Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Morrigan paced around Jupiter's office, unable to contain her excitement. Jupiter was looking at her, his brows furrowed.

"Do you really think this is a good idea?" - Jupiter asked, breaking the silence. There was an open doubt in his voice.

Morrigan stopped and lowered her eyes, biting her lip slightly.

"As if there's another way out" - she muttered. - "The Wintersea Republic is threatening war, and we know firsthand what they are capable of, and specifically their President" - Morrigan didn't say her name out loud. It seemed to her that if she uttered it, she would simply vomit with disgust.

"Besides, at the moment, as much as I hate to admit it, I have no reason not to trust Squall. First of all, he never lied to me, apart from presenting under a different name at the beginning of our acquaintance, but this is a harmless thing. Don't you think?" - Morrigan began counting off her fingers. - "Secondly, personally, I still don't have a clear idea of what happened at Courage Square a hundred years ago, and based on what I saw with my own eyes, Wunsoc itself is far from as holy and grandiose as it seems at first glance, and they could easily hide the truth. And the answer is in that hidden section in The Gobleian Library. You should have seen how many history books about Wundersmiths there are!" - for a moment her eyes lit up with delight when she looked at Jupiter, but after a moment she continued. - "And they're hiding it all. Would they hide it if they had nothing to hide? The answer is one: no. Besides, I'm not even sure that the current Elders have even looked into these books. They probably, like everyone in the city, were just told one well-established story about an evil Wundersmith who killed many people and was expelled from the Free State about a hundred years ago. And the only person who knows the whole truth is Squall himself. So here's what I think: we need to persuade the Elders to at least listen to Squall. He will surely be able to help stop Wintersea. This is such a chance!"

When Morrigan finished, she looked searchingly at Jupiter, who looked thoughtful.

"Even if we take into account the fact that no one still knows anything specific about The Courage Square Massacre, this does not cancel out everything else that Squall did. The murder of cursed children, involvement in the opening of The Ghastly Market, the creation of Hollowpox. And God knows what else he did" - Jupiter raised his hand in a stopping gesture. - "I know you've said more than once that he created Hollowpox by order of President Wintersea, but he did it. You can't deny that".

Morrigan sighed and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Yes, you're right, I can't. But..." - Morrigan frowned. - "He helped to cure it later and..."

"That is why you agreed to become his apprentice".

"I gave my consent myself, he didn't force me"- the girl said again. How many times has it been possible to repeat that it was her own decision and Squall did not oblige her to sign the contract?

Jupiter sighed wearily and pinched the bridge of his nose. Such disputes have always been exhausting. Neither he nor she was willing to give in. But still he had to.

"Well, I guess everyone makes mistakes," he got up from the desk. - "Let's see what happens. Just don't say later that I didn't warn you".

"Pfff, don’t dream" - Morrigan grinned, rejoicing at her victory.

—————————————————————————————

To say that the Elders did not like this idea is to say nothing. They were furious to learn that Morrigan had communicated with the enemy of Nevermoor and became his apprentice, and even asked them to agree to meet with him in person. It is incomprehensible to the mind! Morrigan reminded them of the threat posed by the Republic, and that it would not be bad to listen to what Squall would say, while asking what they even know about him and about the history of the Wundersmiths, if not to recall the old legend. As she expected, the Elders did not respond to this, and it was clear that this fact clearly hurt their pride. But in the end they gave their consent, albeit without much enthusiasm.

That was one of the reasons why Morrigan was in the Republic now. The second reason was that she had to have a lesson with Squall.

Squall conducted the lessons held in the Republic at Squall Industries. It wasn't safe, of course, but there wasn't much choice. She still wondered how the President had not guessed anything yet, given her awareness of everything that was happening. It bothered Morrigan, but she tried to put these thoughts out of her head. She had a lot of problems without it.

When Morrigan arrived, Squall was sitting at his office desk, sorting through a stack of documents. At such moments, he looked like an ordinary, unremarkable businessman, sitting in an office chair from morning to night and sorting through stacks of papers, but certainly not the most powerful man in the world, capable of creating something unprecedented at the click of his fingers, as well as destroying it.

He didn't even notice her right away, so she had to cough a little to get his attention.

"Miss Crow" - he looked at his wristwatch. - "You're earlier than usual today".

"A special case, so to speak" - she shrugged.

Squall raised an eyebrow questioningly, waiting for her to continue.

"The Elders agreed to meet with you" - Morrigan did not beat around the bush. It wasn't her style. She was always straightforward.

Morrigan noted to herself that after these words, for the first time since their acquaintance, so many emotions flashed across Squall's face at once. She couldn't even hold back a light laugh, for which she received an irritated look from Squall, who quickly pulled himself together.

"After all, sometimes he loses control too" - Morrigan thought gloatingly, the grin remained on her face.

"The meeting is scheduled for tomorrow at 12 pm at Proudfoot House" - Morrigan added, without waiting for the Squall's response.

Squall sat silently, lost in his thoughts and lightly tapping his fingers on the surface of the table.

"Curious" - it was all Squall said.

Chapter Text

Waking up the next morning, Morrigan quickly put on her black dress and shoes and went down to breakfast, where Jupiter and Jack were already sitting. It was very early, so she didn't think that anyone else besides her had already woken up, but she was mistaken. Only Fen seemed to be sleeping, snuggled up on the hearthrug.

There were bruises under Jupiter's eyes, and he looked rather rumpled and tired, so Morrigan wondered: "Did he go to bed at all?".

"Good morning!" - Morrigan said, sitting down at the table with them.

"Morning!" - Jack replied, reaching for another bun. - "Can't sleep either?"

"How can I sleep?" - she muttered. - "I tossed and turned all night. What if something goes wrong? As if we don't have enough problems already".

"Pfft, if something goes wrong? Are you serious? The word “if” is clearly superfluous here" - Jack chuckled, shoving the bun into his mouth. - "The Elders have agreed to negotiate with The Wundersmith, the main enemy of Nevermoor. Well, I mean the former main enemy, given the new threat. Although... maybe it's not so new" - he said uncertainly and squinted at Jupiter.

Jupiter put the glass down on the table and rubbed his eyes.

"In any case, Squall from this has not ceased to be an enemy. I wouldn't trust him so quickly" - Jupiter looked pointedly at Morrigan, to which she snorted.

"Who says I trust him completely?" - Morrigan was indignant. - "And I don't deny that he killed many people and did terrible things. But right now, I'm afraid we don't have much choice. He's the only one who can help us stop the President..."

"I consiger that if he really could, he would have done it long ago. Don't you think so?" - Jupiter interrupted her. - "So does he know and want to get rid of her or not? If he wants to get rid of her so much, then what is stopping him? So many years have passed, there must have been many opportunities, but he apparently did not take advantage of them".

Morrigan frowned, thinking. The question had never occurred to her.

"I would rather ask this question: what could be so dangerous about the President that Squall himself, the Wundersmith, is unable to resist her?"

It was really an essential question.

—————————————————————————————

Once on the grounds of Proudfoot House, Morrigan noticed that there were more people than usual. The Elders did everything for the protection.

"It seems we forgot to tell them that there will be no Squall as such, that he will be here on the Gossamer" - Morrigan whispered to Jupiter.

"It’s never superfluous to be safe" - Jupiter shrugged. - "Besides, if not Squall, then The Hunt can cause significant harm".

"Yeah, I doubt very much that THEY" - Morrigan nodded towards a bunch of Society members, - "will be able to do anything against it. It's like they fight shadows every day" - Morrigan said skeptically.

"These are the best of the best. It is much better to have at least some protection, even if not so strong, than not to have any at all" - Jupiter replied. - "They're afraid. And do not blame them for this, because there is a very serious danger. Don't you know, Mog?"

Morrigan had nothing to say to that, because he was right, so she just grunted.

"Morrigan!" - Hawthorne's voice came from somewhere behind.

When Morrigan turned in the direction from which she thought his voice had come, she saw that he was not alone. Her whole Unit was there.

"What are you doing here?" - she asked in surprise. She hadn't expected to see them here.

"We didn't want to leave you here alone, so we decided to attend too" - replied Anah.

"Yes, you don't have to go through all this alone" - Hawthorne put his arm around Morrigan's shoulders and smiled broadly at her.

"You've been through enough already" - Cadence shrugged. There was excitement and worry in her eyes, which could not be said by looking at the expression on her face, which seemed bored as always.

Everyone else nodded in unison. Morrigan has never felt so much love and warmth as she does now. Morrigan was so grateful to them for coming to support her. Even though there were some disagreements between them, but in a difficult moment they were all ready to help each other, no matter what.

"Thank you" - Morrigan smiled sincerely, for the first time this morning. Her eyes stung with tears, which she quickly brushed away before anyone noticed. Now was not the time to snot. After all, the most difficult thing was just ahead.

—————————————————————————————

There was no one in the Elder’s Hall, however, except for the Morrigan and the nine silent statues. She needed to be alone to calm down a little and collect her thoughts. Morrigan began to walk around the statues, carefully examining each of them. She had not had the opportunity to study them before.

She had the feeling that they reminded her something. But she couldn't figure out what, the thought kept slipping away from her.

"Haven't you guessed yet, Miss Crow?"

A quiet voice sounded unexpectedly loud in the empty great hall.

"Oh, Lord!" - Morrigan jumped in surprise. She'll never get used to it. - "Will you ever stop doing that?"

Squall just grinned, clearly amused by her reaction.

Morrigan just rolled her eyes in exasperation.

"So what didn't I guess?" - she tried to look indifferent, but in fact she was eager to find out what Squall meant.

He was in no hurry to answer the question, silently looking at the statues. He clasped his hands behind his back, thinking about something, but then he shook his head slightly, as if pushing away unwanted thoughts or unwilling memories.

"The Wundrous Arts" - Squall simply said, but when he met Morrigan's puzzled gaze, he sighed, either disappointed or annoyed. - "These nine statues" - he waved his hand in their direction, - "symbolize the nine Wundrous Arts. And to be honest, I'm surprised you haven't figured it out yet. Doesn't it seem obvious to you?" - he raised an eyebrow slightly.

Morrigan took another look at all these statues. A blindfolded man made from turquoise could well symbolize Veil, a rose-quartz woman with eight pointed arms probably symbolized Weaving, a pair of marble conjoined twins - Masquerade, an amber man with candles for hands - Inferno, an amethyst puppet master most likely symbolized the art that Squall demonstrated on the roof of Deucalion during Hallowmas. Morrigan still didn't know what it was called, which once again proved her ignorance of how to be a real wundersmith.

Squall noticed an epiphany in her eyes.

"Now you've seen it" - he said with satisfaction.

Morrigan could only nod in agreement.

At that moment, the doors of the hall opened, and Jupiter entered the hall, whose face immediately turned stone at the sight of Squall, but he decided to remain silent.

"Mog, the Elders will be here soon" - he walked up to her and put his hands on her shoulders, looking askance at Squall. - "I hope there will be no surprises?"

"Don't worry, Captain North" - Squall laughed grimly. - "I have no intention of hurting anyone. At least for now".

The last sentence sounded intimidating.

"That sounds encouraging" - Jupiter said dryly and squeezed Morrigan's shoulders, as if to make it clear that he would not let her offend. Morrigan knew that he was unlikely to be able to do anything against Squall, but she was grateful to him anyway.

Morrigan smiled slightly at Jupiter, saying that everything is fine. He smiled back at her.

—————————————————————————————

"Ezra Squall" - Gregoria Quinn said slowly. The other Elders stood on either side of her, trying not to take their eyes off the Barrage, no matter how hard it was.

Only Morrigan, Jupiter, other members of Unit 919 and their patrons were allowed into Elder's Hall (after much persuasion from Jupiter, the Elders still allowed them to attend. After all, they were in the same Unit with Morrigan). There was a tense atmosphere in the hall.

"You haven't been heard from for more than a hundred years. And here you are again. Even if not physically, but the threat does not disappear from this" - Gregoria Quinn paused, waiting for Squall to say something, but he was silent. He looked bored, it seemed that he wasn't listening to them at all, but Morrigan knew well that he hadn't missed a single word. - "Well" - the Elder continued, - "as we all know, Wintersea Republic is threatening war on the Free State, and we must not allow this in any case. Miss Crow has told us a lot... about everything, although this does not negate everything that you have done, but we believe that you also do not want the death of Nevermoor, Mr. Squall. Isn't that right?"

Squall stared intently at Elder Quinn.

"Let's say" - he replied shortly.

"No matter how strange it sounds. After everything you've done: The Courage Square Massacre, The Ghastly Market, Hollowpox and God knows what else! We would like to know the reasons..."

"I am well aware of what I have done, Elder Quinn" - he uttered the last words carelessly, he ignored the last phrase of Gregoria Quinn. "So I'll have to find out for myself" - Morrigan muttered to herself. Apparently, Squall was not going to share this. - "But the irony of the whole situation is that even after doing all this, I still ended up here..."

"Only thanks to Miss Crow. She is surprisingly convincing" - it was impossible to understand whether it sounded like a compliment or a reproach.

"I should know" - Squall grinned.

Morrigan was willing to bet that he said it to annoy the Elders. And he succeeded. After all, no one knew about their communication for three years, and would not have known if Morrigan had not told them herself. Naturally, their complete ignorance hurt their pride.

"Mr. Squall, if you are standing here now, it first of all indicates that you yourself are not averse to interfering with Wintersea Republic. No matter what you say. And let us now be ready to accept that you have gone unpunished..."

"Unpunished?!" - Squall's eyebrows shot up. - "Is it not considered a punishment that I was banished from Nevermoor? Or for you, the punishment is imprisonment in prison or... oh, just how I could forget!" - he slapped his forehead affectedly. - "A safeguard pact".

It wasn't the first time Morrigan had heard about it, but no one had explained to her what it meant. In addition, at the mere mention of it, the same expressions of horror and fear appeared on everyone's faces. However, just like now.

"Think what you're saying. We use it only in the most extreme cases" - Alioth Saga said sharply.

Squall didn't even pay any attention to the Elder, ignoring his remark.

"Is he always like this?" - Cadence whispered in Morrigan's ear. It seemed to Morrigan that there was a note of some admiration in her friend's voice. In fact, she was not surprised.

"It happens worse. He's still in a good mood, if he has it, of course" - Morrigan whispered in response.

Gregoria Quinn cleared her throat.

"In general, what we wanted to say" - she said after a minute's pause. - "We are ready to work with you, but, as you can guess, on our terms" - at these words, Squall turned his head slightly towards Morrigan and looked straight into her eyes, his gaze was gloomy. He seemed ready to incinerate her, so she tried hard not to look at him. She did not take her eyes off Elder Quinn, pretending to listen attentively to her. - "Therefore, we propose to conclude an agreement confirming our cooperation".

"What will I gain from this?" - Squall squinted at the Elders. He wouldn't help for nothing.

The Elders exchanged glances. Their gazes darkened, they clearly didn't like what they were about to say.

"Yesterday we had a meeting with Prime Minister Steed about the current situation. And we came to an agreement, it was hard for us, of course, but we decided that we will allow you to return to Nevermoor. Subject to the fulfillment of all obligations of the contract, of course".

The words sounded out of the blue. Silence reigned in the hall. No one said a word. This was a surprise to everyone, including Squall, as Morrigan noted to herself. No one could even imagine that the Government of the Free State and the Elders would take such a risk. But now it was clear why Jupiter looked so tired and tense. He already knew about all this, and it didn't bring him any joy either.

"Well" - Squall was the first to break the silence. The corner of his mouth twitched up, turning into a grin, - "in that case, before signing the contract, I would like to get acquainted with the entire list of conditions to which I will have to agree".

"Of course, Mr. Squall" - Elder Quinn sighed.

Chapter Text

"WHAT?!" - Morrigan and Jack stared at Jupiter with wide eyes. It seemed that their eyes were about to pop out of their sockets.

"Tell me it's a joke! Hahaha, we all laughed and that's enough" - Jack said hopefully in his voice. This time, Morrigan agreed with him completely.

"It's not funny. Say something!" - she pleaded.

Jupiter's expression spoke for itself. He was as gloomy as a thundercloud. Morrigan assumed that he had already said a couple of affectionate words to the Elders.

"I wish it was a joke, but unfortunately it's not" - Jupiter sighed. - "The Elders said that since it was our idea to arrange negotiations with Squall, then we will have to be responsible for all this. So they decided that Squall would be staying at the hotel under our supervision" - Jupiter said something else that Morrigan did not hear. Maybe for the best.

"It’ll be very interesting" - she drawled.

"Yeah" - Jack propped his cheek on his hand. - "It’ll be our end" - he stated.

—————————————————————————————

Morrigan lay on the bed in her room and stared at the ceiling, deep in thought.

"Morrigan!"

The girl shuddered and looked at the Cadence with wide-open eyes.

"What are you shouting for?" - Morrigan was indignant.

"Pfft, seriously? It's probably the fourth time I've called you. What are you thinking about?" - she looked at her friend searchingly.

"Yeah" - Hawthorne agreed, putting another cake into his mouth, which Martha had baked especially for them. - "Tell us, what's going on in your head this time? Keep in mind, we'll find out anyway, so don't deny it" - he shook his finger in all seriousness.

Morrigan sighed and sat cross-legged. She had already told them that Squall would be staying at the hotel and had expressed her concerns about it, but right now it wasn't what bothered her the most.

"Well, it's about Squall and President Wintersea" - she began. - "The more I think about it, the more questions I have about why Squall hasn't stopped her yet or... killed her. It's all strange" - she shrugged.

"You know," - Cadence and Hawthorne exchanged glances, - "we've been thinking about that, too. After all, Ezra Squall is a Wundersmith, and we can't imagine how anyone can resist him at all or scare him so much, according to your story about the night when he helped you destroy Hollowpox. The Wundersmiths have always been the most powerful people in the world. No one could compare with them, much less surpass them".

"But the President seems to have succeeded" - Hawthorne added.

"Yes, Mr. Obvious, she succeeded" - Cadence rolled her eyes.

"But HOW?!" - Morrigan howled with indignation.

"Maybe you should ask Squall" - Hawthorne began cautiously. - "After all, it's best to learn about it from him. I doubt that anyone but himself will tell us about all the nuances".

"I've already thought about it, but... do you really think he'll tell us everything right away?" - Morrigan raised an eyebrow questioningly. - "During all this time, he didn't even mention Maud until I found out about everything myself. And it all happened completely by accident. Besides, when I ask him about something, he either evades the answer or gives a vague answer. Like, guess what I meant, and I'll watch it from the side" - she said sarcastically. - "Infuriating".

"So we'll have to find out for ourselves, as always" - Hawthorne said matter-of-factly. Sometimes his spontaneity amazed them.

"Yeah, just need to figure out where to start" - Morrigan propped her head on her hands.

"What if we start from the beginning?" - suddenly said Cadence.

"What do you mean?" - Morrigan and Hawthorne turned their heads to her at the same time.

"Well, look. All the troubles and disagreements began a little more than a hundred years ago, just when the Courage Square Massacre took place. Do you understand?" - Cadence looked at them expectantly, they nodded affirmatively. - "So here's what I suggest: first of all, we need to find out what caused this massacre and what exactly happened then. The only thing is, I have no idea where to look for information about this..."

Morrigan frowned, and then gasped slightly. An idea flashed in her eyes, and a smile appeared on her face.

"Maybe I know where we should start looking".

—————————————————————————————

Squall was standing in front of the hotel entrance with his hands in his pockets. His dark eyes studied the facade intently.

"Nothing has changed" - the man said softly.

Before being here, Squall found it not superfluous to take a walk around his beloved city. It had been a long time since he had experienced this feeling of calm and satisfaction while walking through familiar streets. Let a lot of things have changed here, but this has not diminished its beauty at all. Passers-by did not pay any attention to him, because most of Nevermoor did not know what The Wundersmith looked like at all, so no one rushed to the leak, just seeing him, and did not call for help. But it was only a matter of time before everyone found out that Ezra Squall was back. The Government of the Free State and the Wundrous Society will not disclose this kind of information now, they didn’t need mass panic and rebellion. Not when a neighboring state threatens an attack.

Squall stretched out his hand, intending to enter, but hesitated slightly, as if he doubted his decision, but after a moment he still went inside.

Several hotel guests were sitting in the lobby: someone was reading a book, holding a cup of tea, someone was having lunch or just spending time with family and friends. No one suspected that a man in a strict gray suit, who had just entered the hotel, could pose at least some kind of danger. No one even attached importance to him. It seemed that nothing could disturb the cozy atmosphere that reigned here.

Squall approached the reception desk, which was currently empty. He kept looking at the interior of the hotel, noting every detail.

"You're late" - Jupiter's voice came from behind.

Squall turned in his direction, a smirk appeared on his lips again.

"I'm sorry, Captain North. I couldn't resist taking a short walk around my beloved city".

Jupiter sighed heavily. He will need a lot of patience.

"I believe the Elders have enlightened you about the fact that at the moment you will be staying at the Deucalion Hotel. I have already prepared room 97 on the fourth floor for you. Follow me, I'll show you how to get there" - Jupiter offered without much enthusiasm.

"It's not worth it, Captain" - Squall snapped his fingers, the key, which had been in Jupiter's hand before, turned out to be in his hand. - "I quite know where this room is".

Jupiter looked at him in surprise. Well, this man is really full of surprises.

"When did you get acquainted with the layout of the hotel?" - Jupiter could not resist asking.

Squall pressed his lips into a thin line and grunted. Jupiter noticed that he hesitated a little before answering.

"Miss Crow enlightened me about a lot of things at the hotel" - Squall shrugged casually.

Jupiter clearly saw the lie, even if not as much as he would have seen it in other people. Squall was not a fool not to hide his emotions and feelings from Witnesses. But he just couldn't do it completely, and sometimes there were still some glimpses.

Squall was already heading towards the stairs.

"Mr. Squall, given the common threat and the fact that we are now... allies," - Jupiter faltered slightly on the last word, - "we must learn to work together, no matter how much we both don’t like it" - he really thought so. Whether he wanted it or not, they were on the same side now. And only time will tell what will come of it.

Squall stopped and turned his head slightly towards Jupiter.

"Calm down, Captain, I am well aware of this" - he started to move on, but still hesitated a little. - "Oh yes! Could you tell Miss Crow that at five o'clock I'm waiting for her on the roof of the hotel for a lesson?" - after that he started climbing the stairs.

Jupiter couldn't think of anything else to do but find the Morrigan.

—————————————————————————————

Jupiter peeked into Morrigan's room just as Cadence and Hawthorne were about to go home. They have already discussed their further actions and agreed that if something changes, then immediately inform others about it. It remains only to keep everything a secret from others, and especially from Jupiter and Squall.

"Squall is already at the hotel" - Jupiter immediately reported. - "He asked me to tell you that the lesson will take place at five o'clock on the roof of the hotel" - this sounded in a rather calm voice.

"Oh, so you didn't kill each other" - Morrigan giggled.

Jupiter snorted merrily at this statement.

"Don't exaggerate, Mog. I don't think it will come to that. At least I will try to control myself" - he added.

"Okay, I heard you. I hope he's in a good mood?" - she propped her head on her hand. - "I'd like to come back from class alive".

"Honestly? I have no idea. It's impossible to read this person unless he allows it" - Jupiter shook his head. - "But you know, the strange thing is: he knew perfectly well where his room was when I offered to escort him. He said that you told him a lot about the hotel, which was a blatant lie..."

"Okay, stop, Jupiter" - Morrigan raised her hands, wanting to stop him. She didn't want to tell him about her guesses about this yet, so as not to worry him once again. - "First of all, I didn't tell him anything. And I don't think he needed it at all. Secondly, Squall has information about almost everything, so I'm not surprised at all that he knows everything about the hotel. So just put it out of your mind. Okay?"

"Whatever you say, Mog. Indeed, why did I attach any importance to this at all? Apparently, I just need to get used to it. After all, this is my first time talking to him, unlike some, isn't it?" - Jupiter looked significantly at Morrigan, raising his left eyebrow.

Morrigan rolled her eyes.

"Oh, yes! But now you will definitely catch up. After all, now you will work together. I am ready to look at this with great pleasure" - she grinned.

"Very funny" - Jupiter muttered.

—————————————————————————————

Squall was standing in front of the mirror in room 97, straightening his tie. There were many different emotions raging in him. He had long ago learned to restrain them, otherwise there was no way. He simply would not have survived in the society in which he has been for the last hundred years. But right now he needed to throw them out. It's a good thing he's going to have a lesson with Miss Crow soon. This will be a great way to do it. Using The Wundrous Arts has always helped him calm down.

Squall went to the window. He didn't even want to think about what would happen when Maud found out about his actions. And she would find out, there was no doubt about it. Nothing could be hidden from her, and it angered and irritated.

Squall clenched his hands into fists so that his knuckles turned white. He has to tread carefully. He has no right to make a mistake. This had to be done away with. She had to be stopped.

—————————————————————————————

Morrigan was sitting on the roof, her face exposed to the cool breeze. Summer evenings were her favorite. It was nice to sit under the rays of the bright sun and look at the city stretching for miles ahead. She couldn't get enough of it.

The sound of boot heels coming from the stairs leading to the roof brought her out of her thoughts. A few seconds later, the owner of the sound appeared on the roof.

"Hello again, Miss Crow!" - there was a joyful excitement in Squall's voice. Morrigan even exhaled a little. He wouldn't train her to exhaustion today. And thanks for that. - "So, today we will study the Art of Tempus and practice a little bit of the Art of Inferno. It will also be very useful to us today".

He waved his hand, and several candles appeared on the parapet, each of which lit up in turn.

"This Art, perhaps, I would call one of the most difficult in terms of understanding its action" - Squall began to explain. Morrigan didn't miss a single word. - "But time manipulation has always been also one of the most necessary Arts. I decided that we would start by slowing down and speeding up time".

He sang a few bars of his song to collect a little more wunder, and again waved his hand so that a fiery figure in the shape of a bird was created from the flame of candles in the sky, which was going to dive down. But before it did, Squall slowly twirled his finger to the left side. The bird dived down, but it did not do it quickly, as Morrigan expected, but extremely slowly, as if in slow motion.

It was the first time Morrigan had seen Tempus in action, but she was already beginning to like it. But what struck her even more was the ease with which Squall did it all. He didn't even seem to have put much effort into it. Would she ever achieve such mastery too? It all seemed so unreal, and at the same time so desirable.

"Now it's your turn" - Squall retreated a little. - "Return it to its normal state".

Morrigan paused for a moment, remembering every movement of Squall. "If he scrolled his finger to the left side to slow down the bird, then to speed it up, I need to do the same in the opposite direction. Sounds logical" - Morrigan thought.

And she did as she intended… But it didn't work out. She tried again, and again, and again… But nothing happened. All this time Squall was silently watching her.

"Miss Crow," - he finally stopped her. There was a hint of irritation in his voice, - "you don't need to strain so much to speed up time. This is exactly the main advantage of this Art: it takes practically no effort. You just need to know exactly what you want to do and concentrate on this thought, and put everything else out of your head and relax" - he explained to her. - "Try again".

Morrigan did as she was told. She tried to concentrate on the one thought that she needed to speed up this bird, and slowly twisted her finger to the right, trying to relax a little at the same time. She threw all her worries far away.

It seemed that nothing had happened to the bird, it was still slowly flying down, but after a moment it began to do it faster and faster, until it began to move at the speed with which it should have from the very beginning. The bird flew past Morrigan and Squall and disappeared into the evening sky. Morrigan couldn't believe her eyes: she did it! She jumped up and down with joy, this Art really took almost no strength from her.

"Not bad, Miss Crow" - even though Squall's face remained as calm and emotionless as ever, there was satisfaction in his voice. - "Today you managed to do what I asked much faster".

"Was it my imagination or did it really sound like praise?" - Morrigan grinned.

"Think as you like" - Squall shrugged indifferently, but Morrigan saw that he smiled slightly when he turned away.

"Whatever you say" - Morrigan said smugly.

"You still have a lot to learn, Miss Crow" - Squall said very seriously. - "Everything we are doing now is just a warm-up. As I have told you more than once, you are still very, very far from being a real Wundersmith. And we don't have as much time as we would like. Starting tomorrow, we will start preparing twice as hard, so be ready to give your best. You will fall from fatigue, I promise you that. Well, that's probably enough for today. I advise you to rest and gain strength" - with these words, without turning around, Squall left.

Morrigan was left alone, digesting all that Squall had just said.

They really didn't have much time.

Chapter Text

"This place again" - Hawthorne whined, opening the oak doors.

Morrigan and Cadence rolled their eyes. They barely managed to persuade him to go to the Gobleian Library again. The only thing he liked here was the beetle attack. Of course, what else can you like in the library? But they decided not to repeat this experience.

"Be patient, since you agreed to come with us" - Cadence shushed him.

"Exactly" - Morrigan agreed. - "Did you think you could do without studying books? We won't know anything then".

Hawthorne's scowl only deepened.

Roshni was sitting at the table, stubbornly searching for something in the book. Judging by her frown, she couldn't concentrate to find what she needed. This was not surprising, because Marina Cheery was standing next to her and was telling her something animatedly, gesturing with her hands.

"Good afternoon!" - the children greeted them.

The girls looked in their direction at the same time. Completely opposite emotions were reflected on their faces: Marina Cheery's face lit up with a radiant smile, as always at the sight of their Unit, and Roshni Singh's face immediately tensed (you could even say that she looked at them with some fear in her eyes), her eyes began to stare at them, she understood that they had come for a reason.

"Hello everyone!" - Miss Cheery greeted them joyfully, exchanging glances with Roshni. - "What a meeting! We didn't expect to see you here".

