Lenna leaned against the doorframe that separated the sitting room from the rest of the apartment. Her arms hung casually at her sides as she watched the two strangers. Walter was still out in the hall and met her gaze with a nod. If they tried anything while Isaac wasn't paying any attention, Walter was ready to put a bullet in the back of their heads while Lenna decapitated them. He seemed decently calm, however, which made Lenna believe that the guard and priestess weren't going to do anything that they wouldn't live to regret.

The guard and priestess in question were standing just on the other side of Lenna, with only a few feet of space between the pair and the paladin, and were watching Isaac intently. Isaac, for his part, was casually taking off his armor and boots. Once he was only wearing his shirt and pants, Isaac sat cross legged in the middle of the floor and looked over at his audience. "This is your last chance to make sure that the entire city doesn't go into a panic." Isaac told them.

Tina waved him off. "Everyone who needs to know has been informed. If they have suddenly ceased to be paranoid at this specific instance in time, then that is their own fault." She went on. "Please, continue as if we were not even here."

Isaac nodded and then closed his eyes. He took a deep breath and relaxed. With every breath Isaac settled further and further into nothingness as he let go of everything. Mana would help him heal, he just had to let it, so let it he did.

—

Xlen took a seat next to Cainen's bed. "There is no way that they are going to take this as seriously as they should, is there?" He asked his old friend. "If it is half as bad I have heard, then things will be fine, but if he suddenly turns the sky black or something, the entire city is going to implode."

Cainen chuckled softly. "It will not implode, my friend, but it will not handle it as well as it should have." The farseer and granter of wishes replied. "Crack the window, I want to hear it as I feel it."

"Is this actually necessary to grant their wish?" Xlen questioned as he got up and walked to the window.

"Necessary? No. Helpful? Yes." Cainen told him. "Worth the commotion and potential damage from where we stand in this world? Yes. Worth it for the leaders of this city? No."

Xlen opened the window and took a deep breath of the fresh and warm air. "Should we inform the Ashbornes, just to be safe?" He asked while he looked out across the city.

"No." Cainen replied and shifted slightly to get more comfortable. He closed his eyes and took a deep relaxing breath. He wasn't sure how long Isaac would keep them waiting so there was no harm in meditating until he felt a disturbance. Sure, Cainen could have used his abilities to see when Isaac would begin, but that was just a waste of power that could be spent keeping his soul on the mortal plane. An hour later, Cainen was awoken by a vortex materializing inside the city. Suddenly all of the darker aspects of mana were moving towards Isaac's room instead of with the rest of the current. He smirked just thinking about the chaos that Isaac had just unleashed in the ruling class of the city. Suddenly the words of a guard should've been taken far more seriously.

—

Lenna watched Tina and Chen as they watched Isaac curiously. As soon as the 'mana event' began, and Isaac's throughput reached a level that put even grand master mages in their place, Tina's mouth fell open slightly. Chen looked like he wanted to do something, anything, but was fighting down the instinct to move. It was clear that Chen had fought things that outclassed him by a fair margin before, and his body was trying to move on those created combat instincts.

"Hold, Guardsman." Lenna told him in a voice that cut through everything that was happening with enough quiet authority that he straightened slightly on reflex. "Now that the event has been witnessed, take your charge and leave." She instructed the royal guard commander. She then looked at Tina. "High Priestess, you have seen what you came here to see, we may converse at a later date. I too have instructions from the Fatebreaker that must be carried out."

Both newcomers shared a glance and Tina bowed slightly to Lenna which caused Chen to bow a bit further. "Please, when he is coherent again, thank him for giving us this opportunity." She requested of Lenna. "We will not take up any more of your time." She finished and bumped Chen with her elbow so he would start moving towards the door.

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Lenna gave them a nod in reply. "I will pass on the message." She informed the priestess.

When the priestess and guardsman turned to leave, what they were met with was a propped open door and Walter leaning against the far wall. The hair on the back of their necks raised as a chill ran down their spines. Both of them realized, in that moment, that Walter had not been simply doing what they asked of him, but had been making sure that they didn't step out of line. They were both suddenly very aware that it was rarely a good idea to turn your back on the Free-Walker. If there was ever an elf that lived by his own code and did whatever he felt was right at any given time, it was the man capable of blowing six holes clean through them before they could've turned around to confront him.

Lenna pushed off the door frame to stand straight in the doorway, now behind them, and her scabbard knocked against the wall as she did so. The legendary strength of a V'Nova hellsbent on the protection of her mate was not something that either of them wanted to deal with either. The fact that they had naturally walked right into place between those two arms of a beartrap had now fully settled in. The man who claimed to be a demigod didn't need to be wary of their presence because they never would've gotten the chance to do anything to him in the first place. 'That's why he had agreed so easily.' Tina thought to herself. She bumped Chen's elbow with her hand. "Take me home, Captain Du'Ran. We have taken up enough of these kind people's time."

