The morning after Rina had been banned from Asmery, the group decided to try to get to the Giant Hills - home of the Jarl - regardless of the restrictions.
"I can disguise myself with magic so that no one recognizes me. Just say you picked up someone who just graduated from Wizarding School who wanted to test their new abilities by adventuring. I'll look like a normal Druce woman, and I'll try to only use spells wizards would know. Since we can now Scry on trees, specifically, I will look for a nice one near the base of the Giant Hills."
The rest of the party was all ready to go as Rina looked for a good place to get close to the mountains. The tree that Kin had taken care of in his room was now large enough for them to treestride through. Rina found a close tree, and described it to Alice to the best of her ability. Alice opened up the tree in Kin's old room, and they all walked through.
Immediately upon arriving at the base of the Giant Hills, they could see a guard on a horse at the base of the mountains patrolling the area. Rina disguised herself immediately.

The mountains were craggy, and stood taller than the eye could see in many places. Snow covered them much lower than expected, and the air here was always cold.
Up on the mountain, the group could see a handful of 20ft tall giants working on the mountain. One who appeared to be the leader was pulling another two around in chains. The other two almost looked misshapen; their faces were ill-defined and their bodies looked much more blob-ish.
"Well, they are the Giant Hills," said Neely, "I guess we shouldn't be surprised."
Blanke started shivering from the cold, "I... I nnn...need... warmer ccc...clothes."
"Look, Blanke..." Rina started, "This seems like more of a you problem."
"Okay!" Blanke responded as he approached the guard on the horse. "I am Ser Blanke of the Queen's guard, I require clothing!"
"Oh!" the horseman responded, "Yes, great! Are you alone?"
"No, my party's back there," Blanke said as he gestured to the woods.
The rest of them emerged and followed Blanke up to the guard.
"We don't get many adventurers here, follow me and we will get you some warmer clothes and get you signed in!"

The party followed the horseman along a path that began to wind up the mountain just a little. It lead to a small fort at a low plateau, mostly built of stone from the mountain, with some inner areas built from wood from the nearby forest.
When they got into the fort, a man came out of the inner building with a notebook and a pen.
"Ahh! Adventurers! We need to get you signed in and interview you before you can go up the mountain. I need all of your names and the name of your group."
They group approached and each said their names, "Blanke the magnificent." "Alice Moondance." "Neely of Vorovni." Rina, of course, responded with her fake name, "Anastasia Marcov."
"And you're all of The Bound?"
"Yes," answered Alice.
"Well, as long as you don't have Rina with you," the guard laughed, "but none of you look like an elf. What made you want to join The Bound, Anastasia?"
Rina got into character, "Well, see, I just graduated wizarding school and I wanted to travel with an adventuring party to test my new skills! They were down a member to come here, so they let me come with them instead!"
"Wizarding school, eh? So that means you have a lot of spells and stuff?"
Rina pulled out her ritual spell book, now with fake spells scattered throughout - all written in Elvish, "Yes, see? These scrolls can be hard to decipher and I've been working-"
He cut her off, "Look, I can't read - you don't have to explain it all to me. Just everyone wait here, and the Sergeant will interview you separately."

They all waited, until a stern-looking woman came out of an office door, "First member of The Bound enter - tallest first."
Rina then realized that, being disguised as a Druce, she was the tallest of them. So she went in first.
The woman sat behind a desk and gestured for "Anastasia" to sit down.
"Name?"
"Anastasia Marcov."
"Age?"
"27."
"Occupation?"
"Well, see, I guess I technically haven't been paid for anything, so I don't know if you'd consider it an occupation. But I' just graduated-"
"I don't need a life story, what do you do for this group?"
"Oh, I'm their wizard." Rina said as she pulled out her spell book again, "See, I have this whole grimoire full of stuff and I really-"
"Once again! I don't need a story, just answer the question."
"I'm the wizard..."
"And your birth sign?"
"Well, most would say I'm the sign of the crab, but really I'm on the cusp of crab and bull so really you could-"
"Pick one!"
"I identify as bull sign..."
"And why do you want to go onto my mountain?"
"Since I just graduated I want to test my new skills."
"And you think my mountains are just a testing ground for magic?"
"Well, um... See, I really just wanted to join an adventuring party, and they're the ones who decided that my first mission would be here."
"So, you say this explanation is on your party members to justify?"
"Yep!"
The woman paused a moment, then let "Anastasia" go back to the waiting room with the others.

