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There was a knock. A three rap tappity-tap against the concrete walls, putting our little private history lesson on a brief pause. 

"Done?" Irene had the side of her slumped against the side of the doorway. At a distance and with the morning sun's rays basking her figure in nature's limelight, she looked unequivocally, most absolutely… 

Like a terrible mess.

In fact, we all did, really - hair utterly disheveled, skin baked in grime and dirt, and the dark rings around our eyes all gaunt and hollowed. But that's what a lack of sleep gets you I suppose, with the sole exception of Ash anyway… that girl had enough energy to outlast a goddamn power plant.

Don't think she even yawned once this whole time.

"Not yet," Amanda answered back, her voice just as dull as hers. "Getting there, though."

Irene un-slumped herself, rubbing half-opened eyes with a single hand. "Alright, just make sure he retains as much knowledge about this woman as humanly possible, every little detail, every little event..."

I hung my head, my jaw going slack in bemusement. "This poor girl's got a billion things happen to her, how am I supposed to know which one's relevant?"

"As far as I'm concerned, they're all relevant," She replied matter-of-factly. "If we want to pull this off… you have to keep going until you know her like a family member."

Know her like a family member… funny…

"Not a very good comparison," I said, shaking my head.

She stared, didn't care, and moved on to something else. "Second lesson is almost done with the preparations."

I raised a brow. "Oh?"

"But we're only verging on the home stretch for now," She said, a jingle-jangle of keys suddenly ringing across the room. "There are still some final finishing touches to get."

"Oh no," Amanda's shoulders went into a slump, as did the expression on her face. "Taking my car again?"

"How else am I supposed to get around?"

"At this point, you took a ride in it more times than I ever did. Brand new, you know? And you're not exactly easy on the pedal either…"

Again, Irene stared, didn't care. "I'm going to borrow the Elf too if that's okay."

"Borrow…?" My eyes immediately veered to the Elf, quiet as a mouse, standing at attention with her hands clasped atop one another. "What for?"

Ash slowly spun herself towards her, careful not to stir the slumbering cat resting at her feet, and looked on with a rather precarious gaze.

"Is my being present necessary?" She asked quietly. 

"If you want to help out your master, I'd say yes," Irene replied, catching tossed car keys with a swipe. "Let's go, let's not waste any more time here."

"Stop right there, detective," I called out before she could take one step further. "You still didn't explain - "

"Relax," Irene said flatly. "I only need her to carry around some heavy loads. And seeing as I'm not the strongest around here…"

"What loads?"

"Better you see it yourself than I explain it, and if you ever do wanna see it…" She trailed away both her words and her eyes over back to Ash. "If you'd be so kind?"

Ash and I met our stares halfway. This point, I've grown so accustomed to us staring at one another that I can almost immediately pick up whether it'd be apprehension or confidence gazing back at me beneath her emerald eyes.

In this case, however, it was a mixture of both. She wanted to go and yet she also wanted to stay, should she help me or should she watch me? Pretty much, she didn't look ready to reach a consensus anytime soon.

So like always, I went ahead and made that choice for her. 

"She's the boss, Ash," I said, consenting with a nudge to the doorway. "Better do as she says."

Ash blinked once, then slowly but surely, bowed her head. "Very well."

"We won't be long," Irene assured her as she made her way to the exit. "You'll be back here again being the watchful guardian before you know it."

And with that, they disappeared through the doorway, leaving only the echoes of their fading footsteps as their farewells. 

"Right," I cleared my throat. "Where were we?"

"Queen Alestra threw her newborn child in a seemingly bottomless pit," recalled Amanda, transitioning her demeanor back on to teacher-mode. "You may continue the heartbreak from there."

Don't really want to… but oh well.

"Right, okay…" I smacked my lips. "The Queen returned to the castle, King Heral never the wiser to his beloved wife's actions, and soon life pretty much returned to normal back at the castle. But unbeknownst to Queen Alestra, during that rainy stormy night when she threw her newborn daughter into the hole, she did not die.

"Against all odds, the baby survived… yet only barely, apparently… a few more minutes, maybe even just one, she'd be dead. But then something happened, something so mysterious and convenient not even the wiki could accurately describe it."

The corner of Amanda's lips shot upwards. "Given what we know now… not so much of a mystery anymore, is it?"

You can say that again…

"That night, the rainstorm grew heavier, it grew thicker then mysteriously… turned redder. The mysterious red rain fell to the bottom of the hole, drenching the dying child in the droplets that continuously poured. In her dying breaths, dying cries, the child was somehow miraculously saved by the rain… it clung to her, stuck to her… even as the rain passed and morning came… the red on her did not dissipate."

"It is said that the Enstar, our Sweet Lady of the Dead, took pity on the child… and instead of claiming her for her own, granted the child a second chance at life. But seeing as the child was barely clinging to life as it was, the Enstar placed her in a deep, long sleep."

Amanda shifted in place, leaning herself backwards with arms pillaring her steady. "Enstar's beckoning, so Irene says. The Void's call. The very same thing affecting the phoenix and the vampire twins."

"Apparently so," I said, glancing briefly at Amelia. "The hell is this Enstar anyway?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "Dunno. Keep going."

"For six years, the child remained in slumber… six years alone in her subconscious, hearing only the shrieks and cries of the departed souls that laid all around her. Eventually, she learned to communicate with these souls, learn from them even. The child wandered this empty white space for six long years never knowing anything else.

"Outside, her body was kept alive by the sustenance given by the rotting bodies that kept on piling high throughout the years. One day, on the sixth anniversary of her birth and apparent death, the child finally took her first real breath of the real world… and gagged from the stench of the countless decaying corpses that laid atop of her.

"She could not speak, her entire life she had grown accustomed to the language of the dead, the strange sounds she would hear from up high were a stranger to her. A curious child she was, she wanted to know what those sounds were…

"When night fell… she climbed out of the hole herself, using the bodies that had been amassed over the years, she commanded them to raise her out of the only place she has known for her whole life. She knew only one thing, had only one memory… the hands that held her, that strange murky figure that wrapped her in the warmth of a purple cloak, the very same cloak she now held tight in the cold moonless night. For some reason she felt drawn to that memory, drawn to that strange murky figure… wanting to sate her burning curiosity, the long-forgotten princess of Astra sets off into the night, clutching tightly onto her cloak as the wind blew past her violet hair."

I found myself being interrupted again. I don't know, something about the smile Amanda was forming just irked me for some reason. 

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"Mmm," She shook her head. "Nothing. You're just a very good storyteller… I read the wiki too, you know… I don't remember it sounding so… dramatic? Flair-y? I like it. It's like I'm learning all about her all over again only ten times better."

Can blame that on days of not having any electricity in my old apartment, I suppose. Had plenty of books to pass the time. 

"Can I stop here now or must I continue a bit more?" 

"Oh no, continue, please do," Amanda said, dragging herself closer with hazel eyes glimmering so eager. "I haven't yet done testing your knowledge yet, and I'm not keen on half-hearting a mission from your would-be girlfriend."

I scoffed, rolling my eyes so hard I went cross-eyed. "I can either believe that, or I can believe you're only doing this now because you want to hear the story from my own retelling of it."

"Well, who knows?" She said, smirking at me. "In any case, if you really want me to pass you with flying colors, have me tell Irene you're all ready, set, go on her lesson… hurry up and get to storytelling, storyteller."

I'm gonna end up with a sore throat by the end of this, I swear to God...