Everet stared at Morgan, who was currently standing in the doorway with a serious expression on her

face, he noticed her scrutinizing him, as if looking for a specific detail. But then she finds it resting on
the sill of the window.

“Is something wrong?” He asks sounding concerned.

“I had an altercation with our guest, perhaps the adrenaline is still running its course.” Morgan walked
over to the ball of fur that was enjoying the sunlight and picked him up.

“FOU!?” He yelped out feeling annoyed, but he quickly stopped as Morgan brought him up to her lips
and whispered something in his ear, after she was done, she placed him back on the window sill and
without another word he jumped out the window and started heading into the woods as the
sorceress watched with a satisfied expression.

“What was that?” Artoria (F) asked looking up at her feeling confused.

“I asked him to get me something.” She looks back to her sister, her own expression looking more
relaxed now. She takes a seat next to him, back pressed against the dry wood wall her breathing
seeming a bit uneven. “What were you doing while I was… busy?” She says to distract herself.

“Just sitting here, spending some time with Cath Palug… and thinking.” He stares at the wall across
from him, remembering the events that happened a few hours ago, specifically the rage that
encompassed every fiber of his being. It scared him, he wondered if that was truly what Artoria (T)
was feeling, or something else entirely.

Sure, Artoria said it was her rage and he just manifested it, but… he’s always been in control of the
body… right? He is the one in control… but he should make sure. Everet waves his right hand around
and makes sure to feel every slight movement, just to reassure himself that he is the one doing it.
Morgan looks at him in confusion, wondering if her sister may have gone insane.

“My head hurts Morgan.” He says with a sigh.

“Being alone with your thoughts is not always a good thing.” Morgan attempts a smile, but stops for a
moment when she tastes something metallic on her tongue, she quickly tries to get rid of the taste
before continuing. “Perhaps, a break is necessary.”

Artoria (F) thought about that idea for a little, it was true that in the last few moments he had been
under the most amount of stress he had ever felt in his life, so a break right now didn’t sound too bad
right now.

“Sure. I guess we could both use a break.” Morgan smiles at his willingness and stands up, with him
following shortly after. “Any ideas for where or what to go or do?” The sorceress thinks for a few
moments, anyplace other than the forest would have been fine, but she wasn’t sure which one would
be best for getting her mind off a murder. “Oh, what about the forest?”
Morgan froze, of course her sister just had to suggest the forest. For whatever reason it maybe, there
was no feasible way that she could let her anywhere near the trees, Morgan had, just a couple hours
ago, chastised her for almost killing Chuck, and now she had gone and done it. If her little sister found
out, she would never hear the end of it, or perhaps she would do something much worse than tease
her.

“I-I do not think the forest is a good idea.” She says shakily as she crosses her arms. “We have seen
nothing but forest since we came from Salisbury, I want some different scenery.”

Artoria (F) looks at his sister with a flat expression, he knew that Morgan was one to normally speak
without stutter or mistake. So hearing it now, was strange to say the least... but everyone stutters
sometimes so perhaps he was just being paranoid.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” He says sounding slightly dissapointed, he was hoping to lead her to Fae
and Lancelot, but that would have to wait for another time. “Where would you think is best?”

“London.” She says almost too quickly. “We could go shopping!”

“With what money?” He asks with a flat tone. “We are broke.”

“...well, I suppose shopping is not necessary…” Morgan says slightly dissapointed as she crosses her
arms.

“Oh, I had an idea, we could sell that staff for money!” The sorceress froze again, the staff was
currently in the basement, next to the uncleaned, and most likely drying bloodstains. She had to come
up with an excuse for her sister not to go down. Someone coming towards them from the woods? No,
she couldn’t let her near the woods. A part of the house that requires repairing? No… she would see
that it was false as soon as she was led there. “Morgan?” Her sister says trying to get her attention.

“Uh yes!” She says putting on her best smile. “What is it?” Artoria (F) puts on a perplexed expression.

“You… have been spacing out more than usual. Is something the matter?” The slightly nervous looking
witch shakes her head.

“Of course not…! Perhaps… I have just been under a bit of stress!”

“She is acting strange…” Artoria (T) mentions to Everet. “Well, stranger than usual.”

Morgan grabs the kings wrist and leads her towards the door.

“Come on, let us head to London.” He resists a bit at first, but soon gives in and lets Morgan lead him
out of the house.

The light of the sun hits the both of them warmly, and as Artoria (F) steps out he can’t help but look
towards the woods, wondering if Lancelot is doing alright with Fae. But that thought was quickly
subsided when Morgan gave an extra strong tug.
“Do not dilly dally sister. We do not have much time until sunset after all.” Silently, the king agreed and
began walking with her sister.

What’s up with her? Everet asked attempting to look at Morgans expression.

“...Hm, she is acting suspiciously.”

Yeah, she usually doesn’t act like this… she only acts like this when she is hiding something… Artoria
stayed silent mulling over his words.

“How… how did you know that?”

What?

“You were right, she does act like that when she was hiding something that she recently did.”

I… I don’t know… I just said it without thinking.

“I suppose it was just a… lucky guess.” Our duo of sisters walked in silence for the remaining distance
to London, Morgans hand still firmly on Artoria (F)’s wrist, but not enough to cause pain. The king
stared at his sisters back, (and some other places as well) wondering how much longer she was going
to hold on his wrist like a child.

His question was quickly answered when she abruptly let his hand free, he looked over her and saw
London. It seemed like a completely different city, unlike before the city was so much more lively,
people chatting with each other, cursing each other, selling each other different items, and people
stabbing each other in the darkness, it was almost worst than before.