"Next tallest," said the guard just outside the door, and Blanke entered.
"So, you are a knight of the queen?"
"Yep! And you should listen to whatever I say."
She seemed unimpressed, "What's the name of the new girl you're traveling with?"
"I don't know. Ana... something."
"You don't know who you're traveling with?"
"She's new."
"Where's Rina?"
"I don't know..." Blanke said a little suspiciously.
"So you don't know who you're traveling with, and you don't know where Rina is?"
"That's correct."
"A knight of the queen doesn't even know his own Adventuring Party?"
Blanke Shrugged.
"Go sit outside."

Neely then entered the room for interrogation.
The rest of the party was left alone and spoke to one another.
"I think she didn't believe me," said Blanke.
"Of course she didn't," said Rina, "you're a bad liar."
"This wouldn't be an issue if you had just agreed to work with the queen," Alice whispered to Rina.
Rina snapped, "For real? Okay, let's recap. The two of you were too drunk to consent to anything that night. If we'd been in a tavern and someone hit on you, I'd take you home - because you could not consent to any of this."
"She's the queen!" said Blanke, "Why wouldn't we do what she asked?"
"Because she is a terrible person? Do you know what she said about my son's people? She called them animals - she said she likes to watch the animals fight. How could you want to follow that person? She doesn't see my son as a person, and she likes animal fighting. You of all people should have an issue with that last part, Alice."
"Yeah? Maybe I was thinking of your son more than you were. If you'd agreed to work with her, maybe he wouldn't be in so much danger now!"
"Maybe, but at least I didn't compromise my morals and take a bribe!"
"Maybe your morals should be anchored in motherhood, instead of your own pride!"
"I do everything for my son, how dare you."
"How dare I? Like 'how dare I get three revival amulets to save Rina's son, grandson, and daughter-in-law' like I did? For you!"
Rina paused a moment, then took a breath, "I didn't know you did that."
"Yeah, you never asked!"
"Why would you expect me to ask about something that I couldn't have possibly known about?"
"Because you never ask about me!"
"You never ask about me, either, Alice. I keep trying to get to know you, but how am I supposed to know you when you hide your good deeds and only show me your selfishness? Like keeping all the money for stuff we all worked on, all to yourself."
"Oh, you're bringing up the money again? I thought you didn't care about money! Seems like you only care about it when you can feel better about calling someone out!"
Rina sighed, "Well, at the very least, you will all be memorable. Don't think I'll be forgetting you for a while."
"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Blanke asked Alice.
"Sounds like a bad thing."
"You wanted to be important," said Rina, "You've accomplished that, that's for sure."

Rina and Alice continued to argue, and the room got cold.
Agronoch showed up, standing next to Blanke.
"So... do they argue like this all the time?" Enoch asked Blanke.
"Pretty much," Blanke answered, "usually it's Rina who starts it."
"She can be kinda scary sometimes, don't you think?"
Rina overheard Enoch, "Glad you think so, fear me!" She looked at Enoch and smirked coyly.
"I know my brother will, he's on his way, after all."
Neely was then let out of the interview room.
Just then, another knight of the queen entered the room from the outside.
"We have a problem, you are all to be ceased."
And the party got ready for a fight.

Commander Dirk who had interviewed them did not buy that Anastasia was a new member - and believed she was Rina. Guards came out of many rooms, and Dirk drew her sword.
Rina, still pretending to be Anastasia, politely protested. "We didn't come here to fight people, why are you wanting to cease us? We didn't do anything!"
"No one will question my authority," said Dirk, "Guards, capture them in handcuffs!"
Dirk hit "Anastasia" first, which caused "Anastasia" to use Fire Shield in response. "No one said we would be fighting people!"
The guards went after Blanke and Alice, and Rina ran to the entrance of a far room on the side near the mountain.
Blanke got angry and began to rage, "I... Hate... BURACRACY!" he yelled as he used Earth Tremor on the top floor of the building they were in. The building began to shake and the boards of the floor splintered and buckled. The building began to split apart, but then stabilized.
The room that Rina stood next to was full of people doing paperwork, "Are we... are we supposed to fight you?" one of the elderly secretaries asked Rina.
"Um... No? We literally didn't do anything wrong!"
The man thought a moment, but Commander Dirk yelled at him, "They're all to be thrown in the jail and kept there for a while! That should teach them a lesson."
The man grabbed a letter opener and attempted to attack Rina.
"You don't want to attack me, sir!" she yelled, "Do you not see the fire emanating off of me?"
"Yes, but... the commander said so."
He tried to hit her, but never had much success.
Neely began to get incredibly tired of the drama, and decided to use Shatter in the middle of the group of guards. This caused the building to shake again, and the floor split in two. One end of the tower began to lean away from the other, and the floor fell down like a slide that lead to the doorway.
The entire party fell to the floor below, as well as the Commander and the guards. More guards began to pour out of the other rooms, "Cease them!" the Commander yelled - more guards joined the fight.

