Kindness can only get you so far

[cruciohappy]

Bellatrix's lip curled.

Khamja were a convenience. A way to keep an eye on what the rest of the world was up to. The world had become more global; ripples in Archades were felt in the Union. If you could call it a Union. It was a hodgepodge of city states, each wanting autonomy, and protection from each other and everyone outside of them. The Union, such as it was, kept a finely tuned balance. Together they were stronger, it dictated, and no one within the Union would attack each other or they'd get a rap across the proverbial knuckles. It also dictated trade terms between the cities, and the rest of Spira.

Nagapur didn't need the Union, and it certainly didn't need to trade with the mudbloods and other filth on the lowerworld. The fact that things happening down there among the rabble had led to Khamja putting a call out for all members to attend a meeting riled her. Why should she care what a bunch of blood traitors and halfbreeds did?

And yet, with the whole world being so interconnected these days, including her beloved Nagapur, it could have implications. Some Gotei Captain had got himself imprisoned on false charges. That was of little interest to Bellatrix. The ramifications, however, the potential for it to be fodder for a war on the lowerworld, a sign of rising tensions between two opposing countries spilling over to ensnare someone politically impartial - though not, she'd heard, unbiased - was interesting. If war broke out on the lowerworld, Jylland could profit.

Anything that furthered Nagapur's interests was of interest to Bellatrix. Even though it necessitated traveling among the filth.

It had been a comfortable flight down to Rabanastre. Bellatrix didn't see the point in being frugal with her travel expenses. Her family were old, and wealthy, and if she was forced to show herself among the plebeians and halfbreeds, she was going to get to them in private quarters on a comfortable airship.

Rabanastre itself was filled with sand, and the stench of sweating bodies, and so many sub-hume creatures it made her nauseous. The idea that one of them might have touched her bags made her blood boil. She'd have to count everything when she finally got to the Desert Palace Khamja called home.

Things got worse when she was met by the envoy from Khamja that was collecting her. He was a mudblood that smiled so much she couldn't see his eyes, and something about his attitude felt as if he was mocking her even though he spoke politely enough. His accent and his manner set her teeth on edge as much as his hair.

They'd sent a filthy mudblood to collect her. Her. Of all the insults they could have devised, that was the worst. It was an unforgivable offence.

She exchanged as few words with him as possible, and vowed to wait until she found a respectable pureblood to ask what questions she might have. She only hoped they'd been more thoughtful about her accommodation, and had ensured she had a suite as far away from the filth as possible.

There was yet more sand between their destination and Bellatrix when they finally stopped in a great cavern under the ground. A plethora of airships were parked neatly, but airships only meant dirty halfbreeds and sub-hume things like Al Bhed might be lurking. The lowerworld was rife with them, and in need of a thorough purge.

The mudblood that had ferried her here left her with vague directions, and a warning not to step off the route lest the cavern's monsters find her.

Bellatrix didn't have much hope for the accommodation either when she reached the door. Nestled in the rock it was unassuming, but heavily magically warded. At least someone around here knew what they were doing.

The door opened for her, leading her into a small corridor that caused her further displeasure. Her bags tugged along behind her, hovering on a simple float spell and propelled by her wand.

The next door opened out into a much more spacious and lavishly decorated hallway. She glanced around. It would have been impressive had it not been for the fact that this Palace was inhabited by disgusting half breeds, and blood traitors, and mudbloods, and worse. She could feel their presences etched into the walls, so strong she could practically smell them.

She guided her bags through and set them down just ahead of her.

They knew she was here. They'd been expecting her. Courtesy would have someone coming to meet her inside, too.

Comments

[cierva]

Courtesy wasn't typically in Apache's nature.

She'd been raised to believe that courtesy happened to you, given by other people. She didn't expect it now, of course. She was too far away from home, away from where her name held any weight, but that didn't mean she'd started giving it out like smiles, either. She could be nice, of course, but it wasn't something she went out of her way to be. Not like Nel.

Nel wasn't around. She'd gone to see the boss where he was being imprisoned, and would be away for some days. She couldn't go in through a Garganta, so she had to undertake the entire journey like a normal person. It was entirely possible the meeting could be over by the time she got back. It could dag on for a few days, a week or more, with subsequent meetings happening after the main one, but the longer she was away, the more likely it would be that she'd come back to the Palace as it was before they had been playing host to random members of the Clan that usually lived far, far away.

Not that she'd mind if some of them wanted to stick about. Gladio was certainly welcome to stay as long as he wanted and Ignis, if he continued to cook as fabulously as he did, could do the same.

