Whisper passed through the minds of the countless scared or confused resident’s of Aeroae, using their sight and hearing to try her hardest to find Ferdinand and the others. The control The Arbiter had over the people was much greater then they had anticipated, it wasn’t just that they were being manipulated, its like they were puppets, their strings controlling their every move and breathe.

Hundreds were confused and lost, wondering why they were outside when to them, moments ago they were elsewhere, some weren’t even originally on Betel. There were screaming, and fear, and panic through the streets. The local guards and magisters were trying to control the situation, but even some of them were affected.

The stress and fear was starting to eat away at Whisper, she had no idea what path the others might have taken through the city, or if they stopped anywhere in the meantime. It didn’t help that she was limited to passing through the minds of people one at a time, limiting her view, not all were looking in every direction, and some of those that were also weren’t paying very close attention.

It weighed even heavier on her mind because she knew that every moment she didn’t have them, was another moment Andromeda and White had to fight for their lives. But it wasn’t just her present concern, it was that she wasn’t with them. They suffered while she ran around like a chicken with its head cut off. Being away from felt wrong, she wanted to hear their voices, sense their thoughts and feelings, it was comforting having them there. Every moment she spent outside of Andromeda’s mind was like being stuck in the rain. It wouldn’t kill her, but she would like to be home.

As she moved deeper into the city, a sense of unease began to settle in her mind. The view of the world she saw through the eyes of each person started shifting and twisting, as if reality itself were being torn apart and reassembled in a haphazard manner. Broken windows and jagged glass littered the streets were there was none a moment before, the ground that, while wet already, looked to be covered in snow. The world around her seemed to fragment and meld, creating a disorienting collage of decay and desolation. People shuffled by, their appearances morphing before her borrowed eyes. Some moved with an unnatural, disjointed gait, as if their very bones were protesting against movement. Others bore wounds that pulsed and changed, like fluid was shifting beneath their skin. Before long, none moved, and all were reduced to lifeless bodies bonded together on the frozen ground.

Finally, a gnawing hunger gripped her suddenly, causing her to pause in terror. It was a sensation she hadn't felt in ages, a deep craving that seemed to emanate from the very core of her being. A blinding wave of white crashed over everything. Snow fell relentlessly from the sky, not in delicate flakes, but in a furious cascade that obscured her vision. Behind her, she heard the sounds of snow crunching, and breathing.

“Aren’t you at peace yet, Aberration?” A haunting voice spoke from behind Whisper.

“I have chased you long and far to correct the mistake I made that day. Know that when we are cast into the pits, I will accept my fault. Letting you tarnish our purpose. Anathema that you, I must take responsibility for you.”

Whisper’s mind recoiled at the sound, hearing the howling wind, and the voice that sounded like uncanny gurgling. But as disturbed as she was, she forced herself to move with all the strength she had. Only to me left tired.

“Why do you resist me so? You know you don’t belong with them, they are too warm and bright for your tainted self.”

Whisper struggled against the force controlling her, she had to go, there was no time to waste with this. White and Andromeda were counting on her to find the others, she couldn’t bear the thought of being lost like this.

“You’re love for them is misplaced, they did not want you. You were a threat they resented, you were an unsolvable problem, and they killed themselves to stop you. To bind you.”

The blizzard howled and tore at Whisper, but her mind was singularly focused. Every ounce of her will and effort were put toward trying to wrest herself from this. She had to keep moving forward.

“I know you feel the hunger, I know that you can feel its endless infinite expanse, do you believe that you are above your nature? You are the hunger.”

She felt building in her heart, which was the first sign that something about this situation was not right. She shouldn’t have been feeling anything, not the biting cold, nor should she have heard the sound of the storm. Beyond that, even with all the blinding snow and sleet, she could see the shock of white hair that rested over her eye.

“I will never- What is this?” The voice continued. It crept around Whisper to reveal its string compisition, made of twisting ropes of darkness, looking more like a crude doll made of wire then anything human.

“What is this?” It said, its twisting form pulling roughly on the shock of white hair in front of Whisper’s eye. “That mage, no… That anathema of white, it has marked you, like cattle.”

This sent the feeling in her chest ablaze, and she resisted the force controlling her more. She felt her body begin to shake. The wirey being writhed in front of her.

