"Poetry." Maalech looked at her thoughtfully, squeezing her hand a bit. "However, be warned... to care for someone that much, to miss someone... it makes it easy to make mistakes. Wrong judgments because you cannot think clearly. I know this is in the face of what I wish for myself, but I am not certain empathy is an asset in you. In the short run, yes, I have no doubt it might help a lot. But with empathy, impartiality disappears. You start making judgments, whether you like it or now."

Oh he should be silent and bask in this, he might as well cut his own chest open if he continued, but to be silent would be to encourage this. And he was not certain he should, no matter what he felt.

"This is dangerous ground."

"I know," she said quietly. "That's why I wanted to tell you. We can call it foreshadowing later if anything comes out of it."

"We make up our own pasts as we go along, eh?" Maalech fell silent for a moment, debating with himself.

Whether he won or lost that debate might be debatable, but he did lean down to kiss her.

She shut her eyes and allowed it: a brief warmth. She sighed to herself. "We're doomed," she said, but in such a cheerful tone it seemed a commendable place to be. "I really hope this isn't just the primary continuum tinkering about with us both. I still like being with you. And I still think you need to be the Grey."

"I have been doomed before, its not that devastating once you get used to it." He almost sounded cheerful himself, or rather perhaps... pleased. Just a little. He could still taste her lips.

"I do like being with you as well. And disregarding my warnings before, I am glad that you have been tainted with empathy, if tainted is the word to use. However I am still undecided whether or not to consider joining you. My instincts tell me no, and yet... it is damnably difficult to take a step back and close that door now that I have been allowed a peek. The world is not quite the same. Still, I hope there is time to consider still."

"Would it be completely bitch of me to admit that that was sort of what I was counting on?" She smiled. "Your curiosity. It's undone better men than you."

"It has nearly doomed me on more than one occasion, still... those gambles usually pays off. Once one stops being curious, one might as well lay down and wither. But the price is a steep one..."

But honestly, it was not just curiosity that tempted him, not her. It was the fact that he felt that he could make a difference. Such a seductive thing, to be a part of something worthwhile. Of course he was as suspicious to those urges as to everything else.

"Still, I suppose that had I leapt to the opportunity, it might not have been granted me."

"Not necessarily. I'd be concerned if you were overhasty." She was frowning again. Her face did not wear the expression well. "Be honest I'm a little bit . . . well, preoccupied with the Tzarg-idea. I am but I'm not, really. Worst case scenario, it wouldn't be a problem for us. I'm sort of concerned about whether or not it could be a problem for this." She gestured around them.

"Are you concerned that you might be them, or that by bringing me into things you might attract their attention?" Maalech frowned a bit, looking away from her.

"I will not lie. Everything I have learned about the Tzarg points to them having a rather twisted outlook on what is good for mankind. They can seem helpful at first, but only in the direction they wish to go. And some of the creatures I have heard of being associated with them, what we call their 'servants'... they do seem intent on causing human misery. or at least fascinated by it. But all this is uncertain, I have no first hand knowledge. Only second or third part removed... they do not wish to be seen."

He chuckled at that. "Beyond our reach."

"The primary continuum is likewise beyond our reach, nevertheless there is too much evidence in all things. The question is, as always: may the thing observed continue to exist without observation? Does the story go on when the book is on the shelf, or does it exist in status? How much of it is pre-written, and how much of it is enacted upon impetus of outside forces?" She looked up at him. "How much of the world are we seeing, and how much of it is dictated to us? Does the world exist outside of the sphere of our regard?"