Over the following few days, the gaggle of concerned religious mothers came by to check on Nah several more times, but it seemed that they were more interested in seeing what Nowi was up to than anything else. "They keep coming in here and making me bake things," Nowi whined after their departure one of those evenings, "and we obviously don't have all the ingredients for what they want to bake, so they're getting creative with things just to make it all work out."

"Creative, like how?" Nah asked, putting her hands underneath her chin to show her interest in what her mother had to tell her. "Baking's kind of a serious art, and I'd think that at least one of them would be very aware of that."

Nowi froze for a second as she glanced back at her kitchen, where the crimes against baking she'd perceived were happening had taken place. "Uh, meat pies? Cakes without sweet stuff? It's a lot of healthy baking, Dinah! If they're going to use my kitchen, I want the foods they make to be fun!"

One of her hands moving up her face to pinch the bridge of her nose, Nah said, "Mom, if you want them to make sweet things, maybe you should tell them you want them to make sweet things. I think they're coming here to make meals for us, so we don't have to stress about making dinner while things are still weird."

"Why didn't I think of that? I've just been throwing away the stuff after they leave." Shrugging, Nowi turned around to go back into the kitchen. "I'll, uh, keep today's creations safe for dinner then. Let me know when you're ready to eat."

It was hard not to laugh at how silly her mother was about some basic acts of kindness that she herself had taken part in for others in the past, but Nah managed to keep a straight face about it all, following her mother's steps into the kitchen to see the scene for herself. Flour and baking ingredients covered every imaginable surface, but there were multiple containers sealed and ready to be eaten sitting on the counter, all of which Nowi was ignoring in her quest to clean things up. "I'll help you clean," she offered to her mother, knowing that the mess was entirely her fault, in a way. "And while I help, I can tell you what happened to me today while you were dealing with this."

"Oh, right, Maribelle wasn't hounding you like she usually is, since she was in here helping fold crusts. What did you and that girl get up to?"

"That 'girl' is Cynthia, and we got up to clearing some serious drama between us that neither of us really had any part in." That was very true, because it had all come back to Severa's interference in their lives that had made things awkward between them. "I got a proper apology for being excluded from her baby shower, and from being told that I was supposed to plan it when I'd never heard a word about it until the day before. Then I got to apologize to her for not trying to reach out and clear things up sooner. And now I guess I'm going to visit her and her boyfriend someday soon so I can play with their kid? I tried explaining that I'm not exactly interested in that but, you know, don't want to offend her all over again."

"But you like children, you literally work with them." Nowi gave her daughter a confused look over her shoulder, before turning back to continue washing a greasy pan in the sink. "I don't see why you wouldn't want to play with a baby."

"Because babies and children are completely different, and I like interacting with babies on my own terms, by my own choice, not by being thrown into the situation just to make everyone feel good about things." Nah considered adding on why that was the reason she was perfectly fine with taking Ribbon home, but would never dare step foot inside that house, but she didn't want to start an argument there. "But it's fine, I'll manage. Just like I've been managing with everything else going on."

Nowi turned the sink faucet on for a moment to rinse her pan, then had some grand idea in which she let the pan fill with water, then flung it right at Nah's face. Now dripping with grease water, Nah screamed in surprised, trying to wipe her eyes but finding that her face was incredibly slick. "Life comes at you fast, Nah," Nowi told her, grabbing a towel and throwing it her way to help the cleaning process. "You know you go back to work tomorrow, don't you?"

"Been looking forward to it since we got home from our trip. It'll be nice to be there to finish the school year out, it's been great having a break but I miss having scheduled activities." Even with the towel, the grease water was not an easy foe to defeat, and Nah quickly accepted that her clothes were as good as garbage and she'd be taking an extended shower that night. "Only a month and a half until I'm done for the school year, believe it or not."

"Only a month and a half until we're treated to these check-ins every day, I'm sure." Going back to her cleaning like she'd just done nothing wrong, Nowi continued, "I like the socialization those women coming over brings, but I don't like anything else about it. This morning, when I told Lady Tiki about it, she wasn't thrilled with them coming in the name of Naga but not in the name of the manakete church, but she accepted that they're just doing what they can to make sure others are okay."

At mention of Lady Tiki and the manakete church, Nah nearly dropped the towel she was holding. "Uh, Mom, did Lady Tiki tell you anything about any actions they might have taken against you know who for what he did?"

"I mean, she's pretty sure he's accepted himself as being a follower of the Fell Dragon, so he's no longer welcome in our church. She said more would be coming tomorrow. I take it that there's going to be a lovely church elder visit over to his house." The way Nowi spoke was so nonchalant, like it wasn't a big deal that those were the actions being taken, but Nah, knowing that the full truth hadn't been painted for anyone, blanched at the idea of Lady Tiki and Say'ri and all of the others who typically joined in for elder visits showing up at Morgan's house. But she couldn't get over there before Tuesday, so she had to hope and pray that she was granted that much time before she'd unintentionally ruined his life.

Those prayers were met with an audible silence, whether Nah wanted them to be or not. She did return to work the next day and found herself back in her comfort zone, assisting with students who'd just been out of school for a week and needed support getting back into their routines. Then, on Tuesday, she got to see Ribbon multiple times in passing while working with the students on her caseload, only for the girl to come see her at lunchtime. "Are we gonna get to play our game tonight?" she asked, bouncing on the balls of her feet as she stood in the doorway to Nah's office. "Dad and I have done so much planning on how Elegantia will work when I get to be her."

