Shamitako

Kallisto "So, you wanted to talk?" Kallisto asked the strange woman before her. She didn't seem like much, but she had asked Kallisto here under the claim of being the one to revive the goddesses, so Kallisto was extremely wary. "I did. We have much to discuss." Her replied in a measured tone. "How?" "I suppose that would be the most pertinent question, very well." Her pulled a curtain off the wall, revealing a mirror, "This mirror can reflect anything, so I visited your children and used the mirror to reflect you across time through their bonds." "Huh, that's surprisingly simple. I don't suppose you'll tell me what my son is up to?" "Deucalion is the leader of a cult in Layo where he ritually maims sacrifices and tells the future using sunspots. I hear he takes after his mother." "I'm glad he's doing well, but you wouldn't be telling me unless you intended to ask me for something in return." Kallisto noted that the woman who had brought her here, Delilah, had left the room. Her must have been extremely confident in either her abilities or her offer to face down a goddess on her own. "Have you played Queens?" Her asked, holding up a Knight piece from the mentioned game. "I know what game you're playing, and I have my own plans to win." "Thats the thing, I'm not playing yet." Her put the knight into her pocket, "I was hoping you might be willing to let me join in." "You want my knight to be on your side. If you have control of my defense, I'll have no choice but to listen to you." Kallisto understood perfectly, but that was only half of the bargain, "What do I get out of it?" "Your brother." "You're bluffing, I failed. And he doesn't have someone to link your mirror to." "You didn't fail though, it just took a while for the results to become clear." Kallisto still couldn't accept it, "How do you know where he is when I don't?" "He came to me, offered to join my cause thinking we had a common goal, but he thinks too small. I don't want to destroy you." Destroy. Kallisto should have known he'd hold a grudge. Bringing him back wouldn't undo the sin she and her sisters had committed. It certainly hadn't assuaged her guilt, success didn't undo the irreparable harm she had caused to all of them. "I appreciate the offer, but I can find him on my own. Telling me he exists at all is more than enough." Kallisto turned to walk out of the room. "I'm sorry, but your ability to leave is also part of the deal." Her said, her voice still perfectly measured. "I was hoping you'd say that." An arrow crashed through the window, heading on a perfect trajectory for Her's heart. Her was unfazed, and the mirror behind her flared to life with a pale green glow, causing the arrow to spin around and fly back in the direction it came from. Behind Kallisto, there was a scream which was suddenly cut short by a gurgling choke. Natalie walked up beside Kallisto, a metal spike coated in ice and frozen blood extended from her palm. "I don't think I can get past that." Natalie said. "Not alone, but she seems to have to consciously defend herself, so enough attacks at once and you can get through." "Got it." Natalie nodded and sprinted forward, a purple sword materializing in her free hand. She slashed upwards with the sword, but Her effortlessly deflected the attack, causing Natalie to be flung backwards. Natalie kept her attacks up and Arya's arrows continued to fly through the window, but Her had no trouble deflecting them, so long as she kept her eyes on her attackers. Unfortunately for her, that meant her eyes weren't on Kallisto, who walked walked around the room to get behind her, standing next to the mirror. At Kallisto's signal, Natalie and Arya stopped their attacks and Her finally realize what had happened. "This mirror is impressive and very unique." Kallisto said, reaching out to touch it, "I'm told that weapons such as this are bound to their wielder after their creation." "Yes, no matter how you try, that mirror will only respond to me." Her boasted, but her calm voice wavered slightly. The mirror flared to life, and started to reflect Kallisto's hand away. Kallisto shook her head, "No, I don't think so." she said as a shield of flames burst from her hand and surrounded the mirror. Rsthet than being reflected away, the flames locked at the mirror and the edges of it began to melt. Her's face paled in fear as she realized what was happening. The mirror snapped off the wall and appended itself to Kallisto's forearm, searing itself to her skin as it turned into a shield. Kallisto's new weapon was split into two disks, a larger one serving as the main shield and a smaller one which attached to her arm. The larger disk spun freely from the smaller disk, a function that's use was quickly made apparent as Kallisto swung her arm, causing the shield to spin rapidly and detach from her arm. Cloaked in flames, it spun through the air and sheared off Her's arm, causing the woman to scream in agony. "Before I kill you, I'd like to ask one thing." Kallisto said, "Who are you really?" Her clenched her teeth and fought through the pain to answer, "Why don't you ask my father? Tell him Mary says hello." Rather than let Kallisto kill her, Mary channeled her true power and caused the ice on Natalie's spike to echo through the air and impale her through the chest. Lilith Lilith seemed uncomfortable at the mention of jewelry. "I, um, I do have some jewelry, but we'd have to go back." she explained. "And I don't want you to see those things." she thought to herself. "I don't think that would be enough anyways, we need something bigger, around the size of those little carvings people put on shelves and stuff." Lilith had no idea where to get that much silver, and money was even tougher for her than Arturia, since she'd relied entirely on Cora for support the last two years. Maybe Miss Katherine could help. Lilith still didn't like the idea of visiting the teacher for some reason, but it seemed like Arturia trusted her, and Lilith trusted Arturia. The offices were in a different building from the dorms, but close enough to connected by a hallway between them. While each teacher had their own individual office, they were clustered into several branches to make it easier for teachers with similar responsibilities to communicate with one another. Being a general guidance teacher, Miss Katherine's office was in the largest branch, one which had a reception room to help organize visiting students. Surprisingly, despite the tumultuous nature of moving students around, Arturia and Lilith were currently the only visitors. The only other person in the room was the receptionist, a boy about Arturia's age. A very pretty boy with practically glistening medium brown skin and curly black hair. Though his features were soft and almost girlish in places, Lilith could tell he was a rather strong boy, at least compared to the absolute noodles that receptionists usually were. On seeing the two girls enter, the boy directed his orange eyes towards the floor, his head quickly following in a submissive bow. It contrasted pretty oddly with his appearance, Lilith had been expecting more confidence from someone so well-groomed. "Hello Mades Dearest, I am your most humble Betwere, how may I be of service to you this fine evening?" his greeting was ridiculously formal, even for a man performing a service job. Lilith figured he was probably new and was still sorting out how to weave his name into introductions without seeming presumptuous.

