Veronica collapses to the floor, completely exhausted from the extended invisibility from earlier.

“Yes Amara, I know. He looks exactly like Magnus... I guess it's fate that the vessel would return to him.”

“Well, you had a nice time.” Toriaku pipes up.

“You know what, you get real talkative when I'm not in the mood to deal with you.”

“That's the point, honey.”

“You're an ass. What do you want?”

“My body, what else. Or you know just being thrown into the nearest stream.”

“And why do I need to throw you in a stream?”

“Why should I tell you?”

“Oh I don't know maybe because I won't do it unless I know why.”

“Whatever, it's so I can take over a random crane temporarily and send the Crane Kingdom into anarchy.”

“That sounds boring. Besides don't you think the king sent out a warning about the amulet because it's no longer in their possession?”

“You forget that as long as I am in the kingdom I can corrupt someone and Wiccans are the only beings that can even remotely deal with me.”

“Yeah but I'm saying that it's boring. Don't you want your own body that you don't have to worry about losing?”

“Fair hell knows how much Death I can cause with that And I can corrupt people from an even farther distance.”

“Well I'm also rather bored, so I could give you something to work with if you meet a couple of conditions for me.

One, we get to fight after they're all dead.

Two, you leave the former warrior to me.

That's it.”

“So don't kill Bellator and we fight when I’m done.”

“Pretty much.”

“You have my word.”

Veronica sets the amulet down and begins working on a sigil on a piece of paper. “Any preferences?”

“Just give me my original body.”

“Ah, I can do that easily enough.”

She draws something that looks somewhat like a clock, then works on a second sigil around the first. “You ever wondered what you'd do after all of this is over?”

“Break out of the prison this world acts as for me and set my soul free.”

“I suppose we aren't that different then.”

She finishes the sigil and grabs the lit candle floating around her head. Muttering, she starts to burn the paper. As the fire starts to reach the sigil, it outlines the lines in flame, but the paper doesn't burn any further. With a small blade, she slits her palm, dripping the blood onto the sigil. Once it touches, the paper falls apart into ash and the amulet starts to crack open, a mist pouring out.

“Thank you, I will keep my promise.”

“Do not think I've forgotten what you did. You do not know how many Wiccan are screaming at me to kill you as you work, but I hope this will be interesting.” Veronica fades into invisibility and follows behind Toriaku.

“You really think I don’t see you? Watch, don’t touch.”

“No, I'm not trying to hide from you. To Toriaku, Veronica appears at his side. It's merely to hide me from unwanted eyes.”

“Like your friend, Bellator.”

“Yes, but there are others. My kind is not very welcome here, not anymore.”

“Take Bellator to a safe haven, lest I destroy him mentally, then physically.”

Bellator, after contemplating in the circle for an hour, heads back to his house. As he walks, he notices abnormally black clouds. Darker than what would come of rain.

“Fine, but take your time. I want to be able to watch everything fall apart.”

Veronica teleports behind Bellator, grabbing his wrist. “I'm sorry for this.”

She teleports the two of them back into the forest to her home.

Bellator lands, dizzy, as he's never teleported before. After they land, slumped against a corner, he rubs his forehead. “Veronica, the fuck is going on.”

“I've done something incredibly stupid, and I don't want you getting drawn into it.

Consider it a gift from your great-grandfather.”

“I never met him.”

“But he's watched you, and I owed him a favor anyway.”

“Stop playing around, if you know who my grandfather was, I want to know!”

“You have his boat.”

“Ma...gnus?”

“Yes. It's the only reason I knew you would be okay with that spell earlier. A normal person would be a pile of ash.”

“This is a lot to handle, but why have you brought me here?”

“So that you don't die because of my mistake, and because I still owe it to Magnus.

I'm sorry if this is too much, but I didn't have time to explain.”

“I understand.” Bellator quickly hugs Veronica. “Can you save anyone?”

“It's too late for that, and don't touch me please. Especially when there's Wiccan blood on me.”

Embarrassed, Bellator steps back “Sorry...”

“You saw what happened before, and that was a mild reaction.”

“I--I know.”

Veronica points to a bed in the corner. “You can sleep there, and let me know if you need anything else.” She sits down by a bookcase carved out of a large tree, sigils carved all over the place and a magic circle in front of her. As she pulls a book from the shelf, she winces in pain.

“What's wrong?”

The cut from before opens, blood starting to pour down Veronica's arm. She covers it up. “It's nothing.”

“Veronica you're bleeding! That's not nothing!”

“It's fine, just leave it be. I don't want a repeat of what happened earlier.”

As she says this, the flow continues to get stronger, to the point where Veronica is starting to lose her footing.

“Are you sure you're okay?

“I'll be... fine....” She collapses backward onto the ground.

Blood begins streaming onto the floor, but instead of pooling, it forms a stream as it crawls along the floor towards the magic circle carved into the earth.