Henry led Robb and Enrico inside the basement observatory with some trepidation. He had no issues meeting back up with the Greenwich survivor turned vampire, but it would seem their guide was suddenly feeling overly hesitant to step inside. For what reasons, Henry couldn't fathom, but he had a sneaking suspicion he was about to find out.

"Glad you're willing to give us the time of day to meet up like this," he mumbled as he crossed the threshold. "Too bad the circumstances couldn't be a little better, eh?"

"Yeah, yeah," Grace said, waving her hand dismissively while taking another loud slurp from the crazy straw. "You gonna tell me something important or not?"

The response was enough to get Henry to frown slightly. "You alright?"

"No, I'm not alright. I'm about as far from alright as someone could reasonably get. You wanna hear my sob story, or are we going to get this show on the road?"

"Hey, I wasn't trying to press you if that's what you thought I meant! I was just trying to be personable, is all…"

She met his response with a sullen stare. Crimson eyes peered up at him with only the barest hint of interest in what he had to say, eyes that looked as tired and overlooked as he'd ever seen her.

The closer he inspected, the more signs of distress he found pockmarked all over that expression, too. The way her hair fell around her face in greasy, unkempt strands. The constant fiddling with the baggy hem of the pajama shirt. Hell, the mere fact that she was turning to blood to power through whatever issues she was having right now spoke volumes. It all led him to one obvious conclusion.

"Something's happened, hasn't it," he realized.

"No, I've just decided it would be fun to see how far I could backslide for no reason at all. Yes, something happened." she confirmed sarcastically. "But my problems are my own. Tell me what you came here for so I can figure out whether to care or not, already."

…Well, somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed…

He looked back at Enrico, who could only give a pained, apologetic smile. The message was clear: 'sorry you had to deal with this, but she's been this way for a while now'.

Henry blinked. If this sort of attitude had been going on for some time, it was certainly news to him. There certainly hadn't been any times before where this much unfriendly angst followed her around. As distant as the starry-eyed kid who held onto every word Layla said might have gotten, nothing she'd run up against had worn her down as much as she seemed to be now. Even the notorious falling out she had with her father after the Nobles figured out her secret hadn't put her in a mood like this. But, looking at her now, she was acting as if she considered herself…

Beaten. Like the spark that had given her the confidence to form the Reformationists was guttering.

He, unfortunately, would have to shelve those observations for a later date. A time when she might be more open to talk about how she was feeling about things. Forcing the issue now was liable to bury it even further, his instincts told him.

"Very well," he responded politely. "You want the good news or the bad news first?"

Her response was as immediate as it was unhelpful. "I don't care," she shot back as she settled back in front of the computer terminal facing the wall of monitors. "It's all just news anyways."

The cup in her hand was set carefully beside the workstation, and she began clicking through screens with a malaise of disinterest. Her attention was entirely elsewhere, lost in a maze of screens and the disjointed locations strewn across them. He took notice of how tidy the desk was compared to the rest of the room. Trash bags full of unknown containers and disposable packages lined the walls, and the only furnishing in the room besides the supermassive computer was a single mildewy mattress with a few threadbare blankets and a yellowing pillow thrown over the top.

It was almost as bad as some of the sleeping arrangements he'd settled for, and most of those involved lying flat on the sidewalk.

"Okay, good news first then because you clearly need some. You've noticed the second wave of supply drops by now, right?"

"Hard to miss when I have access to the security system of an entire borough at my fingertips. We've gathered a few, but most have been swiped by larger groups before we had a chance to reach them. Anything else?"

"Not about the crates themselves," he admitted, "But how they got there, I think, will be pretty bloody important in the months to come. They dropped down because some group calling themselves a 'joint relief force' managed to punch a message through the Shroud. And asked nicely where to drop them off."

The mouse in Grace's hand stopped clicking. Enrico was much less reserved in his reaction, gawking openly as if he'd heard that… well, something more unbelievable than anything else that already happened to them existed.

"Henry," she said after a short pause. "Is this some kind of sick joke?''

Robb cut in before he could defend himself.

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"I-It's not a lie!", he responded hurriedly. "I saw the results of it myself. I even was on the line with them as they were making contact. This is genuine help."

"I'm sorry, you are…?"

"Robb Huxley, mistress," Enrico supplied. "The host of what was formerly Gentlemen Pirate Radio."

"...Huh." Grace spun around in the swivel chair to face them all. "Well. That's rather surprising. I can't say I was expecting you to bring witnesses for such a crazy claim… okay. I'll bite, then. What did this 'joint relief force' have in mind?"

"This time around, they were mostly rushing through trying to send their aid to the spots where it actually mattered," Henry answered. "Besides that, they wanted to get a sense of what we needed most on a whole, so I gave them a few suggestions to prepare for the next communication they plan to send out. They said it would be… just shy of a month for whatever special machinery they used to make this happen would recharge."

"Aaaand there's the other shoe," Grace complained. "Wouldn't be outside help if it wasn't about to come far too late."

"Too late?"

"Never mind. Just tell me the bad news already."

