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Dissonant Hearts (Degusaurusrex x AndrewS)

"You're on a suicide mission if you think the two of you can take them down. The Van Dynes are only the tip of the iceberg, Isen Hiyori...but, I guess that's what you want, isn't it?" Takami continued, shaking his head in disgust. "What you have is a gift. A gift that you wasted and now want to throw away."

"It's not that easy. I've done a lot of awful things, things that I can't take back. Things I have to live with..." Isen found himself getting closer to Takami. In a way, he was still sympathizing with him. Though his methods weren't appropriate, Isen imagined that he and Takami, in another life, might have been friends. "I might have something in mind that could help us both. I'm not going to just let you die, but I can't have you continuing to try and kill me every time my back is turned..."

Before Isen could elaborate any farther, he began to hear the sound of commotion from the other room. With his hearing, it was loud and clear; the toppling of books, Adelaide's voice and the erratic beating of her heart. He heard the flickering of a flame, the uncomfortable whining of Ember. What had happened?

Without a parting word to Takami, Isen found himself in the back room in an instant, ready to draw Ignas if he needed to but found that there was no immediate threat, something else was happening entirely. Adelaide looked terrified. It looked as though she was living her worst fear on repeat and by extension, poor Ember was along for the ride. The room was a mess, he could smell smoke from the fire she had made and worst of all, he could practically feel the panic sitting in. Ignas, however, was occupied by something even more troublesome.

"I can feel the magic pulsing from that ring. Isen, if you don't do something..."

"Samara, what did you do? What did you do to her!?" He yelled at the which before moving again, stopping up directly in front of Adelaide. His hands moved to her shoulders, steadying her, forcing her to look up and forward at him rather than anywhere else in the room.

"We were testing which emotions of hers could trigger physiological changes in Ember."

"Are you crazy? And you chose fear? Out of every possible emotion, that's the one you chose?" Isen's voice was raising by the moment, the sheer anger he felt in that moment rivaling what Adelaide had felt when she first transformed Ember to begin with.

"...it was an experiment."

"She's not..."

"Isen, you need to calm down. You're not doing anyone any good acting like that."

For once, Ignas was right. His anger was only making things worse and probably causing more of a panic for Adelaide as well. He glanced over his shoulder and saw Ember writhing in pain, whimpering on the ground, then back to Adelaide, who was still lost in absolute terror and he took a deep breath, composing himself. Then, without hesitation, he did something that could have been extremely dangerous to himself; he pulled her into his chest and wrapped his arms around her waist.

Samara leaned forward a little bit, a smirk moving over her lips as she realized what was happening. And she said they were 'just friends'?

Isen held on to her and would do so for as long as it would take. It didn't matter that her ring was a ticking time bomb, or that her fear could cause her to use her magic without control. He would endure whatever she did to bring her out of whatever spell Samara had cast.

"It's all right..." He whispered, trying to figure out what to say to calm her, to comfort her. Despite having been doing more of this recently, Isen was still practically clueless when it came to how to handle human emotions. He said what came to mind, and what came to heart, and hoped that it would work the way he needed it to. "It's okay to be afraid but remember what we said on the roof top? Your grief, these feelings, you've got to let them go. Nobody is going to hurt you, I won't let them. I need you to come back to us now, okay?"

"...You can't do that to me!"

That was what she had said, back when Takami attacked them, when she was worried that he wasn't going to come back. He remembered it, vividly. He remembered what it made him feel. He wondered now if it would make her feel the same in return.

"I need you to come back to me." He repeated changing the last word. "Let it go."
 
Adelaide could faintly hear voices coming into the room as she continued to knock things over. Ember had been taken by surprise by the effects of the spell and had done her fair share of stumbling around, but it seemed to be having more of a physical effect on her as she writhed and mewled in pain. Ignas' voice was somewhere in the fog of her mind as she felt hands settling on her shoulders and she shrieked, just barely registering whose hands they were as she was forced to stop her stampede around the room.

Then there was the rage she could feel boiling from Isen, coursing straight through his body and into her as he placed his hands on her. For a brief moment she thought that Samara had used her spell again to experiment with yet another emotion, but when she dared to chance a look at Isen's face she could feel the raw emotion coming from him in waves. It lessened only slightly when Isen released her and stepped back to steady himself, but there was only a brief break of contact before he'd moved forward again and wrapped his arms entirely around her.

Her entire body froze as she found herself somewhat restrained, her hands twitching at her sides as the ring pulsed and sent its magic spiderwebbing through her veins as it tried to explode inside her chest, seeking any and every way out of her body that it could. The sheer force of it amassing was overwhelming, a weight in her chest that thudded painfully against her ribs as it writhed and slithered its way back down to her hands that had begun to move.

"Let go, I don't want to hurt you." She was already hurting Ember, she could hear the whimpering from the feline in the back, accompanied by soft snarls and the sound of nails scratching at the floor. "Please, let go." Her hands were on fire, they were burning so hot that it felt as though the ring had melted and was coating her skin in sweltering heat from Hell itself.

"I can't." He wanted her to just push past what she was feeling, come back to him and Ember, but she couldn't. Her hands had found purchase on him as she tried to push at him, feeling the warmth of him contesting with the heat of her hands that threatened to combust at any moment.

Come back to me.

The simple change in his words was enough for her to stop fighting against him, to stop pushing and curl her fingers into his jacket instead. It didn't matter that both it and his shirt were stained in crusted blood from his wound, or that she had found herself pressed very firmly against him, all that mattered was that he was there, she was safe.

