Chapter Five: An Unpleasant Task

In Yuri's dream, Flynn was shouting at him.

"Why didn't you notice, Yuri?!" Flynn screamed at him. "How can you call yourself my friend?!"

Yuri tried to explain that he'd gone to the castle the first month after Flynn was transferred to visit but was turned away at the gates. He tried to explain that every letter he sent went unanswered, or if he was really lucky was responded to with a formal "Thank you for writing to the Knights. Lieutenant Scifo is very busy and cannot personally respond to every letter…". He tried to explain that it was unfair to accuse him of not noticing when Flynn had been the one going out of his way to pretend everything was normal.

He couldn't get the words out, though. It was like his mouth was full of pudding and his muscles were so heavy he couldn't move, and all he could do was sit there and listen to Flynn accuse him of being the worst friend in the world.

He was confused when he finally jolted away, because Flynn was still shouting. For a few seconds he thought he was still dreaming, but then he realized the muffled voice came from the basement.

"Hello?!" Flynn called. "Is anyone there?! Where am I?!"

Yuri looked around the dark room. Judith was still out shopping, Raven was asleep, and Karol was nowhere to be seen. Despite his best intentions, Yuri had ended up falling asleep on the sofa. He wished he hadn't, because before the dream had switched to Flynn – likely brought on by Flynn's real world shouting – it had been about Estelle. The details had faded from his head within the first minute of waking up, but he was covered in cold sweat and his heart still pounded.

"Hey!" Flynn shouted. "You can't just leave me down here!"

Yuri swung his legs off the sofa. His bare feet hit the wooden floor; someone must have taken his boots off. Whoever it was had also stuck a pillow under his head on the armrest, and the blanket in a messy heap on the floor had probably been draped on him before he thrashed around. He took a moment to appreciate the fact that at the very least, some of his friends were still his friends.

He headed down the steps to the basement, the cement cold under his bare feet. The key to the door hung on a screw that had been installed when they converted the basement room to a cell. He slipped the key into the lock, a bit surprised at how much his hand was shaking. This would be the first time he'd seen Flynn awake since he ran away from the office, and he had no idea what to expect.

Inside, he found Flynn only a few feet away from the door. He'd heard the key in the lock and braced himself to face his captor. When he saw who it was, he relaxed. "Yuri! Are you alright? They didn't get you too, did they?"

"Huh?"

"Do you know who's captured us? I think the guilds are involved. It's kind of hazy, but I feel like I remember Kaufman from Fortune's Market."

Yuri closed the door and slipped the key into his pocket. Did he seriously not remember?

"We need to get out of here." He tugged on his arms and added, "Can you pick the lock on these cuffs?"

He was so… Flynn. For a moment, Yuri feared they'd made a mistake. This was his closest and oldest friend; what he was he doing locked up in the basement? Flynn took a deep, laboured breath. The reminder that Flynn was still recovering made Yuri feel even more guilty about locking him up, but also reminded him of the circumstances. Flynn was injured because he'd tried to kill Yuri.

He met Flynn's eyes with a steady glare. "Sorry, Flynn. No can do."

Flynn wrinkled his brow. "What? Yuri, what's going on? Where are we?"

"We're in Dahngrest." No point trying to beat around the fact that Yuri was the one holding him captive. "At Altosk. We brought you here for… medical care."

Flynn stared at him, and gradually his confusion dropped. "I see," he said coldly. "I suppose this has to do with our argument in my office the other day."

"Argu…? Flynn! You tried to kill me!"

"You left me no choice," Flynn said, standing a little straighter. "You shouldn't have pried into Lady Estellise's business."

"Maybe she should have tried to raise Zaude."

"Don't criticize her," Flynn snapped.

Yuri rested his hand on his hip. "I'm getting really tired of this mindless devotion to her. Just go lie down. We're not letting you go until we fix your head."

"My head? There's nothing wrong with my head."

"Sure there isn't. Now would you lie down? I hate listening to you struggle to breathe."

"And whose fault is that?" Flynn asked with a deep breath. "You're the one who stabbed me."

Yuri glared at him, carefully holding back his emotions. "Yeah, sorry, but I'm not gonna feel guilty about defending myself when you attacked me first."

"So this is how it is, then?" Flynn asked, pulling at his wrists as if he could get out of the handcuffs by himself. "You're really making yourself my enemy?"

"Estelle made you into my enemy," Yuri said. He planted his hand on Flynn's shoulder and said, "But don't worry. If the old you is listening somewhere in there, we're going to get you back."