Apache had felt the arrival of somebody else, though. The weird distant ripple of the magic seal breaking and coming back up wasn't something you really started ignoring. It didn't fade into the background noise, either. It was like missing a step doing down a staircase, a funny moment of weirdness that left a feeling of something wrong in the wake of it.

With Nel not there to do the greeting, Apache got up from her place at the kitchen table to take a peek at who it could be. There weren't many left. All Jyllandi, or whatever the politically correct name for people from that continent was, these days.

The woman standing in the hallway, haughty and wearing an expression of disgusted disdain so thick it was a wonder she wasn't just a floating vomiting emoticon, was somebody Apache recognised. Had she not been sure she'd been spotted, she would have gone back into the kitchen and barricaded the door.

[cruciohappy]

Bellatrix was fiercely proud of her magical ability. She didn't have ridiculously high reserves of chakra, she didn't rely on brute force to make her spells work. What she had was control. No matter what, she was brutal and precise.

It also meant that she could sense the presence of others with even the smallest amount of magic in them, and the Desert Palace was rife with them. Some were of passing familiarity. The monkey Kuja, for example; his mark was all over the property, worn in over years. There were others Bellatrix didn't know and didn't care about, some weak, and others immensely powerful.

She turned her attention towards another that was familiar. And unexpected.

"Emilou," she exclaimed, although it wasn't in greeting, and contained no warmth. Those telltale mistant eyes peered from around the door, and Bellatrix smirked. "So this is where you ran off to."

It had been such a shame when she'd been born. Bellatrix remembered it unfortunately well. They'd given her mother condolences. Bellatrix had tried to be helpful and pointed out that mutated babies used to be left on hillsides, and no one would think less of the parents.

[cierva]

Apache's too-obvious eyes were a little wider than she would have liked. That was a face she'd never wanted to see again. Bellatrix Lestrange, her paternal aunt and, by all accounts, absolutely bugfuck insane.

People had their prejudices, but with being racist and bigoted against all but the most outstanding of Humes, Aunt Bellatrix was the worst of them. Ivalice, she'd discovered since hightailing it off Jylland at the first opportunity, had its problems in the race-relations department, but aside from some stuck up pricks in Archades having a problem with Al Bhed people, and a general outdated distrust of Selkies in most other places, both the lingering symptoms of illness brought about by the War of the Magi over a thousand years ago, it was nowhere near as bad as anything that had ever formed as an opinion in the head or on the lips of her aunt.

As far as Bellatrix was concerned, anybody who wasn't a Hume was scum, even the other Hyur races. Anybody who had been tainted by Mist was scum, no matter how minor, no matter how far back in their lineage. Some families, often noble ones, prided themselves on their Kekkei Genkai, their inherited Mist-caused special ability, but the Blacks and similarly-minded families of Nagapur and the other big cities of the Jyllandi Union disdained them. They considered them tainted, dirty, as bad as first generation Mistants, who had their fair share of problems pretty much everywhere. It wasn't an uncommon opinion, especially on the continent of Jylland, where Mistants, herself included, were tagged to make them obvious, but the extremes that the blood purity faction on Jylland took it to would surprise even those who put CVs from Mistants with invisible mutations straight in the bin without reading them.

Apache hadn't known that Bellatrix was a member of Clan Khamja. It shouldn't have surprised her, with how evil the woman was and what the Clan was into, but what did she have to offer? Apart from endless quantities of frothing prejudice. It struck her as odd that she'd even come to the lowerworld, a place on the whole more liberal about race relations and Mistants than their homeland, never mind Khamja, an organisation well known in that unknown-quantity way for being a refuge for the overpowered fringes of society and the useful outcasts. The only halfway normal Humes she could think of as being members were Aizen and L. All the others... Selkies, Mistants, non-Hyur and Ryoka.

She didn't really want to deal with her insane aunt. She couldn't think of anything she wanted to do less than deal with her insane aunt. Bellatrix had supported her being struck off the family tree due to her mismatched eyes, but more level heads had prevailed and she'd been retained, albeit only because such a thing could happen without the influence of Mist, according to some studies by scientists. It likely wasn't the case, but it sewed the seed of doubt. It hadn't, however, stopped her being labelled a Tag.

"No," she said, choosing to use Ivalician instead of her mother tongue. She wasn't sure whether Bellatrix considered lowerworlders beneath her as well, but there was probably some reason why Humes of the lowerworld were inferior to her that she hadn't been told anyway, so she spoke in their tongue, just to be defiant. "I ran away to Archades. This is just where I ended up."

