new ways. He thought on this for a few more moments before deciding this would be more difficult than the prior time and was different enough to practice. While he had been nearly overwhelmed in the shop with all of the paths caused by foot traffic, a park would not have nearly as many people in a small space. They would, he expected, be more spread out and less common.

There first game had been far easier, in an off the side space that almost no one went too, meaning there were few paths to worry about running into. The same with the mountainside with Aja. This would be a happy medium, less difficult than the shop but harder than the others.

"Alright, I think that could work. But I don't know the park, can you show me the way?"

Julan whooped and nodded, before immediately racing off. Moritz noticed that in the boys excitement he was not quite running, more floating just above the ground and moving his legs but without the proper miming of regular steps. As he was not waiting Moritz was forced to run after him, not even able to stretch beforehand. With a surge forward he raced onward, moving as best he could in long bounds.

Unfortunately such movement was not as easy as it was in his Okomo form, and as he began to run Moritz realized a stitch was forming in his side and his breathing was coming in heavier gulps. Luckily Julan at full speed ran slower than Moritz at a sprint, being a smaller being, and the park was not too far away. This meant they managed to arrive before Moritz was left as a gasping heap on the ground, and without Moritz having to go at full speed or sprint after his initial work to catch up with Julan.

As it was when they arrived he slowed to a trot and then a walk and worked to catch his breathing, massaging the stitch forming in his side and trying to catch his breath.

"Julan... You can't... Run off... Like that... Let me... Catch... My breath..."

Julan hopped about in place, waiting for Moritz to catch his breath before there game could begin. The ghost was clearly impatient, and ready to begin.

Once Moritz breath had calmed and he could stand up straight without a pain in his side stabbing him, he motioned for the ghost.

"Alright, go stand on that spot there, so I know where you began. Now I'm going to work on activating my Iraso sight, but it will take a bit. So when I'm done and have activated it, that means its begun and you should be hidden. So... Go!"

With that Julan ran off, and Moritz found a good spot to close his eyes in.

As usual he needed time to activate his Iraso vision, but felt he was slowly getting better and faster. He however still needed work on his mental imaging, and sat on the ground in a off to the side spot to meditate as he had seen Kyra do before.

Within his mind he pictured nothing, a blank emptiness, and focused on calming his breathing. In. Out. In. Out. Over and again till he felt the calmness sweep through him. Then within his mental image of nothing he let color seep in as he next inhaled, tying the change to the cadence of his breath.

First red swept in, a surge and then stopping, and then surging again on his next inhale. Over the red swept blue, and then green, and then as if coming into focus a grassy opening. Focusing more on the edges he imagined a place similar but different from this one. Trees, ringed the outside, and he was in a clearing. Blue swept in, and then resolved into a tiny creek moving by just in front of himself in the mental place. He imagined that creek was his djed, and willed it to move out of its bed and up into a new direction.

On each inhale he surged the water out, having it slow and then push outward with another way on the next exhale he made. Finally he moved it to the edge, towards a tree he mentally marked and willed to be his eyes, and then focused on it. As the djed reached the tree it began to glow, and he willed it to activate within his true eyes.

Once more opening his eyes Moritz saw his Iraso sight bloom before him. Rising from his seated position he moved to the spot Julan had begun in, and started his attempt to track the trail the ghost had left.

WC: 966

[Ayosel]

Ayosel could never enthuse enough about how fresh water calmed her soul. Feeling it on her hand, on the mark left by Makutsi when they'd danced together, it felt like home in a way Zinrah never quite was. A part of her, the part that longed for the memory of the ocean, for gills and venom and Laviku's unwavering love, wished to sink into the pond and be done with this mortal coil, to become one with the sea again. She basked in the feeling, in belonging, not unlike she might bask in the sunlight or the attention of constrictor suitors or in the sensation of a nestmate's fresh kill filling her belly.

Without wholly being aware of herself, she'd moved to dip her legs into the water, letting them dangle in the home of the jellyfish she had yet to see, clearly on her way to full submersion and an inevitable encounter the longer she let herself enjoy this.