Looking up from her phone screen, Nah shook her head. "Not today, don't have the people for it yet," she replied, knowing that was just a small fraction of the truth. Yes, having more people on board for playing was important, but so was having the materials with which to play, and that required going over to Morgan's house. At that very moment, she'd been texting back and forth with Brady over riding down together, just so that he could accompany her and keep her safe if something were to go amiss. "I'm hoping we'll get it set up and ready to go soon, no later than the end of the school year."

Ribbon gave a very dramatic sigh, leaning against the frame of the door. "That's so far away from now," she groaned. "I don't know if I can wait until then."

"It's that, or not play at all."

Another sigh. "Fine, you win this time, Miss Dinah Balakin, but I'm not going to let you keep Elegantia away from me forever." Ribbon raised a hand to shake it menacingly in Nah's direction, but seemed to get distracted partway through the action and stared at Nah, gears turning in her head. "Oh! Oh right! Nah, I have to ask you something!"

Her eyes narrowing at the sudden change in topic, Nah asked, "What is it? Please tell me it's nothing about playing our game or coming to watch me and my friends play, because you're not going to like the answers I give."

"No, no, it's about the end of school! Ugh, I don't have it with me, it's in my backpack, but I have something for you when you take me home later! Mom made sure that we had one for you, as a thanks for helping get me home every week." Going right back to her bouncy self, Ribbon told Nah to remember what she'd just said before bounding away, presumably going down to the cafeteria where she was supposed to be.

"What a strange child…" Nah's face relaxed as she looked back her phone, her having received another text from Brady in the middle of that conversation. She read it over once, did a sudden double take, and read it over again. "What the…? Are you serious?" she muttered, typing out a response to the message that she'd gotten, which read Morgan just texted, we're all meeting at his place tomorrow. Said in-person session for reasons.

Do you think those reasons interfere with us going down there today? she sent in return, her stomach turning at the reality of what those reasons probably were. She wasn't shocked in the slightest that she hadn't gotten that message from the source, but it still bothered her that he was excluding her from the message chain.

It didn't occur to her until she'd gotten Brady's response (a yeah, probably) that she wasn't getting the message because all sessions had been in-person for her, and she would've been expected to go down there that night anyway. Morgan must've been banking on her being present alone again to tell her the change of overall plans, and possibly attempt to make things right with her before everyone else was around. But the time to make amends was long past, and he was going to have to accept that what he'd done had crossed a line that he wasn't getting back over easy.

"Well, this blows," she said, sending those exact words to Brady before putting her phone away. She'd just take Ribbon home like normal, then go down to Morgan's house with Brady the next day, to see whatever kind of chaos he was intending on unleashing on everyone, whether it was spiteful toward her or pretending nothing had ever happened in the first place. Given that it was Morgan they were dealing with, in the past it would have easily been the second choice, but now that he'd changed entirely, there was no telling how he would act toward the group.

Nah couldn't dwell or get herself set on one particular outcome, though, and she just had to accept that whatever happened was going to happen no matter what. So, with her night's plans completely ripped out from underneath her, she went on with her day as she always did, and looked forward to when she would actually get that last bit of closure down at Morgan's place.

After school, Ribbon was back in the doorway to the office, her backpack hanging off of her front so that she could easily reach inside it to grab whatever she'd been telling Nah about earlier. "Okay, so, like I said, Mom wanted to make sure that you got one of these, and I definitely absolutely agree that you have to have one." Rummaging around in her backpack, Ribbon eventually pulled out a slightly crumpled envelope, which she walked right up to Nah and handed over in a very flourishing gesture. "We spent time last week making these, it was actually a lot of fun. Didn't know my mom was good at that sort of thing."

Because she didn't know what it was in reference to, Nah kept her mouth shut and merely opened the envelope, pulling out a card that had pictures of Ribbon carefully glued to its front, adorned with actual ribbons to tie it all together. "Your birthday's not until November, so it's not a birthday invitation," Nah said, looking at the cover and seeing all the different pictures of the girl. "I'm pretty sure if you were moving, I'd have heard it already, so it's not anything to do with that, and you're clearly not dead so it's not for a memorial…"

Beginning to vibrate, Ribbon yelled, "Open it and see what it's for! I can't wait for you to tell me that you'll be there!"

"So it's something I have to attend, hmm." After admiring the front of the card for a few seconds longer, Nah opened it and saw that it was an invitation to Ribbon's school continuation ceremony, which came the last week of school. "Oh. Ribbon…you know I'm already going to be there since I work here, right?"

Ribbon nodded. "I know, but I want you to come over for snacks and stuff once it's done. I don't exactly have a lot of friends, and you're probably my favorite person in the world, so I want you to be a part of my celebrations, not just the celebrations for the whole school."

"That's really sweet of you." Nah tucked the card back into the envelope, feeling a sense of warm fuzziness flooding her chest. "I'll definitely come by after the ceremony, just because you've asked me to."

"Mom's a bit worried about how next school year's going to go, with me going to a different school that you're not working at, so I won't get this time with you anymore." Just about immediately, a sadness filled Ribbon's voice, and when Nah looked at her she could tell that she was beginning to blink back tears. "But I'm not going to be surrounded by bullies that pick on me for being different, so it'll be nice to be able to be myself in my new school. I'm just going to miss this. Miss you."

"I'll miss you too, Ribbon, but we've still got plenty of time before that'll happen, so let's not think about that yet, okay? One step at a time." Getting up to wrap the girl in a side hug, Nah realized that Ribbon was definitely taller than her now, which made her feel a bit awkward about being the adult in the room when she was dealing with a schoolkid bigger than she was. "You need to stop growing, by the way. Who said you could be this tall?"

