The following day dawned cloudy but much drier. The rain had stopped at some point after midnight — though Margarita only knew that from experience — and the clouds from the storm hadn't quite cleared the area yet. It would be clear by the late afternoon, though, and then weather wouldn't be a major factor in the events again.

Well. She hoped it would, actually, just sometime further than three days in the future.

The main dining room slash lobby of the inn was much busier than it had been in the past few days when Margarita entered for the first time that morning. She figured that this was likely due to the roadblocks still being up, preventing all of those that had wanted to leave with the first morning light. This was confirmed when she found a clearly frustrated Opalneria Rain at one of the tables, drumming her fingers on it in complicated patterns. Then immediately found Bartido at a separate table nearby, but rather than just giving Opalneria a teasing look or something similar, he was discussing something with his body man.

Hiram was nowhere to be seen.

There were other clues, including a fairly angry customer discussing something with some heat with the proprietor in the front of the room, but Margarita didn't pay much attention. She knew what she needed to know, and had hopefully manipulated events to her advantage. Today was when everything she had done would be tested. Would she finally manage to get some sort of happy ending this time? This was the best chance she had had so far, bar none. Serious time had come.

Margarita walked right through the inn, striding confidently to the door and walking through it without any hesitation.

She headed straight for the field that she had first met Cavan just a scant four days previously, as well as where she had put the Beast to sleep even more recently. She met no one on the way, which wasn't all that unexpected, but it did increase Margarita's heart rate a bit. She knew that if at any point in the past four days she had messed up, this would quickly get out of hand suddenly and without any chance for her to realize what it was she had screwed up precisely. It would also likely kill her, sending her back to the beginning of the week in pain, which only made what she had to do on the first night that much harder. While, like other times that things could go horribly wrong, it would probably be better if she didn't think about it too hard, not much would happen at the beginning to distract her from her worries. That, and this was a conversation that she wasn't sure how to navigate, which hadn't actually happened in a while.

The field was empty when Margarita arrived, but she knew that it wouldn't be for very long. She drew runes in preparation for the upcoming events in an area of tall grass such that it would be harder to tell precisely where they were. These runes she would power up to their ultimate levels, actually spending all of the mana that she had been carrying all week. She would probably need to collect some for the following day, but if she didn't manage to find a way through her plan today, there was no tomorrow for her anyway. She drew the Hades Gate from Necromancy, Purgatory from the same, and Hell Gate from Sorcery. She infused them with mana as soon as she could, and had gotten them well on their way to their ultimate hieghts of power when she spotted her first guest.

How or why it was that Cavan ended up entering the field from the forest side, Margarita was unsure, but the relief she felt at seeing him walking as normally as he ever did helped put the smile she thought she needed on her face. "Well hello there, Cavan," she said as he came closer to her.

"It's time now, isn't it?" Cavan said.

"I hope so," Margarita said, before she really thought it through. But really, what was the harm? Cavan tended not to make much sense to others, even if he was making far too much sense with that opener now. "Though for all I know, it's not time yet."

"I don't know. It's hard to tell from here what is and what isn't. Dreams and reality are too close to each other." Cavan continued to come up to her until he was a meter or two away from her, looking up at her with a tilted head. "I wish many things."

"Don't we all," Margarita muttered. "Cavan, this is very important, but I want you to stay near me no matter what happens, okay? You can stay near Amy or Astoria too, but please do not go off by yourself today. Okay?"

Cavan just stared at her. Well, it was worth a try.

"Oh, it's the boy. And who might you be?" Pabst Blue Ribbon called, arriving on the edge of the field. Margarita could tell that he was… different. It wasn't the haggard look of his clothes, or even the fact that he clearly hadn't done any self-cleaning or improvement since she last saw him, but there was something in his eyes other than the fatigue of not sleeping. Something angry and red. This was a good thing ostensibly to Margarita's plan, but it wasn't very confidence inducing. After all, what did one really think of when they were facing off against a devil? Lillet was probably the best person to ask, but Margarita didn't have the time to search her out, if she had shown up again. Oh how she hoped she hadn't screwed that part up either.

"My name is Gertrude Silvaner," Margarita answered, sketching a small curtsey. "May I have your name in return?"

"No," Ribbon said, and then he gestured to the boy. "Come with me, boy."

Cavan turned to look at Ribbon, but didn't otherwise move. Margarita stepped in front of the boy. "Rather rude of you to just give commands like that, deny me your name when you asked for mine and I gave it, and even call a young man 'boy'. That's hardly the level of welcoming politeness I have come to expect around here."