Flynn jerked away from his touch. "The 'old me'? There is no old me! I worried that your warped sense of vigilante justice would lead you down a bad path, and now you've resorted to kidnapping? Let me out of here, Yuri. This isn't funny."

"This is for your own good. You've been brainwashed."

"Don't be ridiculous. You always feel like you know best. Who gives you the right to decide what to do with other people's lives?"

Maybe he was overstepping his bounds, and maybe what they were doing to Flynn was morally wrong, but Estelle was the one who'd warped Flynn's brain in the first place. Yuri was just doing damage control. Sometimes damage control wasn't pretty, but Yuri had never shied away from an ugly job. "I'm doing what I think is best for you," Yuri said. "When you're better, you'll understand."

"I don't need to get better!" Flynn shouted, and then smashed his head into Yuri's face. Yuri shouted in surprise, and Flynn followed it up with a spinning kick to Yuri's side, landing right on the still-healing sword wound he'd acquired in their fight. While Yuri clutched his side and staggered back, Flynn stuck out his leg and tripped him, sending him crashing to the ground. Flynn leapt over him and turned backward to the now-unlocked door. He fumbled to grip the knob with his cuffed hands, while Yuri jumped back to his feet.

"You asshole!" Yuri shouted, his hip throbbing. Flynn had just gotten the door to crack open when Yuri grabbed the collar of his shirt and his upper arm and slammed him back. "You're not going anywhere until you recognize what Estelle's done to you!"

"She hasn't done anything!" Flynn yelled. "She's the only one who helped me!"

"I'm helping you!" He dug his fingers into Flynn's shirt.

"As if. You're just trying to get me out of the way, aren't you? You were always jealous of me, ever since we were kids."

"I what?" Yuri's furious glare deepened.

"Because I was always better than you." Flynn smirked at him. "And you couldn't deal with that, so you left the Knights and abandoned me."

"What the hell gave you that idea? It was Estelle, wasn't it?"

The look in his eyes confirmed it for a second before they narrowed with anger. "The hardest part of this mission was pretending I still liked you." He tried to push Yuri away, but Yuri had the upper hand and kept him pinned against the door. "I almost forgot myself and nearly killed you the first time I saw you in Capua Nor. Heh," he wheezed. "You're lucky Lady Estellise found you interesting or I would have killed you ages ago, you bastard."

Yuri groaned in frustration. Don't get angry at him, he told himself. It's not his fault. Flynn couldn't be held accountable for the terrible things he was saying any more than a depressed person could be blamed for feeling sad. Knowing that didn't keep Yuri from getting pissed off, though.

He loosened his grip on Flynn just enough to give him room to slam him against the door. "Ha! Like you could have killed me if you tried! I kicked your ass last time, didn't I?"

Flynn coughed and with a hoarse voice he gasped, "That's right, you nearly killed me. Guess you're-" he broke off in a cough, "n-not so," cough, "better than me."

"You didn't give me a choice!" Yuri roared, but stopped when he saw dark chunks of blood on his hand from Flynn's coughing. Shit, he'd been too rough with someone recovering from a punctured lung.

He loosened his grip and Flynn hunched over, coughing. "Dammit, I'm sorry," Yuri said. "Sit down."

"O-oh, so," cough, "now you c-c-care," cough.

Yuri put an arm around his shoulders and led him back to the cot. Thick, coagulated blood splattered on the floor. Flynn sat on the edge of bed, trying to calm down his coughing and get enough air. Yuri rubbed his back and said, "Hey, come on, you're alright. Take deep breaths." Yuri took comfort in the fact that the blood wasn't bright and fresh. He hoped this meant it was just lingering blood still in his lung and not a new bleed. "Stay there," Yuri said quickly. "I'll be right back with a gel." He wasn't sure if an apple gel was going to stop the cough, but he felt awful sitting here doing nothing.

"Yuri," Flynn wheezed, "what are you g-going to do," cough, cough, "to me?"

Yuri hesitated, but he wanted to be honest with Flynn. Estelle had spent enough time lying to him. "We're going to un-brainwash you. It's not going to be fun. In fact, it's probably going to hurt, but you'll be better off when we're done."

Yuri started walking away, but Flynn's hoarse voice made him pause. "So that's why you brought me here?" After a few coughs he finished, "To torture me until I think the way you want me to? How does that," a particularly loud cough cut him off, "make you different from Estelle?"