Sniffling as she tried not to laugh, Ribbon said, "I'm still the shortest non-baby in my family, but only by a little! Dad thinks that by my birthday, I might be taller than him, which is crazy because he's my dad! I shouldn't be taller than him when I'm a kid!"

"Guess that's that taguel blood at work," Nah reminded her, giving her back a strong pat before letting go of Ribbon entirely. "Meanwhile, I'm basically the same size as my own mom, and we're both short because that's the chance you take when you're a manakete. Funny how these different cultures have such different sizes related to them, huh?"

Ribbon's eyes went from side to side as she began thinking about something, but before she could be asked to make sure that it was appropriate, she blurted out, "I wonder what'd happen if you crossed the two? Do you think we could find out?"

"…Pardon?"

"I-I mean, in the future! There's no way we could find that out right now, but maybe years and years and years from now, that'd be something that could be discovered. Or maybe it's been discovered in the past, I don't know." Ribbon grabbed one of her braids and held it in front of her face, as if it was a suitable cover from her embarrassment. "That was a really dumb thought I'd had. Sorry about that."

Nah looked at her before shrugging the whole thing off. "It's fine, it was kind of a curious thought that you wanted to express. Maybe in, like, ten years or so, you'll be able to find your answer." No, Nah really did not want to think about the fact that in ten years, Ribbon would be plenty old enough to find the answer for herself. She just wanted to move on and get out of her office for the day. "Come on, I bet you're ready to get home and see whichever parent is waiting for you at the door."

"Not really, but I can tell you want to go. You've got your fun stuff and things to do after you drop me off." There was still sadness in Ribbon's voice, but it wasn't nearly as prevalent as it had been before, and Nah felt comfortable leading her out of the school at that point. She didn't have the heart to tell Ribbon that there were no plans after that, that she was just going to go home and watch TV with her mother until they went to bed. Some things a child didn't need to be exposed to, and the entirety of the drama surrounding Nah and her friend group was one such thing.

Thankfully, the next night would bring closure to the whole ordeal, she was sure of it. She just wasn't positive on the kind of closure she'd be getting.

It was a bit strange for Nah and her well-kept schedules to have to go down to Morgan's house on a Wednesday night that week, but she kept reminding herself all day that she wasn't going home after she got done at the day's school. She was going over to Brady's place, leaving her car there, and riding with him down to Morgan's, where they'd do their business and leave before things could get too awkward for everyone. They'd decided on that being the order of events simply because, for the time being, Nah was on good terms with Maribelle, and she wouldn't get uppity about Nah's car being out front, while Nowi would potentially lose her mind if she found out her daughter was going places with a boy under those specific circumstances.

"You can always back out now, stay outta things with him, let us all handle it in your place," Brady told her as she climbed into his passenger's seat, buckling herself in without so much as giving him a glance. "We'd fight wars for you, Nah. You don't have to do this."

"I need to settle things for myself," she insisted, taking in a deep breath to steady her raging mind. "I don't know what he's going to try to do tonight, how he's going to try to make me look bad in everything, and I want to be there to watch him attempt it. I want to be the one who tells him he's lying and that he needs to just come clean about things."

"Thinkin' he'll go that route with things, huh?" Brady asked, as he began driving away from the house. "I mean, I wouldn't be shocked if he did, dude's always been a bit on the edge when it comes to what's right or wrong."

It wasn't that Nah thought that she was going to be subjected to Morgan telling lies to make himself look better; it was that she knew he was going to throw her under the bus by detailing her involvement in things, and she needed to be there to make it very clear why she'd done what she did. Besides, what she'd agreed to was not what had happened, and that was a very important detail she needed everyone to understand. "Yeah, and I've heard that the manakete committee has visited him, so he's probably looking for more ways to clear his name after whatever they said to him."

Brady gave her a confused glance, then turned his attention back to the road. "I take it that you know a thing or two about manakete committee visits?"

"No, more like, Mom knows about them and has scared me straight about what they involve. I've had personal meetings with Lady Tiki before, sure, but nothing like what I've heard Morgan had to deal with." She was going to leave out that her most recent meeting with the elder had been because of her prior involvement with Morgan, and that she hadn't been brave enough to face Lady Tiki again in the time since everything happened. "I'm willing to bet he really got chewed out for what he's done."

"Better those elders than me, that's all I'm gonna say there." Brady huffed, and Nah felt simultaneously thankful that he was her friend, and scared at how he was going to take the omitted details from the whole ordeal when he heard them. "I'm bankin' on Morgan being completely normal and well-behaved tonight, since he ain't gonna want to ruin things for all of his friends, I don't think."

Rather than continue talking and risk slipping up on the finer details about everything, Nah decided she'd fill the silence by turning on the radio in the car, being met immediately with a promo for one of the previous month's most talked about albums. As a song by one of music's biggest names began playing, Nah sank into her seat, thinking about how she didn't want things to go badly at all that night, and that she wished that she could make Morgan promise he'd keep her name clean in all of his defenses, just so that they could settle everything privately before it got any further out of hand. "Are you actually listenin' to this? I can't stand this woman's music, way too overplayed," Brady said, reaching to change the radio station before Nah could even answer him. The song that came next wasn't much better, based on how his face scrunched at the deep vocals, but he didn't change it again.

"I think we'd be better just not having music at all," Nah decided, reaching forward once more to turn the radio off, choosing silence over the sounds of manufactured music that got overplayed immediately on release. Yet, when she pressed the power button, and the song stopped instantly, she found herself wishing she had that white noise background for her thoughts, instead of letting them run rampant as they were.