“Wow.” The king exclaimed. “It’s almost completely different than last time.”

“What do you mean? It was always like this.”

“Not the last time I was here, it was practically a ghost town.” He walks beside her and scans the city,
taking in the sight of the now alive London, he couldn’t help but smile knowing that he was a factor in
this.

The two sisters head down the hill, a few people watch as they tread carefully down as to not fall. But
they don’t look too long as they continue to do what they were previously doing. Morgan starts
walking towards a jewelry vendor, looking through his collection, she wasn’t one who splurges on
cosmetics, but she couldn’t deny they looked nice.

A certain silver bracelet with a pale blue gem on the top caught her eye, it looked like it would pair
nicely with her black dress. Perhaps she should purchase… she doesn’t have any money, and neither
does her sister. She moves away from the stand and heads toward her sister, much to the vendors
disappointment.
Artoria (F) was currently looking at space, unbeknownst to Morgan, he was talking to Artoria (T).

Is there anyone here that would buy weapons from us?

“Perhaps a blacksmith or a weapon enthusiast. There should be at least one of those in this city.”

Do you know what a smithy looks like? Because I don’t.

“It is usually a building with a furnace, so it should emit more heat than usual. In my experience, they
are also quite loud. Either with clanging metal, or the blacksmith themselves yelling. Oh and-” She
stopped talking when Everet quickly turned his head around when he felt someone tapping on his
shoulder, when he looked over he saw Morgan looking at him with an annoyed expression.

“Hey, something wrong?” He asks with a smile.

“No.” She says hiding her annoyance. “But, I do not think we should stay here. Being in a shopping
district with no money makes me feel…” She doesn’t finish her sentence as she looks away from her
sister.

“We could still sell the staff.” He crosses his arms.

“But we are already so far away from the house-”

“I can get it.” Morgan quickly shook her head.

“No, how about I get it?” The sorceress offers before turning around and running heading towards
their house.

“Wait-” Before he could finish calling out to her, a person on a horse came up to him.

“Hello there friend!” He says getting off his horse, putting an arm around our king. “Can I interest you
in one of the many wares that I have for sale?!”

“Sorry I have to catch up with-”

“Oh! That pretty lady you were talking with?!” He gives a smug smile. “I understand! I have the perfect
gift to make up with your lover!” He turns around to his horse and starts rummaging through the bag
attached to the saddle.

“She’s not my-”

“Here it is!” He says pulling out an orb, not letting him get in a word. He turns around and presents it
to him. It was a ball of glass with a bit of liquid inside, there seemed to be things at the bottom, the
liquid was sloshing around after it was removed from the bag. “Coming straight from my friend out of
Britain, it’s a decorative ball that does something cool when you shake it!” He shakes the sphere to
prove his point. The specks in the water go everywhere for a little bit before settling down.

“So it’s a snow-globe?” The vendor looks at the king with an intrigued expression.

“‘Snowglobe…’ What a fantastic name for this! The flakes do look like snow!” He wraps his spare arm
around the king again, flashing his annoyingly charismatic smile. “So I’ll tell you what, since you gave
me the name for this creation, I’ll give you a discount.”

“I don’t want-”

“Oh of course, someone like you wouldn’t want a snowglobe.” He moves away from the king, heading
back to his bag looking for something else to sell.

OHMYGOD.

Morgan escaped her sister with ease, (with a bit of help from a stranger) she had to make sure she
made it to the basement before Artoria, the basement was not clean at all, and if her plan had
worked, Cath Palug should be down there with what she asked for.

After about a five minute run, she saw the house and quickened her pace. She went around the house
until the basement door was in her sights, she quickly ran over and opened it, then descended the
stairs.

As she reached the bottom the first thing to jump out to her was the smell, drying blood does not
smell very good. She had to plug her nose because of it, she looked around and saw Lancelots staff
sitting in the middle of the largest red stain, exactly where she had dropped it. She went over to the
weapon and picked it up.

Not knowing what else to do until Cath Palug showed up, she started scraping the red stains off the
floor, or at least trying her best to. The staff was no mop, but she would find a way to make it work…
for now at least.

After five minutes of just scraping the stains (and inadvertently messing up the floor) she stopped,
noticing that she barely made a dent in the ginormous red mark on the ground. She let out a breath
took a break for a little.

“Damn it Cath Palug…” She muttered as she let out another sigh, the stress was getting to her more
than she was letting on. Yes, this is not the first time she had ended a life, yet having to hide it from
someone she’s sharing a house with (without the use of her magic) was a little stress inducing.

As she was about to stand up again, she heard a slight tapping on the door, she quickly got up and
opened the door, hoping to not see Artoria on the other side, luckily when she looked through the
doorway, she did not see Artoria, in fact she didn’t see anyone at all. Until she heard something
coming from the ground.

“Fou.” As the muffled sound hit the sorceress’s ears, she looked down and saw Cath Palug there, with
a towel in his mouth. She smiled at him and took the towel from him.

“Looks like you were useful for something.” She walks down the stairs as the squirrel-fox lets out an
annoyed yelp as he follows her down. But as he reached the floor, he recoiled at the smell and
retreated back to the top.

Morgan laughs at his reaction and gets down on the floor to start wiping the red stains out. Again, the
towel was no mop, but it was certainly better than a piece of metal. (And it wouldn’t scrape the floor.)