"..Isen?" She didn't lift her head from where it had been tucked against him when she'd stopped fighting, her fingers dug deep into his clothes as she heard Ember's whimpering trail off and then stop entirely. A quick glance toward where she had last seen her familiar showed that the wildcat had shrunk down to nothing more than the kitten she had been before, and it was such a relief that Adelaide sucked in a shaky breath and trembled before sagging against Isen.

"I didn't hurt you, did I?"
 
Even though she had asked him to let go, Isen didn't.

Even though she had said please, he ignored her.

Even as her entire body pushed against him, her palms burning and him feeling every single point of contact where her body touched his, Isen would not budge.

His plea to her seemed to have found a way past her tormented mind. It was enough to make her stop fighting against his embrace, to quell the fire burning inside of her. The energy from the ring began to subside as it lost it's volatile hold over her disjointed emotions and she began to come back down from her terrified state of mind. As this began to happen, he only held on closer, tightening his hold. He was well aware of the judgement he would receive from Ignas, of the way Samara stared and would endlessly tease them about it later, but he would endure all of that for the chance to make sure that she was okay.

"Isen...you did it."

He held on to her until he heard her voice say his name, speaking something other than a feeble attempt to make him leave. In the midst of what had happened, Ember had been reverted back to her smaller form and Samara seemed to be taking mental notes of what had happened. It wasn't Adelaide's fear that triggered the chance, however, it was something much more different. Isen hadn't yet noticed this, however, as he was focused entirely on Adelaide's well-being and not of anything else that was going on around them.

"Hurt me?" He asked, shaking his head, which had tilted downwards to look at her from their close proximity. "No. You could never hurt me." He responded, though that was sort of a lie. Her tight grip on him, the heat and the magic she had been giving off, was felt in full force by him but she still didn't know about any of that he it would have only worried her more. He held her up as she leaned against him but his next move was to guide her to a nearby chair so that she could sit down. That meant she would need to leave his arms but it was probably for the better. "You're okay now. I've got you." He told her as he guided her down, his attention turned towards Samara next.

Isen stepped across the distance between them like crossing a line, prepared to confront Samara for what she had done but the witch saw him coming and rose her hand. "Wait, wait. Before you get mad at me, you should take a look at the cat." Samara pointed across to Ember, Isen now noticing the change that had happened. Adelaide's familiar was exhausted from the pain, curled up in a ball but much smaller and more normal than before. "It wasn't fear that made her do that. It was...you." She told him, her smile widening like a child.

Him? All he had done was calm her down. The wind had been torn from his sails upon hearing this, deflating the anger that was beginning to rebuild inside of him and instead, he glanced between the three females in the room, familiar included, before settling back on to Samara. He walked towards her, his voice low enough so that Adelaide wouldn't be able to hear, keeping his upcoming threat a secret between the two of them and Ignas. "If you do something that foolish again..." Isen's hand fell to his sword, pulling it part way out of it's sheathe. He dropped it back into place with a click. "...it doesn't matter what role you think I'm to fill in the future. You won't be there to see it."

"...where was this when we got attacked by the Ora...?"

Isen turned, walking straight past Adelaide, who needed to rest, and out into the other room to cool himself down entirely and return to the conversation he was having with Takami. Samara, in the meanwhile, was caught off guard by the threat, her eyes widening before her smirk returned. "...do I need to say anything?" Samara asked Adelaide, her smile and girlish joy saying more than her words ever could. "The passion. The 'come back to me'." She began, lowering her voice to mock Isen's. "The chemistry. Ahh!" She practically squealed, raising her hand to her forehead as if to mimic fainting.
 
Adelaide hadn't realized how exhausted she was until Isen guided her to the chair. It was only then that she felt her entire body drop into like a block, her limbs heavy and her mind weary as she gripped the edge of the seat with her hand. By then Isen was stalking toward Samara like a lion hunting its prey, and for a moment she thought to open her mouth and stop him, but it seemed the witch was far ahead of her by pointing to Ember's still form.

"Shut up, Samara." Even the mage's voice was weary as she sat there, one hand on the chair and the other on her head as she shook it. She had no idea what Isen was saying to Samara when he got so close, and she just barely saw the way that his hand fell toward the sword. Was he threatening her? If he was, it didn't seem to deter Samara in the slightest as she only watched him leave the room before she'd turned her attention back to Adelaide.

"Enough fangirling, Samara. I gave you information, and you said you'd teach me some healing spell stuff for my hand. As it is, I feel like I got run over by a truck a couple times, and I don't think your spell will fix that." No, this was an abundance of magical and emotional overload that even her ring couldn't magically cure. While it could refill its own magic almost instantly, it couldn't fix her, and she stared tiredly at the witch before gesturing impatiently.

"The spell, please."
 
"Let a girl have some fun." She whined, her look softening towards Adelaide like she was pleading her. "How can you even be thinking of spells right now? Your heart should be pounding right now! How am I the only one who's excited by what just happened?" The witch sighed and gave up for now as Adelaide continued to pester her about the healing spell. "...fineeee. Maybe you're the one who's hopeless, not him." Her snide comment was a precursor to her coming over towards Adelaide's chair.

