A Soul Gaze takes only a few moments from an outsider's perspective, no matter how long it seems to take on the inside. I'd walked down that hallway, Seen Sans guarding whatever that wall of void was, and been attacked by his mental representation, all before Thomas had fully turned to see who had spoken from the pantry we'd thought was unoccupied only a moment before.

So the room at large was rather surprised when I threw up my shield at their pantry, dropping my staff back into my right hand and squaring up to fight with their produce and non-perishables.

Sans' skeleton grin widened, but he dropped his hand, stepped backwards and vanished, like he'd never been there in the first place.

"Shit!" I shouted, angling myself to cover the room at large along with the pantry. "Where'd he go?!"

"Is that any way to greet a new pal?" the voice asked from the hallway behind me, and I spun, barely catching a glimpse of blue before the skeleton vanished again.

I tried to turn right, back towards the kitchen, but my staff was held out and Thomas caught it half an inch from his face, stopping me halfway.

"SANS! STOP ANTAGONIZING OUR NEW FRIENDS!" the skeleton I'd called Skeletor, whose name Sans' soul told me was actually Papyrus, shouted at his usual volume.

"maybe you should step outside, pap, go see how toriel's doing," Sans said from the dining room door, and I gathered my power in my staff, ready to use it if I had to. The sigils and glyphs up and down the focus glowed a fiery red.

"Stop!" somebody shouted, and I turned to see who it was.

Standing next to Papyrus was the kid, hands clenched at their sides, shaking in frustration. Their eyes were held almost shut, and their mouth pulled into a firm line.

"Things weren't supposed to be this way!" the kid shouted, moving to stand between the two of us squaring off, and I still couldn't tell from their voice whether it was a girl or boy. The kid pointed a finger at the short skeleton. "Sans! You know better than to threaten guests!"

"yeah, normally, but-"

"And you!" the kid whirled on me, and I caught Sans' anxious expression before looking back down, "You're supposed to be helping us stop whoever's killing the Monsters, not kill more of them! What kind of person are you?!"

I looked back up at Sans, who had put a hand on his neck and was looking down rather than at either of us. Regardless of what kinds of messes he'd had in his head, he wasn't going to throw the first punch. I knew that, knew more about Sans than all but his closest friends, and he knew me the same way. He wouldn't swing first. If that was the case, then I could hold off, too. I exhaled, letting the power I'd been gathering fade away, and my shield and the glyphs in my staff faded with it. I'd still be able to pull up my shield at a moment's notice, but they didn't have to know that. "Sorry, kid. Just had a momentary disagreement with, uh, Sans, there."

"SANS!" Papyrus shouted, turning on his brother. "I DON'T KNOW HOW YOU MANAGED TO UPSET OUR GUEST WITH ONLY A FEW WORDS, BUT IF ANYBODY COULD DO IT, IT'S YOU! APOLOGIZE!"

Sans pulled back like his brother had actually hit him, then turned back to look at me again. I met his gaze, and he hurried looked away.

"Uh, actually…" I said, then swallowed, my mouth feeling dry. "That's actually more my fault, I think." The room all looked at me except for Mouse, who growled loudly. I tapped him lightly on the head with the side of my staff; I already knew Sans could be bad news, so he didn't need to remind me. "We had what's called a Soul Gaze. I Saw him, he Saw me, with capital letters on those Esses. Once you've had one with somebody, it's literally unforgettable, so enjoy remembering me forever, I guess. You can't have a second one with the same person, either, even if the years change them. I've been told my soul isn't the nicest place in the world to visit, and I think we both overreacted a little."

And I actually believed we had. So long as I didn't try stealing whatever that key represented, or tried to get past whatever he was guarding (which I guessed might end the world, so there's a good enough reason not to mess with things)... I knew Sans was normally, well, depressed. Not so much of a fighter, except when he was pushed.

It wasn't a pleasant thought that a Soul Gaze with me pushed him damned close to that edge, but if he stepped back, I knew it'd take a lot to get him moving again.

"...so that's a soul gaze, huh?" Sans mused, looking back up to meet my eyes. I nodded, and he looked away. "always wondered what it was called."

"WHAT DID YOU SEE?" Papyrus asked, and Sans and I both winced.

Soul Gazes don't inherently share your whole, unaltered history, and no two people describe them the same way, but I got the feeling Sans wouldn't want me spouting off about the details of his soul any more than I wanted him going off about mine.

"Enough to know that neither of us want to talk about it," I said evenly.