Tai "Yes, actually." Tejfidh answered, "Back before the rupture, that was my home." she spoke of the past, but didn't hold any clear emotion towards it. Unlike with Cardinal, Tejfidh's voice didn't come from within Tai's own mind, but rather from next to him. When he looked over, Tejfidh was physically there. And unlike in the building, Tai could actually get a clear look at her. Strangely, rather than the robe he'd seen before, she seemed to be clothed by several large patches of moss, or maybe she was clothed in large patches of skin and the moss was her actual body. Hiroki Lord nodded, "That sounds like him. Leaving cryptic snippets and expecting you to figure out his meaning. Considering he outright said what he wanted, you're actually one of the lucky ones." Lord turned her attention to Gryffin to explain, "I'll keep this brief since you're to only one who isn't aware. Arcturus is an extremely powerful entity of unknown origin, similar to Blink's ditzy girlfriend Merlin-" Bear, of all people, was the one to interrupt Lord with his failure to stifle a laugh. "Sorry, sorry." he apologized, nearly laughing again, "I'm not sure how you can be so aptly describe something without a hint of accuracy, it's quite funny." Lord rolled her eyes, though she looked a little amused herself, and continued, "Anyways, Arcturus is similar to Merlin, but he's not been as openly interested in working with us gods. He rarely shows himself, and when he does he tends to erase almost all memory of his presence. As with his origin, how he can do this is also unknown." "Well, that's terrifying." Gryffin didn't sound terrified in the slightest, "But if he can erase memories, how do we even know he's a threat?" "Because your- Because Watcher has fought him before and it ended in a stalemate." Seeker said, causing Gryffin's eyes to widen in shock. "Da- I mean, Watcher can't beat him?" this time his fear was definitely present, "Why haven't we surrendered?" "I'll take him on." Lord said firmly, "I don't care how powerful he is, I'll find a way to win." "No, you won't." a new voice joined the conversation from a shadowy corner of the room. They all recognized it, and it wasn't a pleasant voice to hear. "You don't get an opinion, Karnan." Queen told Aries, "You're the one who put us in this position in the first place." The shadows once again spoke in Aries's voice, "You put this on yourselves. We wouldn't be in this mess in the first place if you'd put your compassion in front of your fear. We can't defeat Cardinal, but that doesn't mean we can't stop her." "Why are you even here?" Seeker demanded. "Not for you, that's for certain." Aries shot back, "I wanted to let you all know that Envy isn't exactly an alliance I'm proud of, I didn't know who was leading the coup until I'd already agreed. Blink and I don't always see eye to eye, but I didn't mean to hurt her any deeper than usurping her rule." Aries paused uncomfortably before changing the subject, "And I have an offer. In the spirit of your little tournament, I'd like to suggest a small competition: our five strongest, your five strongest, one on one, no gods. Losing team surrenders the war." "Why? You have the advantage." Queen asked, bewildered. "No, time isn't on either of our sides. The sooner this is resolved, the better. I'll even let you pick who fights which members of our side of you want." "We'll need time to consider your offer before we make a decision." Lord told him. "Sure, I'll call back later." Aries agreed, "You'll need to find your own transportation, so keep that in mind."