[cruciohappy]

Bellatrix scanned over Emilou's appearance. The family had kept her in, against her advice. Misplaced affection from somewhere had let some members of the family try to convince themselves that the child was a genetic fluke.

But she'd been registered with a Tag, and that was enough for Bellatrix. It was like pruning a bush, or tree, in this case. If you didn't remove the dead and diseased parts the whole plant became stunted. Family trees were no different. Emilou represented a diseased shoot.

It had almost been a blessing when she'd left, but it had certainly been an insult. She had, to Bellatrix's mind, been much better treated by the family than she'd had a right to be, and had thrown that generosity back at them by leaving.

"Where's your tag?" she asked, sharply. The only language she deigned to speak was Jyllandi. She could speak Ivalician, of course, but why stoop to using that language unless she was dealing with some plebeian that couldn't speak hers?

The girl wasn't wearing her tag. It was another affront as far as Bellatrix was concerned. The tag marked her for who and what she was, and removing it was an attempt to hide it, and deny it.

Archades made for a predictable choice. Of course, the lowerworld, lower being the most apt descriptor, would attract the likes of Emilou. She probably fit in, after all. But it did make Bellatrix wonder who had found her in Archades to bring her here to Khamja.

The girl had no chance of being worthy of membership, after all, for all the clan was quick to accept mudbloods and halfbreeds.

[cierva]

Predictably, this was going to be a conversation of two languages. Bellatrix understood Ivalician, Apache knew that. She had a good, expensive education, much like Apache's own, that would have included a high-quality schooling in Spira's other useful tongue. Obviously she considered it beneath her. What wasn't?

"No idea," she said, giving a shrug. She had to force herself to be flippant, casual. Bellatrix frightened her in a way that few other people did, and she had regularly shared a table with Noah and similarly terrifying people over the past couple of weeks. She was just threatening in a whole other way, and that was just her manner. Apache knew well what cruelty she was capable of. "They don't use them down here. They're considered regressive and backwards."

[cruciohappy]

They don't use them down here.

They don't use tags?

Bellatrix felt the words as if they were a physical blow. How did they know who was a sad little mutant and who wasn't? The tags allowed you to spot them on sight. How did the lowerworld manage without having them be easily identifiable? You could walk past one in the street and not know!

The very idea of it made Bellatrix's stomach flip horribly. How many might she have passed and not realised it? How many could have handled her things? The idea alone was enough to make her sick.

"Don't be absurd," she snapped. "Surely not even the lowerworld is so corrupted as to give you free roam."

[palehornedprince]

Yylfordt hadn't thought, when Nel had left, that he wouldn't miss her in the kitchen. He'd quickly been proven wrong when Ignis had taken over cooking duties and started serving the sort of food you paid damn good gil for in fancy Archadian restaurants. Sure, so Yylfordt had been forced to swallow his pride, which hadn't come easy, and ask if he could have some too, but still. Ignis's food was worth it.

Not that he didn't miss Nel. It was different when a woman cooked for you, after all.

And he still hadn't backed down and asked about poking at the Lucian's flying car, no matter how much he really, really wanted to, so he was holding to some of his principles.

But aside from the change in the food, Nel's absence resulted in another shift in the Palace. That being that, unless someone got specifically asked to show someone to a room, it was generally accepted that the newcomers were going to have to fend for themselves and make nicey nice with the Palace's residents to get shown around.

The newcomer that walked in today was the first one since Nel had gone, so they were the first one this approach was being tested on. Yylfordt kept hoping for someone else who had a cooler vehicle than the Lucians so he could look at that instead and feel smug about it, but as the meeting approached it seemed less likely.

He'd perked up when this new one had come in. He felt the wards drop and rise again as they entered and in the end his curiosity won out.

He entered the hallway from the library. People like Grimmjow could call him a nerd all they wanted, it was still a good place to keep schematics, both airship ones, and designs for upgrading Ienzo's automail. Yylfordt was pretty sure that he could tweak some of the hydraulics to give Ienzo quicker movement in the limb.

In the hallway wasn't some Al Bhed hottie, which was a disappointment Yylfordt was getting used to. Instead there was a dark haired woman wearing a look like she'd stepped in something and could smell it, talking what sounded like the Jyllandi brand of moonspeak to Apache.

Apache looked like she wanted to take off, although that didn't mean it wouldn't be in the direction of the dark haired woman with something sharp held in front of her.

"Hey," he said. "Everything okay?"

Apache wasn't about to stab someone she shouldn't, for example?

