Mariela was sitting at a little table on the beach, staring out at the deep blue ocean with a small smile on her face. The night air was cool, and she was wondering absentmindedly where the Black Bulls were right then. She'd seen them all off when they'd left, and as nervous as she was about what they were doing, she also had full faith in Noelle to get them all through it safely. After seeing her friend training last night by the water, she was positive that the Magic Knights were in the safest hands they could ever hope to be in.

Mariela was still awestruck thinking about it; Noelle had looked… well, magical, out by the water manipulating so much of it that the scale was simply dizzying for Mariela to think about. She'd known that nobles had more magic than everyone else—in fact, she knew that fact more intimately than most people did. But even knowing that, Noelle's raw magical power was something else entirely—as was her dedication. The water mage had worked herself until she looked ready to drop and had to be told to rest for the actual trip. Mariela had walked with everyone back to the hotel—and had made sure to gush to Noelle about how incredible watching her had been—and then had made her way back out to the beach to watch the water move and shift under the moonlight, just to make sure it really was as pretty as she had thought when they were all out there. She was still on the beach long after watching the Black Bulls disappear beneath the waves, in fact, because she was almost positive she'd never seen anything more beautiful in her entire life… and beautiful things made for a wonderful distraction, something that she had needed last night and needed even more tonight. No matter how much faith she had in Noelle, it was still rather nerve wracking to imagine all her new friends traversing through one of the most dangerous places on earth.

With a sigh, Mariela looked up at the stars overhead and wished for the millionth time that day that she could be more helpful. Not that she thought she could ever be a Magic Knight—unlike Asta, she knew she didn't have it in her to overcome the lack of magic in her blood. No one in her family ever had, after all. But she did think that, if she was maybe a little more useful, she could actually help the Bulls somehow. It was the least she could do after all the help they'd given her.

The thought made her smile unexpectedly as she touched the package in her lap and felt her heart lift. After seeing the Magic Knights off, she'd wandered through the beachside town… and for the first time since she'd left the Forsaken realm, Mariela didn't feel like an unwanted rat scurrying from shadow to shadow. At first, she'd still flinched every time someone made eye contact with her, but she'd slowly realized that the looks they were giving her were… different, than the ones she was used to from the people she had met in any of the towns she'd gone to since leaving the church with Sister Lily and bringing Marlin to Sister Theresa. It took her a moment to really place it, but slowly it had dawned on Mariela that her clothing was clean, and not patched. She was clean—ever since getting her job at the Black Bulls hideout, she'd made sure that there was never any grime on her face, something she'd gotten incredibly self-conscious about while looking for work after taking Marlin to the orphanage. And, probably more than anything else, she actually had money. Whether the shopkeepers knew that or not, she realized, was totally irrelevant—it made all the difference to how much confidence she could move around with. And, apparently, not scurrying around like a mouse made people a lot less likely to treat her like one.

So, while wandering through the beachside shops a week before his birthday… Mariela had managed to get her little brother a gift. She had actually, truly managed to get him something, something that she hadn't made by hand. Closing her eyes and saying a small prayer of gratitude under her breath, she stood and clutched the package to her chest. With a smile on her face, she started walking back to the hotel.

x

"Where did they go…?"

Mariela was back out at the beach, crawling around under the tables that she'd been sitting at, mumbling the same sentence under her breath over and over again, getting increasingly irritated at herself as time dragged on. After she'd gotten back to the hotel room, she'd went to put away the things she'd bought that day and had realized with a start that she'd dropped something.

I was just thinking about how I finally have money… Mariela thought to herself with an internal groan. Of course I would just go around losing the things I can actually afford.

That, of course, was really only part of the issue—even if she was trying not to think about it. What she'd dropped had cost almost nothing. Who it had been for, however…

Mariela sighed and straightened to sit back on her heels in the sand. She was just about to call it a loss when her eye caught something half buried in the sand under one of the beach chairs. With a relieved smile, she pulled out two bracelets woven from seagrass that she'd found at the same shop she'd gotten her brother's gift. One was smaller—sized for Marie—and the other was bigger—sized for, of course, her older brother. Regardless of how awkward things were between herself and Gauche right now, she still owed the entire change in her luck to him… and, even if he couldn't stomach being around her much anymore, Mariela still liked him a lot.