“*NO! You are not real, you do not get to resist. You do not get to be your own, there is no you there is only me, you will not resist me!*”

Whisper shook even more and with every ounce of strength she could muster, she moved her eyes up to look the being in the eye. her gaze passing through the shock of white hair.

“YOU WILL NOT RESIST ME!”

The blizzard raged on around them, and the winds howled with an otherworldly fury. The wirey being's voice became a chorus of fury, a cacophony of wails and screeches that echoed in Whisper's mind. But she held on to her gaze, locked onto the being's swirling abyss of darkness that served as its eyes.

“YOU NEED ME!”

This is what broke her.

The burning heat in her chest erupted like a explosion, bathing the frostbitten landscape in red light. The being retreated away, and Whisper forced her arm to move. Feeling her frigid skin crack and chip with each movement, and then she moved her other arm with the same struggle, she grabbed her head and scratched down her body, all the way down her neck and chest, down to her side. Revealing streaks of red light throughout. The snow melted away, and the bodies that littered the ground faded into nothing, the buildings burst out into ash in all directions, and the the ground set alight around her feet.

“I don’t need you, you need me. You won’t leave me alone, and you antagonize me. I am more real then you will ever be. I have a purpose, I have a family, I have friends. I have a wish and a dream, and a desire to go on and see it through. The only thing you have is a twisted desire to wallow in your starvation.” Whisper said. Each word evoking such a mass of heat and warmth that it threatened to set the very air on fire.

“I don’t care what I am, I don’t care what you are, I don’t care what we once were. My name is Whisper, and no matter how much you try and pull me into the dark-” She started, the ground around her feet turned molten, she rose into the air, and as she did, her form dripped down like a melting metal, ever higher, her form became less the mass of fire and heat, and instead became something more. A shadow that rose higher into the air, that could be seen through, and even in this form, the white mark of her sister stayed with her.

“I WANT TO LIVE!”

An explosion of light and fire burst from her form, and blew away the burning world around her, and when she blinked, she was back in the streets, surrounded by the people of Aeroae. When she realized what happened, she looked around and saw that people were staring at her. She thought that something might have drawn their attention to the host she was in, but when she looked down, she saw a hand, a transparent shadow of a hand. She moved her fingers and realized that she wasn’t inside anyone’s mind, she was outside. Below her, she seemed to be floating just inches off the ground.

Her mind snapped back to reality, and she flew into the sky to search for Ferdinand and the others. But just as she reached the rooftops of the city, a massive explosion erupted far behind her back at the estate.

“Are you guys alright?” She asked, not even realizing at first that she shouldn’t have been able to communicate with them from this far.

“We’re alive.” Andromeda said.

“What was that?” Whisper asked.

“White working some things out, hows it going on your end? Are you close?” Andromeda asked.

“Its complicated, but I’ll have them back, I swear.” Whisper said.

“I know you will.” Andromeda said.

Dirt and stone fell, The Arbiter looked on as White now stood in a small crater, with a massive chunk of the nearby wall torn apart. While White stepped out, the ground and wall repaired itself behind her.

“I don’t know if you know this, but you seem to be healing me… Somehow.” The Arbiter said.

“Gee, really?” White said sarcastically.

“You know? I think you might also be restoring my mana as well. I haven’t exactly been sparing with it since we began, but I barely feel tapped. Does that come with the body or is that something special about you?” The Arbiter said.

“How about you come down here and check yourself.” White taunted, but The Arbiter waved her finger dismissively.

“It worked once, but not again. Now I’m enjoying myself, I want to see how much punishment you can take. If it gets too out of hand I’ll let you sit for a minute and put yourself back together.” The Arbiter said.

A violent red light appeared in both of her hands, bringing her hands together, an orb of fire manifested itself. The orb twisted, as the light around it bent like around a black hole. She threw the orb like a curveball at White, and the instant it left hand a thundering shock wave erupted from it and sent the orb hurtling toward her.

White managed to just barely move before the fireball came down, but it crashed into the ground behind her. When she turned to look at it, she saw the orb was not gone, but now glowing brighter. It exploded, sending fire and flame in all directions, as well as sending White flying into the air. Her flight was stopped when a force grabbed hold of her body mid-air. Even while parts of her clothes and hair were still burning.