Samara took the mage's injured hand into her own and placed her touch upon the bruised knuckles. Her fingers move and her magic transferred between the two of them. In front of Adelaide, the purple beneath her skin began to retreat as if the bruise was moving in reverse until it was gone entirely and with it, the pain that she had felt. "Now, that spell is yours too. But it's only good for healing simple stuff like that. A bruised knuckle, a twisted ankle, maybe a broken bone or two. Anything more serious than that and I'm afraid you're out of luck. All the more reason for you to quit being so reckless. Did you hear what that 'just friend' of yours said to me?" She asked, giggling as she pulled away. "If you ever hurt her, blah blah, you won't be around anymore, blah blah blah!" She lowered her voice again to mock Isen. Her recounting of what he said wasn't entirely accurate, but she was paraphrasing. "If he was willing to say that to me of all people, there's no telling what he might say or do to the next person stupid enough to try and hurt you."

Her familiar fluttered over, squawking and settling down onto Samara's shoulder. She nodded her head and the bird did the same. "Mhm, I know! I'm so happy for them." Samara continued, having a conversation with Priscilla that Adelaide couldn't hear. It was quite obvious this was for show and totally on purpose. "It's definitely in the air!"

~~~

Isen returned to where Takami remained suspended, still in the same position he had been in when Isen had sped off. This time, Isen sat down beside Takami, leaning his back against the wall.

"What did the witch do this time?"

"Piss me off." Isen mumbled, beneath his breath. This drew a laugh from Takami and Isen soon found himself laughing too, shaking his head. "About what I was saying earlier..."

"I'm listening."

"Isen, what are you doing?"

"When this is over, I had planned for Adelaide to separate me from Onigoshi entirely. I wanted to die." Takami already knew that, but Isen was getting around to making a point.

"Wanted to. Do you no longer feel that way?"

"It's...complicated. But it doesn't change how I feel about this cur-gift. I want it gone."

"Isen, I told you, I'm never going to let that happen. What are you even...?"

"Does your little girlfriend know this?"

"She's not...she doesn't. She still thinks that when all of this is over..."

"Right. Why are you telling me this, Hiyori?"

"We're going to need all the help that we can get to take down the DSTF. The only way she's ever going to find peace and let go of her past is if we do. You're obviously a powerful warrior but you're in an impossible situation. If Onigoshi is the one thing that can save your life, it is yours to take. But only after all of this is done. If you help us, when the time comes, I will turn the sword over to you."

"...what's the catch..?"

"Yeah, Isen? What's the catch? There has to be a catch, right? You did not just promise me away to this...diseased excuse for a warrior!?"

"There is none. You made a deal with them, now you can make one with us, a deal that will get you what you want and save your life. Think it over, let me know what you decide." Isen stood back up and went to occupy himself with continuing to clean, as he had been instructed, but before he had even gotten a few steps away, Takami had already came up with his answer.

"I accept. But on one condition."

Isen felt a smirk draw over his lips as he turned his head to look over his shoulder. "And that is?"

"Prove to me that you're a warrior worth following, Reaper. Surely you're more than just a demon sword."
 
"My heart was pounding plenty from you scaring the hell out of me, Samara," Adelaide grumbled unhappily as the witch approached, but allowed her to take her hand and work her magic. It was fascinating to watch the color recede from her skin, to watch the split flesh knit back together until everything was as it had been before. It was as if she'd never gone after Lorelei, let alone failed, and having the reminder of it gone was a huge relief to her. Although it did leave her in the predicament of having to think over everything that had just happened, especially the threat that Isen had apparently made to Samara.

"He said what?!" So she had seen Isen going for the sword, it hadn't just been her imagination! To hear that he'd threatened Samara's life though, that didn't seem right. She was a needed ally, and even if they were both cross with her for her choice of experiment on the mage.. Threatening her wasn't a smart move on any level! She was so powerful that she could probably incapacitate Isen easily, despite Ignas, and she could definitely take down Adelaide at the current moment. What was Isen thinking?

"Will you two knock it off?" Adelaide rubbed at her face and groaned, glancing toward her unconscious familiar before she stiffened up. "Who the hell is that?" Had they been followed already, had someone seen past Samara's illusion? Adelaide was on her feet an in instant and bolting back into the other room despite how exhausted she was, skidding to a stop as she met eyes with an equally taken aback woman.

"Um.. Am I in the wrong place?" It only took a second for her to realize that this new person was a vampire. Between the unnaturally pale skin and the red in her eyes, not to mention the sharp teeth poking out from an open mouth as the vampire gawked at the man against the wall. "I-I was looking for the witch that helps, uh, d-dissonants, but.."

"Well, this is awkward timing." Of all the times for a random to show up, it had to be while Isen was there in his blood stained clothes, a man was bound to the wall, and she was just barely functioning enough to deal with it at all. "Samara!" She waited for the witch to come into the room before she gestured to the nervous vampire who was wringing her hands together, shuffling between feet and looking around the room constantly.

"I want to watch you do it this time. The thing with the watches."
 
Isen heard foot steps approaching the front door and stopped what he had been doing, interrupting the conversation between himself and Takami to address whomever was coming closer. Was it an enemy? The foot steps sounded soft, uncertain. It didn't appear to him that someone was sneaking around, they just didn't seem to know where to go. They passed through the wall and stopped in their tracks, immediately, as they witnessed what they had walked into. Takami was still chained to the wall, a sword suspended and glowing against his chest while Isen, in his tattered and blood stained clothing, carried a weapon of his own on his hips and a handful of books. The entire front lobby was still in disarray and it was not at all an inviting sight for anybody to walk into.

This girl was a vampire, he noticed immediately. She wasn't hiding it, either. What was she thinking?