Platinum "Oh dear, I didn't mean to interrupt. Of course you can call back later." Platinum's mother said, the fact that she was being genuine making what followed even more agitating, "But while I have you, I wanted to let you know that I'll be traveling to Nayo for work over the next couple of weeks. Now I know you went to a school with housing so you didn't ha e to worry about my travel schedule, but I still feel terrible leaving you for so long, so I asked your Auntie Silver to come check on you while I'm gone." Luckily for Platinum, Aunt Silver was much more subdued than her older sister. She'd probably only agreed to the checkups because of how long Platinum's mother's business trip was going to take, Platinum had never known Aunt Silver to agree to anything without a good reason. Lilith "Well, there are the other options I mentioned, but milk would be significantly more stable and much easier to get, since you can always just buy some at the supermarket." Lilith explained, "It's the metals, the silver especially, that are hard to come by. And if I get the ratio wrong the whole thing is ruined, so even if we get enough there's a chance of it all being wasted to first try." Lilith wasn't sure why, but talking about this made her feel calmer, more focused. This weapon, it felt important to her to make it. More important than even she could truly know.

Platinum "Hello!" an extremely cheerful voice responded to Platinum, "It's mummykins, how's my little princess doing? I hope your move went well.Kisses!" As always, Platinum's mother showed her "princess" with love but didn't give Platinum any chance to get a word in edgewise. Lilith Lilith wasn't sure exactly what Arturia was embarrassed about, their earlier conversation had been full of so many embarrassing things that it was impossible to guess. The hall was a good idea, they would have at least a little freedom to talk out there. Trying not to make things any more awkward, Lilith agreed quietly and headed for the door, saying only a brief goodbye to Arturia's roommates. Mack Mack returned to her desk and her book. Being a librarian again was a little dull, but it was the only position she actually had the credentials to get. It wasn't like it was the worst, Mack did legitimately enjoy the job. And she couldn't have done a more active job anyways, not while her arm was still at least a week from fully functional. She had hoped Arturia would have come to the library by now, but it seemed Mack was fated to only look upon other cute girls. A call would have been nice though. After trying so hard to kill each other, the least a girl could offer was a phone call. As if the universe itself heard her complaints, Mack's phone chose that very instant to ring. When the caller ID showed an unknown number, her heart leapt as she thought she might actually have her wish granted. Unfortunately, the response to her, "Heyo, Mack here, who's this?" Was a barely intelligible, "HI, I'm dead people." "Oh, upside down kid. I guess you got a phone." Mack replied, cloaking her disappointment in surprise. "Wizardry does not come cheap, the earth holds a great bounty." Trick replied in her usual gibberish. "You're using a payphone with some spare change you found on the ground, aren't you?" Mack felt she was getting pretty good at parsing Trick's nonsense. "What path does the rebellious one take?" Trick changed the subject, confirming Mack's suspicions. "Seth? I dunno, I ditched Her after I botched the Alexus capture. She probably didn't want me to stay anyways, seemed real mad that I went for Layla instead." "Your time is no longer held by gold?" "I mean, I still work, just not for Her." "How much?" Mack nearly jumped out of her seat at the bluntness of Trick's question. After all the riddles, it was actually harder for Mack to accept what Trick was saying when she was this straightforward. "Whoa, slow down kid." Mack answered, "You're calling me with sidewalk change, there's no way you can afford my prices. I only do free under specific conditions." "The location is safe, but travel is tricky." "Oh really?" Mack supposed that could work, "So one of your 'dead people' has some free riches, but you can't get there. I suppose I'll trade the location for a job, so long as it's not too risky." "The guardian of the sea must find the key." "Alexus doesn't have a knight yet, that's why I was supposed to kidna-" "The key, yes." Trick interrupted, a sense of urgency in her voice. Mack supposed she must have run out of coins. "Right,yoy want me to find her a knight, will do. You can give me that location next time you find a phone. I don't usually work without an advance, but I'll make an exception for a magical girl who floats on her head." Mack didn't get a response, just a click as the line disconnected. Seemed that was it from Trick, at least for the time being. Mack supposed she should get to work right away, she'd seen Alexus in the library earlier. If she got lucky, she could have the job done by the end of the day.

