"Howsiteven make sense, huh?" Icsorue pouted.

She was just a girl then, no older than thirteen or fourteen years old. She was growing well; she was a slender thing, but was filling out pretty decently--still had a ways to go, though. Her blond hair, which had once been everywhere and frizzy, was still rather frizzy, but didn't stick straight up like she'd been shocked or anything. She'd grown it out a bit, and gravity pulled it down. But only by a bit.

Icsorue was kind of the runt of the organization, really. She had exhibited all sorts of great use, but not in the ways anyone wanted of her. Especially Sturm. He had personally lobbied that she not be sent on any sort of combat related mission--just harmless stuff. It really kind of pissed her off, Icsorue who wanted the chance to go out there and bust some heads! It hurt a ton whenever she used an ability, but that was fine, so long as the other person was hurting tons more! As such, Icsorue had been personally boycotting Sturm, and bothering Eilert Draugr instead. She'd also started wearing her Enigma cloak twenty-four/seven, in spite!

She hung her head upon Eilert's shoulder whether he liked it or not, and standing behind where he sat, draped her arms over his chest. Although she was extremely precocious, this was more of a distinct laze than it was a sensual or suggestive act. Eilert may have been able to ignore it if someone else were to do this, but Icsorue's frizzy hair was bound to be everywhere in his face, and completely disturb his reading.

It wasn't that he disliked Icsorue; he didn't really dislike anybody, though on the other hand he didn't really like anybody either. The closest he came to liking someone was his superior, Tyrian Sturm, but that was more...respect, perhaps. There were shared interests, as he was also a scientist and scholar. Everyone else mostly left him alone unless they needed him for something, and that was fine by him.

Icsorue was different--by virtue of his connection to Sturm, she seemed to have taken a liking to him, and he was unsure of what to make of it. He wasn't exactly put off by it, but...it disturbed his routine. It was already somewhat more stressful to be at headquarters instead of guarding the gates, it forced him to entirely change his way of life again.

He wasn't fond of change. He'd had enough change for one--well, perhaps two lifetimes.

In some ways, though, Icsorue's visits were actually becoming routine, as while they'd been sporadic in the past recently they'd picked up sharply for some reason.

"You can consider each line a letter, or a syllable. When combined together, they form words or phrases. Basic glyphs are single words or phrases, simple things. More advanced glyphs, like more advanced words, often combine multiple, shorter words and phrases."

Some habits died hard; it had been who knows how long since he'd actually been a professor, but he couldn't help but explain something if asked. Hopefully the fact that Icsorue probably wouldn't understand would be outweighed by the fact that he didn't treat her like a child.

"Ehhhhh?"

Icsorue reached forward to pluck the book from Eilert's hands. She may have aged a few years, but she didn't ever stop being rambunctious, precocious, and/or extremely invasive. It was as if she hadn't an ounce of respect for other people's things. It was kind of true, too.

But then again, Icsorue was still young. This was normal for a kid her age.

She stood up straight, behind Eilert's chair, and held the book up so she could see it. When she first came here, she had only a very basic understanding of language; she could speak, but not read or write. Thanks to Sturm, she could. And this wasn't the sort of writing she could understand at all.

"Whaaaaat?" Icsorue inquired almost as if she were giving a sort of disgusted scoff, "What'allthis? It'sjust a bunchapictures!"

They didn't even make sense, the way they looked like! Maybe, say, a picture of a wave or something should totally symbolize the water or ocean or something like that, but none of these symbols made a lick of sense. Icsorue flipped through the book quickly. Nope. None of the pictures made sense at all.

"That'sareallydumbwaytocommunicate!" Icsorue declared with a scoff as she pushed the book, now closed, back to Eilert, with a sort of disgusted look on her face. Though, truth be told, she didn't know how glyphs worked really, or what they did--or anything like that at all . . .

