Moon and Zeke stood in Weaver's office, with Edelgard by his side. Edelgard was hunched over, her jaw hanging in the wind, and her arms in the air confused. "Eddie, are you alright?" Moon asked, with Selena's Death Knight sword in one hand, and Aurelio's tome in the other. "You look a little pale." A squeak came out of Edelgard. "Oh, is it the spider?" She said petting the abdomen, of the creature still latched onto Zeke. He was completely frozen, his face still contorted in horror, indistinguishable from having rigor mortis. "Yeah, it was real creepy for the driver to look at as well, but it kind of grew on me...And Zeke." She cackled at her own joke, nudging the motionless Zeke. "Is he...going to be okay?" Weaver asked confused and concerned. "Oh, he'll be fine. Nothing a little, crying in the shower, won't fix." "Moon...What the fuck happened over there? You were gone for only three days!" Edelgard exclaimed. "You want the long version or the short version?" Weaver and Edelgard shared a glance. "Long." They said in sync. Moon strolled towards the seat, and slumped into it, laying the sword and tome. She took a deep breath.
"We crossed over, those six assholes 'tried' to kill Zeke. They were gonna rape me endlessly, on the way to a city. Selena appeared randomly, absolutely murdered four of them. Was so awesome." "Who's Selena?" Weaver asked. "She's the Death Knight." "Wait-" Moon continued ignoring Weaver. "She distracted four of them, and I took out Aurelio from behind. So I'm keeping this." She patted the tome gently. "Selena then fucked up all the Saints. Proceeded to tell us to leave and go home, before trying to 'kill' Zeke. No one really understands, it can't be done. She couldn't cut him with this, and tried to break his neck. Ended up dislocating a few of her discs, was real nasty." "How did you end up on a first name basis with a Death Knight?" She took another breath. "She let out this really cute squeal, and when we took off her helmet. She was a super, super, super cute hottie Drow." "Then Zeke gave her some of his meat." The both of them raised a finger to ask a question." "Yes, that was a euphemism." The both of them looked at him impressed.
"We took her to the closest town, then Zeke traded two of the Unicorns to heal her." "HE DID WHAT!?" Edelgard shouted. Weaver reeled back. "Then after their great time together, she took us to their kingdom. City. Town. No idea what it was. Village. It was a village." "You...you were in Mystara? You found Mystara?" Weaver asked stunned. "We didn't really find it. She took us to some random area, then opened a black Rift." "A return Rift in Verdancia. That's why we could never find them." "Mmhmm, then she took us some pitch black area. Should have seen Zeke clinging to me, terrified of the darkness." She nervously scoffed. Edelgard looked at Moon puzzled. "Zeke. Scared of the dark?" She had her doubts. "Yep...Super scared. Well they have like houses in trees and huts, but very dark and hard to see in at times." "And...the weapon and spider?" Weaver asked. "Oh, Zeke gifted them the last two Unicorns and the entire wagon of food. So Selena gave me this, and Ara...A-rack...ummm...what was her name again?" "Arachnae? He met Arachnae?" Weaver asked excitedly. "Yes! That's her name. And yeah, she gave him that thing as a gift."
Weaver approached Zeke, and the spider gently dismounted crawling onto his arm. It scuttled across him onto his table. It took a black thread from its abdomen, writing a message over his table. 'Hello Weaver. You have done well my child.' Zeke collapsed to the ground, shuddering and convulsing. "What are you?" Weaver asked. 'A communication line to you, from Mystara. Honour your word, and keep my children safe, like that Child of Nine.' Weaver looked to Zeke curled into a ball. "I will goddess. Thank you for this gift." Weaver bowed at the spider. "Edelgard, would you mind tending to Zeke. I would like to speak with Miss Kim alone." She carried Zeke like a small child out of the room. Weaver took a seat in his recliner, with the spider scuttling under the desk. Moon placed the tome down. As the doors closed behind the room. She leapt across the room, placing the tip of the weapon over his heart. "This is an odd time, to test your weapon." He said calmly.
"You were trying to make Zeke activate his Demon's blood. Weren't you?" She growled, pressing the tip through his vest. "Yes." He said standing up. Moon furrowed her brow unable to push the sword further. His fingers flexed out, and Moon was pulled back into her chair, and the sword was suspended in the air. She struggled in the chair, trying to break free. She winced feeling micro cuts all over her body. "Careful now. Unlike Mr Chen. My threads will cut through you like fine silk." She watched as the small nick in his suit was stitched back up. He dragged a seat in front of her. "You two claim to not have that kind of love for each other." "Because we don't." She growled. "But. He cares deeply for your safety. It's why he assaulted those girls, and his father. To protect you." Moon scoffed rolling her eyes. "You think, you can understand him, because you read his file?" "Enlighten me." "Why should I? You were gonna have me raped and sold off to those assholes." The threads tightened, rows of razor cuts ran down her entire body, blood seeping out. "Because, I'll just kill you, and see if my theory is right."