“Ugh. I just know I look pathetic right now.” She whispers to herself as she roughly scrapes out a tough
stain. She got about an eighth of the cleaning done, when she realized that the side of the towel she
had been using, was almost entirely discolored to red.

If she continued to clean using the other side of the towel, then that side would eventually get stained
as well and then she wouldn’t have a cleaning instrument. So she had to clean it, the river was about a
two minute run, but that would expend a good amount of her energy…

But she didn’t have much choice. Besides, water will make this process easier. So, she went up the
stairs, out the door, and towards the river.

Artoria (F) sat with his back against a tree that was nearby the shopping district, the salesman on the
horse had left, but not without heavy insistence from the king. He didn’t leave without giving him a
gift however, in his hands was the snow-globe. The vendor said he should keep it since he named it, he
fiddled it in his hands, just staring at the ‘snow’ falling, waiting for Morgan to come back.

Do you think Morgan would actually like this? Everet asked, just trying to pass the time making small
talk.

“Perhaps. Morgan can be quite materialistic, but I am unsure if a simple decoration would be to her
liking.”

So what would be more to her liking? There was a slight pause before Artoria responded.

“I apologize if this sounds rude, but may I ask why you wish to know this?”

I don’t know… He says with a mental shrug. I guess I’m just bored.

“Hm. She likes things that are dark in color or nature. Whether it be a nice dress or a vial with the most
potent poison, she will accept it with a smile. Even if it may be forced.”
Hm… so what if we paint the base of this snow-globe black? He turns the globe upside-down, looking
at the brown hardwood covering the bottom of the decoration. Would she like that then?

“Maybe, but do you know where we could get black paint?” Everet looks around the shops around
them.

Perhaps there’s a merchant here that sells some?

“I suppose it would not hurt to look.” Everet smiles and stands up, with the globe in hand, he heads
out to the shops.

There was a variety of items for sale, from food and spices to jewelry and trinkets. A few vendors
called out to them, but having the bad experience from a couple of minutes ago, he didn’t feel like
talking to any chatty salespeople. However, even with the assortment of goods being sold, they
couldn’t find anyone selling paint.

Before they had realized it, they had made it out of the shopping district and now were in what looked
like a housing area. Having not noticed anyone selling any coloring materials, they decided to take
another sweep around all the shops, hoping they missed it instead of it just not being there. But
before they could step back to the market, someone called out to them.

“Psst! Hey you! Blondie!” Turning around, the king saw a hooded figure watching him from an
alleyway. “You want something that you can’t get from the market right? Well come over here, I can
help you with that.” He walks back into the darkness, disappearing from sight.

Well, that’s not suspicious at all. He says to Artoria, eliciting a chuckle from her.

“Indeed. So perhaps we should head back towards the house.” Everet looked back towards the hill.
“Morgan should be coming back soon… hopefully.”

As stupid as this sounds, I am a little interested to see what that person had in store for us.

“...That is stupid.” Everet chuckles and starts walking towards the alley. “If you truly want to, go right
ahead, but I am against this.”

Duly noted. He steps into the darkness and is greeted by the hooded figure, they were wearing a red
robe that was slightly too big for them, the hood they were wearing was long enough to cover their
eyes (which made Everet wonder how they were seeing) beneath the cover, they could see a slight
smile on the persons face.

“Good, now tell me. What do you need?” They move their arm towards him, with their pale palm
sticking upward. “Poisons? Weapons? Magic books? Perhaps even… curses?” Everet shakes his head.

“Uh, no I need some paint.” This caused a bit of confusion from the hooded figure.

“...paint?” They repeated, cocking their head to the side.

“Yeah. Specifically black paint. Do you have any?” The person in front of him appeared to be staring at
him, but he couldn’t be sure. They stayed silent for a few moments before responding.

“Fine. I can get you black paint. Just wait nearby, I’ll find you.” They turn around and start walking
away before mentioning one more thing. “If you ever come back to me, make the next request a bit
more interesting, my king.” He disappears into the darkness once more and the king went away from
the alley.

Everet looks down the alley for a little while before turning around and heading towards the
marketplace again, not paying much mind to what the person said. Artoria however, was a bit stunned
by their words.

“Everet.” She calls out feeling slightly concerned.

Yes?

“Did… that last statement not intrigue you at all?”

What? About him asking to make my-

“No. About them calling us, ‘my king.’”

...wait, that is weird. Does that mean he is connected to us, or to you rather?

“I do not know. Perhaps we should ask them when they come back.”

Good idea. The two of them walk towards the hill, ignoring all the people who called out to them
again. As they reached the tree they were on before, and sat down by it again. They looked around at
the people all interacting with each other, and Everet couldn’t help but smile.

Yes he has thought about it before, but he (and Artoria and Cath Palug) caused this city to become
alive again. While he was on the topic of his past deeds, he remembered the brown-haired vendor…
and now he remembered that he never caught his name. He feels a bit embarrassed not knowing his
name even after how much he had helped him and Artoria. He started to wonder if they could find
him.

“Perhaps we can.” Artoria said, interrupting his train of thought. “I remember the way to the house,
we can drop by and say ‘hi’ if you want.”

Oh, that sounds nice, we can head there when Morgan comes back.

“She is taking her sweet time, perhaps we could head there right now.”

We could, but she’s expecting us to be here right? I don’t want her to not be able to find us. Artoria let
out a sigh.
“You give her too much credit.”

Why shouldn’t I trust my sister?

