Interlude A

Fires raged around the small town of Halvoen, and the sounds of people dying echoed into the night. Gunfire rang out, and it was all she could do to keep on her feet. Adrenaline rushed through her and she remembered what her Mother had told her about being in danger. Some fight, others flee. She must have forgotten one option, because Cosma was Frozen.

Her hands shook as she looked at the collapsed wall on the northern side of the town and sounds of machinery whirring to life as it stomped through the buildings and people alive. Her head very slowly turned back towards the collapsed building behind her, and she couldn't stop the sobs that wracked her body when she saw the bloody arm sticking out of the pile of stone and wood.

Her eyes were trained on it, and she tried to tell herself it wasn't who she thought it was. That the shirt didn't look familiar, the hand the one that pushed her out of the building as it fell. She would have stared at it for eternity if she hadn't heard the sound of flesh on flesh. In a panic she threw herself over the pile of rubble and began to pray to the brothers that whatever it was, whoever it was, didn't find her.

"Not gonna talk, eh?" came a wretched voice from the other side of the building that was once her home, alongside another smack and a weight hitting the dirt. Cosma's fear spiked as she tried to bury herself in the rubble around her and avoid the terrifying voice, but the voice continued to speak despite her misgivings, "Whatever, you don't need to talk. You're coming with me, whether you like it or not. Hell, maybe the Doc'll enjoy the peace 'n quiet while he works for once."

The shadows seemed to wrap around Cosma as the fires burned bright, casting darkness all around the small town. The smell of burning wood and flesh filled her nose, but she slapped her hands on her mouth before she could retch in disgust. The sounds of boots thumped loudly closer to her, and the panic hit its zenith as it eclipsed fear and climbed towards terror. She was a child, and a small one at that. She could do nothing, and it burned a hole in her stomach.

When a large man passed by her hidey hole she held her breath and prayed that he didn't look back. He was large, with a black leather jacket that seemed to absorb the light from the fires. Only a large Silver patch seemed to be visible to her, but even that did little to tear her eyes away from the bald head covered from the base of its neck to the crown in scars of some sort. She felt justified to be terrified, as she had seen this man collapse a building simply by yelling.

Her eyes sank lower as he made his way back to the hole in the wall, and she made eye contact with the equally scared grey eyes of her little sister. She opened her mouth, as though to ask her older sister for help, but no sound came out. Either way the man saw her and turned to follow her gaze. 'Don't see me' She pleaded in her mind, but he was staring right at her. She saw menacing black eyes as they turned towards her, pinning her to the rubble as easily as a spear might have, and she knew she was done. Her breath filled her lungs as she took in one last breath, ready to scream bloody murder-

Cosma lurched up in bed with a bloodcurdling scream, only barely stopping when her eyes took in her surroundings and the pink glow of her Aura lighting the walls. Tank continued to snore beside her on the bed, even as his leg began to kick her into the wall, totally oblivious to the turmoil happening mere inches away. She pulled at the sweat soaked t-shirt she was wearing as she tried to stop hyperventilating. Just a dream, she comforted her panicked mind, It was just a dream. She cursed her weak mind and the anxiety that was creeping up into her system, because even though she was not at Shebul levels of nightmares, they had been popping up more and more frequently as the day of Team ACRA's journey to Mantle.

She pushed down on her Aura and deactivated her semblance as she patted herself down for reassurance, taking deep shuddering breaths as she calmed down. Her right hand came up to feel her cheek, which came away damp with tears. Her eyes strayed over to the packet of papers that had been given to each of her Team members in preparation for this month's journey to the South-West of the Atlesian continent.

Home. She was going home.

Her damp and red eyes looked around the room, first going to her partner and confidante. He was still asleep, much like he had been before she had even been ready for bed. He hadn't seen anything, and if she had her way he never would. She'd be his annoying partner and nothing more. She had heard his story, and he had more than enough to deal with without her piling on top.

To her right on the opposite side of the room was Ashley, who had somehow managed to make it from her position slumbering at her desk to her bed at some point in the night. She had managed to keep her at arms length for a long time, but she was beginning to suspect that the constant danger was making them bond more than either had anticipated. Either way, she suspected that dealing with Ashley was not unlike dealing with an older sister; equal parts annoyed and patient. There was a comfort in that.

She ignored the stab of pain that pierced her heart at the thought, and ignored it just like she always did. She instead plastered on her smile and tried to get ready to face the day ahead. She was capable now. It wouldn't be a repeat performance.

A low grunt caught her attention, and her eyes went to the last corner of the room. The bent metal of the bed, twisted and rent simply housing the last member. The most dangerous one at the least. The way that the room had deteriorated around him seemed to mirror that. A desk with marks and troughs dug into the wood by hands that refused to be tamed, even by their own head. The chair that he sat in with splintering and pulped wood from accidents caused by the anxiety of the last three weeks.

