[Shieba]

"I...see." Morwena sighed. This probably meant that there was nothing here that was really worth much, unless Yoshi had managed to take something rare by coincidence. "Yoshi, deary, are you aware that some books are magical items as well? The most powerful artifacts in our world are special tomes! You take such good care of your artifacts, so you maybe might want to do that for books, too? Not that there is anything wrong by sorting them after color, but it probably makes finding what you are looking for a bit harder. Also, why don't you guys want to write books? They can at least preserve history, you know? Your king said that it's important to remember what happened so that mistakes don't get repeated again and I would think writing a book about what happened would be a good way to do that so that even new arrivals here can learn in detail about it."

"...'Her'?" A kidnapping? Bentner shook his head. That old king of this place had obviously done quite some damage. "People from Evelon with such powers? Hmm...I might have to look into that more."

Morwena looked pretty taken aback at the story about the accident. "My! I guess losing your memories was the reason why you didn't stab him in the head, then? Still, you two seem to be friends now despite you knowing about it. Is this something that would happen to any Arrancar, though? That you would turn into children after such a wound, I mean?"

[MillietheWarrior]

“Oh yes! Like the book I gave Bentner!” Yoshi said with a clap of her hands. “I don’t know if any of these are magical here…but they might have magic in them. I usually only take books with the prettiest pictures, but I got a few with lots of words for Halibel-sama and Starrk.” She smiled brightly, and tilted her head. “But my library looks so much prettier when it’s color coordinated. I love the colors!” She stared at the masses of books fondly, and fiddled in her seat.

“We don’t write books because…well, we don’t have anything to write down that we don’t already know. I mean, we don’t really care much for things outside our world, so why write down something we already know? And we don’t get any visitors, honestly. And when we do, we’d rather tell them ourselves.” She picked up Nel’s discarded book, and ran a hand along it’s spine. “Yes, our old king kidnapped a girl from the human world. She’s the one who used the original version of those pins I gave you; she was the one who allowed us to make a copy of her weapon, as well. She was really very nice…once she got over the whole kidnapping thing. But it wasn’t as if we were the ones who sanctioned it. We’d rather win our battles honorably, through our own strength and will. Not underhanded means.”

Nel was smiling, looking faintly pleased with Yoshi’s answer. “Oh, yes, well, we had been something like friends before the incident. I guess Nnoitora-kun wouldn’t see it that way. But I did like him. It’s never happened to another Arrancar since, or before. I think it was some kind of special case; or maybe just fate. Who knows? I don’t think it would happen to anyone else. Right, Nnoitora-kun?” The amount of sugar in her voice made the man sit up, his one good eye glaring at her from across the room. “You brought it on yourself, woman,” he grumbled. “Always flaunting your power and acting so superior…” Nel just giggled, seeming unperturbed by his venomous look.

[Shieba]

Well, if most of the books were comics or children's books, there wasn't a big chance of something magical being in here. But if Yoshi thought there might be magic in one somewhere, maybe at least seeing a sample might give some insight. "So what's your favourite book, then, deary?" Morwena asked. "And well, you might want to sort them at least...alphabetically inside of the color-sections?" she also tried weakly.

"I suppose that's understandable. We humans don't live long, so we feel we need to write things down because if we would just tell others, it would be impossible for them to re-tell the tale exactly without changing things, so to keep the original versions around even after our death, we write. But if you live longer, there probably might be no reason to..." He looked at Yoshi when she mentioned the pins and a weapon. "If that girl used such powerful magical artifacts, I suppose her weapon was powerful and maybe magical as well?"

"Hm, well..." It was a bit disappointing that this really wouldn't be anything that Morwena or Bentner could use as information on magic, since it was something that obviously couldn't even happen to a human in the first place. "My, your relationship is a bit odd! To split a head because someone is showing their power and acting superior! And then forgiving that person! I am very happy when my Dear orders me around and if I should ever do something stupid and harm him, I clearly would never deserve forgiveness and totally should be killed!"

"..." Bentner glanced at Morwena. "I don't think you, of all people, should talk about other people's relationships as 'odd' or call their behavior that, woman."

[MillietheWarrior]

“Alphabetically?” Yoshi asked, tilting her head. “Maaaybe…” She looked thoughtful for a moment, before she hopped off the chair, her dress whirling around her, and proceeded to disappear into the stacks of books. “Hold on, I’ll be right back.” Nel answered the questions for Yoshi while the girl was searching through the books. “Her power was unlike anything we’ve ever seen before or since; it was almost God-like. She could erase people and things just by rejecting their very existence, and she could heal any wound, even a missing limb. She was a powerful girl, but she didn’t even realize it. And she had a very kind heart.”

