Xopil's eyes gleamed dangerously as he looked over the five women and Xiara he walked away while saying, "You have one hour."

"One hour?" Xiara asked.

"Do what you will with them, they hexed you, so they should expect some retribution." Xopil spoke indifferently, "Just for good measure..."

Xopil waved his hand at each of them as his eyes continued to gleam. "It's amazing what you can do with spacial magic. Anyway, have fun. Just don't kill or break them too badly, they can still be put to use."

The five of them felt truly vulnerable after Xopil was done with his magic. They looked fearfully at Xiara, their imaginations running wild. "I'll be back in an hour to collect you all. By the way, you're in the middle of time compression. I won't spoil the length of time you'll truly be in there for. But you'll be getting to know eachother quite well, I'd imagine."

"I'll be gentle." Xiara smiled wickedly in direct contrast to her statement. "Now then, let's get reacquainted shall we?"

Xopil walked away when he saw Xiara pulling out her 'interrogation toys' as she called them. "Don't break them," he reminded her but he sighed inwardly. She flashed him a knowing smile, "Don't worry."

Xopil climbed to the peak of a tree. He stood unwavering in the wind while looking over the town, the forest, the horizon. His deep onyx eyes staring blankly as he reflected on himself. Who he was, who he is, who will he be... these thoughts troubled him. Occasional screams scorched the otherwise serene environment as Xiara worked her magic on the five women. These sudden outbursts broke his train of thought though, bringing him back to reality. Xopil shook his head, he was about to wave his hand to change the spacial barrier, but he hesitated. They brought this upon themselves... I shouldn't feel bad about muffling their screams, so why do I? The old me in what I do remember would feel nothing at all no matter what happened. I... don't want to go back to that.

Xopil shook his head again, his eyes gleamed in the sunlight has he activated his ability to see through time. He focused on himself as he peered into the future.

"Let me see some enlightenment..." Xopil spoke softly. An image appeared before his eyes. A young boy running through a courtyard, chased by soldiers with two figures looking down at him from a terrace.

"That... was the future, not the past?" Xopil went weak in his knees, but he maintained the magic, continuing to watch his dream of the past unfold as he peered into the future.

The boy smirked, "That's quite enough."

Xopil was roughly thrown out of the vision, his magic forcefully cancelled by another. He rubbed his temples hoping to soothe the painful headache from the magical whiplash. But unfortunately, that wasn't the worst of it. Xopil collapsed to his knees, his back arched as his body wretched, and he vomited. Magical goop forced its way out of his mouth, dissolving immediately into the air.

"That's..." Xopil felt his consciousness slipping away. After he fainted the magic he set up for Xiara dispelled as he wasn't maintaining it any longer. His limp body tumbled down the tree, not hitting every branch on the way down... that would be ludicrous.

"Xopil?" Xiara asked, fearing the worst when she felt the magic around her dissolve. With a hand signal she dismissed the five girls she'd just been tormenting for nearly a year. "Find him."

The five of them changed into their animal forms taking advantage of their heightened senses. Noses in the air, they each sniffed once and all took off in the same direction. As Xiara was running slightly behind then, she was able to overhear one of them comment, "What a putrid smell..."

"Oh no..." Xiara fell into a state of panic. No longer concerned about appearances, she pushed her body to move faster. Her physical body deteriorated in an instant as she transformed into a bright azure light. The five girls were pushed aside as she left a streak of brilliant light behind her and a wide swath of destruction around her.

"I've heard of blazing a trail... but that's just ridiculous," Felicyta commented, as she watched far ahead as Xiara stopped at nothing to find her man, and the five of them chased after as they continually fell further and further behind.

"But you know, after seeing that... she did keep to her word, she was being 'gentle'." Lexi gulped. Her four companions went pale at that realization. They pushed their limbs as hard as they would work, hoping to avoid attracting her wrath should she think they were slacking off.

Xiara only had one thought on her mind: Find Xopil. All else was inconsequential. She ravaged the world as she travelled faster than the laws of friction and gravity would allow.

Curse the slowness of this body. She thought as she pressed on. The azure glow she emitted grew brighter as she expanded her search radius, streaks of golden light mixed in as she added magical residue to her search. Just hold on a little longer... I'm almost there.

"How is she so fast?" questioned Felicyta. If Xiara wasn't a ball of light creating a path ahead by destroying everything in front of her, she'd have no way of tailing Xiara at all.

Xiara came to a complete stop, a little ball of light hovering just above the collapsed body of Xopil. The light she emitted flickered and changed from azure to pure gold as she adjusted her vision to see the full 360 degrees around her body, focused fully on looking for magical residue in the area. It's not too late yet... but this is cutting it close.

Xiara expanded a giant spacial distortion in the area, and although she didn't have a strong grasp of it, she slowed the time within the distortion. She fought the massive fatigue that took hold of her. Working quickly, she compressed the spacial distortion, bringing the size down dramatically, at the same time pulling together the magical goop that Xopil had lost earlier.

"What's that?" Calypso asked, as they finally caught up to her.

"This... you could call it Xopil's core." Xiara's voice in her light form was truly angelic, "I can only hope this is enough... I'm not naive enough to think it's all of it."

"Like a soul?" Calypso asked.

"...Close enough." Xiara replied as the light she emitted became blinding, and extended much further, her final attempt to find every bit of it. "I can't explain now though..."

Xiara extended a very long beam of light as she detected a faint signature, she immediately caught it in a spacial bubble as it was about to disappear entirely.

"Why isn't he trying to get back together on his own?" Calypso asked.

Xiara was on the verge of collapsing as she compressed all the goop she managed to collect into a single entity. "Talk... Later..."

Xiara pushed the spacial bubble onto Xopil's body. She compressed the bubble until the goop was completely forced back into his body. Her body of light blinked out; the bright golden light vanished leaving a black cloud devoid of all color. She fell to the ground unconscious.

The five women wordlessly looked at eachother unsure what to do next.

"...Let's get them back to the inn." Felicyta was the only one to break the silence. She used her spacial magic and delicately picked up the cloud form of Xiara. Beda, Calypso, Lexi and Winter were fighting over who would carry Xopil back.

"Look, he's pretty tall, you can all carry part of him." Felicyta shook her head at their antics despite the seriousness of the situation.

"How does one get their soul forced out though?" Calypso scratched her head.

"Please don't let your curiousity allow you to try it alright?" Felicyta warned, "Look what it took for Xiara to get Xopil's back together... and we don't even know all of what she had to do."

"..." Calypso fell silent as she was already guilty of wanting to try it.

"Honestly." Winter scorned, "Your curiosity is a blessing and a curse."

"Can't help it," Calypso shrugged, "Let's see you get mixed with a cat and see how you handle it."

"One cat is more than enough," Beda chuckled.