"You alright?" Came the rumbled response of the golem. Cosma wouldn't tell him this to his face, but she and a few of the others couldn't see him as human. First, there was the monstrous way that he looked, grey hair and eyes like the monsters they were training to hunt. Dark brown-red skin from too many days out in the sun, with scars that criss-crossed his skin in a patchwork of pain that spoke of fights won and lost. Not to mention the way he acted, somewhere between sage and fool. Constantly destroying, but claiming to be on a journey to protect. He made no sense.

It was easier to see him as something out of a fairy tale.

She rubbed at her eyes and wiped away the tears and smiled her brightest for him, "Fine, thanks." He just shot her an unconvinced look and another grunt. That was another thing that she thought odd about him, she lost all ability to lie when she talked to him. Literally the first time the guilt came boiling back up she spilled about her family drama, and in quite a sudden fashion. She hadn't meant to do it, but the stress and the situation were too familiar to not think about it.

And when he asked, she couldn't help herself.

She couldn't place a finger on why though. When she first met him, he had seemed like an easy mark, simply walking around in a snowstorm without any urgency. Trusted her at face value. Defended her to Mr. G when she was going to get more detention. Honest to a fault. All classic signs of someone that she could convince to do anything, at least once.

But then she saw how Taylor treated him, despite all of the similarities between herself and the Faunus, Taylor did not treat him like a mark despite the predatory way that she acted. She treated him like an equal… or her superior depending on the situation. Bizarre. This wasn't even talking about the way that Ashley recognized him immediately, and changed her behavior immediately. Ashley had been lamenting being stuck with someone who was either too arrogant to follow orders or too weak to be of use for the entire month before teams had been formed, not to mention researching places to transfer if she wasn't picked to be put on a team this year.

Then he shows up and she's… Well, Ashley was never happy, but content with her assigned partner.

Ashley Content?

Never a good sign.

Some Dope who could, admittedly, fight well, but seemed more intent on taking hits than giving them out. Cosma could only watch with a smile to cover her confusion, even as Roman had no idea what to expect.

Then Austin put her tormentors through the ringer immediately. Both of them had been on board immediately, even if they still had lingering doubts. They didn't want to tie themselves to what looked like a burning boat, sue her.

So she started watching him, when he was alone. She had expected a normal amount of teenage action, but she'd long since grown used to seeing such things. One of the perks of being effectively invisible was that she got to see people at their most real. Their most simple.

Austin was simple. He didn't change that much when he was alone, he acted the exact same no matter who was around. The only thing that changed was the size of the mess that he made. He was patient up until the moment he could act, then he lost all patience and tore into an issue like a ravenous pack of wolves. He was willing to goof off and waste time with other people, but the moment he was alone he was all shop. He was polite to those he met, or as polite as Austin got, but when he felt comfortable he cursed like a sailor.

"You had a nightmare," He stated simply as he stared at his grotesque creation as he moved his finger along the edge of the pocket knife that he always kept on his person. He wasn't uncomfortable in the slightest, though she didn't share the sentiment.

"It's the stress," she explained as she got embarrassed at having been caught. She internally winced at the weak sauce answer, because no matter if it were accurate, it wasn't nearly the full truth.

"D'you wanna talk it out?" He offered kindly, even if the tone was still foreign to her concept of him. He was rough edges and steel, the thought that he had a heart was bizarre, but obvious from what she had seen. Didn't make it any less weird.

"Don't think you'd understand my problem," She said tactfully. She felt powerless, unable to do anything in the face of a threat, and that left scars on her psyche to this day. She was always constantly fighting for attention in anyway shape or form, or avoiding it entirely with her semblance. There was no in betweens for her. She was always scared that she'd… fade away. Like her semblance forced her to do. So she clung to attention desperately, no matter the cost.

To prove she was still there.

"Prolly not," he conceded as he stabbed his knife into the side of his chair like it was a perfectly reasonable way to store the thing before he unholstered his Pistol and unloaded it. As he unchambered it and took the slide off of the thing, he continued talking, "Don't think talkin' about it would hurt though," He continued in his task of cleaning his gun as she thought it over.

"You'll think I'm being silly," She murmured as she drew her legs closer to her chest. Roman didn't say as much, but he told her to focus. That was Roman-Speak for 'Not important right now,' which was just about as close as the polite boy got. She appreciated that about him sometimes, but when she felt like she needed to vent? She'd prefer someone a little more experienced in emotions. Which apparently didn't mean much, as even when presented with a good ear to listen she still got tongue tied.

