I stand, heart pounding, in the center of a massive inscription more complex than I can ever hope to follow. Nearby, Felix continues his fervent work of drawing out the rest of the lines, while Asumi waits off to the side.

The white-haired girl's pretty face is contorted into an expression of deep concern as she watches the proceedings. I can't help but feel a stab of guilt for how I've treated her lately. Asumi deserves better than a friend constantly chasing after a dream like this, but… I can't stop. I won't stop. Even if bringing back Akari puts me into a grave next to my mother's, I will fight until my final breath to see her again.

Even still, I can't help but feel a bit of unease at being the centerpiece of such a grand work of magic. In a vain attempt at distraction, I try to lose myself in Celeste's silky soft fur as I pet her. My poor familiar is as nervous as I am, but not quite for the same reason.

"It will work," I assure my familiar, who is practically vibrating under my touch. "This will give us everything we need."

Celeste lets out a soft huff and flicks her tail. [We can't know that for sure. An inscription built to empower our connections might only work on my mother or only work on Akari. Or… maybe it won't work at all.]

"It will work," I repeat, although my heart is traitorous.

Ever since Felix told us that this inscription would be able to empower all of our spiritual connections, Celeste immediately pounced on the idea of being able to reconnect with her mother. While Felix himself didn't seem worried about this possibility, it has been dominating Celeste's mind ever since she found out.

In a way, I agree with her. Felix and the A Rank Council have been somewhat trustworthy lately, but if we can just get assurances from Althia that she will be able to save Akari and Liora for us, that could be a better way forward. Still, the idea of fully reconnecting to Althia sends chills down my spine. There's a possibility that this inscription could reconnect me to Althia without empowering my connection to Akari enough to attempt a revival. In a disaster scenario, the A Rank Council would withdraw their support, and Althia wouldn't be able to bring Akari back. That could leave me right back at square one.

As long as this works to empower our connection to Akari and Liora, though, I'm somewhat confident that Florina might be able to help me with the final step of my plan. Thus, the best case would be to connect with both Althia and Akari. That way, Althia could guide me through the final stages of the process. If I have everything I need, I don't mind breaking from the A Rank council.

So, Celeste and I stand in the center of the inscription, nerves turning to dread, turning to boredom as Felix just keeps going. Stars, this inscription is going to fill the entire floor before he's done!

To pass the time, I chat with Asumi about menial things while continuing to reassure Celeste again and again. Over the course of her entire life, Celeste has never been disconnected from her mother like this. Even now, I can feel her soul moving within me, clawing at the tattered remains of what used to connect us with Althia.

For my part, I sit on the hard concrete floor — as standing became tedious — and simply wait for the fireworks to start. Luckily, it doesn't take too much longer.

Standing on the far side of the room and not looking any worse for wear after having drawn out this massive inscription, Felix calls over to me. "We are ready to begin. Please ensure that you do not exit the inscription during the process, and" he turned to Asumi, "do not enter the inscription during the process. This will take the majority of my power to fuel and will zap you into nothing like a fly landing on a live electrical line if you touch the wrong spot."

"Serena, are you ready to begin?" he asks.

I nod, firming my shoulders and starting to stand.

Felix, however, waves me down. "This will probably hurt. Like, hurt a lot. Best if you stay seated so you don't fall and end up doing a reenactment of that fly I mentioned."

I narrow my eyes at the eccentric sentinel. "What do you mean 'probably '? I thought you said that you tested this."

The mad sentinel shrugs, "I said I ran simulations. An inscription this large, requiring this much power, and for a purpose so niche has never been useful before."

Sighing, I shake my head. I don't think that Felix would put me through this if he thought it would kill me, but he isn't exactly sane either. Several of the experiments he's done on the soul gems of dead sentinels are things I would consider unethical. Especially since he didn't have any idea whether they would work or not.

This is for Akari, I remind myself forcefully. You're doing this for her.

"I'm ready," I call to Felix, and the man gives me a grin that I can only consider vulpine — one of his fox ears twitching above his head.

"Perfect!" he says, eagerly stepping into his designated spot in the inscription. An instant later, magic begins to gather around him.

Swallowing my nerves, I cast Asumi a meaningful look, and she nods. Her job here today is to make Felix stop if it looks like he's going to kill me.

"Ready?" I ask Celeste, as the inscription lines around us begin to glow with an ever-brightening shade of blue.

[Whatever it takes,] Celeste agrees.

"Inscription activation in five," Felix begins, grinning madly in the light of his own potent mana. "Four, three, two… one."

The lines of the inscriptions flare so brightly that they burn into my retinas, and I feel a foreign force seize something within me. The magic of my title rises to meet it, to force out what it feels is a foreign influence on my soul. However, the magic seizing me is so powerful, I'm able to force down my title from stopping the effect before it can entirely nullify the magic moving through me.

The grip within me tightens, and for a moment, it feels like someone has just reached their hand into my chest and grabbed my very soul gem. I gasp at the sensation, and I start to scream.