“I suppose that makes- wait what?” Before he could respond, someone tapped Everet on the
shoulder. Looking over, he saw that same hooded person. They seemed to be holding out their hand
with a container on it, inside of said container was a large amount of black liquid.

“Here, I brought you the paint.” He scrounges around his pockets for a while, until he takes out a few
paint brushes of various sizes. “I know you didn’t ask for any brushes, but looking at you, you don’t
seem to have any on hand.” The king stands up and takes everything from them then he gives them a
smile.

“Thank you, so how much do I owe you?”

“Nothing. Consider this a gift… a gift suited for a king.” The figure in the red robe chuckles to himself
before he disappears into nothing.

“WAIT!” Everet says a moment too late, he wasn’t able to ask them about who they were and what
they wanted with him. He looks down at his now very fully hands, holding Excalibur, a snow-globe, a
container of black paint, and three different paint brushes. He walks back over to the tree and takes a
seat again, putting down all the stuff, he reaches for the largest brush and dips it into the now open
container of paint, and starts coloring the bottom of the snow-globe.

“It was quite the shame that they left so early.” Artoria stated watching Everet paint with slight
intrigue. “Do you have prior experience with art?”

I’ve painted a few times, but this is just basic coloring, children can do this.

“I suppose you are correct.”

Are you familiar with painting?

“Unfortunately not. I have viewed many pieces of artwork before, some were even made about me,
but I never got around to even trying to create any kind of art.”

That’s… actually quite a shame.

“Perhaps it is.”

Soon, the entire bottom half of the snow-globe was almost entirely black, there were a few spots on
the side which were a bit too small for the brush he was using, so he swapped to a smaller one. Everet
was so focused on coloring that he didn’t noticed the person walking up to them until she tapped him
on the head.
“Enjoying yourself?” The king looked up and saw Morgan looking down at him with a smile. “I did not
take that long did I?”

“Well, I wasn’t counting the time but you did take a while.” Artoria (F) got up and offered the freshly
painted decoration to his sister. “Here.” The sorceress looks at the object trying to identify what it
could be before grabbing the top and placing it in her other hand.

“What is- oh why is it wet?!” She asked recoiling slightly at the unexpected sensation.

“It’s a snow globe. And it’s wet because I painted the bottom black.” To show what he means he
shakes the decoration slightly. Morgan stares at the specks in the water fall down until they all
eventually settle back onto the bottom.

“Wait, you painted the bottom?” She looks back to him with a confused face. “Why?”

“You like the color black right? So I changed the bottom to black to slightly suit your tastes.” The king
looks over to the staff that was in Morgans other hand and grabbed it from her.

“You… did that for me?”

“Yeah. I thought you might like it.” The king walks past her and heads into town looking for a
blacksmith. Morgan stares at the decoration in her hand for a few moments, she wasn’t sure what to
make of it. Sure she had gotten gifts before but… for whatever reason this one felt different. She
stared at the globe for a solid few moments until her lips broke out into a smile.

“Spending time on something as silly as this...” She whispers to herself as she turns around and follows
Artoria (F) into town. “What a fool she really is.”

Within the outskirts of the trees of London, a duo could be found searching for their lost friend. They
were checking around each individual tree just to make sure they don’t miss even the smallest clue of
where Chuck could be.

Nora was in the lead, looking frantically through every leaf for Chuck, y’know, there might be an off
chance he was shrunk to the size of an ant and is trying to reach them through subtle messages within
the leaves. She was going quite quickly, so fast that her ring was slicing through a few of the leaves,
Antonio saw how crazy she was acting and spoke up to her.

“He’s not gonna be in the leaves.” He says with a laugh, Nora however did not find it that amusing.

“Well I’M SORRY THAT-”

“Nora. I know you’re worried, but we should look in more logical places.” The blonde looked at him,
she knew that he was right, but she wasn’t thinking entirely with reason.
“Fine.” She begrudgingly says as she lets go of the leaf she was holding. She starts speed walking
again, direction not being in her mind. Antonio followed closely behind.

The two walk in silence for a while, Nora not wanting to take her attention away from looking for their
friend, and Antonio feeling worried if they ever will find Chuck. Soon, the two hear people talking, as
the trees cleared a town was in view. They knew what town it was, they had walked all the way to
London with no sign of Chuck anywhere.

Nora’s fingers tighten into a fist, they had walked all this way and nothing. Her companion finally
caught up her, but as they were side by side Nora immediately turns around and heads toward the
forest again. With a sigh, the white-haired man follows.

Again they are within the trees, walking through, avoiding mud on their shoes if they can. However…
interrupting the monotony of this ‘adventure’ was a cabin. It was in the middle of nowhere and they
didn’t pay much mind into it, until Nora steps into some mud… or what she thought was mud.

She looked down and saw a patch of grass stained red. Her eyes widened and bent down to take a
closer inspection to the grass.

“Nora what are you-”

“Shush.” She says as she presses her nose to the stain and takes a nice long sniff. Most of what she
smelt was dirt, but on the very back of her nose, she could smell it. Iron. “Blood.” She says simply as
she darts towards… well she wasn’t sure where she was going, that way... just felt right.

“Nora wait!” Antonio runs after her, she sped off like a wild animal chasing their prey, and he couldn’t
keep up. Well, he couldn’t until she randomly stopped.

“The scent is strong here.” She says darting her head back and forth.

“What scent?” Antonio asked, the only thing he could smell was the trees and a hint of dirt if he really
concentrated.

“You don’t smell the blood?” She turns west and starts walking, taking small steps as to not lose the
scent. “It’s much more pungent this way.”