Feeling her face catch fire at the thought, she straightened hastily and brushed off the front of her dress a little too forcefully as she tried to shake the line of thought. She'd been avoiding that exact type of thinking ever since she'd opened her room door to find him standing there last night—he'd seemed more than willing to pretend nothing had ever happened between the two of them, and she was extremely grateful for it. She just wanted things to not be so awkward and, standing on the beach last night in awe of Noelle's work, it had felt like that was possible. She had yet to figure out, however, how she was supposed to give him a gift without making it seem… presumptuous. Suddenly feeling very weary—and very stupid—Mariela sat down in the chair she'd just found the bracelets under with a heavy sigh. She turned her head to stare up at the stars and felt herself relax as she folded her arms on the table in front of her and laid her head down on top of them, her gaze never dipping away from the open night sky.

Maybe I'll just stay out here a little longer.

It was the last thought she remembered having before she was very unceremoniously jostled awake by something loud coming from somewhere up the beach. Shaking her head to try to clear it and blinking rapidly to try to get the sleep out of her eyes, Mariela's heartrate didn't drop at all as the murky night around her came slowly into view—her first tip off that something was very, very wrong. The stretch of beach in front of her illuminated by the full moon, it took her a second to really place what was confusing her so much… as soon as she did, however, Mariela slipped under the table as quickly and quietly as she could, heart beating like a drum in her ears.

Further up the beach, a group of robed people had gathered. The sand was still settling around them, but as the moonlight made them more and more clear, Mariela could feel her throat closing until she was choking. She knew those robes.

What is the Eye of The Midnight Sun doing here?

The last time Mariela had seen those robes, it had been as they left through a portal—even while she'd hated herself for being too late to do anything, she knew that she'd been lucky to only see them leaving. She'd still berated herself endlessly for only watching. This time, she was seeing them at the beginning… and she was still frozen in place, eyes locked on the bloodbath. The group of cultists stood behind their leader as he gleefully ripped the mages that had come to stop them apart. Bodies—and limbs—flew in every direction as the man's horrible magic energy pulsed and twisted. Even this far away, hidden under a table, Mariela could feel it against her skin like a deadly, grotesque flame. As quickly as the fight had begun it was over, and the huge man's laughter rang through the night viciously, his mana seeming to flare around him as he chortled over his easy victory.

Mariela's throat went dry—he hadn't even needed to use any magic.

Movement in the shadows closer to her caught her eye, and Mariela's eyes darted to a shadowed spot behind some rocks further up the beach between her and the cultists. As she watched and let her eyes adjust three figures slowly came into focus, all huddled together and hiding—like her. So, not a danger. When she was satisfied with that knowledge, she looked back up the beach… and felt her heart sink.

The cultists were surrounded by crackling red mana, shaping itself into the form a whale before her eyes. The vicious man's laughter had never stopped; the power and overwhelming malice radiating off him in waves was still so palpable in the air that Mariela felt she might choke on it. With wide, terrified eyes, she watched as the red mana-made whale rose from the beach and disappeared beneath the glassy ocean depths. The only place they could possibly be going was…

Mariela's head jerked up at the thought, and she smacked it on the table above her. With a soft groan, she crawled out from under the table… and realized that she was shaking too badly to get to her feet.

Come on, she thought to herself acidly. Come on! Be useful! This time, do something!

But what was there to do? She couldn't follow them down to the Underwater Temple—even if she could, how would she help against such powerful enemies? She'd just get in the way. If she was going to do anything to stop them, her only chance would have been when they were on the beach… and she'd wasted that.

The three shadowy figures up ahead moved suddenly, and it drew Mariela out of her self-deprecating thoughts long enough for her to realize that one of the three had dropped to the ground and the other two were… shaking him?

Like something in her snapped into place, Mariela finally found her way to shaky feet. She took one step, then two, then started running toward the only other people on the beach. When she got close enough to them to hear what they were saying, she realized they were three guys, all about her age. One of them had passed out and the other two were shaking him and repeating what she could only assume was his name over and over again.