Just then, three Giants approached the entrance. One was a larger and muscular giant. The other two were shorter, more blubbery giants that he was commanding.
"What's going on here?" the taller giant asked very slowly.
"These adventurers need to be captured! Help us!"
"We don't want to hurt anyone, we don't want casualties on your hands, Commander," one of the shorter giants answered.
"Yeah, we just want to finish this trade and be on our way," the other shorter giant said.
"Just do something with them!"
One of the giants shrugged and pulled out his club.
The giants stood closest to Alice and Neely, with Blanke and Rina on the other side of the room. Rina could see that the giant was about to hit the already-beaten-up Alice. She didn't have time to stop it, but she had time to Dimension Door Blanke and herself away.
"Blanke, do you trust me?"
Blanke began thinking deeply, but they did not have time for that. She ran up the Blanke and took him 500ft up the side of the mountain.
"Wha... Why did you do that?" he asked her, a bit frustrated.
They then looked down at the garrison at the base of the mountain, just as one of the giants swung his club down onto Alice, and a lighting bolt struck down with it.

Alice, the Pradhana, went unconscious - the entire sky went dark, and crackling formed in the air around her. Then, just as had happened a few times before, she exploded.
As Blanke and Rina watched, the entirety of the garrison began to disintegrate. The explosion hit all of the guards, the giants, Commander Dirk... and Neely.
"That's why," said Rina, "I didn't know how far the explosion would emanate. But now we know Alice is down, and probably Neely. We have to get back to them."
Blanke nodded and began to run down the mountain.
Guards who were scouting the mountain were sprinkled around the hills. They rode large, golden-fleeced goats, which gracefully and quickly ran around the sides of the mountains. Blanke ran straight up to one of the guards, and shoved him off of this goat. He jumped onto the goat, which was not very willing to listen to him. "Go down to the crater!" he yelled at the goat, who did not listen. The goat did get him a bit closer, but not as fast as he was hoping for.

Rina - still in disguise - attempted to do the same as Blanke when a guard on a goat came her way, but she did not successfully shove the man off of the goat.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!" he yelled at her.
"I... I just need to get to my friend down there," she pointed at the crater, "I need to make sure she's ok! Can I use your goat?"
The man got angry, "No! This is my goat!"
"I know, but maybe you can give me a ride?"
"No one can ride this goat but me."
Rina gave him a strange look.
"This goat is my best friend."
Rina raised her eyebrows in suspicion.
"No one can ever come between us."
"Well, then maybe you and your goat should go do... whatever it is you do... with your goat."
The man looked flustered, "What does that mean? What are you saying? It's not like it's weird, or anything... to love your goat."
"I didn't say it was weird, you just started acting weird. You're the one who implied anything weird."
"You did, too! You were implying I was doing something weird with the goat!"
"I just said go do whatever you do and leave me out of it."
"Oh, I will leave you out of it! We're leaving!" the man got on the goat, who swished him in the butt with it's tail, and began to run away.
Rina was just relieved to not be arrested by him, and moved down the mountain.

The commander stood up in the rubble and looked around to find that all of her original group of guards were dead, and two of the members of The Bound were unconscious in front of her.
She looked at the giants, who were still standing despite being hit by the explosion, "Why did you do that?! You were supposed to capture them, not kill all of my men!"
The giants shrugged, "Which do you want us to take care of? These two here, or those two up there?" The giants gestured up the mountain at Blanke and "Anastasia" coming toward them.
Dirk paused to think a moment, "You giants go get those two up there - any guards still alive, put handcuffs on these two!"
"But... shouldn't we heal them first?"
"No! Arrest them, then heal them."
"May we try to heal them, Commander?" one of the giants asked, "We don't want more deaths, please let us try."
The commander nodded reluctantly, and the two shorter giants walked up to Alice and Neely. The first was not able to heal Alice before they put her in cuffs, but the second was able to stabilize Neely.
One of the guards gave Dirk a healing potion which she took to heal.