[cierva]

"More corrupt than you can imagine," Apache said, barely resisting the instinct to spit the words through gritted teeth. "We have Selkies and everything." She switched to Jyllandi for the last line.

She didn't notice Yylfordt until he spoke. She wasn't listening for footsteps and his presence in the palace, and near her generally, was so common as to fade into the background.

Shit. He was the last person that Bellatrix would want to see. Blonds weren't Al Bhed on Jylland. They were merely a paler-haired Hume variety. They were never considered something other. Ivalice seldom had them, unless they showed up in regular bloodlines with a mild Mutation where hair colour was concerned. The blood purity obsessed families considered the blond haired Hume families to be lesser than the dark haired ones, but not as bad as the Mist afflicted. Al Bhed were another matter. They considered them practically another species, and selkies the mongrel offspring of the two.

She glanced at him, not wanting to keep looking at Bellatrix like she was afraid to turn her back on her, like she was a wild animal waiting to spring at the mere flash if inattention. She also didn't want to tell him that things were about to get really nasty, really quickly, if he was a total asshole, not if Bella could understand it, but she didn't know enough Al Bhed. She'd been trying to learn, quietly, and privately, but she hadn't got a great handle on the language. Cobbling together a short sentence would mean admitting to both doing it, and not being very good at it.

She considered the options.

"Hu," she said quietly, over-pronouncing the vowel slightly. She thought of a word she could use. "... Pek pyt."

[palehornedprince]

Both of Yylfordt's eyebrows made a break for the ceiling at Apache's response. He wasn't sure whether to be more shocked that she was obviously trying to learn Al Bhed, or that whoever this person was she was well known enough to Apache to warrant a 'big bad' warning.

Apache's pronunciation was slightly off, but that was actually sort of cute.

Obviously she wasn't very good at it yet, but the fact she was trying would have been enough to put a smile on Yylfordt's face. It was a shame there was some scary bitch in the room spoiling things. Obviously Apache didn't want to say anything in Standard, so the visitor probably understood Standard.

He eyed the woman. She had dark hair, and the sort of face that looked snottily upper class. She was currently eyeing Yylfordt up in return in a way that reminded him of Szayel when he found a new test subject, except with more swearing and less jizzing himself.

How to ask Apache? "Haat ramb?" he asked, making sure to keep the question slow so that Apache could catch it properly. If she was translating in her head he didn't want to speak at his usual pace.

[cruciohappy]

Bellatrix's attention turned to the intruder and she breathed in sharply through her nose. Blond hair was the mark of an old taint on a bloodline, on Jylland at least. Those that bore it were second class citizens as far as she was concerned, and no Black should suffer to breed with one, but they were an acceptable sort of second class citizen. So long as they didn't harbour any disgusting kekkei genkai or other mutation the colouring could be overlooked for certain people.

Not overlooked enough for them to be equal, of course.

But on the lowerworld, blond hair was a mark of the filthy Al Bhed, and the green eyes on this intruder marked him as precisely that. A machinery loving sub-hume breed, they were little more than surprisingly intelligent animals. Just like the lizards, and pigs, and disgusting monkeys that also ran rife down here. Looking hyur didn't change that fact.

And Emilou spoke to it.

"So you've been associating with that filth," she hissed in Jyllandi, her upper lip curled in a snarl.

[cierva]

"Oac," she said, not bothering to keep her voice too quiet this time. There was no way Aunt Bellatrix would have lowered herself to learning the Al Bhed language. "Yfyo. Pyt ... syka. Pek sykel."

She turned back to Bellatrix, keeping a hold of her temper. She was allowed to insult Yylfordt, Bellatrix could fuck off. He was exactly the sort of person she would hate, but that didn't make it acceptable for her to say that.

"Why wouldn't I?" She snapped, in Jyllandi, not wanting Yylfordt to understand it. "You told me I was filth for my whole life, surely he's exactly who I should associate with?"

[palehornedprince]

Yylfordt had to take a second for that one. Apache's grasp of Al Bhed was pretty shaky. She obviously only knew a few words, and whoever this person was, they were a big enough problem to use them.

Big magic, bad mage. So a powerful magic user, and bad news. Khamja had plenty of those already on its roster. Although this woman didn't feel like she was in Kuja's class, or Even and Marluxia's.

Yylfordt didn't understand a word Apache said in Jyllandi, but it was pretty clear from her tone, and the fact she looked ready to smack a bitch, that there was an argument going on. She looked roughly as pissed as she got with him sometimes, and that was pretty bad news.