"Sekke? Sekke! Get up, man!"

"Can I help?" Mariela asked hesitantly, staying far enough away from the three that she could bolt if she needed to. As they came more and more into detailed focus, however, she realized that they were staring at her with huge eyes, both visibly shaking and clutching on to their unconscious friend. Confident that she was doing the right thing, Mariela closed the rest of the distance and dropped to her knees in front of the three, then held her hands up in front of herself to show that she didn't mean any harm. "I'm Mariela. Healing magic is the only kind that I know how to do correctly—can I help your friend?"

The two boys hesitated a moment before looking at each other. After another second, they both seemed to come to the same agreement.

"Please," the one with curly hair who had dragged his friend back and away from her when she'd first walked up looked up at her and nodded down toward the unconscious boy. "He can help us take care of the mages that have been hurt if he's conscious enough to do it."

Mariela flinched; at the back of her mind, she'd known that the next place she needed to go was further down the beach to the mages. She just… wasn't excited to see the carnage. Putting the thought out of her mind, she took a deep breath and tried to focus. Her grimoire appeared next to her with a soft green glow, and as Mariela put her hands on either side of Sekke's face she started to chant quietly under her breath. A soft glow lit up the dark around them and illuminated the four mages for a brief moment before the light dimmed down to envelope Sekke's face. Suddenly, his eyes fluttered open and the light died down completely.

"Where…" the blonde man mumbled, and both his friends exhaled the breaths they'd been holding as Mariela smiled broadly—she had helped. She'd done something. With a glance down the beach, she steeled herself to go and see if there was any more help she could offer. When she looked back down at Sekke, his eyes were huge and focused on her face.

"Are you feeling okay?" she asked, moving her hands away from his face. Her vision swam for a brief second before clearing. She swayed just a bit as her eyes refocused but once they had her head was clear, too.

"Who… are you?" Sekke's eyes were still huge and fixed on Mariela as he caught one of her hands. "Did that monster kill me, too? Are you an angel?"

Mariela chuckled awkwardly as both of his friends snorted at the poorly timed and very cliché line. "If you're okay," she said with a smile, gently pulling her hand away from him. "We need to go help the mages that were hurt in the fight. Can you walk?"

Sekke blinked up at her with wide eyes, not seeming to be fully back in his senses yet. One of his friends reached over and shoved his shoulder.

"We need you to call it in," he reminded Sekke, who shook his head as if to clear it as his eyes went huge with remembrance. Jumping to his feet with energy that surprised Mariela, he brushed some sand off himself and nodded.

"You're right! We must be the heroes we are!" With a dazzling smile down at Mariela, who had yet to get to her feet, he added, "We are Magic Knights, after all."

Mariela laughed under her breath and stood. Maybe the Magic Knights had gotten better since her father's time; the ones she'd met since meeting Gauche had all been great, even if some were a little… awkward.

Thinking about Gauche renewed her panic—the cultists had been on their way down to the temple that all the Black Bulls were at right now. That… that… monster that had ripped through all those mages…

Mariela swallowed hard and started walking quickly further up the beach without waiting any longer, her eyes set on the bodies she could see… and the darkened sand that was coming more and more into view as she got closer. Her stomach lurched as she stopped at the edge of the scattered bodies.

One man… one man had done all this. With a desperate, panicked look out toward the water, Mariela could hear her heart thudding in her ears—how the hell were her friends supposed to survive that?

"Oh my god…" the breathed words shook her out of her thoughts and made her jump. When Mariela looked over at the Magic Knights she was with, all three were staring around at the beach with wide eyes, the same way she had just been. Then, with a hard swallow that was audible, one of the shorter boys nudged his friend.

"Call it in. You need to call it in."

Sekke, his face pale, nodded quickly. "Yes, of course I will." He started moving away to make the call but stopped abruptly. Without a word, his grimoire started to glow and a bronze vehicle that looked strangely like him somehow appeared. "Start moving the mages who… the ones we can help."

