Citirth walked down the long hall gently. "It just fell down the floor, it couldn't have rolled that far…" He kept muttering to himself. The sound of hissing chilled him to the bone. Literally. He was suddenly struck with an immense chill even with the thick coat on. "Jesus fucking Christ…" He pulled the coat closer to his chest and pulled out a flashlight. The unfamiliar whirr of gears and the spool up of motors froze him in place. "Who's there?" Citirth stared at his breath. He shuddered and reached for a small flask in his inner pocket. It was probably shattered from his fight with the giant salamander, but he thought he could throw the broken glass at whatever was at the end of the hall.

White cold steam filled the hall and two blue lights locked onto him. "Show yourself!" He threw the flask at the lights, and whiskey from the container leaked on his boot.

It was closer than he thought.

He jumped back in an instant while tubes flowing of the white condensation rushed toward him. "What the fuck?! Giethi!-" One of the hoses grappled onto his waist and arms, ripping through his clothes. "This isn't cool, man!" A third hose covered up his mouth, freezing the skin on his lips. He tried lifting his feet, but the white vent held his left leg in place and moved up to his thigh.

"You-" His boot came off, and he was lifted off the ground. Three pincers pierced through his thigh, and it became numb in moments.

Two other tubes attached to his shoulders and numbed them, and he felt an amazing feeling of relief. Three lights shone into his eyes and made him very tired, and the tubes began pumping in some sort of liquid that formed icy crystals on his arms. Something wrapped around his neck and started strangling him, but he didn't notice or resist instinctively. "Be very still, Dr. Fellebrig. The suit- suit- suit- pressurized without a complete purge of all oxygen in the second layer.”

Citirth looked up at the lights slowly.

“Fellebrig…?”

“Yes, your necklace was worn by you on ID day.”

“Fellebrig… is my last name…”

“Yes, relax your muscles if you want the suit pressurization to be complete sooner.”

“What suit? I’m-”

“My sensors are heavily damaged, I am purely running on items on you. Say, where is the rest of the team, Ludeke.”

Citirth snapped out of the state of relaxation. “What the hell?! How do you know Dad’s name?!” He began to pull at the hose around his neck.

“Relax, Ludeke. Citirth is watching television waiting for you to board the LOVER.”

“Stop it, stop it… Stop it!”

The hose clenched vigorously with a snap, and Citirth felt his conscience fading away.

Giethi grew impatient. “God damnit! What the hell is that idiot doing?!” She grabbed the torch and stormed out of the room. “Hey! Hold up!” Wylinoris stammered out of the couch and put on her jacket.

Giethi popped out and unfolded the gauntlet quickly back into a staff. “Jesus Christ, it’s cold as hell in this bitch!” Wylinoris looked at her breath. “I’d kill that bastard myself for making me wait that long!” She tapped on the wall with the dragon-like claw and balked. “Strange… I don’t see any other heat signatures…”

The hallway they walked through was made of poorly constructed wood and very little insulation; wires ran rampant through the holes in the plaster. “Citirth?” Wylinoris tripped on something on the floor and panicked. “Giethi! God damn!” She picked up a silvery flask. “Hey!”

Giethi was distracted by something. “Giethi?” She pocketed the container and ran after Giethi.

“There you are,” Wylinoris said while grasping for Giethi’s clothes. “Why the hell did you leave me behind there?”

“Ci-” Giethi stammered. “What the hell is it?!” She stole the torch from her hand. “Jeez, can’t you spit-” Wylinoris froze. She looked down to a puddle of crimson with small frozen bits of cruor floating around in it. “Dear-” Giethi covered Wylinoris’s mouth and took a step back. She looked up slowly to a pair of leather boots with C. Fellebrig carved into them. “Oh god, oh fuck-”

Tears streamed from Giethi’s eyes. “Oh my god- this can’t be fucking happening…” She hugged the lifeless leg. "Who did this to you?!"

Wylinoris kicked away the jug gently. She brushed her tears off and began tugging at his robe. The coat finally gave and dozens of tiny copper wires stuck themselves deeply into the black wool. “I’m-” She swallowed her spit. “I’m sorry, Citirth.” Giethi wrapped the coat around her. “I’m so, so sorry.” Wylinoris muttered. “You don’t need to be. You barely knew him.” She wiped her nose with her sleeve. “Oh god, how is Reynse going to react to this?!”

“Huh? Who’s Reynse?” Giethi looked away. “Nevermind that. I’m going to find whoever did this.” The coat dragged behind her when she ran through the halls in front of Wylinoris. “Who could even do this?”

“I don’t know.”

“You clearly give a damn!”

“Listen, I haven’t got a single clear thought in my head besides blowing the brains out of whoever did this.” She balked. “That damn robot.”

Wylinoris perked up. “What robot?- Ohhhh.”

“Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to split up, and loop around the house. We’re bound to run into each other or it eventually.”

She took out a small, egg-sized grey vial. “If I reach it first, I know how to take care of it. You, on the other hand, you’re passive.” Wylinoris looked at her, confused. “What I mean is, you haven’t learned anything about magic. You don’t disrupt any mana channels, unlike me.” She took out a small vial of orange powder and poured it into the grey vial. “That doesn’t mean you can’t use it, necessarily. So here’s what I want you to do if you see that tin can. Hold this.” She popped the top of the grey bottle and placed it gently into Wylinoris’s hands. “You want to press the button on top of that-” She pressed the button and a thin graphite splitter jettisoned out of the knob. “Not now, dipshit!” She mixed black powder and small red beads into the orange talc. “This is possibly the most dangerous close-range explosive you’re ever going to get your hands on. Press the button and chuck it at the big metal tube in him, and cover your eyes and ears.”

