Of course, the response caught Zexion quite off-guard. He hadn't thought that there were many who had ever read the books, let alone memorize quotes from their pages, and the girl seemed so confident. This was humiliating and definitely not called for! Yet at the same time, for some reason the girl reminded the Schemer of himself, with her calm attitude. No wonder he got so falsely irritated at her; they were too similar for his liking. He looked around the room, glad that he and Marluxia were alone once again. Next time the girl would pay, and quite possibly with her sanity. Zexion's illusions were not to be taken lightly...
But why was he getting himself all wound up over one little annoyance anyway? It wasn't emotions, he was sure of that, but it wasn't exactly normal either. The young Nobody shivered, and then looked behind him to a bookshelf, whose sight was a comfort for sore eyes. He felt over the spines of the books lightly, and then slipped out a small novella that looked interesting. He opened it and gave the pages a quick skim before looking up at Marluxia. "Shall we resume this another day? I'd also like the borrow this, it appears to be an interesting read."
Zexion faked a chuckle, but in reality he was indignant. What did age have to do with anything? Surely she should know by now that only intelligence and ability mannered. Besides, ranking was counted in the order the members joined, not as to how old they were. However, his literary mind soon flickered to a Shakespeare play that he had read a while ago, The Merchant of Venice. There was a certain quote from there that expressed his feelings perfectly, and he only felt it appropriate to use the statement. "Never judge by mere age. After all, 'There has never been so young a body with so old a head'." He paused for a moment, as he often did when quoting older writing. "I assume you know Shakespeare?" He would definitely come off as strange to her, but in reality he was toying with her. That way he would not only get the satisfaction of watching the girl in her lack of comprehension, but hopefully she would stop bugging him.
"Hm?" Zexion looked up, finally coming out of what seemed to be a trance of thought. In reality, like Marluxia had assumed, he was not prepared for what seemed to be such a rash reaction. However, by staring at some of the psychology books on the shelves, he had come to what was to him an ingenious conclusion. The arrival of the new member was rather irritating; he would have to share his little plot later, and when no one else was around. She didn't seem too bad, at least she appeared to be going out for a mission or something of the like. She could be rather worthwhile, and certainly lees likely to be turned into a Dusk, unlike some of the others. However, it puzzled him as to how she was staring at him. Why, if he didn't know better he would be feeling uncomfortable! "You're new here, I suppose?" The best trick was to make himself seem unfriendly, and so he put a condescending tone to his voice.
And...The door that Rin had just burst through did not lead to the throne room. Instead it seemed to be a rather empty hall, filled with portraits and jewels. Perhaps this was a treasury or something of the like? However, by now he knew that he was in trouble, because he could already feel his shoulder aching from the guard that was pulling him up harshly. The man eyed his attire with steely eyes, and then look confused. Wasn't this supposed to be a messenger? If he was, then why was he running through the castle...?
"Are you lost, boy?" That was the best conclusion the guard could come to. It wasn't easy to get a messenger's outfit, and the kid did seem a bit confused. He would still keep the possibility that he was a thief in his mind, but for now he would go with the more positive outlook. To his relief, Rin nodded slowly, as if in a bit of a daze. The guard next to him snickered a little, but sharp elbow to the side changed that.
"I...I have a message for the king..." And thus his urgency was explained to the two guards. They said nothing, but gave an affirming nod to him, and led him along the hallways, to where Rin assumed the throne room actually was.
"The answer is simple," Zexion moved his bangs away from his face, revealing his other eye, which was just as piercing as the one most usually saw, This effect seemed to further the intensity of his statement, not to mention his especially devious grin, "We use our lessers to kidnap him." By lessers, he meant the lower-class Nobodies that were under their control. They were quite useful servants at times, though he preferred to only send them out for menial work. Using his for fighting just seemed...dishonorable. It wasn't like he had many, either. Sometimes he wondered why those like Demyx had more forces for their disposal.
"Yes, definitely. While he other of our elder, he sometimes seems to be much more like a child than one would expect..." He used to admire the Freeshooter, back when he was still having difficulty from transitioning from a younger, innocent mindset to what he is now like today, but those days were long gone. Sometimes he hoped that the man would get struck down in a tough mission, or have the misfortune to be caught eavesdropping by Xemnas or Saix. He sighed in false exasperation, and then looked around the halls. "Well, show me this little sanctuary of yours..." As usual, he was somewhat clueless about the upper floors. However, he did enjoy it when one of his peers, usually a Lesser Nobody of inferior intellect, foolishly decided to venture into the dark lower floors, losing their way in the labyrinth of twists and turns. It wasn't so much that it was built to be more confusing; in fact, it was much like the upper floors in his opinion (Then again, he wasn't always right), it was just the fact that it was not only difficult to see, but the rooms were spaced out more. The regulars, such as he, Vexen, and Lexaeus, to that area were their only guides, and otherwise they would simply be entertainment. But for now he would have to be guided by the steward of the light, Marluxia.
Zexion cocked his eyes towards Marluxia in return, almost a bit predictably. The two of them were close, a bit too close for his liking. Once the next meeting was over his first agenda would be to split those two up. If they didn't see each other, they would obviously forget about each other, and everything would just fade away into the usual routine like nothing had happened whatsoever. It seemed somewhat sensible. Then again, he wasn't the psychologist of the group. However, he realized that he had been zoning out for too long of a time, and soon snapped himself back into the conversation, however painful it is. "My name is Zexion. I trust that you have been...'enjoying' here, for lack of better words..." Well, that wasn't very normal at all, and he would probably come off to them as either eccentric, or mental in some form or another. Maybe he should start coming out from under that rock known as the basement...
