Aspheri - Shadow's rule. - open -

Shadow emerged from the darkness of the corridor, her heels clicking on the stone floor. She had one hand holding her skirts up slightly to allow her to walk faster as she approached the small group. Wraith whined quietly, sensing something wrong with Shadow, a confusion, reluctance and sorrow. The demoness was trying to move with authority, as a princess of a powerful dimension should, with the hope that it would draw the attention away from her still shaking hands.

What the demoness had forgotten was that when a member of royalty was lifting her skirt ever so slightly to even walk faster, the first thing one noticed was the hands. At least, to Bart's eyes. He understood why Wraith whined, but he didn't understand how it came to that. Shadow's trembling hands caught Bart's eyes instantly, and he thanked his own irises to be invisible in his whole eyeball, thanks to the demonic transformation. He lifted his head to meet Shadow by looking straight in her eyes.

Shadow lowered her head slightly, avoiding the eye contact with the Kraferr, her one visible violet eye looking at the ground. She slowed down to stop near them, and only then would she make eye contact with the Kraferr. Wraith and Phantom took up their normal positions by her side, looking up at the Princess. Even her breath how was shaking, but she comforted herself slightly by placing a hand on Wraith's head.

"What's the matter?" Bart asked, almost knowing the answer in advance, "you just found out that something has gone wrong, haven't you?" Bart continued, shaking his head slowly at himself, crossing his furry arms. His tail uncoiled itself from his leg, whipping at the air behind him, making his shirt move as it budged into the fabric. Bart lifted his clawed hand to his face, being careful not to cut himself with the flesh-slicing claws. He looked up at Shadow through one eye, preparing for the answer.

Shadow ran a hand through her hair, looking away again before taking his arm and continuing to walk along the corridor.
"I can't discuss it here," She muttered, looking at the floor, her other hand holding her skirts again.

The princess led the little group through a maze of corridors until she came upon a stone door, which she opened. The wolves sat on either side of the door, letting the two humanoids go inside alone. The room looked like a greenhouse, although cooler. Most of the flowers were black or red and the plants a greyish green. Shadow took a deep breath, steadying her nerves again.

"Woah," Bart muttered to himself, looking at the plants. Nice colors there, he thought. Is this Shadow's personal garden or summin'? Taking himself out of his thoughts, wanting to know why Shadow led him here, he turned his gaze to Shadow, eying her intriguingly, shrugging slightly. "So," Bart began, "why did you take me here? Except for the privacy, of course."

Shadow sat on the bench in the middle of the room, sighing, putting her masked face in her hands briefly before talking.
"Because this is the only place that I know I won't be disturbed unless it's really urgent." She said, leaning her head back.

"Okay," Bat answered, staying away from the bench, looking at the flowers of the garden. They were beautiful to his eyes. He thought that it was probably someone else who took care of the garden, probably because Shadow had too any things to do. He looked at one peculiar flower that attracted his eye, and he stood looking at it for a short lapse of time, before kneeling down, to gaze at it closely. "So what do you want to say?" Bart asked, finally.

Shadow didn't know how to start talking, but she hoped that the Kraferr would be willing to help her. She looked around her little garden, which she had requested be made to give her a place of peaceful privacy when she needed to clear her head. With a deep breath, the demoness spoke.
"I want to ask you a favour," She murmured.

"You can ask for anything," Bart answered quickly, "I'll do my best to get what you need." Bart didn't turn his head to the demoness, because he knew that she was a friend. If he didn't know that same person, he would be kneeled in front of her at that moment. Never toy with royalty. Bart tilted his head slightly sideways to look at the black flower under a different angle, his low breathing making the petals sway delicately.

Shadow took a deep breath, looking up at the Kraferr. She tried to think of a way to voice what she needed, but no words came to her at first. The demoness then decided to be frank and direct.
"I need to get away from here, anywhere." She said, a hint of desperation in her voice.

Bart blinked multiple times at the flower, but not because of inspiration, because of Shadow's words. He slowly turned his head to the empress, straightening, and walking over to her, his purple tail clinging to his leg. He kept his bladed hands at bay, behind his back. "You need to get out of here," Bart repeated quietly, "but... Why? I mean, isn't here where you belong?"