"I'm scared of Giraffians, those long-neck Grimm that reside in southern Menagerie," he stated factually as he sprayed down the disassembled parts of his gun. She stared at him like he had grown a second head, but he continued unperturbed, "And some extinct species called the platypus. Arachne's give me the creeps too, now that I think about it. Too many eyes," as he listed out more and more things that freaked him out, most of which were things she hadn't even thought about in that kind of light, she couldn't help the confused smile and the laughter that boiled over as he continued listing things, until he had reassembled his pistol and holstered it once more. He was now speaking whimsically, "-And Birds, the whole lot of 'em. Flying lizards? Lizards act too much like Grimm, thank you very much. The fact that some are fluffy doesn't change that. Oh, and water-"

"Are you serious right now?" She asked incredulously as he blinked up at the ceiling. How many things can one person be scared of?

"Of course I'm serious," He retorted defensively, "When you're as dense as I am you tend to sink-"

"Not that!" She snapped at him while waving her hands in front of her face before he could start up again, "I thought you were fearless!"

"Fearless!?" He squawked at her in response, "Who the hell told you that?"

"You're always charging head first into danger. Fear never seemed to stop you there!" She whisper-yelled as Ashley grumbled in her sleep and turned over to face her wall.

"No, no it doesn't," He rebuked her soberly, and Cosma could see something unsaid in his eyes but he looked away before she could understand what it was. He continued to talk normally, though, sand she could hear it plain as day, "So, I told you mine. You gonna tell me yours?" Pain. No wonder she felt compelled to tell him every detail of her life story when she was feeling sappy. The first person she could call a friend who wore their heart on their sleeve. Not that she blamed the others for having some type of coping mechanism, but the sincerity was comforting.

She wondered idly if she was a bad person for feeling comforted by someone else's pain. Probably, she decided after a minute of deliberation.

Still, he had offered, and she wasn't sleeping anytime soon.

"Less of a nightmare, more of a bad memory," She confided as she threw her legs over Tank and leaned against the wall to face him better and watch his response. "The first time I used my semblance, actually. Needed to hide in plain sight from someone… terrifying." And the man was terrifying. She knew very little about him other than his looks and his strength, and that was enough for her to find fear.

He only nodded in response as he folded his knife back before returning it to his pocket. He kicked his chair noisily under his desk and flopped back into the bed frame that crunched under the weight, and simply stared at the ceiling, seeming entirely willing to say nothing. The silence stretched before she could bear it no longer. "You don't seem surprised," She winced at her own words, but had nothing to talk about outside of it, her memories still fresh in her mind.

He simply shook his head to confirm that he was indeed unsurprised.

She huffed at his silence after such a long period of speech, but decided that it wasn't her place to judge. She was having trouble stringing sentences together as it were.

"Regret?" He asked cautiously, not even glancing at her from his laid back position, his large and bulky form still in the little light in the room. Still, with one word he dug to the heart of her problem.

"A lot of it, yes." She couldn't stop the small tear that the admission brought out of her, and she wondered if he looked away from her so he wouldn't see it. Or so she wouldn't see him.

"Run from a wolf in the day and he'll catch up to you when your asleep. Put him down on the road and you may have to face his pack, but at least you can sleep easy afterwards," He answered with a shrug, "That's how Nan put it, at least. One day the people around here will learn to deal with their problems when they arise, not when they drag them down into the dirt. So much quicker, and so much less painful."

"The memories don't just leave, Austin. Wolf packs can be fought, bad decisions can't," Cosma briefly wondered what it was like in that head of his, Did they leave his when he told them to? She shook her head before deciding she didn't want to know if he considered parrots higher threats than Ursa Majors.

He shook his head with a derisive snort, "Sure they can. Just need the right ammo," He grunted at her in irritation, and he flinched minutely in response to something couldn't perceive, "Regret only comes after you've changed. You're a different person than you were when you made the decision. Put in the same situation now, you'd choose differently. That's all that matters," He flopped a hand toward the Dorm of Team TESL across the Hall and grunted as he did so, "Dumbasses too stuck in the past can't move forward, and that ain't helpin' anyone. All they get from it is nightmares and stress."

"Shebul?" She guessed as she mulled over his words. Straight forward as usual, though she guessed that might have been what she needed. No soft comforts, no empty words, or help to avoid the bad stuff. True to Austin, he wanted her to meet it head on. Could I do that?

He snorted as his eye twitched in annoyance, "Everyone in this dorm has had a nightmare in the past six months," he leaned his head back into his hands and sighed, "Emily has just as many as her partner, just doesn't have a semblance to weaponize 'em. Hell, Ashley's heart rate is going through the roof as we speak."

His hearing, she realized with another wince. But then a thought occurred to her; he had said everyone. "You mentioned your fears, but not your nightmares. You have them too?" She watched him carefully, seeing how his face relaxed as he thought the question over. His entire body slowly sunk into his mattress a little more as the tension fled his body like he was in a trance.

She winced as she remembered exactly what kind of trance he was prone to fall in to.

