Anjelica's breath burned in her chest as she continued to run across town. Arriving at the base of the hill leading to Pierro's house, she drew her loaded pistol and cocked the hammer back with lethal intent.

She slowed her pace on the final ascent up the hill to steady herself. Hound walked next to her seemingly unfatigued by the sprint they had both just endured.

The forge was cold and smoke was no longer flowing from the chimney. Her worries grew further fervent as she saw the unlocked door standing ajar.

"Sera!" she called out as her shoulder connected with the door flinging it further open. Her eyes as well as her sights quickly scanned the room and saw no movement.

If I cannot find her or what happened to her then I will never hear the end of it, she thought.

"Hound check the bedrooms," Anjelica muttered as she began to walk alongside the table leading to the kitchen. Hound wordlessly moved towards the hallway and entered into Pierro's room out of sight from Anjelica.

As she mounted the steps into the kitchen she called out again but received no response. It was there, passing by the island that she saw the edges of Pierro's overturned wheelchair at the top of the stairs.

They must have taken them downstairs, she assumed. Best to take them by surprise then.

Anjelica opened the door as much as she dared before beginning to creep down the steps. She cursed internally at every click of her heels and creak of the floorboards as even her muscular control couldn't control the environmental sounds.

The last few steps brought her to a clear view of the interior of the basement and she saw Pierro propped up against the wall next to the body of his fledge sitting in a puddle of blood. A large machine had toppled and filled most of the room with its reflective carcass. Then, walking out from around the machine from the far corner was the copper hair of Sera clutching whose body was drenched in blood.

All malice drained from Anjelica as her weapon was quickly stowed and she rushed forwards towards Sera.

"Anjelica, you missed the fight," Sera began before being cut off by Anjelica's arms embracing her. Anjelica squeezed her so hard that she might have popped.

Grabbing Sera by the temples, Anjelica looked her in the eyes.

"We are never to be separated while on assignment again do you understand me?" Anjelica asked with a commanding tone. Barely even seeing Sera's nod, Anjelica began to examine the rest of Sera's body pulling apart the tear in her blouse that the bullet had made.

"What happened? Why did you not come to find us? Are you hurt at all?" Anjelica fired off questions manically while running her hands along Sera's midsection.

"She is fine, Anjelica," Pierro uttered tiredly from the ground, "In fact she may be better off than she was before."

Anjelica's worried fretting stopped as she looked at Pierro's despondent, guilty face.

"What did you do Pierro?" Anjelica asked with a deadpan voice and fiery eyes.

"She was shot and there was not much I could do for her. So I grabbed the sample of serum and administered it to her."

Fear crept over Anjelica's face and panic entered into her eyes as she turned back to Sera. Sera's earnest and concerned look was enough to shake the worst of Anjelica's worries.

If it was going to turn her then it would have already done so, she thought to herself in an attempt to calm herself.

While this was something that would need to be dealt with later, Anjelica began to examine the rest of the room. The ritual circle with the clots placed upon it, the hewn pieces of metal leftover from Sera's assault, and the unmoving body of Marina on the floor.

"Well if Marina is the one that we were looking for then I suppose she has already received her justice," Anjelica said.

It was then that the heavy boots of Hound came down the steps behind her. Without words, the two locked eyes and Anjelica conveyed her sadness and worries.

"Hello Sera," Hound said.

"Hello Hound," Sera responded.

"You got yourself into trouble while we were away?" he said with a mocking inflection.

"I suppose that I did," Sera replied sheepishly.

"Enough trouble that we will need to have a long discussion about it," Anjelica began, "Hound if you would be kind enough to help Pierro back up the stairs then I believe a bit of a debrief is called for."

The large man moved over and lifted Pierro without a problem and the group headed back up the stairs.

Sera spent some time detailing the encounter as best she could remember it to the group placing particular emphasis on her grandstanding that got her shot. For his part, Pierro had been dosed with Widow's Tears shortly after Sera had left for the market and could not remember much before the fighting started.

The four of them sat at the table and contemplated the events of the day. Anjelica rose and began to pace.

"The books that we found were from the archives. So all of this prattle that Marina was going on about, the reason why all these murders happened, is because of what she saw in those books," Anjelica said with her voice shifting in volume as she moved about the room.

"So we just have to figure out what was in those books and then we will know why all of this is happening?" Sera questioned.

"No, it is more than that. What was in the books was superstitious, ancient theology. Who gave them to her and why? She was just a fledge so someone relatively important must have given them to her," Anjelica retorted.

"The Archminister Gabriel," Pierro announced loudly. Upon realizing that everyone had turned to look at him he awkwardly cleared his throat and continued.

"He is a great benefactor of my work. Much of my research into bloodstone was commissioned by the Cruor and managed by Gabriel. I had gotten into the habit of sending Marina north to Lovelle to deliver reports and to collect more bloodstone to continue my experiments. I knew that they had gotten close as of late. It only stands to reason that he is the most obvious candidate," Pierro concluded.

A moment of silence came over the group.

Hound was the first to speak.

"So you're saying that the most powerful person in Lovelle and possibly even the Cruor wanted someone to murder Gavels for them?"

"We cannot say that the Cruor was involved right?" Sera added. She looked over to see Anjelica and PIerro sharing a graven look with similar upturned eyebrows.

"Not precisely," Anjelica began, "Your reaction to the serum brings some doubt. Rumors of it have floated around for a very long while. Talk of how the Internal Bureau were immortal and records of members bragging to that effect. The thought was a bit unthinkable when the Internal Bureau had worked mostly as a political agent and enforcer for the higher reaches of the church. Then we got word from a man named the Phoenix and things got interesting. Pierro?"

