Ed sunk back into his seat and closed his eyes. Serah seemed to be saying something but he’d tuned it out. In fact, he probably lay like that for all the way up until she stopped for what was probably the next ward.

He fumbled with the latch for a couple seconds before all but spilling out into the grass by the side of the road. It felt cold and wet against his cheek and his breath felt like drums in his ears.

“Ed?”

Between her red eyes and shiny white hair Serah looked like some sort of ghost backed by the darkness. The flashlight casting shadows up into her face wasn’t exactly helping anything either.

“Just uh,” He huffed, flopping onto his back. “Give me a minute.”

“You should not be out like this.” She seemed to take something out of her satchel before leaning down to stick what he was pretty sure was an over elongated stickynote onto his forehead. She took one out for herself too and pressed it onto her dress shirt before walking back to the car and unlatching the trunk.

Ed rolled into the shallow ditch by the side of the road. It was full of grass and was surprisingly dry despite the dew. There was no muck at the bottom either and Ed was starting to feel as if it was actually the perfect place to perhaps take just a tiny bit of a nap.

A pair of icy hands slipped under his arms. It was followed by a short huff of exertion as he felt himself be slowly dragged back up to the road.

“I will be moving you into the car. I would appreciate it if you would move your legs, Ed.”

“No, no, I got it.” He pushed himself out of her grasp then collapsed into the car and the door shut behind him.

Serah seemed to be talking again but this time not to him. Not that he was really paying attention. To be honest, for the rest of the ride he was pretty sure he was simply asleep. Or at least pretending to sleep.

It felt like that weird position where he wanted to but was just somehow unable to. By the time Serah made her last ward stop Ed was pretty sure there was magic involved too. It just felt so incredibly awkward the whole time.

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“Come.” The hands were under his arms again. “I can not move you by myself.”

With what he was pretty sure was a rather monumental amount of willpower Ed propped himself up once again and marched like some sort of robot behind Serah as she guided him down the walkways and halls to what he was pretty sure was her office.

She led him to a bed and before he knew it he was out like a light.

Only to be suddenly snapping up what felt like only seconds later.

“Harriet!” He blurted. He knew he’d forgotten something.

“Do not worry.” Groggily, if still somehow incredibly delicately, Serah shook her head up from the chair she’d apparently slept in. “She has been taken care of.”

Ed almost instantly relaxed at the words… except, just something about the way she’d said it didn’t quite sit right with him.

“Don’t you mean is? What do you mean by that; has been? Like, you guys have already protected her, she doesn’t need anything? She’s in a safehouse or uh, something?”

“Hmm?” Serah tilted her head, but only ever so slightly. “You are the one protected. Harriet Jacobs is has been terminated.”

Ed chuckled a little. “Could you run that by me one more time? I think I misheard you.”

“Mr. Garry made sure that she is no longer a potential loose end. I believe we still have the signatures as well.” She pulled a small white urn out from under the bed and carefully placed it into his hands.

“Of course he knows of a great many first branch curses so those are the remains. The most surefire way to remove any residue is to simply eat them but—”

Somewhat blankly, Ed opened the jar. A bit of silver shone out from a pile of ashes and Ed reached in to unearth it a little. He picked it out to examine.

“This is my aunt’s tooth isn’t it.” He’d recognized the little chip anywhere.

He dropped the urn and it rolled over the bed, spilling ashes across the sheets before shattering onto the floor.

Serah sounded very confused now. “Are you ok?” She seemed to examine him hesitantly. Which said a lot. She was a soulless construct after all, wasn’t she? “He says you can thank him for it later?”

Ed abruptly stopped laughing. At some point he’d started. Then he calmly wiped his eyes, dusting off his shirt a bit as he got up off the floor. While he wasn’t quite sure when, he’d gotten there too. He straightened his collar. “Oh yeah, totally good.” He gave her a cheery smile. “Couldn’t have said it better myself.”