"Ow! I thought that you installed more space!" Aaron head Dinari shout, his voice echoing throughout the room.

Aaron didn't know why he had said "Ow". The landing was very soft. Aaron opened his eyes and sat up. It turned out that the soft landing was a landing pad, but not a normal landing pad-- it was made of pillows. At least Aaron thought that it was a landing pad; he had fallen through the floor, after all.

Through the floor... this place was really weird. What was next? Walking on the ceiling? Flying through thin air? Magic spells?

Aaron pushed that to the back of his mind and scanned his surroundings. There were various instruments all around the room. Mounted on walls, dangling from the ceiling-- but they weren't musical instruments; in fact, they looked a little bit scary. Vidia, Percival alnd Lili were still asleep. Percival had a trail of drool dripping from his mouth. There was an indentation in the pillows beside Percival... It seemed as if Dinari had fallen on Percival and proceeded to tumble onto the concrete floor. Still, it was better than breaking your neck.

Dinari clutched his forearm (Aaron guessed that it had been hurt when he had fallen onto the floor), and called out, "Grandpa!"

Aaron's eyes were still adjusting to the darkness, so all he saw was a silhouette against a faint light. He adjusted his cloak awkwardly, to make sure that every part of him was covered. The cloak made a faint swish sound as he adjusted it. The silhouette chuckled and stepped forward. In a wheezy, albeit loud voice, he announced:

"Ah, it's okay. Everyone who visits me is paranoid that I'll find out that they're living. If I had a nickel for every time that happened, well, I'd be rich!"

The silhouette proceeded to laugh loudly. Dinari stood up and ran his finger along the wall, before finding a switch and flicking the lights on. A bright yellow light shined down in the room from the ceiling, which woke Lili up. She opened her eyes, and, still looking a little groggy, smiled and said hello to Dinari's Grandfather.

Dinari's Grandfather definitely looked odd; he had bright silvery eyes which matched Dinari's. He was also wearing a broze-coloured coat and a large, mechanical belt. His whispy, white hair was swept to one side, as if he'd been standing in the way when a fierce wind blew through. It was quite a contrast with Dinari's well-combed brown hair. He was also incredibly small-- Aaron was easily taller than him by at least one foot (However, Aaron towered over most people, due to his height).

"So, we have... a Virgo, an Aries, a Libra... a... Capricorn? No, no, you're a Pisces." Dinari's Grandfather announced, pointing to Vidia, Aaron, Lili and Percival in turn. "That's funny. I've never gotten a Libra before. I have gotten an Aquarius, though--"

"Uh... how do you know our signs..?" Aaron asked, feeling uneasy and untrustful.

"Practice, practice, practice. And a scanner that determines the birth date of living people and puts them to sleep. Actually, I've noticed that Pisces fall asleep faster." he responded.

Aaron could've sworn that he heard something that sounded suspiciously like Pisces' voice saying "Hey!"

"Here, let me show you around. It's no fun when I get visitors and all they want is a map to the scepter."

Aaron and Lili followed him as he walked to the back of the room, where a large, mechanical hand was stuck to the wall.

"Do a lot of living people visit you?" asked Vidia's voice, echoing throughout the room. Aaron whipped around, while Lili ran to hug Vidia. Dinari glanced around awkwardly.

"What?" Dinari's Grandfather said, not even turning around to talk to her.

"I said, do a lot of people visit you? Or is this "Dinari" just masquerading as a helpless, bookish person whose job is to lead "live ones" to the map of the scepter? If so, Dinari's masquerade was believable. This is all very fishy. And, before you respond to my speech, state why I should believe you. Also, you should fix your machine that puts people to sleep. I wasn't asleep, I could hear everything that you said."

Dinari's Grandfather stared blankly at Vidia through crinkled eyes for a second to recover from her speech, then doubled over laughing. He regained his posture and clapped his hands together.

"Well, live ones usually visit me about twenty times in every thousand years."

Vidia's eyes widened. However, she nonchalantly asked: "Your point?" and glared at the old man.

"Little Dinari here hasn't visited me in nearly one thousand years!"

Vidia glanced over at Dinari, who blushed a deep red and looked away. All the others were listening to this exchange intently-- even Percival had woken up to watch.

"Cou- could you repeat that, please?!" She asked, an expression of unbelief on her face.

"Dinari hasn't visited me in nearly one thousand years!"

Vidia continued to stare at Dinari, then directed her attention back to his grandfather.

"...How old is Dinari..?" Vidia asked, as though afraid to hear the answer.

Silence.

"I'm 1198 years old!" He yelled, which was a contrast to his quiet persona. "I'm almost twelve in earth years, okay!? D-does it really matter what my age is!?" Dinari continued. He was going to crack under the pressure of so many people looking at him and judging him. Lili noticed that tears were appearing in his eyes, so she quickly hurried over to him. She gently took hold of his arm and politely asked his grandfather if there was a guest room. A panel opened in the concrete wall and a handsome, wooden staircase popped out, leading to a door. Lili led Dinari up the stairs, their footsteps making quiet creaking sounds on the wood. She shut the door behind them, making sure that he entered the doorway first to escape the judging stares. Lili shuddered. If she was Dinari, she would be crying, too-- all those people looking at her would make her feel uneasy and cornered.

There was a hallway in front of them. Dinari pointed to the first door on the left. Inside, there was a trash can, a bed, a mahogany- coloured nightstand, a lamp, a dresser, a window (Lili wasn't sure how that worked, assuming they were underground), a tiny, red candle, and a faded, red oval carpet that had been placed horizontally on the hardwood floor at the end of the bed. Dinari sat down on the end of the bed and put his face in his hands. Lili quietly sat down beside him, putting her hand on his shoulder in a comforting gesture.

"It's okay, Dinari, I'm not judging you. Do you want to talk about it?"

Dinari nodded his head and put his hands on his lap. He looked over at Lili, and she noticed silent tears streaming down his face, dripping onto the deep blue fabric of his sweater. Lili reached into her pocket and pulled out a clean tissue, which she gave to Dinari. He blew his nose softly and threw it into the trash bin.

"Lili..." Dinari said, sniffling.

"Dinari, it's going to be alright. Vidia can be a bit... uh... emotionally detached, sometimes. I bet that she feels really bad, right now, for the way that she made you feel. I'll ask her to apologize to you, and everything will be fine--"

     "But, Lili, you don't get it, I-I--"

     "You what?" Lili said empathetically, staring at him with her soft blue eyes.

     "I love her!"