It had been over a month since Amber had heard the name of the Kabal mentioned by her Mansion roommate Henri. Over a month, as well, since she had heard Lenna's name mentioned in affiliation with the Kabal. The same Lenna which Amber had seen around Sanctuary many times in the past. The truth was that Amber was curious about the Kabal and about Lenna's role in it. She knew so little about it, Henri had seemed afraid of the prospect of opening up too much, but what she did know fascinated her. An organization that was helping mutants and that had an inclusive membership. It was just about the sum of her knowledge about it but she fully intended for that to change and hopefully soon.

Of course Amber had also heard about the X Men, another organization that purported to help mutants, but they always seemed rather niave to her. Or at least, the new jaded Amber who had been exposed to the corruption and hatred of humans everywhere thought them niave. She wasn't entirely sure what she had thought before her eyes had been opened. Maybe at one point she would have embraced their philosphy. Probably would have, in fact. But not now and not for some time. Perhaps the Kabal was different but she had no way of knowing until she actually found someone to ask. Someone like Lenna.

As Amber contemplated her own internal thoughts, she almost missed Lenna about to walk out the golden doors. If she allowed Lenna to leave her one moment of being alone with the older woman and actually getting some answers might be gone forever and she just couldn't allow that to happen. "Lenna. C-can I speak to you?"

The street drug was moving well. The dealers were selling product left and right, all too happy for the chance to work with the people they were. Lori and Lenna had set the groundwork for a beautiful business relationship. With Lenna's knowledge of how these things worked, and Lori's leadership, things were getting done. Lenna had met earlier that morning with Lori to discuss details. And now? Now, she was going home to bask in the glow of a good book... that is, until someone interrupted her exit by saying her name.

"Hm?" Lenna spun on the spot to aim a quizzical look Amber's way. "You need something, kiddo?"

"You need something, kiddo?"

Amber took a deep breath, preparing for what she would say. What would she say anyway? Being called kiddo didn't really bode well for her being taken seriously, but she let it pass. After all, given what she was about to bring up she didn't want to get stuck on the small things. The big things, or rather the single big thing, would be enough to worry about.

"Um..." Amber looked around to make sure that there were no prying ears within range. She might not know much about the Kabal but she knew enough to know that it was some sort of secret organization and probably wouldn't want its secrets spread carelessly about. Not knowing how else to approach the sitution, she decided it was best to take the direct route. "I was hoping you could tell me about the Kabal." She was proud that she managed to state her reqeust without a single stutter, proof not only that her speech lessons were starting to pay off but she thought it also made her seem more adult and mature. She met Lenna's eyes, a little apprehensive about her response.

Lenna had recently told Lori about her Kabal status. Nobody else was supposed to know. Somehow, Amber knew. Had Lori blabbed? Doubtful. So, was it someone else? Secrecy with that sort of organization was paramount, especially when she had a cover to protect. It wasn't as huge a deal as it might have been in the past. Lori already knew about Lenna and the Kabal. If Lenna talked Amber through this situation without sharing information, they could contain it. Way back when, it would have been a much nastier response the albino girl might have received. For now, Lenna played dumb.

There was no pause, no slip-ups, nothing of note. She merely tilted her head at the girl, and laughed innocently, feigning confusion. "I'm not sure what you're talking about. Care to explain?"

Amber was nervous about what Lenna's response might be, she couldn't help it. She might have been niave in the ways of secret organizations and organized mutant groups, but she knew enough that she probably wasn't supposed to know about the existance of the Kabal. Lenna had always been nice to her, but what if mentioning the Kabal name changed all that? What if she decided to put a hit out on her or something? Why hadn't she thought of that possibility before? She took a deep breath, trying to convince herself that it was just her overactive imagination getting away from her.

"I'm not sure what you're talking about. Care to explain?"

"Um, Henri s-said something about it. That she was part of it and that you b-brought her in." Oops, she probably shouldn't have mentioned her roommate's name because now she was probably going to get in trouble. "You won't uh, d-do anything to her will you? I mean anything b-bad for telling me?" She just couldn't live with herself if anything happened to Henri because she had accidentally spoken her name when she shouldn't have. Why was she so very bad at this sort of thing? Maybe she shouldn't even have attempted this.

Henri said. Henri said. Silly girl. Slate shouldn't have trusted so much in a teenager right off the bat. She hadn't wanted to bring Henrietta into the fold so quickly, so intensely. She'd just wanted to give the girl a nice job doing some sort of peace-making operations. Building schools in Columbia, Cambodia, whatever. She should have pulled Slate aside before she'd brought Henrietta to him, and given him the full story. Foolish of her not to have done that. This situation could have been avoided, if only she'd done that one thing. It was one of the reasons she didn't like working for Slate, and wanted him to pay for controlling her. He was lousy when it came to common sense. That got people killed. He'd already been killed by Lori once. That was not a quality of a man who was boss material. Good bosses weren't Lazarus. They didn't rise again, because they never fell.

