Cooking Cat had already left for the day, busy preparing for another episode of her show and delivering some pre-made dishes to the mafia's restaurant. Once they'd looped back around the planet over to Subcon, Hat and Bow settled down for a late breakfast before making starting their adventures for the day. However, they'd only gotten half-way through their meal when the ship's alarm sounded off.

Hat Kid hadn't had this many visitors since the first two weeks when shed initially arrived on Earth. This time though, as the girls made their way to the main deck, they found an all-too familiar figure waiting for them: The Badge Seller. No introductions were needed. Bow had met them on the arctic cruise, and the girls had splurged to catch her up on most of the badges Hat already had. Given how often they appeared, Hat felt that she shouldn't have been surprised to see them now, but the vendor never been on her ship before.

The vendor looked around with interest at the vessel's interior before settling their gaze on the pair standing on the upper level of the wide space. Beyond the impossible-to-read mask and glitchy form, they still carried themselves with a tense posture that was hard to miss. She'd never seen them look even remotely nervous before: Nothing ever broke through the Badge Seller's calm demeanor—not when Mafia Town was covered in lava, or the floral infection spread across the Alpine Skyline, or when the cruise ship sank. They always seemed to know how to brace themselves against any situation, so, seeing them like this, the young alien couldn't help feeling nervous herself.

Thankfully, their voice maintained its usual, steady roll. "Hello, young ones," they dipped their head in greeting, "Apologies for the intrusion, I was curious what brought you back to these woods. I thought you'd already finished your work here."

"Not yet," Hat Kid answered with a raised brow, leaning over the railing, "What about you, Badge Seller? Why are you here?"

"You could say that I'm looking for an old friend."

Who or what that person was, they didn't say. Instead, the Badge Seller used their staff to casually pivot around and gaze out the viewport at the grim scene below. Vanessa's storm was getting worse. The white streaks that swirled through the miasmic haze were only getting thicker, spreading farther, as the entirety of Subcon fell victim to the ice and snow just as it had in the distant past. To think that, below that veil, Snatcher and everyone in Subcon was fighting to the very end to stop it…

"The ice queen is on a rampage. You shouldn't be here right now. It's too dangerous."

Any more dangerous than anything else they'd been through without the vendor giving them any kind of warning? Sure, Vanessa was powerful, but that was hard to imagine… Hat and Bow shared a look, then climbed down the ladder after each other to join at the Badge Seller's side. Hat Kid sniffled, unable to catch herself before wiping her nose with her sleeve.

"And you're sick."

"We're fine," Bow excused for them both, "We just had a bit of a cold, but it's mostly cleared now."

"Besides, we can't wait around. We've got Time Pieces to find and our friends are down there," the other girl added.

"You'll be of no use to anyone bedridden," the Badge Seller countered, then sighed, "But… I suppose it really isn't my place to stop you. I can only insist you be careful."

Doubt rose in Hat Kid's mind. Warnings weren't like the vendor either, at least not beyond the occasional, passive advice they gave before she'd run headfirst into danger. Were they really worried that much about Vanessa, or maybe they were just worried about the friend they talked about? Who though? Most everyone is Subcon Forest was a terror in their own right. They'd made it clear before to leave Kit alone, as much as they felt sorry for her. Snatcher appeared to tolerate the Badge Seller's presence, but was ultimately friends with no one beyond his and Hat's contract…

"Is your friend lost?" she asked, "We could keep an eye out for them while we look around."

The vendor stared at her for a brief moment of silence, "Very, though it's unlikely you'll ever run across him. Not to mention I've searched the woods already." They looked back at Subcon. "I'm more concerned for your safeties for the time being. Are you certain you have to return there?"

"Well, we're planning on visiting the Horizon for a while, but yeah."

Whatever they thought of that—after the child's near escape from the realm last time—the Badge Seller kept their opinion to themselves, shaking their head, "Wherever you go, just make sure to stay clear of the ice queen. I shouldn't have to tell you that. Should fate play against you, however, I could possibly make a badge to help shield you from her magic."

The two girls' eyes widened with intrigue. Beyond the storm, Hat Kid remembered seeing the devastation of Vanessa's power firsthand, back in the manor. Sometime before she got there, a mafia goon had managed to sneak in: Unlike her, however, he didn't make it back out. She could easily still picture herself peeping from the nursery doorway, watching in horror as the thug she'd hid beside only minutes prior was ripped from his own cover in the wardrobe and frozen into a statue of ice within seconds. All it would've taken was for the queen to have captured her in a similar, tight hold for the same thing to have happened to her. The idea of wandering through Subcon only to round a wide tree and meet the full of her wrath made Hat shudder.

