Suddenly a sensation of being pulled from the Void interrupted his thoughts, a smile crossing his face as he answered it. No matter how much he had annoyed her, she seemed to need him more than she would let on. His form wavered into the Listerner's bed chamber within the Sanctuary, his eyes first alighting upon the unchild putting a salve on to the side of the the Bosmer's ribs. A hiss leaves the young woman, the sound drawing a look from Babette as she worked. "You wouldn't have broken ribs and a few new scars if you hadn't sent Lucien away."
Lucien watched as the elf just smiled at Babette and shrugged a bit, clearly about to lie about why she had sent him away. "What can I say Babette my dear? I really am a glutton for punishment."
The mad jester's laugh almost made Lucien flinch as he came into the room, a tray with many medicinal herbs laying upon it. "Oh Listener. You slay Cicero. However you should have returned home and had Cicero or the one of the other children follow you. You are very important to all of us. And Mother would be very upset with you if you were to be killed."
Lucien cleared his throat, not actually from necessity but to catch the Bosmer's attention. Nassana looked up to him and smiled sheepishly, her evident anger from early gone in the midst of having the others look over her wounds. "Greetings Lucien... So seems I might have been a bit hasty in sending you away the other day."
Lucien glanced at the calender that the woman kept in her room, noting it actually had been almost a week since she had sent him away. At times he forgot that time does not have meaning in the Void. What would be days on Nirn would pass like minutes beside the Dread Father. He smiled, moving closer to the bed to assist the unchild with removing some of the armor on the elf's body. " You made it longer without me than I would have thought. I do suppose that means I am not as necessary as everyone seems to believe."
The elf snorted then growls as Babette, whom had managed to thread a needle while they were distracted, and was beginning to sew a very deep gash Nassana's left shoulder. The vampire raised an eyebrow, unhurried by the growl, and continued her work. "She may not always need you but the wounds she has could have been avoided if she had someone to assist her. If I were any good at actually fighting I would say she should take me but alas a child's body is not meant for battle, only subterfuge."
"Cicero agrees with the unchild. The Listener is a formidable fighter but much of her injury would have been avoided if she had someone to help." The jester said, following some instructions that Babette was murmuring to him as he spoke. Lucien raised an eyebrow, not seeing many wounds from his point of view. As if knowing his confusion, Nassana motioned with her right hand to her back. "I got distracted. I was fighting a dragon and didn't notice the very large cat and snow bear charging me. That is until large claws caught me. Fought them off and started here just to have a group of bandits appear while I was wounded. I dealt with them but earned a few broken ribs and the new scar on my shoulder. Honestly the claw marks aren't that bad. The worst is my shoulder and my ribs."
His eyes went to the unchild in time to watch her strange eyes narrow at the Listener, the vampire not one to hold her tongue. She tugged on the thread, earning another growl from the elf, before looking to Lucien with a sigh. "Her back is infected. Cicero and I won't be able to hold her down and get the infection out. Her wolf blood, as well as her Bosmer genes, could take care of the infection on their own but I want clean them just to be cautious. You are the only one who would be able to hold her down. If Arnbjorn..."
The vampire stopped and looked down, her grief obvious. Even Cicero became quiet, knowing that his foolish words would not assist the vampire through her thoughts. The most surprising was Nassana, her head lowering as she muttered under her breath, her tone sounding more than a little angered but not at anyone in the room. Lucien rested a hand on Babette's shoulder and nodded once, letting her stay silent as he glanced to the elf on the bed. "I will assist in keeping her in place as you do your work."
A little over an hour later Nassana was on her stomach, asleep after the ordeal, as Cicero began cleaning up the rags soaked in blood and the various other types of things they used. Lucien followed the vampire and sat in a chair in the unchild's room, letting her sit on her bed before he looked at her, his gaze questioning. "What did the Listener say? When you paused I mean. You were closest and with your vampiric senses I do know you would have caught her words."
Babette looked at the floor and sighed heavily, her hands clasping on her lap. "The Listener blames herself for not getting here fast enough to save Veezara and the others. She believes that she shouldn't have trusted the way Astrid spoke to her the day she went to Solitude and into the trap laid by Maro. Her words were 'He would be here if I had been fast enough.'"