Fortunately Julan found her first as she sat there, daydreaming about possibilities and the instinct-memories of her younger years when swimming was so new and scary and exhilarating. She caught him at the corner of her eye, a wisp of movement that had her whip around ready to invite her Shinya tail to enjoy the day with her only to be silent instead.

She looked at the ghost for a few long moments as if coming to terms with the sight, withdrawing from the pool and the lurking jellies within, and then huffed an amused laugh. "Oh, it's you," said the Iyvess in an unusually dry tone. Standoffish due to uncertainty, the dhani watched the ghost curiously. The boy, the thing two humans had apparently gotten together to make without thinking about the ramifications of a sentient pet with thoughts and ideas of its own, was probably nearby with a flurry of weird questions and looks to deliver. If anything, Ayosel was resigned to this fate, to spend the day interacting with snack-sized humans and ghosts. "Where's the other one?"

[Moritz Craven]

Focusing watched the trail Julan had left behind him stretching from the spot he had been standing on, and off into the distance. Moving carefully Moritz tracked after it, following the line of djed within the air along the ground, tiny djed crumbs that had slipped off of the greater mass that was Julan.

Moving along it with his eyes as he walked Moritz saw the bits fall off and pick up, a patchy path laid out before him. Out of his peripheral vision more lines stretched out, bits and tufts, but he did his best to ignore the others and focus on the one single path he wanted to track along. This was far easier due to the fact that there were not many paths of djed in the area, something that Moritz had been expecting as they were in a less traveled spot. Not directly on a main path only other people going off a bit would leave trails where they were, which limited things greatly.

It also helped that he had spent a good bit of time learning Julan's djed pattern and so was able to better pick it up again and know it as Julan's trail compared to others, at least so long as not too many others overlaid it.

Heading off in the direction the trail picked up and dropped off, came in and out, faded and brightened. Following it was tricky to his unskilled Iraso sight, but not too difficult. At least until he approached the first large gap, one which required other tactics.

Focusing on the ground once more Moritz marked the place out in his mind where the trail ended, and then began to pace off along it in the same direction. When after a chime he did not find more trail from Julan Moritz returned to the first spot, this time seeing his own trail backtracking across it.

From there he went back to Julans trails end, and then going off at an angle headed along again. His plan was simple, but- he hoped- effective. Even if Julan had turned or beared off in a new direction mid break Moritz would be able to find the next bit of his trail if he worked at it systematically. This time at near a chime he ran into a trail, but after pausing to inspect it he realized it was not Julan's. Backtracking again Moritz tried yet another bearing, heading off in the direction.

Finally that way did it, and after a chime or so he saw another bit of trail, and with some looking identified it as Julans. With a smile at his success Moritz headed off along the path laid out in his Iraso sight, glad he had not lost the ghosts trail.

Julan for his part was startled by the woman and her sudden words, hopping off the ground and taking an oddly long amount of time to return to it.

"Oh, its you, the weird touch lady."

Holding up a finger over his lips Julan spoke to the woman, adding a low hissing shushing noise. However when he spoke it seemed just as loud as ever before and after the shushing.

"He's not here. We're in the middle of a game, our special hide and seek. And I'm hiding. So quiet, or he'll find me!"

Julan looked about as if trying to find a good spot, before returning his gaze to the woman.

"You know any good spots around here?"

The ghost would give the woman a chance to respond, however unless she gave him a spot he would continue on again before leaving.

"Just don't tell Moritz where I went! Okay!"

With that the ghost would run off perhaps twenty feet down along the edge of the water, before looking around and diving straight into its depth. However when he did the water did not splash or such as it would when a person with a body jumped into water, and after a moment the ghost had sunk down far enough it would not be visible from the surface.

WC: 681

[Ayosel]

Severe brows rose high in bemusement at the reference to 'strange touch'. There were possible ramifications to what the meaning might entail that she was woefully unaware of and was instead focused on the fact they'd actually labelled her. "Ayosel," she corrected. "Not 'weird-touch-lady'."

