Aloja watched worriedly as his partner stomped through the woods far outside of the town.

"Ugh, why can't she just…AARGH!"

"Come on, Al, calm down," Aloja tried, knowing that when his Writer got riled up, there was little to be done. Especially when it came to either Fang or Sai.

"Fang's risking being fired, Lo! You know what that means! She's risking everything…all for stupid Sai!"

Alek kicked a tree as hard as he could. Alek could've usually made it so that the tree was fell down or something else dramatic, but when he was angry, he wasn't really focusing on his powers, therefore the tree got off unscathed and Alek ended up wincing at his hurt foot. He got over the pain quickly, or he was just hiding it, as he stomped off.

"Where are we going?" Aloja asked. Alek had been leading him nowhere in particular, at least as far as he knew.

"We're going to find stupid Sai and get her back to HQ before things get even worse."

"But wouldn't that make us deserters too?"

"We're getting Fang back, and if words aren't enough to convince her, then we can do something else. We're still trying to get her back, just not in such a direct way. We know her whole purpose for abandoning her post and orders is because she's looking for fucking Sai, so we find him and then she'll come back with us."

"What's so wrong with Sai?"

Alek reeled on his partner with his hands clenched into fists.

"I'll tell you what's wrong with him! He just butted into our lives like he owns the place! He…he's basically stolen Fang from us. It's like she looks at no one but him anymore! He's always acting so perfect and such a great partner and…AARGH!"

Aloja unintentionally flinched, though not from his friend's outburst. He's known Alek has liked Fang ever since they were kids. Once upon a time, Alek was in Sai's position, spending every day with Fang because their positions as the Thirteenth Oracles. For a long time it seemed like they were perfect for each other, just Alek was too embarrassed to admit things and figured that he had all the time in the world to find out how she felt too. Then, they got assigned as Creators by the board, but not respective partners.

Alek was clearly unhappy about it, like if you received you school schedule and found out you weren't in any of your friends' classes, but he knew that there was nothing to be done about it, and it wasn't like it was the end of the world. He still had Aloja, and he still saw Fang pretty often, but when Sai got brought in, and Fang suddenly started bringing him to her meetings with the boys hoping that her new partner could tag along, something in Alek seemed to snap.

He was crushed, Aloja saw. He always challenged Fang to work on their Writer skills just for an excuse to get her full attention on him. Fang was a pretty good Writer, and for better or worse, Alek was driven by anger, by desperation. His happiness, his cheery and perky attitude…everything just all slipped away from him, leaving him angry, but most of all, helpless as the life he'd hoped for was lost right before his eyes.

And it crushed Aloja to know that Alek was being crushed.

"…and now we may loose her all because of him!" Alek finished.

Alek breathed heavily, seemingly out of angry quips to make about Sai (and he had a lot).

"Alek, why can't you just…?"

"Learn to accept Sai and try and move on?" "See how much it hurts me to know you can't get over Fang?" "See how much I-?"

No, he couldn't start thinking that way. It wasn't fair to tell Alek to just get over things when his life was basically falling apart for him. He didn't need anymore drama added onto his life, and it's not like…he'd never…

"Here it is," Alek said, thankfully snapping Aloja out of his thoughts. "I think the pendant that has Sai is down there somewhere," He said with a hint of malice still in his voice.

"How do you wanna get it?" Aloja asked. Aloja always looked to Alek for what he wanted made for him. Alek could make anything he wanted happen, but he was limited to whatever pawns were on the board already. It was Aloja's job, as his Illustrator, to give him the pieces he needed to accomplish his goals.

"Send a spider down. Large one that can pick up the pendant. And make sure that it can see in the dark and locate the pendant. And if there's water down there, make sure it can't drown."

Aloja moved his pen summoning it's power easily. His hands went to work, making a spider with a body about the size of a small dog. He barely had to concentrate on what he was drawing, his hands and pen on auto-pilot to make his intended creation.

Once the spider was finished and solidified, it made its way into the well and then down.

While they waited for it to come back with the charm, Aloja saw Alek staring down the well, partially anxious and partially nervous, seemingly unsure of whether he wanted the spider to be successful or not. Hopefully he wasn't influencing the reality of it, or else the charm might end up not being down there just because of his will, and then the chase would begin all over again.

