Gwen's heart leapt at the sound of Jason's voice from not so far away. "Jason?" she thought aloud. She lifted her head to hear more clearly and when she caught sight of him a wave of relief rushed over her. She sniffled and tried to stand up from Lea's tight hug. "I-I'm okay now, thanks," she murmured on wobbly legs.

At first she didn't understand Jason's words about the fading one, but the missing pieces fell into place as Rei came through the door with the light-winged stranger. Gwen stiffened defensively at the sight of him, but she recognized him as having been the one called Arael. The sudden shout from his companion nearly broke her composure.

Silas landed, dematerialized his wings, and bolted up the stairs to the cabin. It had taken everything inside of him to let go of that blasted scythe and prepare to gather everyone so that they could take off again toward the cavern in the sea. He stopped on a dime when the one in front of him―Rei, was it?―turned around. The surprise question jammed the gears in his brain that were already struggling to turn under the weight of the issue at hand, and for a brief moment he stared blankly.

"What?" Silence. "Of course!" he stammered. "How can I do that?"

Half a dozen other questions buzzed through his mind from various directions, like Can we do this while moving so that the sky-dwellers don't catch up?! and What on Earth can I actually do to help?!, but he held his tongue.


Mars listened carefully as the white-winged elder spoke. The whole thing smelled fishy, and she felt the general state of alert in her brain somehow heighten further lest she be caught flat-footed. Yet what she found when she glanced at her partner was the complete opposite: absolute surprise. Slowly, Seamus released her combat stance and sheathed her weapon. The low hum disappeared along with the blade and Mars could more clearly make out the sound of distant sirens above.

"I thought that treaty was a myth," Seamus admitted as she slipped the heavy scabbard over her back. "To think that someone else knew...of Keeghan's dream, that his brethren never realized." She lowered her gaze alongside her guard. "And that I chase nonetheless..."

Mars watched in horror as her partner of steel certainty for the first time slipped into an absent-minded and basically asleep-but-standing trance. Instinctively, she reached out and touched Seamus's arm, and a blink later the person Mars knew was back in full clarity. Seamus looked at her and smiled in that same old subtle but warm way that Mars had come to love over the years. "Thank you," Seamus whispered. She then looked toward Solias and took a breath.

"To the end of this bloodshed," she pledged.

Mars followed suit, albeit still frazzled from a moment earlier. There were a lot of things she needed answers for, but she could at least throw in the towel as this person's enemy for the time being. "Let's put an end to this fighting." She held out her scythe and sighed. "I only wish I had found a way to start sooner."

Seamus took a sharp breath and then pulled a dagger out of her pocket. She gingerly touched its shinigami blade to that of Mars's scythe. "What are you doing?" Mars asked.

"If we travel with a commander's soul, it will give our position away."

"Why didn't we go over this sooner?!" Mars asked, near hysteria.

"I forgot," Seamus said. Once the dagger captured the whole of the cyan hue, Mars backed away with her scythe and prepared to take off while Seamus stepped forward to offer the smaller vessel to Solias. "This belongs to you all, I won't try to apologize for the gravity of this one's loss. I appreciate the risk you've taken today in the spirit of lasting peace, and I am sorry if we've met before and I no longer remember you." Inwardly, she recounted that it was rare for her to speak so much outside of duty or combat, both usually alongside the sound amplification of her blade. Out of caution she refused to dwell further and instead refocused on the matter at hand, but the sparkling veil of familiarity and trance lingered nearby.