"Hmm...isn't that how it always works? It takes time and effort to make something, but only a few seconds to destroy it." At that, Niamh gave a slight cough. She hadn't meant that to come across as a jab, really, but now that she had said it, she could see how it might.
After all, it had taken eighteen years for her to get to where she had been, a member of the Lumenari, strong in her faith...it had taken barely two days to change all that.
Oh well...such was life. She couldn't stay too bitter, though, not now, and not when Nexus looked so perplexed now. A small chuckle escaped her, and she shook her head.
"I don't think 'puppy' was the right word, but it was the only word that sprang to mind at the time..." Niamh said, looking a little sheepish as Nexus gave her that look. Helpless probably wasn't the right word, either, because she certainly couldn't see him ever being helpless. Not exactly. But before she could think up a better word that applied, Nexus decided to take her up on that subtle challenge of hers.
Just as she had been hoping.
The sheepish expression faded, replaced by a smug smile as she regarded him, and she gave a casual shrug of her shoulders. "If I didn't think I could take it up, I wouldn't have even mentioned it," she answered simply, still not complaining about the apparent nickname he'd given her. She'd kind of grown used to it. "I didn't grow up around guys or travel with the Lumenari for a year and learn nothing, y'know, and you just so happened to teach me a new trick, too. No, trust me, I don't talk like this unless I can back it up with something." Which was true, even if in the past she had talked a lot about something that Nexus had just dismantled. But even then she had something to back it up with--like the rest of the Lumenari and scripture as well.
And Nexus was certainly right about the pent-up rage bit. Oh yeah, she had a lot of that. She had a lot of energy now, too, but unfortunately he didn't. Oh well. There would be time in the future to have their little competition, and in the meantime, there were plenty of other subtle ways she could vent.
"Huh?" She looked at Nexus sharply when he said he could always just try and take his eye out, and then she quickly threw up her hands, waving them slightly. "Ahah, no thanks, that's okay, really! Yeah, you just keep that eye in its socket, alright, Nexus? You give it to me, and I'll be sure to drop it, and I don't think you'd like that very much, either. Get dirt and grime and hairs all over it...ugh, that'd be a pain to clean." She made a face and wrinkled her nose, suddenly disgusted by her own visual. Ew. Oddly enough, though, Niamh wasn't actually all that queasy at the thought of him plucking out his own eye, though it'd be weird and she wouldn't like it a bit. But not all that much turned her stomach. She'd seen some pretty graphic things on her travels with the Lumenari. It didn't mean she liked it; it just meant she didn't faint at the sight of blood.
"Oh, you mean like you?" Niamh asked when he said she should be worried for those that get in her way, matching Nexus' smile with one of her own. Then she rose to her feet, once again needing to just stand, and she also glanced to the doorway as Nexus looked. She still had no idea how he did that...the light looked the same to her as it had hours ago, bright. Hrm. Well, if you had a lot of time to kill like Nexus probably did, she could see how he would know something like that; he was immortal, he could spend days at a time watching the light beneath a doorway if he got bored.
That visual almost made her laugh out loud, but she instead cleared her throat and nodded...then promptly jolted and shook her head vigorously. "No thanks! I like the idea of leaving here tonight. Tempting as that hammock idea of yours is, a bed sounds a lot better. Plus...uh... I think you've kinda ruined warehouses for me. I'll never be able to look at one the same again..." The last part was mumbled as she shoved her hands into the pockets of her pants, fixing him with a brief glare.
And only a brief one, because inns had beds and she was thinking both about getting out of here and getting into a bed. Light, a bed. The last time she'd slept in a bed was when she had last run into Nexus at that inn. But back there, she hadn't had the time to actually enjoy it, since she'd been all stressed and plotting to get away. Beds...man. She missed beds so much.
She'd just have to ensure that they got separate rooms or something. She wanted a bed and there was no way she was sharing, especially not with him. Haha. Like hell.
"We'll have to be careful, though. You know that, right?" Niamh asked after a pause. "People will be looking for me. Night is a good time to leave--" It was why she hadn't suggested leaving earlier, why she had been asking about the time so she could make her own estimations. "--because Solisi can't see well in the dark, at least not if we don't have a torch or Incendia with us. But there aren't just Solisi among the Lumenari, Nexus. The Lumenari accepts anyone who will convert and serve their cause. Race, even species, doesn't matter." She frowned a little, a bit nervous. That of course meant that there were some Lumenari among them that had excellent night vision, or even a very good sense of smell.
Indeed, they would need to be careful. Hopefully the fish smell of the town would help with that, at least.
