Athena followed them upstairs looking grim.

"I want you all to go straight to bed, no talking," said Athena as they climbed the grand staircase. "We've got a busy day tomorrow. I expect your sisters are asleep," she added to Sucy, "so try not to wake them up."

"Asleep, yeah, right," said Sucy in an undertone, after Hannah and Barbara bade them good night and disappeared into their room. "If Gari and Sabi aren't lying awake waiting for me to tell them everything they said downstairs, then I'm a troll…"

"Well, you're certainly a type of troll," Nico teased.

"All right, Akko, Lotte, Sucy," said Athena, pointing them to a door on the opposite side of the hall. "You three will be staying here. I better not hear any of you sneaking into each other's rooms during the night."

"Yes, ma'am," said Lotte reluctantly.

"Night," Akko said to Nico and Amanda's group.

"Sleep tight," said Amanda, winking.

Athena closed the door behind Akko with a sharp snap. The bedroom was smaller than Diana's but just as luxurious, if a little on the simple side, three beds side-by-side waiting for their occupants. Akko changed into her sleeping shirt and shorts and climbed into the middle bed while Sucy checking over her mushroom collection that was tucked away in the corner and Lotte was trying to coerce Haruka-san into a dog carrier.

"We can't let her wander around every night," Lotte explained as she pulled on her nightshirt. "She might sneak outside. Puchis aren't native to the United Kingdom and if anyone spots her on a highland in the middle of the night, it could look suspicious. Oh yeah…Almost forgot…. Sucy, could you…?"

Sucy floated over to the door and bolted it.

"What're you doing that for?" asked Akko.

"Diana's cousins, Maril and Merrill," said Lotte as she turned off the light. "They've been sneaking into guest's rooms and taking their things. First night I was here, I came back from dinner to find them trying to make off with my autographed edition of Night Fall. Vol 365. Diana thinks they're doing it under Daryl's orders."

She got into her bed, staring silently up at the high ceiling. A few seconds later, Sucy climbed into her bed on Akko's opposite side. The room was silent, filled with awkward tense, and nobody looked to be drifting off to sleep any time soon. Then, Sucy turned to look at Akko in the darkness. Akko could see her outline by the moonlight filtering in through the window.

"What do you think?" she asked.

Akko didn't need to ask what Sucy meant.

"Well, they didn't tell us much we couldn't have guessed," she said, thinking of all that had been said downstairs. "I mean, all they really said is that the Sphere is trying to stop people from joining Jennifer."

"Yeah, you're right," Lotte joined in. "We already know nearly everything they told us from our own guesswork. The only thing different was – "

CRASH!

Akko, Lotte, and Sucy practically flew out of their beds, reaching for their wands as the wall exploded on the other side of the room. They relaxed when they saw it was only Garie and Sabi, once again adorned with hardhats and sledgehammers.

"Hah!" Sabi barked, pointing at her twin. "I told you this was the right room!"

"Lucky guess," Garie grumbled.

"Garie, Sabi, what the hell are you doing?" said Sucy irritably. "If Diana finds out, she's going to be upset – "

"Oh, believe me, I am plenty upset. But I will overlook it just this once."

Akko saw the blurred outline of Diana ducked from out of the hole in the wall. A few seconds later, a twinkling ball of light sparked from the tip of Diana's wand. She stood aside to let the rest of their friends inside, apparently having all been in on this little excursion. Akko tucked her wand away and sat back on her bed, soon joined by Diana as everyone gathered around them.

"So, get to the good part yet?" asked Amanda eagerly.

"The thing that Blair mentioned?" said Akko.

"Let slip, more like it," said Barbara. "You could tell that nobody else wanted us to know about it."

"What do you think it is?" said Lotte.

"It could be anything," said Stan-Bot, sitting cross-legged on Constanze's head.

"But what could someone like Jennifer need that she didn't already have before?" asked Hannah. "Maybe it's one of the Stars that Akko doesn't have."

"If that were the case, she would've kept the Shiny Rod back on that hill where we fought," Akko shook her head.

"Maybe it's something that can kill a whole lot of people," Jasminka suggested.

"Jennifer doesn't kill people unless necessary," Akko rejected.

"Isn't it obvious?" Nico spoke up, having been leaning against the wall this whole time. "There's only thing that Jennifer could want: the last book in the Gospel of Aradia – the Book of Dusk."

"You mean…the book that tells the future?" said Lotte fearfully.

"She mentioned it before, back on that hill," Nico said to Akko. "She read the first two books, but never read the third."

