Calliope suddenly opened her eyes and saw an orange floor. She noticed that she was lying on it and her body was feeling very heavy.

"How?" an irritated voice behind her said. The apprentice was shocked by it and immediately tried to get up, but her body was still too weak. She then noticed, that she was completely naked and summoned clothed around her body.

"How? How? How?" the voice getting louder and angrier, as the noise from hit left index finger, tapping on lean of his throne, was getting louder and more frequent. Calliope finally managed to get herself into a kneeling position before her king, Daiestro.

"Tell me," the reaper king finally managed to say something else, "how did you do it?" The apprentice was confused by that question.

"With all due res..."

"Save those etiquettes and just tell me, how you were able to wield those flames?"

"What flames?"

"What flames? WHAT FLAMES?" Daiestro was enraged by her statement. "THOSE FLAMMES, THAT YOU ARROGANTLY CALL ‚ICE FLAMES'!"

"I don't recall this conversation, my king." Calliope said, not knowing, what was happening and afraid by his outrage.

"Of course you don't." the reaper king said, as he calmed himself down. "Of course you don't remember. *sigh* What was your last memory, before arriving here?" Suddenly she remembered about Triton.

"KIARA." Calliope said loudly and wanted to get up.

"BOW DOWN!" Daiestro demanded, which made her body shiver and lowered her head immediately. "Who gave you permission to look up? Now tell me, what happened?" The apprentice tried really hard to remember, what happened before her arrival.

"I'm sorry." she said in a relative quite voice. "My mind is quite foggy and I can only remember small bits of my fight against the enemy."

"Ok, ok. Then tell me about the parts of your ice flames."

"I'm sorry, but I don't think that my flames have ever changed..."

"DON'T YOU DARE LIE TO ME!"

"I swear on my master's life, that I speak of the truth, known to me!", Calliope shouted with conviction. This however enraged her king even further.

"Screw your truth! You think you're better than me, because you are the only one, capable of using those flames? I made you. I made your whole race! YOU are created after MY image. Every power, every ability, that you have, that you will have, is always a part of me, no matter what!"

"I'm sorry, but I'm not following..."

"SILENCE!" The reaper king tapped annoyed his left index finger more frequently on his lean, which made Calliope more nervous. But after a few excruciating moments, the apprentice collected all her courage to ask something:

"May I request to leave?"

"Denied."

"Please, my friends..."

"Are irrelevant to us."

"But they are going to die, if I..."

"Doesn't matter." Calliope rattled her thoughts through her brain, while her body broke out cold sweats.

"May I request a deal?"

"Denied."

"I may be able to recall my ice flames, if I'm allowed to help my friends." The king was a bit intrigued by her suggestion. He stopped his tapping and was leaning a bit forward.

"Proceed."

"It happened while I was battling with our enemy. If I'm fighting him again, it may happen again. And this time, I may recall the events more clearly and may also be able to recreate it by will." A small smile formed on the king's face.

"Approved. You may go." Daiestro waved with his right hand and a portal behind Calliope appeared. The apprentice was relieved. She stood up, turned around and wanted to summon her weapon, but nothing appeared into her right hand. She turned around and as she was about to make another request, a new scythe came flying towards her, which she caught. She inspected it and noticed, that this weapon was at most half as strong as her previous one.

"You're old one was quite powerful. Powerful enough, to kill spatemps. But for this task, this should be suffice, right?" Daiestro smiled maliciously. Calliope wanted to protest, but fearing, that she used up all her luck on this deal, didn't want to overstep her boundaries, as she already had.

"Thank you, your majesty." she said, while bowing her head down. She then went through the portal, which closed up right after.

"This will be interesting." Daiestro said, as he was leaning back and his eyes were engulfed by black flames. Suddenly he heard loud banging at the door of his throne room. Shortly after a reaper came storming in. Both of his arms were hold by two other reapers and behind them came two other reaper, with scythe in their hands, dashing towards him. Daiestro, without paying them much attention, raised his right palm in the air, signaling all participants to stop. He then waved his hand, which made the four guards disengage, while the intruding reaper came closer to his king.

"Your majesty." this reaper began to talk. "What happened to my apprentice?"

"Whatever do you mean?" the reaper king asked in a condescending tone and without looking at him.

"You know what I mean!" the reaper shouted and dropped all formalities. "My apprentice, Mori Calliope, died a few minutes ago."

"And?"

"And? This is a huge problem! She's far stronger than an average soul reaper. Heck, she could be even on a grim reaper level, the highest rank among us! And now there exists a being, capable of killing her? This creature could endanger…"

"Stop spouting nonsense. This isn't about the safety of your race. It's about her, right, Styrgian?" The grim reaper was silent for a bit.

"Where is she?"

"Not here, as you can see."

"Daiestro!"

"As a grim reaper yourself, you are free to go as you wish."

"Where! Is! She?" The reaper king finally moved his eyes towards the grim reaper.

"I do not wish for you to see her right now."

"What?" Styrgian said as he was shocked by this statement. "Wait, did you just send her back?"

"It was her re…"

"Of course she would go rushing back, helping her friends! But right now, if she dies again, she will be gone for good! And she isn't really aware of this fact."

"Oh, yeah, there was something like that.", the reaper king mumbled.

"So I'm going to ask you one last time: Where is she." Daiestro began tapping with his right fingers on his lean, contemplating, on what to do. After a few moments, he made a decision: He raised his right hand and waved, creating a portal to the apprentice.

"She is too important to just let her die." he mumbled to himself.

"Thank you." Styrgian said as he entered through the portal.

"One last thing before you go, Stygian." The grim reaper stopped and turned around. "Tell Amelia, the time traveler, that in this timeline, we haven't produced anything from our project." Styrgian nodded and went through the portal.