"No one cares what you think, girlie," Ribbon said. "I was only making sure that you were not someone in particular. Since you are not, I don't give a damn. The boy is coming with me."

"It seems that he does not wish to," Margarita said. "And you are not his guardian."

"How would you know, girlie? You're not local; you have no idea who any of us are."

"Do I not?" Margarita said, letting herself smile a bit. "Hmm. Well, if you believe that, then it must be true."

This gave Ribbon pause. "Good. I believe that the boy is mine, so therefore he must be, yes? Give him to me."

Margarita resisted rolling her eyes. "That's not how truth works, and you know it. Nor how sarcasm works, though I'm less sure you're aware of that one."

Ribbon growled. It wasn't… quite… human in sound. Margarita started her summons. "I will be taking him, no matter what your wordplay or wishes. If you don't want to die, I would recommend just getting out of the way."

"No," Margarita, taking a more obvious ready stance. "I don't think so."

"Then prepare yourself; this will hurt you more than it will hurt me." Ribbon took his own ready stance. Margarita's first Phantom finished a moment later and she had it casually approach, trying to hide that it was already ready to unleash the full potential of Phantoms. Ribbon spotted it immediately. "Oho, is that one of yours, then? You were ready for a fight? Then I will enjoy this a bit more than I thought I would!" Out came his wand and he started to draw. Margarita's second Phantom came just as her first Demon did, and Ribbon snarled. "Fine then. If you're all prepared for this, then I guess I will have to take some of the fighting myself!" He charged at Margarita.

Margarita danced back, the first Phantom stepping into harms way and blocking the blow with its astral sword. Margarita danced further back, letting her second and third familiars join the front lines against a Pabst Blue Ribbon who was using far better martial arts than he should have. His body didn't quite move right, but that made him no less dangerous. Perhaps more, since it was difficult to know precisely where and what he was going to do next. The first Phantom took a blow to the stomach for its trouble as it attempted to slash Ribbon, causing the sword to badly miss its target. Ribbon danced back from the attacks of the other two familiars before axe-kicking the Demon, slamming it into the ground below. Margarita had it roll out of the way and take a more defensive stance while the Phantoms took point. A third Phantom rushed to the fray as Margarita heard something that caused her to snap her head toward the source.

"Cavan!"

Amy Foster walked into view from behind one of the houses and stopped cold as she spotted the melee, her eyes wide.

Before Ribbon could interject with anything, Margarita called out to the young woman. "Oh good, you can answer this question for me; this strange man is insistent on taking Cavan somewhere. I didn't think that was a good idea without asking someone I know he trusts: Who is this man?"

"Come to me, Amy," Ribbon commanded, having glanced over to see who Margarita was talking to. "You will serve, or you know the consequences of your inaction! Kill this interloper!"

Amy looked between the two of them, clearly torn between loyalties.

Margarita played her trump card. "It's okay if you don't know; I'll just ask Astoria Waldorf."

Amy's eyes hardened, and Margarita's heart made a leap into her throat. Out came Amy's wand and she began to draw. Great. That was either completely awesome, or terrible.

Margarita was up to two Demons but down to two Phantoms. Since Ribbon appeared to be doing much better against the Demons than against the Phantoms, Margarita had commanded them to attack the Runes that the man had tried to draw and prevent them from generating any familiars themselves. The Phantoms were having trouble keeping the attention of Ribbon without being forcibly dismissed from reality, but Margarita was able to get mostly a stalemate… though she wasn't going to be able to keep this up forever. Not only did she only have a finite source of mana, but the Phantoms were coming out a bit too slowly in order for her to replace them at a one to one rate.

She was down to one with all of its power when the first of Amy's familiars arrived: an Elf flanked by three Fairies. One of the Fairies tried to shoot its little bow at Ribbon, who definitely seemed more annoyed by the attack than anything else, but Margarita thought hat his angry face was more about what the attack meant than what its effect was. The Elf stepped to the Phantom which was struggling to keep its form, and healed it, giving her next Phantom time to arrive, as well as more Fairies and perhaps more importantly, a Unicorn.

Ribbon growled as he realized that the tide had definitively turned against him. "You are making a mistake, Amy!" he shouted. "Your family will not be pleased with you when they find out that you killed them!"

"How could she kill them?" Margarita asked, "Amy's not about to leave here just to do something that stupid."

"That was the deal, you see, so long as she kept her word to me, I would make sure that her family would be safe. Without my protection, they are going to die shortly," Ribbon said with a creepy smile showing his teeth.