Adelaide bolted out from the back room to address this new visitor and left Isen wondering what she was thinking as well. She was supposed to be resting! "What are you doing?" He asked her but she had already called out for Samara, drawing the witch and her familiar back out as well.

"Isen, I thought I told you to clean this place up. It's a mess!" Samara grumbled as she walked through the door frame, her eyes settling on their visitor. "Oh! Hello!" She cooed, her tone changing immediately as she bound forward to greet her. "I would be that witch. My name is Samara, charmed to meet you! Aren't you just the cutest little thing." She smiled. "Nevermind the mess! I had some unexpected company over and they've made a ruckus of the place. What can I do for you, dear?"

Samara already had a pretty good idea why this vampire was here and so did Adelaide. She wanted to see it and, no doubt, learn the magic for herself. "Of course, my lovely protégé! I will teach you everything I know. Please! Come with us into the back! We don't bite." Samara giggled to herself, thinking she was clever with the vampire joke that probably only made things more awkward.

"...this is our greatest ally, right? Yeah, we're screwed."
 
"Uh.. Uh.." The vampire stuttered over her words as Samara appeared with Priscilla, no doubt deciding whether or not she should just turn around and walk back out of the shop. She hadn't expected there to be so many people there, let alone ones with weapons and one that had clearly been injured, despite the fact that he was moving around just fine now!

"I heard you helped people like me blend in so that we don't get caught and killed." If vampires could sweat the same way that humans did, the young woman would have been dripping perspiration right then, eyeing Samara cautiously but casting a far more wary and guarded look toward Isen. "I-I won't bite either, I made sure to eat before I came here so I wouldn't be actin' weird or nothin'." The more that the vampire spoke the faster her speech was, her accenet thickening as she stuttered and shifted in place before finally slinking closer to the other two women.

"Neither of them are gonna hurt you, it's okay. I'm Adelaide," The vampire's eyes went even wider as she gasped, shrinking back and then looking at Isen before it dawned on her. "He's not gonna hurt you, I promise. Come on, let's get you back so Samara can get you one of those weird watches." Adelaide couldn't help but feel a bit of pity for the frightened vampire. They were in a day and age that a creature that had once been considered so fearsome was now broken down nearly to tears at the thought of asking a witch for help.

"Shut up, Ignas." Adelaide snapped at the demon, ignoring the confused look she got from the vampire before she finally followed the witch and mage back into the messy room they'd come out of. Her eyes went wide at the mess Adelaide had created during her panic, causing the mage to give her an embarrassed look and shrug. "Yeah, it's been a crazy day, don't mind it. What's your name?"

"Um. Oh! R-Right, it's Isabella."
 
"A cute name for a cute lil' vamp." Samara chimed in, peeking her head around the corner of the door frame and waving both Isabella and Adelaide away into the back room.

Isen was confused but decided to let it go, for now. The vampire in question didn't appear dangerous or a threat, in fact she seemed down right terrified of what she had walked into. He went back to what he was doing, cleaning up and contemplating whether the deal he had offered to Takami was the right choice or not. He hadn't yet discussed any of this with Adelaide, or Samara for that matter, and she was the one holding the warrior captive so it was an inevitable confrontation.

By the time they had joined Samara inside, she had already procured one of the watches and had sat it down on the table, right next to the tome she had used when trying to diagnose Ember. Adelaide's familiar perked up upon noticing the new visitor and began to move towards her, sniffing and trying to get a feel for whether Isabella was a danger or not. If the strange combination of a witch, a wanted mage, an immortal demon and a chained up samurai hadn't been terrifying enough, surely the fact that there were also animals roaming around freely, both of whom seemed to be staring her down, would do the trick.

"Alright, so, a couple of ground rules before we get started! This spell will cloak you to the human eye but other Dissonants will still be able to tell what you are. It is an illusion, it is up to you to sell it. Don't do anything that you shouldn't be doing. That means no other magic, no feeding on humans, in the day light at least, and no contact with any one from the DSTF. They might seem like a bunch of goons but some of them really know their stuff and the closer you are to them, the more likely you are to be found out. Got it?" Samara asked, smiling sweetly.

"And there's one other thing. This watch will actually hold two spells. One will keep you concealed, the other will let me know when you take it off or if somebody has forcefully removed it. You cannot, under any circumstance, lead anybody back here to this place or speak openly about where you received this device. There are people all over this city who are using my protection, you wouldn't want to endanger all of them, would you? I didn't think so!" Piling on more and more warnings and reasons, Samara grabbed Adelaide by the hand and pulled her closer, maintaining contact as her second hand lifted upwards, hovering above the watch's face. She looked back towards Isabella for confirmation before beginning the spell.
 
"Right, don't.. Do anything I shouldn't be doing. I'm always as careful as I can, sometimes I don't even go to a human and I just find an animal," Isabella rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly, although she was still eyeballing Ember carefully even as the small cat rubbed against her leg and meowed in a friendly manner. Clearly Ember had decided that the vampire was in no way a threat, and was even warming up to her as Adelaide rolled her eyes and chuckled.

"I see how it is, cat. First new face that shows up and you're all over it. Figured you'd be hiding under a counter or something."

"That's just mean, mistress. I saved your butt out there, and what did I get? Whatever that witch did that made me get scared and hurt!" Ember wasn't technically wrong about any of that, but Adelaide rolled her eyes nonetheless and simply moved closer to Samara as Isabella watched the interaction with large eyes. By the time Adelaide remembered that she and Ignas were the only ones able to hear her familiar, Samara had tacked on several more warning to the jumpy vampire, who nodded so quickly the mage feared her head might fly off!