She smiled fondly, as if lost in some distant memory, then laughed. “Yes, we do have an odd relationship. But we’ve made up, for the most part. Nnoitora-kun still acts like he doesn’t like me, but I know otherwise.” She raised an eyebrow at the scowling man, who looked as though he was ready to chuck a book across the room. Nel turned to Bentner and Morwena. “And you two? If I may ask, and you don’t find it rude, what is the nature of your relationship? You don’t have to answer of course; I’m simply curious.” She smiled openly, her hands in her lap as she leaned back in the chair.

[Shieba]

Morwena and Bentner watched Yoshi rush off, wondering what she would come back with. Bentner then thought about what Nel said. "Such two vastly different powers could be magic, but I have indeed never heard of a human having such vast powers. Not in our world and not in Evelon, either - I would think a human as powerful as that would be widely known. Are you sure she was human?"

Morwena giggled when Nnoitora looked at Nel like he did. "Ah, men are a bit stingy with their showings of affection sometimes~" She beamed at Nel. "The relationship between my Dear and me is very complicated! I'm not a full human, but also have some blood of a race in me that binds them with those they are fated to be with! My Dear is the one meant for me, so I love him with all my heart! I started out as his student, but by now I've graduated and help him with his work and serve him as well as I can and if he's happy with me, I get laid! My Dear, of course, isn't in love with me because that would simply be horrible because I could never be or want to be equal to him and deserve something like that! It's absolutely perfect and I'm so happy that I'll die together with my Dear one day!"

"..." Bentner looked at the overly excited Morwena who could talk about that topic for hours and decided that he should probably glad that she just summarized things and left the really odd parts out.

[MillietheWarrior]

“Yes, very human. But in their world, they tend to keep their powers under wraps. I don’t think she even realized how much power she had. Our old king did…and I think that was part of the reason he brought her here.” Nel sighed, looking saddened by the idea, and then brightened up immediately. “Oh that sounds so romantic.” Nnoitora snorted, his good eye narrowing. “Of course you’d think it was romantic, woman,” he grunted, looking annoyed. “But I can see the merits of having someone completely loyal. I bet she at least obeys your commands.” He shot Nel a look. “Unlike some people.” Nel seemed unfazed by his words, even as she smiled happily.

“Ignore him. He always acts like such a tough brute. But he’s really sweet.” She ignored Nnoitora’s outburst of ‘Damn lying woman!’ and watched as Yoshi bumbled back out with a book clasped in her hands. She happily clambered over to Morwena, and climbed into her lap, obviously comfortable enough with the two visitors to do so. She opened the book, holding it out for Morwena to inspect. “It’s called ‘Where the Wild Things Are.’ It reminds me of Hueco Mundo!” she said brightly, slapping her hand on the picture of the monster on the front.

[Shieba]

"Hm, we should be able to sense these things, but then again, we haven't seen all that much from Evelon yet. I'll try to look into that. How long was that ago, in the human world? Can you guess that, with time passing so differently here?" If that had been hundreds of years ago, there was little Bentner could possibly do besides looking in ancient books.

"It iiiiis!" Morwena beamed, happy that someone understood. Most people called her 'weird' or 'masochistic', after all, so this was awesome! "And of course I obey my Dear's commands! And if I mess up, he is so kind to punish me to help me remember that I won't do it again and upset him more! Because if my Dear would ever dismiss me, I would die! I'm very happy that my Dear cares about my life so much!"

Bentner sighed and shook his head. "She's a brilliant mage, very loyal and also pretty. It's handy to keep her around, no matter how dumb she can be sometimes", he explained in Nnoitora's direction.

"You are so kind to me, Dear!" Morwena beamed at Bentner and then turned back to Nel. "So, Nel, does that mean that you and Nnoitora are together as well?"

Then, Yoshi rushed back to them. Morwena was a bit surprised when Yoshi climbed into her lap, but giggled and let it happen. "Let me see that, then, deary." She took the book - obviously a children's book indeed - and opened it. There was no magic anywhere and Morwena still had some trouble with Evelon's language and letters, but managed to get the gist of it. Sighing inwardly about how this was exactly what she had expected, she smiled at Yoshi. "That is quite the story there! And it is a bit like your home, or at least other, mostly younger humans would maybe think so", she agreed with Yoshi. "Did you read this and all the other books, at least those with pictures, deary?"