"That was completely stupid, if you're just gonna choose to have the radio off after all." Chuckling, Brady did nothing to change things, and continued driving on, while Nah's hand still lingered over the button to undo what she'd already undone. Something she wished she could do with the whole Morgan situation. If only there was a way to go back in time and stop herself from ever deciding that settling for him was better than letting someone else know how she truly felt.

They arrived outside of Morgan's family's house to the sight of the car belonging to Laurent and Noire and to the sight of Lucina's car as well, although predictably Lucina was already sitting in it. As the pair got out and headed up to the door, she rolled down her window and shouted at them, "Be aware that he's in one of his weird moods today. The manakete elders had some words with him and he's a bit on edge because of it."

"Is that why you're leaving?" Nah asked in return, while Brady nodded and kept on his path to the door.

Lucina laughed, shaking her head. "No, I'm leaving because I'm going to spend time with Gerome and I needed to be gone twenty minutes ago. We can blame Noire for my delay in leaving, she's also in one of her weird moods. Be careful when you talk to her, I'm not exactly sure how she's going to take anything tonight."

"Noted, thanks." That was the last thing Nah needed to hear, that her best friend and the person who'd been fighting for her the entire time wasn't feeling her mentally best. She gave Lucina a wave as she backed out of the driveway and headed on her way out, before scurrying to catch up with Brady at the door. "I take it you heard what Lucina said, yeah?"

"Nothing I couldn't have already guessed," he replied, going to open the front door to invite himself in but finding it locked. After trying the handle a few times, he sighed and banged on the door as hard as he could, while Nah stood at his side and looked up at him, praying to Naga that everything was going to go just fine once they got inside.

Predictably so, Morgan was the one to open the door, and he stood on the inside with his jaw slightly hanging at the sight of the two on the step. "I wasn't aware that Dinah was invited tonight," he spat, looking straight at Brady's face as he spoke. "Pretty sure the invitation was for you and the two already here."

"She's part of the game, I wasn't comin' without her," Brady answered, matching Morgan's stare with a glare of his own, made all the more intimidating with his facial scar. "Now are you gonna let us in or are we leavin'?"

Morgan sputtered but stepped aside, allowing Brady in without any further issue, only to come back in the way when Nah tried to follow. "Not so fast. You really think you're welcome here after you ratted me out to the manaketes?"

Now it was Nah's turn to sputter, because she hadn't anticipated having that accusation lobbed at her so quickly. "I didn't tell anyone a thing, and that's a promise," she finally eked out, not sure if her words would be listened to but she wasn't going to merely let him spread a lie about her behavior. "If you want to talk to the person that blabbed, they're already inside. Both of them."

"They'd only know because you told them, Dinah. I'm not stupid about how this works."

"They'd know because one of them literally watched you do it, Morgan. You know, with the video you're so insistent didn't exist?" Against her better judgment, Nah put all her strength into her shoulders and pushed herself past Morgan and made her way to the table, while he spun on his toes and watched her go by, thinking of how best to respond to that.

If he'd ever come up with a way, he certainly didn't say anything in the moment, choosing instead to close the door and walk over to the table, taking his seat at the head like always. "Okay, well, we've got an uninvited guest but it's fine. I'll make it work. Owain couldn't make it tonight for obvious reasons, so we're running a dungeon with just thr—four players, and no NPC because someone who isn't supposed to be here waltzed right in like she belongs with us."

Nah could do nothing but roll her eyes at the childish behavior they were witnessing, and no one knew what to say to any of it so the group stayed silent overall. "Right, well, here we go. Let's set the scene, shall we? I'm going a bit more homebrew tonight than I ever do, hence why we have to do this in person."

Everyone adjusted themselves and readied their pages and tokens, while Morgan pulled out a typed-up page that he seemed to have prepared for the occasion. Once he had visuals that everyone was ready, he began reading. "Whatever fun journeying you've been doing before this has come to a sudden and brutal end, as you have been thrust into the heart of a dark, cramped, completely isolated cavern with no supplies but the weapons you carry, and no idea of what is happening except a voice telling you that there's no turning back. No taking back what has been done. No changing what's going to happen."

He looked over the top of his paper, an anger burning in his gaze. "What do you want to do, adventurers? Do you search for a way out? A source of the voice? What?"

Slipping into character effortlessly, Laurent was the first to speak as his character. "We should search for an exit, first and foremost," he said as Plume, tapping his little cat-shaped token over a single place on their map. "I take it that this place is dark, but with darkvision it shouldn't be—"

"Even with darkvision, you find it hard to see much more than an arm's length away."

"—naturally, that would be the way you'd play this. Very well." The sigh that came was mostly Laurent, but it felt in-character enough for his character to do it as well. "Ladies, Byacek, we need to get out of here sooner rather than later. I shall take the lead, but you all need to stay close behind."

"Let me take the rear of the party, I'll be strongest against any attacks that may come from behind," Brady replied in his best dragonborn voice, but it was clear he'd been out of practice with the actual voice he'd been using for Byacek. "We can find our way out in a straight line, I'd think."

Noire looked across the table at Nah, who shrugged at her. "I suppose there isn't much of a choice but to go along with this, but before she gets into line, Zelaia's going to get her weapon readied. You know, just in case."