The Arbiter floated up close to her, close enough that she could have taken the spear if she wanted, but instead she reached for the shock of black hair on White’s hairline. “I wonder if this is something I’ll have to deal with. How do you even color your hair when it changes colors like this?” She said. With a swift motion said White crashing down into the ground. She let out an involuntary scream as her body his the ground, and every fiber of her being started throbbing in pain, even as her aura grew stronger. The Arbiter descended to the ground, and knelt down to White while she rolled on the ground in agony.

“So, I’ll let you choose. What do you want me to hit you with this time? You’re options are lightning, or a tree.” She said, and as White gasped for air The Arbiter stood up and stepped back. “Oops, too slow. You get both~”.

A tree grew from the ground nearby, easily more then twenty feet tall and wide enough that you couldn’t wrap your arms around it. The Arbiter walked to its base and just barely bumped it with her fist. The tree was struck by lightning above in the sky, shattering it into a million burning shards. She grabbed one especially large piece and picked it up in her hand.

When she stepped closer to White, the wooden shard started crackling with electricity. “Having fun? You said you were going to enjoy this earlier, wouldn’t want to ruin that for you.” She said, then she drove the electrified hunk of wood down into White’s arm. She screamed again, finally letting go of the spear she had held with an iron grip this entire time. She writhed on the ground from both pain and electrocution, The Arbiter calmly picked up the spear and stepped away.

“In all my years, I’ve never met someone who could heal like you. Usually they’re too busy screaming about how I’m mage filth to heal themselves properly, but even then they don’t heal me either. You’re a confusing one. Well, I guess I’ve had my fill of looking at you, might as well get on with it.” The Arbiter said, then she flourished the spear and raised it. But while she did, a strange feeling overcame her.

At the far end of the lawn, The Arbiter saw someone standing on top of the wall. Well actually, that wasn’t exactly true. One definite person, a young blonde girl, and floating beside her was some kind of shadow, barely visible, but humanoid. She heard a rustling sound behind her and turned to see White already up on her feet, the bloodied wooden spike throne to the side, and her arm already restored. But while she stood there, her hair became red again, her skin flush with color, and her glowing blue eyes filled in.

“Hey, it’s me again. Thanks for wasting your own time being comically evil. What you’re looking at over there is my best friend Alice and my sister Whisper. Both of which just watched you do that.” Andromeda said, The Arbiter didn’t even take the time to speak, and thrust the spear at Andromeda, only for it to be stopped mid-air. She tried to wrench it free, but it wouldn’t budge. Both turned to see that Alice had raised her hand from across the yard.

Whisper, now in her spectral form, flew toward Andromeda and hovered near her.

“Oh wow, you weren’t kidding. You look like a ghost.” Andromeda said, momentarily smiling and excited, while Whisper floated happily around her.

“Right? I can also fly through walls, and touch things.” She said, passing her hand through Andromeda’s head a few times, before then grabbing some of her hair and twirling it. The Arbiter, who was sitting there watch them giggle like school girls, completely dumbfounded, felt her blood pressure rise. A mass of burning light amassed in her palm, and the moment she tried to move her arm, it was locked from moving. She couldn’t even bend her fingers.

“So, is Alice alright?” Andromeda asked.

“Physically or emotionally?” Whisper asked in turn.

“Hmm… Both.” Andromeda said.

“Physically she’s fine, but-” Whisper started to say, but then the building started to shake and rumble, the sounds of shattering glass and breaking wood echoed throughout a large portion of the neighborhood. Alice hopped down from the wall started walking in their direction, eyes locked on The Arbiter. The walls shook of the building shook, and shingles from the roof started sliding down like a waterfall. Before any of them hit the ground, they were stopped in the air and made to hover motionlessly. The same happened when the windows started falling out and shattering, they fell just inches short of the ground.

With every step Alice took, the walls beside her shook and crumbled, tearing off in sheets dozens of feet tall and floating behind her, twisting and crumbling into scraps the farther she went. Once she was upon them, there was a massive wall of ruins hovering a few yards behind her, so tall and wide that what little sunlight breaching the clouds above were blocked, leaving them standing in a shadow.

“I heard from a little bird that I’m going to be dealt with later. Was it you that said that?” Alice asked, the moaning mass of metal and glass above her settled uneasily in the air. Though she spoke politely, the slight twitch in her eye suggested anything else besides good intentions.

“Alice, I know you’re mad, but this feels like overkill.” Andromeda said, still suspended up in the air by Whisper.