Chen didn't hesitate and took a step towards Walter who just nodded as he continued to look through them. Tina had never fought alongside or seen Walter fight before, she had only heard of it second or third hand, but Chen had. He knew that when Walter looked like he was staring off into space was when he was the most dangerous. Walter didn't zone out in the conventional sense when he did, instead, he was taking in everything at once, including himself, and working entirely off of instinct and 'vibes' as he called it. As Chen led Tina away, he gave a quick nod to Walter as they passed. "Free-walker." He bid Walter goodbye.

"Thank you for guiding us." Tina added with her own nod.

Walter's eyes refocused on the world and he nodded in reply to the retreating pair. "Of course, that's my job." He told them and then relaxed into the wall that he was leaning against. Once Chen and Tina were gone, Walter let out a sigh of relief. "That's not a pair that I wanna fight." He told Lenna.

"Likewise." Lenna agreed. "Would we have needed Isaac?"

Walter shrugged. "I don't know. It probably depends if El'Gra would be fine with her retiring early or not."

Lenna nodded in agreement and understanding. "Thank you." She said with a slight bow towards their guide and protector.

Walter shook his head. "Isaac would do the same for me." He replied. "The greatest bladedancer alive is on his way, when he gets here, I'm gonna talk with him for a little while and then go do the rest of my errands. He'll make sure that you aren't disturbed. He owes great grandpa Su'Sol a lot and he never forgets a debt or a favor."

Lenna nodded again, this time in thanks. "Thank you, again."

Walter smirked. "Anytime." He said and stuck his hands in his pockets. "Go, get some rest and start your meditation. I got this."

Lenna gave Walter a smile in gratitude and closed the door. Once inside, she slowly began taking off her armor. She knew that strategically it wasn't the best idea but, well, Isaac had made her soft. She just didn't want to live in her armor anymore, no matter how comfortable it actually was. Once her armor was doffed, Lenna sat cross legged in the doorway where she had been leaning. Her sword lay across her lap and she had a throwing spike sitting next to her on each side. If she did need to fight anyone for whatever reason, she would be ready enough to deal with them until Isaac could return to his senses and help her. She wasn't alone, even excluding Walter and his adopted father/father-in-law. She had Isaac and he had Shamesh. They weren't a pair of mildly powerful adventurers struggling to survive. They were living legends as far as the entire world was concerned, even if they didn't all know it yet, and if someone wanted to pick a fight then they had better be damned ready to have it ended.

—

Elsewhere in the capital, people were panicking as their 'perfect' paradise underwent a shift in undertones extreme enough to rip the feeling of stability out of the city itself. People would get used to it, eventually, more or less, but it was the shock that had the opportunity to really do damage. People stopped going about their daily lives to check out what was going on. A hundred people were at the base of the hotel/embassy building within the hour and two hundred were there a half an hour after that. Guards were dispatched to try and get everyone to return to whatever business they had to attend to with a middling degree of success. They managed to keep the people flowing in and out of the crowd instead of just into it.

While a few thousand busybodies took turns checking out the hotel/embassy, the leadership of the city was in a meeting. They were attempting, and failing quite miserably apparently, to explain to the king why his 'perfect' city was no longer functioning as intended despite their 'best efforts'. No one wanted to be the one to take the fall for downplaying what the guard had told them. If any of them were being honest, or had an honest bone in their bodies for that matter, then they would have realized that it was all of their faults. Bureaucrats needed to lead and lead properly both in times of rest and times of action, in times of peace and times of war, that was literally what they were paid to do. The king's cabinet would not all survive the coming days.

—

"It's both more grand than I expected yet less grand than I had hoped." Cainen told Xlen as his eyelids fluttered open. He had no eyes to reveal yet it just felt natural to have his lids open when he was awake.

Xlen nodded as he put his dagger in the doorhandle so no one could pull open the door to disturb them. "I kept an entirely open mind so I am simply surprised at the magnitude of shifting mana." He replied as he heard footsteps run up to the door next to him. The door knob was turned on the other side and the door was yanked. The dagger held firm causing a rattling sound to reverberate through the walls.

"Master Su'Sol?! Master Su'Sol are you alright?!" One of the healers' voices came through only mostly muffled by the thick door and walls.

"We are fine." Xlen explained through the door. "He does not wish to be disturbed until dinner." Xlen ignored the protest from the other side and turned back to his friend, mentor, and ward. "Needed just a bit more chaos before your time is up?" He asked the ancient man rhetorically.

Cainen smirked. "We have to have some fun in our far too long lives, otherwise it all just gets boring." Cainen replied. "Now, I know you stashed a bottle of whisky somewhere. Get me a glass, would you?"

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