Antonio follows closely behind, wondering what she is referring to. “Okay, you smell blood, why are
we going towards it?”

“I have a feeling Chuck will be at the end of this trail, whether this blood is his own or someone elses…
well we will find out when we get there.” She sniffs the air again, the odor getting stronger with each
passing step. Antonio doesn’t protest as he just follows her.

A few steps later, the scent was the strongest it had ever been, Nora looked around sniffing
occasionally until she came up to a certain tree. The base was covered in red stains and it reeked of
iron. She circled around the tree until, she made it behind. Nothing was directly behind it, but when
she turned around… she saw it.

The source of the smell. There was a corpse on the ground. This didn’t alarm Nora too much, strangely
enough this wasn’t the first time she had seen a dead body in the woods, so she didn’t think too much
about it when she walked over to it, and turned it over so she could see its face.

Immediate regret filled her, she saw the corpse face, the hair, the short stature, that god damn smile.
She knew who that was. When she realized, she let go of the corpse feeling her stomach tie into an
infinite amount of knots.

“...no.” She whispered to herself in disbelief. “No. No. NO! NO! NO!” She fell onto her knees. She
couldn’t keep her dinner in her stomach anymore, the stomach acid burned her throat, but it burnt
her nose even more as she stared down at it. She couldn’t look over to him, if she did, her stomach
would tie into knots again.

Antonio was following Nora, but he lost her in the trees, the sun was setting and he wasn’t sure if he
would be able to find her this time. However, her screams echoed throughout the woods and he
followed their source. Eventually leading to a compile of trees stained with blood. He circled a few of
them until he found Nora behind one on her knees staring at a

“Nora, jeez don’t run off like that.” He went up to her and knelt with her. “Is something wro-” Nora
pointed in front of her, cutting off Antonio, when he looked to what she pointed at his eyes went wide
and his face turned whiter than snow. “C-Chuck?” He stumbles out while getting up and approaching
the corpse to get a better look.

The two stared. They couldn’t do anything else, no, their bodies wanted to move, but their mind
wouldn’t let them. They wanted to cry, to scream, to curse whoever or whatever caused this… but
nothing came out of them. They just stared. A million thoughts running through their heads, yet all of
them were as murky as swamp water.

They stayed like that for an indistinct amount of time. None of their bodies being able to move… until
the first tear was shed. As the blonde’s tear hit the ground, another soon followed. And another.
Another. Until tears streamed down her unmoving face like the River Tees.

Antonio followed suit. Their bodies unable to hold their emotions back any further. They cried. They
cried their hearts out, they cried until their eyes were as dry as deserts. Nora walked- no, she crawled
over to Chuck’s smiling corpse. She reached down, her hands caressing his cheek with gentle lost
affection. The tears trickled down hitting his face, the water being practically absorbed into his dried
up corpse.

“Chuck…” She whispers as she affectionately cradled him, her hand drifted toward his hair to move a
strand of hair out of his face. “I… I’m so sorry.” She closed her eyes unable to face the failure she felt
as she looked down at lifeless corpse. The two of them sobbed within the trees, facing the death of
their friend and confidant. Nora’s eyes were closed tightly shut, until a flash of blue light bright
enough for her to see even with closed eyes.
Nora opened her eyes and Antonio looked up at the blue light that was being emitted from Chuck’s
body. It was formless at first, just a beacon of mana-dense light soaring into the reaches of the night
sky. But soon it began morphing, its form took a more slender appearance, and after a minute of the
light moving, its shape was apparent.

It was no longer a beam of light, but rather a person. They appeared to be male, with a slightly shorter
stature than average and their hair was… wait. The two of them soon realized that the person in blue
was Chuck. However, something was off. Ropes were tied to his body and he seemed to beat seated
for whatever reason. He opened his eyes and his distress was evident.

“I… think I got it to work.” His voice was distorted, yet it was clear what he was trying to say to them.

“C-Chuck?” Nora said, disbelief emanating from every word that she says. “I-is that you?”

“Okay, if this message has activated, then one thing must be true: I am dead.” The revelation breaks
their hearts again, they saw his body but a sliver of them hoped that he was actually alive. “It is…
pretty late at night and I am currently tied up in basement, I believe that I might not come out alive.”
Nora looked down at Chuck’s smiling corpse once more, her anger growing by the second for whoever
killed her companion.

“But… who-” Antonios whispers were cut off by an explanation.

“The prisoner Morgan le Fay and her sister Arthur Pendragon are the ones who have captured me.
They caught me off guard as I was trying to capture them.” The hologram looks around for a bit,
seemingly searching for anyone that might catch him. “I coded this message to play even after I have
died, but it will cost me all of my mana for about… three days. So I won’t be able to cast any spells.”

Our duo was outraged by the information given to them. Their friend, was killed by the very people
that they had longed believed were not a threat. (Whether it was because they were dead or in
custody.) Nora gritted her teeth and clenched her fists to tightly she drew blood.

“After this message finishes, the coordinates for their house will appear. If anyone in my organization…
no if any of my friends find this, please bring these coordinates to Yang.” He looks to the ground for a
few moments, his blue face turning… blue. “If… I do die, then please… use this information the best
you can.” He recoiled, appearing to be in pain. “Damn, it looks like I’m out of time. Guess I won’t be
getting any sleep tonight.” He looks forward once more. His lips curling into a small smile. “This is
Chuck, signing off… for hopefully not the last time.”

