[GrayGriffin]

Black fur against the white cobblestones...red fire against the sky...it wasn't hard to see the Ssendrek, quite though his footsteps may be. Recently...he had been feeling strange. Wasn't there supposed to be a battle? But...his sister, her tears. He didn't want those tears.

He lay down, the stone cold against his belly. There was no one there.

"Where..." he whispered. "Where is my redemption?"

[16]

[GrayGriffin]

He sighed. No one here. He was, as always, all on his own. Ever since he had been driven from Paradise...he had been alone. He looked down, and saw the gleaming tiles at his feet. They reflected his face, black and featureless, except for flames.

Once...I had golden eyes.

[17]

[GrayGriffin]

But now...what am I? I have lost the gleam. The gleam that once I had, that once my sister had...her eyes are no longer golden either. Now, they're just yellow.

"Is it..." he whispered. "Is it because of...because of...my...my...my sins..."

It was hard to admit.

[18]

[GrayGriffin]

Hard to admit...that he ahd done wrong. Hard to admit...that it was not just their fault. He had risen against them. He had killed some of them. The gleam...had gone out.

"Why?" he growled, pressing his head against the tiles. "Why is it I who must suffer?"

Yet...had Phosporus not suffered? She had tried so hard to bring him around...and he had rejected her.

[19]

[GrayGriffin]

He sighed. He had sinned too much. Was he even worthy of redemption?

"What must I do?" he roared to the sky. "Where is my forgiveness? Where is my care? Where is my gleam?"

And then he collapsed upon the ground, sobbing.

[20]

[Mousen]

Purine Rexxel

"You will never get redemption if you sit on the floor weeping. Get up and do something about it." Said a hard voice. A female rexxel stands by the strange creature. Her eyes were cold on the surface, but there was warmth beneath them. "And besides if you don't fix your sins in this life, you will regret it in the next, look at the felloxs."

[GrayGriffin]

He looked up. A Rexxel...

"What are you doing here?" he asked softly. "Are you religious?" He was not-hadn't the gods themselves kicked the first one, Ssendrek himself, from the heavens? Was not his race shunned? And so, he would deny them, until the day he found his redemption...

[21]

[Mousen]

"I belive there is a higher force out there, I'm just trying to work out what... And besides I like it here, the atmosphere is nice, even worth the long walk up here." She smiled, this creature was so strange. "Why are you here, besides the obvious?" She asked the curiostiy nibbling her voice.

[GrayGriffin]

"My journey took me here," he replied. "I had no idea where I would end up...ironic, isn't it, that I ended up at a shrine? I, whose innocence is broken beyond repair?" He laid his head on his paws and sighed. For once, he wasn't being excluded. She was talking to him like an equal.

Better enjoy this while it lasts...

[22]

[Mousen]

"You don't know that, and besides if you were truly evil, you would not be upset about it." She stated, like it was the most obvious thing. Tallie sat down on the cool stone floor and watched a few monks go about their daily buisness, most of them gave the two a wide berth.

[GrayGriffin]

He stared at her. "You don't know what I went through. I thought I was a normal creature, one of the Purities...then, they kicked me out. I stood against them, and was collared for my trouble." One paw was lifted absentmindedly to his neck. "That is gone..."

For a moment, there was a glint of gold in the blackness.

[23]

[Mousen]

"You know youre not as bad as you think you are..." She began, then stopped as she saw a spark of light in his eyes. "Aren't monks supposed to be all forgiving." She muttered scathingly as one passed, he gave her a scared look and carried on at a fast pace. Tallie let out a low hiss.

[GrayGriffin]

He shrugged. "I am a Ssendrek. I guess...they must think we are all made in his image, no? Made to be traitors...and that's what I became. But...only because they kicked me out, because they were afraid that was what I would become...ha! Self-fulfilling prophecies..."

[24]

[Mousen]

"I'm Tallie." She answered not knowing what else to say, which was most unusual for her, so she sat down next to the SsendreK. He did not freighten her, she just found the atmosphere around him sorrowful

[GrayGriffin]

"My name is Hesperus," he told her, sighing. "Why do you want to know about me so much?" No one had ever expressed much interest in his personal life-even the Evils who had recruited him. They just saw him as a useful leader...he had never belonged anywhere, except with Phosphorus and Evening. But he had pushed them away...

[25]