The Angel of the Owl House - Chapter 50 - OwlHouseAngel (2024)

Chapter Text

Once the abduction-turned-rescue mission on Rani’s Eden was over and everyone was back in the Ash Moth Desert or the Wrist Outpost, the CATTs entered a period of rest, so those who’d gone on the mission could recharge and prepare for the future. They spent most of the afternoon napping, while those who’d stayed behind took care of getting the rescued Witches and Demons settled, and got to work on the logistics of feeding them all. Willow was a big help with that, working with Hanu (who’d gotten over her heatstroke) to create a magic greenhouse in the cellar of the Outpost Fortress, where they could easily grow a lot of vegetables and fruit. In addition, Matt had gone with Steve and Katya to Bonesborough (who had a break from the Wings of Rani assaults thanks to the Angels all returning to Rani’s Eden), where they had procured some Dairy Spiders. These creatures not only produced spider milk that was quite healthy and could be made into butter, cheese, and yogurt, but they also bred very quickly and reached adulthood in the space of about a month (they were short-lived creatures, living only about six months), so they could be used for meat too. Their eggs were edible too (though not palatable), and their silk was useful for both potions and clothing. Not only that, but Viney’s family already had a source of Griffin Eggs, as she not only had Puddles, but also a small herd of Griffins (which was how Viney got Puddles in the first place) that Valtora kept, and were currently roosting in the fingers on the far west side of the Ash Moth Desert. Combining all this with fishing trips, the Merrow Flotilla off the coast, and the Ash Moth’s ability to hunt huge aquatic beasts, and the CATTs had all they needed to survive.

Their numbers meant they had to ration things a little, so as not to drain their food stores completely and give themselves a safety buffer, but no one had to go hungry, which was the most important thing.

Once Eda and the others had awoken from their naps, they had finally convened in the Overseer’s Office for a proper debrief and reunion with those who hadn’t gone on the mission. Once the details of the mission had been given, the fact that Eda herself had been the Valkyrie shocked the rest of the CATTs to their cores, and combined with what Lyra had seen in Rani’s Throne and what the others had all seen from the fountain in the middle of the island, everyone began to wonder just how much the Divider valued them. Mason had made the point that it had been Eda’s Division that seemed to snap him back to his old self for a few moments, and Eda had agreed, remembering that right before she was divided, the Divider had shed a tear and apologised. Since Raguel had also believed that Luz might be able to sway the Divider, the CATTs all began to wonder if the man they knew truly was still inside the Divider, and if they could reach out to him. No one was certain, save for Luz, who determinedly said that she believed in Rasiel; he was still in there somewhere, and she would find a way to pull him back out into the light.

After that, Eda had been informed of everything that had happened for her children and the Hexsquad. Hearing of Luz’s deep depression and how she’d nearly gotten herself reformed had nearly broken Eda’s heart, but the awakening of King’s personal unique glyph (which they still didn’t fully understand) and the ascension of Luz to a Seraphim along with the hatching of Stringbean had made Eda just about burst with pride and hug her children, yelling for all to hear that her kids were the best. She’d also given Camila her heartfelt thanks for taking care of King, and freely declared that Samael was officially her nephew now, and since he had no last name of his own, he was made Samael Clawthorne-Noceda.

On a similar note, Darius, Hunter, and Lyra announced their own news that the teens had been adopted by Darius, and they had been met with even more resounding cheers and support. Both were officially declared to be Hunter and Lyra Deamonne-Clawthorne, and as Darius’ children, Camila was made their godmother, with Manny and Michael being posthumously named their godfathers (Manny for Lyra and Michael for Hunter). The Blights had also welcomed them into their extended family since their fathers were dating, and they all began calling each other step-siblings. Alador had even taken the two aside at one point at promised that he wouldn’t overstep his bounds with them, but they could count on him as well, which the two very much appreciated.

To celebrate the successful mission, the return of Eda, and the expanding of the Noceda-Clawthorne-Blight-Deamonne families (and to also distract Eda from going to the Divine Realm to have a “talk” with the Seraphim that had arrested and nearly traumatised her babies), it was decided that they’d all have a party to celebrate. The “party” had ended up being an entire mini-festival in the Outpost Fortress (which they renamed to the CATT’s Cradle after Amity’s joking suggestion), and Samael had decided to thank his friends for agreeing to teach him by going with Luz on a short trip back to the Divine Realm, both to report that another of the Divider’s lieutenants had been defeated, inform them that the CATTs now had custody of the Orphan Cherub Emiliel, and to request some food and supplies for the party and their stores. Camael, still eager to redeem himself to Luz and Camila, readily agreed and asked Lady Sophiel of Crest Temperance to send over a shipment of food. The CATTs ended up with enough for both the party and a full two weeks more.

After partying the night away, they all awoke the next day and decided to continue resting, as Eda still needed time to fully reconnect with the Owl Beast and get her memories back in order. The CATTs had taken that extra day to just relax and help their newest members settle in, as every adult that had been rescued from Rani’s Eden joined the CATTs (unless they were already a member). The Orphans settled into a routine of playing, learning magic from the CATTs, and doing what they could to help out, enjoying the excitement of helping real rebels in a real rebellion. Samael and King became their unofficial leaders and joined them in lessons and games, and Simi and Emiliel joined them as a little quartet, quickly becoming as thick as thieves. The Hexsquad and Camila had also gotten a start on teaching Samael some of their magic, and Luz had predictably taken to the idea like a duck to water, immediately volunteering to teach him more about fighting as an Angel AND her speciality of Healing Magic.

And so, after another day of rest, it was finally time to get back into action; Eda and the Owl Beast were back in sync and she’d been able to put her thoughts together and remember the lion’s share of what she’d learned as the Valkyrie, so after waking up bright and early and getting washed and fed, the CATTs leadership and Hexsquad convened in the Overseer’s office to finally decide their next move.

“Okay, let’s get this show started.” Eda said as the last of their numbers arrived. “So, you guys already know the big part of the Divider’s plot; he wants to undo what he did in the past and recreate the Arcane Realm by breaking the boundary between the Divine and Demon Realms so they fuse back together.”

Luz nodded; “That’s right. And we know he’s using the Union Pillars to do it; combining the power of the Divided Orbs and Tio Orion’s Primordial Wellsprings.”

“Good, that cuts down on what I’ve got to explain. It’s all a part of Project Paradise; the Divider’s big plan to make a perfect world. Unfortunately for him and luckily for us, he’s had some setbacks. The first is the whole reuniting the realms thing; turns out the Divider can cut things apart but can’t so easily stick ‘em back together, which is why he needs to go through all this trouble to undo what he did.” Eda said, “Since he’s a Sephiroth and Titan Magic is his weakness, he’s using the power of Orion’s Wellsprings to try and break his original spell. Too bad for him, Orion’s power alone wasn’t enough. That’s why his pillars tore open the sky but didn’t actually break the boundary.”

“A single full grown Titan isn’t enough power?” Darius asked with surprise.

“Nope. Turns out that while Titan Magic can counter Sephiroth Magic, there still needs to be a lot of it. One Titan ain’t enough.” Eda explained. “I think the Divider had already guessed this was the case, as he seemed disappointed but not surprised.”

Samael hummed; “That sounds right. The Divider wasn’t born a Sephiroth like I was; he had to evolve and earn that power. He’s super powerful! A spell cast by him would probably need at least two Titans to break.”

King frowned; “So the Divider needs to take over another Titan Archipelago.”

“Yes and no. He needs another Titan, but thanks to needing his Union Pillar system to harness the Titan Magic, the Titan needs to already be linked to Orion in some way. With King still being way too small and weak, that leaves the Divider with only one choice.” Eda said grimly.

Everyone frowned; that meant the Divider would need to go after Cassiopeia’s body too. As bonded mates, their Primordial Wellsprings were connected.

“Okay, the Divider is trying to build these pillars on Tia Cassiopeia’s body too. How much progress has he made?” Luz asked.

At this, Eda grinned; “That’s the good news; as far as I know, he’s made no progress on it at all. He’s run into a lot of complications.”

“What kind o’ complications?” Mason asked.

“Well first, he needs to find all the pieces of Cassiopeia scattered around the world. He knows about Digale Island, Titan Trapper Island, and Cassiopeia’s Skull, but not the rest of her. Second, he needs to find a way to move her pieces closer together; the pillars need to be in relatively close proximity in order to work. Plus having them scattered around the world makes defending them dang near impossible! The Divider would have to conquer the whole Demon Realm and he doesn’t have the people or the inclination to do that.” Eda said.

“Not to mention Mama’s heart is gone now. Can the plan even work without all the Wellsprings?” King asked.

Eda frowned; “No, but the Divider didn’t seem concerned about that. He had some kind of project to build a substitute for Cassiopeia’s Heart, but I don’t know anything else about it. The Divider never shared those details with me or even Raguel from what I remember.”

“Well at least we’ve got time to stop him now, since he’s off dealing with the Archivists.” Luz smiled, “Speaking off, I don’t suppose you know how to take down the barrier that’s sapping Samael’s strength?”

The Owl Lady shook her head with a sigh; “Sorry, but that was a spell cast by the Divider on his own; I think only he can dispel it.”

That was a bit disappointing, but it couldn’t be helped. Eda’s information proved very helpful; they now knew that the Divider’s plan hinged on Cassiopeia too, so he would be delayed until he could deal with the Archivists, find all the pieces, and reassemble them close to the Boiling Isles, all of which would be difficult for him to do, especially since he wouldn’t be able to use his overwhelming power directly on Cassiopeia’s body. That bought them time to disrupt his plans as much as possible and find a way to stop them completely, as well as to find a way to stop the Divider himself. However one thing was still bothering Hunter.

“We know the Divider’s plan is to recreate the Arcane Realm, but what comes next? Is he just going to wage war and Divide everyone?” he asked.

Eda shrugged; “That’s Phase 3 of this Project Paradise. I don’ know exactly what it entails, but it is supposed to be a Mass Division of the entire Arcane Realm at once. There would be no war; just the Divider snapping his fingers and making his Paradise in one fell swoop. Not sure how he’ll do it, but I know it involves the pillars.”

“I guess that doesn’t really change our plans.” Hunter muttered, wishing they knew more.

Eda then had a question of her own; “Putting the Divider aside, we’ve still got a problem; you said Belos was alive and in the Demon Realm again, right? Shouldn’t that be a high priority?”

Hunter and Lyra both frowned, reminded of the evil man, while the rest of the group looked uncomfortable. “We’ve discussed it a little, but for now we’ve put Belos as a low priority.” Luz said. “He’s as weak now as he was after the Day of Unity, and it took him four months to become a threat again after that. We’re gonna keep an eye out, but we’re focused more on the Divider for now. Besides, we don’t have a way of finding a single speck of slime in the entire Demon Realm.”

“He has too little magic left for me or Treble to sniff him out.” Vee said.

“And I tried to scry for him with Oracle Magic, but there are so many Angels everywhere that there are huge holes in my coverage. If he’s even remotely close to one, then I’ll never find him.” Lyra explained; “I even tried Divination, but the Divider’s Anti-Archivist defences are stopping me from connecting to the Celestial Bodies of the Demon Realm.”

Eda scowled; “Great. It doesn’t sit right with me that we’re leaving that pile of sludge to roam free, but I guess we can’t do anything about it…”

“That’s right. Now that we’ve got more info on the Divider’s plan, we need to decide our next move. We should focus on shuttin’ down Union Pillars and findin’ our friends and family. Eda, what can you tell us about where everyone is?” Mason asked.

“I don’t know where everyone is; only most of the Coven Heads and those who were made Overseers of Union Pillars.” Eda said; “Lily is the Overseer of the Right Knee Pillar, in Eclipse Lake, and has Hettie Cutburn running Cartilia for her, along with taking over as Head of the Healing Coven again. Eber was given her job back as Beast-Keeping Coven Head and is Overseer of the Right Hip Pillar, near her Coven HQ. Since Darius was left in charge of Bonesborough due to Blight Industries and Alador being there, the Abomination Coven was put under the command of Nelle Blight, who is now Overseer of the Left Foot. Luna is Overseer of the Right Foot in the Metatarsal Reef, and Vitimir is still head of the Potions Coven and Overseer of the Left Shoulder’s Union Pillar. Osran is once again the Oracle Coven Head and Overseer of the Left Knee. Raine Storm was made Head of the Bard Coven and is at their HQ in Manubrium, while Severin was made Overseer of the Heart. Then there is Adrian, who is still Illusion Coven Head and Overseer of the Right Shoulder. Terra Snapdragon is supposed to be Overseer of the Left Hip, but she isn’t actually there… I’ve got no idea where she is.”

That made Boscha and Skara frown; if even Eda didn’t know where Terra had disappeared to, despite her being an Overseer, then the woman had to be up to something nefarious. But that was confusing too, as Katya said Terra had disappeared before the Divider left, so must have had his permission. What could she be doing!?

“Obviously I’m still Head o’ the Construction Coven, and Overseer o’ the Right Palm, but that still leaves the Overseers o’ the Left Elbow and Palm, the Left and Right Wings, the Tail Bone, the Throat, and the Head. Got any info on them?” Mason asked.

Eda nodded; “I know all their names, but the only one we know semi-personally is Godric, who was made Overseer of the Left Palm. Zara is also up on the Knee, with Lily.” she added, looking to Lars.

The Dragon Witch hummed and stroked their chin, eager to go and reunite with them, though knowing both were likely empowered by the Divider and way beyond what Lars could handle. As an enemy of the Divider, they’d likely be forced to fight them, and Lars definitely did not want that.

Continuing with her report, Eda said; “The Overseers of the Wings are some Nobles that the Divider disliked. Apparently they tried kissing up to him for power and ended up sent to those remote towers to teach them humility and to be thankful for what they have. The Overseer of the Left Elbow is noble from Palm Stings; I think they’re a member of the Red Claw Oni Clan, like Kikimora, but that’s the only interesting thing about them. I don’t know who the Overseer of the Throat is, besides it being some woman that the Divider didn’t like, but she’s not there anyway; she went with the Overseer of the Head; Carnar Vanily, to Digale Island. The Divider had some kind of job for them there, but I don’t know the details.”

Katya frowned; “The Divider sure kept a lot of details from you, considering you were his left hand.”

Eda smirked; “You can blame Luz and King for that! The Divider was sure that if you two managed to get back here, you’d save me and immediately know all his plans. He only told me what I needed to know to do my job. Heck, I only know most of the Overseers because I had to hold meetings with them to discuss what the people in those regions needed. Raguel asked me to do it some time after the Divider left, since he took care of that stuff before he raced off after Starlight’s sucky siblings.”

That caught Darius’ attention; “A meeting of Overseers? Could we not use one of those to capture all of them at once?”

Eda shook her head; “It wasn’t in person; they used illusions to attend. Like the holograms in those Star Wars movies we watched back on one of our Digale Movie Nights. They were also one-on-one and only called when needed. It’s why Mason was never called; as far as the Wings of Rani know, there are no other people here whose needs have to be met.”

Darius sighed disappointedly, but Alador patted him on the shoulder; “It was a long shot anyway. If half the people at the meeting were divided, then they wouldn’t be able to leave the areas with their Divided Orbs.” he pointed out.

“Actually, that’s not quite true.” the Owl Lady chimed in once again; “People can go as far from their Divided Orbs as they want, but the closer they are, the more magic the orbs produce for the Union Pillars. There is still a connection even after the negative side is removed; that’s how they’re able to find their way home when the orbs are broken, and the shorter the distance, the more magic is siphoned through the connection.”

“So it’s like a low-powered Draining Spell? Only it drains magic through a person’s negative side instead of their Coven Sigils?” Gus asked.

Eda nodded at him, then finished up her report by saying; “The last Overseer is the Interim Construction Coven Head, who was put in charge of running the place when Mason left. Don’t know much about him, but he seemed nice… which was inevitable considering he was Divided. A guy by the name of Nothor, who now oversees the Tail Bone.”

Mason frowned; “Nothor? Never heard nobody call that guy “Nice.” He’s as mean as a co*ckatrice and just as ornery. If he weren’t Divided, he’d be right insufferable.”

“A jerk, huh? We talking evil or just, well, a jerk?” King asked.

“He ain’t evil exactly, but he ain’t a nice guy. He’s a hard worker; nicest thing I can say about Nothor Rostone.” Mason answered.

Matt’s ears twitched as he heard that name; it was familiar to him, but he couldn’t place where he’d heard it before. It was probably someone mentioned in his construction track classes. Still, now that they knew the identities of 90% of the Overseers, most of which were their friends and allies. Any of them would weaken the Wings of Rani and delay the Divider’s plans when he returned, but those who were also their allies would strengthen the CATTs too! It’d be two birds with one stone.

“Let’s decide which of the Pillars to liberate first.” Luz said; “Considering the Divider kept Alador with Darius so they were both near Blight Industries, I bet most of our friends are either with their Covens or with family members in those Covens, so we should pick carefully.”

Vee raised her hand shyly, and at Luz’s smile and nod, she said; “Wouldn’t it be a good idea to split up and rescue people from several pillars at once? We’ve got a lot of people.”

“If this was your first day back on the isles and this was our first attack, you’d be right Vee.” Katya said with a sad smile; “But you guys have been too successful. You took out Raguel and the Valkyrie in the space of three days, and liberated Bonesborough, killing an Overseer and cutting Abomaton production in half, then rescuing several hundred people and Orphans from Rani’s Eden, as well as taking back Lars and Eda, and technically kidnapping a Cherub; namely Emiliel. You exposed how complacent the Wings of Rani have been; they felt they were easily in control and the rebels were no threat, but you changed that.”

Steve nodded; “The Wings of Rani have pulled out all the stops on defence. The Union Pillars are well protected; getting to any of them without open warfare is next to impossible now. Getting inside one is going to be even harder.”

The rest of the CATTs and Hexsquad frowned; that basically meant that splitting their attention up was too dangerous. They’d need to focus their entire force on one Pillar at a time, to make up for the massive difference in numbers. They’d had it easy so far because they weren’t being taken seriously, but they’d bloodied the Wings of Rani’s noses enough to make them realise the CATTs were a real threat.

“So what do you guys suggest?” Luz asked.

“Personally? I suggest we pick a tower, pick a strike team, then pick a bunch of other targets in the surrounding area; Lookout Posts, Supply Camps, smaller settlements with only a few Wings of Rani around. Then we take them down hard and fast with the rest of our numbers, drawing most of the Angels away from the Pillar. Once they’re drawn away, the strike team can head into the Pillar while its defences are weakened, destroy the Divided Orbs, and then either capture or rescue the Overseer.” Steve said.

Luz could see the logic in that, and after looking to the adults and seeing their looks of agreement, she nodded; “Then that’s how we’ll handle it. But that still leaves us needing to pick a target and go after it. Which one should we go for? I think we can discount the Left Elbow, the Wings, Head, and Throat for now since those Overseers aren’t allies, powerful, or even present. We can probably ignore the Tail Bone for now as well, and the Left Hip too since Terra isn’t there. Any suggestions?”

Willow raised her hand; “Actually, I think we should still go to the Left Hip. If Terra isn’t there, it’ll be easier to shut it down, and we might find clues on where she actually is.”

“Yeah, but if we don’t then it was a wasted trip! Plus as we disable pillars, the security at the remaining ones is going to get tougher.” Matt argued; “I vote we go to the Knee or Palm Stings; Lars was a huge threat, so Godric and Zara probably will be too. Getting them on our side would be huge!”

Lars and Gus both nodded in agreement; “I would like my Mates back, but that is a personal problem. However we would be helpful, even without being able to renew our Dragon Forms.” Lars said.

“And Matt’s right; if we leave the Supreme Dragons too late, the security on those Pillars will make them basically impossible to take, even with you and Samael.” Gus added.

King nodded enthusiastically; “I vote the Knee too! We can get Zara and Tia Lily!”

“I vote the Knee too!” Samael chimed in, not really caring and just wanting to side with his Bestie.

“I know this is selfish, but I want to try the Heart first. Like the Dragons, Belos’ castle is gonna get harder to take the longer we wait, and it is bound to have a ton of Divided Orbs inside considering how big Manubrium is!” Skara said, wanting to save her Dad. She then sweetened the deal; “Plus we can get Raine too! And probably Derwin and Amber too, since I bet they were sent to the Bard Coven.”

Eda nodded; “I definitely vote either the Knee and Lily, or the Heart and Raine. And maybe the Right Hip too, where Eber and the Beast-Keepers are; I bet my Mom and Dad are there, considering my Mom was a great Beast-Keeper.”

“I second the Right Hip.” Darius said, “As much as I want to rescue Raine too, we should save Manubrium and Belos’ Castle for now; it’s too close to Rani’s Eden and that place will be swarming. And getting Eber and the Beast-Keepers back would be a big help.”

“I give my vote to the Left Foot. Getting my Mom back and taking over the Abomination Coven will remove the Abomatons from the equation.” Alador said, looking a little guilty to be voting against Darius.

“I’m with my Dad; the Abomatons are a big obstacle.” Amity voted. “I also think we should go to the Knee. Zara was a huge threat when we first faced her; better to get her back on our side before things get worse.”

“And I’m with mine; we can develop countermeasures to the Abomatons, but the only way to match the Wings of Rani and their numbers is to get the beasts of the isles on our side.” Hunter countered.

Lyra agreed, voting for the Right Hip with her brother, though she privately wanted to go to the Left Knee to rescue Osran. She kept quiet though; the Oracles really were of limited use in their current situation, so she couldn’t justify going for them first.

“I personally think we should go for the Right Knee. Saving Lilith and Zara, liberating one of the largest cities on the isles, and getting the Healing Coven on side would be a huge boon.” Camila said, knowing that if this became a full on war, medical treatment could be what turned the tides, and sadly very few healers were among the CATTs.

Vee also voted for Cartilia and Eclipse Lake alongside her Mama, while Katya threw in her vote for the Heart. Steve, who already had his family safe and sound, decided to vote for the Heart too, knowing how much Katya missed her adoptive family in Raine, Derwin, and Amber. Mason threw in his own vote for the Knee, though like Lyra, he actually would prefer to rescue someone else; namely his mother down in the right foot. He just couldn’t justify it.

Last to give her vote was Boscha, who crossed her arms grumpily; “Well since everyone else is voting to save their families, I’ll vote for the Right Shoulder; my parents are probably with the Potions Coven, so they’d be there. And hey, wouldn’t it be nice to get some revenge on Vitimir?”

Luz and Camila both frowned, their minds filling with dark thoughts, while Eda growled under her breath; hearing about Luz’s fathers and Vitimir’s role in that whole affair had made her so violently angry that she’d very nearly lost control and sent the Owl Beast on a rampage. If she ever got her talons on him, then resisting the urge to kill him would be one of the hardest things she’d ever have to do. Even then, she’d only be doing it for Luz and Camila’s sake anyway; they had first dibs on that degenerate.

However Amity rolled her eyes at Boscha’s comment; “Come on, Boscha; it’s fine to vote for what you want, but don’t just accuse us of trying to help our families. We all had good reasons for our votes.”

“Yeah, good reasons you came up with to justify going after your own family! You voted to save Lilith and your grandparents, just like your Dad voted to save his parents. The only ones that didn’t vote to save their own families were those who already had their families rescued! Except for Mason, Camila, and Vee anyway.” Boscha said accusingly.

The others exchanged looks, but none of them could deny it. Technically speaking, even Camila had sort of voted for family, since she also wanted to save Lilith as her daughter’s aunt and her future daughter-in-law’s mother (though she hadn’t considered that when voting).

“Maybe we are all looking out for our families, but that’s not unreasonable.” Hunter argued, “Though it ultimately comes down to Luz; she’s the leader here.”

Eda grinned; “That’s right! So, O wise and powerful Seraph Owlet; what will it be?”

Luz smiled weakly; she’d assumed they’d just be going with the most voted choice! But if she was going to be expected to make an executive decision, she had to really think about it. She stared down at the map of the Boiling Isles between them and began thinking over everything; everyone had made good arguments (save for Boscha, though some revenge on Vitimir WAS tempting), and she needed to prove she was a good and worthy leader by making the right decision!

She immediately narrowed it down to three options; the Knee, Palm Stings, and Belos’ Castle/Manubrium. The others were right that these locations were the toughest, and so should be dealt with as soon as possible to avoid dealing with the enhanced security they’d get later. Luz then dismissed Palm Stings; getting Godric back would be great, but he was the only boon of taking the other Desert Unity Pillar, whereas the other two locations had multiple benefits. Weighing the pros and cons of the Knee and Manubrium, Luz found herself leaning more towards the Knee. Manubrium meant getting back Raine, Severin, and probably Derwin and Amber too, plus other potential allies in the Capital. However it would mean splitting their attention between two large and fortified locations, and unlike a normal Union Pillar, they didn’t know the lay out of Belos’ Castle now that it had been remodelled. Plus there was the issue of the area being on high alert since Rani’s Eden was right above it. On the flip side, the Knee would give them back Lilith plus access to the Healing Coven as allies and remove Zara from the enemy’s control, which was a hugeboon; though it would also mean dealing with Hettie.

Luz ultimately decided not to rush the decision; “I need to know more about the situation. What other intel do we have on the Supreme Dragons and Belos’ Castle.”

“On the castle? Nothing.” Mason admitted; “It was and probably is still the most heavily fortified location on the list. Your trip there the other day was the only successful visit and escape from the area since it got remade. Not even the Construction Coven know anything about it; the Divider and Wings of Rani renovated the place themselves.”

“Well that makes that choice a lot less appealing. What about Zara and the Knee?” Luz asked again.

“We’d be better off asking Valtora. The Leonis family have relatives in the area that they’re still in contact with; they should know something.” Katya said.

Luz smiled; “Then let’s call them up here.”

Mason nodded and pulled out his scroll to make a call. A few minutes later, Valtora and Meesha Leonis arrived with their daughter Viney, who was also accompanied by Emira. They looked curious as to why they’d been called as they took spots at the table, between Amity and Alador.

“Morning everyone. What did you all need?” Meesha asked politely.

“We’re currently considering an attack on the Knee to liberate it, but we need information. We know Zara the Ice Wyrm is there, along with Lilith Clawthorne and Hettie Cutburn, but we need to know more.” Darius answered.

Valtora nodded; “I see. Well you came to the right place. I still talk to my sister, Vorpelle, every week at least, and I know Viney chats with her cousin Ruby on Penstagram. They’re not exactly “in the know” about a lot of important stuff you might be looking for, but they’ve told us some information about the goings on in Cartilia.”

“Anything you can tell us about security, the Overseer, Hettie Cutburn, Zara, or just weird stuff in general would be really helpful.” Luz said.

“Not a lot springs to mind, but we did hear that Hettie is basically ruling Cartilia now. The old noble-led city council was dismantled and replaced by a more democratic one. Apparently Hettie and the Wings of Rani also cleared up all the Nightshines and improved standards of living in the “Slush” district.” Meesha said. “I was personally recalled there by Hettie herself, but we went into hiding first.”

“Other than some nobles getting their britches in a bunch, the only real change we know of is the Eternal Night.” Valtora added.

The rest of the CATTs exchanged looks of surprise, while Lars frowned severely. Amity asked; “Did you say Eternal Night? What does that mean exactly?”

“It’s something weird that the Divider did.” Viney answered. “Ruby said that sometime after taking over the place, he cast a spell that covered the Knee in a never-ending night time. I’ve got no idea why though.”

“I do.” Lars piped up; “Ice Wyrms like Zara are weaker in sunlight and strongest in the dark and cold. Keeping the Knee in eternal night ensures Zara is never left vulnerable. I’d wager that the Union Pillar in Palm Stings is similarly in a period of never-ending day time.”

“Well there goes my plan of going in during the day to take Zara out of the equation.” Luz grumbled; “Like with Lars, we may need to break the spell on the sky to stand a chance at beating her. She’ll have a blessing from the Divider too.”

“Looks like we’ll have to try our hand at stealth again if we go for the Knee.” Hunter said.

“Considering that has failed us literally every time it’s been tried, I’m getting worried.” Willow added.

“If you’re worried about sneaking in to the Pillar, you could always do it while the Overseer is away.” Viney smiled.

Everyone’s attention snapped back to her; “Lily leaves the Pillar?”

Viney’s eyes widened; “Lily!? As in Lilith Clawthorne!? She’s the Overseer of Eclipse Lake!? I figured it was Hettie Cutburn! I should have asked Ruby for a name.” she shook her head ruefully; “But yes, Lilith leaves the Pillar every Saturday. She teaches some classes at St. Epiderm on those days, and usually has some kind of School Assembly where she praises the Divider. At least that’s what Ruby told me.”

“That’s perfect! With Lilith at St. Epiderm, Hettie at the Caduceus Grand Hospital, and Zara still at Eclipse Lake, it’ll be so much easier to corner and capture the first two, as well as to sneak past the third one into the Pillar!” Lyra cheered.

Luz nodded, but then asked; “But why teach classes on a Saturday? Aren’t students out of school that day?”

Viney shook her head; “Not on the Knee. You’ve been to Cartilia; remember how it’s a built into a huge hollowed out mining cavern, with only its east side exposed to the sky? Well because of that, as soon as the Sun moves westward enough, Cartilia stops getting light, meaning days are short and nights are long up there. To make sure the kids only went to school in daylight, they cut like an hour and 15 minutes from the end of the normal school day on Mondays through Fridays, then added a sixth school day on Saturday to make up for the lost time.”

“School six days a week? I almost feel sorry for St. Epiderm.” Matt said, shaking his head ruefully.

Luz smiled; “Interesting, and helpful! Alright, I’ve made a decision. I think we should definitely make the Knee our next target. It provides the most boons with the fewest drawbacks, AND with Tia Lily away from the Pillar, it’ll be a lot easier to catch her. We could even get Ruby’s help getting us into St. Epiderm to capture her! Does everyone agree with this plan?”

She looked around the table and received nods from everyone. Those who’d voted for the Knee, especially Eda and Amity, were enthusiastic about it, while the others seemed to accept it without complaint. Still, Luz wanted to make certain; “Seriously, if anyone disagrees then speak up.”

“You’re the leader, Luz. We all agreed to follow your lead.” Boscha said.

Luz shook her head; “I’m the leader because you guys all chose me. My job is to lead, not boss you all around.”

That brought smiles to everyone’s faces, though they reiterated that they agreed with the plan, especially as she went over her thought process and explained her decision fully, just so they knew she wasn’t just choosing the Knee to get back her Tia first. They appreciated the explanation, and both Hunter and Lyra were again struck by how different Luz was from Belos; he’d never have explained himself unless he’d been forced to, and even then the explanation would be a lie.

Following the explanations, they got to work planning the actual assault on the Knee. The entire Hexsquad would be going on the mission, along with several other rebels, though not all of them would be going to Cartilia, and would instead attack other places close to the Knee to draw some security away, just as they’d discussed earlier. Mason would be staying behind in the desert to protect the place (since he couldn’t risk being seen, or else it’d expose where the CATTs were based), while everyone else went out to fight. The strike team going to the Knee would be Eda, Gus, Hunter, Lyra, Viney, Steve, Katya, Luz, and Lars. Eda was the leader of the team going into Cartilia, and obviously going to get her sister, while Gus was going since ice and subterfuge were his elements, Hunter and Lyra were going to try and get through to Hettie, and show her that Grimwalkers were not the villains she thought they were, and Viney was going to help them infiltrate St. Epiderm and get some help from her cousin Ruby.

As for Steve and Katya; they had apparently had the most success with infiltration, sneaking, and escaping from places, so their duo would be going to Eclipse Lake (a place they knew well by this point) to infiltrate the Union Pillar and destroy the Divided Orbs. That left Luz and Lars, who would be waiting outside of Cartilia in secret, ready to jump in and help either the St. Epiderm Team, the Caduceus Grand Hospital Team, or the Eclipse Lake Team if any of them were needed. Lars wanted to stay on the sidelines so they’d be fresh and ready to fight back against Zara if things should go bad, while Luz was staying on the sidelines on the request of both her mothers and Amity, who’d pointed out that she’d basically had several huge battles in the space of a week and could do with more rest. They knew they couldn’t keep her out of the mission entirely, but by at least keeping her on the sidelines until they needed her, they hoped it would at least give her the chance to rest more.

Of course, Boscha and Willow had both teased Luz by saying that if she was on the sidelines, her atrocious luck could be avoided!

The rest of the CATTs leader and Hexsquad were split up into three-man teams and given a small squad of CATTs with which to wage their guerilla campaign in the surrounding area, and despite some initial worries that people won’t want to follow the teens, Mason reassured them that the Hexsquad was well-respected among the CATTs, who remembered how they’d defeated Belos together and stopped the Day of Unity.

Following that, they spent the rest of the day (which was a Friday) learning as much as possible about their targets and getting to know the CATTs on their teams. Amity, Skara, and Boscha were one team, making all three reminisce about when they’d been bullies and how far they’d come, while Willow, Matt, and Alador were another team, and began finding common ground in their pride over their creations, as Willow was an expert at breeding and grafting new species of flora, Alador was obviously a genius abomination inventor, and Matt had become quite the craftsman with metal and stone, and was working on ways to reinvent Human Realm devices for the Demon Realm. King and Samael would be leading their own team together as well, with Camila going along to serve as a voice of reason for the two young boys. Another trio was Vee, Treble, and Hanu, none of whom wanted to fight and so would be leading a support team that’d help get their allies out of danger should they be overwhelmed. That left Darius to work with the twins, who took it as a chance to bond more with their “Mom”. However since Lilith was only away from the Union Pillar on Saturdays, they only got to prepare for that one day before they needed to head out to the Knee.

Everyone ate a hearty dinner and spent Friday evening relaxing however they most enjoyed, then had an early night. They were all up bright and early the next day to complete their final preparations, then after saying their goodbyes and going over their plan one last time, they all headed out, flying to the Knee with staves, wings, or airships as needed. They flew in different directions and used illusions to hide themselves to ensure no one watching the skies would see them or figure out where they’d come from, and soon they all arrived at their destinations and began their assaults at the agreed upon time. Each target was hit at exactly 10AM, causing an immediate scramble by the security of the Knee, who began sending out Wings of Rani members, and their various Abomatons and Knight Golems, all while the Knight-Jars flew out with them to scout for their stealthy enemies.

As this was happening, the strike team on the Knee itself was quietly making it’s way up the mountain, keeping their eyes out for the Wings of Rani. The entire Knee was covered in a deep blue barrier, though it didn’t actually seem to prevent anyone from passing through it, as Luz observed animals moving through without trouble. They all suspected this was the boundary of the eternal night, but since they didn’t want to risk crossing it and triggering some kind of silent alarm like they’d done at Rani’s Eden, they opted to instead use a tunnel to bypass it. Since the entire area used to be a mine, it was riddled with old tunnels, most of which had been sealed up or had collapsed, but Steve and Luz could both use their Earth Magic to find these tunnels, while Steve also happened to know a few that could get them into Cartilia too, since he’d helped dig them himself from a safehouse in the Slush District. After a few minutes of searching, he and Luz found a tunnel that’d take them under the boundary of the eternal night, and they swiftly and silently opened it up and found themselves being spat out under a huge pile of snow just outside the gates of Cartilia.

After carefully digging themselves out, the team hid behind the snow pile and peeked out. Just as Viney had described, all of Cartilia looked to be in the middle of an eternal night, however there was also a rather beautiful aurora functioning as a light source, filling the sky outside the city proper. Eda suspected this aurora was how the people of the city could tell when it was supposed to be day time. Peeking at the city itself, it appeared to be the same as always, though the gates were now guarded by the Wings of Rani and some Abomaton Knights, with Knight-Jars perched atop the gates to spy from afar. There also seemed to be an actual barrier around the city, with section over the gates being a different colour; meaning the only way into the city without busting through the barrier would be the gate.

“We’re not getting through that without raising some alarms.” Eda frowned, “Steve, we’ll need your safe house tunnel.”

“Got it. Follow Steve.” he said, before slowly sneaking a short distance away from the gates and the tunnel they’d just come through. Gus created an illusion of a flock of loud Demon Birds to fly around nearby, cawing and making a racket to draw the attention of the guards at the gate, allowing them to easily avoid their notice as they snuck over to a large lamp post that had been erected on the side of the road leading towards Cartilia. Many such posts flanked the road at regular intervals, so no one ever gave them a second glance, making them idea for concealing tunnel entrances. The post was a tall black iron pole with a magic blue-fire lamp atop it, and it was set into a tall stone cube that was about hip height to the average adult witch (so the lamps wouldn’t be totally buried in snow after a bad blizzard), and there was a small mark on the back of the block Steve had led them to. It looked like a large cat had scratched it, and when Steve cast his Construction Magic on this scratch mark, it glowed with bronze light and made one side of the block disappear, revealing a shaft leading down.

