Ciridia put a hand on his shoulder.

"The past is past. I know how painful it must feel, but you must not let it devour you. There is always tommorow and you may be able to help someone, to repent for what you did."

She stopped walking and hugged him.

"Okay?"

"The past is the past, but our scars remind us that our past is real, not something we can escape freely and leave behind. I live on that knowledge, and my experiences shaped who I became. I cannot ignore them, but I can choose how to act on them."

Returning the hug in a firm, protective, almost loving way. D'Artigo smiles beneath his mask. "One day, judgement will come for her. I will be the one to deliver it. Until then, I must live. Thank you, Erina, for your support."

"Your welcome. And I do wish you would call me Ciridia."

She hugged him tightly before letting go and taking a few step away.

"And I do wish you wouldn't think that your name would need to change since your form has. I don't believe there's a need in that one bit." D'Artigo shrugged. "Sure, maybe your nickname needed to change, but your real name? I don't see why it should."

Ciridia sighed and twisted a strand of her hair.

"I just felt like it should. Why do you care if I changed my name? It wouldn't bother an aquintance."

"Ah, but it does. You see, I am quite a few people acquaintance. So, the fewer names I have to remember, the easier it is for me to remember them.

"Then don't remember. Call me 'you' or 'girl'." Ciridia brushed her hair out of her face and sighed.

D'Artigo bursts out laughing at the hilarity of her comment. "Lyca, 'you' or 'girl'? That would be incredibly harsh. That would be how a slave might be treated. To my knowledge, you're not a slave, are you?"

(Ironic gboy. She was born a slave and her family risked everything to get her out.)

"Maybe I am." She smirked at him.

"Not to me you're not. So I refuse yo call you by such a term. It's a hit to the pride to be treated like a slave."

Ciridia laughed alittle.

"You're one of a kind."

"Well, they were going to make more of me, but I broke the mold. I'm too special for there to be more than one of me. I mean, it's not very often you get cunning intellect, stunning looks, and a loving personality all rolled into one, is it?"

Ciridiasnorted and instantly covered her mouth, blushing.

"Oh, now was that really necessary? You know that I possess all of the aforementioned traits, and yet you still deny me the acknowledgement. That hurts, it really does."

"I'm sowwy."

She looked at him with doe eyes.

"Fowgive me? Pwease?"