She was made silent by the shushing, acquiescing by going silent and leaning in to hear what she thought would be a whisper but was really just the ghost speaking at his usual volume. The dhani snorted at that, a bit of a laugh that she waved away. "Hide and seek," she repeated in a softer tone, one meant to acknowledge the clandestine nature of their encounter. Her and the ghost, him hiding from his friend... who was probably about to barrel around the corner.

When asked about a hiding place Ayosel had one in mind and opened her mouth to inform him... just before he darted off as fast a child with his condition could, she supposed, and jumped in the water not long after. Fortunately, that was exactly where she was going to suggest hiding.

For a moment the dhani was left alone at the water's edge watching where the ghost had disappeared to with not even a disturbance to the surface of the pond. It made sense, she thought. They'd gone right through one another when they'd initially (inadvertently) touched. Of course the water would be sluiced through just as easily.

Then it was her turn to decide what to do, where to go, should the boy--Moritz--round the bend on her. The dhani was momentarily motionless and hard at thought, brow furrowed and stormy eyes flitting around.

Then she too turned for the water and stepped in, slipping through with a significantly larger splash compared to the ghost. Immediate contact with the pond's water was a soothing balm; just touching it hadn't been enough. Ayosel had been made to swim and even with her vision hindered by the murky depths of a wilderness pond she could still feel the motion of things around her, the gentle pulse of jellyfish, the current caused by her entrance, and hopefully she'd be hidden out of sight so this boy--Moritz, she told herself--would continue on his merry way.

The dhani had taken a deep breath before sliding into the pond and now gripped the packed soil with her bare fingers to keep from rising to the surface. She could be here for a while.

[Moritz Craven]

Continuing along the trail it was several chimes after Julan and Ayosel entered the water before Moritz came into sight of the water.

Before that he had to painstakingly follow along the trail, moving along it until another inevitable gap appeared. While he moved he continued his focus, concentrating on the picture within his mind of the djed soaking in... Moving... And willing that action to match his own djeds. But as he did the more he realized such was not needed. With his Iraso sight, he was beginning to realize, it was more of an off and on thing. It took attention and focus to turn it on, and likewise to turn it off. But once he began and turned it on the magic did not tend to shut itself off easily... Or at least not quickly, or that Moritz had experienced.

This reminded him of something his master Aja had said... About him practicing turning the magic on and off till it was natural... So perhaps, Moritz reasoned, it really did work that way? And also once he was more skilled it would become easier to do.

Once another gap appeared Moritz was forced to repeat his earlier tactic, but slowly trying to refine it and make it quicker. Which angle was best? Which was too wide? Too narrow? He tested these out in his attempt to blanket each spot and find the next part of the line of movement, working by trial and error and seeing which worked best. Slowly he was gathering more information, more understanding, and he felt getting better slowly at the tactic.

Nothing drastic, he reminded himself, but in spurts and such he was improving. Slowly climbing the mountain that was the task of mastering his new gift. And as with climbing a mountain it was done one step at a time, and made the more possible by that even when looking at it from the base and seeing it as insurmountable.

Rounding the bend Moritz saw the water, and saw that the trail Julan had left went directly to it. However as he moved closer he began to see another trail, only able to pick out the two as separate due to how well he knew Julan's djed pattern. The other one, as with many patterns, seemed to have similar bits to others he had seen. But he did not recognize it at once, which meant it was not one he knew as well.

As he drew close to the water even more he began to notice the two lines interacting, growing close to each other... And then, watching closely, Julan's line moved off a bit... Before heading into the water.

Out of curiosity he looked at the other line, the one that had interacted with Julan, and was surprised to see that though it came in from another direction... It also went into the water...

Moritz pondered this, considering the reasons. Had someone fallen in and drowned? If they had stayed inside he would not see an exit. Also if they had gone in and left on another side he would not likely see the exit area from where he was...

Raising his voice and trying to get Julan's attention, Moritz shouted to the ghost.

