Author's note: For anyone who cares, I am flying to France tomorrow for a Study Abroad program, and will not be able to post anything until I get back. That will be in June. Just a head's up.

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The first thing Minuet noticed was the fact that she was lying in a bed, and it was not her own. The second was the bright red and teal blur in front of her face as she slowly blinked her eyes open. Being her mother's daughter, there was only one course of action to be taken when a strange person is looming over you as you sleep, and that is a solid right cross to their jaw.

Lavi, who had simply been making sure she was alright, was not expecting to be sent reeling back with a broken jaw first thing in the morning. A strained cry of pain brought Bookman and Allen running in from the other room. The scene they opened the door to was simultaneously hilarious, and a little frightening.

"I'm sorry, but it was a knee-jerk reaction. I am not accustomed to having people looming over me as I sleep." Minuet was trying her best to calm Lavi down, and it was not working. Lavi, for his part, was only making incomprehensible mutterings of pain. "Oh, for goodness's sake." She sighed and softly spoke the name of silence, followed by the name of stillness. "There. That's better. Now, don't panic, I give you my word, you'll be fine." She placed her hand on Lavi's cheek, gently so as not to hut him any more than she already had, and invoked the ability her mother had learned in the Veil of Hoen, and had since passed on to her. Suddenly, Lavi's jaw was back in its proper place, and there was a large purple bruise on Min's own chin. "Oh, yah, tha' hur's. Sowy." Translation: Oh, yeah. That hurts. Sorry.

"W-what did you do?" She held up her hand, forestalling any further questions until her own jaw had healed properly.

Once the nasty purple had faded to moderately painful, almost healed yellow, she spoke. "I healed you, Sorry about that." She rubbed the now slightly less painful area as she spoke. "Next time, do not loom over me as I awake."

"Whatever you do, girl, it's even better than the old panda's acupuncture! But, why'd you get hurt?" Always the bookman, recording new happenings for future generations.

Surprisingly, it was not Min who answered, it was Bookman. "Empathetic healing, you stupid apprentice. Didn't I tell you to read up on namers while she slept?"

"Well, yeah, but..." Lavi grinned that annoying, 'I screwed up' grin, and sweat-dropped something awful.

"I take it then, that namers are not common in this place?" While they were not too common back home, Minuet got the distinct feeling that the only one who knew anything about her profession was the old man. Perhaps namers didn't exist here...

"No, they are not. You are the first I have ever met, or heard of existing in this particular world." This gave both the princess and bookman reason to pause and reflect upon this exchange of information. However, this also gave Lavi and Allen a chance to come up with questions. Allen was the first one to ask his, saving Lavi the trouble of having to look up the basic information on namers.

"Um... I hate to be rude, but... what is a namer?" And who could deny such an adorable face? Min certainly couldn't!

"You could say a namer is a sort of bard, but we are so much more. We are the keepers of lore, the very essence of reality. When we are in tune with the vibrations of the world, we can change things by speaking true names." There was more to it, but with her limited vocabulary, and without speaking until the sun set, that was really all she could say.

"So, what can you change?" Allen was curious now. Maybe, just maybe, she could help them against the Akuma...

"Well, I can change the states of an object or being, I can make little changes to the actual thing itself, like I can turn unleavened bread into a softer bread. I cannot, however, make something completely new- I cannot turn bread into sausage and eggs, as wonderful a talent that would be." At this statement, Allen's face fell a little. "I can also command living things, like telling a plant to grow. My mother actually managed to tell an oak tree to bloom, and the blossoms could be seen with human eyes. It was quite amazing."

The talk of Minuet's abilities and training went long into the evening, and it was decided that she would accompany the exorcists to their headquarters and speak with Komui. After all, she seemed to be a very capable woman who would work well with the Dark Religious Order, and she would find some desperately needed allies in a strange, new place. Bookman placed a call to headquarters, explaining the situation, and Komui agreed. He, too, was curious about this newcomer to their world.