“Here. Take this shaft down to the tunnel, then follow it until you hit a dead end. You’ll see another Cat Claw Mark on the wall; just cast a simple Stone Moving Spell on it and the exit into the safehouse will open up.” Steve told them.

Eda nodded, and after letting Viney, Gus, Hunter, and Lyra go down first, she followed a moment later, stopping once just her head was poking out of the shaft; “We’ll be okay from here. Luz, you and Lars should stay hidden near here. If you hear a commotion then come to our rescue.”

“Got it, Mom. You and the others be careful and safe.” Luz smiled, as Lars wished them luck. Eda then descended into the tunnel and Steve closed the entrance with another Stone Moving Spell.

“Alright, Katya and I are going to head up to Eclipse Lake now.” Steve said, briefly summoning and looking at his scroll. He smiled when he saw he had a strong signal; “Looks like my little bro and his team did their job well! The Signal Termite Outpost was taken down and scroll coverage is back up. We’ll call you if we need back up, Owlet Girl.”

Luz nodded; “Got it. Don’t worry, we’ll be ready.”

Lars then added; “Do not forget the tricks I taught you. My Zara’s senses are sharp; her hearing and sense of smell are incredibly strong, especially in cold climates where the snow is supposed to absorb sound. Do not think you can rely on the darkness either; her eyes are like a real cat’s, and won’t easily be tricked.”

“Don’t worry, you drilled all this stuff into our heads yesterday.” Katya said with a thumbs up gesture. “We’ll be fine! Just trust us. We’ll get past your lady love and free all the Divided Souls in and around the Knee; just be ready to help the others if things go bad inside the city.”

Lars nodded, raising their own dragon-like thumb in return. Steve and Katya then raced off, riding atop Katya’s Palisman whilst using an illusion glyph combo (courtesy of King) to become invisible. Once they were out of sight, Luz created a small barrier that she filled with warm air using her fire and wind glyphs, then sat inside it with Lars under another invisibility spell, waiting to be needed.

Back with Eda’s group, they hurried down the underground tunnel to the Cartilia Safehouse, using light glyphs to guide the way. It only took about ten minutes of walking before they found themselves reaching a dead-end. Eda quickly found the inconspicuous claw mark on the stone wall and cast the proper spell on it, causing it to glow with bronze light and sink into the ground, revealing a second wall, this time made of wood. There was some light creeping into the tunnel from the sides of the wooden wall, making Eda realise it was likely a bookshelf or wardrobe. Carefully, she moved it aside and their team emerged into the inside of a small shack in the unofficial Slush District of Cartilia. The shack was surprisingly nice for a slum home, looking instead like a small one room apartment or hotel room. It was also currently occupied by an old woman, who looked somewhat surprised to see them.

“Oh my, I wasn’t expecting to see anyone come through that tunnel! You must be with the CATTs!” the Old Lady said with a smile; “My grandson is a member of your group! He tried and failed to take the city back from the Wings of Rani and had to go on the run. I hope he made it to you.”

“Considering Steve told us this tunnel was still safe, I’d say so.” Hunter said, “We can make certain later. Is it safe for us to come through here? It’s a lot nicer than when I came to the Slush District before Coven Day.”

The Old Lady laughed; “Oh yes! The Wings of Rani fined some of the more horrid nobles and used their money to fund a revitalisation project here in the slums. We’re now an official city district, known as the Spring District. The Wings did most of the work everywhere else, but my grandson took the money to remodel this place himself, to keep that tunnel secret.”

The CATTs exchanged looks; as messed up as the Wings of Rani’s ultimate goal was, they certainly did a few things right! Fining the rich nobility that had bribed Belos to get away with crimes and other cruelties, then using the money to fund revitalisation projects around the Isles had been one of Raine’s plans… a plan they’d discussed frequently with Rasiel.

Shaking off that thought, Eda said; “Do you mind us coming through your home? There’s a chance we’ll be leaving this way too.”

“Oh, of course. As nice as things are under the Wings of Rani, compared to those nobles, it’s still unnerving to see so many of the young folk turned into these eternally smiling drones. Besides, it’d be nice to see the natural sun again!” the Old Lady replied. “Just be sure you’re not seen. Take that side door over there.” she pointed to a small door beside her kitchen; “That’ll take you out into the alleyway between my home and my neighbours. They won’t rat you out, so it’s safe.”

The CATTs thanked the lady for her help, then headed out through the side door and emerged into an alleyway. As soon as they were outside, all of them were amazed by what they saw. The Slush District had been cobbled together from wooden planks on the side of the mountain, held together by hundreds of spells and just as many prayers, looking exactly how one would expect a shanty town to look. But the new Spring District looked like an actual, purposefully built part of the city! The Wings of Rani had constructed an actual bone and stone foundation beneath the entire district so there was no longer any danger of the whole thing tumbling down to the ground miles below and killing everyone. The old shacks had also been completely rebuilt into small and humble, but warm and cosy cottages and huts, making the district look more like a small hamlet or village; still visibly poorer than the other districts, but no longer looking destitute. There was even a playground, flower beds, and a smaller school house for local kids not attending St. Epiderm. It genuinely was a wonderful little area!

“Whoa… this place has changed so much! It looks so nice now! I’d happily live in a place like this!” Lyra commented, eyes wide.

“It’s definitely incredible. And I bet all the nobles who were fined to pay for this are still sitting pretty in their manors. They could have done this themselves at any time, but instead they dreamed about just destroying the place and driving off the people living here. It’s infuriating.” Viney scowled, the fur on her legs and tail raising a little beneath her warm winter clothing (which was noticeably lighter than the rest of the group’s gear).

Hunter agreed; “Doubly so, when you remember the Wings of Rani did this. They have the capacity to do so much good and help so many people! If it weren’t for their insane plans with the Divider, most people would have happily accepted them and we wouldn’t be fighting!”

The others could only nod in reluctant agreement; if the CATTs and Wings of Rani had combined their efforts to make a happy world, things would have been so much better and people would be genuinely happy, not just brainwashed into it.

Eda sighed and shook those thoughts off; “Well that’s something to consider when we’ve won! For now, let’s get a move on! Once Steve and Katya destroy the Divided Orbs, the city is gonna descend into pandemonium as all the formerly Divided start fighting back against the Wings of Rani. We need to get to Lily before that happens. Concealment Stones on, everybody.”

The rest of the Team slipped on the Concealment Stones Gus had provided them before the mission, which disguised them as random people, with Gus having based all their faces off of people he’d met in the Human Realm. He’d also given himself and Viney St. Epiderm uniforms, with both wearing the colours of their real tracks at Hexside. Now disguised, they headed up from the Spring District into the Ice District, which they noticed looked mostly the same as always. There were a few Divided People wandering about, and a lot of Angels (whom were either met with wariness or acceptance by the townspeople), but the most unusual and unexpected thing they saw were public flower pots and arrangements that were full of glowing Nightshines. It appeared that instead destroying the flowers, the Wings of Rani had put them on public display and erected barriers around them to keep others from touching them.

From there, they climbed up to the Snow District and then the Diamond Dust District, with each one having more Divided People than the last. The Diamond Dust District seemed largely occupied by the Divided, who were a lot less judgemental about the plethora of normal, “lower class” people walking around. Finally, they arrived in the top district: the Azure Sky District, where the city hall, Caduceus Grand Hospital, and St. Epiderm was located. Predictably, there were a lot more Angels in this district, with city hall having been taken over by the Wings of Rani since they now ruled the city. Somewhat more surprisingly, there were also a lot of Angels in the garb of the Healing Coven, apparently heading in and out of the hospital, where they appeared to work.

“Hettie must have asked for a lot of the Angels to join up with her Coven.” Lyra whispered.

“Luz did say that Cutburn was obsessed with her healing powers… And well, there are a whole bunch of “Luz”s over there.” Eda mused. Many of the Healer Angels who’d been undercover in the Crest Union were from Crest Kindness, so naturally a lot of them closely resembled Luz, Lyra, and Camila.

“That could work on our favour.” Gus whispered; “Lyra could walk into the hospital with her real face and blend right in.”

“I know a little healing magic too, though not a lot. It could work.” Lyra agreed.

With that in mind, the group walked over to a sitting area near St. Epiderm, built to allow people in the Azure Sky District to sit and enjoy the view. Hunter and Lyra sat while Eda, Gus, and Viney stayed standing, since they were about to split up.

“Okay, we’re going to head into St. Epiderm and kidnap Lily. We’ll leave you two to infiltrate the hospital and hopefully deal with Hettie. Don’t take risks; capture her before you try to talk to her, or else she’ll just attack or raise the alarm, and then we’re all in trouble.” Eda said, before reaching into her hair (the hair storage spell still worked even with her shorter hair style) and pulling out a few vials of Blabber Serum. “If all else fails, use these and get some info out of her.”

The two Grimwalkers nodded and accepted the potions, then Hunter said; “We’ll head in soon, once you guys have gotten out of sight. I’ll pose as someone sick, and Lyra can pretend to be a Healer taking me to the hospital.”

“Good idea. We believe in you guys, so go make Hettie believe in you too.” Gus smiled, before looking Lyra in the eye; “And remember, no matter what she says, you are not an evil clone, an aberration, a monster, or anything else like it; you are Lyra Deamonne-Clawthorne, an amazing girl who was willing to sacrifice herself to save the world from the Day of Unity!”

Lyra smiled with a blush; “Thank you, Gus. We believe in you guys too; go ahead and be awesome.”

Gus nodded with a light blush of his own, before marching off towards St. Epiderm, Viney and Eda smirking as they followed after him. The last thing they heard from Lyra and Hunter as they walked away was Hunter’s teasing voice; “I guess only you get a pep talk this time, Sis! Don’t tell anyone, but I think Gus likes you more than me!”

There was the sound of a playful slap to Hunter’s shoulder, followed by Lyra’s indignant; “Shut it, Hunter! Call Willow if you want a personal pep talk!”

Eda and Viney could practically feel the girl’s blush even without looking. Gus was ahead of them so they couldn’t see his face, but the tips of his ears looked red, and not just from the cold!

A moment later, the trio stopped in front of St. Epiderm; a huge cathedral-style building that was a little bigger than Hexside and featured crystal spires in different colours. It was actually not too dissimilar to Rani’s Throne, only massively scaled down and nowhere near as expensive looking. In actual fact, the architecture reminded Gus of the temple of Volcarpalis, and reminded Eda of Pulvoltary and the attached town.

“Did this place used to be a temple?” Gus asked.

Viney nodded; “Yes, though not like you’re probably thinking. My Aunt Vorpelle is a total history nerd and taught me a bit about it when I was a kid. The people of Cartilia built the temple back when it was a poor mining town and its people weren’t really able to go to the Caplacier Temple since the Knee was so treacherous. A miner-turned-healer by the name of Epiderm was the one to spearhead it’s construction, then as the town got richer, the temple was made bigger and more elaborate, until it became what it is now. Epiderm was eventually made a Saint; someone who performed a great service to the Titan. He also taught healing in the temple, and as the faith of the Titan changed from elemental worship to the more modern day form, the temple was gradually converted into a school and named after its builder and founder.”

“I remember this story. Raine told me it once.” Eda reminisced; “But forget the history lesson for a second; we need a plan. Viney; you know this school best and you and Gus can pass for students while I can’t. Disguising myself as a school kid to sneak in would also feel kinda gross, so you two can go in and lure Lily out! Preferably to somewhere isolated.”

“I can help with that!” Viney smiled. “Follow me; there was a hiding spot I used when I was in the Baby Class and needed to get away.”

She raced off, and Eda and Gus were quick to follow her. Like Hexside, St. Epiderm had a wall built around its grounds, and a large gate as the entrance (which was guarded by Abomatons), but there was a narrow walkway around the side of the school that was intended for delivery people to drop of supplies. It had a second, much smaller iron gate blocking it off, but Viney didn’t seem concerned as she led the others over to it.

“That gate’s locked, and it looks like there is magic on the lock and between the bars. Should’ve known St. Epiderm would spring for the fancy enchantments.” Eda grumbled.

Viney just grinned, “Not a problem. This is the same gate as when I came to school here. The old janitor was a nice guy and showed me how to open the gate. Observe.”

With that, she turned her back and hitched up the back of her coat so her tail could unwind from around her waist and poke through a small gap in the bars beside the lock, which was too small for a hand to fit through. “The enchantments on this gate are always fading, and they don’t bother to renew them on the gaps they think are too small for people to stick their hands in.” she explained as she wrapped the end of her tail around the latch. With a twist of her tail, there was a soft click and the gate opened, allowing Viney, Eda, and Gus to walk straight on through.

“Good job Viney!” Gus said, closing and locking the gate behind them, “Never knew your tail could do something like that!”

The girl smiled; “It’s pretty much like an extra arm, the same as Amity’s fused form. Now this way; it leads to the main storehouse. People never go in there while school is in session.”

The trio followed the alley-like path all the way to the very end, where it ended in a small enclosed yard full of stacked crates, and with a building that had barn-like doors. Unlike the magnificence of the school itself, the storehouse was a quaint stone building that looked more like a single chunk of the Knee that had been roughly hewn into a single large room. It reminded Gus a little of Glandus.

Viney cast a spell over her own eyes, giving herself a Bestial Blessing that provided the eyesight of a Marrow Monkey; a kind of cave-dwelling monkey that could see magic and used that to navigate in the dark. Her eyes glowed orange with this blessing as she observed the storehouse doors and saw signs of enchantments. “These doors are locked with magic, and probably alarmed too. They can probably be unlocked and opened from the inside though, if they’re still the same doors.” she stepped back and looked at the slanted roof, which had an open window.

“Good, they still never close it. I’m too big to climb through it now though.” Viney muttered.

“Leave that to me.” Eda said with a grin, summoning Owlbert. “Owlbert, fly through that window and unlock the doors from the inside.”

The little Owl gave a salute with his wing and promptly flew up and through the window as ordered. A moment later and there was a click from the door, which slowly opened up to reveal a very proud looking Owlbert. Eda chuckled; “That’s my boy! It’s been a while since we’ve done something like this!”

Gus and Viney exchanged looks; Eda had totally used Owlbert to break into places before… Putting that aside, they all entered the storehouse, finding it to be a mostly plain room filled with labelled crates of food, school supplies, potions ingredients, and so on, with there being two other doors; one leading to a walk-in freezer and one leading into the school grounds. After Viney had given the place a once over for magical security systems, she removed her Bestial Blessing and turned to Eda.

“Okay, you stay here and wait for Gus and I to lure out Lilith.” Viney said.

“You got it, Paw Pads.” Eda smirked, “I’ll just chill and wait for Lily.”

Gus shook his head; “No, you need to set a trap for her. Something to take her down fast, so we can keep her contained until Steve’s team completes their mission.”

Eda thought about it, then nodded; “Probably a smart move, Goops. I can use the stuff stored here to make a decent trap; just make sure Lilith doesn’t know I am the one waiting out here. She’ll know it’s a trap then.”

Gus and Viney nodded, and Gus then added; “Keep the doors locked once we’re gone. We’ll use a special knock to let you know it’s us and to let us in.” he then tapped the ground with his foot five times, playing a very simple tune. “If you hear that, then we’re back with Lilith. If you here this…” he tapped a different, more complex tune, “Then it means we’ve been captured and we’re luring Lilith to you by claiming to be ratting you out.”

Eda and Viney gave him a strange look, making him reply; “What? These stealth missions never go as planned! We need contingencies! If we get caught, we can claim you’re waiting nearby and offer to lead Lilith to you so she can capture you, but if we give you the right signal, you’ll know and be prepared!”

“Oh, I get it!” Eda grinned; “If you’re caught, you can “lead Lily to me” and I’ll act like I’m the one being lured into a trap by you giving the signal that it’s safe. But in reality, we’ll just be leading Lily into a trap within a trap!” the Owl Lady cackled at the idea; “That is a smart plan. If you do get caught, this’ll make it so the mission doesn’t immediately fail. Okay Goops, I’m on board! Now, when I set up the trap, I’m gonna leave a small mark on the floor to show where I need Lily to stand. I’ll hide that mark with an illusion and leave another mark somewhere else; Lily will definitely spot it and avoid it, falling right into the other trap!”

Gus nodded; “Great! I can use this…” he removed his Amplifier from his ear and wore it like a monocle, then cast a spell to make it invisible; “…to see through the illusion and find where the real mark is.”

Viney, a little bewildered by all the traps, counter-traps, and illusions, was none-the-less impressed by the hunter-like cunning and silently reapplied the Marrow Monkey Bestial Blessing, so she would be able to see the magic of the illusion and avoid it. Gus then turned to her and cast a mild illusion to hide the glow of her eyes, then said; “You’re the one with the most experience with St. Epiderm and the one with a family member inside to be our contact, so you should lead. I’ll follow you while invisible; that way you’ll have hidden back up if something goes wrong and if I’m discovered, I can just claim to be an illusion student pulling a prank.”

“Wow, I knew you were smart when you skipped two grades, but you really are on another level.” Viney commented; “I’m kinda surprised you didn’t multi-track! With a brain like yours, you’d be an ace in any track you picked!”

Gus chuckled; “I could never do that. Some elemental magic is one thing, since it makes me better at Illusions and gives me a solid option to fight with if Illusions don’t work, but you’ll never convince me to cheat on my beloved Illusions withthose other magic tracks!”

Viney giggled, which turned into full on laughter as Eda snickered and said under her breath; “Here’s hoping he’s as loyal to a certain Blackbird.”

Gus didn’t hear what she said, so just assumed Viney was laughing at his joke and smiled; “Anyway, we should go. We need to get to Lilith before Steve and Katya finish their mission, or else she might run away as soon as she gets her mind back.”

The ladies nodded and Eda began planning her trap with Owlbert, while Viney removed her warm clothes and told Gus to do the same before she walked out the door leading into the St. Epiderm grounds, with Gus obeying her before turning invisible and following behind, Emmiline similarly invisible on his shoulder.

They emerged on the grounds behind the main building, where they found a lush green lawn with expensive looking fountains and fancy topiaries all over the place. In the middle of this lawn was a miniature stadium made of black and white marble, which served as the Grudgby Pitch. Walking through the grounds, Gus realised why Viney had made him take off his fur coat, gloves, and hat; the inside of the St. Epiderm grounds was warm thanks to some enchantments that seemed to be carved into the brickwork of the main building and the perimeter wall.

“This place is so fancy. I can see why it’s the rich kid school.” Gus whispered, knowing Viney’s sharp hearing would pick it up easily.

“Don’t be distracted by all the glitz and glam. It’s just like putting make-up on an Orc; the real face of the school is just beneath the surface.” Viney said bitterly; “It’s a place full of racists, elitists, and snobs. Almost every Witch and Demon here thinks they’re the best, and if you’re someone from a lower class family, or a Hybrid without a “pure” bloodline, then you’re treated like dirt.”

Gus briefly froze; he could feel the pain coming from Viney and remembered that she’d left St. Epiderm due to bullying. Only Luz, Emira, and the other Magic Mixers knew the full story of what had happened, as no one else felt close enough to Viney to ask, but just hearing the emotion in her voice as she talked about the school made Gus realise how bad it must have been for her.

“I’m sorry to hear you went through such a horrible experience. It feels like Hexside is the only “Good” school out of the big three.” he said softly.

Viney paused, then said; “Glandus and St. Epiderm are the way they are because of stagnation. They’re the oldest schools on the Isles and have a long standing culture… St. Epiderm was built around wealth and pedigree while Glandus was built around strength. They’re proud of their cultures and histories, and gradually pushed those natures to their extremes. But now they can’t push it any further, and they refuse to go back the other way because it would mean changing their “traditions”. Now the same families are continuously putting their kids into these two schools, having them grow up with the culture, and then put their own kids through it too when they grow up. Outsiders aren’t able to blend in since they didn’t grow up with the culture from birth, and so they get weeded out.”

“And that leads to stagnation. The same families, the same people, spouting the same ideas over and over for generations, never changing. I saw similar stuff in the Divine Realm, where they ended up following laws no one agreed with any more because that was just how it was always done.” Gus said.

Viney nodded enthusiastically; “It’s the same in the Animal Kingdom. If the same herd or pack interbreeds with itself over and over, it inevitable stagnates and dies out. Change is necessary for survival… right now, St. Epiderm and Glandus are in the final stages of that; adapt and change, or die out. That’s why both their current principals are trying to change things. Hexside is the only “good” school in the big three because it is so new to being a big school that it hasn’t developed its own culture yet. But it’s already getting a reputation as a school for “Underdogs”, and that could turn bad too if it follows the same path as the others.”

Gus tried to imagine that, and his mind went to a school of mediocrity; a place where those who stood out as better than others was swiftly smacked down, because being superior was seen as bad. A place of uniformity… not entirely unlike what the Divider was trying to do. For a creative mind like Gus, who wanted to become the best Illusionist in the World and an ambassador to the Human Realm and Divine Realm some day, that kind of school would be awful.

“I understand what you’re talking about. If things don’t keep changing, we can end up with toxic situations. Still waters turn foul…” Gus mused.

“My thoughts exactly.” Viney muttered, before stopping for a moment just outside one of the doors into the back of the school. “Thanks for listening to me rant, Gus. As you can tell, I’ve got issues with this place… did Luz ever tell you the incident that finally made me leave?”

“No. She isn’t the type to give details on other people’s lives without asking first.” Gus replied.

Viney chuckled; “Yeah, that sounds about right. It’s not a long story, but it’s not a nice one either; basically I got a lot of bullying because I was a Hybrid and had Cait Sith blood, and it culminated in some brat trying to cut off my tail. He didn’t succeed obviously, but it was kinda traumatising. It didn’t help that the Principal at the time tried to cover it up so as not to hurt the reputation of the school or the brat’s family. If Principal Crane had been in charge back then, I bet it would be different.”

Gus nodded; from what he’d heard of Scooter Crane’s niece, she seemed like a good person. Still, to hear that a student had tried to mutilate Viney and it had been covered up… That was just horrible!

“I’m so sorry that happened to you. I can see why you kept your Cait Sith parts a secret after that.” Gus sympathised.

“Thanks; I appreciate it. You’re a good listener; Lyra is a lucky girl.” Viney said with a smirk and a wink. She didn’t need to be able to see Gus’s face to know he was blushing. She did notice that for whatever reason, he hadn’t bothered to deny it and instead went silent. Viney had to look over her shoulder with her current magic vision to even know he was still following her.

Finally entering the school building proper, the two walked into what was apparently the school gym, though it looked more like a giant ballroom with crystal chandeliers and an elaborate stage on the side of the room, with a full orchestra pit. There were a few students milling about, chatting or playing games of some kind, and despite what Gus had just heard about the school, the atmosphere seemed relaxed and friendly. The students they saw were all in uniform and there was no visible monetary class divide, as they seemed to be acting mostly like regular kids… though as Gus looked a little closer, he saw that they were all either smiling or not wearing an expression at all, making them look almost like dolls.

“I think those kids have been divided.” Gus whispered.

Viney nodded grimly and walked silently through the gym, not making eye contact and acting like she was supposed to be present. Leaving the Gym, they found themselves in the middle of the southern hallway. The ground floor was rectangular, with a large room in the middle of the floor, then hallways surrounding it, and each hallway had the entrance to another large room in the middle. The southern hallway obviously had the gym, while the northern hallway had the entrance hall, the eastern hallway had the cafeteria, and the western hallway had the Paranoratorium. The large room in the centre of the hallways was the school library, and as the door on the southern side was open, Gus was able to peak in and was amazed at what he saw; it was a lot like the Bonesborough Library, but a lot fancier! In fact, the hallways themselves were pretty fancy and reminded Gus of the inside of Belos’ castle, at least from what he remembered during his brief time there on the Day of Unity.

The two walked silently to one of the corners of the building, which contained towers that served as staircases between the school’s five main floors. Similar staircases could be found on the sides of the entrance hall, and made up two of the spires. Climbing up the stairs (with the surrounding walls covered in portraits of famous people and alumni), they soon reached the second floor, but skipped it and headed straight for the third.

“The second and third floors are each devoted to four of the tracks.” Viney whispered to Gus since there weren’t any students nearby. “The Library is huge and multi-level, so that takes up the middle of the first three floors, but then the area above each of the halls is where the track wings are. Abominations, Construction, Plants, and Beast-Keeping are on the second floor, and Bardic, Oracle, Illusions, and Potions are on the third floor. The fourth floor is for Healing and the Baby Class, while the fifth floor is the staff room and common rooms, as well as Gen Ed.”

Gus whispered; “Healing has a floor pretty much to itself?”

Viney nodded; “St. Epiderm specialises in it, remember? The healing track here is partnered with the Caduceus Grand Hospital and Healing Coven too; it’s where they send their trainee Healers. There is a bunch of lecture halls and surgical theatres. There used to be a morgue here too, down in the basem*nt with the Detention Pit, but that was a long time ago.”

Gus shuddered and decided to change the subject; “What about the common rooms?”

“Oh, those? They’re nothing special; basically just study rooms and hang-out spots. Each year group has one. They used to be dormitories, back when St. Epiderm was a boarding school. That was a long time ago too.” Viney replied as they walked out onto the third floor. The hallways here were the same as the lower floors, only with lockers lining the walls, and when Gus peeked through the window of the library doors, he saw that it was indeed the same room, just on a higher level.

“Stay close, Gus. And invisible or not, keep your guard up; pranks are common, especially on people’s lockers.” Viney warned, completely on edge as she walked down the hall. Gus silently followed her, sticking close and avoiding the occasional student that was heading to class or their lockers. Like the students he’d seen in the gym though, these ones appeared to be eternally cheerful or totally blank faced. There were only a few that were frowning, though nothing else really set them apart. Gus also noticed Angelic Knight Golems roaming about, though they notably avoided the wing that Viney was leading him towards, making him assume it was the oracle track.

Walking into the oracle wing, Gus was once again blown away by how fancy everything looked! It looked more like a noble manor or castle than a school, and everything from the crystal balls to the tarot cards to the miniature orreries looked to be top of the line and ludicrously expensive. While Glandus strove for the best, but kept it practical, and Hexside did the best it could with its somewhat meagre budget (at least compared to the other schools), St. Epiderm seemed to value having the best AND most extravagant versions of everything. Even the heavy purple curtains on the walls were velvet, and the purple tiles on the floor looked almost like actual amethyst! Then there were the rooms themselves; the centre of the wing was taken up by two smaller halls; a lecture hall (which was essentially a large, hyper fancy classroom) and a practical hall for actually using magic. Then along the sides of the wing were a series of smaller practice rooms where small groups of students could train their magic. These reminded Gus a little of the fortune teller tent that Lyra had operated in the Human Realm, and each one seemed to have been devoted to a different kind of Oracle Magic, such as reading tea leaves, crystal balls, tarot cards, and even animal bones.

“Okay Gus, the person we’re looking out for is my cousin, Ruby Leonis. She’ll look like me, but skinnier with shorter hair that’s coloured pitch black. Her uniform will have both oracle purple and plant green, since she started multi-tracking when St. Epiderm began their own multi-track program.” Viney explained.

“Got it. Is she expecting us?” Gus asked.

“She’s expecting me. I let her know I’d be coming by for a visit, but she doesn’t know about the mission or that I have back-up. Don’t let her know you’re here until we’ve found a safe place to talk.” Viney told him.

The boy agreed and promptly went silent again, though he did turn Emmiline into her staff mode just in case. Considering the weird emotional state of the students and how quiet and calm the school was, he believed most of the student body had been divided by the Wings of Rani. Given their friends at Hexside had said students who behaved badly too often were subjected to Division, and Viney’s story about the way students at St. Epiderm acted, Gus could easily see almost all the students being dragged off and divided. It made him wonder about Glandus… that place was probably 90% divided too, along with most of Pancrea City!

It didn’t take them long to spot Viney’s cousin, Ruby Leonis, leaning against a wall and reading a book while she waited. The girl really did look a lot like Viney, only without her muscles and about an inch shorter, and with reddish-brown eyes and shoulder-length black hair that had been partially dyed, giving her red tips. Her uniform was the standard St. Epiderm white and silver tunic, with purple sleeves and green leggings, while the jewelled necklace she wore around her neck had a spiral of purple and green. She had a pleasant smile on her face as she quietly read, only looking up from her book when Viney approached.

“Hi. Can I help you?” she asked, looking curious at the disguised Viney.

“It’s me.” Viney replied, “Long time no see, cousin.”

Ruby gasped, her face lighting up as she hugged Viney. “Viney! Oh, it is great to see you! It’s been too long!”

“It has; talking over Comm-Pacts just isn’t the same. It was just too dangerous to come and visit normally with the Wings of Rani around.” Viney replied, smiling as she hugged Ruby, then took a step back.

Ruby rolled her eyes with a smile; “You and Auntie Val are so paranoid about the Wings of Rani! They don’t divide people if they don’t break the law! And take a look around; don’t you see how peaceful it is here? No bullies mocking people’s families or financial situation, no one getting made fun of for being different like you were. No stereotyping or cruelty; just everyone being on their best behaviour and being good to each other! It’s great if you ask me.”

Viney shifted uncomfortably; “Ruby, the divided aren’t even themselves any more. They’re just puppets now, barely different from the golems.”

“Come on Viney, you remember some of these people! Not being themselves is a blessing!” Ruby joked.

The hidden Gus cringed a little, while Viney’s expression darkened a bit; “That’s not funny, Ruby.”

Ruby’s smile fell for an instant, but it was back before Viney knew it; “Fair enough; let’s just agree to disagree. But what are you doing here? It’s not like you to want to come visit me at school, and with all this sneaking around too.”

“I’ll tell you, but not here. Can we go somewhere private?” Viney asked. “Like one of the practice rooms?”

Ruby shook her head; “Those are all booked, but I know another place we can use. It’s down in the old Detention Pit room. The pit itself was removed and the hole filled in, but the room is still there.”

Viney agreed immediately, as very few people went to the basem*nt, and followed Ruby as she headed back to one of the staircases. Gus followed them both in silence, returning to the ground floor then continuing down another level until they were in the basem*nt. The underground portion of St. Epiderm had the exact same architecture as the Elemental Temples, only made from Titan Bone instead of the coloured, nigh-indestructible stone. Curiously, the animal motif appeared to be snakes, likely due to St. Epiderm being modelled on Caplacier. Even the lay out was similar, with a large hall that had once served as a crypt (there were marks on the floor to show where sarcophagi had once been) and three doorways that led to different rooms. There was no dais, trials, or passage to a hidden ritual chamber though; only signs on the doors that read “Janitor’s Office”, “Detention”, and “Storage”.

The basem*nt brought a wave of nostalgia to Viney, who’d often hidden down here with the kindly Janitor when she’d attended St. Epiderm. Sadly the Janitor she knew had passed away a few months before Viney left the school, so he was no longer present and someone else now had his office. She also remembered taking naps in the Storage Room, where the old dormitory furniture was kept. Supplies were kept in the storehouse outside, but old furniture was kept in the basem*nt storage.

Ruby walked right up to the Detention Room door and opened it, heading straight in and beckoning the reminiscing Viney to follow. However as soon as she entered (with Gus hidden right behind her), the two young CATTs realised it was a trap. The trap hadn’t been sprung yet, but Viney’s Marrow Monkey eyes allowed her to see two humanoid silhouettes made of magic in the corners of the room, indicating that were people hidden there under illusions. Turning around a little, she spotted two more in the other corners of the room too, waiting to flank her. Gus was able to see them too thanks to the amplifier he was wearing, and he frowned upon seeing who they were. The two hiding in the corners behind Viney were male Angels from the Wings of Rani, while the two in front of Viney were both women, one of which Gus recognised immediately, and the other he was 99% sure he knew the identity of.

The woman Gus recognised was Lilith Clawthorne, though she had changed a bit since he’d seen her at the Day of Unity. Her outfit was a white and gold version of the outfit she’d worn as head of the Emperor’s Coven, sans the mask but including the cloak, while she now also had a black diamond shaped bile monitor over her sternum, and wore oval shaped glasses with a gold wire frame. Lastly, her hair had been cut much shorter and was now free of hair dye, giving her curly orange hair that was similar in style to Camila’s, though a tad more rounded and still featuring the grey streak she’d gained from taking a third of Eda’s curse.

The other woman was a red-skinned Demon with long dark red hair, short horns on her forehead, long pointy ears, and a hairless tail that ended in a three-pronged fork. Her eyes were a dark shade of purple, and her outfit resembled Principal Bumps, only with a green stole and jewel on her necklace, and green fingerless gloves that extended up her arms and into her sleeves. Given her outfit and appearance, Gus naturally assumed she was the niece of Scooter Crane and the Principal of St. Epiderm; Kyrie Crane. Like Lilith, she had her staff in her hand, which had a giraffe for a Palisman; something that both Gus and Emmiline were fascinated by.

Gus slowly backed away out of the room and hid just outside the still open door, while Viney had to act like she didn’t know what was coming. She was furious with herself for not noticing that her cousin was acting off, but also relieved that thanks to Gus’s quick thinking earlier, they had a contingency plan.

Once she was all the way in the middle of the room (and she’d seen the two hidden Angels move to block the doorway in case she suddenly turned to run), Viney looked to Ruby and gave a fake smile. “Well, this seems private enough.”

Ruby nodded; “Yep! Now, tell me why you came here and wanted to talk to me? It’s to do with the CATTs, right?”

“Yes. You see, we’re here to capture Lilith Clawthorne. Eda wants her sister back, and since I’m the only one in the CATTs who knows this place, she asked me to come here and convince Lilith to follow me down to the kitchens, where I’m then supposed to convince her to drink a sleeping potion. Then I’ll deliver the sleeping Lilith to Eda’s hiding place so we can get out of the city together.” Viney lied. “I need your help to tell me where Lilith is and when the best moment to approach her is. I also need your help to get some sleeping nettles for the potion.”

Viney took a step towards Ruby and gave a fake smile; “So, think you can hook your favourite cousin up? I’ll owe you one!”

Ruby’s smile slowly melted from her face and left behind a blank expression; “I am sorry, Viney. I can’t help you.”

“W-What do you mean? Why are you looking at me like that? You look kinda like you’ve been-” Viney feigned surprise, then intentionally trailed off and widened her eyes. She took a step away from Ruby again and shook her head; “No, you couldn’t be! You’re-!?”

“Divided?” Ruby said in a monotone. “Yes, I am. I’ve been given the Blessing of the Divider and now I’m free of all the resentment and negative emotions I’ve felt all this time! The school has become a wonderful place, and the Wings of Rani protect us! We’re no longer victimised by the nobles, who kept dangerous flowers completely unchecked just because they’re pretty. The poor people in the Spring District no longer have to fear for their lives, or live off scraps. Bullies and elitists no longer torment the rest of us. Lord Divider has given us Paradise!”

Viney shook her head, not even needing to act any more as she took a step back; “No. The Divider just turned everyone into puppets dancing to his tune! This Paradise is a fake!”

“Better a Fake Heaven than a Real Hell.”

Viney’s eyes darted to the left, where she saw Lilith emerge from under her illusion. “Hello again, Miss Leonis. It has been some time. I apologise for the subterfuge, but it was necessary for the sake of Paradise.”

“Lilith!? You’ve been here the whole time!? Dang it, our whole plan is shot!” Viney growled in faux-outrage; “Why do our stealth missions never work out!?”

Lilith chuckled; “A stealth plan involving my sister or her children is doomed to fail. Subtly isn’t their forte. But thank you for telling me all about your plan; would you be so kind as to tell me where Eda is hiding? Where you were supposed to take me after putting me to sleep?”

“I think I’d rather run!” Viney declared, dropping her illusion and using a Bestial Enhancement Spell to strengthen her Cait Sith legs before turning and running for the door. She allowed herself to run right into the two Angels, wincing slightly as her face bounced off one of the men’s biceps. She wrinkled her nose in discomfort, and was swiftly grabbed by the arms by the Angels and hauled back onto her feet, before being forcibly turned around again to face Lilith and Ruby.

“I apologise for any discomfort. We did not want you hurt. Allow me.” Lilith said with a gentle smile as she cast a mild healing spell on Viney’s face, removing the discomfort from her nose. “Now, I think we should have a little talk about my sister and the CATTs. Principal Crane, may we use your office?”

With a puff of cyan smoke, Kyrie Crane appeared from the invisibility spell and nodded; “Of course, Overseer. Please follow me.” she said, speaking in a deep yet still feminine voice.

Kyrie marched from the room, with the Wings of Rani dragging a weakly resisting Viney with them, who was really only doing the minimum to maintain the act. Lilith followed a moment later, though Gus noticed her stop and speak softly to Ruby, who nodded and rushed off somewhere else, taking a different staircase up to the rest of the school. Lilith then followed the others and Gus followed in secret, now flying on Emmiline so not even the sound of his footsteps might be heard. They went all the way up to the top floor of the school, with many students watching them go with either blank or worried expressions, and eventually came to the Principal’s office, which was predictably larger and grander than Principal Bump’s office.