"Oh, uh, yeah, we didn't really plan on coming back here either. At least in the near future" - Morrigan began to pull at her fingers, but immediately pulled herself back. She needed to speak as confidently as possible. - "But we urgently needed to find some information related to the history of The Wundrous Society and Nevermoor for our common project" - she pointed to Cadence and Hawthorne, who nodded vigorously, confirming her words.

Roshni took off her glasses and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Not again" - she moaned. - "Why don't you take the necessary books elsewhere? Safe and designed for children, for example?"

Miss Cheery also looked unsure this time. After that incident, she began to think about her decisions related to Unit 919 more often and tried not to put them at any risk.

"I don't even know what to say" - she clicked her tongue.

"I'm sorry, but you'd better get away from here. I don't want to risk your lives anymore" - Roshni shook her head.

"Please, Miss Singh. We really need books that are only in this library. We won't find them anywhere else" - the children looked at her with pleading eyes.

"Oh, don't look at me like that" - she slightly closed her eyes.

"What do you need so badly to find here that you are willing to risk your lives?" - Miss Cheery looked at them intently. The children tried to look as casual as possible. - "However, why am I surprised? You've been in more dangerous situations".

Indeed, meeting with giant beetles was not the most terrible event in their life.

Miss Cheery whispered something in Roshni's ear, which caused her to violently protest. But Miss Cheery said something again, and this time her friend just muttered something displeased.

"Okay" - Roshni drawled without much enthusiasm. - "You can search for what you need. But" - she interrupted the children's jubilation that had already begun, - "I won't give you more than an hour, so try to keep within this time".

Well, that was quite enough, too.

"Thank you very much!" - the children thanked them.

"See that we don't regret it later" - sighed Roshni.

—————————————————————————————

The Gobleian Library will never cease to fascinate and amaze. It was a smaller copy of Nevermoor, except that it was filled with a huge number of book rows. Morrigan quickly found Devilish Court. She immediately warned her friends that in order to get to the right section, they would have to go through one of the types of Tricky Lanes. This news did not please them, but there was nowhere to go.

Having survived the lack of air, they found themselves on the other side of the alley, where Morrigan showed Cadence and Hawthorne shelves completely filled with books about the History of the Wundersmiths. The true History.

"Wow, are you sure we're going to take that much away?" - Hawthorne asked, staring at a whole bunch of books.

"Yeah, we'll bring the truck now" - Cadence rolled her eyes.

"As far as I remember, the book I dropped was standing somewhere here..." - Morrigan paid no attention to their squabble and continued to run her eyes over the spines of books with volume numbers. - "Thank God!" - she breathed with relief, snatching out the right book. - "I thought it was lost forever".

She opened it to the table of contents, making sure that it really was that book.

"How are we going to get it through without anyone noticing?" - Hawthorne asked this quite obvious question. - "We obviously won't have time to read everything in an hour. And maybe we'll take a couple more books? Surely there are many more interesting things there".

"Yes, indeed, we can take a couple more volumes. And as for the invisibility, we already have a proven way" - Morrigan and Cadence exchanged conspiratorial glances.

—————————————————————————————

Cadence's mesmerism worked with a bang.

"So this isn't the first time you've done this?" - Hawthorne laughed. This trick clearly pleased him.

"Yeah. Last time I barely managed to persuade Cadence" - Morrigan nodded, also laughing.

"Don't forget about the debt" - the girl reminded her, but also couldn't resist a light laugh. It was contagious.

"Of course" - Morrigan shrugged casually.

Arriving at the hotel, the children immediately went to the Morrigan's room, trying to walk carefully so that no one would meet them on the way. Fortunately, they got to room 85 without any problems.

"Let's each take a book and start reading, and then tell everyone else. This way it will go much faster, and thus we will save time" - Morrigan suggested.

So they did. Each took a book for himself and sat down in a comfortable position. The guys didn't even notice how the evening came.

"Oh, I think it's time for us to go home, otherwise our parents will start looking for us" - Hawthorne pointed to the wall clock, which showed six o'clock in the evening. - "We got carried away too much".

"Then we'll continue tomorrow" - Morrigan said. - "In the evening I have another lesson with a Squall, and something tells me that I will have to work until exhaustion. The morning lesson was not easy".

"Good luck" - Hawthorne patted her shoulder sympathetically. - "By the way, tomorrow I will be able to come only in the afternoon. I have a training in the morning".

"We'll probably leave the books with you. It's safer this way" - Cadence put them on the table. - "Let them be in one place".

"MORRIGAN!" - came a shout.

"Is that Jack just shouted like that?" - Cadence looked at Morrigan with a questioning look.

"He seems to have found my surprise" - Morrigan chuckled. - "I warned him that I would not let him get away with the fact that he planted a snake in my room".

Hawthorne had to restrain himself from laughing.

"A snake?"

"Grass-snake" - Morrigan sighed. - "But that doesn't change anything".

"Where did he get it?"

"I don't know and I don't want to" - Morrigan waved her hand.

"I'm already wondering what you threw him! I want to see it!" - Hawthorne rushed out of the room, the girls immediately rushed after him. The books remained on the table.

—————————————————————————————

After working things out with Jack and seeing off her friends, Morrigan quickly ran to her room to change for class. Once at the door, she immediately noticed that someone was in her room.

She jerked the door open.

"Miss Crow, I've been waiting for you. I found an extremely entertaining reading on your table" - Squall was sitting at the table, holding one of the books in his hands and carefully looking through it.

Morrigan's breath caught in her throat and she pressed her back against the door. "What kind of fool would you have to be to leave these books in the most visible place?" - she thought to herself. She wanted to hit herself with something.

Squall never took his eyes off the book, his face was expressionless. It was getting scarier and scarier.

The silence seemed to last forever. Morrigan opened her mouth to say something, but Squall beat her to it.

"Your friend mesmerist helps you too often. I'm even surprised" - Squall said thoughtfully.

"She's not..." - Morrigan tried to protest.

"Don't even think about denying it" - Squall interrupted her. - "I am more than sure that you could not have stolen it from the Gobleian Library unnoticed yourself. So let's not waste time on your excuses" - he slammed the book shut with such force that the room echoed. Morrigan made a face. - "I'll be waiting for you at the South Wing in five minutes. No one will disturb us there for sure" - throwing away the book, Squall headed for the door.

Morrigan took a quick glance at the books, wondering why Squall hadn't done anything to them (for example, burned them). That would be just like him. She thought he would at least get angry, but he remained as calm and indifferent as ever. Morrigan couldn't help but have questions.

She bit her lip, wondering in her mind if it was worth asking him before class.

"Why?" - the question flew out by itself. It sounded barely audible and covered everything that Morrigan wanted to know so much. It seemed that Squall didn't even hear, but he did.

Squall clenched his fists so that his knuckles turned white. Morrigan already regretted asking, expecting him to pounce on her like last time, but he was still silent. His brows were furrowed, as if he was trying to make some important decision.

"Well, how about a History lesson?"

—————————————————————————————

A woman was standing in her office with her arms folded. Her face was impassive, but her eyes flashed lightning. A real storm was raging in them.

"Finally!" - she turned to meet a person who entered. - "I thought I'd have to bring you by force."

The person didn't say a word.

The woman sighed irritably and waved her hand.

"You can be silent as long as you want. It's not going to help. Your friend mustered up the courage and betrayed me. I should admit I'm impressed" - the woman clicked her tongue. - "I didn't think he would disobey, considering..." - she looked at the figure.

"Well, you can't keep him on a leash forever" - the person said with a sneer, grinning.

The bracelets on hands flashed, and the person was silent again.

"It was better when you were silent" - the woman hissed, lowering her hand. - "A great invention" - her gaze stopped at the bracelets. - "Guarantees complete submission. It was necessary to put them on him too" - her face darkened, then she looked straight into the eyes of the person standing in front of her. - "Mind you, if you try to pull some trick, you'll both be in trouble. The same goes for him, and I think he knows it perfectly well" - her eyes flashed dangerously.

It was time to act.

Chapter Text

Morrigan was ready for anything: screams, anger, irritation, but not for a calm and restrained response. This confused her. It was impossible to predict Squall's reaction, no matter how hard she tried.

"It's a joke, isn't it?" - Morrigan drawled incredulously. She stared intently at the Wundersmith, trying not to take her eyes off him. It was necessary to be always on the alert with him, he did not deserve full trust yet.

"Do you think now is the time for jokes, Miss Crow? One more word, and I can change my mind" - Squall abruptly cut off Morrigan, who had already opened her mouth to object, but immediately closed it and began boring Squall with a gloomy look, showing with all her appearance that his action exasperates her, but she has no choice, so she will have to be a good girl. - "It's much better this way" - Squall grinned, sat down at the table again and started flipping through the book.

She raised her eyebrows with some indignation. He was acting at home in her room, as if it belonged to him and not to her.

Morrigan crossed her arms over her chest, looking expectantly at Squall. "He's mocking me" - the girl thought.

"You should sit down" - he advised, glancing at her briefly. Morrigan continued to stand stubbornly by the door. - "Well, as you wish" - he shrugged indifferently. - "So, have you read this volume yet?"

Morrigan shook her head.

"I haven't even read half of it. I managed to get the books only today, for the first time ... there were some difficulties" - she replied evasively.

"Oh, yes, the invasion of beetles! You know, Miss Crow, there's always something going on where you are. Didn't you notice that?"

Morrigan just snorted in response and shrugged. She had nothing to say. She was always in the thick of things. It was time to get used to it.

Morrigan was still standing at the door, not wanting to sit down.

"What a familiar stubbornness..." - Squall said thoughtfully, staring at her intently, but then cut himself off.

"What do you mean?" - Morrigan asked, puzzled.

Squall didn't answer. He was leafing through a book, his gaze was distant.

After a while, he started talking. His voice was emotionless. Squall was completely lost in his thoughts.

"You know that the Wundersmiths were born many ages ago, endowed with amazing power to serve other people. This has been going on for centuries, everyone is used to it. They didn't care who asked them for a favor, as long as it was a rich and influential person. It was our job" - on the last phrase, there was a hostile note in his voice. - "We had to fulfill people's requests, whatever they were. As I told you before: that is what we do. We say yes. We do the ghastly things that are asked of us by people in power, and we do the good things, and we take none of the credit and all of the blame. It's what we do. When we were children, we thought it would be exciting, that we would finally create The Wonderful Acts, help people, work miracles. Oh, how we’ve been disappointed!" - Squall laughed dryly. - "It was all so far from reality! Maybe earlier, in the first centuries of the existence of the Wundersmiths, it really was so, but not now. Elodie and I tried to stay away from it as much as we could, but, believe me, we were not able to just shut ourselves off from it all. Firstly, we would not have been allowed, and secondly, we still had to use our powers somehow. But I can still be proud of one creation" - Squall looked around the room with his eyes, his gaze was absent, as if he was looking somewhere in the past. Maybe it was. - "Hotel Deucalion turned out to be amazing! Everything is as Elodie wanted, she came up with the design of the facade and some rooms. Have I told you about this? You can't deny her creativity..." - now he perked up a little. Morrigan had never seen him so outspoken and talkative. This confused her even more, but she listened to his story with bated breath and tried not to interrupt. She didn't want him to silenced again and decide that he had already told too much. She didn't even notice that she had sat down on the bed after all. - "I helped her bring it to life. She was able to find a sponsor, as far as I remember, it was one of her relatives. I never understood why she keeps in touch with them, because they abandoned her, gave her away, call it what you want… I haven't heard anything about my own since the day I was taken away. To be honest, I didn't even try to find out what happened to them and where they are now. Most of the Wundersmiths did just that. But it was important for Elodie, so I tried not to bring up this topic once again" - Squall had mentioned other Wundersmiths several times before in his speech, but he did not speak about anyone with such warmth as about Elodie. So Morrigan was right and for him this name is not an empty word. At that moment, Squall frowned and shook his head slightly. - "But I got distracted. Her relative, surprisingly, turned out to be a nice guy. He gave us complete freedom of action, allowed us to do everything at our discretion. And it led to a good result. The hotel was thriving! What more could be desired. But good things never last forever, do they?" - his gaze darkened again. - "There are always people who seek to gain power. And when they are smart and have extraordinary strength, everything can turn into a disaster. That's what happened! I warned them that she could not be trusted, that she would ruin everyone and everything, but did anyone listen to me!" - Squall snarled. His eyes were blazing with anger. He didn't even try to restrain it. He didn't seem to notice Morrigan and talked more to himself. - "Even in these books, she is mentioned only in passing, nothing concrete. As if she was just a ghost, invisible and elusive to human eyes. Two knacks! Unheard of! This has never happened before".

"What kind of knacks did she have?" - Morrigan interrupted him.

"Quite curious. I don't know how it could have happened, but she was clearly born under a lucky star. She could influence the mind, could inspire people with anything, control them, without making much effort. And it's not mesmerism, like your friend's. I would say that this ability is more like The Wundrous Art of the Marionnettiste. The art I showed you on the roof of Deucalion. Most likely that's why it poses a special threat. The fact that she does not use it often, but only in special cases, quite suggests that she also has limits. But I haven't been able to figure out which ones yet. You can't deny her secrecy" - Squall's fist clenched with such force that his knuckles turned white. - "As for the second knack… Well, that's even more curious. To be honest, I don't even know what to call it. Wunder, it seems to be protecting her, a certain amount is around her all the time, but it never reaches a critical mass. She's not a Wundersmith. No. She can't control it, but she has something to do with it anyway. I've never heard of such a thing".

"But... why couldn't the Wundersmiths stop her? As far as I have learned, the rest of the knacks do not affect us".

"Yes, but not when knack is somehow connected with The Wundrous Arts".

"She was able to subdue them" - Morrigan said in a sinking voice, she had already guessed what the Squall was leading to. But the words came to her with difficulty. - "But not you. Isn't it? Why?"

Squall shook his head.

"It doesn't work on me. And no matter how strange it sounds, this is a problem, especially for me" - his lips curled. - "No matter how strong she is, but without a Wundersmith, she will not be able to achieve power. The Wundersmith will be stronger than her anyway. We have more options. But I wouldn't let her do that." - He let out a chuckle. - "Courage Square. Everything happened there. Since I was not affected by her powers, she considered it extremely necessary to get rid of me, setting up the other Wundersmiths against me. I don't think it's worth saying once again that I killed them, even if I didn't want to. Except for one..."

"What?!" - Morrigan jumped to her feet again. She could have sworn there was a flicker of sadness in his eyes. - "Who?"

"Elodie" - Squall nodded slightly. - "I couldn't kill her, I couldn't" - he said almost in a whisper. Squall clenched his jaw. It seemed to Morrigan that there was something more behind these words, but maybe it was just her imagination. - "She saw that I was hesitating. It was a good moment to destroy me, but she didn't do it. She saw in Elodie a means by which she could control me, saw that I was much stronger than she had imagined. It was to her advantage to keep me alive. She may not have been able to control me with her power, but she found another way to do it, more effective and reliable. People began to gather in the square. I was banished. No one even began to figure out what happened there. I was made guilty. All the Wundersmiths were made the embodiment of evil. I became a monster of legends and fairy tales, which frighten not only children, but also adults to this day. Well, why not match them?" - he laughed. It was a cold, bone-chilling laugh.

"You still haven't said her name" - Morrigan said softly.

"Should I, Miss Crow? Didn't you guess who I was talking about?" - he looked at her mockingly.

The gears in Morrigan's head were moving at an accelerated pace until she said:

«Maud».

Squall nodded.

"But how did she manage not to grow old in all these years? She's not a Wundersmith..."

"Miss Crow, you don't have to be a Wundersmith to not grow old. Believe me, there are ways to do this. Besides, I've already told you that Wunder follows her around, he doesn't let her get old".

"Is Elodie still with her?"

"Yes" - Squall replied after a pause. - "At least, I hope that's the case. I believe that Maud will not get rid of her, as it will untie my hands. And she knows it".

"That's why you try to act carefully and preferably through me" - Morrigan couldn't resist a little mockery at the last words.

"I'm not a fool to get caught by her, Miss Crow. If she didn't realize during all this time that I was acting behind her back, then I was doing everything right. The fact that she knew about your existence and that you survived is only that I let her know about it and nothing more".

"But now you've decided to take a chance and play it out in the open. Why all of a sudden?" - there was some suspicion in her voice.

"Everything has gone too far, further than I expected. Things got a lot worse, and mostly thanks to me. It's time to stop hiding, so we won't come to anything" - his face became resolute. - "Maud is not from a Free State. When I was banished, she began to act and decided to start with the creation of a single state. I've already told you, Miss Crow, that I helped her conquer Great Wolfacre and Prosper, and Southlight, and Sang. This is how The Wintersea Republic appeared. Maud has a lot of supporters, she didn't even really need to use her abilities".

"But hasn't anyone noticed that she hasn't aged a bit in all these years? For example, you don't appear in public under your own name at all. I doubt she will do the same".

"You're right, Miss Crow" - Squall grinned. - "As I said, she has many supporters who will gladly help her keep her post, just not to lose their privileges. In addition, fear also does its job. You should know".

Morrigan just stood there, trying to digest all the information she received. There was silence in the room.

"You didn't try to free Elodie?" - Morrigan broke the silence first.

Squall was in no hurry to answer. Apparently, he didn't want to discuss this topic anymore. But after a few minutes he still said:

"I tried" - his voice expressed nothing. - "It didn't end well" - Squall got to his feet, showing with all his appearance that the conversation was over, and Morrigan did not object. - "I think you've learned everything you wanted to know, Miss Crowe. Now it's time to start the lesson".

"What are we going to do?" - Morrigan was not referring to the lesson, but to the current situation.

Squall understood her.

"We will solve problems as they arrive. To begin with, you should be taught everything necessary that a real Wundersmith should know and be able to do. Considering your perseverance, I think we will achieve success soon. The rest of the issues are being resolved with Captain North and the Elders, so at the moment you have nothing to worry about except your lessons" - his eyes flashed on the last word, which said for itself that Morrigan simply would not be able to think about anything else. Squall will squeeze all the strength out of her to the fullest.

Morrigan sighed and followed him, wondering if she would even make it to the room after class today.

Chapter Text

A week has passed since that conversation. By the way Squall behaved, it seemed that it did not exist at all. During all this time, he never said a word about Maud, his past, or the rest of the Wundersmiths. Although he still sometimes mentioned them in class, but nothing more. Morrigan wondered if he had told Jupiter and the Elders about it. The answer was probably no, judging by their rather ordinary behavior. Well, as far as it was possible, considering everything that was happening.

Morrigan was sitting on a deckchair, thinking about telling Jupiter about everything herself, and he should decide the matter with the Elders himself.

"I'll have to go to him" - Morrigan said thoughtfully.

"Go to whom?"

Morrigan jumped in surprise and stared absently at the person standing in front of her. It was Anah.

Today Squall gave Morrigan a day off. Although he wanted to teach her everything necessary as soon as possible, but it would be extremely wrong of him to overdo it. Therefore, today Morrigan decided to invite her entire Unit to Deucalion to go on water slides. After all, summer was in full swing.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. You just looked so detached" - Anah's face showed concern. Morrigan was amazed at how Anah's attitude towards her had changed. She was no longer afraid of the Wundersmith, now she saw in Morrigan just a person, a girl like her, who, like everyone else, deserved friendship and love.

"I'm fine, don't worry" - Morrigan smiled. - "It's just that I need to go to Jupiter a little later. I need to... uh... discuss something with him" - she faltered slightly. She didn't know if it was worth letting them in on all this. She didn't want to get them into any more trouble.

"Some secrets again, huh?" - Thaddea came up to them and crossed her arms over her chest, staring intently at Morrigan. - "It usually didn't end well, so come on, tell us what's on your mind. Should we be worried?"

The whole Unit gathered around Morrigan. Hawthorne's expression made it clear that he absolutely did not like the fact that he was interrupted from riding the water slide. The same could be said about Arch and Mahir.

"What's the gathering about?" - asked Hawthorne.

"Morrigan is hiding something from us again" - Thaddea nodded at the girl.

"Again?" - Cadence raised her right eyebrow.

Morrigan rolled her eyes.

"Nothing like that".

"Well, if that's the case, then tell us" - Thaddea grinned. - "We are all listening to you carefully".

All eight pairs of eyes looked searchingly at Morrigan. She sighed. "A little more and they will start torturing me" - thought Morrigan.

"Okay" - she moaned. - "It's about Squall. He told me something, and I don't know if I can share it with you, but I just can't keep silent anymore".

Morrigan told them everything that Squall had told her a week ago. She tried to describe everything in as much detail as possible, without missing anything.

"In general, everything is much more complicated than anyone ever thought" - Morrigan summed up. - "To be honest, I do not know whether to fully believe Squall, but it really looks like the truth" - she shrugged her shoulders.

"I think it's still true" - Lam said quietly. - "But there are things he doesn't intend to talk about with anyone at all".

Everyone understood what she meant.

"So war cannot be avoided?" - Francis asked weakly.

"You're trembling like a flower, you know?" - said Thaddea mockingly.

"Tell me we don't have a reason" - Francis's voice sounded sharper than usual. - "I don't want anyone to get hurt, let alone my family".

"Stop it!" - Cadence shouted at them. - "Each of us has something to lose, so stop these attacks on each other" - the guys frowned, but remained silent. - "That's better. We should work together, we will not let Maud capture Nevermoor, only over our dead bodies".

"I agree with Cadence. We will stand to the end if we have to. And now we need to stop quarreling and start thinking about what to do next" - Arch's face was resolute.

"I can search the archives for something about Maud's knack. There cannot be such a thing that there is no information about it. It's just probably well hidden, and most likely by Maud herself. As I understand it, she is very smart and cunning to keep this in a prominent place" - Mahir suggested.

"Hmm, that's a great idea" - Morrigan said.

"I can help with the search" - Lam suggested.

Mahir smiled at her gratefully.

"You really should tell Jupiter everything. He should know. If not from Squall, then from you" - Cadence said firmly, turning her head to Morrigan. - "So..."

"I think he'll find out soon" - Lam interrupted and smiled weakly, also looking at Morrigan.

"Did your visions tell you that?" - Morrigan asked, letting out a light laugh. - "Well, since we've decided everything, then let's put the bad thoughts out of our heads and just relax. I'm already tired of worrying about everything" - Morrigan jumped to her feet and shouted. - "Who is the first to the top?!"

The others rushed after her, laughing merrily. They really should have rested.

———————————————————————

Jupiter was sitting at his desk in his office, tapping on documents with a pen. Having signed the last sheet, he leaned back in his chair, rubbing his eyes tiredly. For more than a week they have not advanced a single step, but on the other hand, the Republic has not done anything. And that was the most unnerving thing. Jupiter considered it a calm before the storm. Something is coming.

The door to his office opened. Jupiter groaned, only one person could come in here without knocking.

"Now is not the best time to talk" - Jupiter said in a tired voice.

"I won't take up much of your time, Captain" - Squall sat down opposite Jupiter, crossing his legs. - "Or don't you want to hear about how Miss Crow's training is going?" - Squall raised an eyebrow mockingly.

"I could have asked her myself" - Jupiter said.

"But you haven't asked yet, so I, as her mentor, am simply obliged to report to you about her progress".

Jupiter opened his eyes a crack to see Squall looking at him expectantly.

"It would be better if you would like to tell me with the same insistence why Maud is so dangerous, since even you are terrified of her" - if Jupiter were less tired, he would be wary of talking to the Wundersmith like that, but now he didn't care.

But judging by the expression on Squall's face, it didn't bother him in any way. On the contrary, it seems to have amused him even more.

"Do you and Miss Crow cross paths anywhere at all? Or will you find out everything by accident?"

Jupiter straightened up in his chair and stared angrily at Squall.

"What do you mean?"

"The fact that she already knows everything perfectly well, and I should admit, I'm a little surprised that she hasn't told you anything. After all, as I understand it, she trusts you completely" - Squall, on the contrary, leaned on the back of a chair.

"So it is" - Jupiter said confidently, although a lot of thoughts flashed through his mind about why Morrigan didn't tell him anything. And, to be honest, he was upset by this fact. - "Don't torment me. Tell me everything in order".

"As you wish" - the corner of Squall's mouth went up.

———————————————————————

After seeing off her friends, Morrigan went to Jupiter. They needed to talk.

Knocking on the door, she cautiously looked inside. Jupiter was not alone, Squall was sitting opposite him, and they both looked as serious as possible.

"Oh, Miss Crow, you've come at the perfect time" - Squall turned to her. Morrigan couldn't tell if he was looking mocking or serious… or both.

Morrigan closed the door behind her and sat down on the second chair.

"I see you already know everything" - Morrigan clasped her hands in her lap. She felt herself a little awkward.

"Yes, I know now" - Jupiter squinted at Squall. - "The question is, why didn't I learn this from you?"

"Well..." - Morrigan bit her lip. - "It just happened. I'll say in my defense, I didn't say anything to anyone at all. Only this morning I had to do it, otherwise the guys would have eaten me alive. Believe me, they can".

"Okay, we'll talk tonight" - Jupiter said seriously.

"But..."

"I said we'll talk tonight" - Morrigan had never seen him so serious, so she decided that now was not the time to argue.

She gave Squall a withering look.

"About Miss Crow's studies" - Squall decided to speak, not paying any attention to the girl's dissatisfaction. - "She's making great progress. I am pleasantly surprised by her results. Especially in Veil and Masquerade. Not to mention the fact that she works hard and doesn't complain. At least in plain sight. I hope she will continue in the same spirit" - Squall spoke, surprisingly, sincerely. This did not escape the eyes of Morrigan and Jupiter.

"Well, she'll try" - Morrigan muttered.

Jupiter's lips twitched. He allowed himself to relax a little. Morrigan had mixed feelings about Squall, but at the moment she mentally thanked him for clearing the air. Now she hoped that the conversation with Jupiter would go much better.

———————————————————————

Morrigan went up to her room after a hearty dinner and lay down on the bed, enjoying the silence.

This blissful moment was interrupted by a knock on the door. Morrigan raised her head slightly and saw a shock of red hair peering into the room.

Jupiter came in hesitantly and walked over to the bed.

Morrigan got up, swung her legs off the bed and patted her hand next to her, inviting him to sit next to.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you right away. I didn't know if I could trust him. In addition, too much information was received that I needed to digest properly. I really wanted to tell you everything, just a little later. In general, I'm sorry again" - Morrigan rattled almost in one breath.

"Stop, stop, stop" - Jupiter laughed. - "I didn't understand half of what you said, but I think I got the gist right" - he became serious. - "Yes, I'm upset, but I'm not mad at you. I just want you to be honest with me. At least when it comes to such important things. Whether Squall is lying or not, let's figure it out together. Besides, he's telling the truth this time. I can tell you that with complete confidence. Maybe he really wants to help us".

"Time will tell" - Morrigan shrugged. - "But I'm already starting to trust him more than before".

"Well, I guess so too" - Jupiter smiled slightly. - "So, do we have a deal?"

"Deal" - Morrigan impulsively hugged Jupiter, who almost fell out of bed from surprise. But, catching his balance, he hugged her back.

———————————————————————

"Chancellor Crow, a letter has arrived for you" - Right showed the letter in his hand and put it on the table in front of the Chancellor, and then left the office.

Corvus Crow looked up from his papers and looked at the envelope. It had the President's seal on it, which immediately caught his attention. He put aside all the documents and began to open the envelope with a stationery knife.

After running through the letter with his eyes, he put it aside and left the office, while giving the order to Left to find him a carriage. The path was not close, but no one in their right mind would ignore the President's invitation. Besides, it was a chance for Corvus to show himself. Certainly, she wrote to him for a reason.

When Corvus arrived at Chancery of Ylvastad, he was shown into a rather cozy meeting room. There were already two people sitting there. He recognized the President immediately, because he had seen her at many official receptions, and besides, her photos hung in almost every building. But he had never met the second woman before, and unlike the President, she sat stiffly, and there was anxiety in her eyes.

"Madam President" - Corvus bowed slightly. - "You wanted to see me?"

"Chancellor Crow, glad you've come" - she tilted her head in greeting. - "Sit down. The conversation is going to be long" - she pointed to the chair opposite her, an official smile froze on her lips, not a gram of sincerity.

"Let me introduce. Elodie Bauer, my personal assistant. There is no more obedient worker in the whole world" - the President put much more meaning into the last words than it might seem at first glance.

"Glad to meet you, Chancellor Crow. I've heard a lot about you" - her voice was melodious and pleasant to the ear.

"To be honest, I've never heard of you before. Do you prefer not to advertise your work with the President?"

"I can't stand prying eyes" - Elodie said, her lips drawn into a thin line. Which meant that she was either lying or hiding something, but Corvus didn't care. After all, he didn't care who the woman was.

"Perfect, isn't it?" - the President smiled. - "Well, let's get down to business. You didn't come here to have small talk. So, I need a second assistant. I have an awful lot of things to do lately, more than usual, and I'm afraid it's hard for Miss Bauer to manage on her own. She won't admit it herself, her pride won't allow it, but I can see everything without it".

Corvus was puzzled that the President decided to discuss this issue in the presence of Miss Bauer herself, who was clearly uncomfortable in their company, but she tried not to show it and just looked at the interior of the room with an indifferent look. Corvus could only assume that either the President didn't have any secrets from her assistant, or she just didn't want to let her out of her sight. He was still more inclined to the latter.

"If you accept my offer, of course, you and your family will have to move to Ylvastad. But believe me, it will be worth it" - the President switched to an insinuating whisper. - "Decent salary, high position, fame, respect. You're so hungry for it. I am sure you and your family will quickly get used to the new environment and surroundings".

It really sounded tempting.

