That night, Matthew and Sarah went to Eric's house to check upon Vanessa. Monica had also healed the woman and Matthew was thoroughly surprised by seeing her. The last time he saw her, her skin was covered in burn scars, parts of her hair were missing. Now she was as beautiful as she's ever been. She looked younger even. Just a bit pale, but that was from new skin that had yet to tan under the sun.

The garage was still missing the top floor where Vanessa's room used to be. The bottom floor where the car and the motorbikes used to park, was now at risk of collapse and was not being used.

Luckily, the garage and the house were not connected and no major damage affected it other than some broken windows from the blast.

Katia received Matthew and Sarah with tight hugs. She was as full of energy as ever. It seems that the events of that night haven't affected her at all. As a matter of fact, she seemed happier now that Vanessa was sleeping inside the house with her instead of sleeping in the garage.

"Look! Look!" Katia said pulling Matthew and Sarah by their hands. "The kind lady gave me this." She explained while showing them a silver coin she was keeping on the coffee table in the living room.

"That's beautiful!" Sarah indulged the girl kneeling by her side and examining the coin.

"Was Monica here too?" Matthew asked turning to Vanessa.

"Yes. She came to check up on me. Now I understand why she's called a saint." Vanessa said rubbing her skin remembering her wounds that were no longer there.

"This is magical." Ffyr said landing on the table and examining the coin.

"Do you know what it does?" Eric asked. "The Saintess gave Katia that saying it would keep her safe, but didn't say much else."

"I don't know." Ffyr shrugged. "But if the lady gave this to her, better to keep it with her at all times."

"Did you hear that, Katia?" Eric said to his daughter. "Take good care of that coin."

"Yes dad!" Katia said as an afterthought not paying close attention to what was being said. She was too focused admiring the image of Saint George slaying a dragon on the coin.

Matthew and Vanessa went to the kitchen while Eric cooked and Sarah and Ffyr played video games with Katia. Vanessa grabbed a beer bottle in the fridge and opened it with a flick of her thumb before drinking.

"What happened to Yuki?" Matthew asked.

"She was quickly subdued after almost killing us. She went back to jail. She added attempted murder to her charges and will not get bail anymore." Vanessa explained.

"And the Howling Spear?"

"They're still under 'investigation'." Vanessa said with air quotes. "Information about what we found is being slowly leaked to the press to keep public engagement until the elections. The prosecution will sit on the case until election time comes." She added spitting on the sink in disgust.

"But that's the game, Ness." Eric commented while putting a homemade pizza in the oven. "At least we now know they'll pay for what they did."

"I hope they will." Vanessa as less positive about the situation.

"Their leader, what was his name? Is he in jail too?" Matthew asked.

"They still haven't moved on him." Vanessa answered. "His name is Douglas Warner."

"Doug the Marauder." Eric added his alias.

"Marauder?" Matthew asked.

"Yeah. That's the name adventurers gave him. Partying with him has always been difficult. He's not a good man." Eric explained.

"I know." Matthew said remembering the photos he saw with him. "I thought he'd be in jail by now."

"He should have been there a long time ago." Eric commented grabbing a beer for himself.

"The prosecution is making sure that the evidence we gave them will not be contested. The guild already knows I gave it to them. So they need to create a paper trail making it legal to use in court. If it comes from me alone it will be inadmissible." Vanessa explained. "But the criminal charges on Douglas should come within a month."

"Let's hope he doesn't come for you meanwhile. Like that Yuki did." Eric said with a scary look on his face.

All three of them were quite after that comment. No one could say he wouldn't.

"Oh! Ffyr told us earlier that you met her mother." Vanessa changed the subject to ease the mood.

"Yeah, I did. While I was hurt, Ffyr brought me to her Oneiros." Matthew explained.

"Tell us about her!" Vanessa teased him with a hint of malice.

"Mommy?" Matthew said and immediately put his hands over his mouth.

Eric and Vanessa laughed so loudly that it brought Sarah, Ffyr and Katia running into the kitchen to know what was so funny.

"What happened?" Katia asked with a smile on her face.