"Julan! Are you inside the water?! I can't swim, so I can't go in to find you! Come out now, alright! And do you see anyone else in there? Maybe someone drowning? I see another person went in, but I don't see them come back out! Let me know, okay!?"

Julan for his part made no move to exit, perhaps finding it funny or planning some joke. Instead he moved about underwater and headed over to the woman holding her breath, beginning to make faces and such to try and make her laugh. Or perhaps trying to make her surface first in some odd attempt at playing a game or throwing Moritz off.

If the woman did rise Julan would follow soon after, but seemed disinterested in leaving while he had a captive audience to play with.

Assuming the woman responded at all, or had her eyes open to see him. Or wasn't busy being attacked by jellyfish.

WC: 702

[Ayosel]

Ayosel did indeed merge at Julan's antagonizing, preferring instead to surface rather than give the ghost the delight of an eye-roll. She harboured some negativity after their prior meeting, after all.

Beforehand she'd managed to lurk under the water, her long hair a dark halo around her head and her hands both dug deep into the wet soil to anchor her in place. She could have happily stayed there for as long as she needed to before running out of breath, essentially basking in the cool pressure of freshwater on bare skin. A bubble or two would emerge but only when she would lose track of her train of thought and relaxed, letting go of the muscles keeping her lungs from exhaling all the air at once.

When she did emerge she rose from the water looking not much different than a corpse dredged out of a lake might, her hair plastered all over her face and back and her clothes clinging to her skin. She'd probably be cold in a few minutes; the high mountain air was not as hospitable as the warm humidity of the jungle floor and she'd have to learn that before taking a swim again.

"He's right there," she said to Moritz as she pulled herself out, nodding her head back to indicate the ghost now rising from the depths looking far less like an actual corpse than the pale Iyvess did.

Once up and on her feet the woman went about wringing the water out of her hair with her hands, beginning to shiver a little bit here and there as her wet skin freckled with goosebumps under an errant breeze.

"What's hide and seek?" She asked after the boy and his ghost had a few moments to interact. "He said you were playing hide and seek."

[Moritz Craven]

Moritz was somewhat surprised and even took a step back as a woman randomly sprang forth from the water. While he had been expecting something to happen, mainly Julan to appear sheepishly, he had not expected a completely different person to pop out. Even having seen the trail of the other person Moritz had been unsure how recent the person had entered the water, and had no way of knowing why they had gone in, and so was not expecting them to come out instead.

His Iraso sight still active Moritz saw the woman in both types of vision, and putting together the time he'd spent examining her before and now he realized after a chime who it was. Her wet appearance and distorted hair made it more difficult, but eventually he did manage to identify her as the woman who Julan had touched and had somewhat aggressively asked about said touching by the ghost.

This confused him and made him wonder further why the woman was there and if she was following him, but considering the order of events that seemed less likely. Going at it logically Moritz tracked the events of the day. They had both been in the shop... She had left and gone somewhere... And then later Julan and Moritz had left. All three had apparently by chance ended up in the park... And then Julan's hiding had taken him by chance, it seemed, to the same woman... Pondering things Moritz supposed there were some alternatives, but the most likely seemed to be that the woman was not following them and met again by chance as they all decided to go see some nature in the park.

Nodding to himself at his own thought out logic Moritz considered the woman and her words, watching as Julan rose from the water and did a handstand on the surface of it as if he was a person on flat ground.

At her quety on their game Julan shook his head, which seemed to send him off balance and landing in the water once more without a splash. Regaining his "footing" Julan rose, moving back out of the water to stand on the shore.

"No, I said special hide and seek, not hide and seek. You need to listen better."

In response to his words Moritz glared at Julan, who somewhat sheepishly avoided everyones eye contact and began to mutter and walk about by himself. Technically he had not given anything away, but he had made a promise to keep a certain secret and had edged onto it with his particular wording and his correction to it.

Meeting the womans gaze, his eyes still alight with Iraso sight, Moritz paused for a moment before responding.

