The walk back was challenging for Tristessa's psyche. No longer showing signs of having cried, her clothes smoothed and unblemished, she was heading toward one of the busiest inns in that area of ​​the city and one of the many carriages stops for internal traffic. Having to listen to the whispers of passersby as they watched her pass, the disgusted glances, all of which fueled the paranoia that had settled in her head after Stormcrow escaped without accepting or rejecting her proposal.

"What if she doesn't accept? What if her infatuation in the previous loop was an anomaly, an exception? What if...she's coming to arrest me?" Those thoughts wandered through the black-haired girl's mind, causing her to look around in search of invisible enemies, unusual shadows, phantoms that portended doom. "Maybe it wasn't a good idea, maybe it was a terrible idea. Asking an assassin to be my lover… Ah, it sounds more stupid the more I think about it!"

And so Tristessa tormented herself for several minutes, until she arrived at the area surrounding the Grayhaven Inn, abundant with waiting posts for carriages bound for the commercial and industrial area of ​​Entrana, or for long journeys throughout the Dominion. Mercenaries were not lacking for the latter option, and the drivers waited beside their carriages, either with a pad of papyrus in hand to account for expenses and profits or feeding the vilecrosses pieces of raw meat stalked by flies.

A scenery not unlike that of the last two days, except for one small detail: the presence of a certain blood elf, standing with his cane in hand, his gaze showing signs of being lost in thought. A gaze riddled with worry.

"Aww, Sev! You came for me!" As if the man were a ray of sunshine breaking through a blanket of dark clouds, Tristessa walked straight toward him, smiling with happiness that momentarily purged her worries. With arms outstretched, reaching for him for an embrace; a moment of peace that didn't last long, as the thaumaturge stopped her in her tracks by raising his cane, causing the tip to sink at the height of her stomach. "Ugh, damn it!"

"Don't scream, you'll attract unwanted attention," the elf sighed, feigning embarrassment at the sight of Tristessa hunched over and coughing.

"Cough! At least you didn't electrocute me like before…"

"I never used a Voltis spell on you. Seriously, you and your fantasies… Driver, we're both going to the commercial district!" Severus tossed a soul-jewel to the man in charge of the carriage behind him, who caught it almost without looking at the path and nodded, then continued making notes on his papers. "Get in, girl."

Rubbing her abdomen and still with a grimace of pain etched on her face, Tristessa climbed into the carriage, and Severus followed, closing the door behind him. Closed curtains, and two small power crystals emitted a pale light around the polished wood structure and over the velvety seats scented with wild herbs perfume.

"And for the record…" Severus began as soon as he took his seat opposite Tristessa. The catalyst on his cane emitted a small glow, and the walls of the carriage were covered with hundreds of little glyphs charged with magical power. Those disappeared in an instant, but their effect would linger for a while: soundproofing. "…you going to seduce a living shadow borders on the pinnacle of stupidity. Of course I had to take Auron's place and check on your condition. Every day."

"Now, now, you don't have to be shy. I know you missed me," the young woman purred, giving him a tender smile that he didn't return. It wasn't often she was alone with Severus, mostly because he avoided her like she was carrying the plague, and she missed him dearly. His goofy manner, his smile, which was missing these days. "And you'll be pleased to know I succeeded…apparently. Stormcrow turned out to be much shyer than you and ran away before giving me an answer."

"And for you, that's a positive outcome?" he asked with an arched eyebrow.

"I want to believe so. I don't know if she'll accept my proposal or not, but…" Tristessa couldn't help but hug herself to fight the sudden chill that enveloped her. "She'll do something about it. Her desire is stronger than anything, I know it…"

Having left his cane propped against the ceiling frame, Severus crossed his arms, a defiant expression taking over his angelic face.

"And you know the weakness of a Wraith, thanks to your Divinity?" he asked, his piercing blue eyes melting Tristessa. "Like your belief that I missed you?"

"N-No… It was my heart that told me."

Even though it was obvious she was joking—or at least it seemed partly like a joke—Severus couldn't help but roll his eyes at that response.

