i learned the voices died with me

The small wraith had not been expecting company -- not so swiftly -- and as the voice of another pierced the shrouded darkness Caiaphas' flat limbs retracted and she bowed her body, a low hiss parting her blackened gums in surprise.

Turning about, Caiaphas saw the thing -- a dark apparition far too beautiful to be structured by corporeal means. As if to lend to the orphic nature the female boasted, there were various dyes plastered to her black coat. Caiaphas' gaze trailed their progress across her svelte body unabashedly, and she turned to look at the exquisite woman with faint disparagement. "I came by tunnel. Where am I?"

While not much in the way of excuses, it was certainly an explanation -- and the nakedness of her tone implied fully she, for once, was not lying.