The blue figure disappears, and just like he said, the coordinates for the house were in the air, the
string of blue numbers bobbing up and down as the duo just stared at them. However, they couldn’t
just stare at the numbers like idiots forever. Nora took one last glance to the numbers and one last
look to the body in her arms. She reached down to her left hand and pulled her ring off, she put it
inside of his open hand and closed it.
Nora stood up, determination brewing in every vein of her body. Antonio looked over to her, and her
eyes were bloodshot. She slams her clenched fist onto the nearest tree, and after a couple of creaks,
the entire tree falls down. Antonio wants to be surprised by her newfound strength, yet all the both of
them could feel was rage.

The two of them wordless look at one another again. They knew what must happen, so with one last
glance to Chuck’s smiling body, they begin walking back to the base.

“This pace is too slow.” Nora complains to herself, she grabs onto Antonio’s wrist and starts running at
almost unnatural speeds, with only one thought in their minds.

Revenge.

It had became dark, our duo of sisters spent the entire day together just browsing the market. Morgan
held onto the snow-globe the entire time, her hands getting slightly stained black because of the non-
dry paint. Whenever she looked down at the decoration, her lips wanted to curl into a smile, but she
restrained herself. They spent most of the time browsing items they believed look nice, Morgan more
so than Artoria(s), because the king was not much for material objects and Everet was searching for a
blacksmith half of the time.

However they weren’t just idly browsing, Artoria(s) wanted to see if they could find the merchant they
had previously talked to, but whenever they attempted to leave Morgan would just pull them back by
requesting they take a look at an item. That was what was happening right now actually, Morgan was
showing Artoria a nice gold-colred necklace with a green jewel in the center. It looked similar to the
one she was inspecting earlier.

“This would look good on you sister.” She says confidently as she tries to wrap it around Artoria (F). “It
compliments your outfit.” The king however pulls away, much to Morgans disappointment.

“Morgan we couldn’t even afford that anyway.” The jeweler watches as Artoria (F) picks up the
necklace and puts it back where Morgan picked it up. The witch sighs knowing that she was correct, so
she walks towards some other shops just browsing.

“Excuse me.” The white-haired old lady behind the counter says to the king, he turns around to look at
her. “Was that your wife?” She says pointing In the direction Morgan went.

“Oh, no. That was my sister.” He says with an awkward chuckle, it was strange to him how they could
get mistaken for a couple two times in the same day.

“Well… you two seem to get along nicely.” She says with a smile, her hand slowly moves to point
behind the king. “I have a friend that works with metal, he might be able to make something nice for
you and your sister. Tell him Julie sent you.” The king looks over toward where her finger was pointing.
“Oh, thank you. But… if my sister comes back here, don’t tell her I was here alright?.” The nice lady
chuckles and nods understandingly.

“Of course, go ahead now.” Artoria (F) nods and walks toward the metal-workers house, making sure
to keep Morgan in his sight so he can keep himself out of her sights.

Luckily for the king, the sorceress was preoccupied talking with a vendor, asking questions about how
she could get the black paint off of her hands. So he sneaked away without alerting her, and as he got
out of her sight, he started looking around for this “metal-worker.”

He walked around the houses looking for any hint of a building that would look home to a metal-
worker, but he wasn’t sure what that would look like, if it looked any different at all. A lot of the
houses looked similar, so when he walked for a while and saw a house that was double the size of the
others and was made of a more light-colored material, it definitely stood out to him.

Everet walked over to the building and immediately was hit with a wave of heat. This house was a
much higher temperature comparatively to the space five meters back, and as he recalled Artoria had
mentioned that smithies were hotter than other buildings because of the furnace, and speaking of the
furnace, the smell of burning wood was much more apparent when they were this close to the
building.

Looking at the wall, Everet and Artoria realized that they were looking at the back of the building, so
they walked around the side of it until the entrance was in their view. The door was open and the
clanging of metal was coming from inside, signaling someone was busy working. The king walked up
the two steps leading to the building and peeked inside.

There was a person inside hammering a glowing piece of metal, sweat was plowing down his face and
he looked fully concentrated on what he was doing. But as he heard the footsteps of Everet walking in,
he took a quick glance over to him but didn’t stop what he was doing, the blacksmith didn’t see much
but he did notice his blonde hair...

“Good to see you’re back, could you get a bit of wood from the front? My furnace is running low on
fuel.” Which made him think the king was someone else. He moved his left hand around until he
latched onto a pair of pliers and picking up the metal, he dipped it into a pale of water resulting in a
sizzling sound filling the entire room.

Wanting to help out, the king exited the room and looked out the door for any sign of chopped wood,
but he hadn’t noticed any wood upon coming in and he didn’t notice any while actively looking for it.
But he didn’t want to disappoint the man inside so he went down the stairs and looked around the
building, but after not noticing any wood, he went back inside the building empty-handed.

Inside the man was staring at the furnace watching it burn the wood inside, as he heard the footsteps
on his floor again, he turned around while speaking to the king.

“Hey did you get-” He quickly stopped his sentence when he saw who he was talking to. “Wait, you’re
not Moe.” The king looks around for a few moments before responding.
“Uh no I’m not, and I didn’t see any wood in the front.” He points behind him to exemplify his point.

“Oh. My mistake, sometimes someone comes around here and helps me with some simple tasks.” The
blacksmith takes a longer look at Artoria (F), his eyes narrowing every second. “Now that I got a better
look at you… you do resemble each other…”

Now that they were close to each other, Everet got a good look on what he looked like. They were
about the same height, the blacksmith had black messy, unkempt hair, with dark eyes that weren’t
really clear on the color unless you got a up-close look at him. (And also because his eyes were
narrowed) He had on a yellow shirt and matching pants, with shoes that looked black but Everet didn’t
take a long enough look to confirm that, along with black gloves covering his hands.