Thomas chuckled, and I shot him a nasty look. He'd Seen my soul, and I'd seen the monster of the White Court trapped in his. Our mother had somehow managed to leave each of us one last message in each other's souls, which is a memory I'd thought back to plenty since I'd Seen it, it being the only time I'd seen her alive or heard her voice. It makes blood work and paternity tests pretty pointless if it's etched into the very essence of who you are that you're family. As quite possibly the only living member of my family, I'd do just about anything to keep Thomas safe, and he'd do the same.

Of course, that didn't mean he was above a laugh at my expense. The other side of being a brother, I guess.

"It's a rush to see it all go by that quickly, Burger King palace and all, isn't it?" Thomas asked with a shit-eating grin. "I could see people taking a swing at you after going through your soul, Harry."

Sans' skullface actually managed a blink, which made me blink in turn. "burger king? i saw a lot of numbers and data, but not a lot of cheeseburgers. you've had one before, too?"

"Everybody goes through it differently," I cut in, swallowing my question to Thomas about whether he was being serious about Burger King or not. "I See people's souls as places, and I've heard others describe the experience through music or even smell. If you Saw reports, or whatever, then that's how you experience a Soul Gaze. Unless you're looking into the eyes of a Wizard, or you go through it all the time with other Monsters, then don't expect it every time you lock eyes with anybody."

Sans' eyes went wide, and he looked back down at the kid standing between us.

"Just… stop!" The kid's clenched fists shook harder. "It wasn't supposed to be like this!" The kid pointed at me, tears starting to form in those almost-shut eyes, "You're supposed to come in and teach us everything we need to know so we can protect ourselves! You're not supposed to start fights, you're supposed to end them!"

I set my staff onto the island counter in the middle of the room and raised my hands, a gesture of peace; I wasn't going to start anything with a child, or a girl, and for all I knew this kid was both. Either was a good enough reason to put my guns away, and waterworks made me ten kinds of uncomfortable no matter who was crying. "I'm sorry, kid. We're not fighting, see? Just a misunderstanding, that's all."

"yeah. didn't know we'd be meeting somebody new, especially over dinner… too bad about the meal. i guess we had a missed steak," Sans said to the kid.

Everybody took a moment to confirm what we'd heard, everybody but Papyrus. He went from curious to furious in the time it takes buildings to combust around me. "SANS! IF YOUR PUNS ARE GOING TO START FIGHTS, YOU NEED TO STOP TELLING THEM!"

"what?" Sans asked with his regular smile. "i just wanted some peanuts from the pantry. i didn't know there was a risk of anything being a-salted."

The kid just sighed and rubbed the bridge of their nose with two fingers, a very adult move from somebody their age. I wondered where they'd learned it from, or if they were just copying what I'd done earlier when I realized there wasn't necromancy in the house. That I knew of.

"I'm just glad we didn't start anything," I said back. "Last time I got in a fight and something unexpected happened, my left hand got fried." I wiggled my gloved left hand's fingers as best I could at Sans. "I'm all right, now."

There was a silent beat.

"ba-dum, tish," Sans vocalized, the sound remarkably accurate to a drumset.

"HUMAN!" Papyrus cried out, horrified. "DON'T ENCOURAGE HIM!"

"i don't think he's all bad if he finds me… humerus," Sans joked, and I chuckled at the bad pun.

"NYEH!" Papyrus threw his mittened hands up in surrender and walked away towards a cabinet, where he started pulling out plates, then a drawer for silverware. It wouldn't surprise me if the cutlery was made of real silver.

"We alright?" I asked the shorter skeleton, who sighed.

"...got a few questions, but for now, i think we're ok," he said, and I couldn't answer him before a slice of pie was shoved into my hands, a fork planted like a victory flag in the middle of the generous slice.

"DINNER MAY BE LATE, BUT GUESTS ARE ALWAYS WELCOME." The skeleton squinted and leaned into my face, and I had to look away to avoid looking him in his own eye sockets. "EVEN ONES WHO TELL PUNS LIKE YOU, HUMAN."

"Personal space," I reminded him, handing off my pie to Thomas. The skeleton leaned back away and got me another plate, and I could almost feel the annoyance leaking off him like magical power. Knowing what I did about these Monsters, maybe I did feel something like that.

"Frisk!" I heard Asgore's shout from the hallway, "Is Frisk safe?!"

