His logical mind told him that this couldn't be true, as his reflections did not perfectly mirror his actions. His instincts told him that there was no other explanation – how else was he surrounded by seven mirror images, all perfectly identical to his own appearance, albeit translucent and slightly more menacing?

He cloaked and ghosted away from them, mind racing. If only he could remember…he squeezed his eyes shut, concentrating and sorting through his haze of fragmented memories. And abruptly, he opened them once more.

Human experimentation. That was what he, Lord Knight Seyren, High Priestess Sorin, and Cecil had been sent to investigate. The church had officially sent just Lord Seyren and Priestess Sorin, and Eremes and Cecil had been contracted to stay in the shadows and eliminate any potential threats – a sort of "extra precaution", they had called it.

Clearly, it had not been enough. He quickly snapped his attention back to the present as his doppelgangers began to Meteor Assault. Though they were blindly attacking at random, there were seven of them and one of him. If he were hit, Eremes knew that his cloaking device would fail and they would be on him in seconds. He could stay on the defensive for hours, but if he didn't attack, he would be locked in a stalemate until he tired and made a mistake.

He cursed softly underneath his breath. There was no way that the clones could hear him, especially with all the noise that they were making from their Meteor Assaults. He had no time for this. He had to find the others, make sure that they were safe, and plan an escape route.

A tantalizingly soft yellow light floated into his peripheral vision. Spinning around to look, Eremes knew instantly that whenever he might think of her in the future, this moment would be the first to come to mind. High Priestess Sorin's tattered pink priestess robe trailed ethereally behind her as the Basilica she had summoned nullified all attacks that Eremes's doppelgangers attempted on her. Her face was peacefully serene, almost as though she was oblivious to the violence around her.

Darting into the Basilica, Eremes grabbed ahold of her hand and began to run. Hearing her startled gasp, he realized that he had forgotten to uncloak and hastily did so now. He glanced over his shoulder and wondered if there would be any safe hiding place they could rest at. Looking around, he saw other ghostly figures – priestesses, knights, and wizards. So there were other prisoners.

"Eremes!" High Priestess Sorin had wrenched her hand from his grasp. "What are you doing?" she asked indignantly.

"Trying to get us away from these creatures so that we may rest and figure out a plan of action," Eremes explained. His voice was raspy from months of disuse. Maybe even years of disuse, he realized. Her voice, however, was as melodious as ever. He wondered how she'd been able to do that, but quickly dismissed it as unimportant for the time being.

She crossed her arms and sat down, mouth drawn into a tight line. Even when she was annoyed, he thought to himself, she still moved with the grace of an angel. No wonder she had been the Church's chosen favorite for the mission. "Well, we can figure out a plan of action right here. Who knows if we'll be able to outrun these beasts, and I have enough gemstones and holy water to tide us over for a while."

He nodded. "Hm. Fair enough. Perhaps you could start by telling me how you got out?"

"I imagine I was in a similar situation as you. I woke up lying on the floor in a pile of glass and a puddle of bubbling green liquid. I'd been hurt a bit, but thanks to the grace of God I was able to heal myself. A pile of gemstones and holy water lay in the corner, so I filled my pockets with all that I could carry and teleported to the other side of the door." She curled an unruly blond strand of hair back behind her ear. "I'm not sure how everything ended up like this. I can only assume that we failed in our mission and that Rekenber has done something terribly unholy in order to create these…" she gestured towards the shambling misty forms. "…these monsters."

"Ah, I see." Eremes had forgotten about teleportation. High Priestess Sorin was capable of teleporting to any random location within the dungeon and back to Prontera. "…you could have left us all behind," he said quietly. "And yet, you didn't."

"I wouldn't have had any way to get back to this place," she replied simply. "Leaving my companions behind goes directly against the teachings of the Church. As a priestess, I cannot fall prey to something so base as a selfish desire to outlive my friends."

"But the staff," Eremes jerked his head at the Croce Staff that she held in her fingers. "You said that the room you were in contained nothing but gemstones and holy water. Where did you get it from?"

"I killed myself."

"What?" He knew that she had been tougher than she looked. But he had not been prepared for that statement.

"Yeah, I know, I don't really seem like the type for existential crises, right?" she grinned at him and he found himself surprised by her dark humor, though he'd seen it come out before. "I needed a staff to cast any useful spells, and the only way to get one seemed to be from off of one of my clones." Her Basilica had been getting steadily duller as she talked, and she stood up now to recast it.

"Hurry," Eremes whispered. "I will be watching your back." After these words, he vanished into the shadows. For High Priestess Sorin had been distracted while recounting her experiences to him, and he had noticed what she had not. In the distance stood a solidly opaque human form. It wore the robes of a high wizard, and it was rapidly approaching the waning Basilica.

A/N: Oh dear...