For a moment he only stared at the ceiling, blinking slowly and deliberately. She began to sweat once more as she considered that his issues might be similarly personal like hers were. Her tongue floundered in a suddenly dry mouth as she tried to brush off the question, but then he smiled. She stilled as she took in the person that was in front of her, looking so foreign without a smirk, or some sharp edged expression promising pain. A subtle twisting of his lips in orange light of Ashley's desk lamp was all it was.

A genuine smile.

"Good times," He answered her indirect question with a hint of sadness and longing on his voice. She raised an eyebrow at his response, but he didn't even pause before explaining it, "Ain't had a Nightmare since I was… nine? Ten at the latest. You to wake Nan up with my yells, and she'd sit up with me and calm me down until I went back to sleep."

"How'd she manage that?" Cosma asked, wondering when exactly she would cross the line of asking too much. He wasn't withdrawn, but he definitely didn't shout his shit from the rooftops. But he seemed willing enough to talk for now, and she'd take what she could get.

He laughed, the deep and scratchy rumble sounding warmer than his usual chuckles as he reviewed fond memories, "She'd listen until I was out of things to say, and then I'd ask her a shit ton of questions. She'd answer 'em all until I was tuckered out, and then tell me that if the monsters came back, me and her were gonna chase 'em down and beat 'em to death ourselves," She smiled as he laughed at the memory, and tried to imagine him as a child.

She couldn't even begin to imagine what he was like, or what kind of woman could keep up with him.

"And every time she said it, I'd ask her the same thing," He confided as he calmed down, and Cosma's eyes began to wilt as her body calmed further, "'How many monsters could an Old Hag like you Fight?' I'd say. And she'd tell me, 'As many as I need to.' Made me feel warm inside, knowing that she cared enough to say so."

Cosma shrunk in on herself as she listened to him relive his childhood with such fondness, and she couldn't even bring herself to think of hers. No one stayed up with her, after her Mom died. No one to chase off the monsters and fear. That was part of the reason why she was so attached to Roman, she never wanted anyone else to feel that alone, that helpless-

Anything for a friend, right?

She took in the words, her own words thrown right back in her face. He already offered to chase down my monsters, and he convinced the school to sponsor the trip too. Somewhere, deep in the stunted and malnourished thing she called a heart, she knew that this was at least part of why she trusted him, he had offered to help, readily and with nothing in return. She licked her suddenly dry lips as she slowly started to draw parallels between the story he was telling and her current situation.

"I have my own monsters," she started haltingly, not exactly sure where she was going with it.

His smile became melancholy as he began to drift off to sleep, "The best people always seem to."

She smiled at him as his breathing began to even out, but decided to just go for it, "How many of them would you help me fight?"

One last bone-rattling chuckle before he turned towards the wall, "As many as you need me to." Her smile stretched wide as she watched and listened as the bed creaked and cranked before settling, and she felt warmth in her. Not quite the butterflies she got when Roman stopped just listening and actually talked to her, but warmth, that seeped into her bones, her veins. A healthy feeling.

He was wearing down her defenses steadily, and he didn't even know. Family, she thought with awe as she realized what the feeling was, belonging. She sunk into her own bed and wrapped her arms around her furry companion, yawning as her thoughts began to wear her down. Emily's wrong, She thought tiredly as she crushed the dog against her chest, He's human. If dealing with Ashley is what having an older sister is like, then Austin was what an older brother should be. Supporting and loyal. Murderously loyal. Kind, even if he was a bit prickly.

This was her family, and the brothers have mercy on anyone who decided to fuck with them.

She wasn't in the forgiving mood after what happened to her first.

End of Interlude.

I waited patiently as [Instinct] tracked the last Bullhead as it flew West towards Mistral to drop off the Civilian students that were going home for the holidays, traveling away from the Morning sun as it rose in the cloudless skies. Most of them were, after what happened last night, and I couldn't blame them. Janette had sent out a message through the CCT with a lie about one of the students in the Huntsman Corps activating their Semblance for the first time, hallucinations, blah blah blah. I had been tying up loose ends on campus, ranging from shuttling my new found burden around Campus to locations that people didn't visit regularly, and avoiding anyone with a bit of situational awareness until I locked the man in a cupboard.

I took in a deep breath and met the orange eyes of my current issue and stared him down despite the inches that he had on me. I had proven handily which of us would win a straight up fight, and I wasn't in the mood to give him an opportunity to stack the deck in his favor. Not that I was really concerned about that right now, not since I had realized what the true issue was going to be. He cast an unconcerned look around the grounds from his seat at the picnic table we were sitting at, managing to look casual despite the situation. His eyes lit up as he looked around the place, "The Board finally okayed the new building!" He rubbed his hands together gleefully, and I winced as [Instinct] picked up the sound of sand being crushed in his palms, before a jagged smile appeared on his face and he gestured at Claire's Work, "And look at that, a desert garden! How nice!"

I snapped my fingers and instantly regained his attention, and I watched with disbelief as he tried and failed to stop smiling. Motherfucker acted like a hyperactive child.

