"Coming, coming," I called as I heard a knock on the door of the Castle that Never Was. I opened the door to see a girl standing in the pouring rain. Her long silver cloak didn't stop her from being soaked.
I stepped aside to let her in. "Name's Axel," I said. "Got it memorized?" She pushed back the hood of her cloak. For the first time I saw her piercing blue eyes. They left me breathless. "And you are?" I was nearly whispering.
She opened her mouth as though to say something, but then closed it again. She waited a few moments before telling me her name was Xenos.
"Xenos," I repeated under my breath. That's when I realized that it wasn't the name I liked so much, but the way she said it.
In the time she spent with us, Xenos became an ally. She became the person we could all trust. She knew everything about everyone, but she would never tell. She was someone who would listen to you talk for hours, or sit silently when you didn't want to talk at all. At some point, she made us all feel something.
Xenos became a friend.