"Are you sure that was the deal that you made?" Margarita asked with a deceptively casual tone. "Because I have this feeling that you really just threatened her family if she didn't help you. It's a fairly typical trick played by those who were once the thralls of the Archmage Calvaros."

Ribbon froze, which turned out to be a mistake. The Phantom that had been healed took advantage of his temporary distraction to use the astral sword to get a good slash in on Ribbon's shoulder. The man snarled in pain, backhanding the offending familiar to the ground. "How would you know anything about that?"

"It's only what happened to me," Margarita said, drawing her wand across her face to remove the glamour that hid her true face. "You may have heard of me, since you are not even close to the first remnant of the Archmage's cult that I have had an encounter with."

"Remnant?! That assumes that we have any real organization! I work on my own!" Ribbon spat.

Amy, however, had a tone of awe and probably fear. "Remnant? No…"

"Did you, or did you not, serve the Archmage in the past?" Margarita asked while shaking her head, and pressed on immediately without waiting for Ribbon to answer. "I don't care what you have to say about it since I already know the truth. I don't need your word to confirm anything. Why should I? People call me the Remnant Revenant, and I wouldn't deserve that moniker if I didn't already know who did and did not deserve my ire."

"Surprise!" Ribbon growled. "I should have known you were that bitch when I spotted you."

"That's what the glamour is for: Surprise," Margarita said with a grin. She ordered the Demons that she had been saving in to join the fracas. "I'm too well-known now to walk freely without a disguise. But it's worth it to see the look on your face when you realize that justice and karma have come for you."

"Oh there's some bullshit," Ribbon responded. "You're hardly the force of justice you think you are. You were instrumental in the reawakening at the Silver Star Tower, and betrayed us all!"

"Is it really betrayal if you're betraying your prison guards?" Margarita asked mildly.

Ribbon's eyes bulged with rage. "You piece of shit!"

"I don't deny that," Margarita said more quietly. "I'm not the law of the kingdom, which should be what tries you, but the greater evil here is to let you run free for long enough for that to happen, even if I turned myself in and the law knew everything I knew. There are people who would rightly call me a hypocrite or even evil for the things that I have done. But trust me, betraying the Archmage and his followers is the best thing I have done in my lifetime."

Ribbon snorted, and then he started to laugh. A laugh that did not contian any true amusement in it. Rather, it was almost comically villainous. "Fine. FINE! I wasn't supposed to do this in the daylight, but I do believe that I have no choice!" He jumped back to where the remains of his failed runes were in a single impossible leap. Margarita retreated back to her own runes and had her familiars follow her. Amy's familiars were apparently ordered mostly on escort duty of Margarita's, as they followed rather quickly as well.

The now-familiar morphing of a man into a devil contorted all of Ribbon's limbs and sub limbs and facial muscles and just about anything that was able to contract. The uncanny valley was thoroughly abandoned in favor of 'there's no way that's anything near a human being' as the color of his skin also thickened into the deep red that was reminiscent of the skin of the Demons that stood in the protective formation around Margarita's runes and the mana crystal that was just about exhausted. Limbs elongated, in some cases sharpened, the skin was stretched to the point that it could barely hold and then snapped back just to look like it had aged a century in a scant few seconds. And then the former man opened his eyes once again.

Margarita had seen quite a bit through her experiences dealing with the loop of time, but this was the first time that the transformation ended with the eyes locking on something of hers. "Hiding in your familiars, then?" the creature asked, stomping over to the formation, clearly unpreturbed by the strength arrayed against it. "That will not help you against me." The devil swiped his fist across the front line and it fell to the onslought without noticeable resistance. Even as the familiars fought for their space, the creature could and did ignore the Demons' attacks completely, while seemed to be more annoyed than hurt by the astral swords of the Phantoms.

"You can't keep hiding forever!" the devil cackled. "Beelzebub will find you! And you know it! Not a single witty response to my words have you found. You realize the futility and you are just waiting for your rightful death! I cannot wait." Slashing right through the familiars, the devil cleaned out all but a pair of Demons trying to hide something behind them. The devil smiled. "I have you now," it said as it approached to take care of the Demons. One punch dispatched each of them, revealing the thing that was cowering behind them.

Amy Foster's Elf.

There was a beat of silence. Then, a breath later, the sound of a blade sinking into flesh, followed by the burning of the same. The devil howled in pain. "I didn't reply to you with what I promise were quite the quips because I needed you to not know where I actually was," Margarita said, her hands wrapped around a small bone dagger that was sunk to the hilt in the back of the devil's neck. "Because my only real prayer was to send you back to hell via death of the body you are invading. Goodbye." Margarita pulled the dagger down so that it cut down along the spine of the devil-man hybrid.