Bow Kid tugged on the end of the Badge Seller's tunic, "How much?"

They raised a hand passively, "Nothing, if the both of you will help me gather materials. I need you to gather tufts of the fire spirits' fur while I collect the rest. The hairs should contain minute traces of their power. Weaving them into the badges' fibers will help dispel the strength of the ice queen's touch. We can meet at our old spot near the large tree."

It made sense, the way the foxes radiated warmth. They may have naturally hated anything cold and wet, but that same heat that birthed that revulsion also acted as a kind of defense. That would also give them a chance to refamiliarize themselves to the forest trails around the newly manifested barriers. "It's a deal!"

The Badge Seller already left before the girls could finish their breakfast and headed to the planet's surface, walking the same paths they had followed the day previously. This time though, they packed to stay a while. As the storm worsened, there were no promises that they'd be able to make another trip down—or even return to the ship at all—until it was gone, not at least without traveling to somewhere safer on-world to beam up from. For the most part, they'd camp out in Snatcher's tree. Even if he minded—which he most likely did—he'd be too busy dealing with the all of the spirits to chase the girls off.

For the time being though, they braced themselves for their trip to the Horizon, quickly finding Kit and dragging her off with them to burn through the maze of spider webs. Lily also tagged along, volunteering herself as a guard for the two children and their not-so-aggressive companion. In all honesty, however, Hat Kid felt a part of it had something to do with how awkwardly silent she was in the midst of the Dwellers. If others recognized her, few approached, especially with how close she was to the swamp spirits both physically and as an adopted member of their kind. The Florist had become something of an outcast, separated from her old home by centuries without ever truly fitting in her new one.

It now seemed like Kit planned to keep her tail permanently wrapped around herself for comfort, anxiously hugging the bundle of frayed fur. Her ears remained pinned so far back that she looked like she'd been kicked, and the deeper their party traveled through the forest the more she fretfully stared at the growing mass of webs that soon began to surround them. "This is exactly the kind of reason why I stay in the Firelands," she mumbled, "This forest is a nasty place! First that nasty Shadow, then those nasty statues, then the dark and the ice, and now these nasty spiders…"

Lily floated alongside her with a smirk, arms folded across her chest, "I take it you don't get out much."

"She really doesn't," Hat Kid answered for her, "At all."

"Can you blame me?" Kit returned, jerking her head around at the sound of a twig breaking, "Look at this place! It's not at all like when I first came to Subcon; it's so bleak and there's something lurking around every corner. I just want this whole mess over so that the fire spirits and I can go back home."

The young alien inwardly winced. She knew it was all just another excuse the woman used to justify her captivity. She'd been hoping that spending time outside of the Firelands might break some of the fox woman's unhealthy attachment to their domain. She needed to break away from it for her own sake. Clearly though, there was still a long road ahead.

Bow's next words reminded her of something, however, that kept her hopes up, "You don't seem to mind the minions anymore though. You looked like you were ready to adopt them."

It was true. When they stopped at Snatcher's place to collect the two women, they found Kit surrounded by a cluster of minions. Originally, they'd been just as wary around her as she was of them. Nevertheless, within the past two days she'd managed to win a good number of them over with her motherly personality. She'd resewed some of their poorer stitching, patched up parts of their worn bodies, and gave them new patches from whatever was available. All the while, Snatcher had been glaring daggers at her back, but she had appeared too content to notice. It was a rare moment of peace between the rest of her flighty reactions.

Now though, she pouted a little as a faint blush ignited across her cheeks. Kit hugged her tail even more tightly to her chest. "I guess they're not as bad as I thought," she muttered in an even quieter voice than before, "Even for gremlins…"

"Maybe you'll learn to get along with Snatcher too."

"Never! I'll never like that nasty Shadow in a million years!"

The Florist chuckled at her response, but the laughter didn't quite reach her darkened eyes. When she looked around at the forest, instead of fear, her gaze was shadowed with pain and longing for a time long since passed. "You've got a point though. Subcon really isn't what it used to be…"

Unlike the spirits that they each lived with, the two women got along well. Beyond their similar fates, a mutual disdain for Snatcher also sparked an immediate kindship between them. The phantom's poor relations to the swamp and fire spirits made them their enemy as well, and while Kit largely just believed whatever the foxes told her, Lily saw her own people forced to bow to a perceived monster.

Thus far, she hadn't gone out of her way to be rude or cruel to him, but she didn't hide her anger either. She always gave him a wicked look whenever he was around before forcing herself to some task or another—even while he actively worked to avoid or ignore her. Likely, the only things holding her back were the current alliance and the thane's leash.