"Hide and seek is a game. Honestly the name explains it pretty well. One person hides, the other seeks them. That's it. Though we like to add special rules, thus the special part. Julan likes to hide in places that are tricky."

Technically all Moritz said was true, though some was a bit misleading in the direction away form certain things he did not want to talk about to a random person he had just met.

"I'm assuming that's why Julan was underwater. I'm curious though, what were you doing under there? And how long were you under there? I didn't see you when I came up, so it had to be a fair number of chimes you were under. How long can you hold your breath? Is there perhaps a trick to it you can show me? I don't know how to swim, but being able to do that could be of use."

His questions were all honest, though some were more probing than others. From what he had seen either the woman was really, really, unnaturally skilled at holding her breath... Or had some trick or magic to it. Or perhaps could even breath underwater. Having a possible boat trip in his future....

"Although I'm not sure your supposed to swim in the park. Was there anything interesting in there?"

Julan taking the chance threw his arms up and shouted "Squishy fishy!" which was a response that more confused Moritz than clarified anything.

"What?"

WC: 702

[Ayosel]

This time Ayosel noticed the strange colour to the boy's eyes, the way they seemed to glow with an indefinable light, a shade different than their colour as she'd seen when they initially met. That was interesting to her and she was curious about it--and suspicious, knowing about magic and wondering if it was a form of one, a personal magic that used the djed in the body rather than the djed in the world--but as she finished wringing out her hair and Julan rebuked her for her wording she was instead drawn into that. Her eyebrows raised again as she looked at him.

"You have the most disagreeable temperament," the dhani said with a flat sort of finality. She expected some sort of retort and was already dismissive of it; the encounter she'd had with them at the Azure Market had already solidified both boys as indignant and brash. For the moment she actively disliked children, an opinion coloured only by this boy and his ghost.

"Is it a fun game, being hunted like that?" She asked him, brushing past whatever sort of awkwardness would answer her dismissive wave at the ghost. "Or hunting," she amended after a beat. They had games like that when she was young too but she always strove never to be the one at the mercy of the larger, stronger constrictors.

Ayosel wrinkled her nose as she considered swimming in the park being against 'the rules' for being here. Already well above any other source of fresh water she longed to sink right back in. His question warranted an answer though, one nonsensically solved by Julan.

The dhani huffed a laugh, bemused. "Didn't see anything," she said with no intention to answer the questions regarding her capacity to hold her breath. She wasn't sure if she found the boy agreeable enough to level any sort of information onto him that would reach others and out her as dhani. She was already in a bad enough situation being distantly tailed by the Shinya. "But there's things down there, yes." She could say that, she figured. No experience had ever told her that individuals could feel things underwater, little flutters of motion like the dancing pressure of a gentle current. "Squishy," she added on as a final sort of descriptor. It suited the pressure she'd felt, the distant-not-distant sway of amorphous fish. Now she was curious about it.

"If I go back in, will you tell on me?" The dhani had looked from the pond and then back to the boy. She was already inching towards it and would probably have submerged herself within a chime if given the opportunity. She might even answer some of his questions if he wasn't too much of fuss about it.

[Moritz Craven]

Moritz frowned in concentration, confused by the womans rebuttal. While the woman was speaking to Julan -which would be clear to most- Moritz was unclear on who was the recipient of the comment. Himself, the young Kelvic with a bluntness and habit of interrogating people, or the odd ghost with boundary issues who simply wanted to have fun and play games.

He was further confused as Julan seemed to be ignoring the woman, not seeming to have heard what she said at all by his reaction. Instead he continued to wander about and mutter something about ditches, only to do another handstand facing away from the woman and with his legs splayed loosely. Once more he remembered the task of making eye contact, but saw too late that he had lost the chance to see who the woman was looking at when she said that. Or had she been looking at anyone? Moritz was unsure, more focused on her as a whole and examining her djed than on her eyes or such.

When she did seem to finally clearly be addressing Moritz he responded initially with a shrug.

"I guess. Julan likes to play it, and I don't dislike it. And it helps me get better at tracking things, following after people like today. So... I guess its a win win. Fun... Yeah not sure. Julan seems to enjoy it though."