"Excuse me, Madam President, but why did you decide to offer this position to me? You have a lot of employees from the inner circle. For example, politicians and deputies from the party, whom you have known for much longer and with whom you work hand in hand every day" - although Corvus was eager to get this post, he was suspicious of this proposal.

"Good question, Chancellor Crow. Let's just say that you were personally recommended to me by the very politicians and deputies that you just talked about yourself. They said that over so many years of service, you have established yourself as an excellent political figure, even despite some difficulties that have arisen because of your eldest child. Morrigan Crow, am I right?" - she was watching his reaction closely.

Miss Bauer's gaze also shifted to him. For the first time since the beginning of the meeting, there was at least some emotion in her eyes other than anxiety. And it was curiosity.

Corvus Crow tensed. He hadn't heard that name spoken in his presence in three years.

"Yes, she was on the register of cursed children and died three years ago".

The President's eyes flashed with mocking fire, making Corvus flinch.

"Are you sure of your words, Chancellor Crow?" - she drawled.

Elodie Bauer closed her eyes and shook her head, turning slightly pale.

"What do you mean? I saw with my own eyes how she died. There was a funeral. You must have heard about it!" - he said sharply.

"What if I tell you that your daughter is alive and perfectly well?"

Chapter Text

The stadium was noisy. It was completely filled so that it was almost impossible to push through. The fans shouted loudly, everyone supported their favourite. Unit 919 was no exception.

The guys came to support Hawthorne at the dragonriding competitions. They had never had to attend such events before, and they were looking forward to the upcoming activity. Although Morrigan was distinguished by some restraint, but even she could not resist loud exclamations. Cadence was sitting next to her, arms crossed over her chest and sometimes wincing at all this cacophony of sounds. She did not scream like all the other members of Unit, but watched everything with interest and from time to time bit her lips, which betrayed her excitement.

"Where is Mahir and Lam?" - Morrigan asked, looking at the two empty seats. - "I thought they were going to come".

"This morning they decided to go look for information about..." - Anah looked around, not knowing whether to talk about it in front of everyone, - "In general, you know what".

"So we definitely won't see them in the near future" - Thaddea let out a chuckle. - "I don't understand how digging in books can give someone such pleasure?"

"It gives you great pleasure to get involved in fights, or, simply put, everything that is associated with getting injured. Everyone has their own entertainment" - Cadence shrugged.

Thaddea only snorted in response.

"Shh" - Arch shushed them and nodded at the playground, - "It's starting".

The announcer's voice was heard in the loudspeakers, who greeted the participants of the competition and the fans. Dragon riders had to perform in a certain order. Hawthorne was the tenth, which meant that the guys would have to wait quite a long time to see a friend.

But the performance of each participant was so unique and fascinating that the guys did not even notice how quickly time flew by.

Here came the ninth participant. He was wearing a copper-colored outfit, and was about the same height as Hawthorne. Morrigan didn't hear his name properly because of the screams, but that was the case with most of the participants. He held up his right hand, indicating with a gesture that he was ready to start. Then the rider went to his dragon, whose scales shone golden and glittered in the sun, and saddled him. Compared to the rest of the participants, he looked much more agile and graceful. He was clearly one of the leaders. Morrigan thought he was even a little better than Hawthorne, but of course she wouldn't say that out loud. At the end of his speech, the entire stadium applauded without exception. Admittedly, Morrigan was also very impressed.

After the rider bowed and left, the man from the loudspeaker announced Hawthorne's name. Unit 919 clapped and shouted joyfully, welcoming him.

Hawthorne's dragon was greenish in color with black inserts on the wings. His performance was in no way inferior to his predecessor. He performed tricks of varying degrees of difficulty, then gaining altitude, then lowering. Each trick was accompanied by several oohs from the stands, everyone watched Hawthorne with bated breath.

Cadence leaned over to Morrigan and whispered.

"It looks like there are basically only two riders competing here" - the girl grinned.

Morrigan let out a chuckle.

"I can't disagree with you".

He and Hawthorne are probably trying to get around each other all the time.

Hawthorne was also greeted with thunderous applause. Someone even whistled. Morrigan believed that it was most likely Thaddea.

About an hour later, the last performance took place, and the audience was asked to wait some time for the announcement of the results.

"I'm sure the first two places will be taken by either Hawthorne or that "copper rider"" - Cadence said.

"That's for sure. But, for me, Hawthorne looked more… how should I put it..." - Francis snapped his fingers, trying to find the words, - "More dexterous, more majestic".

"I would argue about dexterous" - Morrigan remarked.

Cadence looked at her with slightly raised eyebrows.

"What?" - Morrigan frowned. - "I say what I see".

At this moment, everyone was called to attention. The announcement of the results has begun. As Morrigan suspected: Hawthorne took second place, and the first place was taken by the "copper rider" (as Cadence nicknamed him). By the way, this time Morrigan heard his name. His name was Lucas Brennan.

———————————————————————

Unit 919 was waiting for Hawthorne near the stadium exit. It was empty, all the spectators had already dispersed. Only those who were waiting for their acquaintances remained.

Hawthorne was one of the last to leave, with another boy walking beside him. They were discussing something excitedly.

"Guys!" - Hawthorne waved his hand at them.

"Congratulations! Your performance was great! Next time you will definitely take the first place. This rider was no match for you" - Arch was the first to rush to congratulate him. The others joined in his congratulations.

Hawthorne's face took on an expression that suggested he was struggling not to laugh.

The boy next to him grinned. But it was a cheerful grin, and there were mischievous twinkles in his eyes.

"Yes, in some moments I am really inferior to Hawthorne. Thanks for the comment. I'll take note of it, next time I'll try even harder" - he said. Everyone looked at him, Arch pursed his lips, realizing his mistake. - "Lucas Brennan, at your service" - the boy nodded slightly.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't really mean that..." - Arch began to justify himself.

"It's okay. You didn't know. Besides, I'm calm about criticism" - Lucas tried to calm him down.

Lucas had honey-colored hair that stood up slightly, and light brown eyes.

"Beautiful" - Morrigan thought, and her cheeks immediately turned red. She hoped no one noticed.

"Hawthorne has talked a lot about you. You’re Anah" - Lucas met everyone, he looked at Morrigan last. - "And you're Morrigan, right? The newly minted Wundersmith" - he pronounced the last phrase a little quieter so as not to attract too much attention. His gaze lingered on her a little longer than it was worth, and she was confused by it. - "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't want to stare" - he immediately realized what it looked like. - "I have nothing against the fact that you are a Wundersmith".

"It's okay. I'm used to it" - Morrigan replied shortly.

Lucas pursed his lips, but didn't say anything else. It was obvious that he was uncomfortable.

"So you and Hawthorne are friends? We thought you were rivals" - Francis said.

"We are both" - Hawthorne and Lucas laughed.

"We have known each other since childhood. The fact that we sometimes compete with each other does not interfere with our friendship" - Hawthorne said.

"Don't you take part in competitions often?"

"My parents and I travel a lot, we don't stay in one place for a long time. They are members of the League of Explorers, so there's not much choice. After all, it's their job" - Lucas just shrugged.

"My patron is also a member of the League of Explorers, but he does not have to change his place of residence" - Morrigan shared.

"Jupiter North. I know" - Lucas nodded. - "He has other responsibilities, but my parents sometimes cross paths with him. They even worked together once" - Lucas looked at his watch. - "I'm sorry, but I have to go. I don't want my parents to worry. I hope to see you again" - he waved goodbye to everyone.

"Thanks again for coming" - Hawthorne smiled broadly, and dimples appeared on his cheeks.

"You don't have to thank us for that" - Cadence smirked.

"But I don't see Mahir and Lam? Are they still in the archives?"

"Are you surprised?" - Thaddea rolled her eyes.

———————————————————————

Ezra Squall was sitting on the roof of Deucalion with his eyes closed. The lesson with Morrigan wasn't due to take place for an hour, so he could afford to relax a little.

The sun was just starting to set, so the sky was painted in fiery-yellow colors.

Recently, Squall has become more tolerant of Captain North. He couldn't help but notice that North had left almost everything as it was in his time. It evoked various memories in him. Most of which were related to Elodie.

"Ezra, let's do it without dark tones! Otherwise it will look a little intimidating, don't you think?" - Elodie laughed. He liked to hear her laugh.

"You know my opinion on this" - he let out a chuckle. - "Dark tones add sophistication".

Elodie rolled her eyes.

"I don't think sophistication is that important. This is not to everyone's liking. Visitors should like the hotel. They should be comfortable here. Everyone without exception. It doesn't matter to me whether a person is noble or not, or how much money they have in their wallet".

"I know, darling. And that's one of the many things I like about you. And you're also very cute when you're embarrassed" - he laughed when Elodie tried to cover her reddened cheeks with her hair, for which he eventually received a notable slap. - "Calm down, I just wanted to annoy you a little. I also think that this place should be bright, but not completely. I swear there won't be many dark tones. They will just go as an addition to the interior. Besides, I already have a couple of ideas".

A soft smile appeared on Elodie's face again. She tucked a strand of her copper-tinged hair behind her ear.

"I'm listening to you carefully".

Squall smiled slightly at the memory. He hasn't had many good memories in the last hundred years. He could count them on his fingers.

Elodie was sitting on the roof with her legs dangling over the edge. The sky had already darkened, and the stars were visible.

Ezra quietly sat down next to her, throwing a blanket over her shoulders. After all, the summer nights were pretty cool.

She shuddered slightly.

"Sneaking up is a bad habit" - she smiled out of the corner of her lips.

"But useful" - he replied shortly. He looked at Elodie, who still had a cut on her face. - "Are you sure you should keep doing this? I mean, working for the League of Explorers. Of course, I know that you can stand up for yourself, but this does not save you from injuries" - he put his hand to her cut, Elodie twitched slightly. - "Does it hurt much?"

"No, it's tolerable" - Elodie shook her head. - "It's just a scratch, Ezra. No one has died from this yet, so you don't have to worry so much" - She smiled gently. - "Besides, I'm not asking you not to help Owain and Rastaban with state affairs. And this can sometimes be much more dangerous than what I do, so..." - she looked at him significantly.

Ezra rolled his eyes irritably.

"I don't have much choice, you know. I just have to help because it's my "job"..."

"Well, you have some predisposition to it, don't you think so?"

"Hm, maybe" - Ezra shrugged vaguely. - "I don't mind you being a member of the League of Explorers. Who am I to forbid you to do anything. I'm just asking you to be careful. That's it".

"I know. I really try very hard, but it's not always possible to avoid trouble. Just trust me, okay?"

"I always trust you" - their eyes met, Ezra gently took Elodie's hands.

There was still some concern in Ezra's eyes, but they looked with understanding and trust. Elodie's eyes reflected gratitude, and she kissed him on the corner of his lips and rested her head on his shoulder.

"Thank you" - she said softly.

Ezra looked up at the sky, his shoulders relaxed, and a smile appeared on his lips.

"The sky is surprisingly clear today. Look" - he pointed up with his hand - "There is Scorpius Constellation, and this is The Altar..."

"Are you going list them all?" - Elodie laughed.

"Why not" - Ezra said cheerfully.

«Nerd».

«Hey! That’s not true!».

"Tell someone else".

Squall let out a quiet laugh, but there was only sadness in his eyes.

The impact of the door against the wall brought him out of his thoughts. Morrigan ran onto the roof out of breath.

"Am I late?" - she looked at him with wide eyes.

He didn't even understand what she meant at first, but when he looked at his watch, he saw that she was really twenty minutes late. He didn't even notice it, thinking about his own.

"Don't worry, Miss Crow. I didn't keep track of the time either".

Morrigan noticed that he was looking vaguely, as if his thoughts were somewhere far away, but certainly not here. She decided not to focus on it.

"Let's get down to business" - Squall clapped his hands. Now his eyes lit up with enthusiasm. - "I think today we will hone your skills in Weaving. Oh, don't look like that. You look like you were forced to clean the whole hotel to shine" - Squall said, seeing the Morrigan's gloomy look.

"This is not an Art in which I success or can succeed" - she grimaced.

"Every Wundersmith has always had an art that they managed worse than others, believe me. But this is not a reason not to practice it, it needs to be improved as much as possible" - Squall said sternly.

Morrigan couldn't disagree with his words.

She made significant progress only an hour after the start of the class. By this time, she was almost completely exhausted.

She swore to herself that this would be the last attempt, because she couldn't take it anymore.

Morrigan sang a couple of tacts, and Wunder responded to her call again, but a little slower and in smaller quantities.

She began to draw uncomplicated figures in the air, trying to act very carefully. And, lo and behold, a wooden frame began to appear on the table. When Morrigan finished, her arms dropped to her sides in relief. She looked at what she had done. She wanted to create a frame with a picture, but she only got a frame with something incomprehensible inside.

"Well, that's something" - Morrigan sighed wearily and slightly disappointed.

"It looks much better than last time. You'll do even better in the next lesson, I'm sure. That's enough for today".

It was still unusual for Morrigan to hear any compliments from Squall. Besides, he was less irritable now than before, when she was just starting to learn from him. But not always. Sometimes he still lost his temper, and his eyes and mouth turned black. It never stopped scaring her, but now she's at least more or less used to it.

"Why do your eyes and mouth turn black when you're angry?" - Morrigan asked. Her body tensed slightly. She had no idea where she got so much courage from, but she wasn't going to back down.

Squall raised an eyebrow. For him, apparently, it was also a surprise that she asked him a question so directly. But after a moment, he grinned.

"Well, I guess sooner or later you would have asked about it anyway, so..." - Squall thought about it. - "This effect is obtained if you combine Masquerade and Veil. I use it mainly to scare. No more than that. It works flawlessly, doesn't it?" - he looked mockingly at Morrigan.

"It's hard to argue with that" - she chuckled slightly.

"I can teach you that, too, if you want" - Squall suggested.

"Not today".

———————————————————————

The next morning, Morrigan woke up very early to a loud knock on the door. Jumping out of bed, she could not immediately understand what was going on at all. Shaking off the last remnants of sleep, she went to the door and opened it.

The whole Unit 919 was standing on the threshold, blinking sleepily. They were just like Morrigan, dressed in their pajamas, except Mahir and Lam. Morrigan guessed they probably hadn't even gone to bed.

"What happened?" - Morrigan asked slowly, looking from one to the other.

"We found something" - Mahir excitedly said, pointing to the book in his hands, which he seemed to be slightly covering so that no one would notice.

"Did you steal it or something?" - Morrigan did not take her eyes off it.

"Not stolen, but borrowed. We will return it to its place later" - Lam promised.

Morrigan shook her head.

"Oh, sorry, come in. No need to stand on the threshold" - she stepped aside, inviting friends to enter.

When everyone was seated, Mahir opened the book.

"Basically, it took us a whole day to search for the book itself, but the information in it is provided quite openly. Even the necessary pages have not been torn out. Well, or rather, not completely. You can immediately see that someone was in a hurry" - Mahir quickly turned over the pages, looking for the right one.

"Where did you find the book?" - asked Anah.

"Well..." - Mahir scratched his head.

Lam sighed.

"In one of the Forbidden Sections" - she blushed slightly and bit her lip.

Both looked guilty.

"Wow! Now this is much more interesting! How did you manage to get in there?" - Hawthorne immediately perked up.

The girls rolled their eyes.

"Discuss it later. Now let's talk about the urgent. What did you find?" - Cadence, as always, thought rationally, bringing to the fore what was most important at the moment.

"In general, we focused specifically on the features of Maud associated with Wunder, because the influence on the human mind is a dangerous knack, of course, but it occurs much more often" - Mahir began to tell.

"But she can also influence the mind of the Wundersmiths, and this no longer looks so familiar and ordinary" - Morrigan protested.

"Yes, you're right, but this part is also connected with the Wunder that surrounds her" - Lam explained.

"Look" - Mahir pointed to the desired paragraph. - "This book talks about most knacks. Apparently, the Elders keep records of all the knacks that have existed in the Free State for all ages. Basically, it's a complete drag, but at the end of the book all the most interesting things are hidden".

"Can you share it with us too?"

The guys jumped in surprise when they heard a voice in the doorway. It was Jupiter, and next to him was Squall, who was staring intently at the book in Mahir's hands.

Morrigan looked at her watch. It was eight in the morning, she just had to go to class, and she had completely forgotten about it.

"You didn't show up for class, Miss Crow, so I figured you must have had a good reason not to" - Squall sounded slightly annoyed. - "But, as it turned out, I was not mistaken. So, consider yourself extremely lucky today, but do not think that next time it will be the same. Do you understand me?" - he said harshly.

"Yes, I'm sorry. It won't happen again" - Morrigan lowered her eyes slightly, she was really ashamed.

"I think nothing will happen from skipping one class. After all, they're still children" - Jupiter also looked annoyed.

They glared at each other. "Well, at least they don't look at each other suspiciously anymore" - Morrigan thought.

"We are not children, but teenagers" - Morrigan corrected him, which earned a Jupiter’s stern look and a Squall’s grin.

"I think we should go back to the book after all" - Jupiter suggested, closing the door.

"So, as I said at the end of the book there is a chapter where there is just a mention of this phenomenon" - Mahir flipped through the pages. - "It is very easy to understand who may have it, because this feature is manifested only in certain people. That is, Maud was not the only one who had knack somehow connected with Wunder and The Wundrous Arts" - he pointed his finger at the names underlined in black ink. - "Don't you notice anything?"

Squall leaned forward, recognition immediately flashing in his eyes.

"Surnames" - his jaw was clenched. - "The same as some of the Wundersmiths".

"I didn't even realize right away" - Morrigan frowned.

"Exactly! We didn't understand it right away either, but then Lam remembered how you told us about Sub-Nine and the name halls of Wundersmiths. It wasn't difficult for her to remember some of the surnames. Then everything came together".

"The children of the Wundersmiths" - Squall rubbed the bridge of his nose. - "It makes sense. I am more than sure that this is even an incomplete list, given that children inherit their father's surname. Those whose mother was a Wundersmith… With them, the situation is different. This plays perfectly into the hands, and Maud is just one of those who took advantage of it. She has an unremarkable surname. No one would even have guessed anything, they just didn't pay attention".

"Witnesses could" - Anah looked at Jupiter. - "After all, they see everything".

Jupiter sighed.

"Yes, they see, but that doesn't mean they can understand something like that. I believe that not everyone was privy to the affairs of the Wundersmiths, Elders and the government".

"Don’t even doubt it" - Squall said in an even voice.

"But at least some suspicion must have crept into their heads! They're not idiots" - Cadence snorted. Jupiter and Squall simultaneously looked at her as if she had said something stupid. Cadence curled her lips in displeasure.

"Listen, it's too late to talk about this. This is history. You can't fix anything" - Squall shook his head.

"By the way, everyone had their own knack related to one of the nine Arts. Basically, it had happened spontaneously. I mean, it was impossible to predict what kind of Art their knack would be associated with. It was assumed that it still depended on which of the Arts their parent was most successful in. But this has not been proven, so you should not trust it completely" - Mahir closed the book, as if summing up. - "That's all we could find".

"But whose descendant is Maud?" - Morrigan asked. After all, they didn’t find out it. 

No one said anything.

There was a dead silence in the room. Morrigan turned to the window, beyond which the sky stretched, covered with clouds. The new information helped clarify some points, but there were still many unknowns ahead.

Chapter Text

"The Kindling has been asking about you and other Wundersmiths. I had to evade the answer, but I don't think he ignored it. He looked so... lonely".

Morrigan's words, which she uttered at one of the classes, periodically flashed through Squall's head. He couldn't just get rid of them, no matter how hard he tried. This only darkened his already bad mood more every day.

Squall didn't remember exactly at what point his legs brought him to Sub-Nine. Now he was standing in the Liminal Hall, thoughtfully looking at the door hiding the Divinity behind it. Squall stretched out his hand, about to open it, but hesitated. He pursed his lips, hating and berating himself for being afraid of going in there. After all, he had been here more than once, he shouldn't have felt like this.

Squall shook his head, banishing all doubts, and quickly pressed his finger to the glowing circle, not letting himself change his mind. Once inside, Squall was in no hurry to approach the bonfire burning in the middle of the room. He looked around the room with a slightly hazy look. The room seemed frozen in time. The memories came back with a new force, it was almost impossible to get rid of them. Squall clenched his fists, forcing himself not to be distracted and to control himself.

A few moments later, Squall noticed the Kindling out of the corner of his eye, who was watching him intently.

Squall shuddered. He slowly stretched out his finger, on which there was a mark in the form of a flame, offering it to the Divinity and trying not to meet his gaze.

"Ezra Squall" - pronounced the Kindling, accepting the Squall’s offering.

That said it all.

Squall furrowed his brows and forced himself to look directly at the Divinity. He couldn't say for sure if any of the Divinities knew about what had happened in these hundred years. Admittedly, he didn't want them to know. None of them.

Shame. Squall caught himself thinking that this is exactly what he is experiencing right now.

The Kindling no longer uttered a single word. His ember eyes seemed to see right through Squall. Squall suggested that if the Kindling guessed something, he didn't show it in any way.

"It's been a long time, the Kindling" - Squall tried to say in a calm voice, behind which there was a poorly hidden tension.

The Kindling did not immediately respond. He watched a Wundersmith for a while longer.

"It's really been a long time. Where are the others?"

This question…

Squall clenched his jaw. Well, he was expecting it. But he was also in no hurry to answer, trying to find the right words.

"Not here. I mean not in Nevermoor. They're far away from here" - it wasn't a lie.

"Are you not in touch?"

Squall smiled bitterly.

"Maybe only with Elodie, but... it's quite problematic. As for the others... I'm afraid that's not possible. Where they are..." - Squall swallowed hard.

The Kindling nodded slowly, closing his eyes.

"Without a doubt, it is impossible to contact the dead, no matter how much we would like to. And if someone succeeded, it usually didn't end well" - the Divinity said softly.

Squall shuddered. His face twisted from the directness of the Kindling's words.

"Yes, perhaps" - he looked away again. - "Everyone died except Elodie".

"What happened, Ezra?" - the Kindling sadly shook his head.

"I guess you already know that very well yourself".

"I'd like to hear it from you" - he tilted his head slightly to one side, waiting for Ezra to speak.

«Well… It's a long story" - for a moment, the corner of Squall's mouth shot up, but his face immediately acquired a frown.

"We have enough time".

"The Wintersea Republic" - thoughtfully pronounced the Kindling.

"Don't worry, we'll figure it out" - Squall said firmly. He will no longer allow it to cause even more harm.

"You've found yourself an apprentice".

Squall smiled, feeling relieved that it was possible to change the subject.

"Yes. Morrigan Crow. You have already met".

"I didn't expect this from a man who literally swore never to teach anyone in his life".

Squall laughed.

"You never know how things might turn out" - he shrugged.

"There had to be a good reason, didn't there?" - the Kindling peered intently into Squall's face.

"It was Elodie's request. How could I refuse? Besides, Miss Crow turned out to be a really capable student. I'm sure Elodie chose her for a reason" - Squall clasped his hands behind his back. - "I must admit, Miss Crow has pretty much ruffled my nerves. I've never met a more stubborn person. I'll remind Elodie of that" - Squall said in a joking manner. He was surprised at how easily he managed it. He thought he had forgotten how to joke a long time ago.

Squall looked at his wristwatch, surprised to note that it had been two hours since he came here. Time flew by unnoticed.

"I have to go now. No one canceled Miss Crow's class" - he turned to the Kindling and nodded goodbye. - "I'll see you again".

Squall wanted to turn around, but the Kindling spoke again.

"She won't be the same anymore" - he said softly.

Squall didn't have to guess who he was talking about. He didn't turn around.

"I know" - Ezra said, also quietly, almost in a whisper.

He really knew that.

Chapter Text

"What's the catch?" - Morrigan squinted suspiciously at the envelope lying on Jupiter's desk. - "Why did the Wintersea Republic suddenly decide to organize a meeting with the government of the Free State? Does she really think they're naive enough to agree to this meeting? It could probably be a trap and..."

"Morrigan, I'm afraid they have no choice but to agree to a meeting" - Jupiter rubbed his eyes and leaned back in his chair. - "Residents of the Free State do not even realize that the Republic is threatening war. They are in complete ignorance. Steed and no one else needs this war, they don't even know what Maud is like. After all, they only received a letter from her about the so-called "cure" from Hollowpox and once met via Gossamer, but nothing more.  Therefore, I am more than confident that Steed will agree, because he believes that war can be avoided by sitting down at the negotiating table. It’s fantastic how he abruptly changed his policy regarding the negotiations with the Republic" - Jupiter said sarcastically.

"Pfft, didn't you tell him about what we found?" - Morrigan frowned.

"I told him" - Jupiter drawled and winced. - "But not to say that they really listened to me. After all, this is not direct evidence that Maud is up to something. The children of the Wundersmiths were both before and after her, possessing unusual abilities, but none of them threatened the Free State. In addition, most of the information about Maud, in fact, was obtained from Squall, which clearly does not neglect lies".

"He's a Wundersmith who can't handle a person who, of course, is not like everyone else, but weaker than him. At least at first glance. It's weird, don't you think? I'm sure if he wanted to and could, he would have finished her off long ago, but he didn't. We've already discussed this hundreds of times. I've already gotten used to the fact that this time he's telling the truth. And you should do the same. Believe me, it will be easier for everyone" - Morrigan stubbornly crossed her arms over her chest and also leaned back in her chair.

Jupiter sighed heavily and passed his hand over his forehead.

"Even if we accept this, it will be difficult for Steed and others to prove it. For so many years they believed that all the Wundersmiths are evil, that Squall is the embodiment of evil. They're afraid of you, to tell the truth" - Jupiter shook his head. - "I am generally silent about Squall. They are terrified of him, despite the fact that they try not to show it with their whole appearance, but I can see it… They do nothing out of fear of both the Wundersmith itself and the reaction of the population if they found out that the century-old enemy of Nevermoor had returned. Therefore, this information remains confidential at the moment".

"What do they want from us?" - Morrigan frowned. - "They obviously sent us this letter for a reason".

"Well, yes, for a reason" - Jupiter clasped his hands. - "They want, or rather Maud wants, and they are not against it, that I, Squall and... you go to the meeting in the Republic together with Steed and some other politicians".

Morrigan took a deep breath. She assumed that if she looked in the mirror now, she would see two large rounded eyes on a pale face that simply could not expand to such a size. But not this time.

"What?! Why?!" - she jumped up from her seat. - "I can't go to the Republic. You know. They might recognize me there. It will be a disaster" - Morrigan began to chatter, pacing around the office and already starting to really panic.

Jupiter quickly got up from his chair and walked over to the girl, putting his hands on her shoulders and squeezing them slightly so that she turned her gaze to him and stopped muttering restlessly.

"Mog, calm down" - he said softly. - "I have already talked about this with Squall. He's going to teach you Masquerade, so you can change your appearance for a while. Sometimes you'll just take a break, going, for example, to the bathroom so that no one sees you. There shouldn't be any problems with the name either. I think we can solve that, too".

"So Squall has already given his consent?" - Morrigan raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"Yes" - Jupiter shrugged. - "He said that he was going to go to the Republic the other day anyway to settle some things. I did not go into details, but, as I understood, the residents of the Republic also have no idea about what is happening, and someone must support the functioning of energy supplies. He never left it all out of control for such a long time".

"Three weeks, Jupiter. Not such a long time, I would say" - Morrigan snorted. Although, of course, she knew that it was impossible to leave such a system unattended, in a good way, even for three days, but now she was not in the mood and she wanted to be a little naughty. - "Would it be safe for him to come to the Republic at all?"

"It's more like fifty-fifty. His presence will not arouse suspicion in anyone. He often visited there, so the President's surroundings and politicians got used to his persona, and accordingly will not be surprised by his next appearance. I doubt that Maud has initiated everyone into this story".

Morrigan pursed her lips.

"Hmm, maybe you're right" - doubts still tormented her. - "Do you really think we should accept the invitation?"

Jupiter looked at her thoughtfully for a minute, but finally said.

"Yes, I think we should do it. It will be a great chance to learn something useful if we're lucky" - He smiled slightly. - "Besides, I'm sure you wouldn't want to miss such a chance either" - he raised an eyebrow mockingly.

Morrigan couldn't help but smile and jokingly rolled her eyes in surrender.

"Okay, okay, you're right, you've got me figured out. Of course, I wouldn't want to stay away" - she raised her hands in a conciliatory gesture.

"That's great" - Jupiter looked at the wall clock. - "It seems it's time for you to go to class" - he kissed her on the forehead. - "Try not to use up all your strength to the last drop this time, okay?"

"When it comes to Squall’s classes, I'm not sure about anything. But I'll try".

———————————————————————

The sun was surprisingly shining in the Republic, which happened quite rarely. It couldn't help but make Morrigan smile. That could be a good sign.

She has spent the last few days studying the Art of Masquerade. She was pretty good at it, and she wondered why she hadn't learned it earlier. But despite some simplicity in using this Art, Morrigan could not change her appearance for a long time, since she still did not have enough strength for this. And it annoyed her a little.

Morrigan discussed her appearance together with Jupiter and Squall, who paid due attention to this aspect. For two days they tried to come to a common solution, forcing Morrigan to change one image after another. By the evening of the second day, Morrigan's nerves were on edge, she was already tired of doing this business. Fortunately, then they were finally able to come to an agreement, satisfied with the result.

To simplify her task, Morrigan did not dress as usual, in order to change, basically, only her face. Instead of the usual black color, there were brighter shades in her clothes today. She was wearing a beige and pink knee-length dress, more like a cloak, tied with a belt at the waist, and white ballet flats were worn on her legs. Simple and easy, without any frills. With the help of Masquerade, she changed her skin color, making it darker, but not much, her hair acquired a light brown hue and began to curl slightly, giving them some volume, and her eyes acquired a grayish hue, the color of the sky before the storm. The facial features began to look smoother, rather than angular as usual. Now she was Charlotte Bradshaw.

