[b][u]Outside[/u][/b]

Sparks grinned as the girl in black responded to the man teasing her with as good as she got.  He enjoyed banter, far more than smalltalk.  But the teen tilted his head as something occurred to him.  [color=6699FF]“Wait a second, Kiara.  There's me and Bits, you and Ben, tall dark and imposing, and our newest arrival.  That's six.  Where's seven?”[/color]  He wondered if she'd just miscounted somehow, but surely not.  After all, it was more likely to miss someone than count an extra as had happened in this case.    He looked at the two newest additions to the little group.  [color=6699FF]“Speaking of, you've got our names, but what're yours, hm?  You act sophisticated,”[/color] he continued, directing this at Renault, [color=6699FF]“but any gentleman rogue knows he should give his name within the first minute or so.”[/color]  Sparks grinned to show that the comment was meant in jest.

Bits' gaze, however, drifted to the woman's shadow.  It had bothered her since the beginning, and now she realized why.  It looked nothing like Kiara, and didn't entirely match her movements.  She frowned at it.  It was almost like a separate person, but that couldn't be right.  Shadows didn't do such things – at least, not without alchemy, and no one in their right mind would be using their alchemy constantly.  And she hoped that a student wouldn't already be far enough down the path of insanity that they weren't still in their right mind....

The woman's expression darkened further at this train of thought.  The path of an Asylum was not a bright one, as the professor had so lengthily insisted.  She'd never seen herself as a fighter.  Sure, she'd defend people, but she wasn't the sort to be unnecessarily aggressive.  Rogue asylums, though...Alchemy could cause so much pain and destruction.  She'd had a glimpse of that as a child, and the idea had received nothing but reinforcement since.  The power was evil, and needed to be tightly controlled – or destroyed.  Nothing good came from it, and those that used it did so at the cost of their own minds.   Kiara's words were true in some sense, but so few Asylums paid heed to that idea.  They too seemed to forget that they were fighting fire with fire, and it would burn them and everyone near.  At her side, her fingers curled into a fist.  They might, but not her.  The image of evil was forever burned into her mind, try as she had to forget.  She glanced at Sparks and found herself wondering yet again if her brother, with his carefree manner, realized just how dark their world was – how dark she herself was.