Kneeling over the rim of the toilet, Silas retched, the bowl already coated with a murky red lining. He had been in that position for… Actually, he didn’t know how long he had been there, only that it had been a miserable experience. Ajit had sensibly teleported them someways outside Léonois instead of directly into the town. There, Silas’s bloodlust had finally consumed him as haphazardly attacked his friends and the freed prisoners. With Transcendence raising his power to a whole another level, he had been as dangerous and ferocious as lightning. But thankfully, he had nevertheless stood no chance against Ajit, Aengus, Mia, and Bandit, the four of them subduing him with only a little difficulty. He couldn’t remember well, but he swore that even Kasim had flung several daggers into his flesh.

Either way, they had injured him enough to stop his rampage, after which they healed him with potions. Only then had Ajit teleported everyone to Vivienne’s mansion. However, it turned out Transcendence’s effects weren’t as short-lived as expected as it had begun to flare up his innards then, shackling him to the toilet as he dry heaved his guts out. No matter how much he healed the effects continued, so it became a matter of waiting for the drug to exit his body.

Even now with the sensation having dulled, Silas was unsure whether it was over or merely on lunch break. He stared at the toilet rim with half-lidded eyes and a mind which lumbered through thoughts. His body had reacted far worse to Transcendence this time than last, and he didn’t know if that was because he had taken a larger dosage or whether it was due to repeated use. From his time on the streets, he had seen the effects of prolonged drug use on his fellow homeless, and while taking Transcendence twice hardly sounded serious, who could know for sure when considering this was a newly invented drug? He would need to consult Emmanuel and Katerina about this, especially as, even though he had experienced its adverse effects firsthand, he still felt a crushing desire to use it again.

The power he felt during it was indescribable, the pleasure otherworldly. If only it wasn’t so… He dragged a hand over his face, pulling it out of shape as he sighed. They had all warned him about it, and he knew it was best if he didn’t take it again, but who was he kidding? He needed that feeling back in his life.

Finally rising from the bathroom floor, he flushed his vomit and blood down, then moved to the sink and washed his face. The splash of freezing water caused him to wince, making him aware of his surroundings again. He needed to go; he had a sister to visit. Entering the bedroom, he wasn’t too surprised to see he was alone here. Squinting his eyes at the golden beams ducking through the blinds, he figured it was morning, perhaps noon. He changed his clothes to a set which didn’t stink of sickness, then headed out.

He knew this talk with Chloe would be difficult, but what was there to do about it? He had searched for her for months now, regretting his decision to run away for over a year, so he couldn’t do the same again now. He had hoped she would be thankful for him saving her, but right afterwards, he had put on a bestial display which was bound to rub any sane person the wrong way. The prisoners had all been a blur while he had fought Aengus and Bandit, but in the rare moments his vision had cleared enough for him to see, their shocked and frightened faces had jumped at him. It hadn’t done the slightest of slowing him then, but now sober the images weighed down on his heart, his steps little more than trudges.

Slogging through the hallway, he soon came upon a housekeeping staff. “Hey, do you know where the freed prisoners are?” he asked with a limp lift of his hand.

The man softly frowned and bowed. “Sorry, sir, but they were all healed and sent on their ways. If you’re looking for anyone in particular, I can try to find them for you.”

“Yes, yes please,” Silas said, his face a scrunched up grimace from the acrid heat rising up his throat and the bright sunlight shooting in through the windows. “Chloe Wycliffe. She’s my sister.”

“Ah, yes,” the man said, his face lighting up. “I believe madame is with Mistress Durant and some others in the lounge. If you want me to show you the way—”

Silas clicked his tongue and did his best to make an appreciative face. “It’s cool. I don’t think I’m going there directly, anyway. I need some fresh air first.” He chuckled awkwardly, although the man seemed not to notice as he smiled understandingly. Moving on, Silas eventually came to a garden, although a different one to where Mirza lived. Here, he saw Ajit playing with Bandit, the Warlock’s triangular shades chucking a bone between themselves which the owl tried to snatch from their digit-less grasps.

Ajit sensed him from the distance, grinning and displaying his Grillz. Silas walked over to join him in the shade.

“How are you feeling? You’ve been locked up in your bathroom for, what, four hours or something,” Ajit said.

“I’ve been better,” Silas replied, rubbing his stomach with a groan. “Where are the others?”

“Well, we just had breakfast and Mia chose to stay in the lounge with Vivienne. Your sister’s there, too. Aengus has gone to start trouble with someone or another, and we sensible two decided to stay away from him and have a breather,” Ajit said, tipping his head in Bandit’s direction.

“How’s Chloe? Was she injured or anything?”

Ajit’s face scrunched up. “Oh, hardly. Apparently those drakkar only have a proper issue with Vivienne since they barely abused the ones they caught, including your sister. Just a general health check-up and a potion later they were all raring to go. By the way, you just reminded me, do you want to follow up on those drakkar? They’ve run far since we left, but they’ll have to hide all the way on the opposite side of the world if they’re to escape from me. Us. So what do you say?”

Silas waved his hand dismissively. “If they’ve done nothing to Chloe, I don’t care about them. Did she say anything about me?”

The Warlock smirked, then laughed outright. “Vivienne’s kept her there to learn more about you through her, but she’s been completely silent on you.”