Yuri looked back over his shoulder. "Are you admitting Estelle tortured you?"

Flynn stiffened, the anger and fear in his eyes fading. He coughed a few times, and then with significantly less emotion than before said, "I trust Lady Estellise. She wouldn't hurt me. She's my friend."

Yuri turned his head back. "Yeah, so I've heard you say," he grumbled on his way out the door. He locked it behind him and hung the key back on the hook.

He ran back upstairs, the last couple of minutes playing over and over in his head. It hadn't been the best conversation he'd ever had with Flynn, considering Flynn had expressed a desire to kill him, but at the end, he was pretty sure some facet of the real Flynn had broken through. When he was hurt and couldn't breathe and Yuri tried to help him, something had gotten through, if only for a few seconds. It gave him hope that this really was going to work.

"Are you sure about this, Old Man?" Yuri asked as they stood outside the basement door. "I can do it if you want."

Raven stared at Yuri, wondering what deep store of strength the kid had tapped into in order to even be standing upright. He was pretty sure Yuri hadn't had a sound night's sleep or a proper meal since before confronting Estelle, he must be sore from all the wounds from his sword fight with Flynn that only had gels for healing, and Raven didn't even want to comprehend the emotional shock of having your two best friends try to kill you. The kid was exhausted, physically and emotionally, and Raven wouldn't blame him for collapsing into bed and sleeping for a week.

Raven shook his head and rested his hand on Yuri's shoulder. "Don't worry about it, kid. Old Raven can handle this one. You oughta lie down and get some rest." It was evening, and Yuri insisted he'd napped earlier today before going in to see Flynn, but Raven doubted it had been particularly restful.

"No," Yuri said, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. "I'm gonna wait here."

Raven frowned, but already knew there was no use trying to convince Yuri to leave. "Alright. I'll let ya know how it goes."

Yuri nodded, and Raven entered the room. Karol and Judith had helped him get Flynn ready earlier, so when he walked in, Flynn glared at him from the chair he was tied to. They'd wrapped soft fabric around his wrists before tying them to the arms of the chair, because they might be kidnappers but they didn't want him to get rope burn. He looked furious, and Raven told himself that this was far from the worst thing he'd forced himself to do to people he liked. He'd smacked his friends around quite a bit at Baction, after all. This wasn't so different.

"Good evening," Flynn said stiffly. "Are you here to un-brainwash me?"

"You don't miss a beat, do ya?" Raven grabbed the other chair and pulled it in front of Flynn, plopping down in it. "No wonder ya got promoted to commandant. Or was that because you're the princess' personal lap dog?"

"My promotion had nothing to do with Lady Estellise. Master Ioder promoted me based on performance."

"Ah, I see, but ya didn't deny being her lap dog." He'd had a long talk with Judith and Karol about what needed to be said and done to Flynn. They'd done it while Yuri was in another room, because as much as Yuri wanted to help, they worried he was too close to Flynn to even attempt approaching this impartially. The most important thing was to rip apart the mindless devotion to Estelle she had implanted in Flynn's brain, which was going to mean saying some really awful things about her. Considering he was still coming around to fully accepting the reality of Estelle's attitude, he was far from comfortable with this job. But, since he'd rather do it himself than subject Yuri to it, he steeled himself and said, "That bitch made you her bitch."

"How dare you call-"

Raven smacked Flynn across the face. "Shut up. I'm talking. I take back my compliment about seeing why you got promoted. Someone as blind as you doesn't even deserve to be a private."

"You really think-"

Flynn's head snapped to the side with the force of Raven's blow. "Didn't I tell you not to talk!?" The Schwann voice was slipping out, and Raven decided to embrace it. He would have preferred to leave that identity behind for good, but it had its uses. It was certainly more intimidating. "What kind of knight can't even take basic orders? Listen up, you little shit, we're not having a conversation here. I'm going to tell you what you need to know, and the sooner you accept it, the sooner we can all move on. Got it?"

Flynn raised his eyes and glared at him through clenched teeth, but didn't say a word.

"That was a direct question," Raven barked, slapping him again. "You answer those. You should know how this works! Didn't you even go to boot camp, you fucking idiot? Well?"

"Yes," Flynn hissed.

"Yes, what?"

"Yes, sir."

"That's not what I was looking for." Raven accompanied the shout with another slap. "I'm no 'sir'. I'm not a captain, or did your thick skull forget that already? I'm asking you to give me more than a single word answer, you moron."