Rina decided to break her Rod of the Pact Keeper and get her spell slot back to Dimension Door back into the area of the crater.
She saw Alice and Neely being carried away in handcuffs.
"Man, you guys like your goats and handcuffs, huh?" she said under her breath.
"What did you say?!" the guard carrying Alice yelled.
"Nothing, just saying some stuff's kinda weird."
"You think we're weird? How rude."
"Can you please heal my friend before carrying her off?"
"No, you just called me weird. And we're fighting you."
"But what if it was one of your friends of loved ones dying in front of you? Wouldn't you want someone to help?"
"I don't have anyone I care about..." he said coldly.
"I'm... really sorry to hear that."
"Except my cousin," he continued.
"Your cousin? You love your cousin and no one else?"
"It's not weird."
"Uhhm... Well imagine your cousin was dying then, please just help my friend."
The guard rolled his eyes and pulled out a potion,
"...and stop talking about weird stuff," continued Rina.
"If you're going to be insulting me, I will not heal your friend. I need you to tell me it isn't weird."
"Um... Well..." Rina stuttered, "I mean... cousins can look hot, I guess?"
"Yeah, they can be."
"And... Royalty often marries their cousins, so you're kinda like royalty in that way."
The man nodded, then just gave Alice the potion and stabilized her.
"Thank you," said Rina, "freaking weirdo," very quietly.
"What did I wake up to?" Alice asked, still being carried by the guard.

Blanke was trying to ride the goat down the mountain. When it was not listening to him, he decided to use his vaulting sword to get down the mountain faster. He grabbed the goat with one arm, then vaulted with the other. He and the goat landed in the typical riding position, and the goat began to listen. It ran down the mountain and full speed, getting Blanke closer to the crater.
Some of the guards decided to attack "Anastasia" and her fire shield hurt them in return, downing some of them.
"I told you all to not hit me."
Then Commander Dirk hit "Anastasia", and also got hurt by the fire shield - she could barely stand but still fought.
Alice was able to wriggle out of the arms of the guard and get her whip out of her pocket. She whipped the commander to try and pull her down. She still continued to fight.
Blanke and the goat got down to the crater, and Blanke began to attack the commander.
"I won't kill you," he yelled, "but I won't hesitate to stop you!"
He used his sword against her, and she finally went down.

Rina yelled to Blanke, "We have to get out of here, now!"
Horns began to sound from the side of the mountain - dozens of guards on goats began sprinting toward them.
Blanke then scooped up Neely, and grabbed the goat. He vaulted the three of them into the air to avoid the giants attacking them.
Neely then began to talk to Blanke as they flew through the air.
"Blanke, I just wanted to tell you that I know you have magic."
"I thought you didn't believe me..." Blanke said sadly.
"The truth is, I was just jealous because I really like your magic way more than mine. And I think you're good at it."
Blanke was so happy, and got a burst of energy as they landed, and they headed away from the horde of guards.
Rina began to run toward Blanke to jump onto the goat at an intersection point, but Alice called to her, "I'll pick you up!" Rina looked back and saw Alice transform into goat. She ran to get Rina as Rina got hit with arrows being launched from the guards.
Two of the arrows were burned up by the fire shield, but Rina was barely standing after taking all the others.
Alice scooped her up, and Rina was able to hang onto Alice well enough to ride.
The army was gaining on them as they ran furiously up the mountain.
"Rina! Can you do something to slow them down?" Blanke yelled.
"I don't have spell slots left!"
"What about eldritch blast?"
"Then they'll know it's me! They might recognize my magic!"
"We don't have a choice, Rina! Do something!" Neely yelled.
Rina saw a crop of rocks holding up a mound of snow and stones. She used Eldritch Blast on the rocks to cause a rock slide in front of the guards to slow them down.

