It hurt to move, but I ran to her anyway.

I stopped short though. I didn’t want to hurt her more by hugging her.

She put a hand on my right shoulder, then hit her knees as she buried herself in my chest.

Hye ran over and inspected the wound and began healing her. Unfortunately, by the time he got her healed, the Enforcers had arrived.

ArchBishop Mavery got out of the lead armored vehicle and marched over to us. There were dead Bandits all over the place. He looked at Trent, then at me. “WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS???”

I shrugged and pointed at Sipher. "We got the bad guy?”

The balding old man stomped over to me. I was sitting on the ground with Gesai’s head in my lap and Hye sitting next to her.

“I gave you very specific instructions about how to conduct yourself and this..!” He waves his arms all over the place. "IS NOT IT!”

I swallowed. "Sorry.”

“SORRY?! SORRY?!” ArchBishop Mavery’s face got red. "WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF YOU’D DIED OR WORSE?” The balding man shook his fist in my face. "THERE ARE WORSE THINGS THAN DEATH!”

I pointed at Sipher. "Then can you do those things to him?”

The ArchBishop stared me down, then turned to Hye. “AND WHERE WERE YOU DURING ALL OF THIS? HUH! YOU”RE SUPPOSED TO BE LOOKING AFTER HIM! AND WHERE IS THAT USELESS DAUGHTER OF YOURS?”

“Hey!” I grabbed his fist, which earned me gasps from a lot of the people around me. Most of them were Enforcers. “If you want to blame someone, then there are people to blame but it’s not Hye!” I leaned forward. "OR JUSTIA!”

You could have heard a pin drop. No one moved. Even Sipher was frozen by my brazenness towards the ArchBishop. It only took a minute for me to realize why. The ArchBishop had authority that was just below that of Gods. The Cathedral could be considered its own realm and the ArchBishop had authority over not only the Cathedral, but also all the Temples in the nearby cities. And I had basically just given him an order.

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“Then who… is to blame?” The ArchBishop lowered his tone.

“Sipher Gar and Farsch Alard made this plan.” I didn’t break eye contact. "I think you can agree that those two are way out of the league of the Publian Clinic.”

The ArchBishop stared at me for a little while longer, then turned to Hye. “It appears that I was acting on bad information. I assure you, this Clinic war is over today. I apologize for misplacing blame.”

The old man looked around at the Enforcers, “What are you standing around for?! Get this stuff recorded and packed up!” He stood up and walked over to Trent. "What have we here?”

“Sipher Gar.” Trent held him up. "One of the masterminds of this fiasco.” The old ArchWizard shook his prisoner. "He believes that you’re going to receive too much pressure to hold him.”

“Is that true?” ArchBishop Mavery turned to Sipher. "And who would these powerful friends be?”

“You took orders from the boy…” Sipher smiled broadly and looked at Trent, then me. "I should have known what I had my hands on…”

Gesai scrambled to her feet and grabbed the short sword on Trent’s hip. It’d seen the burns on Fray’s hands, but this was a Four Tier difference, not a one level. Smoke rolled off of her hands as they caught fire.

Trents and Mavery stepped back as Gesai stabbed him in the chest.

Sipher leaned forward. Resting his head on her shoulders. "Too. Bad. They. Can. Heal. That.”

Blue light engulfed her as Hye held out his hand.

I could see the pain on her face as she pulled out the sword. Tears were flowing freely down her face as she stepped back.

“AAAAHAHHHH!!!” She swung the sword, but it didn’t go through Sipher’s neck. She had to steady him with her foot. I saw the flames die down a little and the blade turned red.

Justia was walking towards us with both of her hands out. Ren was right behind her, focused on the weapon.

Rix appeared behind him to steady him as Gesai pulled out the sword.

“You..” Sipher sputtered. "Kill…”

“GGGAAAAHAHH!!!” Gesai took his head off with the next swing. She dropped the sword and fell over as she flash with light so many times.

I ran over to her and knelt beside her. There was an imprint of the insignia at the end of Trent’s sword melted into her blackened hands.

“Why?” I could stop the tears from flowing

“He…” I could see the pain on her face as she twitched. "Knew too much…”

I cradled her head as she closed her eyes.