Roland stopped in front of a tapestry of a moon halfway rising above the horizon.

"Cool wall-rug," said Esca. "This it?"

"Yes, miss," said Roland, setting down the bags.

Esca pulled the tapestry aside and stared at the moon-carved metal door. She grimaced. "Man, that is one *uuuuuglyyyyy* door," she said, sticking the key in the lock and turning it.

"I'll lodge the complaint with the Page, miss," said Roland, leaving the girl.

Ori sat up straight, knocking over some books. He'd heard voices, and a key grating in the lock to his door. He watched the door expectantly. It swung open to reveal a short girl with shoulder-length curly brown hair and grey eyes. Her face was oval shaped, with an upturned nose. Glasses framed her eyes.

She looked around curiously, then her face grew horrified. She turned an alarming shade of green.

"Bathroom," she choked out. "Where… bathroom?"

Ori pointed towards the only other door in the room, and she rushed through the door. Ori followed her, and blanched at the stink of puke. He pulled his new owners hair from her face with a sigh.

When she was finished, she reached up and flushed the toilet. She yanked herself up and washed her face.

"Are you finished re-introducing the contents of your stomach to the world, now?" asked Ori. The girl snickered. "Yah, dude. We have some serious decorating to do. I absolutely *despise* the colour white. It's so… gross. Like bugs. The black I love. But the white has *got* to go," she said. "By the way, I'm Esca, first and only champion of Chaos."

"I'm Ori."

"Cool name. And I just love the ears. They're so… pointy. Not as pointy as normal elves, so you must be a half-elf and everything. Am I right?"

"Well, yeah," said Ori. He scowled. "How do you know so much about elves?"

"Ori-love, I *lived* with them. Well, trained actually. Master Kell thought I needed to study their chaotic-good magical energies and stuff. Stupid old biddy, what does *he* know? His element isn't even Chaos," said Esca, walking back into the main room and dropping her bag on the bed.

Esca rummaged around in the bag. "Where IS it?!" she snarled, then pulled out a thick leather-bound book. "Ah-hah!" Ori watched in confusion as she flicked through the pages of the book. "Hah! Knew the Colour Spell was in here!"

"Colour Spell?" asked Ori with a sinking feeling.

"Yeah, it, like, magically colours stuff. Now, shush. I need to concentrate."

Esca frowned at the page she was looking at.

"Bibidy Bobidy Boo? What is this, Cinderella? You'd think they'd come up with… Oh, wait, that's the Pumpkin to Coach Spell… I hate pumpkins. Have ever since that horrid incident when I tried to get all the pumpkin-insides outside. Lessee, I have to make up a rhyme?! Great Chaos. Oh well." Esca shrugged, and sighed.

"Magic of colour make the walls fuhler, make them rue with, uh, blue!" she said. The walls turned light blue.

"You're not very good at rhymes, are you?" asked Ori snidely.

"Slaves should be seen and not heard. Funny thing, that saying. The horrid control-freak grown-ups always said that to kids way back when norms ran around in armour with swords rescuing DID's," commented Esca. "So, I can't rhyme. Screw me."

"That's my job," said Ori, leaning against the wall.

Esca's face grew red, and she snorted. "What?!"

"My job is to screw you. You know, copulate, fuck, have sex with."

"Wait, wait, wait!" cried Esca. "Dude, you are so totally on the wrong foot! I do NOT have sex. I must remain celibate."

"You've GOT to be kidding me," said Ori.

"No joke. You see, if I have sex, I lose my magic. It's, like, the first rule we learn in East Haven High. The loss of - for lack of a better word - purity, means that you are unfit to harbour magical energies properly. It doesn't affect most people, because most people have two elemental magics. I, on the other hand, have only one. And my magic is my life. Without it, I have *nothing* to live for," said Esca passionately.

"Great, my mistress is an aggressive celibate teenaged magic-wielding virgin," muttered Ori.

"Besides, I have a friend who you might just be perfect for," said Esca. "I only came here to check you out and see if you were 'the One'."

Esca stuck the book back in her bag, and looked at the walls. "Yes, I think blue is perfect," she said. "My friend, Kailor is really cool. He's a Darkjin."

"An anthropomorphic cat?"

"Yeah. He has a little brother by blood and 2 adopted youko brothers. They're really nice. I'll be taking you to East Haven next week to meet them."

"You're taking me out of the palace?"

"Well, duh," said Esca, looking at Ori as if he'd said something dumb, which he had. "I'm a busy girl. My sister's having a re-marriage ceremony because I missed the original when I came down with a case of flitter-bugs."

Ori winced. Flitter-bugs were horrid butterfly-like insects that burrowed into the skin of animals during the metamorphosis from caterpillar to flitter-bug. "Whatever you say. You're the owner and everything," he said. 'Gods, the hyperactive little twit's gonna kill me. Death by listening. How nice.'

::sniffles:: Ori won't be like in his profile! He keeps coming out all snide and weird and he's talking and paying attention to Esca too much! ::blinks, tilts head:: I like this sarcastic Ori. He's cool. I really wish he were real and not a story-character... He'd make a totally awesome boyfriend. Now how do I get him to wear black leather, spiked dog collar, pierce his lip and nose and eyebrow, and dye his hair green-fading-into-blue and spiked? Wow, that vision is hot... Microphone clutched in one hand, long fingers caressing the black length, painted lips moving as he sang... I need a hankie to wipe up all this drool - Wow