Last Time on Her Broken Magic…

Episode 3: Out of the Frying Pan…, Recap

1. Jac and Belle reached the city of Ace after days of traveling, with Belle still in a daze and covered in old monster blood. Belle finally fully came to just as they were reaching Quiet House, but they found the gates of the house already open.

2. Z Vigore had come to Quiet House looking for Belle. They bathed Belle while questioning her on where she had been and what happened to her, but she wouldn’t tell. Eventually, Z revealed that they needed Belle’s assistance in “taming” a Selachian Inhuman, known for their tracking skills, who had run off to the city of Luvatha. Z explained this job was urgent because they needed to get the Selachian to Duxon before Daivad’s trail went cold.

3. Soon after Daivad and the prisoners from Duxon finally returned to the camp in Silvax Forest, Daivad was woken by a small, foul-mouthed monster that he thought was trying to vomit in his house. After failing to get the monster out of his house, Daivad let it puke up a message in Belle’s voice. Belle introduced the monster as “Julius” and informed Daivad of what Z had told her, and suggested Daivad intervene before Ubika found his trail.

4. Daivad told Tobei and Ben, who was very frustrated with Daivad’s behavior, what Belle had said in her message. Anxious seeing Daivad and Ben at odds, Tobei did his best to fix the problem by suggesting both Daivad and Ben go to Luvatha to deal with the Selachian.

5. On their way out of Ace, Z, Jac, and Belle stopped by a mail coop so Z could deliver a letter to the queen, but inside the coop Belle discovered a baby monster that had been wreaking havoc with the messenger birds. When one of the messenger birds attacked Jac in its panic, she tried to use her magic to dissuade it, but her practice failed due to her contract with Cuppedia, making Jac feel ashamed and embarrassed.

6. Belle rescued the baby monster, which she named Kitten, and took him with her. Jac became nervous, knowing that when something inevitably happened to the monster, it could hurt Belle just as badly as Clarix’s loss had hurt her. She convinced Belle that it was best to just set Kitten free.

7. Pait, a young pickpocket in the city of Luvatha, just narrowly escaped the city guard, finding safety in the basement of a gambling house where she and several other children lived. When she saw that two of the children had spent their rent money on food that day, Pait gave them the purse she had just stolen and decided to sneak back out to make her own rent later that night.

8. Belle, Jac, and Z arrived at Z’s house in Luvatha, and Belle took Kitten, who she had hidden in her bag without Jac’s knowledge, out to the courtyard to run around. Later, Z insisted that Belle teach them how she was able to charm beasts and shifted their body to appear as soft as Belle.

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9. Pait snuck out of the basement, and in her desperation to make her rent payment went to an incredibly dangerous deathmatch fighting pit that was high risk, high reward for thieves. Kure Ubika came out as the next fighter and captivated the crowd enough that Pait was just about to steal her rent—but instead became too horrified at what Kure did to his opponent and ran out of the pit in a panic.

10. Daivad and Ben arrived in Luvatha and checked into an inn before heading out into the night to look for sign of Ubika. Before they got far, they found Pait being harassed by some people looking for rent. Pait began kicking her harassers’ asses, shouting about a “shark-looking fucker” she had seen, and Daivad and Ben finished kicking their asses. Pait hugged Daivad, thanking him, and told them where they could find the “shark-looking fucker.” With Pait’s directions, it took them no time to find Kure at the center of a budding riot, and Daivad decided to use the stone that could call Julius to send a message to Belle. But he quickly realized that his coin purse, where he’d placed the stone, was gone—stolen by Pait. Daivad told Ben to watch Kure while he went after Pait.

11. At Z’s house, Belle let her magic spread out as far as possible so she could see the magics all across the city, in search of Kure Ubika. After a moment, she sensed the magic of the riot that was beginning, and Z was sure that Ubika must be the cause.

12. Daivad tracked Pait back to an alley and insisted she give him the stone, but she told him that she had turned the purse over to her landlady, who still kicked Pait out anyway. Daivad could tell that Pait was keeping something back, but before he could get the stone from her, she slipped away from him.

13. Jac, Z, and Belle were in a traffic jam in Z’s carriage on their way toward the riot when Belle hopped out of the carriage and Jac had to chase after her. Belle found Kure surrounded by guards all trying to apprehend him, and she spoke to him in the language of monsters. Kure spotted Jac and immediately sensed her power and agreed to Belle’s terms that if Jac could beat him in battle, he would go wherever Belle wanted him to.

14. Pait was running from Daivad, but none of her usual escape artist tactics for dodging the guards were working on him. She saw some commotion going on up ahead and thought that could be just the distraction she would need to slip away, so she ran right toward the riot.

15. Jac was just about to attack Kure when again her practice failed her due to her contract with Cuppedia. Kure lost interest in Jac’s “borrowed power” immediately, dismissing Jac as “not worth killing,” and again Jac was crushed by shame and powerlessness. Belle, furious, climbed on Kure’s back and held one of her knives to his throat, insisting he apologize to Jac. Z arrived and was just coaxing Belle away from Kure when Pait ran into the fray.

16. Daivad, still chasing Pait, realized just in time what was ahead of him and ducked out of sight of Z and the City Guard. Daivad was about to sneak away when the Head of the City Guard, Johnson, threatened to send Pait to one of the labor camps. Daivad froze, not wanting to abandon a kid but also afraid his presence might put Belle under suspicion. Before he could decide to stay or go, Kure followed Belle’s gaze and, judging him to be “worth killing,” attacked Daivad. Daivad had to defend himself, and Z saw him.

17. While Johnson escorted Pait, Belle, and Jac toward the East Gate cellblock, Belle and Jac did their best to dissuade him from imprisoning and marking Pait, and Belle attempted to help Pait escape, but their attempts failed. The episode ended with Pait in a cell, and a guard entering with the materials needed to mark her, permanently.