"Ah, well… it's not really bad news, per se, just a favor I needed to ask of you and the Reformationists…"

The diminutive vampire let out a weary sigh that put aging elders to shame. A mix of frustration, resignation and just plain exhaustion permeated her voice. For as much as she claimed that her problems were her own to worry about, she was doing a good job of making him steadily more concerned about them.

Her response to his request was paradoxically both succinct and performative.

"...Great," she replied, with tiny flecks of acid figuratively dripping from the lone syllable. "Fine. Name it already, not like it'll actually make things more hectic around here."

Henry narrowed his eyes. "…Are you sure you're managing just fine, Grace?"

"Why wouldn't I be? Now, spit it out already."

So much for testing the waters, he thought to himself.

He shrugged. "Your house, your rules. Anyways… the short version pretty much boils down to getting safe passage. I came here with a bigger group, as I'm sure you've probably seen by now. Former GC 'property' that's been recently freed because of my hand in finishing off Guillaume."

A second wave of disbelieving looks from the two vampires bore down on him, partly incredulous, and partly shocked that he seemed to be dead serious about that bombshell of a statement. They looked to Robb for confirmation, and his curt nod in response only deepened their surprise.

"I-I'm sorry," Enrico stammered. "You've managed to kill a Devil?"

Seeing the effect it had on the others in the room, Henry backtracked. "Well, not on my own… but nonetheless he is dead, and I had a lot to do with it. I'm getting off topic, though."

"Yes… You mentioned safe passage?"

"Yep. I'm looking to get them set up with a proper place to stay. We'd been working on a plan to caravan across the city to crash with the Palatial Remnant, but the vehicles we looted are a bit, ah… indisposed at the moment."

Grace scrutinized him further, much to his discomfort. If looks could pick a man a part, this one would have him disassembled down to the molecule. That the person performing the examination was his junior by several years didn't make it any less unsettling.

"So… let me guess…" she finally ventured.

"Y-yes?"

"You're looking for my help to sneak your group of… oh, how many was it again...? 30 or so humans over the river into Kensington?"

"Uh… yes, that's right."

"Guess you're in luck, then. My problems are your problems too now, apparently."

...That didn't sound good.

Turning back to face the monitors, her attention returned to the screens momentarily. Keystrokes clattered as multiple commands cycled through a window in the far corner of the display, leaving Henry completely in the dark for the moment. He looked to the others for support, but Robb was in the same boat he was and Enrico was keeping awfully quiet all of a sudden.

"If it's Cecil you're trying to reach," she eventually elaborated. "You've somehow managed to pick the worst time to try for it. Just a few days ago, a new player entered the area and began disrupting all sorts of carefully balanced stalemates with his presence. As of right now, the path to Kensington is blocked off entirely."

Henry frowned. "His presence? Just one person is causing trouble in the whole of Walworth?"

"Exactly right. And, if you'll take a look here, I'm sure you'll recognize the handiwork pretty quickly, considering your past experience with him."

The monitors all went blank, the disjointed windows collapsing and merging into one singular, enhanced image. Despite the monochrome nature of the live feed, and the occasional digital artefacting caused by the poorly maintained equipment, there was no mistaking the view of the river crossing. The suspension bridge to the other side of the river held firm, steel cabling looking miniscule from the perspective of the wall mounted camera this video originated from. The full moon overhead illuminated the foreboding sight in front of it in crisp detail.

Spiderweb coated every available surface on the street. Silken threads of the stuff crisscrossed the highway forming nearly opaque barriers, glistening faintly in the twilight. It, indeed, was a sight Henry was all too familiar with.

What made it more horrifying, however, was the amount of humanoid bodies caught in the web already.

There were at least a dozen in sight of this camera alone. Vampires, humans, didn't matter. They were all caught just the same. He wasn't sure who was unluckier: the ones who'd been cocooned already and lay stiff as a board… or the ones who hadn't, and still writhed fruitlessly against their restraints.

Henry felt like the blood in his veins had been replaced with ice water.

The Mad Prince is making moves again, he realized. And now, he's finally gotten across the river.

"I'm sure you can figure out the implications of this," Grace metioned in a way to bring her two visitors back to reality. "But if you were hoping for help, unfortunately that's just something I can't give you. I'm already at the end of my rope trying to get him some sort of support."

"Cecil's in trouble?"

"Bad enough that he ended up having to send a runner to inform us. We pulled the message off the unfortunate soul's body, and I'll be honest, it's not looking good for them."

Henry took a deep breath, steadying himself as the world began to spin around him. Vertigo threatened to make him collapse. The man he'd cut loose from the Nobles with had been in trouble this whole time, and he hadn't even bothered to call him and make sure things were okay.

Could he make things right, after a blunder like that? He'd have to. At least he had experience playing pest control to pull from. And maybe a few helping hands, potentially.

The ringing in his ears finally settled as he collected himself. Now wasn't the time to fold under the pressure. Now, more than anything, he needed to act.

"What's the damage?" he asked seriously.

The report Grace gave him was about as bad as it could get.

"He's fully encircled," she lamented. "And losing ground."

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