The weight of what they were having to do was not affecting Nah as much as it probably should have, and so she wordlessly put Farona's token into line, behind the cat and in front of the little creature that Noire was using. "Very well. The party stumbles through the cave in this single-file formation, slowly making their way through tunnel after tunnel." Morgan paused, reading something further down on the paper before chuckling to himself. "After what feels like hours of going nowhere fast, you come into a much brighter cavern, where you hear the voice speak a little louder. This time, it tells you to lose all hope of leaving, or prepare to lose one of your own."

"Hey now, we've already lost one of our own, how's that a fair threat?" That question was absolutely Brady asking for himself in real life, not asking in character. But, just as seamlessly, he went right back to being his dragon. "Byacek leaves his spot in line and tries to investigate the source of the voice."

"You don't even need to roll for it, just getting out of line triggers the rumbling of rocks falling all around you, and suddenly the cavern you're in dims to a much darker level of light. Then, right around the time that all of your eyes adjust to the new darkness, a light begins to flicker above you." On the map on the table, Morgan set down a large figure, one that made Nah's whole body shiver. "A demon dragon descends from the ceiling above, cackling and taunting you with the reminder that you'll be losing one of your own."

"Dude, seriously? That thing's gigantic!" Noire's voice grew louder with every word, as she portrayed Zelaia getting more and more agitated with their current predicament. "There's no way that four of us are going to take that down!"

"Keep calm, Zelaia, we are more than capable of taking down a fantasy dragon. Why, this looks nothing like any dragon I have ever seen in any book. Ever." The snooty air that Plume had on was not comforting in the slightest, but he was trying his best. "We just need to think things through rationally and attack."

"There's the key word," Morgan pointed out, gesturing for everyone at the table to roll. While they all called out numbers and he jotted them down, he kept making pointed glances in Nah's direction, while she could barely keep herself from shaking at the choice of statue that was sitting on the table in front of them. This was deliberate, this wasn't acceptable by any means, and this wasn't something she was okay with tolerating. "Is something the matter, Dinah? You beginning to realize that your character's time is limited?"

"How dare you use a statue of Naga for this," she hissed at him, resisting the urge to reach out and grab the statue for herself. "This is vile, even for you."

"Oh, boo, it's perfectly fine. Looks like you've all rolled in, and wouldn't you know it, the demon dragon goes first." He tapped the statue's head and slowly pushed it closer to the other tokens, getting it closest to Farona's piece. "Let's see, this dragon is mighty weak to radiant damage, being a demon dragon and all, so it'd make perfect sense if it goes after the thorn in its side first."

"Seriously? Are we just dropping all intentions of playing fair?" First Nah looked to Morgan, seeing the glare he was shooting her, before she glanced around at everyone else at the table, hoping that someone would speak up. "Come on, we all recognize this is targeted at me personally, don't we?"

Without so much as missing a beat, the sound of a die clattering against the table filled the air, followed by Morgan looking down to read it. "Hm, add the modifier…does a thirty-three hit poor Farona?"

The silence that came over the table was heavy, as Nah inhaled slowly, before exhaling to say, "Yes, that does hit. Why wouldn't it hit? That's the most absurd roll to hit that—"

Cutting her off, Morgan rolled what sounded like a hearty handful of dice, counting them up quickly to speed things along. And he did say a number, some obscenely large amount of damage that nothing they'd ever fought had come close to dealing in one blow, but Nah felt like, in that single moment, she got to have the last laugh, as it wasn't quite enough to knock Farona below zero health points. But, right as she was about to call him out on that miss, he one-upped her yet again. "Did I say I was done? This thing gets a multi-attack, and given that you're a woman of the cloth, that was only half damage on that first attack."

"Okay, now you're getting ridiculous," Brady said, giving Morgan a side-eye. "Don't take your personal problems out on Nah."

"My personal problems are entirely because of her. Now, going back to combat, demon dragon's attacking your barely-standing cleric for a second attack, this time with a vicious chomp. And…" He threw down his die, in front of everyone to see it come up as a nineteen on its face. "Aw, so close, but that's a thirty-five. Which will hit. Do you know the death rules, dear Dinah?"

Nah knew the rules. They'd discussed them in previous sessions when other characters had been downed and she'd needed to bring them back. But she knew what specific rule Morgan was angling for there, and she wasn't going to acknowledge it. "I know them, but you're not killing her, not here."

"With a mighty chomp," he started, ignoring what she'd defiantly said to him, "the demon dragon bites down on Farona for—"

"Stop!" Noire's shriek brought the battle to a halt, as she pointed a finger directly at Morgan. "You're going after the wrong player for all of this! I'm the one who was telling everyone about what you did, Nah was so brave about keeping it to herself and I'm the one who couldn't keep their mouth shut! Don't kill Farona, kill Zelaia so I can be done with you and your stupid, manipulative game forever!"

"—she'll be next, that's fine." Without hesitation, Morgan rolled all of his dice necessary, and this time the number he gave was well more than twice the first number, and he didn't even need to give Nah the chance to say what had happened. "But this time, the dragon takes a victim and cleanly bites your dear cleric in two, killing her instantly without a chance to say her farewells. Exactly what was always meant to happen here tonight."

The world stood still for a second as Nah processed what was going on. Morgan had just destroyed one of her little pieces of happiness and whimsy in the world, as a means to get back at her for what he'd perceived as her doing something wrong, when she hadn't said a word until others had spoken for her. She knew she was tearing up, she knew that she was starting to cry there at the table, and the moment her first tears fell onto the wooden surface that was the end of any civility. "You bastard!" Noire screeched, jumping up from her chair to throw multiple pointed fingers in Morgan's direction. "I just told you, I just fucking told you that she didn't say a thing, and yet you're out here murdering her character for no gods-damn reason!"