Wylinoris nodded blankly. “I didn’t cover my eyes during the salamander fight, and now everything looks like wet paint. It’ll heal… eventually.”

She took the top back and put it on the bottle. “Did you hear what I said?”

“Yes ma’am.”

She patted her on the back and sent Wylinoris on her way.

“Hey, Wylinoris.”

She stopped and turned around. “I really-” Giethi stopped herself. “You seem cool. Did you know that?”

“I don’t consider myself cool… but I guess so.”

Wylinoris walked back to the library with her head low.

Giethi walked through the corridors banging her staff against the cherry planks. “I keep telling myself, you keep getting attached to friends! Now look, Citirth probably hated you and you’re bawling your fucking eyes out! Now you’re getting extra attached to Wylinoris-” She stopped in her tracks. “Oh god. Splitting up was how Citirth died, and now I just told Wylinoris to go walk around with a shoddy-built explosive?”

“I’m going to run into the bot first, it went this way…” She kept telling herself.

The unfamiliar whirr of gears winded up and sent chills down her spine. “There you are, you asshole!” She ran into an empty crossway, divided by a massive block of wood planks. “Shit. Which way?” The staff spun up, pushing tiny pistons in many directions in the engravements on the handle. Her hands ran down into the hand-carved notches in the pink-gold metal. “Alright Robo-bitch, let’s do this.” She sprinted to the left side and a thick, metallic tube covered in ripped foil flew past her. “You missed!” She yelled out, confidently. The chute attached itself to the ground and twisted slowly. “Giethi!” Wylinoris ran back from behind her. “I can’t see that bitch! It’s too fucking dark!” Wylinoris ripped the torch out from Giethi’s frozen hand and chucked it into the dull and dark end of the hall. “What was that for?!” Small bits of the air burst into flames when exposed to the flame, igniting some of the wood and illuminating the corridor.

Now that Giethi and Wylinoris could get a better look at the robot, they could see that age had not treated it well; its short legs were squatted from being unable to carry the weight from its bulky triangular torso. The head was lowered even more, just slightly being above the large metal crevasse. The tiles were worn with browning on the more thin and mobile tiles, like around the five small canals placed in a star formation so the head had more mobility. Small patches on the left side were exposed to air, revealing rusting steel sheets. “God, he’s in worse condition than I thought.” Wylinoris muttered. Giethi looked at her, confused. “Easier to blow up. Throw the bomb at it!” The massive tube began to retract, pulling the colossal automaton towards them. “Holy shit- Watch out!” Giethi pulled Wylinoris to the side and narrowly dodged the robot. Wylinoris fumbled the explosive out of her jacket pocket. “Fucking send it!” She smacked the button and chucked it at the rusting giant. The bomb stuck itself to the robot’s armpit. “Score!”

It started puffing out black smoke. Wylinoris looked at Giethi. “Is it- Is it meant to do that?” She stared back, blankly. “I dunno. I’ve never tried this ratio before.”

The top of the vial flew off and hit Wylinoris in the forehead. “Ow! I thought it was a bomb, not a projectile!”

“Duck, Wylin!” Giethi jumped onto Wylinoris and covered her ears. “Wylin?!” She screamed at Giethi. “I’m gonna call you that from now on,” Giethi muttered. “Wylinoris is too long for me.” The bomb started going up in flames. “Bingo!” A blinding flash of light suddenly blinded and blasted them away violently.

Wylinoris and Giethi awoke covered in sawdust and wood chippings and were badly bruised by landing on the pile of planks. “Holy shit!” Giethi said and scrambled to find her staff. Wylinoris rubbed her head and picked up the scarred and melted bottom of the bomb. “Jesus Christ.” She tossed the bomb behind her and walked through the hallway where it was detonated. “I think we did it for good-” She paused in her tracks and saw a path of flaming steps, along with a trail of frozen wood. “Nevermind.” Her mind led her to step back. “Hey, Giethi?! Get your ass over here!” Giethi limped over, dragging her staff over the charred wood. “What the hell is it?” She stopped too. “Oh my fucking god. How could that fucker survive that?!” She threw her staff in anger at the wall. “How?! How?! It was point-blank, for god’s sake!” Wylinoris followed the path of the flaming steps. “Hey, Giethi?” She unstuck the pole from the wall and tossed it at Giethi.

“You’re gonna want to see this.” Giethi stood up and used her staff to help her limp over to Wylinoris. “What is it, Wylin-” Burning embers and ash coated her face “Damn!”

The library where they had just been staying was being ravaged by flames and with each book being destroyed the fire only grew in strength. Wylinoris stepped into the flames.

“You idiot! You’re only wearing sneakers!”

“There’s a weirdly cold path. C’mon.”

Giethi brushed away the charred wood and embers in her path. “You’re always taking control of me, now when it’s your turn to step up you’re backing away?!” She grabbed her sleeve.

“Hgnnn, I’m just… A little hurt in the leg.” Wylinoris ignored her. “Mind if you kiss the boo-boo?”

She stopped and turned around slowly. “I’m just joking, chill. Geez, can’t take a fucking joke.” Giethi overtook her. “Now, let’s go kill that son of a bitch.”