Squall looked like he always did: ash-brown hair neatly combed back, a gray suit that fit him immaculately. The only thing is, this time he put on his thin-rimmed glasses again. This indicated that he was not Squall now, but Mr. Jones, his faithful assistant. They had to remember this in order not to make the mistake of calling him by the wrong name.

Morrigan has been on edge since this morning. She was uncomfortable with all this masquerade (haha, it was literally it). She would probably have laughed at this pun if not for the seriousness of the whole situation. She needed to control herself. It would be damned inconvenient if her illusion had fallen at the most inopportune moment and the "risen from the dead" Morrigan Crow would have appeared in front of a huge crowd of people. A commotion would have been provided.

But as she understood, the meeting itself was supposed to take place tomorrow at 12:00 pm, and tonight an official reception was waiting for them, at which the President would introduce the guests who had arrived to the assembled guests, who would be represented by well-known politicians of the Wintersea Republic. "In general, it's boring," Morrigan thought to herself. She hated all these gatherings, where everyone said not what they thought, but what would put them in the right light or would be beneficial for them. Everyone there was a hypocrite.

Steed, whom Morrigan first saw live, was a man in his late 40s. His hair was black with gray, and his sharp brown eyes seemed not to miss a single detail. He and his two assistants tried to stay away from the two Wundersmiths. It seems that during the whole time of their trip they exchanged only a few words with them, they preferred to discuss some details personally with Jupiter. Not that Morrigan didn't like it. She was not eager to start a conversation with any of them, and Squall even more so.

Morrigan was happy to finally be alone. The room she was allocated was spacious, almost like in Crow Manor. The girl was lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling. Now she could relax and throw off the illusion. After all, even such a short period of time took away enough strength from her.

She glanced at her things, which were already neatly arranged on the shelves in the closet. There weren't many of them: after all, they only came here for three or four days.

On a hanger hung a red dress with black inserts, decorated with sequins at the edges. It was slightly longer at the back and reached almost to the girl's ankles. Here, however, Morrigan insisted that the dress was black, and was a little darker than what she was wearing now. Dame Chanda helped Morrigan choose the right image. They did it in their free time. To be honest, Morrigan even liked to pick up outfits, although she would never admit it.

A few hours later, there was a knock on the door. Morrigan shuddered and sat up in bed, sleepily rubbing her eyes. She didn't even notice how she dozed off. Jupiter looked into the room and sat down on her bed, seeing Morrigan's nod.

"We need to be ready in an hour" - Jupiter said, pointing to watch.

"Uh-huh" - Morrigan mumbled, throwing off the last remnants of sleep. - "I don't understand, why should I go there? As if someone would start a conversation with a thirteen-year-old girl. And if they do, then what should I talk to them about? I am far from this social life, and even more so from politics. And even more so in the Republic. Nonsense and that's all" - she rolled her eyes irritably.

Jupiter laughed.

"Well, someday you will still have to attend such receptions where you need to shine with your smile and be able to pretend, no matter how much it pisses you off. And, of course, you also need to have patience, a huge amount of patience, because you will have to endure so many people that you cannot count. Someone will want to make fun of you, someone will hurt you, and someone will make a complete fool of you. In general, they can really rattle your nerves, but sometimes they are even funny, so you need to try very hard not to laugh. In my experience, I will say that the latter is extremely difficult" - Jupiter whispered the last phrase, putting his hand to his mouth, as if entrusting Morrigan with a secret.

The girl laughed merrily.

"Well, I guess I'll take your word for it".

"I think you should start packing..." - Jupiter started to get out of bed.

"Do you think I'm so slow at dressing up that I should start getting ready an hour before going out? I'm not going to the ball" - Morrigan raised an eyebrow.

"All girls like to clean themselves up, spending a lot of hours on it. So it's better to be safe" - Jupiter said in a nonchalant tone, in which there was a slight amusement mixed with a desire to tease.

"Haha, very funny" - Morrigan made a face. - "Don't worry, I'm not one of them".

"We’ll see" - Jupiter almost sang and left the room.

Morrigan threw a pillow after him.

———————————————————————

Morrigan wore a satisfied grin all the way to the reception venue. Not only was she not late, but she was even ready ten minutes earlier than everyone else, and she was proud of it. She has already made it clear to Jupiter several times. He just rolled his eyes, making a note for the future not to joke about this topic anymore.

Steed looked at them sideways, eyebrows raised in perplexity. He was extremely serious and sullen, not relaxing for a second, trying not to lose his vigilance. His two assistants were traveling in another carriage, so he was left alone with the Wundersmiths, not counting Jupiter.

Squall, or rather Mr. Jones, spent most of the day at Squall Industries and returned only an hour ago. He was unusually quiet and didn't pay any attention to them. His brow was furrowed, and his thoughts seemed to be somewhere far away from here. He kept staring out the window, as if seeing something there that was invisible to others.

"We're here!" - the driver cried, which made Squall flinch and frown even more, giving the driver a withering look for a sharp and unexpected exclamation.

"Thank you" - Steed said and opened the door, quickly getting out of the carriage. It seemed as if he had just jumped out of an enclosure with tigers.

Squall and Morrigan exchanged glances and smirks appeared on their faces. Well, they agreed on one thing, it was funny.

The hall was huge. A crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling, reflecting the many lights sparkling around the perimeter of the hall. Everything was exquisite and refined. The grand staircase, made of marble, led to the dance floor, where there were already several couples dancing. The parquet was laid out with mosaics, which presented to the public a pattern in the form of the symbol of the Wintersea Republic. The balconies along the walls were filled with people chatting animatedly and laughing merrily, and someone was just standing there, leaning on the railing and drinking champagne, and watching everything that was happening around with a curious gaze. Morrigan looked around the room, her mouth slightly open in admiration. She could not have imagined that there was something truly fascinating in the Republic, and not dull and gray.

"The young lady should not stand with her mouth open" - Squall said, putting his hand under her chin and covering her mouth.

"Hey!" - Morrigan frowned. She couldn't tell if he was joking or serious. In principle, she is already used to it. - "No one's even looking in our direction" - she shrugged casually.

"And that's where you're wrong" - Jupiter pointed his head in the direction from which the President was coming.

Morrigan froze in her tracks, pale with horror. Her throat was dry. Her good mood took off imediately. Squall looked no better. He looked like he'd been punched in the gut. He clenched his jaws so tightly that it seemed to Morrigan that a little more and they would break.

"Good evening!" - Maud greeted the visitors, smiling hospitably and shaking hands. - "I am glad that we finally managed to meet in person, Prime Minister. I hope your trip was wonderful".

"Good evening, Madam President!" - replied Steed, completely copying the manner and gestures of Maud. Although it was obvious that he was doing it only out of politeness. - "The trip didn't cause any trouble, thank you. I am also very glad that after so many years of isolation, our states have finally agreed to meet at the negotiating table in such difficult times".

The President's smile never left her face. She looked around the whole group, fixing her gaze a little longer on Morrigan, more precisely on Charlotte, and on Squall, Mr. Jones. Morrigan knew she looked different now, but she still couldn't help but shudder at that look. Besides, Maud knew perfectly well who was standing in front of her. This performance was for others.

"Mr. Jones," - her smile was more like a grin now, - "thank you for escorting our guests. That was very nice of you".

Mr. Jones's face was now neutral. Morrigan even envied how he could hide his emotions and feelings away from people's eyes like that.

"You’re welcome. It wasn't difficult for me" - he smiled, playing his role. The other guests of the evening devoured them with searching glances, although they tried their best not to show it.

"Well," - Maud continued and looked at Steed again, - "as you can see, Prime Minister, I'm not alone either. Let me introduce them to you: my assistents" - she pointed to two people standing on either side of her, and then looked directly into the eyes of Morrigan and Squall in turn. - "Corvus Crow and Elodie Bauer".

Morrigan sighed heavily. Well, before moving on to negotiations, they needed to get through this evening. And if they succeed, it will be some kind of victory.

Chapter Text

Morrigan tried to keep her face as expressionless as possible. Now she was Charlotte, not Morrigan, and accordingly she should have behaved differently.

Morrigan tried to focus her gaze only on Elodie, not paying any attention to the second person standing next to the President. She shouldn't have shown any signs of knowing him. Therefore, she was able to fully consider the woman she had seen only in Ghostly Hours and only as a child. Elodie was dressed in a blue, the color of the starry sky, dress that reached to her ankles and emphasized the blue of her eyes. Part of her copper-colored hair was gathered with a crescent-shaped hairpin, while the rest of the curls fell gently over her shoulders. The woman looked petite, but at the same time majestic, even though she was subordinate to Maud. Morrigan noticed a certain pallor of the woman, as if she was holding on with the last of her strength, but tried not to show it. Elodie was clearly not one to give up. Apart from her slightly tired appearance, Elodie looked great, and Morrigan would not be surprised if she knew that she had a lot of suitors who tried their best to attract the attention of the woman.

Morrigan shuddered and tore her gaze away from Elodie, realizing that she was studying her too long and intently and remembering that it was quite indecent to stare at a person like that.

"Glad to meet you" - the Prime Minister smiled politely again and pointed to his two assistants. - "Alistair Ashford and Casper Milligan. And this is Jupiter North and his ward Charlotte Bradshaw" - he waved his hand vaguely in their direction. Morrigan struggled not to roll her eyes.

At that moment, she felt Jupiter's hands on her shoulders. This calmed her down a little and gave her some confidence. Morrigan slowly shifted her gaze to her "father". Corvus didn't even look in her direction, studying the other members of the delegation, and especially the Prime Minister and Squall. Morrigan wondered: how much does he know?  She felt the gaze on her and was surprised when she discovered that it did not come from Maud, but from Elodie. It seemed that she was studying the girl with the utmost attention and curiosity too. Morrigan could have sworn that for one tiny second, the corner of Elodie's mouth twitched, as if trying to smile, but she remembered those present in time.

Elodie Bauer knew exactly who was standing in front of her.

———————————————————————

The Prime Minister and the President had quite a small talk for some time, only deviating into politics a few times. Morrigan tried her best to follow their conversation so as not to miss anything important. But after some time she realized that it was an empty conversation and absolutely nothing useful could be learned from it, and stopped listening, switching her attention to the guests.

At the very beginning, Squall looked a little confused and unsettled, but he quickly pulled himself together. Apparently, it wasn't the first time he had done this. So he quickly cut into the conversation, and only occasionally threw short glances in Elodie's direction.

Morrigan turned to Jupiter, who, to her surprise, did not take part in the conversation.

"I don't like all this" - Morrigan muttered darkly so that only Jupiter could hear her.

"I agree" - Jupiter cast a fleeting glance in the direction of the President. - "I have no doubt that she is up to something, but so far she has not given herself away. It feels like she's made of ice. No emotions. Unbelievable..."

Morrigan realized that he was looking at her using his knack. But even that doesn't help to find out her plan.

"We don't have a single clue" - Morrigan sighed resignedly.

"This is not the time to give up. Let's keep an eye on her. It does not happen that a person does not make some mistakes. Even the smallest and seemingly insignificant mistakes can be very useful in the future" - Jupiter smiled encouragingly at the Morrigan. She forced out the best smile she could. Jupiter's words didn't encourage her, but she didn't want to worry him.

After a while, the delegation dispersed around the hall, everyone went about their business. After thirty minutes of wandering around the luxurious hall, Morrigan got bored. She didn't know how to dance and couldn't start a conversation with anyone, because she didn't know these people and, well, she was the only child here, so she tried to slip out of the room unnoticed. Morrigan walked through one of the marble doors and out into the courtyard of the building. The courtyard was more like a kind of garden, where many plants grew. There were paved paths that wound between them. In the very center there was a fountain, around which there were benches where you could sit down and admire the beauty that opened up. Morrigan went straight there. Right now, more than anything, she wanted to be in silence and gather all her thoughts together, and most importantly, think about what to do next.

"Hello".

A voice cut through the silence of the night. Morrigan jumped in surprise and gave a little cry. She whirled around and saw Elodie sitting on one of the benches. No one was here a second ago. Morrigan breathed a sigh of relief. At least it wasn't Maud.

"Do all the Wundersmiths have this habit of showing up unexpectedly and scaring the hell out of you?" - Morrigan crossed her arms over her chest and frowned.

Elodie laughed. Her laughter sounded cheerful and ringing. It didn't look like anyone was keeping her under control.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. Apparently, it's contagious" - Elodie stopped laughing and jokingly rolled her eyes. - "You don’t like all this noise?" - She nodded towards the hall, where lively voices and loud laughter were coming from.

Morrigan was still looking at Elodie, not saying a word. She didn't know if she should have trusted her, and she certainly didn't know what to say right now. So she just stood there and looked at the woman sitting in front of her.

Elodie sighed, not waiting for a response from Morrigan.

"I know what you're thinking right now" - Elodie said and turned her gaze to the fountain. - "Is she talking by herself now or is she being controlled by Maud? Can we trust her or will she betray us? And how did she manage to slip away from Maud, because she doesn't let her take a step without her?" - Elodie grinned when she saw Morrigan's dumbfounded look. - "Come on, Morrigan… You don't mind if I call you by your name, do you?" - Morrigan nodded uncertainly, still surprised by what was happening. As she thought, Elodie knew exactly who was standing in front of her. - "Great. So, Maud really hates to weaken her control, but sometimes she just needs to do it so that no one suspects something is wrong. Besides, her powers are not infinite".

Morrigan watched Elodie, who talked incessantly, but she liked it. She understood that Elodie clearly lacked communication, so she gave her the opportunity to speak out. Surprisingly, Morrigan already felt that this woman could be trusted.

"But... unfortunately, it doesn't last long" - Elodie's face clouded for the first time during their acquaintance. - "That's why we have no time to waste" - she looked straight into Morrigan's eyes. - "Now listen to me very carefully. Okay?"

Morrigan started to open her mouth, but Elodie stopped her.

"No, don't say anything, just in case. I don't want Maud to find out anything. She can check my memories if she wishes".

"But then she will know about what you have told me. I'm sure you won't get away with it" - Morrigan couldn't help herself. She didn't want anyone to get hurt because of her.

"Don't worry. I am well aware of the risk I am taking. Besides, she won't be able to see our whole conversation, I'll be able to hide some memories from her, but not everything. I can't do it, not anymore" - Elodie said the last phrase almost in a whisper. - "In general, do you understand me?"

Morrigan nodded.

"She's not going to do anything tonight. Everything will start tomorrow, most likely right before the negotiations. I... I don't know what it's going to be. She almost doesn't tell anyone about her plans, only the chosen ones. I managed to eavesdrop on her conversation with someone from her entourage, and she said that everything was ready and it only remained to be patient, act exactly according to plan and observe the time frame. I don't think she guessed I'd heard anything" - Elodie wrinkled her nose slightly. - "At least, I hope so. The most important thing is that this primarily concerns the Prime Minister. He's in danger. And I believe that this will be just the beginning. She wants to get some benefit from it. I'm sorry, but that's all I've been able to find out. She's been even more careful since Ezra started helping you. God bless him, he's finally stopped dancing to her tune" - she raised her eyes to the sky. - "Also, Corvus Crow knows that his daughter is alive. He knows everything" - Elodie highlighted every spoken word.

The Morrigan's skin crawled at Elodie's words. Elodie might not have been able to find out more details, but she had told enough, and Morrigan was grateful to her for that.

"But if Maud doesn't periodically control you, then why don't you escape from her?" - Morrigan frowned, it confused her.

Elodie only raised her hands in response, on which silver bracelets flashed, which were hidden by the sleeves of her dress. The Morrigan had only just noticed them. If you didn't look closely, you'd think they were just jewelry, but on closer inspection they looked more like fetters.

"The bracelets don't allow it. That is, to be precise, they are not so easy to remove - if at all possible, of course, I hope. With them, Maud is easier to control me, and she can do it from a distance. So even if I escape, I have no idea how to take off these damn bracelets. But, as I said, sometimes she takes a break, and I can enjoy what no, but freedom" - Elodie shrugged.

Morrigan looked at the bracelets again. Seemingly unremarkable, they hid a real threat. The girl decided not to ask about them anymore. She will try to find out more about this later.

"Thank you" - Morrigan nodded. Elodie just smiled. But her smile was tired.

"Be careful" - with these words, she disappeared.

Morrigan was left standing alone in the middle of the garden. But at least now she knew what she had to do next.

———————————————————————

Elodie leaned against the cold wall of the building, catching her breath. People were having fun behind the wall, unaware of the game started by Maud.

Elodie was on edge. She was tired and kept on her feet with the last of her strength. She was already mentally preparing for the fact that Maud would find out about her "wrongdoing" and punish her. Well, at least she was able to help in some way. She had not been intimidated by the threats of Maud for a long time. She's used to it. And sometimes she was afraid of this indifference. Elodie closed her eyes.

"There you are".

Elodie flinched slightly, but a small smile appeared on her face. She didn't need to open her eyes to know who the voice belonged to. After a second, the smile faltered and disappeared.

"You know you better not come near me, let alone talk to me" - Elodie said in a calm voice, without opening her eyes.

"I still preferred to take a chance" - a light chuckle rang out.

"No, stop it" - Elodie said sharply. She shuddered inwardly at having to talk to Ezra like that, but she was doing it for his own good. - "Go to the hall before anyone notices you here".

Ezra didn't move a step. His eyes narrowed slightly.

"Or what?" - he said defiantly and slightly raised an eyebrow.

"Okay" - Elodie pushed away from the wall, she was getting angry. But she couldn't figure out at who: Ezra, herself, or Maud, or the whole situation. - "Then I'll have to do it" - as luck would have it, such a sharp movement made her slightly dizzy and she had to lean against the wall again. After all, she was much more tired than she had expected.

"This is one of the reasons why you should accept help from me" - Elodie did not even notice how Ezra was next to her and grabbed her elbow, supporting her. - "You're exhausted. You're so pale that you'll start to shine through soon. You need to rest".

"Pff, how is it different from yours?" - Elodie rolled her eyes.

"Because it's my natural skin color, unlike you" - he said sarcastically. - "Rest" - he said through his teeth. His anger was not directed at Elodie (although a little at her), but at Maud, and he hoped that she understood this.

"You know I can't... Bracelets" - Elodie ran her hand over her face.

Ezra grabbed her hands.

"What kind of bracelets?" - there was surprise and disgust in his voice. - "I haven't seen them on your hands before" - Ezra raised his head, anger mixed with concern reflected in his eyes.

"Long story" - Elodie waved her hand. - "Ask Charlotte" - this time she slowly moved away from the wall, and this movement was not followed by dizziness and darkening of the eyes. Elodie considered it a success. - "Now, with your permission, I still have to go" - no matter how much she didn’t want it. Elodie's heart sank. But she did her best to take a few steps away from Ezra. She's already caused enough trouble for everyone, especially him. - "Stay away from me".

"We’re not leaving you here… I'm not leaving you here. It will end soon, you'll see" - it seemed to Elodie that he wanted to say something else, but then he changed his mind and turned around and left. Elodie exhaled, she was no longer sure of anything.

———————————————————————

Ezra wanted to burn this place to the ground, level it with the ground. Rage raged in him. And he needed to let all his anger out, but, of course, not in front of everyone. He quickly crossed the hall, ignoring the guests, and left the building.

The warm summer air sobered him up a little, but his nerves were on edge. He tried to breathe slowly and deeply, as Elodie had once shown him, it always helped her calm down. Well, almost always. Not to say that he used it often, since he was perfectly able not to let his emotions catch him up with, but sometimes it was really a useful technique. For example, now. Well, at least they didn't have long to stay here, and soon this evening would be over.

Ezra tried to concentrate, which was very difficult for him. He had not experienced such strong emotions for a long time, it sometimes seemed to him that he had lost the ability to feel anything at all. To be honest, he was glad that it was not so.

Ezra couldn't get Elodie's pale face, her faded eyes out of his head. There was a feeling that a little more and she would break if she hadn't done it yet. He hoped not. She had to be taken out of the clutches of Maud as soon as possible, before it was too late. She was dying. Quiet and slow. He was in pain, and he hated himself that he couldn't do anything. He hated feeling helpless. Hated that he couldn't help her.

His thoughts were interrupted by the striking of the clock, which announced the arrival of midnight. Well, it was the perfect time to leave. He's already been here longer than he planned.

After taking one last look at the building, Ezra turned around and walked along the gravel path leading into the darkness of the night city.

Chapter Text

Morrigan told Jupiter everything she had learned from Elodie. She tried to convey their conversation in great detail, trying not to miss anything. But due to excessive excitement, Morrigan sometimes got confused in words, and to continue the story, she took a deep breath, calming her nerves.

To her deepest surprise, the Prime Minister bothered to listen to her this time, interrupting her several times and asking some clarifying questions. But Morrigan didn't mind. After all, it showed at least some interest of the Prime Minister in their conversation and meant that he was listening to her attentively.

Squall did not take part in the conversation. Morrigan hadn't seen him since they'd all gone around the hall, having finished exchanging pleasantries with the President. As she suggested, he most likely left the reception much earlier than they did.

"Why is he absent at such important moments?" - Morrigan groaned inwardly.

After she finished her telling, silence reigned in the room, which was accompanied only by the measured ticking of the clock. The Prime Minister frowned for a while, clearly considering some decision, but judging by the slight shake of his head after a few seconds, Morrigan knew in advance that she would not like what Steed would say.

"Miss Crow, with all due respect ("What kind of respect is there!" - Morrigan thought, trying not to snort at such a statement), I'm not sure we should trust the words of that woman. What did you say her name was?.. Elodie? You yourself told us that she is in the power of the President, who completely controls her. Besides, she's a Wundersmith, and as everyone knows..."

He didn't have time to finish, because Morrigan wasn't going to let him finish the last sentence.

"How much can you believe in all this nonsense about the Wundersmiths?!" - Morrigan flared up. She was beginning to be infuriated by Steed's stubbornness and the fairy tale about the Wundersmiths hammered into his head. She wasn't going to be silent anymore. - "I'm a Wundersmith too! However, I haven't hurt anyone yet" - Morrigan faltered, remembering about the Museum of Stolen Moments and the uncontrolled exhalation of fire from her mouth directly into Heloise's face. - "Purposefully, I mean. And certainly not killed! How much have you been brainwashed in your the Wundrous Society, that you can't open your eyes and look at the world as it really is, and that the real threat lies not in the Wundersmiths, but in a woman who is the head of an enemy state?!" - Morrigan fumed, but she understood that it was better for her to calm down before she said something else superfluous.

Morrigan's lunge made an impression. Everyone was looking at her with wide-open, puzzled eyes, including Jupiter. But a faint smile appeared on the lips of the latter, which clearly said that he approved of Morrigan's words and that she had said everything to the point.

"Well" - the Prime Minister cleared his throat, adjusting his tie around his neck. - "My decision remains the same. I haven't seen a single sign yet that the President wishes us harm, except for your messages from strangers, Miss Crow, and from Mr. Squall, who, in my opinion, is more untrustworthy than anyone else. And these are not groundless fears, are they? I'm sorry, but I can't take your word for it. I need proof that you, as I can see, are not able to provide to me".

"Well, good" - Morrigan crossed her arms over her chest. - "Let's wait for something to happen to you. Then we will get the necessary evidence. But I'm afraid you won't need them at that time" - Morrigan had never allowed herself to be so openly insolent, but now she didn't care anymore.

The Prime Minister's face turned stony.

"Be careful with your words, Miss Crow" - he threatened. - "They may play a cruel joke on you in the future".

With these words, the Prime Minister and his two assistants left the room.

"Prejudices have a very strong hold on a person, Mog. It's impossible to get rid of them so quickly" - Jupiter put his hands on her shoulders. - "Now, try to get some sleep. We have a hard day ahead of us".

Morrigan nodded wearily, but she wasn't sure if she would be able to close her eyes for even a minute.

"Only these prejudices can cost him his life".

Morrigan muttered to herself as she also left the room.

———————————————————————

"How dare you?!" - Maud growled, pinning Elodie against the wall and grabbing her by the neck.

Elodie stared speechlessly at the woman in front of her, not a muscle on her face twitching.

"You don't think you can get away with this, do you?" - Maud glared at her with a searching look, trying to find some hint of fear on Elodie's face.

Elodie's face remained stony.

"Well, you won't kill me, and I can endure the rest" - Elodie said sarcastically. - "So what? Will you continue to intimidate me, or will you still start implementing your threats?" - she raised an eyebrow mockingly, although, she had to admit, deep down she was seized with fear, but she would never let Maud see it.

Maud's eyes flashed angrily, but she immediately pulled herself together. After squeezing Elodie's throat for a moment, she immediately loosened her grip and stepped away from her.

"Yes, you're right. It may be disadvantageous for me to kill you, but I know how to inflict much more painful damage" - Maud grinned, bowing her head. - "Of course, we will have to break the plans and start earlier, but I think this will not affect the result in the slightest".

Maud took one last look at Elodie and left the office.

Elodie sank to the floor exhausted, following the woman with an anxious look.

———————————————————————

The morning was overcast.

"Well, now I recognize the good old Republic" - Morrigan grinned.

She got up almost at dawn and cleaned herself up. She couldn't sleep anymore and, in order to occupy herself with something, decided to practice the Wundrous Arts, but trying not to overdo it.

It was about eight in the morning, but the building was quiet. Morrigan just shrugged, suggesting that everyone was just too tired after a long night. And it was only natural that they wanted to sleep longer.

When the clock showed nine in the morning, and the voices of people who had woken up could not be heard in the building, Morrigan began to worry. She got off the bed and put on her shoes, then cautiously looked out of the room.

Looking around, she saw only empty corridors, but also for a split second she thought she heard distant voices coming from the far end of the corridor, where, as far as Morrigan could remember, the Steed’s apartments were located.

Morrigan closed the door and moved towards the sound of voices, trying not to make any noise on the way. She stopped before turning to the Prime Minister's room and peeked around the corner.

The door to the room was open, and it was quite noisy. Morrigan even wondered why the voices seemed quiet to her initially.

"How the hell could this happen?"

"Why didn't anyone hear anything?"

"It is impossible for no one to see anything suspicious!"

"What a horror!"

"We need to send a message about what happened immediately".

The assembled people were talking vying. Morrigan could barely make out individual words. She wanted to come out of her hiding place, but at that moment Jupiter appeared in front of her and blocked her way to the room.

"Morrigan, you'd better go to your room".

Jupiter looked worried.

"What happened?" - Morrigan tried to look out from behind him, but Jupiter blocked her view again.

"Morrigan, this is not the time for explanations. I'll tell you everything later, when everyone calms down a bit, but now go to your room and don't stick your head out until I come. Okay?"

Morrigan had rarely seen her patron so serious. If he behaved like that, then something really out of the ordinary happened. Therefore, she decided not to argue and voluntarily go to the room. But when Jupiter comes to her, she will get every last drop out of him.

It had been two hours since Morrigan had returned to her room. She sat down on the windowsill, from where she watched what was happening on the street. What she saw there during that time alarmed her in earnest.

Several police cars arrived. There were a few people in formal suits who were extremely reserved, their faces were focused. Jupiter and Steed's assistants were there, but Morrigan never saw the Prime Minister himself that morning, which puzzled the girl. People were scurrying back and forth, actively discussing something, sometimes raising their voices and clearly showing irritation and concern.

"What's going on here?" - a voice came from behind Morrigan.

She shuddered and turned around, seeing Squall in front of her.

He looked as usual. Neat and discreet. The only thing that caught Morrigan's eye was his tired look. It was as if he hadn't slept at all that night.

Squall raised an eyebrow questioningly, waiting for the Morrigan's answer. She just shrugged.

"I have no idea. Jupiter wouldn't let me go there and didn't explain anything. He just immediately sent me to the room and told me to keep my head down".

"Well, then I'll have to figure it out myself" - Squall disappeared as suddenly as he appeared.

Morrigan was alone in the room again. She sighed and closed her eyes. After a while, Jupiter entered her room, followed by Squall. Both looked tense.

Morrigan noticed that Jupiter hesitated, trying to say something.

"Steed is dead" - Squall said in an even voice, without hesitating for a second. His statement was met with a stern look from Jupiter. Squall just shrugged casually. - "What? Why beat around the bush? This is already a fact, and nothing will change it. And we had to tell Miss Crow anyway, so I just made it easier for you".

"What?!" - Morrigan jumped to the floor with her eyes wide open. She immediately remembered her words, said today before going to bed. - "How did this happen?"

"This is where the fun begins" - Jupiter began slowly.

"Simply put, everyone believes that one of us did it. But they are more inclined to believe that it was me, since my absence from your small meeting after the reception could well be explained by the preparation for the murder of the Prime Minister. Besides" - Squall sighed and ran his hand through his hair. - "There are too many Wunder in the room. And they find only one explanation for this" - he frowned.

"That Wundersmith is involved in this" - Morrigan guessed. She immediately understood what he was driving at. - "But they don't have any other evidence of your involvement other than Wunder, right?"

"I'm not involved in this" - Squall said harshly. - "But, yes, that's right".

"Why did Maud decide to act earlier? Unless..."  - Morrigan looked worriedly at the two men.

Squall turned away, frowning. But for a split second, Morrigan managed to notice the fear that flashed in his eyes. He thought about it too.

"Let's hope she's all right" - Jupiter put his hands in his pockets, not knowing what else to do with them. Morrigan agreed with him.

"What are those people going to do?" - Morrigan wondered what would happen next.