"No, I don't wanna get anyone hurt, I just wanna be able to stay safe and keep my people safe. It's better if at least one of us can move around freely, and then we can make sure there's food and a roof over our heads." Ah, she was one of those types, a fact that made Adelaide feel even more sorry for her and warm up to her more as she gripped Samara's hand and nodded first to the witch, and then to the vampire.

"Yeah, let's get the poor girl something that will help her out."
 
"Your people. How many vampires are you trying to take care of?" Samara asked, seeming genuine in her concern. How many more Dissonants were out there, suffering, because of the city they were stuck in? She knew she couldn't save them all but it really did seem like she wanted to try. For all of her short comings and strange quirks, the one thing that could never be in question about Samara was that she was interested in doing the right thing, she just had some very strange tendencies and roundabout ways of getting there. "I'll see what I can do. I mean that, honestly. But, let's go ahead and get you sat up first, okay?"

Samara made some motions with her fingers, drawing lines of energy from their tips and across the face of the watch. She moved around it's bezel, circling it several times until the glass facing shimmered. Because Adelaide was touching her, she was drawing the magic as well, but Samara instructed her to pick up the watch and touch it directly as well, just in case the imprinting didn't work the first time. "It doesn't have to be a watch, you know. It can be any object, really. It just needs to be something discrete, something that won't draw attention. Everybody needs to know the time, right?" She shrugged, motioning for Adelaide to hand the watch over to Isabella.

"Go ahead, try it on. There's a mirror in the back if you want to see the transformation first hand!" Samara seemed just as interested to see her handiwork come to life. She had done this numerous times before but never seemed to get less of a high from the feeling of seeing her magic cloak another Dissonant and keep them out of danger.
 
"Vampires? Uh.." Isabella began to count on her fingers, muttering under her breath before coming up with an answer. "Just seven, but we take care of others too, the vampires and werewolves don't have a big ol' rivalry like we used to. Not since all this started, now everyone just looks out for each other mostly."

Well, that was... Interesting, to say the least. Adelaide wasn't sure if she was surprised or not, but she noticed how Ember had warmed up to the vampire quickly and was still keeping close even while Samara prepared her spell. Interesting. She hadn't even been that clingy when being bonded to her, had she? The fact that the cat, the witch, and the mage all seemed to like Isabella so far was a good sign, and Adelaide was eager to learn how to help her as she watched closely while Samara began enchanting the watch. She followed the instructions and made certain to touch the watch carefully before handing it to Isabella, watching the vampire take it carefully before wrapping it around her small wrist. God, even vampires weren't supposed to be that small, right?

"Oh my god." Adelaide could see the transformation working once the magic had latched onto its host, and she watched the vampire's skin darker to a more natural tone, her eyes flickering from red to a deep brown so dark they were almost black. Lastly, when she gazed in the mirror inside the watch and smiled, her fangs were nowhere to be seen, and she slapped a hand to her mouth in shock before laughing.

"Is that really what I look like to other people?" She poked at her teeth, feeling the points but seeing that they were nowhere to be seen in the mirror. "I look like a regular ol' human! Oh, thank you miss! You don't know how much this is gon' help my people if I can go out and get us things without sticking out! It was so hard sneakin' around in the dark all the time just for scraps and stuff." She hesitated for a long moment before her thin arms were wrapping around Samara in a brief hug, and then she moved to Adelaide, holding her just a bit longer before stepping back.

"I support what y'all are doing, you know. Going after the DSTF. We, uh, don't have a lot of phones between the lot of us, but I can give you one of the numbers, and you call and ask for me if you need anything, either of you." She nodded to Samara and Adelaide. "You're kind of a big deal with us right now, you and your boyfriend." Why did everyone think that?

"He's not.. I'm glad we can help, Isabella."
 
Isen had been listening from the other room, snooping in on the conversation. From what he could tell, it seemed like everybody involved seem to have warmed up to this vampire pretty quickly, he was the odd one out. It also appeared that there were more like her who were struggling to get by and they had even begun to mix in with other Dissonants who they would have normally been at odds with. It seemed like everybody that was being oppressed were beginning to rally together, it was good news for them and what they were trying to accomplish. Isabella seemed to think so as well, from what Isen had overheard.

"Remember what I told you, all right?" Samara asked, returning the hug, a little surprised by the gesture though clearly it seemed to mean a lot to her. "If anything happens to that thing, you come straight back to me so I can fix it. Keep your head low and take care of the people that you love. You've got a good heart, I can tell. Don't let those DSTF bullies take that from you."

Samara was acting strange. Stranger than usual. Isen's instincts wanted him to believe his threat had made a difference in her but he knew that was a foolish thought, there was something more personal going on. He tuned out the conversation around the time yet another person seemed to imply that he and Adelaide were more than what they actually were; it didn't appear as if his monitoring was needed any longer anyways. Instead, he came back to Takami, who had been quiet since Isen had offered him that deal.

"Ora, you wanted me to prove to you that I was worthy, right?" He asked, speaking up once more.

"That is correct."

"I may have something in mind but we would need to convince Samara to free you from your bindings."

"What is it?"

"You seem like a man who values honor and so, if I'm to prove myself to you, I would like to do so in the most honorable way possible. I challenge you to a duel. Just you and me, no catalysts, no magic. We see who is better warrior and if I win, you join me and accept our deal."

"And if you lose?"

"You earn your freedom and you can do with it what you will. Find some place to hide until you draw your last breath, crawl back to the DSTF, you can hunt me down again if that's what you want. You would bound to nothing and nobody."