The man cleared his throat again before speaking.

"The Phoenix agreed to meet me in an alleyway deep in the twisting alleys of Lovelle. He said that the Internal Bureau had begun to produce vials of healing serum again for the first time in a very long time. He said that can only mean one thing: soon fighting between clot users would start once again. After saying that, he handed me a vial, the vial, and began to walk away. I asked him what it was. 'A mixture of bloodstone and wine' he said. I asked him why bloodstone would heal people?"

Pierro's voice cracked and he took a moment to steady himself. He took a sip of water before beginning once more.

"'Not people,' he said, 'just people like us. Our clots can heal us quickly because they spread themselves all throughout our bodies by leaving tiny maroon crystals of themselves in our blood. You get enough of it into your bloodstream and they work very quickly.' Just like that, he told me that my life's work was built on something I could not even imagine. With the amount that I had seen pass through my shop it was simply unthinkable! I passed the information along with a fair few grains of salt and set the vial aside for further testing. This having only been a few weeks ago I was hoping that Anjelica and Hound would get here to assist me in my work. All of...well this happened which forced my hand a bit," Pierro sighed as he trailed off," I am sorry for forcing you into the position of an uninformed test subject, Sera."

Anjelica looked over and studied Sera's reaction. Her face paled and she gagged a bit before slumping back and seemed to accept her position.

"You forced me to drink other people's blood to save my life?" Sera said shakily.

"Yes, when you put it like that," Pierro responded.

"Sera," Hound began softly while catching her attention, "None of this is how we would have liked it. The important thing is that you are still here with us."

Sera stared at him for a moment before her eyes looked off into the distance. She nodded resignedly and slouched back into her chair.

"Thank you Pierro," she managed to mutter.

"If what the Phoenix said was true, which Sera's experience implies, then we have a much larger problem than accidental cannibalism," Anjelica said, "It means that someone is both creating clot users and collecting their blood. There are only around ten graduates a year from the academy and we certainly were not getting our blood drawn during our time there so where the fuck is it coming from?"

A thought then struck Anjelica like a strike of lightning from the heavens.

"Have either of you two heard of a shipment of bloodstone coming from anywhere but Lovelle?" she asked of the two men.

Their silence and shaking heads were terrifying to Anjelica.

"Whoever is making the bloodstone is in Lovelle?" Sera inquired.

"Maybe. Probably? I shudder at the thought," Anjelica replied.

"It is a good thing that we are already going there then right? We can find them and figure out what exactly they are doing!" Sera said with a bit of hope creeping into her voice.

"No, Sera," Hound growled, "Even if you were fully trained it would be too dangerous for you."

"Well then where are we going to go?" Sera asked.

"The same way that we were going," Anjelica stated, "Except we will stop at Red River and try to find passage over instead of going further north to Lovelle. We have a friend in town who has his own small boat. We will get you across the river and then take you to Brestoc. Once you are safe then Hound and I can come back and investigate. Do you two find this agreeable?"

The two men nodded their heads after a moment of contemplation.

"Why do I not get a say in where I go, Anjelica?" Sera said, "I have fought monsters, no I have fucking killed monsters and you want to send me away?"

"Not send you away, keep you safe. We cannot afford anything to happen to you now or ever!" Anjelica chided.

"I can keep myself safe!" Sera yelled back.

"That is not the point, Sera! You..." Anjelica choked back a sob, "You almost died today because I was not there. I was chasing a bloody mystery while you were in danger and I cannot have that happen again. So I am going to take you to a place where you can be safe and looked after so that I can run towards the problem with a clear head. I just do not know what I would possibly do if something happened to you. I will not take that risk! This is final!"

At this a single tear trailed it's way down Anjelica's right cheek. Her left hand shot up to her cheek to stifle any other tears as she turned away from the group.

"I am sorry Anjelica. I guess that I was just being selfish, wanting to stay with you," Sera said but Anjelica could hear the sadness in her voice. "If that is what needs to happen to help people then I will trust you."

The chair behind Anjelica screeched across the room as Sera got up and walked to her temporary room.

"Anjelica, you could have..." Hound began.

"I could have what Hound?" Anjelica interjected, "I could have burdened her with yet more awful information on the day that she almost died? I think not. She is just a teenager and she thinks that she is immortal. I know better than anyone that she is not. We will leave in the morning so make sure that the carriage is ready." Anjelica stated it with a finality to try to dissuade Hound from following as she walked off to her own accommodations.

Slamming the door behind her, Anjelica pressed her back to it and slid down to the ground. That is when the tears finally came. She whipped off her eyepatch preemptively so that it wouldn't get soiled as the torrent unleashed in big, heaving sobs. She pulled her sleeves onto her hands and pressed them onto her eyes so as not to ruin the nice wood flooring.

This has been nothing but stress since we found Sera, she thought with the words similar to her teary eyes. It is my fault for growing attached to her. All of us know that eventually there are going to be hard choices made and Sera will not get a say in any of it. She is going to hate that.

Anjelica sobbed into her hands one last time before she began to regain her breathing.

Until then she will be safe. Not even her stubbornness will keep me from making sure that she stays safe.

With a sniffle, she wiped her eyes with her sleeves.

"Ah dammit," she exclaimed as she saw the darkened end of her left sleeve.

This is why I hate crying. It is impossible to get the blood stain out of these blue shirts.