"First they are going to report the incident to the President, although I think she already knows. I have no doubt that she is responsible for Steed's demise" - Jupiter said with the same confidence that Morrigan and Squall had. - "Also, all the information was urgently sent to the Free State. An investigation will be conducted. Well, I think it's obvious. Today we are going back to Nevermoor immediately. I'm afraid it's not safe to stay here for another day. Besides, there's no point. Negotiations will not take place, so we need to pack up our things quickly and leave".

"Will it be safe in Nevermoor?"

Morrigan looked Jupiter straight in the eye. He knew exactly what she meant. Will it be safe in Nevermoor for a Wundersmith? After all, those people already blame them for what happened. When people in Nevermoor found out about the Steed’s murder, Morrigan was afraid to imagine their reaction.

Unfortunately, Jupiter didn't know the answer to that question, but he knew he wouldn't let anything happen to Morrigan. And judging by the expression on Squall's face, he was also ready to protect his student.

Chapter Text

It had been a week since they had returned to Nevermoor. And to tell the truth, it's been a tough week. The investigation into the death of the Prime Minister did not lead to anything. Which Morrigan wasn't the least bit surprised about. She knew that the Stink would not be able to solve this case, no one would be able to (Maud thought through everything to the smallest detail, she would never allow herself to make a mistake), but they did not give up. What Morrigan was still sure of was that they would have to blame someone for the crime anyway. The government and the Wundrous Society could not allow panic among the population of the Free State. No one would like the news that the Prime Minister's murderer is still at large. People would be horrified, and mass unrest would begin. Therefore, Morrigan had no doubt that the first suspicions would fall on the two Wundersmiths, who - what a "coincidence" - were at that time in the Republic with Steed. It was convenient. They were already immediately suspected.

In addition, a lot of rumors began to spread quite quickly over Nevermoor this week. Not a day went by that someone didn't look at Morrigan when she was walking through the streets of the city or walking with friends. She could feel the probing, curious and incredulous eyes on her. Some looked at her with fear, but Morrigan was already used to it. When the news that a new Wundersmith had appeared in Nevermoor became public, many residents tried to see her (they literally tried to break into the hotel to take pictures of her or simply force her to use the Wundrous Arts), announced a hunt for her and set a reward for her. It was unpleasant. No. It was disgusting, infuriating and annoying as hell. But now no one was eager to approach her at the first opportunity, or even to talk to her, and she was in some way even pleased. Although she didn't like the frightened looks directed in her. Morrigan shuddered inwardly, remembering that she had been looked at the same way when she was "cursed". It was an unpleasant experience, which she tried not to remember.

Today Morrigan tried to put annoying thoughts out of her head and relax. After all, Squall didn't give her a day off every day, so she wanted to enjoy her day off to the fullest.

When Morrigan went downstairs, she saw that Jupiter was talking to some people. There were two of them: a man and a woman. The man was tall and broad-shouldered with brown eyes. He was wearing a T-shirt with a blue-and-blue checkered shirt over it. Morrigan noticed that he was dressed simply, without frills, but stylishly. The woman, she assumed, was most likely his wife. She had honey-colored hair and turquoise eyes with a green tint. She was wearing a light summer dress that reached to her knees. It seemed to Morrigan that these people reminded her of someone.

Morrigan decided to approach them. She couldn't hide in the shadows and watch them. It would be indecent. Therefore, she began to approach them slowly.

"Good morning" - Morrigan said when she was near Jupiter.

"Good morning, Mog" - Jupiter smiled and, seeing Morrigan's questioning look, hurried to introduce the couple who had arrived. - "Meet Arthur and Evelyn Brennan. They're from the League of Explorers. We needed to discuss the issue of the ongoing investigation into the death of the Prime Minister".

Brennan! Now Morrigan remembered who they reminded her of. Lucas Brennan. The boy she met after the dragonriding competition.

"Oh, hello!"

Morrigan jumped at the voice that suddenly came from the side of the chair standing near the reception desk. She turned around and saw Lucas, who was sitting relaxed in an armchair and looking at some book. Morrigan hadn't even noticed him until that moment. He put the book down as he fixed his gaze on Morrigan and walked over to her, smiling.

Morrigan felt her cheeks turn red from that smile. She wanted to sink through the ground.

"Um, hi!" - she stammered.

«So you know each other?» - Jupiter looked from Morrigan to Lucas and back again. - "You didn't tell me that" - Jupiter fixed his gaze on Morrigan.

"You're not the only one who didn't know, Captain North. Yes, Lucas?" - his mother looked significantly at her son, raising one eyebrow.

"Mom…" - Lucas groaned. - "I just didn't have time to tell you" - he shrugged guiltily, slightly embarrassed.

"Well, we're glad to meet you, Miss Crow" - Evelyn smiled affably, looking at Morrigan. - "We... have heard a lot about you, but I believe that most of it is not true, so we can assume that we don't know anything about you, in fact".

"Oh... um... it's nice to meet you, too" - Morrigan said, trying to pull herself together. And why was she so distracted? - "You can just call me Morrigan" - she smiled.

"As you wish" - Lucas's father said, also smiling. - "We need to discuss some business, guys. Maybe, you could go for a walk somewhere?"

Morrigan and Lucas exchanged glances.

"No problem. I was going to walk anyway" - Morrigan shrugged.

"I don't mind either" - Lucas said.

"That's great! Then go and have fun! The last week turned out to be stressful, so you need to distract yourself properly" - Jupiter cheerfully said, clapping his hands. - "But watch the time. Try not to stay late" - Jupiter warned them, Lucas' parents agreed with him.

"The Ghostly Hour, Jupiter" - Morrigan reminded him.

"Oh, right! Sorry, I completely forgot. Then come right after you watch it. Understand?"

Morrigan nodded affirmatively. After that, the adults went to Jupiter's office.

Lucas decided to take her to Here & There Cafe, where he treated her to a chocolate cocktail and a cake, although Morrigan insisted on paying for the order herself. It was useless to argue with Lucas, so she gave up almost immediately. He took himself a vanilla cocktail and the same cake as hers. He said it was his favorite. And after a while, Morrigan realized why. The cake literally melted in her mouth, and the taste was incredibly rich and soft.

Drinking cocktails and eating cakes, the guys did not notice how they started talking. Morrigan learned that, in addition to dragonriding, Lucas is also engaged in fencing, but his passion is all sorts of inventions. He told her that he likes to come up with something new and different, and he writes down all his ideas in a notebook. Basically, he makes some inventions in a special room assigned to him by his parents - the "workshop" - as he calls it. Lucas hasn't attended school. Never. He was home-schooled, as he and his parents had to move from place to place often and there was no point in going to an educational institution in which he would not stay for a long time. It would be a complete hassle.

A curious thought suddenly occurred to Morrigan.

"Tell me, Lucas" - she looked at the boy thoughtfully. - "Is it possible to invent such a thing that would keep a person under control, suppressing his will?" - Morrigan, of course, knew that was possible, but she decided to start from afar.

Lucas looked at her with a frown.

"It's theoretically possible, but in practice I haven't heard of anyone inventing something like this yet" - he frowned even more. - "It must be very painstaking work, requiring incredible efforts. And judging by your look, I suppose you know someone who managed to do it, right?" - he raised an eyebrow questioningly, as his mother had done before.

Morrigan sighed. She was debating whether to tell Lucas or not. But she understood that since she had started this conversation, she had to finish it. Maybe he can help.

Therefore, Morrigan tried to tell Lucas quickly and briefly the essence of the matter. Throughout the story, the boy's emotions were replaced one after another. Sometimes he frowned, sometimes he turned pale and looked a little scared, but then he frowned again and nodded.

When Morrigan finished, Lucas leaned back in his chair and whistled.

"This is a real confrontation!" - he whispered. - "Of course, I knew that hard times had come. I sometimes hear my parents talking about it. But I couldn't even imagine that everything was so bad" - he grimaced. - "Never liked Mindreaders and all these people whose knacks are connected with the mind. They are nothing but problems and they make you shiver, but what you described is even worse, so I think I'll reconsider my views on this".

"So what do you say about these bracelets?" - Morrigan bit her lip impatiently.

Lucas sighed, thinking for a few moments.

"I can't say anything for sure yet, but maybe I can come up with something. But" - Lucas held up his index finger, stopping Morrigan before she could thank him. - "I'm not promising anything. I have never encountered anything like this in my life, so I will, in fact, act on a hunch".

"Thanks a lot anyway! Now there is at least some hope" - a smile blossomed on Morrigan's face. She hadn't smiled like that in a long time.

Lucas looked at the black-eyed girl in front of him, who was smiling broadly. Her eyes were shining. He was even a little taken away by her gaze. At that moment, he realized that he would try to do everything in his power to help her. He didn't want to let her down.

It was already beginning to get dark slowly. Morrigan was walking down the street in the direction of Proudfoot House, on the rooftop of which the Ghostly Hour with Gracious Goldberry was supposed to appear. Morrigan found out about it a year ago when Sofia decided to share her little secret with the girl. Then Goldberry's ability to handle Inferno so skillfully had a lasting impression on Morrigan, and she couldn't wait to see it again.

She told Lucas about her intention, who with great enthusiasm began to ask her about the Ghostly Hours, because he had no idea what it was and had never heard of it before. Morrigan had to briefly tell him what the Ghostly Hours are. Lucas listened intently, trying to catch every word.

"That's really cool!" - the boy exclaimed admiringly. - "It's almost like a real time travel, only no one sees you and you can't do anything, but these are small things. You're incredibly lucky!"

Morrigan laughed.

"I guess so" - she suddenly stopped and turned to Lucas. - "Oh, I completely forgot! Non-members of the Wundrous Society are not allowed on the territory of Proudfoot House. Therefore, we will have to sneak you in" - she looked at him intently, as if calculating something in her mind. "Perhaps I can cover you with shadows so that no one will see you. Besides, it's summer now, so there won't be many people there, so it won't require a particularly careful disguise".

"Uh... I think I'll trust you" - Lucas said uncertainly. - "Sneak into Proudfoot House. I think it's going to be pretty exciting" - he grinned.

Morrigan thought she was beginning to like him even more.

"Morrigan?"

The girl jumped in surprise. Morrigan turned and saw Sofia, who, as the girl assumed, was also going to the rooftop. Morrigan looked to where Lucas was standing and made sure that he was safely hidden by the shadows she had created.

"Sofia? Hello! Did you come to see the Ghostly Hour too?" - Morrigan pointed her head at the rooftop.

"You know that I try not to miss a single year" - Sofia approached the girl and looked at her carefully. - "You've changed" - she remarked. - "You have become more confident, I would even say grown up".

Morrigan frowned slightly. She was only fourteen years old. Sophia smiled when she saw Morrigan's face.

"It was a compliment. Don't frown like that. Growing up and changing are quite natural processes. There's no getting away from them" - she started climbing the stairs. - "And you don't have to hide your friend. I won't tell anyone about your little mischief, so don't worry".

The shadows scattered. Morrigan looked after Sophia in surprise.

"Wow! You have a very observant friend" - Lucas was impressed.

"How did she guess?"

"Maybe she just knew where to look?" - Lucas shrugged.

"Well, Sofia is full of surprises" - Morrigan smiled.

Without wasting another minute, the guys began to climb up after Sofia.

Lucas watched Gracious Goldberry with open mouth and genuine admiration. He had never seen anything like it. Which is not surprising, since the mere mention of the Wundersmiths terrified everyone and himself once.

Goldberry's dexterity in handling fire amazed the boy's imagination. Such skill and beauty are rarely seen anywhere.

"You know, when we first met, I wasn't completely honest with you" - this statement attracted Morrigan's attention, and she looked at Lucas curiously. - "I used to be afraid of the Wundersmiths, you could even say that I hated them" - Lucas said, looking timidly at Morrigan. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his trousers and lowered his eyes, looking uncomfortable. Morrigan could tell he looked guilty. - "I even remember that I had a little quarrel with Hawthorne when he told me that his best friend is a Wundersmith, that is, you" - on the word "little" Lucas stumbled a little and frowned.

"A little quarrel? Judging by your face, the word "little" is clearly inappropriate here. Am I right?" - Morrigan looked at him carefully.

"Okay, we had a big fight then, and it just so happened that our skirmish ended in a fight. We were barely separated" - Lucas scratched his head. He was ashamed. - "I'm really very ashamed of that act. I don't know what came over me. I haven't even met you once. Hawthorne and I, of course, quickly faced off, but our friendship became more intense. To be honest, I was absolutely not thrilled that I would have to meet you at those competitions. Hawthorne immediately warned me that he was going to invite his entire Unit, so I knew in advance. But you turned out to be completely different from what I imagined".

"What kind of person did you imagine me to be? I think there was a picture of me in all the newspapers once. Let it be terrible, but in general my face was visible there" - Morrigan grimaced remembering that nightmarish picture.

"I'm not a fan of reading newspapers, so it passed me by. Besides, because of all these moves with my parents, I didn't have much time to pay attention to what news was written there" - Lucas shrugged. - "In general, you turned out to be an ordinary girl, and not a monster, as people like to portray the Wundersmiths in various myths and legends. And on Hellowmas. I don't know about Squall, but you're not like that" - he was a little embarrassed by his eloquence.

"Believe me, Squall is not like the image that people in Nevermoor imagined in their heads all this time at all. I don't understand how it was possible to distort his appearance in such a way" - Morrigan snorted and after a pause said. - "But thank you".

"For what?" - Lucas did not understand, looking at her in a puzzled way.

"For calling me ordinary" - Morrigan replied and smiled slightly, catching an even more surprised look from the boy, who sincerely did not understand what he was being thanked for. He had no idea how Morrigan sometimes dreamed of being just an ordinary girl and not the Wundersmith. She couldn't change that, and she didn't want to, to be honest. She just needed at least sometimes a little something ordinary and to be seen first of all as a person, and not as a Wundersmith.

"Well, you’re welcome" - Lucas said, confused.

Sofia was furtively watching the two teenagers, a tiny smile appeared on her muzzle, which she tried to hide so that they would not notice it. Sofia decided not to interfere in their conversation, after all, it was none of her business. But what she heard pleased her, and she was sincerely glad that Morrigan had a new friend who was not afraid to be honest with her. It deserved respect.

They continued to watch Wundersmith in silence. After a while, Sofia and Lucas noticed that Morrigan was looking at Goldberry in a strange way, tilting her head to the side and slightly squinting.

"Morrigan, are you okay?" - Sophia asked anxiously.

Morrigan said nothing and moved even closer to Wundersmith, staring intently into her face, as if trying to find something.

A moment later, Lucas and Sofia noticed that the girl shuddered and jumped back, gasping.

"Wow! It can't be..." - Morrigan looked at the woman as if she had seen a ghost.

Lucas walked up to her and put his hand on her shoulder, trying to get her attention. - "It feels like you've become even paler than usual" - he tried to joke, but Morrigan did not react in any way, still continuing to stare at Goldberry.

After a few moments, Morrigan shook her head and frowned, turning to Lucas.

"We're going back to the hotel. Urgent!" - she said firmly.

Morrigan burst into Jupiter's office, slamming the door loudly against the wall. The three adults had obviously finished discussing their affairs and were just drinking tea, waiting for the children to return and discussing various news.

They stared at the girl dumbfounded, and then looked questioningly at Lucas, as if asking what had happened.

"Don't even look at me! I have no idea what possessed her. She didn't tell me anything" - he raised his hands in a defensive gesture.

"What's all the noise?" - a grumpy voice came from the stairs. - "You can be heard even on the street" - Squall stared at everyone present with displeasure, but eventually fixed his gaze on Morrigan, clearly noticing her excited state. "To be honest, you don't look very well, Miss Crow. Are you healthy?" - it seemed to Morrigan that his gaze was somewhat worried.

"Goldberry! Gracious Goldberry!" - Morrigan exclaimed.

Everyone looked at her in bewilderment, waiting for further explanations.

Morrigan took a deep breath.

"I didn't notice it right away, but she and Maud have very similar external features. It seemed to me for a long time that Maud reminded me of someone, but I could not remember who. We've already found out that she's a descendant of Wundersmith, but we didn't find out who exactly, so..."

"So you're saying she's the daughter of Gracious Goldberry? Did we get you right?" - Jupiter asked.

"Yes! I'm more than sure of it. The resemblance is quite obvious" - Morrigan said fervently.

"Perhaps it really could be true" - Squall said thoughtfully, frowning, as if trying to remember something. - "They have quite a similar character. Take their hatred of the wunimals, for example".

Everyone shuddered, remembering the Hollowpox epidemic, which almost wiped out all the wunimals.

"Oh, you have something like a detective here!" - Lucas whistled.

Squall only now paid attention to him, taking a look at him. Then he looked at his parents. His eyes flashed.

"May I know who our guests are?"

"Yes, of course, the Brennan family. This is Lucas Brennan and his parents Arthur and Evelyn Brennan. They are members of the League of Explorers just like me, but they work in a slightly different field".

"Are they working by any chance as some kind of spies?" - Squall tilted his head to the side, the corner of his mouth lifted in a mocking smile.

"I told you he would recognize us" - Arthur put his cup of tea on the table and rubbed his palms. - "I won the bet".

Evelyn rolled her eyes.

"Good. Just don't start bragging about it, please. Don't think that you will be lucky forever".

"Are your parents spies?" - now it was Morrigan's turn to stare at Lucas, dumbfounded.

He just shrugged again, spreading his arms to the sides.

"What a surprise!" - he smiled awkwardly. - "Do you understand that I am forbidden to spread about this?"

Morrigan had to admit he was right.

"Yes, I think it is. Sorry".

"You have a good memory for faces, Mr. Squall, don't you?" - Evelyn turned her gaze on him.

"You can be sure of that" - Squall said with restraint.

"I hope you had a good time" - Jupiter decided to change the subject for now, turning to Morrigan and Lucas.

"Oh, yes, that's not the word! Morrigan smuggled me into Sub-Nine. That's just Sofia caught us, but she promised not to give us away to anyone, and I believe her, so we don't have to worry" - Lucas waved his hand. - "I also promised Morrigan I'd come up with something about those weird bracelets, but it's going to take me a while, so you'll have to wait a little" - he explained.

"Did you tell him everything?" - Squall looked questioningly at Morrigan, raising his right eyebrow.

"Well, I thought that extra help wouldn't hurt" - Morrigan smiled awkwardly, glancing sideways at Lucas.

Squall grunted, taking another look at the two of them. Then he grinned, as if he had learned something that was hidden from the others. Morrigan looked at Jupiter, who was looking at them in the same way as Squall.

Morrigan crossed her arms over her chest, unhappy with the way they were looking at them.

"So what are we going to do with the Maud bloodline?" - Morrigan asked the obvious question.

"You know, Miss Crow, I think you're right about Maud being Goldberry's daughter. But that still doesn't explain her hatred of the Wundersmiths. On the contrary, it is even more puzzling. After all, her mother was a Wundersmith. At the very beginning, I thought that Maud was just hungry for power, but then she would have to destroy any contender for power. And first of all all the Wundersmiths, which she didn't do. She could have safely used Elodie to get rid of me, and then Maud would have gotten rid of Elodie, but she didn't. She preferred to keep us under her control, she liked to feel superior to us, liked that she could push us around. Nothing gave her such pleasure as this" - Squall's voice trembled with barely restrained anger. - "We may have found out who her mother is, but we haven't found out what's behind her motives".

"Hatred of the Wundersmiths. You said it by yourself, didn't you?" - Lucas said.

"Where do you think this hatred came from? This is a pretty strong feeling that cannot arise out of the blue. There must be something behind it, something we don't know yet. But we will find out soon, I have no doubt about it".

Lucas had nothing to say to that.

"I think we should go. It's very late" - Evelyn looked at her watch.

"I'll see what I can do with those bracelets" - Lucas said to Morrigan.

"Okay, thanks" - she nodded.

When the Brennan family left, Squall looked at Morrigan.

"Is he an inventor?"

"I tend to believe him when he says that he understands the mechanisms and all these fancy things. We'll wait and see" - Morrigan shrugged.

"If he finds a way to get rid of these stupid bracelets, I will be immensely grateful to him" - Squall said thoughtfully. He didn't even seem to notice that he said it out loud.

"Wow, it's quite unexpected to hear such words from you" - Morrigan raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not as insensitive as you think, Miss Crow" - Squall said in a somewhat offended tone.

"Do you know anything about the investigation?" - Morrigan asked Jupiter, who returned to them after seeing off the guests. She, of course, guessed how things were, but still…

"Arthur and Evelyn came about this. The Elders require your, I mean yours, Morrigan, and Mr. Squall, presence in Parliament. Specific information is still unknown, but I think it's obvious" - Jupiter said gloomily. - "Their investigation has reached a dead end as expected, and you are the only suspects. I guess they didn't really consider other candidates".

"Who would doubt it" - Squall grimaced. - "It's time to end this".

This time, Morrigan agreed with him.

"I still hope for their prudence" - Jupiter remarked.

"I haven't hoped for anything for a long time, Captain North" - with these words, Squall turned around and left.

Chapter Text

The Parliament was full of people whose voices blended into a cacophony of sounds that filled the entire building and could be heard even on the street.

Morrigan shrugged and shivered as a cool breeze ruffled her hair slightly. She buttoned up her black jean jacket and shoved her hands in her pockets. The day was cold and overcast. Clouds in the sky foreshadowed rain, which could start at any second. Even the weather seemed to feel the oppressive atmosphere engulfing the city and, in particular, the Parliament building.

Jupiter gently put his hands on Morrigan's shoulders and squeezed them slightly, mentally supporting her. The presence of Jupiter gave Morrigan more confidence and helped to calm down a little, although the tension could not completely leave the girl.

Morrigan looked at Squall, who was staring at the building in front of them, as if wanting to burn it to the ground. Morrigan wouldn't be surprised if he did.

"I guess there's no point in standing outside. The sooner we start, the sooner we'll get it over with" - Squall walked confidently to the entrance.

"How does he manage to maintain his composure so skillfully?" - Morrigan said aloud.

"You know, during the time that I have known him personally, I realized that Squall is a strong person, despite all the nuances. The conditions in which he had been living in the Republic for a hundred years can harden anyone. He masterfully learned to hide his emotions and feelings. Even for me, as a Witness, it is extremely difficult to read him" - Jupiter shook his head. - "But even Squall sometimes has glimpses of his true feelings, I see it much more clearly than others. But then it disappears as quickly as it appeared. He hides them again behind a mask of indifference or calmness. It is a really valuable skill to hide your emotions from other people so that they cannot understand a person and cause them pain, harm. But it's useful only when you don't abuse it. The more often you hide, the more familiar it becomes for you, and one day you don't realize that it has become your usual state. And you begin to hide your feelings from all people, even from your loved ones. You start to seem indifferent to everything. So, believe me, sometimes it's worth losing your temper. After all, these are your feelings, and sometimes they need to be given free rein so that you feel better and don't break down. After all, we're all just people, Mog" - Jupiter smiled sadly at her.

Morrigan thought about it, fixing her gaze on Squall, who was looking expectantly in their direction.

"It's impossible to live like this" - Morrigan whispered.

"So, in fact, he does not live" - Jupiter sighed. - "He just exists".

Morrigan said nothing, lost in her own thoughts. After a few seconds, they walked towards Squall. They had a long day ahead.

———————————————————————

When they entered the Parliament building, the noise hit their ears sharply. Morrigan fought the urge to cover her ears with her hands.

"Why are there so many people here?" - Morrigan looked around the room with wide-open eyes.

"Does that surprise you, Miss Crow? Didn't you encounter so many people during your father's official meetings? Even if it was a rare case" - Squall said without even looking at the girl.

No, she wasn't surprised. It just gave her a certain discomfort. Morrigan didn't want so many people staring at her and asking endless questions. The very thought of it terrified her.

"Morrigan" - Squall said a little wearily. - "You don't have to listen to every word spoken by this or that person. Try to filter people's speech, losing sight of everything unnecessary and unpleasant thrown in your direction, and isolating only what you consider necessary. It helps to stay calm and concentrated enough".

Morrigan didn't know what surprised her more: the fact that Squall addressed her by her name, or the fact that he gave her advice that could well be useful to her, and he said all this calmly, without irritation or anger.

"Well, thank you" - was the only thing that came to her mind as an answer.

"Elders, Guiscard Silverback, Queen Caledonia..." - Jupiter enumerated, taking turns looking for people in the hall.

Morrigan heard familiar names. Some of these people signed her safeguard pact, which allowed her to join the Wundrous Society. Although she had no idea what it meant and why it was needed. And something told her that she was unlikely to like the answer to this question.

All three sat down in the empty seats. The voices in the hall became quieter. Someone started just whispering, occasionally glancing at the three of them, someone just fell silent, looking apprehensively at the two Wundersmiths, someone tried to move away from them, as if they were contagious or insane. Morrigan thought that these people might well think so. From this thought, a smile appeared on her face, for some reason it made her laugh.

The corner of Squall's mouth was also raised in a half-smile. He seemed as amused by the situation as Morrigan.

"I wonder what would have happened to them if you had used wunder for anything?" - Jupiter said conspiratorially, watching the changes taking place in the hall due to their arrival.

"Captain North, do you want them to have a stroke?" - Squall asked in a joking manner.

All three of them smiled.

"Something tells me one of your sudden movements is enough to make them run away" - Morrigan snorted.

"Don't exaggerate, I'm not that scary" - Squall grimaced.

"Um, I'm afraid you are" - she pursed her lips, pointing with a nod of her head in the direction of the people backing away from them. Most of them looked with horror at the old Wundersmith.

Morrigan had already regretted her words. Squall's gaze became as cold as ice again. There was no trace of the former cheerful disposition of the spirit.

It took at least another half hour before everyone took their seats and the Elders, Guiscard Silverback, Queen Caledonia II appeared in the center of the hall. Everyone looked tense and collected.

"We welcome everyone in this hall!" - Gregoria Quinn began her speech. - "A sad event induced us all to gather here. A week ago, the Prime Minister of the Free State, Gideon Steed, was murdered in Wintersea Republic under mysterious circumstances during a political trip. This news shocked us to the core. No one imagined that this trip would turn into such a tragedy. Unfortunately, we have to inform you that the investigation has not yielded any results. The identity of the murderer remains a complete mystery to us, covered in darkness" - at these words, Morrigan directly felt the eyes fixed on them, but no one said a word. The elder didn't seem to attach any importance to this, continuing her speech as if nothing had happened. - "But be sure that justice will be done and in the end the culprit will be caught and brought to a fair trial".

After finishing speaking, Elder Quinn gave up her place to Queen Caledonia. She was tall and majestic. Her golden hair was gathered into a high hairstyle, which was topped with a silver tiara. The train of her dress reached to the floor. The dress itself was black with long sleeves that ended almost below the queen's knees. The shoulders were decorated with silver patterns in the form of flowers and leaves. The dress looked exquisite and corresponded to the woman's title, but also corresponded to the mourning declared in the State in connection with the tragedy.

"I, like everyone else, fully support the words uttered by Elder Quinn, and I assure you that the culprit will be punished by all means" - the queen paused and looked away for a moment, but immediately turned her gaze back to the audience. - "As already mentioned, the crime was committed on the territory of a neighboring, enemy state during a political trip regarding the declared war against us by the Republic. In connection with recent events, I must admit, the sudden change of plans on the part of the President Wintersea came as a complete surprise to us" - at these words, Morrigan felt Squall and Jupiter tense up at the same time. - "Despite all the disagreements, she offered a help as a cooperation with us in the investigation of the murder of Gideon Steed, explaining this with her sense of guilt due to insufficient provision of security measures. Therefore, after long discussions, we have come to an agreement that we will accept help from the President and allow her to set foot on the territory of our State".

"This is the most delusional and reckless idea that could have come to your mind" - Squall said sharply. His voice sounded loud enough to be heard by the assembled people, and especially those who stood in the very center. - "You're looking for a murderer, but you don't seem to realize that you're going to work side by side with her!"

"Mr. Squall, you are the last person who has the right to accuse anyone of murder" - the Queen said in an even voice, although there was a barely noticeable irritation mixed with a slight anger in her eyes. - "Especially if these accusations are not confirmed by anything. If you think that we will immediately believe your words… You do realize that you are not someone we would trust, knowing what you are capable of, given your past? No matter how straightforward my statements to you are now, Mr. Squall, they are more than true. And you can't deny what you've done. Even if you are being reasonable now and trying to help, as you say, but this will not erase the terrible things that you have done in the past. Don't think we've forgotten, Mr. Squall. We still haven't decided what to do with you, but I think at the moment it can be left for later. It all depends on you. After all, you are the prime suspect in the crime committed. We don't write off Miss Crow either".

Jupiter clenched his jaw.

"Watch your words, Your Majesty! Morrigan is just a child. She wouldn't hurt anyone".

"I think we'll leave this topic for later" - Elder Quinn joined in their skirmish. - "And now back to more pressing matters".

Morrigan grabbed Jupiter's hand, as if to say that everything was fine, and asking him to calm down. He had to give in.

Squall at this time clenched his fists on his knees, drilling the Queen with a withering look. But after a moment he smiled.

"Well, I still think it's up to you now, Your Majesty. You can't even imagine what awaits you if you continue in the same spirit".

"Are you threatening us, Mr. Squall?!" - Guiscard Silverback exclaimed indignantly.

"Oh no, come on! This time the threat is not coming from me" - Squall grinned, not taking his eyes off them.

"Are you sure it was a good idea to talk to them like that?" - Morrigan whispered.

"I would talk to them differently if you were older" - Squall replied.

Morrigan snorted, but didn't respond to that.

"Mr. Squall, you're asking for..." - Elder Saga said.

"May I interfere?" - a voice came from the far wall.

