Chandra and Archie stayed together for several hours, until shops started closing for the evening. When they met back up with Alex to head home, he had a shiny tattoo on his left hand. It was a much simpler design compared to the last one he got: a triangle of three combined bars to represent his health, stamina, and mana respectively. Inside the shape was a number representing his level.

"I gave up on getting the Waterloo model," Alex chuckled, when Chandra pointed this out. "This is the Yale variant."

Archie raised an eyebrow. While the odd shape made the tattoo harder to read, at the very least it took up less space on Alex's hand. There wasn't even a twinge of aether, it was a well-made brand.

"Did you two have fun?" Alex asked, as he strode over to the car. Chandra lagged behind him a few paces, and Archie made sure to match her pace.

"Yes, we had a lovely time," Archie declared, lifting the bag at his side to show off their purchases. "I have some new goodies for Zack, as well as some extras for my own benefit. More importantly, I got to spend several hours in the company of a wondrous young lady."

Candra flicked her ears but didn't say anything. She clung tighter to Archie's arm, as though unwilling to let him go.

As they drew nearer to Alex's car, Archie felt her grip on his arm loosen. He lagged a step and looked at her concerningly. "Something the matter?"

"I'm just worried. I haven't brought it up because you asked me not to try and talk you out of it, but I can't my fears about what you intend to do," she finally said. Grabbing Archie by both hands, she stepped in front of him and looked him in the eyes. "Archie, I think it's safe to say we both have feelings for each other, right?"

"Of course," Archie declared, without a shred of hesitation. He enjoyed Chandra's company, and couldn't imagine anyone treating him the way she did.

"Then I would be remiss if I didn't try to talk you out of this. Please, what you're planning to do, it's insanity!" Chandra insisted. "You're not talking about robbing something as mundane as a bank, or a jewelry store. Those are all normal things, with normal levels of security and magic. You're talking about stealing from an Archmage! Do you understand what that means?"

Alex lingered with his car door open, watching the two in their debate. Archie gave him a quick dip of the chin, and watched as the only human among them slipped into his vehicle. Then, he turned his attention back to Chandra. He looked her in the eyes, her golden lupine gaze against his chestnut brown.

Archie leaned in and kissed her in the lips. It was a clumsy affair, with her long muzzle and his stubby lapine snout, but it was something he wanted to do. The shock of it sent Chandra's ears upright, but she didn't pull away from him. He held the kiss for several seconds, then pulled away.

"I'm glad that you're worried about me. It feels good to know there is someone out here that cares," Archie said. "But I have to do this."

"Just because Zack said so? Why do you have to do what he says!?" Chandra growled, her moment of euphoria passing as quickly as it came.

"I don't," Archie reminded her. "Zack has no control over me. He can't manipulate me the way he can Jean-Claude, the Medibolds, or even Thumper. Since my inception, I've been an independent creature with my own thoughts, wants, and needs."

"So why are you going along with him? Why risk it at all?"

"Because, independence or not, I'm still a part of him."

"But you just said he doesn't control you."

"And I'm not taking that back, but I'm not talking about control. I'm talking about something much deeper." Archie guided Chandra over to the hood of Alex's car, where the two of them sat. The hood buckled a bit beneath their combined weight, and the engine rumbled beneath them. Both of them ignored these things, and focused on each other. "I understand that this might be hard to grasp, so allow me to explain in a way that might make it clearer. When you are afraid, does your body react?"

Chandra frowned and considered it. "Yes, my legs start shaking."

"Why would your legs shake? You are the one afraid, not them."

"Because they are a part of me!" Chandra said, as though the answer was obvious.

"Exactly. It's like that for me and Zack. I am not his servant, but I am a part of him. When he is frightened or angry, it's an emotion that I can feel as deeply as if it were my own. It's for this reason that Jean-Claude throws his hands up in frustration every time Zack gets angry—or the Medibolds are always happy. We are a part of him, and he is a part of us. Do you understand?"

Chandra's frown deepened and she looked up to meet Archie's gaze. "So even though you have free will and thought, you don't have free emotion?"

"I… I suppose that is one way of putting it, yes. I think a better way might be that Zack is very bad at regulating his emotions, and cannot control what slips out of him now and again. It's not every bout of anger than makes Jean-Claude throw up his hands."

"This is even worse. It is one thing to pull off a heist like this for selfish reasons, but you're talking about robbing an Archmage on the emotional tantrum of a giant crystal baby." Chandra crossed her arms and lifted her nose, then realized what she said. "I'm sorry, I realize that might be offensive."

