Nire had been walking down the hall quite a ways before she finally stopped in mild frustration. Ruffling her own hair and groaning in frustration she said aloud, “Okay, this is not the right way.” Looking around, she could see cobwebs of all sizes and variations up in the corners of the hall, wrapped around the pillars that decorated the hall, and hanging from the ceiling. Everything in this area of the tower seemed old and abandoned, like no one had come by to clean in ages.

Just then, a voice echoed from the other end of the hall. “Who dares walk my hall so nonchalantly?”

Nire immediately turned around and started walking briskly away from the voice. “Nope, not doing this. Not here, not now, not ever,” she said quietly to herself and started picking up the speed.

“Wait! Don’t leave!” the voice had begun to chase Nire down the hall and two hands popped up from behind her.

“You’re not very convincing!” Nire screamed out in terror as the hands grabbed her.

“Nice to meet ya, new girl!” The voice and hands belonged to a little boy who seemed a little younger than Nire, maybe because of his personality and small frame overall. Nire had thought she was small, but this boy was much smaller than she was. He had pale orange hair that seemed to fade into a light pink. His hair was combed neatly and split about three quarters on his head. Holding a section of hair in place were two red pins that matched the uniform. His uniform looked tidy, but he wore it open instead of zipped up. Due to his small frame as well, the big coat made him look even smaller. He had a very pretty face that looked almost like a girl’s. He had long lashes and very pretty eyes that were a deep shade of pink that almost looked like Nire’s one purple eye.

“My name is Kei!” He shouted enthusiastically, still hanging on Nire’s shoulders, “Are you on your way to meet our leader? You do know you’re going the wrong way, right? That’s alright, though, you’re new around here. I got lost too when I first joined. Could you have been mis-led by Let and his goons? You’re off by a longshot.”

The small boy continued yammering and yammering, non stop. Nire’s head began to spin with all that the boy was saying. Kei just kept talking and talking with no end in sight, and he always had something to say or something new to add to what was previously said. Nire slowly removed the happily talking boy from her shoulders and tried to find an opening for her to speak. However, it was then, that another hand appeared from behind and landed on the boy’s shoulder. Nire squealed a bit and got into a defensive stance, while the boy only casually turned around to see.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Corda.” A tall, slender woman with long dark blue hair stepped out from the shadows and introduced herself. The woman smiled, but never once opened her eyes.

“Hey, there, Corda! I was just helping the new girl out,” Kei replied innocently.

More like talking my ears off, Nire thought bitterly to herself because she had been frightened twice in a short period of time.

“I’m sure you were a great help, but I’ll take over from here, Kei,” the tall woman said as she smiled sweetly to the young boy. She then walked over to Nire and began to guide her back down the hall once more. “Thanks for all your help,” she called back as Kei stood and waved at the two walking off.

When the two had walked down far enough, Kei spoke aloud to himself, pondering the appearance of the strange new girl. “What a strange person. I’ve never met anyone like that before in my life.”

Walking beside Corda, Nire felt a little more relieved as Corda exuded an air of maturity and comfort, but she was still feeling a little awkward about her whole situation. True, she practically begged Lang to take her to meet their leader, but she was not expecting the whole group to be so...odd. As normal as Corda seemed so far, she was probably hiding something as well. Afterall, she knew exactly where she was going despite never opening her eyes. Nire squirmed a little bit after her realization, and noticing it, Corda began to speak in an attempt to lighten the mood.

“So, I see you’ve already met a lot of the other kids here. They might not all seem like it, but they’re all really good kids.” Corda then broke her adult-like manner and began to squeal a bit thinking about how cute the kids were. “They’re all just so sweet!” she said as she brought her hands up to her blushing cheeks.

Nire, on the other hand, shuddered at remembering the angry red haired boy and the other one who never stopped talking. With their record, Nire figured that Doro was probably just as, or even more odd than the other two. “I don’t know about that,” Nire replied to Corda sheepishly.

Then, Corda took Nire by the hands and began to speak to her in a way that melted all Nire’s fears away. Nire couldn’t explain this feeling, but she knew that it felt soft and warm, and it felt like something Nire knew once, a long time ago. “Nire, was it?” Corda asked as she firmly, yet carefully held onto Nire’s hands and faced the young girl.

“How did you--” Nire began to ask, but was cut short.

“I may not be able to see like the rest of you, but I can see that one day, given enough time, you will grow to love them. Everyone here. And everyone here will grow to love you as well.” The conviction in Corda’s voice almost made Nire believe it was so at this very moment. “While I can’t see you or anyone else, Nire, I can see things like this,” she stated as she finally opened her eyes. Nire was taken completely aback as she stared into the empty holes in Corda’s face where her eyes should have been. The holes were dark and empty, but the longer Nire stared, the more she felt that she was being taken apart, piece by piece and carefully analyzed.

Everyone here is so weird, Nire thought to herself as a ghostly tear rolled down her face.

“Oh, dear. That may have been too much,” Corda said worriedly as she noticed the despondent Nire.

However, after a brief moment, Nire shot right up again, showing much childish enthusiasm. If this is where I’ll be, then I need to start embracing it all, Nire thought to herself and quickly adapted to the situation. “Ms. Corda,” Nire said as she grabbed onto Corda’s coat, “you must tell me about your eyes!”

Corda laughed, amazed at how quickly the little girl before her bounced back. “Another day, for sure,” she said as she stopped in front of two doors that were almost as heavily decorated as the main doors. “We’ve made it to our leader’s room while we were talking.” The blue haired woman then slowly pushed the doors open and ushered the little girl inside.