Welcome to the end...
Watch your step, Cassandra
You may fall
As I've stumbled on the field
Sister mine
Death's a certain thing
Find myself in darkest places
Find myself drifting away
And the otherworld
The otherworld appears

I woke up and was on my feet in a matter of seconds. The music had surprised me. I was almost thinking me back home. Except that this month was an Alestorm month, meaning that this was certainly not Ben's alarm clock ringing. It would have been accordions and trumpets waking me up, not Hansi Kürsh's strong voice. It brought tears to my eyes again as I sat back on the bed. A look to the little room confirmed me that indeed, I was still in the fucking Citadel, near a place that would soon become Shepard's favourite.

And then there was silence
Just a voice from the otherworld
Like a leaf in an icy world
Memories will fade

Misty tales and poems lost
All the bliss and beauty will be gone
May my weary soul find release for a while
At the moment of death I will smile
It's the triumph of shame and disease
In the end
Iliad

I decided to rub the tears off my eyes. I thought I had ran dry yesterday when I started to weep uncontrollably. Someone (probably Garrus, as I remembered the hands around my shoulders only had three fingers each) led me to the bedroom, patted my back and talked about shit until I fell asleep, I presume, because I was in my underwear. Maybe Garrus didn't led me to bed, after all. Or maybe the asari undressed me. The thought slightly bothered me, but I didn't feel like I had been molested in any way. I had to go down. Whatever was there and playing Blind Guardian probably had brought something for breakfast.

One of the humans. A man. He was shaking his head to the music playing on the living room's terminal (I had learned that from the T... The Terminal !)

"Hey, you're awake ?" he finally said, shutting the music down. "I'm sorry, I thought it was low enough..."

"I'm a bit of a light sleeper." I said. "Also, I like this band so..."

"It's a song Garrus had been listening to. Since it's human he asked me what I was thinking about it. Since my father was really fond of metal music, it was easy for me to like it."

"I used to sing in a metal band..." I said without thinking.

"Woaw !" he said. "Which one ?"

I decided that half the truth wouldn't hurt.

"Something local, we all knew each other for long and said 'hey let's have a band !' In the end, we split because we were given some opportunities..."

I didn't mention Ben. With the marriage proposal, I had decided to stop music for a while and focus on my linguistics studies and finding whatever job wanted me. Alain had been given a very good intern position that was crucial to his studies to become an engineer, Fabien had found a job to fill his daughter's mouth and Lucho's father had become sick. Only Fred's situation hadn't changed, but except the fact that he was living at his very possessive's Asian mother's house, he had the most stable situation of us all.

Fortunately, the man didn't seem to want to pry more. He just nodded at me and moved on to the objective of the day.

"We're going to go shopping for food and some clothes, today." He said. "I have to accompany you. Oh and my name's Butler."

I was pretty much pleased of this shopping outing. C-Sec was paying for most of it, even though Butler told me the exact amount of the budget for the clothing. I raised my eyebrows and settled for what was very necessary, such as underwear for two weeks and three sets of t-shirt and pants. I also bought a cheap white summer dress that wasn't a quality outfit, but since it was for possible great occasions such as job interviews (If I was ever allowed to take one, I still don't know the details of that 'witness protection program'...) I took it.

The dress wasn't ugly, but it was white and my newly healed light brown skin was just glorified by it's shine. It probably won't last, though. After that, Butler took me to an asari dinner where he offered me a meal. It was just divine. I had never tasted something so good in my life. Mom's cuisine could go to Hell. I felt the urgent need to learn everything I could from Asari gastronomy.

I almost cried in the restaurant, thinking about my mother. I could hold back and show a fake smile until Butler had accompanied me back to the flat and left for his own. He told me that Nanoshia was on duty at the C-Sec annexe down the building and that he'll be waiting for Garrus in front of the door, where they were supposed to stand vigil. I managed to place everything we had bought in the cupboards and dressings that were hidden in the walls until I fell into the couch and finally cried. I turned the terminal on and Blind Guardian's And Then There Was Silence was still on. My tears doubled.