Aloja wasn't a master with words, and was more enticed by an image than the description of it. He couldn't describe things easily, but he could make a painting that described how he felt with a passion. He could never put things into words, he just knew the things he felt. When it came to Alek, it was the same. He couldn't pin it down with words, but he just knew there was something within him that hurt.

Alek made up most of his non-Illustrator drawings and paintings, ones he did without bringing them to life, ones he just made for fun or when he had free time. Alek was always brooding, getting lost just staring at nothing. Just by looking at him when he was like that Aloja saw his pain, emptiness, that knot inside him that couldn't ever be unraveled, that slowly ate away at him. Aloja drew Alek when he was like that, because it represented exactly how he himself felt.

His hands unconsciously began documenting his friend looking down into the well in a little pad he had with him. If Alek knew he was being drawn, he never said anything about it, and Aloja was happy since he wouldn't know what he's do if he wasn't allowed to draw him. Drawing itself was an addiction for an Illustrator, but for Aloja, Alek was more important than water. If he was forbidden to draw Alek, he'd respect his friend's wishes, but he had no doubt that he would die inside. Bad enough that he was never going to…and Aloja was already falling apart inside, but that would make things…just hell.

"There it is," Alek said, though he didn't seem excited. It sounded more like he was about to go to the lottery in the Hunger Games and he already knew he was gonna get chosen.

Aloja checked the spider, and its mouth(?) twitched before it threw up the pendant.

"That is disgusting," Alek commented.

Aloja's spider was dismissed, transforming to ink, evaporating, and disappearing into the wind. Luckily, the pendant seemed to be unmarred by any spider saliva (do giant ink-made spiders have saliva?) and Aloja picked it up without incident.

"Is this it?" He asked, handing it to Alek.

"Not sure," He admitted.

The gem was tear-drop-shaped, the base about the diameter of a quarter. It was dark blue, and seemingly bursting with energy. The chain for the necklace was golden, and if one didn't know any better, it might've looked like something belonging to royalty.

"The power coming from it seems like Sai's," Aloja admitted. "It does feel like a fellow Illustrator. What about you?"

"Feels like him all right. I've had more than enough of the guy for one lifetime."

Alek put the pendant into his bag before pulling out the book that they'd gotten from Fang.

"Now how is this supposed to activate the pendant?"

"How am I supposed to know? You're the Writer."

"This is magic I don't understand. If I don't understand something, I don't have any control over it. It's like reading a book in a dream. Because you don't remember every exact detail about the words in the book, it can be really hard to actually read it. Fang said this helped activate the thing, and if what I'm getting from her is right, the guy that captured Sai put some curse or whatnot on this thing so that it could only be used by him. Not even the Dark One could crack it."

"Then what do we do?"

"Hope that this book has what we need. If I don't know what we're looking for, hoping is all we can do."

"What if we…I don't know…ask Fang for help?"

Alek tensed.

"We can figure this out, Lo. It can't be that complicated. She'll just slow us down. Let's get back to the TBOP."

Alek began reading the Table of Contents as they walked, flipping to different sections of the book as he tried to find the right information, muttering angry things as he tried to interpret the confusing words, symbols, and spells. Well, he was also muttering angrily as he kept stumbling over tree roots and tripping over his feet since he was trying to read while walk.

Aloja just wanted all of this crap to be over. Not just the whole Fang going after Sai thing, but Alek still liking Fang. He wanted Alek to stop being so sad, so angry. As much as he hated to admit it even to himself, he'd do anything to make Alek feel happy again, like back before they were Creators. Before everything got complicated. He wouldn't take anything back. He doesn't hate Sai or Fang for being who they are. He just wished that things could be simple again, that they could be happy. That Alek could be happy.

But nothing could ever be that simple. Alek would never care for him, especially not when he had Fang to pine over. And so long as he didn't move on from her, he would suffer, and so too would Aloja.

As he glared angrily at the book in his hands, Alek didn't see the hurt on Aloja's face as he looked to the ground and blinked away tears.