I could feel my leg muscles starting to strain halfway through the second flight of steep steps. Been in this building's walls for what seemed like forever now. I ate here, I slept here, had enough lasting memories here to officially start calling it my home away from home.

Yet the fact that the staircases were a mountain to climb somehow blew right by me till only just then. If anything, I just feel so sorry for my limbs… they were great little appendages, as reliable as they come, but they were also as human as human can be.

So, it sucks that despite doing absolutely nothing wrong, somehow they got paired with the mind of an absolute buffoon with no regard for self-preservation whatsoever.

You'd think after your knees gave out on you for like the fifth time midway up the fifth floor it'd be a telltale sign to immediately stop what you're doing cause you know for a fact that broken necks aren't really as interchangeable as kidneys were.

But nope, that fifth time went ahead and became a sixth and a seventh. By the time I was up where I wanted it to be, I was already aching my hardest yet… the dirty concrete walls became the only crutch I could lean on to keep me forging forward.

If Nurse Amanda could see me now… know what, actually, let's just hope her parents were the chatty sentimental sort that had no qualms whatsoever running the phone bill all the way up on a stranger's phone. Fingers crossed here.

I passed by two rooms, both empty. As luck would have it, the sixth floor wasn't boasted for its quantity… I'll find where they were at eventually.

Figured I should make my way to the place I most suspect these dealings were taking place, so that's where my shambling steps were leading me to… that big wide, expansive room where every big happening seemed to congregate.

I peeked around the corner, but nothing. Just scorch marks, and ash piles around the white circle where the summoning took place - not a soul in sight, save at least for the unmistakable dim glow of orange light off to the side there along with a patch of black fur slumbering right beside.

The rain kept pouring, the view outside the high-rise windows now presented a cityscape completely cleanse of Blight, it was all gone now… so why was her glow still so dim? Why hasn't she moved from that spot one bit?

Ria, why are you still asleep?

Later. I'll deal with you later… for now, there's somewhere I needed to be and I was getting closer to it, voices almost like whispers, I could hear them now.

Ash was saying something I couldn't hear, and Irene was responding back… just another room forward I walked myself, and there they were.

This particular room was just as empty, just as dirty as all the rest, and everybody was at different spots. Irene was watching the rainfall by a shattered window, standing always the furthest away from everybody else.

"You're explaining…" She muttered out, her lips barely even moving. She sounded tired.

"Of course," Ash was… looking away, looking down. Hers was a tone of resolve. "Master, he… he will understand."

I started to notice that nobody was looking at anybody.

"Easy for you to say," Irene folded her arms. "But he's the one that's gonna have to break it himself. And you know he's never gonna do that once he knows what will happen."

Then a soft murmur in the middle of it all. A flutter of deep dark purple as it swung towards Ash. Eyes gleaming yellow just stared. No words exchanged. But nevertheless, Ash's ears perked up as if having heard it all, as if there ever was anything at all.

"Rest assured, Sera," She said, sounding far away from wanting to say it. "You will get as you requested. I swear on it."

"Well," I found my cue to speak out, my cue to step in, and I did. "I don't."

Breaths? Bated.

Faces? Bewildered.

Entrance? Dramatic.

Hotel? Tri - yeah, enough playing around now. I'm not even gonna try and make light of this situation, not when it was playing out the way it was.

The Blight had cleared up, the world wasn't heading for decay anymore. All of our struggles, everything we've done to lead us here had paid off. There should be smiles everywhere, some jokes here or there, breathing easy finally at a job well done.

We should be… but we weren't. There wasn't a smile in sight, no jokes to be heard… and breaths every step forward still were heavy. All because of you, the one that was supposed to be the savior in our time of need.

Who knew you'd end up being just another thorn on our sides… a sharp one too. Seriously, for someone that doesn't speak, you sure got a lotta audacity.

There wasn't a voice to be heard as I crept myself closer. Surprise showed on Irene's expression, but it didn't linger too heavy. She kept her arms crossed, and her stare straight.

"You shouldn't be moving…" was all she had to say.

"Stop me, then," I told her, still moving my way.

Needless to say, She didn't stop me.

But that didn't mean nobody else tried to… the corner of my eyes, a slender hand reaching for my arm, briefly, I let it grab me, stop me even, why not? It's not every day Ash reached out for me.