The room looked more like it belonged to a noble than a school principal, and its walls were practically plastered with awards and certificates, some of which were for St. Epiderm and some for Kyrie herself, showing just how much success she’d had in her five years as head of St. Epiderm. Gus managed to just barely slip in over the heads of the adults before they closed the door, and perched himself atop a trophy cabinet so he could observe the meeting/interrogation between Lilith and Viney.

The Angels forced Viney into a soft chair in front of the desk and kept their hands on her shoulders to discourage any funny business, while Kyrie stood off to the side with her staff in hand, ceding her normal chair to the brainwashed Lilith. Viney glared at the smiling woman, noting the gold ring around her irises; Ruby hadn’t had that identifier of Division, and her own magic vision wouldn’t have been able to pick out an illusion, since all witches showed up as blobs of magic to the Marrow Monkeys. She was curious as to how Gus hadn’t noticed an illusion though, making her wonder if perhaps Ruby had used contacts or something besides illusions to hide her eyes. Seeing as she had been brought up here to talk, Viney decided to just ask; it could be helpful for later.

“How did Ruby disguise her eyes? She’s not an illusionist, so did you do it for her?” Viney asked.

Lilith smiled and reached into her cloak and pulled out a small vial of rainbow-coloured liquid with some kind of dropper inside. “Chromatic Eye Drops. A popular cosmetic when I was a girl, but not as common these days. My sister still makes them, and I happened to still know the recipe. Take it.” she tossed the bottle to one of the Angels, who then handed it to Viney, who in turn now understood what had happened. Chromatic Eye Drops were not illusions, but rather caused a temporary biological change, hence why Gus hadn’t seen through the disguise. Viney pocketed the vial while the hidden Gus felt vindicated; he hadn’t made a mistake after all!

“Now, speaking of my sister… I would like you to tell me where she is.” Lilith said with a gentle smile.

“The Boiling Isles.” Viney deadpanned.

Lilith chuckled; “A bit more specific, if you please.”

Viney shrugged; “The Knee.”

Now Lilith’s smile faded and she was left with the blank “Divided” expression, “Miss Leonis, please don’t make this difficult.”

“Fine. Eda is in Cartilia. Better?” Viney said snidely.

Lilith sighed and nodded to Kyrie, who went to one of her cabinets and opened it up, retrieving a potion bottle from inside. Kyrie then showed it to Viney, uncorking it while the Angels held the girl down. “This contains Blabber Serum. If you don’t start cooperating, we will be forced to dose you with it.”

Lilith nodded; “We’d rather not take that step, but we need to return Eda to her rightful place in Paradise.”

Viney frowned. It seemed that Lilith and Kyrie would prefer she help them of her own volition, their remaining morals likely protesting over dosing a child. However those morals wouldn’t win out over their “duty” to the Divider, so Viney had to play this smart. Knowing that Gus was nearby thanks to seeing him fly in with her magic vision, she began tapping her foot on the floor, pretending to be irritated and thinking hard about her choices while actually tapping the same signal that Gus had told Eda to listen for in the event they were leading Lilith into a trap.

Gus immediately got the message, knowing Viney needed bailing out. His eyes darted around the room and fell on the still open vial of Blabber Serum in Principal Crane’s hand; he didn’t know enough about potions to render it inert and didn’t have the magic or materials even if he’d had the knowledge, so he’d have to find some other way to sabotage it.

Thankfully, the perfect distraction came when there was a knock on the office door. “Who is it?” Kyrie called.

“Ruby Leonis, Ma’am. I’ve brought who Overseer Clawthorne asked me to bring.” came Ruby’s voice from the other side of the door.

Lilith nodded to Kyrie, who kept the Blabber Serum in her hand as she went to open the door and invite in Ruby and one other person. This person was a boy in the beast-keeping track, judging by the orange accents to his uniform, and looked to be a fairly average 16 year old Witch boy, with a sharp chin and nose, high cheek bones, pale blue eyes, and slicked back black hair. Gus thought that all he needed was a sneer or smug smirk and he’d look like the stereotypical spoiled rich boy. The younger boy had no idea who this newcomer was, but clearly Viney did as her pupils became cat-like slits and she almost hissed at the sight of the boy.

“You.” she glared at the boy.

“Hello, Miss Leonis. It has been a long time.” the boy replied with the “Divided” expression. Both Gus and Viney noticed the gold ring around his iris, which somehow made Viney’s anger worse.

“Not long enough after what you tried to do to me, Kaimal!” Viney actually did hiss this time, her hair fluffing up like an angry cat. It looked like she was on the verge of transforming into her Wild Heart Form without even needing to cast the spell.

The boy, Kaimal, couldn’t make any expression besides the blank one, but he did bow his head awkwardly. Viney snapped back to Lilith; “What are you playing at!? Why bring him here!?”

Kyrie was the one to answer; “Mr Falco Kaimal is responsible for the incident that led to you leaving our school under the reign of the previous Principal. To show the benefits of the changes made by the Lord Divider, and show you that his blessings are truly wonderful, we have brought Mr Kaimal here to finally give you the apology you deserve.”

Both Gus and Viney gaped in shock; Gus at the fact this boy was the one to try and cut off Viney’s tail, and Viney at the fact they would even try such a tactic.

“You have got to be kidding me.” Viney growled.

“We are not. An apology is long overdue. Mr Kaimal?” Lilith said.

Kaimal nodded, then bowed his head to Viney once again. As one of the Divided, he couldn’t make any negative facial expressions, so his face was blank and his voice emotionless as he said; “Principal Crane and Overseer Clawthorne are right. What I tried to do to you back then was reprehensible, and only the last in a long line of cruelties I inflicted on you. You have my most earnest apologies for what I did, Miss Leonis.”

For what it was worth, the apology seemed about as sincere as it could be, coming from a boy expressing no emotions at all. However Viney just grit her teeth and looked away.

“I don’t want to hear it.” she growled.

“Now, Miss Leonis-” Lilith tried to say, only for Viney to yell back.

“I DON’T WANT TO HEAR IT!”

“He is apologising, Miss Leonis. Don’t you want an apology from someone who hurt you?”

“NO! Because this… this… THING, is not who hurt me! This is not Falco Kaimal, the spoiled brat that yanked on my tail all the time and called me a Cat Burglar! This is not the prissy little noble scum bag that said I was just an animal and left a scar on the base of my tail when he took a pair of scissors to it!” Viney roared, her temper flaring wildly.

The Angels struggled to keep the furious girl in her seat while everyone else backed off out of pure survival instinct. Gus, as shocked as them by the girl’s outburst, nonetheless saw an opportunity and flew invisibly over Kyrie’s head, then cast an illusion to hide what he was doing next; namely switching out the contents of the Blabber Serum bottle with plain water. He had to be very careful, matching the temperature of the water and making sure that the water he poured into the bottle was the same volume as the potion he was pulling out with water magic, so that the bottle never changed temperature or weight and drew the attention of Kyrie. Thanks to the illusion, nobody could see what he was doing either (besides Viney, who was occupied), and when it was done, the illusion made the now water-filled bottle appear to still contain Blabber Serum. Gus then manipulated the stolen real serum into one of the trophies in the cabinet he’d been sitting on, before returning to his perch to see how this played out.

Viney was still breathing heavily after her outburst, while everyone in the room was staring at her. Finally, Lilith found her voice again and said; “Miss Leonis, I don’t understand. This is indeed the same Falco Kaimal. Did you believe he was an imposter?”

“He is an imposter! This isn’t a person, this is a puppet! A doll that your precious Divider cobbled together from the real Kaimal’s body and what few positive traits he had! You expect me to take an apology from him seriously when he literally can’t even feel the guilt or regret he’s supposed to!? Not that he ever did!” Viney demanded, “All this is just you dragging a puppet up here, making it say some meaningless words, and hoping it’ll make anything better! Well too bad! You only made me angrier! If you want to really give me something I want, why don’t you tell me when you divided my cousin and why!?”

“If that is what you want, then we can accommodate.” Lilith said blandly; “Following the incident on Rani’s Eden and Eda losing the Divider’s Blessing, the Arch-Angels contacted the Overseers of all populated areas and requested that we do a full audit on all known associates of the CATTs that live in our jurisdiction. This naturally meant investigating Miss Ruby Leonis and her mother, Miss Vorpelle Leonis. During the investigation, we discovered they were in possession of a stolen Comm-Pact and after a Blabber Serum interrogation, they confessed to receiving it from your mother, Mrs Valtora Leonis. This was grounds for Division. Then yesterday, you contacted them through the Comm-Pact to set up a meeting for your attempted kidnapping of me. As a result, we planned an ambush to apprehend you, so we can gather information on the rest of the rebels. The rest is as you know it.”

Viney scowled darkly; so it had been the Comm-Pact! Her Mom had stolen a pair that the Wings of Rani had confiscated, and used them to get around the Signal Termite issue, though it had now blown up in their face. The only small relief was that Viney and her mothers had never told Ruby or Vorpelle about where the CATTs were or who else was with them, specifically in case they were ever caught and divided, so Lilith and the Wings of Rani were still none the wiser.

“Now, shall we do this the easy way, or the hard way? Please just accept the Divider’s Blessing and the peace it brings; we all care about you, Viney. None of us want to force you to talk against your will.” Lilith pleaded, switching to first names to try and build familiarity.

Viney was about to answer, when the hidden Gus cast an illusion on her, making her hear his voice in her ear while no one else could.

“Refuse and make them force the potion down your throat. I replaced it with water, so you can freely lie.” it said.

The half-Cait Sith Girl had to force herself not to smirk as she looked at Lilith with hard eyes; “Not gonna happen, Lilith!”

The woman went very still for a moment, as she tried to feel emotions that were no longer present within her. Her face twitched a little, and for a moment she actually frowned, making Viney very nervous. Lilith was cursed too, and while she didn’t have the Owl Beast inside her like Eda did, there was a good chance the fragment of the curse that created the Raven Beast could still be a problem.

Also fearing this, the two Angels holding her decided to take action. “Forgive us, young lady. This is for the sake of Paradise; we swear you will be happy once you receive the Divider’s Blessing.”

They each kept a hand on her shoulders, but then the one on her left grabbed the back of her head and held it firmly by her ponytail, and the one on her right grabbed her jaw and squeezed just enough to force it open. Viney was barely able to snarl out one last threat; “I’ll be happy once I rip your wings off and eat them with hot sauce!”

The two Angels shuddered, and Kyrie promptly stuffed the neck of the potions bottle in her mouth and tilted it up, forcing the liquid down her throat. Viney made a good show of struggling as the cold water poured down into her mouth, causing her to shudder a little, which she passed off as the potion taking effect. Once that was done, and Lilith had fully composed herself again, the Overseer began to ask questions.

“This is unfortunate, but we must not waste the opportunity. First and foremost; where is the rebel headquarters?”

“The Divine Realm. Luz was given keystones to every gate in the Boiling Isles, including a secret one that was made after Raguel was re-captured. I don’t know where that gate is though.”

Lilith took some paper and a quill from Kyrie’s desk and began writing down the answer, while Kyrie asked; “Who is leading the rebels?”

“Luz.” Viney answered truthfully.

“And where is she?” Lilith asked.

“The Divine Realm, resting.” Viney lied.

“And where is my sister?”

Viney shifted nervously as she answered semi-truthfully; “Waiting in the storehouse behind the school. But she won’t come out unless I speak through the door and knock in a specific combination. If anyone goes in without those two things happening, Eda will bolt.”

“I see. We’ll attend to that once this interrogation is over. Next, who else came with you and Eda?”

“Nobody. We came alone; everyone else was launching attacks on different places around the Knee.” Viney answered, again semi-honestly. There was no point lying here, as there was a good chance Lilith knew about the other attacks, especially since she’d been made aware of this visit by Ruby and Vorpelle.

“I see. That would explain the repeated calls for reinforcements and the loss of contact with many of our local smaller towns and facilities. However we’ve had no word from the Union Pillar; is an attack planned there?” Lilith asked.

“No. With Zara the Ice Wyrm there, it was judged too dangerous. Besides, we only need to keep one pillar offline to ruin the Divider’s plan, and we did that in Bonesborough.” Viney replied.

The Overseer continued to write down everything, then asked a few more questions about the different attacks in the areas and what their objectives were, who was attacking each one, and if there were any other Rebels in Cartilia right now. Viney gave fake answers about their objectives (making them up on the spot) and lied that she didn’t know who was attacking the other locations, though she knew there was no one from the CATTs besides herself and Eda within the city. Once all these questions were asked, Lilith got a strange look in her eye for a moment, then looked back up at Viney, putting the paper aside.

“One last question for now… where is Amity? Is she doing well?” Lilith asked.

Viney’s expression softened, knowing how much Amity meant to Lilith; “She is either with Luz or on one of the missions. Last I saw her, she was doing well; she’d discovered light-based Abomination Magic and used it to help Luz beat Raguel.”

That brought a smile back to Lilith’s face, who even while divided still felt strong affection for Amity. Not that it was surprising; the Divider only removed negative emotions and traits.

With Lilith now getting the answers to all her questions, she stood up and turned to Ruby and Kaimal; “You two should get back to class. Thank you for your assistance today.”

The two nodded obediently and left without a word, while Lilith looked back to Viney; “Thank you for answering my questions, even if the circ*mstances were not idea. Now, I believe it is time we go and collect my sister so that she can be returned to the light of the Lord Divider.”

Predictably, Viney sneered and struggled as the Angels hauled her back to her feet. “Why would I help you?”

“Because if you do, I will ensure that you and your family, as well as your girlfriend Emira, will all be assigned to the same locations after you are Divided. You will be able to remain with your lover, and experience the bliss of Paradise.”

Viney made a show of considering it, before growling and staring stubbornly at the ground; “Fine, you win. I’ll lead you to Eda and lure her out. Just… just don’t take me away from Mom, Mama, or Emi. You already took the rest of my best friends…”

Gus was impressed; if her ambition to become a Vet ever fell through, Viney would make a decent actress! Meanwhile Lilith and Kyrie gave the girl sympathetic smiles and promptly nodded; “Of course. We only want your cooperation. Now, let’s get this over with; feel no shame for helping us, Viney; only happiness awaits us in the embrace of the Divider.”

With that, the two Angels loosened their grip a little and gently pulled Viney to her feet as Lilith began marching out of the room. The Angels followed after her, making Viney walk between them with her hands held behind her back, while Kyrie followed behind them. Gus subtly flew over their heads as they passed through the door and then followed them at a distance as they all headed down towards the storehouse. Viney continued to play the part of the reluctant and defeated rebel, while inwardly smirking. She had to give Gus props! His plan had worked out perfectly! Things had gone off-the-rails just as he’d feared, but thanks to their contingencies, the plan was still salvageable! And if the worst came to the worst and the next part of the plan failed, they’d at least have bought more time for Steve and Katya to complete their mission and destroy the Divided Orbs!

The group reached the storehouse fairly quickly and quietly, and had ordered every student and guard they’d passed to keep people as far from the rear of the school as possible, just in case a battle ensued, which would also work out in the Rebel’s favour once Lilith realised she wasn’t springing a trap; she was being lured into one!

Approaching the door, Lilith silently gestured for Viney to speak and perform the required knock. Viney then made a show of sighing with regret and performing the knock Gus had arranged, to let Eda know she was back and Lilith was expecting her. Viney then said through the door; “Hurry up, Eda; it won’t be long before someone misses her.”

There was soft hoot from the other side of the door, followed by the click of a lock. Immediately, Lilith threw open the door and the entire group stormed in, hauling Viney with them while Gus flew in behind them and silently closed the door, while putting up silencing spells so no one would hear a word of what happened inside the storehouse. They all walked in to find that Owlbert had unlocked the door, and Harpy Mode Eda was now stood at the far end of the storehouse, which she’d converted into what appeared to be a complex Rube Goldberg machine, with a huge and very obvious red X painted on the floor directly beneath what looked like a net full of sleeping potions. It was exceedingly blatant and obvious, making Lilith laugh.

“Really Sister? I wouldn’t have fallen for this even as a child! You’re usually more creative with your traps.” Lilith joked. And Lilith knew Eda was too smart to think she’d fall for such a trick, so looked for the real trap underneath it, and spotted a much smaller and more inconspicuous x mark on the floor beside the obvious one. This one was made to look almost like a natural scuff on the floor; a far more worthy trap… but still, Lilith knew her sister.

Eda growled at the sight of Viney trapped by two Angels, and the two Divided Witches who now pointed their staves at her. She saw no sign of Gus, but that was probably a good thing, and she had noticed the door closing by itself, so assumed this was all part of the kids’ plan.

Still, she played along; “Hey Lily. Why don’t you make this nice and easy by stepping just over there.” Eda said, pointing to the other big red X. “And tell your feathered friends to let Viney go! She’s just a kid!”

“If you cared about Viney being just a child, you wouldn’t have brought her here to lure me into a trap. Unfortunately for you, I learned of it ahead of time and sprung my own first. She has not and will not be harmed; the Wings of Rani and the citizens of Paradise do not hurt others unless needed to for self-defence.” Lilith countered, purposely stepping to the side so she wasn’t at risk of crossing over either the obvious trap or the real trap when she approached Lilith.

Eda grit her teeth in apparent frustration, but Gus just smiled; like Eda had said earlier, she’d hidden the real mark with an illusion (only bothering with a mark at all so he and Viney didn’t accidentally trigger the trap) and now Lilith was moments away from triggering it. Casting another auditory illusion that only Viney and Eda could hear, Gus gave them a message; “I’ll deal with the Angels holding Viney. Eda, you handle Principal Crane and let the trap handle Lilith.”

He naturally got no responses, but both ladies tensed slightly. Then Lilith finally stepped on the trigger for the real trap and all hell broke loose. The net with the potions hanging over the obvious trap suddenly swung down and to the side like a wrecking ball, hitting Lilith in the side and knocking her into the closest wall. The potions also broke, dousing Lilith in a simple Dizziness Draught, causing her to stagger back from the wall on unsteady feet and fall onto the subtle but visible trap mark, which activated a hidden glyph combo that promptly hog-tied Lilith with vines. As this was happening, Kyrie and the Angels moved to act, but Gus suddenly grabbed one of the Angels and froze them solid with a quick spell, allowing Viney to slip free from his grasp and promptly draw a spell circle, transforming herself into her Wild Heart Form and tackling the other Angel to the ground, where she promptly wrestled him into submission and stood on his back, grabbing ahold of his wings. At the same moment, Kyrie turned her staff on Gus, but before she could get a single spell off, Eda coated her fist in an Anti-Magic aura and grabbed the end of Kyrie’s staff, causing whatever spell Kyrie was performing to immediately fail, and for her to rapidly release her Palisman (whose full form was that of a baby giraffe) in order to save them. This didn’t work out however, as Harpy Eda promptly knocked Kyrie out with a swift smack to the head, while Viney summoned her own Palisman: Regant and used the Wild Heart Spell to turn him into a giant Winged Manticore that promptly swatted the Giraffe Palisman to the ground and held it there.

As the only one conscious and still struggling, the Angel beneath Viney’s foot began to panic, until Viney leaned down and said; “Quit struggling, or I’ll get the hot sauce!”

Remembering her earlier threat and the hungry look on the face of the wild girl, the Angel promptly went very still and meekly whispered; “Can you knock me out with a spell or potion, please? I was on Rani’s Eden and still have a headache from the Heroine of Paradise throwing a rock at my head while you were all escaping.”

The three CATTs exchanged looks, before Eda shrugged and pulled a sleeping potion out of her hair and made him drink it.

“Thank you.” he said sleepily, before conking out completely. The CATTs (and the Divided Lilith) stared at him for a moment, then Gus shook his head.

“Say what you want about the Wings of Rani, but they are an oddly polite bunch.” he commented.

“Oh yeah, I’ve never been manhandled so cordially.” Viney deadpanned, before cracking up and giggling as she lightly slapped Gus on the back; “Good job with this plan, Gus! You really saved my bacon!”

“Wait, you were lying before? How was that possible with the Blabber Serum in your system?” Lilith asked in a monotone.

“I switched it out with water while you were all getting yelled at by Viney.” Gus replied proudly, petting Emmiline as she sat on his head with a smug look on her face.

Lilith hummed in understanding, then managed to roll over to look at Eda; “So, sister. It seems you outsmarted me again. Was being blessed by the Lord Divider truly so awful? Don’t you miss the peace and happiness?”

“Oh sure, I really miss not being able to feel anything but what the Divider said was okay. It sure was fun having something bad happen and then not being able to feel anything at all! A real thrill!” Eda said sarcastically.

Lilith sighed; “I suppose it’d be pointless to scream for help?”

“Silencing spell on the whole place. And since you warned everyone away so they wouldn’t get caught in this battle, no one will be coming to check on you any time soon.” Gus smiled.

“I see.” the woman sighed again; “So what now? You spirit me away while no one is looking? That’s why you came here, right?”

Eda nodded; “Yep! But we’re gonna wait until you’re the real you again. I may be a cheapskate, but I don’t want a half-off sister!”

Despite her predicament, Lilith chuckled at her sister’s joke, and the teens giggled and found boxes to sit on (after Gus thawed out and knocked out the other Angel). Despite the hiccup with Ruby and Viney being caught, their plan had gone perfectly fine! Now they just needed to wait until Steve and Katya completed their part of the mission!

As they got comfortable, Gus couldn’t help but comment; “You know, maybe it’s a good idea to keep Luz out of stealth missions. I think her luck is what’s been jinxing us.”

Eda and Viney exchanged looks, then began laughing; Gus might have a point there! But if that truly was the case, then Steve and Katya’s own stealth mission should be a success too!

________________________________________________________________________________

[Meanwhile]

Steve and Katya felt a sense of deja vu as they carefully flew just a little above the snow-covered grounds at the peak of the Knee. Thanks to the heavy wind, they hadn’t been able to fly all the way up and so had needed to climb up to Caplacier via the proper path, which meant avoiding obstacles and patrols as much as possible, slowing their progress. By the time they finally got to the top and the Union Pillar was in sight, the two had once again climbed onto Rumba and decided to fly low to avoid leaving footprints or being caught in the winds blowing above them. It all reminded them a little of their first trip to the Knee together, back during the disastrous Eclipse Lake mission. That mission may have ended in failure by every stretch of the imagination, but it also served as the first time Steve and Katya ever felt the mutual spark of connection that eventually led to them dating, so it was still a special memory to them.

Once they neared the Wings of Rani encampment that guarded the mines, Katya set them both down behind some stone ruins, so they were able to hide out of sight and decide how best to approach. All the mine entrances and tunnels were being heavily guarded, since they served as shortcuts straight to the Primordial Wellspring, and thus the room of the Union Pillar that contained all the Divided Orbs. The skylight into Eclipse Lake was now fully occupied by the pillar too, so there was no chance of squeezing in through there, which left them with three options: go through the Pillar (an almost certain failure), go through the existing tunnels (assuming they could find a less guarded entrance), or make their own tunnel with Construction Magic, something that could very well destabilise the entire cave system and cause a collapse that’d render the other tunnels useless too. Steve suspected the only reason the Wings of Rani hadn’t collapsed the other tunnels completely instead of sealing them was because they feared collapsing the cavern with the lake too.

“Tunnelling and going through the Pillar are both suicide, so our only option is to find the least guarded entrance and hope we can get through all their seals.” Steve whispered softly. Even at this distance, they didn’t dare speak louder; Lars had warned that if it was snowing and they could see Zara, then she would be able to hear them speaking. They couldn’t currently see the Ice Wyrm, but since it was snowing and the area was dark thanks to the eternal night, they weren’t taking chances.

Katya nodded in agreement; “You can take down physical barriers and I can take down magical ones with Severin’s trick. It won’t be very quiet though.”

Steve frowned; “Getting in and out without being caught might be a problem. Steve is thinking this may be a one way trip.”

“Let’s not call this a suicide mission just yet. If we can get in the tunnels at least, then Zara won’t be able to fight us!” Katya said, though she privately agreed that their chances weren’t looking good. They’d hoped the attacks elsewhere would have drawn even more attention and thinned out security more.

Steve hummed in thought; “The way-in we used before could still work. It was buried in snow, so it might still be hidden! Though Rasiel was with us, so the Divider might have known about it and warned his people.”

Katya opened her mouth to suggest they try it anyway when she suddenly felt something brushing against her side. Turning around, she spotted a small Carbuncle Pup sitting in the snow beside them, putting a little paw on Katya’s thigh. It was a cute little thing, with a round red jewel on its forehead to indicate it was still only a puppy, and the jewel was slightly cloudy, indicating a female. Male Carbuncles had clear jewels that light could pass through, while the females had cloudy ones that sparkled like it had flecks of gold inside.

“Hey little friend!” Steve whispered, immediately falling in love with the cute puppy; “I’m so sorry, but we can’t play! We need to get to Eclipse Lake without being spotted!” he said, reaching down to gently pet the Carbuncle behind the ears.

The pup gave a quiet chirp, intelligent enough to understand Steve, then wagged her long cat-like tail and wrapped it around Katya’s wrist, pulling the woman’s hand to pet her too. Katya indulged her, then had an idea; “Hey, don’t wild Carbuncles like to play pranks on people?”

Steve nodded; “According to the rumours, yeah. They do it to keep hostiles away from their dens, or to play with people. There are legends of them sharing their horns with people who are good sports. Why? Are you thinking of trying to set the local Carbuncles on the guards?”

Katya nodded; “Maybe. The Angels know about Carbuncles, since they have them too, so they won’t be stupid enough to attack them. If we can convince the Carbuncles to cause a big enough distraction, then we can sneak past without any problems!”

Her boyfriend smiled; it was actually a pretty good idea! The Carbuncles wouldn’t hurt anyone, the Angels wouldn’t hurt them, and Steve and Katya could slip in and out without drawing any attention until it was too late!

“Okay! We don’t have anything to lose at this point! I’ll use some Beast-Keeping Magic to try and convince this little lady to call her friends.” Steve said, drawing an orange spell circle over the Carbuncle, who accepted it without trouble since she didn’t sense a threat. It was a spell that was used to give commands, by turning the caster’s thoughts and desires into a form that the creature could understand. Of course that didn’t mean they had to obey; Steve didn’t know that particular spells and wouldn’t have cast it even if he had known it, since he wanted the little lady’s help, not her servitude.

The Carbuncle Pup tilted her head adorably, then darted off into the snow, moving gracefully even at her young age. It stopped to look back at Steve and Katya, then moved a few more steps before looking back again. The CATTs assumed she wanted them to follow her, so they did so. They hopped back onto Rumba and carefully flew after the Carbuncle, who yipped softly and ran across the snow, her footfalls so light that she barely left footprints in the snow. She led them over to a large boulder that was half-buried in snow near some Blood Pine Trees (a variant of pine tree that had red needles that were actual needles).

Steve and Katya were about to land beside her when the little lady’s ears suddenly pulled flat against her back and she began to hiss as she looked towards the sky. Steve and Katya looked up and saw the shadow of something very long and very large twisting through the sky, visible only because it flew in front of the aurora that lit up the eternal night. Realising that this must be Zara, the CATTs swiftly cast the spells Lars had told them could could mask their scents and the sound of their breathing from Zara, as well as a basic invisibility spell to ensure she didn’t see them. They then pressed themselves against the rock that the Carbuncle had led them too (which was conspicuously free of snow), making them as undetectable as possible. Zara flew overhead, looking larger and more dangerous than the version of her that the others had described in their stories of Caplacier and Pulvoltary. Clearly Zara had been given a blessing by the Divider too, just as they’d feared.

The giant Ice Wyrm lowered her head so that it was close to the ground, only a few feet from where Steve and Katya hid, and breathed deeply. Her attention was drawn to the Carbuncle, who continued to hiss at her, especially as her gold-ringed eyes focused on the little creature. Zara sniffed once more then shook her head slowly and flew back into the sky, disappearing into the sky by the Union Pillar. Once she was out of sight, Steve and Katya released the breath they’d been holding and came out from their invisibility spell, both utterly terrified.

“S-She might have picked up an unfamiliar scent and come to investigate!” Steve said shakily, hugging Katya tightly for both her comfort and his.

“We were out of range, but we didn’t account for the wind. But I think we got lucky and she assumed our scents were just on the Carbuncle. She probably thought the Carbuncle had gone to play down in Cartilia or something.” Katya said, hugging Steve back just as tightly.

The Carbuncle Pup yipped and jumped up onto Rumba’s staff, then onto Steve’s shoulder, where she began giving him puppy kisses, before switching to Katya.

“Heh, thanks Snowball. Steve appreciates it.” Steve grinned, petting the Carbuncle.

“Katya does too.” Katya teased. “Now, let’s continue on.”

Steve nodded and used the command spell to let Snowball (who seemed to like the name) know what they wanted. She then yipped and closed her eyes, making her red jewel glow. The boulder she’d led them too glowed red too, then disappeared, revealing a small tunnel.

“Huh, this must lead to the Carbuncle den! Do you think it could lead all the way to Eclipse Lake too?” Steve asked.

“Only one way to find out! It looks big enough to crawl through on hands and knees. You go first.” Katya ordered with a smirk.

“Steve is okay with this. But why me first?” he asked.

“Because if I go first, you’ll spend the entire time staring at my butt!” Katya teased.

Steve didn’t deny it, and instead countered with; “As opposed to if I go first, where you’ll spend the entire time staring at my butt.”

“Naturally! You’ve got buns, Hun! Now get to crawling; I flew us here, so I get the view!” Katya giggled, though she did give Steve a sweet kiss on the lips to further encourage him.

Steve didn’t need the encouragement, but certainly appreciated the kiss before getting onto his hands and knees and crawling down the tunnel, using a simple light spell so he could see where he was going. Snowball then yipped at Katya, who followed Steve a moment later, before the little Carbuncle followed behind them, hiding the entrance to the tunnel by re-summoning the rock. Snowball then used her small size to weave around the CATTs so she could lead them properly, using the glow of her jewel to illuminate the path alongside Steve’s spell.

As they crawled, Steve couldn’t help but wonder; “Why do you think Snowball is helping us so much?”

Katya shrugged, then realised Steve couldn’t see her behind him and said; “No idea. Maybe she just likes us?”

Snowball yipped, then caused her jewel to flash red, making both Steve and Katya blink hard as a vision filled their heads. In the vision, they saw the Emperor’s Coven preying on other Carbuncles, killing them and stealing their horns with the help of mercenaries and hunters. They then saw themselves fighting the Emperor’s Coven back during the Eclipse Lake Mission, while the Carbuncles helped.

The vision ended and the CATTs gasped; “The Carbuncles remember us helping them!” Katya gasped.

“Snowball must have recognised our scents and that’s why she came out to meet us!” Steve beamed, reaching forward to pet the happily purring Carbuncle.

Snowball yipped again, then continued trotting along down the tunnel, with the CATTs right behind her. Eventually they reached the end of the tunnel and found themselves emerging into a large cavern (about the size of the Owl House’s living room) that was covered head to toe in the fur of Slitherbeasts, which the Carbuncles had gathered to line their den. Small holes covered the walls, each of which was stuffed with Slitherbeast fur too, and which served as sleeping paces for the Carbuncles, who roamed the cavern freely, climbing around on logs, twigs, and rocks that they’d either conjured or brought in from the outside. There were dozens of the little creatures, with most being juveniles but with a few adults and even a couple of elderly ones mixed in.

As Steve and Katya emerged into the den and stood up, the other Carbuncles swarmed them and began clambering all over them, while the elderly ones watched from a distance. They were being gentle and only playing, making the CATTs chuckle and pet them, before one of the elderly Carbuncles (probably the Pack Leader, given his larger size) barked and the younger ones all gathered together and sat obediently. Snowball yipped at the Pack Leader, who responded by barking again, this time causing all the Carbuncles (except for Snowball) to go running out of the den through various tunnels. Steve and Katya were confused by the sudden act, so Snowball made her jewel glow again and show them another memory vision, this time of their own prior conversation, specifically Katya saying; “we can convince the Carbuncles to cause a big enough distraction, then we can sneak past without any problems!”

When the vision ended, the CATTs looked at Snowball with shock as Katya said; “Wait, are you saying you just sent all your fellow Carbuncles to cause a distraction?”

Snowball yipped affirmatively, then the Pack Leader barked and made his horn glow red, causing a part of the cavern wall to disappear and reveal another tunnel; this one big enough for the CATTs to walk through without trouble. He then gestured for them to follow him (while Snowball jumped onto Katya’s shoulder), so Steve and Katya happily did so, mindful that they now owed the Carbuncles a huge favour. They may be helping out due to feeling like they owed the CATTs, but Steve still thought the Carbuncles had more than repaid that debt!

The two CATTs followed the Elder Carbuncle all the way to the end of the tunnel, which was a dead-end before the Elder made his horn glow again. This time, only a small portion of the tunnel wall disappeared, allowing Steve and Katya to peek out. They promptly gasped as they saw Eclipse Lake and the basem*nt of the Right Knee Union Pillar that had been built into it. It looked exactly the same as the basem*nt of the pillar in the Right Palm (the Wings of Rani definitely had a thing for uniformity), but the Abomaton Knights and Angels that guarded the place were being chased around by Carbuncles, who used their magic to mess with them without fear of reprisal, as the Wings of Rani would never allow the Carbuncles to be hurt.

“They’re keeping the guards totally busy! I bet it’s the same outside!” Katya grinned. “It you keep them busy even longer, then I can take them all out with a big Bardic spell!” she said to the Elder Carbuncle; “Think you can do that?”

The Elder Carbuncle replied with a short bark that seemed like an agreement, so Katya transformed Rumba into tambourine mode and told the Carbuncle; “Tell your friends to avoid the pink dust.”

The Elder Carbuncle barked again, and Snowball yipped as well, while Katya turned to Steve; “Make us invisible while I play, then avoid the dust too; things are about to get a little loud!”

Steve nodded with a wide grin, then cast an invisibility spell over Katya, while the Elder Carbuncle removed the rest of the rock wall, allowing the invisible Katya to emerge from the tunnel into the Union Pillar’s basem*nt, where she quickly began playing a song on her tambourine. This song was Myla’s Requiem, and with every slap of her tambourine, Katya sent clouds of pink dust in all directions. The Elder Carbuncle barked loudly, causing all the other Carbuncles to coat themselves in a shell of wind magic to keep the dust off of them. However, the Wings of Rani heard the song and saw the dust, but assumed it was some trick of the Carbuncles… right up until the first batch of crystals began growing on their skin.

They began to scream and try to blast the crystals off of each other, as they grew on the surface of their bodies like a shell, but did not actually penetrate the skin. This proved in vain however, and their magic began being drained by the crystals, which used it to grow larger and larger, eventually encasing their victims. Those who’d blasted their crystals off lasted a bit longer, but the dust kept coming and rapidly expanding, draining their magic until the Angels were all trapped and unconscious. The Abomatons were in the same boat, slowly melting into inert sludge as their magic was drained and their metal components were coated in crystals. After a few minutes, every Angel was unconscious within a prison of pink crystal, while every Abomaton had been left as a crystallised core in a puddle of lifeless goo.

Katya stopped playing once all the guards were down, and then tapped a different tune on her tambourine to counter her own song, erasing the crystals so that the Angels wouldn’t be totally drained of all magic, as the woman knew that’d be a death sentence for an Angel. Once that was done and the Angels were down but alive, Katya sighed with relief and the invisibility spell on her vanished, revealing her just as Steve entered the room.

“Phew! That song always uses so much magic! But you can’t argue with the results!” Katya laughed, right before Steve grabbed her and pulled her into a kiss.

“Have I ever told you how much I love watching and listening to you play?” Steve asked, whispering huskily into Katya’s ear.

She giggled in response and playfully flicked his ear; “You might have mentioned it a few dozen times. Keep those compliments coming, and I might just have to play for you again!”

The two young adults kissed again, before they were interrupted by a bark. They turned to look at the Elder Carbuncle, who was watching them impassively while all the younger Carbuncles (including the littlest one; Snowball) covered their eyes with their tails, either teasing the couple or actually trying to give them some privacy. The two laughed again and Steve said; “Sorry guys. Thank you for your help; you made a tough job a breeze! Now it’s time to do what we came to do.”

Steve and Katya ended their embrace and quickly climbed up to the second level of the basem*nt, where the Divided Orbs were. “Kat, you take out the orbs. Steve will handle the Ritual Circle.” Steve said, looking up at the floor above.

“You got it, Babe. Let’s start with the important one!” Katya grinned, searching the shelves for the Divided Orb marked with Lilith’s name. It didn’t take her long to find it, and it took even less time for her to grab it and throw it at the ground as hard as she could, shattering it and freeing the prismatic shade of Lilith Clawthorne, which promptly flew down into the ground as it headed down the Knee to its other half. As Katya watched it go, she couldn’t help but think it was odd for all of a person’s negative attributes and emotions to still look so pretty… she’d have thought they’d be dull and dreary like the orbs themselves.

