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So much happening so fast. Zac's head felt like it was spinning. He was somehow not shocked by Autumn's actions, in truth he admired them. His mouth became a hard line as he moved to stand between Pax and his.... 'Father' he wasn't ready to mess with the green fire, but it seemed, with or without a Deal Sunny had some plans for what was happening.

"This is NOT over." HE told her, but he was not writer in a place to talk about it it seemed. Unless he was going to include dealing with Pax.

"Heliodora, please... TELL me something." He said suddenly,

"Are you.... Are you HOME." He said cautiously. "I really want to know what happened to you, I want to know your...WHOLE story. But... Can... Can you help us convince Pax to stay true to his name? We want to get the others who went missing back to their families, back to their -home-" HE put a careful emphasis on the words. "After that...I'll know what if any deal I might have to make with...well Sunny there."

"And how soon I might have to make that deal, but I'd rather not... I would Rather not risk PAX being hurt trying to defend you EITHER"

Algie had been ready to express his own concerns, his warnings that this place was a cage, that something wanted those kids here and it intended to keep them. What was more tempting than this? But Jeremiah said it first, and Pax reared it's ugly side (and made Algie jump in his skin again).

"Jeremiah!" <******** idiot. But he'd been about to say the same hadn't he? It could have been him in there. <******** idiot.

One step, two steps- it was all he could manage because of the barrier. He wasn't close enough to do anything, not even reach for the other man. The green flames gave off biting, painful cold enough that Mogget in his sweater scrabbled up over his shoulder and back to Zac.

Algie had no choice but to stop, clutching Heliodora's book in front of his chest like a sheild. He was very much, at this moment, useless.

"Heliodora- I also have your book.." Clutching it reminded Algie that he even had it. Perhaps he was just trying to engage her, like Zac was doing, but he glanced at the girl in the creatures protection. "I haven't given you a proper refund actually.. " He adjusted his glases slightly, attempting to maintain some level of normality against all of this.

Here, the book had showed them a memory of hers, were they meant to be there and was he truly meant to have them?

Jeremiah had been about to say something, stop Zac from making some other goddamn deal, but Pax's stare caught him as he rose. The detective had been wanting to not mention the specifics of his deal, not with his questions -

- but he was already a threat, it was too late. Mostly because the slenderdeer seemed to be particularly possessive of Heliodora. That she was a thing to be owned.

He had wanted to talk.

A dialogue. Something. More information.

When Pax spoke, his voice more angry than peaceful, he stepped away from Algie - moving because he knew this was not good and standing close would be bad -

The fire erupted around him before he moved too much. It burns cold, making him jerk only to have it spark up his back in a flash of pain. The detective grits his teeth, straightens himself up and -

- Algie is going to ******** kill him -

- Sunny's voice. To think of water. Right. ******** right. He just barely catches Autumn running to Pax, wanting to shout that you really should ******** not be near the damn thing that can explode it's head into ******** light. Swearing is second nature and he cannot find his voice at the moment. Not with cold heat prickling at him. His own pulse and the fire roars in his ears; drowns out voices to him.

Does he trust Sunny? He does, more than he trusted Pax. Deals were better than things that were named ironically peace. His eyes slide shut and he focuses on water. On a vacation years ago. The roar of the waterfall, the feel of it as they had jumped from the top to the bottom and the water crashed against them. The force of the falling water, the way it had shoved them to the bottom only for him to have to be pulled to the top by a strong arm because he was a s**t swimmer then. Feeling it churning, moving around them and pushing them into calmer waters.

Let's do it again! he had said.

You have no sense of self-preservation, Algie had said.

It's a strong memory, it's one he's never forgotten. The water had been cold but warmer than the fire that was around him now, hedged him in.

Page didn't even get time to answer her that everything went wrong again. Something had apparebtly set the deer creature on edge and the fire brushed all too close to them and...

and...

Gods.

Kalisha just clung to Page all the more tightly, shaking like a leaf.

She'd hear the rumors, of another place, another Ashdown, but had never believed them.

She had never heard of any deals, never wanted to bring any missing back home,

And, selfish or not, all the wanted right now was for her and Page to be as far away as possible from this place.

No. Nononononooooooo! They were almost home! That angry DJ bird had been about to get them out of here when the detective had set Pax off again. Rabbit started to speak, a spontaneous shout that seemed more a reaction to someone doing something stupid in a movie—don't go in the basement, Sally!—than something intended to draw attention in real life.

"They're all best ******** friends, man, can't you see? Protecting each other by amputation since 2016! Just tell it you'll leave her here so we can all go! Jesus, cops."

Only when his outburst was complete did he realize it might have been better to stay silent. So he did.

So much for not getting soaked.

Even though she generally didn't have to worry about her hair (thanks to her hijab), that was irrelevant now. She was soaked through to the bone, even her headscarf dripped with water. It wouldn't have been so bad, but having wet clothes was one of her least favorite feelings ever. Asiya couldn't have frump-face harder even if she tried.

"...Why is there all this arguing and fighting.." she muttered, resisting the urge to take off her scarf entirely. "I've forgotten why people are all up in arms to begin with." A shiver escaped Asiya after she said this, and this made her all the more sad and grumpy. Wet clothes could only mean one thing, and she hated it.

It meant cold, and once the chill set it, it was going to be hell getting it to go away.

It's that same sky - that same sky - old and fresh and -

- gone. There's a different sensation instead, one that he cannot quite explain. It's as if something is threatening to burst but -

- gone again. Jeremiah finds that his eyes were shut and he opens them, his hand resting on Sunny's shoulder and not quite sure that he is certain what happened. Instead everything, everyone around him is wet and the cold fire is gone. His back itches from the residual feel of cold fire along his back (not even going to look, it likely was scorched in some way) and his hand still sits on Sunny's shoulder.

The feeling that had welled up was not quite gone and the detective isn't sure what it was but he thinks about calla lilies and transition.

Not the place.

"I am not," he breathed out, "trying to take her out." Not for now. Not before he knew more. "What I think is not necessarily what is." Still, he believed this place to be a cage for something and ... ********, his mind was already adjusting, reassessing. The detective looked to Autumn. "I am well aware she has clearly found a place here but that doesn't mean that there's not more to it." His gaze flicked to Heliodora. "Answers, would be nice. If we're to take a piece of you back - to tell people you are gone - then we have to know something."

Then, in a tired breath. "Is this place worth it, Heliodora?" It was a genuine question.

One was coming up for Sunny as well.