Lucius sat with his lips pursed tight as Tom tried organising the stack of books he'd basically just poured over his desk. It was, most likely, the rumoured stash of hidden literature Ethan had hinted at earlier, and while Lucius certainly was intrigued, he still gave Tom a disapproving look.

"You thought it wasn't that urgent, huh?" He leaned over to poke one of the books, aligning it on the desk with another. "My chest is an unholy spider web but you just walked out of there, thinking it could be saved for later."

"It seemed like the wrong time for bad news, I suppose." Tom shrugged, and Lucius drew a breath through his nose.

"Unbelievable. I could be dying but no, let me live in blissful ignorance and sit there being all love--"

He shut his mouth, upper lip curling before muttering.

"Unbelievable."

"What were you about to say?" Richard asked from the couch he was sharing with Ethan, looking awfully smug all of a sudden.

"Doesn't concern you," Lucius replied, knowing full well that would not be the end of it.

"They already know what happened," Tom confirmed, and Lucius furrowed his eyebrows.

"Wha— How?"

"Well, Anthony's mouth smelled of blood, and it for sure wasn't his." Ethan gestured at nothing. "I actually recognized the scent too, had I been uncertain before."

Lucius scowled, turning his eyes to Richard who shrugged.

"I just heard it."

"You what?" Lucius' glare intensified, and Richard looked offended.

"My room is so close to yours," he defended himself. "I'm not gonna cover my ears just because you decide to force germs down Anthony's throat."

"Can we please just call it kissing, if we're going to address it anyway?" Lucius rubbed his temples, voice nothing but a resigned whisper. Then he turned to Tom.

"So, what? Did you know as well?"

Tom raised his eyebrows, giving the other two a glance.

"Uh, well... Not specifically, but it's not like I was surprised."

Lucius groaned, but gave up his attempt to scold the three of them. He supposed they would have found out eventually.

"We all figured it would happen sooner or later," Richard said, and his smug grin returned. "Apparently this Samueli fellow told Eliza, who told us, who kind of already knew before."

This time Lucius chose to ignore Richard, instead turning his head to look at the books.

"Let's see if we can find something." He opened one of the older looking ones. "We don't know if it's dangerous, so I'd rather get rid of it sooner than later."

Tom obediently opened another one, reading through the index with a frown, while Lucius looked more closely at the one in his hand.

"A hundred ways to get rid of blight?" he read, realisation dawning on him rather quickly and he glanced at Tom in disbelief. "Tom, I'm pretty sure this is a gardening book."

"Yes," Tom said, only sparing the book a glance. "I grabbed it by mistake. It's a good read though."

"How in the name of snowflakes can there be a hundred ways to get rid of blight?" Ethan's eyes were wide, and Richard looked thoroughly amused.

"A lot of them are combinations." Tom waved his hand dismissively and placed the book he was holding down on the desk. "So anyway, this book could be of use, I think."

Lucius rose from his chair to have a better look. Compared to his gardening book, the one Tom was reading looked ancient.

"What is it?"

"It's an old book covering The Unity and The Waste. Like... An introduction to them, of sort. A lot of things in here have been removed from newer versions too, so we might be lucky."

Lucius hummed, lifting the front cover slightly to look at it and Tom slapped his hand away to keep looking through the pages.

"Which archon do you worship now again?" Tom asked, and Lucius' stomach turned into a knot, but he swallowed and went with the closest truth.

"Dyris."

Tom nodded and went through the chapters with more certainty, finally reaching a chapter seemingly focused only on Dyris.

Lucius couldn't help but scooch closer.

"Since we're not certain what it is, I think we should start with potential protections against the unholy." Tom trailed a finger over the paragraphs. "Specifically if your archon of worship can aid you in other ways than the harmonia."

"Right..." Lucius' uneasiness grew, and he clenched the hand that had suffered burns from the holy necklace. "... Like how?"

"Certain prayers, perhaps... Or symbols," Tom said, and held up a page of suggestions. "Maybe the animal symbolising Dyris could be of use? Like if you could find a part of it to wear and draw it out? Or... Sacrifice one? I— I dunno if that's a thing."

"Not as far as I know." Lucius grimaced, and looked down at the page again. "Besides, I don't even know what it is... I know I've read it before, but it's not commonly mentioned in most scriptures, and I sure haven't seen one before."

"What is it again?" Tom looked closer at the page. "... A lemur?"

"My broth—" Lucius choked his words, deciding to edit the story. "My childhood friend said it's some kind of primate. So... A monkey, I guess?"

"I... Guess so? Maybe..." Tom looked at the other pages of the chapter, seemingly rather uncertain what it was as well. "Doubt we'd be able to get a hold of one anyway."

Lucius sighed and looked out the window, stifling a scream as the blight cat just walked past it, yellow, bulging eyes turned in his direction before it disappeared out of sight again.

"Fucking cat..." he muttered under his breath, tearing away his tired glare from the window only to notice the confused looks from everyone in the room, so he cleared his throat. "I, uh... I don't suppose the book says anything about blight animals? Like... Cats?"

Tom frowned, but he went back to look at the index again.

"I don't... Know," he said, and adjusted his glasses. "But I'm pretty sure I've read something about blights taking on the form of the first living thing it comes in contact with on this plane. So, if it met a cat first I think it's possible... Why?"