She grunted and winced. "Fine." The threads loosened. "The file is incorrect. Zeke's Mana manifested at birth." Weaver reeled back in his chair. "Go on." "His mum told me the story. Said the doctors had to saw off the umbilical cord. Took several needles to finally break his skin." Weaver crossed his legs. "That wasn't in his file." "I started that fight with the girls." "Why?" "Zeke doesn't feel things the way we do. If he can't see or hear something touching his skin. He just won't feel it." "Elaborate please." "Those girls shoved slime and moss they got into his drink. He couldn't even taste or feel the difference. When I overheard them laughing about it. I decided to fuck those little cunts up." "And it went poorly for you." "Unlike Zeke, I was a late bloomer." She pouted. "And the incident with his father?" Moon composed her flash of anger. "Did you know Zeke, hates others cooking for him?" "I did not. Why does he hate it?" "Every time, he asked someone to cook him a snack or something he wanted. His, living embodiment of shit dad, would beat whoever made it. Always said the same thing. Don't feed the monster." She sucked on her teeth, wanting to spit out of disgust.
"You've also already seen how his Mana works. These webs, you placed on us, the day you met us. They would have sliced through anyone else." "So you noticed as well. Both very perceptive. Colour me impressed." "Don't patronise me. I want damn compensation for that bullshit. What if your plan went wrong?" "Are you happy knowing, Zeke will stagnate in strength, if he is never pushed past his limit." "You ever hear the expression. Beware the fury of a patient man?" "I am familiar with the work Pubililius Syrus." "Okay, I'm only familiar with that quote from Instagram." Moon said embarrassed. "To reach your greatest potential, you'll have to fight your greatest fears." "And who is that from? Some other great philosopher, or poet?" "No idea, saw it on Instagram." He said with a smirk. "Well, guess what. Zeke is happy being dull, and so am I. I don't want him to get angry ever again." "Reports say you antagonise him nearly every day." "As a joke. We're best friends. So, I'm asking nicely. Leave him alone." She asked, her voice filled with sincerity and a hint of another emotion.
Weaver stared into her eyes. "You're afraid." "Of what?" She blushed. He leaned in closer. She reeled back, turning away. "I know you're super strong, but not interested in kissing you." "You're afraid, of what he'll become, when he turns. That's why you're contempt with him staying where he is." "He's also scared of it. There's nothing wrong with him stay the way he is." "Hmm, very well." He stood up walking back to his table. "If you are both so adamant about it. I will leave it alone. Head down to the infirmary, I will have someone heal your injuries." He twirled his hand in the air, and the threads disappeared. "As for your compensation. I will have something arranged for you two, back at your homes." Moon took her sword and tome in hand. "Does it have a name yet?" "Huh?" "The sword. The best ones always have names." "Never thought about giving it one, but if I had to give it one-" The spider skittered up onto the table, sprawling a message over it. 'Soul-taker.' "Looks like it already has a name." "Soul-taker. I like it." Moon said, slinging over her shoulder.
The doors burst open with Zeke barging in. "YOU-" He froze seeing the spider on the table. It scuttled under the table. He shuddered and cringed. "Why is it always with the fucking spiders!?" He shook it off, and shoved his finger into Weaver's face, with Edelgard behind him. "Zeke, it's alright." He stopped looking at Moon. "It's alright, we worked it out. He'll be paying us back, when we get home." He spotted the blood running down her body. He shot Weaver a furious glare. "Did you hurt her?" he growled, with a chilling breath. Weaver bowed his head. "I apologise, I did and I wi-" Zeke snatched Weaver's shirt, lifting him up. "Zeke!" Edelgard yelled. Moon reeled back stunned by his strength. She could see the threads encasing his arm. Was Weaver just not pulling him back? "Zeke. Put him down." Edelgard said approaching him slowly. "Ez...I'm okay." Moon said softly. He looked to her, reassuring him. "He's offered me a healer for these." Zeke lowered Weaver, releasing his grip, and lowered his head. "Sorry." "Not...a problem." Weaver said straightening out his suit. "Head to infirmary, they'll be ready for you two. Edelgard. A word please."