Apache was his Fracción. Someone bothering her was someone bothering him. Of course, if Apache did haul off and smack someone, that was also his problem.

He walked towards Apache. "Ec cra drnaydahehk oui?" he asked, and hoped Apache could make out the long word.

[cruciohappy]

"You are filth," Bellatrix all but spat in return, "but you bear the family's name. You could at least not sully it further than you already have."

She sneered as the Al Bhed creature crossed to Emilou, still blathering in that childish gabble they considered a language.

"Can it even speak Ivalician?" she asked, without addressing him. He was obviously Emilou's little blond pet in any case. She didn't expect something as base as an Al Bhed to understand Jyllandi, but at the very least he might speak enough Ivalician to pass down here or he should hold his tongue entirely.

[cierva]

Apache did not get the long word. She looked up at Yylfordt, obviously stuck on it. She shook her head almost imperceptibly, not a denial of his statement, but a lack of comprehension.

She took a sharp breath through her nose and turned back to Bellatrix, eyes narrowed. It. The absolute bitch just called Yylfordt an it.

"Yes," she snapped. "He can, and so can you," she said, and switched to it. "The guest rooms are upstairs. The ones with the doors open are free. The ones with the doors closed are taken. There's usually a woman who takes people around the palace, but she's a Selkie and nobody else is available. Help yourself."

The only other Humes that weren't full members were all filth to Bellatrix. L wasn't going to be taking anybody anywhere and the only Hume Arrancar were herself, Luppi, Ulquiorra and Nnoitra, other than Stark who wasn't getting out of bed for this bitch. None of them would go down well.

[cruciohappy]

Bellatrix watched as the vile Al Bhed approached Emilou. She fancied she could smell him. They came from the desert, which was in plentiful supply here, and whenever she'd spared a thought for it, she'd assumed them to smell like machinery and sweat and whatever they put in their disgusting food.

She wasn't sure which part bothered her more about Emilou's response to her. The attitude problem was something the girl had always shown. Her parents had always been too soft on her, in Bellatrix's view, and this was where it had got them.

"You need to learn some respect," she warned, sticking stubbornly to Jyllandi. "I will not be dictated to by a jumped up little mistant. Learn your place."

Her fingers itched to reach for her wand and teach the girl the lesson her parents never had. It would be long overdue if she did.

[palehornedprince]

Whoever the mad bitch was, she had to understand Standard for Apache to give instructions in it like that. Yylfordt got the distinct impression he was walking into something way over his head, but whatever, Apache was his, and someone was bothering her.

Apache was more than capable of looking after herself, but that wasn't the point.

He brushed Apache's shoulder as he got closer, although it was the slightly wary touch of someone approaching a pissy animal. "She bothering you?" he asked, in Standard. Jyllandi was flying thick and fast, but if the woman understood Standard well enough, maybe it would serve as a warning that she should back off.

[cierva]

"I'm not dictating to you," Apache snapped, ending the short sentence with a ragged sigh. You couldn't win with Bellatrix. "There aren't any concierges here to wait on you hand and foot. There are members, and the subordinates of members, and rather than leaving you standing there like a spare part until somebody pities you enough to take you somewhere, I'm telling you where the rooms are."

She said that in Ivalician. Yylfordt wouldn't be able to understand the Jyllandi, but she figured he might get the general outline of the conversation if he heard it one-sided.

"Yes," she said. "I need to talk to you."

[cruciohappy]

"Mind your tongue or I will mind it for you," Bellatrix spat back. It was bad enough being spoken to in Ivalician by someone that knew better, but the fact that Emilou was speaking to her so freely was galling. Her parents would hear about this, of course.

Could this place truly not have servants? She was expected to find a room on her own, and even take her own things there? Preposterous. It was poor hosting.

She glowered at the Al Bhed, her upper lip curling. Even though it was Emilou, tainted as she was, a disgusting Al Bhed had no place touching a hume.

[palehornedprince]

Yylfordt looked at the nasty dark haired woman as she spoke to Apache again. She sounded pissed, but that might just have been the language. Jyllandi was a good language to be pissed in; he'd figured that out from listening to Apache.

The fact that she was bothering Apache, though? That was uncool.

"She's right," he said, looking at the woman and standing ever so slightly in front of Apache, "and I know you can understand me. If you need help you have to ask." Nicely, which it didn't look like she was.

[cierva]

Apache grasped Yylfordt's arm at the elbow, hoping to stop him opening his mouth. When that failed, she tugged him back a bit.