"...I accept your terms, demon."

That was step one. Now, he had to convince the others to go along with it.

Isen walked towards the back room, walking straight past Isabella and towards Adelaide. He could feel her looking at him as he walked. Was it really that strange to see the two of them together in person? Why was everyone making this into such a big deal?

"Isabella. My name is Isen. We didn't get a chance to speak before but you seem to have won the affection of these two in record time. If you're okay in their books then you are in mine as well. It's nice to meet you, I look forward to working together with you in the future." That was as polite as he was going to be. Adelaide should be proud of him for trying and not just ignoring the vampire altogether.
 
"I won't, miss. I can write down that number for you if you have pen and paper." A task that would easy enough for Samara or even Priscilla to achieve, and while she waited for them to procure paper the vampire turned her attention back to Adelaide and smiled. "You're so young but you're doin' all this, it means a lot to all of us that been around for a long time now." Just how old was Isabella that she was speaking like that? By the time Adelaide thought to ask, she'd been given paper and was scribbling down a phone number on it, turning back just in time for Isen to enter the room and walk right past her.

Just the feel of him so close was enough to make the vampire go still, her nose twitching before she scented the air and wrinkled her nose slightly. The amount of magic coming from that man was immense, combined with the other two women in the room and their familiars, it was almost too much. The way he spoke to her without looking was enough to keep her on edge despite his words, and it was only the reassuring smile from the blonde mage that allowed her to relax and slink back towards the door to the front half of the shop.

"Y'all just call when you need me, we're always around watching what goes on." The vampire was gone before Adelaide had a chance to respond, her attention turning back to Isen as she raised an eyebrow inquisitively at him.

"Did you have a nice talk with our prisoner while we were back here?"
 
Isen was confused as to why his attempt at greeting Isabella had gone so strangely. She had barely responded and quickly showed herself out immediately after. With his lack of social graces, he hadn't realized how intimidating it must have been, or that he could be in general, so he took that as a sign that Isabella wasn't really interested in talking to him. Old Isen wouldn't have cared. Current Isen held back the slightest hint of sadness before being brought back into the current conversation by Adelaide.

"That's actually why I'm here. I need to speak to the both of you about him."

"Oh, no. What has that newly grown conscience of yours decided this time?"

"That we need to free him from his bindings."

"Absolutely not. Did Adelaide melt your brain alongside your frozen heart? He wants you dead, he's trying to turn Adelaide over to the very people you're both trying to stop. And on top of all that, he has a catalyst that he can't be separated from and you're just going to let him walk out with it?"

"We came to an agreement. He has agreed to help us in our fight against the DSTF."

"An agreement? With the last son of Ora? Really? And you just decided to believe him? Honestly, Adelaide, what have you done to him?"

"Go ahead, Isen. Tell them your genius plan in full. I want to hear them laugh at it the way I did."

This was going about as well as Isen thought it would. He sighed, looking to Adelaide for any chance that she would support him and trust him where the witch would not. She knew him better, after all, she would know that he wouldn't agree to this if he wasn't certain it was a good idea. He just hoped she wouldn't ask what Takami would be getting in return for lending them his blade in their fight.
 
"We need to what now?" Adelaide's eyebrows shot up in surprise at Isen's proclamation, and she poked at him to make sure he was truly there before her. "Are you getting sick? You can't get sick. What the hell is going on?" She turned to Samara and threw her hands up in the air in exasperation. Why did everyone keep poking at them like they were a couple? Honestly! Just because Isen had been the one to snap her out of her panic that the witch had created in the first place.. Good grief!

"Wait, really? You got him to agree to fight them with us? What did you do, offer up someone's head on a silver platter for his help?" Surely the man wanted to kill certain members of the DSTF to get vengeance for his family, but she didn't know the first thing about that. "Okay, so he'll fight with us, and you really believe he's not going to turn around and stab you in the back and try to take Ignas again, or take me when you're not around?"
 
Of course she had to ask what was offered in return. He would try to avoid it for as long as he could.

"I do believe that, yes." He told her, nodding his head. "You're going to think that this is stupid but we've agreed to a duel."

"Oh, she's going to love that."

Well, now he needed to explain himself.

"He's a warrior. His people were warriors, you said so yourself, did you not, Samara? Honor is everything to him, it's tradition, and he asked me to prove myself to him so it made sense. If I can defeat him, I earn his respect and he agrees to fight with us. That's one less enemy we have to worry about and it's somebody with a catalyst, just like us, who may have some inside information on how the DSTF is operating...he told me that they've been tracking us this entire time, actually. They've known from the start where we've been, they probably already know we're back in Cresthaven as well."

"Tell him to give up on this horrible idea, witch. The Ora needs to be taken care of before he becomes a problem...before he just takes me away."

Isen's eyes narrowed, slightly. If Ignas were here, he'd be on the receiving end of a glare for even flirting with the idea of mentioning the other part of the deal.

"It isn't a horrible idea. It will work. We need all hands on deck, do we not? We aren't going to find anybody else more capable of joining us than him, unless you're planning on calling in your new vampire friend and all of her pals who haven't eaten properly in weeks? They're in no shape to fight, you know that. This is all we have, for better or for worse, and I believe that this is our best option."

"I need some time. I'll get back to you with my opinion on this shortly. The two of you behave in my shop while I'm gone, please. You've made enough of a mess already."

