{Rin}

After that strange spell had been used on her, the next time Rin opened her eyes, she'd been standing in the middle of a dimly lit lounge filled with corpses.

There were so many bodies around her, all with either spears of ice impaling them or black electricity coursing through them, spreading from one corpse to another. Among them all, though, her eyes had naturally gone to Xhez.

Once she had gained her bearings and understood what happened, Xhez's sobbing, her face currently buried in Rin's shoulder muffling her cries, made more sense.

"So, the leader got away?" Rin asked quietly as Xhez kept crying on her with Rin's arms wrapped around the sprite.

"Yes," Maria replied. "Or, maybe it's more accurate to say she was never here, to begin with. She probably used some illusion to project her image to this place and talk to her supporters.

As Maria spoke, Cara stood next to her, staring down at Xhez. She'd only managed to get on her feet a couple of minutes ago after the damage from some strange technique Brine used on her had been healed away.

Even then, Cara kept acting strange. She reached back and hit her own spine a couple of times, punching herself like she was trying to push something into place.

"This whole situation's gotten so messy," Cara stated. "Before we do anything else, now that we've got some time I need to know, who is this?" She asked, pointing at the sprite.

"She's a water sprite that I met after I'd been kidnapped," Rin explained.

"Bullshit," Cara replied. "I haven't met any talking water sprites before."

"This is hardly the place where we should have this discussion," Maria said, looking around. "First, let's try to see if we can find any other cars in this village. If we can't, we should contact the guild and have them send someone to come pick us up. In any case, once we're back behind Libera's walls, we can go over everything. Including Xhez's true nature."

"Is that a good idea, though?" Rin asked with her right hand on Xhez's back, pulling her closer gently. "Calling the guild, I mean. Clearly, they've got some connections to it."

"... You're right," Cara nodded. "If we let them know we survived they might just send someone else to come fight us. We don't know how deep this goes. And you're still not at your best," she said as she looked over at Maria. "I don't think it would take a Rank S adventurer to beat us right now. Just a few Rank A's would be enough."

"First things first, let's get out of here. Cara, were our bags still in the truck when you went to check it?"

"Nah, I didn't see any of it. Let's look around for it. See what else we find too."

"Sounds good."

Maria gave Rin and Xhez a look before pulling Cara with her and walking out of the lounge, leaving them alone.

As soon as they were gone, Xhez started talking quietly.

"It happened so fast..." She mumbled through her tears. "I could not heal her because... because she was dead so quickly."

June's body lay there, just a short distance away, nestled between many other corpses. From here, Rin could see a magical spike of ice still stuck in her head.

"Why would they do such a thing?" Xhez asked. An answer to that question likely wouldn't ease her pain at all, not that Rin could give one if she tried.

"I don't know."

"I..." Xhez breathed in deep and the hands she had holding onto Rin's shirt balled up into fists. "I will find that woman. That... that... monster. She cannot be allowed to live happily after doing something like this."

As much as Rin too wanted to find her, she got stuck on one simple question the instant she began to entertain the idea.

How?

By this point, it had been made clear that this was no obscure group of nobodies. They had power, they had some connections.

Both to the Mages Guild and the Adventurer's Guild.

Still, Xhez asked:

"I will look for them... We will look for them." She looked up into Rin's eyes, pleading through them. "Right?" She asked weakly, but Rin sensed something in how she asked that. It was almost like there was a threat tucked into those words.

"Yeah," Rin quickly responded. "For now, though, let's just try to head back home... There's nothing else we can do here."

---

{Maria}

The bunker was larger than it had any right to be, but after about an hour of looking around, they'd found all of their belongings.

The truck they'd arrived in was broken, of course, so they needed a new way of traveling.

Leaving the bunker with their bags on their backs, as they walked out nearby screams and wild chatter reached their ears.

"Huh... Looks like the hypnosis everyone was under went away," Rin muttered as they all watched as panicked people ran from one place to another, probably wondering why some people had died and why that inn had exploded. "You should put on your disguise," she told the sprite by her side.

She nodded and, for the first time since Rin had woken up, as far as Maria could tell, she took a step away from the raven-haired woman and cast that illusion spell of hers. Cara narrowed her eyes at Xhez once she saw the disguise in effect, likely frustrated that it had ever worked on her.

As soon as the disguise was on, Xhez went right back to clinging to Rin, still sniffling, though her tears had largely subsided.

"Yes," Maria clarified for Rin, "mind-controlling spells are canceled once the caster dies. Whoever was using it must have been proficient to have put an entire village under this ability, though it's more likely that there were multiple people casting the spell at once."

"Is there a chance that Brine might have been under the influence of one of these spells?" Rin asked.

"No," Maria shook her head. "As you saw with... you know," she said, nodding at Xhez to signal who she was talking about, "the subject's personality is lost when they're under the spell. They can talk, but only about whatever they're asked and only so far as responding goes. They can remember who they care about, and what they care about, but not act like it. Brine was fully himself when he fought us. So, no. He *chose* to ally with them."

"... So," Cara said, putting her hands on her hips, "they've got connections to the two major guilds, and I'd bet they're probably pretty well off financially, too."

"It seems as though things are going to be hectic from here on out. Rin," Maria said, beckoning the girl to come closer.

"Yeah?"

"I..." Maria's shame made it hard to squeeze the words out but, now that she was aware of this slowly growing evil, she understood she needed to do better. At least, for her apprentice's sake. "Your training will be undergoing some much-needed refinement. After what happened here, it's clear to me that things may be even more dangerous for you in the near future. I want you to be ready."

"Alright... I understand."

At that moment, Maria glanced over at Cara. She had been looking Maria's way and as their eyes met, she turned around.

[... I've been pathetic. Extremely so. But,] she inhaled slowly, breathing in a newfound motivation. [I need to do better. I need to be better. That has been made painfully clear.]

Keeping her eyes on Cara, Maria swallowed.

[Maybe...] The thought of it alone was enough to make the sword of guilt stab through Maria's heart, but she couldn't silence her mind on this matter.

It was time for a change. That much was undeniable.

[Maybe I need to pull myself out of this hole myself. It's scary, but... I won't be strong enough to protect anyone if I don't.]