"To which que-"

Smack. "Did I say you get to ask questions?"

"What do you want me to-"

Smack. "I asked if you understood the situation less than two minutes ago!"

"But you also asked me-"

Smack. Raven's wrist was getting sore, to say nothing about the growing red mark on Flynn's cheek. "Answer the question!"

"Stop shouting at me!"

"I'll keep shouting at you until you figure out Estelle's been brainwashing you!"

"Yuri!" Flynn shouted. "I know you can hear me! Help!"

Raven hit him so hard the slap resounded through the concrete room. He hit with more force than before, because now he was irritated that Flynn was trying to play innocent. Yuri was enough of a wreck without Flynn playing with his emotions. "You fucking coward, crying for help already? I don't know what Estelle was thinking when she picked you of all people to turn into her puppet."

"She didn't-"

Smack. "Estelle is a manipulative bitch who has done terrible things and ruined many lives. She is a bad person. She's not someone you want to pledge your allegiance to. The only reason you currently think she's the bees knees is that she tortured you until you brain was putty and you'd believe anything she said."

"She did not torture me!" Flynn insisted with a curious edge of panic. He clenched his fists and his wrists strained against the ropes binding him to the chair.

Raven grabbed Flynn's throat and dug his fingers under his jaw. He carefully squeezed enough to be painful without completely cutting off his breathing. "It's the truth, and if you don't buy it, you're dumber than I thought."

Flynn wheezed and choked out, "Y-you think… you can keep yelling at me un-until I agree with you?"

Raven let go of his throat before he did real damage, and then smashed his fist across Flynn's face once more. "I can keep this up longer than you can." This was going to be a long evening.

Rita sat at a small dinner table in Ioder's chambers, trying to enjoy dinner. Estelle often dragged her along to these dinners, saying she couldn't bear to think of Rita eating alone, even though they were supposed to be small political meetings between her, Ioder, and Flynn. There were a lot of policy changes Ioder wanted to make, and there was a lot to do before his coronation.

Flynn wasn't here tonight, for obvious reasons, so it was just the three of them. Rita was quiet through most of dinner, trying to figure out what she should think about Estelle. While Ioder and Estelle chatted about the changes they wanted to make to the lower quarter, Rita silently cut into her chicken breast.

It was ridiculous to think that Estelle was evil. She happily babbled away, as perky as ever. Then, she remembered the look on Yuri's face in the wagon the other day. He looked so tired, and more broken than she had ever seen him. That wasn't the expression of a person making up wild accusations to save his own skin, and if Yuri wanted to make an excuse, wouldn't he have come up with something more plausible? In addition, even if he had gone after Estelle, the excuse that he'd gotten into an argument with Flynn that got out of hand afterward seemed feeble. After listening to Yuri fret over Flynn for months, she knew – far better than she would have preferred, to be honest – just how much Flynn meant to him.

None of this made sense. She'd tried to act like her normal self around Estelle to keep her from knowing she'd met with Yuri, but it was hard. Throughout every conversation, Rita analyzed every word and every expression. It was like observing a meticulous experiment, only she was terrified of finding the answer.

"What do you think, Rita?" Estelle asked, looking to her.

"I – what?" Estelle and Ioder were both looking to her expectantly. "Oh, uh… sorry, I missed the question."

"I just asked what you thought of the chicken," Estelle said. "It's good, isn't it?"

"Oh, yeah. Great," she said. "Sorry, I was just… thinking about blastia stuff."

"That's ok," Estelle said, smiling. "Sorry if I broke your train of thought."

"Don't worry about it," Rita said, stuffing salad into her mouth to keep from having to talk. How could she even doubt Estelle? Estelle was the best friend she had ever had. How could she even consider that it was all an elaborate act? But then, Yuri was one of her best friends, too. What Estelle claimed he'd done was completely out of character for him. Her story just didn't add up.

What she really needed was more information. She could hardly come to an informed conclusion without sufficient data. If Estelle really was a soulless monster, it didn't happen overnight. She must have been like this since she was a child, and maybe when she was small she was worse at hiding it. Someone would know.

With this in mind, Rita took her chance when Estelle excused herself to use the washroom. "Hey, Ioder," she asked in a low voice, "I was just wondering… who would I talk with to find out more about Estelle's childhood?"

Ioder frowned. "Her childhood? Why don't you just ask her?"

