Upon reaching the spring, Carys put down the picnic items while Rein put down his backpack, revealing a set of collapsible stools, towels and a variety of comfort articles. Soon they had set everything up, but by this time, Tilia had already jumped headlong in, dragging Ferran along with her.

“At least change out of your clothes first!” Carys shouted, seemingly to no avail. A moment later however, Tilia threw both their clothes out of the water while continuing to attempt to drown Ferran, whom appeared to struggle in the new environment. She had indeed swum in a sewer before, but the warmth and clean water had surprised her.

“Tili! Careful! Have you even asked Ferran if she knows how to swim?”

“No! But it’s do or die isn’t it!?” She shouted back, continuing her struggle without pause.

“Relax Cary… They’ll be fine. Probably.” Rein said reassuringly, while climbing into the nearby spring, of a much less temperate variant.

Carys sighed and got into the water opposite, and soon threw her clothes back on land.

“Still a little shy huh? Don’t worry, it’s not like we haven’t seen each other before… After all, I guess you still remember that one noble… Uh… Growlyn?”

“I do… I can’t believe he managed to keep so many people in his basement like that…”

A silence sank in between the two. Over in the other spring holes, the laughter and struggling was still going strong, with Indas now trying to mediate for Ferran’s survival.

“What’s on your mind?” Rein looked at the female peer opposite him. “I can tell something’s bothering you.”

“I hate it when you look through me like that…”

“Force of habit… After all, I used to be the leader…”

Carys dunked her head into the warm water and remained there for a little while. She then re-emerged and wiped the water from her face.

“I’m… Making that fatal mistake again…”

“You care?”

She nodded, peering over at Ferran whom had managed to struggle herself free, and was in the process of enacting her revenge, using Indas as her partner in crime.

“I know I shouldn’t. I try to remind myself what happens. But it’s just too cruel. I don’t feel she should be one of us. We learned this art from the first moment we could hold a needle. We’re good at this… She just kills to survive. She would probably have been just another normal city girl if not for her being abandoned.”

“Think about it.” Rein rubbed his sore shoulders. “No matter how you look at it, she’s indebted to our mistress. At this point, if not for our mistress rescuing her, she’d probably be dead, or forced to work in some alleyway brothel. But hey. If you think we’re doing it wrong… Ask her what she wants.”

“I know what she wants… But I don’t think what she wants, wants her. And even if they somehow come back for her… What will they do when they see what she’s become?”

Rein thought for a moment, looking even deeper set in rumination as he washed his hair in the water.

“I’ll take care of her reading… If you’ll see to her writing.”

“Fine… Sometimes I wish I could be you… You take it all in stride, never flinch and never get attached to anything…”

Rein sighed and threw a handful of water in her general direction. “Sounds like a good statue to me. I used to lead, you know that. And I screwed up and got them killed. Consider me flattered that you would think I could do all that without a moment’s pause.”

“I just…” She began.

“Look. For what it’s worth… Tili and Indas seem to get along with her just fine. They raided the archive remember? Maybe it’s just that they’re peers in terms of age, but they’ve connected very well. Remember how Indas treated you at first?”

“I still have the scars.” She turned around, revealing to him the familiar scar running almost the entire length of her back on the right.

“I could have sworn it wasn’t all that… But be square with me. You brought this up because?”

She hesitated, pretending to wash herself while looking for the right way to express herself.

“I… Don’t like how she’s filling his spot on our team…”

“She’s too good, so you fear it’ll overshadow him?”

A barely visible nod followed. But before Rein could say anything else, he looked up just in time to see three silhouettes flying before landing in the water in a mighty splash. A moment later, the three culprits emerged.

“Hot! Ouch!” Tilia emerged first.

“It feels pleasant.”

…

“Yeah! How can this scalding temperature be pleasant Ferran?!”

…

“I know! It feels like my skin will peel right off… But still… Oh hi Rein, Carys… Um we’re here to join you!”

The two exchanged meaningful looks, and soon each unleashed a torrent of water at the three surprises.