"You want a fight? You’ll get one."

Arthur laughs. He certainly does not think so, but he gladly accepts the invitation.

"Good. I could use the entertainment." He laughs again. His hands move and his Fire rises around him.

Liam grits his teeth. He knows when he is being underestimated. Doubt wraps around him instantly. He falters. His Water falters with him.

Arthur laughs harder.

"Oh, I’m sorry, Monfort. I’m sorry for laughing, I really am. I just can’t help it." He laughs again.

After a while it dies down, settling into small chuckles.

"You have to admit that is funny, though. You turn to me all ’You want a fight, you’ll get one,’ and then you falter." He shakes his head.

"It is so you." Arthur turns serious, his face full of mockery.

"Not once have you ever stepped up when it mattered." He flexes his hands slowly, Fire curling between his fingers.

Liam goes pale hearing it.

"Shut up, Montrose!" Maeve’s voice cuts across the room from the side.

Arthur turns.

Maeve is standing with her arms on her hips, frowning, looking at him like he is something she has stepped in.

"I..." Arthur starts.

"Shut up! Just shut up!" She snaps. "If you have nothing constructive to say, keep your mouth closed!"

Arthur and everyone else go still. Maeve never snaps. Maeve does not snap. Period.

When she was cruel before, she was not herself. Just as Arthur is being deeply inconsiderate right now, he is not himself. That much is understandable.

But now, Maeve is saying this as herself.

She looks like a mother who has finally lost her patience and is ready to deliver a proper reckoning.

"Go ahead and fight Liam. But if you hurt him, even a single strand of hair, I will beat the crap out of you." She says it plainly. No dramatics.

Deep down Arthur knows it would be impossible for Maeve to follow through on that. And yet somehow he believes she would do exactly that.

He tilts his head. That’s strange. Logically I know it’s impossible. So why do I feel like listening to her?

He shakes it off. No. She must be using her Light to influence me. I can’t listen to her.

"That would be impossible, Maeve. This is a fight, not a spar. People get hurt even in sparring, let alone this."

"Fine." Maeve replies simply. She crosses her arms. "Keep going and hurt Liam. We’ll see what happens after that."

Her tone carries no particular menace. And yet a shiver crawls up Arthur’s spine anyway.

Gosh. She got to me.

Arthur shakes his head again and turns his body back to face Liam. Ignore her. Ignore her.

Maeve’s intervention has bought Liam enough time to collect himself. He looks at Arthur steadily. He is ready.

Still unsettled by what Maeve said, Arthur sighs. "How about we do this instead."

"I wrap myself in Fire, and you try to put it out with Water. If I vaporize all of your Water, I win. If you put out my Fire, you win. Simple enough."

Liam frowns. It does sound simple enough. Almost too simple. He keeps his guard up, but he can see no obvious problem with it. At the very least, it removes the risk of either of them getting seriously hurt.

"Fine." Liam agrees.

Arthur grins. His Fire wraps around him like a lover, growing bigger and hotter by the second.

The earlier explosion has destroyed parts of the seventh floor and above. Right now, both Arthur and Liam are standing in the husk of what was the living room, open to the sky, with no roof above them.

The rain cannot touch Arthur. Every drop evaporates before it gets close.

Liam, remembering what Maeve said earlier about current, wraps his Water around Arthur’s Fire and keeps it moving.

Theo watches intently from where the others have taken shelter in the remaining parts of the apartment that still have a roof. Maeve continues healing him, but it is doing little. When he finally cannot hold on any longer, he passes out.

Maeve and Julian go frantic, but to their credit, neither of them screams or startles the others. Maeve checks him quickly.

Julian looks at her, waiting.

"I honestly don’t know. His pulse is weak but steady. Same with his breathing. Weak and short, but he is breathing."

"Should we take him to the hospital?" Julian asks.

"And what do you think they can do?" Maeve replies.

They both sigh.

"I’ll keep healing him, Jules."