Several minutes of awkward silence passed until they both heard the driver's shout outside announcing their departure. The vilecross on the other side of the wall let out a thunderous roar, and with a jolt from the chains being pulled, the carriage began to move.

"Your Divinities, girl." Severus caught her attention just as Tristessa was about to lean back against the chair, once again disappointed by the elf's coldness. He seemed to want to put on the table a topic that undoubtedly intrigued him. "Don't think I don't believe in them. It's undeniable that, thanks to one of your four Divinities, you knew what it meant to us for a Stranger to enter into our lives. You knew of our desires...and of my relationship with the Mercer-Archeos."

"Well, I didn't learn that last bit through my Divinity," she replied, scratching the back of her head and laughing a little. The blood elf was waiting for her to clarify, and she granted it, her smile turning bittersweet. "That came from the mouths of the Mercer-Archeos themselves. They were talking nonstop about you, you know. They were expecting your visit."

Tristessa's response came along with the memory of when they had first met days before—or rather, when the Severus of this timeline had first met her.

Everything she had said to convince him that she wasn't a witch or his enemy was true. About how much Jin, Tiara, and Lucahn missed his presence in that house abandoned by the Gods and all. It made his burning soul freeze under a breath of melancholy and fear.

"They... What you told me the other day, on the outskirts of the city..." He coughed, clearing his throat as if it could lift the weight of his constant restlessness. "Was it because of your Divinity that you gave them seven days before coming to Entrana?"

"No, it was my decision. Madame Luchie agreed and said that nothing would happen to the Mercer-Archeos in the meantime, not even if the Princess of Sin appeared before them."

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"Hmm… A bold statement, but it doesn't leave me alone. You must have promised them something impossible to refuse to earn such dedication."

"W-well, I promised Madame Luchie that…" Tristessa licked her lips before continuing, aware that what she was about to say was going to be scandalous. "I'm going to free Crywolf from the clutches of the Shadow Realm and kill the Dead End King, Alastor."

"WHAT?! AND SHE BELIEVED SUCH INSANE…?!" Thanks to the soundproofing thaumaturgy, the blood elf's outraged bellow didn't escape the confines of the carriage. In fact, he stopped his own outburst, realizing at that moment the implications of that promise. "You told her you're a Stranger… You're crazy, girl. Seriously, there's something fundamentally wrong in your head."

"I know… Why do you think I remember almost nothing about my life on my homeworld?" Sighing, Tristessa chose not to dwell on that topic further. "Look, we can worry about the promise I made to Madame Luchie another day. What matters now is that you shouldn't trust the Fireclaw Company to protect the Mercer-Archeos."

"It's hard to trust my friends' lives to people I don't know."

"I know, but you must have faith. For them. You're the last friend they have left in the world… All three of them love you, Sev."

"…"

The blood elf leaned his elbow against the window frame. He drew the curtain open to give himself a view of the street, the people passing by, and the Gothic architecture of the Upper Ward. He didn't pay attention to the landscape, though, just to have an excuse to avoid having to keep coming face to face with Tristessa and for her to directly witness his moment of weakness.

That which she could not avoid, emanating from the heart, that quintessential organic machine incapable of lying to itself.

"Sev…"

"Don't call me that. Only my friends can do that."

A rejection that came in the voice of the Severus she remembered from loops past. The Severus she had seen suffer and cry when Daiana Mercer-Archeos sacrificed the Mercer-Archeos and her own minions with fire and madness, as a sign of penance to the Lord of Forbidden Knowledge.

For having violated the order imposed by his prophecy. The precision and execution of his plan, ruined. The deserved punishment of the acolytes and the innocent, being reduced to ashes.

That same Severus who had held Lucahn's disintegrating body in his arms, now sat there, resisting the pain. His vengeful soul emanated supernatural heat that Tristessa felt and recognized as similar to the first day she met the man who had made her fall in love.