“Andromeda, at this very moment I am so far beyond just “mad” that I’m not entirely sure there’s a word to describe what I’m feeling.” Alice said. An immense explosion erupted from behind Alice, and a large part of the mass was disintegrated behind her. Looking through the whole, Alice saw the man she knew as Aixen Vannse standing in the remaining wreck of the estate.

“Alice, deal with him. We can deal with her.” Andromeda said.

“You sure? I could end this now and we’d be done with it.” Alice said, another explosion rocking the mass of debris she is now using as a makeshift shield.

“We don’t need it to end quickly, we need it to end quietly.” Andromeda said. Alice frowned, but didn’t argue.

“I’m trusting you on this. I’ll be back in a moment.” Alice said, then she took off and started walking back to the Estate, blocking several exploding fireballs with masses of metal and wood.

Whisper dropped Andromeda down and watched as The Arbiter was released from Alice’s control. “White gave you one chance, and I’m giving you a second one. Bow out and you won’t get hurt.” Andromeda said, at the same time Whisper vanished from sight.

The Arbiter stretched her shoulder and glared at Andromeda. “You’re planning something, every word that’s come out of your mouth has been to manipulate me.” The Arbiter said.

“No, genuinely, put that spear down and stop trying to kill me, and I’m sure we can figure out the decomposing thing. You’ll still probably get locked up for the body snatching, murder, and everything else, but you won’t have to be a rotting corpse anymore.” Andromeda said.

The Arbiter’s gaze was caught by something in the distance, as Alice ripped off another chunk of the building, she revealed that Gram had remained up on the second floor room he was left in. Though she let control of everyone’s mind go, Gram’s mind was differently manipulated. This meant he wouldn’t give any resistance if she tried this. Then with a flex of her hand behind her back, a creep of purple smoke fell from her hand and crawled along the grass toward the estate.

“I’m going to have to decline, there is too much I have to lose by not taking your body. If I can somehow gain control of that healing ability, I’d be able to live forever, and never steal a body again. Your promise means nothing to me when I can try and make my own future with my own two hands.”

“Own Two Hands, right, as if those are your hands to even call that.” Andromeda snarked.

“It’s not like you have much to room to speak, sharing a body like that.” The Arbiter said. She raised the spear and pointed it at Andromeda again. “At this point, I don’t really care anymore. If you don’t plan on killing me, you better be prepared to stop me from doing the same to you.”

“For the record, I was being honest about letting you go, but if you don’t want go peacefully, I won’t blink twice.” Andromeda said.

The Arbiter moved forward, stabbing forward and directly. Whisper stopped the strike by coming down from above and kicking the spear into the ground. Andromeda stepped forward and stomped on the spear, forcing it from The Arbiter’s hands, and giving Andromeda a chance to throw a right hook into The Arbiter’s cheek . While she stumbled back, Whisper came back around and tackled her from the back, pushing her back toward Andromeda, only to deliver another punch to the face.

Not wanting to repeat the same mistake again, The Arbiter dodged to the side and took took to the sky to escape the onslaught while nursing the bruise on her cheek. Whisper came around for another hit, but The Arbiter blinked out of reality to the surprise of everyone, only to appear above them with her arms outstretched. A runic pattern made of yellow light appeared in the sky above her and started crackling with electricity.

White took control and put her arms up, while Whisper dodged out of the way of the radius. A Kra-koom echoed through the city as a monstrous bolt of lightning struck the ground, incinerating all the grass and putting White on her knees. The Arbiter tried to follow up the attack, but a sneak attack from the side put Whisper’s foot into The Arbiter’s ribs, distracting her enough to give White the time needed to stand up.

White felt every nerve of her body ache, knowing that if it weren’t for the robes that would have been the end of it. Just as soon as she was mostly healed, Andromeda retook control and bent over to pick up the spear. For just a moment, she got distracted on how this spear had managed to stay intact. She could tell just from touching it that it’s disgusting surface wasn’t any normal metal or wood. She returned her attention back to the fight just in time to see Whisper go in for another kick in the air, only to rebound off of a ward The Arbiter created.

Andromeda used all her strength to throw the spear up in the air, but The Arbiter saw it coming and dove for it in the air. Whisper then swooped in between her and the spear and grabbed it, swinging it around like White had before and smashing it against The Arbiter’s back. She screamed in pain and fell out of the sky, bounding off the ground just in front of Andromeda. Whisper came back down with the spear and handed it to Andromeda.