"Nice to meet you, I'm high."

Princess "Don't thank me, it was his idea." Princess directed Grima's gaze to the photo of her husband, "Would you like another glass of tea? I can only do that so often, so it will be a little while before I can send you on your way." Tai Tejfidh raised an eyebrow when Tai mentioned Cardinals death, though her expressions didn't seem to quite line up with what he'd expect, so he wasn't sure why. "So long as you're certain." she said with a shrug, her existence beginning to fade entirely from Tai's perception, "From this point on I will sustain and guide you. I'd rather you ignore my presence, but I did agree to answer more questions under less urgent circumstances, so I won't be upset if you call on me." Tejfidh vanished completely, and Tai suddenly found himself back in the snow. He was standing outside a building not unlike the one he had just been inside, but significantly more crumbled. He couldn't quite explain it, but the world seemed smaller, he felt certain that if he walked a little ways, he could find his way back into town. Hiroki The name Arcturus managed to force the gods' attention from the altercation with Blink onto Hiroki. Whether or not that was a good thing was unclear. Lord and Seeker dismounted the table and returned to their seats. They seemed to have taken a more professional appearance for Hiroki, but their unwillingness to look each other in the eye belied the lingering tension. "It seems we have an empty seat," Lord gestured to the chair that Hiroki assumed to have sat Blink, "If he left you with anything else, we need to hear it. Even if not, you probably deserve to be in here anyways." "What are you-" Gryffin started to ask. "She can sit with the other failure, as far as I'm concerned, she's not one of us until she gets her Plane back." Lord replied, apparently trying to spark a fresh debate. Gryffin rolled his eyes and sat back in his chair, miffed but unwilling to respond. "You can't just unilaterally declare her seat void, let alone give it to someone who isn't even a god." Queen protested, "I don't like her either, but it's not your descision alone to make." "I'm inclined to agree, especially when Wine is still too ill to break the tie on disincluding Sain." Bear chimed in, though he continued his response in a surprising direction, "But Amelia won't be back, and she has backed Hiroki in the past. I think it would be fair to consider the Hellfire Knight as Blink's representative, and I think Amelia would be okay with that." Seeker nodded, "I'm not happy with your choice to offer the seat without any discussion, but Bear is right, Blink would be fine with Hiroki sitting in for her." "That's fair enough, I suppose. I'll accept it as well. Gryffin?" Queen agreed, though he still seemed unconvinced. "I was going to say, 'what are you talking about?'" Gryffin said with all the passive aggressive might a teenage boy could muster, "I don't know what this Arcturus thing is. But yeah, I'm fine with the Hellfire Knight borrowing Blink's spot." "Right, then it's decided." Lord pointedly chose not to apologize for her actions, "Hellfire Knight, you may temporarily assume Blink's seat at the table. Please tell us if Arcturus left you any other memories, and then I'll explain exactly what he is for the uninformed."