"That makes sense," said Diana, nodding understandingly. "The first book, which was passed down through the Du Nord family, predicted the birth of the Star-Born Child, Akko. The second book, which fell into the hands of Amon, predicted Jennifer's return. So then it stands to reason that the last book could predict events that had yet to transpire."

"If that's the case, why wouldn't the Sphere tell us?" asked Akko irritably. "If Jennifer is looking for the last book, then shouldn't we – should I – know about it. I mean, it is about me, after all."

"I think they had a very good reason to keep you in the dark on this subject," said Diana plainly. Akko looked at her with a betrayed expression. "I'm sorry, Akko, you have a terrible habit of running into trouble without thinking things through. Look at your track record. In our first year, you went running after the Shiny Rod because you thought someone was going to steal it. But it was only in danger when you showed up."

"It's true," Barbara nodded sagely. "I would never have gotten my hands on it if you hadn't turned up."

"But – "

"And in our second year," Diana cut her off, "you went straight for Professor Croix's lab instead of seeking help from the teachers, who had vastly more power and experience than you. You rushed in without thinking and allowed Eveline to claim Alessa's body and regain full power."

"It worked out in the end – "

"And then there was our third year," Diana pushed forward, "when you went chasing after Izetta, blatantly ignoring the warnings of everyone who were risking their lives to protect you!"

"Izetta wouldn't hurt me!" Akko snapped back.

"We didn't know that at the time!" Diana retorted viciously, making Akko reel back. "If the circumstances were different, she very well could've killed you! Do you understand how much that worries me?! Knowing the person I love could've died at any moment because she was too reckless to stop and just think for a moment?! How would you feel if myself or any of the others just ran into a life-or-death situation without saying anything?!"

Akko bit her lip, grimacing. A small part of her wanted to bite back, to tell Diana that what happens to her is none of her concern. But that would be hypocritical of Akko. And besides, Diana was, as she usually is, right. With all of those moments laid out before her, Akko couldn't deny that she had made a lot of stupid choices. Choices that endangered her friend's lives as much as her own.

There was an uncomfortable pause in the room, until Amanda coughed in her fist and said, "So who do ya think has the book now?"

"I hope it's on our side," said Jasminka, sounding slightly nervous.

"If it is, Chariot is probably keeping it," Akko commented.

"Where do you think it is?" asked Hannah. "Luna Nova?"

"Bet it is!" said Amanda enthusiastically. "That's where she hid the Shiny Rod last time! Maybe it's – "

"Shush!" said Barbara, half-rising from the bed. "Listen!"

They fell silent. Footsteps were coming down the hall again.

"Mother," said Diana, and without further ado, everyone piled back into Garie and Sabi's hole. Diana repaired the wall with a flick of her wand while Akko, Lotte, and Sucy quickly shuffled into bed, pretending to be asleep. A few seconds later and they heard the footsteps stop outside their door; Athena was plainly listening to see whether they were talking or not.

Haruka-san was snoring quite loudly. They heard the footsteps fade away down the hall.

"They don't trust us at all, you know," said Sucy.

Akko was sure she would not be able to fall asleep; the evening had been so packed with things to think about that she fully expected to lie awake for hours mulling it all over. She wanted to continue talking Lotte and Sucy, but Athena's footsteps were coming back down the hall again, and once she had gone, she distinctly heard others making their way around the manor….

Before she even realized it, Akko was curled in a warm ball under her bedclothes, when the door banged open and a loud clanging noise filled the room. Akko fell out of her bed with a surprised yelp, leering over her bed at the Cavendish head maid, who was banging a couple of frying pans together and scowling as if daring them to go back to sleep.

"Time to get up," said Anna with a tone that left no room for argument. "If you children are going to be staying here, then you will be helping around the mansion as well. Lady Athena's orders. Breakfast is served in the dining hall and then I will need you in the parlor room. There is an infestation of black stingers in the walls and Miss Maril and Miss Merrill found a nest of dead rats under the couch."

"Don't you have staff that takes care of that sort of stuff?" Sucy groaned.

"We did at one time," Anna huffed. "Unfortunately, no one has been allowed in there since Miss Diana's mother…. Never you mind. Just hurry up."

Half and hour later, everyone was dressed and breakfasted quickly, then entered the parlor room, a long, high-ceilinged room on the first floor with navy-blue walls covered in dusty tapestries. The carpet exhaled little clouds of dust every time someone put their foot on it and the long, royal-purple curtains were buzzing as though swarming with invisible bees. It was around these that Diana, Hannah, Barbara, and Anna were grouped, all looking rather peculiar, as they had tied cloths over their noses and mouths. Each of them was also holding a large bottle of green liquid with a nozzle at the end.