They hurried up the mountain until eventually there was no one left chasing them. The goat's thick fur kept Blanke and the others warm, even though the cold air hit their faces. They eventually began to see little lights scattered on the vast mountains, each of which came from small villages of Giants. Every taller giant seemed to have at least two shorter, more blubbery giants obeying commands.
They came to a calm area between two taller mountain tops, and decided to stop and discuss a plan.
"Where do we go from here?" Blanke asked, "Maybe we should find shelter since the sun's going down."
"That would be a good idea I think, do you see anything like a cave around?"
Alice stayed in goat form, so Rina used beast speech to talk to her and translate between her and the others.
"We could try to ask someone around here, there are villages of giants," said Neely.
"I don't like the giants," said Blanke, "They hurt my friends."
"They seem friendly, though," said Alice - Rina translated.
"I want to ask... him," Blanke pointed to the goat he was riding.
Rina then asked the goat if there's a good place around them that they could stay for the night.
"Yaaaas, we could stay as a staaaaaable. The Giaaaants are frieeeendlyyyyy."
"We are hoping to go farther up the mountain," Rina responded, "Is there cave or something nearby?"
"Yaaaaas, I know of a caaaaave. I will taaaake you."

Just then, Rina and Blanke saw movement behind some trees. It was one of the smaller giants. Its purple blubbery skin looked frostbitten, and its hair was grown long and braided to cover its face for warmth. The giant saw them, then waived.
Rina and Blanke waived back.
"Hello there," the giant shouted calmly, "are you friends?"
"Yes, we are friends!" Rina yelled back.
"Good to see new friends! What brings you up the mountain?"
"Just on a job!" Blanke responded.
"Would you and your goats like a place to stay tonight? My master loves sharing supper with friends, especially new friends!"
Rina and Blanke deliberated a moment, but Neely responded, "We really need to get on our way, thank you though!"
"Okay," the giant responded, "Be safe on your way! I will have to let my master know you were here, though."
"You do what you have to do!" Blanke shouted nicely.
"Okay, goodbye!" The Giant waived.
The group then left, following the lead of the goat to the cave.
On the way, they sneaked past a couple of the taller giants, and overheard their conversation.
"Some farms in the north of the mountain have fallen, the slaves overtook the masters."
"Curse that Jarl..."
On the way to the cave, Blanke spoke to Lloyd in his mind: "Lloyd, we were attacked by the people at the garrison at the base of the giant mountains. Tell the queen that Dirk should be punished for insubordination. Everyone should know what happens when you attack Alice after seeing the Everbleed bowl fight."
"Haazaaah My good friend! I will ensure that everyone knows that The Bound is innocent! Especially 'Anastasia'!"

The cave was relatively large, and had a spot where a fire had obviously been before.
"Looks like no one has been here for a while," said Alice, now out of goat form, "but it's probably known by a few other people on the mountain."
"Alice, did you bring that Everburning coal? We could light it here," Neely said.
"Oh yeah! And I have the decanter of endless water, too. We don't have to melt snow."
"We also have all that food," Blanke said, "I put that in Neely's backpack."
"I thought it seemed heavier..."
"When did you guys get this stuff?" asked Rina.
"You mean you don't know?" Blanke asked.
"Yeah, you're little dragon friend put us through some weird trial," Alice chimed in.
"Oh, like a Phesoi's Realm trial?"
"Yeah, exactly that. Stupid tree..." Blanke complained.
Alice lit the fire and Neely started preparing food. Rina made a tiny hut and began writing in her journal, Alice and Blanke started to disguise the entrance of the cave.

The fire crackled and popped loudly, its flames flew upward in a burst of energy. From the flames, the form of a man phased into view. A devil in a black suit, a bit disheveled and poor postured, appeared in the fire. He looked like a young man, with dark hair and dark eyes, and red accents to his clothing. He looked around, seeing Alice and Blanke with their backs to him, and Neely frozen with shock staring at him. Blanke and Alice then noticed him, and turned to just stare. The devil sighed, turned around, and saw the Tiny Hut. Without a word, he walked into it with no problem.
Rina sat opposite of him, writing in her journal. She looked up at him, but was only briefly surprised.
"So, are you Agronoch's brother? He said you were coming."
The devil huffed a little, then sighed, "So, you're Rina?"
"Yes, that's me."
"And those... people out there - that's your team?"
"Yeah, that's my team. Why are you asking?"
He chuckled tiredly and placed his hand on his forehead in frustration. "Look, Rina, I'm here because Enoch trusts you, and everything always has to revolve around Enoch... he and his pride come up with these crazy plans and he just expects them to work with little effort. But, he trusts you to do what needs to be done, and I need to know that I can, too."
"Of course you can, I'm doing everything he asked."
"That's not enough. You see, my little brother is... well, frankly he's dumb."
Rina gave him a sneering look for saying that.
He continued, "He has this grand plan, and he's using you to accomplish what he needs on this side."
"That certainly doesn't make him dumb."
"What makes him dumb is that he thinks that he can accomplish this with just the two of you."
"What exactly is the task that you're worried about? He's just asked me to kill one guy."
He looked at her, confused, "Did he not tell you?"
"He doesn't tell me much, honestly. He just told me to 'kill the guy'."
He sighed and put his hand to his head again, "We are going to kill the devil Bolgroth... our father."