Sharp Sharp still wasn't happy, but Platinum's response was enough to remind him that they ha a goal here, he needn't let his personal feelings get in the way. That is, until Lexi spoke again. "So, are you not Sharon?" Lexi asked innocently enough. But Sharp was already seeing red. "Say that name again and I'll have your tongue." she threatened, deadly serious. An high ptiched yelp escaped Lexi. "S-sorry, sorry. I'm really bad at names, I didn't know. Can, can you tell me your name?" "Sharp Aker." Sharp said flatly, still burning with irrational rage. He continued to glare at Lexi, who merely squirmed, until a ringing sound cut through the tension. Both Sharp and Lexi turned to Platinum to see if she would answer her phone, which graciously deigned to distract them from one another. Lilith "Hello." Lilith's greeting was barely more than a whisper. She recognized them both from camp, though she didn't really know who they were. She would have preferred to be alone with Arturia. She trusted Arturia. Miss Katherine? Lilith didn't know why, but she didn't like that idea. But.. Maybe it was necessary. If she didn't go, Arturia might not be able to keep her, and then she'd just go back. She didn't want to go back. "Alright." she agreed, "but, um, what about the-" Lilith cut herself off, glsncing nervously at the other two, "What about the milk?" It wasn't all that important in the grand scheme of things, but Lilith had been looking forward to experimenting with the formula she'd remembered. On the off chance it worked, it would help Arturia protect her. And even if it didn't, they could at least have some fun making it together.

Hiroki Adam looked sufficiently admonished, and merely hung his head as Hiroki brushed past him to leave the room. She would have just enough time to regret her decision as she walked down the hall to the room the gods had occupied. Upon opening the door, Hiroki would immediately be met but the clamor of several people trying to speak at once. It was impossible to make out what anyone was saying, but at the center of it all were Blink and Lord, who were so caught up in their argument they'd managed to climb up onto the table. The room was more of a family dinner between bitter relatives than a meeting between the rulers of the land. A loud smack brought the shouting to an abrupt end. Blink's voice weakly cut through the silence, "Take that back." It was more of a plea than a demand. Lord touched her cheek gingerly and looked genuinely shocked, even impressed, at the audacity of Blink's slap. She didn't seem to have a response for Blink, and she certainly didn't seem to be in a mood to take anything back. "I said take it back!" Blink screamed, raising her fist to strike Lord again. But rather than Lord, Blink's fist met with Seeker's stomach. Seeker seemed completely unfazed, and said very calmly, "Let it go, Amelia, before you cross another line." Blink looked utterly shocked and betrayed, but only for a moment before anger took over again. She spat at Seeker's feet and shouted, "That's for every goddamn one of you!" Before sticking her middle finger up and storming out of the room, nearly barreling over Hiroki in the process. There was silence, and the gods seemed to finally pick up on the fact rhat they had a visitor, but none of them seemed willing to acknowledge Hiroki. Instead, Bear broke the silence, "You didn't have to say that." "Of course you would take her side." Lord sneered, "I only told her the truth." "No, he's right." Seeker turned to face Lord, "I know you can't stand her, but you could at least try to be a little sensitive to her past. That man is the absolute last person Blink would work with. I suspect you're second on that list now." "I don't care about her past." Lord said, her calmness clearly forced, "It only makes sense if the coup is fake. It happened too quickly, Blink wouldn't retreat without a fight unless she had an ulterior motive. And now we have twice as many Planes to worry about." Seeker shook her head, "Her ulterior motive was probably to focus on defeating Aries, not holding a fight against him and the tenth completely on her own. And Aries taking Envy is good for us. Defeating Aries on his own turf would be virtually impossible, Wrath is practically impenetrable, but now he has to split his efforts so he can hold Envy as well. We don't have the time to lay siege to Wrath, but taking back Envy is absolutely feasible." Lord seemed at a loss for words again, and silence descended on the room once more.

