[color=00aeef][i][b]Nodah Listig[/b][/i][/color]

With a small sound of surprise in the back of his throat, Nodah lurched forward, and had to maintain his balance by rocking back on the balls of his feet. He felt his muscles tense without volunteer, as hands slithered around his middle, entrapping him in their iniquitous hold. He lost his breath for a moment, the air had thickened. In the corner of his eye, a wispy strand of blue hair waved like a ribbon. 

“Pardon the intrusion,” he heard a girl say. Fingers found his iced skin beneath his shirt. Their tips felt sunbaked. His jaw locked almost painfully, Nodah’s eyelids fluttered closed, the warm press of a body against his stiff back. It would be the easiest thing to throw this girl off of him, and send her sprawling to the dirt, leave an impression or two as due penalty for her callous infraction. But that was un-chivalrous, and recollections of the gallantry lessons his mother had drilled into him with her brittle voice hammered a dull ache in his head, driving him to maddening confusion. Preservation, or patience? Retaliation, or restraint? 

Nodah’s eyes sprang open. They burned in their sockets, turned the warmest ocher, with a frozen nugget of ice encased in each center of their heat. [color=00aeef]“Of course,”[/color] he lied breathily, forcing his muscles to relax beneath the girl's blanketing warmth. Nodah's mask of indifference returned to him, betraying not a trace of the upset that hadn't roots in the risqué nature of the druid’s actions. His elbow was touched, and no inspection was required to know that the girl had healed the superficial scratch. A druid, then, and a succubus as well. 

Once she pranced away to the pixie, Nodah felt true relief. He straightened to his feet, and when the pixie was returned to the world of the living - leaving with haste - Nodah turned to the succubus. 

[color=00aeef]“My thanks, fair lady,”[/color] he murmured. Despite this, the flecks of cold in his irises began to burgeon, unbidden. Like weeds, their crystal tendrils overran his pupils, until wintry blue had besieged what had been tawny eyes. At odds with his gaze, Nodah released a wane smile. [color=00aeef]"Though I must ask that you keep your affections away from a bashful man. You are beautiful; I find myself undeserving,"[/color] glibly, he said. Poisonous thoughts rose like fumes in his mind, intangible to only him. His eyes were the only indications that they existed at all. [i]Cast yourself upon me once more, and you shan't find me clement.[/i] This, he kept to himself. He must. Nodah did not burn bridges - be they inflammably wooden or crumbling stone - before he'd crossed them. 

Nodah held the succubus' gaze a second longer, before turning to walk, his strides long. [color=00aeef]"A good day."[/color] By the time he came to the building, his broiling stomach had settled.

He saw that the pixie had unlocked the doors, and Nodah slipped in after him. With a light “Hm,” of appraisal, he raised his vision to the ceiling, sweeping downwards and taking in the extravagant interior. He tossed a glance at the queue of people he joined, heard Yayo Fiji address the pixie, and the pixie leave high-spirited, a Nocturne in his wake. 

Nodah slid into place behind a horned demon and a youth on rollerblades – what curious company Rosewood kept – and fingered the strap of his bag, hands working restlessly as he amassed his thoughts (a nasty business). For several heartbeats in that copse of trees, he had been a skittish colt, vulnerable to the harmless, and which startled at every touch. That feeble cloak which had draped heavily over Nodah – atrophying his muscles and robbing his strength – had not only laid Nodah as bare as was conceivable, but had also brought forth memories of a scrawny youth, whom Nodah spent every waking moment running away from, but could never outpace and evade. The boy refused adamantly to be evicted, to be buried. In eternal preference to the cloak, Nodah donned his mask; yet, at times, the reins slipped from his knuckles, and he was forced to flounder and grope the floor for them, like a crippled beggar without his crutches. It did not matter that Nodah had thrashed only privately, only briefly. He [i]had[/i]. And that was reminder enough that the boy - that loathsome being Nodah had once been in a life past - remained within him.

There wasn’t time to contemplate the riddle; people were stepping forward to Yayo Fiji’s desk. When it came to Nodah’s turn, he kept his eyes on the elf’s tapered fingers as he typed. [color=00aeef]“Nodah Listig. Human. Gravitin. Rank A.”[/color] Blue eyes flashed green at Yayo Fiji. [color=00aeef]“Though you might know that, seeing as you did just assign us our ranks at the gate.”[/color] He received a bright chuckle in return - the kind that compels you to tuck into the pocket of a summer coat, so that you might retrieve it while winter rages and feel your centre warm again - and Nodah allowed a smirk. [color=00aeef]“Magical History, as well as Potion Making.”[/color]

“Welcome to Rosewood, Mr Listig,” declared Yayo Fiji, his voice embroiled in warmth, soft and gentle as cotton. Nodah could learn to be fond of the man who ran the school. He held out an open palm to receive his necklace. Minute gold links joined hands to form a thin circuitous chain that glittered. The gold pendant was moulded to be a bird. At first glance, it took the specific shape of a lark, limitless and immortalised in a laugh. But Nodah peered closer, and the outstretched wingspan and hooked beak came together, like pieces of a puzzle, to form an eagle instead; frozen in mid-flight and mid-caw; no larger than half his thumb; cut from winking gold with intricate details, easy to overlook but combining to please the sight. A masterpiece, and no less. 

He caught Yayo’s eyes as he slipped the necklace over his head. Tucked beneath his shirt, the kiss of gold felt cool against his heartbeat.  [color=00aeef]“Thank you.”[/color] Nodah said, sincerity tasting odd on his tongue, before walking to the portal. As he waited for the next ride up to the tenth floor, he wondered at the reflection he had seen beneath the pendant’s unblemished golden surface.