"Back here!" Thomas called, and I stepped alongside the island counter to make room for the incoming host, Mouse at my side, still rumbling quietly like the Blue Beetle's engine on a bad day.

I could hear the heavy footsteps racing for the few seconds it took for Asgore to enter the room, and the King practically fell over Thomas, who sidled up to the wall with the pie held guarded at his chest, out of the huge monster's way as the King fell to one knee before the kid, gentle gauntleted paws lifting the kid's arms, lifting the kid's eyelids open to check them. "Are you hurt, anywhere at all?"

The kid quickly looked away and backed up a step, holding one arm in the other. "M'fine. Nothing happened."

The gentle giant exhaled a huge breath in relief and the kid almost completely disappeared into his arms in an equally huge hug. Given the golden armor, I wasn't sure how comfortable that was. I heard heavy footsteps coming up the hallway, possibly Undyne coming to verify everything wasn't on fire.

"YOUR HIGHNESS! WELCOME HOME!" Papyrus called happily, holding up a plate. "WE HAVE CINNAMON-BUTTERSCOTCH PIE, AND I'M GOING TO MAKE SPAGHETTI FOR OUR SECOND DINNER!"

"Daaaaaaad," the kid whined, and I pointedly looked away.

Like I'd said, I never knew my Mom, and Dad died when I was young. Haven't exactly had the chance to whine like that in a long, long time, and seeing other families sometimes made me uncomfortable.

"Drop the child, Dreemurr," Toriel said sternly, and saw her, arms crossed, filling the hall doorway.

Asgore froze, and I saw him slowly, carefully remove his arms and stand, slouched like he'd come home six hours after curfew. "Toriel," he said carefully, eyes glued to the ground, "I merely wished to ensure that Frisk was safe."

"Frisk was with me," she said curtly. "That's as safe as any child could be."

"...Of course," Asgore agreed solemnly.

"Perhaps you should relieve Undyne," the queen said. It clearly wasn't a request. "She has had a long day, and even if the hoards aren't pounding on the gates, a guard should stand ready."

"I…" The king looked around, then gave the room at large a short bow. "I will guard the front. Be well, be safe."

Toriel barely stepped out of Asgore's way as he passed, scowling. When I heard the large front door shut, her face brightened into a smile. "How is your homework coming, my child?" she asked, suddenly cheery, directing her attention first to the kid, Frisk.

"'S done, mostly," Frisk said quietly. "Just a few more reports for the U.N., and some multiplication tables."

She sighed, putting a paw on Frisk's head and rubbing it, gently. "You do not have to do these reports, my child. You may still enjoy your childhood, yet."

The kid's expression didn't change, just a blank wall of nothing, and there was no response. She sighed, then leaned down and gave the kid another hug. Unlike with Asgore, the kid's arms came up and around her, as best as they could given the size difference, and she released the kid to stand.

Still no expression on the kid's face, though.

I filed it away alongside the hundred other signs that the kid wasn't as hunky dory as the news seemed to say. Given that newspapers had articles with updates on the family at all, I could understand at least part of why, and having it confirmed that they were a member of the united freaking nations didn't help the "still a child" vibes Toriel seemed to expect the kid to have.

I'd had a rough enough time growing up to know that face. I'd worn it a few times myself in the bad years.

I cleared my throat, still just standing there with an untouched pie, which I placed back onto the counter. The focus of the room broke from just the two of them, and Toriel turned that smile back my way.

"Wizard?" She said with a curious lilt. "I do not believe we have been formally introduced. I am Toriel. Welcome to my home."

"Dresden," I said back, offering her my hand, which she shook. "Harry Dresden."

"This little one," she gushed, gently prodding the kid forward. "Is Frisk."

Frisk nodded, not meeting my eyes. Hell, I wouldn't want to either, after everything. I nodded back. It's an acceptable quarter bow in Fairy culture, or something, so it's fine enough for me as a form of acknowledgement.

"I'M PAPYRUS!" The volume-challenged bone-maiden proclaimed, hand over his (and I was pretty sure it was a he, this time) chest. "ROYAL GUARD IN TRAINING, AND ROYAL CHEF IN THE MAKING!"

"sans," the skeleton's voice floated over the counter from where he leaned against one of the few walls not covered completely in cabinet doors. "we've met."

"Right," I said, nodding to each in turn. "This is Thomas, a friend of mine," who nodded to the room at large, "and Mouse, my pet wooly mammoth."

Mouse's lips pulled away from his teeth, and I flicked him on the nose. He gave me as nasty a look as a dog can give a man, then pressed firmly into my side.