"Cover your faces and take a spray," Anna said to the girls the moment she saw them, pointing to a box of bottles with green liquid standing on a spindle-legged table. "It's S-Grade Pesticide. I've never seen an infestation this bad – oh, if Lady Bernadette saw how we have neglected this room – "

Diana's face was half concealed by a baby-blue bandanna but Akko distinctly saw a painful wince in her eyes.

"I'm sure my mother wouldn't particularly care if – "

"Oh no, she cared a great deal about this room," said Blair, who had just entered the room carrying a bowl of fruits and vegetables. "Its my turn to feed Qing. Turns out Qilin are vegetarians. Who know?" she added, in reply to Akko's inquiring look. "We're keeping him in the in the observatory. Nobody's been up there for years."

"This place has an observatory?" Akko asked Diana, surprised.

"My mother liked to look up at the stars when I was little," Diana mumbled.

"Yeah, she did, didn't she?" said Blair reminiscently. "And about this writing desk…."

She dropped the bowl of fruits and vegetables onto an armchair, then bent over to examine the locked cabinet which, Akko now noticed for the first time, was shaking slightly.

"I'm pretty sure there's a bogeyman in there," said Blair, peering through the keyhole, "probably slipped in over the years when no one was using this room. Sneaky little brats."

"I'd rather be certain before chancing anything," said Anna firmly. "I want Miss Croix to examine it before we let it out – knowing Lady Daryl, she might have stored something much worse inside."

"Can't argue with that," said Blair.

They were both speaking in carefully light voices that told Akko they were being mindful of what they said around the children. Blair wasn't about to let anything slip again.

A loud, clanging bell sounded from the foyer, followed by a loud bang from the floor above them and a rapid scuffling of footsteps.

"Must be the archduchess," Blair chuckled amusingly, walking back out of the room. "Only she could make could Izetta move that fast."

"Close the door, pleased, Miss Kagari," said Anna.

Akko took as much time as she dared to close the drawing room door; she wanted to listen to what was going on outside. She heard Blair talking in a hushed voice with Izetta and Finé. She strained her ears to listen and managed to catch Finé saying, "Bianca's reported no changes so far. She rotated out with Stephen to avoid suspicion. Thought I'd leave a report for…."

Feeling Anna's eyes on the back of her head, Akko regretfully closed the parlor room door and rejoined the pesticide party.

Anna was bending over to check the page on Black Stingers on Black Stingers in Guide to Household Pests by Scott Lang, which was lying open on the couch.

"All right, children, you need to be careful, because Black Stingers are poisonous. We have bottles of anti-toxin on the table, but I'd rather nobody needed it."

She straightened up, positioned herself squarely in front of the curtains, and beckoned them all forward.

"When I say the word, start spraying immediately," she said. "They'll come flying out at us, I expect, but it says on the bottle one good spray will paralyze them. When they are immobilized, just throw them in the rubbish bin over there."

She stepped carefully out of their line of fire and raised her own bottle. "Ready…. Spray!"

Akko had been spraying only a few seconds when a giant insect that looked like an oversized hornet came soaring out of the fold in the material, shiny black wings whirring, a three-inch sharp-looking stinger, its body covered in black, beetle-like armor, and its pointed mandibles snapping with fury. Akko caught it full in the face with a blast of pesticide; it froze in midair and fell with a loud thunk onto the worn carpet below. Akko picked it up and threw it in the trash bin.

"Miss Manbavaran, what are you doing?" said Anna sharply. "Spray that at once and throw it away!"

Akko looked around. Sucy was holding a struggling Black Stinger by the wings between her thumb and forefinger.

"I don't have to listen to you," Sucy said bluntly, spraying the Black Stinger in the face so that it faints and pocketed it, purposely ignoring the sour look on the head maid's face.

"I didn't think Black Stinger toxin was poisonous enough for your standards," Hannah commented.

"It's not," said Sucy, spraying another Black Stinger and pocketing that as well. "But Garie and Sabi thinks they can use them for their new products."

"Deftly spraying two Black Stingers at once as they soared straight for her face, Akko asked, "What products?"

"They made a big hit with those Metamorphosis Treat that they decided to expand," Sucy explained. "They're working on a range of candies that will make you sick. Not seriously sick, but enough to get you out of class when you feel like it. They've been developing them with that Chitose girl over the summer through mail. Based on their prototypes, they're double-ended, color-coded chews. One side makes you sick, the other half cures you instantly so that you're free to do whatever you want until the next class period."