Beelzebub's mouth was open in a silent scream to the heavens as light poured out of the wound that Margarita had made. Margarita finished her downward cut and flipped the blade sideways to sink into the devil again, only perpendicular to her original cut just below the shoulder blades. It formed a bright white cross on the back. The devil-man began to shake, and Margarita jumped back from the light continuing to pour out from the wounds and ran over to Amy, who stood in shock as she stared at the scene, and Cavan, who stared into space. Margarita tackled her behind the small tree that she was standing next to right before the concussive force hit.

Margarita grunted with the pain of the hit, keeping herself and Amy as low as possible. Amy shouted in surprise and probably pain from hitting the ground with Cavan in her arms, but Margarita kept her own body between the dying thing and the other two so that the innocent ones wouldn't take the brunt of the blast.

Then there was silence.

After waiting to make sure that there wasn't going to be another force coming out from the body, Margarita chanced a look around their makeshift cover, which looked like something had raked it with something powerful, but somehow had withstood the blast. Margarita wasn't the first one to step out from behind the tree, though. Amy started walking toward the body that laid in the middle of the grassy field, and suddenly started to run, faster and faster until she collapsed next to the body. She knelt there staring for a moment, giving Margarita time to take Cavan's hand and walk toward them. Right when Margarita thought that Amy wouldn't move again for a while, she sprung into action, viciously attacking the body that laid there.

"You piece of utter shit!" Amy cried out, punctuating each syllable with rage-filled strikes from her fists right into the face. "You fucking bastard! You ruined my life! My whole life I wanted to learn magic and you made it into the least joyful thing I had ever known! I HOPE YOU ROT IN HELL WHERE YOU BELONG!"

Margarita and Cavan arrived next to her, standing over the bloody remains of what was once Pabst Blue Ribbon. Margarita imagined that the face had been recognizable earlier, but that was no longer the case with Amy continuing to cause it further damage. That wasn't what Margarita was worried about, though. She spoke softly. "Don't hurt yourself too much; he may deserve all of the pain you can give him, but you don't deserve any giving it to him."

A tear-streaked face turned to her, white hot with rage, but the sight of Margarita calmly holding Cavan's hand next to her was apparently enough for her to start to pull herself together. She turned away again, using her dirty sleeves to wipe away the tears as best she could. "He's dead, right?"

"He's dead." One of the few advantages Margarita's trial had over Lillet's; she didn't have to care if the host died, giving her far more options as to how to handle it. "You don't have to worry about him anymore."

"My family," Amy said, remembering, but stopped when Margarita smiled and shook her head.

"They're safe. They've gone to see their leige lord at the moment, actually. And he was bluffing."

"I don't know that though! They could be in danger—"

"Amy Foster, I went through what you did once. Do you know my story?"

Amy silently shook her head.

"I wasn't lying when I told your true master that I was from a small highly religious village that nearly killed me because I had magic. What I didn't tell you is that I was effectively a hostage of servants of the Archmage. They commanded me to do things while I was at the Silver Star Tower, in an effort to revive Calvaros and return the power of the Philosopher's Stone to him. And if I didn't…" Margarita trailed off. There was no need to go too far into it. She let out a breath. "For right now, I need to know what you know about what has been done to this poor boy." She indicated Cavan by putting both of her hands on the boy's shoulders. He did not react.

Amy stared at Margarita, then stared at Cavan for a bit. "I don't know everything about it… but he did experiments on him." She suddenly moved, pulling at Margarita's collar and nearly pulling her over onto Amy and the mutilated body behind her. "There was nothing I could do! I swear it!"

Margarita grabbed the hands on her collar as gently as she could while still detaching them from herself. "I know. I know. Believe me Amy, there's no one nearby who knows the situation you were in as well as I do; I don't blame you in the slightest. I'm only asking because I need your help in fixing him."

"Fixing… him? What's wrong with him? What are the effects? I never saw what he made Cavan do…"

"Amy, this is going to be hard for you to hear, but I need you to stay strong for now, okay?" Margarita asked. Amy looked at her blankly, but nodded ever so slightly. Margarita swallowed and braced herself before she said it: "Cavan turns into a large fearsome creature; from what I've heard, you all call him 'The Beast' when he's like that."

Amy continued to stare at her for a few seconds before her legs stopped supporting her and she collapsed onto the grass again. Margarita followed her onto her knees, and Cavan sat next to them almost in a sympathetic reaction. "I… I should have known."