"They may have been used to communicate sometimes, but that was not their primary purpose." As usual, Eilert's reaction was, if anything, an underreaction. He only gave the slightest of frowns when Icsorue took the book from him, and he calmly opened it back to where he was once she set it down.

"Think of it this way--most people use their brains only for thinking. Myself included. But you can use yours quite differently, correct?" Granted, he was unsure if Icsorue knew how her powers worked--he had only a basic understanding himself--but if she was being tutored by Sturm, she likely had a vague idea.

"One way to look at glyphs is just as another language. But with the right knowledge and skill..."

Grabbing a blank sheet of paper from his desk, he put his palm to it--when he withdrew it a moment later, there was a mark on it. This was one was much simpler than the ones in the book. It only consisted of three phrases.

He activated the glyph, and the marking began to glow with a faint orange color--a color which spread to the entire page after a short time, matching perfectly the trimming of his own Enigma cloak.

"...it can be something quite different."

She knew to a certain extent how her powers worked. She just had to think really hard about it, and she'd have that result. She also knew that she couldn't try and think too high, because even the littlest sparks of electricity caused her pain. Too much at one time, Sturm said, would hurt her terribly.

And Eilert soon had the girl's full attention.

"W-whoa~!" Icsorue declared with wide eyed awe.

Again, she leaned against Eilert from behind, but not quite with her head upon his shoulders. This time, she had her chest against the back of his head, with little to no care about the consequences. It likely wouldn't matter, really, not unless brought to her attention. She simply leaned forward and over him somewhat so she could get a closer look at the paper.

It was glowing. Yes, yes, she had seen it right! The paper was glowing! Icsorue couldn't make paper glow. It always caught on fire and burnt up shortly after any sort of glow. She tapped her finger upon it, just to see if it were harmful or anything. She did it all the time. Icsorue was the type of girl to tap an oven to see if it were hot. It wasn't too good for her health, but nothing ever was anymore.

"That'ssocool!" Icsorue declared as she tapped at the paper again. She could do all sorts of things, but creating a harmless light with a few symbols was still going to merit her awe.

In spite of himself, Eilert's lip quirked up into the barest of smiles. Even after everything, he found enjoyment in teaching others. It was a shame there was no longer a place for him to teach anymore...

He wasn't quite up to date on much slang, but he could tell Icsorue was impressed. "A language, a practical use, even an art form...glyphs served many purposes."

"But now, that knowledge is all but forgotten. There is little sadder than losing such a key to history to the abyss of time."

He wondered briefly if anyone carried on the art anymore, or if it died with him...

Again, she tapped her fingers upon the paper. The shine never really went away, either. Every time the girl tapped it, that glimmer seemed to just stick around. She was wowed by this. It didn't even look like Eilert was concentrating or anything like that--as if the glyph itself was powering it entirely separate from him! That was really quite an amazing idea. Icsorue knew that her own powers called for her to take from herself, which was another reason why it was so dangerous. Sturm probably argued that it was reckless, too, which was why he didn't approve of her going out to battle or anything like that! Yeah--yeah, he probably thought she'd just . . . just . . . just hold everyone back!

The thought got her steamed each time it came up.

Icsorue leaned back, away from Eilert, and stopped poking at the paper. Her curiosity about it had been satiated to an extent, but there was still some interest there--not just in this glyph, though . . .

"Wellllllllllllllllllllllllluhhhwhatelse cantheydo?" Icsorue chimed curiously.

It was a few moments before he responded; there was a lot he could do with glyphs, though how much of it could be considered useful he wasn't sure. He decided to leave out some of the more mundane things she probably wouldn't be impressed by.

"I can break through a small surface, like a thin wall, repair something if I have all the pieces, talk to someone miles away, teleport, increase a person's strength or speed, and banish demons and angels back to their own plane of existence."

Those were the glyphs he used most regularly in his duties; there were others that weren't useful in a fight and sometimes not really useful at all, and then there was a set that he simply refused to use or even tell anyone about.

"Whoareally? That'ssocool~" Icsorue thought aloud.

