After leaving room 241, Oshto went straight to the staircase. Leaving the door unlocked and accidentally pushing it open had been a blunder, but he'd accomplished his goal of giving food to the ambassador and her companion. Now he had to get back to the supply closet and help Frey.

But when he entered the stairwell, a strange feeling came over him. He felt hazy, and his vision blurred. He shook his head and his vision corrected itself a bit. He squinted. Something about the place was off.

After a moment's hesitation, he began his descent of the lower staircase. He should probably just get some more sleep.

Yet by the time he reached the landing, he felt as though he really were asleep, or dreaming. The hallway flickered and tilted. He pinched himself, hard, but that didn't improve matters.

A voice from behind him. "Are you okay?"

He turned around and squinted. It was Frey. "What are you doing here?" he whispered. She should have been hiding. She didn't say anything to that, just made a concerned expression, so he said, "Let's go back to the closet." 

So they did. He shut the door and they crouched in the darkened space. "How did it go?" asked Frey, after a while.

"Went okay. The ambassador's crony asked me for water, so I had to break into an empty room, find a glass, and fill it with tap water from the bathroom." He laughed quietly. "But yeah, we're all set."

Frey laughed too. Then she said, "Do you have any thoughts on our next move?"

Oshto peered at her and felt a sense of desperation. His brain simply wasn't working. He couldn't perceive anything closely, and he couldn't tell if that was because he was sick or dreaming or what. "Why were you standing by the stairs just now?" he asked, looking into the shifting of Frey's eyes. "Were you worried about me?"

"Yes," she replied simply.

At this, Oshto cringed. "You're… not Frey. And this isn't real. She would never admit to messing up— especially from caring about me— without acting all embarrassed or apologetic."

Frey smiled.

And the surroundings seemed to melt. And her image charred holes like paper burning in a fire, giving way to the face of the ambassador. This, Oshto could see clearly, and he knew it was the truth.

A sudden blast of cold air snapped him fully out of the illusion. They were on the roof now, but the thick fog made it feel like a platform floating in a sea of clouds. The moon hung in the sky. Oshto found that he couldn't stand— his hands were tied to his feet, so he could only kneel. 

Astrid stood as another frigid breeze swept over them, sending strands of her hair over her face. She tucked them behind her ear as Oshto spoke. 

"Ah… that was scary." He exhaled. "I actually wasn't too sure about my assertion, so I'm lucky that you let up on me with the mind games."

"Is this not scary?" the ambassador asked.

"It is," Oshto said. He looked around. "How did I get up here? Is this… illusion magic, or something?"

"Yes. I made the staircases switch in your perception. You went up, thinking that you were going down. As for my appearance, your subconsciousness filled that in yourself with whoever you expected to be there."

Oshto kept a neutral expression plastered to his face, while cursing himself internally for not asking Molly about the extent of things magic could be used for. These mage jerks were tricky. These political mage jerks. He hadn't even known that the ambassador was a mage. He wasn't one to keep up with the celebrities, but he was sure that Eve would have known about it if it was public knowledge. 

"What do you want from me?" he asked.

Astrid tapped the side of her chin. "I already know a few things now. For example, you're operating in a group. And to my dismay, you are not the only one of them who is aware of my presence here." She came a bit closer to him. "What are your goals?"

"My lips are sealed," Oshto said, with as much confidence as he could muster, which he assumed wasn't much. To be honest, he didn't think he'd be able to withstand torture or whatever was planned for him. His bonds were suddenly feeling very tight.

She stared at him closely. "Did you come here from the Northern Stronghold?"

Oshto tried to match her gaze. "I don't know what that is." 

"I see… so you did," Astrid replied, breaking their eye contact. Oshto frowned. "Well, that's all I want from you," she said. She started to move closer to him, but paused when a howling sound began to tear through the wind. She looked off into the distance with an agitated expression.

"What was that?" Oshto said.

"A serious problem that I need to go deal with." She turned back to him, solemn now. She lifted a hand and placed it, palm down, in front of Oshto's face, the tip of her ring finger just barely touching his forehead. Another breeze passed over them, chilling him. A shining light emanated from her palm. "You won't remember that I said this, but maybe the impression will stay with you. 