"Sweet," Amanda praised, punting a Black Stinger across the room accurately into the bin. "They taking pre-orders? I'd kill to get out of Finnelan's class."

"While I can't condone skipping classes," Diana joined the conversation, "it is impressive that a couple of twelve-year-olds are capable of manufacturing such products."

"As annoying as they are, they make me proud," said Sucy with the tiniest of smiles. "But they still need a lot of work. At the moment, their testers are having trouble to vomiting long enough to swallow the cure."

"Testers?" asked Barbara

"They take turns on themselves," said Sucy. "Garie ate when that gives nosebleeds and Sabi ate one that makes you faint."

"Is that what happened?" asked Lotte, bewildered. "I thought they were fighting."

"I'll need to make sure to grab me a pack before I head off to France," said Amanda.

"So dance school is still on?" asked Akko.

"Yeah, I talked with my mom about it over the summer," said Amanda, spraying a Black Stinger in the face with looking and kicking it in the bin like a hacky sack. "She wasn't thrilled at first, but she understood. It's always been my dream to get into the Paris Opera Ballet School, and when I showed her my acceptance letter, she agreed to let me go. On the condition that I take my S.T.A.R.s this year."

"It always pays to have a backup plan in case things don't work out," said Diana.

"Yeah, one more year, and it's off to Paris," said Amanda with a huge smile.

Akko grinned. Last year, everyone on the Luna Nova team (minus Fate) have given Amanda the prize money they won from the Contest of Champions to help her realize her ambition of becoming a professional dancer.

Their battle against the Black Stingers took most of the morning. It was past midday removed her protective scarf and declared that they were finished; the girls immediately dropped to the dusty carpet with relieved groans. The curtains were no longer buzzing; they hung limp and damp from the intensive spraying; unconscious Black Stingers were crammed into the trash bin beside a bowl of their black eggs, at which Haruka-san nearly swallowed before Lotte snatched the Puchi up.

"I think we'll tackle those after lunch."

Anna pointed at the dusty glass-fronted cabinets standing on either side of the mantlepiece. They were crammed with an odd assortment of objects: a selection of elegant knives and ornate fans, a coil of bronze rope, a number of silver boxes inscribed with languages Akko could not understand, and a crystal bottle with a large opal set into the stopper full of what looked like liquid gold.

The clanging doorbell rang again. Everyone looked Anna.

"Stay here," she said firmly, picking up the bin of downed lack Stingers. "I'll bring some sandwiches."

She left the room, closing the door carefully behind her. At once, everyone dashed over to the window to look across onto the doorstep. They could see the unkempt blonde hair under the ratty bucket hat carrying a large, bulky machine.

"Urahara?" said Diana. "What's the machine he's got?"

"It looks like a Reishi conversion machine," answered Stan-Bot. "Good for transferring spiritual essence into physical matter. Very hard to come by."

"Isn't that the thing he was getting the night he was supposed to be watching me?" asked Akko. "I remember him talking about it while Yoruichi was chewing him out."

"Yeah, you're right!" said Barbara, as the front door opened; Urahara heaved his machine inside and disappeared from view. "They are not going to be happy about that."

She and Hannah crossed to the door and stood beside it, listening intently.

"Urahara is talking to Izetta and Blair," Hannah muttered, frowning with concentration. "I can't make out what they're saying…. Think we should risk opening the door a crack?"

"Might be worth it," Amanda hummed. "Maybe put a silence charm on the hinges so – "

But at that precise moment there was an explosion off sound from downstairs that rendered any further action unnecessary. All of them could hear Anna shouting at the top of her lungs just on the other side.

"WE ARE NOT RUNNING STORAGE FOR YOUR CONTRAPTIONS!"

"And that is why you should never anger Anne," said Diana with a grimace as she opened the door an inch or so to allow Anna's voice to permeate the room better.

" – COMPLETELY IRRESPONSIBLE! AS IF WE HAVEN'T GOT ENOUGH TO WORRY ABOUT WITHOUT YOU DRAGGING YOUR FANGLED MACHINES INTO THE MANOR – "

"The idiots are letting her get into her stride," said Amanda, shaking her head. "You've got to head them off early, otherwise they build up a head of steam and go on for hours. And she's been dying to have a go at Urahara ever since Diana got upset when she heard Akko was almost attacked.

From the sound of it, Anna was only just starting her long tirade, somehow managing to drag Blair and Izetta into the conversation. Diana made to shut the door to drown the noise, but before she could do so, two girls edged into the room.