Toriel noticed immediately, and she pushed Frisk half a step behind her. "Is he not trained?" She asked evenly.

"He is," I said, rubbing his ears, but his mood didn't change. "I guess he's still upset over, uh…" I trailed off a moment. "Sans and I had a little disagreement. 'S'all better now, but Mouse doesn't seem to want to accept that."

Toriel made a small "mmm" noise, then walked Frisk the long way around the island counter, taking a slice of pie from Papyrus as she passed, moving to sit to the kid's right at the table. "Do I even want to know?"

"probably not," Sans answered her.

"About the Necromancers-" I started, but Toriel shot me a nasty look from behind Frisk's back, giving her head a firm shake.

"Whatever threats the world may hold, we are safe in our home," she insisted, then looked up as clanking footsteps sounded from the entryway. "Undyne," she greeted as the Silver Knight joined us. Papyrus handed her some pie.

I made to move toward the table, but Mouse growled louder, and I huffed, exasperated. "Thomas, can you take Mouse for a short walk around the perimeter, see if there's anything getting ready to throw down?"

Thomas glanced at my staff, then at Sans, who shrugged. "Yeah, sure. Let me know what you find out."

We shared a glance, and had a short non-verbal conversation, something we'd started picking up after I'd asked him to have yet another random girl leave my basement apartment. Perks of dealing with a White Court vampire.

I knew that look he gave me. It meant, "You sure?"

I huffed shortly through my nose. "I'll be fine."

A tilt to the side, half a nod. "Call out if you need anything, and I'll come running."

A slight, blink-and-you'd-miss-it nod back. "Count on it."

He whistled lightly to Mouse, who looked torn. I nodded toward Thomas, and Mouse chuffed, then followed him, tail firmly between his legs. He didn't even chuff at Sans on his way out, so I'd guessed he'd finally realized we weren't going to have a problem.

"nice dog," Sans offered, remaining by the dining room door. "seems smart."

"Smarter than me," I admitted, "but don't tell him that. He's got enough of an ego as it is."

Sans chuckled softly, and Undyne looked between Toriel quietly going over reports with Frisk and Thomas' retreating form. She stepped lightly past Papyrus, who'd pulled out a large pot and was pouring dry noodles into it, over to me, which in platemail amounted to a lot of heavy clanging despite her half-hearted attempt at moving slowly. "Harry?" She asked around a bite of pie. "Do you think it'd be OK if I asked your friend about that sweet Kukri he showed off earlier?"

"Uh, probably?"

She shoved the rest of the pie into her huge, terrifying maw, then swallowed and cleared her throat. "I'm gonna to go do laps around the house. Throw up a flare if anybody needs me."

Toriel gave a light wave, not bothering to turn away from the reports before returning her free hand to the top of Frisk's head.

Undyne nodded, then turned and walked smartly for a few steps before breaking into a sprint. I heard the massive front door slam, but nobody else jumped. I guessed it must have been a common occurrence.

"Are you going to join us or not?" Frisk asked from the table, and I looked back at the two of them. Toriel gave me a light smile, but Frisk just had that blank, lidded stare directed at my chest. I glanced at Sans, who shrugged again. I grabbed the slice of pie I'd set down and took a seat across from the both of them at the large, round table.

On closer inspection, there were a lot of papers scattered across the table, some in ink, others in a more crooked scrawl in pencil, and a few more that I recognized as worksheets with jagged edges, like they'd been torn out of a workbook from some school or other.

"bro, i think you should put water in that before you try to cook it," I heard Sans say, but I tuned the rest of their conversation out, focusing on Frisk, who was already finishing the pie in front of them, the fork in their left hand. Toriel, I noticed, had stopped petting the kid and had picked up a pencil in her left paw, too. Huh. Guess everybody around here was a lefty.

I tried stretching my hand. It was sore, a side effect of all the shielding I'd done earlier. I sighed, leaning back in my chair.

I closed my eyes, just for a moment.

"Dresden?"

I shot up, blinking away the spots from my eyes in the suddenly-too-bright kitchen's dining area. "What, what happened?"

Toriel gave me a small smile, and I saw that she'd put on some glasses with purple frames in the time I'd closed my eyes. It'd felt like only a moment, but I knew it must have been longer, if she'd managed to leave to go get them.

I shook my head. Damned spots. I blinked a few hundred more times.