I watch from Akari's eyes as she sits across a small, dark alleyway from a little blonde girl. At first, I can feel Akari's annoyance at the girl's arrival in the alley with her; she just wants to be left alone. She wants to stay in the alley and wait until the next school day, avoiding her uncle's wrath for at least one night. It will be uncomfortable, but Akari has done it before, and she's so very tired.

However, that little blonde girl… Serena, was it? She just won't leave her alone! She speaks of helping, as if she's the first one to want to try. It won't amount to anything, it never does.

That night, Akari finds herself proven wrong.

Akari stands under the tree of her soul gem's internal world, feeling the connection to Serena grow stronger and stronger. In her mind, she relives the pains and joys of the night she truly met Serena. Not when they first saw each other at orientation, but when she really understood who Serena was. The memories are so vivid, so potent that she can hardly breathe.

She can feel Serena's pain; the pain of a person split in far too many directions. However, the connection between them now feels thick and powerful. Perhaps even enough to send thoughts through like a familiar bond. Still, Akari can't shake the feeling of dread that has been building in her chest since her meeting with Serena at the base of the hill. Whatever the other girl is planning, it will almost certainly get her killed.

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I feel the strength and power of a dragon, the weight of eternity behind me as I gaze down at the small, insignificant girl. Althia's might is as vast as an ocean and as ancient as a star. With a mere flex of her will, she could crush the tiny minds of these creatures and make them into her unwilling slaves. However, her oaths both prevent her from striking down the defenseless and allowing needless destruction. No matter how she twists the logic in her mind, Serena and Celeste are defenseless before her. Shame.

Althia watches the two who are one with frustration as they fumble their way through the conversation with their limited understanding of the world. Yet, she needs these two. Her place among the Nine is far from absolute, and securing a good position on Earth will be a must. Still, she wished that Celeste chose a human who was less… empathic. It could cause problems later.

Althia feels the tiny tendril of Serena and Celeste's connection reach out to her once more. It's insignificant next to the mighty connections she's cultivated over thousands of years. Despite being small, this is now one of her most important connections, for it is one that would allow her to exert her will upon Earth before the convergence.

While Althia is aware that Serena's trust in her is far from absolute, she's certain that Celeste will be able to convince her to accept Althia's power into her soul. Barring that, Althia could have a few more meetings with the children to get them to comply. Things would have been much easier if the two had just chosen the correct path to begin with.

Serena's current condition will prove a problem, too, but Althia already knows of a point of power that will be able to restore her. No, with their connection repaired, things can be rectified and the plan of making Serena into her avatar can continue unabated.

Taking the connection to Serena into herself, Althia is surprised to find it fraying again. Hurriedly, she tries to reinforce it with her strength, but another will is already hard at work shredding the connection. All Althia finds before the connection is severed is an image of a blue-clothed sentinel with fox ears and a tail. He's holding up his middle finger.

I watch through the eyes of a father, as years flicker past. His little girl, once a tiny babe, is now growing into a young woman whom he couldn't be more proud of. If only he could get past his incessant worrying. It's just… his little girl is so small, so kindhearted, and so easily hurt. And in a world where danger is everywhere, his heart feels like it will burst.

When Serena becomes a sentinel, Micheal once again finds himself amazed by his daughter, now able to do things that he could never imagine. But he knew that this new bond could be a curse in disguise. Sentinels are not individuals who get to know peace, and he fears the worst for his little girl.

Micheal sits in his classroom in between periods, happy to be able to work again, but unable to summon up the usual joy teaching brought him. Serena is still hurting, his poor little girl, sick of both body and heart. It's hard to focus or enjoy much of anything with that remaining the case.

He would give the world to make her feel better, to bring her back to the happiness she had that day she met Celeste. But he knows that things are not so easy. When his own wife died all those years ago, he was inconsolable as well. He can hardly blame his daughter for being so cut up about a similar loss.

As he stands and moves to prepare for the next batch of students, he pauses, feeling something odd. Micheal has never known the feel of magic, but somehow, he can feel his daughter now. He can feel her pain, but also… a tiny light shining in that darkness. For as sorrowful as Serena has been these past few days, he now knows for certain that his daughter has not lost her hope.

That feeling resonating inside him, Micheal forces a smile and begins writing on the board. This time, he'll channel that same hope to better teach his precious students.

The pain is slowly fading as more and more memories start to flicker past me, especially those featuring my team members. Meeting Baylee in orientation and getting soaked by Claire after she leapt into the fountain. Spending time with Audrey and Kayne, the two powerful sentinels who bicker like an old married couple.

I saw Hayley as she once was, before she became a sentinel, and only now am I able to realize the full depth of her sadness. Looking at Hayley before and after she met Rain and changed her name is like looking at two different people. And, despite all the hardships she still faces, both physically and socially, I can't help but feel incredibly proud of my friend for the journey she's made.

Oddly, the one person I don't see as the memories flit past me is the final member of my team. Haruto's absence is stark as the happy memories flicker past me, and I can't help but remember the questions Nightsong posed in our last meeting. Where did Haruto come from… where really? Why, of all of my team members and friends, is he the one with whom I have no connection at all? No… There is something there, it's just… shrouded.