It was Aunt Daryl's twin daughters, Maril and Merrill. Akko had met them before, both during the International Chariot Racing Tournament and before the final challenge of the Contest of Champions. Both of them were strikingly beautiful as all women in the Cavendish family, though every time Akko had met them, they always had this unpleasant look like Akko was something undesirable.

The twin had not noticed Akko and the rest as they slammed the doors shut behind them; one of the twins was touching her cranium like she had a headache. Both of them were carrying items in their hands. Akko remembered Lotte warning her that Diana's cousins like to steal things from the others and wondered where they had gotten them. They backed away from the door and one of the twins muttered, "…see the rags that man was wearing. Has he never heard of a shower before?

"Giving the lot they associate with, I'm more astonished they even know dress themselves," the other twin muttered. "If you can call that dressing. "The kinds of urchins that come crawling around the manor these days. Why does mother allow this scum to come and go as they please?"

"Some are holders of very influential businesses," the other twin explained. "Mother said we had to play nice until all deals are finalized."

"Ugh, I hate this. As if Diana dating that Half-Breed wasn't bad enough without all the criminals and freaks traipsing around the halls – "

"Hello, Maril, Merrill," said Diana very loudly.

The twins froze in their tracks, stopped muttering, and spun around while quickly shoving their hands behind their backs, trying to hide their stolen goods.

"Oh, uh, Diana, what a surprise?" one of the twins (let's call her Maril.) "We uh, didn't see you there."

"Clearly," said Diana in a dry tone.

"We didn't think anyone was using this room anymore," said Merrill.

"Mother decided it was over-do for a cleaning," said Diana. "What do you have behind your backs? What did you steal?"

"How dare you accuse us of stealing?" said Maril with an overdramatic gasp.

"If anything, you should be more worried about them stealing," said Merrill, shooting a sideways glance at Akko and the rest. "We have no reason to – "

Diana was done listening to their lies. She whipped out her wand and waved it with a flick of her wrist. The items behind Maril and Merrill's backs flew out around them and landed in Diana's waiting hands. One was a book – a fourth-year alchemy book – and the other was a teddy bear with a baby-blue ribbon around its neck.

"Hey, those are Diana's book and bear!" Hannah accused loudly.

"You snuck into her room!" yelled Barbara.

"Wha – we never – "

"We didn't – "

"That's enough," Diana spoke softly, though her tone of finality managed to quiet the room effectively. Diana gazed at her cousins, who stared back defiantly…then stepped forward and gave the book and bracelet back to them. "That book may be a little too advanced for you, Maril. But if you're interested, I have some beginner level texts you could peruse. Maybe I could teach you some spells. And Merrill, you're free to play with Theodore Bearsworth any time, but please make sure to return him before nightfall. He gets very cranky when he doesn't get his beauty sleep."

Surprisingly, Maril and Merrill's expressions softened and they looked away uncomfortably. Then, Maril clicked her tongue, snatched her sister's hand, and said, "Whatever. Like we can around your stupid junk. Come on, Merrill. This room stinks of losers."

Amanda waited until the twins fled the room before rounding on Diana and snickered, "Theodore Bearsworth?"

"I named him when I was six," said Diana, flushing slightly.

"Why did you let those jerks get away with taking your stuff?" asked Hannah, awestruck. "If it were me, I would've hexed those two."

"They're not bad people, Hannah," said Diana. "They may act rude and snobbish, but that's just the way Aunt Daryl raised them to be. Just imagine was it's like to have someone as strict and overbearing as her watching your every move, deciding every little detail for you. I was lucky to be born to two kind and considerate mothers. This bout of kleptomania is merely them trying to find some freedom away from their mother now that she is distracted by the dealings with the Celestial Sphere."

"Good grief," said Barbara, sighing exasperatedly. "Sometimes I worry you're too kind for your own good."

"I just believe that there is good in everyone," said Diana, "no matter how unlikely."

"You're definitely Bernie's daughter," said a voice behind Akko.

Blair had just entered the room, leaning against the frame of the door. The noise in the foyer had abated; perhaps Anna and Urahara had moved their conversation to the kitchen.

"How's it looking in here?" she asked, stepping further into the room and shutting the door behind her. She reeled back, her nose scrunching up as she passed the curtains. "Oh, sweet mother of mercy. Sometimes having senses of a cat sucks."

"At least the worst part is over," Sucy grumbled. "Getting rid of all those Black Stingers is a real pain."