“I see,” Silas said, unsure on how to feel. Was that a good sign or a bad one? He closed his eyes and groaned. He was getting cold feet; he needed to go and see her now before he over-thought this and let his imagination get the better of him. “Listen, I need to go now, but thanks for everything. I’ll talk to you soon.”

“Anytime. Godspeed,” Ajit said, going back to teasing Bandit with the bone.

Silas re-entered the mansion, pacing down the hallways with a chaotic frame of mind. Although he tried to swipe his grim thoughts aside, they clung to him and weighed down his steps. Thankfully, the main lounge was only a few minutes walk, allowing him to get there with some small level of composure. As before, there were numerous people here, but he saw the important ones were all seated around a table. Chloe was tensely sat amongst them, a half-smile on her face as she tried to keep a composed front.

Unlike Ethan who looked similar to Silas, Chloe looked more like their mum, at least that’s what their dad had said on occasion. She had dirty blonde hair styled in a short bob; he recalled it being far longer when he had last seen her. Where he was lean and angular in the face, her cheeks were plump with her face far more curved. She had his dark eyes, however. She wore a casual t-shirt and jeans with white sneakers peeking out from beside a table leg. She was faced away from him, but Vivienne was staring right in his direction, raising a hand when she saw him striding over. This made Chloe look over her shoulder too, and her half-smile grew more strained.

“You’re finally up,” Vivienne said. “How are you feeling? Mia here was telling me you had taken one of Emmanuel’s pills.”

Silas raised a finger, stopping a metre ahead of the table. “I’ll be back in a minute. Need to quickly talk to my sister.” He nodded in Chloe’s direction, and she pulled the chair back with a sharp screech against the marble floor, her pleasant pretence collapsing to a hard-eyed grimace.

“Sure,” Vivienne said.

Mia was seated beside her, and Silas noted how the Elementalist spoke to him through her gaze, signalling quiet concern. He winked to her, hoping he appeared far more in control than how he actually felt.

With Chloe in tow, he left the lounge, searching for somewhere where there was no one else around to overhear them. The closest place was the main garden, many of Vivienne’s monsters resting in the sun, including Mirza, who intelligently stared at them when they arrived. Heading for a wooden garden table, she sat to the opposite side of him, the two of them finally properly gazing at each other for the first time in a year.

“It’s been a long time,” Silas started, immediately putting on an apologetic look.

Chloe hummed listlessly. Inwardly sighing, he was about to try something else when she suddenly spoke, “You left without a word, you know.”

Silas gulped. “Uh, yeah.”

“That’s all you have to say? Do you know how we felt when one day you were there, then the next you were gone? No message, no words, just nothing,” she continued, her voice rising. “It’s like you didn’t care about us at all.”

He opened his mouth, then closed it as he searched for the right words. “I did care about you and Ethan, it’s just I couldn’t handle it anymore. I thought either dad would kill me, or I would kill him, and I was frightened so I left without any thought. I’m sorry.”

Chloe snorted, its effect somewhat weakened since she was blinking tears. She wiped at her eyes with her sleeve. “Well, after you left, he turned it on me and Ethan. He blamed it on us, even while he tried to act like he didn’t care. That’s all you did by running away - you left us with him so that he could beat us instead. Do you know how that was for us? Being deserted by the only family we thought who understood and cared.”

“I dealt with that abuse for eighteen years, eighteen fucking years, Chloe,” Silas shouted. “I took both of your blows for that period too. I’m sorry about what I did, and if I could go back to the past, I would have done it differently. But fucking hell, I couldn’t handle it anymore.”

At his outburst, Chloe pulled back, her anger seeping out of her face into puzzled frustration, before settling on a pensive look. “I… I’m sorry.”

“Don’t fucking apologise,” he replied with a bite. “What are you saying sorry for? You’ve got nothing to apologise over.” Shutting his eyes tight, he dragged a hand through his long hair and exhaled deeply. “Listen, let’s just move past it. How have you been here? How’s the whole Apocalypse been?”

“Well, I took the hard tutorial, and I really, uh, found my strength there. After that, I was placed near Léonois and so I just joined them. Since then, I’ve been slowly rising through the ranks. I became a squadron leader a while back.” She paused, her eyes drifting over the grain of the wooden table before lifting to meet his. “What about you? I couldn’t believe it was you when I saw your name on the leaderboards, but I guess I was wrong.”

He gave a tired smile and retold his whole tale, starting from the beginning of the impossible tutorial and ending here, putting it in far more detail than she had. “And that’s about it.”

“You found Ethan?” Chloe asked, bright-eyed. “He’s safe?”

“Yeah, he’s in Riverside right now. You should come and live with us again,” Silas said, his heart missing a beat when he saw her frown.

“I can’t. My whole new life is here,” Chloe replied, waving her hand at the surroundings. “Everything I’ve built up. All my friends and my teammates. I can’t just… desert them.”

“The offer’s always on the table,” he said, doing his best to mask his disappointment. “But you have to come visit at least. Ethan will want to see you.”

“For sure,” Chloe said, grinning at the image of her twin. She paused, gulped, then asked in a quieter voice, “I suppose you haven’t looked for dad.”

Silas’s mask fell flat and his true expression showed through: a tense glare. He looked deep to the sky before he answered. “No, I haven’t. I think Ethan has, but he hasn’t told me anything, which is probably for the best. I don’t know what I would do if I heard he was still alive.”