"She won't talk to you. She hates anyone who isn't a Hume," she said, voice at just above a whisper. "Let's just go."

She could speak Jyllandi to whoever she wanted. Sadly, the only people that spoke it were the Lucians, who probably spoke an inferior dialect, and a bunch of Tags, Integra not included. She wouldn't have many people to speak to, fortunately.

[cruciohappy]

"What a place this is that such filth thinks it can speak to me," Bellatrix sneered, giving the Al Bhed a disdainful up and down look.

"Get it out of my sight before I have to teach it a lesson," she hissed, turning her attention back to Emilou.

She'd have to find a room on her own? Well fine. But the lack of hospitality was going to be remembered, and these lowerworld animals were going to be in for a lesson in how to treat their betters.

[palehornedprince]

Yylfordt frowned unhappily. He had the distinct impression he was missing something big. It sounded like Apache knew the woman, because she couldn't possibly have been here long enough for them to have an argument that complicated already.

He was pretty sure only he and Szayel managed that, and even then they usually needed a run at it.

He pulled his elbow from Apache's grip and slung his arm around her shoulders instead, still eyeing the visitor. He didn't know what she'd just said, but it didn't sound good.

[cierva]

Apache, not for the first time, wished that Nel was here.

Apache had never really gotten along with her family. Her mother, while not as severe in her views of others as Bellatrix, was definitely of that general ... type. She'd been sent off to a boarding school when she was of age, the age being seven, so she hadn't had much contact with her family, except on holidays, where she spent the majority of her time in the grounds of the house, away from them unless her presence was expected. They weren't nice people.

Nel, while not exactly being a mother-figure, had certainly been more caring than her family had ever been. Even so, she'd never discussed any of her background with her. Until recently, they'd all been unaware that Apache's home country tagged their Mistants.

Nel would have been the better candidate to have this discussion with, but Yylfordt would have to do.

"Come on," she urged, starting back in the direction of the kitchen.

[cruciohappy]

Bellatrix gritted her teeth at the sight of the Al Bhed touching Emilou so casually. Surely not? It was such a familiar gesture, an affectionate one even, and yet he was Al Bhed filth and she was a Black.

A disappointing Black, a tainted one, to be sure, but still a Black.

It looked as if Emilou could add blood traitor to the list of her crimes against the family. She may not have been stricken from the family tree before, but she would be once Bellatrix returned.

At least the girl had the good sense to get her disgusting partner out of Bellatrix's sight.

[palehornedprince]

Yylfordt shot the woman one last glance before he followed Apache, keeping his hand to her shoulder as he did.

When they were probably out of earshot, he asked, "So what the fuck is her problem?" in plain old Standard, just in case they weren't completely out of earshot and Mistress Grouchy Knickers there needed to understand.

[cierva]

She didn't say anything as she pulled him into the kitchen, and then she walked through, opened the back door, and headed into the garden. She didn't want to have to be stopping and starting with the explanation if anybody else walked in.

"Everything is her problem," she said, turning to look at him. "Everything. She's ... she's a colossal bitch. I didn't expect to ever see her again. I don't know why she's here."

[palehornedprince]

Yylfordt followed Apache all the way out into the carefully cultivated greenery and stolen sunlight of the Palace garden. Then he realised he was in way over his head, and Apache probably needed a chick to talk to. But Nel was away, and Tayuya was somewhere else, so she had him.

Awesome.

He ran a hand into his hair and tried not to look as out of his depth as he felt. It had been obvious Apache had known the woman, and the woman had known Apache, but aside from the fact they were both Jyllandi, it wasn't exactly obvious how.

"Well, for the meeting," he said, stating the obvious. She wasn't some random asshole that had wandered in, that was for sure, which meant she was a member. Which also meant they should be careful about pissing her off. Although at least she couldn't touch them beyond pissing them off in return.

"Who is she?" he asked, dropping his hand from his hair and setting it at his hip instead. Apache obviously knew the answer to that, anyway.

[cierva]

"She's my aunt," she said, after a pause, and then, after another: "She's a psycho."

Psycho didn't really cover how absolutely insane she was, but it was close enough without it being either too over the top, or not strong enough.

"She's part of the reason I left Jylland," she told him.

[palehornedprince]

Yylfordt thought about how to respond to that one.

Aunt. That was... yeah, that was pretty big. He'd known Apache had left Jylland and talked about the place almost exactly none of the time, so he'd figured she wasn't fond. She never mentioned her parents, or writing home, or wanting to visit.

Apache was considered a mistant there, he remembered. Because the funky eyes totally put her on the same plane as someone like Nnoitra, or Ulquiorra.