[MillietheWarrior]

“She’s not the type of person you can sense,” Starrk added from his place on the armchair. “Her powers are unlike any of ours, or yours. She’s an ‘off the radar’ user, I suppose you could say. Even we were unaware of her until we saw her powers first hand.” Nel nodded in agreement, her smile fading momentarily. “It was only about two year sago, in human terms. Not that long at all. I believe she still lives in the general vicinity of…Nabias, was it called?” She looked thoughtful, then waved it off. She smiled brightly, looking fairly dewy-eyed at the idea of such a strong and romantic relationship.

“Oh, how lovely! That sounds so beautiful!” Nel gushed, obviously as strange as Morwena was when it came to relationships. “Nnoitora-kun always yells at me and calls me names, but that’s only because he loves me. Right Nnoitora-kun?” She smirked as she turned her head to face him, and although he turned away with a snarl, his cheeks were splashed with bright red, and he appeared to be blushing. “We’ve been together ever since he apologized. Well, maybe not in so many words, but the apology was there,” Nel continued, tactfully ignoring Nnoitora’s uncomfortable fidgeting. “We even have little children of our own running around. Well, they’re not technically ours, but they are in everything but biology. Their names are Twee and La!” She smiled happily, hands clasping her cheeks as she blushed girlishly.

Nnoitora rolled his eyes, and flopped back down on the couch with his back to her to conceal his faint smile. Yoshi, meanwhile, was staring fixedly at the pages of the book, tracing her fingers along the edges of the various monsters in it. “Yes! Except, these monsters don’t try to eat the little boy. It’s kind of sad; they would’ve gotten stronger or become king if they’d eaten him.” She patted the book and glanced up at the library. “Oh yes! I’ve read aaaaalllll the books with pictures. And there’s a lot of them, since I’m the one who gets them.” She turned to Morwena curiously. “Do your favorite books have lots of pictures in them?”

[Shieba]

"Hm, that makes her even more interesting. She must have a way of suppressing her powers that would be very helpful for us, too. And indeed, there is a town called Nabias in Evelon. Would you happen to have the name of the girl and be willing to tell us? I understand if you wish her her peace and quiet now after what happened to her, but I admit I would love to talk to her." Bentner, once again, wished he would have taken some sort of paper with him to write everything he had learned so far down, but then again, Morwena was listening, too, and hopefully remember as much as she could as well.

Right now, though, Morwena was very happily beaming at Nel and not paying much attention to anything else. "My Dear yells at me, too, but only if I deserve it anyway! He called me his 'most precious possession' before and I'm so happy that he owns me!" Morwena had heard from Mila Rose about Arrancar not feeling love, so she was a bit surprised, but it seemingly was different for every Arrancar! "How wonderful for you! Even children! And well, the biology doesn't matter much, anyway! I had my womb removed to be allowed to enter the test to become my Dear's student way back because he originally wanted a man since he deems women too emotional because of PMS and also wanted a student who didn't ditch magic after ten years to become a mother!"

Bentner listened to all the female gushing as unimpressed as ever, though he did notice that obviously, these twins that Yoshi and Lilynette had talked about were seemingly the children of those two. Or at least the names were similiar.

Morwena ruffled Yoshi's hair affectionately. "Aww, deary, in our world and I think in Evelon, too, you don't become king or stronger if you eat boys! No matter if you're a monster or not! And well...most of the books I read have words, but some have pictures, too. But not like these - more like pictures of magic items or runes. You probably wouldn't find my books interesting to read."

[MillietheWarrior]

“Her name was Orihime,” Starrk supplied. “I don’t imagine she has the quietest life; she’s very good at exterminating Hollows and keeping her town safe. I heard she’s working at a bakery run by a woman named Isane. There’s a couple of other women around, I think Nanao and Momo. You’ll have to be careful of them; at least one of them is dangerous…” He yawned, leaning back in his armchair and letting his head his the pillow behind him. Nel was listening with rapt attention to Morwena’s story, her eyes wide and her mouth formed in a small o-shape of surprise and wonder. “Oh my, how romantically devoted!” she proclaimed, smiling widely. “Such devotion and love! It’s the stuff of romance novels, isn’t it, Nnoitora-kun?”