She was drawn out of her thoughts by a loud shattering sound up above, and looked up to see that Steve had used Construction Magic to increase his strength and rip one of the ritual pillars out of the floor, then use it to smash the rest of the pillars AND the central crystal, essentially destroying the circle completely. Katya whistled up at Steve in admiration.

“You go, guy!” she cheered.

Steve grinned; “You too! Now that good ol’ Lulu is free, the team down in Cartilia will have a much easier time. Do Zara next, then the rest of the orbs.”

“You got it, Hot Stuff!” Katya grinned, before looking around for the orb with Zara’s name beneath it. She looked and looked, but couldn’t find it… until she decided to look at some of the spaces without orbs. Most were nameless, empty spaces waiting for the next person who broke the Divider’s peace, but one was an exception. The only space with a name but no orb…

Zara the Ice Wyrm.

With a sinking feeling in her gut, Katya yelled up to Steve; “Zara’s Divided Orb isn’t here.”

Steve froze in place, rapidly turning pale; “Oh… that’s a problem.” his mind raced; “M-Maybe Lilith kept it with her? To stop Zara being freed and going AWOL like Lars did?”

“But then why keep Lilith’s orb here? If Lilith has Zara’s orb and is freed herself, wouldn’t she break it immediately?” Katya asked nervously.

Steve had no answer to that; “It’s out of our hands. Let’s at least destroy the rest of the orbs, and pray to the Titan that Zara’s orb just got put in the wrong spot or something.”

Katya nodded, and worked with the Carbuncles to begin breaking the rest of the Divided Orbs, freeing the people of the Knee, all while hoping that the others would be able to handle what came next…

________________________________________________________________________________

[Meanwhile]

While Eda, Viney, and Gus were succeeding in their mission, and Katya and Steve were still progressing in theirs, Hunter and Lyra were having considerably less success. The Caduceus Grand Hospital was even more heavily guarded that St. Epiderm, being only a little less protected than the Union Pillar itself! Not only that, but the place was being patrolled by Angels, Knight Golems, Abomaton Knights, Combat Healers, and even Knight-Jars, all of which either wielded some kind of magic lamp or had some other bright light attached to them, which they used to sweep over the floors, walls, and even ceilings, making sure to shine the light in every single nook and cranny they found. Thanks to that, it was basically impossible for Lyra to sneak herself and Hunter into the hospital via the shadows.

Then there was the disguise route; turnstiles like the ones in Rani’s Eden had been installed, and anyone who was capable of walking into the hospital under their own power was required to go through them to confirm their identity. It seemed like Hettie was taking absolutely no chances, and had not only installed security to counter the tactics that the CATTs had used in the past, but had specifically put in countermeasures for Lyra herself.

Getting into the hospital through the shadows failed, pretending to be a healer or apprentice failed, and even the idea of pretending to be sick and sneaking in as a patient was quickly thrown out, as the first thing the Angels and Healers in the ER did was send potential patients through an archway that was enchanted with a powerful dispelling effect, which cured most minor magical maladies AND removed illusions and the like!

The siblings ended up waiting outside the hospital and trying to make a plan. “Cutburn has this place locked up tight! She definitely hasn’t forgotten how you and Luz kicked her butt!” Hunter whispered with a frown.

“We need to get in there! Hettie supposedly isn’t divided, so if she isn’t turned against the Divider some other way, then she’ll be a huge problem!” Lyra whined, struggling to think of a way in. “At this point, I’m starting to think our only way in is to give one of us a real injury!”

Hunter shook his head; “We aren’t doing that! I refuse to let you maim yourself just to talk to this woman! Why don’t we just scale the outside of the building with our staves and sneak into Hettie’s office through the window! I doubt Hettie has light-wielding patrols in her own office!”

“No, she probably has something even worse up there. We need some way to draw her out so we can try and talk peacefully! If we just break in, she’ll think we’re attacking and it’ll confirm in her mind all her fears about Grimwalkers; that we’re just violent monsters.” Lyra countered.

Hunter grumbled but didn’t deny it; trying to convince Hettie that they were good guys was important, especially to Lyra, so they needed some other way in. Preferably without getting hurt!

“I guess if you really want to prove that we aren’t bad guys, and only want to talk, we can just walk in and ask. The Wings of Rani would probably grant us an audience just to avoid a fight and give themselves time to gather some reinforcements, while Hettie will probably agree to speak to us alone so she has a chance to kill us without the Wings of Rani stopping her. It’s a bad plan… a really bad plan. But it is a plan.” Hunter suggested.

Lyra blinked; that was just crazy enough to work! And it wasn’t like they were getting in any other way! Plus Hunter could always use his lightning flash to warp them out of there if things go bad! And they had plenty of warp glyph combos for emergency escapes, and even a couple of Power Glyphs thanks to Mason. Getting out wouldn’t need a peaceful approach like getting in either, as by that point Hettie would have either listened to them and joined their side, or refused and thus didn’t need them to try and be peaceful.

“Okay, let’s give it a try. I’ve already placed Shade inside my Tarot Deck, so I’ll at least have those to help me out if things go bad with Hettie.” Lyra agreed.

Hunter smiled nervously and took Lyra’s hand before they walked hand-in-hand through the front doors of the Caduceus Grand Hospital and walked right up to the reception desk. No one recognised them at first, but the Angels did double takes as they saw Lyra’s dark hair, eyes, and wings, and within moments they had figured out who she was, and by extension, who her brother was. Dark Angels were very rare even in the Divine Realm, and there was only one in the Demon Realm as far as they knew, so there weren’t exactly an abundance of other possibilities. The Angels began to slowly surround them, as did the Combat Healers, though they all kept a distance of about six feet as they braced for trouble.

Approaching the reception desk, Hunter cleared his throat and spoke to the nervous receptionist; “Pardon me, but my sister and I would like to have a meeting with Hettie Cutburn. Would you let her know we are here.”

“I-I don’t think she’ll be willing to meet with you, young man. Not with all…” the Receptionist (an undivided Witch from the Healing Coven) looked around at the Angels; “…this. Any excitement like this is bad for the patients.”

“We won’t attack or use violence unless it is to defend ourselves, we promise.” Lyra said, making sure the Angels knew they really were there for a peaceful talk. “Please let Head Witch Cutburn know we’re here; she will want to meet with us, I’m sure.”

“A-And who should I say is requesting the meeting?”

“The Former Silver Sentinel and her brother.” Lyra said, not knowing if Hettie would recognise her new name and refusing to call herself Lucy again.

The Receptionist gave a shaky nod and got up, hurrying away to call Hettie rather than just calling her at the desk. Hunter and Lyra weren’t sure if this was because of nerves or if she wanted to call for more security without them knowing, but neither cared and just remained standing where they were, trying not to look nervous as the Wings of Rani surrounded them. A few were whispering to each other, obviously wondering if they should try and arrest the pair, or speculating on their plans. That came to an end with the Receptionist returned.

“Head Witch Cutburn has agreed to see you. She says to go up to her office immediately.”

The siblings nodded and thanked the Receptionist as they turned to walk into the hospital proper. A High Angel briefly stopped them and offered to escort them, but the two politely declined, saying they knew the way. The Wings of Rani, who were required to obey Hettie’s orders while in her domain, simply stood aside and let the teens go, allowing Hunter and Lyra to go to the nearest Pneumo-Vein and using it to head up to Hettie’s office, exactly as Lyra had done once many months ago. As they travelled up to the office, they got a good view of the rest of the hospital and found it to quite different from before. Angels were leading groups of young healers through lessons, or performing surgeries and treatments all over the place. Not only that, but machines and equipment that Lyra recognised from Hettie’s office during her last visit were now found all over the hospital, obviously having been approved for use on a wider scale. Hunter even recognised some of these machines as Demonic versions of machines he’d seen at Camila’s veterinary clinic.

Finally, they arrived in Hettie’s personal office and clinic, which was almost exactly the same as before, only without all the technology, meaning the clinic part of the room was now more open and homey. Lyra assumed that Hettie didn’t need to clutter her office with them now that they were available all throughout the hospital. Putting that aside, the siblings looked over towards Hettie’s desk and found the woman sat there, flanked by two Angels. Lyra gasped softly as she looked at Hettie, who was quite different from the last time they’d met.

Like the Divided Overseers and those willingly working with the Wings of Rani, Hettie wore her usual outfit, though in white with shades of gold mixed in for the detailing. However she no longer wore her headdress to cover her head and face, revealing that Hettie had received some extensive healing from the Angels. Her scars were removed, revealing her true face and restoring her nose, which was more bovine than witch-like. Her previously torn bovine ear had been healed, and her broken horn had been restored as well, while her eyes were now a deeper shade of blue and her hair had been allowed to grow back, revealing that Hettie had straight brown hair that she kept tied up into a tight bun, befitting a healer. The woman definitely looked like a Half-Witch, Half-Minotaur now, and Lyra could easily see her having a fair few admirers, especially among those who liked muscular women.

Hettie, who’d been doing paperwork, put down her quill as she saw Hunter and Lyra enter the room; the former was wary and ready for action if need be, while the latter had let her guard down as much as she dare. Hettie’s eyes narrowed on Lyra for a moment, before she turned to the Angels.

“You two can go. I’d like to speak to these two alone.”

The Angels looked unsure, but chose not to argue and took their leave. This left the siblings alone with Hettie, who stood and began making tea.

“Take a seat.” she said stiffly, gesturing to the chairs in front of her desk.

The siblings did so and remained silent until Hettie turned back to them with two cups of herbal tea that she placed in front of them. Neither moved to accept them, making Hettie frown as she sat back in her chair; “You two don’t intend to make this easy, do you.”

“By drinking poison tea? No.” Lyra said softly, “We want to resolve this peacefully if possible, with no death or pain or suffering.”

Hettie scoffed; “You know what you are by now, Lucy. You-”

“My name is Lyra.” the Dark Angel cut her off sternly; “I am no longer the puppet clone of Luz that Belos created. I am my own person with my own soul, my own heart, and my own life. I chose the name Lyra because of someone very important to me, and I ask you to respect that.”

Again, Hettie scoffed. However she did still nod; if the girl had chosen herself a new name, then fine… as far as Hettie was concerned, it was just a different name to carve on the tombstone.

“Be that as it may, Lyra, you are a Grimwalker. You were literally built from death and pain and suffering. Do you know what went into creating you? And your brother?” Hettie shot a glare at Hunter, who glared right back; “To create that “heart” of yours, a Witch or Demon had to live a life devoted to the Titan, causing their heart to crystallise with the Titan’s power after their death and become a Galdorstone. Your bones and the keratin that makes up your hair, nails, and the outermost layers of your skin are from Palistrom Trees; a rare resource that Belos exhausted to feed his addiction and create his monsters. Your lungs were ripped from a Stonesleeper; a beast that may have lived for thousands of years until it was murdered to give you life. The deeper layers of your skin, as well as your muscles, were made from the scales of a Selkidomus, a noble creature that is rarely seen in this region now, thanks to Belos’ murderous ways. And of course, there is the plethora of foul ingredients used in the potions that helped grow you, not to mention the fact you were only able to exist due to the death of another person. Well, maybe not in your case, “Lyra”, since Luz still lives… though she did have to be mutilated to create you.”

Lyra and Hunter both paled, feeling a little sick to hear about all the things that had gone into making them. They had already known most of it, thanks to researching Grimwalkers after learning that’s what they were, but there was a difference between reading an ingredients list and being directly told of the suffering required to make them. At least one person had to die just for their hearts, and a Stonesleeper had to die for their lungs. Sure, most of their ingredients could be gathered without death and suffering, but that didn’t make them feel better, especially as they knew Belos would have taken the deadly option at every opportunity.

Both closed their eyes and took deep breathes, while Hunter squeezed Lyra’s hand and said; “Would killing us bring those people back?”

Hettie narrowed her eyes but didn’t answer. Hunter hadn’t expected her to.

“Did either of us choose to be born? To be created?”

Again, he received no answer.

“Are we going around like out of control zombies, killing people and ruining lives?”

Once again, no answer. Hunter looked Hettie in the eye and said; “Then what exactly is gained from killing us? Revenge by proxy on the people who hurt you?”

“No; merely correcting the natural order. You are the symptom of Belos’ sickness, and until we find a cure for that particular pustule, all I can do is ensure the symptoms do not continue to plague us.” Hettie declared; “Besides, am I supposed to trust that you won’t ever hurt someone, just because you aren’t ruining or ending lives at the moment? You served Belos and committed horrible acts in his name; is that not reason enough to want to purge you? I am more surprised that the CATTs accepted you despite knowing what you are.” Hettie countered coldly.

Hunter growled; “The CATTs understood that we are people, not just monsters! I don’t deny doing horrible things under Belos’ orders, but we’re trying to make up for it by helping everyone!”

Hettie scoffed; “Defying the Lord Divider is helping?”

The siblings both blinked, then stared at Hettie in shock; “A-Are you saying you agree with the Divider!?” Lyra cried, horrified.

Hettie sat back in her chair and replied; “While I admit that the Lord Divider’s approach is like using a bone saw where a scalpel would be better suited, his actual objective is something admirable. As a Healer, I have learned many times that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The best treatment is simply never getting sick or hurt, and his Paradise provides that opportunity. Not to mention that his Angels have provided us with medicines and treatments and healing magic the likes of which I’ve never seen!” she sighed wistfully; “None of the Angels have been as skilled at healing as Luz unfortunately, but their capacity for healing is still beyond my own coven! Belos truly did cripple us by limiting our magic with his sigils.”

Hunter and Lyra briefly snapped out of their shock to consider the sigils; why hadn’t the Divider removed them? Surely that was within his power! Perhaps he’d opted to keep the Coven Witches branded so they’d be easier to keep under control? Putting that thought aside, Hunter scowled at Hettie.

“And that justifies brainwashing everyone? Taking away their free will!?” Hunter demanded.

“As I said, I feel the Lord Divider has gone too far with his wholesale removal of some traits. Negative emotions like fear and disgust serve important survival purposes, and their absence is dangerous. However, the removal of other traits can save lives!” Hettie declared, suddenly standing up and moving to the large window that took up the eastern wall of her office. She stared out at the city below and said; “Where you see brainwashing, I see a cure for mental illness. Do you know how many depression related suicides occur on the Isles every month? On average, about 25. Now do you know how many have occurred since the Lord Divider took power? Seven in total over four months. That’s a decrease of 93! That’s 93 lives that would have been lost without the Lord Divider.”

Hunter and Lyra both looked down, not sure what they could say to that. People had been divided from their depression and retained their desire to live, meaning their lives had been saved. They suddenly remembered being told that some people chose to be divided, and they could see why it was tempting. Never again having to feel pain or sorrow or guilt… that was something most people would want. If that was all the Divider was taking, it would be hard to justify going against him… but then again, hadn’t he “killed” those people anyway by taking away the parts of them that made them who they were?

“Maybe you’re right, and the Divider’s powers have done some good. If people got to choose rather than having it forced upon them, then it would be understandable. But he’s taking away their freedom to choose… even if the choice they make is a bad one, they should still be able to make it.” Lyra declared.

Hettie stared at Lyra for a long moment, sapphire eyes meeting amethyst ones, until she finally said; “On that, I will begrudgingly agree. Even as a Healer, you cannot help someone who refuses to be helped. Personal Freedom should be respected. However, I have neither the power nor inclination to turn against the Lord Divider and the Wings of Rani. As I told Luz when she tried to convince me to join the CATTs; my number one priority will be the pursuit of healing, and I will side with whoever provides the clearest path in that direction. I may have been fooled by Belos, but I still trust the Lord Divider; an Angel cannot lie so easily. I consider it to be a necessary evil.”

She approached the siblings, who were immediately on guard again, and gestured to the cups of tea; “I believe this meeting is at an end. I will not turn on the Lord Divider, and I will not abide the existence of aberrations like yourselves. Make this painless for all of us and drink your tea.”

Lyra frowned sadly, while Hunter glared at her; “After all we said, you’d still try to kill us!? We are trying to help people, despite our origins! We aren’t just Grimwalkers; we are people! Living, breathing, thinking, feeling people! And you’d murder us!?”

Something that might have been regret flashed through Hettie’s eyes, before she closed them for a moment. When she opened them again, the emotion was replaced by a strange absent look, as if Hettie was deep in memories. She then shuddered as her eyes regained their clarity, before becoming hard and cold.

“I have seen what you Grimwalkers can do, and I will now allow it to happen again. You are monsters; a virus upon the world that will do anything to preserve its own existence. No other kind of creature could obey Belos’ every order so loyally, despite how cruel he was.” Hettie declared.

“You obeyed his orders too!” Lyra yelled.

“As a Healer! I committed no crimes or atrocities in his name!” Hettie declared, before taking a step back; “There is nothing more to say! The Wings of Rani may not permit me to kill you, but they aren’t here right now!”

Hettie snapped her fingers and the Pneumo-Vein sealed itself shut, while the window became opaque so no one could see through it. She then snapped her fingers again and the lights above suddenly flashed incredibly brightly, stunning both teenagers. Using this flash, Hettie lunged at Lyra first, and nearly cut her head off with a conjured cleaver, only for Waffles (who’d been hiding in her pocket) to suddenly fly up and peck Hettie’s hand as hard as she could, making her yelp and drop the cleaver. Lyra then blinked hard to get her vision back under control, and the instant she could see properly, she summoned Waffles back to her hand and grabbed her brother before diving into the shadows. Hettie immediately snapped her fingers again, causing another bright flash and destroying the shadows in the room, launching the two teens back into the real world.

Seeing this, Hettie conjured some bandages to wrap the two of them up, and actually succeeded for a few seconds before Hunter was able to use Flapjack to trigger a warp glyph and warp himself out of the bandages, while Lyra simply focused her darkness magic and decayed the bindings. Hettie conjured a series of scalpels and threw them at Lyra’s throat, but she quickly conjured a series of her own daggers and threw them back, easily deflecting the scalpels. Hettie was surprised by Lyra’s level of accuracy, leaving her briefly open to an attack from Hunter, who flashed at her back with Flapjack in staff mode, aiming to deliver a painful electric shock. Hettie managed to leap out of the way at the last second thanks to her powerful bovine legs, causing the lightning from Flapjack to head towards Lyra instead. Hettie thought this would damage the girl and save herself, but Lyra immediately used the shadows to redirect Hunter’s lightning, sucking it into her shadow and releasing it from Hettie’s.

The Head Witch yelped in pain as the lightning zapped her, though she was sturdy enough to endure it. She then snapped her fingers, causing another bright flash to destroy the shadows, but the siblings were prepared this time and swiftly closed their eyes to avoid being blinded. Not seeing this herself, Hettie used the scalpel spell on her fingers, giving each digit a short blade of blue magic, which she slashed at Lyra. Despite having her eyes closed though, Lyra suddenly ducked and summoned Waffles in staff mode, before slamming the end of her staff into Hettie’s gut, winding her and causing her to stagger backward.

“Ugh! W-What the!? How did you see that coming!?” Hettie hissed, struggling to get her breath back.

Lyra answered by allowing Shade to emerge from the tarot deck still in her pocket; “I’m an Oracle; seeing the unseen is part of my job. You sent those Angels away so they couldn’t stop you from murdering my brother and I, but thanks to that, I can fight at full power!”

Hettie sneered and used a healing spell to heal the bruising to her gut; “You could barely defeat me before with an Arch-Angel on your side! Do you really think you can beat me now with decayed wings and a magicless Grimwalker!?”

“Decayed wings? You’re mistaken; my wings may be black, but they’re healthy and strong, as am I! I’m a lot stronger than I was before, and I’m in-sync with Hunter while I wasn’t with Luz!” Lyra declared as Hunter flashed to her side. The two held their staves out towards Hettie as they prepared for the battle to begin in earnest, with Lyra whispering to Hunter; “Let me take the lead.”

Hunter nodded and whispered back; “I’ll play the support role. Let’s kick her butt!”

With that, the two teens immediately attacked. Lyra recalled Shade back into her Tarot Deck and drew a card: “Minor Arcana: 3 of Cups!” she declared, using the card to summon a trio of Fog Brew potions, which shattered against the floor and produced a huge cloud of thick yellow fog that obscured all vision. Lyra then closed her eyes and used Shade as her eyes, while Hunter gave himself three Bestial Blessings, taking on sturdy scales and a Direwolf’s hearing and sense of smell, so he could operate in the fog too. The two then darted at Hettie, aiming to submerge her in the shadows and then zap her unconscious while she was helpless. It very nearly worked, but Hettie cast an augmenting spell on herself to increase her lung capacity and strength, allowing her to inhale deeply and remove the fog from the office by sucking it in. It then began to pour out from her nostrils as she used a spell to harden her muscles and charge at the two attacking teens.

Hunter was almost impaled, but managed to zip out of the way at the last moment, while Lyra was forced to escape through the shadows, which ended with Hettie once again producing a bright flash to flush Lyra out. Unfortunately for the Head Witch, both teens adjusted their approach immediately, with Lyra using the ejection from the shadows to launch herself at Hettie and successfully smack the woman hard in the face with a conjured metal gauntlet.

“this is my Minor Arcana: Page of Rods!” she said with a grin; “Packs a punch, doesn’t it?”

Hettie reeled back from the impact, while Lyra then had Shade leap out from the Tarot Deck and equip the gauntlets himself, while Hunter electrified them. Shade then delivered a flurry of shocking punches to Hettie, who was forced to use her larger, more minotaur-like form just to endure the attacks. Hunter and Lyra then inverted their attack, with Hunter throwing a flurry of punches too with his scale coated fists, and Lyra imbuing them with her own element of darkness, which caused anything it touched to begin rotting. Hunter’s scales rotted and fell from his fists before they could damage him directly, but the shadow also spread to Hettie’s skin and began to decay the surface of her flesh a little. Hunter’s blows were incredibly fast, while Shade continued his flurry of lightning-imbued blows too, the flashes of their attacks combining to look like black lightning.

“How do you like this! We don’t have Luz’s penchant for naming attacks, but I think you can call this our Black Lightning Barrage!” Hunter grinned, Flapjack tweeting approvingly from his shoulder (Hunter couldn’t wield him as a staff with decaying shadows on his hands).

Hettie hissed in pain; the duo’s attacks were painful but not debilitating for the sturdy woman. She snapped her fingers once again and caused the lights to flash and destroy the decaying shadows, preventing her wounds from getting worse, then stomping her hoof hard, causing the floor of the office to shake a little and making Hunter and Lyra stagger a bit. This gave Hettie a window to heal herself and get some distance to plan her next attack and how to defend against the teens. However rather than attacking Hettie, Lyra turned her attention to the lights. Normal light wouldn’t be as effective on her magical shadows, but these had obviously been outfitted with Angelic Enchantments to ensure even Lyra’s magic weren’t able to stand up to them.

“Those flashes are getting on my nerves! Shade, take them out!” Lyra ordered.

Shade immediately flew up to begin attacking the lights, smashing them with his armoured punches. Hettie went to try and stop him with a barrier, but he was able to simply phase through the barrier and reach into the lights with his incorporeal hands, before turning them physical and shredding the internal workings. The Head Witch then tried to attack Lyra herself, charging at her like a furious bull, but Hunter flashed towards her with Flapjack now that his own decaying shadows were gone too, allowing him to deliver a vicious blow to Hettie’s cheek. The blow came with a loud CRACK as the woman’s jaw was broken and the heavy woman staggered to the side with a pained groan.

“I told you that Hunter and I are in-sync! We’re both a lot more powerful than I was back when we last fought!” Lyra declared as Shade returned to her side. He had destroyed all but one of the lights, which wouldn’t be enough to erase all shadows in the room if Hettie made it flash, but would still let Hunter see what was happening in the office.

“We don’t need to keep fighting, Hettie. I don’t want to hurt you! But you have to realise that murdering us for being born a certain way is immoral! You’re a Healer, sworn to do no harm that isn’t to protect! Who are you protecting by killing us!?” Lyra continued, trying to get through to the woman. Bargaining with her from a position of strength was more likely to convince the woman than the alternative.

“SHUT UP!” Hettie snarled as she snapped her jaw back into place with a healing spell; “You Grimwalkers aren’t people! You’re monsters designed to fulfil your master’s wishes! Your purpose is baked in from the moment you are born! Even if you try to defy your own purpose, you will inevitably turn around and fulfil it!”

“That’s not true!” Hunter growled.

“Of course it is! It’ll happen and you won’t even know it, or you’ll think your doing something different, only to fulfil your old purpose right from the start! By the Titan, it has already happened once!” Hettie pointed an accusatory finger at Lyra; “You were born to replace Luz on the Day of Unity; Belos told me himself as he whispered his plans into my ears to torment me! And lo and behold, you showed up on the Day of Unity to replace Luz! Your purpose is so engraved into your being that you can’t defy it even if you wanted to!”

Lyra shook her head; “That wasn’t what happened! I did that to save Luz so she could stop Belos and end the Day of Unity! And it worked! The Divider may have shown up to really save the day afterwards, but my actions delayed the deaths of the Branded Witches long enough for him to arrive! And besides, even if you were somehow right about Grimwalkers, which you’re not, then it means I’ve already fulfilled my purpose and I’m free now!”

Hettie shook her head and a wild look entered her eyes. Those were not the eyes of someone thinking rationally; they were the eyes of someone with terrible trauma. Lyra and Hunter weren’t experts, but they guessed Hettie had some form of post-traumatic stress disorder, and perhaps survivor’s guilt too from what happened to her village. Whatever Belos had done to her while she was his prisoner had probably only exacerbated it.

“You are not free! Your free will, your personality… it’s all just shards of Luz that have persisted through your stolen DNA, and then been reshaped by your experiences. And the Day of Unity may have ended, but who knows what the future holds!? The Divider was able to stop the Eclipse, so someone else could start it again! Belos is still alive too; Lord Raguel told all of the Undivided Overseers when warning us not to dare join him again! Though only a fool would help him now, Belos could still find a way to trigger a new Eclipse and a new Day of Unity! Before that happens, I have to destroy you! You and your brother!” Hettie declared, the wild look in her eyes getting worse.

Hunter looked ready to fight, but Lyra decided to try one last time to end things peacefully; “Hettie, please… we don’t have to fight.” Lyra implored, turning Waffles back into her bird form and slowly approaching Hettie; “I’ll even make an oath with you; that I will never go through with the purpose Belos wanted for me. That way, you’ll know Grimwalkers are not what you think we are, and if by some horrible twist of fate you’re right, then the oath will kill me for you.”

“Sis, don’t!” Hunter whispered fearfully; “What if something like the Day of Unity does happen again!?”

Lyra smiled; “It won’t. I’m confident that the Divider wouldn’t let something like that happen, and Belos wouldn’t stand a chance against him.” she offered her hand to Hettie; “So, shall we make the oath? We can end this peacefully right here and now.”

For a long moment, Hettie stared at Lyra’s offered hand and seemed to be warring with herself. The rational side and her traumatised side were arguing in her mind, furiously debating if they could trust the girl. In the end, despite everything Lyra had said, the trauma of all Hettie had lost and the psychological damage she’d suffered thanks to Belos was too much for her rational mind to overtake. She grabbed Lyra’s hand but then squeezed tightly enough to nearly break it, making Lyra squeak in pain, before Hettie yanked her forward, aiming for her throat with a magic scalpel blade on one of her fingers.

Lyra was caught partially off-guard, but she had been prepared to act if her offer was broken, and Shade swiftly activated one of her Tarot Cards himself, hissing out; “Minor Arcana: Knight of Pentacles!”

This card served as one of King’s Monster Glyph Combos, and summoned the entire upper body of a large Titan-like creature from the ground beneath the card. The Titan-like beast, being a bit larger than Hettie, easily caught her scalpel wielding hand in one of its arms, then grabbed and twisted Hettie’s other arm with the other, cracking her wrist and forcing her to let go of Lyra. The Titan-like Creature then held Hettie in place as Hunter leapt onto her, grabbing one of her horns and leaning back, using his weight to force her head up. He then jabbed Flapjack into the side of her neck and unleashed a debilitating electrical shock, zapping Hettie until she lost consciousness. The Titan-like creature then disappeared and Hettie was released, tumbling to the floor. Hunter leapt off her before he could be crushed under her bulk, then went to check on Lyra, who was rubbing her wrist.

“Are you okay, Lyra?” he asked worriedly.

“I’m fine. Disappointed, but fine. I’m glad I ordered Shade to prepare that contingency, but I’d really hoped we could get through to her.” Lyra sighed, casting her own limited healing magic on her hand. “I guess I was naive.”

“No, sis. You were trying to see the best in someone. Hettie is just… she’s too badly traumatised and we’re unfortunately similar creatures to the ones that took everything away from her, and we were made by a man who later traumatised her even further.” Hunter looked at the woman with pity; “It’ll take a lot of therapy for her to get over her trauma, if she ever does. And it’d probably take one heck of a shock just to make her consider us as anything more than monsters.”

Lyra smiled sadly; “You’re right, Hunter. The important thing is that she’s down for the count. That’ll at least get her out of the way for when Steve and Katya complete their mission and the Divided start to rebel… but I’m worried. What about those Witches and Demons who volunteered to be Divided? What will they do? The Ritual Circle will probably be destroyed too…”

“I don’t know. I guess they’ll just need to get help for their issues the slow way. Division was a shortcut, and appealing to the desperate… but we can’t accept it being forced on anyone else.” Hunter said grimly. He was starting to agree with Luz though; he really wanted to punch the Divider in the face! Of the Hexsquad who’d actually met him, Hunter had been the least close to Rasiel but had found him to be a pleasant man, but seeing the twisted Paradise he was making frustrated the young man to no end! Rani’s Eden, removing people’s depression, restoring order to the isles and encouraging his Angels to help the populace? All those things were amazing! If it weren’t for the other parts of his plan, no one would be able to rightfully go against him!

If he’d only given people the choice, and a chance to become better on their own…

The boy’s musing was cut off by his sister gasping. He looked to her and saw her eyes were wide and shining, a faint blush on her cheeks as she pointed over to Hettie’s desk. Hunter looked to what she was pointing at and gasped, seeing a fluffy white rabbit.

The rabbit was just sitting on Hettie’s desk, looking between Lyra and Hettie. It was an odd rabbit; it’s fur was primarily white, but had a pale blue tint near it’s thighs, where the fur flared out a little like a skirt. It’s tail was as large as its body, and it’s ears resembled a cross between rabbit ears and Angelic wings, looking almost like it had cherub wings in place of ears. The ears still had fur in place of feathers though, and were pale blue at the tips. Lastly, the Rabbit’s eyes were a glistening blue and resembled large blue pearls.

“A Lepus Rabbit? Aren’t they usually pink?” Hunter mused. Lepus Rabbits were a breed of tiny Lapin Beast Demons that normally lived in desert and savannah regions. They were famous for their pink fur and their ability to fly with their wing-like ears, and their meat was a staple food in desert settlements, while the fluid in their pearl-like eyes was used as a powerful purifying agent, and often used to cleanse wounds more effectively than alcohol.

This particular Lepus Rabbit was odd; having white fur with blue ends and an oversized tail and skirt-like fur. Was it a some kind of cold weather variant Hunter hadn’t heard of? And if so, why was it here? As Hettie’s Pet?

The answers to those questions came swiftly, as the Lepus Rabbit hopped off of Hettie’s desk and landed on top of the woman’s prone form. Hunter and Lyra watched it curiously, then gasped as it shook its oversized tail and caused a small potion to fall out, which it then caught with its paws and deftly uncorked with its teeth before pouring its contents into Hettie’s mouth.

“Hey! Stop! What are you-!?” Hunter yelled, rushing to grab the rabbit. It leapt up and kicked him in the face, its fluffy little feet packing some surprising force, making Hunter stagger back with a yelp. Flapjack chirped angrily, while Lyra created a shadowy tendril to grab the rabbit, though it was too late. The potion it had poured down Hettie’s throat had been some form of resuscitation potion, as Hettie immediately regained consciousness and leapt to her feet. She looked around in a daze for a moment as Lyra tried to bind her in shadows too, but Hettie snapped her fingers first, causing the remaining light to flash and destroy the restraints, freeing Hettie and the Rabbit. The Rabbit then leapt into Hettie’s arms, who sighed with relief.

“Thank goodness you were here, Benra.” Hettie said, petting the rabbit fondly; “I knew giving you those potions would save my skin one of these days.”

To the surprise of Lyra and Hunter, Benra the Lepus Rabbit then transformed into a staff, revealing that she was Hettie’s Palisman.

“You’ve had a Palisman this whole time!?” Lyra exclaimed in shock; “Why did you never use her against Luz and I!?”

Hettie sneered; “What, unveil my Palisman in front of the Emperor’s lackey? Are you a fool!? If I’d had her fighting beside me back then, she would have been murdered and consumed by Belos after I was beaten! All Coven Heads learned quickly to keep their Palisman out of sight of Belos!”

That made sense once Lyra thought about it; she hadn’t seen Darius’, Eber’s, or Osran’s Palismen until after they’d turned on Belos openly either.

“I suppose that’s fair. I wouldn’t have told Belos about your Palisman, but I can see why you wouldn’t believe me.” Lyra sighed; “Is violence really the only way to resolve this? I’ve straight up offered to make an oath that’ll kill me if I turn out to be a monster like you think I am; why is that not enough!?”

“Because you don’t wait to purge an infection until it has already done its work!” Hettie growled, “If you want to avoid further violence, then drink the tea! It’s still right there!”

Lyra groaned; “I am not dying to satisfy you! If you had asked me that when I first found out what I really was, I probably would have accepted… but I have a family now! Not just my loving big brother, but an adoptive father and godmother and god-siblings, and so much more! My death would hurt too many people, but most of all… most of all, I want to live! I am not Belos’ monster and neither is my brother! We are not bound by the purpose he chose for us! We’ve chosen our own purposes and mine is to be there for all the people who were there for me! So long as a single one of them wants me in their lives, then I will be there!” she declared, switching Waffles back into staff form and spreading her wings, which glowed with a lilac aura as sparkles danced between the feathers, making them look like they were made from the night sky.

Hettie’s eyes once again became conflicted, before she screamed like a raging beast and leapt at Lyra, using her staff and a muscle augmentation spell on her legs to massively increase her speed, to the point that she reached Lyra before the girl had a chance to move. At the same moment, Hettie snapped her fingers and the limited flash from the last remaining light was enough to startle Lyra enough that she was unable to dive into the shadows. Still, she was able to at least grab one of Hettie’s horns before it could impale her, allowing Lyra to swing herself around and onto Hettie’s back. She expected to Hettie to begin trying to buck her off, but instead the enraged woman charged straight at the window and crashed through it, sending them both plummeting all the way down to the ground of the Azure Sky District outside the Caduceus Grand Hospital.

“LYRA!” Hunter cried, flashing out after her. He quickly caught up to his falling sister as the girl tried in vain to use her wings and staff to stop Hettie’s fall, but the woman was far too heavy, so she was forced to give up and let go, allowing Hunter to grab her and flash away. Hettie hit the ground feet first, and despite the massive fall, her powerful legs absorbed the entire force of the fall without so much as a creak. The brickwork beneath her cracked like glass, but Hettie herself remained standing, totally unhurt thanks to the muscle augmentation spell she’d cast just before.

“This woman is a tank!” Hunter exclaimed as he and Lyra landed nearby, both amazed by the woman’s resilience.

“I will stop you! I have to stop you! For all that you creatures have cost me, and for all the lives wasted to create you… I must destroy you!” Hettie snarled, her eyes glowing blue as she entered a Bile Overload. Her body swelled and grew even large, while her horns grew longer and sharper, until she resembled a full Minotaur. She even twirled her staff, which grew larger to match her size, and the ears of Benra grew larger too, as if Hettie was going to fly with them. However instead of trying to fly, Hettie cast a Bone Saw spell on her staff, causing Benra’s ears to glow blue and gain magic blades, making her staff look more like a massive battle axe.

Lyra narrowed her eyes and waved her hand, causing shadow tendrils to rise up from the ground around her to try and grab Hettie, though the woman’s strength was great enough that they only slowed her down. She tried to cleave Lyra in two with a massive swing, but Lyra jumped up and actually landed on the shaft of Hettie’s staff-turned-axe, using shadows on the bottom of her feet to hold herself onto it and avoid being shaken off. She then drew a card from her Tarot Deck and tossed it Hettie.