“Well, I can guarantee you I’m not whoever it is you’re talking about.” The king holds out the staff that
he was holding onto. “I wondered if you would want this, Julie sent me by the way.” The mention of
her name seemed to flick a switch on him, his face brightened and his smile grew very wide.

“Julie eh? Been a while since she’s sent someone to me.” The blacksmith takes the staff and inspects
it, flipping it around a few times and tapping it against the wall. “Hm, interesting. You mind if I do a
few tests?”

“Be my guest.” He nods and increases his grip on the weapon and in one swoop he slams the staff
against the floor, causing a huge percussion of hard materials, and causing a bit of ringing in both of
their ears. The two of them stand there for a couple seconds, Artoria (F) frozen from surprise, and the
blacksmith frozen from recoil. After the shock wares off he shakes a few times getting rid of the tingly
feeling he had.

“Quite the durable weapon.” He says lifting the staff off the floor. “Not quite sure what it’s made of
however. But I do know one thing.” He looks over to the king. “This right here is a special one. If you
would sell it to me, I am more than willing to come to a reasonable selling price.” Artoria (F) smiles at
him.

“Of course, how much is the starting offer?” The blacksmith leans the staff on the wall and heads past
the furnace into a room that he hadn’t seen yet.

“How about fifty gold pieces?” He shouts out from behind the wall.

Is… is that a lot? Everet asked Artoria.

“It is… in the middle. You could probably buy about… sixteen high end products from the market with
that amount.”

Hmm…

“Actually that’s too little. Seventy five!” The blacksmith says quickly changing his mind.
“That would be about twenty products.”

“No! A clean one hundred.” He finally comes from behind the wall holding out a bag that looked as if it
was about to collapse because of all the gold that was inside.

“...Okay that is a decently large amount. I suggest we accept before he haggles himself down to a
lower price.” Everet having no prior experience with negotiating decides to follow her advice, giving a
smile to the blacksmith he grabs the bag, making sure to hold onto it tightly after realizing how heavy
it was.

“I accept. Thank you… sorry I never caught your name.”

“Ah, my mistake. My name is Jace.” He reaches his gloved hand out for a handshake. The king
reciprocates and they share a handshake.

“Arthur. Nice meeting you Jace.” The blacksmith smiles once more as he grabs the staff and puts it
onto his table for later examination. Artoria (F) turns around and exits the smithy. As they exit the
building, the night sky turns apparent to them, truthfully they had forgotten that it had became dark.
(The smithy was quite well lit.)

The king walks down the duo of stairs and scans the area, attempting to remember which way they
came in from. After figuring it out they started walking back to the markets, the streets were quite
quiet, unlike a couple hours ago where they could have heard the chatter of the vendors all the way
from the smithy, Everet had guessed that in the small amount of time they were in there everyone had
packed up what they had outside and headed back to their homes.

Soon enough, Artoria (F) had reached where the markets were originally, and his guess was proved
correct when he sees the empty stands where the people once were. The king walked through the
stands looking for Morgan so they could head back to the house together, but they weren’t able to
find her yet.

Their lack of success didn’t stop them, they continued looking for the sorceress until they heard
footsteps coming from their side, turning around they saw Morgan walking toward them rubbing her
hands with snow-globe being held in her arms. She looks up at them and speaks up.

“Oh you are back.” She says stopping her hand rubbing and moving the decoration so she can hold it
in her palms.

“Yeah, where did you go?” The king asked looking at her hands that were now clean.

“There is a river near here, I went there to clean my hands.” She holds up her hands to prove her
point. Through the open space of her hands she could see that her sister was holding onto a bag that
looked decently full. “What is in that?”

“Gold.” Artoria (F) holds the bag out to her and Morgan takes it, almost dropping it because of the
unexpected weight.
“This would have been helpful a while ago.” The sorceress says sarcastically as she holds the bag up
with strained effort. “We should head back.”

The duo went back to towards the hill, they walked the short distance to the house, neither of them
speaking to the other, mostly because they were both tired from the days activities. They reached the
door and pushed inside the house, quickly heading towards the bedroom, as soon as Artoria (F) saw
the ‘bed’ he fell face first onto it. (Which was quite uncomfortable considering there was nothing
beneath the mat to cushion his fall.) The bag of coins fell to the ground with a loud thud.

Morgan watched in amusement as her sister collapsed onto the bed, she joined her on the floor as she
sat down next to him. She placed the snow-globe beside herself, as wood hit wood, Artoria (F) turned
over to her side looking at her for a few seconds before pointing towards the corner of the room, in
the unilluminated section of the room was a small table.

“I wonder how I never saw that before.” She said to herself as she quickly scurried to the table and
placed it atop the table, she scurried back to her original position as she stared at her sisters spine as
she had turned around when she wasn’t looking. So she went to looking at her hands to see if they
had any specks of paint leftover.

“Hey Morgan?” But she stopped when the king called out to her.

“Yes?” He stayed silent for a few moments.

“Thank you for today...” Morgan couldn’t see it, but Artoria (F) had a smile forming on his face. “...it
really helped me take my mind off things.” This time, Morgan stayed silent for a few moments, until
she couldn’t help it anymore and a smile formed on her face.