"Master…" She sounded hesitant, she looked hesitant. "Do you - ?"

"I know what's going on, yes," I interrupted, her eyes telling me all I needed to know. "And what you just agreed to do too."

If guilt had a face…

"You - you heard?"

"You seriously pick the worst time to start being initiative."

"Forgive me," Her grip tightened. "She wouldn't have cooperated otherwise. Time was running short and I - I did only what I thought was best."

"Yeah, you always do," I said, wriggling my wrist free from her hold. "Doesn't mean you're always right."

Later. Everything else can come later. The look she gave me, the things she wanted to say, the things I wanted to say - all later. There's someone else I needed to speak to right now… and that someone else, gleaming golden eyes glaring, a growl beneath her veil sounding, didn't seem too keen on the prospect of hearing me speak.

Too bad, Sera.

"I'm not going to do as you ask," I told her straight to her face. "Unfortunate for you, you're not the first unreasonable dealer I've dealt with."

Sera glared, and something moved beneath her violet cloak - fast movement, twitchy. She showed that on purpose.

"Kill me and you disappear," I kept my cool. "I summoned you, I'm sure you know how it works."

She made a noise, a very displeased noise.

"Oh, you don't like that do you?" I said, nodding at her. "You hate it when you don't get your way, you hate it when others talk back to you, and you especially hate it when people aren't afraid of you."

I could almost see the pout forming on her lips. "And I guess I'm running three for three, aren't I?"

Didn't any words to know exactly what she was thinking. Sera was an easy read, an open book - literally. I didn't study you for hours just to flush it all down the drain.

"I'm still not sure what you're trying to achieve with making a deal like that, and it sucks that I wasn't there to make sure it didn't happen," I paused for a moment, noting her confused blinks, before adding, "But I have a feeling you did it for Ash's sake, not yours… am I right?"

No words still. Okay, maybe reading her wasn't all that easy, after all.

"Nod if I'm right."

Sera nodded.

"Thought so," I took in a breath. "So what happens if I say no can do and back out, huh?"

From behind me, Ash spoke out. "She'll rain down a Blight more potent than the one that came before it herself."

Wow, truly evil alright.

"And you already shook hands on it?" I asked.

Irene this time answered, lowering her arms to the side. "Already did. Your Elf insisted that she'll be just - "

"When's the deadline?"

"After she's fixed everything," Irene continued, glancing out at the rain gradually growing light. "Which means… now, I suppose."

"And you?" I nudged my head at Sera. "You think you fixed everything?"

The look in her eyes made it plainly evident she really wasn't liking the tone I was taking with her, but regardless, she still nodded her head anyway, haughtily this time.

"Blight's all gone?"

Nod again.

"Everyone awake?"

Almost, this time… almost she nodded again. Her head went up, but it never fully went down. I think she knows it, maybe she could sense it… but not everyone here's awake.

And that's where you're wrong, Sera.

"You're missing someone," I said just as her eyes widened in realization. "Why isn't she awake, Sera? I thought you said you fixed everything?"

She made a weird muffled noise again that sounded greatly exasperated. I didn't understand it, but Ash clearly could… somehow.

"Mistress Ria is deeply beguiled by the Enstar," Ash explained in her stead. "For her to rouse awake would be a process long and tedious to dispel the trance that she's under."

There's another thing I know about you, Sera. You utterly despise liars. Well then, if you backpedal now, if you deny even the slightest bit now… what does that make you, then?

Bingo.

"Well then," I proclaimed, clasping my hands together. "That doesn't sound to me like you've done your end of the bargain just yet, does it?"

If looks could kill…

"Tell me Sera, how can you expect me to do what you want, when you haven't completely done what we've asked?"

Her trembling hands tugged at her cloak, and with how her eyes quivered, I knew that she knew that I got her beat. It's like the angrier she gets, the easier it was to read her.

"So until the phoenix wakes up, dear Arbiter," I said, meeting her scowl head-on. "I'm afraid I won't be relinquishing any titles anytime soon. Understood?"

A menacing growl. A violent writhing beneath her cloak. And a gaze teeming with so much anger.

I knew what that meant too.

"She says that you're an extremely unpleasant person," Ash spoke out.

Understood.