The man just waved her off, his back still facing the women and his grumbles drowning them out. Nel scowled at him, looking unimpressed as she huffed and sat back against her chair. Then she perked up, and turned to Bentner. “I wonder…You sounded as though you were interested in magical things. Did Yoshi tell you about our swords and their special abilities? It’s not magical, but it might be of interest.” Yoshi, meanwhile, was pouting. “But why? If they ate the others, they would get so much stronger and be able to kill anyone they wanted.” She frowned, glancing down at her book and thoughtfully thinking of what it would be like to read one of Morwena’s books. “I don’t think I’d like them unless they had pictures like this.”

[Shieba]

"Thank you kindly, I shall heed the warnings. Well, that bakery shouldn't be too hard to find, I suppose. Nabias isn't all that big. Those other women, are they Arrancar?" If they were Arrancar, it would probably be alright, or so Bentner figured, since Tia had told him that she would support him.

Morwena was still absolutely happy about having found someone who found her stories wonderful and, because of that, she simply kept talking. "It is! At first, my Dear was quite annoyed by me, though, since he thought that no girl as young as me would cling to him so much without some sort of plan in mind. And because I annoyed my poor Dear so much that he figured that even without my womb, I wouldn't be a good student, he and the king made some plan to test the loyalty I always proclaimed. My Dear ordered me to come and assist him with a magical experiement in the evening and one hour later, the king told me to come to him at the same time or face death. And then I couldn't find my Dear for the rest of the day to tell him I had to see the king. I was so scared - I was only seventeen - but well, of course I would never disappoint my Dear, so I showed up for the experiment! My Dear looked at me quite surprised, really, especially since I, of course, didn't tell him then that I should better go see the king - my Dear obviously wanted my help and it was such an honor, after all! Ten minutes later, the king stormed in and demanded my head and I, of course, asked him to at least spare me until the experiment was done so that my Dear could finish it. And well, then my Dear asked the king to spare my life because they both hadn't even expected me to go to the experiment in the first place. The king was furious, but well, he agreed, since it had been my Dear's plan in the first place. My Dear is so smart! The king never liked me after that, of course. Especially not after he arranged a marriage for my Dear with a woman that my Dear ended up disliking, so I pushed her off a cliff! I think the king knew it was me, but he never said anything, strangely."

Bentner stared blankly at Morwena; god, that woman could talk forever. He was glad when a clearly more interesting topic came up. "Swords? No, I don't think that has been mentioned yet. I would be indeed interested in hearing about that."

Morwena struggled to answer Yoshi's questions. "Well, it doesn't work that way in our world. You don't get other people's strength or powers by eating them, neither in Evelon nor in my home. But I'm sure it works like this in other places!" She giggled. "Yes, my books are all magic tomes. They would probably bore you."

[MillietheWarrior]

“No,” Starrk drawled, not looking up. “They’re all regular humans, just like Orihime. And they don’t like us very much. Orihime doesn’t mind us; in fact, she rather likes us. But the others don’t. So I wouldn’t mention us unless you manage to get Orihime alone to talk to her.” It was true; Nanao, Isane and Momo might be regular humans, but they all had distinct powers of their own, and Nanao was the worst of the bunch. Where the other two women were shy and reserved, she wasn’t afraid to beat the living snot out of anyone who threatened her bakery or her friends. Nel, on the other hand, looked as though she were ready to swoon. “Oh, how beautiful,” she sighed dramatically, clasping her hands together.

Yes, obviously the concept of love was different for all Arrancar; Nel, it seemed, could at least feel it, and all the romantic feelings that came along with it. “To defy death for the one you love. It’s practically a fairy tale!” She was cut off from going on any more by Bentner’s interest in the sword. She turned to him with bright eyes. “Well, then I’d be happy to explain. You see-” She reached to the side and unclasped her sword, laying it across her lap. “These swords are all special. They all have a first release form, with increases their power and allows us to generally use an increased amount of power. The first form is called ‘Shikai.’ The second release, has it’s own name. Generally, when we use it, our forms change into something different. For example, Nnoitora-kun grows extra arms and is much stronger. We all have affinities with different types of animals; his is the mantis. Halibel-sama is the shark, Starrk-kun is the wolf, and I am the ram. Yoshi-chan is a dragon, of course. Twee and La are an owl and a sparrow, respectively. And there are lots of others, Like Mila Rose, Apacci, Sung-sun....The second release allows us more power, and generally greater attacks. It also usually changes the shape and form of our swords into something else. Mine is a lance.”