Ashley and Taylor lounged nearby on a bench, discussing the night and dealing with their broken worldviews while they watched me try to handle the man. Thankfully, the rest of the forty or so people were either getting debriefed or still asleep, as Janette and Mr. G had pulled an all nighter trying to cover this shit up. Not to mention those that had been overnighted in the Medical ward. Aura had set them right, mostly, with only a few stand outs of those more injured than others. Nothing that would last longer than a few days, not with Aura around. Basically everyone else had either been asleep at the start and managed to sleep through it, which Keith had managed to do somehow, or mentally exhausted from the experience and crashed directly afterwards.

I was still amazed at the mental gymnastics people were going to to justify it, but I wasn't complaining. Less work for me.

I huffed a sigh as another notification popped in front of my face and my Aura spiked in response to a threat, the swelling of Determination flowing through me as it happened.

[Dominion] challenged! You won, [Dominion] Intact!

That was the fifteenth time this morning. "How many times do you have to do that until you realize you can't break it?"

"Oh come now, Milord," He smiled deviously as I scrunched my nose up at the title, "I just got my body back and the first thing you do is lock me in a cupboard somewhere. I know how annoying it can get, having people constantly push at your Aura, so I think I'll be taking my revenge as much as I'm able, thank you."

"Spare me the pity party, Servico. I won, you lost," I explained dully as a bit of color crept up his neck and his heart rate increased with his agitation. Then, to my surprise, he took a deep breath and throttled down on it.

"What are you going to do with me?" He asked plainly, and immediately I began to get flashbacks of Nan. The confident way he held himself and the way he looked coupled with the plain way of speaking? He was related somehow. "Order me to sit in some hole for eternity?"

"That would be fitting," I agreed casually crossing my arms over my chest and narrowed my eyes at him, "But I don't know yet. Kind of depends on what you tell me. What are your plans?" I felt the magic connecting us flex and pulse steadily, and I watched him carefully to see what would happen.

"I hadn't thought this far ahead, if I'm honest," He said with a chuckle as he gestured at me, "You know how it gets for us, you get so caught up in what you're doing, you don't even think about what comes after."

"Us?" I echoed, dumbly.

"Deadened, that's what the younger called it," He explains calmly, and I felt some charisma based skill wash over me, but I ignored it in favor of learning. Just because it was a skill didn't mean it was an attack. "Northern Speakers trade part of their sanity for determination, dedication. When I asked for power, he named his price. He was always much more… up front, than the Older when it came to bargains."

"So I've heard," I responded conversationally even as Ashley and Taylor gawked at the casual conversation. I ignored their confusion and instead pulled up the [Notes] page for the [Deadened] Trait. I closed it with a mental note when it confirmed his description in the flavor text. Honestly, I had never cared where the stuff in the Game came from. As long as I could use it, I was fine. "You have a new body, but you never thought about what you'd do once you got it?"

"Actually," He said as he plucked at the skin of his forearm, "This is my old body, my original one. Took a hell of a long time to get it pull it from the Older Brother's hands, though. And now, he can never have it again."

"That what the temple did?" I latched onto the line of thought before we could get lost in the weeds, "Made you a new body, one that can't die?"

"You're not listening," He rebuked patiently, as though he were talking to a child. As though it were my fault for not knowing his plan. I just destroyed the place, anything else was up to Marsha. "This is my original body. Everything that exists was created by the Brothers through extensive use of Magic, and when something dies or is destroyed, it goes back to them as Magic, ready to be used to create something new. My temple captured magic in a small pocket dimension I had designed ages ago. Then I used some obscure Northern Vacuoan scripts to look for the form tied to my soul. The finale was when I activated the magic to matter converters, and like a blacksmith with a cast, poured magic into the form and poof. One Body done. Only took thousands of years, but I completed the task that the Younger gave me. I'm free." He spoke with cheerfulness and confidence, and I felt my Aura pulse in response, before his smile fell as he looked at me, "For all of ten minutes, at least."

Somehow, I knew that he was not lying.

I blinked at the feeling, before noticing that much like the first two times, There was a still a layer of my Aura over Servico's, and if anyone would know about it… "The fuck is a Dominion?" I demanded shortly. Ever since I had used the Skill to vaccinate Taylor and Ashley, my head had been in a jumble of emotions with my Aura feeling like it was being stretched and pulled at constantly.

He blinked at me before opening his mouth to answer, before narrowing his eyes at me, and I felt his confusion. "Are you serious? You managed to figure out how to use a technique without even knowing what it did? And you went through with it?" He stared at me like I was crazy, and I shrugged in response.

I was not who I was because I was mentally stable.

"Yeah, it was the best of bad options at the time," I sniped back at him, before stepping forward and baring my teeth in his face, "Not that you were making it any easier, Asshat. Possessin' my friends every time you floated by, and throwing everyone into a pocket dimension to get smacked around by an army of skeletons."