Frisk ambled back over to the table to sit back down as I pushed the pie aside, rubbing my forehead. I chuckled lightly. "Guess the day's been even longer than I thought. How long was I out?"

"Barely a moment," Toriel responded, a hint of amusement in her tone. "Your pie must be getting cold. Eat a bite, I'm sure it will help."

I waved it off, rubbing my eyes, rubbing away the spots. "Sorry. What?"

"The pie, Harry." Have a bite of the pie. "Would you like me to heat it up?" Just have a few bites, you'll feel right as rain in no time.

I shook my head, then picked up the fork from beside the plate and had a bite.

The effect was immediate. The haze faded and I felt… good. Awake, almost buzzed. Better than I had in days, like I'd eaten a full night's rest in just the first bite. I blinked again, this time more in surprise than anything else, taking in the whole kitchen again.

Papyrus was standing by the sink set into the counter diagonal from the entrance we'd come in from, filling his pot with water. Sans was looking around the room, before his eyes fell suddenly and heavily on Toriel, and he stood up straight. I looked back at Toriel, who beamed at me enjoying the pie, and I saw Frisk, smirking slightly, picking the pencil back up, sitting back down on her left, closest to the windows. I'd sat across from them, the rest of the kitchen on my left.

I looked back down at the pie, then hurriedly had another bite, and another, rushing to finish it. I barely had time to swallow, the cinnamon warring with the butterscotch on my taste buds, the pie melting in my mouth with a long forgotten feeling of warmth, of… home.

"Wow," I said dumbly, setting the fork down. So that was Monster food, putting my own potions to shame. "Wow."

"I am glad you find my pie to your liking," Toriel said with a smile. "It is a recipe I have practiced for many hundreds of years. I have had few complaints."

"You can say that-"

"Again," Frisk interrupted, the smirk gone. The kid's face was blank, just like earlier, those eyes almost completely closed. I couldn't tell if it was a longstanding habit, or they just didn't like to see, or hell, maybe the kid was blind. "I had a few questions I was hoping you'd answer, Mr. Dresden."

I blinked one last time, then pulled my chair in and sniffed. "What'd you want to know now?" I said, feeling unnaturally frustrated.

The kid's eyes widened for a moment, then she opened his mouth, then closed it suddenly. She looked up at Toriel, who seemed offended I'd been so snippy.

"Sorry," I said shortly. "Just coming down off that pie. Made my own Pick-Me-Up potion look like amature hour. What I wouldn't give to have one of those after every day I'd had like today, let me tell you."

"Er, of course," Toriel nodded. "One moment." She started to stand, then paused for a moment. She stood up fully. "Dresden, would you like a glass of wine?"

Frisk's hand jumped to hers, held it tight. "I'll be alright," I said, noting the move. "I already had a few earlier. Any more and I won't be fit to drive."

Apparently Toriel didn't miss the kid's move either. "I will only have a single glass, my child." She squeezed the kid's hand, and he squeezed back, before she stepped away, past Sans and into the dining room. Maybe they had one of those fancy chilled wine rooms in there.

Wait, I hadn't had any brews at Mac's.

"What are the seven laws of magic?" Frisk asked, quick as a gunslinger on the draw.

I looked over at the dining room door, where Sans was leaned against the wall again, head down. Papyrus whistled as he stirred his pot with huge, swirling motions. I crossed my arms, not sure how I felt about the kid asking about them. "Don't kill, don't change people's shapes, don't mess with people's heads or go poking around in them, don't bind the dead, don't mess with time, and don't ask about the Outer Gates. Why?"

The kid bit their lower lip, and I blinked. I'd thought this was a he, wait, she, no-

"What happens when you break them?" quickfire question number two rattled off.

"The Wardens come, and they have a trial." I rubbed my eyes. "Sentences aren't lenient. Not except in very, very special cases."

The kid tapped the pencil in their left hand a few times on the table.

Then Toriel re-entered the room with a bottle of wine, and Frisk was suddenly angry, and broke the pencil in half and threw it at the window, then folded their arms across their chest and stared out it, every bit the child throwing a tantrum as I'd ever seen.

"Frisk!" Toriel called, setting the bottle down as she strode over to us. "What is wrong, my child?"

"Everything!" the kid shouted, then slid their hands across the table, throwing the papers and spare pencils everywhere. "My friends are dying and there isn't a damned thing I can do about it!"

"Language, my child!" Toriel gasped, almost instinctively, a hand over her mouth. She reached out to Frisk, but the kid stood up in their chair and got louder.

