Whitacre street snuggled under the blanket of the cloud covered midnight sky, blissfully unaware of the horrors that had just taken place on the artificial island across the sea. Felix landed gently in front of his house and swept the broken pieces of his door onto the street. It was a miracle that no one had burgled his house yet, considering that he had not returned home in more than a week.

“Felix, you’re finally back! I’ve been waiting for you here everyday- Oh gods, is that…?”

Felix nodded grimly as he lowered his sister’s corpse to the ground. Orpheus burst into tears, wailing loudly as he fell to his knees. Pain wracked his heart as well, but Felix had no more tears to spill. He could only stare blankly into space as a dull numbness replaced what should have been pain and grief within him.

“Death is not the end, my friend.” Orpheus wrapped his arms around him tightly. “Worry not. Marcia’s soul is pure; she’ll find her way to paradise.”

“Death… is not the end indeed!” Felix piped excitedly. “Didn’t you say that souls go to Purgatory before moving into the Afterlife?”

“Yes… but what has this gotta do with-” Orpheus hesitated, before his eyes widened dramatically in realisation. “No. Absolutely not. Don’t. Even. Think about it, Felix.”

“So it’s possible then?” Felix said. “Marcia can still be saved if I retrieve her soul from Purgatory!”

“No! I am not letting you do this!” Orpheus shoved him to a wall roughly. “That is a violation of almost every natural law there is. You cannot bear the consequences, Felix! Please, listen to me. She’s gone. The best we can do is honour her memory-”

“I can’t!”

Felix pushed his friend away and fell to his knees beside Marcia, holding her hand to his forehead as he sobbed again.

“I can’t, okay?” His voice cracked with emotion. “I can’t let her go like this, not when I know there’s still a way to save her. I owe it to her; I owe it to myself. I… I owe it to my parents to protect Marcia…”

“I know how you feel, but doing this might cost you your life.” Orpheus knelt down beside Felix. “You haven’t been inside that place. It’s pure chaos, it’ll drive you crazy! There are billions, probably even trillions of malicious spirits residing there. What are you gonna do if a whole gang of them shows up?”

“I’ll figure it out, Orpheus.” Felix sat down on the floor with his legs crossed, leaning against the wall. “Take care of my physical body, will you?”

Orpheus grabbed his hand and shook his head.

“No, I’m coming with you,” he said. “I won’t leave you to enter that accursed place alone.”

“What? That’s a violation of every natural law; you said so yourself!”

“I’d break any law for you, Felix. What kind of friend would I be if I left you to do this all by yourself?” Orpheus sat down beside Felix. “I can’t exactly be your tour guide there, but be rest assured, my friend. A Necromancer’s powers are drastically amplified when it comes to the matters of the dead. Give me a moment to prepare the incantations. Let’s do this together.”

“Thank you, Orpheus.”

----------------------------------------

“Hey Sergeant. Do me a favour and get those media people out of here, will ya? Tell them we’ll release a statement when we’re ready.”

The constable leader nodded and scurried off to the throngs of people struggling to lift their cameras above the technomagick barrier. The island was somehow still intact despite being lifted up and split in half, but he did not want to risk any further casualties before the Druids arrived to repair the land.

“Two Tier Five metas causing enough damage to wreck an island. What an absolute shitshow…” The Vice President muttered to himself. “How am I going to explain this to the public?”

Warlock Vulcan shook his head and turned his attention back to the floating tome, which had also remained undamaged somehow, despite the destruction wrought around it. He flipped it open, examining it intently.

“What’s the matter, sir?” Gaius approached him, pointing at the book in his hands. A strange expression was hanging on Vulcan’s face, almost as if he felt guilty for holding the book.

“Gaius! I… didn’t see you there.” Vulcan laughed nervously, tucking the book into his undersized Council jacket. He was the only one who still wore that poorly designed coat to missions; no one else fancied having their names broadcasted to the world in the middle of a fight.

Stolen story; please report.

“You recognise that book?” Gaius pressed.

Vulcan took a deep breath and exhaled loudly.