While Moritz understood the concept of fun, and even had it on occasion, he much more commonly acted to learn or expand his skills or such. Aiming at a goal of becoming better rather than doing something just for the enjoyment. A prominent distinction in reasoning between Moritz and Julan.

Frowning in concentration once more Moritz considered the womans words. While he was no master of pulling information from people, he had learned a few things. Like that someone not answering a question or even acknowledging it often said something by its absence as much as an answer would... And she did seem to be skirting around certain things, namely things Moritz had pointed out and asked about but had not answered. Digging through his own questions he ordered his queries and her responses to find the gaps. Along with that he considered the chain of events, and the two accounts he was being told. Comparing. Contrasting... Considering. Following the chain of events and trying to logically work through them. Not an easy task as Moritz was finding.

"If you didn't see anything, how did you know Julan was down there? He doesn't really touch things in the normal sense, so sight seems it would be the simplest way to detect him. But you say you didn't see anything. You didn't see him? And if you didn't see anything, but know there were things down there, how did you sense whatever it was? I'm not exactly a swimmer, but what other method of sensing things underwater it there other than sight?"

Moritz was unsure what a squishy water creature was, but he supposed it was not simply a fish as even Julan would know the name for such a thing. Which left him unsure on what was in the water.

As the woman asked another question Moritz finally realized what had not been answered at all. Breathing. Or the lack thereof. The woman had held her breath for an impressive amount of time, unless of course there was some trick to it... Or special ability... Or magic... Or... Recalling back to his mother and the ghost and things, Moritz realized another reason one did not need to breath.... Without fully thinking Moritz muttered under his breath his reasoning.

"The dead don't need to breath..."

Moritz was a bit fuzzy on the details, but he understood there were other types of dead than ghosts. His mother had fought them, and had some thing going on involving Dira about them... Or at least not alive, he was unsure if they could properly be called dead if they weren't alive but not properly dead.

Turning his glare on the woman Moritz tilted his head downward slightly, eyeing her from the top of his upturned eyes. Being an Okomo this was a more aggressive posture, the opposite of the common posture for a human whom generally used it as a display of submission. For an Okomo lowering the head meant preparation to headbutt or attack.

"I don't know. Will it come up? I'm not big on lying, can't stand the stuff to be honest. Adults seem to find it as easy as breathing. Some more than others. Some lying seems more common than truth. Of course, I won't volunteer the information about it, not unless someone directly asks me. And I don't think that'd be too likely. Or if not telling would harm someone. I'd probably tell someone then. Otherwise, if you aren't harming anyone, or I suppose anything, and no one directly asks me about it, I don't think I'd bring it up."

Moritz being Moritz he was unable to answer with a simple yes or no, instead giving a in depth explanation on his thoughts on the topic.

"But I've answered your question, and I've noticed one you didn't. What were you doing underwater? And about your breath. Or holding it. How long can you hold your breath? Like I said, you were underwater a long time. So do you have some special trick to it? I'm always looking to learn new things, as I think I've said. And if its something I can learn then it'd be good to have, to avoid drowning."

"Or do you not need to breath? I've heard of other dead, other than ghosts, and it'd make sense if they don't breath either. Like ghosts. But you seem to have a body, can touch things, pick things up. So you don't seem to be a ghost. I suppose if you are a dead person, with a body and things, but not alive, I'd need to tell someone. Something about Dira and killing things that aren't properly dead or alive... I think as a Craven its kind of my... What was it... Duty? Yeah, duty. Duty, to not let not dead or alive things wander about. Or would it be killing, if you aren't properly alive or dead? Not sure the correct term on that. Any idea?"

Moritz spoke on the topic in the same casual tone as before, though one of his hands was resting on his weapon harness- currently devoid of weapons- and the quick release which let him quickly remove it. If a fight was to occur he would want to shift quickly, and he did not want to wreak his new harness the day he got it by turning into a much larger form that could not easily wear it.

WC: 1,137