Zeke and Moon left together, with Zeke keeping his head down. As soon as the doors closed, Edelgard nearly threw her back and neck out, bowing and apologising to him. "I am so sorry sir! I'll make sure he apologise properly-" "No need." He chuckled, walking back to his seat. "Those two have real potential. I can see why you liked them so much. They are troublesome around the regulations aren't they?" "If they had pay attention at their schools. Those two would be my top Hunters." "Hmm. You have just given me a great idea for their compensation." He began typing on his keyboard with lightning fast keystrokes. "Could you let them know to pack their belongings. They'll be sent to Chiron Academy for their refresher course." Edelgard's jaw hit the floor. "Bububububbutt-" "It's really expensive?" She nodded. "Those two just disposed of six criminals, gave us a direct line into Mystara. Now we'll have a way to further investigate, how that Grimoire was stolen. Upgrading them to Chiron Academy we'll cost nothing in the long run."
Zeke sat in the infirmary, bright red and frowning in the corner. "Are you still pouting?" Moon asked with a cheeky smile. The healer cleaned her wounds, going back to grind ingredients in a pestle and mortar. "I'm not pouting." He said crossing his arms, turning away. "I think it was really cute and adorable. You were SOO worried about me, that YOU of all people would start a fight. With Weaver no less." The healer fumbled the pestle and mortar hearing Moon. "I was angry at him for setting us up. Nothing else." "Sure. Sure. You know if you did for some other girls, you'd probably have a girlfriend by now." "Shut up." He muttered. "How you gave him that tough gruff voice, and you even had the balls to grab him by the shirt." They heard the pestle and mortar clatter and roll over. "Shit." The healer groaned, cleaning the mess. "What did you two do?" Zeke asked taking a drink. "We just did a little rough sex." Zeke choked and spat on his drink. Moon broke out laughing. 'These two are crazy.' The healer thought. "You timed that." He frowned. "Perfectly!" She snorted.
He wiped his mouth. "So, what happened for real?" "When we get home, he's gonna pay us back for that shit he pulled. Found out that thing is called Soul-taker." "That's pretty metal." He said looking at the sword. The healer handed Moon a vial with a clear milky fluid. "Here this should heal your wounds." "Why isn't red or green?" Zeke asked. "Huh?" The healer grunted. "Well health potions are always green or red." "Ignore him. He's an idiot." "That's not a 'health' potion. That concoction will trigger her white blood cells to piggy back off her Mana, and heal her." "So a health potion." Moon slugged the vial back. "Alright, we're gonna leave before he pisses you off." "What? I'm right, it's a health potion." Moon could see a vein bulging on the healer's forehead. "And we are leaving. Come on." She pushed him out. "Would you accept healing potion?" Zeke asked being shoved out. "Get out." Moon shoved.
The two of them travelled back in silence. The driver constantly eyeing Soul-taker, through his rear window mirror, laying across Zeke's lap. Moon snored away in the front seat, her head rocking back and forth against the belt. Zeke checked his email account seeing one notification. 'Settlement complete. Thank you for complying.' He smiled. Weaver was true to his word, at least in this part. "Would you like me to drop you off anywhere, before I take you home?" "Could you take us past a KFC? Doubt there's enough food in the house to feed Moon right now." "Of course." "Did Weaver say anything about Red?" "Your familiar was dropped off at the vet. She's being kept for observation for another day. Said it was because-" "She ate too much." "Yes. Did he tell you?" "Nope, just what Red does. That's alright, I'll go pick her up tomorrow." They were dropped off in front of tiny run down house. Overgrown grass reached up to rusted deformed waist high fence. Their broken car was dropped in front, being raised on cinderblocks, with all its wheels stripped. The driver stared at their house mortified, helping Zeke unpack. "Can't believe they stole the wheels. Those things were definitely not road safe anymore." Zeke said, taking down the bags. "Miss Kim. You're home." The driver gently nudged her, to no response. "Moon, we got KFC." She shot up. "I want chicken." Moon said in a daze, waking up and wiping her drool.
