There was finally some hope in this mess we'd found ourselves in as Kara Valor dropped down from a vent. Oka, Lillia, and I had been stuck with Raytris and some of the devils; Myles, Sai, Charmaine, Esther, and Anastasia.

On the monitor in the room, the feed of Lucian, the suspicious boy we all figured did it from the moment we met him, was explaining that he was in fact one of the masterminds (does that word work if the plan was really stupid and convoluted?) behind the Falling Shards situation.

"That's right, Seth Kerres, all this time I've been plotting for this very day, my beloved friend. Or should I say...my beloved enem—" Lucian's voice was cut off as Kara casually ripped the monitor out of the wall.

"Sorry if anyone was listening to that, his voice is just too much," Kara said.

"I think we got whatever he was going to say," Oka said. "'I'm the big villain all along, you thought I was nice but I'm mean, I hate you so much Seth, but there's also some weird affection in there, so I gotta kill everyone...'"

"That was a really good impression," I said.

"Thanks!" Oka grinned.

Kara returned to stand under the vent, holding her arms out.

"I got you, you can drop down now," Kara said.

Tik Moonheart fell down from the vent, landing in Kara's arms, The wolf Kanibari gently set her down, minding her leg.

"Thank you," Tik said, testing her cane against the tile floor.

Kara remained where she stood, calling up again.

"Alright, you're up!" Kara said. "Don't do the damn inflatable jacket thing again, please?"

"Aw, but it's so fun!" Mars said.

"When you bounce maybe, but it's too big to fit in there, and it's a pain in my ass to get you unstuck!" Kara said.

Mars jumped down as well, caught in Kara's arms.

"Thanks, hun," Mars said.

"Don't call me hun in front of everyone," Kara said, gritting her teeth and turning away, practically pouting.

"Is everyone alright?" Tik asked.

"I think so," I said. Physically, I was fine. Emotionally it was a bit nerve wracking being in this, but it wasn't too different than a lot of our void trips, and Anastasia ragging on me still hurt. But I had Oka with me, so she helped ease that pain a bit with some quick kiss time. The others nodded, but Anastasia remained stoic.

"Do you know if Berin's alright?" Oka asked. "Did Caya come with you, too?"

"Yeah, Berin's holding down the fort back home," Mars said.

"And we were with Caya while we were vent crawling, but she really wanted to kick this guy's stick figure ass, so she went ahead," Kara said.

"We've been tracking this for a while now, if we had been a hair more proactive we could have lessened the damage before it reached this point," Tik said.

"We weren't entirely sure it'd go all..." Mars gestured around.

"What exactly is going on?" Lillia asked. "I understand the general situation with Penteldtam and Reed, and obviously Lucian is involved, but it feels as though these popular boys showed up out of nowhere, and that has some connection as well."

"I bet they're all void monsters," Oka said. "A bunch of Kris Krags, maybe?"

"That was my first assumption," Tik said.

"Yesss!" Oka said, pumping her fists victoriously.

"But I think everyone from Falling Shards is genuine, even the figureheads of this incident," Tik said.

"Aw," Oka said.

"But!" Tik said, pointing her cane at the broken monitor on the floor. "Our main enemy here is very similar to a Kris Krag."

"Ha!" Oka said.

"Quit interrupting," Lillia said.

"Sorry..." Oka said. "So what is that guy, then?"

"Oh yeah, we've dealt with a bunch of these," Kara said. "They have a really long name."

"Wow, you three are filled with so much information," Anastasia scoffed.

"They're in the same general class of being as the old age void wardens, not the newer recruits mind you," Tik said. "But not as dangerous as a void node ending entity like a D.V. These kinds of beings are somewhat like the trickster archetype in mythology. Scheming and plotting and putting others in danger, but not necessarily destructive."

"I...uh..." I said, feeling like my brain gears had clogged up trying to keep up.

"I just say 'Evil Mascot Guys,' or E.M.G." Mars said. "Not to be confused with an electromyography."

"What's that?" I asked.

"Pfft," Anastasia elbowed Sai. "She doesn't even know what an electromyography is."

"Hey..." I said.

"I don't even know what that is," Sai said.

Charmaine raised her hand. "I'm not going to remember any of this Reed business, so if any of his backstory is important and I fall asleep, it's because it's very boring."

"Nah, I wouldn't sweat any of that," Mars said. "Just think of him as a powerful void monster with minions and a gimmick."

"The gimmick may change, but it's the same basic premise. Weird void dude, likes capturing people, likes making pacts." Kara said.

"They love their gimmicks, love killing games for some reason, have minions, uh, what else..." Mars said.

"That's the gist of it," Tik said. "Once a pact is made, they're bonded to their servants. Usually that means they pick up a bunch of void monsters, but people can be in that mix too, as Penteldtam and that Lucian boy have found out."

"So do we just like kill them?" Oka said. "The monsters, I mean, not the real people."

"Surely there's a strategy to it as well," Lillia said. "The Kris Krag was strong and had a lot of caveats to even be able to fight one."

"Kiiinda," Mars said. "The main thing with them is that they're really squirrely. They set up a whole maze like this and hide in it. Catching them is the hard part, but actually beating them in a fight isn't too bad."

"So do you want us all to get Reed?" I asked.

"Up to you, we'd love the help, but we have plenty of gate rosin if you want to just bail now," Kara said. Mars reached into one of his many pockets, revealing a handful of glistening rosin that would bring us back home if we scraped our fangs on it.

Oka, Lillia, and I shrugged at each other. Raytris looked like she'd rather take the rosin and go, but remained near us. I completely forgot those guys from Falling Shards were there, too until they spoke up, asking for some gate rosin. Sandwich and Not-Sandwich left before I could even make sure they still had my pamphlets.

"I mean, it'd be kinda cool to help," I said. "Oh, but! Um, can you all do me a favor?"

"What is it?" Tik asked.

"Can you not tell Stella? I know she'll cancel her vacation and come home right away, and she really needs this vacation." I said.

"You saying that makes me want to tell her immediately," Anastasia said. "I'd love to ruin Stella Faleur's vacation plans."

"No, come on!" I said.

"Ana, seriously, just chill out," Sai said.

"Before you ruin anyone's vacation, I'll ask the same to you," Tik said. "Do you want to join us in this fight?"

The other devils looked to Anastasia. Caeda seemed to be their main leader, but when she wasn't around I noticed they looked to my sister. This time, she didn't look like she had a clear answer for what she should do. A small thought in the back of my mind said to speak up and tell her to come with, but I knew she'd probably do the opposite of whatever I said.