She could imagine that whole mess! What would it be like if she could make herself faster or stronger just by drawing a picture on herself? Why, she'd get a tattoo, that's what would happen! She'd get a tattoo of one of those pictures on her shoulder or maybe her ankle or maybe even her belly--yeah, that could be cool! Then, she'd be super strong and super fast all the time. Then, Sturm wouldn't be able to go off thinking that she was completely useless. Hell, maybe she'd be able to just go up to him and bonk him in the skull! That'd show him.

As she thought about it some more, though, Icsorue concluded that there were probably more uses for these glyphs than Eilert was letting on. She may have hurt herself each time she tried to use a special power or anything and she may have been precocious and bratty most of the time, but Icsorue was pretty scrappy.

"Isthereany that, um, makeslightning?" she asked with the utmost interest.

Thunder and lightning, after all, were her favorite things in the world . . .

Transference, energy, purity, great, containment, destruction. Destructive energy in its purest, greatest form--a powerful glyph that needed its effect contained lest it risk hitting anything or anyone around it.

"...No, I'm afraid there isn't," he lied. It was a necessary lie; while he was certain Icsorue meant no harm, and he doubted she had the patience to study and wield glyphs herself, but it was still something that he didn't like sharing.

Some glyphs he wouldn't use, even for the organization's sake. Besides, he was happy with his position, and he suspected he would be moved to a more combat-intensive one if they knew everything that he knew...

"Oh . . ." Icsorue trailed off.

She averted her eyes from him and frowned. She was disappointed--of course she was! It would have been awesome if Eilert was about to cast lightning about. She would have demanded that he provide her a light show, then! Or make it rain, in fact. Yes--yes, both! That would have been so cool.

To maintain that sort of ruse, though . . . Eilert had to risk disappointing a young girl every so often. Icsorue didn't know that, and if she did, she would have beaten Eilert over the head until he told her the truth about glyphs and lightning, but he was effectively safe from that. For now. If word ever got out that he was holding out on her, though . . .

"That sucks," Icsorue enunciated--for once. It seemed she did that when she was feeling a particular emotion. "I really like that stuff. Like--like--like-- lightningstorms. Ireallylike that kindastuff. When it'sallraining and thundering and lightning inthesky. Oh well."

Oh well, indeed, because--

"I candoit myself, anyways! Soit'snot like I needyourstupid pictures tohelpme," Icsorue declared stubbornly. It hurt to use lightning, it hurt real bad, but she still could without the help of others--and to an extent, the beauty of it outweighed the pain . . .

Alas, it was well beyond even the capabilities of the glyphs he refused to use to create an entire storm; between that interest and her desire to fight, though, he wondered if Icsorue had an unhealthy fascination with danger.

"Indeed; it would take many years of study before these 'picture' would be of any use to you."

But he looked at her for a moment, and even though it wasn't his place, he couldn't help but want to say something.

"Icsorue..." It was unusual for him to really address someone like this; while he responded to questions normally, he generally didn't go out of his way to give anyone any attention. "Often times, what you can accomplish on the battlefield is nothing compared to what you can accomplish off of it."

Her powers had been honed for battle, he knew...it was sad, though. He wondered what wonders she could accomplish if they weren't honed for fighting, but for another purpose...

Icsorue was silent for a moment following. She folded her arms over her chest and stared out towards the door of Eilert's surrogate office. She thought, for a brief moment, about leaving. Eilert said something that sort of caught her attention, and not quite in a good way. It made her think about something else. Something she didn't like to think about, specifically. It made her think about all the times that she had seen other little boys and girls out playing, while she, herself, wasn't allowed to leave the lab.

It was no different here.

"Tell that tosomeonewho's got alife," replied Icsorue under her breath.

It was true. As Enigmas, little mattered beyond what they had to offer--if not for the world, than for the organization and their superiors. But to Icsorue, it was a whole different extreme. She never had a life of her own, after all. Not now, not before this--and probably never again . . .