Rina then remembered the book that Therius showed them with the two devils battling in the afterlife. One was Luminus, the other was "The giant red devil..." she said quietly, "So much makes sense now."
He nodded. "Now, look, I am not completely on board. I came here because he told me I would be impressed by you, and you'd convince me to work on this with him. Are you willing to do this? Can you do this?"
Rina looked at him seriously, "Yes, I will do this."
"Are you willing to give everything up for this? Your whole life?"
"I already sold my soul for this, I'd think that is answer enough."
"Yeah, yeah, but that's just your soul. With your long life, you have thousands of years left here. Are you willing to spend that much life on this?"
Rina paused, but thought about her son and late husband's souls being at stake, "Yes, I am willing to do this."
He nodded, still contemplating her.
"Did Enoch ever tell you why he chose me, exactly?" Rina asked hesitantly, "He's not the best at communicating."
He sighed in annoyance, "Seems like this is something that should come from him, but... It's because you're a lot like he is, you're independent, you like working alone. Also, because you are invested in the Therianthropes without being a part of Basta'Thrope'. Of course, your long life as an elf means that you could work on this for as long as it'll take, as well."
"As long as it'll take?"
"We figure this will be a life long mission for you, Rina."
She thought for a moment - this was not the deal in the Contract with Enoch. The deal was that she only had to kill the Right hand man of the true king of Bolgroth, and her end of the contract would be complete. But still, she accepted it.
"Well, that'll give me something to do for the next few thousand years. I didn't have any plans!" She smiled.

"But," he started again, "I need to know that you are capable. I need you to show me that you and your 'team' can do this. I need to be impressed, Rina." He gestured to the party, who had all gone back to their tasks, "I see this situation, and I'm not impressed."
"We're the most powerful adventuring party on the continent," Rina responded, "We won the Everbleed Bowl, you have no reason to doubt us."
"No reason? You have a tiny person who barely comes up to my knees, an idiot wearing a mesh shirt in the snow, and a teenager who barely knows how to play a harp that's twice her size."
"Oh, you don't think I can fight?!" Alice yelled from across the room.
He chuckled in annoyance again, "Rina, I was expecting you to have a company of soldiers for this."
"No one ever said anything about having an army," Rina said with a concerned tone.
"You don't need an army, you just need to work as a team player. I need to know you're going to be able to work as a team. Because Enoch doesn't, and he said that you don't - and that's why he likes you so much. He's really independent, and so are you. So, if I'm going to help you, then I need to know you can work as a team, and that you have a team that can handle this with you, who would fight for you."

"Guys!" Rina yelled from the tiny hut, "Would you fight for me no matter what?"
"Huh?!" all three yelled in unison.
"This guy doesn't believe in me. He doesn't believe in us."
Blanke walked up to him, "What do you mean you don't believe in her? She's right there."
"You take everything literally, don't you?" the Devil remarked.
"Blanke is a new soul," Rina commented. The devil looked impressed, "First time around, huh?"
"And Alice is the world ender."
He was surprised, "You're... Pradhana?"
"Yep! Don't forget it."
He smiled, "I like you this time around, last time you were boring."
"And I'm on Rina's side."
"I'm on her side, too," said Blanke.
"Me too!" said Neely from the outside of the hut.
Rina looked at him with a smirk.
"Huh... Well, okay, Rina. Seems like you really do have an impressive collection of people. I'll tell Enoch that I'll help him. And I'll get our other brothers on board, too."
"Thank you," Rina responded.
He took out his notebook and scribbled something out.
He sighed and stepped back, "Now, please let me start over on a better foot. My name is LaClaus, but you can just call me Nicky."
"Nice to meet you, Nicky," said Rina.
"So, you knew past versions of me?" Alice asked.
"Oh, yes. And I look forward to seeing the cycle again! It should be soon, after all."
"What will be soon?" Rina asked.
"The maelstrom. The maelstrom is coming." He smiled and turned around, "Well, I gotta get going. It was nice to meet you, Rina - and the rest of you."
"See you later," Rina responded, "Nice suit, by the way."
He smiled briefly just before disappearing in the fire again.