"Sev…" She insisted on calling him that, so he would know the affection she had for him despite everything. Despite the fact that he hated her for being a Stranger, she got up from her seat and sat next to him. Wanting to be close to him, and uncaring of the hellish heat that surrounded him, she took his left hand and intertwined her fingers with his. "Be strong, okay? Like you were in the battle against the Dullahan."

"I try, girl, I try… But while I'm here, protected by these walls, they're out there being hunted by the Coven. Viktor already fell to them because I sent him on a suicide mission, and now Daiana is aiming to slaughter her own family…" he blurted out, making an inhuman effort not to break. "I saw that monster grow up. I swear there wasn't even a hint of evil in her; she was always a little girl with big dreams. You don't see that nowadays… How in the Abyss did she become a Priestess of the Black Eye?"

Tristessa had nothing to say about that dark mystery, which also made her ponder for many hours in her mind palace. All she could do was share the silence with him, knowing that all this frustration was something he had been building up for years. Ever since the Coven carried out the worst tragedy in Entrana's history, and his friends were exiled in the aftermath.

Left alone in that city whose scholars and colleagues constantly remind him that he is the worst thaumaturge in the current age, an outcast from the Academy and ridiculed because of that.

"I should be out there, looking for them," Severus admonished himself.

"No, your place is here, with us. How would you know where to look? Unless you have a soul-shard hidden somewhere of any of them three, all you can do is wait for them to arrive."

"..."

The blood elf didn't insist on torturing himself any further and simply nodded. That made Tristessa tighten her fingers and rest her head on his shoulder.

"Hehe, by proving me right, you'll make me believe you trust me a little, Sev."

The girl felt the suffocating spiritual heat he emanated, something so normal in the current cycle. His shirt felt soft and his neck gave off a rich scent of perfume. The last and only time she had been so intimate with him was in the Forest of Dead Titans, on the verge of Death; where the smell of burning, the coppery scent of blood, and the vicious, malignant natural atmosphere of the Evil Dream were the predominant factors.

"I think I showed you that I have a little trust in you by not killing you outside the walls," he retorted, looking at her out of the corner of his eye in an attempt at intimidation that failed.

"You believed my words, and I value that…"

"What else could I do, Tristessa? Do you understand that one of the Seven Great Evils appeared in my workshop and told me that my loved ones were going to die? Do you understand what that means, that the Lord of Forbidden Knowledge himself told me that I'm going to lose people I love and there's nothing I can do to prevent it?"

Of course she did. She was no stranger to the suffering of the blood elves due to the near-extinction of their species at the hands of the Shadow Queen. And now, a servant of hers proclaiming more pain… Moebius's vile words, a torment for Severus Malak Drakan that arrived to stay.

"I've already lost too much in this life…"

"I'll make sure you lose nothing more. No, even better: at my side, you will gain. You will have more, not less."

"…like what?"

Tristessa smiled at him, with the affection she had for this man who couldn't understand why he was being treated this way by her after being so openly hostile.

"Well, more friends. Starting with me, of course."

Yes, given how utterly confused Severus was, how could he possibly understand her? He had no way of knowing everything his other-timeline self had experienced with that girl. She, who would never forget all the times she'd seen that man die. Captured by the Coven twice, killed by the Dullahan and by Aurelia Eramisaptor.

Every vile and nightmarish experience, every Death she'd endured, only served to solidify her feelings for him.

"Although… If we could be more than friends, I wouldn't complain…" With that said, Tristessa made the crimson-haired elf go from being uncomfortably confused to letting out a controlled laugh. It sent butterflies swarming through Tristessa's stomach, like any other girl in love. "W-what?"

"I feel like I'll never tire of telling you how crazy you are, Tristessa Irandell."

"…Does that mean I got rejected again?"

"Again? That's in your imagination, but of course I'm rejecting you, you silly little girl."

"Ah, damn it!" Irritated, Tristessa tried to hug Severus, and he was forced to take her other hand to stop her. Struggling and getting angry, he was ready to give her a few harmless—but painful—electric shocks this time. "Please, Sev! Stop hating me and give me a chance!"

"Shut up and stop calling me that!"

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