He tried to limit his mounting exasperation towards the girl, but as she stood there violating the little space he still had, it was growing rather impossible. Not only was he enslaved to the meek girl, but he was forced to live in near proximity to her. There was no escape from the infuriating creature, and she had easily managed to get his only bouts of freedom snatched from him. He couldn't begin to image the incompetent fool they would let take his job for him. Picturing it made his skin burn. He glared at her as she watched him with those wide doe eyes. She was so naive and dim that she sickened him, and to top it off she was nauseatingly bright. All of his people possessed the name eyes of coal, the same dark flecks in their hair, but she was the opposite. Clear, smooth skin and translucent eyes that searched you. She unsettled him quite deeply and he hated it when something rattled him as much as she did.

"Why are you just standing there?" He snapped.

She shrugged. "I'm curious, and you won't answer my questions."

He narrowed his eyes at her. "If I answer your questions, will you let me have peace at last?"

She grinned at him, and the pearly set of teeth that peaked from behind her pink lips startled him. Few of his kind had it in them to smile, let alone bare their teeth in a way that wasn't menacing. "Yes."

He exhaled, pinching the bridge of his nose. At last, he looked up to her. "Ask me anything your silly heart desires."

"Is it really so silly to have a heart?"

"No, but yours is strange and...bright."

She frowned. "You can sense it?"

He withheld from rolling his eyes. "Yes, as I'm sure you can sense my essence; my magyk, my heart, my moods. It's an ability we're all given. Although, we are more in tune with each other than is normal, as you have so kindly blessed us with that bond."

Her eye brows drew together as she lost herself in deep thought. "What you call 'magyk', it is the humming I feel? It's like this rhythm I sense in each being. What precisely is it?"

"Magyk is that hum. It's like our life force, our energies. Each person has a different pitch. We are all capable of harnessing it, but some are better at it than others, and some are simply more powerful. I'm sure you could sense the high degree that the elders possess."

She nodded. "What makes them the 'elders'?"

Alias sighed. "They led us through hell and back, literally. My people have been tormented more than you could ever imagine, and the fight is still far from over."

"What fight?"

"The war waged on man that hurtled us into hell and caused us to hide in caves. You were above. I'm sure you saw what happened, what's left."

Acacia's eyes grew sad. Her ridiculous sympathy nauseated him, as most things about her did. "I did," she said quietly.

"The short version is that we angered the gods, and they sought revenge. Lusting for blood, human blood, and retribution, they attacked us. Most died immediately. Others were not so lucky and they died slow agonizing deaths of leisurely fires and suffocation. Then there were the few that survived the Cleansing, and those are my people. Instead we faced a much darker fate, and we were dragged into the pits of hell where we were forced to face monsters beyond imagination. We triumphed, however, and ended up here, in the caves."

Acacia watched him dismally. The pity and empathy that blossomed in her heart upset Alias more than cruel words ever could. Who was she to pity them? She hadn't been there. They hadn't needed the help of anyone. On their own, within only their wits and deteriorating minds, they had succeeded. They were above shame and guilt. They were survivors.

"Why do you have to hide in the caves if you survived the worst?"

Alias laughed darkly. "You experienced it above. There is still a creature of hell, its overseer if you please. We call it Beast. I'm sure it has many other titles, but it is just a wretched by any name. There is no defeating it. Many have tried, our strongest and bravest, and the outcome is always the same. They are reduced to bloody bits."

Acacia flinched. "Is that why you patrol, why you wanted me to be quiet when you came across me?"

"Finally, understanding dawns," he jeered.

She ignored his insolence. "You saved me," she murmured. She looked up to Alias. "You didn't have to, but you did. You're not as cold as you seem to be."

"You know nothing of me, creature. Do not pretend for a moment that you can begin to fathom what I have been through or why I do the things that I do." He crossed his arms over his chest, eyes steely. "I had to bring you with me, not save you. I was saving my people. You would've drawn Beast into the caves, and it would've devoured us all."

She smirked triumphantly, yet to be deterred. "It doesn't change the fact that in consequence you saved me, and for that I am grateful. It seems that I owe you a favor."

Alias scoffed. "How about you sever the bond and we call it a day?"

Her face fell. "You know I can't. I would, but I have no idea how."

Alias sighed and fell back on his bed, throwing his arm over his eyes. "We'll see about that. I can sense your bewilderment and know that your ignorance is genuine, but I knew beneath it you know more. You will fix this, I'm sure of it."

Acacia studied him. "After you get beyond your thorns, you're tolerable company."

Alias cackled. "Then you do not know me as well as you claim you do. You will learn in time that I am the thorniest of them all."

Acacia laughed lightly.

He glared up at her. "I was not trying to be amusing."

"I know, but you are humorous to me. May I ask a favor?" She tried tentatively.

Alias rolled over onto his stomach, eyes glowing in the shadows. "I suppose."

"Would it be possible for you to teach me how to channel my magyk? I want to know how to create the fire." She ran her hands over her chilled flesh. "I hate the darkness," she whispered.

Alias was silent, eyes trailing over her inquisitively. She had revealed a vulnerability to him, something he could twist and use to harm her. His people would never behave so foolishly. They would never expose a weakness or allow their fear to be visible. What was it like to be so blissfully ignorant of the spikes that covered the world?

He pondered if it was worth it to train her, or if he was even allowed. The elders would most likely gauge her abilities tomorrow and test the bond. If they knew that he had empowered her, would he be punished? But showing her how to simply conjure light was child's play. There was nothing potent or malevolent about it.

Her hair lied smooth and silky along her shoulders, and he was startled by his beauty, at how after all the toil she had gone through it managed to stay neat and untouched versus Elder Raygen's. She was a strange creature, and most of her habits and attributes were revolting, but her sheer opposing qualities compared to those of his kind baffled him. He wanted to see how she would evolve, learn of what she was. She entranced him, and that was what sickened him about her. Everything she was, every innocuous glance and word she formed, represented all that his people had lost. All that he had lost. He loathed the memories she manage to resurface in his mind, or the power her blinding beauty held over him. She was the embodiment of weakness, and he was imprisoned to her. What did that make him?

He looked from the bewildering creature, and to the stone wall, the same maddening stone that leered at him from every corner of Community. "I do not think that would be wise."

He would not meet her incredulous gaze. "You may not believe it, Alias, but there is more than this."

He still looked at the stone as he heard her retreat into her murky room, but as she traveled further and further from him, her words still rung through his ears, haunting him.

There is more than this.