Lysithea sat with her back against the cold stone of the crypt upon the hill by the side of the large graveyard. She was hidden from the rain by her large umbrella.

She watched the grey water fall from the crying sky and slowly she caught something flickering in the corner of her eye. She turned her head and watched as Summers emerged from nowhere, with her hands deep in her pockets and her spectacles far down her skinny nose.

"Summers!" Lysithea beamed, her smile growing large on her face and she instantly held the umbrella high enough for it to cover the both of them.

"I'm so happy to-... to see you. How have you been?"

The little gnome pulled her glasses back up over the bridge of her nose with one finger and came to stand a little closer to the young woman to hide from the rain even though it seemed as if the drops fell right through her.

"I have been… well. As well as one can be when they are nothing yet everything at once." Summers stared out over the graveyard and then looked down towards Lysithea who continued to smile.

"I cannot quite understand many things you say but-... but it doesn't matter. I love talking to you regardless."

"And I love talking to you. You're such a kind soul. I see you like a candle lost in a black sea, burning bright and with such a guiding light."

Lysithea leaned against the wall behind her and watched the calmness of the graves with Summers standing by her side. 

"You're too kind to-... to me. I'm not-... not anything."

"Ah, but you are. You're you, just as I am me. We are us and therefore we are something." The woman removed her glasses and began to clean them against the end of her coat. "You have been searching for Alistair, I heard."

"I have, yes." She glanced down into the wet grass, sighing heavily. "But with no luck. I saw-... saw him a few days ago but he vanished before I-... I could speak with him, with the arrival of the dawn."

Summers hummed and placed her spectacles back on her nose. 

"I also think that I-... I have done something terrible."

"Is that so?"

Lysithea nodded, too ashamed to look the gnome in the eyes and instead her gaze fell upon the shadow which pointed and laughed at her.

"I met a man who-... who said he knew Alistair and who said that he-... he could make sure that I could meet him." Lysithea explained, spinning her umbrella and listened as it sprayed water which had been collecting above it all around them. "But he said that in-... in exchange he wanted some of my-... my ugly blood."

Summers sat down next to her and continued to silently watch the rain as Lysithea slowly told her story and explained what had happened within the sewers below Rosas. For each sentence spoken the shimmering gnome frowned deeper and deeper.

"And he said that once Alistair had tasted the sample he-... would look for me, find me and-... and never leave my side again."

"You did what I told you not to do!"

"I know! I know… I panicked I-... I thought I would never see him again! I was-... I was desperate and stupid." Lysithea stroked the back of her free hand over her eyes.

"Hmrh… Well, all is not lost." Summers tapped her chin with her index finger as she pondered and Lysithea snapped her gaze towards her.

"Isn't it?"

"Why no, of course not. There is always more than one path to a destination, even if you have to pave it yourself." Summers lay down in the grass and looked upwards, past the umbrella and into the grey and cold sky.

"It will be more complicated and take a much longer time before you can begin his medical treatment."

"Medical treatment?"

"Oh, yes. Excuse me, I forgot if we had spoken about this already or not. Sometimes my idea of a future conversation gets so vivid that I feel as if I've already had it. Dreams can be so strange, can't they?" The small woman placed her arm under her head as she spoke, using it as a makeshift pillow, smacking her lips. "Why do you wish to speak to DeLaine?"

Lysithea pulled up her knees and wrapped her arm around them.

"I wish to help-... help him. To make him feel less lonely. I think-... think that deep inside he has a spark of light waiting to be-... be free from the darkness that holds him in such a tight grip." She leaned her chin against her knees as she spoke. "From what I have-... have heard and noticed, is that he comes here from time to time without proper purpose. As if he's seeking company. I think he is awfully lonely and-... and lost. I want to be there for him. Show him that he deserves to be loved too."

"That he deserves companionship in the form of friendship like everybody else."

"Yes."

"There is a way for you to help him, but you must understand a few things first."

The gnome sat up and with one hand outstretched she pulled out a brown folder from thin air which she placed in her lap and opened up, removing two pages from their bindings.

“What are-... are those?"

"My own case studies. I wanted to discuss this with you sooner but I couldn't seem to be in the right place or at the right time... Dreams can be tricky like that."

Lysithea gently took the pages between thumb and index finger as Summers handed them over. Carefully she placed them on her lap and peered down at the words. The pages were labeled 'Patient 302 Beatrice Vermouth' and 'Patient 452 Alexander McCartney'.

"These two here were vampires too. Long before your time, of course. They were my subjects and through multiple sessions I managed to learn alot about them and ended up with two different results."

The gnome pointed towards the bottom of the first page where the words 'Death by stake' and then at the second page which read 'Death by dawn'.

"You see, a vampire only has one possible future. Death."

Lysithea stared blindly at the documents and then back at Summers who locked eyes with her.

"But you have to understand that the two outcomes, even though the results seem the same, are very different." Summers looked out over the graveyard again. Her hands lingering on the brown folder. "Death by stake is the outcome for a lost beast. Death by dawn is the outcome for a found person. One is to be trapped in eternal torment while the other is to be freed to return into the dream as all living souls should be, once they perish."

The gnome looked into her eyes again. "One is a prison and the other is freedom." 

"He has-... has to die?"

"Yes. Unfortunately so."

Lysithea looked down onto the pages again and felt her eyes sting. She took one deep and quivering breath as she began to read the first case study, mumbling the words as she did.

She slowly turned the page over and continued to read on the next while Summers sat silently by her side, swaying her feet from side to side while her shadow yawned in silence.

"She walked into-... into the dawn willingly " Lysithea said with a hushed voice, stroking a tear from her cheek.

"She did, and what a brilliant soul she was." Summers clicked with her tongue. "The only way to aid a vampire is to make them realise that they need the dawn to finally be free. If they die by the stake they will forever be trapped in torment. A terrible fate for any and all."

Lysithea carefully attempted to hand the documents back over to the gnome but she merely shook her head.

"Keep them and once you start your own sessions with Alistair you'll write something similar. It will help you help him."

The blonde woman took a long, hard look at the papers. She opened her bag and slipped them into her notebook where so many other loose journal pages were trapped. 

"Thank you Summers. I-... I will do my best." 

"I know you will. You have a good heart and I like you very much." Summers got up to her feet and dusted herself off. She then shoved her hands into her trouser pockets. 

"Secondly. Have you noticed the trinket on his finger?" She pulled her right hand out and waggled her ring finger towards Lysithea who nodded.

"I have."

"It is the ring of the Redferne family. It needs to be removed or he will never allow the light to embrace him."

Lysithea quickly pulled her notebook out of her bag and began to scribble down what the doctor had just said as Summers watched on and placed her hand back down into her pocket.

"That ring is evil. It drinks the blood that he has swallowed, keeping him hungry when it wills it and sated when it suits it." The gnome flickered and took a long look at her shadow who tapped its foot impatiently. "Ah… it seems to be that time again."

"What time?"

"For me to drift elsewhere." Summers looked towards Lysithea who locked eyes with her and moved closer, grabbing the gnome's hand. The doctor was freezing to the touch and it was almost enough to make the girl let go of her, but she stayed stubborn and her grip tightened. 

"Please stay-... stay safe Summers. I like you very much."

Summers gave her a gentle smile as she flickered. She vanished for perhaps a second before reappearing in the same spot again.

"Good luck."

"Lys! Lys!" Tristan came running up the hill just as the last shimmer of Summers vanished into nothing. "I met him, Lys! I met him!"

Lysithea got up on her feet just in time for her friend to reach her and grab her arms.

"I met Alistair and I told him that you wanted to speak with him."