"To be fair," He reasoned soberly, holding up his hands in front of him like they were a shield, "I forgot the lens had broken, which made my aim a bit screwy. When it activated, instead of a single portal the size of a chair, I got twenty of the things the size of buildings. I thought I'd be in and out with my body in all of an hour without your Mage any wiser. I'd have been off scot free, and no one would have gotten hurt."

"Things never go to plan around me," I informed him blandly as what I assumed was [Dominion] informed me that he was indeed telling the truth, even if he didn't sound guilty about it. I ignored the quiet confirmations from our audience as they interrupted their conversation to chip in, Ashley a bit more heated about the issue than Taylor. He raised an eyebrow at me, but I shook my head, "Never. Not once. Now, do you have a good reason for possessin' all my friends?"

"I always keep my promises," he said with a hint of steel in his tone, and his posture straightened in his seat, "The last headmaster told me to keep his students focused on their goals, and I did."

I narrowed my eyes at him as I tried to piece together what he was leaving out, but he simply shrugged and explained further, "The same way you placed those two under your Dominion, I did the same to the school. From their I… Gave them the same gift that the Younger gave me and you." I narrowed my eyes at him as some truth was avoiding me, but before I could find it myself another notification popped.

[Boss, the [Dominion] skill grants the [Deadened] Trait to any under its effects, regardless of Res. If what he's sayin' is right, then that word is a hell of a lot more literal than I took it at first glance. It makes the living act like the dead, stuck in one emotional moment.]

"So that's what it does," I grit out as I looked at the man, my teeth grinding together as I considered what I needed to do, "It makes people obsessed. No wonder everyone on Campus acted like they had a stick superglued to their colon, you fuckin' loony. How the hell did you think that was a good idea?"

"Among other things, fuels their body with your Aura and makes them better soldiers mostly, but it does Deaden them the same as if they were Liches themselves. To the outside world, it would look like an obsession or passion. And if they were focused on something else, they wouldn't notice me," he explained easily, his eyes glowing lightly against the small bit of shadow on his face, "Depends on who uses it, too. Mine was much more invasive than your touch seems to be. I could see what my spirits see. Yours seems to be… A shield of sorts. No idea what it does specifically, but I imagine you'll figure it out when I catch on fire or something. And for the record, not a single person noticed anything wrong until you showed up. Unless you count those brother's forsaken hounds, which I do not. So yes, making everyone hyper focused was a great idea, I had free reign over the place."

I waited for him to continue, but he seemed content to let me have a turn. All of my questions were answered, in the simplest of manners. He had tried to do this without harming the school, even if it was only to avoid suspicion. When it backfired, he moved with the flow and used the opportunity to… use those that got sucked in as fuel for his machine. He had been possessing them because he had promised the headmaster asked him to, and from what I could tell he seemed to hold the man in high regard.

I nodded my head at him and considered what my options, before pumping Aura into the connection between us and smiling when he looked as though he had been struck. He blanched under the pressure, and I spoke in my most authoritative tone of voice. "Servico Liath, your case has been heard," I growled in the Old Tongue, and I noted that the very light of the sun drained from around us as I spoke even as the sounds tore at the air and set it abuzz, and I felt the unnatural emotions bubbling to the surface as words surfaced in my head. Words that were not my own, and I assumed that Fenrir was feeding me. Either way, Servico was looking green around the gills, so I continued speaking, "And a decision has been made. Good reason or not, you still moved against his people, and lost the fight. By my decree, you must be punished, but you have paid in blood and stone. All that is left is Sweat. You have overcome Death, time to understand life.

"You are hereby ordered to protect the students you viewed as Cattle to be culled."

[Dominion] Level Up + 2!

[Nice going, Boss.]

As soon as the windows appeared, the words that had taken over my head as I spoke, dulling out all other sensation was suddenly gone, and I was left reeling in shock. The words reverberated in the air, burning with electricity as they left my throat, and I tried to blink the bizarre magic out of my mind while I coughed up a lung.

"You want me to what?" he hissed in retaliation.

"I think not."

Marsha stared up at me defiantly from her Chair, her arms crossed in front of her chest. She was wearing a much more modern outfit of a button up blouse and long skirt simply because moving about on crutches made wearing robes impractical. Her glasses had been broken in the scuffle and she told me that she needed to craft an enchanting table for her new set in the next week, so it felt like I was looking at a different person as she was now permanently in her less flighty state, purple eyes and all.

She had not-so-politely refused my offer to heal her. Claimed that using [Purge] on a battlefield to stabilize someone was fine, but long term healing shouldn't be forced by magic. Made the body weaker, apparently. Soon after her explanation she had stopped sweating nervously at the thought of being surrounded by my Aura.

Didn't mean that the pain wasn't making her rougher than usual.