"I'm guessing that bit about her hating anyone that isn't a Hume includes you, huh?" You didn't call someone a psycho if you got on, and Apache and her aunt sure as hell didn't look like they'd been getting on. And it had to have been bad for Apache to leave the entire continent over it.

[cierva]

"Yeah, but she's..." Apache sighed.

This would need some delicate explaining. The idea of telling Yylfordt didn't exactly thrill her, especially since he was a little bit like her, but in the opposite direction, if nowhere near as militant. He was casually bigoted, her aunt, her family, were outright monsters.

"I'm ..." another sigh. "It sounds backwards, but on Jylland, Class is ... a thing. People there can have land and titles and my family does. It's an old line. Some of the others, like the family the Noah belong to, are similarly old and landed and titled and they have their fancy Kekkei Genkai to go with it. My family doesn't, and some of the ones without them went the other way, and consider themselves superior to everybody fucking else. Other races, other species... they consider Mistants to be tainted filth, and they're not quiet about it."

She turned to look at him, unhappiness all over her face.

"You can imagine how well it went down when I was born," she said. "It's a minor mutation, but it still got me a tag. That woman, Bellatrix, wanted to have me struck off the family tree so I couldn't taint the line again in the future so that if I had any descendants, they wouldn't count to spoil the purity of the Black line. They traditionally marry among a couple of handfuls of noble bloodlines, ones without Kekkei Genkai, and don't even associate with people they consider beneath them. Her coming here is bad. The Palace is full of Mistants and Selkies and Al Bhed and ... whatever it was that Kuja is, and she's short tempered and has no problem calling people filth because they have blond hair, or grey skin or whatever else. She's going to say something, and something will happen."

Bellatrix was insane. She would come to the Lowerworld, where she didn't belong, and bitch about their traditions and act like she was entitled to special treatment, as if her name meant anything down here. She'd already badmouthed both her, and Yylfordt, and complained about the lack of hospitality...

"She does non-traditional magic, spells outside of the Mage arts. Some of them are really nasty."

[palehornedprince]

Yylfordt wrinkled his nose as he listened. The picture Apache painted sounded like some batshit insane noblewoman with the sort of anti-mistant prejudice that went up to eleven thousand.

And the survival instincts of Szayel, especially if she really would go calling some of the people in Khamja filth just because they were mistants. Most of Khamja were mistants. Why would you even join Khamja if you weren't okay with mistants?

"Can't wait until she finds out about the Ryoka then," he muttered, quietly. It was an outside chance; they'd all been keeping pretty quiet about where they'd come from with the newcomers wandering in.

He sighed. It was at times like this he really wished Nel was here. If she wasn't so responsible, she wouldn't be off meeting Aizen, and she could think of what to do about Apache's mad auntie.

Not that they had to do anything, strictly speaking. "If she's a member they're going to know what she's like, and she's gotta know the rules," he pointed out. Like the biggie about not hurting other people's underlings. And the other biggie about the fact Khamja eats its own and not to expect membership to protect you from other members if you were a raging bitchbag.

Orochimaru had been the last one to ignore that rule.

"People here can take her, right?" She hadn't felt that strong, and sure, you could suppress the fuck out of your reiatsu, but that psycho didn't seem like someone that would. Actually she seemed like exactly the sort of person that would have squashed people under her reiatsu if she had the ability. "Why are you worried? We just need to tell the others to stay out of her way."

[cierva]

That was pretty typical of Yylfordt. There are rules, can she be beaten, problem solved.

As she thought about that, it occurred to her that Nel would probably be less use in this situation than his outlook was. Bellatrix, of course, could be taken. The Arrancar, from top to bottom, were all likely to be able to take her out, they had the edge in terms of reiatsu and power and likely fighting ability too, but Bellatrix's spells of choice weren't based on raw power.

It would also help if Bellatrix ever followed rules.

"She's not exactly one for rules," Apache muttered. "She thinks she's above them. Everybody who doesn't fit into the exact niche she belongs to in Jyllandi society is either scum, or a peasant. She considers non-Humes to be animals, and I'm not talking about Bangaa. I mean ... you. She thinks I'm an abomination because I have the mildest possible Mist mutation, but her face when you touched me..."

She shook her head, looking up at him again.

"Raw power isn't what she does," she explained. "She's got ability more than vast Chakra reserves. She knows how to do serious damage with what she's got."

[palehornedprince]

Ability beyond vast chakra reserves, huh? Yylfordt gave a thoughtful nod, and then asked, "Like everyone else in Khamja?"

