Outside the cavern entrance to Sanctum city, the only Hybrids not to have evacuated the underground complex sat in darkness.

Under Ethan's orders, they'd scrambled to get out of the range of the Archon and Lightborn's final dance of death, barely managing to clear the city perimeter when the ceiling came cascading down. A few moments of dust and echoes, accompanied by a searing ringing in their ears, consumed them. Then the light of two Hopla magi burst into life in the dark.

Fauna, holding the exhausted Lamphrey, stood alongside Mara, both still standing strong even against all that had transpired.

But the face of the Wildmancer had twisted in the moment the sky fell upon them.

"You can all feel it, can't you?"

She asked everyone who was huddled around her – Klax and Tara, their bodies pressed ever closer to the others, Borlor and Fraxx, both of them trying not to collapse from exhaustion, Malak and his Drytchling hosts who had remained strangely silent, and Mara's Minotaur minions – who had already been so consumed with sorrow at the loss of their mother that all they could think about was the next skull to crush.

But there would be no more crushing of skulls. For all of them knew what the light they had felt at their backs meant. All of them knew what the crumbling wall of rubble before them signaled.

"This is it," Klax replied with a reverent nod. "The end. And – the death."

"Who's death?" Borlor sputtered. "Surely not –"

"No," Malak finished, shaking his head as though to dispel the thought before it could even be articulated. "The Archon shall prevail. He must."

Everyone looked to Fauna, questions on their faces. To her surprise, she didn't know how to answer them. She held Lamphrey tighter, feeling how utterly frail the Tialax's scales were in her hands.

"We could have helped the Archon if thisss sssnake wouldn't have impeded ussss," Frax hissed in her direction.

"I quite agree," Malak stated. "For a chance at glory, this Magi scuppered our chances of aiding our Lord in his most trying time. For that, there should be punishment."

Fauna looked to them both, and then Borlor who simply sighed, shrugging his dust-caked shoulders.

The only one she dared not look down at was Mara. She couldn't, right now. She couldn't let the girl see just how much doubt there was in her mind. She'd taught her to face her fears and her doubts and push through them, not let them lead her into hesitation.

But right now, after what Lamphrey did – Fauna wasn't sure of anything anymore.

She opened her mouth and no words came out. She looked around as if an answer would spring out of the dust and ashes that surrounded them.

And, in a way, one did.

"That's enough," Klax said calmly, but firmly, placing a warning paw on Malak's shoulder. "Lamphrey made a daring sacrifice without informing us of her plan, and using our combined energies to do so, but she still ensured we survived the Lightborn's little trick. Now, Ethan fights him on equal terms."

"And he'll win," Tara said, standing up, dusting off her beige shorts, and fixing both of the dissenters with her sharp, feline eyes. "He's never truly lost a battle yet. And unlike that old geezer, he's got something worth fighting for."

In her arms, Lamphrey stirred, and Fauna begrudgingly drew her attention away from her friends who had jumped in to reassure the team. With a mouthed 'thank you' she addressed them all now, as equals:

"The battle seems to have entered a lull," she said as she listened in for any other signs of combat. "Whatever Ethan planned to do, he's done it. Borlor, can you dig us a way back in?"

The old Dixit took one look at the cracked stones barring their way back to the city and stretched out his claws.

"Gi' me one second, lass."

He dug his nails into the rockface and heaved with herculean effort. However, instead of clearing a path in a matter of seconds, these rocks simply refused to budge, even as Borlor put his whole back into it.

"What the-?"

As he attempted to dig his claws deeper into the stones, he felt a strange tingling sensation vibrate up his arm. Then, looking down, he saw light begin to glow from within the cracks.

"Back!" Klax growled, leaping towards the old Dixit and pulling him away from the sudden emanation of light. As soon as his claws were dislodged, the bright glimmer receded. It was as though the crumbled stones were themselves possessed – and did not wish the hybrid party to see what was on the other side of the wall.

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"There's power in them," Mara whispered. "Can you feel it, Miss Fauna?"

Her minotaur entourage gripped their weapons and moved close to their lady, but Fauna calmly reassured her that they were in no danger, here. Whatever defensive mechanism had claimed the stones of their home, it seemed to be just that – a defensive measure and nothing more.

"Looks like someone doesn't want us going back through," Tara observed. "The question is: who? Ethan or the old birdboi?"

The Hybrids – and Malak – shared muted glances between each other again. Fauna could see that most of them had only barely recovered from the wounds the spirit attacks of Artorious had caused them, and Fauna could see that they were anxious to know the fate of their Lord.

But Ethan had given them an instruction. He'd come back home to fight for them, and he'd told them to stay safe. Fauna intended to follow that order.

"Rest here," she told them all. "We don't head back in there until we're at full strength and whoever set up this defense lets it fall. Ethan will need us at our best in his hour of victory."

