"Hahahahaha." The Baroness laughs, and there is nothing warm in it. "I cannot believe you would dare to go against me." Her voice carries equal parts resentment and malice.

Ethan swallows hard. He came here to ask for one more chance. To beg, if it came to that. He wanted the Hunters to get stronger and he was certain that seeing him grovel would make the Baroness happy enough to reconsider.

Instead, he has spent the last several minutes on the receiving end of her tirade.

Apparently, she is utterly humiliated that the Hunters did not contact her for days.

In Ethan’s defence, she was the one who had said she did not want to "waste my mana and time tomorrow or day after tomorrow. I will inform you when I feel like continuing."

Her words exactly.

And in the days that followed, she did not contact him once.

There is no way Ethan can say any of that, let alone quote her words back to her. So he stands there and listens.

"What exactly do you expect me to do, Ethan? Tell me." She does not raise her voice. She does not blow up. And yet Ethan can feel her anger in every syllable.

Each word she says carries an undercurrent of anger and contempt. They are venomous.

Ethan exhales carefully, keeping his breathing steady.

"If I may, Your Ladyship?" He starts, his voice thick with deference. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

"Be my guest." The Baroness gestures with one hand, sitting with her legs crossed, every inch of her composed and elegant.

"I would like to apologize for not contacting you sooner, Your Ladyship." Ethan gives a slight bow.

"One of our members, Hawk, sustained several broken ribs when he..." Ethan trails off, not entirely sure how much he should say.

But the Baroness is faster than his hesitation.

"I do not believe he sustained those during our last training session, did he?" She says it in a lazy tone, but her eyes carry both a warning and a challenge in equal measure.

Ethan freezes and swallows.

"I — I — have to say I am not entirely sure, Your Ladyship..." He trails off the moment he sees the Baroness raise one eyebrow.

The decision is made in a split second.

"No, Your Ladyship. Of course not." He says it with more firmness than he feels.

"However, he did sustain the injuries shortly after. It was quite serious, Your Ladyship. We had to take him to the hospital." Ethan winces inwardly. Sorry, Hawk.

"He had to stay for several days, and when he was released, he was caught in another accident that sent him straight back. He has only just been discharged again, and he is still not able to move properly."

"I am aware this sounds like a list of excuses, Your Ladyship." Ethan adds quickly. "But after that last training session, we came to realize that our stamina is not where it needs to be. And we understood that if we want to continue training under you, Your Ladyship, we need to build our physical foundation first."

He is not entirely lying. While Hawk was in the hospital, the rest of the Hunters had found themselves at loose ends. They had eventually decided to put the time toward conditioning. They have been doing exactly that while Hawk recovers.

"And now?" The Baroness asks.

"And now I am here to apologize. The failure to inform you was entirely our fault, Your Ladyship. I have no excuse for that. And I am asking for your graciousness, to allow the four of us to continue our training with you." Ethan delivers it with every ounce of sincerity he can find.

Ethan goes quiet and watches the Baroness carefully.

The Hunters have been in Solarys for more than ten days and have accomplished absolutely nothing but bruises and broken ribs. Literally.

As much as they dislike the Baroness, they dislike the feeling of having wasted their time even more. So they gritted their teeth and decided to go back. Hence Ethan is here, grovelling.

Also literally.

Ethan is banking entirely on the Baroness’s ego. Because where else is she going to find four strong men she can put into submission and beat the crap out of at will?

As he predicted, a flash of mockery crosses the Baroness’s eyes.

"You." She pauses. "Want to return. To be trained by me."

"Yes, Your Ladyship. Without a doubt. Hawk may not be able to train with us for some time, but the rest of us want to continue. Under you, Your Ladyship." Ethan bows again.

The Baroness sighs slowly.

Silence.

After what feels like forever, she finally speaks. "Alright. If that is what you wish. Who am I to turn away a group of brave men who want nothing but to rid Altheon of its dungeons." She smiles, as unhurried and lazy as she has been throughout the entire exchange.

Ethan bows deeply to hide his sneer. "Thank you, Your Ladyship. Your greatness knows no bounds."

"Hm." She responds, satisfied.

"You and your friends may return starting tomorrow. Nine o’clock."

Ethan bows deeper still. "Yes, Your Ladyship. I will be here tomorrow with my friends." He holds the bow and steps backward toward the door, keeping his eyes down until he reaches it, then turns and leaves.

The Baroness does not watch him go. Her attention has already shifted to the window and the white city beyond it.

"What is going on in this city? A rainstorm out of nowhere, lasting five days, and now it is snowing? It is only the beginning of winter. And snow in Solarys is supposed to be exceedingly rare. This is a harbour city. It sits practically on top of the ocean. How can there be snow? On top of that, it has been snowing non-stop for almost another week. This snow is not normal."

She sighs.

"I absolutely cannot stay in this apartment for another minute." She gets up, grabs her phone, and is already dialling her chauffeur as she heads for the door.

------------------------------

"About what happened before Sonia destroyed the wall."

The moment Theo finishes the sentence, the patio goes quiet. As though everyone has stopped breathing at the same time.

"Let me start by saying, we were all under the influence of the green mist. The corruption magic." He pauses and looks around.

Maeve lifts her head. "It started because of me. Arthur asked me a question and I reacted very poorly. I said a lot of hurtful things. To him and to all of you." Her eyes go red.

"Whoa, Maeve." Julian moves to take her hand. Maeve shakes her head.

"Let me finish. I need to finish." She takes a breath.

"No." Julian cuts her off gently. "We already had that conversation." He looks around at the others. "Me and Maeve already spoke. It was mainly the four of us, me, Arthur, Maeve, and Alicia. Maeve and I have already apologized to each other. We both said hurtful things. We both owned up to it."

He turns to Maeve. "I am not going to let you carry that alone. Not again."

He looks to Alicia. "And I am sorry, Alicia. You were a stranger to us once. You are not anymore. You are one of us."

Alicia blinks. She had almost forgotten what happened. Julian’s sudden apology catches her completely off guard and she finds she cannot even clearly recall what they had been arguing about.

"Julian," she starts.

"Wait." Theo cuts in. Everyone turns to him.

"Wait. That is not what I meant to bring up. That is not what this is about."

He sighs. "I know the argument happened. I know things were said. Cruel things. But everyone here knows that under normal circumstances, none of us would have said those things out loud like that. Are they true? Perhaps. I suppose for something to be that cruel, it usually has some degree of truth in it. But I am not here to pick that apart. I have seen how we work together. How we protect each other. How we care for each other. So no. I do not believe any of us actually meant those words the way they came out."

He smiles faintly. "We can blame the corruption magic."

A quiet laugh moves through the group.

"So. Back to what I actually wanted to say. When we cleared St. Lucas, we were already exposed to the green mist. I believed I had purified all of it. I was wrong."

Theo continues. He tells them about the manifestation of Thea. The taunts. The appearances and disappearances. And finally, the conversations that took place in his Soul Palace.

"Which got me thinking. If I experienced that, did any of you? Something appearing out of nowhere, frightening you, speaking as though it knew you."

Several expressions shift. Theo catches it and keeps going.

"If you did, do not be afraid. It was most likely your deepest subconscious trying to communicate. Trying to help you break free from the corruption. Mine did."

Liam thinks of Matthew.

Julian thinks of the failed gadgets.

Maeve thinks of the dirty apartment.

Alicia thinks of being abandoned.

"Yeah." Julian speaks first. "I had something like that."

He pauses. "It did not appear as a person. It appeared as failed gadgets. My deepest fear, made visible. That I am nothing without my inventions. That I am no better than those failures sitting on the shelf."