He got it, sort of. Apache's mad aunt was a blast from the past and a raging bitch, absolutely no family resemblance there, and really, really racist. Racist in a way people just weren't on Ivalice.

Yeah, people looked down on Al Bhed, and Bangaa, and Seeq, and everyone looked down on Selkies, but it wasn't like anyone thought the others were animals, just thieves, or violent, or swindlers, or greedy, or whatever. It was racism in the sense of everyone knowing the stereotypes.

Apache's auntie was the other kind of racist, that wasn't socially acceptable, and wouldn't live long in a clan full of the most dangerous people in all of Spira, most of whom were Mistants.

"Look, pnu," he said, shrugging his shoulders again and offering Apache a smile, "if she's that bad she won't live to make it back to Jylland." Touching someone else's subordinates was an Issue, although no one had really tested what would happen if you did it as far as Yylfordt knew. If Bellatrix wanted to be the first it might be a really big mistake.

"I mean, her versus Gin," he offered, "who's gonna win?"

[cierva]

"Hopefully Gin," she said, returning his smile, if slightly unsure about it. "Depends if she fires off a Cruciatus spell at him, though."

That was her favourite. It was banned, of course. It had no redeeming uses and it was considered absolutely unforgivable if somebody put it to use. It was the single-spell version of a demontrap. Thoroughly unpleasant, useful only for causing pain. It was useless in battle, beyond slowing somebody down, and there were better ways to do that.

"She's not getting out of here without somebody doing her damage," she said. "She's going to say the wrong thing to the wrong person... not even Nel's method of killing her with kindness would work. She'd just dismiss Nel as a servant. She's all the bad parts of Hojo boiled down to a paste and boosted with psycho-racism."

With any luck, Apache thought, somebody will kill her.

"So long as she doesn't try to take me home," she said. "Speaking of, me listening in to Jyllandi conversations is fucked now. Bella's not going to let me get away with that in secret."

[palehornedprince]

Yylfordt gave Apache a thoroughly blank look at the mention of the Cruciatus curse. Magic wasn't his thing, but he knew the basic spells. Fire, blizzard, thunder, oytty oytty... Cruciatus wasn't in there.

Hojo's worst bits boiled down and boosted with psycho racism did sound pretty bad though. It sounded like something Szayel might make by accident. But it also sounded like someone that definitely wasn't going to live long around here.

His ears pricked at Apache's next line, though, and any questions he had about other bits fell by the wayside. "You don't think she'd try and take you home, do you?" She'd have a fight on her hands if she did, but it still made Yylfordt consider things seriously for the first time in the whole conversation.

[cierva]

"Oh, yeah," she said, looking thoroughly unhappy with the very concept. "My family were lenient enough to keep me around when it turned out I was a filthy Mist-tainted Tag," for a given value of 'keeping around' anyway. "Aunt Bellatrix would have been very offended that I threw that in their faces when I left."

[palehornedprince]

Yylfordt scowled at that piece of information.

It wasn't as if someone would just be able to frogmarch an Arrancar home. They were Aizen's minions, for one, and about as free to leave as someone like Tayuya. They needed permission to leave from their boss.

Which made the fact that the Arrancar's boss was banged up a blessing and a curse. He wasn't going to be giving permission any time soon, but he also wasn't about to stop someone if they tried forcing an Arrancar to go somewhere.

"She'd have a fight," he grumbled. And not just from Apache. "Just chill out," he suggested, "stay out of her way. That damn meeting should be soon and she'll be gone again." He hoped. He really hoped. There were a few others that could leave in a hurry too.

[cierva]

"Right," she said.

Had anybody else told her to chill out, she'd probably have stabbed them, but it was just Yylfordt's normal casual manner. She could tolerate it, from him.

"Looks like I'm holing up in the Sunhouse for the foreseeable, then. You can be on snack duty, 'cos I'm not going anywhere near the kitchen if I risk seeing her."

She forced a grin.

It was a small victory if nothing else.

[palehornedprince]

Yylfordt wrinkled his nose. He didn't much fancy being Apache's gopher while the bigwigs were in, but at the same time, keeping Apache away from her bitch aunt was a much bigger deal.

"Guess I'll have to deal with it," he grumbled, but flashed Apache a grin that was a bit more genuine than the one she'd managed to force out.

Hopefully they wouldn't be around for long anyway. This many Khamja members throwing their weight around was making the Palace feel a little crowded, and Yylfordt got the distinct impression that things were about to start feeling claustrophobic.