"And I told you," Morgan replied, voice completely steady, "that Zelaia will be next. This just gives Dinah no reason to ever, and I mean ever, have to step foot in this house again. Besides, how did you find out if not for her running her mouth in the first place?"

Growing more agitated and frustrated by the second, Noire was just about to jump across the table to lunge at Morgan, but Laurent stood and held her back. "I saw it, don't you remember? You had me on a call and then you started groping her and forcing your nasty little tongue in her mouth, like you wanted to hurt her for the world to see!"

His concentration on being so stern and serious broke at that detailed explanation of what had happened, and for a moment Morgan seemed to be genuinely disgusted at what he'd just been accused of doing. But, as quickly as that self-awareness had come on, it disappeared once more. "I can assure you that I'd never subject someone to watching something so private. I mean, the intention was to go further right then, and that'd be illegal to show someone on a video."

"Pl-please don't talk about that," Nah choked out, realizing that Morgan was about to use what he was portraying as Noire's delusion as a springboard for giving everyone his reasons for what he'd done. "Can't we just move on?"

"Nah, do you want to leave?" Brady asked her, putting a hand on her shoulder protectively, and she shook her head, knowing that she wanted to be present for whatever came next. He could sense that she was figuring out what was happening and accepted it, but he kept his hand on her just in case.

"Look, do I seem like the kind of guy who'd just take advantage of someone for fun? Nah was completely on-board with what was going on, until she suddenly wasn't, and she decided it'd be best to play the victim in everything instead." Morgan tilted his head back, nodding to himself as he thought about the events of that night. "She'd told me that she was okay with any of it. All of it. And then, in the middle of what she'd agreed to, she suddenly backed out and ran out of the house, realizing that she didn't want what she'd said after all."

It took a lot of strength to spit the words out, but Nah interjected then with a reminder of her real reason for backing out. "I left because I saw Noire on the computer screen and realized you were recording us for some sick reason. Probably to prove to your aunt that you're no longer in Naga's light. I don't even know."

"Aversa had nothing to do with that night's events, and I don't know why you're all so insistent that there was a recording. There was no video evidence of what happened." He paused, before he sat back up and grinned in Nah's direction. "Except at the donut shop, there's evidence of that conversation on their tapes. Went and asked them about it the next day, just to make sure that I hadn't dreamt that whole thing up."

"What conversation?" Brady wanted to know, his grip on Nah growing tighter but causing her to become more squirmy in her seat. "What did the two of you talk about?"

"How she's desperate to sleep with someone and wanted me to be the one."

His words were like a microphone drop, and in the absolute silence that followed them, everyone looked at Nah, wanting to see how she handled that accusation. No one was more curious to know the truth than Brady, though, and when she nodded meekly he ripped his hand away from her and grumbled, "Oh, so I see how it is."

"I can explain, I really can," she said, tears freefalling down her face as she looked to see the pain and betrayal painted across Brady's expression. "Look, he's leaving out the details and denying the parts that are the problem, I only consented to it because I was desperate and when I realized he was using me in the name of the Fell Dragon I…I…couldn't do it anymore and backed out."

Morgan reached across the table to grab his statue that he'd placed in front of everyone. "By the way, I never was in the clutches of the Fell Dragon, not actually. Mother had asked me to do some spying on her sister, and I played the part pretty well. Got to explain that to the manakete committee yesterday when they dropped by. Gave me this statue for my duties as such a devout follower of Naga, it felt great, until I learned they'd been deceived into thinking I was going to the other side because of Dinah here."

"Lady Tiki's the one who told me you were!" Crying out like a child in the midst of punishment, Nah came to her feet and stomped down as hard as she could. "I was doing what I'd been asked by Lady Tiki, because she'd thought you were playing around in Fell Dragon spaces, she'd never told me a word about how you were doing it to cross your aunt!"

"Guess you assumed the worst in me, then," Morgan spat, venom in every word. "Just like I'd assumed the best in you, until you chose to ruin my life and my friendships over something you'd agreed to do in the first place."

"I didn't agree to be on camera!"'

"You weren't on camera!"

Once again, Noire jumped in with her bellowing screech, "She totally was, you stupid motherf—"

"She was not on any kind of camera and I'd like it if you'd stop deluding yourself into insisting she was, because she wasn't!" Morgan's voice was reaching quite the yell as well, and it was clear that he was adamant about what he believed to be the truth. "I don't get why you've both decided that you're going to accuse me of something that nasty, when it's so far from the truth that it's ridiculous!"

Ever the reasonable voice in a group, Laurent spoke up before Noire had a chance to scream more about how things were wrong. "Actually, Morgan, if memory serves, the night that this all happened you had asked for Noire and myself to be on a call with you, but only she took you up on the offer. It is completely possible that you forgot that was the case and therefore there was video evidence of what took place."

Shaking his head violently, Morgan stated in a very loud, very forceful voice. "I'd recorded what I needed from Noire and ended the call, then had that playing while me and Dinah were supposedly taking part in things she'd agreed to, but clearly she saw the video and figured the worst-case scenario with it."

That story sounded vaguely familiar to Nah, but she was shaking with rage at how her own memories were being questioned in such a heated moment and therefore couldn't bring herself to say anything about it (and how it definitely contradicted what she'd been told that night). "But that would not explain how Noire knew things before Nah had a chance to say a word about them," Laurent continued, tapping the side of his head while he processed the information laid out in front of them all. "The only reasonable explanation for that is that you're the one who has deluded yourself into thinking there was no camera showing any sort of video, when there clearly was."