"It might offend Zack, but we've already established that I am not him. And we're not robbing an Archmage for selfish reasons, or at the whims of Zack's tantrum. Snow has a crystal core, and whether he realizes or not, he is holding someone hotage. I agree with Zack, this is not an offense we can simply brush under the rug."

"And why not?"

Archie thought long and hard about the answer, trying to put it into words that Chandra would not only understand, but would convince her was just. Finally, he shook his head. "I do not think there is anything we can say that would convince the other of our position. You are looking at this issue from a strictly human perspective. I am not human, nor am I confined to the same restrictions as one. Zack is a core, and a fellow core is being held against its will. That, to me, is more than enough to justify our intentions."

Chandra finally released her grip on Archie's arm and held her hands in his lap. "Then I guess this is goodbye."

"It doesn't have to be. It could just be farewell for now."

"No, Archie. If I come with you again, someone will catch wind that I was complicit in this robbery. Aiding and abetting or what have you. Werebeasts don't handle prison well. The beast inside longs to be free, to run through open fields and live in nature. Do you know how hard it is for me not to go feral every single day? It's only by letting the wolf out in bits and pieces, like I'm doing now, that I can even control it." Chandra shook her head vigorously. "I can't see you again. Not if you go through with this."

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Archie rose from his seat on Alex's car, and gently took her by the hands again. With care and ease, he helped lift her back to her feet, then carefully pulled her into a hug. "I am sorry that it has to be this way. I really am. But I have to do this. This is my role, my purpose to fulfill within the dungeon. I am Zack's hand beyond his walls."

"Then, it is as I said. Goodbye, Archie."

"Goodbye, Chandra."

Archie leaned in to kiss her again, but this time she pulled away. With her ears flat against her head, and her tail tucked between her legs, Chandra turned and jogged away. She was headed straight for a bus stop, and she didn't once look back. Archie stood and watched as a bus rolled up nearly five minutes later, and Chandra climbed aboard. As she stepped into the vehicle, the driver gave her a suspicious look, and she quickly shifted out of her half-wolf form. She extracted a pair of slip-on shoes from her purse and tugged them on, then paid the fare with a tap of her phone.

The bus pulled away, taking Chandra with it.

Archie let out a long sigh, before stepping around to the side of the car and throwing himself into the passenger seat. He didn't even bother to do up his seatbelt as Alex pulled out of his parking spot and started heading down the road.

"That could have gone better, I take it," Alex said, chuckling.

"Everything could go better, Alexander," Archie scoffed. He stuffed his bags under the dashboard and finally tugged his seatbelt on.

"Do you… Do you actually like her?"

"What sort of question is that!? Of course I like her!" Archie stammered.

"It's just… You're a sexless monster. She's a werewolf. You know they go into heat during mating season, right?"

"That's highly inappropriate," Archie sneered.

"Sorry. I'm just trying to understand how this works. She's a person, and you're—"

"I am as much as person as you are, Alex. Watch your next words carefully."

Alex paled. "Sorry. I'm just trying to understand how this works. She was born a human almost thirty years ago. You were born a wild rabbit not a month ago. It's just weird to me, is all."

Archie relaxed in his seat and tried to look less put off by Alex's questions. The two rode in silence for several minutes, as Alex pulled onto the highway that would take them out of the city and back to the Northville mall. Finally, he found the words he wanted to say. "Chandra understands me in a way that I didn't realize was possible for people outside the dungeon to grasp. She doesn't see me as just another monster, nor does she coddle me the way you do. To her, I am more than just a dungeon mob. I am a person, her equal in every way. I find that sensibility remarkably attractive."

"So you're turned on by… being treated like a normal person?"

"That's a horribly vulgar way of putting it, but sufficient enough I suppose. Not even Zack treats me like that. To him, I'm just another part of his dungeon. A mob that talks too much and has its own opinions, but a mob all the same. I'm sure he would prefer if I were more like the kobolds: stupid and obedient, rather than proactive and wise."

"Come on, isn't that a bit harsh?"

"Hardly. As everyone seems so quick to forget, I am a part of Zack." Archie put heavy emphasis on the words, his frustration at having to remind someone of this yet again building. "I know what he feels, even if he doesn't realize he's projecting it. He doesn't like that I have control over my own space. He doesn't like that I was in charge during his absence. Hell, I'm fairly positive that he doesn't even like that I can wander the halls unsupervised. But I am a tool at his disposal, and he will wield me however he sees fit."

Alex frowned as he changed out of the slow lane and into the faster moving middle lane. "That seems like a horrible way to live," he admitted.

