Ambrose couldn’t get anything else out of Sunfa, who continued to repeat the mantra of ‘Talin’ and ‘not Talin’ over and over again. She no longer tried to attack Ambrose however, and so she put Sunfa on her back and began climbing down to the ground.

After planting her feet on the ground, Ambrose began to backtrack and lead Sunfa to the village. The trip back was much quicker, and soon enough Ambrose found herself just outside of the village’s edge. Carefully making her way forward, she leads Sunfa to the house the others are resting at.

The village remains quiet as Ambrose looks around. Nothing moves, with only the smell of decayed flesh to accompany her. Once Ambrose reaches the house, she approaches quietly and scales up and through its window, bringing Sunfa with her. Leading her forward she treads lightly as she makes her way to Anastasia and Meize.

Ambrose steps into the shadow of the door, her eyes taking in Anastasia’s figure beside Meize. Her body sways, exhaustion almost oozing out of her, but she stands tall regardless, carefully wiping Meize’s brow.

“Anastasia.” Ambrose whispers, causing her to shoot up with a soft shriek.

“Ambrose.” Anastasia hisses as she turns around. “Don’t sneak up on a tired person!” She goes to say something else, before completely freezing as her eyes taken in the other figure. “W-what the hell is that.” Her nose wrinkles at the sight of Sunfa, pure shock on her face.

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“Sunfa.” Ambrose says, bringing Sunfa arm’s up in almost a wave. Anastasia tenses at the sight, her sharp claws in clear view.

“Talin. Not Talin. Talin.” Sunfa continues to drone on, ignoring everything around her.

“Well.” Ambrose says, picking her words carefully as she looks down at the crazy sight. “I can explain.”

“I’m sure you can.” Anastasia says, massaging her forehead. “But I need to sleep.”

“Where’s Bunny?” Ambrose asks as she looks around.

“Asleep. Where I’ll soon be.” Anastasia says. Ambrose approaches the bed, and looks down at Meize. His face is pale, far more than before, with a lustreless sheen.

“You never left his side?” Ambrose asks.

“Not for a single second.” Anastasia answers solemnly. “Not one.” Ambrose looks at her, hesitating for a moment, before smiling gently.

“Thank you.” Ambrose says. She lets go of Sunfa’s hand and moves toward Anastasia, who was now barely keeping her eyes open. “Sleep. I’ll keep you safe.”

“Okay…” Anastasia mutters, collapsing into Ambrose’s arms. Her breaths fill the room in uneven waves. Ambrose looks at her gently for a moment, before bringing her over and resting her next to Meize in the bed.

“You’re back.” Ambrose turns to see Bunny leaning against the door, watching Sunfa. “I uh…what.”

“Let me explain.” Ambrose heaves a deep sigh. She goes through it slowly with Bunny, telling her of what she found. At its end, Bunny simply raises her eyebrow.

“Ignoring the cryptic message this…thing…told you, I think the thing it’s droning on about is more important.” Bunny says, deep in thought. “We know one child died, one of them is…this. That leaves Talin. Maybe the same thing happened to the villagers was done to him.” She looks down at Sunfa, who is staring at the wall in a daze. “Maybe it broke her.”

“I don’t know.” Ambrose says. She looks at Anastasia. “But I know where we can find out.”

“…The shrine.” Bunny answers. Her eyes cast across to where it stands tall, its long shadow cast over the village.