"You have no way to prove that Dinah didn't say a word first." Sticking a very heated finger in Nah's direction, Morgan continued, "In fact, she's been so focused on getting what she wanted out of me and everyone that she forgot that we're all actual people, with actual feelings, and that we actually might have things going on outside her."

"That isn't true at all!" Wanting the yelling and the fighting to come to an end as fast as possible, so that she could get out of that house and find a different way to get the one thing she'd shown up for, Nah pulled her phone out and opened to her messages. Getting to the point in the conversation where a message to Noire would have been took a little time, but when she showed a distinct gap in time stamps covering the night that things had taken place, outside of the single incoming message she'd gotten, she huffed in annoyance. "See, look, I didn't text her. Not even a small message."

It took some wrangling, but Laurent was able to get Noire's phone from her and find the same gap in messages, minus the Are you mad, or are you stupid, or did you forget who you've been pining for? that Noire had sent alongside all of her frantic calls, which only angered Morgan further. "You've clearly been conspiring against me, so it'd make sense that you'd just delete everything beyond that."

"Oh yeah? If that's the case, then why do I still have this?" Switching over to her voicemail, Nah turned the volume on her phone up as loud as she could and let the saved recording from Noire play for all to hear. With the end of the frantic, panicked message, all eyes fell on Morgan, who seemed shocked at what had just been thrown at him.

"I…don't remember having her on camera during any of this," he said, voice lowering down to barely above a whisper. "If I'd meant for it to happen, surely I'd remember it."

"Something tells me that you have a lot of false memories that you need to sort through, if you believe that you are somehow still being wronged here." Laurent carefully handed Noire back her phone, before looking in Nah's direction. "I also believe that you owe everyone an apology, but especially the one you've chosen to accuse of lying about you."

"I'm not apologizing for anything," he replied instantly, giving Nah a rude finger gesture that she rolled her eyes at. "End of the day, she came into my house, told me she wanted sexual things and backed out after a little kissing, video or no video, then proceeded to play victim to every person that found out about it."

Clearing his throat, Brady came into the conversation at that point with a rather unsteady voice, all things considered. "Uh, actually, blame me for her gettin' the chance to play victim, because I'm the one who had the idea of gettin' so many others involved. If I'd known that most of it was her idea in the beginning, I wouldn't have even bothered caring about how she was doin' with everything."

Nah's whole body tensed up at how hurt and bothered Brady sounded when he spoke, and she looked at him to judge how he was feeling. What she saw was him actively avoiding her eyes, looking past her to keep staring at Morgan. "Okay, whatever, everyone here's to blame for some part of this. Except Laurent, I guess. He'll get to come back and help me salvage the game I've worked so hard to put together."

"A tempting offer, but I will pass," Laurent said, his grip on Noire growing tighter. "Keeping this one safe and mentally stable matters more than any games you may wish to play with me. On that note…" He nodded down at the table, where their belongings still sat. "We shall be taking our leave now. We'll leave character sheets, but everything else we provided will come with us."

Morgan didn't know what to say to that, so he allowed the two to clean their things up and go, although he did give Noire a nasty expression when she went by him, setting her off with another round of vulgar screeches and screams until they were out the door. "You both can leave as well," he muttered, sinking down into his chair and organizing the things he'd set up for the game. "I'm not interested in ever playing with you again, ever. Thanks for ruining my life, both of you."

Instead of respond, Nah scooped up the things that belonged to her and ran for the door, breaking down into tears once she was outside. Brady came out a few minutes later, also holding his things and looking a bit teary-eyed, but overall in better shape than she was. "Come on, let's get you back to your car," he said flatly, walking right past her and making her follow without any indication of how things would go on the drive back to his house.

She should have gathered, by how hurt he'd sounded in what he'd said to Morgan, that Brady was not thrilled to be associating with her in that moment. But, try as she might, Nah couldn't figure out the best words to say to facilitate the conversation to clear up things between them. She'd look at Brady and think of a million different words she wanted to spit out, but none of them felt appropriate in their current situation. Where was one even supposed to begin after all of that had come out?

"So you'd started all of it after all, huh?" Brady finally asked, unable to look in Nah's direction not because he was driving, but because of the pain he felt she'd caused. "Tellin' anyone that you'd offered up that kind of thing to him and he'd just gone a bit too far would've made everything seem a little less bad. Kinda disappointed in you, Nah."

"Look, it was…I was…" It had been an act of desperation, caused by her need to feel loved and cherished and wanted, and Brady's own behavior toward her had only made matters worse. She swallowed down hard, took a few shallow breaths, and tried explaining her piece again. "It was a moment of weakness, when I asked him if he'd be okay with sleeping with me in a no-strings-attached kind of way. I felt unloved, unwanted, like I'd never have the chance to get that far with anyone, and I jumped at him because I knew he probably felt the same way."

"And then you realized, in the heat of the moment, that you didn't want what you'd asked him for and backed out any way you could. Got it loud and clear."

"No, that's not it, there was the video and it unnerved me because I…it wasn't obvious if he was trying to blackmail me or make others spread rumors or what, and I couldn't let him get that upper hand." After everything that had been screamed in that house, Nah felt dirty bringing up something that Morgan had no recollection of, but it was her defense for her actions and she wasn't going to let it go. "And might I remind you that it was you and Noire who did all the spreading of the story with your details in mind, I didn't do a thing."