"I bet," Blair chuckled. She scanned the room until her eyes fell on a baby-blue tapestry that covered the length of the opposite wall. Blair walked across the room toward it and the girls followed. "Well, will you look at that. Haven't seen this since I was a kid."

The tapestry looked immensely old; it was faded and looked as though moths had gnawed it in places; nevertheless, the golden thread with which it was embroidered still glinted enough to show them a sprawling family tree dating back (as far as Akko could tell) to the Middle Ages beginning with Beatrix Cavendish. Large words at the very top of the tapestry read:

THE NOBLE AND ANCIENT HOUSE OF CAVENDISH

"Affectio"

"You're not on here, Blair!" said Akko, after scanning the bottom of the tree.

"I used to be there," said Blair, pointing at a small, round, charred hole in the tapestry, rather like a cigarette burn. "Anna tells me that Daryl blasted me off after Bernie's funeral – right before she tried to blast my face off in a drunken rage."

"She was upset?" asked Jasminka.

"Daryl was always a brat, but she loved her sister more than anything," said Blair sympathetically. "She turned worst after Bernie died. I hardly recognized her when we met last year."

"It hard to believe she's changed so much in such little time," said Diana. "I can't even remember what she was like before."

"Grief changes people in different ways," said Blair, tracing a finger along the threads. "Looks like she blasted off quite a few names since I've been gone. Uncle Darris – he was born a Dud, that's probably why – Alfred and Margaret – they gave up their fortune to live in a Tibetan monastery – the entire Schnee line has been wiped off – honestly, I can't blame her for that one."

"How come you never stayed?" asked Akko. "With the Cavendishes, I mean. They're your family, right?"

"Watching over you was my first priority," said Blair, smiling bitterly. "But even if that weren't the case, I wasn't particularly welcomed by the majority of the family. My grandparents in particular loathed me. They didn't want any half-bread vermin polluting their blood purity. Bernie was nice enough to me, though. Let me say in the manor for a couple years after everything went down in America."

She pointed a finger near the bottom of the tree, at the name Bernadette Cavendish. A date of death (some ten years ago) followed the date of birth.

"She was going to change things in the Cavendish House," said Blair. "Open the doors to the public, become more involved with government, charity projects. That was before…"

"Lunch!" Anna's voice called.

She had just stepped into the parlor balancing a huge tray loaded with sandwiches and a cake with perfect poise. She was very red in the face and still looked angry. The others moved over to her, eager for some food, but Akko and Diana remained with Blair, who had bent closer to the tapestry.

"Heh, I'm getting flashbacks to when Chariot and Izetta showed me their family tapestry," Blair commented randomly. "Of course, they kept theirs in the family crypt. Sounds creepy, but it's actually pretty cool when you see it.

"The Du Nords have one, too?" asked Akko.

"All the older families have a family tapestry that updates magically when someone is born or dies in that particular family." Diana informed. "I'm certain if you looked, the Manbavarans have one in their home as well."

"Do you remember any of the names that were on it?" asked Akko, curious to learn more about her own heritage.

"I haven't visited that place since the whole Grand Triskellion thing," said Blair, scratching her head with a grimace. "Though a few names did stand out. I remember Mavis Vermillion being one name – she was one of the popular chairmen on the Magic Council – and her son August married into the family. Mavis's husband was burned off, oddly enough…. Chise Hitose was a famous member for marrying an ancient magus…an American named Jean Gray was disowned when I was a kid – watched Chariot's mother burn her name right off…Summer Rose was Chariot's distant cousin – I always liked her…Oh, and Ava O'neill, of course."

"Me and Amanda are related?" Akko asked, surprised.

"Ava's mother married your grandfather's brother, Larcade," said Blair. "Or was it his uncle. Bah! It's impossible to keep track of these things!"

"All pure-blood families are interrelated in some form or another," said Diana. "If you're only going to let your sons and daughters marry purebloods, your choices are limited, there are hardly any of us left. Sucy and I are second-cousins by marriage, though Aunt Daryl sorely wishes we weren't. I'm surprised she kept their names on here," she added, pointing out Sucy, Garie, and Sabi's names written in the corner.

But Akko as Akko's eyes wandered to the left side of the tapestry, she noticed there was a sizable hope much larger than the others. It wasn't just a wand blast – it looked as if someone had tried to burn the whole thing away.

"What happened there?" asked Akko, pointing to the burn.

"Hmm…I believe that used to be Cinder Falls spot," Blair hummed.

"Cinder…," Akko repeated softly. The name had stirred something in her memory; she knew it from somewhere, but for a moment she couldn't think where, though it gave her an odd, creeping sensation in the pit of her stomach."