"Er," Rita raced to find an excuse, and settled on one that made her blush and fiddle her thumbs. "W-well, it's just, I wanted to get a present for her. Just to celebrate the journey being over, that's all. But – but I thought, what would I get for a princess? So I wanted to get herself something really personal but obviously I can't ask her since it's supposed to be a surprise."

"Oh, I see," Ioder said, smiling. "In that case, you might be able to track down one of her old nannies or tutors. A record of all the staff who have ever been employed in the castle is kept by the bookkeeper in the library. You could ask her."

"Oh, ok, great," Rita said, trying to brush the question off like it wasn't really a big deal. "Thanks. Uh, don't mention this to Estelle."

Ioder chuckled. "Of course not."

Yuri jolted out a restless nap when he heard Flynn shout. Repede looked up at him warily, and Yuri mindlessly reached out and rubbed his back. Yuri sat on the floor outside Flynn's room, and he'd fallen asleep with his head resting against the doorframe. He rubbed his sore forehead, feeling a thick indentation where he should have put a pillow.

Flynn's shout was followed by Raven yelling at him to shut up. Yuri sighed and rested his head against his knees. He'd wanted to stay awake just in case, but all the nights he'd gone without proper sleep were catching up to him.

He wasn't sure what time it was, but the candle he'd brought down to illuminate the hallways was barely a stub, the flame struggling to keep from drowning in a pool of melted wax. Based on that, it was probably so late at night it could more properly be described as early morning.

"If Estelle really cared about you," Raven was saying, "why would she have let you suffer in the first?"

"I had to," Flynn replied, though Yuri had to strain his ears to make it out. Flynn sounded exhausted, and even through the door Yuri could hear his laboured breathing. "That wasn't torture. It was training."

"Oh yeah? And who got you to believe that? Let me guess: Estelle."

"Lady Estellise w-wouldn't lie."

Yuri heard a smack, and winced like he'd felt it himself.

"Hey!" Raven shouted. "Are you stupid and deaf? I told you not to call her that!"

"But-"

Yuri pulled his knees closer when he heard a thud and a pained grunt.

"She doesn't deserve that kinda respect. Do you understand?"

"Yes, I understand," Flynn groaned.

"Understand what?"

Flynn groaned. "I – I understand that La- I mean, Estelle… is a bad person."

Yuri wasn't naïve enough to think they'd broken through already. He recognized that tone of voice as the one Flynn used when he was tired of arguing. When they were younger, he'd used it to say things like, "ok, Yuri, you're definitely taller than me," or, "yes, I'm sure you could beat a dragon singlehandedly if you were ever given the chance." The only upside was that Flynn was a stubborn bastard, and he didn't give up an argument easily. If he was going along with Raven even though he didn't believe it, he must be exhausted.

Raven went on to scream more abuses at him. A lifelong instinct to jump to Flynn's defense if his friend was in trouble thrashed uselessly in his chest. He was furious with Estelle for manipulating them and doing this to Flynn, furious with Alexei for n doubt being an accomplice in this all, furious with Raven for hurting his best friend even though he knew they had to, and furious with himself for never noticing anything was wrong. He just wanted to scream and punch someone, but he was hampered by the fact that there was nowhere he could go to scream without disturbing his friends, and no one around he could punch.

When he heard another thunk and an angry shout from Flynn, Yuri groaned in frustration and pressed his forehead harder against his knees. He wished he didn't have to hear this, but he also felt obligated to keep watch, just in case. In case Raven betrayed them again and was actually serving Estelle, too, and would use this chance to drum in more loyalty to her as soon as Yuri left.

Yuri shook his head to shake those horrible thoughts out. No, he trusted Raven. He needed to stop being paranoid. But you trusted Estelle, too, and didn't you get screwed once before by trusting Raven? Argh, dammit, he was sick of doubting his friends. He rubbed his palms into his eyes, trying to clear his head.

Heels clicked on cement, announcing Judith's arrival. "Hey," Yuri said, looking up and trying to greet her as he always did, but he seemed to have forgotten how to make the muscles in his face do that thing where it made him look happy.

"Are you still up?" she asked, stopping by the door and clasping her hands.

Yuri glanced up in annoyance at the obvious question. "No, I'm actually asleep right now, can't you tell?"

Judith gave him an irritated look, since Yuri's sarcastic tone had been a lot more mean-spirited than it usually was. All she said, though, was, "I don't think a series of naps is a healthy sleeping schedule."

"I'm fine," he snapped. "Do you need something?"

"I was going to tell Raven to wrap it up for tonight. We all need some sleep, including you."

