-Interesting girl.- Zoisite thought as she left, unaware that Taca was thinking almost the exact same thing about him. He inspected his quarters with a childlike interest.
Everything captivated him. He wanted touch, feel . . . *know* every little object and texture in the small apartment. It was all so new . . . so . . . different.

The walls and floor seemed to be made of the same material: smooth, twisting with a plethora of colors that seemed to radiate their own illumination. Those colors blended with and into each other in a way that gave the entire room an impression of movement. He had to feel it . . . to make sure that the impression was in his mind, and that the room was not alive. Yet, when he got closer to the floor and put a bare hand on the unflawed surface, he did feel a sensation of movement. Entranced, he did not notice that someone had entered the room behind him.

The big man leaned against a nearby wall as he watched the smaller youma crawl around on the floor. -What *is* he doing?- He waited, thinking that Zoisite would soon tire of whatever it was he was trying to do and notice the intrusion. However, that didn't happen. -Whatever he was looking at must be captivating indeed.- Annoyed, the stranger decided to grab the boy's attention by clearing his throat.

"Ahem."

Zoisite jumped and looked around quickly with a wide-eyed expression that was almost humorous. He was barely able to bite back a small, frightened squeak at the sight of another man: this one with long, curly red-brown hair and mocking blue eyes -- and standing in his new apartment. "Who are you?"

"Nephrite." The man had a superior cant in his voice that Zoisite didn't particularly care for. "Don't bother I already know who you are. What were you *doing* down there?"

Feeling color making its attempts to rise up to his face, Zoisite got to his feet and brushed himself off as best he could while mumbling something quite unintelligible.
"What are *you* doing *here*?"

Nephrite walked over to a chair, turned it around, threw a leg over it, straddling it, and said pompously:
"I can do as I please. I thought you should know that you have been assigned to Lord Malachite's legion." There was something biting in this tone, almost sulky. Nephrite hadn't liked being passed over by Malachite four years ago, when he had been newborn. And now having this awkward, pathetic creature handpicked by the most powerful man under Queen Beryl that was just too much. It wasn't fair. He could train this . . . *boy* . . . as well as anyone else. And what right did Malachite have? Refusing to take him, Nephrite, and now requesting . . . *asking* to have this sad weakling put under his instruction? Insulting!

"What does that mean?" Unwittingly interrupting the man's inner reverie, and oblivious to the tone, Zoisite was merely apprehensive as to what might be expected of him.

Nephrite offered him a look of disgust. "It means, *boy*, that you report to Malachite tomorrow morning along with the rest of the unfortunate picked to be trained by him."

"Why . . . why are we unfortunate?"

"Because . . ." Nephrite smiled a brutal smile, "Lord Malachite is probably the cruelest instructor in the realm. The man is monstrous. He . . . but then, I shouldn't be telling you this. I shouldn't even be talking to *you* at all. I'm being generous by coming here to tell you were to go. It is a waste of my time."
Of course, he had been ordered by the Queen to inform Zoisite of his schedule, but he was sickened by the fact that such a lowly task had been handed to him. Why could she not send a servant-youma to do it? Such as that wench, Taca. There were far more important things for a full general to do.

It was rather obvious that the man resented him for some reason. Zoisite couldn't think why, but, picking up on the man's hostility, he decided to respond in kind.
"Don't then."

Nephrite balked. He had never, *never* been spoken back to with such an attitude.
He got up and went over to the insolent young man and backhanded him once, hard, across the mouth. "Never speak to me like that again, worm!" He then teleported out of the room.