Morrigan didn't even need to look in that direction to figure out who the voice belonged to.

"Madam President, we apologize for this misunderstanding..." - the Queen began.

"Oh, never mind" - Maud casually waved her hand. - "Mr. Squall can be too hot-tempered at times, but it passes quickly. After a long time of acquaintance with him, I'm already used to it" - she gave Squall a mocking look, which was met with his withering. Maud turned to the assembled people and smiled. - "Now I suppose I should introduce myself. I am the President of the Wintersea Republic Maud Lowry. The news of the death of the Prime Minister extremely upset me and shocked me. Such a crime is cruel and unforgivable, and I certainly want to help you catch the murderer and make them pay what they deserve..."

Morrigan couldn't bear to look at it. She couldn't watch the President talk so brazenly about justice that would never happen. The girl could not believe that everyone so readily believed her, as if the Republic had never been an enemy State. Morrigan thought it couldn't be that simple.

"She's got them in her hands" - Jupiter said softly. - "At least the Queen, Elders Saga and Wong".

Morrigan shuddered.

"And Elder Quinn and Senator Silverback?"

"I wouldn't say for sure" - Jupiter said a little uncertainly. - "Most likely, she was able to influence their minds not as much as the other three. But I may be wrong".

"Maud has thought everything through to the smallest detail" - Morrigan said bitterly.

"I believe that Jupiter is right, and she did not completely subdue the two of them. We have to give them their due, they have a pretty strong willpower" - Squall nodded. Elder Quinn and Senator Silverback didn't seem particularly interested in the President's speech, their faces didn't express anything. - "Things are getting a lot more complicated now".

———————————————————————

When everything came to an end, Squall decided to catch the moment when the President would be left alone. He had to wait a considerable amount of time, but he was not going to back down.

"What the hell are you up to?" - Squall growled, approaching the President almost closely.

They were alone in some room specially allocated for Maud.

Maud laughed.

"Oh, Ezra, do you really think you can get everything out of me just like that?"

"Stop playing these mind games. And literally" - Squall slightly squinted his eyes. - "Why such an obsession with power, Miss Lowry? Was that how your mother raised you?"

In one second, Maud's face was distorted in an angry grimace.

"It's none of your business, Mr. Squall" - she said through gritted teeth. - "It's not for you to talk about my mother when you didn't really have good parents yourself".

Squall tried to look calm, despite the fact that these words echoed in his heart with pain at the memory of his parents. He tried to ignore it. He thought that sooner or later it would pass, but apparently some things cannot be erased from memory.

"Well, that's life" - Squall was glad that his voice sounded even, although in fact he felt completely different. And he took considerable pleasure in the fact that he was able to hurt her.

"Mr. Squall, I'll be honest with you. So to speak, so as not to waste time" - Maud came almost close to Squall. - "You still didn't realize that I already have you in my hands? You have nowhere to go. It was time to stop the power of these greedy and self-satisfied people long ago," she looked attentively at Wundersmith, tilting her head to the side. - "You don't have much love for the Wundrous Society yourself, so I don't understand your desire to help them stop me".

Squall's face remained impassive.

Maud sighed.

"Do you realize that your freedom is now in my hands, as is the freedom of the Morrigan? One word and one action from me and you will be charged with murder. And you know I can do that. Then there's Elodie. You haven't forgotten about her, have you? You don't want anyone else to get hurt, do you? Because of you" - Maud smiled after seeing some hesitation from Squall.

"You're right when you say that I hate the Wundrous Society" - Squall said after a pause. - "But that doesn't mean that I would like to see these people behind bars in a dungeon or dead, unlike you. You're going to destroy them. You're going to destroy Nevermoor".

"Don't exaggerate" - Maud rolled her eyes. - "I'm not going to destroy the city, although I still plan to change something. For example, to dismiss the entire ruling elite, get rid of the Wundrous Acts and all the books that contain any mention of the Wundersmiths. It was high time to do it".

"You wouldn't dare" - Squall whispered. Although he knew in his heart that she was more than capable of it.

"Do you really think so?" - Maud looked at him with a challenge. - "Ezra, stop fooling around. You're a lot smarter than you're showing right now. I suggest you become my ally. This will simplify many things" - she approached the man again. - "You will be free again. No one will remind you of your past at every opportunity. And most importantly..." - Maud came even closer and whispered. - "You'll get Elodie".

Ezra blinked slowly, thinking about what Maud had just said. It sounded tempting, but despite this, Ezra already knew the answer initially. He no longer wanted to be a toy in the hands of Maud. He didn't want to let her control his every move anymore. Elodie wouldn't want that either. If Ezra had agreed to Maud's suggestion, how would he have looked Elodie in the eye after that. He swore to himself that he wouldn't let her down again. Besides, there was still a chance that that boy would find a way to get rid of those ill-fated bracelets, so no. His answer was no.

Maud seemed to see in his face the silent answer that Ezra was just about to utter.

"So this is...?"

"No" - he said firmly. - "I don't make the same mistake again".

Maud shook her head in disappointment.

"Well, Ezra, you had your chance" - she turned to the window, clasping her hands behind her back.

"See you later, Madam President" - Ezra turned on his heel and left the room.

———————————————————————

When Jupiter and Morrigan came out of Parliament, they came across a man whom Morrigan most of all did not want to see. Corvus Crow was moving towards them. The girl did not know what to expect from this meeting.

Jupiter put a protective arm around her shoulders.

Corvus Crow stopped in front of them, looking Morrigan up and down, as if he didn't believe that this was really his daughter.

"You're alive" - he said shortly.

Morrigan wanted to laugh at that statement.

"A good start to a conversation" - she said sarcastically. - "I suppose it's obvious that I'm quite alive. You could have said something more substantial".

"Don't talk to me like that, Morrigan. After all, you're my daughter. And you still are, since you're alive".

"Oh, really?" - she raised her eyebrow. - "In that case, I would like to clarify the situation. You, Mr. Crow, stopped being my father on my eleventh birthday, so I'm sorry, but we have to go" - with these words, Morrigan took Jupiter by the hand and led him, no longer going to waste a minute of her time on her "father".

"My eyes wouldn't have seen him" - Morrigan muttered irritably when they walked a decent distance away and went to the hotel. She was still holding Jupiter's hand without even realizing it.

"Mog, calm down" - Jupiter squeezed her hand. - "I understand that this meeting was difficult and painful for you, but you behaved with dignity and did not allow him to push you around" - he looked into her eyes. - "I have no doubt that he will make himself felt again, but don't worry, I will always be there and won't let you offend".

"Promise?"

"Promise".

———————————————————————

"You have such unusual bracelets!"

Elodie slowly turned towards the voice and saw a boy about 14-15 years old- as she assumed-who was looking at the bracelets on her hands with genuine curiosity. She automatically tried to hide them under the sleeves of her shirt. For a brief moment, it seemed to her that the boy sighed in disappointment, after which his light brown eyes turned to her.

"There is nothing unusual about them. Ordinary trinkets" - Elodie laughed a little, trying to look at ease.

"Admittedly, they are too faded and unremarkable for jewelry. The person who gave them to you clearly has a lame taste in choosing gifts" - the boy remarked.

"Uh... it's not really a gift… Are you all alone here? Where are your parents?" - she decided to change the subject to avoid further questions, which she was sure would have followed immediately.

"Nearby, but you're right. I really should go and find them. I don't want to make them worry" - he wanted to leave, but at the last moment turned around and added. - "It would be good for you to get rid of these bracelets. They look terrible, to be honest. Have a nice day!"

Elodie just blinked in response. "Strange boy" - she thought, still looking confused. She was a little worried about his interest in these bracelets. But she couldn't help but notice that his remarks about them were quite accurate and clear, and it even seemed to her that he knew what they really were.

Elodie shook her head, thinking it was an absurd idea. She saw Morrigan and Corvus talking near the entrance to the Parliament, after which the girl grabbed Jupiter by the hand and left, leaving her father behind.

A smile blossomed on Elodie's lips. She had never liked Corvus Crow, and it was nice to see someone knocking all the arrogance off him. But the smile faded as quickly as it appeared.

She had to get back before Maud did something again. As Elodie approached the building, she noticed Ezra coming out, who looked annoyed. It could be seen even from such a long distance. But other than that, she noticed that in addition to irritation, there was calmness and some satisfaction.

Elodie decided not to catch his eye, hiding herself in shadows. She needed to keep their meetings to a minimum. After watching Ezra go and waiting until he was out of sight, she removed the veil. Elodie stared in the direction he had gone for a while. Anxiety and panic were beginning to take hold of her. She was worried about Ezra. She had no doubt that he and Maud had had a conversation that clearly did not bode well.

Chapter Text

Day followed day. Morrigan stopped asking Jupiter about the progress of affairs. His answer was always the same: "Nothing new, Mog. They are marking time in one place. No wonder". Both of them tried not to talk about how really bad things were.

She only saw Squall in class. During this time, Morrigan has greatly succeeded in the Wundrous Art of Tempus. She learned to stop time, speed it up, slow it down, and no longer spent a lot of energy on it. It was almost as easy for her as controlling fire. Squall looked calm and restrained as always, but still in his movements and gaze there was sometimes a flicker of anxiety and some detachment. At such moments, it seemed that his thoughts were going far, far away, and it took some effort to bring him back to reality.

There was no news from Lucas either, and Morrigan gradually began to lose hope. She spent more time with Hawthorne and Cadence, who tried their best to distract her from bad thoughts. And sometimes she really managed to do it.

At the end of the second week, someone knocked on the door of room 85. Morrigan looked up from an old volume about the Wundersmiths of the past, which they "borrowed" from the Goblean Library.

"Come in!"

Lucas's tousled hair appeared in the doorway, he looked jubilant and a little excited.

"Hi!" - he quickly entered the room and closed the door behind him. - "I have news! While I really don't know if they will be useful and successful or not, but we won't know until we try" - he began to chatter, and Morrigan looked at him in bewilderment, not understanding what he was talking about. Although she didn't realize it, she held her breath, also feeling some excitement.

Seeing the girl’s puzzled look, Lucas took a breath and explained.

"In short, I closed myself in the workshop for almost two weeks and tried to find a way to remove those strange bracelets. Besides, after that meeting in Parliament, I was able to examine them from a fairly close distance. And it seems to me that... I found a way to get rid of them. I assumed that, most likely, this invention operates on the basis of Wunder, which feeds it and thereby supports its work. The one who wears them, of course, will not be able to do anything against them, especially if this someone is a Wundersmith, since partial recharge will come directly from it. It's a brilliant idea, I have to admit" - Lucas added as he paced the Morrigan’s room from side to side. - "So Maud didn't even have to give her Wunder much to keep these bracelets in good condition. It may also explain Miss Bauer's tired appearance and pallor. After all, in fact, they simply exhaust her, taking Wunder, but not to such an extent that she finally loses her strength, but enough so that she cannot resist. So that's what I'm saying all this to" - he looked at Morrigan with a burning look. - "These bracelets can be easily broken with the help of the same Wunder, but this effect should be external and quite powerful, but I think it should not be a problem for Wundersmith. Especially for Squall, I suppose".

"So you're saying that it's enough just to point the Wunder at these bracelets and they will break?" - Morrigan said.

"Yes, I believe that this will happen from excessive overload. They just might not be able to withstand such a large amount of Wunder. That's all. So to speak, one fire drives out another fire" - Lucas let out a light laugh. - "But that's just my guess. Will it work or not..." - he shrugged. - "I could have come to this sooner if I had thought about it first, and not gone straight to the workshop. I just wasted my time".

Morrigan wouldn't have been able to say what came over her later, but she jumped out of bed and rushed to hug Lucas, almost knocking him down. After a moment, Morrigan moved away from him as quickly as she hugged him, slightly embarrassed. Lucas looked just as embarrassed and flushed.

"It doesn't matter anymore!" - Morrigan tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. - "This is a great hypothesis! Now we need to check it out" - she rushed to the door. - "Something tells me that Squall will not need to be persuaded to participate in this for a long time".

—————————————————————————————

Squall was sitting on the roof of Deucalion, reading a book and sipping tea.

The silence was broken by the rumble of the door opening, and a couple of teenagers ran out onto the roof.

From surprise, Squall's hand trembled and some of the tea splashed onto his shirt, which made him wince. He looked irritably at the troublemakers, frowning. Morrigan noticed that he was wearing glasses, which made her stare at him curiously. Squall noticed her gaze, so he quickly took off his glasses and put them in his jacket pocket. Morrigan thought it wise to remain silent.

"You didn't choose the best place to play catch-up" - Squall put down his cup of tea and the book. - "What happened to you this time?" - he put his hands on the armrests and crossed his legs, trying not to pay attention to the brown stain on his white shirt. He would deal with that later.

"We have good news!"

Squall raised his eyebrows slightly. Well, such a beginning has already interested him.

Lucas tried to briefly recount his entire past monologue. Squall listened silently. His face was motionless, and only his eyes began to look more alive as he narrated. When the boy finished, there was silence.

A moment later, a smile played on Squall's face, which he tried to restrain, but was completely defeated in this.

"Well, Mr. Brennan, your conclusions are amazing. I must admit, I am amazed" - it was difficult to get praise from Squall, but when a person really succeeded in something, he did not lose sight of it and appreciated it. - "I think it can really work" - he was looking into the distance, slightly squinting. Morrigan assumed that he was already thinking about how he could cross paths with Elodie and so that she was alone. Which could be considered an almost impossible task. - "Consider me in your debt" - he looked at Lucas again, bowing his head, and then shifted his gaze to his wristwatch. - "And you, Miss Crow, I'll be waiting for you here on the roof in ten minutes for the next lesson" - he got up from his chair and walked past the guys. - "Now I understand why you liked the boy so much" - he said so softly that only Morrigan could hear, and grinned, seeing her flushed face out of the corner of his eye.

Morrigan wanted to kill him.

—————————————————————————————

Elodie still managed to get Maud to leave her alone for a while, giving her a chance to retire and rest a little. The only thing that bothered her was that she managed to achieve it so easily. It didn't even take much effort for her to do it.

Elodie could have sworn she'd been feeling tired most of the time lately. Whether she was resting or not. It didn't matter.

Now she was sitting on a park bench, looking at the pond in front of her, where two white swans were swimming. It brought her some peace, which she had not experienced for a very long time. Elodie closed her eyes and tilted her head back, breathing in the fresh summer air.

She and Ezra used to spend time here often, walking along the paths and admiring the scenery when everything was still fine. Almost nothing has changed here. To Elodie, that time seemed extremely distant and as if from another life.

After a while, Elodie felt someone sit down next to her on the bench. She opened her eyes a little, she didn't need company. She wanted to be alone at that moment.

Opening her eyes, she saw a man sitting next to her and leaning his elbow on the back of the bench. This person turned out to be Ezra, who calmly looked at her as if it was a normal meeting, as before. Elodie tensed inwardly and studied him carefully. She caught his sly look, which she knew very well and which she had not seen for, as it seemed to her, centuries (perhaps it was). She smiled at the thought. The fear was there, but it was always there. And this look from Ezra slightly puzzled and interested her. He looked like that when he was plotting something.

"Ezra, if you don't tell me what's on your mind right now, I swear I'll warm your ears" - this joking tone made her feel like the same when she was free.

Ezra snorted, the smile still on his lips.

"Will you let me?" - he nodded at her hands. Elodie hesitated, which did not escape Ezra's eyes. - "Don't worry, I won't hurt you".

Elodie stared at him in amazement and shook her head.

"You know that's not the point..."

"Then let me, please" - his gaze was serious. But Ezra was always serious. Elodie was attracted more by his impatience and excitement. - "Trust me".

Elodie pursed her lips. But she still held out her hands. She trusted him.

Ezra gently wrapped his arms around her wrists, where the bracelets were, and closed his eyes, humming a melody to himself. Elodie didn't even have to listen to the words to understand that he was calling Wunder. She knew this song very well.

She saw Wunder gathering around them and heading towards her bracelets. It was beginning to bother her, but she tried to sit still.

"What...?" - Elodie looked at Ezra, then at the bracelets in confusion.

Ezra sat frowning and concentrating, not paying attention to anything. He was whispering something to himself. Elodie couldn't make out the words, no matter how hard she strained her hearing.

Wunder kept going and going around the bracelets. Ezra's breathing quickened, but he didn't stop. A moment later, a bright flash made her close her eyes. When Elodie looked back at where the bracelets should have been, her wrists were bare. The bracelets were gone. She shook her head and looked at her wrists again in disbelief.

"That's a lot better, don't you think?"

Elodie looked up at Ezra, who was leaning back on the bench, exhausted but smiling. She just stared at him, not knowing if it was a dream or not. She shook her head again, putting her thoughts in order.

"I... I don't know how you did it, but..." - Elodie sighed, unable to find the right words. She was overcome with emotions. She was ready to throw her arms around Ezra, but now was not the right moment. - "You need to lie down. You look terrible" - she took his hand, as cold as she remembered.

"I'll get over it somehow. Besides, you don't look any better" - he teased, but allowed her to lift him up. Elodie rolled her eyes and flicked his nose.

"Maud..." - Elodie began. The thought haunted her.

"I don’t care about her" - Ezra said harshly. - "She won't lay a finger on you again, I promise" - his voice softened.

Elodie just smiled out of the corner of her lips, although her anxiety didn't go away. But she didn't want to burden Ezra any more at the moment. It seemed to her that if she did not hold him, he would simply fall out of the blue.

"Now let's take you to the hotel".

"That would be just wonderful".

—————————————————————————————

"What happened to him?" - Morrigan tried not to show her excessive surprise at the sight of Elodie entering the doors of Deucalion and dragging Squall, who could barely stand on his feet. She thought that now was not the time to ask questions.

Besides, they didn't want to attract too much attention of the guests. So Morrigan and Martha helped Elodie drag Squall to his room and put him to bed.

"We should tell Jupiter" - Morrigan suggested. Elodie could only nod.

When there was a knock on the door and Morrigan's voice was heard, Jupiter put down his pen and prepared to receive the latest news. And something told him that something exciting was waiting for him.

This exciting thing literally rose to the shocking level in a second when he saw Elodie Bauer coming in after Morrigan.

"Uh, Jupiter, here's something..." - Morrigan nervously looked from Elodie to Jupiter and back again.

"I think I should explain myself" - Elodie put her hand on the girl's shoulder, asking her to give up the floor to her. - "Captain North, I must admit I myself don't quite understand yet, or rather I don't realize how Ezra managed to remove these bracelets from me" - she showed her wrists. - "But the fact remains. He succeeded. The only thing that bothers me right now is Maud" - Elodie grimaced. - "She'll be furious. It's scary to imagine what else she will do. For all my time with her, I realized how merciless and cruel she is. She will stop at nothing to achieve her goal. Whatever it is. I dare say it has something to do with her past..."

"Did you know that she is the daughter of Gracious Goldberry?" - Morrigan asked.

Elodie looked at her carefully and smiled a little.

"Yes, I assumed" - she nodded. - "But I had no confidence, as well as evidence. And at the moment, I'm not even sure that I should stay here at the hotel for even one more minute. I wouldn't want Maud to come here and cause a lot of problems" - she sighed. Admittedly, Elodie felt drained, she needed a rest. But, frankly, she was afraid to afford it now.

Jupiter noticed it right away, even when she first entered his office. He even wondered how she could still stand on her feet.

"Nonsense! You will stay here and don't even think about arguing. You've been through a lot. You need to rest, Miss Bauer. I'll ask Martha to prepare a room for you" - Jupiter suggested.

"I'll help" - Morrigan volunteered.

"Well, that would be just wonderful. Thank you" - Elodie smiled gratefully. - "And you can call me just Elodie. Miss Bauer sounds too formal".

The room that Martha and Morrigan had prepared was just one door away from the girl's room.

"I hope you like the room, Miss..." - Martha said, smiling politely at the woman.

"I beg you, just call me Elodie".

Martha laughed a little when she saw the grimace on Wundersmith's face.

"Whatever you say, miss".

Elodie sighed in resignation.

"Okay, let's leave it for later" - she breathlessly looked around the room. - "The room looks just magnificent! I really like it!" - for a moment, sadness flashed in her eyes. - "It's been so long since I've been here".

It wasn't hard for Morrigan to guess what she was talking about, and she felt sympathy for Elodie. Martha looked at the woman a little confused, so Morrigan decided to tell her everything.

"Martha, Elodie and Squall created this hotel many years ago".

«Squall?" - Elodie frowned at Morrigan. - "Do you always address him by just his last name?"

"Well, in general, yes, to be honest" - the girl felt uncomfortable under the strict gaze of Wundersmith.

She was greatly helped by Martha's timely exclamation.

"So it was you who founded the Deucalion Hotel?!" - genuine admiration was reflected in Martha's eyes.

Elodie smiled sheepishly.

"Well, yes. But, unfortunately, we didn't manage to enjoy our creation for a long time".

"I'm really sorry" - Martha tried to support Elodie.

"Come on, it's okay. It can't be changed in any case, so we just have to accept it and move on" - Elodie smiled sadly. - "Besides, I am immensely glad that the hotel did not disappear and fell into worthy hands, thanks to which it continued to live and prosper".

"That's really true! Jupiter is a wonderful owner!" - Morrigan said proudly. Martha supported her.

"Well, I guess I should leave you. You really need a rest. Good night!" - with these words Martha left the room.

Morrigan and Elodie also wished her a good night.

"You know, Morrigan, I still haven't been able to tell you this before, but you look a lot like your mother" - Elodie said after a few moments. These words sounded very quiet. Morrigan even thought she had misheard.

"Did you... did you know my mother?" - Morrigan was at a loss.

Elodie pursed her lips. She already regretted her words.

"Let's leave it for tomorrow, if you don't mind" - Morrigan wanted to object, but Elodie stopped her. - "Now I see that it was rather rash of me to say that now. But please, it's late now and you should be in bed by now, too. I promise I'll tell you everything tomorrow".

Morrigan frowned, weighing the pros and cons. After a minute, she sighed.

"Good. But keep in mind that you will not get away from my questions tomorrow" - Morrigan warned.

"I don't even doubt it" - Elodie grinned and yawned. - "And now Good night!"

"Good night!"

—————————————————————————————

When Ezra opened his eyes the next morning, he didn't immediately realize where he was. The sun was shining through the window, which blinded his eyes.

When he got up in bed, he saw a figure adjusting the curtains.

"Elodie?" - his voice sounded uncertain, although he remembered the events of the previous day perfectly.

The woman turned at the sound of the voice and smiled gently. Ezra noticed that a slight blush appeared on her cheeks, which meant that she was gradually getting better. He breathed a sigh of relief.

"Good morning!" - Elodie looked at her watch. - "Well, more precisely, Good afternoon! It's almost 12:30 pm".

Ezra just stared at her, unable to utter a word. Just like she did yesterday.

Elodie sat down on a chair by the bed.

"I didn't thank you yesterday. I don't know what came over me. Thank you. I don't know how you did it, but it's a real miracle. In general, thank you again" - she felt awkward. For the first time, she couldn't find the words, although a lot of emotions were raging inside her.

Ezra felt the same way. Still, he risked taking her hand, which was warmer this time.

"I'm sorry it took so long. Incredibly long" - he whispered. - "Morrigan's new friend helped to find a solution".

Something clicked in Elodie's brain.

"Let me guess... a boy of 14-15 years old, with light brown eyes and tousled hair" - she laughed merrily, remembering that mysterious teenager at the Parliament who showed interest in her bracelets.

Ezra was pleased to hear her laugh again. This calmed him even more, and he leaned back on the pillows.

"From where?" - he smiled.

"After that meeting in Parliament, he came up to me and began to examine the bracelets, making various comments about them. To be honest, they all hit the nail on the head." - Elodie paused. - "Now it's your turn to talk about this idea, concerning the bracelets".

Ezra recounted Lucas's words verbatim.

"Well, something like that" - he summed up.

Elodie was also impressed.

"This boy is smart" - she remarked and shook her head. - "Maud won't leave it like that. I'm surprised she hasn't shown up yet. It's been a whole night already".

Ezra tightened his grip on Elodie's hand.

"I know. And I can't say I'm not worried. After all, that would be a lie. But I'm sure we'll manage it somehow. You'll see" - he tried to smile encouragingly. It turned out so-so.

Elodie stared at him intently and Ezra felt uneasy from that look. It often made him uncomfortable, because it felt like Elodie could see right through him.

"There's something bothering you besides Maud, isn't there?" - Elodie's question made Ezra wince.

He tried to come up with some convincing answer without revealing the truth, but realized that it would be useless. The only person Ezra Squall couldn't lie to was Elodie. And it was annoying sometimes.

Ezra sighed and pursed his lips.

"Probably..."

Now it was Elodie's turn to squeeze his hand.

"Ezra" - she said softly. - "Until you tell me what's going on in your head, I can't help you. Do you understand?"

"Maybe I don't want to share what's going on in my head" - his answer sounded rather harsh, and he tried to soften it. - "Not yet".

But the disappointment in Elodie's eyes did not escape him. Something prickled in his chest. He turned away so as not to meet her eyes.

"Well, I think I'll go. Lunch will be at 2:00 pm. I'm going to have a class with Morrigan today" - Elodie smiled tightly.

Ezra wanted to object, but she had already left the room.

—————————————————————————————

"Finally!" - Morrigan jumped up from her chair. - "Where have you been? Why is it taking so long?"

Elodie laughed softly. She liked the girl's enthusiasm.

"I should have gone to Ezra's" - Elodie replied evasively.

It was unusual for Morrigan to hear anyone address him by his first name. She tilted her head to the side.

"I guess the conversation didn't go well?"

Elodie looked at her pointedly, as if to say yes.

"Not that I'm surprised" - Elodie shrugged. - "It's been a long time. A lot has changed" - she tried to choose her words carefully.

"He needs time. Probably".

Morrigan didn't know what to say at such a moment.

"I think you're right" - Elodie nodded and sat down. - "I see you can't wait to get back to yesterday's conversation".

Morrigan was really impatient. She tossed and turned in bed all night, unable to close her eyes. She was able to fall asleep only in the morning and then for a short time.

"I don't even know where to start" - Elodie muttered. - "Odelle Crow. Before her marriage, her last name was Viotto. Personally, I've only seen your mother three or four times, no more. Once in a cafe, then at her house, then at an official reception. She was already married to your father then. I don't know what she saw in him, but it's not for me to judge. And the last time I saw Odelle was after you were born. During these meetings, she and I, if I may say so, became friends".

"What was she like?"

"You have her eyes" - Elodie looked at Morrigan and smiled. - "She was sociable, but only with those she trusted. She read a lot, once she showed me her private library. Oh, you should have seen it, Morrigan! She had a magnificent library with a wonderful collection of books! If I had my way, I would stay there forever! Also, your mom was confident, but at the same time a little clumsy, to be honest, especially considering her profession. Although I think it could even play into her hands. So she looked more natural..."

"Considering her profession? Who was she?"

"A spy" - Elodie said slowly.

"What?" - for Morrigan, this news came out of the blue. It discouraged her. She couldn't believe what she had just heard.

"Yes, a spy of Nevermoor. Don't look at me like that, Morrigan. It took me a while to figure it out. I only found out about it when I saw a book in her library that could not possibly be in the Republic. It didn't belong there. Although, admittedly, it didn't belong in Nevermoor either, according to people who wanted to get rid of any memories of the Wundersmiths. But I think you know what I mean".

"There was no way a book about the Wundersmiths could have ended up in the Republic, unless someone brought it from Nevermoor, because no one in the Republic knew who the Wundersmiths were".

"Exactly" - Elodie nodded. - "Apparently, your mom decided to show it to me intentionally, because I wouldn't say that the book was safely hidden. It would be very risky to keep it in a prominent place, so I assumed that she showed it to me on purpose. So it turned out that on that day Odelle told me who she was. But the most important thing that surprised me was that she didn't believe in these stories about Wundersmith. She didn't believe that the Wundersmiths were evil. Of course, she tried not to focus much on this in Nevermoor, so that it would not interfere with her career as a spy. Agree, she can be understood. At that time, Maud hadn't put those stupid bracelets on me yet and Ezra was under her hood, so her control over me wasn't so tight yet. Therefore, it was easier for me to communicate with other people without fear of bringing trouble on them. So I managed to keep your mother's secret, but..."

"But what?" - this phrase made Morrigan worried.

"But Maud somehow found out about it, but it happened after you were born. Literally about a few months after you were born. By that time, it was already clear that you were a Wundersmith. I immediately told Odelle about it. She was... scared".

Morrigan frowned at these words, her eyes tingling with tears.

"So she was afraid of me?" - Morrigan somehow managed to say.

"Oh, God, Morrigan, of course not!" - Elodie grabbed her arm. - "She wasn't afraid of you, but for you. She loved you more than you can imagine and tried to protect you".

"Really?" - Morrigan asked quietly.

"Really".

It warmed Morrigan's heart and soul. She often wondered if her mother loved her or not. Now, having received the answer, Morrigan felt... whole, or something.

"How did she die?" - Morrigan decided to move on to the most difficult part.

"A banal car accident. Maud even decided not to bother too much. Usually spies were captured and interrogated, but here she decided to give it up. Perhaps a special role could be played by the fact that she was the wife of a politician. It would be very problematic to arrest the wife of a politician, because it would be very likely to get into the newspapers. It would leave a dark mark on the reputation of the government. Which Maud could not allow in any way. Therefore, she chose a quieter and safer way. An accident".

Morrigan clenched her fists. Her eyes were blazing with anger. She cursed Maud, who had ruined everyone's life, including Morrigan herself. Morrigan tried to control her rage.