Lilith Lilith heard a voice reach into the darkness that surrounded her, stirring her awake. It was a comforting voice, one that made her feel safe in a way she hadn't felt since she was a small child. "Mommy?" she asked groggily as her eyelids slowly opened. But when Lilith finally laid eyes on the person standing over her, she remembered what had happened. Her eyes immediately shut again as tears started pouring out of them. She jumped upright and wrapped her arms around Arturia before the older girl had time to react. Though Arturia might have thought otherwise at first, there was no malice to the action. "Thank you." Lilith said between sobs, "Thank you so much." She continued bawling into Arturia's chest for quite a while before she finally released the hug. She kept crying even after she let go, but her tears were quickly fading.

Adam Knowing just how much stress Swag was under in normal circumstances, Adam wasn't surprised to see him break down under the added pressure. Not surprised, but still terrified. Swag could spit in the face of someone twice his size and force them to back down without a fight, if he was at the end of his rope, they were truly in dire straits. Nastasia's nudge seemed to remind Swag of where he was, and he quickly restored his composure, but he didn't return to his full stature and it was apparent that he was still hurting. "Adam." was his only response to her introduction. He didn't have any interest in sorting through his grievances with the other competitors with anyone but them, so having her directly call attention to the fact that he was still standing wasn't something he appreciated. Hiroki's question was welcome as a way to bring back their focus, but Adam didn't want anything to do with the answer. "Not it." he said quickly, "I'm not going anywhere near that room right now, and if you want to keep your heads you should avoid it as well." If Swag had snapped, there was no doubt that the rest had at least cracked. At this point even Bear might be struggling with the weight placed on his shoulders. Adam didn't even want to imagine what it would look like when the other gods found out that Arcturus was their opponent.

Tai Tejfidh nodded, "Your reservations are fair, I will do my best to answer quickly. "I do not gain anything from inhabiting you in particular, I typically have several hosts active at any given time. In general I do this because I have nothing better to do, it fulfills my boredom and I enjoy helping others. I can tell you more when things are less urgent, if you want. I'd prefer to recede to the passive relationship I have with my other hosts though. "As for your second question, I know her gender because I latched on to some of your recent thoughts when I first entered. I like to get a general idea of the people I'm helping, and it's usually a good idea to check that they aren't a criminal that has been fairly exiled. I can't read your mind under normal circumstances unless it's something you willingly share." Tejfidh smiled happily, and it seemed genuine. Considering the situation, it was actually a very odd expression, and it was hard to judge exactly what part of her explanation made her feel like smiling. Whatever the case, the movement caused her hair to flop back into her face, and she had to brush it aside again.

Tai "It's not my time, you're the one dying." the girl responded, still sounding a bit annoyed, "I should introduce myself, I'm Tejfidh, one of the beings you would call an ancient." The girl stood and her clothes, which up until this point didn't even exist in Tai's perception, materialized as a long grey robe, the folds of which she used to perform a curtsy alongside her introduction. She then sat down again and Tai's perception of her outfit vanished, it reminded him of the feeling of being watched he'd sensed in the earlier room, he knew something was there, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't seem to focus on it. When he thought about it, he realized that all details about Tejfidh except her face and hair were obscured to him in this way. The only things he clearly understood of her were the things that he was directly interacting with. "Since your kind can only exist in one Plane at a time, you can't navigate accurately, so I've made myself available as a navigator. In some cases when I notice someone who will die without my help, I try to coax them into becoming a host, as I did with you." Tejfidh explained, "This is the first time I've encountered a host who has already been inhabited by another. She doesn't seem to be here currently, but I needed to ask if the vacancy was permanent. Once you accept my help, I'm here to stay, she'll never be able to return. If you're okay with that, I can lead you to safety."

Tai Throwing aside the curtain anf his caution with it, Tai barged into the second room that had warned him away. It was an empty box of boring walls, with a young girl with pale, slightly bluish skin sitting in the center. The girl brushed aside her shoulder-length blonde hair and yawned, her golden eyes pouting at Tai. "What took you so long?" she asked, "I don't usually give my hosts audiences, so it's pretty rude to keep me waiting. I even marked the important doors for you."