“Yes. Yes, I do.” He nodded in defeat. “Remember the raid I told you about? This is the very same tome I was tasked to pursue back then. Except…”

“Except what?”

“This book has been stripped of its protective wall of arcani.” Vulcan flipped its pages; almost every one of them had a huge blood smear on it. “The spell within it is exposed and no longer inert.”

“How did that happen?” Gaius asked curiously.

“It seems whatever Titus has been doing with this book only served to wear out its protective charms. But that’s ancient magic, it doesn’t make any sense.”

Gaius furrowed his eyebrows. Vulcan was right to be suspicious. Metas in Sirius city typically had a significantly lower level of education. How on earth did Titus learn how to use not just a magic spell, but perform a complicated ancient magic ritual?

“He said something about stabilising the spellcraft using the essence of psychic based metas. The crazed meta I fought in the sky library was part of Titus’ organisation too. Was he turning them mad using this tome?”

“Makes no sense to me.” Vulcan folded his arms. “I’ve consulted the shaman who performed that man’s autopsy. It seems it wasn’t his mind that went mad, but his entire being. In his last moments, his entire body was flooded with an excess of arcani. Reality broke down within him due to the instability and drove him crazy.”

Gaius took a moment to process that information.

“So… a psychic wouldn’t have helped either way?” he asked slowly.

“No, but someone who can regenerate quickly enough to stop the arcani from tearing his soul apart could, I guess.” Vulcan shrugged. “Not like we have anyone to test that theory though.”

Gaius pursed his lips. He would have laughed out loud at the irony of this conversation if he wasn’t trying his best not to give himself away.

“What really confuses me,” Vulcan continued. “Is why Titus knew the principle behind weakening the arcani seal, but not the principle behind his metas’ crazed state. It’s a fairly simple concept, even to a layman like me. It’s almost as if…”

“You suspect someone else told him what to do?” Gaius thought out loud.

“I suspect someone else tricked him into weakening the seal. Damn it, this is getting more and more dangerous the longer I think about it.”

“Warlock Vulcan,” a warm female voice interrupted them.

“Cleric Nerva.” Vulcan’s voice was full of relief.

“I’m done with…” Elpis’ eyes flitted to the rectangular shaped bulge in his breast pocket. “Ahem- I’m done healing the wounded. The ambulances are currently transporting those who require more attention to the hospitals. The constables are almost done collecting the evidence too. Severan asked if you found any on your side.”

“I-uh…” Vulcan stuttered. “N-no, I didn’t. Thanks, Elpis.”

The Sorcerer rolled his eyes. Gods, this man really sucks at lying.

“If you say so, Alcaeus.” Elpis walked away swiftly. Vulcan gave a sheepish smile to the boy glaring at him.

“I have to take the tome back to the Council Headquarters. Our archives are much more comprehensive,” Vulcan said. “It’s a personal matter; I have to do this myself.”

Gaius folded his arms. “That line sounds awfully familiar, Warlock Vulcan. I hope you know what you’re doing.”

“Dad, what’s going to happen to Felix?” Kleopatra’s voice butted in abruptly.

“Oh Kleo, you’re still here,” Vulcan said. “Felix went AWOL and even assaulted his colleague, so he should be court martialed under normal circumstances.”

“Wait, but he did all that to save his sister!” Kleopatra protested with a surprising amount of passion. “It’s not his fault. There’s no justice if he still has to get punished just for protecting his family!”

“We have to follow the law, Kleo. Or there will be anarchy,” Vulcan muttered as his daughter’s face fell considerably. He paused for a while, before smiling at her again. “Then again, he did single-handedly take down the Angelo siblings. I suppose I can convince the President to look the other way just this once.”

“I wonder where he went, though.” Kleopatra’s face brightened. “Hey Gaius, I don’t suppose you can repeat that ‘True Vision’ trick of yours and find him?”

“True Vision?” Vulcan raised an eyebrow at the boy. Gaius ignored him and looked around the hall rapidly emptying itself.

I suppose now’s as good a time as any…

Orange covered his eyes once more, and he did not have to exert himself this time. The Sorcerer pointed at the mainland across the sea.

“Felix is that way. He’s back home.”