It sure would be fun when he fell hard.

Henrietta wasn't in big trouble. Lenna could handle this. Unless the girl was sharing that information with anyone who asked, in which case she would be. As it was, she'd get a nice talking to. First, Lenna had to talk with Amber and get her away from where she shouldn't be digging. Amber thought Lenna was the kind of woman who 'did something' when people made mistakes.

Lenna replied calmly. "Henrietta will get a talking to, about keeping secrets. You'll get one, too. I'm not sure what you're getting at, beyond that. I'll answer the questions you have, though. Whatever." It wasn't like she had many choices. Amber was Abyss's adopted daughter, after all. It wasn't like they could rub her out. Lenna didn't even know who the 'they' was. Certainly not Slate, who deserved to fall.

Honestly? Secrecy wasn't as big a deal when Lenna was already safe from any falling objects in the Kabal's precarious house of cards.

Lenna kept smiling sincerely, through all the mental running. What would kiddo ask?

"Henrietta will get a talking to, about keeping secrets. You'll get one, too. I'm not sure what you're getting at, beyond that. I'll answer the questions you have, though. Whatever."

Well, a talking to didn't sound all that bad. Maybe Amber hadn't misstepped quite as badly as she thought she had after all. Lenna had always been pretty nice to her, after all, even if she didn't know the woman all that well. Surely she didn't seem the type to actually maim or, even worse, kill someone right? Especially not for something minor like mentioning the name of an organization. Hopefully.

"Oh, I c-can be good at secrecy," Amber assured the older woman, feeling a little more at ease now that she was reasonably sure nothing terrible would happen to Henri or herself. "I wouldn't have said anything at all except I d-didn't know who else to talk too about this. I d-didn't want to ask the wrong person, you know." So maybe she was niave and inexperienced, but she at least had basic common sense down.

"I j-just heard that the Kabal, um, helps mutants. And I wanted to help mutants." Niave was definately exactly what Amber sounded like, she decided. Wherever did she come off looking into things that clearly didn't involve her anyway? "I j-just want to be able to do the right thing and I thought that maybe, you know, the Kabal might be doing the right thing." Or maybe not because she didn't know anything except the very small amount that Henri had told her. Just enough to pique her curiosity and not much more than that.

She almost smirked. Almost. 'Helping mutants' was a bit of a stretch for the Kabal. Sure, that was likely what Slate wanted, and the sort of thing he was aiming for, with his own twisted image of peace with humanity flushed red in his mind, but... well, his methods were questionable, the mentality behind his decisions, of concern.

Lenna had said she'd give Amber answers. Unfortunately, she had to, despite feelings that Amber was unsuited to such endeavors.

"The Kabal tries. Lori tries, too. We all try, in our own little way. Maybe you should talk with Lori about these questions, rather than Henrietta or me?"

Yeah. Lenna had said she'd give Amber answers. She could wiggle out of it, too. Lori'd probably want a bit more control over what Amber heard than Lenna could give through reading minds alone.

Amber was beginning to feel like a bit of an idiot. She was clearly out of her element and probably poking into things that she didn't understand sufficiently to poke into. Probably she was coming across as horribly niave and, what was worse, the impression was probably true. But how did not combat niavety without asking questions? She had no idea and besides, it was kind of too late to change her mind anyway. The question had all ready been asked.

"The Kabal tries. Lori tries, too. We all try, in our own little way. Maybe you should talk with Lori about these questions, rather than Henrietta or me?"

"You m-mean Lori tries by keeping Sanctuary open for mutants?" Amber asked. She didn't really know all that much about Lori except for the fact that she helped run Sanctuary and the fact that Aura spoke fairly highly of her. In her brief interactions with Lori, the older woman had seemed nice enough but she didn't really know much about her. "D-do you think she'd talk to me?" Knowledge was far better than ignorance and someone, surely, had to be willing to help combat her own ignorance.

"You're Abyss's adopted daughter, aren't you?" Lenna tried not to look at her like she was stupid. "Word gets around. Abyss and the clones are important. Their happiness is important. That means you're important. So, yeah. Lori cares. She cares about most of the people here, I figure." Lenna didn't know how much, but she had an idea.

"I'd feel a whole lot more confident talking about this with you and her. What Henrietta's told you might not be the same thing you'd hear from Lori or me."