Sharp The study rooms were more along the lines of study cubicles, only large enough to hold a small plastic table and the occupants of four chairs. Platinum and Lexi would arrive to find a large chunk of the table already covered in art books with a few mythology books scattered between them. Sharp was surprised to see Lexi, but saw nothing wrong with a third member of their little study group. "Hello, Miss Lexi." He greeted politely. "Hi, uhh... Sharon?" Lexi responded. Sharp didnt mind the uncertainty, and would have only been a tad annoyed at Lexi using his first name, if not for the rage that he was filled with towards the name Lexi had chosen to use for him. His face went stone cold and he looked at Platinum to ask, "Why is she here?" With any sense of cordial attitude forsaken.

Princess Princess sat back in her chair. She felt a sense of relief, but also a twinge of sadness. A part of her had hoped that Victoria was reaching out to her. She stared wistfully at the photo of her family on the wall nearby. Her choice was the right one, she was sure, but she still felt a deep regret. As Princess's thoughts wandered further, they came back around to Grima. How would Victor have handled her visit? Princess was certain he would have at least warned the girl of what she was going to face when she left. As she kept staring at the photo, it started to seem like Victor's eyes were judging her, telling her to do the right thing. "Okay, okay, you win." she relented. Princess stood up and grabbed the sword from the table, swiping it through the air in a swift downwards slash. A purple rift appeared in front of her, opening up to reveal a surprised Grima as she stumbled through it back into the parlor. For a moment the rift remained open, showing the exterior of the house Grima had been walking away from before zipping shut. "I apologize for the sudden return." Princess said with a short bow, "My conscience insisted that I ensure your safe return. Aries is already in the process of shutting down the trains, you won't be able to leave this plane normally."

Lexi "Oh, that's alright. It's nice to run into you again, it's been a little while." Lexi smiled at her friend. As luck would have it, Lexi's books were on the same topic as Platinum. "Arr you doing an essay on Layo too?" Lexi asked, "We could study together if you want."

Kindle For the second time, Arturia avoided telling Kindle who this "friend" was. Perhaps it was just stubbornness, but then she mentioned being out in the woods, making her and her friend the closest girls to the scene of the incident that hadn't died. Kindle intended to probe further, but was halted by Kaede's apology. She sighed, it wouldn't be right for her to simply ignore something like that. "I suppose if you're going to be like that, I'll be a little more honest with you." she said, "Frankly, the church has no idea what happened. Due to diplomatic issues with Mother Opium, we've only just begun this investigation in earnest. I came here first because I thought you'd be the most cooperative, not because I suspected you. I apologize for my own aggressive tactics, I'm used to dealing people who are already known to be guilty and just need made to admit it. "With that said, your friend has given me reason to be suspicious of her, and I intend to come back and interrogate he further, once I have a better understanding of events as a whole. Until then, I leave her in your custody. Please ensure she remains available for questioning, Ustole Kaede." And with that, Kindle exited the room. She didn't intend to simply let Arturia slip away, but she'd give the girl a little breathing room. At least until she could get ahold of the relevant medical records.