“Minor Arcana: 2 of Rods!” Lyra cried, causing two chains to launch themselves out of the ground and tie around Hettie’s legs and try to trip her up. Hettie briefly struggled to escape them, and Hunter shot a bolt of lightning at the chains to electrify them and stun Hettie, but the bovine woman just stomped hard and broken the chains. She then flipped her axe around and tried to smash Lyra against the floor (though the girl fled into the shadows to escape). She then used a spell that conjured adhesive tape and used it to pick up the broken chain links, turning the tape into a rather nasty flail. Hettie lashed Hunter with it, though thankfully he still had the scale skin Bestial Blessing, so only his coat and shirt ended up shredded, though this also forced him to give up his Direwolf Hearing Blessing to give himself a Slitherbeast pelt over his scales, so he wouldn’t freeze in the cold of the Knee. Lyra then jumped out of the shadows and threw down another tarot card.

“Minor Arcana: King of Swords!”

This card contained one of Lyra’s strongest spells, which covered the ground and surrounding area with shadowy circles that she and anyone of her choosing could freely travel between. She used another card: the King of Pentacles, to create a power illusion that made it look like there were dozens of Hunters and Lyras all leaping in and out of the shadow circles to attack Hettie. Seeing this, the real Hunter leapt into one alongside the real Lyra, and the two began peppering Hettie with weak blows. She endured small zaps of electricity and claw slashes from Hunter, as well as minor cuts from a dagger Lyra had conjured, as well as small blasts of shadow magic that caused some minor decay before dissipating. Hettie took a lot of damage, but her body would heal after each blow thanks to her incredibly healing magic, which was exactly Lyra’s plan; to drain the woman’s magic by inflicting countless small wounds that used minimal magic, until Hettie was too exhausted to fight.

Unfortunately, that plan hit a snag almost immediately. Since they were now out in public, the Wings of Rani immediately took notice and raised the alarm, ordering the civilians back to their homes as they all rushed to stop the fight.

“Cease hostilities!” demanded one High Angel; “We will not allow further violence! Head Witch Cutburn, stand down so that we may take these rebels into custody.”

“STAY AWAY! THEY ARE MINE!” Hettie roared, now wildly flailing her axe at the plethora of illusory copies.

The High Angel noticed her glowing eyes and frowned; “A Bile Overload? Brothers and Sisters, the Head Witch is compromised! Pacify her AND the rebels!”

Hettie snarled, but a dozen Angels jumped into the fray, wielding weapons made from light or preparing other spells to subdue her. Hunter was also even more on guard now, especially as Lyra cringed away from the Angels, knowing a huge portion of her magic was useless around them.

“Lyra, take care of Hettie! I’ll handle the Angels!” Hunter declared, switching out his other Direwolf Blessing (the smell one) for Griffin wings so he could fly and use Flapjack at the same time.

Lyra hesitated, knowing Hunter would have trouble against so many Angels, but thankfully the alarm had summoned more than just the Wings of Rani! A huge bolt of lightning shot towards the Angels from behind, zapping a few of them into unconsciousness immediately, and a moment later, a flurry of silver light beams came blasting towards them too, effortlessly weaving around Hunter and Lyra to strike each of the remaining Angels surrounding them as well as Hettie.

Hunter and Lyra looked up and saw Luz and Lars flying towards them, staves in hand. “Hey guys! Need some help?” Luz asked with a smile, moving to hover beside Hunter. She gave a strange look to Hettie, and then a look of surprise to Lyra. “Looks like Hettie didn’t listen.”

“Still working on that.” Hunter said; “Lyra and I want to deal with Hettie; can you and Lars keep the Angels off of us?”

Luz looked around and saw more and more of the Wings of Rani flying at them. Every other Angel in the city, as well as their Abomatons, Knight Golems, and Divided Allies were swarming towards the Azure Sky District to fight them.

“It’ll be tough, but Lars and I can handle it.” Luz said confidently, before giving Hunter an Angelic Blessing; “Use this; it’ll take the burden off of Flapjack a little.” she then reached for Lyra to do the same, but the girl moved away.

“I don’t need a blessing. I’m fine.” she said, making Luz blink in surprise.

“If you say so. I’ll leave Hettie to you!” Luz declared, before flying at the closest Angel and launching a weak fireball at their chest with a cry of “Spicy Toss!”

“I still don’t understand your instance on using strange names for your spells, but I can’t deny it is amusing!” Lars chuckled, flapping their draconic wings before transforming themselves into a bolt of lightning surrounded by storm clouds, which swept through a group of Knight Golems, zapping them and blinding the nearby Angels with clouds at the same time.

With the heavy hitters keeping the reinforcements out of their fight, Hunter and Lyra continued their assault on Hettie, though unfortunately the distraction had given Hettie a chance to catch her breath and hold her staff-turned-axe high above her head before causing the Palisman to flash with a brilliant light, destroying Lyra’s shadow portals.

“Dang it… with Light being one of the elemental components of Healing Magic, of course she can use it!” Lyra muttered.

The Dark Angel then prepared to draw a massive spell circle with her staff, planning to use the other elements that composed Oracle Magic (since she could use those too, even if Darkness was her main speciality), but Hettie shocked both her and her brother by suddenly throwing her axe at Hunter. He was able to flash out of the way, but at the same moment, Hettie charged at Lyra, whose eyes had been on the axe and her brother. This distraction cost her, as Hettie managed to hit her before she react, ramming one of her horns directly through Lyra’s chest, impaling her.

“LYRA!?” Hunter screamed in horror as he saw his sister’s body go limp. Hettie’s horn was huge and had gone straight through Lyra’s chest, right where her heart was, and come out of her back between her wing joints. It was an attack that was assuredly lethal, causing Hunter’s heart to lurch painfully.

However, despite the grizzly nature of the blow, there was no blood or gore, and Lyra’s expression was not one of shock or pain… it was a smile.

“Nice try, but I’m afraid… you got the wrong one!” “Lyra” said as her visage turned into shadows and melted away, revealing that it was Shade who’d been stabbed.

Hettie’s eyes widened, the shock actually snapping her out of her Bile Overload (though Lyra and Hunter’s early tag-team attack had taken a lot of her energy already), while Hunter nearly collapsed with relief as the real Lyra emerged from his shadow, which was one of the few to not be destroyed by Hettie’s light flash a moment ago.

“Lyra! Don’t scare me like that!” Hunter said, hugging her tightly.

“Sorry Hunter, but I needed to make Hettie let her guard down so I could do this!” Lyra declared, snapping her fingers. At that moment, the still impaled Shade revealed that as well as Waffles, he was also wielding a full hand of Tarot Cards, all of which he activated at a point blank range. The first was the 5 of Cups, which produced a Dizziness Draught to cause Hettie to become unstable on her feet. The second was the 7 of Pentacles, which was King’s experimental Draining Glyph Combo, which used darkness, earth, wind, and ice glyphs to drain a Witch or Demon’s Magic Bile (something he’d come up with to counter any more Bile Overloads, after hearing of how the Hexsquad’s overloads against Belos had turned out to be unhelpful). The third was the 4 of Swords, and contained one of Willow’s spells, summoning Iron Vines to bind the target, while the fourth was the 8 of Swords and sent a mix of Hunter’s normal lightning and Lyra’s own purple coloured lightning through the target, doing minimal damage but causing their muscles to spasm, inflicting weakness and making it hard to move. The drain of the second card further weakened Hettie, while the Iron Vines tied her up tight and the lightning paralysed her, conducting through the Iron Vines to spread the effect evenly. Finally, the fifth and final card was the Page of Swords, and used Lyra’s own magic to create spectral chains that bound themselves around Hettie’s very soul, ensuring she was totally unable to move anything below the neck. Such chains were usually ineffective against a person as powerful as Hettie, but with her now in a mentally, emotionally, and physically impaired state, they totally locked down her movements.

“Ugh… I can’t move! What have you done!?” Hettie groaned, struggling to speak through the lightning making her body spasm.

“I made sure you couldn’t move whilst doing the minimal amount of damage.” Lyra replied, casually pulling out another copy of the Page of Swords and throwing it at Hettie’s Palisman (still imbedded in the ground as an axe) and tied it up in spectral chains. “I said I didn’t want to fight you or hurt you. Maybe now you’ll finally accept that I meant it.”

Hettie grit her teeth, while Hunter looked confused; “I didn’t realise you had more than one deck of those cards…”

“Unfortunately, the cards are flimsy and burn up after they release the spells sealed inside.” Lyra said, reaching into her winter coat (lent to her by Amity) and revealing that she had several decks of the enchanted Tarot Cards, “Since they can’t be reused at the moment, I had to make several decks. Otherwise I’d only be able to use each spell only once.”

Hunter nodded in understanding, the asked; “And how and when did you make Shade imitate you? He was using Waffles and even casting spells! I didn’t know he could do that.”

Lyra smiled and drew a card from one of her decks, revealing the first card of the Major Arcana. “Major Arcana: The Fool. Just as the Strength lets Shade imitate your powers, the Fool lets him imitate mine. For a short time, he can do anything I can while using this card’s power. It’s more potent than the other Major Arcana, since he already has a connection to my magic.”

“Wow, so if you use that card with Shade, it’s like having a slightly weaker clone of yourself that can even wield Waffles?” Hunter asked, amazed by how strong his sister had gotten.

Lyra nodded proudly as Waffles flew over and landed on her shoulder, nuzzling her. “Yep! Shade and Waffles are friends, so she doesn’t mind him using her. You could too, you know.”

That made Hunter smile, and Flapjack flew over to sit on Lyra’s other shoulder, nuzzling her too and making it clear Lyra could use him as well. She giggled in response before saying; “And I used that card and swapped out with Shade while we were going in and out of my shadow portals. I had a combo I thought could stop Hettie, but getting close to her for long enough while she was raging was too dangerous, so I gave the card combo to Shade and had him do it. He doesn’t feel pain from physical attacks, even when corporeal.”

“I see…” Hunter mused. “Just one more question; why have yourself be “The Fool”. You don’t really think you’re a fool, right?”

Lyra giggled; “No, of course not! The Major Arcana of a Tarot Deck depicts the Fool’s Journey. The Fool represents the hero, who goes through trials, meets mentors, experiences victories and failures, crosses the threshold of “death” and is reborn anew, conquering their final challenge and obtaining “The World”. The Divine Tarot is my magic, meant to represent my story. Thus, I am the Fool. It’s not an insult, we are all “The Fool” of our own life.”

Hunter was once again struck by how far Lyra had come. His meek little sister had become so strong! And when hearing of the Fool’s Journey as she described it, Hunter could think of several occasions in both their lives that lined up with the things Lyra had said.

“And what about my card? The Strength? What does that mean?” Hunter asked, wondering why his sister had assigned him that card.

“Well in fortune telling, the Strength in its upright position represents nature, wild and primal, but tamed by our subtler, gentler side. In the Fool’s Journey, it symbolises strength, courage, and resolve, but with patience and tolerance. I thought that suited you. You’re strong, courageous, and resolute, with a passion for nature, yet you were also kind, patient, and gentle with me even after all my mistakes when we were little. It felt right.” Lyra answered, her cheeks turning a bit pink.

Hunter was touched and reached out to ruffle Lyra’s head; “My little sister has become strong AND wise. I’m proud of you, Sis. And I’m not the only one. Darius, Aunt Camila, all of our friends and family… and Gus too. I know he’s as proud of you as I am.”

Lyra blushed; “Thanks, Hunter. They’re proud of you too, especially your favourite Plant Witch.”

The boy snorted; “I can never mention Gus without you mentioning Willow!”

“If I have to be teased, then so do you!” Lyra giggled, before looking over to Luz and Lars. The two of them were doing well, battling side by side against the Angels and their additional forces. Considering it was two against hundreds, it really showed how powerful they both were, and made Lyra realise that she still had a ways to go.

Just as she was wondering how Gus was doing with Eda and Viney at St. Epiderm, Lyra suddenly sensed something coming and looked up to see hundreds of prismatic spectres passing down into Cartilia from the ceiling of the colossal cavern. The spectres began merging back into their other halves, and Witches and Demons (and shockingly, even a few Angels) suddenly found themselves returned to their undivided selves, proving that Steve and Katya had completed their mission.

For a brief moment, there was a lull in the fighting as the previous Divided residents of Cartilia took a moment to gather themselves and reintegrate their restored emotions. Then, as understanding dawned on them, the Reunited and the Wings of Rani locked eyes, before someone screamed out in rage and attacked their former captors. With that single act, all of Cartilia descended into Pandemonium. The entire Wings of Rani contingent had been in the Azure Sky District to deal with Luz and the others, and they were immediately attacked by the majority of their formerly Divided allies, with only a few of the volunteers instead fleeing (the Angels who’d been divided remained, and fought on the Wings of Rani’s side). Those Divided who’d been in the other districts were either fleeing the city, finding some place to hide, or rushing to join their fellows in fighting the Angels, making it a much more even fight.

Luz and Lars took the opportunity to meet up with Lyra and Hunter again, and observe the bound and weakened Hettie, who’d gone silent in defeat.

“Good job guys. It’s a shame Hettie didn’t listen to you, but at least this you were able to defeat her.” Luz smiled.

“Thanks. We tried our best, but her trauma is too ingrained. Belos made it worse too…” Lyra sighed. “We’re not really equipped to be taking prisoners or giving therapy right now, so we’ll have to leave her here, but the Angels saw her trying to kill us, so they may send her somewhere else to be Divided, or maybe give her the mental health treatment we can’t.”

Hunter and Luz both nodded, while Lars regarded Lyra with curious eyes; “You show a great deal of concern for a woman who wanted to murder you for unjust reasons.”

Lyra shrugged; “Hettie has a valid reason for hating Grimwalkers. She lost everyone she loved to them, and our “creator” tormented her for his own sick amusem*nt. That doesn’t excuse what she’s done and what she tried to do, but it’s understandable. I don’t think she’s an evil person.”

Hettie gave the girl a strange look, but continued to sit there in her restraints, wearing a sour expression.

Before the conversation could continue, they heard someone calling out to them and looked eastward, where they saw Gus, Viney, Eda, and Lilith all flying towards them, joined also by an unfamiliar woman. Luz hadn’t seen the woman before, but based on her clothing and her resemblance to Scooter Crane, she guessed that the woman was Kyrie Crane. They all swooped down to land beside Luz’s group, and Lilith wasted no time in rushing to hug her niece.

“Luz! Oh, it’s so good to see you! I was frantic with worry after the Divider sent you away! I’m so glad you and the others are back!” Lilith said, cuddling her niece; “And look at those wings, and that halo! You’ve become somehow even more amazing! I’m very proud!”

Luz beamed; “Tia Lily! I’m glad to see you! I hope you and Mom didn’t have to fight.”

“Nope, Goops showed off his mastermind skills and the Wildcat showed off her acting chops! Took Lily, Kyrie, and their two Angel escorts totally by surprise even after we walked into their trap first!” Eda bragged.

Lilith and Kyrie both blushed while Gus and Viney preened at the praise. “Yes yes, I was outsmarted. I’m enough of an adult to admit it!” Lilith said with a roll of her eyes.

“Don’t feel too bad; Gus outsmarts most people.” Lyra smiled affectionately, making the boy blush.

“Indeed!” Lilith grinned, “I’m glad you’re all looking well! With some new looks too!” she noted Hunter’s shortened haircut and Lyra’s slightly longer hair. The most drastic change was obviously Luz’s though, and she giggled.

“Your new hair style is pretty good too! You and Mom swapped to the short look! But if its new looks we’re talking about, then Amity is the one you want to see!” Luz said, thinking of Amity’s Fused Form.

“Oh, she is definitely someone I am dying to see. Thankfully with the Knee now liberated, we can meet up with her! And the others too of course.” Lilith smiled again, now looking excited.

A cold laugh suddenly cut through the group’s pleasant reunion, and everyone turned to face Hettie, who was smiling darkly. “Something funny, Cutburn?” Eda demanded, crossing her arms.

“Very. You’re acting like all this is over just because you broke the Divider’s spell on the people here. But what you don’t realise is that the Wings of Rani are smarter than you think. They have a lot of respect for you CATTs, especially the Divider’s “Heroes” and the so-called “Hexsquad”. That respect means they’ve begun preparing to counter many of your tactics.” Hettie said, no longer even bothering to escape her restraints.

The CATTs exchanged looks, with Lyra frowning as she looked to Lilith; “Do you know what she means, Miss Clawthorne?”

“I don’t. Also, just call me Lilith.” the woman replied, before looking to Kyrie; “I don’t suppose you know what Cutburn is talking about?”

“I haven’t the faintest idea. I wasn’t entrusted with any information that didn’t effect St. Epiderm directly.” Kyrie replied, looking worried. “But I’ve worked closely with Hettie for a number of years, and while her experiences as Belos’ petrified prisoner have left her mentally compromised, I’ve not known her to bluff or lie like this.”

Lilith’s frown deepened; she had been Overseer of the Knee but didn’t remember anything special being planned by the Wings of Rani to counter the CATTs… or at least nothing that hadn’t already been circumvented in today’s mission.

“Are we going to stand around playing 20 questions with Cutburn, or are we going to stop the fighting?” Viney asked, pointing back at the fight between the freed Citizens and the Wings of Rani, which had become a stalemate. The Wings of Rani were stronger (even after Luz had weakened them), but they were holding back while the desperate Witches and Demons weren’t.

“Right. Whatever Hettie’s talking about, we can deal with later.” Luz said, before turning to Lyra and Hunter; “You guys guard Hettie alongside Gus and see if you can’t get her to just spill what she was talking about. The rest of us will drive off the Wings of Rani and finish liberating Cartilia. Lars, do you mind helping us out?”

“Until my Zara flies down here, I might as well. But if she isn’t back by the time the battle ends, I’m going up the Knee to see her.” Lars replied, before immediately jumping into the fray and frying some more Knight Golems with a single swipe of their electrified tail.

As Eda, Lilith, Luz, Kyrie, and Viney jumped into the battle too, Gus joined Lyra and Hunter in facing Hettie. “I don’t suppose you’d like to just tell us what’s you were implying?” Lyra asked.

“What would be the point? You’ll find out soon enough.” Hettie said dismissively.

Gus frowned; “You said the Wings of Rani were prepared to counter many of our tactics… I’d wager we’ve already seen that. Increased security around the Union Pillar since they knew we’d target them, which is why we needed to attack multiple places to draw them away. They also closely investigated any relatives of our allies, leading to them catching Ruby and her Mom, because they must have known we were getting information and aid from allies who were in the Demon Realm while we were trapped in the Human Realm…” he mused, rubbing his chin as he tried to work out what Hettie was implying. The fact that the Divided were back to normal proved that the core of their plan had worked, so what was Hettie talking about? Gus didn’t get the sense that she was just bluffing.

As he was racking his brain for an answer, the air in Cartilia suddenly got much colder, and the boy began to shiver and pull his winter clothes tighter to his body. Hunter was okay since he had his Slitherbeast Fur Bestial Blessing, but Lyra began shivering even with her own winter coat, so a smiling Hunter pushed her into Gus’s arms, where the two blushed and embraced to keep each other warm. Lyra then wrapped her wings around them both as a powerful blizzard began to rage just outside the cavern, triggering the activation of Cartilia’s emergency barrier. The city usually allowed in regular snow, but whenever blizzards raged, the barrier would appear to stop the city being buried in snow. Lyra was pleased to see that the barrier had been altered too, now covering the Spring District too. Blizzards used to be deadly there, as high winds would blow parts of the shanty town and its residents down to the ground miles below, but the Divider and his Wings of Rani had obviously taken care of that while revitalising the place.

“What a rotten time for a blizzard!” Gus frowned, as Hunter conjured a yellow fireball to further warm them.

“I don’t think the timing is coincidental… look!” Lyra gasped, nodding her head towards the blizzard, which was blotting out the view beyond Cartilia. A long serpentine shadow could be seen within, and it was no mystery who it belonged to.

Luz and Lars both smiled as they noticed it too. “It’s Zara!” Luz cheered; “She must have been freed from the Division too and come down here to help! I wonder if Steve and Katya are with her?”

At that moment, Zara emerged from the blizzard and began phasing through the barrier (which kept out weather, but nothing else), revealing her full form. Since she hadn’t been battled like Lars had been, she still had her Angelic Blessing from the Divider, and so she was even larger than normal. Her regular body was long enough to wrap around a single large room, like one of the halls of St. Epiderm completely, hiding it from view, but her new enlarged form was large enough to do the same to all of St. Epiderm! Her long winding body, which generated icy cold mist that looked like clouds, reminded Luz of Shenron from Dragon Ball. Her sleek white scales now glistened like the white plate armour of the Angels, only with an iridescent sheen, and the icy spikes down her spine and the dozens of pairs of icy legs she had were all now made of an almost sapphire-like ice that was a deep, dark ocean blue. The mace-like chunk of ice on her tail had also been reshaped into a snowflake-like blade, and it and her icy horns had gained the same sapphire hue, while her mane of cyan hair and matching long whiskers had become a pale gold, making Zara look almost like an Angelic version of an Ice Wyrm. Lastly, she sported Orion’s Ice Glyph over her heart, and the Ice Glyph that the Divider had on her forehead.

Luz and Lars both flew up to speak to her properly, wearing bright smiles. However, something made Gus smell a rat… the Wings of Rani looked unconcerned and weren’t pausing in their battle with Eda and the others. Surely after the trouble caused by Lars turning against them on Rani’s Eden, they’d be more wary.

Gus’s eyes suddenly widened as he remembered what Hettie had said; “The Wings of Rani are smarter than you think. They have a lot of respect for you CATTs, especially the Divider’s “Heroes” and the so-called “Hexsquad”. That respect means they’ve begun preparing to counter many of your tactics.”

One of those tactics had been turning the tide of battle against them by freeing the Divided, which had included Lars! Even freeing Eda/The Valkyrie had been less of a problem for the Angels than freeing Lars! So if the Wings of Rani knew the local Divided had been turned against them, then they had to know that included Zara and should thus be terrified… unless…!?

Gus, still holding Lyra tightly to him for warmth, turned to Hettie and yelled; “Was Zara’s Divided Orb in the Union Pillar!?”

Hettie’s answer was a cold smile, which sent daggers of dread through the hearts of Gus, Lyra, and Hunter. Gus looked up and tried to get a glance of Zara’s eyes through the mist surrounding her, and when that failed, Lyra drew a spell circle and created a gust of deep purple wind that blew the mist away just as Luz and Lars arrived in front of Zara’s face. As the mist disappeared, two things were immediately discovered; one was the golden ring of the Divided around Zara’s icy blue irises, and the other was the intense blue light building up in her gullet, to the point that it was shining out from between the scales on her throat.

Luz and Lars both gasped, as Gus screamed up to them; “RUN! ZARA IS STILL DIVIDED!”

Neither had a chance to react though, as almost the instant the final word had left Gus’s mouth and what they were looking at registered in their minds, Zara unleashed the attack she’d been preparing. The CATTs all screamed out in horror as Luz and Lars were engulfed in the intense blue and white beam of magic. The beam of concentrated ice magic was so cold that even things on the ground hundreds of feet below the point of impact received a thin layer of frost, and when the beam finally faded, Luz and Lars fell out of the sky. Eda screamed and flew to try and catch them while Hunter tried to flash over and do the same, but neither got there in time and their two fallen allies smashed into the ground of the Azure Sky District.

“NO!” Eda cried, fearing her daughter had been frozen solid and smashed to pieces, only to find that when the mist and snow kicked up from the landing settled, Luz and Lars were both whole and in one piece, though they were both still totally frozen. However, it looked more like the two of them had been petrified and turned into sapphire statues, as their bodies were totally crystalline and the same deep blue hue as the Ice Wyrm’s blessing-enhanced horns and spines. Eda immediately tried thawing them out with fire (trying it on a Lars’ hair first, just in case they’d actually been turned into the strange ice instead of just being coated in it), but the fire failed to so much as warm the ice. In fact, the ice seemed to drain the warmth from the flame and extinguish it!

“What is this?” Eda asked, totally bewildered.

“That is Sapphice.” Zara replied, her voice booming out across the city, “It is the coldest form of magical permafrost in the Demon Realm. It cannot be melted with Fire Magic or even magma, and renders those trapped within it completely frozen in time. Within that ice, they do not think, feel, age, or anything else; they are totally detached from the flow of time. Have no fear; the young Seraphim and my mate will not freeze to death or suffocate in that ice, and I will free them upon the return of the Lord Divider, so that they may receive his blessing.” Zara said, speaking kindly thanks to the Divider’s influence.

Eda scowled; Sapphice was supposed to be almost totally unmeltable, with only direct contact with the sun itself being enough to thaw the deep blue ice. The only other way of getting rid of it was by using suitably powerful ice magic to manipulate it, but only Titan level Ice Magic could counter Zara’s current level of power. Lyra, Gus, and Viney ran over to where Eda and Hunter now stood with their frozen allies, but seeing this made Zara begin charging up another of her super breath attacks. At the same time though, Zara flew in a circle and used her own body to create a massive spell circle, which conjured a huge diamond shaped chunk of Sapphice directly in the centre of the circle. It looked like a blue version of the crystal that held Rani’s Eden in the sky, and as soon as Zara finished charging her breath attack, she blasted it into the top of this crystal, using it like a prism to turn the white and blue beam into an Aurora of freezing magic that coated all of Cartilia.

Seeing what was about to happen, Lyra grabbed Gus and Hunter and fled into the shadows, but Eda and Viney were too far to grab before the light of the freezing magic hit them. Instead, Eda coated herself in the Anti-Magic aura and hoped it would be enough, while shielding Viney with her wings. The light of the freezing aurora completely coated all of Cartilia, and Eda felt herself being chilled to the bone even with her thick Harpy Mode feathers. However, the Anti-Magic was still able to counter the magic of Zara’s spell, preventing Eda and Viney from being frozen in Sapphice. They were the only ones on their side to be so lucky though, as Lilith, Kyrie, their Palismen, and every single Witch and Demon in Cartilia had been turned into Sapphice statues. In fact, the entire city had been frozen in the ice, making it look like Cartilia had been carved from the ice like a giant sculpture. It was rather eerie, and that feeling only got worse when Eda and Viney noticed that none of the Wings of Rani, or the still restrained Hettie, had been frozen!

“Dang it, Zara must be able to pick and choose what she freezes!” Eda cursed.

“Now we’ve got to deal with her AND the Wings of Rani without Luz!? We’ve got no chance!” Viney exclaimed, shaking in fear. “Did Gus and the others get away at least?”

“We did.” Lyra said, emerging from the shadows with her brother and Gus by her side. “It looks like the barrier around the city was frozen too though; no one can get in or out!”

The surviving CATTs frowned fearfully, especially as Zara loomed above them, panting slightly after the exertion of casting such a massive spell. She was quickly recharged by the eternal night however, and stared down at the survivors.

“You are a clever bunch to evade my magic. Most impressive.” Zara praised. “But it would have been easier for you to just accept being frozen. You cannot possibly hope to defeat me with only the five of you, especially with the Wings of Rani on my side too.”

The five unfrozen CATTs looked over their shoulders at the Angels, who were gathering their wits and preparing to surround and arrest the rebels. Thankfully, Luz and Lars had thinned their numbers, and more still had been defeated by the Reunited citizens, so only a fraction remained. If it weren’t for Zara looming overhead, Eda would be confident she could defeat them all herself!

Slowly and subtly, to avoid drawing attention, Eda conjured some Anti-Magic with one of the talons on her feet and applied it to the Sapphice on the ground beneath her, wanting to see if it would work to defrost the ice. While the Anti-Magic certainly did work to begin decaying the ice, it also destroyed the patch of ground that had been frozen, meaning it’d likely kill anyone she tried to defrost with it. It was just like when she’d tried to use it to cure Petrification (after Luz petrified a flower for her to test it on); petrification and Zara’s Sapphice Breath didn’t just coat the person in stone/ice, it physically turned them into that material, hence why they didn’t freeze, suffocate, or die of some other cause. That meant that destroying the material with Anti-Magic would destroy the victim too!

“My powers aren’t going to be enough to get the frozen people out of this, so our only choice is to defeat Zara or somehow overpower her ice magic.” Eda whispered. “My powers should at least work on Zara herself.”

“My ice magic could also help offset hers. Plus my illusions will help keep her busy.” Gus whispered back.

“We could also find and break Zara’s Divided Orb. Hettie knew this would happen, so she might know where it is, or at least have some clue.” Lyra said.

“Either way, the Wings of Rani aren’t going to sit back and let us fight Zara or search for the orb.” Viney frowned, turning to face the Angels, who were slowly beginning to surround them.

“If you and I work together Viney, we should be able to keep the Angels busy. That’ll give Lyra time to interrogate Hettie and stop them interfering with Gus and Aunt Eda as they fight Zara.” Hunter said, also turning to face the Angels.

The others all nodded in agreement, and with no further words passing between them, they suddenly rushed the enemy. Viney used the Wild Heart Spell to transform into her more primal form, while also casting the spell on Regant again to make him into a full-sized Manticore and summoning her pet Griffin Puddles to help even the odds against the Angels. Hunter also zipped into the Angels’ midst with his flash spell, whilst maintaining his three Bestial Blessings; Arapiama Gigas Scales for defence, Slitherbeast fur for warmth, and Griffin wings for flight, allowing him to use Flapjack solely as a staff for casting spells, and save his Angelic Blessing for an emergency. The sudden attack by two animalistic rebels and two actual beasts caught the Angels by surprise and put them on the back foot, causing Zara to begin preparing another of her Sapphice beams. Eda quickly put a stop to that by flying at Zara’s throat and slashing it with her talons coated in her Anti-Magic aura. Zara was forced to turn that portion of her body to ice and remove it, but the Divider’s Blessing and the eternal night allowed her to regenerate it almost immediately, while Gus used an illusion to hide Lyra from Zara and allow her to rush back to the still-bound Hettie.

Gus’s illusion worked like a charm, as once Zara had finished regenerating, she looked around for signs of Lyra and found nothing, making her draconic face fall into a neutral expression. She hadn’t been able to hear the CATTs discussing their plan thanks to Gus’s illusions, so she had no idea where Lyra had gone and assumed she’d left the city via the shadows to go get back-up from the others attacking outposts in the area.

“Reinforcements won’t matter. If anything, it’ll make it easier for me! Come little ones; if you don’t want to surrender, I shall send you into a cold sleep!” Zara roared, before firing another Sapphice Beam at them, focusing it on Gus. The boy tried to block it by conjuring a barrier of ice, but the beam just used it in the same way it had used Zara’s conjured ice crystal from earlier and spread out into a ray of freezing light. Gus nearly wound up frozen, but Eda was able to get in the way before that and stop the light with her Anti-Magic. Zara then fired another, smaller beam at much higher speeds, and while keeping her Anti-Magic in place, Eda conjured a Hooty Golem made of abomination slime (she couldn’t make one from earth, since all available surfaces were frozen solid) and had it swallow the beam. The Hooty Golem was frozen solid as a result, but the beam was at least stopped.

“Okay, so stick to opaque physical barriers to stop those beams!” Eda yelled to Gus; “I’ll focus on using Anti-Magic to chip away at her; you back me up with support spells, okay Goops?”

“Got it, Eda. Take these.” Gus said, using his own ice magic to create a rough pair of glasses, which he then cast a pair of illusion spells on. “I enchanted these to let you see through my illusions; that way I can cast wide area illusions instead of focusing them on Zara.” he explained, knowing that if he cast the spells on Zara directly, then Eda’s Anti-Magic would break them every time she struck the Ice Wyrm.

Eda nodded and slipped the glasses on, making a note to avoid letting her Anti-Magic aura reach her eyes. As soon as they were on, Gus cast a quick illusion, imbuing the magic into the icy mist he himself could produce and mix into Zara’s own mist, creating an olfactory illusion that made Zara smell Luz and Lars’ scents again. He then cast a visual and auditory illusion of the sound of cracking ice, followed by Luz suddenly breaking free from the Sapphice.

“Phew! My De-petrification magic works on this too!” the Fake Luz cried, Gus remembering how it had worked on Raguel’s Gold Transformation. He figured it really could work on the Sapphice, if her head hadn’t been frozen, leaving her in stasis.

Zara raised an eyebrow but ignored the fake Luz, even as she “freed” a fake Lars from the ice too. “Your illusions are impressive boy, but I will not fall for them!” she declared, instead shooting another Sapphice Beam at him.

Eda blocked it with another Hooty Golem, then darted at Zara’s head, where she fired a powerful heat beam from the end of Owlbert’s staff directly into Zara’s eye. The Dragon closed her eye to block it, her durable icy scales resisting the heat beam with only a bit of discomfort.

Despite Zara knowing his trick was an illusion, Gus persisted and created a scene in which the fake Luz gave the fake Lars an Angelic Blessing, which caused them to transform back into their full Thunder Wyvern form. The illusory Thunder Wyvern then flew at Zara and went to bite her throat, but the Ice Wyrm just ignored the fake and focused on Eda, certain that the fake was just meant to make her flinch. However to her shock, she actually felt a sharp pain as Lars’ jaws really did clamp down on the side of her neck, right in front of her first set of legs. The pain was cold and sharp, making her yelp in shock as Eda smirked. Thanks to the glasses Gus gave her, she could see that the boy had used elemental magic to conjure a large replica of Lars’ head, using the sharpest, hardest spikes of ice he could make for the teeth and water for the rest of the head, making it easier to manipulate.

Zara slapped her tail through what she assumed was Lars’ neck, hoping to make them release their grip on her, but as Gus had only made the head itself with his illusion, her tail passed right on through, making the Ice Wyrm realise the trick. She closed her eyes and sensed for all the ice and water in the area, feeling the concentration of it in the fake Lars’ jaws.

“Clever child, but you’ll need more than that!” Zara declared, using her control over ice and water to melt the fake Lars head and absorb the liquid into the wounds inflicted by its bite, regenerating in an instant. Gus, who was hiding behind an invisibility spell, then surfed through the air with Emmiline until he was behind Zara’s head. He then conjured another illusion of Lars’ Thunder Wyvern Form and made it roar, causing Zara to twist around in the air to face it. Sensing no water or ice from this illusion, Zara ignored it, but Gus used that to his advantage and used ice magic to form a giant snowflake with the lightning glyph pattern inside it. He then activated it, causing it to conjure a massive lightning bolt that shot out from the Fake Lars’ mouth and struck one of Zara’s horns, stunning her for a moment and making the horn snap off.

At the same time, Eda decided to take advantage of the fake Luz illusion by using her own illusions to make herself invisible, then making her own Illusory Luz begin firing bolts of light magic, which Eda was actually firing herself. Damaged by the lightning bolt and now being peppered with weak light bolts, Zara dispersed her own body into a massive blizzard, similar to how Lars could turn their body into lightning, and used it to blast Eda and Gus away with a powerful icy gale. They avoided being frozen by using a fire spell and fire glyph respectively, but the force of the gale still sent them both flying. Eda recovered thanks to using both her wings and Owlbert to catch herself, but Gus was actually knocked off Emmiline entirely, making him scream as he began to plummet to the ground. Eda gasped and tried to rush out to catch him, but Zara herself beat her to it, suddenly reforming her body directly beneath Gus, causing him to land on her cold but soft mane of hair. Enemy or not, Zara was not about to let the boy die; that was not how the Wings of Rani or the Lord Divider did things!

Of course, that didn’t mean she was naive, as she promptly sent a wave of ice magic through her hair and froze Gus in place. Since this wasn’t her Sapphice breath, she only froze him up to the neck so he wouldn’t suffocate, but the ice was still terribly cold and froze Gus into her hair, leaving him totally trapped. He couldn’t even summon Emmiline back to his side, leaving the little Palisman to scurry about down in the Ice District where her staff form had fallen. She’d suffered a minor crack to her tail from the landing, but was otherwise safe and healthy. Eda flew down to retrieve her, while Zara fired a Sapphice Breath attack on her, forcing the Harpy Woman to blast out more Anti-Magic to stop herself being frozen. Still, she managed to swoop in and grab Emmiline without either of them being frozen into Sapphice, so Eda considered it a victory.

With Emmie now tucked in Eda’s hair, the Harpy Woman draw a massive red and bronze spell circle, which began to erupt like a volcano, sending a torrent of lava upward into Zara’s underbelly, dealing massive damage to her icy form. The Ice Wyrm hissed in pain, then blasted the lava with her breath attack to turn it into chunks of Sapphice, which Eda then caught in a cyclone she conjured with a second giant spell circle, this time in silvery grey. The cyclone sucked the Sapphice chunks into its funnel, then pointed the end of it at Zara, causing the chunks to be launched at her as she worked to repair her damaged form. Eda was sure Zara would use the Sapphice to regenerate, but was wondering if doing so would consume the ice entirely, or free what had been turned into ice. She’d hoped this was a method she could use to get Zara to inadvertently free Luz and the others from the Sapphice. Sadly the plan failed, as Zara either wouldn’t or couldn’t incorporate Sapphice into her body (which was ironic, since her horns, claws, and spines appeared to be made of it).