Archie shrugged. Carefully, he pulled off his beanie cap, threading it off his horn. "I suppose it would to an outsider, but it's all I've ever known. As you said, I was born a month ago."

Alex pursed his lips and considered that for a long moment, his eyes never leaving the road. After a minute of uncomfortable silence, he reached for his dashboard to turn on the radio, syncing it to his phone to play music from his personal collection. A smashing drum beat echoed through the vehicle, followed by the screech of an electric guitar.

Archie immediately twisted the knob to lower the volume.

"Hey man, not cool. Driver picks the tunes, shotgun shuts his pie hole," Alex pointed out, reaching to crank the volume again.

"You're not the one with sensitive animal hearing," Archie reminded him, flicking his long rabbit ears in demonstration.

"Oh. Right. Would you maybe prefer something more gentle? Mozart maybe? How about Vivaldi?"

"Are you mocking me?" Archie asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Sorry, couldn't help it. You are a bit of an old fashioned bunny."

Archie rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, leaning his head against the rest as he watched the countryside go by. A fox on the side of the road was carrying a rabbit carcasse in its mouth, and Archie couldn't help but feel a sympathetic shudder as his feral, naturalborn kin was carted away to be food.

He idly wondered whether things would have been different for that rabbit if it had magic. That thought quickly gave way to wondering what made a dead rabbit different from a hostage dungeon core. Did Archie have the right to save his fellow rabbits from foxes? No, he ultimately decided, because foxes were a natural predator of rabbits. If Archie kept them apart, rabbits would overwhelm the ecosystem. They would breed explosively, until there wasn't enough food left to sustain them. Then they would starve.

Predators and prey. It was a delicate balance, but it was an important one nonetheless. If one thing was off, the entire dychotomy would be thrown into chaos. In a way, did that maybe extend to dungeon cores? If foxes hunting rabbits helped keep their population in check, could the same not be said of Archmages hunting cores?

No, he decided again. Cores could not reproduce the way rabbits could. It remained to be seen if they could reproduce at all, but one thing was abundantly clear: removing core from the echosystem destabilized matters the same way removing foxes would.

Archie could see the loose aether hanging in the hair. Like a tangled nest of fibers that floated three feet off the ground, the lingering scars of magical battles tainting the earth. It was varied in colour, but its presence was unmistakable.

"Monsters were fought here," Archie finally said, as they passed a particularly dense patch of orange-red aether. Just passed the highway guard rail, Archie caught sight of a lush pine forest. Aether drifted between the trees in a rainbow of different colours, but none as dense as the orange hanging like fog.

"Yeah. Monsters tend to pop up in wild places like that, so adventurers get sent in to deal with the bad ones. Only the bad ones," Alex added. "Too much magical combat and you risk something worse popping up."

Archie nodded, as the fiery aether dipped into a tree. They drove on at highway speeds, and he didn't get to see what would happen, but he had a feeling that one of those trees might wake up and start walking around sooner or later. That much aether couldn't possibly be good for the environment.

"A core would help fix this," he said, frowning. "That's the function of cores: to clean aether and convert it back into mana. Things shouldn't be like this…"

"Well, what can you do about it?"

"I'm going to steal Snow's core and help it fix this problem, obviously," Archie scoffed.

Alex nodded. "Yeah. I guess that is something you can do."

"And I'm going to find every core I can. The balance of magic in nature is thrown off by the lack of cores. It needs to be rectified."

"That's as respectable a goal as any, I guess," Alex said.

Archie considered saying something else, just to really drive home his resolve, but nothing came to mind. The world needed fresh cores, but there was only so much he could do to provide them. For now, he needed to focus on getting Snow's core back. That was his first priority.

Once he liberated that core, he and Zack could formulate a plan for freeing others.

Archie was still concocting a plan for how he intended to find cores as Alex pulled off the highway. As their vehicle entered the overgrown streets that led back to the Northville mall, Archie saw something black billowing up over the horizon.

"Alex?" Archie tapped his friend on the shoulder.

"I see it too," Alex whispered. "Hang on. I hope there's no cops on the road, because I'm about to do something very illegal."

Alex pressed the gas pedal as hard as he could, shooting off down the road at speeds that were fast even for the highway they just exited. A glance at the dashboard showed Alex's speed climbing well passed a hundred and twenty kilometers per hour and still climbing. He slowed down only to take a sharp turn around a corner and onto a cracked, grassy road.

That was when Archie saw it. The black smoke filling the air, the caustic stench choking his lungs. As Alex pulled the car to a stop, Archie practically threw himself out the front door and ran as fast as he could.

Northville Mall, Zack's dungeon, was on fire.