Adam woke up in a cold sweat. It had been two days since the “yuletide incident”, and he had barely slept. He had been having constant nightmares every time he tried since then.

  He was currently in a guest bedroom in the Bastion. Hannah and Jezebel had returned to Hannah’s estate in the Empire until the next mission, while Hellig had been summoned to go to Martes and provide disaster relief assistance. Adam wasn’t sure what had happened there, but it was apparently big enough to cause a stir in the upper echelons in the Empire’s political system.

  Not for the first time, he found himself staring out his bedroom window at the lake of stars in the distance. He had gotten comfortable with the twists and twirls of the stars in the sky at this point and even felt them very calming.

  Running some water to wake himself up a bit, he decided to take a stroll to the lake and think. A series of many deep sighs penetrated the silence around him.

  I was actually mind controlled by that monster… I didn’t even resist!

  That was so uncomfortable…

  How could I not resist?

  And Hannah was mind controlled too…

  If it wasn’t for Mr. Juhend, then I wouldn’t be alive right now…

  …

  I have to get stronger. I have to become a Chosen!

  Adam resolved in his mind to become stronger. But this was, quite naturally, a difficult prospect. Even with the support of Juhend and the cooperation of the military and church, it would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Suddenly, Adam slowed down and stopped. There was a figure sitting by the water’s edge.

  …

  Gusto was skipping small stones across the glimmering lake. Each ripple seemed to twist and morph into uncountable shapes, as if the water’s path was less sure of itself here. He was lost deep in thought.

  Adam was unsure whether or not to go to Gusto, given the circumstances surrounding the mission. As he was deliberating, Gusto stood up and sighed. His usually loud and booming voice was soft, melodramatic, almost cold.

  “You couldn’t sleep either, huh?”

  Adam shook his head.

  “No, I keep having nightmares…”

  “Me too… We couldn’t save anyone. No, not only that. We couldn’t save ourselves.”

  Adam moved to the edge of the lake to stand beside Gusto.

  “If it wasn’t for Mr. Juhend, then neither of us would be here. I wouldn’t be able to see Hannah again, and you wouldn’t see Jezebel anymore.”

  Gusto was silent for a moment before clenching his fist.

  “I still haven’t asked her out yet. I…I’m going to. The next time I see a ring, I’m buying it and I’m giving it to her!”

  Adam smiled for his friend. Somewhere along the way of becoming a Passenger, he had forgotten what it was like to be excited about something other than magic.

  “I’ll hold you to it, Gusto!”

  Adam laughed. It seemed to swiftly dissipate in the air around the pair, like an illusion.

  After a moment, Adam stood up straighter.

  “I’ve decided that I’m going to become a Chosen, like you and Hellig.

  I don’t want to get mind controlled again, and more than that, I want to be able to protect those around me.”

  Gusto sighed.

  “Both me and Hellig were mind controlled too… But if you really do want to be one, I guess I won’t stop you.”

  Adam and Gusto slowly fell silent, the both of them staring at the glimmering lake in front of them.

  …

  Reis and Fleisch Naerhn were solemn. It was a windy, cold and overcast day in Diell City, as it had been for quite some time. Ever since the festival, where it had suddenly turned into a blizzard that had to cancel the parade and late-night festivities, the weather had failed to warm itself. They were in for a long, cold winter.

  The weather wasn’t bothering them.

  The two watched as the black casket was slowly lowered into the ground. Their son, Mangel Naerhn, was only 24 years old when he passed. He had been sent away by the military to some other country somewhere. His birthday was already planned!

  Reis would have made spaghetti pasta (his favorite dish since he was a child was always spaghetti in any possible form) and paired it with a red tomato and alcohol-based sauce Fleisch had been preparing to hunt and butcher a deer to make venison jerky to send off to his son and his company. They had prepared welcome home gifts too. A new sweater to keep him warm in the coming winter, a hunting knife so he could finally replace his old one he had gotten when he was a child (a gift from his father for his tenth birthday), even a book on weaving sail cloth, which he had always been passionate about.

  These gifts would now never be given. The deer would not be hunted; the spaghetti would be eaten alone on their son’s birthday without him there.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  Reis and Fleisch Naerhn could not hold back their tears as the coffin was slowly covered with dirt. Before long, snow would gather on top.

  …

  In what remained of the city of Donnerstag, Hellig and other members of the Diell Empire’s military, alongside members of the missionary forces of the Accepted Pantheon, were arriving via boat, carriage or airship, getting ready to start clearing rubble.

  There had been a small number of survivors, mostly in the far end of the city away from the plains that led to the docks. The once impressive city wall had collapsed in many places, with large gashes of burnt or shattered stone. Entire city blocks had been scorched with plasma, and many of the outlying areas were still pooling with water.

  In the field, the cleanup was just as intense. Splotches of blood had sunk deep into the soil itself, tinting the dirt slightly red. The amount of iron in the soil was deemed to have become too high for agriculture in the city’s periphery. Large craters peppered the landscape, and all of the trees and grass for kilometers around had been dried up.

