"I fail to see how this would be beneficial for him," Lahar says.

"That's because you don't know the whole story. You just started midway, without any real beginning. Unlike you, I know it all, all the way to the prelude," he continues while his finger runs down the apple.

"I want to ask you something," Void says as he runs his finger around the apple vertically. "I feel like you have done enough for me to work with. It isn't complete, but I can work with what I have. So the question is, would you go home now?"

Lahar's hand twitches. Her eyes fixate on him.

"Like I said, I don't need you here. If anything, you would be a bother if you stayed. I am offering you a chance to go home. No silly business, and no tricks."

Void pulls on the apple, splitting it in half. "I am offering you a way home. You won't have to worry about a thing. You can resume your life right where you left off." Void hands her half of the apple, his arm extended out to her.

She doesn't reach for the apple, nor does she look away. "You had me there for a second," Lahar says softly. "You honestly think I would leave him here with you and those monsters in the field? After everything he has done for me, all the work he has put in?"

She stands up straight. With a deep breath, she speaks with conviction, even though fear owns half of her right now. "That would be an insult to him and me. In fact, I won't leave here without him. I won't let you get close. We will find our own way back home. You won't get his heart."

"Brave words," Void says. He throws half of the apple at her. She avoids the fruit, but Void is no longer sitting against the tree. He catches the half apple behind her. A fierce wind blows through—a wind as cold as the Alaskan winter. Lahar looks around to find a sea of white flames behind Void and surrounding her and the tree. Instead of a blazing heat, the flames give off a freezing cold rivaling that of a snowstorm.

"Will your words stay strong when you're confronted by what I can bring? I don't want this to turn into a war. Frankly, it would become a massacre. One that can be easily avoided," Void says in a dark tone.

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"Don't give me that. Before we even met you, no one was preventing you from leaving the cave. You decided to stay there of your own free will. You're a bird who refuses to leave his cage because he fears leaving," Lahar says angrily.

"You have a fiery temper. Will it keep you warm, though?" Void says as the white flames roar around her. "I can see your body trembling in the cold. Tell me, does it feel like parts of your body freeze one by one, or is it all at once?"

Lahar shakes as she feels her body freeze. Her breath makes a visible cloud with every exhalation, and she starts to feel weak. With her hands shaking, she pulls the water gun from the holster and aims it at Void. She stutters as the cold takes a hold of her. "N-now, that wasn't a v-very heroic th-thing to s-say."

She pulls the trigger, but just a cloud of cold air comes out. Void doesn't react. She pulls the trigger again and then again and then again. The same results happen. She stares at the water gun and focuses on the next shot. She can see the purple and blue light flow from her bangle to the water gun.

"Please stop this and just take my offer. All this is unnecessary," Void says calmly, reaching his hand out for her.

Lahar looks up at him. She stares into his white flames. Then she smiles. "Let me t-tell you something," she says. She takes a deep breath, and her mouth stops chattering. "I won't stop. I will always struggle. I never took anything lying down, and I sure as hell won't start now. I won't be the person who will hide behind someone else. Nor will I abandon him when I owe him so much. So, stop making me repeat myself. I won't leave the wisps, or Pie."

Lahar pulls the trigger as she yells, "I won't abandon him here with you!" With this, a stream of water fires out of the water gun. Shocked, Void takes the shot to the chest and is sent flying into the flames. Lahar drops down onto her knees. She stares at the flames as her chest hits the ground.

She can't move. The cold has taken her body as the shot of water took the last of her energy. The flames spread closer to her. "After all that bluster, I just fall," she thinks. "At least I got a shot in. That was more than last time." Her frozen lips find a way to smile as she lies there, her body slowly drifting away—and then a familiar feeling.

A warm comfort surrounds her body. The cold fades as the warmth of a summer day spreads through her. She can see some of the white flames start to turn gold with blue tips. She regains her strength, just enough to stand up.

She looks around the field to see the sea of white flames change. Void is nowhere to be found. She can still hear his words in her thoughts. "The offer will still stand. I hope there will come the day you will say yes," he says in a soft tone.

A blinding light shines, and Lahar uses her hand to protect her eyes. Then darkness.