"Whatever goal you and your friends have, I am almost positive that you will be unable to stop me from attaining mine. Stay out of our way."

With that, Oshto blacked out.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Taha and Frey crouched behind some crates. Across the very narrow street stood Eve, in the shadows of the inn, arms folded. They were waiting for the appearance of Oshto. Taha had no idea where he could have gone, and apparently, neither did Frey.

But it wasn't their style to leave someone behind without knowing, so they waited, thinking. Taha figured that at some point Eve would go inside the inn itself to look for him. Maybe climb up the fire escape.

But that point wouldn't be now. Taha felt Frey flinch next to him as they heard a cacophony of footsteps pound down the street. Who on Earth is that? 

At that moment, three knights bursted into the alleyway. They all wore light metal armor and boots; two of them had guns and one carried a sword. They spotted Eve immediately. "Hey, you! I haven't seen you around here before," one of them said.

Eve turned and ran. Her speed was blinding as she erupted down the alleyway, and she was almost out of sight when a metallic object soared past her and clattered against the ground. Her eyes widened and she turned towards the object, shielding herself with her arms, and then it detonated. Blood splattered over the inn's brick wall. Everyone except Eve was pushed back by the force of the small explosion. 

Taha touched Frey's shoulder, snapping her out of her shock. "Was it you or Oshto who activated the curse?" he asked, looking around. Eve's spear lying between him and Frey. A metal pole on the ground behind him. 

"It— it was me."

"Alright. Help me keep you alive." Taha grabbed one weapon in each hand and stood. The three knights were still at one end of the alleyway, and more had appeared at the other end. Taha estimated there were about nine in all. Not too bad, these odds. They were gathering around Eve's unsightly corpse, a few of them jeering and nudging the body, but they soon noticed his presence.

"Another one!!" someone shouted. 

Taha ducked low and charged. One swordsman went for an uppercut and he blocked with the pole, another swept their sword up at him and he blocked it with the spear head. The gunmen stumbled over each other trying to get a good shot at him. Taha removed the pole from its precarious position and jammed it into the second swordsman's skull as hard as he could, pushing further into the scuffle. The first swordsman swung at him again but a gunshot rang out and she crumpled to the ground. 

Thanks, Frey, Taha thought. He saw one knight's head turn towards the crate, realizing Frey's presence. Taha quickly engaged him in battle, taking jabs at his armor with the spear.

Just then, the commotion in the alley became even greater. "She's an immortal!" "She's coming back to life!" Cries rang out from the knights. "Just take out your immortal weapons!"

They crowded further around Eve, withdrawing daggers from their belts, their cheap imitations of the Celepha. Eve's insides absorbed themselves from the walls and ground and returned to her body as she rose to a crouching position.

Taha slashed into one leg of the knight he was facing and darted towards the crowd. He slid the bloodied spear towards her, between the legs of the knights as Eve's eyes opened, crinkled and flashing, and she grabbed the spear. And then she leaped off of one foot and took down the two knights in front of her like a whirlwind. They dropped, necks slashed, and she crossed the alleyway like an apparition. Several more shots fired in her and Taha's direction, but with some flicks of her spear she stopped them. 

The knights, though shocked at this display, advanced further. Another shot rang out, this time from above. Everyone looked up, and there was Oshto. 

He was on the fire escape, hanging off the ladder with one hand and holding a smoking pistol in the other. His brow was creased. He started sliding down, but a shot was fired at him and he fell the rest of the way, landing on the ground with a thud.

"Idiot," Eve mumbled in Taha's earshot. "Let's end this." They both lunged back into the fray, spear and pole swinging. 

They were able to make quick work of the soldiers, and in the end there were only a few stragglers still picking at their weapons or trying to regain their bearings.

"Go, go, go!" Eve commanded. Taha grabbed Oshto's hand and pulled him up from the ground and looped his arm over his shoulder. Frey stood and left the cover of the crate to join her comrades. 

And thus, the four of them vanished into the encompassing night.