  Even the far end of the city had not come through unscathed. This end of the city was where most of the nobles had lived, as far from the rabble of the farms and slums at the wall as possible. In the ensuing events, many of their estates had been overrun with protests, and many perished as a result. The mass explosions caused by what was deemed to be a freak lightning storm had leveled much of the city, and the result was a distinct lack of housing and loss of life.

  It had been a couple of days since these events, but even so, Hellig could see the rubble from the airship’s windows. A long week awaited him.

  The official population of Donnerstag dropped from 203,476 people to 13,809 people in one night.

  …

  Hannah sat in a lavish velvet chair in her room as Jezebel combed her blonde hair. Staring into the large mirror in front of her, she had been silent for quite some time.

  “Thank you, Jezebel.”

  “You’re welcome, my lady.”

  “...

  You know it’s just us, right? You never have to call me that when nobody else is around. You usually don't…”

  Jezebel didn’t respond, pretending to work out a knot in Hannah’s hair.

  “My lady… I don’t think I will be returning to the task force with you. At least, not right now. I have also requested a leave of absence as your maid. Your father has given his approval.”

  Hannah’s eyes widened in shock as she turned her head around.

  “What? Why? You saved us, why would you leave now?”

  A great many thoughts and worries fluttered about in Hannah’s head. Not for the first time in the past few weeks, she was utterly out of her depth emotionally. It felt like her carefully crafted persona of deliberate competence had been shattered again and again in front of everyone she cared about.

  “My lady, I have never wished to be a Passenger. No, more than that, I have never wished to be involved with magic at all. The recent incident drove home that point deeply to me. I value you, and I value the relationships that I have with everyone in the task force. But, if it is a matter of staying true to myself and my own soul or engaging in an act of spiritual self-harm to be in the task force, then I cannot remain.”

  Hannah was stunned.

  “W-what about Gusto? He hasn’t even asked you out yet!”

  Jezebel had tears in her eyes, her face became red.

  “He missed his chance, my lady. I don’t know when… No. I don’t know if I’ll see him again. I don’t plan on going back to the bastion, and Mr. Sureb has already given me permission to leave.”

  Jezebel had stopped combing Hannah’s hair at some point.

  “Tell him… I…

  Tell him I’m sorry, and that I hope to find a way to see him again.”

  Jezebel slowly stepped back, but Hannah was rooted into her chair.

  With deliberate, small, soft steps, Jezebel Eremit left the room, leaving Hannah Flos to stare at her own reflection in the oversized mirror for a long, long time.

  …

  Adam had not been to his house in over a week.

  It wasn’t like he was missing out on much, of course. His parents had died when he was young, and he had no close living relatives either for that matter. Hellig was off assisting with disaster relief in martes, Bruenor was off on deployment still somewhere, and Hannah and Jezebel were scheduled to arrive back at the bastion in another couple of days. He passed Gusto in the foyer and couldn’t help but stop.

  Gusto had a beaming smile on his face, he was giddy with excitement, practically jumping up and down as his voice boomed through the entire structure.

  “Adam! I found a ring! I finally found a ring!”

  Adam smiled at his friend.

  “Adam! It’s pure silver, and it has a trio of gems set in it, see?”

  Gusto took out a small silver ring to show to Adam.

  “I wanted it to be fancy, but I decided against any big gemstones. I decided to go with a ruby flanked by a black diamond and a sapphire. See here-”

  Gusto pointed towards the relatively average sized ruby in the center of the ring.

  “The ruby symbolizes the love we share, and the black diamond is Jezebel, since it matches her hair and how she never lies and is so pure, and this one is a peridot to represent me, since I have a ton of energy and I'll give her my strength!”

  Gusto couldn’t stop gushing about the ring. Over and over again, his voice went booming down the halls and into the various rooms of the bastion.

  The doors to the foyer opened, and Juhend and Hannah walked through.

  Adam and Gusto immediately stopped their conversation. Gusto sped his way to the doorway, his eyes glancing around swiftly. Faster and faster, almost manic, until he eventually pushed his head out the doorway. He kept looking out the door for a long moment, eventually retracting himself back inside with a quizzical look on his face that betrayed his worry.

  “Where’s Jezebel?”

  Juhend shook his head.

  “Ms. Eremit has decided she wishes to leave the task force effective immediately. Furthermore, she is no longer Ms. Flos’s maid. She has made this choice of her own accord; I can confirm that no form of mentally manipulative practices influenced her decision.”

  The color drained from Gusto’s face.

  “Mr. Sureb, permission to take leave, sir?”

  Juhend sighed.

  “You will not find her in Diell City, Gusto. I’m sorry, but the best thing for you right now is to take some time here.”

  Gusto’s face was deathly pale.

  “I’ll…Be upstairs.”

  Under his breath, he muttered.

  “I finally found a ring…”

  …