He swigged a mouthful of wine, though still managed to keep it elegant. Stare's own hands were shaking, but she curled them into fists and shoved them between her legs to hold them still.

“You might have not noticed, but your body is now quite immune to any magical effects that solely, or in combination with their usual tender, that enact on your soul. As they seek to find your soul within your body and cannot find it there, it is only particularly strong magics that will be able to do you any damage therein. That in itself is a remarkable power that few can boast of,” he paused a moment, and she felt sorely tempted to mutter in a comment. However, for the first time in perhaps forever with him she kept herself focused and quiet, saving any rude remarks until after his reasoning. “That and you have yet another layer of protection around you. Anyone wanting to 'steal your soul’ would be amiss, and find themselves quite surprised to learn the truth.”

He swivelled his head to glare at her once more. “Clearly you have not noticed that you can no longer see your own aura. Your chakras are your energies, thus will still appear as per normal, however your halo that you see in others has quite gone. I imagined at one point you would have noticed, and questioned me upon it, yet apparently not …”

His words faded to nothing. Her eyes were bright and open by this time, wondering how she could have not seen it. How it had been staring at her back every time she looked at herself in the mirror, under the influence of her aura sight. But then - then she realised how rare she actually did do such a thing. She had begun to actively avoid it when she saw her alignment begin to darken, when the neutrality in her had begun to dwindle and she had become more chaotic in nature. She had steadily changed from a socially neutral lichen tone to a more rebellious and impure blue, approaching Vitruvion's own passionate plum chaos that had never faded as the months had passed. As he had intentionally or not intentionally altered her outlook on life.

It was therefore not surprising, as she considered it, that she had not noticed. Because actually looking at herself had made her feel ugly.

“It's not ugliness,” Vitruvion responded, “It's simply having another outlook on life. I was as you were once, more positive about people and optimistic about the world, but when you have lived through what I have - what we have - then your perspective changes.”

The change of subject seemed to be an indication that she could speak. Stare opened her beak to quietly respond.

“I was fine as I was.”

“Indeed, that is your opinion. Yet, we have already had this issue discussed in the conversation. Now we have what we have, and an agreement formed. Or has this changed your opinion about me, and your future now?” He was savage in his tone, reminding her of his intense anger which he had barely been able to control when they first met.

The kenku kept her eyes on her knees, unmoving as she thought. About what he had done here, what he was saying. That she was not like others, and that her soul was entirely gone from her. Cut like Eteri cut small pieces of people away - snip, snip, snip - but in this case Vitruvion had taken it wholly from her body and left it somewhere else that he would not say. Safe, yes, she had no doubt that it was in the safest place he could possibly fathom seeing as it was hers, but not what she had been expecting. In fact she had not noticed it, there had been no signs such as feeling emotionally detached from anything so there still was a connection to her soul. It was just it resided elsewhere, not in the fragile casing of her body.

“So when I died …” she mumbled.

“When you die your mind and essentially being will be where your soul is currently. There it stayed - will stay - until your body has healed itself,” she heard the faint chugging noise as he threw wine down his throat, then a clang as he shoved the goblet back on the ground. “The mind is separate from the body, but also from the soul. In a normal person it will fade when the soul does, but for you it will leave your body and join your soul, your actual immortal section, and wait. It acts as a form of … catalyst between them.”

There was silence as Stare took in what he said. She sucked in, before she asked, “I need … a moment to myself. Will you allow me to leave this room please?”

“Don't leave the Hollow,” he growled as he threw up his hand. The door opened with a soft click and a purr of its hinges.

“I was not going to,” she stood up slowly, her hands still fists by her waist. Then, without looking at him she very slightly bowed her head, then turned to quickly leave the room. Curious expressions and gasps of surprise came from the guards who were outwith. Vitruvion sourly ignored them, throwing his head back against the cushions of the sofa and continuing to glare, yet this time at the ceiling. He let his eyes slid closed.