Shadow locked gazes with the Kraferr, hoping that he would understand.
"Something's... come up. I can't think straight here and there will be a lot of pressure here. I need to be somewhere else. They can last without me for a few days." She said, running a hand through her hair again, taking off the circlet that told everyone that she was royalty.

"But," Bart replied, understanding, "but what about the people here?" Bart asked, shaking his head, making his brown hair flow sideways along with his movements, "I mean, you go-they won't know what to do! You're like a sign to them... Or something, I can't really explain." Bart shook his head again, lifting his hand to flatten the palm across his face, stopping the movement. He rubbed his face a while, stretching the skin on it. "What is this thing, anyways?" Bart asked.

Shadow played with the hem of one sleeve, trying to think of how much she could disclose to Bart without giving everything away.
"My dimension can keep functioning without me for a few days, as I said before, and in any case, three years of rule without a break. I should have one coming up soon." She said, taking careful care not to mention anything about the problem.

"You still haven't answered fully," Bart cut abruptly, "if there's a problem, I would like to know all the detail of it." Bart's tail smacked the air, before winding up his arm that he had laid right at his side. He took a deep breath, and sighed it out slowly, wondering what he would have to be concerned with now.

Shadow's violet eye narrowed dangerously. The Kraferr, to her mind, was trying her patience, which was never a good sign.
"It is a personal matter which concerns the safety of all of my people. That's all you need to know." She said, her voice slightly cold.

Bart huffed silently, turning his back to the demoness and stepping away. Frowning, he put his hands into his pocket, his purple tail still clinging to his arm tightly. He thought a bit, glancing at various parts of the room. "Well," he began casually, "you say you need to get out of here. Fine. You want to go back to Earth?"

Shadow sensed that Bart wasn't happy about the lack of intelligence she had given him, but she told herself that she would tell him the rest of it later, once she had her head sorted out and back on straight.
"Yes, back to Earth," She said quietly, wondering if her family had gotten over their aversion to her yet. Somehow she doubted it greatly, but that was a matter to be worried over some other time.

"Hm," Bart answered briefly and simply, looking downwards at the ground, "how can I help you with that?" Bart asked, "I mean, you said it was harder to go from one dimension to the other with teleportation. And you, you can probably use teleportation. Why can't you escape alone?" Bart turned his head to glance at the demoness, his two red eyes on the visible side of his face glinting eerily.

Shadow sighed inwardly. Somehow, over her abscense, Bart had changed. Perhaps it was because of Dominique, or maybe there was another facter in there somewhere.
"Because it then means that I can teleport you back to Earth and not have you screw up and end up in yet another dimension, and I kinda want to see Dominique again, not to mention it means tht I can continue your training in part demon ways." Shadow said, locking gazes with Bart.

"Fair enough. Then, not to lack any company, you should get Wraith in here," Bart suggested, tilting his head towards the door, where he thought the two canines were still on guard. He then turned his head to Shadow, staring in her eyes, where he only saw determination, but also an ounce of something he did not quite understand. He shook the thought away, waiting for Shadow's answer.

Shadow shook her head, her black hair swaying slightly from side to side with the motion.
"No, they need to stay here. The atmosphere is different between the two dimensions. Coming here was easy enough for her, but the return trip may not be so easy. And, in any case, if she saw Dominique as well as you, especially while back on Earth, I don't think she could take being separated from you again." She said quietly, turning her gaze to look down at her now still hands.

"Alright then," Bart answered quietly, turning to Shadow completely, and taking one step towards her. "If it's to go back on Earth, I'm ready to go." Bart lent out one outstretched hand, making sure that the extremely long claws at the end of his fingers were not to cut either him or Shadow. His tail squeezed on his other arm, almost cutting the blood circulation out of it.

Shadow nodded once, gently taking his hand in her gloved one. She smiled behind her mask.
"Ready?" She asked. Without waiting for an answer, the demoness closed her eyes, concentrating hard and teleporting.