The sky was an eerie orange on the way back to campus. Caya said the void storm was starting to ramp up, so we skipped returning to the talent show and went to one of the safe zones on campus. I was expecting a creepy bunker, but it was just one of the lounge areas with reinforced walls.

I stared into a milkshake Diast got for me. She ordered another round of drinks from the café on campus. I was next to Oka, with Stella and Dr. Diast on the other side of me. Tik, Kara, and Mars were across from me, while Caya tried to deal with Roux and their new slime friend.

“So, your name's Raytris, huh?” Roux said, looking at the slime in their palms. It looked like the slime had grown three sizes already.

“Roux, if I could see her for just a second,” Caya said, reaching out just for Roux to pull their hands away. “There are procedures in place for this sort of—”

“She says no!” Roux said, getting up.

As Caya followed Roux around the room in circles, I was trying to wrap my head around Tik just letting Mom go.

"Couldn’t you use your detective powers and arrest her or something?" I said. "We know what she did."

"Justice will be served in time," Tik said. "I can't make any rash moves."

“I feel like that could have been a really good occasion for a rash move,” I said.

Kara laughed. “Sorry, kid. When Tik says it’s time to stop and think, she’s always right. I got scars from the times I didn’t listen to her when she hits pause.”

“A hasty move could put everything in vain,” Tik said.

“I’m sorry,” Oka said.

Oka was pretty shaken up, understandably.

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Tik said.

“Yeah, I thought you were amazing,” I said.

“You really think so?” Oka asked.

“Mhm,” I said.

In the heat of the moment, Oka’s instinct was to protect me. I couldn’t put into words how great that made me feel.

"Sorry you had to meet my mom like that," I said. "Or at all."

"It's alright," Oka said.

“Dating me means you get to see all my awful family drama firsthand,” I said.

“Sure, but…” Oka said, looking around the little group assembled. “Most of your family is super cool.”

Stella and Dr. Diast were also rattled.

"What the hell was that?" Stella's voice shook. Dr. Diast kept her steady.

“I…dunno,” Diast said. “I’m sorry, Stel.”

“Why are you sorry? You were on it with that metal wall thing,” Stella said.

“I should have said something,” Diast said.

“What was there to say?” Stella asked.

“I had a lot I’d been rehearsing in my head that I wanted to tell your parents after everything you told me about them,” Diast said.

“Evy…” Stella smiled a bit, still warm and comforting.

“Are you alright?” Diast asked.

"I'm sure I'll be a wreck in an hour or two when I start unclenching my muscles and the emotions really hit," Stella said. "But right now I'm just. Baffled. So much so that I didn’t even get around to my typical void storm worrying.”

“Well, we’re in a safe spot and nobody’s going anywhere, so you can skip the void storm worrying,” Diast said. “The forecast said this would be the kind that’d be more bringing things into our world than sending people out into the void.”

“Is one more common?” I asked.

“It usually flips back and forth,” Diast said. “And we’ve all got our trackers so even if we did…actually, let’s just put a pin in that.”

“Probably a good idea…” Stella said. She turned to me. "How are you doing? You OK?"

I shrugged. "Kinda getting numb to family stuff."

"That's...concerning," Stella said. "You remember what I told you about when it hits, right?"

"When it hits...” I tried to think of Stella’s saying. “You have to let yourself recover.”

This wasn’t the same as the thing with the chair and the daggers. It was just a talk, maybe one filled with lies, but I didn’t get almost turned into a monster.

"You think she'll really leave us alone?" I asked.

"I don't know," Stella said.

“If she’s really going to be around…should we quit?”

“We’re not doing that,” Stella said. “This is still our school. If it gets to a time to bail point, I will let you know, I promise.”

"She seemed...different," I said. "Not better. Well. She wasn't trying to get me to summon Endora. Do you think any of what she said was true?”

“I doubt it,” Stella said.

“I can’t say for sure, either,” Tik said. “But a snake is still a snake, even if it slithers away from a demon.”

"As much as I don't want to, if we want real answers I think we need to keep going trying to find what happened with them,” Stella said. "To best protect you from whatever they're up to."

“I think you’re right,” I said.

“We have plenty of new leads to follow,” Tik said.

"The important thing is that you're all safe, and we learned...something," Kara said. "We did learn something, didn't we?"

"We did," Tik said. "But yes, the Faleurs' safety was obviously at the forefront of my concerns."

"She would not shut up about how we had to protect you four," Mars said.

Tik gently smacked Mars in the shin with her cane.

“Not that the doctor needed us,” Kara smirked.

I forgot Dr. Diast was a huge fan of the River and Lyric trio, because she reacted like I would if Raina Starlight herself said I was cool.

"I'm surprised you didn't fangirl more working with the River and Lyric trio," Stella said after Dr. Diast almost got a complete sentence out thanking Kara.

"I think I kept it together pretty well," Diast said. “But I think the dams holding up what a dork I am for these three are breaking.”

“You know, I got just the thing to brighten your day,” Mars reached into one of the pockets on his trench coat. He handed Oka and I each something.

“It’s a…little elephant toy,” I said. “Thanks…?”

“I got a tiger,” Oka said.

“If you’re not going to take it, let me have it,” Dr. Diast said.

“I’m keeping my little elephant,” I said.

“Same here!” Oka said.

“Evy, oh my god,” Stella laughed when Diast huffed at us. “You weren’t kidding.”

“I wasn’t!” Dr. Diast said. “You know how cool it is to get something from one of the Mars Valor’s jackets? Worn by the Mars Valor himself? Handed to you by the Mars Valor?”

“You know, I can just give you one, too,” Mars got a tiny seal toy and handed it to Dr. Diast, who yelped like me getting the Arlit dollhouse kit for Safe Silver a few years earlier.

“Dang, this is making me want one, too,” Stella said.

“Of course,” Mars said. Stella got a skunk.

“You’re gonna run out at this rate,” Kara said.

“Nah, I got hundreds in this jacket,” Mars said.

“Hundreds?” Kara said.

“I saw him kneel in front of that capsule toy machine for hours, I absolutely believe it’s in the hundreds,” Tik said.

It felt like we’d been dealt some blows in this encounter with my mother, and I didn’t know if we made any progress. But the hazy, dull anxiety began to leave me as we all ended up playing with small toys Mars Valor got at a capsule machine outside of the downtown Ultra Taco. As Oka decided my elephant and her tiger were girlfriends and made them kiss, as Dr. Diast started telling us all trivia about seals, as Stella talked about the time she got sprayed by a skunk, Kara trying to guess how much Mars spent on these, Tik knowing but not saying, all while Caya still chased Roux and their slime friend around the room…I felt a lot better remembering who I had on my side.