"I'm gonna be gone for a month, Marsha," I repeated it again as I made sure to hold eye contact to get the point across, "And he is not coming with me. Who am I supposed to leave him with? Keith?! He slept through an entire Battle!"

"Not my problem," She grit out, staying steadfast in her resolve to have nothing to do with the newest and oldest member of staff.

"I'm right here, you know," Servico stated casually even as whatever magic Marsha was casting pushed him even harder into the carpet. I was just glad no one else seemed to ever come to the library if they didn't have to study or serve detentions. Something about Scrolls replacing books or some such nonsense.

"Miss Mourie," Ashley started, and I stepped back to let her handle the negotiations, "Austin told me that your people had an issue keeping Liches down for good, yes?"

Marsha sent me a scathing look that I returned hotly. If she thought I was gonna lie when she asked me what the hell had happened, Marsha still had a concussion. Needed as many minds on the topic as we could get, especially if Magic shite was gonna start popping up more and more. The whole reason the situation had gone down the drain was because no one else had been aware of what was happening. I wasn't gonna let a little thing like the rules of a dead culture stop me from makin sure a repeat performance never happened again.

Irregardless, she pursed her lips and gave Ashley an appraising look, "What about it? From what I'm seeing, he still breathes."

"I don't know if I have to breathe in this body, actually," Servico spoke clearly even as he was smushed into the carpet like a piece of gum. I watched curiously as the tile of the floor buckled under the force of the technique, but Servico held firm and resolute. Which was good, because he seemed intent on making his situation worse. "A choice, really. Makes me feel more human."

"He's bound to Austin's Soul," She stated imperiously before her voice lowered to a volume only I could hear, "Or something." My soul pulsed steadily, like a magical heartbeat that kept me in rhythm with the world, and while it seemed to be invisible to the rest I could see the thick branches of my Aura that was connected to hers. The pulse seemed to be echoed in her Aura, and I watched as she breathed out calmly, easily calming down despite the last dregs of nonsense we had to deal with. She continued on like everything was normal, "and so far he's been nothing but obedient."

"His behavior isn't the problem," Marsha refuted sullenly, looking for all the world like a pouting child, "I just don't think I can stop myself from killing him much longer."

"Never managed to figure that out, huh?" Servico questioned glibly, which caused Marsha to start glowing and growling at him in response. I chuckled as Ashley tried to convince her to settle down, before I felt my aura ripple in response to his question. [Dominion] responded and I could feel a little bit of emotion leaking through whatever bond I had created between us. Curiosity, mostly.

"No," Marsha hissed at the man and began to sweat from the exertion of increasing her spell's power, "I've been too busy trying to survive, no thanks to you."

"Survive?" He asked with a bit of strain, but I could feel the sincerity in our small connection, "Most souls just return to the Older Brother when they died, got recycled and got thrown back into a new body." The air was forced from his lungs as Marsha gave a wordless scream of rage. With a crack he has forced through the floor and slowly sunk into the floor about a foot.

"Marsha!" I barked at her in annoyance, "Knock it off, he's not going to do anything, he can't do anything," With a huff she complied and I hauled up the Lich by the scruff of his neck and felt [Dominion] activate as I gave him a new command, "You, shut the fuck up for a second. You're making things worse. Last of her Family, wants to make more Speakers, needs to be alive to fuck," I rattled off as I hefted him to his feet, "Honestly, you're acting like children."

He blinked at me and opened his mouth to argue, but no sound came out as my aura blared. I stared him down as he joined Marsha in pouting, while Ashley gestured at the scene with both her hands, "See, under control. Any other objections?"

"I failed," She said resolutely as she leaned further back into her chair and pouted even harder, " I failed my duties. I've spent the last ten years keeping the Temple locked down tight, and the first time someone tried to get in, they did so. Not to mention that they beat me to a pulp. How could you expect me to keep him in check?"

"I wouldn't ask if I didn't trust you," Who did she think I was, Cosma? If I couldn't think of anyone to pass him off on to, then I'd have stuck him in a bag and dragged him along with me. But she was here, injured, and need of an extra pair of hands, and if anyone could disrupt and magical nonsense, it would be another Speaker.

Marsha still looked at me with a look of confusion… and what I thought looked like anger, fueled by shame.

"Learn from him," Ashley suggested slowly, holding her hands up in a placating gesture when the teacher looked like she was going to jump out of her chair and try to strangle us all, "Look, he's a declawed cat right now, " I laughed as I felt the outrage come through the connection and then the second burst of outrage when he remembered he couldn't talk, "You might as well pump him for all the information he's got, even if you don't want him around. And then the next time something like this happens, you won't lose."

"That does sound like it would take quite a lot of time," I pondered out loud, revelling in the small amount of worry that the Lich was giving off. I was going to work him so hard that he couldn't even think about making trouble. Its what the school did to me, and that worked pretty well.