On the other side of the estate, Alice was facing off against Aixen. His goal was overwhelming magical might, conjuring destructive explosions and fire to incinerate her. While Alice was using the remains of the sidewall of the building to interchangeably block fireballs from Aixen, or throw at him.

Alice couldn’t help but notice that something strange was happening to her. She was using magic on such a enormous scale, tearing buildings apart and hoisting them into the air without a regard for anything, but this shouldn’t have been possible. She was very well aware of her limits in mana supply, and especially so after the encounter with the Medea. By all rights she should have run empty in the first few moments, but she continued without pause. The heat was being put on Aixen for exactly this same reason, throwing explosion after explosion at her, all the while maintaining his levitation. He was obviously winded and tired, but kept pushing on regardless. It was almost respectable if not for the fact it was in service to a murderous psychopath.

One of the difficulties she was experiencing was her own lack of ability to levitate. Divination based telekinesis was based understanding the flows around her and manipulating them to move. But the more she moved, the harder it was to keep everything in exact order, and levitation was only more complication on top of that. As a half-measure, she formed bridges out of the debris to run along, doubling as barriers to block Aixen’s attacks, but she was running out of building to block with, and she didn’t want to tear the wall surrounding the estate apart so as not to put people outside at more risk, and ideally didn’t want to rup the entire building up as well.

Alice knew that the plan wasn’t to outright win, only to delay. When the shadowy being named “Whisper” appeared in front of her and the others on their way out of Aeroae, they almost attacked her because all of them were on edge after the events of the day, but after explaining her connection with Andromeda, Ferdinand took off into the sky towards the facility to get Carrion, while Alice volunteered to stay behind. Rapture was originally going to stay, but Ferdinand forced her to come with him. She seemed resistant to the idea, but relented when Ferdinand called her “Sorie”.

Once they separated, Whisper picked up Alice up into her arms and flew towards the estate faster then she could run. In route, she got the rough picture of what was happening. About how she tricked The Arbiter into releasing her control over the island, about how she intended to steal Andromeda’s body, and how she planned on killing all of Andromeda’s loved ones with her own hands. When Alice internalized what she was hearing, an anger so horribly great grew in her heart that she balled her hands into fists tight enough draw blood.

She figured that the lividity she was feeling in her heart was contributing the adrenaline that was pushing her magical abilities forward, but that wasn’t enough to explain it all. Strong emotions can manipulate magic use, but not amplify it.

After blocking a particularly large blast from Aixen, a crack of thunder burst through the air and Alice looked down to see that where it had struck, a white haired Andromeda was knelt down in pain, she could see smoke rising from from the ground around her.

Alice felt a massive lump in her chest, and that was enough distraction to not notice that Aixen had bridged the distance and was preparing another attack. She only barely managed to block the exploding fireball using a rough mass of debris from the building and was sent flying off the platform she made for herself. She flew far and nearly hit the wall between the estate and the streets. Only breaking her fall with the remains of a couch she managed to maneuver under her as she fell. The landing was still rough, and the sounds of metal and glass came crashing down from the air, shaking the ground.

Aixen floated over to where she was and landed a short distance away, kicking scraps of wood and metal aside as he approached her. “It’s not very often that I deal with a mage that is as creative as you are with the application of their abilities. But then again, I am rarely facing my target’s on equal footing. You have my respect.” Aixen said. Alice coughed and pushed herself up off the ground.

“I don’t want the respect of someone who’s trying to kill my friend, let alone me.” Alice said, while she gathered her strength to continue, she sense that someone new was walking across the length of the estate. Between the pain, stress, and anger she was feeling, she couldn’t get a solid read on the man, but he seemed “wrong” in the same way everyone was under The Arbiter’s control.

“That is fine, very few among those I respect remain alive. The problem will be solved for both of us soon.” Aixen said, as he lifted his hand and swirling mass of burning light.

“Hold on, before you kill me, can you at least tell me why you’re going through with all this? You’re working for an insane body snatching monster who kills for fun. How do you sleep at night?”Alice asked.

Aixen stopped and dispelled the fire in his hand. “If it’s your last request, I’m not against answering it. But the answer isn’t as profound as you might hope.” Aixen said, the surprisingly, he reached his hand out and helped Alice to her feet. “This is a job, same as any other. My employer’s pay me very well, and I only do something of this scale a few times a year. With that, I use the money to give my family a good life. I don’t expect that to give me the slightest amount of sympathy, but it is my one and only goal.”