"I'm fine," he repeated, more angrily than was probably necessary.

Judith paused at the door, and then knelt next to him. She put her hand on his shoulder and said, "Yuri, you know depriving yourself of proper meals and sleep is not going to help Flynn."

"Oh, really?" he drawled. "I figured if I stayed up for enough hours straight, Estelle would magically go back to normal." He waved his hands as he said 'magically' to get his mystical point across. "Or are you going to tell me that getting a good night's sleep will make things better?"

Judith's hand on his shoulder stiffened. "Being nasty certainly won't."

Yuri anger flashed. "Gee, I am so sorry I am not properly cheerful about all this! Hey, I know," he said with a forced grin and every ounce of condescension he could pack into a single sentence, "maybe we should hang up some fucking balloons!"

Judith bristled with anger, and then slapped him hard enough to prove she'd be a sufficient replacement for Raven. Yuri's anger died as suddenly as it had appeared and he stared ahead, head frozen to the side as he took deep breaths.

Judith kept her words tight, as if fearing letting any emotion loose would escape into a cry. "You are not the only one who is grieving Estelle."

Yuri hung his head and whispered, "I'm sorry." He heard rather than saw Judith turn against the wall and slide down next to him, her shoulder pressing against his.

"We did everything to save Estelle," Yuri said, glaring at the ground with eyes harder than the concrete. "We fought so hard to find a way to protect her from her power and to find a way for her to live without harming the world." He took a deep breath. "You should have killed her when you first saw her in Capua Nor."

"I've been thinking about that, too," Judith said softly. To an outsider she'd sound cold, but Yuri had known her long enough to tell she was speaking as much from the heart as she ever could. "All these what-ifs and why-dids. If we had allowed Phaeroh to kill Estelle, the Adephagos would never have happened."

"We were so stupid," Yuri seethed. "We played right into her hands. Her happy bodyguards to keep the monsters away while she got things ready to raise Zaude."

"If she hadn't raised Zaude, the Adephagos would still be there, waiting. It is inevitable that someone in the future would release it eventually. Because she raised Zaude when she did, we were able to destroy the Adephagos for good and fix the aer problem in this world."

"But that doesn't justify all the things she did! Countless people died and suffered because of her." His fiery anger bubbled just beneath the surface, threatening to break through at any provocation. Yuri struggled to rein it in, because yelling at Judith was not the solution to anything.

"I'm not saying it justifies it," Judith said. "Only that the way I think of it, the world is still moving forward, and good things have happened along with the bad. Dwelling on what could have been will get us nowhere."

"And what about what never was?"

Judith closed her eyes and lowered her head. "I feel as if Estelle has died. Like she died not only now, but over and over in all my memories of her."

"Yeah," Yuri muttered. He wished she had died, because then at least he'd still have happy memories of her to live with.

In a voice barely above a whisper, Judith let out, "I… have not felt a loss this keenly since the death of my father."

Yuri couldn't think of any loss that compared to this. He didn't even remember his parents and the only other person he'd let himself get attached to was Flynn, until Estelle had come along and wormed her way into his heart. Now he found himself grieving the "death" of a fictional persona concocted specifically to toy with him.

But as much as it hurt – and it hurt so much he wished he could sleep, and then sleep for weeks straight until he could wake up in a world that made sense again – he realized that he'd been so busy wallowing in misery that he'd almost forgotten that Rita, Judy, Karol, and Raven also loved Estelle.

"I'm sorry," he said again, the words sounding very small and very incapable of filling the heavy silence that engulfed the hallway. Judith didn't answer right away, and Yuri reached out and slowly ran his fingers through Repede's fur.

A yell from Raven ended the silence, and then Judith took a deep breath. When she raised her head and spoke, her voice sounded firmer and more like the calm, stoic Judy he was used to. "Raven's been working with Flynn for over six hours. We should probably let Flynn sleep for a couple of hours unless we want to kill him."

Yuri nodded as she stood up. He stared at the ground, deep in miserable thought, until Raven dragged himself out of the room.

"Hey," Raven said dully. "Why're you still up?"

"I already had this conversation."

"Yeah, figured."

He yawned, and Yuri said, "Going to bed now?"

"In a bit," Raven said. He rubbed his head and said, "I feel like shit."

"You did what you had to do."

"It still made me feel like shit. I'm gonna break into the Don's whiskey stash again. Wanna join?"

Yuri put his hand on the wall to help himself get to his feet. "Yeah, actually, I think I will."