"How is Squall involved here? That is, Mr. Squall" - Morrigan immediately corrected herself when she saw Elodie's reproachful look. - "Why did he suddenly decide to take me as his apprentice?"

"I told him. More precisely, I just put him in front of the fact. I told him to take you as his apprentice when the time comes. I didn't tell him much about it. He himself had seen Odelle only once. Just the same at that official reception. You know, I always liked to attend various evenings in Nevermoor, but in the Republic it was a real torture. Everything was so boring and dull there. Everyone was so unfriendly and hypocritical. I suppose you should have noticed this during a recent trip to the Republic".

Yes, Morrigan noticed it perfectly. The differences from Nevermoor were very obvious and immediately caught the eye.

"So the only entertainment at these evenings was the expression on Ezra's face. Bored and mocking at the same time. He's not a party person at all. Prefers peace and quiet. But he dances great. Oh, we've left the main topic of conversation!"

Morrigan let out a laugh and smiled.

"I can't imagine you and Mr. Squall, well... in general, I can't imagine you together, to be honest. You are so different".

Elodie chuckled.

"You're not the first one to say that, but... to be honest, I don't care who says what" - Elodie smiled. - "You're right, we really are quite different, but we have a lot in common. For example, we both like to dance and listen to music, we like to read, look at the stars, although it sounds more like childish, but it's true. We prefer to walk rather than use any kind of transport".

"Also he is very secretive, reserved, taciturn and gloomy, and you are the complete opposite of him. You are sociable, open, cheerful and bright. You are lively, real" - Morrigan spoke sincerely.

Elodie smiled weakly.

"Believe me, he used to be different" - she said softly. - "That's the problem. He has changed and I do not know his new one at all. It's scary".

"Do you know what happened to the other 'cursed children'?" - Morrigan grimaced as she realized how bluntly she had asked her question.

Elodie paled, swallowing.

"Yes, I know" - she said in a barely audible voice. - "Maud quite clearly gave him an order that he must get rid of all children born in Eventide. When I asked him to let you live and take care of you, I knew how risky it was, but I gave my word to your mother that I would protect you and not let Maud murder you as well. You should have seen how angry Ezra was then… He tried his best to dissuade me from this venture, but he also knew that it was useless to argue with me, so he gave up. I knew perfectly well that he wanted to protect me, but still, I was angry at him too. We had a big fight then, but I got my way. He gave his word. And I believed him".

"Thank you. For telling me about my mom and essentially saving me" - Morrigan answered after a few minutes of silence. She was so grateful to Elodie that she couldn't quite put it into words.

"Come on, Morrigan, you don't have to thank me for that. I did what I thought was right and what was in my power" - Elodie smiled. - "You know, you're an amazing girl, Morrigan. I'm sure you have a bright future ahead of you".

"Thank you" - Morrigan said sheepishly and then added. - "Have you forgiven him?" - she studied Elodie's expression, but it remained unreadable. Morrigan decided to change the subject, she realized that she had crossed the line. - "Sorry, I shouldn't have… Can we start the lesson, otherwise lunch is coming soon?"

Elodie's face was visibly relieved. Relief that
she didn't have to answer the first question. Elodie was ashamed of it in her heart, but she tried to push the thoughts of it to the far corners of her head.

"Exactly! We really should get started!"

—————————————————————————————

"Elodie?" - Ezra was standing in the aisle, looking much better than he had in the morning. At least he was standing confidently on his feet.

After lunch, Elodie decided to go up to the roof of Deucalion. The food restored her strength after an hour-long lesson with Morrigan. But despite this, Elodie felt that she had not yet fully recovered. Sleep didn't completely help either, she had nightmares most of the night, from which she woke up in a cold sweat. Maybe she really shouldn't have held a class today and given herself a day off. But it was pointless to think about it now.

"Ezra? Did you want something?" - Elodie, of course, tried to make her voice sound casual, but she was still a little offended by Ezra, so there was a certain chill in it.

Ezra hesitated. He knew that tone, and it didn't bode well. He cleared his throat and spoke again.

"We still haven't finished our morning conversation".

"Really? It seemed to me that you put an end to it" - Elodie raised an eyebrow.

Ezra winced. Elodie's cold tone cut into his ears.

"Not really" - Ezra said slowly. - "I just wanted to postpone the conversation for... a while" - he tried to choose his words carefully. - "I wasn't ready for it" - he said in a barely audible voice. Elodie had to strain her ears to make out the last words.

Elodie stood up, crossing her arms over her chest and gazing intently at Ezra. She didn't want to put so much pressure on him, but she thought that in this case it would be the best solution, and perhaps the only chance to discuss all their problems.

"Are you ready now?"

Ezra didn't really feel ready, no matter how hard he tried to muster up the courage. But he wasn't going to avoid Elodie and put off this stupid conversation. It wasn't his style.

"If I wasn't, I wouldn't be standing here" - Ezra chuckled. - "Before we get started, I'd like to ask how the class went?" - as he spoke, he didn't take his eyes off Elodie, as if studying her. He understood that in fact he was just trying to postpone the conversation for a few more moments by asking this question.

"Everything went well. We have worked out several defense techniques. Just in case, you know. Morrigan is a very capable student" - Elodie thought that her answer sounded terse and dry, just like some kind of report.

"Defense? It's not like you. You never liked all these techniques, you always tried to avoid them, but you failed, unfortunately or fortunately" - Ezra said with a frown.

"It's a different time now. Anything can come in handy" - Elodie shrugged. - "Maybe these skills are really useful, and I was wrong about them".

Ezra stared at her in silence. Elodie knew he couldn't bring himself to talk about what was bothering him. This brought a slight smile to Elodie's lips. At least something hasn't changed after all these years.

"Didn't sleep well?"

Elodie had expected anything but this question. She instinctively reached for her hair, trying to cover the dark circles under her eyes. Of course, she did not succeed. Elodie was mentally glad that at least Morrigan hadn't noticed them. Although she may have noticed, but decided not to say anything.

"Something like that" - Elodie replied evasively. A lump rose in her throat. - "It's nothing. Just nightmares" - she tried to smile when she saw Ezra's worried look.

Ezra took a step toward her, and Elodie stepped back. It took Elodie a moment to realize what she had done. But it was too late. Ezra shuddered and stepped back, his lips pressed tightly together.

"I'm... sorry" - Elodie whispered, bowing her head.

Ezra grabbed her by the shoulders, quickly approaching her and forcing her to look at him. His eyes widened. He touched her cheeks, and Elodie was surprised to see that the tips of his fingers were slightly damp. She didn't even notice how she started crying. She was in a daze, not understanding what was going on. At that moment, something broke in her. Elodie no longer hid her tears, which flowed from her eyes again. The memories of the nightmares returned.

Ezra pressed her to him without hesitation, trying to comfort her. Not to say that he could do it well, but he tried very hard.

"Shh, it's okay, Elodie. It’ll be all good. You're safe. I'm here. It's okay" - he repeated it like a mantra, getting more and more nervous. He couldn't watch and hear Elodie crying. And deep down he was afraid that she would push him away now, but she didn't.

It took several minutes before Elodie calmed down. She kept shaking and couldn't do anything about it.

Ezra kissed the top of her head.

"I'm sorry, I'm... I'm really falling apart" - Elodie said, simultaneously letting out a laugh and a sob.

"I think you have every right to do that, considering what you've been through" - Ezra swallowed and added. - "Because of me".

He felt Elodie shake her head.

"It wasn't your fault. Where did you get such thoughts from? I'd say it's more my fault. In the end, I was used as a lever of pressure on you, although I tried to stop it..." - Elodie bit her lip, cursing herself for blurting out too much.

"Tried to stop it?" - Ezra took a step back and looked at her intently. - "What do you mean?" - his voice sounded wary.

Elodie shook her head vigorously.

"No, no, no, Ezra, I swear to you it was only once and it was unsuccessful! I swear I didn't make any more attempts! It never even occurred to me!"

She didn't need to be told what she had done. Ezra had already guessed. He took a deep breath, restraining his anger.

"You... you tried to take your own life" - he said dully.

Elodie said nothing. She's already said it all. Ezra pinched the bridge of his nose.

"God, why? Did you really think it would help?!" - Ezra raised his voice.

"I didn't want you to..."

"Didn’t want me what? Yes, I killed, I did it all! Everything you've heard from Maud, I've done! Yes, it depresses me and I hate myself for it! But you know, I wouldn't have done otherwise if it meant you'd be alive! I couldn't stand your death either!" - Ezra turned away.

"I... I know and I'm really sorry that I tried to do this. But it didn't work out for me, now it's in the past. I'm not going to take my own life anymore, now I understand how stupid it was on my part then" - Elodie put her arm around Ezra's shoulders and pressed her cheek against his back. - "See, I'm alive. Isn't it important?"

Elodie felt Ezra tremble.

"Ezra?"

He shook his head, stubbornly continuing to stand with his back to her.

"Look at me" - Elodie said softly and, seeing no reaction, repeated it more insistently. - "Look at me".

"That's enough" - Ezra said hoarsely. - "That's enough, Elodie. I can not… I shouldn't..."

Well, she asked politely, he didn't listen. Elodie spun him around to face her, taking him by the shoulders. There were trails of tears on Ezra's cheeks, which he was trying hard to wipe away with his hand. He was averting his eyes from Elodie. He didn't want her to see him like this. It broke Elodie's heart to see him so broken. She cupped his face in her hands, preventing him from turning away from her again. She gently stroked his cheek with her thumb, wiping away the tears.

"I know everything" - Elodie whispered. - "I know what you did. Maud... she let me in on all the details, for that matter" - she took a deep breath.

"And what do you think about it, Elodie? Aren't you afraid that I'll do something to you too?" - a predatory grin appeared on Ezra's face.

If Elodie didn't know him better, she would be scared, but this trick won't work with her. She raised an eyebrow, unimpressed.

"What do I think about it? I think you need to stop acting like a jerk and get some rest".

Ezra's face turned to stone, the grin disappeared from his face, as if it had never existed.

"I'm serious. Aren't you afraid to be near me? Aren't you ashamed?"

Ezra tensed inwardly, waiting for her answer.

Elodie frowned, she didn't like Ezra thinking that. She wanted to hug him again, but she knew she had to answer his question first.

"No. That's my answer" - Elodie replied without hesitation and looked him straight in the eye. - "I've never been afraid of you, I'm not afraid and I won't be afraid. Never. And why should I be ashamed to be around you? It's... it's stupid".

"Dear, kind Elodie" - Ezra laughed a little. The laughter came out mirthless. - "I'm a murderer, in case you forgot, a monster that scares everyone around. You should stay away from me".

Ezra didn't want that at all, but he couldn't drag Elodie down with him. No, he won't let that happen. Ezra tried to back away from Elodie.

"No way, Ezra" - Elodie's eyes flashed and she grabbed his wrists. - "Stop it. I won't let you do this to yourself. Don't let Maud get the better of you, don't let her break you. Please, Ezra, I know you".

"You don't know me. Not anymore. I'm a completely different person. The Ezra you knew died in Courage Square a hundred years ago" - it was true, but not completely.

"Yes, maybe it is" - Elodie was beginning to get angry at Ezra's stubbornness. - "But you don't even give me a chance to get to know you new! Do you think I don't understand what you're trying to do, Ezra? You're trying to push me away by making a decision for me! Who gave you such a right, pray tell? I don't need it! Do you understand? I am able to make my own decision and make a choice! And I choose to stay here with you! Is that clear?!" - she did not notice how she switched to screaming.

Ezra stood and stared at Elodie with wide eyes. She rarely raised her voice, but when she did, it was worth listening.

"Are you sure?" - as much as he wanted to hope, he was still afraid to believe.

"Yes" - Elodie answered firmly, without a second's hesitation.

Ezra allowed himself to relax a little and a small smile appeared on his lips. Elodie came closer.

"Everyone makes mistakes" - she looked at him. - "We've both done things. But we can fix it if we try. It's never too late to fix it" - she bit her lip. - "And stop calling yourself a killer and a monster. Leave it in the past. Just move on".

"It doesn't seem feasible" - Ezra said.

"Why is that? Everything is feasible. You just have to try" - Elodie said almost carelessly, adjusting the collar of Ezra's shirt. There was no trace of the previous anger.

Ezra let out a chuckle. Elodie's optimism knew no bounds. He wrapped his arms around Elodie's, pressing them to his chest.

"Your mood swings will drive me to my grave".

Elodie rolled her eyes.

"Okay, I take my words back. That really doesn’t look feasible" - she grinned.

Ezra laughed loudly and sincerely. For the first time in a long time. He hugged Elodie again, more confidently than before. She returned the hug.

"We have a lot to do" - Ezra sighed, already mentally preparing for the upcoming challenges.

"Yes, but let's enjoy peace and quiet at the moment, while there is such an opportunity. You need to rest... and so do I" - Elodie added, seeing Ezra's disapproving look.

"I’ll really try to fix it, Elodie. I promise. You'll see everything will fall into place" - he said.

"I believe you, Ezra" - she whispered, closing her eyes.

He nodded satisfactorily and closed his eyes, breathing in the fresh air and holding in his arms the woman he loved and vowed never to let go again.

Chapter Text

"Madam President, Miss Bauer has not appeared for a little over a day..."

"There is no need to worry about this. I don't need her anymore" - Maud casually waved her hand. - "I got everything I needed from her".

Corvus Crow looked puzzled.

"I'm sorry, but is it appropriate to let her disappear out of the blue and not know her location? After all, we are in a foreign state, which has never been an ally of the Republic".

The President looked at him intently. Her eyes were cold as ice and instilled fear, which pinned the interlocutor to the spot and did not allow him to move.

"Mr. Crow, I don't think you have the right to tell me what is appropriate and what is not, but your question is quite the place to be. So I'll answer it: at the moment, Ms. Bauer poses no threat, and it's perfectly safe to let her do whatever she likes. I don't care about her anymore, but in the future, of course, she may also be useful. Who knows. But in general, she's of no use to me anymore" - Maud turned her gaze back to the papers she was holding in her hands. - "You're dismissed, Mr. Crow. If I need anything, I'll call you. And now go" - she said, without taking her eyes off the paper.

"As you say, ma'am" - Corvus said humbly, bowing his head and left the office.

Only when the door closed behind him, Maud put down the sheets of paper and looked thoughtfully at the wall, grinning.

"It will be over soon" - she muttered, her eyes flashing unkindly.

————————————————————————

"Morrigan, don't wave your hands so hard. Apart from your concentration and understanding what is required of you, nothing will help you" - Elodie winced slightly, watching the girl's clumsy movements.

Morrigan dropped her hands and groaned.

"This is some kind of mockery".

Elodie let out a laugh.

"Oh, this is just the beginning" - she looked at Morrigan thoughtfully. - "Well, you're much better at defending than attacking".

"I don't even know if it's good or bad" - Morrigan grumbled.

"Of course it's good. Something is better than nothing at all. But you need to strive for more, so keep going".

Elodie laughed at the pained expression on Morrigan's face.

"What's the fun about?" - Ezra's voice came from the door, who was leaning against the wall.

"Oh, just Morrigan's facial expressions are hilarious" - Elodie said after laughing. - "You're gloomy today" - she tilted her head to the side, seeing the expression on Ezra's face.

"Are you surprised?" - Morrigan muttered under her breath, for which she received two angry glances in her direction.

"Morrigan, I think that's enough for today. You can go" - Elodie said, smiling slightly. The smile came out a little forced.

Morrigan frowned at the abrupt change of plans, but didn't argue. These two had a lot to figure out. So Morrigan left the room without another word.

When the door closed behind the girl, Elodie looked seriously at Ezra, who was looking after the departing Morrigan with a bored look.

"As far as I've noticed, the attack is clearly not her strong suit".

Elodie rolled her eyes.

"But she's good at Inferno. What can't be said about you at her age" - the corner of her mouth lifted in a smile. - "She didn't burn everything around, after all".

Ezra frowned.

"It was only once and it's not necessary for her or anyone else to know about it" - he didn't like it when his failures were mentioned, but he could forgive Elodie for this taunt. After all, her tone was more joking than mocking.

"Oh, don't worry. You know I can be silent. When necessary" - she hastily added, seeing Ezra's meaningful look. Sometimes she could chatter incessantly.

"You still don't look well" - Ezra remarked, still eyeing Elodie. There was concern in his voice.

"Thanks a lot, Ezra. I've always dreamed of hearing that my appearance leaves much to be desired" - Elodie snorted.

Ezra laughed merrily for the first time.

Elodie smiled back. She was pleased that she was able to make him laugh. But then she sighed.

"You could use a rest too. You look extremely tense and nervous. Not to mention your bad mood" - she grimaced.

He stopped laughing.

"I'm in a normal mood..." - Ezra growled, but immediately cut himself off and sighed, closing his eyes. - "Well, maybe not really, but now is definitely not the time to relax. Maud won't stop herself" - he grumbled.

Elodie stared at him speechlessly for a while. She bit her lip and turned to the window.

"Yes, maybe you're right" - Elodie said thoughtfully. She didn't hear Ezra move away from the wall, and a second later he was standing behind her, lightly putting his arm around her shoulders and resting his head on top of hers. - "I'm sorry, it was stupid of me to talk about rest at such a time".

She really felt a little detached, insecure. It was as if she was still at the mercy of Maud. Most likely, the prolonged influence of Maud affected her mental health. Elodie prayed that everything would get back on track, and she would feel like her old self again, feel like herself. She didn't want to think about the fact that the probability of this was minimal.

"Elodie, you're anything but stupid. I shouldn't have reacted like that. I just… I'm already out of the habit of having someone worry about me" - Ezra said quietly. He's been taking care of himself for the last hundred years. Nobody cared about him at all. Although, to be honest, he himself was not burning with any desire to let anyone near him. He just built walls around himself that saved him throughout all these years away from home. - "And it's a forgotten feeling. Besides, over these hundred years, I can't say that I've spent so much time with anyone, except for people with whom I've had business. So you'll have to be patient with me".

"Oh, God! You didn't have any friends at all? Of course, I understand that you are not one of the most sociable people in the world, but it is impossible to live a hundred years alone! It can just drive anyone crazy!" - Elodie abruptly turned in his arms and looked at him with disbelief.

Ezra met her gaze calmly. Her blue eyes scanned him for any hint that this was some kind of bad joke. But, of course, it wasn't a joke. And then fear appeared in her eyes. Ezra hated himself for making her worry again.

"Calm down, it's not as terrible as you think" - Ezra tried to comfort her, although deep down he was well aware that she was right. Loneliness could drive him crazy, and sometimes it seemed to him that he was really not himself, but it was only a fleeting obsession. - "I got used to it over time, so it didn't seem like a problem to me. Frankly, I didn't even notice my loneliness. It has become something of a routine for me" - he shrugged.

"It doesn't make me feel any better" - Elodie rubbed her forehead with her hand. - "I just… This… It is difficult for me to imagine a life in which a person prefers to isolate himself from everything and everyone. This is..." - she shivered. - "It's frightening, terrifying".

"Well, I can be terrifying" - Ezra smiled awkwardly.

"That's not what I meant" - Elodie blinked. - "I'm just worried about you, no matter how hard you try to calm me down".

"I know and I'm grateful to you for that, but I'd still rather you put it out of your mind".

Elodie wanted to roll her eyes, but restrained herself. He always preferred not to talk about his problems and worries, but nothing. She'll teach him.

"Well, it can't be changed, but I won't let you continue. I don't want you to go through everything alone. Believe me, it's not that hard to trust others".

These words filled Ezra's chest with warmth. He knew it wouldn't be easy, but he was willing to try. He needed to learn to trust people again, to learn to live again. The next question caught him off guard.

"Um, I'm sorry if my question seems too tactless, but your scar... is it left after that day?" - Elodie gently touched the scar on Ezra's face.

Ezra abruptly grabbed her outstretched hand, slightly pulling it away from his face.

"I'm sorry! Did I hurt you? I didn't mean to! I..." - Elodie jerked in fright.

Ezra shook his head weakly.

"No, it was just unexpected" - he said hoarsely. - "But, yes, you're right, I got really hurt that day".

Something in Ezra's tone told Elodie that this scar wasn't the only one, but she decided not to go that far yet. She didn't want to ruin everything. She would let him tell her everything himself when he wanted to.

Elodie leaned forward and gave his scar a quick kiss. Ezra flinched at the gesture. He didn't know what to do or what to say.

"Now let's go for a walk" - Elodie took his hand and led him to the door. Ezra had to obey implicitly.

————————————————————————

"I wanted to ask" - Ezra decided to break the silence. Elodie looked at him, waiting for him to continue. - "Why did you have to let Morrigan live? Not to say that I was against it, I just would like to know the reason" - he quickly added. He didn't want her to misunderstand him.

Elodie was silent, looking into the distance, and trying to find words.

"You remember Morrigan's mother, right?"

"I saw her once" - Ezra tried to remember. He really only saw her once at some reception. Then he did not attach much importance to her. - "But what does she have to do with it?"

Elodie didn't say a word, as if she wasn't sure what to tell him about something.

"Well..." - she stretched out and began to wring her fingers, which clearly indicated her excitement.

Ezra arched an eyebrow expectantly.

"In general, I know how you don't like to talk about your family. I really know, but I confess I couldn't resist looking for some information about them a little bit" - Ezra didn't like the beginning. - "It was because of your hostility towards your family that I decided to do it all in secret. So I was able to find out a lot".

Elodie paused.

"Elodie..." - Ezra pressed, urging her to continue.

"Odelle Viotto, she is, whether you know it or not, from Nevermoor. And besides, some similarities caught the eye, despite the fact that many years had passed and many generations had changed, not to mention the fact that new connections appeared, with other families and generic characteristics could change. Genetics and all that. But, apparently, this trait has not completely disappeared after all. Besides, eye color is not such a weighty proof. So I made inquiries to make sure one hundred percent..."

Ezra abruptly covered her mouth with his hand to stop the flow of her words. He wasn't sure he wanted to hear more. After a moment, he grimaced, realizing how cavalier his gesture was. He stepped away from her.

"Uh, sorry. Go on, although I think I've already guessed what you're driving at".

"Oh, thank you for letting me, sir" - Elodie looked indignant for being so rudely interrupted. There was no trace of her uncertainty. Now she looked rather defiant. - "So that you don't have time to shut me up anymore, I'll try to be brief" - Elodie said harshly, but her indignation began to gradually disappear. - "In short, Morrigan's mother is a distant relative of yours. Accordingly, Morrigan, too" - Elodie paused for a moment. - "I must admit, it's amazing that you have two Wundersmiths in your family at once. It's really unusual".

Ezra remained silent, considering her words. He didn't even have to doubt Elodie's words, because he was sure she was right. Of course, he noticed some similarities, but did not attach importance to it. He grimaced. For the first time in my life, he had no idea what to say and what to do.

"I hope that..." - he began.

"No, Morrigan doesn't know. I decided to omit this part and give you the right to decide whether to tell her or not" - Elodie cut him off.

Ezra just nodded, satisfied with the answer.

"Besides, Odelle and I were friends. I gave her my word that nothing would happen to Morrigan" - Elodie told Ezra the same thing that she said to Morrigan yesterday.

"Is there anything else I should know, or was this the last secret?" - he looked at her with a mixture of irritation and disbelief. And a little anger. Elodie couldn't blame him. - "Did you do anything else behind my back?"

"No" - she replied just as coldly.

Ezra looked into her eyes for a long time, trying to find the slightest hint of a lie, but he did not find it. He exhaled, realizing that she was telling the truth. Only then did he realize that she was no longer looking at him. Her gaze was fixed somewhere in the distance, behind his back. Horror was reflected in her eyes. And Ezra didn't like it at all.

"Elodie, are you okay?" - he stepped forward and touched her elbow. Her gaze remained fixed on something in the distance.

Ezra looked in the same direction as her. What he saw was really frightening, although it was hard to scare him. He turned cold all over and drew Elodie to him. A whole army of... something was coming at them. Ezra couldn't even figure out what it was. And he didn't want to find out any time soon.

"Maud..." - whispered Elodie. She felt rooted to the spot, afraid to move.

Ezra squeezed Elodie's wrist, bringing her to her senses.

"Don't look there" - he said clearly, forcing Elodie to look at him. - "We have to go back to Deucalion. Right now".

Chapter Text

The Deucalion was noisy. It seemed that all the hotel guests decided to leave their rooms at the same time. It felt like the end of the world had come. Honestly, you wouldn't be far from the truth.

Ezra winced at the sudden rush of sounds. He tried not to linger here and immediately hurried to the stairs, leading Elodie.

"I think you can let me go now" - Elodie said, wincing.

Ezra stopped and looked down at his hand, still clutching Elodie's wrist. He didn't notice that he was still holding her. Ezra quickly withdrew his hand and apologized. Elodie just shook her head, smiling a little.

"You don't have to apologize for that".

Elodie overtook him and went ahead.

There were people in Jupiter's office, too, but Ezra already knew these faces.

"What kind of creatures are these, can someone explain?" - Cadence's voice trembled slightly. Which was out of character for her.

"I think it's already clear that this is the Maud’s work" - Morrigan looked questioningly in the direction of the two Wundersmiths.

"Isn't it obvious?" - Elodie said gloomily and shrugged, remembering the terrible picture presented to them.

"How did she even manage to do something so terrifying and... disgusting?" - Hawthorne made a face, sticking out his tongue. - "What is it made of anyway?"

"Shadows, bones and God knows what else" - Ezra went to the window. - "Besides, they are not alone" - he pointed somewhere in the distance.

In the distance, the soldiers of Wintersea Republic were visible. They could be unmistakably identified by the black and gray military uniform, on which the symbol of the Republic was emblazoned on the left side, where the heart was.

"Only this was not enough. Judging by the fact that they freely entered the territory of Nevermoor, there is no resistance on our part. Maud calculated everything down to the smallest detail. I'm afraid no one will stop her now" - Jupiter said in a tense voice. It was the truth, even if it was bitter. - "I have to go to Parliament and find out everything" - he hurried to the exit.

"Jupiter, wait! It's dangerous to go there alone. Surely they've already got there" - Morrigan protested, grabbing his arm.

"We don't know for sure, Mog. If they haven't gotten there yet, we have a chance to find out something".

"Their minds are clouded".

"Not completely, which means there is a chance to reach them. We need to defend ourselves".

"Perhaps this is the rare case when I agree with the Captain" - Ezra agreed in a tone as if he didn't want to admit it, but he had to. - "We can't let them take over Nevermoor. I think this is clear to everyone gathered here".

"Indeed, Jupiter should go to Parliament. At least to try. I think he won't take any unnecessary risks" - Elodie nodded to the man. - "Let the rest will help people if necessary. Ezra and I will find Maud".

"You're not going anywhere!" - Ezra said sharply, glaring at Elodie.

"I'll go with you!" - Morrigan said at the same time, clenching her fists.

Elodie closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm down and gather her strength.

"Ezra, I'll go and it's not up for discussion" - she didn't even give Ezra time to answer and turned to Morrigan. - "And you'd better stay here, in safe. I understand that you don't like standing on the sidelines - I know, I’m like that myself - but this is not a game anymore, it’s a real war, and children have no place in it".

"For that matter, you should stay here too. You can barely stand on your feet".

Elodie pursed her lips, inwardly understanding the girl's rightness, but she was adamant. Someone had to stop Maud, and Elodie wouldn't have left Ezra alone.

"Elodie, don't be silly" - Ezra said warningly.

"I'm coming" - Elodie said firmly, in a tone that brooked no objections.

———————————————————————

"Elodie, this is stupid, irresponsible, after all! Stop exhausting yourself. You understand that what you are doing now can be considered simply suicide. Are you listening to me at all?" - Ezra blocked her way.

Elodie groaned and rolled her eyes. Ezra's persistence was beginning to annoy her.

"She must be stopped".

"That's why three Wundersmiths are clearly better than two" - Morrigan appeared out of nowhere near them, crossing her arms over her chest. - "So I'm coming with you whether you want to or not".

"Don't even think about it!" - they replied in unison and immediately frowned.

"Have you been rehearsing, or what?"

"You'll stay here, Miss Crow".

"And how are you going to stop me?" - Morrigan crossed her arms over her chest and lifted her chin.

An evil grin blossomed on Ezra's face. Elodie looked at him warily, knowing that this would end badly for Morrigan.

Morrigan was banging on the door with her fists, trying to get out of her "prison cell" (room).

"You have no right! Let me out now!" - Morrigan shouted, kicking the door with anger and fury. Attempts to use wunder have yielded nothing.

"Don't even try, Miss Crow. The lock can only be opened by the person who locked it, that is, me. So don't waste your strength" - Ezra calmly remarked, and then turned to Elodie. - "Are you suggesting I do the same to you?" - he raised an eyebrow questioningly.

Elodie looked at him coldly.

"Just try to do it, and you'll be buried underground".

"Forget it" - Ezra muttered. Considering that she didn't often threaten anyone, any possible threat from her mouth sounded quite plausible.

Elodie looked anxiously out the window.

"How are we going to stop her?" - Elodie looked straight into Ezra's eyes, there was fear in her own eyes.

Ezra knew perfectly well from Elodie's tone that this question was asked purely out of formality. She knew exactly HOW they would stop Maud. More precisely, he would stop.

"I... I'll take it on myself" - Ezra swallowed hard. - "After all, it's not new to me to do this" - he smiled bitterly.

Elodie flinched at these words, which did not escape Ezra's eyes. He turned away and walked down the corridor.

"It's time to end this".

———————————————————————

As soon as Ezra and Elodie set foot on Courage Square, they both felt something was wrong.

"I thought you weren't coming" - a familiar voice said in a bored tone somewhere nearby.