"It doesn't matter right now," Margarita said. "It wasn't your fault, and now you're going to help me fix it. I have evidence that a devil had a hand in making Cavan what he is right now, not just whatever it is Ribbon did, so there's a lot that we're going to need to find out. But—" Margarita grabbed Amy's face and made sure that the other young woman looked into her eyes. "You're not alone. There are a lot of people who will help us if we tell them what we're trying to do here."

"I'm… not alone?"

"You never were," Margarita said. She felt a rush. A… sense of guilt, as well as relief. "It certainly felt like it. A giant chasm separating you from everyone you knew and loved. But you're lucky. If we go tell Ms. Waldorf right now what we're doing and what we're up against, she'll roll up her sleeves and help us. And you know that Sammy will help you if you let her."

"I…" Amy trailed off, and then her eyes gained the light back and she looked back into Margarita's eyes with actual purpose again. Margarita's smile got a little wider as she recognized Amy making a decision for herself. "I have a lot of questions for you."

"I'd imagine."

"You will answer them, when we've managed this?"

"Every single one you have. I promise."

"Okay. Let's go, then."

The walk back from the field to Astoria's shop was difficult, as Margarita was nearly carrying Amy as the young woman stumbled her way up the street, and Margarita didn't dare let go of Cavan's hand. It was slow going, but Amy was helping enough to keep them moving in the right direction, even if it wasn't quick movement. They did eventually arrive at the intended destination, and Amy was apparently recovered enough to open the door.

Astoria Waldorf was clearly confused when Amy walked in with both Cavan and a familiar but unknown young woman. But when Amy tearfully ran across the shop to embrace her, she knew that something else was going on. "I'm sorry," Astoria said, "what is going on here?"

Margarita smiled at the shopkeeper. "I'm sorry, this is not the face you're used to for me; I'm the one you know as Gertrude Silvaner, honest traveler passing through Sallah."

Astoria's eyes narrowed. "That's who I know you as?"

Margarita drew her wand across her face, changing her nose to Gertrude's and then changed it back. "I had my reasons to be incognito. Miss Foster, would you like me to tell the story, or would you like to?"

There was a pause before Amy shook her head into Astoria's chest. "I need to," Amy said, muffled by Astoria's clothing. Amy lifted her head out to look at Astoria, whose expression had softened as she looked down at her apprentice. "She needs to hear it from me, and I need to talk about it."

"Then go ahead," Margarita said. "I'll be right here with Cavan when you're done." She lead the boy over to the seat near the door and knelt down with him. "Just a little while longer, Cavan. We're going to get you all set, I swear it."

"I think I understand," Astoria said when Amy had finished her story. "We're going to have to talk about how I'm here to help you rather than punish you, but we can get to that later. For the time being, Not-Miss Silvaner, I think it's time for you to tell your story."

Margarita stood, but kept a hold on Cavan's hand just to make sure. "Amy can tell you the details, but the long and the short of it is that I was once in the same situation as Amy, and I have been traveling the country rescuing people just like me from former supporters of the Archmage Calvaros. Ribbon is the latest of the supporters that I have looked into, and Amy is the latest in my situation I have rescued. My real name, if you'd like it, is Margarita Surprise."

Astoria's face was impassive. "I have heard of a Margarita Surprise. I have heard quite a few things about that name, and not all of them are good."

"You don't have to like me," Margarita began, but Astoria was shaking her head.

"You have a complicated history, but I don't think that's relevant here right now. Amy says that you have an idea as to how to help Cavan, and for that, I will forgive you whatever you need."

Margarita smiled, finding herself a little emotional about the acceptance from the older woman. "Thank you… you're very kind. In that case, though, let's get down to business." She gently tugged Cavan to stand, and he obeyed the silent command. "According to Amy, Ribbon has done some experiments on Cavan. Those by themselves would be enough to worry, since Amy doesn't know the details behind them, but even worse, I have come to understand that a devil took advantage of whatever those experiments have done to cause him to turn into the Beast—"

Astoria's eyes bulged out in shock. "The Beast?! Cavan is the Beast?!"

"Yes," Margarita said. "I hope you'll forgive me if I don't try to turn him right now to prove it; I don't want him to transform anymore just in case it harms him."

Astoria took a deep breath and held Amy closer to herself. "I can see why. I… I feel like I should have known but…" She shook her head. "You say this like you have a plan."