"We got it from here." Zeke said. The Driver nodded, looking over his shoulder concerned. Moon walked in holding three large bags of KFC, diving in first. The wooden door had several key locks, with a horizontal metal handle in the middle. Moon pulled the door directly out, a gigantic slab of concrete followed the door. The driver cocked his head to the side confused. 'That's their door!?' Zeke followed in after, dragging the stone door back into place. He shook his head impressed. 'That's one way to keep your home safe.' The two entered into their barren house. Their living room had two camping chairs, a TV sitting on a stack of bricks, and a foldable table in the middle. "Ahhh, good to be home." Moon said laying out the bags. "I'll leave these by your bed." "Did you want to swing Soul-taker around?" "Why?" "You can pretend it's a lightsaber. I know how much you like doing that. Woosh, woosh, woosh." She said, pretending to hold a sword. Zeke glared at her. "That wasn't even remotely close to a lightsaber." She swung again. "Zap?" "Get out."
The two sat eating together, scrolling through their phones. "Anything yet?" Moon asked. "Mmm, not yet." "This is bullshit, he said compensation would be coming, when we got home." "Are you sure he understood you as money?" "I mean it was heavily implied." "Well, no payments in our accounts." "Yet." "I don't think he's gonna give us money." Their door bell rung, a weak ding rung out. "You expecting anyone?" Zeke asked. Moon shook her head, woofing down her 20th piece of chicken. Zeke cleaned his fingers, pushing the concrete slab out of the way. Edelgard was outside, with Red in her arms. She wheezed struggling to breathe and slumped in her arms, with her stomach bulging. "Edelgard. What are you doing here?" "Is that your door!? Why is that your door?" "So people can't break in." "But you have seven locks!" "You think those are real locks? We can't afford that." "So you what. Glued a door to a concrete block?" "Yeah pretty much. Works like a charm." "I..you..." She sighed. "Never mind. Here take Red, and make sure she doesn't eat anything other than water." "What did she over eat on?" "She snuck off and raided the office's personal kitchen. Ate an crate of chocolates to herself." "Was it, worth it Red?" Zeke asked. She gave a weak nod, in his arms.
"Why else are you here?" "To personally give you two this." She handed Zeke two large envelops. "Uhhh, what is this?" "Best you read that sitting down." She placed a hug on Zeke, to his surprise, making him blush. "Ah...." "I'm really proud of you two. I'll see both, when you get back." She gave him a pat on the back, and left before he could say anything. He watched her drive off, his face still stunned. "....What the fuck?" He walked back inside, still glancing over his shoulder confused. "What happened to you? You got that look of 'a woman touched me in my special place'." Moon asked cleaning the table. "Edelgard, just dropped these off for us. Then she hugged me, and said she was proud us?" "What? That's weird as hell. She say anything else?" "Said, she'll see us, when we get back?" "What's in that thing?"
Red was laid gently onto the ground, her tongue hanging out. The two sat down opening the envelopes with their names on it. They cocked an eyebrow pulling out plane tickets. "Uh Zeke...are these plane tickets..." "To Alaska." "Holy...shit..." She trailed off, trembling. "He's sending us to do our refresher course at Chiron Academy." "HOLY SHIT!" She screamed running around the house, brimming with joy. She let out a long continuous whoop. Zeke scanned the letter inside. "Please consider this as compensation for my transgression. Your allotted allowance for the both of you, is $5,000 per month." Zeke read. "WOOOOOOOOOOO!" Moon whooped sprinted past. He focused in seeing another clause on the letter. "However this gift does not come without its...rules." "WOOOooo...." She trailed off, putting her arms down. "I expect you two, to achieve great things, and spoon feeding you two will not do that. For that reason, for every month you fail your refresher course, you will lose your month's allowance." "Woo!" Moon let out an angry whoop, making fists. "If you two complete the course, with high grades. I will have the board revoke your Agency cancellation." "WOOO!" She threw her hands up in joy.
"Plane trip is next week Monday, at 6am..." Zeke sighed. "Guess, we have a week to pack our shit. I'll get us started." Moon giddily rummaged through her envelope, finding a golden ring inside. "What the...?" she found a small envelope inside. 'This is a consecrated ring, I hope it fits. For when Zeke turns, use it to remind him of his humanity.' Zeke popped his head out. "You get anything cool in your package?" "Nope. Same letter as you." She quickly tucked the ring into her pocket. "Come on then, let's get packed. I'll head out for groceries tomorrow." 'I won't need it Weaver. I won't give him a reason to use it.' "Should we tell the landlord, that we'll be gone?" "Hm...We'll probably have to move out anyway. Without your Hunter benefits, we won't be able to afford this place, and feed you and Red." "We can always make this place work. We can always cut back on things. Right Red?" She stuck her thumb up. "That means we only buy chips, lollies, or chocolates, when they're on sale." "We should move out to a cheaper place."