"Nothing's going the way it was supposed to, don't you get it?!" The kid shouted, and the volume just kept going up. "No matter how hard we try, we can't fix anything! My friend the Monster Kid is dead, Ms. Muffet is dead, half the people from Snowdin were killed all at once and there wasn't anything we could do about it! Not a hundred warnings, not a thousand different- NOTHING WORKS! And we're running out of time! We're always, always running out of time now!"

"Kid," I tried to say, as tears started welling up in Toriel's eyes, one hand still over her mouth, the other reaching out but not touching the child, but I couldn't get a word in edgewise.

"I worked so hard to get us this far, and it's still just falling apart! It's like-" the kid's screams died, became the softest whisper, "...it's like nothing we do matters. It never, never mattered."

"Oh, my child," Toriel gasped, taking the kid into a great hug, tears streaming down her furred face, leaving little wet lines.

"You're wrong, you know," I said, keeping my tone almost conversational.

Toriel turned to see me, playing with my fork, and I just barely saw the slits of Frisk's squinty eyes from her side.

"What?" the kid asked, and that emotionless expression was mirrored by the dead word.

I hated it when kids felt like that. When innocents, when anybody felt like their world was falling apart. I'd been there before, and I'd decided a long time ago that I wasn't going to stand for it. Not now, not ever.

"That thing you said? About how nothing we do matters?" I said, pushing the chair back to stand. I stretched, then stepped over to the cabinets next to the sink, and pulled a glass out of one of them. I chalked it up to one of those weird after-effects of the Soul Gaze that I knew where Sans would keep his glasses. I filled it from the sink as I continued to speak. "You'd be wrong."

I took a drink, then set the glass down and folded my arms, leaning against the counter.

"Life is tough. Sometimes, I feel like that. Like the whole world is falling apart, like there's nothing I can do to stop it, like I can't possibly stop what's coming." I inhaled deeply, then let it out. "Been a lot of those the last few years. It's terrifying, knowing that there are things out there that want to eat your face, isn't it?" I snorted. "Couple years back, I remember I was getting death threats from a Warlock, what we call a Wizard gone bad, who was going to burst my heart right out of my chest, and part of me just wanted to crawl into the deepest, darkest hole I could find until it all went away. Sometimes I feel like there's nothing I can do, mystical hoo-doo and friends nowhere to be found, and there's something horrible I should be running from, that there's no chance in Hell I'd be able to face."

I sniffed. "Then I get out of bed, throw on my duster, and I go out and meet it anyway."

I took an arm away from my chest and pointed it at the kid. "You've had a couple long days, at least. I oughta know, I've been through a few myself. And I'm going to see a lot more before I'm through." I re-folded my arms. "I'm not some superhero who can whisk away all the problems of the world, kid. But some days, all that stands between people and the darkness are a couple people who refuse to just stand by and watch. I'm guessing with those 'thousand warnings' that you've been trying your best thus far to be one of those people."

I had another drink of water.

"You're just a kid. Sure, you've somehow helped crack open some barrier, and you're somehow on the U.N., but you're still just a kid. You shouldn't even have to think about this kind of crap, not for a long time coming. But you're stuck seeing friends go down anyway, and you feel like there's not much to do." I nodded. "I've felt that way." I looked back over at them, giving the kid as strong a look as I could through Toriel's side. "So you do what you can, help who you can, and try to keep your head down while the adults handle it. And now?" I smiled grimly. "I'm no superhero, but I'm here, kid. So if nobody else'll listen to those thousand warnings, throw a few of them my way."

I made my way back to the table, reached into my jacket, and took out my notepad and pencil, flipping it to a fresh page. I sat down, set the pad in front of me, and tapped my pencil on it twice. "If you know what these guys who're attacking your friends look like, or anything like that, now'd be the time to bring me up to speed."

I waited for somebody in the room to respond, hoping the kid would be willing to say a few things, even just to try to feel better after feeling like they hadn't been able to do anything at all.

Toriel spoke first, still partly in shock. "What could you possibly expect us to know that we have not already tried to use to protect our people?"

"You're thinking about it wrong," I said with a mirthless half-smile. "I'm wondering what I might know, or could find out, that'll help based on what you know."

The kid exhaled into Toriel's side, then held her a little tighter. "I can tell you that it isn't Monsters starting fights to the death out there. It's Wizards. They're the ones killing my friends to steal their souls. They're doing it to make themselves more powerful."