"I have less of a plan than I would like, but, we have access to a lot of people who can help us with various things that may be wrong with him. It's unfortunate that we don't know where to start but… I was hoping that your Glamour knowledge would give us something to start with. A way to try and figure out what has been done to him. That being said… I wouldn't be surprised if we're going to have to do an exorcism at some point." Margarita gave a pointed look to Amy, still holding herself close to her teacher. "I think we already know what connection to use for that, though."

Amy looked up and blushed. Astoria nodded in recognition. "I think we do at that," Astoria agreed. "Now, you were asking as to whether I had something that we could use to diagnose what is really going on here, yes?" Margarita nodded, and Astoria gently detached Amy from her and walked toward Margarita and Cavan, rolling up her sleeves. "There's no time like the present, then. Amy, Sammy is figuring out her garden, could you go see if she's willing to help us out for a bit?" Amy nodded and left the shop. "Miss Silvaner — I'm sorry, it's Miss Surprise, yes? — let's get him in the back."

As Amy left via the front door, Margarita and Astoria lead the boy up the stairs and onto a bed in a room at the end of a short hallway. "Lay down for us Cavan, we are going to need you asleep for this."

"I don't like the dreams," Cavan said.

"I know, sweetie, but that's why we're doing this; we want to take the bad dreams away." Astoria did a good job of keeping her voice level, but the concern and worry were clear on her face.

"Bad dreams always come, no matter what we do," Cavan said.

"Don't worry, it will be alright," Astoria said as the boy laid down on the bed. Astoria then sprinkled something onto the bed, and Cavan's eyes closed and his breathing leveled out almost instantly.

"Did you just put him to sleep?" Margarita asked in a soft voice.

"Yes," Astoria replied in a normal tone. "Not the least dangerous of the ways to do it, but the only one where I'm sure that he'll sleep through the lion's share of the things that we may need to do to him." Astoria had started to draw on the hardwood with her wand in a pattern that Margarita didn't recognize. Margarita stepped back so that the circle could complete and watched. When the rune was complete, Astoria put some more mana into it before she summoned… an elf. Margarita blinked. If all she needed was an Elf, why bother with a special rune? A Fairy Ring would do just fine. But Astoria was the expert here, and Margarita had not gotten as far as she had by underestimating experts.

Astoria had apparently ordered the Elf to examine Cavan, and the Elf did just that, putting its head onto Cavan's chest to listen to a heartbeat, then listening to the breathing, and then a couple other things that Margarita didn't really understand, including waving his hands in a complicated pattern above the boy's head. Then the Elf turned to Astoria, nodded, and then was dismissed.

Margarita blinked in significant confusion as Astoria started to clean up the rune. Thankfully, the Glamour Master explained what had just happened. "A special summoning rune to make sure that I get an elf that specializes in healing and diagnostics of living things. It's a pretty rare rune to know about, so I'm not surprised that you haven't seen it before."

"What's it called?" Margarita asked.

"The 'Health Elf' Rune. No, I didn't pick the name; I think it's just as silly as you do, but the results are nothing to sneeze at. The problem, though is that Cavan's body is basically fine. There's nothing that is overtly wrong with him, and there's certainly not enough for us to worry about so much right now."

"Even if it's small, I think we need to know about it, though," Margarita said. "The problem could be anything when it looks like the boy could be turned into a monster at will."

"Oh I agree, but everything that the Elf could tell me about are the sorts of things that kids end up with all the time. He has a scraped knees that I should probably bandage, and some indigestion from something he ate, likely last night. But none of that would really bring my antennae up even knowing that there has to be something wrong with him."

Margarita frowned, staring at the boy sleeping on the bed. So, Glamour was going to be no help in this case. There were other options, though. Margarita wanted to confirm something before they attempted one of the things that she was sure they were going to have to try: the exorcism. Before that, Margarita needed to make sure that there was something to exorcise, no matter how sure she was that it was what they needed to do. That meant doing something that showed more of herself to Astoria and likely the two young women than she had intended but the possibility that they performed an exorcism without checking and caused more problems scared her enough that she went ahead and said, "I would like to try something."

"Go ahead," Astoria said, stepping into a corner of the room to give Margarita the room to draw a rune where Astoria had earlier. Margarita did so, drawing a rune that was called the Wishing Well. Its effects were not nearly as benign as the name, which anyone familiar with Sorcery would be able to determine fairly quickly, but without all that much mana being committed to it, Margarita could get the answer to whether an exorcism would do anything positive for the boy at all.