What did she mean by that? Isen sighed, again, watching as Samara slipped off into another room. Unbeknownst to him, she had intentions of using her foresight to see how terrible of an idea this was, though even if she had learned that it would be a disaster, it wasn't really something she could directly tell them...right?
 
"A duel." She wasn't sure if she wanted to laugh or call him stupid. A literally, and probably soon to be bloody, duel. "Of course they've been tracking us." She was never going to get any rest at this point, it was just one thing after the other. It made sense that the organization would have been tracking them, but did that mean that her inside man was a potential threat now? He hadn't reached out since she had tried to attack Lorelei, but Adelaide wasn't sure if he hadn't heard the news yet, or simply hadn't been able to reach out for one reason or another.

"He's not taking you anywhere, demon, as much as I would like to be blessed with the absence of your presence." At least if Ignas was still with them, she knew exactly where he was and what he could do, but having him free to wreak havoc with someone else.. Hell no. Even she wasn't that scatterbrained or stupid to think that could possibly be a good idea, and her look of exasperation at the entirety of the situation was clear.

"It's partially your fault I made the mess!" She turned her exasperation exclusively on Samara as the witch left the room, then shook her head and groaned. "You're going to need a shower when we figure out where to go next. We'll have to get you some new clothes now that you ruined yours." She finally turned her attention to Isen.

"Maybe I could make one of those things to make you look different, and then we can go out and get some more clothes. You definitely need them. I can't believe you ruined the nice ones I picked out for you."
 
Isen felt like Adelaide was talking down to him as though he were a child who had just gotten put into time out. He sighed before forming a response. "I apologize for getting stabbed while trying to protect you." He grumbled, mostly joking though there was a small hint of serious inflection in his voice as he passed off that comment. "We may as well wait until after I defeat Takami, or else we'll need to go shopping twice."

That made the most sense, at least. And though she seemed to find the idea amusing, she hadn't expressly turned it down, meaning that she would at least support him trying to bring Takami into the fold as long as he could prove to her that the warrior could be trusted.

"Adelaide, there's something we should probably discuss as well." Isen turned to face her, his body language indicating something uncomfortable was going through his mind. "I've been thinking about what comes next for a couple of days now. After all of this is over and you've gotten your revenge, I mean."

Isen seemed hesitant to continue this conversation even though it was a talk he had initiated. He suddenly felt as though it was too soon to bring it up. He wanted to change the subject but Ignas wasn't going to let him do it.

"Oh, wait until you hear what he's come up, witch."

There was an interruption, preventing him from going any farther. In that way, Isen was relieved, but the scene that began to play out was anything but reassuring. The door Samara had slipped behind had opened already. It had barely been a couple of minutes and she was already returning to them but there was a solemn look on her face. Priscilla fluttered in front of Samara, trying to prevent her from walking out any farther but the witch gently brushed her familiar aside and out of the way, stopping in front of Isen and Adelaide.

"We need to talk."

Her too? It seemed like everybody had something to tell Adelaide today.
 
"Well I didn't mean right this second. Just... Soon. I'd need to craft up something to make us look different anyway." Something she was too tired to do at the current moment, although they wouldn't have forever before they needed to move again.

"What about it?" She didn't like how he was hesitating, or the fact that Ignas seemed to smug to push him toward saying whatever it was. Whenever that demon was smug, it was a cause for worry, but she didn't have a chance to question it further before Samara reentered the room. Of all the times to say they needed to talk, it had to be now? Adelaide might have brushed her off and told her to wait had she not seen the way Priscilla had persistently tried to stop the witch from entering the room, but seeing her familiar try to stop her was worrisome.

"Please don't tell me the DSTF is about to show up at the door and we need to move."
 
The simple realization that Priscilla was trying to stop Samara from coming to talk to them was concerning to Isen, as well as the fact that the witch had barely been gone for a couple of minutes and already had such an urgent reason to come back.

"No. That isn't it."

Samara seemed conflicted. There was something heavy on her mind and she was debating how to deal with it. Priscilla squawked and she seemed to physically flinch from the sound. "I know. Yes! I know. I have to. I'm sorry."

"You have to?"

"Yeah." She replied, shortly, looking between Isen and Adelaide. "Don't make me regret this."

Priscilla made one final attempt at stopping her mistress from speaking and, upon being shooed away again, retreated to a perch over looking the room. The bird's body language seemed melancholic. What in the world was going on?

"I need the two of you to listen to me very closely. I...used my foresight. Just now. I've seen your future and...it's changed. It isn't what I saw before. I...I don't know what happened."

"Isen...I don't like this."

"You're dead. You're all dead. It's going to fail. Everything we've worked towards, everything we've been trying to do...we lose. We lose everything."

"Is it because of...Takami?"

"No. The Ora will be useful. It's...something else. Isen. Adelaide...I'm sorry. You need to stay away. Leave this city and don't come back. Leave before I make you. You have to go, now."

"We're not going anywhere. Tell us what happens." Isen told her, refusing to accept that they were going to fail. They couldn't. Not after everything they've been through, after everything Adelaide had been through. She had to tell them more. He didn't care if that wasn't how foresight worked, she had already told them this much, they needed more information to prevent whatever was coming.

"They're going to get to her. There's...there was nothing I could do. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Samara mumbled on repeat. Her eyes seemed to shimmer, for a moment, until they lost part of their trade mark glow.

And then, for the first time in twenty years, Samara the witch began to cry.

Tears began to build at the corner of her eyes before running down the curve of her cheeks. The first couple of droplets shimmered the way her eyes had but all of the tears that came afterwards were nothing more than simple water, staining her skin and dripping down on to the floor beside her feet.
 