"She's in Dol Gurdur," said Blair shortly.

Akko looked at her curiously.

"From what I remember, she was adopted into the family," said Blair in the same brusque voice. "Though adopted may be a stretched – she was basically my dear auntie's servant. She was one of the traitors that joined Amon's side during their coup. I saw a few years after that, being dragged past my cell. That's probably why Daryl blasted her name off. Though it was a bit excessive…"

And Akko remembered: She had seen Cinder Fall through the Horologium Clock, the strange device that flings people through time: a tall, dark-haired woman mangled beyond recognition who stood at her trial and proclaimed her continued allegiance to her master, who Akko now knows meant Jennifer.

She was also the person that cursed Bernadette Cavendish, dooming her to a slow and painful death.

"You never said you were related to her," Akko muttered softly.

"Hardly seems like a thing to mention," said Diana. "She's a criminal who betrayed my mothers and sided with Amon. As far as I am concerned, she is not my family. A sentiment that Aunt Daryl seems to agree upon."

"Sorry," Akko apologized. "It's just …I was surprised, that's all."

"Come to think of it, how do you know about Cinder Fall?" asked Diana, raising a curious brow. "I doubt you have any reason to know anything about a hardened criminal."

That put Akko in a precariously difficult position, having been sworn to Professor Holbrooke not to mention a word about what she had seen in the Horologium Clock. She hated the idea of lying to her girlfriend, but Akko couldn't just say that she had witnessed Cinder trial firsthand, nor the nature of the crime for which she was sentenced. She needed an excuse. And, as Akko just remembered, she had a convenient excuse ready, along with a crushing sense of dread in the pit of her stomach.

"Lotte was helping me look up case for my upcoming trial," Akko muttered. "We just happened to find Cinder's name among them."

"When did you have time to do that?" asked Diana curiously.

"I couldn't sleep last night – too nervous – so Lotte stayed up with me," said Akko. "Sucy was super annoyed and shoved a mushroom up my nose."

"Make sense," said Diana, nodded appreciatively. "I suppose anybody would be apprehensive, considering the severity of the situation. The Magic Council will be gunning for you. They're clinging to any excuse to discredit you before your identity as the Star-Born Child comes to light. You'll be facing an uphill battle."

Akko felt as though her stomach had sunk through the dusty carpet. She had not thought about the hearing since dinner the previous evening; in the excitement of being back with her friends, of hearing everything that was going on, it had completely flown her mind. But now it was back with a vengeance. She stared at her friends, all stuffing their faces and flicking pieces of bread at each other, and thought how she would feel if they went back to Luna Nova without her.

"Don't worry," said Blair, clapping her shoulder. Akko looked up and realized that Blair had been watching her. "I'm sure they're going to clear you, they've got no evidence that you attacked anyone."

"But if they expel me – "

"They won't," said Blair firmly, kneeling to Akko's level of sight. "I promise, everything will be fine. If it makes you feel better, I'll be coming along in cat form as moral support. Does that sound good?"

"Are you going to wear the hat?" asked Akko with a small tease in her voice.

Blair chuckled loudly.

"Of course. Whether human or feline, I always have to look fabulous."

"Then maybe we can grab those booties that okaa-san made – "

"Don't push your luck, brat."

"Hurry up, you three, or there won't be any food left," Anna called.

Blair practically skipped over to join the others, only to have her hand slapped away by Anna, followed shortly by Diana. Akko cast a dark look at the tapestry's burn mark before joining them.

Akko did her best not to think about the hearing while they emptied the glass cabinets that afternoon. Fortunately for her, it was a job that required a lot of concentration, as many of the objects in there were reluctant to leave their dusty shelves. Blair sustained a bad bite from a pearl jewelry box, leaving a long red mark between her index and middle finger where the lid had snapped shut.

"It's okay," Blair hissed, shaking her hand with a wince. "It's a defense mechanism to keep out thieves. Only opens for the owner. But since Bernie isn't around anymore…."

She threw the box aside into the cardboard box that would be eventually be put into storage.

They found a silver mirror that yelled at Akko to fix her hair, something like a many-legged pair of tweezers, which scuttled up Diana's arm, and attempted to puncture her skin; Anna seized it and smashed it with a heavy book entitled Nature's Nobility: A Magical Genealogy. There was a bronze flute that emitted a faintly pleasant whistling noise when played, and they all found themselves becoming curiously weak and sleepy until Stan-Bot slapped it out of Barbara's hands. A silver ring encrusted with a green opal that Diana fondly remembered her mother always wearing. A number of ancient seals and, in a dusty box, and Order of Morgan, First Class, that had been awarded to Bernadette Cavendish in "Advances in Modern Medicine."