Once she had completed the rune, she summoned out of it a smaller than usual imp-like creature. Margarita nodded to the bed, and the imp looked at it for a moment, then turned back to Margarita and nodded. The information made itself known inside her mind rather than having the imp tell her: There was a wish active on the child. It also told her how many actionable wishes were within Cavan's psyche, but she ignored that and dismissed the imp while she cleaned up the rune and reclaimed some of the mana, since she was running dangerously low after all of the events that day.

"What did you learn?" Astoria asked, cutting right to the brass tacks.

"It appears that Cavan has had a wish granted by a devil," Margarita said. "That's usually not possible at his age, so there may be more there than that? But I'm now one hundred percent sure that it's a good idea to ask for that exorcism."

"Then let's do that next," Astoria said. Amy should be back by now, and she is our ticket into the church, as you said. Though…" Astoria apparently realized something. "How did you know that, anyway?"

Think fast. "I had to do a lot of research on Ribbon and Amy before I took any action against either of them. I always want to be sure that I know which former supporters of the Archmage are like me, and which ones are like my… tormentors. I learned of her friend in the church during that time."

"Well enough," Astoria said. Margarita felt the relief flush through her system as she nodded back to the older woman. "Let's go see if the girls have returned, then, as we now know what we need to do next."

Sammy and Amy had just returned to the shop and were talking quietly in the entryway when Astoria and Margarita came down carrying a sleeping Cavan. Amy was startled when she noticed that they had joined the two of them, but Sammy seemed more like she was interested in studying Margarita. "You're the Remnant Revenant, then?" Sammy said in lieu of greeting.

"Yes," Margarita confirmed bluntly.

"You killed Ribbon, then?" Sammy asked, just as bluntly.

"I did what I had to," Margarita said. "There weren't any other ways to send the devil possessing him back to Hell."

Sammy looked at Amy, who nodded mutely. Sammy looked back at Margarita. "Fine then."

That was very different from what Sammy had said about the Remnant Revenant a few cycles ago when she was talking about the possibility of the Remnant Revenant, but if she was going to help out, it was plenty good enough. "Amy, we believe that the first thing we need to do is an exorcism," Astoria said. "Is there any way you can make that happen?"

"Yes," Amy said. "Let's go to the church."

The four of them, with Astoria carrying the fifth, made a strange procession down the main north-south road. No one was really outside — the recent deaths likely keeping everyone but the magistrate and the guards huddled in their houses. If Lillet were there — and Margarita supposed that she could find a way to ask Astoria if Lillet had been contacted — she was likely being stonewalled by the Magistrate. None of the other major players were probably out and about. Maybe Bonarda. Probably not; no need for the other devil to take any risks. Particularly if he didn't know about Ribbon's death.

So it was expected that the five of them reached the church without actually meeting anyone walking about. Amy was the one who opened the door to let the party into the church, calling out, "Alex? Are you here?"

"Amy?" the priest in question stuck his head out from where he had been doing something by a nearby colomn. "What are you—" he trailed off as he noticed the rest of Amy's group. "I guess that this is not a social call?"

"We need an exorcism," Amy said, indicating the still sleeping form of Cavan in Astoria's arms.

Alex blinked, looking between them. "Well, that's certainly doable. We're… not all that busy at the moment. Come with me."

Alex lead the group into a small room just off the sanctuary where there waws a bench that they were able to lay Cavan down again. "I need to get some help for this one, please excuse me for a moment," Alex said, and he left the five of them in the room. It was small, only a pair of candelabras, a storage chest, and the bench with two chairs next to it. Astoria took one of the chairs to check Cavan's vitals, while Amy started to pace and Sammy tried to get Amy to calm down. Margarita retreated to a corner of the room. Margarita felt a little out of place, considering some of the things she had done, but it was too important to get this done.

Plus, the chances of accidentally running into Bonarda in a church were incredibly low.

When Alex returned, he was trailed by two others. Both had the same clothing as he did, though one of them had a different hat. Was that how they designated rank?

"Is the patient on the bench then?" the one with the hat asked.

"Yes; we believe that he is being possessed," Astoria confirmed with a quick look at Margarita, who remained silent.

"Very well. It will be dangerous for so many people to be in such a small place; I have to ask you all just to step outside."

"I will remain," Astoria said.

"Ma'am, I don't think you understand—"

"I will remain," Astoria repeated.

The holy man frowned, but a quick shaking of the head from Alex got him to shrug. "As long as you're aware just how dangerous it might be to be in the room, ma'am, then you can stay, but if something happens to you, we weren't responsible." He pointed at hte rest of them. "We aren't responsible for anything that the devil that we're extracting does. We're prepared for the danger to come; if you're not, then I'd recommend getting out. That being said, there's not enough room for anyone else, so." He made a shooing gesture at the rest of them before turning to help the other two priests apparently prep the room.