Platinum In a rush to quickly gather as many books as possible, Platinum turned the corner into the stacks far too quickly and without looking ahead, causing her to barrel directly into another girl who was carrying a stack of books almost as tall as Platinum. As would be expected of such a situation, the other girl was knocked onto her behind and the books were flung everywhere. The girl gave a surprised yelp, but managed to recover quickly when she recognized her unintentional assailant. "Oh, hi Miss Platinum." Lexi Aislin greeted Platinum cheerfully even as she winced a little from her wounded buttox. Sharp Being very familiar with the library and how it was organized, Sharp knew exactly where to look for the books. But he needed to reserve a study room, and he liked the librarian, so he headed over to the front desk first. He was surprised to find that the woman behind the counter was someone entirely new. Sharp had to do a double take, because for a moment he thought she was a boy. She was very short and looked Southern. She was wearing a short blue dress that was a little too big for her, so she kept having to tug the shoulder back up. Whenever it slipped Sharp could see that her arm had quite a few stitches in it, though it looked like they'd largely finished their job. As Sharp approached this new face, she looked up from the book she was reading. A bubble of gum emerged from her mouth, but instead of popping it she just took a finger and shoved it back inside. "What can I do for ya?" she asked, her accent slightly hinting that she might be from Nayo, though with OI close to the border it was impossible to be sure. "Um, if it's not too rude of me to ask, what happened to Mother Terrace?" Sharp asked. "Had to retire. Something about broken legs. I'm sure she's fine." the woman answered dismissively. "Oh, I see." Sharp wondered how someone could so casually remark on something like that, but decided to ignore it, "Well then, Mother..?" "Makaylin Argos, but none of that Mother crap. I ain't much older than the rest of you, Miss Makaylin is fine, or Miss Argos if you gotta be formal." Sharo blushed at Miss Argos's crude language. It was anything he hadn't heard, but hearing it from an authority figure in a formal setting was disquieting. "Miss Argos, I'd like to reserve a study room for my friend and I. And then I'd like some helps finding texts and scholarly writings about ancient historical accounts involving the goddesses." Sharp didn't need the help, but he wanted to see if this strange girl actually knew her way around the library. "Done, number 3, lemme know when you're done." She put a bookmark in her own book and got up, "This way." Miss Argos led Sharp towards the stacks, but didn't go anywhere near the history section. Instead, she led Sharp to an aisle dedicated to ancient art. "Wait, art? Why here?" He asked in obvious confusion. "The history stuff is all filtered. Not outright censored, but funding doesn't go to anyone who doesn't parrot the church's version of events. You could get books from Nayo that are better about that, but they haven't been free of church influence until pretty recently, so you won't find much information yet. "But art is different. A lot of ancient cultures shared their stories through pictures and their religion through charms and stuff. So by looking at it, you can get an unfettered view of what they believed. The analyses written are freer too, because people get upset when the Church doesn't fund things related to art, even research. That's why there's an entire sub field of archeology dedicated to it." "Wow, I had no idea." Sharp said in honest amazement, "Thank you Miss Argos." "No problem." Miss Argos shrugged, "History is up near the front, same with religion. Aisles 2 and 5 for ancient religious practices and mythological stories, respectively. This is the best, but you can still find some relevant information up there. Let me know if you need anything else." Sharp nodded and the two parted ways. 2 and 5 were exactly where he would have looked, of course. It seemed Miss Argos was extremely knowledgeable. Sharp felt bad for judging her on her abrasive attitude.

Sharp Sharp jotted down a note for Caliko and Esyllt before following after Platinum. He arrived at the library shortly after, and immediately went into research strategy. "I think there's two things we should look into during our research." he explained, "Layo mysticism looks at the godesses in a different way, so we should study that more. We should also look at ancient accounts of the goddesses, see if any suggest similar ideas to those from the south or connect to how Tressa or Kelaey's power worked. "I suggest we each take on subject, gather as many books as possible, and then meet in one of the study rooms to read and discuss. Which subject would you prefer?"

Kindle "Your cooperation is appreciated." Kindle sneered at Arturia's snarky response, "I have three questions to start: First, there was a cataclysmic event that resulted in a large crater, at the time you were all in a field nearby. Were any of you involved in this event? "Second, have any of you encountered anyone blasphemously claiming to be one of the goddesses? "Third, Arturia, who is that unconscious girl and why did you carry her back to your room?" As she asked her questions, Kindle moved a bit away from the window and seemed to relax slightly, though she still scratched her chest in an unsettling manner.

Haven "Not much of a victory, we didn't even win." Rust answered, her frustration more than evident, "But what's done is done, even if it was stupid. We'll just have to do a better job of preventing a fight next time." "What if the next person we encounter has a more malicious reason to challenge us?" Veronica asked. "Well, I'm not gonna shy away from a fight." Rust said, her attitude becoming a little more positive, "We're from the DWMA, taking the souls of those who have turned to evil is what we do." "Thats more like it." Veronica smiled at her partner, "This was regrettable, but we can't let it keep us down." "You should probably get going." Rust told Haven, "If you want to survive this place you'll need to fight, and you don't seem especially evil so I'd prefer that fight be with someone other than Veronica and myself." "Indeed," Veronica added, "I hope we can be good neighbors, even in this trying land."