Lucius gave the window another look, but figured he shouldn't draw more attention to the unholy parts of his life.

"I was just wondering if there were animals that represented the other side, I guess. If we could use some parts of that animal and repel it by... I dunno, burning it or something. And South Kerilia's got a lot of cats"

"Yikes," Ethan said, and Richard pinched his lips together in agreement.

"We're fumbling in the dark here," Lucius protested, partly forgetting he wasn't even serious about it.

"We're not gonna burn cats because a grim reaper and a mushroom's root system had a baby on your chest." Richard promptly shook his head.

"None of the Scourges are associated with cats," Tom chimed in, and Lucius knitted his eyebrows before looking at the page Tom was reading.

Apparently, the animal symbolising Zearis was a horse, and Lucius was certain he'd never seen a blight horse before.

"We're getting nowhere like this," he muttered, giving the book a disappointed slap. "This book clearly doesn't have anything to do with ways to get rid of whatever this parasitic seaweed is, so let's move on. Isn't there a book about exorcisms we could read?"

"Well, no..." Tom said, voice lingering. "Maybe I could find one, but if the priests were clueless about the whole incident, I don't know if just any book would know more."

"Well what the fuck am I supposed to do then?" Lucius leaned his head back with a groan. "Carve my chest open and pull it out?"

"I don't think you'd survive--"

"I wasn't serious, Tom."

"Well, there's one person who could know about this," Ethan then said, though hesitant. "Or two, but we'd have to involve Anthony regardless."

"Ugh..." Richard scrunched up his nose. "Better not go to her."

"I'd definitely go with him first," Ethan agreed with him, but Lucius was unimpressed.

"So do these pronouns have names, or...?"

"Remember that Cyril person I mentioned before?" Ethan asked. "We snuck into the BBT to find his location."

"Oh, right." Lucius' eyebrows arched. In the midst of finding information regardless, that mission had completely slipped his mind. "Would he know about this?"

"Very likely." Ethan nodded, and the other two did as well. "But, yeah... You'll probably have to go through Anthony."

Lucius' lip curled again.

"I just... Really don't want to involve him. Feels bad enough already, and he worries so much."

"But he knows about the whole incident at the sanctuary." Richard shrugged. "He was there after all. Just say you want to find more information about it. It's not like you're lying, you're just not mentioning the disastrous fishing net of death."

Lucius considered it. He couldn't just leave his chest like that, but just how much unholiness could Anthony take before pushing him away? If he found out about the dark veins or that the harmonia had burnt Lucius' skin, would he still help him?

He looked at Ethan. Anthony didn't mind him. Of course, he was his brother, but unholy nonetheless and suffered burns from holy objects as well. Maybe Lucius worried over nothing.

"I... I guess I'll talk to him." He shrugged, trying to sound nonchalant about it. "If this Cyril knows something I really want to meet him."

"If he doesn't know, I'm afraid you'll have a hard time finding someone who does." Tom adopted a sympathetic expression, but Lucius cocked an eyebrow.

"What about that 'her' you were talking about?"

The three exchanged awkward looks, but Ethan was the only one willing to answer.

"So... Catherine is very resourceful, but you generally don't want to get involved with her methods. Especially if you're mortal."

Lucius pursed his lips, only uttering a 'hm' in confusion, but if the others all agreed he supposed he'd drop it.

"Cyril it is, then."

Having been asleep for three days, Lucius was a little upset with his brain for being so tired still as he went back to his room. He'd lost so much time, and yet he needed to rest more?

"Oh, good, you've taken a bath."

Lucius jumped at the sound of Anthony's voice, and he smiled nervously as he turned to look at the man.

"Yeah, it's... It was really nice."

"I imagine." Anthony nodded and smiled back before gesturing over his shoulder. "I went ahead and removed your sheets. Would be uncomfortable to sleep in them in that state."

"Oh?" Lucius blinked. With the image of Anthony's room in mind he wouldn't have expected for him to go clean up another one. "Well, uh... Cheers, then."

"Also," Anthony said, and held up his hands over Lucius' head. "You forgot this on the floor."

Before Lucius could back away Anthony had already placed the harmonia around his neck, and cold sweat rushed in immediately.

"I--" His words choked, and his mind started reeling. Was there even a way to get out of this?

"I know you were sceptical about wearing it, but leaving it on the floor seems a bit unnecessary, don't you think?" Anthony patted his shoulder, only to frown as he looked at Lucius' expression. "... Are... Lucius, are you all right?"

"Uh..." Lucius couldn't breathe. Air refused to enter his lungs, and he couldn't stop his hands from shaking as he tried to remove the harmonia from his body.

His composure betrayed him. Holding the necklace had been bad enough, but wearing it around his throat and trying to tear it away? Excruciating.

"Lucius, what's—" At least Anthony seemed to understand what Lucius was trying to accomplish, and he hurriedly retrieved the harmonia.

Lucius gasped for air, holding his throat as he was finally allowed to breathe, but trying to hide the burns around his neck was hopeless. He had no excuses or lies for what just happened other than the truth.

So he let Anthony remove his hands to look at the burns.

Things progressed about the way Lucius had expected. First the examination of his throat, then the confused look down at the necklace, and finally... Eye contact.

"So..." Anthony took a deep breath, doing another round of confused glances before pointing at Lucius' blistering skin. "... That's new."