“So what are you going to do now?” Laurence said as he lay on the rooftop next to Cleo and Jim. He was still caked in the waste from his battle with Peter, but he was too tired to deal with it. He just wanted to rest and relax without thinking about dealing with anything of substance for a few days.

“I don’t know. Do you know much about the Ignis clan, Law?” Cleo said, her copper hair grey in the moonlight that bathed the city. Law liked her, she was forthright, honest and decent. It was a far cry from what he was, but he did not care. He could not care really, because he wanted more people he liked around him. Helping those he was friends with gave him focus to get better. It gave him a drive that he would not have had, and allowed to realign his boundless curiosity. He still wanted to know how Peter had managed to survive and heal like he had, but he did not think he would be able to find out without getting a copy of the Book of Death. He knew that now it was time for his journey to change focus slightly. When he mastered the Book Creation he would begin learning anew. He would pick up another path that the world gave him and he would devour it, like Peter had devoured souls. He did not want to read the books to become an immortal. He simply wanted to read the books to learn their contents. But now he knew, that there were other things that he could learn than just what the books showed him. He could find out about the worlds he walked through, the people he was with, the lives of the men women and children who had come before him. He knew that without a doubt the world was a far more interesting place than he had ever given it credit for, and now he would start anew, with this girl who sat beside him. He would learn her. He would consume her information, and then he would see where it took him, but to begin that path he had to listen.

“Sorry what was that?” He said, turning to face Cleo properly. This would be a challenge for him, but it was one that he would happily face. He would learn all about all his friends. He would not let them just become nameless faces consumed by a soul devouring monster child. He would never let that happen to anyone he valued.

“I said do you know much about the Ignis clan, Law?”

“No, sorry, please tell me”.

“It’s pretty simple really. The elemental clans had a problem a long time ago. There were simply too many of us, and we were beginning to out-populate the pocket dimensions that house the elemental clans. It was an odd state of affairs, but there was nothing that we could really do about it. So one day the leaders of the four clans come together and decide that they will set down a missive, that no family from this day forwards would be allowed to have more than three children. If someone broke the rule, they would be exiled with the fourth child, and the first three would be adopted by the clan in general. They would become what was known as ‘saved children’. The child that was exiled would become a lost child, born to wander Babel and never truly know their homeland. If they ever did try to get back into the clan, they were to be killed on sight. It was a tough law, but times were hard. Families in general came to only have one or two children, because they were afraid of an accident invoking the terror that was permanently leaving the family fold.

“Now, after maybe... ten cycles my family decided that they would rescind part of the law. They decided that it was unfair for a child to be cast out for a crime that they had no control over, so they decided that the fourth child would be allowed to stay in the clan. I don’t know if they hoped that it would allow for the child to be taken in and treated like the first three children, but instead they... I... was treated like an outcast anyway. I was given nothing, so I worked for everything I got. I became a golden child while barely having access to the Book of Chaos, and so I don’t really have much of an attachment to my family. That said, they feel the same way about me”. Cleo paused, and began fiddling with the hem of her dress. “Winoa can still go home if she want’s to, she’s the eldest of three, and Rose is an only child. They have homes to go to and I would feel awful if they ignored that but I don’t. I don’t really want to go to the Ignis tower. I... I don’t know what I should do”.

Laurence looked at her for a while. She had been through a lot. He could tell that. What surprised him was that despite everything she had been through, how she had been treated by her family and her own climb up Babel, she had not lost a certain innocence about her. She had something enchanting to Laurence, and for a moment he understood what Peter was talking about. After a second he lost the train of thought and could not catch it, but the ghost of the idea was still there, like a mental aftertaste. “You could join Spring Street if you like. I’d have to see what you were good at, but you’re a golden child. You’ll easily pass the induction ceremony. Yun, Louisa and I still hold the records for everything, so it might be interesting to see if someone can actually compete”.

Cleo laughed, and the mood around them lightened. “Okay, I think I can get behind that. I don’t really like the idea of killing people. Even the idea of doing that to someone like Peter is slightly... too much for me. I don’t understand how you can do it”.

“I don’t understand why people have such a big problem with it. Did you not hunt during your time coming to this floor?”

“Of course I did. I didn’t like it, but it was a necessity”.

“I don’t like killing either. I don't feel particularly strongly about it, but sometimes it needs to be done. But my point was that people are just animals that we can understand. If someone needs ending then end them. It’s no different from killing a bear that is trying to harm you, or a few rabbits for food”.

“I don’t get him either, Cleo. His reasoning makes sense, and I think that there are some people who truly do deserve killing, but... I can’t be as flippant about it as Law is. I honestly only think that Yun can,” said Jim. The entire time he had been next to Laurence and Cleo talking, he had been absentmindedly throwing a stone into the air and catching it while listening. He caught the stone one final time before looking at the both of them. “I just thought of a new name for our troupe, by the way”.

“What’s a troupe?” said Cleo.

“A troupe, or a cell, is the name of a group of people. Usually a close knit one,” Laurence replied. “Go on then, what’s the idea”.

“Well, seeing as we are all Saints, why don’t we spit in the face of the clans and call ourselves the Golden Children?”