Julian nods, then his eyes meet Maeve’s. The weight of everything said between them in the last few hours settles over them both at once. They look at each other and the awkwardness is immediate.

"I..." They both say at the same time. They both stop.

Julian sighs. "Let’s talk later, okay?"

Maeve swallows and nods. She is not looking forward to it. But they all need to have that conversation eventually.

------------------------------

Theo is back in the Void.

Thea is already waiting for him.

"Did you call me here? What do you want? Was it you who told me I caused this? How?" Theo fires questions at her one after another.

"Whoa. Easy. I can’t answer all of them at once. Let’s see." Thea holds up a hand. "Yes, I called you here. We need to talk. And yes, it was me who told you that you caused this. That is what we need to talk about."

Theo takes a breath and looks at her.

Thea chuckles.

"First of all, you are right. I am not Thea. I appear as her because you want to have a conversation with her. So it is you who made me look like this."

"Second, you reached that conclusion yourself. I did not tell you, which means I did not break the rules."

Theo frowns. "What rules?"

Thea raises a finger.

"Which means I can tell you this much. You are right. This is corruption magic. And do you remember anyone or anything you encountered recently that used corruption magic?"

Theo thinks. It takes only a second before he gasps. "The green mist!"

"Bingo." Thea smiles. "See. No rules broken."

"So all of this is caused by the green mist? And what rules?"

Thea waves her hand. A comfortable couch appears. She settles into it with a grin.

"Yes. The corruption is from the green mist. But not the storm. The green mist only exploited it. And it needs to be stopped." She lets his question about the rules go unanswered.

Theo looks at her calmly.

"What rules?" He repeats, refusing to be distracted.

Thea grins. "I knew it. I knew I couldn’t get away without answering that." She sighs. "There is only one rule, actually. I cannot tell you what you don’t already know."

She looks at him expectantly.

Theo frowns and slowly sits down on the couch. He looks like he wants to scratch his head. "You can’t tell me what I don’t already know? Then what’s the point of asking you anything?"

Thea says nothing. Just grins and waits.

"Are you... are you waiting for me to reach my own conclusion?"

Thea still does not speak, but nods enthusiastically.

"Does... does that mean... does that mean you are me?!" Theo says in disbelief. "Or my soul? Why would my soul appear as Thea?!"

He is so shocked that he gets up from the couch as if he wants to put distance between himself and her.

"Oh, calm down. And sit back down. What is so terrible about this appearance? I mean, look at you." She gestures at him.

"Well, not here. Here you appear as yourself. I mean out there in the world. You are using Thea’s body, so of course you appear as Thea out there. But you have never really seen how Thea looks when she is moving with your body language, your tone, your expressions. Have you?"

She places both palms against her cheeks.

"Well? What do you think?"

Theo swallows. "It’s unsettling. It doesn’t match the face."

"Oh, thank God! That is exactly why you need to pay more attention to how you move. Stop walking the way you used to! Walk elegantly. More feminine."

Theo makes a face.

"Right. Back to the topic. We don’t have much time here."

"Huh?" Theo is completely baffled.

"Yeah, unfortunately we don’t. Listen to me. One, you are not losing yourself. You are still you. Being a mage is not who you are. It is what you can do. Keep that in mind."

"You are always you. What you are, only you can define. Not your job, not your ability, not your friends, not your family, not your world. You."

Thea says it in a soft but firm tone.

"Two. Relax. You are still a mage, even if you cannot access your mana right now."

"Three." She stops Theo before he can speak. "We will have plenty of time to talk later. But right now you need to go back out there and do your job. You have work to do. Help Liam. Help Arthur. Stop the storm. Purify the city."

"Theo." Her tone turns serious. "This storm has been going on for far too long. It is the sixth day and it is almost over. There is not a single road in Solarys free from flooding. Most people are corrupted. Fights erupt everywhere. It is enough. Stop it."

She smiles gently and cups his cheek.

"Only then can you come back here and talk to me. We have a long conversation overdue."