Every one of Lian's hand slams against Feth’s barrier felt like it hit a gum wall, gently bouncing her back from entering the mist-covered city of Caer Sidi. Funnily enough, Mincha and Zinc had no problems sliding right in and out, confirming the redhead’s hunch- “ Feth is only keeping me out. I guess then we should as Zinc proposed and seek Ashen’s help.” Her companions agreed and, guided by the gauntlet firg, they quickly found the hill trail up to the tree of soot; just in time to meet up with other stragglers. 

Lian- “ Ogda?”cried out the girl before finding herself trapped in a blue tinted hug from the water firg. His shotgun concerns were quickly, but gingerly, warded off by the redhead, who was relieved to see that others escaped the attack.

Giol- “ Not…exactly what happened”. The lancer was leaning on his weapon, keeping a focused scowl on the Caer Sidi and beyond it, to the Arena. Before he could explain, though, a blast of wind heated their backs like a whip strike, and a giant explosion from the top of the hill made them forget for a second about the dome of fog behind them.

A rustling in the trees and bushes put Ogda and Giol on edge, ordering the others to hide behind them. Something was rapidly approaching them, and it was in no hurry to stop. All the sudden, from their left side, a wide, hovering craft flew out of the trees, showing no mercy to any shrubs in its path. 

-” Brake, brake, brake!”, yelled two young voices from the vehicle, while pressing all the buttons on the dashboard. Something clicked, as the craft immediately interrupted the mad dash and launched the two in the air. Ogda reacted quickly and stretched his limbs to catch Maci and Finley before the two would need more than Victor’s cooking to heal.

-” Oh, finally it stopped running amok”, huffed an out of breath Arim, who barely catched up with the out of control craft. “ Is everyone alright?”, he asked, only now realizing how big the group had grown. 

Maci- “ Yap. Only rattled my teeth and brain, but everything else is intact. Nice catch Ogda”, the teen gave a shaky thumbs up, before realizing that someone was missing. “ Hey…where’s Brigit?”

Zinc quickly jumped on his partner fist, once ready to shield him from whatever they were running from. “ Please be more careful”, added the small firg a bit angrily. Arim smiled, nodded and brushed his partner on his head. 

A concerned Mincha helped Finley get up on his feet, but neither knew what to say, both spitting a “thank you” at the same time, followed by an embarrassed silence. 

Finley- “ You look…safe.”

Mincha- “ Umh…yeah.  Glad you're not injured as well.”

The french teen then turned toward her grandfather, who was still shaken from their trip down the hill. Apparently prepared for such complications, he brought a pack of human meds with him; after popping a table, he gained some color in his cheeks. “ Je vais mieux, mieux, mon petit moteur.”

A monstrous growl and another set of explosions from the hill reminded them what they were thrown into. 

…..

The groups shared their part of the story and, to their surprise of not even trying to hide it, Arim took it very personally. His wide eyes only stared down while his knees gave up and let his body feel on the ground, hunched and chin to the chest . “ I just…give me a second. I need…what do you mean Feth is responsible for everything?”

Lian wanted to say something that would cheer him up, or at the least make him less doubtful of the situation. But nothing came to mind, and her stretched arm was halfway across from his shoulder, but decided to do as he asked. Give him a moment of respite. It was more concerning that even Zinc appeared to be in a state of shock as well. 

Then, the first shouting match of many bloomed behind her.

Giol- “ The hell I’m running away and leaving Tommen behind! I understand you and the kids going to safety, but I’m staying old man.” The teal complexion on his skin turned yellow, something neither had seen before on the insect firg.

Maci- “ No way, I’m staying too. If there’s any chance we can save Brigit and the rest, I’m helping.” The stomped and growled, trying to make herself as loud as possible and in direct competition with Giol’s angry cries.

Emile- “ Maci, non! How would you even help, you’re just a child! And so are you, little bug. You’re only Tommen’s age, right?”

FInley- “ I…I think we should listen to Emile. We’re not…trained fighters like the Union guys. We’re just tourists, after all.” He couldn’t bear to face Maci, but his head said that it was the right decision. Unlike his friend, he accepted the fact that they were just weak humans in a whimsical travel. 

Before Maci could throw her insults at Finely, Mincha came to his aid with the same realization. “ We can’t fight that”, she pointed toward the city- “ or that, on the hill. It’s not just dangerous, we would also be in the way…The fog would trap us immediately while up there, the Tuatha would crush us.”

Giol- “ Of course. I agree that most should go. But I’m staying and saving my brother”, he then turned toward Ogda, hoping to see him stand by his side- “ with or without help.”

The liquid firg listened intently, more than ready to answer with “yes Giol, I have your back!”. But his body was frozen in place, as the voice did something he never thought possible. Control him through orders to choose the safe option. Flee, take Lian out of there and get out of this doomed layer. “Nn..n..no…”, Ogda managed to struggle out, before his lips felt tight shut.