“Dang it! How do I stop this overgrown snake!?” Eda cursed. “Lyra better squeeze the location of Zara’s Divided Orb out of Hettie soon, or we might be in-”

Zara suddenly fired her Sapphice Beam at a seemingly random spot a good ten feet to the right of Eda, missing her completely and not hitting anything at all, aside from the already frozen barrier.

“-trouble?” Eda finished, bewildered. Zara roared and flew in a circle to draw another large spell circle, conjuring a series of giant snowflakes that she launched at a series of random spots, trying to hit a moving target that simply wasn’t there. Eda was totally confused, until she spotted that Zara’s eyes were now glowing cyan.

Flying closer to the Dragon’s head, Eda noticed that Zara didn’t react to her approach at all, neither seeing, hearing, or smelling her. Then she finally got close enough to see Gus, and saw that his eyes were glowing cyan too, and had the Magic Amplifier worn over one of them. Considering his hands had been bound, the Amplifier must have been in his eye from the start, hidden by an illusion, and Gus was using it and the same spell that he’d used at Glandus to trap Zara in an illusion, making her think she was fighting Eda still. Such a tactic was surely using a lot of magic, even with the Amplifier, especially since he was focusing it on a single person of Zara’s calibre, but at least it gave Eda a chance to fly over to Gus.

“Hey Goops! You alright?” Eda asked.

“F-Fine, just a l-little f-freezing!” Gus shivered. “I c-can’t get myself out of t-this ice. Could you h-help me?”

“You got it! Just let me try something first.” Eda said, placing Emmiline on Gus’s head. The boy immediately noticed her cracked tail and frowned, but it wasn’t too serious and would heal on its own soon enough. Eda also left Owlbert to roost on Gus’s head, where he began trying to keep the boy warm as Eda coated herself in a thick aura of Anti-Magic, making it look like her body was entirely black and burning with dark golden flames. This stung like crazy, making Eda wince a little, before she began flying in circles around the entire length of Zara, drawing dozens of spell circles using the Anti-Magic. She ended up drawing a circle between every pair of legs, as well as around Zara’s tail and neck, only avoiding the ice glyph on her chest, where she suspected Zara’s Witch Body was contained.

Once the spells were in place, Eda stopped her aura and flew back over to Gus and held onto the back of his coat, before snapping her fingers to activate all the circles. Each one suddenly shrank down, slicing through Zara’s Ice Wyrm Body and thoroughly infecting her with the Anti-Magic. In an instant, Zara was sliced up like an eel, making her scream in pain as every part of her body, except for the area around her chest ice glyph, turned black from Eda’s Anti-Magic and began to decay. The chunk that didn’t decay rapidly reshaped itself back into Zara’s Ice Wyrm form, though considerably smaller, while Eda was able to free Gus from her mane of Zara’s now decaying head. The Anti-Magic almost infected him too, but Eda was able to easily deal with it, and Gus swiftly turned Emmiline back into staff mode and began surfing on her once again (though this time he used ice on his feet to freeze himself to her, so they wouldn’t be so easily separated again).

As Eda took Owlbert back, Gus watched Zara, who was now barely larger than a Snake Horse (or as Luz liked to call them, Snorses). The massively shrunken Ice Wyrm hissed and slowly began to release a huge amount of icy mist, which began building layers of frost over her body bit by bit, until after a couple of seconds, Zara was the same size as she’d been when Eda and Luz had first fought her up on the Knee, almost a year ago. Not only that, but the Sapphice horns, scales, and spines had been turned back into regular ice, and the ice glyph on her head had faded, meaning that even with the eternal night, Zara had needed to expend the Divider’s Angelic Blessing in order to restore her full form in a timely manner, since she couldn’t reincorporate the magic snow and ice that Eda destroyed.

Eda smirked tiredly; “Well that took a lot of effort, but at least now we’re only dealing with a regular sized Ice Wyrm and not the deluxe version! You still good to go, Goops?” she asked, punctuating her sentence by tossing a warming spell at Gus.

“My magic isn’t in the best shape right now thanks to all the illusions I’ve been casting today, and the huge one I used on Zara, but I’ve got a Power Glyph for an emergency boost.” he answered.

“Man, wish I could use one of those. Too bad they doesn’t play nice with my Anti-Magic.” Eda commented.

Before either could say another word, Zara suddenly shot towards them at incredible speed, billowing freezing mist to try and slow them down and blind them, while also charging her giant Sapphice Breath Beam. Gus slapped on his Power Glyph and gained an aura of cyan magic that gave him enough strength to take control of the icy mist encroaching on him directly while Eda cracked her back and twirled Owlbert to prepare some regular golden-coloured flames. They weren’t out of the woods yet!

________________________________________________________________________________

[Meanwhile]

The battle happening on the ground of the Azure Sky District was going only marginally better than the battle in the sky. The quartet of Hunter, Viney, Regant, and Puddles was holding their own remarkably well against the Wings of Rani, whose numbers had been diminished to a single Arch-Angel, a handful of High Angels, and about a dozen regular Angels. Hunter, who was able to fight with animalistic ferocity whilst maintaining his intelligence and focus, was serving as the living shield thanks to his high speed flash spell and hard scales, allowing him to zip in to protect one of the others from a hard blow, then flash away again to continue fighting a different part of the enemy group. Unfortunately, Viney was struggling a lot more than he was; maintaining the Wild Heart Spell on herself and Regant was draining and the lack of magic combined with the difficulty of controlling herself in her wild state meant she couldn’t use her Healing Magic, so she, Regant, and Puddles were all beginning to get worn down. They’d all taken out a lot of Angels already, and Viney had even managed to catch a couple of High Angels by surprise and bring them down too, but her luck was about to run out as the Arch-Angel took notice.

Drawing a massive spell circle with his own Palisman staff (which took the form of a Dolphin), the Arch-Angel created a crystal orb that began rapidly firing crystal needles at Puddles. A few struck the poor Griffin’s legs, making her stumble and trip right in the middle of slashing her talons at some other Angels. The needles were thin, being only slightly larger than an epidermic needle, but they were sharp and aimed with the precision of acupuncture needles, causing Puddles to loose strength in her legs. Hunter immediately flashed in the way to block the needles with his hard scale coating, but this was just what the Arch-Angel wanted. Without moving the orb, the Arch-Angel snapped his fingers and it began firing a second stream of needles directly at Viney. She dodged with her cat-like reflexes, but the stream fired wherever she was, and with the other Angels also attacking her whilst wearing armour that the needles couldn’t penetrate, the poor girl was soon overwhelmed and caught by the needles.

Viney yelped as her body seized up and she flopped to the ground, unable to move as the Angels grabbed her. Puddles screeched in fury, while Regant roared and pounced on the Angels, but then a trio of High Angels tackled Regant and began wrestling with him using magically enhanced strength, while a group of other Angels leapt on Puddles and began trying to wrangle chains around her beak and wings to hold her down completely. Hunter, having no choice, launched a pair of lightning bolts; one from each hand. One bolt hit one of the High Angels restraining Regant, stunning them enough for Regant to struggle free slightly and smash them into the ground with his scorpion tail, rendering them unconscious, while the second bolt hit the crystal orb and shattered it. The explosion of the orb sent shrapnel into the face of the Arch-Angel, making him reel back in pain, while Hunter then swept his electrified Palisman staff through the Angels pinning Viney to the ground, knocking them flying. With her arms free but her legs still immovable thanks to the crystal needles, Viney knew her goose was cooked in this fight, so with the last of her strength, she gave herself a Bestial Blessing of Slitherbeast arms, which she smashed against the ground to launch her forward at the distracted Arch-Angel.

For all his superior magical power and ability, the Arch-Angel’s physical endurance couldn’t stand up to a sudden pummelling from the muscular fists of a Slitherbeast, and unable to properly defend himself against them, the Arch-Angel was swiftly knocked out. Viney’s victory was sadly short-lived however, as the Angels restraining Puddles managed to finally knock the Griffin out with a powerful sleeping potion that they forced down her throat (though not before making one arachnophobic Angel scream and faint after a face full of spider breath), then dog piled onto Viney whilst Hunter was busy dealing with the High Angels restraining Regant. Viney tried her best, but she simply didn’t have the strength left to resist for long, managing to knock out only 2 of the 7 Angels that piled onto her before a sleeping potion was poured into her mouth too. She tried to spit it out but another Angel covered her mouth and pinched her nose, forcing her to swallow and sending Viney into a deep sleep.

With Viney unconscious, her magic faded and she returned to normal, but sadly so did Regant, who returned to his regular Palisman size. This did allow him to slip out of the High Angel’s grasp though, and he transformed into staff mode so Hunter could wield him and give poor Flapjack a break.

Panting slightly, Hunter regarded the remaining Wings of Rani. There were only 2 High Angels and about 6 regular Angels left now, but he was exhausted, Flapjack was barely able to stay awake as he nestled into the hood of Hunter’s coat, and Hunter only had an unfamiliar staff to fight with. It was looking grim!

“Please surrender, young man. We don’t want to hurt you. Let us put you to sleep, and I swear that you will awaken happier than you’ve ever been.” one of the High Angels offered.

Hunter scoffed; “No thanks. I prefer having free will. Besides, I’ve got friends and a real family; I’m already happier than I’ve ever been!” He’d spent too long serving a monster who hurt others while claiming he was doing it for the greater good; he would not fall for any more poisonous influences!

The Angels all sighed disappointedly, regarding Hunter with a mix of respect for his valiant skills in battle, and the kind of sympathy one gave to an ignorant child. It made Hunter fume, hating the pitying looks, but at least their reluctance to fight him gave him a moment to catch his breath. With Flapjack taking time to rest, Hunter’s Bestial Blessings had lost their power too, robbing him of his scales, warm fur, and Griffin wings, leaving him in an even more precarious position, especially as he was now freezing thanks to the damage to his coat. He went to use Regant to reapply them, but then suddenly had a thought; with 8 more enemies still left to fight, his stamina might not hold up long enough to beat them, which would be a huge problem for the others, but if he could find his second wind, he might just manage it. But the only spell he knew how to cast that could potentially have that effect was the Wild Heart Spell, which supposedly only worked on Demons… or rather, which didn’t work on Witches.

“But wait, I’m not a Witch at all. I’m a Grimwalker of a Human with some modifications to make me look more like a Witch.” he thought, imagining his pointed ears; “Maybe the spell will work on me after all? Who knows what it’ll do to a human or Grimwalker? If I can at least take these guys down or buy the others time, I’ll consider it a win!”

Taking his last chance at snatching a victory from the Wings of Rani, Hunter twirled Regant’s staff and drew the orange spell circle with it, causing the Wild Heart Spell to take effect. Orange light spread across Hunter’s form, but to his own surprise, the light was tinged with green too, with swirls of emerald magic twisting through it as it began to change him. However instead of the wild, feral rage and emotion that Hunter has expected from seeing Viney’s example and reading about the spell, Hunter felt a strange sense of calm overcoming him. He also didn’t really feel a rush of energy, but did feel his fatigue decreasing a good deal.

The Angels had no idea what was happening, but they weren’t about to stick around and find out, instead surrounding Hunter while one of the High Angels lunged at him with a sleeping potion in one hand and some conjured chains in the other. The instant he laid a hand on Hunter however, he was suddenly smashed aside by Hunter’s arm, which had become incredibly hard. The High Angel recovered and flew back, warily watching as the light faded from Hunter and his Wild Heart Form was revealed.

In this state, Hunter’s hair had grown longer, becoming a little more like a mix between his old curly hair and Luz’s longer curly hair with the colour fading to the colour of seaweed at the very ends, and his arms and the sides of his torso had become covered in stone-like scales, while the rest of his torso had become sleeker, with smaller, shiny scales that resembled a fish’s. Hunter had also gained a sturdy tail that looked exactly like a Selkidomus, and long triceratops-like horns on his forehead that resembled those of an Alpha Stonesleeper. Lastly, his shoulders and back now had blue bark growing all over it, looking like the bark of a Palistrom Tree.

Hunter took a deep breath and flexed, causing his body to swell to the proportions of a well-muscled adult, which strained the limits of his damaged shirt and coat. The only reason his new tail hadn’t shredded his pants was because they were enchanted like Angel clothing, so his Bestial Blessings could get through without damaging them.

“This body… did the Wild Heart Spell effect the Selkidomus, Stonesleeper, and Palistrom parts of me?” Hunter wondered, feeling shockingly calm (which he attributed to the Palistrom part of his being). It did make some sense; the Wild Heart Spell worked on Bug, Beast, and the rarely thought of Botanical Demons, and Palistrom Trees did have the uncanny ability to become sentient creatures when bonded with a person’s soul… In this case, Hunter’s Palistrom Body had bonded with his own soul, making him something akin to a Palisman. In a case like that, it made sense for the Wild Heart spell to work on him, giving him attributes from all the living beings that made him up. Hunter suspected that he’d be able to turn to stone in his sleep, and would likely be able to swim in the Boiling Sea without issue! Perhaps the wooden parts of his body could even be used as a source for Plant Elemental Magic, since Hunter was able to use it to a degree (it was one of the elements in Beast-Keeping Magic after all, and the main component of more general Plant Magic like Willow’s).

All these were questions for later though; Hunter was unfamiliar to the feeling of this spell, and while it gave him a sense of serenity, he also found that it wasn’t easy to maintain. He needed to end this quickly!

While the Wings of Rani were still gaping at his transformation, Hunter slapped his Selkidomus tail against the ground, using it to launch himself at the High Angel he’d smacked moments before. At the peak of his momentum, Hunter swept Regant’s staff at his legs, knocking the man off his feet and forcing him to catch himself with his wings. However Hunter then stuck the base of his borrowed staff hard against the frozen ground, managing to use it to swing himself around and headbutt one of the High Angel’s wings, impaling it on one of his horns. The High Angel screamed in pain, but the wound was fairly superficial and merely served to make the Angel freak out, until Hunter channelled Lightning Magic through his body, including the horn, shocking the High Angel into unconsciousness.

Two other Angels and the remaining High Angel all rushed him at once as Hunter was gently lowering the knocked out Angel to the ground after removing him from his horn, but their spells (a cannon ball of ice, a simple blast of non-elemental magic, and more crystal needles) either bounced off the bark on his back or the stone scales on his arms as he turned to face them. Deciding to test his theory from before, Hunter focused on his back as he channelled Plant Elemental Magic from his borrowed staff, resulting in several Palistrom roots actually growing from his back. They automatically grew into the shape of snakes and lunged forward, catching the two regular Angels by the neck, where the wooden fangs dug into their necks. Hunter combined this with a new Bestial Blessing that let him produce the weak Paralytic Poison of the Yellow Altus Newt, resulting in the poison coursing through the Angel’s veins and leaving them paralysed for up to 12 hours. He then wrapped one of the wooden snakes around his arm, making it slowly change shape until he had a Lion’s Head over his fist, which he channelled his Lightning Magic through.

“Here’s something from those video games that Luz likes! Thunder Fang!” Hunter yelled, grabbing the remaining High Angel with his lion head fist (which was the equivalent of biting him) and letting the lightning pass through the fangs and zap the High Angel unconscious.

With two High Angels and two regular Angels defeated in quick succession, only four regular Angels remained. Hunter was still outnumbered, and he could feel his Wild Heart form becoming harder to maintain with every passing moment, so he needed to take out the last four before he lost it entirely!

“Since Lars can’t fight for themselves right now, I guess I’ll end this with an homage!” Hunter muttered determinedly to himself as he allowed the wooden roots that had become the snakes and lion head to shrink back into the bark on his shoulder blades. He then used a combination of Plant Elemental Magic, Beast-Keeping Magic, and his new body to give himself wooden Thunder Wyvern Wings on his back, which he filled with Lightning Magic. Despite being wood and thus normally bad for such a thing, Hunter’s wooden parts could easily conduct his own electricity as if they were flesh or even metal, and this property also carried over to his stone horns and scales. With Lightning Magic pulsing through his wings, between the horns on his forehead, and down his tail, Hunter gained an electrical aura around him that truly did resemble a Thunder Wyvern.

Seeing him preparing an attack, the final four Wings of Rani decided to attack him at once, coming from all four of the cardinal directions. The one to the north conjured a light construct hammer to slam down from above, while the one to the south used the butt of his spear to swipe upward at Hunter’s chin, and the Angels to the west and east swung at his sides with conjured chains, hoping to cut off his escape no matter what direction he took. Hunter was undeterred though, and leapt up, his legs revealed to have become the powerful rear legs of a Stone Sleeper beneath his clothing. A lighting flash spell allowed him to dart around the hammer coming down on his head with ease, and left him flying directly above the four bewildered Angels. Now above them, Hunter blasted all the lightning he’d amassed directly at the helmet of the Angel who’d attacked with a hammer, as he was the tallest. A wyvern made of pure lightning shot from Hunter’s horns and zapped into the Angel, making him scream and knocking him out, before Hunter then used his finger to direct the Wyvern-shaped lightning bolt to the Angel to the west, knocking her out too. He then did the same twice more, directing the bolt to the eastern Angel, and then the southern one, making his spell travel in a pattern that resembled a lightning bolt.

“This is my first truly original spell! Wyvern Bolt!” Hunter declared as the four Angels collapsed to the floor as their convulsing muscles finally calmed and they went limp.

With the defeat of those final four Angels, the last of the Wings of Rani in Cartilia (or at least its fighters) were beaten, giving at least a partial victory to Hunter and the CATTs. Feeling his exhaustion grow, Hunter descended back to the ground and panted a little, releasing Regant to go back to Viney’s slumbering form and try to wake her. Hunter did the same after making sure the Angels were all bound (using scraps of their own cloaks or their own conjured chains to do so). He also found, to his disappointment, that none of the beaten Angels had the Divided Orb of Zara, so either they’d hidden it somewhere, or a non-combatant had it.

“I guess I’ll need to go see if Lyra’s had any luck getting the information out of Hettie…” Hunter sighed wearily. He didn’t have the strength left to fight, and with the potions still in their system, Viney and Puddles were down for the count too and Hunter had no way of waking them.

Taking a moment to catch his breath properly, Hunter looked down at the Sapphice that coated the ground, allowing him to see his own reflection in the polished surface, giving him a better look at what the Wild Heart spell had done to him.

With his hair longer and becoming like the seaweed mane of a Selkidomus, his Palistrom replicas of Wyvern wings, his stony scales, horns, muscular frame, and draconic legs from the Stonesleeper DNA in his body, not to mention his tail and sharpened fangs, Hunter found himself looking a lot like the image of the Devil that he’d seen in the Human Realm during his long stay there. It made him smile tiredly as he remembered Father Edwards’ words about his faith: Hunter looked like a Devil but was fighting to save people and preserve their freedom, while his enemies had been a “holy” man who’d pretended to be an Angel, and an actual supremely powerful Angel. The irony made him laugh; he almost hoped he’d be the one to find Belos again, so he could crush him in this form.

Putting that aside for now though, Hunter finally allowed the magic of the Wild Heart spell to slip off (easy to do now that Regant wasn’t with him), returning him to normal. The poor boy immediately began to shiver, while Flapjack hopped out of his hood and nuzzled his face, chirping worriedly.

“It’s okay, Flap. I’ll be… oh no…!” Hunter gasped, looking up as he saw the battle in the sky getting closer to him. Zara had lost her blessing and was now engaging in an aerial dogfight with Gus and Eda, but both looked to be flying slower as they got tired and to make matters worse, Zara looked to have noticed the sounds of battle on the ground going quiet and was looking for the cause. Seeing the Wings of Rani defeated and a single rebel still standing, the Ice Wyrm was now slithering through the air towards him.

“You are strong, little Rebel! I can smell the Crystal Heart of a Titan’s Servant beating in your breast, much like the one within my own! In another time, we would have served the Titan together! But now, we shall serve the Lord Divider together instead!” Zara declared, before firing a beam of Sapphice Light at Hunter. The boy was too exhausted to dodge, but thankfully Eda was able to fly in the way in time and decay the beam with Anti-Magic, while Gus cast an illusion over Hunter, stopping the Ice Wyrm from seeing, hearing, or smelling him.

“You’re exhausted, Hunter! Find a place to hide and rest up!” Gus told him.

“I will! Thanks Gus!” Hunter yelled, before grabbing Viney and throwing her over his shoulder and running towards St. Epiderm. He would have liked to take Puddles too, but couldn’t carry her or wake her, so he was forced to leave her behind.

He didn’t make it very far however, as Zara suddenly let out a strange roar that sent waves of cyan magic in all directions. Suddenly, everyone who heard it found the world around them shifting and changing in bizarre ways, with Hunter seeing everything as a reversed and upside down mirror image, Eda seeing everything as if their colours were rapidly changing, and Gus seeing everything as if the Sapphice had been replaced by different elements, like raging fires, spiralling winds, or blinding light. He could even hear the noises of the elements, though thanks to the Amplifier in one eye, Gus was still able to see the world as it really was in half his vision.

“An Illusion!? Zara can use them too!?” he gasped.

Zara grinned; “Naturally, little one. The power of Ice and Water is used in many types of magic; Abominations, Healing, Illusions, Plants, and Potions. I have passing skill in all of them, though I prefer pure elemental power. Most also have little use to a Dragon such as myself; this is the first time in quite a while that I’ve used the illusory arts. When the child Luz awakened me by freeing the Lord Divider, I never imagined I’d meet a child as young as you with skills capable of tricking even me!” she praised openly, the gold ring around her eyes twinkling. “But allow me to demonstrate another use of the element of Ice!”

With those bellowed words, Zara roared and released a massive torrent of snow, which formed together into a series of small snakes that rushed towards Gus. They reminded the boy of Luz’s Abominable Snowmen, and could fly like Zara whilst also shooting tiny versions of her ice breath. Gus was able to dodge them, but Zara had created dozens of them and Gus quickly found himself struggling to evade them all, especially with half of his senses being influenced by the illusion cast by Zara’s roar. At the same time, Eda was able to escape the illusion thanks to her Anti-Magic, but Hunter was not so lucky, and Zara promptly froze him with her full power breath attack, transforming the exhausted and disoriented boy into Sapphice along with Viney and both their Palismen, taking them out of the fight entirely.

“Goldilocks! Wildcat!” Eda cried, “Damn it, I’m gonna melt you like the overgrown popsicle you are!”

Zara seemed amused by the insult, and was certainly not threatened. While Gus fought the Snow Snakes (and made fairly short work of them with some fancy flying tricks that had him smashing them into each other), Eda charged at Zara in a desperate rage, using Anti-Magic to counter the Dragon’s breath attacks while launching fireballs at the Dragon. Her exhaustion was beginning to show however, and it combined with her desperation to impair her judgement and weaken her usual creative streak. In the end, Eda gave it her best but soon found herself defeated, ending the fight by trying to create several Abomination Hootys to bind Zara so she could find and drag her witch body out of her, but Zara simply melted herself into liquid and escaped the restraints, before engulfing Eda in her liquid form and flash-freezing her before she could use her Anti-Magic, causing the Sapphice sculpture of Harpy Eda and Owlbert to fall from her and hit the ground below with a loud thud, while Zara reformed herself into her solid form.

Gus, who’d just taken out the last of the Snow Snakes, gaped as his penultimate ally was taken out of the fight, while Zara was still at almost full power! She’d been forced to use up her Angelic Blessing, but thanks to the cold climate and eternal night, she was still fighting at basically full strength. Gus grit his teeth; he couldn’t give up though! Now everyone was depending on him! With illusions and ice magic, he’d keep Zara busy until Lyra completed her task.

Unfortunately, said task was not going well at all.

A short distance from the battle, Lyra watched with panicked eyes; Viney had been defeated by the Wings of Rani, Hunter had beaten the last of the Angels only to be frozen by Zara, and now even Eda had lost the strength to continue and been frozen! That left just Gus, herself, Hettie, and Zara as the only conscious and unfrozen combatants in Cartilia, and no matter how Lyra tried to plan it, she couldn’t see a single way to defeat the Ice Wyrm. It had taken all this effort just to drain away her blessing from the Divider, but while that had worked, now they were left with a still obscenely powerful Supreme Dragon and only a tired teenage Illusionist and a somewhat tired teenage Dark Angel left to deal with her.

The plan to get the Divided Orb to stop Zara was failing spectacularly; Lyra had tried everything she could think of to convince Hettie, short of threatening or torturing her (something they both knew she’d never have the guts to do), but none of her arguments or offers moved the restrained woman. Lyra had even tried using Shade to scry for the orb, but either because the Orb was made with Sephiroth magic or because it was in the hands of an Angel, he had been unable to find it or even its general location beyond “Somewhere in Cartilia.”. Even trying to look into the future failed to work, as all the possible futures involved Angels and thus couldn’t be predicted in this case. Lyra had even tried Divination, but without being able to take in the power of the Celestial Bodies thanks to the barrier, the cave roof above them, and the distortions in the sky, she wasn’t able to perform it, leaving her totally helpless.

“Just give up and accept your fate, Grimwalker. If being divided is truly an unbearable fate for you, then free me and die. I will at least make it painless and let you meet your end as your own person.” Hettie said coldly.

Lyra grit her teeth, trying to ignore the woman. She was just about to rush up and help Gus, and potentially swap places with him (his Illusion and Mind Magic might be able to pluck the truth from Hettie’s brain while she kept Zara busy), but then tragedy struck.

Gus attempted to use another Lars illusion; this time creating six of them and really stretching his remaining magic as far as it would go, then having all of them try to bite Zara, while only one of them would have a real set of giant ice fangs. The plan succeeded and Zara roared in pain as giant ice fangs clamped around her tail, but then she flailed her tail hard and smashed the jaws, sending giant ice fangs in all directions, with the top row being launched towards Lyra and Hettie. Immediately, Lyra had Shade assist her in blocking them with conjured shields that she summoned with the Minor Arcana: 8 of Rods. Each of them used the card and conjured eight shields, resulting in sixteen altogether, easily blocking most of the fangs… all except one in fact. Because everything happened so fast, Lyra and Shade hadn’t coordinated beyond simply using the card to block the fangs, and each believed the other was preparing to block the last one, which was heading right for Hettie’s head. Shade and Lyra both reacted, with the former trying to move a shield to block the fang, but only managing to catch the edge of it, causing it to break apart. Most of the shrapnel was too small to do more than sting, or had been caught by the shield and deflected, but the very tip of the ice fang still shot towards Hettie like a dagger. It would have hit and killed her too, but Lyra had jumped in the way without thinking.

There was a scream of pain as the spike of ice stabbed through the left side of Lyra’s abdomen, impaling her all the way through and splattering golden blood on Hettie’s face as the woman’s eyes widened with shock. Lyra fell to the floor, trying to stay as still as possible as she whimpered and bled. At the same moment, Shade let out an unnatural screech and rushed to Lyra’s side, while Gus cried out to her, having turned upon hearing her scream and being horrified that his tactic had not only failed, but had hurt someone so dear to him.

“LYRA!” he cried, flying towards her. He had just landed a few feet from her and began to run the last few steps, Emmiline’s staff in his hand, when a blank-faced Zara whispered an apology and fired a beam of her Sapphice Breath. Gus didn’t even see it coming, while Lyra did and opened her mouth to warn him, only for the beam to strike him before she could even take a breath. In a flash of blue and white light, Gus and Emmiline were frozen solid; transformed completely into Sapphice.

“No….!” Lyra cried, tears streaming down her face for another reason now. All of her friends and allies were frozen or unconscious, and she was run through with an ice spike and totally vulnerable, with Zara and Hettie looming over her. It was all over… the CATTs had lost! Luz was trapped and wouldn’t be going anywhere until Zara freed her, and with even the barrier around Cartilia turned into Sapphice, the chance of a rescue from outside was next to none. They could do next to nothing but wait for the Divider to return and divide them all… Lyra began to weep; her sacrifice to save Hettie may have just doomed the Demon Realm, Divine Realm, and everyone in them!

Lyra wasn’t the only one to realise this either, as Hettie stared at her in shock. The golden blood leaking from the girl’s wound made Hettie’s pupils shrink to pinpricks as the rest of her eyes widened. The feel of it dripping down her cheek made her begin to breath heavily.

“Why…? Why did you do that?” Hettie asked, totally dumbfounded. “I tried to kill you! I tried to kill your brother! So why!? Why did you save me!? Why sacrifice yourself!? Did you think I’d be grateful and tell you where the Divided Orb is!? Did you think I’d be moved and change my mind about you Grimwalkers!?”

Lyra shook her head, still in tears; “I didn’t think at all… I just didn’t want you to die.”

Hettie’s eyes somehow grew wider, and suddenly she wasn’t staring at Lyra any more. Now she was looking at her mother, bleeding out in front of her after being savaged by feral Grimwalkers. Her beloved mother, who’d shielded Hettie from the same monsters that had now doomed her to death.

“I couldn’t let you die, Hettie!”

She blinked, and the scene changed, showing her the dear friend with which she’d once dreamed of travelling the Isles, once they were old enough. Her friend who’d tackled a Grimwalker that had just torn off most of Hettie’s face. A friend whose throat had been bitten by the monster’s jaws, yet lay there dying with a smile of relief on her face, glad to see Hettie still lived.

“…saved you. Live, Het!”

She blinked again, and suddenly she was back in reality and staring at Lyra as she bled. The poor girl screamed as Shade pulled out the ice spike so Lyra could begin applying her limited Healing Magic to the wound. Lyra had a Tarot Card for this scenario; the Ace of Pentacles, which was King’s Healing Glyph Combo, but she’d dropped her cards and they were now splattered with blood, so Lyra couldn’t tell which was which and had to do things the slow way.

Hettie shook herself; the wound was painful and bleeding a fair bit, but it wasn’t lethal. So long as Lyra closed the wound enough before passing out, she’d be fine… and to Hettie’s incredible shock, she found herself relieved by that thought. Perhaps it was the shock of the girl’s sacrifice, or perhaps it was just her nature as a healer, but Hettie was genuinely glad the child wasn’t dying.

And genuinely afraid as Zara’s large face lowered down to look at the girl.

“Unfortunate. I am sorry that my battle with your friend left you injured. Do not fear though; you will feel no pain once I freeze you, and when you are restored, you will receive the Lord Divider’s Blessing.” Zara said as Lyra whimpered and stared up at her with terror.

The Dragon inhaled and her throat began to glow as she prepared a Sapphice Breath attack, causing Lyra to look away in defeat.

“Stop!” Hettie suddenly cried, shocking even herself.

Sure enough, Zara paused and both Lyra and Shade looked at Hettie in shock. “Stop? Why? She is in pain, Head Witch Cutburn.”

“Because…” Hettie wracked her brain for a reply; “Because in her condition, a sudden drop in temperature could send her into shock and kill her.”

Zara didn’t look convinced, but decided to err on the side of caution; Lyra couldn’t defeat her in this state anyway, so there was no harm in making sure she would be alright. The Ice Wyrm lowered her face close to Hettie and breathed out a stream of icy mist from her nostrils, which froze all of Hettie’s restraints. A click of Zara’s tongue then had the icy restraints melting into water, freeing Hettie completely.

“Heal her then, if you please. But be warned; I know of your grudge against Grimwalkers, and should you try to harm the girl, I will freeze you both. You may find yourself receiving the Lord Divider’s blessing early as a result.” Zara warned seriously.

Hettie, now free and shrinking back to her normal state, nodded and knelt down to begin healing Lyra. “I understand… as shocked as I am to admit it, I’m not so eager to kill this girl after she sacrificed herself for me.”

Lyra blinked in surprise; “You changed your mind.”

“No.” Hettie sneered; “Grimwalkers are evil monsters! They’re murderers and destroyers; aberrations that should be destroyed! But monsters don’t save people. Monsters don’t weep for anyone but themselves. Those are things that people do.”

Lyra looked at Hettie with confusion as Hettie began to heal her; “I don’t know what in the Titan’s name you are, girl. But you can’t be a Grimwalker.”

The young Dark Angel didn’t know what to make of that, but assumed this was some way for Hettie to accept reality in her troubled mind. She couldn’t be convinced that Grimwalkers were anything but monsters, so if a Grimwalker like Lyra did something that was distinctly not monstrous, Hettie rationalised it by trying to convince herself that Lyra wasn’t a Grimwalker after all. Lyra was no psychiatrist and had no idea if that was healthy or not, nor did she know what Hettie thought she was now if not a Grimwalker, but she wasn’t exactly in a state to be questioning it.

Hettie healed the girl slowly, focusing on numbing the pain of the wound first, then stemming the bleeding, before healing the wound as slowly as possible. She was obviously trying to buy time to sort out her feelings before Lyra was frozen by Zara, which gave Lyra the opportunity to try and think of a plan. Her eyes flitted over to where the frozen form of Gus still stood, and thanks to her skills as an Oracle, she could sense that his soul was still active within him, unlike the other frozen people, whose souls and minds had gone totally dormant after they were turned into Sapphice. Lyra didn’t know how he’d done it, but she earnestly believed there was no one on the isles as smart or creative as Gus! If anyone could find a solution to this whole mess, it would be him!

“Even now, I know Gus hasn’t given up! I know he’ll figure out a way out of this! With his Ice Magic and his soul still conscious, he might just be able to escape the Sapphice too! Come on Gus, I believe in you!” she thought, using a small amount of Oracle Magic to try and transmit her feelings to him through the shadows (a feat made possible by Shade still lingering closer by, watching both Hettie and Zara as they watched his mistress).

Having turned Hettie around (sort of), Lyra’s hope had been reignited, and seeing Gus’s soul still active set that reignited hope ablaze. The CATTs hadn’t lost just yet!

________________________________________________________________________________

[Meanwhile]

Gus found himself suddenly waking up in his own bedroom back in Bonesborough, bolting up in his familiar bed and nearly sending Emmie, who’d been asleep on his chest, flying. Thankfully Gus caught her before she tumbled to the ground, and pulled her to his chest again.

“Sorry Emmie!” he apologised, petting her head.

“No harm done, Gus.” she replied in a slightly snooty tone; “Unless we were rescued and thawed out back in your bedroom, I’d say your plan succeeded.”

Gus looked to a cork board on his wall beside his Human Treasures, and saw it full of new photos of himself with all the members of the Hexsquad in various Human Realm locations. These were pictures taken (mostly by Willow) during their exile in the Human Realm, and Gus still had them all stored away in his bag back at the CATTs hideout in the desert, which could only mean one thing; this world wasn’t real. In fact, it was a world he’d visited several times since the Day of Unity, as he practised meditation and mind magic; the world entirely within his own brain.

“My plan really did work!” Gus gasped.

As soon as he’d heard what happened to a person’s mind after being turned into Sapphice by Zara, he’d prepared a contingency in case he was ever caught by her. It was a simple spell that he’d cast on his own mind using the Magic Amplifier, with extra help from the Power Glyph he’d used earlier (which turned out to be the only useful thing he’d been able to do with it before exhausting its power), and was intended to send his consciousness into his own Inner World the moment his body was rendered unconscious by any means. This ensured that his mind would remain active even if the rest of him was sealed in the never-melting Sapphice.

“Man, our luck has been turning like a top today! But this is good; I should be able to send my consciousness back out to the real world. It’ll probably be like being conscious while petrified, which will suck, but at least I’ll have a chance to try and get through the ice! If I can figure out how to thaw myself out, I’ll be able to thaw out Luz too and the whole situation will turn back in our favour.” Gus mused.

“Let’s hold off on going back out there until you’re sure you can melt the Sapphice somehow.” Emmiline mused.

“Good idea. Now, melting Sapphice is only possible if you can produce sun-level heat or have supreme power over the element of Ice. Since I’m not gonna be conjuring mini-suns any time soon, I need to focus on refining my control and understanding of ice!” Gus declared. He closed his eyes and focused, but quickly found himself frowning. “But how exactly do I do that? Ice is the element of Fluidity and Adaptability, as well as Change and Protection, but I feel like I’m pretty good with all of those things.”

He opened his eyes and began to pace; “I’ve never been shy about changing and adapting; it’s crucial for illusions, without change and adaptability there is only stagnation, and stagnation is the death of creativity! No, I feel it in my heart; I understand those aspects fully!”

It was true too; his heart did feel a little warmer as he came to these conclusions, while Emmiline felt power stirring within him a little. She also felt something akin to the power King had used to link with her and Gus back in Samael’s Archive House back in the Divine Realm, and within that power, she felt something small and warm, which made her think of Luz and Stringbean. Something was building up inside Gus; he was right on the verge!

“But there is also Protection. Arguably the most vital aspect of the element of Ice and Water.” Emmiline pointed out.

Gus rubbed his chin and began to pace the room; “Of course I want to protect all my friends and the Isles. I’d do anything for them!”

“True, but think back to when Luz first bonded with the ice glyph. What was happening?” the Palisman asked. She’d heard the story from Gus a few times, as he’d been moved by the whole event.