"Matthew was just telling us about Ffyr's mother, princess." Eric explained forcing himself to stop laughing for a while.

"What is so funny?" Katia asked Matthew. "I want to know too!"

"Tell her about my mother, Matthew." Ffyr teased him already laughing.

"No." Matthew denied with his face bright red.

"Not fair!" Katia protested. "I want to know too!"

"Just tell her my mother's name." Ffyr insisted.

Matthew took a deep breath, looked at Katia's pleading eyes and gave up.

"Mommy." He said resigned.

Sarah joined in the laughter after that, but Katia just turned her face to the side not understanding what was so funny.

"You call her mother mommy too?" Katia asked trying to understand the joke. "I used to call my mom mommy too." She said as if consoling Matthew for the bullying.

That comment made everyone stop laughing.

Sarah knelt on the floor and hugged Katia tightly while all the others looked at themselves feeling guilty to make the little girl remember her dead mother.

"It's good if you want to call Ffyr's mom mommy. But you have your own mommy at home!" Katia finished her thought proud of herself for figuring out the joke.

That made everyone smile. In a room full of adults, it's easy to forget the innocence of a child.

Eric's pizza was delicious. He said he learned how to make it with a friend from his guild that came from an Italian family. Katia ate it with a smile while swinging her feet under the table and moving side to side.

"This is really good. You could make money with it." Sarah said eating a piece with a fork effortless looking like a diva while Vanessa used a napkin to clean Katia's face. "I wish I could eat it everyday." She added.

"You can." Eric smiled picking up his phone. "Alfredo's parents have a pizza place." He said referring to the friend who taught him. "I'll send you the contact of their restaurant."

"Oh! Thank you! I'll take my friends there." Sarah smiled genuinely. "Matt should take Lynn there too."

"Take Lynn? Faralynn?" Vanessa asked.

"Yes!" Sarah squealed. "Didn't you hear? They're dating now."

"Really?" Vanessa exclaimed surprised. "You and the elf girl finally going out?" She smiled at him with genuine happiness and even a bit proud.

"You and the elf girl?" Eric asked confirming. "My man!" He fist bumped him.

"The beautiful woman with purple eyes?" Katia also asked surprising everyone. Everyone thought she was tuned out of the conversation.

"Yes. We got closer recently. After we almost died in the Labyrinth that day." Matthew explained.

"I knew she looked at me funny." Vanessa laughed and elbowed Eric on his ribs. "Told you something happened."

"Well. Congrats, kid. Faralynn seems like a great girl." Eric said getting up and taking the dishes to the sink.

"She is." Sarah said almost jumping from her chair to help their host wash everything. "She's very shy, but she's fierce when she gets serious. And she really likes that jerk." Sarah added.

"And what's the plan for next week?" Matthew asked changing the subject. It was Sunday night.

"You mean for Saturday with Claudio?" Vanessa said. "Eric and I can't go. He has a dive with his guild. That means Paula and Lumi, and Michael will be there too. I have business with the DA with the Howling Spear case and now to set up a strategy against Yuki." She explained.

"So I'll have to go alone?" Matthew asked looking at Ffyr and remembering Titania's task.

"No." Vanessa said. "I don't want you going alone with Claudio in there. The agreement is that you would only go with another person."

"What about with Lynn?" Sarah asked. "She has that woman in black as a bodyguard."

"Faynn." Matthew gave her name. "She is very powerful. Might even be stronger than Claudio." He said.

"Claudio isn't that powerful." Eric said. "He is high level, probably closing on 40. But I think he picked a production build. He uses a lot of magical items. I mean. Even with the production skill a mid level 30 adventurer is very strong, but he does not seem to have the skills to actually fight well." He explained.

That made sense for everyone. Eric was the one there with the most adventuring experience, so he could tell those things simply by looking at a person. It was not a science, but he was often more right than wrong about those things.

"If you get that Faynn to go with you two… I think it's okay to have your dungeon date with your elf." Vanessa said teasing him and babying him at the same time.

"Guess I'll ask her then." Matthew said with a smile on his face imagining being with Faralynn in the dungeon again.

He was looking forward to it.

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