Both his friends nodded and moved to start, but Mariela stopped them. "Please," she said quickly, "let me help. I can heal who I can."

The two Magic Knights nodded without hesitation. And, with that, the three set to work.

x

Gauche had been chomping at the bit to leave the Underwater Temple since they were all stable enough to stand. He had been more than done with the place since the moment Yami had ended Vetto for good and was ready to be back on dry land and closer to his Marie—and maybe to check on another Marie, too.

The Black Bulls were all saying goodbye as Finral prepared to portal them all back to the beach, and even Gauche had to admit as he looked around that none of them were leaving the same way they'd come down. As if Asta's no-magic-having-ass hadn't already shaken up the squad enough, they were becoming… well, a team. They would have to be for any of the crazy shit they had just attempted to have actually worked. Who would've thought that any of them would've been capable of pulling off something like that?

It made him feel… well. Good. Which was so, so strange.

"Here!" Gauche almost jumped at Yami's call. When he looked over, Finral had opened the portal back up to the beach and was waiting for the last of the squad to make their way through. Without further hesitation, Gauche walked quickly through, letting out a sigh of relief when the sun hit his face on the other side. The relief, however, only lasted long enough for him to look around and realize that the beach was a bloody mess—literally.

It looked like they had caught the end of whatever had happened; Magic Knights from the Green Mantis squad were scattered all over the place, but most of them seemed to be finishing the clean-up. White sheets pulled over bodies—some of which seemed to be missing parts—let Gauche know that, if any of these mages had survived, they had all already been moved.

"What the hell…?"

Asta came up beside Gauche, his eyes wide. Noelle was close behind him, and when Gauche glanced down at her, she had a hand over her mouth.

"What happened here?" She asked, her voice barely above a whisper. He wasn't sure why she was asking—they all knew what had happened here.

"—Mariela."

Gauche's head snapped up at the sound of Mariela's name, his head suddenly spinning. Had she been here when this bloodbath had ensued? Was she…

His stomach lurching, Gauche walked over to the Magic Knight he had heard say her name. The guy was small, with curly hair and a rumpled Green Mantis robe that he must have just pulled on. His pale face and the darkened circles around his eyes meant he'd probably been up all night—and most likely had seen whatever had happened. The Magic Knight had just finished telling one of his superiors whatever his story was—and he was going to tell Gauche exactly what Mariela had to do with it next.

"Where's Mariela?" Gauche asked, putting a hand on the kid's shoulder and almost feeling a little bad when the smaller Knight nearly jumped out of his skin. When he looked up at Gauche and noticed the Black Bulls robe, however, his eyes seemed to widen and he grabbed the wrist of the hand Gauche had put on his shoulder.

"Who's Gauche?" he asked urgently. "I need to talk to one of the Black Bulls, a guy named Gauche."

"I'm Gauche. And I'm not listening to anything you have to say until you tell me where Mariela is and how you know her."

The kid nodded quickly. "She was here helping us heal some of the mages that… that could still be healed." He swallowed hard, his pale face seeming to tinge a bit green. "She was here with us until just a little bit ago, but…" He trailed off, and the look on his face did not bode well with Gauche.

"But?" he prompted.

"She must have run out of mana or something. She was helping us for what had to have been a couple hours, but then she just dropped." At the look on Gauche's face, the Green Mantis knight added quickly, "She was conscious, and she said that it was okay. She didn't seem surprised when it happened, so I think she's going to be okay."

"You think?" Gauche hissed. When the kid flinched, he took a breath and tried to calm himself down. "Alright, whatever, where is she now?"

"She went back with the last group of mages who she had spot healed; they should all be on their way to the capitol city. She said she would be okay, but she looked like she should get some help, so we made her go." The smaller knight looked up at Gauche almost apologetically. "She was the only one here who could heal, and she must have pushed herself more than she could."

Gauche felt sick—she didn't have any mana to run out of. If she had pushed herself too hard, what would that mean with a condition like hers, anyway?

"And why were you looking for me, specifically?"

"She said to tell you she was sorry that she left early. I figured you'd want to know- hey!" The kid called after him, but Gauche was already leaving to go find Mariela.