Pitch left Azor in the garden and went into the house.

The last time she had been there, it had been filled mainly with dust and old bones. But now, there was plenty of fresh carnage and destruction to be found.

She tried her best to ignore the dead bodies littering the halls, and straightened up a bit as she went: rehanging portraits, setting fallen furniture upright, and nudging broken objects into corners with her sword.

All the while, she thought about the ‘real’ reason she had come out to the estate…and how she might go about broaching the subject with Azor.

“…What if I was just imagining things?” she thought. “It’s true that there was trouble…the proof is everywhere. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that what I heard was real…”

“If I do ask him, and he has no idea what I’m talking about…I’ll never be able to live it down…” She twisted one of her braids around her finger. “…Either way, one of us will be embarrassed. Perhaps I shouldn’t even mention it…but then, if he is doing it unintentionally, he has a right to be told…”

“…You really aren’t going to leave, are you?” said a voice from another room. “Very well, then; stay here all night if you wish. I’m not going to change my mind.”

Azor approached from another room. “And this time, there is no pressing danger that will force me out of my home— for once, you are going to learn to respect my decisions.”

Pitch blinked. “…You really shouldn’t leave all these corpses in here,” she said.

“…What??”

“The blood and everything…it’s going to rot the wooden floors. Not to mention all the pests it will attract…I’m surprised this house is still standing, with the way you neglect it.”

“When I want housekeeping advice, I will ask for it.”

“But where are you going to live if you destroy this place? Will you huddle among your rose bushes like some sort of woodland creature…??”

“Fancy this coming from someone who lives in a cave…”

“Who told you— oh, never mind that! You know, I’m only trying to help you. I hate to think of you being…unsafe, simply because you fail to think further than destroying your enemies…” She twisted several braids around her finger. “Truth be told, I’ve been a bit…concerned about you as of late.”

Azor didn’t even reply— he simply stared at her expectantly, his false eyes glittering softly over his shadowy face.

Pitch gulped. “…I suppose I should just get this over with,” she began. “But before I say anything completely ridiculous, I have to ask: do you ever…speak, with your mind?”

Azor switched his tail-eye for a moment, wondering how to respond. “…Exclusively,” he said at last.

“…’Exclusively’…?”

“Since you are apparently so concerned about me, you might remember that I have no functional mouth…or vocal chords, or lungs, at this point. How did you think I spoke to you at all…?”

“I…never really thought about it…”

“Evidently…”

“A-anyway, in that case: does it work over long distances?”

“I don’t know what you’re getting at, but I suppose it might. I’ve never wanted to speak to anyone who wasn’t around, so I couldn’t really say.”

“Well…I think you could now.”

“I didn’t come here under false pretenses: I really do want your help with this new quest of mine,” Pitch explained. “But I didn’t really think seriously about asking you until…I began hearing your voice.”

“It was just a few scattered phrases at first,” she began. “I really did think I was imagining it. I’m not ashamed to admit that I missed you…I missed everyone, really. I often thought about what the others had been doing since that adventure of last year…but your voice was the only one I kept hearing.

“After a while, I became used to it: it was quite amusing to hear from you every once in a while, thinking your bitter thoughts…it let me know you were still alive and well, at least. Until the other day…”

“From what you were saying, I could tell you were in some sort of trouble…and eventually I felt obligated to come here and see what I could do to help. I do have my fair share of experience dealing with assassins, after all, and besides…that was the last I heard from you, and it was…unnerving, to not know what had happened.”

Pitch folded her hands. “So…that’s the whole story,” she finished. “Really, it was silly of me to be so apprehensive about telling you, but…well, I felt silly, coming here and seeing you behaving so flippant after I’d been worried for so long. And as for your ‘speaking’…I know you well enough by now to know you wouldn’t be very happy about that.”

Azor just stared at her for a minute. Then he simply turned and left, without saying a word.

Pitch watched him go. “…I think that went well. More or less,” she thought.