Lian- “ Correct, buddy. That should be our stance at the end, right?” She winked at her pact partner and decided to ask more questions before deciding what to do. “ Let’s think for a moment and see what option we have, alright? So I’ve been following the schedule for the next synchronization between this layer and the human world, which should be tomorrow.”

Emile- “ Exactly. We only have to hold on until then, maybe go to another land and then return tomorrow.”

Maci growled at him, still crying out that she won’t abandon Brigit. 

Lian- “ We have a problem then. Remember, the portal is inside the city. And there’s the fog-”

????- “ I solved that problem already by demolishing that awful thing. “ Arim raised his head in shock, quickly turning into fury at the sound of the familiar voice. Him and Zinc expanded their armor further than seen before and launched themselves at the newly appeared Feth. 

Feth- “ Perren’s kindergartners? Huh, well one failure of a student did not convince the idiot to stop his ‘teacher’ thing, so here we are.” 

Arim- “ You…you traitor. Goddamn traitor! How could you? They…we gave you a home and-”

Feth- “ Right, sure, whatever. Here, play with this and leave the talking to the adults”, the librarian snided before forming three other clones to keep Arim and Zinc occupied. “Now, about the portal-”

Emile- “ Why…why would you do that? Does it matter if the kids are here or not?”

Feth- “ No. But she is”, he waved at Lian. ”In order to complete my task, I have to keep that moron with the red mop on her head and her soup brain of a partner in this layer. So I had Blitz and Victor deactivate the bridges between lands as well. I only came to tell to take refuge on the hill after that fight is over. You don’t wanna get caught in the flood that’ll follow.”

A rock flew through his grinning face, thrown by an angry Maci, who demanded him to return Brigit. Feth grinned and he appeared both amused and irritated by the display, so he flickered the rock back. Arim snapped out of his enraged attacks and jumped in to catch the projectile. 

Feth stared for a second and, just as quickly as he materialized, he was gone from their sight, leaving most of them in a state of confusion. Emile stood silent, thinking of places to hide the kids. Finley joined him and the two started to drill the little coral firg for any clues. 

Lian felt weirdly calm. Eerily so, enough to scare herself; but since Feth put on the pressure on them, why not fight back now? She approached the scowling student, and she gently patted Arim on the shoulder. “ You better now?”

The young man was a bit jumpy at the touch, but quickly also settled down. “ A bit. I’m surprised how collected you look. What are you thinking?”

The redhead sighed and tried to find a way to explain but all she could muster was- “...A step, I guess. I say we follow Feth’s advice-”

Ogda-” Sounds right”, he interjected but inside a disappointed “no” echoed endlessly.

Lian- “-Just not when he recommended. I say, for now, we go up there and help Ashen-”

Everyone got silent for a second as if to check if they heard her right. Except for the lancer, who was more than giddy with the plan. With one problem, though.

Giol- “ Sure, but about the Tuath-”, but a squeal from Mincha blocked his train of inquires.

Mincha- “ Oh no…you think he’s like sir Goidel? With a…foggy brain?”

Lian, trying to sound as convincingly as possible, said- “ Yap. “

Mincha, gulping- “ So you want me to…defog him as well?”, to which the redhead nodded. “ I thought you’d say that.” Before the little coral could be downed by her insecurities, a friendly tap from Zinc lifted her chin up.

Lian, slapping her palms, understood his plan- “ Nice one Zinc. If you and Arim can bring her close to the Tuatha, we can probably do it.”

Arim- “ We are, Zinc? First time seeing you volunteer us for work…but I’m fine with it. One problem though; I think the young architect and her guardians are following the Tuatha’s orders. We need to convince them otherwise.”

Maci- “ Let me deal with that! If we can talk Temitayo into joining our side, so will her firgs. But I just need you two to keep them occupied”, she replied, pointing toward Giol and Ogda, who agreed fast to the assignment.

Lian- “ Well, I guess we have our first step locked down. Emile, I know you don’t approve but everything about our situation is risky. Please…”

Emile- “ Des idiots. Des idiots partout. Je vais vous aider, uniquement parce que vous êtes des idiots.” gruffed the old man. “If I can keep you safe, then fine. I’m in. I can use my ability to keep you all in touch. Use me to coordinate your stupid plans.” 

Feeling a bit left out, Finley also relented and agreed to join them. “ I don't know what I can do to help, but please just don’t get me killed. Or worse.”

Before they could go up the hill, though, Giol asked Ogda to stay behind for a bit.

Ogda- “...Of course, but we should hurry up, we wouldn’t want-”

Giol- “ Yeah, we should. Thank you for having my back there, by the way, compatriot”, he answered, bumping into him and running ahead of the group.

Ogda stared at Giol back, incapable to understand what just happened, knowing only one that the push hurt way too much than it seemed capable of.