Gus smiled as he reminisced; “It was back on Grom Night; Luz threw herself into the Boiling Sea to save Amity. She didn’t think about her own safety for an instant; she just knew she had to protect the person she loved!”

Emmiline nodded leapt from Gus to the top of his human treasure pile, then pointed her tail at the cork board laden with pictures. There were family pictures of Gus with his Dad, older pictures of him with Willow a few years back, pictures of him with the HAS, and of course, pictures of his adventures with the Hexsquad, Camila, Vee, and King. As Gus stood in front of the board and looked through the pictures with a nostalgic smile, Emmiline said;

“Love is a powerful emotion. While most associate it with fire and warmth, there are aspects of all elements reflected in it. There was love involved in all of Luz’s bondings; love for Eda and King with the first two, love for Amity with ice, love for Eda again with fire, love for herself with wind, love for King and Cassiopeia with earth, love for Lyra and the people of the isles with lightning, and love for herself once more, and love for everyone she cared about with darkness. There is nothing like love to make one understand certain aspects of life, so focus on both love and protection.”

Gus’s eyes widened; “You sound so wise, Emmie!”

“I’m a lot older than I look and sound, remember! I am Lady Emmiline Bailey Marcostimo! Now do as I say or I shall be most wroth with you!” she said imperiously, intentionally making herself sound like a fancy aristocrat.

Gus laughed and pet her in response, but did as she said anyway. He thought of times when he’d tried to protect others, and the times among those he felt a sense of love. He loved all of his friends in the Hexsquad and certainly helped protect them all in the past, but no single incident stood out as massively important… until he suddenly remembered the first time he was in the Ash Moth Desert.

Closing his eyes, Gus remembered a small body that was far too thin, belonging to a girl that was far too quiet. A girl who was both frail and strong at the same time. A girl who felt like she could protect herself, but also made Gus want to protect her. She’d nearly fallen into the lava, and Gus had mastered flying with his staff so he could save and protect her. His next thoughts moved to the Coven Day Parade and how he’d heard of what happened before it from Luz… his first thought upon hearing Hettie had wanted to kill the girl he cared about had been a sense of regret as he wished he’d been there to protect her. Then his thoughts moved to HECK, and how that same girl had risked her position and that of her brother to do the right thing… to try and protect Gus.

Like a flash of lightning inside his brain, Gus felt knew understanding; protection wasn’t just about the act of protecting, but of being protected, of wanting to protect. As his mind went to what happened after the incident with Belos’ mind, and the attack on Glandus, Gus realised that this extended also to protecting one’s feelings too. The flash coursed through his brain, like lightning jumping from synapse to synapse as an epiphany built in Gus’s mind and heart, making the warm he felt there beginning to grow into a flame.

Reaching out, he pulled a Polaroid picture from the cork board and smiled at it; it was a picture they’d taken at a Zoo in the Human Realm on his 13^th birthday. Lyra had learned that Gus wanted to be an Ambassador to the Human Realm and re-establish contact with the Giraffes, which Camila revealed to actually be a mostly mundane form of the Nightmare Kirin; a Greater Dragon species. Lyra had convinced Camila to take them all on a day out to the Zoo for Gus’s birthday, and made a special point of taking them to see the Giraffes. The picture in his hand had been taken by Willow, and depicted himself and Lyra screaming in surprise as the Giraffe (which had a bit more of its ancestor’s biology left than most of its species) roared at them and showed its demonic maw. Despite both himself and Lyra trying to flee in terror, they were both also trying to protect each other, dragging one another away, using their arms to shield one another. Of course, that little incident had ended with the two of them sprawled on the floor, blushing in each other’s arms as their friends giggled and teased, and Camila gently scolded the Giraffe for being rude (though it turned out he was more bark than bite, and had just been scared of the flash of Willow’s camera, leading to the girl apologising). It had been a harmless situation, yet both their first instincts had been to protect each other.

Slowly, the burning in Gus’s heart grew stronger, as the picture in his hand began to frost over until it was like a thin crystal mirror, which showed an entirely different image. It was a picture Willow had taken right after the Giraffe had scared them, and depicted Lyra and Gus both laughing on the ground, still entwined in each other’s arms and blushing a little. Just looking at the picture made Gus smile, and made him think of the girl in the picture… the girl who was currently out in the real world, badly wounded and at the mercy of Hettie and Zara!

“I need to get out of here and protect her! Even though Hettie was an enemy, Lyra chose to protect her even at the cost of herself! I WILL get out there and protect her, no matter what! We’ll protect each other just as we always have; body, heart, and soul!” Gus declared, feeling the burning grow even more intense.

Then, just as the feelings inside him were on the verge of spilling out, Gus felt something new. It was an emotion that wasn’t totally his, and caused his mind-scape to react as ice spread across the entire room. The ice was a pale lilac, and had star-like sparkles inside it as it spread, turning Gus’s room into solid ice, before it all shattered and revealed the world outside Gus’s room. This world consisted of Dell’s Palistrom Grove, with the sky above turned pitch black and illuminated by stars, with a beautiful full moon right in the centre. As Gus looked up at the starry sky, reminded of the girl whose wings looked just like it, the foreign emotions he’d felt before became even stronger and he heard a soft voice in his ear.

“Come on Gus, I believe in you!”

Gus closed his eyes, and when he opened them again they had become fierce and determined. Those were Lyra’s feelings; he was sure of it! Feelings of a person who believed in him! The girl who he had helped to change even as he changed himself, the girl who he’d help learn to adapt just as he adapted himself, and the girl who strove to protect him just as he wanted to protect her!

The burning feeling of power inside Gus erupted as his heart became ablaze with feelings. Emmiline felt this power and these feelings and jumped up onto Gus’s chest, feeling unrestrained pride in the young man she had chosen to be her new partner. He was still very young and had yet to be refined into his true potential, but that would come with time and Emmiline was so overwhelmingly happy to be a part of that. She was Lady Emmiline Bailey Marcostimo, and she would only ever accept the best!

In that moment Gus and Emmiline found themselves engulfed in light, as Gus’s mindscape was once again replaced by a new scene; this time an empty white void. It was just like how Amity had described when she bonded with the light glyph, so Gus looked down at himself and gasped elatedly as he locked eyes on the glowing blue ice glyph that now shone from his own chest, shining out even through his winter coat.

“I-I did it! I bonded with the ice glyph just like Luz did! I knew this would be the glyph she bestowed on me back then, but I’m shocked I managed to be the second to manage it! I’d have thought Willow would be next!” Gus said, smiling brightly.

“Willow is a remarkable young Witch, but you shouldn’t be so surprised that you beat her at something. You are remarkable too; Gus! After all, you are my partner.” Emmiline said haughtily.

Gus chuckled; “Whatever you say, Lady Emmie!” he replied, before his expression became contemplative as he looked down at the Palisman now resting over his heart, right beside the ice glyph on his sternum. “Do you think we can do what Amity and Ghost did too? Combine our powers and bodies? Amity was supposedly almost as powerful as a Seraphim in that form, and Supreme Dragons are on that level too… if we could combine our powers like that, we could defeat Zara!”

Emmiline nodded; “I’m sure we could do that if we desired. I can feel the power within you resonating with me too; it feels almost like a magnet pulling me in.”

“And would you be okay with that? Letting me use you as a staff is one thing, but this Palisman Fusion stuff feels like a big deal!” Gus said, a little worried. He didn’t want to pressure Emmiline into this by making her feel like she had no choice.

The Palisman snorted and flicked her long tongue out at the boy, getting him between the eyes as if she’d just seen a bug there. “Don’t be foolish! You are the partner I chose! The successor to my first partner and the one who carved me! While they will always have a special place in my heart, I will always be glad of the choice I made to not go dormant when they passed away, as it allowed me to meet you. A skilled young man with pride that did not become arrogance, and who reminds me of my old partner in some ways, while impressing me greatly in others.”

Emmie jumped into Gus’s hands and directed him to bring her close to his face, so they could bump foreheads gently; “I chose to bond with you, Augustus Porter. Do not make me remind you of that again; it is very rude to not listen properly the first time a lady speaks! Now, I believe my lord has another lady to save, as well as a Dragon to slay!”

Gus smiled brightly, happy tears in his eyes as he held Emmiline to his chest, right over the ice glyph. Mist began to emerge from them both, becoming so thick that it turned into water and engulfed them. That water then froze into an orb of ice, and upon it shattering, Gus and Emmiline left the vision and the mindscape together, their bodies bonded just as their souls had been.

________________________________________________________________________________

[Meanwhile]

In the real world, Hettie’s slow healing had just about bought all the time that it could; Lyra’s wound was almost completely closed and once it was gone entirely, Hettie would only be able to stall Zara for a few seconds more as she confirmed Lyra was completely safe to freeze. Despite this though, Lyra’s eyes never left Gus’s frozen form, as she felt in her heart that he would find a way to save them all.

However Lyra, Hettie, and Zara all found their gazes being drawn to a different frozen statue a short distance from them; the frozen form of Luz. The three ladies looked on in surprise as the ice glyph began to shine brightly on the back of the young Seraphim’s left hand, shining out even with Luz’s flesh turned to Sapphice. Zara was immediately on guard, suspected that Luz may be somehow using the power of the ice glyph to escape, but Lyra sensed that Luz’s soul was still dormant within the ice, and that something else was compelling the ice glyph to appear. The white ring of King’s incomplete glyph also began to glow on Luz’s chest, and a line of blue light emerged from the ice glyph on the back of her hand and stretched up the side of her arm, wrapping around the shoulder as it moved towards her collarbone, then suddenly descending diagonally across the left side of Luz’s chest and connecting to the white ring. The white ring briefly flashed blue, and a beam of blue light shot out of the incomplete glyph and headed towards Gus, where it struck his chest and revealed the ice glyph was manifesting there, just as the glyph appeared on Zara’s own chest in Witch form. The light shooting from Luz’s chest and the glyph on Gus’s chest combined to create an extremely bright flash of cyan light.

The sound of ice cracking rang out from within the flash, and Zara (unable to see due to the light) immediately fired her Sapphice beam at the source of the sound. A moment later and the light had faded and the three ladies opened their eyes and blinked away the spots in their vision, before Zara and Hettie gaped and Lyra smiled broadly as they saw there was no sign of Gus anywhere, just a few shards of a Sapphice shell. It looked like Gus had managed to transmute himself back into flesh, leaving only the thin layer of ice that had formed over him. Zara tried to sniff for Gus, or hear his breath or footsteps, but found no sign of him… until some of the Sapphice that now made up the ceiling of the Cartilia Cavern suddenly melted and huge tendrils of water shot down and ensnared Zara’s neck.

Hettie gaped as the Ice Wyrm was caught off-guard; what kind of magic could overpower the ice magic of a Supreme Dragon that embodied the element!? She was so shocked that she didn’t notice as Lyra was suddenly grabbed and dragged into the ice while an illusory replica was left behind. Lyra, not expecting it, had barely stopped herself from squeaking in surprise as she suddenly found the Sapphice beneath her melting too, turning it into a pool that she could be pulled into. The Sapphice refroze seconds after she passed through it, and despite being in water made from melting the coldest ice there was, Lyra found it rather warm, and the water refused to be anywhere near her nose and mouth, giving her a temporary air bubble to breathe with.

Finally, after a few seconds, Lyra found herself emerging inside Hettie’s office (which was turned into Sapphice, unlike the rest of the hospital’s interior). The water soaking into her clothes was pulled out by magic, leaving her as warm and dry as a bone, and letting her finally see the true form of her saviour.

As expected, her saviour was none other than Gus, and like Amity before him, he had fused with his Palisman and gained an entirely new form. His winter clothing had disappeared and his new clothing consisted of a blue open chested tunic in the same colour as Emmiline’s scales, with Gus’s chest being exposed from the base of his ribcage to the neck. Diamond shaped scales made of ice formed a line above the exposed ice glyph on his chest, and a similar band of these scales was worn around the waist of the tunic like a belt. The tunic featured long white sleeves that ended in darker blue cuffs that appeared to be made of ice, resembling a lighter form of Sapphice. Gus’s lower body was clad in matching white pants that stopped at the knee, where he wore yet more bands of ice. Beyond his outfit, Gus had also gained numerous attributes of Emmiline; his legs beneath the cuffs were replaced by reptilian versions with blue scales and long dark navy claws (though the legs themselves were still human in shame), and his hands had similarly become clad in blue scales, which faded into a shade of yellow on the palms, similar to the kind that was found on the Chameleon species that Emmiline was based on; the Silverite Sheen Chameleon. Unlike the actual species or Emmiline herself though, the fingers of Gus’s hands were now webbed, likely a result of Gus’s affinity for ice, or rather water magic. Sprouting from his tail bone was a curled Chameleon tail too, though the curl wasn’t as tight as Emmie’s, and the underside had the pale yellow scales too. Finally, Gus had gained lighter blue eyes, while his hair had been reshaped and coloured into the scaly crest of Emmiline, and he’d also gained icy horns like hers, and a single icy blue scale on his chin, which resembled a chin strap beard.

“Wow…!” Lyra gasped, eyes sparkling as she took in Gus’s new form; “You look incredible.”

“Thanks, Lyra.” Gus smiled, feeling as incredible as he looked; “Emmie and I have become one and bonded with the ice glyph that Luz gifted us! I can feel the magic of the Titan, Luz, and King rushing through my body! With this, I think I can stop Zara!”

“Amazing! I knew you could do it!” Lyra beamed, hugging the boy (who was pleasantly cool). When she let him go though, trying to ignore both his blush and her own, she couldn’t help but ask; “How did you escape the Sapphice exactly?”

Gus grinned and tapped Hettie’s desk, which had become Sapphice too. The whole thing melted into liquid, and he then touched one of the chairs, causing it to steam lightly before returning to normal, not even damp after being thawed out.

“Zara may have ice powers granted by a Titan, but I have the same powers from the same Titan, plus another one and a high-ranking Angel! I can counter her Sapphice magic now! Once I finished this transformation, I could freely turn my body back to normal! I can turn into Sapphice too; watch!” Gus said, holding up his arm and making it shimmer as it turned into regular ice, then Sapphice, then back to flesh. “I can turn myself into water too, but it takes a lot more effort to control myself in that form.”

Lyra looked at him in amazement, but as Gus looked back, he noticed the hole in her coat that was stained with golden blood, making him frown. “But what about you? You took a nasty wound there for a while. Did you heal it?”

“Hettie did. She’s convinced herself that I can’t be a regular Grimwalker after all, since I saved her life while a “real” one wouldn’t do such a thing.” Lyra shrugged. “But that’s a topic for later; we need to free the others and end this battle! Hunter and Viney already took out the Wings of Rani, so if we beat Zara then Cartilia will be officially liberated!”

“Do you have a plan? I’m a little tired, but Waffles and I are still good to go for a while longer!” Lyra continued, smiling determinedly, her Palisman chirping from her shoulder.

“I do. My new powers are amazing, but they aren’t strong enough to thaw out the entire city so I want to defeat Zara while keeping her as healthy and strong as I can, so she can help me undo everything.” he reached back to his tail and gently eased off one of the scales there, before showing it to Lyra; “If I can get this scale directly inside Zara’s body, I’ll be able to keep her totally distracted for a little while; that’ll give us time to either put her to sleep entirely or get the location of the Divided Orb out of Hettie.”

He handed the scale to Lyra, who found it to be pleasantly cool and brimming with magic. It was about a third of a size of her Tarot Cards, so she slipped it up her sleeve and out of sight. “Okay, I’ll do my best to help you! Tell me what you want me to do.”

Gus smiled and leaned forward as he explained his plan.

While this was happening, Zara was keeping her eyes peeled for any signs of Gus, but found nothing. She had escaped his watery restraints by freezing them again and then turning into a snow flurry to phase through them, but now she was faced with the difficulty of actually finding the boy. She couldn’t see, hear, or smell him anywhere, though she knew he had to be around somewhere. “An illusion… clever boy.” she muttered, before briefly transforming her draconic body into water and releasing a wave of her own illusion magic throughout her body, breaking Gus’s spell on her. She felt some magic slipping off her, but was surprised to find that she still couldn’t detect the boy.

“Visual and Auditory Illusions rely on magic channelled through the medium of light and vibration. It isn’t difficult for most Illusionists to manipulate light and vibrations to make people see and hear what they want them to. But this boy is capable of Olfactory Illusions, which means he can channel his magic through the tiny particles we inhale through our noses, allowing him to trick the Olfactory Nerve into detecting smells that aren’t there, or mask smells that are there… he must do this through water vapour. A child that can control Water and Illusion Magic that finely can likely also use fine barriers to prevent smells, sounds, and even light passing through… which means I won’t be able to find him through conventional means.” Zara mused, a smile growing on her draconic face.

She was rather pleased to be facing such an intellectual opponent! However she was an intellectual person herself, and was not shy about admitting it! She was easily the wisest of the three Supreme Dragons that had served as Temple Guards, just as Lars was the calmest and best leader, and Godric was the most powerful, but she rarely needed to use her intellect now that she had this powerful body; most threats were too easily dealt with!

“This might actually be an entertaining challenge! Let us see how you do, young man!” Zara roared with a huge toothy grin. Keeping her body in a liquid form, making her a Water Wyrm, she began to fly through the sky in a giant figure eight, forming an infinity symbol while charging her breath attack. Instead of releasing the breath though, she allowed its light to refract through her watery body, creating a prism-like effect that resulted in a shifting rainbow aurora flooding the streets of Cartilia. Everything the light touched began to grow a tiny bit warmer, causing the cool mist in the air to gradually become condensation on the still frigid cold Sapphice. As an Ice Wyrm, Zara could heat things up by absorbing the cold into herself, whilst cooling them down by expelling the cold from herself, and by using her Aurora Veil, she could freely manipulate the temperature, and as the mist that became condensation was made from her body and magic, she could feel everything it was in contact with. This included barriers, like the one Gus was currently using to hide himself.

Turning her head towards Hettie’s frozen office, Zara grinned; “Found you, Illusionist.” she whispered to herself.

She began to snake her way over there, but decided it would be prudent to remove any unnecessary complications, so she looked down to where Lyra appeared to be and went to freeze her with the Sapphice Breath she’d prepared. Hettie opened her mouth to protest, but Zara was confident the girl was healed enough that she wouldn’t go into shock from being turned to ice, so she ignored the woman and shot some of the prepared magic at Lyra, turning her into Sapphice.

“Only one rebel left to deal with… and I know where you are!” Zara suddenly yelled, whipping her tail towards Hettie’s office and smashing away a huge chunk of the wall beside the broken window. She then unleashed a roar laced with Illusion Magic, causing Gus’s illusion to be broken and for the real Gus and Lyra to become visible again. Zara was immediately struck by the sight of Gus’s new form, as well as the fact Lyra was with him and unfrozen!

“What!? Did you somehow become a Dragon Witch too!? The ice glyph of Lord Orion is on your chest, and those scales and horns… do I have a little brother now?” she asked with a grin, looking excited by the prospect. She then turned to Lyra, though not before looking down quickly and confirming the frozen Lyra was still present; “And how did you trick me with a fake Dark Angel? Even with Visual, Auditory, and Olfactory Illusions, I would have been able to tell that girl down there wasn’t really there!” her eyes then widened as she came to the solution herself; “A doll! You used some kind of mannequin or fake to trick my detection!”

Gus grinned; “Yep! An Ice Doll! Have a few more!”

He swung his tail at Zara, causing several scales to fly towards her. Each scale was engraved with a mini-ice glyph, which began to generate a large amount of water that immediately shaped itself into replicas of either Gus or Lyra. The water then froze in places while the scales in the centre of the replicas glowed with an iridescent light, covering the replicas in illusions that made them look, sound, and even smell exactly like the real things. Gus and Lyra then flew up (Gus now possessing the same Palisman flight abilities that Amity had in her own fused form) and joined the replicas, before they shuffled themselves around rapidly, making it impossible for Zara to tell which ones were the real ones through any of her senses.

As Zara looked at them with a blank face, the real Gus and Lyra were actually observing from inside the frozen walls of the Caduceus Grand Hospital. As soon as they’d seen Zara create the Aurora Veil and then look towards them, they’d known she’d figured out where they were, meaning she’d found a way through the illusions Gus had put up. She’d still fallen for the ice doll of Lyra though, making Gus think she couldn’t actually see through the illusions; she’d instead found a way to know which ones to ignore by their lack of physicality, but since the doll had been physical, it had tricked her. That meant Zara had to be able to find them through touch, and when combined with what else he’d observed, he figured out it must be the condensation she was creating with the mist from her body and the Aurora Veil. It was the only solution that made sense with what else he’d observed, so Gus had hidden himself and the real Lyra inside the Sapphice, where the condensation made from Zara’s body couldn’t reach them. A simple illusion was cast to make sure Zara couldn’t see them through the translucent ice, and Gus had used his new mastery of Water and Ice Magic to keep it away from Lyra’s face, giving her an air pocket to breathe with.

Back outside, Zara decided not to waste time trying to pick out the real one and simply swiped her tail through the whole crowd, aiming to smash the fakes while slapping the real ones out of the sky with the flat side of the giant snowflake on the end of her tail. Instead, she pulverised all of them, making her blank expression freeze on her face as she tried to comprehend what had just happened. It didn’t take her long to figure out that this was another trick of Gus’s, and she immediately began searching for them with her Aurora Veil. Taking advantage of this, Gus signalled Lyra to go into his shadow, then once she was safely tucked away, he used his magic to create individual clones of himself and Lyra out of the Sapphice, which he then had burst out and attack Zara as she was looking in a different direction. The clones managed to land a blow on her, with the Lyra Clone slicing a deep cut into her by using her Waffles staff, which was coated in an illusion that made it look like she’d turned her staff into a shadow halberd, when in reality it was a normal ice halbert disguised as the clone’s staff.

The wound made Zara yelp and twist her body, but the Lyra Clone kept its grip as the Gus Clone began running up Zara’s body on all fours. The Clone reached her heart and then mimed drawing a spell circle while the real Gus made an illusion of a spell circle to trick Zara into thinking the clone was casting a spell on her. As expected, Zara (who still had some breath energy saved up from before) blasted the clone Gus with the Sapphice Beam, then continued on and did the same to the Lyra Clone, making both go rigid and fall to the ground below. Zara then turned her wounded flesh into water and had it meld back together before becoming flesh again.

Now that Zara’s throat no longer contained the blinding light of the Sapphice Magic, the next phase of Gus’s plan was to get her to open her mouth nice and wide so Lyra could get inside through the shadows (as total darkness was just as bad as total light for shadow travel). To accomplish this, Gus created an illusion of thousands of Gus Clones, and mixed in a few Sapphice Golems shaped like him too. Zara began swishing her tail through the thousands of flying clones, occasionally feeling the impact of the Sapphice Golems, but thanks to Gus’s meticulousness, it was impossible to tell which ones were golems and which ones were just illusions through anything but touch, and since the Golems kept attacking and making it impossible to stop and use her Aurora Veil, Zara had no choice but to dispel the purely illusory clones with her Illusion Magic-Infused Roar.

Zara opened her mouth wide and roared as loudly as she could, causing all the illusions to pop into clouds of cyan smoke that briefly blinded Zara and forced her to stop roaring so she could cough. In that exact carefully timed moment, Lyra emerged from the shadows inside Zara’s mouth and immediately took flight using Waffles (so the flapping of her wings didn’t draw Zara’s attention. The sound of Zara’s own coughing also kept the sound of Lyra’s breathing from being noticed by the sharp-eared Dragon, allowing Lyra to carefully take out the scale Gus had given her before and gently wedge it into the gums of Zara’s massive jaws, sticking it right into the part of the jaw where a fang protruded. It was so small that Zara didn’t even notice it, and if she had, she would have dismissed it as just something she’d coughed up while clearing the air of the Cyan smoke (which Gus was making more of by conjuring and immediately dispelling illusions.

However, that was the moment in which things seemed to turn on the two young CATTs. Zara’s tongue suddenly lurched up in her mouth as she used it like the tongue of a snake, flicking it out to “smell” the area since her nose was being clogged by the smoke. This caused her to brush her tongue against Lyra’s foot, making her realise someone was in her mouth. Before Lyra could flee into the shadows, Zara’s jaws clamped shut and the Dark Angel found herself in total blackness. This didn’t last long though, as the Dragon’s mouth was soon filled with light as she prepared a Sapphice Breath attack. Lyra screamed and pounded on the inside of Zara’s mouth with her small fists, trying in-vain to escape, right up until Zara let the magic of her breath attack fill her mouth and froze Lyra and Waffles solid. Zara then opened her mouth and spat out the ice sculpture that had once been the Dark Angel, much to the shock of Hettie down below.

“What!? When did you swallow her!?” the Healer exclaimed.

“I didn’t. It seems this little bird wanted to attack me from within. Clever, but futile. Keep an eye on her for me, lest the boy free her with his new powers.” Zara said, gently placing the frozen Lyra on the ground beside Hettie.

The continuous waves of clones had come to an end, with only the last solid ice clones being left to hover in the air, held aloft with Gus’s magic. Zara assumed the shock of his plan failing had left Gus frozen in shock and trying to think through his next move. She knew what this move was though, as she flicked her tail out and smashed the last of the ice clones to smithereens. Just as her tail reached the apex of its swing and lost momentum, ready to swish back behind her, Zara saw a puff of smoke as three Gus Clones leapt out at her. She gave a quick roar to dispel them, revealing one was an ice clone that she effortlessly caught in one of her paws and crushed. More Ice Golems then appeared and attacked, making Zara smirk as she flew in a circle, preparing a spell circle that summoned a massive ice ball to throw at the golems. The ice ball was way too much for the golems to handle, but they were suddenly chomped by Zara’s fangs, revealing the ice ball was actually intended for something else.

The ball began to glow in the middle and Zara boasted; “Once this ice ball is complete, it’ll explode with enough magic to turn the entire Knee into Sapphice! Even you can’t escape this, little Illusionist!”

In response to that, dozens of Ice Golems of Gus began to emerge from the ceiling of the Cartilia Cavern and dive towards Zara, aiming to take her out and stop her spell. She roared in response, creating dozens of spikes of ice that she launched at the golems, shredding them mercilessly. After a few seconds of this, with the ice ball growing bigger as more waves of golems and icicles crashed against each other, the real Gus finally launched himself out of his hiding place in the Sapphice outer wall of the Caduceus Grand Hospital and lunged for the ice ball in a desperate attempt to destroy it. Zara grinned, having expected this since the smart boy would surely know she wouldn’t use such lethal force against the real him. She instead shot a few simple ice beams at him from the spikes on her back, trying to freeze him as he dodged back and forth. He was a speed demon in the air though, and avoided her beams with ease, even coating his own feet in ice and sliding down one of the beams to get closer to the ice ball. Finally, he got close enough to launch himself forward with an ice beam of his own, firing it from his foot like a turbo booster whilst coating his fist in ice. This icy coated was turned it into a massive spike that he thrust into the ice ball with a loud yell;

“Ice Shard!”

However, despite all his efforts, the attack did nothing… the ice ball and Zara herself both burst into cyan smoke, revealed to have been an illusion the whole time. Gus gaped in total shock, before he was suddenly hit from behind by the flat of Zara’s tail, causing him to be smacked straight into the waiting claws of the real Zara, who appeared from beneath an invisibility spell.

“W-What!? How!?” Gus cried in shock.

“Simple.” Zara smiled; “The spell circle I used to begin making the ice ball was actually to turn myself invisible and create that illusion. I hid within the illusion and fired those icicles and ice beams until I’d lured out the real you, then the instant you thought you’d won and my deception was unveiled, you were so stunned that I was able to easily catch you before you applied any more of your little tricks.”

Gus’s eyes widened as he began to struggle in Zara’s grasp. Her smile widened a little as she felt the texture of his clothes and scales, and his body warmth (which was cool, but certainly not ice cold). There was no way Gus could create an ice replica of himself that actually felt like the real him, so there was no doubt in Zara’s mind that this was the real him.

“You’ve fought well, young man. Perhaps after you’ve received the Lord Divider’s blessing, he can assign you to me as an apprentice; I can show you how to use your new powers far more efficiently. Though I will have to take some unpleasant measures before that point.” she said, her smile fading to a monotone as she made one of her whiskers wrap around Gus’s throat and begin to choke him. “I apologise for this, but you find a way to preserve your mind while frozen before, and even escaped and thawed my Sapphice; I cannot take that risk again. Forgive me.”

Gus choked and gasped for breath as the whiskers strangled him, gripping him just hard enough to close his airway. With a final look of despair and defeat, Gus closed his eyes and stopped struggling, whereupon Zara released his neck and inspected it carefully to make sure she’d done little to no damage. The boy seemed to be alive and unconscious, but Zara wouldn’t put it past the boy to be playing another trick on her somehow, so decided to make use of Hettie first.

Zara slowly flew down to the ground and wrapped around the city hall before releasing an aurora of light from her spines, which caused all the buildings turned to Sapphice to immediately thaw and return to normal, while the ground of the Azure Sky District did the same. Confident Gus couldn’t now dive into it and escape if he was faking, Zara lowered her head down beside Hettie and gently placed Gus’s unconscious form in front of her.

“Please inspect the boy. I wish to make certain that he is unconscious. Also, give him a brief health check-up and then anaesthetise him before I freeze him. We can’t be too sure with this boy.” Zara instructed.

Hettie, visibly frightened, edged over and checked the boy before nodding up at Zara; “He is unconscious.” she said, before making her fingers glow dark blue and jabbing Gus’s fallen form with them, applying an anaesthetic spell and making completely sure that Gus was unconscious and staying that way. Zara then shot him with a small bit of Sapphice breath, turning him into solid, unmelting blue ice.

“There. With all these precautions, I believe we are safe. Head Witch, please go and treat the defeated Wings of Rani, then move all the frozen people who are confirmed rebels into the centre of the district. The rest of the frozen people will remain so until the Wings of Rani are able to confirm who was once divided and who wasn’t.” Zara ordered, before using her powers to fully thaw the rest of the city and the weather barrier around Cartilia, leaving only the people still frozen.

“I-I’ll do my best, but it’ll be hard to treat all these people by myself.” Hettie said, looking to the fallen Wings of Rani.

“I did not freeze the healers or anything else on the interior of your hospital, beyond your office. You can get help from your Coven and the Angel Healers.” Zara said. She wasn’t about to flash-freeze a hospital full of sick people! She’d merely frozen the outside, keeping the people trapped inside.

Hettie accepted this and got to work. As she dragged the frozen Gus to the middle of the district, she said to Zara; “You look exhausted. Perhaps you should take a rest? It will take a long time to treat the Wings of Rani, then sort through the citizens, so a nap wouldn’t go amiss.”

Zara thought about it, feeling her eyelids growing heavier; “Perhaps you’re right…”

“I definitely am. In fact, I’m officially prescribing a nap. Doctor’s orders.”

That earned a chuckle from Zara, who fully coiled up around city hall and rested her head on her coils; she had captured Luz, Lars, and Eda, and defeated several other rebels, including three other members of the Hexsquad! She had earned a proper break!

Zara closed her eyes and soon fell into a comfortable sleep, having just ensured the defeat of the Rebels and the success of Project Paradise. The last hope of the CATTs had officially been dashed…

…Or at least, that’s how Zara had seen the entire sequence of events.

As the slumbering dragon snored away, completely oblivious to the outside world, Hettie and the Healing Coven all sighed with relief as the glow of anaesthetic spells faded from their fingers. Hettie then turned to the very much unfrozen Gus and Lyra, then said; “I’m not entirely sure what I just witnessed, but it appears your grand plan worked, Mr Porter.”

Gus grinned, while Lyra looked almost as puzzled; “I don’t really get what I just saw either. It was like she was experiencing an entirely different reality!”

From the perspective of Lyra, Gus, and Hettie, Lyra hadn’t been frozen at all; rather she’d escaped through the shadows without being noticed. Everything else that happened had been a mirage in Zara’s mind, while her opponents watched from safety as she fought against an enemy that wasn’t there!

Gus held up one of his scales and began to explain; “With Emmie’s power, along with the boost I got from the Titan through this glyph, I was able to finally perfect my ultimate illusion… Tactile Illusions.”

“You mean you created illusions that could be touched!?” Hettie exclaimed while Lyra gaped at him.

“Yep! Touch and taste! It’s all thanks to this.” he pointed to the scale he’d pulled off, which was just like the one placed inside Zara’s gums. “This scale is like a human device, called a Wi-Fi router. Basically, it lets me connect my mind and magic to anything else attached to it. After getting Lyra to stick it into Zara’s flesh, right next to one of the nerves in her fangs, I was able to use my magic to send whatever signals I wanted to her brain. I essentially tricked her into feeling, smelling, hearing, seeing, and even tasting whatever I wanted her to. I was also able to subtly influence her behaviour with mind-altering magic!”

“You essentially transformed yourself into a second brain, acting as a middleman between her nervous system and her brain functions!” Hettie exclaimed; “This is revolutionary!”

“So, when she was flinging icicles and making herself invisible, and all that nonsense about freezing everything with that ice ball… she saw you reacting to it? She felt you fighting her?” Lyra asked, amazed.

“Yep! She felt the ice golems that were never there, grabbed and choked out “me” without ever touching the real me or noticing she was holding nothing at all, and had a whole conversation with a version of Hettie who wasn’t real, all while the real one got her Coven to come and help put Zara to sleep.” Gus grinned.

Hettie and Lyra exchanged shocked looks as they thought back to their own perspective of the last few minutes.

When Zara had fallen under Gus’s sway, he and Lyra had emerged from hiding beside Hettie to tell her the plan and get her agreement. As thanks for saving her life, and due to her still complicated feelings surrounding Lyra, Hettie had agreed to help knock Zara out and maintain peace with the two young rebels until they could speak peacefully and come to a proper resolution. Then when Zara thawed out the entrance to Caduceus Grand Hospital before her conversation with a fake Hettie, the real Hettie had gone in and summoned out her Coven Members (including Healer Dorothea) and had them begin shooting anaesthetic spells at Zara to make her feel drowsy, which had led them to this moment.

“It’s hard to even get my mind around all of this…” Hettie sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

“For once, we agree.” Lyra said, before shrugging and smile; “Well whatever; what’s important is that Gus is amazing and Zara is down for now. Once we break her Divided Orb and free our friends from the ice, this mission will officially be a success!”

Gus blushed at the compliments, even as he thought the exhaustion filling him. Using his Full Body Tactile Illusions had been incredibly draining, to the point he only managed it thanks to the Magic Amplifier he took from Vernworth (and which had seemingly melded into him during his fusion with Emmiline). In fact, he was so tired that Emmiline had gone completely silent within him, focusing all her remaining strength on keeping them fused until they’d come to a final agreement with Hettie.

“Speaking of the mission, let’s get down to business.” Gus said, hiding how tired he was as he turned to Hettie and the healers standing with her, “You’re the only one who knows where Zara’s Orb is. If you tell us where it is, we’ll leave with Zara and our friends, without any further violence.”

Hettie nodded in understanding, but crossed her arms; “I helped you because I owed the girl for saving my life and I wanted a chance to talk to her while she was still herself and not Divided. I am still not convinced that I should help you further.”

Lyra frowned; “Hettie, please. You can’t still be thinking of siding with the Divider! Look at all he’s done!”

“I am not sure what to think. My entire life has been turned upside down!” Hettie scowled; “The Divider’s actions are too extreme, but he presents a potential cure for mental illnesses! A way to help people for whom even conventional therapy and medication is not enough! Not to mention the traditional healing methods he has provided with Angelic Magic and the Wings of Rani! Then there is you!” she pointed at Lyra; “You are supposed to be a Grimwalker, yet you defy everything I know about them! And now that I view you with a clearer mind and none of my prior biases, I can honestly say that you and your brother are good people… but that flies in the face of over two decades of my life experiences! It is not compatible with the beliefs I’ve harboured since the day real Grimwalkers took my family from me!”

Lyra looked conflicted as Hettie stared at her with such raw emotion. Gus, who instead looked sympathetic, said; “Then perhaps it is time you changed those beliefs. You can’t change reality; even an Illusionist like me can only mask it. So if you believe something that goes against reality… well then it’s time to change. It’s not easy, but can you truly keep going forward whilst being wilfully ignorant?”

Hettie scowled again, but her eyes were contemplative; “Perhaps not. Dorothea, Luz, The Divider, Lyra, her brother, and now you… you all told me I was wrong about Grimwalkers but I didn’t listen. Then I was given hard evidence that I was wrong… refusing to listen or change now would be foolish, and yet I still hesitate. It takes a foolish Healer to diagnose their own mental issues, but I fear I may be acting based on trauma and not facts, to the point it is impairing my judgement.”