Speaking of Trouble, I followed the third connection in my head and felt boredom and a little bit of happiness coming from the History and Geography section of the Library. I left Ashley alone to do her thing, trusting in both her ability to talk and Marsha's sense of responsibility, and walked carefully down a cramped aisle, stepping over piles of books that looked like they hadn't been touched in a decade. [Instinct] gave me a good whiff of the amount of dust collecting on the things as I brushed past, and I choked back a gag in response. Two decades, at least.

I could still hear Ashley and Marsha talking while Servico simply settled in to watch, but I instead used the down time, now that I had finally found myself with some, to go over the next goal I had in the near future. With a flourish I pulled out the Packet of papers that I hadn't even deigned to read yet, despite the fact that we were due to ship out in a few days. I tore the packet open without care as I made my way towards the less noisy of my friends at the moment. I slid past a stack of books as I looked down at the page, using the eerie soft light of the Library that refused to make shadows to read as I walked.

It was a map, much like the other one, detailing a number of affected Villages on the Peninsula that the SDC had coerced into submitting requests on the CCT, as well as a copy of each request to prove that they had already been accepted. Below the map was a suggested route to take to get to all of them as quickly as possible, and while I appreciated Mr. G trying to help, I imagined it wouldn't happen quite like that.

A few sightings of Beowolfs, an Ursa or five, and a King Taijutu infestation, blah blah blah, I intoned in my head as leafed through the mundane requests, and one lost shipment of Dust. I squinted my eyes at the last one, turning it over when I spotted something odd there. A Sticky note stuck to the back of the last page.

You're contact is in the town of Heimdallr, and goes by the name Winter. She will be your acting supervisor for the expedition. I pulled a lot of strings for you, do not fuck this up. -Janette.

"You want him to work in my Library!" I heard Marsha's voice rise in volume as I walked away, "He's a Lich! They aren't dangerous because they're undead, Ashley, They're dangerous because they don't value life! He doesn't even understand what dying is, not like we do, just thinks its like using the bathroom-" I snickered as the sounds of arguing faded into the background and a notification popped in front of my eyes.

Quest Received; [Eyes in the Night]!

Finally, a fucking normal ass expedition.

Meet up with your SDC contact.

-[0/9] Requests completed.

Rewards; +750 exp and + 2 Free Points per Request completed.

I nodded at the Quest before closing it and pulling up my Mini-map to take a look at whatever waypoints were actually on the thing. As it was, the nine points were highlighted, and they were all inside the active zone for the Quest to find Cosma's sister, save one. Overlap was time saved, as far as I was concerned. I just hoped that my Sensory skills were high enough for such a large area to be searched, and that my friends were up for interrogating people along the way.

Closing out of every screen and shoving the papers back in the folder, I called out to where my third connection brought me to, and found Taylor sorting through Books on the Floor.

"Ain't found anything, quite yet," She stated without even looking up from the book she was squinting at in front of her face, "But did you know that there is a bird in the southern part of Mistral that makes a habit of carrying coconuts around? And many other things in this extremely useless book," She complained as she slammed the book on top of a pile. He rears flicked back and forth in irritation, and a fine layer of dust was beginning to coat her hands already, "Seriously, what did you expect to find in here? They ain't added a new book to this aisle since Janette was in charge."

"Maps," I said slowly, "The older the better."

"What the hell do you want old maps for?" She asked as she sent me a scathing look, but picked up another book none-the-less. I guess all her faith in me wasn't due to ghostly interference after all.

Or she was bored waiting for her Team to recover from their injuries. Either one was viable.

"It's been a while since people moved around on any continent other than Vacuo on the ground, and since Grimm technically control a good ninety percent of the Land, Most maps are done in aerial view. Safer and easier," I explained as I knelt down and hefted a large leather bound book and began flipping through it. I felt Fenrir begin to store the Pictures away to compare and contrast later, and pulled up the my Mini-map and moved it over to Atlas to watch it fill itself in. "And they definitely have the larger shape and landmarks visible from the sky. But Old trails are still there, might as well follow 'em. It's how we made it to Burgess, even if you didn't notice."

She grunted in response, "Fine. Got any maps for where I'm going?" I blinked at her before shrugging and handing her the book with a sadistic smile.

"Only one way to find out."

She growled at me, but I laughed and settled in across from her in the aisle. These books weren't going to read themselves.

End of Chapter.

Alright, The last little dregs of Magic talk to get the ball rolling, Bringing together the consequences of the Last Arc and Time moving on. And prep for the Monthly excursions taking up most of the Chapter. This is going to be focusing on Team ACRA quite a bit, as well as their SDC contact (Wonder who that could be).

Time to put in some work with dialogue, one of my many weaknesses as a writer.

Thanks for reading, anything to say feel free to leave a review.

Alright, That's my piece said.

Jericho Out.