It wasn't that she was being mean or rude at all, it was that over the past week, whenever she'd tried to ask Amaranth about that rune, she'd always claimed that she was feeling faint due to a lingering effect of what her rune had done when she used it. The hell she was. The only times she ever had a 'relapse' was when that topic came up.

Which was exactly what she had this time. Amaranth placed the teacup on the stand beside the bed in which she had insisted she remain. She artfully placed the back of her left hand across her forehead, and said, "I'm truly sorry, but I'm afraid I'm still feeling those effects... Sometime later, perhaps?"

Cleo shook her head, rather violently. "No," she said firmly. "I don't care what ailment you're faking. You're fine and you know it-- at least until I ask you about that. Then, you keep getting your damn 'relapses'. I'm sick of it, Amaranth! Just tell me, or don't, just stop avoiding the question!"

Amaranth looked right at Cleo, utterly calmly. She nodded approvingly. "Very well, then," she said, picking up her tea and sitting up a bit straighter. "You might perhaps wish to sit down, I rather think this will take a fair while..."

Cleo gaped. That was all it had taken? THAT? That was positively sick! Gnashing her teeth, she pulled up a chair.

With a distant smile, Amaranth said, "Perhaps maybe I did not know that the matter made enough of a difference to you... If it is not worth it for you to know, then I certainly shall not tell you..."

"It's worth it, Amaranth..." Cleo said, maybe a little sharply. Why wouldn't she just hurry up and tell her already? It was just a bloody rune, after all.

Then why did she care so much that she know about it? If it was just some rune... But it wasn't, couldn't be. There were plenty of runes that could deal damage in ways like Amaranth's did, but how many could do so much, and have so much of a backlash?

Amaranth nodded, took a sip of her tea, then looked down at the palm of her right hand. She held it up, showing it to Cleo. She saw the mark there, then, a figure eight on its side. What was that again? Infinity, that was what it signified, wasn't it? But what rune had that sign?

Lowering her hand, Amaranth said, "I... believe this to be a True Rune, the continuity aspect of the Rune of Ending. But that... it is not enough to say what it is, for that seems so... inconsequential."

Inconsequential? How could that possibly be in consequential? She was making having a True Rune sound like having a Water rune, for gods' sakes... Cleo suppressed an exasperated sigh and instead nodded at Amaranth.

"Of course," she continued, "saying such should sound... unusual, to say the least, which I think you've noticed I rarely do, but... in comparison to its... properties, it certainly is." She paused then, closing her eyes. When she spoke again, it was in a toneless, deadened voice. "I call it the continuity aspect, because that is what it maintains in its holder. The rune absolutely cannot be removed until the instant of death, in which case, the transference is direct. With that transference comes the complete memories of all previous holders of the rune. A holder of the rune... cannot forget anything... For there to be blanks, gaps in the memory... is to break the continuity..." Her head dropped then, and she stared downwards for a while.

Cleo said nothing, thinking, or at least trying to think about what Amaranth had said. What kind of rune did something like that? Of course, Cleo not having heard of a rune's properties didn't preclude them from existing, but that still sounded pretty far-fetched.

Without raising her head, Amaranth continued in that selfsame dead, emotionless tone, "Because... it is of the Ending Rune, then the holder must be so... 'preserved', to prevent any ending from coming at... what it considers the wrong time... and so... After a certain point in the life of the holder, a certain age, we don't know which, their aging is... halted. They do not age, and thus, death from age is prevented." She stopped again there, breathing heavily, loudly. "Its property for use in battle, you know. That is my rune, and the curse that has plagued me for most of my days."

"Wellll..." Cleo said slowly. "That doesn't seem all that bad..."

Cleo wasn't sure what she thought Amaranth would do when she said that, but of all the things she might have expected, Amaranth's hand connecting with her cheek with a really very astonishing force wasn't one of them.

As she pressed her hand to her now-injured cheek, Cleo demanded, "What was that for?"

Amaranth looked up, directly at Cleo. "Don't speak so knowledgeably of things you know nothing about, little girl..." she said harshly. "You have no idea what this is like... The human mind... is not designed to be a perfect repository of thoughts, of memories... We forget things for a reason... There are aspects of traumatic, or any, for that matter events that simply cannot be remembered by a normal human being. And I have the memories of... countless lifetimes, countless unnaturally prolonged lifetimes... Memories that exist with a crystal clarity... events that I can remember as vividly, as completely as if they were happening again..."

"Oh..." was all Cleo could manage to say.

"I don't... ask for you to understand, just don't... belittle it..." Amaranth said softly.

"I... I'm sorry, I didn't realize..."

"And that's why I don't talk about it," Amaranth said in a final tone. She sighed then, and started to get up. "There absolutely must something harder than this tea available in this sordid little dump..."

"It's eleven-thirty, Amaranth."

"Then I'm late. I swear, after that, I'd even be willing to drink beer."

"Amaranth..." Cleo said warningly.

"Oh, lay off, Cleo," Amaranth said with some irritation. "You're not my bloody mother, so don't go acting like you can tell me what to do. In fact, even if you were my mother, you still couldn't tell me what to do, and I'd be of a good mind to punch you in the teeth. If I want to get drunk and collapse in a corner at eleven-thirty in the morning, then I am going to get drunk and collapse in a corner at eleven-thirty in the morning. Didn't you tell me last night that the boat wouldn't be leaving until tomorrow?"

"I suppose I did..." Cleo floundered. This was completely a Bad Idea, but there seemed no dissuading her.

"Wonderful, then," Amaranth said, forcing Cleo to stand up and pushing her out the door. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I must change that I can go drown the sorrows that your delightful questions have brought back to the surface..."