Brady hit the steering wheel hard with the palm of one hand. "Damn it, Nah, you could've told me that you weren't in as bad of a situation as it seemed! You could've come out and said that the details weren't right and fixed 'em up before they got spread! You enjoyed bein' the center of everyone's world for the past week, didn't you?"

"I can promise you that I absolutely did not enjoy a moment of this attention. I wanted things settled between myself and Morgan on a private level, not with all of these other people involved and invested." She'd considered him one of her closest friends, after all, and now that friendship was irreparably severed with no chances of getting a re-do, not from her perspective. "I just…wanted Morgan to know that I didn't appreciate him crossing boundaries and showing others a private moment. Had he been better about keeping everything between us, we wouldn't have had any of this happen."

"Right, and instead of you sittin' in here with me, you'd be sittin' in his room blowin' him or somethin', got it." Brady paused for a second before backtracking on what he'd said. "That one was unnecessary, sorry about that. I don't think you're the kind of girl to do that kind of thing for no reason."

"Something tells me it never would've come to that level anyway, but thanks for the apology and the concern." There was absolutely no telling how far things would have spiraled had Morgan not been so deceptive that night, but Nah didn't want to even indulge in thoughts about them. There was something bigger, something more important that she needed to use that time to talk about. "Say, Brady, how does knowing that I was interested in sleeping with Morgan make you feel?"

"Are you seriously gonna ask me about that?" Judging by the tone of his voice, he did not feel great about it—or so Nah assumed, until he added, "I couldn't actually care at all about who you wanna sleep with, as long as it didn't involve you bein' in love with them. But now I'm rethinkin' our whole arrangement, so maybe you can go promisin' your body to random guys whenever or wherever you want."

Nodding, Nah crossed her arms in front of her and leaned back in the seat. "Okay, so if it hadn't ended this way, it wouldn't have bothered you, but now it's bothering you a whole lot because of everything that's happened."
"I'm not stupid, Nah, I know why you were so 'desperate' to sleep with him." Slowing the car to a stop as they got to a light, Brady waited until he could accelerate as fast as possible before he continued talking, white-knuckle grabbing the wheel as he blasted down the road. "When were you gonna tell me how you felt about me, huh?"

"I'd tried, many times, and you kept pushing me away. Figured the closest I'd be able to get was with our arrangement, but deep down I knew you'd only made that to get me to shut up about my feelings." Nah remembered the time they'd been in the car together and he'd told her all about how they would be best as friends, and how that had been the deciding factor in her finding physical love elsewhere. "I'm a woman with needs, Brady, and you weren't going to acknowledge those in a timely manner, so I went to someone I thought would."

"Someone who ended up havin' you on video while makin' out with you, yeah, yeah, I've heard all about it at this point." His tone was beyond dismissive and annoyed, which were not good signs to Nah in the slightest. "Well, feel free to go searchin' for someone else who'll give you that kind of physical comfort when you want it, because you ain't gettin' it from me. Not now, not ever."

Everything felt like it was going well in that statement until the very last words, which smacked Nah across the face so hard she audibly whined when she heard them. "B-but our plan, our agreement…what about it?"

He scoffed. "I'm not bankin' on you bein' available in a few years, if this is the kind of behavior you're okay with, so I'm callin' it off. You find love where you want it, I'll find it where I can get it, and we'll be fine our separate ways. Ma will be devastated to know about it, but hey, now you can take her up on her job offer and not worry about any awkward conflicts of interest in the future!"

"You can't be serious about this, Brady. You're really giving up on our agreement because of one little mistake?"

"Dinah, this wasn't a little mistake, and you're lucky I'm even givin' you a ride back to my place after all this. I'm gonna need some serious time to think about how I even wanna interact with you goin' forward." With that, he shut his mouth and refused to say another word, even when Nah began whining and begging for him to reconsider.

When they got to his house, he parked the car and got out, walking toward the door without saying anything at all. Nah didn't accept that and chased after him, only for him to stop walking, lock his car, and push her back when she got too close. "Please, Brady, think about this and change your mind!" she begged, not wanting to lose him on top of everything else that had happened. "I can't do this without you!"

The last words she heard from him that night were simply, "Then you shoulda thought twice about what you'd asked for." After that, he went in the house and closed the door behind him, and there wasn't any way that Nah would bang on that door and potentially get Maribelle's attention after everything else that had happened.

She accepted defeat and went back to her car, climbing in and locking herself inside before bursting into sobbing, body-shaking tears. This wasn't how any of it was supposed to go, she'd been so careful to not make her plans obvious to anyone and then when one piece fell through, everything else came tumbling after it. "I…I can't let him get away with this," she told herself through her tears. "He's going to have to change his mind and let me back in, we'd been so good about referencing that plan over and over that he…that I…"

For the first time in a long while, Nah felt a longing toward Brady that she didn't want to vocalize or put a name to, and she accepted that she'd been so thrilled with their plan because she'd get what she wanted in the end, even if it was only romantic on her end of the deal. Now she didn't have that, and she didn't know if there would ever be a chance to get that back, and she was hurting because of it. That realization brought her to stronger tears, and it was a solid half-hour before she collected herself enough to drive home, safely and carefully as to not get pulled over like the last time.

When she walked in the door, Nowi was on the couch like usual, a cheesy movie on the TV and the smell of fresh-baked bread in the air. "I heard about everything," she said without looking in Nah's direction, "or about enough to know that you got the short end of the manipulation stick. Oddly fitting that someone who tolerates bad romance films gets thrust right into the middle of her own bad romance story, huh?"

Nah didn't even know what to say or what to ask, so she flopped down next to her mother, wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, and requested that the current movie be started over from the beginning.