Healer Dorothea stepped forward; “As a fellow healer and one with some skill in mind-healing, I have to give my honest opinion; you suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and have an irrational hatred for Grimwalkers. It is my professional opinion, Head Witch… no. Hettie, I think you need some real therapy. This business with the young Grimwalkers, and your agreement to the Divider’s plans do not feel like actions you would take if you were fully in your right mind.”

Hettie was marginally surprised, especially when the other Healers nodded in agreement with Dorothea. “Do you all believe my current course of action is wrong?”

“Yes, Head Witch.” one man said. “The Dark Angel and her brother have done no wrong deserving of death. Your hatred of them, while understanding given your trauma, is irrational.”

“I concur. And the Divider’s actions go beyond extreme. You cannot treat a runny nose by removing the patient’s nose, and I do not believe we should treat mental illness by essentially giving our patients a magical lobotomy.” another added.

That comparison struck Hettie, and she found herself recoiling a little. “Why did none of you tell me you felt this way before?” she asked.

The Healers exchanged looks, then Dorothea said; “Well… we did. We said we disagreed with the Divider’s methods when you first returned to us under his banner. But, well… he did save you and you were confident in what he could do and offer to the study of the Healing Arts. We decided to trust you.”

Hettie sighed and rubbed a hand over her face; “And in my bull-headed obsession and hatred of Grimwalkers, I led you all astray. It seems my mental state is not up to the responsibility of leading the Healing Coven. As a Healer, I am sworn to do no harm unless I truly believe it is for the long term health and prosperity of the isles, and yet I fooled myself into believing that two children were the same as the monsters that murdered my family, and sided with yet another dictator. The Divider may be better than Belos, but I still should have known better.”

The woman stared down at her hands, then shook her head ruefully; “Even now, I’m not sure I can make the right decision… so I cannot be the one to make that decision. I officially abdicate my position as Head Witch of the Healing Coven to Dorothea. You served as a worthy and conscientious Coven Head once, Dorothea; I believe you to be the best choice.”

Healer Dorothea gaped in shock, especially as Hettie reached into her pocket and pulled out the medallion that symbolised her position as Head Witch, and pinned it to Dorothea’s chest. Dorothea looked to her fellow Healers, who looked back with a mix of sad and approving smiles, then to Lyra and Gus, who’d been watching the exchange with curiosity. Finally she looked back at Hettie, who bowed her head and stepped back.

“Does anyone object to this?” Dorothea asked, her voice shaking slightly.

No one said a word; their silence serving as a vote of confidence.

“In that case, I accept the position. And as my first act as Head Witch, I am ending the Healing Coven’s partnership with the Wings of Rani. The Coven will maintain neutrality in the war between the Wings of Rani and the CATTs, and will heal all those who come to us, regardless of faction. That being said…” Dorothea approached Gus and reached into her sleeve, pulling out a black orb.

Gus gasped; “Is that Zara’s Divided Orb!?”

“It is. After the CATTs freed the Owl Lady and Thunder Wyvern from Rani’s Eden, it was decided to hide the Orbs of the Dragons with people unaffiliated with the CATTs. Hettie was asked to take Zara’s orb just yesterday, and gave it to me for safekeeping.” Dorothea explained, handing the orb over to Gus; “Whoever holds a person’s Divided Orb is able to control them like the Divider can. I’m sorry for not destroying it and ending the battle, but I was afraid of what Zara would do once her mind was fully restored.”

“That’s not an unreasonable worry.” Gus said as he accepted the orb. Before she was divided, Zara had been the coldest and most prickly of the Supreme Dragons according to Luz, King, and Amity, and she didn’t seem to like Luz much (though her coldness to the Angel girl could have been more awkwardness from trying to kill her once and then learning Luz wasn’t an enemy after all).

Still, Gus shattered the orb without hesitation, causing an enormous prismatic spectre of Zara’s Ice Wyrm form to appear in a burst of light and then fly to Zara, fusing into her. The Dragon stirred a little in her slumber, but the anaesthetic held and Zara remained peacefully asleep. With the destruction of the Orb and all the Wings of Rani combatants defeated, the Battle for Cartilia had ended in a CATTs victory! Gus and Lyra exchanged a high five and hug as they cheered, while Healer Dorothea sent one of the other Healers into the hospital to give her orders to the rest of the staff in the hospital. They were basically informed of the new neutrality, while the non-combatants of the Wings of Rani were informed that so long as they made no attempts to fight anyone in the streets of Cartilia, they would be permitted to stay.

It was not much of a surprise when they declined the offer with varying degrees of fear, and they instead fled the hospital, only pausing to take their defeated fighters with them as they ran. Dorothea was disappointed, having hoped to keep their aid in the hospital, but she wasn’t surprised. After the Wings of Rani had fled, a squad of Combat Healers marched out and presented themselves to Healer Dorothea, who gave them a nod before turning back to Hettie.

“Hettie Cutburn, I am assigning you to lead this squad of Combat Healers. Your mission is to perform research into new medical magic that can benefit physical and mental health.” Dorothea said firmly, playing up the role of Coven Head.

Hettie looked confused; “Research? With Combat Healers?”

“Indeed; we need robust people for this task. Your research is to be focused on the unique methods of healing employed by the Divine Realm and their chosen representative, the Seraphim known as Luciel.” Dorothea said. Luz’s new status had spread fast thanks to the Wings of Rani warning their members and associates of her, so now everyone on the isles knew she was a Seraphim acting as the Crest Union’s ambassador to the Demon Realm. “You are also to focus this research on the potential healing applications of Tactile Illusions. The Divider’s method was useful for mental health treatments, but these new Tactile Illusions look like they could have promising uses in therapy.”

Hettie gaped, while Gus and Lyra smiled; Dorothea was essentially assigning Hettie and a squad of Combat Healers to join the CATTs, using the pretence of medical research to get around the neutrality Dorothea was ordering. This let the Coven help the rebels without technically incurring the wrath of the Wings of Rani (especially since they had coven outposts across the isles, in the form of just about every hospital there was).

“You… you really want me to do this? Would Luz and this young man even accept me after trying to murder the Dark Angel and her brother?” Hettie asked.

“While I can’t say I’m happy with how you treated my best friend, I’ll forgive you and help you with your research if you apologise and actually give her and Hunter a fair chance.” Gus said.

“Honestly, I’d be fine even without the apology; I get that you acted based on trauma, and you’ve still got a lot to work through. Especially with me being a Grimwalker.” Lyra said as she gave the woman an understanding smile.

Hettie sighed; “Saying things like that is part of why my mind refuses to accept that you’re a Grimwalker.”

“Then just think of me as a normal person. In fact, let me introduce myself properly; I’m Lyra Deamonne-Clawthorne. Nice to meet you, Hettie Cutburn.” Lyra smiled, offering her hand.

Hettie was struck by the kindness of the girl as she accepted the offered hand. Even after trying to kill her, and with her standing to gain nothing of importance now that Zara’s orb had been destroyed and Dorothea has the new Head Witch, Lyra still welcomed Hettie with open arms.

“Just a normal person… I-I will try. Perhaps, if you permit, I can perform a full examination on you and some proper research into Grim… your kind? It might make the differences between you and those other monsters a lot more obvious.” Hettie asked.

“Of course! Whatever helps!” Lyra smiled.

Hettie smiled back, and while she still had a LOT of issues to work through regarding her past traumas, she was at least willing to accept that in one way or another, she had been wrong about Lyra and most likely Hunter too. The knowledge that she’d tried to kill the two teens made her heart ache with guilt, but she could help make up for it by offering her services as a Healer to the CATTs.

With Hettie and her squad of 15 Combat Healers now semi-officially joining the CATTs, Gus relaxed and lost the strength needed to maintain his Palisman Fusion, causing him and Emmiline to split up. The exhausted little Palisman flew out of his glyph marking and was caught by Gus, who cuddled her gently.

“Good work, Emmie! Take a rest.” Gus smiled, getting a tired but happy squeak in return. He placed her on his shoulder and turned back to the Healers; “I hate to say this after all the work you just put into helping knock Zara out, but could you wake her up? I don’t have enough strength left to fuse with Emmie again, and I can’t thaw Sapphice without her.”

The Healers didn’t mind at all, especially since Zara was now free of the Divider’s control. They removed the anaesthetic spells they’d applied to her, then Hettie gave her a very mild jolt with some defibrillation magic. To a dragon as big as Zara, it was barely a static shock, but it still worked to wake her up.

“Huh? What? What happened? I feel…” Zara closed her eyes again as she took a moment to collect herself; “I feel like myself! The Divider’s power over me has faded!” she looked down and saw Gus and Lyra waving at her with big smiles. “You two. I don’t understand, I defeated you both while under the Divider’s influence! How are you both awake and free of the Sapphice?”

“That’s a bit of a story. I’ll give you the quick version.” Gus said, before doing just that. His abridged recollection of the battle and how they’d defeated her made Zara’s eyes widen with amazement, but as soon as Gus was done, the massive, noble, powerful Supreme Dragon promptly pouted like a child.

“I can’t believe it… as happy as I am that I am free, I can’t believe I was once again defeated by a little Angel and her special friend…” Zara whined, looking adorably frustrated. She was a stubborn and proud person, so losing to children not once but twice? And with the second time being a true defeat while she was at full power? That was terribly frustrating!

The two teens, blushing at the implications of the term “special friend”, tried to soothe Zara by pointing out; “Well you did also defeat Luz, who was way stronger than last time!”

“Yeah, and you only lost to a form of magic that no one has seen before.” Lyra added.

Zara huffed, but did look a little happier after that; “I must learn more of this Tactile Illusion Magic! But now is not the time; the Wings of Rani have already fled and the Divided Orbs have been destroyed, so I shall thaw out the rest of those I defeated. Especially my Lars!”

The teens smiled and nodded, then watched as Zara used her Aurora Veil once again, shining a rainbow of colours down on the city of Cartilia and causing all the frozen people to immediately thaw out and turn back into flesh. There was a moment of chaos as everyone looked around frantically or began running and screaming, but Zara then roared out so that everyone in the city could hear her; “PEOPLE OF CARTILIA, BE CALM! THE WINGS OF RANI HAVE BEEN DEFEATED, AND THE CATTS NOW CONTROL THE CITY! THERE IS NO MORE CAUSE FOR CONCERN!”

Of course, having that bellowed at them by a Dragon was enough to silence the chaos, but not the fear, and the newly thawed out trio of Luz, Eda, and Lilith immediately took to the air and projected their own voices with a little bit of Bardic Magic, courtesy of Luz.

“Everyone! This is Luz Noceda-Clawthorne, former Arch-Angel of the Boiling Isles speaking! I am now the Seraphim of the Demon Realm, and we of the CATTs are here to free everyone from the Divider’s control! Please have no fear; the danger has passed for now! Please return to your homes for now while we work to restore peace in the city.”

“You heard my kid! This is the Owl Lady speaking, and I say that the Wings of Rani have fled like cowards! The city is free of them, so relax a little!”

“My sister and niece are correct; I am Lilith Clawthorne, former Divided Overseer of the Knee. I can announce that all of the Divided have been returned to normal within this region, and the Wings of Rani have indeed retreated. Please remain calm and relax; a celebration for the city’s liberation will be organised very soon!”

Luz and Eda grinned at Lilith, who grinned right back; a sure-fire way to counter fear and uncertainty was to get people excited about something and give them hope! Sure enough, the knowledge that the Wings of Rani were gone, the Divided were free, the CATTs controlled the city, and a party was going to be happening soon was all it took. While a few people, namely those who’d volunteered to be divided, were disappointed or upset (and would be referred to the Healing Coven for therapy and counselling), the majority of the people were ecstatic. The lower districts immediately burst into cheers and began practically dancing in the streets, while the nobles living in the higher districts all began rushing for the Azure Sky District to try and get an audience with the CATTs, hoping to ingratiate themselves with the new rulers. There was also a lot of noise coming from St. Epiderm as the students and teachers alike rushed out to meet with their heroes and celebrate with their families.

Zara, helping out a little, curled around the CATTs and the Healers so they could have some privacy to collect themselves, and their injuries could be tended to. Hunter, Viney, and Puddles were all given some treatment to put them back in tiptop shape, while Lars had a reunion with Zara, their Witch body being nuzzled by the snout of the giant Ice Wyrm, before they were picked up by one of Zara’s whiskers and deposited on top of her head, where they could lounge comfortably in her mane.

At the same time, the rest of the CATTs congratulated Gus and Lyra on their victory, peppering them with questions on how they’d done it and how they’d gotten Hettie on their side. The younger Teens had coyly answered that they’d explain everything when the others arrived, and so Luz promptly sent out a call to all the CATTs teams in the region, telling them to reconvene in Cartilia. She also sent a text message to Steve and Katya to tell them to come back to the city too, and that Zara had been returned to normal. She received a wave of confirmations, and their allies soon began arriving in the city.

The first ones to arrive were Camila, King, and Samael, and while Samael got a somewhat cold greeting from Zara (who knew he was an Archivist but not much else), King got a much happier reunion with Lilith.

“Tia Lily! I’ve missed you!” King cheered, throwing himself into the woman’s arms.

“And I’ve missed you, King! I’m so glad to see you again! Have you been okay these past few months?” Lilith asked, stroking his back as she held him. “You’ve certainly grown a little bit!”

“I have! I’ve gotten bigger AND stronger!” King replied; “Let me introduce my new friend and little big brother: Samael! AKA the Collector!”

Samael smiled and waved at Lilith, who was bewildered by the way King introduced him. “Hi Auntie Lilith! I’m Samael! I hope we can play some time!”

“Uh, of course! Forgive me, I’m just trying to process everything!” Lilith said, managing to return his smile and wave back.

“Oh just you wait! There are a lot of long stories in your future! We’ve had an eventful few days!” Luz giggled.

Lilith opened her mouth to retort when she noticed that Luz now had the light glyph in her right eye, and it was connected through lines of light to a white ring on Luz’s chest (the ice glyph and the line connecting it to the incomplete glyph had disappeared when Gus and Emmiline unfused, so no one who hadn’t witnessed the form knew about it).

“Luz, your glyphs are different! And that glyph in your eye…!” Lilith gasped, both amazed and slightly worried.

“Oh, don’t worry about that. I’ll explain it when everything calms down. For now, the only thing you need to know is that Amity is on her way!” Luz smiled. If the light glyph had appeared on its own and connected to the central glyph, then it meant Amity was using her Palisman Fusion to quickly make her way to Cartilia.

Sure enough, only a moment later, everyone saw a pink light appear within the eternal night surrounding the Knee, before it darted forward and landed in the Azure Sky District, directly in front of Luz, King, and Lilith. The light died down and revealed a slightly panting Amity in her Fused Form, who looked at Lilith with shining blue eyes, her pupils growing like a Cat’s did when faced with someone they loved.

Lilith’s jaw hung agape as her own eyes grew huge and shone at the sight of Amity, while a grinning King wriggled out of her stunned grip and went to sit on the shoulder of an equally grinning Luz. There was a single moment of silence as Amity and Lilith stared at each other, before they both rushed towards one another. Amity leapt the last few steps directly into Lilith’s arms, and the delighted woman spun her around, holding the giggling Cat Girl whilst she too laughed with delight, before finally bringing her in for a tight hug.

“Amity! Oh Titan, I’ve missed you so much! Look at you! You look so grown up and beautiful! I don’t know how you got this new form, but it is incredible!” Lilith gushed between kissing Amity’s forehead over and over, and gently cupping her face whilst stroking her hair. She also paid special attention to Amity’s new cat ears, which she gently scratched, making Amity purr like a kitten.

“Mo-!” Amity began, only for her stomach to twist with nerves. She cursed herself as her hesitation made Lilith’s face fall slightly, but the currently white-haired girl just couldn’t get the word out! It had been a long several months, and a lot had changed! Amity was still scared of Lilith’s reaction to her saying what she wanted to say, so she ended up swallowing thickly and looking down with shame.

“I-I mean…”

Lilith silenced Amity by gently placing a finger to her lips, then kissing her forehead again; “It’s okay, Amity. I know how you feel, even if the word is hard to say. With Odalia and everything, I can’t blame you for struggling with that word. Just know that I will never reject you if and when you finally say the word itself. Until then, call me whatever makes you comfortable, Dearest.”

Amity’s smile returned, even as a tear leaked down her cheek; “T-Thank you, Lilith. I’m just so happy to see you again! I love your new look! It suits you! You look a little like a cool scholar! I can imagine you working both in a library and an archaeological site!”

“Why thank you! But if we’re talking new looks then Luz was right; yours is definitely the most striking! You somehow manage to be both adorable and beautiful! Is this permanent?” Lilith asked.

Amity shook her head and dropped the transformation, causing Ghost to appear from her chest and into the girl’s arms. Ghost then meowed at Lilith, who giggled and pet her a little before hugging Amity again; “Different, but still adorable and beautiful! You and Luz make an even more striking couple now! I can’t wait to hear the stories surrounding your new forms! And behind that sweet little creature!” Lilith said, pointing over to Stringbean.

The little Snake-Shifter was currently coiled up adorably on top of Luz’s head, while Owlbert and Corvanc sat on either of Luz’s shoulders and tried to convince Stringbean that their particular species of bird was the superior one. Stringbean seemed to mostly be humouring them, but when she saw Ghost, she immediately flew over and latched around the cat’s neck, acting like a collar for her and making her own cute little purrs to show how happy she was to see Ghost. For her part, Ghost jumped out of Amity’s arms and began to strut around smugly, making Owlbert and Corvanc very jealous, until Corvanc decided to fly over to Lyra and Waffles and begin preening the latter’s feathers.

Lilith and Amity giggled as the latter said; “Yeah, we’ve got a lot of catching up to do. A lot of good stuff happened… and some not so good stuff. Some recent events have been rough…”

Amity was thinking of Luz’s depression and breakdown when she said this, but Lilith sombrely nodded, thinking of another event entirely. “Yes, I’d heard about Odalia… some of the Wings of Rani tried to spread news of her death in order to discredit the CATTs. Considering the kind of person Odalia was, it didn’t exactly work out, but… well, she is the woman who gave birth to you. I understand you must have some complicated feelings about her death.”

“Actually, I barely feel anything.” Amity admitted, “I was basically the one to kill her; I blasted a hole in her throat to save Vee, but Darius finished her off to save me the guilt of killing her. I had already moved on from her by that point though, so I didn’t feel much.”

Lilith listened carefully, and made a note to thank Darius later. Sure Amity said she’d moved past Odalia, and Lilith believed her, but she was sure Amity would still have been deeply upset if she’d been the one to actually kill the woman.

Before their conversation could continue, Skara and Boscha finally showed up with the rest of the CATTs team they’d been leading with Amity.

“Dang it Amity, did you have to run off like that!? We’re supposed to be a team in this mission!” Boscha complained.

“S-Sorry. I guess I just got overexcited and acted without thinking.” Amity apologises, looking bashful. Boscha responded with a scoff, but didn’t complain any further, understanding Amity’s desire to reunite with her Mom (even if she still hadn’t found the courage to admit it).

Skara also understood this desire for a family reunion, which is why she ran straight over to Principal Crane, who was making arrangements with some St. Epiderm teachers nearby.

“Excuse me, Principal Crane?” she said urgently.

Kyrie turned to Skara and smiled in surprise; “Oh! Miss Cadence! It’s been a while since we last spoke! Not since you came here before Coven Day to set up a Grudgby match between our schools. How can I help you?”

“I was hoping you might know about my younger half-brother.” Skara explained; “His name is Asher Secuna, and he should be in the baby class here at St. Epiderm. Is he here?”

Despite not having formally met her half-brother, Skara was still extremely worried about him! Besides her father, he was the only family Skara had that she still cared about. Unfortunately, Kyrie didn’t have good news for her.

“I’m sorry, Miss Cadence. Asher’s parents, Lord Mace and Lady Amaranth, pulled Asher out of St. Epiderm shortly after Lady Amaranth was divided. Their family was transferred to Manubrium from what I heard, and since Asher was only in the baby class, they thought it better to have him educated in a local day care in the capital.” Kyrie explained.

Skara’s face fell with disappointment as Boscha came over and put a hand on her back. The young Bard recovered quickly though; “I’d wanted to finally meet him today, but this is the next best thing! He’s in Manubrium, near the Titan’s Heart and the place my Dad is the Overseer! We can kill two birds with one stone! Three if we count getting Raine back too!”

“Four, actually.” Kyrie said; “My Uncle Scooter is there too, in the care of the Bard Coven. That’s why I’m going to join the CATTs, at least until I’ve gotten Uncle to safety.”

Skara nodded in agreement, also wanting to save Scooter. When it came time to decide their next mission, she would throw everything she had into convincing Luz to go after the Heart next!

Shortly thereafter, more and more of the CATTs teams that had attacked other locations arrived in Cartilia. Steve and Katya were the first and received a Heroes’ Welcome, with Lilith and Steve hugging in reunion and congratulating him on earning the affections of a beautiful young woman like Katya. They had also brought along Snowball the Carbuncle, who’d been previously orphaned by the Emperor’s Coven and had opted to stay with the CATTs. Snowball was immediately taken in by Samael, who was quite possibly the only other person around who was a playful as the little Carbuncle!

Willow, Matt, and Alador arrived soon after, the former two checking in with Gus and congratulating him on a job well done, while Vee, Treble, and Hanu arrived next and reunited with Luz and Camila, though Lilith also made a point of greeting them and hugging Vee. The last of their allies to arrive were Darius and the Twins, and while Darius immediately rushed to check on Hunter and Lyra, Edric went to check on his Dad and Sister, while Emira rushed over to Viney.

“Hey there Kitten! Are you alright? You look exhausted!” Emira said, immediately hugging her girlfriend and giving her a kiss, while also petting Puddles.

“Hey Emi. I’ve been better. I was able to help lure Lilith into a trap so we didn’t need to fight her, but things did get a little heated. Also, it turns out that Ruby got divided, so we walked into a trap too… I also helped take out a bunch of the Wings of Rani with Regant, Puddles, and Hunter, but I was defeated.” Viney admitted, feeling a little down. She was proud of her showing, but she couldn’t help but wish she’d done better.

Of course, Emira knew just how to cheer her up. The Elder Blight Girl sat herself in Viney’s lap, straddling her, and kissed her deeply. Once she’d kissed Viney breathless, Emira pulled back and kept a flirtatious smile as she said; “Even an amazing girl like you can’t be prepared for everything, Kitten. You kicked butt today, and even if you were defeated in the end, you still held your own against a whole bunch of Angels! That’s amazing!”

Viney blushed and smiled; “I guess you’re right. The average Angel is stronger than the average Witch, even if not by much, so I guess beating up a bunch of them as a teenage Witch is kinda impressive.”

“Incredibly impressive. If only I’d been here to see my big strong kitten in action… oh well, there’s always next time. Heck, maybe then I’ll be the one to show off to you.” Emira flirted.

Viney giggled and kissed her girlfriend right back, while the Healers that had previously been working on her decided to leave them to their business. Once the kissing was done, Emira used her own Healing Magic to further patch up Viney’s admittedly mild injuries, however she was soon interrupted by two teenagers; one expected and very welcome, whilst the other was unexpected and decidedly unwelcome.

Ruby Leonis and Falco Kaimal.

“Viney! I’m so glad you’re okay.” Ruby cried as she rushed over, only holding herself back from hugging her cousin because Emira was still on her lap. “I am so sorry that I tricked you and handed you over to Overseer Clawthorne and Principal Crane! I never would have done it if they hadn’t divided me!”

Viney smiled and waved her off; “It’s fine, Ruby. Divided people can’t disobey the Divider or his chief minions. I’m not gonna hold it against you. What about you and Aunt Vorpelle though? Are you guys okay?”

Ruby nodded; “I’m fine, and I’m pretty sure Mom is too. I called her as soon as I was turned back to normal earlier. She said she was fine and on the way to come get me, but that was before we all got frozen by that big dragon. She’s probably struggling to get through the crowds to reach us up here; the nobles are clogging up the stairs to this district so they can meet the CATTs, so it could be a while before she gets here.”

“I see. At least you’re both okay. Though speaking of nobles…” Viney said, her face falling as she glared at Kaimal, who actually looked very nervous all of a sudden. “What do you want, Kaimal?”

Kaimal opened his mouth to reply, but Emira fixed him with a cold glare as she recognised his name; “Kaimal!? As in the scumbag that tried to cut off your tail when you were little!?”

The boy gulped and backed up a step as Viney nodded; “The very same. When they were divided, Lilith and Principal Kyrie tried getting him to apologise to me. I rejected it; I didn’t need an apology from a puppet that couldn’t even feel regret.”

“T-Then how about an apology from a person who can?” Kaimal finally said, plucking up the courage to speak.

Viney and Emira both blinked in surprise, while Ruby nodded; “He asked me to bring him over to you so he could apologise for real.”

Emira got off Viney’s lap and helped her girlfriend stand up, allowing Viney to walk over to Kaimal and speak to him face to face.

“Why? Why do you want to apologise?” Viney asked coldly, suspicion in her eyes.

“Because it feels like the right thing to do. I was horribly cruel to you as a child… I saw you as a plaything and not as a person, and like a spoiled brat with a toy, I mistreated you terribly. I can do nothing to make up for my past actions, but I can at least give you the apology you deserve, so…”

Kaimal bowed formally; “I am sorry for all that I did to you, Miss Leonis. The things I did were cruel and malicious as I treated you like a toy I could break at my whim. It wasn’t until you left that I began to feel guilt for what I’d done. I am truly, deeply sorry for what I did.”

Viney’s eyes widened in shock, not expecting Kaimal to seem so… earnest. His expression, his tone, his mannerisms… Viney kept searching them for signs that this was another cruel joke, but shockingly found nothing but honesty. Perhaps these past several years had finally been enough to make the spoiled brat grow up a little. Or perhaps hearing what Viney had to say to him earlier had triggered some kind of heel realisation once he’d been reunited and he could once again feel negative emotions such as guilt and regret.

Accepting that the apology was real was only the first step though, as Viney then had to decide how she felt about it. The apology honestly didn’t make her feel any better about the past, but it did somewhat soothe the anger she felt towards Kaimal. With Emira holding her hand tightly beside her and Ruby watching her without judgement, Viney felt supported enough to really think the situation through and respond as she wanted, speaking from the heart.

“I… I accept your apology.” Viney said slowly, making Kaimal smile. That smile was dashed as Viney continued though; “But I don’t forgive you. Not yet. For a long time, I had body image issues because of what you and the others like you did to me. I was ashamed of my body, afraid of letting people see the real me, and even feared making friends in case they found out the truth and hated me. It took making some truly amazing friends, and getting a girlfriend who loved the parts of me I was ashamed of before I could begin accepting my own body. The wounds have healed, but the scars haven’t fully faded yet… so while I appreciate the apology, I’m not ready to forgive you.”

Kaimal looked upset, but understanding. He bowed his head once more; “I understand. I don’t think I’d forgive someone like me either. But know that I am in your debt, and will repay you for what I did one way or another. If you need a favour from House Kaimal, or just me personally, then you need only ask. Until that day comes though, I won’t bother you again. Farewell, Miss Leonis… and thank you for helping to save us all.”

With those final words and one last bow, Kaimal left to find his family among the nobles and drag them back home to keep them from harassing the CATTs with their sycophantic attempts at winning favour. Viney, Emira, and Ruby watched him go, then Emira turned to her girlfriend.

“You did awesome there, Kitten. And for the record, I think all parts of you are amazing! The Cait Sith parts are adorable, the Witch parts are also adorable… heck, all of you is adorable! You should be proud of this strong, cute, and honestly pretty sexy body!” Emira winked. The two of them were 16 and bordering on 17, so they both definitely appreciated the maturity of each other’s bodies.

Viney blushed and kissed Emira, then silently allowed her tail to unwind from her waist and poke out from her clothing (which had been enchanted by Luz to accommodate any Bestial Blessings, just like Hunter’s clothes). It felt a little strange to let it out after keeping it mostly hidden for so long, but Emira and Ruby smiled so proudly that Viney didn’t let it bother her. Instead, she just felt relief as some of her old traumas felt like they weighed on her a little less.

After the talk with Kaimal, Viney briefly went with Ruby to find her aunt in the lower levels of the city while the rest of the CATTs worked with the Healing Coven to calm things down and begin setting up the big celebrations. Once she’d done this and returned to the others, the CATTs all fully convened to report to each other what had happened in each of their respective parts of the mission, while the Healing Coven took charge of getting the nobles to help them prepare the celebration. The nobles, hoping to ingratiate themselves to the CATTs, all began working hard to outdo the others by providing the best of food and supplies for the growing party, while the CATTs amazed each other with the stories they told.

The MVP of the Knee Campaign was definitely Gus, with Steve, Katya, and Lyra coming in a close second. Not only had Gus been the one to ensure the success of the Lilith Capture Mission, but he’d been instrumental in defeating Zara, and revealed himself as the second member of the Hexsquad to bond with a glyph. Everyone was amazed and ecstatic to see the new form, which he was able to take again after drinking a Bile Booster and some Ambrosia that Luz kept on hand. Not only was it incredible that another member of the Hexsquad had obtained Palisman Fusion, but it also helped confirm the conditions to obtain this power; simply bonding with the glyph they possessed in the same way Luz had, then having an appropriately strong bond with their Palisman was all it took! Needless to say, the rest of the Hexsquad began making bets on who would achieve this form next, while the rest of the CATTs felt a little jealous, wondering if they could one day achieve this power too. Since Luz hadn’t intentionally given out the glyphs and it had been the result of her bonding with King’s incomplete glyph, no one was quite sure if and how Luz could give the glyphs to others too, though she and King would be looking into it in their spare time from then on.

Finally, with everyone caught up on the events of the day and the party ready to go, the CATTs and the citizens of Cartilia threw themselves completely into celebrating the success of the Knee Campaign! The streets were filled with banquet tables and merry-makers, with many people even setting up similar stalls to the kinds used at the Coven Day Festival. It was a great deal of fun, with everyone hanging out together and spending time enjoying the festival. Amity, Skara, and Boscha hung out and competed against each other in some of the festival games while Lilith watched and occasionally joined to show her stuff. Willow opted to spend some time with Gus, exploring the newly renovated Spring District and admiring the new public gardens and safe displays of Nightshines. Matt hung out with his big brother Steve, who showed off at the games to win prizes for both his bro and his girlfriend, with Katya taking the time to get to know Matt better too, since he was so important to Steve. Hunter, Lyra, and Edric all stuck together and spent time with Alador and Darius, who competed with each other at the games too (though it devolved into them making abominations to play the games for them, and competing to see whose abominations were the best). Viney and Emira spent the celebration with Ruby and Viney’s Aunt Vorpelle, who was very pleased to meet her niece’s lovely girlfriend. Treble and Hanu also took the opportunity to go on a date together and enjoy the festival, while Zara and Lars did something similar, with Zara creating an Avatar of her Witch Form similar to what she’d done back on Pulvoltary, so she could explore the city without abandoning her Dragon Form. The last group was the huge group of Luz, King, Eda, Camila, Vee, and Samael (joined also by Snowball the Carbuncle), who briefly spoke with Hettie, Kyrie Crane, and the Combat Healers that would be joining the CATTs, before going out and enjoying the festival themselves. Luz and Vee giggled happily as they played the role of responsible big sisters to King and Samael, while Eda and Camila enjoyed some Apple Blood and local delicacies while exchanging stories of some of their misadventures throughout the Boiling Isles.

All in all, it was a pleasant and highly entertaining end to a long and tiring day. The eternal night around Cartilia had an enchantment woven into it that caused the aurora to fade and be replaced by a vision of a full moon and twinkling stars when it became night time outside of the Knee too, and it made for a beautiful sight. The festival would end up continuing on all the way until the next morning when the last of the hardcore partiers passed out, but the CATTs mostly turned in at around midnight, being offered rooms in just about every noble manor as the nobles continued to try and curry favour with the rebels. They’d all been declined though, and the CATTs instead took the rooms in the local hotels that the Wings of Rani had rented and since vacated when they fled the city.

However, two young rebels remained awake even as midnight came and went. Gus and Lyra, along with their Palismen, found themselves sitting on a bench together, right on the edge of the Azure Sky District. They were each exhausted from both the fight and the party, yet neither could sleep and had instead decided to sit together and enjoy the view.

“It really is beautiful… Cartilia at night, with all the lights from the festival… and the moon and stars up above. I know they’re not real, but they’re still incredible.” Lyra smiled wistfully, her purple eyes shining like amethysts.

“It is pretty incredible. It’s nice to see everyone coming together to celebrate too. That’s one thing I hope never changes; people being able to come together and enjoy themselves. Nobles and regular people alike are having fun together, forgetting their differences. This is the kind of Paradise the Divider should be trying to make.” Gus said, staring out at the city and trying to commit everything to memory.

Lyra smiled and shyly took Gus’s hand; “I agree. But there is one other thing I want to never change… the fact that you are my best friend. You are the person who changed me, Gus… or rather the person who helped me change myself. Belos created me from Luz, and Hunter accepted me as his sister, but you? You made me feel like I could be anything and become anyone. Even today, when you were frozen, I was sure you would find a way out and save the day. I want you to know how much you mean to me.”

Gus blushed and squeezed Lyra’s hand a little; “You mean just as much to me, Lyra. I felt your belief in me earlier… it and the inspiration I felt from watching you grow and change is what let me finally bond with the ice glyph. I wanted to protect you, just as I know you wanted to protect me. Thank you, Lyra; for believing in me and becoming an incredible person. It’s funny, but even though you and Luz have the same face… I find that I like looking at yours a whole lot more.”

The young Dark Angel blushed crimson and squeaked adorably as she looked away, too embarrassed to meet Gus’s eyes any more. “I-I… Titan, how can one person make me feel so eloquent one moment and than have me struggling for words the next!? You really are one of a kind, Gus! And thank the Titan for that, as my heart couldn’t take more than one of you!”

Gus chuckled and drew a spell circle, creating a whole swarm of Gus illusions all around them, pulling silly faces or making poses. Lyra giggled at them and rolled her eyes; “Sorry Gus, but these illusions aren’t gonna cut it! They may look like you, but they’re not… warm, like you.”

“Well dang. Guess I’ve still got to practice more!” Gus joked. The two teens giggled together, then turned back to watch the stars together.

In that moment, Lyra looked at Gus out of the corner of her eye, and saw the stars reflected in his own eyes. The soft smile on his face, that twinkle in his eyes, and the warmth Lyra felt from him… it all made her feel confident enough to lean to the side, aiming to plant a quick kiss on his cheek. However, Emmiline and Waffles had other ideas.

Waffles tweeted at Gus, while Emmie (sat on Gus’s right shoulder) reached her tail around to tap his left shoulder. These two acts made a curious Gus turn to the left, where Lyra was sitting, at precisely the right moment to turn a cheek kiss into one on the lips.

It was extremely chaste, little more than their lips brushing against one another, yet both felt jolts of electricity run through their bodies. They both froze for a second, then slowly pulled away as their faces went scarlet. Each had the urge to recoil and apologise, or let go of the other’s hand and run away in embarrassment… yet they didn’t. They just sat there for a few seconds, staring into each other’s eyes. Slowly, their expressions melted from shock to heartfelt smiles, and the two turned back to watch the stars together once again, now resting their heads against each other, their hands still intertwined.

It was a cold evening, but both felt so very warm together.

FAN ART SHOWCASE:

Once again, thanks to the love and support of the Angel of the Owl House Book Club, we have some fan art to showcase! These three artists will be familiar to enjoyers of last chapter's showcase, so give it up for Aeiou, Mafuyukkiyu, Nel, and Fantasma Arana!

Starting with Nel, we begin with everyone's favourite Chaos God Children: King and Samael!

Following that is our favourite set of Grimwalker siblings: Hunter and Lyra, fresh from Darius' attempts at adopting them!

Following that, we have this sombre piece of Luz, drawn by Mafuyukkiyu! They say it's unfinished, but it looks pretty amazing to me!

Next up we have a single amazing piece from Aeiou, showing King in his rage mode! Who says this little guy can't be scary?

Now we have four pieces all from Fantasma Arana! We'll start with the most polarising of Angels; Rasiel AKA the Divider!

Then we have a double feature of Hunter Headshots, showing a before and after of his time as the Golden Guard! He looks a lot happier now, huh?

Next is the best Bard: Raine Whispers, playing a little song for us!

And we'll finish up with Fantasma's only coloured piece of the chapter! The man with five new kids; Darius Deamonne!

And that finishes this weeks showcase! I hope to have art in every chapter going forward, being fan art or commissioned art, so look forward to that! And of course, a big thank you to Nel, Maf*ckkiyu, Aeiou, and Fantasma Arana for this week's fan art!

I'd also like to give another special thanks to StevenTheTurtleWeiner for commissioning such wonderful art, as well as the artists themselves: Skyblob and MexFan12!