Lucien's eyebrow raised as he listened to the youthful vampire, surprised again by the oddity that was the Listener. Arnbjorn had a good death protecting the Sactuary from its attackers. He wouldn't have left any blame on the Listener after it was discovered that Astrid had been the one to betray all of them either. The feeling of guilt that often filled the Listener's thoughts always left Lucien wondering what could cause such separate degrees in her personality. Babette watched the Listener's face as he thought over her words, a small smile crossing her child like face. "Speaker what has you so confused?"
"Our Listener seems to be a woman of extremes. Her extremes in personality are perplexing to say the least. She has murdered in cold blood, no life filling her ruby eyes as her blade or arrow finds its mark. Yet she cares for little orphans, the members of this Family, and even for members of other guilds. The mentality she has seems a maze even to me." Lucien answered honestly, the unchild being the only one who could remember Nirn as he remembered it during his life time, which gave him a small sense of familiarity with her. The vampire child nodded and giggled softly, her amusement obvious in her glowing eyes. "She is a complex puzzle. She treats me like she would her orphans, even knowing I am not truly a child. She brings me sweetrolls sometimes and has come in when I am about to rest to read me a story. I almost feel as though I have a mothering figure in my life. And yet I watched as she slit Astrid's throat with no remorse held in her eyes... I don't know what could cause such extreme differences in her actions. I do know that as long as we are a Family she will always watch over me... and Cicero, who needs it more than I."
"Cicero heard that unchild. But Cicero knows you are right." The Jester walked into the room, a book under his arm as he plopped onto the ground beside the bed Babette sat on. "Cicero is not made for the world Cicero lives in anymore. The Listener has helped poor Cicero more often than she would probably admit to. She is a kind hearted woman who treats Cicero like he is part of her family even after what he did to the pretender and the sheepdog."
The vampire child smacked Cicero's shoulder, as a warning not to speak ill of the dead then glanced at the book he held. "Cicero, what is that you are holding?"
"Ooooh! Cicero almost forgot. Cicero found this in the Listener's bedside table as he put away some things." the madman announced as he lifted the obviously well worn book. "Cicero took a peek and it is an old journal of the Listener's. It looks like one before she became a member of our Family."
Lucien moved faster than either the vampire or the madman could react, yanking the item from the jester's hand with a small sound of annoyance. "You have broke Tenet four. Never steal the possessions of a Dark Brother or Dark Sister. To do so is to invoke the Wrath of Sithis. This belongs to our Listener. Why did you take this from her room?"
Cicero balked as Lucien spoke, the usually warm, if a bit indifferent, tone of the specter's voice coming off cold and nearly violent. The Jester scooted away from the spirit before him, his head lowering. It was obvious that the Keeper had not thought before he acted, this fact the only thing staying Lucien's hand. He would not kill one of his Brothers but he was not above harming one for breaking the Tenets. Babette stood and moved between the two, her usual calm a boon as she gave Lucien a piercing look then turned her gaze to Cicero. "Keeper Cicero... please tell us why you stole this from Nassana's room."
The jester clasped his hands on his lap, looking almost like a child who had been caught doing something he thought hadn't been too bad of an action. "Cicero wanted to understand the Listener. Seeing that it was an old journal Cicero thought he could learn something to help him understand her. Cicero was going to return it once he had finished. Cicero swears he hadn't meant to break a Tenet."
Lucien wanted to groan at the other man's words, not sure whether to laugh at the idiot on the floor or torture him for a few hours. While even he was curious about what was in the journal rest in his hand, there were reasons such rules exist. A worse thought was that Nassana's reaction would be worse than his own if she had found out that Cicero had taken the book. He had a feeling, considering how often he read books in her house including her more recent journal, the Bosmer would not think twice if she caught him with this. Cicero, however, was a different story. He was the type to tell many whatever he found in the pages or ask questions that would not be welcome. Lucien turned away as Babette began chiding the madman as the specter went straight to Nassana's room. Shutting the door behind him, hoping that the others would see that as a sign to stay out, he sat on the bed bed side the still sleeping elf. His eyes followed the rise and fall of her back as she breathed.
Sighing he pulled the pelts that she had kicked off her legs back to her hips, knowing she wouldn't wake as he did. Leaned back against the headboard and glanced down at the journal, his mind debating the possible repercussions of him reading the secrets of the young woman. After a few moments he smirked, signs of the man he once was showing on his face as he flipped open the journal.