Margarita gently took Amy by the shoulders and guided her outside, cocking her head to get Sammy to follow. Thankfully, she did, heading after them and even attempting to close the door behind them, though one of the priests ended up taking that job for her.

The main sanctuary was very quiet as Margarita lead Amy over to the nearest seat on a pew. Sammy walked up to the two of them shaking her heand as if it stung. Amy sat on the pew without complaint, though her mind was clearly elsewhere. Sammy's was not. "Did you know that would happen?"

"I don't know much about how exorcisms are done by the church; I just know that they're the best at it," Margarita said.

Sammy frowned. "I don't trust you."

"I know," Margarita replied. "You don't have to; just do what you would do anyway."

"So what, I'm too useless for you to bother with, then?" Sammy challenged, leaning in so that she was just shy of Margarita's chin. "Because I can certainly prove to you that I'm not someone to mess with."

"I'm counting on it," Margarita said. "Today has been, and will continue to be revelation after revelation to Amy, and what I want is for you to be by her side."

"I would do that anyway."

"Exactly," Margarita said, causing Sammy to blink back at her. "I don't need you to trust me because I don't need you to do anything that you wouldn't do anyway. Maybe after I'm gone Amy will tell you more of the big picture of what I'm up to, but for now, I don't really have the time. Real quick though: I don't know if you care about my esteem at all, but I will tell you that I think you are a good friend, and have your heart in the right place." Margarita started to walk out of the church, but turned to give one more parting word. "And it was certainly worth saving your life that night." And then she left.

It was not nearly as effective as when she had done something similar to Ribbon, as she was only some ten steps outside the church when Sammy opened the door again behind her. "I don't know who you are," Sammy said. Margarita turned around to face her. "And really, I don't care. Not right now. But if you have been doing all of these things for Amy… then thank you." Then she retreated into the church and shut the door behind her.

Margarita made a face. Sammy had gotten the better of that exchange. She guessed that's what she deserved in trying to be nice.

Margarita took her time walking back to the inn. If the exorcism worked like she thought it would… it would probably be a long time before any of them left the church. Margarita needed to replenish her mana stores; she probably had just enough to draw a rune and power it, but not do much with it after that. Other than her enchanted defenses, she was in dire straights if she were attacked then. Thankfully, it seemed like everyone who might want her head on a platter weren't out and about as she returned to the inn.

She entered the inn and closed the door behind her, letting out a breath. If she were attacked inside the inn, she was likely to have allies in—

"Wait; Margarita?!"

Oh. Shit. Right. She had taken off the Glamour. This was planned. She was supposed to be revealed. She turned to face the common room proper, noticing that all three of the present former students of the Silver Star Tower were sitting at one of the tables, and all three were staring at her. It was… actually kind of reassuring. Especially since Lillet Blan, in all of her talent, had truly arrived and Margarita hadn't had to ask Astoria about it. "What are you doing here?" Bartido demanded, quite reasonably.

"I've been here the whole time," Margarita said, walking over and sitting at one of the empty spaces at the table.

"No you haven't, I would have noticed you," Bartido said. "Hiram would have noticed you."

Lillet just sat there with her eyebrows vanishing into her hairline.

"I imagine Lillet would too, if she hadn't just arrived," Margarita quipped. "It's good to see you all again; though this is only truly a greeting for our beloved Mage Consul."

"Margarita, I would hardly have missed you even if Bartido had," Hiram said. "And he's not wrong about it being unlikely to begin with that he missed you."

"You didn't really miss me," Margarita said. She took out her wand. She was as safe as she ever was going to be, but it was still a risk to spend a significant chunk doing this. The effect was too great not to, though. She drew across her face, performing her pattern that she had done every morning on every cycle of this cursed week, changing her face into that of Gertrude Silvaner, though only using the temporary version to conserve what little mana she had left. "I simply was hiding in plain sight, under a pseudonym." She waved her wand again to dismiss the illusion.

"No kidding," Bartido breathed, shaking his head. "I really should have known. You have been here the whole time."

"The big question, given all that has happened in Sallah, is what you have been doing all this time," Lillet finally spoke up. "Goodness knows that we have an idea as to what you've been up to, Miss 'Remnant Revenant.' But there has to be something more to what has been going on here."

"You have no idea," Margarita said. "It's… been a harrowing week. Let me explain what I'm up to…"