Yoshi, on the other hand, was uninterested in Bentner and Nel’s conversation, and instead, was scowling down at her book. “I don’t understand. It’s the simplest way to gain more power, you know. I bet if you tried it, you’d get much, much stronger. I can help you! I can destroy them for you first, and then you can eat their spirit particles!” She beamed up at the woman, clearly enamored with her own bright idea.

[Shieba]

"I see. Well, we have no ill intentions and are not from your world, so I would hope that things might work out. And if not, really, Morwena and I are far from being helpless." Bentner wondered how he stood in regard to power to both Arrancar and these special humans, though.

"It was quite wonderful indeed! I was so scared, but when my Dear asked the king to spare my life, I was so happy! I clearly didn't deserve it, after all! But my Dear still did it for me! And after I killed his wife, my Dear took me out for dinner because he couldn't cancel the expensive table anymore that he had had to place a reservation on for his wife! I felt so special! And then he explained to me during dinner what I had done wrong - it was the first time I had killed anyone, after all! It was so romantic!" Morwena clearly never had much opportunity to talk about these things and since Bentner was her favourite topic to talk about anyway, she seemed unwilling to shut up, despite Bentner asking about something else.

"This is very interesting." Bentner pondered this. "Does this mean that each of these swords only work for their owner, since you seem connected to them? And that you can't switch into these other forms of yourselves if you don't have your swords with you?"

Morwena beamed, surprisingly, at Nnoitora. "Deary! Extra arms! That must be so useful during sex!" She smiled brightly at Nel. "That must be so much fun!"

Yoshi's idea was...a bit odd. Could that work for a normal human? "Deary, I'm not an Arrancar or a Hollow. I don't think I can eat these particles in any way! Though if I could and it wouldn't be harmful and I would get more powerful then, I totally would!" Maybe Yoshi knew of a way to actually make that work? It did sound like an easy way to gain power.

[MillietheWarrior]

“That’s good,” Starrk drew out, not seeming concerned in the least. “But I’m sure if you act nice enough, they won’t try to kick your asses. And Orihime wouldn’t hurt a fly. So you’d be safe with her.” Nel ignored Starrk, and sat back in her chair, looking awestruck. “How lovely! Killing for the one you love is just so romantic!” She sighed dreamily, but then immediately snapped back into business mode to answer Bentner’s questions.

“Our swords are a part of us, a manifestation of our souls. They will disappear if we die, and no one else can wield them. We cannot be wounded by our own swords, either.” She shook her head. “We cannot go into our full release forms without our swords. But we’re never without them, so it wouldn’t matter anyway. When I become a child, my sword returns to my soul, and I don’t have it anymore. Only the strongest manifest a sword. And we all have our own powers; things like a cero, or even Hierro and Sonído. Did Yoshi explain those things?”

Her answer to Morwena’s question was interrupted by Nnoitora choking on his own breath. Nel ignored him studiously. “Hm…I never thought of that. Maybe we should give it a try!” Yoshi ignored the adult’s conversation in order to have her own. “Well, you could absorb the spirit particles, like we do. You just have to open your mouth and inhale. Then BAM! More power. It’s easy. I can help you!” She didn’t seem to realize it didn’t work that way for humans.

[Shieba]

"That sounds well enough. I'm sure this is manageable if I tell Morwena to stay quiet and not talk like the moronic woman she is right now." Bentner stated and watched how Nel actually seemed to share Morwena's view of the world fully. Clearly, something was wrong with both of them.

"I see. This is quite useful, then. We have something similiar, just in a more magical way - it's a rare magical talent that only few have, but those who can can summon a part of their soul as a being given form and use it to call forth extremely powerful magic, since a soul is always more in tune with the ether than a material body." Maybe there was at least a bit of magic involved in these swords forming? "Miss Mila Rose showed us a cero, but I'm afraid we haven't heard about the other things yet."

Morwena found it quite fun to fluster Nnoitora, especially when Nel went along with it. "You should, deary! I can imagine that more arms would be so useful! Most men - at least human men - would probably appreciate to grope a woman's butt and breasts at one, probably in addition to having their fingers between her legs as well!"

Yoshi's idea seemed more and more like something that wouldn't work. "Deary, we humans use our mouth to eat as well, yes, but there's a lot more involved. Don't you have books with pictures where the human body is explained? I know there are books which explain that with not that many words and lots of pictures." If Yoshi had children's books on everything here, maybe on that as well?