Keno was washing the blood off of his clothes when Hades found him.

He didn't hear her coming, but he hadn't needed to. There was a change in the air, something beyond any sense, and just like that he knew. And sure enough, when he looked up, Hades was walking along the riverbank towards him, a staff in her hand made of twisted black bark, the same shade as the long dress she wore. The headdress that was twisted around her horns today was not the silver-blue of mourning that he'd last seen her wearing, but a clearer grey, coin-bright, the same as her eyes and sparkling under the mid-morning sun.

Those very eyes assessed him coolly, sweeping him from top to toe, and then glinting in satisfaction when she realised what he was doing. Her smile curved up as sharp as the knife he'd used, and she inclined his head.

"Eita is avenged, then."

"Yes."

He did not want to say anything more than that. All his words about Eita had been used up, and all he wanted to do now was wall of a little bit of his memory to honour the man he'd loved so much, and then continue on to whatever transformation awaited him next. Hades regarded him for a moment as if trying to tease out his thoughts, and he kept carefully still until she nodded, her smile remaining.

"I expected you to be different." She said.

"I have not decided what form to take yet, or where to go," Keno said. "Besides, I am different."

He did not bother to gesture to his torso, the scars displayed in all their glory for Hades to see. He would have put on a shirt if he'd known in advance he'd be visited here by this little camp he'd made for himself while figuring out what to do now that there were no more battles to fight. He did not need to see the scars, for although the injuries that caused them no longer hurt, all the same he could feel them. As if the frecht shapes had become absorbed into his blood, his very being. A change was a change, no matter how unwilling. Nonetheless, he knew that Hades and all the others did not see how he had been transformed by the events that hard marked him, only their own fears and pains. Only the memory of him all bloodied and weakened and reduced to almost nothing, carried by willow-thin Mshrupo as if he was weightless, however that must have looked to them as she'd carried him to their camp, undeniably saving his life.

Misha….

No, while he didn't want it to be forgotten as such, he didn't want to be locked in by that image of himself in others' minds. Keno shook his head, tilted his head so that he could look Hades more fully in the eye, despite the urge to look away from them. She, of course, was fearlessly undaunted, and looked back at him.

"I suppose you are. Aren't we all?"

Not knowing whether a response was needed for that or not, Keno turned his attention back to the shirt he was washing, and studied it. He was no launderer or house elf, but he supposed it would do. He squeezed it a few times, and then stretched it out and placed it on the rock beside him.

"Have you found Misha yet?" he asked once he looked back at her.

"Not yet, but we're getting closer, we're sure of it." Hades said.

"She's not-"

"No. Kenta would know for sure, and Arianna can hear her thoughts, somewhere. It's addled by the storm-curse, but Mshrupo's mind is out there, somewhere. Nyamai is casting the usual thought ru-"

"Wait, who?"

Keno frowned, and Hades stared at him in unblinking confusion before smirking.

"Until about three days ago, Lyria."

"Oh. She changed her name. Why?"

"I'll be honest, I have no idea. Cher just greeted her as normal and she went 'I'm not Lyria anymore'. When we asked who she was, Nyamai was the answer."

"And that's that, I suppose."

Keno, despite himself, had to laugh, but he quickly sobered up. Gathering up his own courage, he stood up and stuck his hands deep in the pockets of his trousers.

"What are you here for, anyway?"

Hades chuckled.

"To check on you, of course. None of us will ever truly be lost from each other, after all…even if some location is taking a while. "

A bitter laugh then, and something like sadness momentarily creasing her face, but then Hades continued on.

"In any case, I have something of a proposal for you."

"Go on."

"Cher and I, we want to create a school."

"You…I'm sorry, what?"

"You heard me. A high school, which I hear is the common term for education for youngsters in their mid-to-late adolescence. We would pool what is left of our binding magic into building it so that it serves as protection for them. In exchange for that, they'll be educated in magic enough that if something like the Great War ever happens again, they will be able to step up."

