Even spent his days and half of his nights either sitting in the kitchen and drinking tea or sequestered away in his new quarters.
He didn't quite have a laboratory yet, but he was getting there. The rooms were spotlessly clean, the tiles were in place where he needed tiles to be and he had finally acquired some fixtures and furniture. The past week had also seen a power source routed in, if not a water supply. That would come later. Power was a better start since it meant that he could work during the night hours, after the daylight had ceased to stream in through the narrow basement windows at the tops of some of the rooms. Water could be carried, power could not.
The wing where his workspace was located was largely empty. The servants quarters were in around the same area, in that the long corridor that stretched from Even's lab lead to the same hallway that one had to travel down in order to reach the stairs down to them, but other than sharing that intersection he was completely alone and he rather liked it that way.
Even had acquired four rooms in total. The central one was spacious enough, but ultimately useless, for it was positioned to act like little more than a hallway. It was also, quite unfortunately, rather irregularly shaped and lacking in any windows. The corridor to the rest of the palace and the three other rooms all connected to that one. The room at the most extreme end of the hall was the largest and was destined to become his laboratory once he had the equipment for it. The third room, an L-shaped affair, was big enough for him to have considered making it into a sleeping area, but he had ultimately decided against it in favour of keeping his room in the palace proper. Being able to separate himself from his work, he told himself, was a good thing. He would find another use for it, no doubt.
The last and smallest of the four, windowless and unworkable before he was able to get a light installed, had been converted into an office. It was there where he was seated at his desk, a notebook open in front of him and a lamp lit against the gloom, when he heard the door knock. His brow furrowed as he finished off the line he was writing. He didn't get visitors. Not even Ienzo ventured down unless he had asked him to and he wasn't sure that Marluxia knew where to find him at all, not from the inside. He got to his feet, leaving his notebook open and the pen on top, and made his way to the hall.
The door between the corridor and his new lair was locked.
He wasn't sure he liked the idea of only a key standing between him and whoever could lurk outside, not after Marluxia's pet had made such short work of picking the lock at Daguerreo, but he had few alternatives at present. He intended to research making Glyphs, the sort that were found in Cloisters of Trials in numerous Ivalician temples, but that wasn't set to be easy. It was a lost art, but he didn't see why it couldn't be found again. There had to be something written down about them somewhere.
With a soft huff he unlocked the door and blinked at who stood on the other side. Whoever he expected to see there, it was not Kadaj.
They seemed to have reached a polite understanding since their initial tense meeting, but Even wasn't sure that mere politeness was enough to have invited Kadaj down to where nobody else dared to tread. As well as being private, it was uninviting. The long corridor that lead out to his quarters remained unlit, like the rest of the wing had been prior to his obtaining a generator, and Even's reiatsu had seeped into the rooms under his ownership like it had nowhere else in the palace. They were not cold, not really, but something about the atmosphere was enough to make most people shiver as though they had been caught in an icy draft.
"Kadaj," he said, surprise as evident in his voice as it was on his face. "Can I help you?"
no subject
He didn't quite have a laboratory yet, but he was getting there. The rooms were spotlessly clean, the tiles were in place where he needed tiles to be and he had finally acquired some fixtures and furniture. The past week had also seen a power source routed in, if not a water supply. That would come later. Power was a better start since it meant that he could work during the night hours, after the daylight had ceased to stream in through the narrow basement windows at the tops of some of the rooms. Water could be carried, power could not.
The wing where his workspace was located was largely empty. The servants quarters were in around the same area, in that the long corridor that stretched from Even's lab lead to the same hallway that one had to travel down in order to reach the stairs down to them, but other than sharing that intersection he was completely alone and he rather liked it that way.
Even had acquired four rooms in total. The central one was spacious enough, but ultimately useless, for it was positioned to act like little more than a hallway. It was also, quite unfortunately, rather irregularly shaped and lacking in any windows. The corridor to the rest of the palace and the three other rooms all connected to that one. The room at the most extreme end of the hall was the largest and was destined to become his laboratory once he had the equipment for it. The third room, an L-shaped affair, was big enough for him to have considered making it into a sleeping area, but he had ultimately decided against it in favour of keeping his room in the palace proper. Being able to separate himself from his work, he told himself, was a good thing. He would find another use for it, no doubt.
The last and smallest of the four, windowless and unworkable before he was able to get a light installed, had been converted into an office. It was there where he was seated at his desk, a notebook open in front of him and a lamp lit against the gloom, when he heard the door knock. His brow furrowed as he finished off the line he was writing. He didn't get visitors. Not even Ienzo ventured down unless he had asked him to and he wasn't sure that Marluxia knew where to find him at all, not from the inside. He got to his feet, leaving his notebook open and the pen on top, and made his way to the hall.
The door between the corridor and his new lair was locked.
He wasn't sure he liked the idea of only a key standing between him and whoever could lurk outside, not after Marluxia's pet had made such short work of picking the lock at Daguerreo, but he had few alternatives at present. He intended to research making Glyphs, the sort that were found in Cloisters of Trials in numerous Ivalician temples, but that wasn't set to be easy. It was a lost art, but he didn't see why it couldn't be found again. There had to be something written down about them somewhere.
With a soft huff he unlocked the door and blinked at who stood on the other side. Whoever he expected to see there, it was not Kadaj.
They seemed to have reached a polite understanding since their initial tense meeting, but Even wasn't sure that mere politeness was enough to have invited Kadaj down to where nobody else dared to tread. As well as being private, it was uninviting. The long corridor that lead out to his quarters remained unlit, like the rest of the wing had been prior to his obtaining a generator, and Even's reiatsu had seeped into the rooms under his ownership like it had nowhere else in the palace. They were not cold, not really, but something about the atmosphere was enough to make most people shiver as though they had been caught in an icy draft.
"Kadaj," he said, surprise as evident in his voice as it was on his face. "Can I help you?"