"Then why is it so urgent?" She didn't like the way that Samara flinched from whatever the bird was saying, and even Ember seemed to be a bit on edge "You have to what, Samara?" Adelaide picked at the edge of her sleeve nervously, feeling the myriad of emotions coming from the witch and infecting her too. When even Ignas knew that something was very, very wrong, that confirmed the situation was taking a drastic turn out of nowhere.

"What?" It felt like she had been punched in the gut when Samara delivered the news, and Adelaide stared at her in shock. They all died? All of them? It wasn't even just hearing they would die, but hearing that they lost that nearly sent the mage to the floor, her hand reaching out to steady herself on Isen for a moment as she regained her composure. They lost?

"Me?" Her voice was almost a whisper when she spoke again, watching in stunned silence as the witch repeated her apology again and again. It was going to be her fault that they all died? As if the situation wasn't strained enough as it was, Samara began to do the last thing Adelaide had expected her to do, and cry. What e

"What else aren't you telling us? You wouldn't be crying if us leaving the city was the quick solution and everything would be fine."
 
"There is no 'quick solution'. There's only delaying the inevitable. If you go to that summit on Christmas Eve, you're both dead. At least if you leave the city maybe I can...I can buy you some time."

The way she was talking made it seem like she was intending to die as well. It was foreboading. Buy them sometime?

"Why are you talking like that?"

"Isen, I just gave up the only thing that made my life special enough to continue living." Samara said, crying still. She reached up to wipe her eyes, shaking her head. "Stupid, silly girl...I'm sorry, mom."

Isen turned to Adelaide instead. She was the reason why this failed? As if she needed another heavy weight on her heart after everything else that had happened. His hands came up to her shoulders, the way they had when he tried to calm her before. "Hey, look at me. We're going to change this. Whatever it is, we'll fix it."

"That's why I told you..."

Isen looked over his shoulder, back towards Samara.

"When I see what's coming...it's like I said before, I'm not supposed to say what it is. If I do, that future will change but...it's already a fucking mess, isn't it?" She said, swearing uncharacteristically. "So, maybe now it will change again. Maybe it will become something better but in case it doesn't, please. I need you both to go. Take the Priscilla with you and just go already!"
 
"Buy us some time?" Adelaide echoed Isen's confusion. "The only thing?" What the hell was she talking about? Adelaide looked up at Isen as he rested his hands on her shoulders, giving him what she hoped was a reassuring smile. She wasn't going to just break down right then and there because of some more bad news, all of that could wait until they'd gotten through the current predicament. Was it depressing? Absolutely. Did she have time to sit and cry about it while Samara was having a meltdown of her own? Absolutely not.

"Samara, what are you talking about? What did you give up that you're saying it made life worth living?" The foul language echoing around the room was entirely unlike the witch, and after a short moment of looking around the room, Adelaide broke away from Isen and stalked over to the other woman, wrapping her arms around her with a sigh.

"Priscilla is yours. That's your familiar, and she cares about you. Samara, just tell me what the fuck is going on so we can help."
 
The witch froze as she felt Adelaide's arms wrap around her. She tried to pull away, out of her hold, but it was half hearted at best and she instead decided to just lean against her for support instead. She sniffled, still crying but trying to pull herself together, turning her head slightly to look at Adelaide with a sadness in her eyes. "I care about her too. That's why you need to take her far away from here, from me, so that she can't get hurt."

"Nobody is taking anyone or anything away from here. We aren't leaving and we're not backing down. We'll figure out something else, we'll change whatever it is you saw. But it's going to be a hell of a lot harder to do that if you keep moping around without actually telling us what's going on." Isen was right and perhaps a little harsh in tone but it was the only way he could think of to get through to her. It also showed a large contrast between how he treated Adelaide and how he treated others, going from comforting and sympathetic to direct and blunt on a dime. Samara herself would have been impressed with that quick change over.

She remained quiet in Adelaide's arms, sobbing for a moment before looking back up at the two of them, her eyes still watering but not nearly as much as before. "You're both the worst..." She said but she did so with a tepid smile curling her lips.

"By telling you what I saw, I just gave up my foresight entirely. That's what I meant when I said I just gave away the one thing that made me special. I'm still a witch but there are tons of people who can use magic, some of them much better than I can." She added, implying Adelaide in that sentence.

She had given it up, willingly, to warn them? To change their future? Why would she do something so foolish?

"The gift of foresight moves down through a family by blood. My mother gave it to me the same way her mother gave it to her and so on. It passes down by giving it up willingly, being forced to lose it or, well...in her case, it was death. As you may have figured out already, much like the Ora out there, I am the last of my line. I was an only child, there is no other, and with me goes whatever was left of my family. There's nobody else to pass the gift to, it's gone now." She explained, shaking her head. "Maybe it's for the better. Something so powerful has no right to exist in a world where it could so easily be abused. At least I was the one who had it, not somebody from the DSTF or someone who would have used it for something bad. I tried to use it to help people...to make this fucked up city a little better for those who it had forsaken."

How much sadness had there been behind her cheerful, playful persona? Her past was as dark as either of theirs and she never showed it for a moment before now. One thing that had become very clear to Isen during his travels with Adelaide was that he wasn't the only one plagued by his past. It seemed everybody had something holding them down, some sort of grief or pain they couldn't let go of. He had felt like he was alone in his misery but that wasn't even the half of it.
 
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