Pool what is left of our binding. Keno could feel it, those spindly, invisible threads of magic, both red and gold at the same time, tying him to Hades and to Cher and the others back at camp. To Eita, and also Lowen and Rielle even though they were no longer of this world. And to Mshrupo, wherever she had been lost. That magic, threading through the walls of a building that was…Keno tried to picture what such a place could look like, and failed. Instead, he asked the next question that occurred to him:

"Since when did any of us know how to be teachers?"

Hades gave a one-shouldered shrug.

"That's a minor detail. Between all of us, we've got enough power to be able to do it. "

"I will not be able to travel so freely."

"Oh, you will. You'll just have to come back. No departure can be permanent, otherwise it'll hurt…as much as those, probably."

Keno stiffened and glared, wrapping his arms around himself as Hades stood there, steely and impassive. Her smirk had gone, and so no matter how preposterous the idea was, he knew that it was serious.

"Let me put my clothes back on first." He managed to grit out.

Not waiting for a response, he turned swiftly and walked over to his tent, scrambling in his pack for a grey shirt and slipping it on and then grabbing his black sleeved cloak and putting that on too, taking his time with the elaborate fastenings and the chain. In the process, his mind settled somewhat, the dust of Hade's words blowing away and allowing him to actually think about the situation.

He did not know yet what the full cost would be, but he had sacrificed so much already. If not for fate, and of course Mshrupo, then he may not even have been here now. And wasn't he himself in the middle of a new transformation. He hadn't known where it was leading, and still didn't, but just as she (with Cher) had lifted him out of a rut by asking him to be a part of their team, now Hades was here with a direction anyway. He supposed it'd be a pain to not be able to move as freely, but that was nothing under the circumstances.

And still worse than remaining static, endlessly, circling and lost.

"Well, that decides it then, I suppose." He said aloud to his little tent.

He stuffed what few belongings were left out into his pack, and dismantled the tent. Then, swinging the pack on his back and holding his tent roll as a weapon, he headed back out again.

Hades was exactly where he'd left her, looking as if she hadn't moved since. But when she detected him coming, her eyes glinted and she tilted her head.

"So, are you asking me to be a teacher or something?"

"Yes, Cher had you in mind to be teaching staff."

"Really? Is everyone going to be a teacher?"

"That would be silly. We need support and reinforcements too, naturally. So some of us will fulfil those roles, while most of you will be teachers. Naturally, we will be the headmaster and headmistress. "

"And you've got the agreement from everyone?"

"I mean, to an extent, one way or another you will all be bound to this. There's no other way to do this. But yes, basically everyone agreed to be integral. Snow's still coming out of an episode, and Lucifel flatly refused to teach, and of course we have not yet found Mshrupo."

"So Lyri-I mean, Nyamai, is going to teach?"

Hades chuckled at that.

"Yes, to be honest I was surprised too. But this will work, trust me. If anything, we have a duty to make it work. I do not really know what you were planning to do with your life after this, and I apologise if it-"

"It's fine…how close are you to finding her, anyway?"

Hades mouth clamped shut for a moment, and she thought for a second before shaking her head and sighing heavily.

"We're trying, as I said. Nyamai's runes put her somewhere on the path to the site we've found-"

"You've found a site already?"

"Yep, we have. Why?"

"Where is it?"

Hades told him, and Keno nodded, considering carefully. Yes, that's a place I know. It would not be a difficult task to get there, but it'd be a lot easier to fly. And while he was doing that.

"I'll join you. But not now."

"Oh?" Hades asked. "Something more pressing to do?"

"Don't worry yourself about it-I'll be there, ready to be a part of this school of yours. But when I do arrive, I'll have Misha with me."

Hades' mouth opened, but before she could say anything, Keno swished is cloak around him, transforming into an eagle, diving straight into flight, up and far, far away' leaving her behind. And with every flap of his wings, he began his transformation from whatever he was now, into teacher.

He couldn't wait to see what he would be like once he landed.