The webs were becoming overwhelmingly thick now. They canopied the trees almost as heavily as the leaves themselves, and carpeted the ground in various odd places where it looked like some wild animal had fallen pretty to the spiders and been cocooned. Disgusted, Kit summoned a small flame to torch the first wall of silvery threads that blocked their path.

Hat Kid tried to rise to her contractual BFF's defense, "Snatcher's not that bad once you get used to him, really. He's doing everything he can to take care of the forest."

Both women looked at her dubiously. "He's possessive of Subcon, kid," the Florist explained, "Trust me, it's not like he's watching it out of the kindness of his black heart: It's all about control."

Kit nodded rapidly in agreement, "Not to mention he's a soul stealer! I wish you little ones would just stay away from him…"

She felt like reminding the pair that the former tried to kill her and Bow on Thane Fen's command and the latter tried to keep her trapped in the Firelands, but instead argued, "Look at the minions and Dwellers though. A lot of them are weak ghosts: He's got nothing to gain from looking after them, but he still does it."

"It doesn't stop him from experimenting on them," Lily again countered, "or locking up the ones that don't obey." She clicked her tongue in thought. "If there's any 'good' in him at all, it's only because he's somehow still the lesser of all of the evils lurking around here now. Mark my words, if you both want to keep yourselves safe, you shouldn't trust that devil."

Hat wished she could convince them of otherwise, but then Snatcher didn't give her the best case to work with. He didn't go so far as to eat souls as the rumors went, but he did force people into contracts to take them. He kept them imprisoned in his makeshift lab or put them to work. He antagonized the spirits, whether or not they meant any harm. He even went so far as to use the Dwellers for cherry bombs—although the girl knew from their willingness to help her that the experience only ended in making them dizzy for a while after and, at worst, they were just upset about getting sucked into one without their consent. Most of what she could say in the phantom's favor was based on her personal knowledge or theories, and she couldn't argue that without bias. It was still difficult enough trying to convince Bow that Snatcher wasn't that bad.

Thankfully, it didn't stop Bow from supporting her friend where she could, "At least he's better than Vanessa though, right? It's a good thing there's someone strong enough to help fight her off."

The Florist scoffed, "Better than the entire line of nobles, I'll give him that much… They were never much good for anything."

Hat Kid gave her a worried glance, "What do you mean?"

Lily didn't seem entirely willing to take about it. It had to be a sore spot for her, considering how she must've died. She only explained her feelings vaguely, stretching her arms behind her head, "One leader wiped us out, the other abandoned us completely. You tell me what I'm supposed to think about that kind of betrayal. By the time all of this is over, I just hope the queen finally gets what she deserves, and the same goes for the prince if he isn't dead and gone already."

She bit her lip. It was bad enough that she didn't like Snatcher. If she knew he actually was the missing prince, who knew what she'd do. As they drew closer to the Horizon's waypoint, another worried thought occurred to her, Moonjumper! The same as Vanessa, the Florist would definitely recognize him even if he didn't remember her! It was already going to be difficult if and when they ran into him. No matter how she reacted to seeing the phantom, it couldn't end well: Whether she fought him, demanded answers from him, or tried to drag him back to Subcon, he'd lash out!

It took Bow Kid a little longer to piece those facts together, having only heard of Moonjumper through Hat's stories. Soon enough though, panic overtook her own expression at the dawning realization.

The group reached the open in the rock wall that made that made Subcon's waypoint. Kit tilted her head, drawing her flame closer and eying the mess of webbing inside with a grimace, "Is this it?"

"Yep!" Unable to whisper a plan with the two standing there, Hat instead thought up an excuse quick, pointing to the Florist, "Maybe you should keep watch, in case any of the spiders or Vanessa come this way. We'll need somebody to defend the way out."

Lily raised a confused brow at the sudden change, "Why me?"

Bow jumped in, nodding to Kit in a low voice, "Do you really think she can stay behind?"

Already busy clearing as much of the webs away as she could, Kit didn't even hear the comment. Nothing could wipe the disgust from her face, and she occasionally glanced around as if worried that something might spring at them from the treetops at any moment. Right as she was to be concerned and as much control as she had over her powers, she looked jumpy enough to torch anything that might mildly surprise her.

"Point taken…"

When the path was clear, it took a second longer to convince Kit to actually follow them to the Horizon. Inevitably though, her known fear of the spiders outweighed the unknown of the place that much farther away from the Firelands. Hat and Bow held hands as they stepped in to make sure they didn't lose each other while crossing over. It was snug, but Kit took the lead with her flame hovering in front of them to guide their way through the dark, seemingly endless tunnel.