“You’re willing to ruin the lives of others just to make your life better?” Alice said.

“Like I said, I don’t expect you to sympathize with me. I know my methods are demented and horrible, but its the life I live. Even if I stepped away now, it would only make my family’s life harder.” Aixen said.

“Going to prison for the rest of your life will do the same thing, won’t it.” Alice said.

“Precisely, which is why I am so dedicated to the cause. Once again, you have my respect.” Aixen said, extending his hand again, wreathing it in burning light.

“That was three, I think.” Alice said.

“Three?” Aixen asked, unsure of what that meant.

“Three chances I gave you, and you doubled down each time. Now I won’t feel bad about this.” She said. Aixen felt the feeling in his arms and legs vanish, and tingling overtook them. He tried to move, but every movement was like a million needles poking at his skin. “Andromeda told me once that you should only retaliate against someone after they attack you three times. Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, and three times is a pattern. I don’t know if it countsin this case, but you are trying to kill me, so I think its only fair.”

Aixen heard an eye watering crunch come from his hand, but through the pins and needles, he couldn’t feel anything else. Another crack came from his one leg, and then shortly after a much more meaty crack came from his other leg. Alice walked away while the cracking continued, all the while the hand that held the burning light continued getting brighter. Before she left completely, she stopped and turned back around. “Oh, I just thought I should mention this. The last person who tried to kill me got buried under a cliff under water. So I think this is fairly merciful.” Alice said.

“Is that you Alice?” Andromeda said, but she got her answer in the form of a blow to the head. Andromeda went flying, and felt her head wash with stars as everything became fuzzy. She came to a rest on the ground nearby, and felt her mind fade in and out.

“Finally, I was afraid you’d get noticed.” The Arbiter said. Gram held his hand out with a blank expression on his face and helped The Arbiter to her feet.

White assumed control and the massive headache they were collectively sharing started fading away. Gram was standing beside her with his lifeless gaze. Just as much a zombie as he seemed before. Only she knew better from the pain in her head.

“I thought you said you let them all go, what is he doing?” White asked, letting Andromeda regain control just as she finished.

“I did, which as much as it was a bad move in retrospect, there is nothing to say that I couldn’t return control. You’re friend over there gave me a perfect chance by opening the side of the building up.” The Arbiter said, gesturing vague at Alice, who at this very moment was blocking explosions with debris and running along snaking remnants of the building suspended in the air.

Whisper exited out of Andromeda’s mind and into her spectral form, but The Arbiter shook her finger and put the spear up to Gram’s neck and pressed.

“My friend here is going to beat you to within an inch of your life, and you’re not going to stop him. None of your ghost buisness, or I remove his mind and soul from existence right this moment. Same with The Arch Mage. Either of them come out and he’s gone forever.” The Arbiter said.

“You want me to sit there and take it?” Andromeda asked. For the first moment since she finished speaking to Entai, Andromeda felt real, actual, unbridled anger. Not at all tinged by the subtle calm she had before. Even after White was stabbed in the arm, and her friends and family were threatened, the pure, vindictive thought it took for The Arbiter to do something like this while smiling was what got her.

“It’ll make me and my spine feel better if you do. Otherwise I can just get on with this.” The Arbiter said, pressing the spear further into Gram’s neck.

"Fine…" Andromeda said. She looked into the middle distance and saw something in the sky. It looked like hundreds of tiny dots in the sky, but they were moving. Her train of thought was interrupted by what felt like a cinderblock colliding with her face. As Andromeda stumbled back, she saw Gram’s fist, already coated in blood from her nose.

"Oh wow, that was a good one. I thought you’d at least block," The Arbiter cheered.

Andromeda ducked back and away from another punch and felt her nose. She couldn’t tell if it was broken or just swollen, but it hurt like hell. Grab continued by grabbing her by the throat and smashing her against the burnt out remains of the tree the Arbiter had grown before. She went flying through it and hurtling to the other side, the husk the trunk crunched after she landed and fell on top of her, shatteing into thousands of splinters. Andromeda pushed herself up, feeling several of her teeth loose or gone from her head, and she spit out the few teeth she hadn’t swallowed yet.