"Do you feel that?" Hayley asks, standing atop the barricades and looking out at the ruined battlefield strewn with corpses.

Beside Hayley, Claire grins, bright and wide. "It's Serena, cheering us on from the sidelines! Stars, I really hope she'll be feeling better by the time we get back. I'll bet we'll have our full team back together again soon!"

"We have incoming from the Northeast," Haruto comments dryly.

Baylee nods her acknowledgment to Haruto's warning, swiping a stray lock of hair from her eyes.

She turns to Claire. "This does feel… strange. I get the sense that there is magic at work, something connecting us to her. I think that she can see us right now."

Claire's grin turns gleeful at Baylee's words. "That's perfect! Serena, don't you worry, we'll be home to see you again soon! And if you're feeling better, we are absolutely going swimming!"

Hayley frowns, "Why do I get the sense that you don't mean in a pool?"

"Let's just focus on surviving this fight first," Haruto says, his eyes turning around. "We'll all have our chance to talk to Serena later."

"Don't be such a worrier!" Claire exclaims, cracking her knuckles, "This will be a picnic!"

There are tears in my eyes as the last few connections flicker through my mind. Connections both old and new, the ones that haven't yet grown strong enough to be properly enhanced. Friends from my school in the slums that I haven't seen in years, and people whose friendship is still new. Asumi and Florina both flicker through my mind, and I find myself hating the version of myself those two have been seeing. If I ever want to properly increase my bonds with them, I need to be a better friend in return.

At the very end, there is only one final connection that the inscription tries to empower, but fails. A connection that was once one of my strongest but now hangs limp — the other side no longer there. A bond to a mother whom I haven't seen in so very long. The old hole in my heart made manifest.

As the light of the inscription fades around me, I find myself weeping for a mother lost, for friends gained, and for the happiness that has been sitting right before me if I could only reach out and take it. Within me, for her physical form vanished over the course of the inscription's work, Celeste is also weeping.

We both now know exactly what Althia thinks of us. However, while the revelation is just frightening to me, it's devastating to Celeste. Despite all Althia's faults, Celeste still loves her mother. But learning that one's own mother is willing to simply crush our minds and forcibly bend us to her will… I can tell that my poor familiar is having trouble reconciling with that.

For my part, I'm just glad that Felix apparently prepared for us to potentially reconnect with Althia due to his inscription. It seems as if he prepared specifically for that eventuality. Perhaps the A Rank council isn't quite ready to let go of us yet.

"It should be safe now," Felix comments from the side of the inscription, and a moment later, I hear pounding feet.

Cold arms wrap tightly around me as Asumi holds me tight, delicate features creased with worry. "Serena! Are you okay!? You were screaming!" she exclaims in a rush, clutching me to her chest.

Swallowing, I nod. "I-I'm okay," I manage through my emotions. Speaking is hard with the tears and the lingering memories in my mind.

Within me, I can feel the connections the inscription empowered, like a nest of ephemeral strings leading away from my soul gem. One such string leads straight toward Asumi, and my heart hurts to see how thin it is. I have not been a good friend.

Forcing down my urge to instantly check up on my connection to Akari, I return Asumi's hug fiercely.

"T-Thank you," I say, sniffling. "Thank you for being here… thank you for not leaving me. I-I… I know that I've been awful to you. You deserve so much better than me, Asumi."

"Oh, Serena…" Asumi says, patting my back with a gentle smile. "I know what it is to feel grief. You don't need to be ashamed of being out of sorts."

I shake my head fervently. "I do… you've been wonderful to me and I… I'm just a complete and utter mess."

Asumi laughs, "It's okay, really. I decided that I wanted to help you heal, and if being there for you is what that takes, then that's what I'll do. I won't pretend to understand any of this magic stuff, but I do understand needing to do something. Now, enough about me. Did it work?"

"Finally, a good question," Felix says, striding over. His face is impassive, but I can see his tail lashing behind him and his ears twitching.

I bite my lip as Asumi releases me and moves to stand beside the powerful sentinel.

"My connection to Akari has definitely been strengthened quite a bit," I say, scrunching up my brow. "It's hard for me to tell if it's strong enough to use as an anchor to revive her."

Felix nods excitedly. "If it is strong enough, it should be similar to a familiar bond. With your familiar, your souls share the same space and can easily communicate with one another. For a bond like this to be strong enough, you should be able to do the same, no matter the physical distance between your souls."

"You're saying I should be able to talk to Akari?" I ask, getting excited.

[Yes, that is what he's saying, doofus,] chimes a familiar voice in my head.

My eyes go wide as saucers. "Akari!"

[Yep! I can feel you so much more across our connection now! Also, I can kind of get an idea of what's happening around my soul gem. I think some of my essence is leaking through our connection.]

Fresh tears blur my vision, and I would have collapsed if I were standing. "It's… it's working!"

[You're damn right it is. Now, let's talk about your stupid plan to kill yourself while reviving me.]

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