Klax and Tara nodded at once and began preparations for setting up a little camp outside the bounds of battle-site. Frax, still a little shaken with discontent, followed their lead once Borlor grabbed his shoulder and bid him sit back down. Malak looked between them all, hesitant, but finally gave the order to his Drytchlings that they were to offer some wood for a fire.

While this all went on, little Mara was confused. She reached out to Fauna privately in the latter's mind while she placed Lamphrey against the edge of their camp.

Miss Fauna – shouldn't we help Mr Ethan?

This is helping him, Fauna replied. Keeping each other safe is what he wants. He wants you, your brothers and sisters, and all of us hybrids to be strong and live in the new world he'll soon create.

Mara blinked, staring at Fauna's back while the latter began administering to the fallen Tialax before her.

Can he – can Mr Ethan really do it?

The question was an innocent one, asked with the tone of a child who was quickly being thrust into an early adulthood. Fauna gulped as the thought entered her mind. It was her duty, as a teacher, to ensure the health of her students. But it was also her duty to prepare them for the harsh realities that so often cropped up in their world.

Mara was strong, but strength had limits. In the small glimpses Fauna had taken of the little Hopla's demeanor during their fight against the angel, she could tell that the child had seen perhaps too much, too soon. She had seen death, now. She had come to realize just how the hatred of the surface world could affect them.

So Fauna did not telepath her response. She turned around and looked at the child square in her beady eyes, expecting to see despair flickering in there.

Instead, she found hope and wonder. Mara was on her tiptoes, her ears twitching in anticipation, anxiously awaiting her teacher's answer. The girl was surrounded by her minotaur warriors who guarded her like she was a little queen.

What comes after all this? Fauna thought. That's what you wish to know, Mara, is it not?

She looked at the girl's tiny fingers interlaced together and smiled at her.

"Yes," she said. "He can. And he will, with our help. Your help."

Mara took a moment to register the response, as though her mind was computing what Fauna was saying, turning over the thought and trying to imagine what exactly their world up there would look like. She could barely even remember what the sky was, after all this time, never mind a life that could be lived up there.

But within a few seconds, she smiled back and nodded, dutifully turning to help Tara and Klax with their fire.

"The smile of a child…lit up in the dark."

Fauna turned back to Lamphrey, who had begun coughing under her.

"That is the world we must fight for, Fauna the Hopla," she said. "A world for them."

Fauna bent down, expelling what little magic she still had to abate Lamphrey's fatigue. But just like when Mara tried, the Tialax raised a weak arm and batted the Hopla's magic away.

"There is no need," she said in nary a whisper. "My time grows short."

Fauna understood. "You see your death."

"Mine, yours, and all the rest."

The Hopla froze, eyes locked with those of the Tialax. It seemed almost pointless to ask her anything else. All Fauna could see in those eyes, and in the increasingly weary demeanor of the lizardwoman, was the certainty of her own demise.

And there was a sad smile painted on Lamphrey's face that Fauna had never before seen. The kind of smile that the elderly get just moments before the end of a long, arduous life full of strife. It was the kind of smile that said 'my job is done. Time to go.'

But suddenly, the lizardwoman's claw closed round Fauna's arm, and she pulled herself close.

"I – I am sorry," she said. "For caring more about the future than the lives of those who live, here and now. My race's existence is measured in centuries, not in fleeting moments of present-joy or pain. Such moments are denied to us by the gifts of dreamwalking and prophecy which we bear. But I wish – I truly do – that I could have had more moments like those. I think that is why I truly wished to join your team, Fauna. Because I coveted the bond you all had."

Fauna felt the lizardwoman's grip tighten.

"I know we have not always seen – how is it said? Eye to eye? But I have seen this face of yours before. I have heard you speak these words you speak before. I knew you would be here for them when they needed you to be."

Fauna couldn't help but smile back at the diminished mage.

"You could have dropped me a few hints, you know."

Lamphrey let out a hoarse chuckle and Fauna didn't know what else to say. She just clamped her own hand down on Lamphrey's and squeezed it tight. Then, keeping her voice low and neutral, she asked the only question it made any sense to ask:

"Can he win?"

Lamphrey's smile never faltered. But it seemed to Fauna that it became, for a moment, just a little more bittersweet.

"It's not up to him."

Fauna stared at the sighing Tialax in confusion.

"What do you –"

"CONTACT!"

At that moment, Malak's Drytchlings reported sensations running through the tunnel to their east. Klax and Tara were up immediately, fighting poses locked. Borlor and Fraxx leaped to their feet with them, ready to smash whatever fledgling Greycloak bungler had come for them.

Only Fauna did not look back. She kept her gaze locked with Lamphrey and saw the bittersweet smile of the lizardwoman slowly fade away.

"...it is time."

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