"They awarded it to her for inventing the Covid vaccine," said Anna nostalgically, gently laying the medal in the box.

Anna kept them all working very hard over the next few days. The parlor room took three days to decontaminate; everything had been cleared out except for the Cavendish Family tapestry, which they learned had been hexed with a permanent stick charm by one of Diana's ancestors, and the rattling writing desk. Croix had not dropped by headquarters yet, so they could not be sure what was inside it.

From there, they had been moved to the greenhouse in the back of the manor where they found the entire place choking with overgrown plants and invading pests. According to Anna, Bernadette used to tend to the greenhouse personally while developing new types of medicines with herbs. But since she died, no one had bothered to tend it, allowing the place to be overrun. They waged war with giant flytraps, spiders the size of saucers, and poisonous slugs that had made their home in the corner for four days straight.

No one wondered why Athena had suddenly wanted these places cleaned up or why she wanted them to be the ones to tend to them. It was obvious that she was trying to keep them distracted, away from the Celestial Sphere's business, but it did little to sway them from trying.

The doorbell rang several times a day, which was the cue for Akko and the others to attempt to eavesdrop on the visitor, though they gleaned very little from the brief glimpses and snatches of conversation they were able to sneak before Anna recalled them to their tasks. Professor Finnelan flitted in and out of the house several time, and whenever her eyes met Akko's there was a twitch of sadness in them before she shuffled out the door.

Sometimes, however, the visitors stayed to help; Shantae joined them for a memorable afternoon in which they found a murderous old ghoul lurking in the cavernous basement, and Mrs. Parker, who was also staying at the manor but left for long period to do mysterious work for the Sphere, helped them repair a grandfather clock that had developed the unpleasant habit of shooting heavy bolts at passersby. Urahara redeemed himself slightly in Anna's eyes by rescuing Diana from a thicket of creeping vines in the greenhouse that had tried to strangle her.

Despite the fact that she was sleeping badly, still having dreams about corridors and locked doors that made her scars tingle, Akko was managing to have fun for the first time all summer. As long as she was busy, she was happy; when the action abated, however, whenever she dropped her guard, or lay exhausted in bed watching blurred shadows move across the ceiling, the thought of the looming Council haring returned to her.

Fear jabbed at her insides like needles as she wondered what was going to happen to her if she was expelled. The idea was so terrible that she did not dare voice it aloud, not even to Diana, who followed her lead in not mentioning it and silently comforted her with gentle touches. Sometimes she could not prevent her imagination showing her face Council officials who were snapping her wand in two and ordering her to Dol Guldur…

She felt as though a brick had dropped into her stomach when Anne turned to her during dinner on Wednesday evening and said, "I've set some nice clothes for you in your room for tomorrow, Miss Kagari, and i recommend you wash your hair tonight. A good first impression works wonders."

Everyone stopped talking and looked over at her. Akko nodded and tried to keep eating her steak, but her mouth had become so dry she could not chew.

"How am I getting there," she asked Anna, trying to sound unconcerned.

"Professor England is taking you," said Anna.

Hannah's father smiled encouraging at Akko across the table.

"I need to turn in some paperwork from Oxford, so I figured I might as well," he said.

Akko looked over at Blair, but before she could say anything, the cat witch spoke up.

"Sorry, Akko, but Chariot and Croix need me on an assignment in America," she said mournfully. "They need a representative to convince the DWMA to join the Sphere. Since I have friends there, well…"

"Wait…when did Shiny Chariot tell you that?" asked Akko staring at Blair.

"She came last night, when you were in bed," said Blair.

Akko lowered her gaze down to her plate. The thought that Chariot had been in the house on the eve of her hearing and not asked to see her own daughter made Akko fell, if that were possible, even worse.

Yeah, it's been over a year since this last updated, hasn't it? Back when I stopped, Covid was just starting out and had been found positive at the time, which caused an understandable amount of worry at the time. Since then, I have been vaccinated, moved to a new place, and started a relationship with a nice girl.

It was actually my girlfriend who found this and convinced me to finish it since she liked it so much. And, admittedly, I always regretted never completing this series after all the work that went into making it.

But this is the only thing I will be working on. All other stories are officially canceled, and when this series is over, I'm quitting for good. Updates will be inconsistent, so don't expect them weekly or even bi-weekly.

Next Chapter: Era