“Do not worry about it sister, I had quite an enjoyable time with you too.” Morgan put her chin onto
her hand and looked down at her sister. “You know… this side of you is not that terrible.” Her
statement caused a bit of confusion to the king.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean this more human side of you.” Artoria (F) turned over and looked at Morgan as well. “It makes
you seem more like a real person rather than a heartless figure of authority.”

“...huh.” Artoria (T)’s tone goes up, she sounds quite happy at that comment, but Everet wasn’t sure
why, he had always been acting human after all. “...that was nice of her to say.”

Despite not understanding why she was happy, a smile formed on the kings face, but it wasn’t just
that. He physically felt happy, his eyes lit up like a Christmas tree and he couldn’t help but let out a
delighted laugh… but he’s sure it was just because he felt happy for his friend… right?

“Thanks Morgan, that was kind of you to say.” The sorceress mirrored his huge smile and scooted
backwards a bit so her back was against the wall.
“You should get some rest now, we were out for quite a while after all.”

“Do you not want to lay down as well?” Morgan looked slightly annoyed at him.

“On the floor? No.” She scoffs and looks away from the king who was currently chuckling to himself.
He turns over to his back and closes his eyes.

“Goodnight Morgan.”

“Goodnight little sister.”

A breeze passed through the air as the duo awaited the elevator to arrive, the moon lit them up in the
darkness of the twilight. The ambient noises of the world that would ordinarily be heard all
throughout the land, had turned completely silent, aside from the buzz of the elevator that was still
emanating from the doors in front of them.

After what felt like an eternity, the doors opened and the distinct smell of the closed off space that
was the inside of the elevator permeated throughout their noses, Nora was extra sensitive to it for
whatever reason, but nevertheless they went inside, Antonio hit his head on the top bar of the
doorway, getting a bit of dirt on himself, but he disregarded it and just wiped his forehead clean.

The elevator ride heading down was much shorter than heading up, the hum of the mechanisms
moving was always annoying to Antonio, normally Nora would be annoyed by it too, but the only thing
filling her ears was a ringing just loud enough to drown out any other sound. The doors opened
unceremoniously and they were out of there in a flash.

The two stomped through the halls, the staff looked at them in slight surprise, specially at Nora. They
had one destination in mind and no one dared to get in their way, as they reached the end of the hall
and took a left they saw it, Yang's office. They slammed the door open and saw their boss looking at
them in slight surprise with a few papers in her hands.

“Nora, Antonio, is there something you needed?” Yang took a closer look at the two of them and
when she did, a new attribute of Nora stood out to her, well a couple new attributes actually. Her eyes
had turned from her usual light blue to bloodshot red, and she just… seemed different. She was less
jittery than before and it was if her eyes had gotten sharper. She was also missing her ring... The two
of them pull up some spare chairs and sit down, they stayed silent for a few moments before Nora
spoke up.

“Chuck…” She paused for a few moments to look at the ground before she started again, looking
directly into Yangs soul. “Chuck is dead.” Silence.

There was silence. Nobody breathed, nobody blinked, and nobody dared speak another word. Until
the papers in Yangs hand had dropped onto the desk and floated down to the floor with a swoosh. Her
eyes were glazed over, it was if they had lost all color, her breathing turned irregular and her usual
fidgety body language had ceased entirely.

“...who.” She said finally breaking the silence. “Who was it.” Her voice was low but the rage in it could
be felt from across the hall. The two of them stayed silent, looking to the other silently asking who
would be the one to tell her.

“King Arthur and the prisoner Morgan.” Yang had to sit back down, looking past the two of them into
the empty space of the hallways that seemed to almost stretch forever… she began to lose focus, the
greys started blending together nothing looked right for felt right… until a wet substance on her face
made her come back to reality.

“You two aren’t…” She stopped midway, trying not to let any more tears fall down. “...aren’t the type
to lie about this. I-I…” Another paused followed her sentence, attempting to keep her composure in
front of her employees but failing miserably.

The two of them stared at the distressed woman in front of them, they knew exactly how she felt,
they wanted to share in their pain, to revel in their misery together just to lessen the pain. But they
had no more tears to cry. Yang cried for what seemed like an eternity to everyone in the room, but
was most likely just three minutes. Her tears didn’t stop, but they slowed down enough for her to
speak properly.

“...I give you two permission…” She looked up from her desk, the hardwood being stained to a darker
color because of the tears. “To use the MH Cannon.” Antonio looked over to Nora who shared the
same expression as him, Yang had made it clear how restricted the access to the cannon was, it was
meant to only be used in case of major emergencies. And now it was being handed to them. “Xander
went with you right? Go back to him and tell him I gave my permission.”

“We didn’t bring Xander along with us.” Yang shook her head and looked away from them, wiping a
few stray tears away.

“It doesn’t matter! Just go!”

The two of them didn’t need anymore instruction after that, they hastily got up from their seats and
dashed out the room, heading through the gray hallway and into the main room where they saw
Xander at his desk sipping a mug presumably filled with coffee. He noticed the two of them
approaching him and put down the cup to speak to them.

“Hey guys what’s-” He was quickly silenced when Nora got uncomfortably close to his face.

“Yang gave us permission to use the cannon.” Without skipping a beat, Xander quickly got up and
shuffled through a few papers on his desk before pulling out a red folder. He turns around and walks
past the two of them, but as he saw they weren’t following he looks behind and gestures for them to
follow.
The three of them walk to a door labeled “AUTHORIZED PERSONAL ONLY” in big red text. They head
inside and head down disappearing into the darkness.