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After Heliodora had given her final breath, Shun gently laid her body down and closed her eyes. What was done is done now. No turning back. He cleaned the blood off of his blade and got up. He wasn't really sure how he felt right now. Though, one thing was for certain... the case of the missing teens was really going to go cold now.

It felt odd to just be leaving her here, but she said Pax would deal with her body. He was going to have to trust her on that.

So he started to head back out through the gate to the forest. A blink and he was back in normal Ashdown. Drawing in a deep breath, he tried to think about what he should do now. The first instinct was to contact Jeremiah to inform him what just happened.

At the same time, there was something weird about contacting the Chief of Police to meet up to effectively confess murder. They both knew it was a necessity though, as grim as it was. Another reminder that their laws didn't really apply to that of Other Ashdown. Closing his eyes for a moment, he pulled out his phone and spoke into it to fire off a text to his boss while he began to briskly make his way back to his place.

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Shun was getting his key out as he approached his door. He hasn't spotted Jeremiah outside, so the Chief probably hadn't gotten there yet. Well. That was before the man literally appeared in front of him.

The detective had not expected him to do that and threw his hands up defensively, ready for an attack of sorts. A split second later, he realized that it was just Jeremiah.

"..."

He stared at him for a moment, then gave a curt nod of greeting. Relaxing a little, he went to get the door open to let them both in.

There was a new resident of the apartment that had not been there the last time Mercer was around. Against one of the walls was a cage of sorts, meant for housing rodents. Within it was a single black rat with a dab of white on its face and belly.

"Thank you for arriving promptly. I had just come from Other Ashdown."

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The rat looked towards the door briefly, spotting both her owner and some strange guy she hadn't seen before. Her nose twitched a bit, then she went on to groom herself, paying them little mind for now.

Shun's clothing were still wet from the morning's rain. It had stopped raining once he returned from Other Ashdown, but that hadn't really been enough to get himself dried up.

"Yes," he stated as he removed his boots and motioned to Jeremiah to go ahead and take a seat. Drawing in a deep breath, he continued on.

"Heliodora is dead."

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Shun looked Jeremiah right in the eyes as he took his seat as well. Mercer knew the implications of it. It was impossible for him to not know.

"About a minute before I texted you," he answered calmly, waiting a bit to let that sink in.

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"As quickly and painlessly as I could make it," he nodded, slowly, "She called me there and asked I do it. Pax should be taking care of her body."

Shun let out a breath, not completely certain how Jeremiah would react to that, "What was odd... we were not in her clearing. She was at the gate of the forest. Her missing foot was reattached to her leg, scarred over."

Maybe it had to do with how she was able to practically summon him there. Or why she wanted it done now, rather than later.

"We should not see anything different. Not immediately. She said this would bide us some time due to the amount of magic she was releasing with her death."

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It seemed Jeremiah didn't think poorly of what had transpired. Shun had suspected this would be how he'd take it, but he could never be too certain. These sorts of things can make people act on emotion sometimes.

"Correct. Heliodora also stated that this will be our last chance to stop the Enemy before he can do as he pleases with all of the released magic. If he gets a hold of it, things will grow stagnant," he explained, "But... there is something we can potentially fall back on. Her notes on the sealing spell are in the library, and Adoelle's is somewhere in the court. I would rather not it come to that, but we should probably recover these things for the sake of having a contingency."

Meeting his superior's gaze, he noticed the glow his eyes took, despite the fact that it wasn't really all that dark in the apartment. Granted, he did keep things a bit darker as of late since it was a way of saving a bit of electricity and he could still see fine otherwise, but that was mostly for when he was alone.

"I want to be able to get this done right, without that. I would rather not let their deaths be for naught."

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"It seems like that would be the case, yes. The option is there if we absolutely must resort to it, but I would rather we do it right this time around."

They didn't need three more people to put themselves up to this for who knows how many years, only to inevitably die like this trio had. Nothing would be gained in the end. They would be right back where they had started, with a few different faces in different places. That was all.

"I hope you are right, Jeremiah."

Seeing how Shun was the one to take Heliodora's life, he felt an extra bit of responsibility on his shoulders to see to it that he carried out her wishes. She wanted them to succeed.

Don't let me down.

"We cannot fail. Not this time. I just hope that we are... or will be properly equipped for the task."

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Shun nodded at that. Granted the only thing he was aware of that was different this time around was the fact that he apparently had never gone to speak with Liam in his office after the ball. It was a small change, but it was still a thing.

"I plan on seeing this through as well. Whatever that may entail. I am already in this deep. There is no turning back," he stated quietly.

"And I appreciate you taking the time to work with me. I really do."

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