Ezra automatically blocked Elodie with himself, receiving an indignant look from her. He sang a few bars, and wunder circled around him, ready to follow the orders of his master.

Maud looked at her creation.

"I'll leave you in their care. I need to go somewhere else" - with these words, she disappeared from their field of vision.

The creatures kept their burning eyes on the two Wundersmiths, preparing to attack. Ezra's thoughts immediately flashed a comparison with The Hunt of Smoke and Shadow.

"Find Maud. I'll deal with them" - Elodie said, walking around Ezra and putting up a protective barrier.

"Well, no, I won't leave you alone with them" - Ezra let out a light laugh.

"I didn't ask for your opinion just now" - Elodie hissed. Before she could continue, another voice of the person they hoped had stayed at the hotel rang out next to them.

"She's right".

They both turned towards Morrigan, wondering how she managed to get out of the room. Morrigan decided that it was better to keep silent about the window.

"What in Seven Pockets..." - Ezra began.

"The most important thing is to stop Maud. Miss Bauer will surely handle them".

Although Elodie was angry at Morrigan for disobeying, but the girl was clearly on her side now. Ezra had to find Maud.

"Morrigan" - fortunately she understood the hint. Ezra didn't even have time to react.

"Elodie..?"

A moment later, they were already far away from the square.

"What the hell are you doing, Miss Crow?!" - Ezra growled. The anger in his voice made Morrigan involuntarily take a step back. Suddenly Ezra's attention shifted abruptly to something behind the girl's back. Anger was replaced by irritation and puzzlement.

"Where are you looking?" - Morrigan turned around, trying to see at least something remarkable.

"Focus your eyes and turn your head. That's it".

There was a tiny spark at the end of the street, which was extremely difficult to notice if you didn't know exactly where to look.

"Shouldn't Ghostly Hours only be on Sub-Nine?" - Morrigan asked uncertainly.

"No, of course not" - Ezra snorted, as if she had said some unimaginable nonsense. - "Ghostly Hours can be created anywhere if a person wants to capture something important".

"Uh... maybe. But in such an area..." - Morrigan looked around the street, which did not inspire confidence for a second.

"In any case, our primary task is to find Maud. Since you and Elodie wanted it that way" - Ezra only hoped that Elodie would cope with those monsters. He was restless.

Morrigan wanted to listen to him, but this Ghostly Hour somehow inexorably attracted her. And Ezra seemed to feel it, too.

"I think we should look into it" - Morrigan took a step towards Hour.

"We don't have time for this" - Ezra's voice didn't sound as confident as he would have liked. He understood, felt that something was wrong with this Hour.

"And yet we need to see" - this time Morrigan resolutely went to it.

Ezra could only roll his eyes.

By the time Ezra approached the girl, Morrigan had already entered the Ghostly Hour. Ezra hesitated for a moment before following her in.

They were on the same street, but it was night outside. A crescent moon shone in the sky.

"What Age is it?" - Morrigan asked thoughtfully.

"Judging by the architecture, it's Age of Industry, but I can only guess" - Ezra shrugged.

Continuing to look around, after a while they saw a dark figure suddenly appear at the threshold of a huge building. She was holding a bundle in her hands.

Morrigan came closer and only then was able to make out the inscription on the sign, which reads:

                "Gresham Orphanage"

"Exactly! We're in Gresham!" - Morrigan recalled how Jupiter took her to the area to show Jemmity Park.

Ezra didn't even seem to pay any attention to her exclamation. He quietly and attentively, immersed in his thoughts, looked at the actions of the mysteriously appeared figure.

"What is she doing?"

"Isn't it obvious?" - Ezra said in an emotionless tone

Morrigan looked once more at the figure who was placing the bundle in front of the very door of the building. The girl shuddered, guessing WHAT the woman was doing at such an hour in such a place. Yes, it was a woman, it was clearly visible up close.

"Is there anything we can do?" - Morrigan grimaced, realizing that no. She asked the question out of desperation, still hoping it wasn't true.

"No. The past is the past. It can't be changed, no matter how much you want it" - Ezra turned around. - "We need to stop Maud, in case you suddenly forgot, Miss Crow" - he again began to call Morrigan "Miss Crow", trying to isolate himself from the new information received from Elodie.

Ezra quickened his pace, wanting to get out of here as soon as possible. It made him uneasy to be in this desolate place. However, now everything was becoming clear to him.

———————————————————————

"Maud!"

Ezra entered the walls of Parliament just at the moment when the Republic soldiers were dealing with the last resisters. Ezra chased them away with a wave of his hand as if they were just gnats. Morrigan stared at this with her mouth open. Maud watched everything happening from the balcony without saying a single word. There was a smile on her lips. She was amused by this situation.

"That's why I wanted you to join me. You are much more powerful than any person, even Wundersmith" - Maud's words reverberated from the walls of Parliament.

Ezra snorted and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He had heard this phrase hundreds of thousands of times in his life. And, honestly, he was terribly tired of that.

"I think you've already shown enough of what you're capable of" - Ezra looked around. His gaze stopped on Morrigan running up to Jupiter, who was lying unconscious. Ezra was surprised by the sympathy that had arisen so suddenly from some hidden depth of his soul. He imagined how many more people suffered at the hands of Republic. - "These people didn't do anything to you".

Maud looked at the motionless people with an expressionless look.

"These? Yeah, nothing. This is the only thing that saves their lives so far. If they do not obey, they will be killed".

"The only person you hate is already dead. Revenge will not solve anything, because there is no one else to take revenge on. So what's the point of all this? Do you want a toy for yourself? Do you like playing with human lives?"

Ezra, of course, didn't think he had the right to say anything to her about human lives. After all, he also killed people, manipulated them, and involved them in his machinations to get what he wanted. But at least he knew when to stop.

"Oh" is the only thing she answered.

A moment later, Maud was already standing some distance away in front of Ezra.

"Do you know everything?" - she clasped her hands behind her back. Her face remained stony.

"Oh, so it was her?" - Morrigan wasn't surprised by that. Although it was difficult to guess that this woman was that child, but still… For some reason, she was still haunted by the thought that something could have been done then.

"You're trying to talk me out of it, and meanwhile time is ticking. Tick-tock" - a cruel grin played on Maud's lips. - "Oh, Ezra, Ezra, Ezra, maybe my mother has been dead for a long time, but... somehow I don't give a damn about it. As they say, you really can't fix the past" - she shrugged, and for a moment sadness was reflected in her eyes. - "Such as you cannot be entrusted with all the power. You revel in it too much, forgetting about everything in the world. You consider yourself the rulers of the world, better than others. I'm sure many people would have agreed with me when you were still here" - she looked out the window. - "What do you think, what is the probability that your girlfriend is still alive?" - Maud said in a sarcastic tone, letting out a laugh.

Ezra involuntarily clenched his fists so that his knuckles turned white. He's not buying it.

Ezra looked over his shoulder at Morrigan, telling her to get out of here. At first she wanted to argue, but then she thought about that Ghostly Hour again. Something was pulling her back. She had to go back there. Morrigan nodded almost imperceptibly and, once again making sure that everything was fine with Jupiter, disappeared into the shadows. A few seconds later, she was no longer in the building.

Ezra knew perfectly well the reason for her quick agreement. That Ghostly Hour was really special, but in order for everything to work out, it was necessary to split up. Which Ezra did.

Chapter Text

It took Morrigan quite a bit of time to find the very place where the Ghostly Hour was.

Once inside, she immediately headed closer to the orphanage and waited for Goldberry to reappear.

At that time, a light was on in one of the houses. Morrigan involuntarily looked in the window. Everything looked clean and tidy inside. Two people-a man and a woman-were sitting by the fireplace. They just sat and looked at the fire, hugging each other. It seemed to Morrigan that they were sad. Probably, their heads drooping on each other's shoulders spoke about this. Only then did she see a frame with a black ribbon on the mantelpiece. From this distance, Morrigan would never have made out who was depicted in the photo. She was about to go inside-no one would have noticed her anyway-but at that moment a black figure appeared again.

Morrigan swore softly. After all, she never figured out what to do. She needed to stop Goldberry from committing this terrible act. But Morrigan had no idea how to make herself seen. Maybe she should just want, like with Gossamer Line, to be seen and that's it? It was too easy, but it was worth a try. After all, once at the Wundersmiths’ lesson, she even thought that thirteen-year-old Ezra noticed her for a second, but then Morrigan did not want to be visible. But now she wants to.

Morrigan did not hesitate any longer and went to the side of the woman until she finished what she had started.

"Wait!"-Morrigan didn't even have time to think about what she was going to say. After all, Goldberry was a Wundersmith. Who knows what she could have done to her, considering how she was spoken of.

The woman turned sharply. Her lips barely moved and her hand shot up quickly.

Morrigan was taken aback by the force with which she was pressed against the wall. But she was even more surprised that Goldberry sees and hears her. So it worked out.

"Who are you?" - the woman said threateningly.

"I... I'm also a Wundersmith" - Morrigan said quickly, she couldn't think of a better one anyway.

Goldberry grunted, half incredulously, half mockingly.

"Don't lie to me, girl. I know all the Wundersmiths of my generation, and you are clearly not among them. Unless... hmm, no, that's impossible" - she thought for a moment.

"And if it is possible?" - Morrigan knew perfectly well what the woman opposite was thinking right now.

"People don't travel in time. At least, they haven't heard of it yet. Otherwise, they would have used it long ago".

But Goldberry still let Morrigan go. She was studying the girl intently. Before Morrigan's eyes Maud appeared as an exact copy, studying the girl in the same way at their first meeting.

"Hmm, wunder is enveloping you from all sides. And there's too much of it" - she tilted her head to the side. - "Problems with studying?"

Morrigan frowned. The Kindling said the same thing the first time they met.

"Inferno?" - Goldberry raised an eyebrow and looked at Morrigan again, but this time with great interest. - "Is this your first Art?"

"Uh... yes" - Morrigan decided not to tell her yet that she had learned a lot from her. There was no time for that now. - "Don't do that" - Morrigan pointed behind Goldberry to a small bundle by the door. - "This is a big, just a huge mistake. Believe me. I know better" - she absolutely did not know what to say in such cases.

"It's none of your business" - the woman said harshly.

"I'm sorry, but now it's my business too. Out of all this, a real chaos, a catastrophe is happening in my time right now. And all because you gave up, got scared, I don't know what prompted you to leave her" - Morrigan winced, realizing that she was talking too brazenly with a woman who is much older and more experienced than herself. - "Uh... I'm sorry, the last few months have not been easy".

"You're old enough to hear and understand what I'm about to say" - Goldberry looked over her shoulder at her child, and then turned back to Morrigan. - "I don't need this child".

This phrase sounded too loud, although in fact it was uttered almost in a whisper, and struck Morrigan to the core. She involuntarily took a step back, as if she had been slapped.

Goldberry is not done with this.

"I don't have time to babysit her. I have responsibilities that require full commitment and that cannot be abandoned. I assure you, you will understand it yourself when you grow up".

Morrigan shook her head. No, she will never understand what good reasons there may be to abandon your own child. Why give birth to a child at all if you're not going to take care of them and just want to get rid of them right away, as if they never existed?

"But..." - Morrigan was going to convince Goldberry, but she had already turned around and started moving away from the girl. Only at last she stopped and said, without turning around:

"I'm sure you'll become a great Wundersmith" - that was her last phrase.

Morrigan was left standing there all alone, except for the child. She was shaking, either from the cold or from shock. Goldberry's last phrase made her angry. This phrase was simply inappropriate. Now Morrigan understood that Goldberry was not interested in anything except her "gift". She didn't care about people and their feelings as long as it didn't concern her abilities, her business, her "gift". Morrigan desperately wanted to hit her, yell at her. But she restrained herself. In the end, it was necessary to do something with the child. Morrigan couldn't leave the girl here.

Morrigan carefully and at the same time awkwardly took her in her arms. She turned her head from side to side, trying to find a way out of this situation. Her gaze fell back to the windows of the house where she had watched the couple a few moments ago.

She walked right up to the door and stared at it, thinking. Morrigan suddenly thought that these people would need a child no less than this little girl would need parents. Morrigan carefully placed the girl on the mat in front of the door and, taking a deep breath, knocked on the door. Without waiting for an answer, she ran to the end of the alley and disappeared around one of the turns, sticking only her head out from behind the wall. It was a great place to observe.

The door creaked and swung open. A woman appeared on the threshold, trying to see who was knocking. Finding no one, she turned her gaze down and gasped, stepping back. It seemed to Morrigan that the woman would just slam the door, but she did not. On the contrary, the woman picked up the child and began to rock her slightly. At that moment, her husband came up to her, looking extremely surprised. His wife whispered something to him, and they disappeared into the house.

Now Morrigan was standing in front of the exit from the Ghostly Hour and a moment later took a step back to her time. She hoped that everything would be fine now.

Chapter Text

Ezra opened his eyes abruptly, but immediately covered them from the bright light that came from the windows. Getting used to it, he looked around the room in which he found himself. It seemed vaguely familiar to Ezra. There was a book lying on the floor near his feet, which most likely fell when he suddenly jerked in his chair. Ezra picked it up and put it carefully on the table, then got up and went to the window.

Looking out into the street, Ezra immediately realized where he was, although it seemed absurd. What he saw now in front of him were the streets of Nevermoor, but older. The same as a hundred years ago, when he was here for the last time before he was banished.

Ezra was in Deucalion. He no longer doubted it. Another difference he noticed was the weather. The last time it was overcast, and now the sun was shining and there was not a cloud in the sky.

The last thing he remembered was how he tried to stop Maud, and then his eyes blurred, and it looks like he just blacked out at some point.

The door to his room opened, and Elodie appeared on the threshold. He immediately noticed her healthy appearance, as if nothing had happened in the last hundred years. And this outfit… Ezra had a feeling of deja vu. He was relieved to see Elodie alive and unharmed. Ezra noticed that she was looking at him with the same confused and surprised look. He thought about looking in the mirror himself. Judging by her look, she was also trying to organize her memories and understand what was going on.

"Wow, you look different too" - was all Elodie said.

Ezra was puzzled by her comment, so he looked in the mirror anyway. It took him a few minutes to calm down because what he saw was shocking. He really looked different, more precisely, he looked as if these hundred years had not been in sight. In the literal sense. The first thing that caught his eye was the absence of a scar and gray hair on his temples. He looked younger.

"Have you guessed what day it is?" - Elodie said in a tone that said she already knew the answer, but it was confusing her.

Ezra already had a hunch, but he was afraid to voice it out loud. After all, having clothed it in words, it will really become a reality.

Ezra swallowed hard.

"Winter of Nine, Age of the East Winds. The day the Massacre happened" - Ezra looked at Elodie with almost the same confusion and fear as she did. - "Morrigan..."

"It looks like Morrigan really did something, but..." - Elodie spread her hands, not knowing what to say. - "I don't really know, but I think it has something to do with the Ghostly Hours, probably. You know, I have a slightly different specialization".

"Before going to Maud, we visited one the Ghostly Hour in Gresham. It was connected with her".

Elodie stared at Ezra for a long time. It wasn't hard to tell from her look that her thoughts were far away right now, but after a moment she shook her head and spoke again.

"I have only one guess about what could have happened" - Elodie began. - "Most likely, the Morrigan somehow managed to influence the past and change it. Accordingly, this day may also change. This day has played a huge role in the future, so a lot depends on it. Now he will be different. At least I hope so" - Elodie said softly. - "God, I said it out loud! It even made me feel better!" - she laughed a little.

"Yes, Morrigan changed the past, but what is the probability that this day will also change. Maud could stay the same as it was. In the end, the Morrigan did not change the person" - Ezra expressed his concerns.

"Time will tell" - Elodie glanced at her watch. - "If you're interested in my personal opinion, then I think she's not a threat to us now. She's not a threat to anyone anymore, but I still wouldn't talk about it ahead of time. Therefore, it is better not to relax at least today".

"Of course I understand".

Ezra hesitantly took a step forward, but then hesitated. There was a spark of doubt in his eyes. So Elodie quickly walked up to him and put her arms around his neck. After all, she showed feelings much better than him. Elodie laughed a little.

"Well, I've missed you too, Ezra" - she looked up at him and grinned.

Ezra couldn't help but smile. Seeing Elodie healthy and happy warmed his heart.

"Ik hou van jou" - Ezra said, and tried not to laugh at Elodie's puzzled expression.

(This is a reference to the book "The Love Hypothesis" by Ali Hazelwood)

"What did you say?" - Elodie frowned.

"You'll read it in the book".

Elodie pouted playfully. And Ezra couldn't stand it and laughed. Sincerely.

Elodie supported him.

"I missed your laugh" - Elodie said after she had finished laughing.

"And I missed yours" - Ezra smiled softly.

"But, Ezra, if the Massacre didn't happen, then..." - she looked at him with a burning look full of hope.

"...then the rest of the Wundersmiths are alive" - Ezra finished for her.

"Then we need to find them urgently. I can't wait to see them soon" - Elodie grabbed his arm, but Ezra didn't budge. - "Is something wrong?"

Ezra wanted to laugh at her remark. Only Elodie in the craziest situation could ask such a question.

"What's wrong? I guess all" - Ezra nevertheless let out a mirthless laugh and shrugged his shoulders. - "I kind of killed them, in case you've forgotten" - he bit his lip and began to look anywhere but at Elodie.

Elodie put her hand on his cheek.

"Ezra, I think we've been through this before" - she looked at him carefully. - "You didn't have a choice then. If you had done otherwise, Maud... Maud would have destroyed everything. It was completely..." - Ezra raised an eyebrow, and Elodie corrected herself. "It was mostly her fault, not yours. Besides, it was, consider it, in a past life. Now everything is in the past, you can start living again. You can change everything and do as you want..."

At that moment, Ezra's lips covered hers before she could finish. After a moment, he pulled away and pressed his forehead against Elodie's.

"Like this?"

Elodie was trying to catch her breath. The kiss took her by surprise, but she liked it. She would like to repeat it.

"Why did you pull away?" - said Elodie jokingly.

Ezra grinned, and his lips covered Elodie's again.

———————————————————————

The meeting with the Wundersmiths started somewhat awkwardly on Ezra's part. But soon this awkwardness evaporated, as if it had never existed. After all, the others didn't know anything and would never have found out. At least that's what Ezra and Elodie hoped.

It would not be superfluous to mention that nothing happened on that day or in the following. Life went on as usual. Ezra and Elodie were glad of this respite. After all they had to go through, they were glad to enjoy moments of peace and quiet.

They thought about Morrigan, worried that by changing the past, she might simply not be born in the future. It was a frightening prospect. Such conversations often ended with a frowning expression on Elodie's face, trying to occupy herself with at least something that could drive away gloomy thoughts. Ezra was also haunted by these thoughts, but he tried to control himself, he had to be Elodie's support.

He had enough of the day when he accidentally bumped into someone in Parliament whom he dreamed of never seeing again in his life. Ezra almost had a heart attack when he bumped into her literally at the door. Maud looked the same, but at the same time completely different. It turns out that Maud held the post of Deputy Chairman of the Parliament. And she didn't know Ezra at all, apart from what she'd heard from rumors and gossip about him. Ezra had already forgotten how much people liked to gossip about the Wundersmiths and their "mysterious affairs". Moreover, Maud was engaged, as evidenced by the ring on her ring finger. But he decided not to focus on it. And Ezra seemed to have managed to put some fear on her, considering that he had been staring at her for a long time without saying a single word. So she just got out of his way, trying to get away from this strange and creepy Wundersmith as soon as possible. This story now occupied a dominant position in the list of the funniest and favorite stories of Elodie, who did not miss the opportunity to recall it to Ezra. He regretted more than once that he had ever told her about it.

In addition, Ezra decided to take a bold step a few years later and asked for Elodie's hand in marriage. It took him several months to organize everything and gather courage. He wanted everything to go perfectly. And so it turned out. Almost. The hardest part was making the offer itself. Ezra was blushing like a boy. At first, the tears that appeared in Elodie's eyes horrified him, but when she said yes, he breathed a sigh of relief and even laughed, putting the ring on her finger. Elodie was the first to rush to kiss him. Not that he was against it.

———————————————————————

" Hello! So you are Morrigan Crow?" - Ezra lowered himself in front of the girl to be on the same level with her. Elodie was standing a little way behind Ezra.

Morrigan was looking at him with her eyes as dark as night. For a six-year-old child, her look is too intelligent and wary. Ezra chuckled. His student hasn't changed a bit. No wonder, because she was still raised by Crovus and his new wife. What was her name? Ivy? Ezra didn't really care.

Morrigan nodded curtly at Ezra's question, glancing sideways at her father as if she was afraid to say or do something wrong.

Ezra gritted his teeth.

Even though the curse didn't exist this time, it didn't stop Corvus from treating his daughter so disgustingly. Therefore, Ezra did not even hesitate to take Morrigan away from here. Captain North would be happy to take care of the baby. They have already agreed on everything.

"Do you want to see real magic?" - Ezra smiled.

Interest flashed in Morrigan's eyes and she nodded again, this time more boldly.

Ezra sang a few bars and wunder immediately responded to his call.

Morrigan looked attentively at the way the golden thread of wunder wrapped around the master's fingers.

"See this? It's called wunder, and only the Wundersmiths, like me and my wife, can control it. And you can do it too".

Morrigan watched the movements of the man opposite her with wide-open eyes. She liked him and this woman, and she wanted to see even more tricks.

She cautiously stretched out her hand, trying to touch wunder, but he immediately disappeared into thin air. Morrigan pouted in disappointment.

"Just like Alex" - Elodie laughed merrily.

Ezra smiled at his wife's words.

Elodie also sat down across from Morrigan.

"You can also control wunder. And we would love to teach you that. There is a wonderful school in Nevermoor where you could learn to master your abilities and change this world. But the decision is up to you. So, do you want to come with us?" - Elodie asked softly.

It took a while before Elodie calmed down. After all, unlike Ezra, she did not know about the conditions in which Morrigan grew up. And it would be an understatement to say that she said everything she thought right to Corvus’ face. She obviously didn't choose words. Ezra tried to cover the Morrigan's ears as much as possible and continued to listen to Elodie's tirade, raising his eyebrows in surprise. Even after so many years, he was still surprised by the breadth of Elodie's vocabulary, because some words puzzled even him, despite the fact that he himself knew a lot of obscene words. Ezra barely managed to get her away from the Corvus. Ezra knew perfectly well that it was better not to anger his wife.

Morrigan looked back at her parents, then back at the Wundersmiths. She didn't doubt the answer for a second, so she gladly agreed. Not to say that Corvus, and even more so Ivy, felt sad about the departure of the Morrigan. Their faces were still as blank.

It was obvious that Morrigan was upset about this, so Elodie tried to get her out of there as soon as possible, without deigning to look at the Corvus.

"I hope we won't see you again" - she said at parting.

———————————————————————

"Sorry I'm late!" - Alex burst into the classroom, out of breath. It was obvious that she was clearly in a hurry. - "I completely lost track of time" - she smiled awkwardly, straightening her disheveled hair.

Ezra looked at his wristwatch.

"Thirty minutes, Alex. Where could you stay late for thirty minutes?" - he looked expectantly at his daughter.

"Well..." - Alex lowered her eyes and bit her lip, moving her toe in front of her. - "I can’t tell him that Sebastian was teaching me to fence" - the girl thought to herself. Her father was against her taking up arms. So it was her little secret with her mom. And with Morrigan, who was trying to hide her smile at the moment.

Ezra shook his head and sighed, realizing that Alex obviously wouldn't tell him the truth.

"Okay, we'll talk at home, and now it's time to start the task".

While her father was doing something with his hands, Alex quickly joined Morrigan, who was now laughing softly.

"Tell me, how many boys have you shaken pride today?" - Morrigan whispered, to which Alex rolled her eyes.

"Is it my fault that they don't know how to defend themselves, and they are too self-confident in attack. Their mistake is that they don't take girls seriously" - Alex shrugged, smiling slightly. - "It will serve them right".

Alex waved her hand, and the apple core lying next to them on the table became a full-fledged apple again, as it was before it was eaten.

A smile involuntarily appeared on Ezra's lips. He was always surprised how it happened that his daughter was late everywhere almost all the time, but at the same time she knew how to handle time itself perfectly. He and Elodie were both surprised when Alex's first manifestation was The Art of Tempus.

In addition, he couldn't help but be pleased that Alex and Morrigan quickly became friends, despite the fact that they were incredibly different. Unlike Morrigan, calm and reserved, Alex was energetic and emotional, the soul of any company. It was obvious that she got her character from Elodie, and outwardly she was an exact copy of Ezra - the same dark, almost black eyes and ash-brown hair. She probably inherited her stubbornness from him, too. Ezra couldn't decide if it was good or bad.

After two hours of class, Ezra decided that the girls would have enough for today. After all, it was the last day of school before the Christmas holidays. Although he himself would have worked out with them, but Morrigan, surprisingly, could not sit still any longer, as if she was in a hurry somewhere.

"I suppose we can finish our lesson for today?"

"Pff, of course, Dad. Otherwise, Morrigan will definitely be late for his date with Lucas" - Alex pronounced the last words especially clearly.

"This is not a date" - Morrigan said through her teeth, glowering at her friend.

"Really?" - Alex pretended to be surprised and laughed merrily.

"Well, then your meeting with Sebastian tomorrow can also be considered a date" - Morrigan did not remain in debt and also laughed, receiving Alex's indignant look.

"Date, Alex?" - Ezra stared at his daughter, raising one eyebrow. He did not expect that at the age of thirteen she would have boyfriends. He hoped it wouldn't happen until she was at least sixteen.

"This is not a date!" - Alex quickly shook her head. - "And anyway, mom was probably already waiting for us, and Jupiter was waiting for Morrigan, so..." - Alex flew out of the classroom, waving goodbye to Morrigan.

"I'll go crazy with her" - Ezra sighed wearily.

———————————————————————

Elodie was preparing Christmas treats when the front door opened and Ezra and Alex appeared on the threshold.

"Isn't it too early for you to go on dates, young lady?" - Ezra said sternly, once in the hallway.

"Dad..." - Alex moaned, repeating for almost the hundredth time that this is not a date. - "Sebastian and I just wanted to sit in a cafe before he leaves with his parents to visit his grandparents".

Alex looked at her mother with pleading eyes, mentally asking her for help.

"Ezra, I don't see anything wrong with Alex will go to a cafe with Sebastian. They have known each other for several years, and we know him and his family well. Besides, even if it was a date, I don't think it would somehow change the situation" - Elodie approached her husband, who had already entered the kitchen and sat down at a table.

Alex at this moment jumped into a chair and opened the book that she took from Dad in the library yesterday.

"Listen to what Mom says" - Alex almost sang.

Ezra sighed again.

"Isn’t it too early for her to be interested in boys?" - asked Ezra doubtfully.

Elodie raised an eyebrow.

"This is said the man who started courting me at the age of eleven".

Ezra had the tact to be slightly embarrassed.

"This is... completely different".

"Really?"

"Forget it" - Ezra muttered.

Elodie laughed loudly, kissed her husband on the cheek, and returned to cooking treats.

———————————————————————

Christmas morning was clear.

Alex clearly woke up before everyone else and found a lot of gifts. The new books brought her indescribable delight. She began to look through each of them with interest, at the same time taking out the sweets left by Saint Nicholas.

She didn't even immediately notice another gift that was lying near her bed. Alex gasped and quickly jumped to her feet. She quickly unpacked the gift, and a shiny rapier appeared before her eyes, and equipment also lay nearby.

"I would like to hope that next time you won't keep something secret from me".

Alex jumped in surprise and turned sharply. Her father was standing on the threshold of her room, leaning slightly against the side wall of the doorway.

Alex frowned.

"So you knew?" - there was bewilderment in her voice.

"You think I'd let you get away with every time you were late for class. And not only mine" - he looked significantly at his daughter.

Alex grimaced, realizing that other Wundersmiths brought this information to her father.

The last thing Ezra wanted to watch was his daughter's frowning expression, so he decided to calm her down as soon as possible.

"You don't have to worry so much. If you really want to do this fencing, then... so be it. I don't think I can talk you out of it".

"So I’m not in trouble?" - Alex asked warily.

Ezra shuddered slightly and frowned. He didn't understand where she got this fear that he would find out and punish her. Although Ezra himself, when he was little, was always afraid of doing anything wrong, because he knew that it would end badly for him. He winced at the memory. No, he didn't want Alex to be afraid of him. It hurt him just to think that she was afraid of him. Perhaps this was one of his main fears since she was born.

"No, you’re not in trouble" - Ezra said softly.

"Did Mom tell you?"

Ezra laughed a little.

"Oh no, your mom is great at keeping secrets".

Alex seems to have visibly relaxed.

"I wanted to give you an umbrella that you forgot at home, and I couldn't find you anywhere. I had to ask Elder Quinn where you are. What was my surprise when I found out about your classes, and then I saw your sparring with Sebastian".

"Stupid umbrella".

Ezra laughed.

"Really, stupid umbrella. It's all about the umbrella".

Alex smiled cheerfully.

"We thought with your dad that it would be nice for you to have your own set of equipment and a rapier since you really decided to practice fencing" - Elodie stood next to Ezra, resting her head on his shoulder.

Alex jumped around the room with delight and clapped her hands. A moment later, she ran up to her parents and hugged them.

"Just please try not to belittle boyish pride too much. Judging from what I've seen, you don't feel sorry for them at all" - Elodie jokingly said.

"That's right" - Ezra drawled with a smile. - "There's nothing to give them a descent" - he winked at his daughter.

Alex's smile widened, and Elodie laughed merrily.

This picture took Ezra's breath away every time, and warmth spread in his chest. At such moments, he thought that perhaps everything they had experienced was worth it.