Gram wasted no time walking around the burnt tree and pulling Andromeda up by the arm. He used his free hand to punch her in the stomach twice and threw her to the side. Because of the way her robes were enchanted, the pain she was enduring was not just centralized to where she was being hit, but spread over her whole body. So her entire body was in agonizing pain from the relentless beating.

She picked her broken body up off the ground, astounded that her legs even still had the strength to hold up her weight. It wasn’t even that her body was hurting, it was that with each beat of her heart, it was like a whole wave of agony.

She was blindsided by another smash to the side of her head; everything went white, and she saw stars again. When her vision came back to her, The Arbiter was standing there with the spear held backward like White before.

"Oh, you didn't think I’d just sit back and watch, right?" The Arbiter said. She cracked Andromeda across the cheek again, and this time she definitely heard something break. Her head was swimming with pain, and her vision was fuzzy. Another strike, this time to her gut from Gram, crumbled her to her knees, but her body was raised by an invisible force, and she was put back on her feet. The Arbiter’s hand glowed for a moment, only to put it back down. "You're not done yet," The Arbiter said.

Andromeda felt her mind slipping; her vision was a mix of blurry light, and everything sounded like a faint whisper at the edge of her perception. White and Whisper begged her to just let them help, but she couldn't let Gram get hurt, even if it was a bluff. A pulse of pain radiated from her heart, and she started to stumble. Each step she took back was another ounce of her strength gone. She turned and tried to stagger away, but her body couldn't keep her going. She crumbled to her hands and knees and coughed up blood on the green grass. She heard the faint sound of grass crushing beside her and felt a hand roughly grab her hair, pulling Andromeda back up to her knees. Then she sensed someone bending down beside her, their head just beside hers.

"It was a good run, and you got farther than anyone else in my entire long life at stopping me. But like I said, I've had better people than you try and fail. For what it's worth, I hope you rest well," The Arbiter said. She let go of Andromeda’s head, and Andromeda slumped back, only her own legs propping her up by this point.

Then she felt cold, and her blurry eyes looked down and saw that a black mass was in the center of her vision. She blinked, and her eyes cleared a bit. It was the spear… but…

Why was it…

There…

She looked down farther and saw that the shaft was piercing through her chest, embedded into the ground.

Andromeda shakily raised her hands, and touched the spear. Her vision ebbed and flowed as flashed of black and white crossed over her eyes, and streaks of light everywhere. Far in the distance, she heard something. A sound she couldn’t place, her ears burned, as did her body. She coughed, and more blood splattered, a terrible pain started to roll through her body. A cold, terrible pain that spread through her body like a sickness. A stream of red ran down the shaft of the spear, dripping off the side like a slow stream. Her body was so cold, so weak, she barely had the will to try and breath.

In these few, precious moments, she did not cry. Her mind, faltering though it was, turned to the lighter side. Her life passed in front of her like an old movie. She saw her father, and her mother, her aunt and uncle, her two little cousins, the men and women she served with. Then a great light, and she saw Argo and Rhys, Catherine, Milo, Eli, Ferdinand, Alice, Albert, Rigur, then finally Gram, and Carrion, and Rapture.

She felt the wonder of seeing magic, the joy of the blue light that was her own. The sunlight on that day she awoke in this world, the storms she endured since she came to Aeroae. The travel and treks, the tears and sorrows, the pain and suffering.

Finally, she saw…No… Felt, White and Whisper. She wanted them to see so much, to experience so much. Know a world they never would had the chance. It made her her heart hurt more then any amount of pain ever could. She wanted to do so much more. This was a whole world, with wondrous and great things, with kind people, great secrets…

But she was here, on the ground, her life blood escaping her, as the cold darkness enveloped her.

Her final thoughts in moment was not regret, nor fear, or grief. She was just so tired, so cold. Everything grew dark, and dim. Her thoughts slowed, each moment that passed was like an eternity. Was it her mind, or her soul that would go first? That was the question she asked herself. She did not know what would be worse, to not feel as her mind was gone, or to not know as her soul shattered. The cold had filled her, and she felt the last drop of strength leave her. She couldn’t even hold her head up anymore.

Then, even that began to fade, the cold drew away. Further and further until there was no feeling left, her vision was only the vaguest of shapes, her hearing only the quietest suggestions. All feeling had gone.

She closed her eyes.