"...as if it never happened, wouldn't you agree?"

His friend was lost in thought.

"Hey! Were you even listening?!"

"Yeah. Of course. I mean, I was just---"

"Oh for fuck's sake, you didn't just space the fuck out in the last hour again did you?"

Arch grabbed his friend by the shoulders and shook him hard. The crowd paid no attention to the quarelling duo, and anyone who came close would feel the heaviest of auras bearing down on them. The bustle of the school's noise and the footsteps jumbled around by a hundred teenagers masked the nigh audible incantation that spoke between Arch's lips as images of an event gone awry flashed. His friend blinked. His thoughts were now stolen from him.

"I'm sorry bro." his friend said. "I must've dozed off. You know how History can get to me sometimes."

"I'll let you go." Arch said, ignoring the statement. "Just...never mind."

He let loose his iron grip and began to casually walk into the crowds. As soon as the bell rang, he took one step and disappeared in a blur. Up and up into the spiral staircase, across the dormitories, and into the secret backdoor of the headmaster's den. There, a stocky but firm man had just finished with his quill.

"How is he?"

"Gone." Arch replied admiring the fancy furniture. "He remembers basic things and the days leading up to this, but...without the stuff about this."

"Ambush?"

"Arbiter, more likely. He was always such a cheeky cunt. What are we going to do about---"

"Alphaeus will be quietly expelled tommorow for insubordination. I'm sure the boys down in Human Resource can think of something. In any case, now is not the time to discuss things. I myself am headed to the Ruin in a couple of hours."

The hair on the back of Arch's head stood on end. In the middle of the day, no less. It must be urgent.

"If I may say something, I don't like this at all. It's only been the second day, and they already want to talk. And to top it off, you're going alone to---"

"Alone is all we need, Archie." Arch froze in place. He was entering unfamilliar territory. "Or have you forgotten the Capulet's Creed?" Arch felt an unnatural shiver. Images and words flowed through his bones. An ancient seal. Whipping. Children's wails crying in the night. The Branding. It was all coming back to him.

"No. Of course." Arch bowed instead, unable to say anything more. "You are all that is needed, Headmaster. I'm sure, an audience with you will be received with the utmost honor and respect."

"One more thing, Archie." the Headmaster stopped midway in the door. "You are expressly forbidden from signalling the others of what took place yesterday. I know you want revenge for your cousin, but the Creed will find a way. If the others haven't figured it out yet, then they aren't even worthy of the name. They will find what they need to find in the same way your Trinket found the plot. Are we clear on this?"

Arch gritted his teeth. He could do nothing but serve the Creed.

"You have my word. Headmaster Azure."

=====================

"Azure? The Kind? He's coming this way, right here?"

68 DeWalt Avenue, 3 paces to the left of the first fire hydrant and through the rickety old shack in between. If you went past a canal then you know you've gone too far. It's name and number have since changed countless times, lost in history. It's number's original meaning no longer of use to anyone living in this day and age. What it was was not important. What it is, is a haven. Four walls and twenty four square meters of concrete flooring's worth of it.

In it, were four gentlemen of various ages and races. Two from each family. Representatives. Cogs.

"Who else would you have for a mediator?" Saul remarked. "Someone from your family is definitely out of the question."

"Like I'll let a Cook running the show. What we need is another mediator." Smile shouted back.

"You speak as if you've forgotten the Ruin's tenets. Or do you wish for an uneeded exposition?"

Smile grinned from ear to ear. He reached for his pockets and yanked out an old pocketwatch. "Why don't you say that again to my face?"

devi and Aquila, who had been this whole time silent and waiting for their respective masters to calm down, had also reached for their Trinkets as if reacting to each other's twitchy motions.

But before a storm kicked in, the floor began to ripple and in entered a grey cloaked figure began to rise from the muck at the very center of the room. Both parties backed off into their respective corners. Their mediator had arrived.

"Finally. Progress." Saul sarcastically said. "We all know why we are here so let's just drop the formalities. Yesterday's incident was unfortunate, but rest assured there was no malice intended on either side. Alphaeus was a fool..."

Before Saul could continue, the cloaked man suddenly faced him, towering even and said nothing but reveal an outstretched palm as he pointed towards Saul's derby hat.

"My Trinket? Of course...forgive me."

The figure went around the room, collecting the objects one by one. Normal everyday objects as they were, but only to the human eye. To the gifted, they were the source of every mage's power. The source that ties them to the Aether.

"Now. Let us continue---"

Saul stopped mid-sentence to find his hands were bleeding all over. He glanced down only to see that he could not...for he could feel Aquila's pocketknife burrowing deep in his skull from the inside out.

"What is this...who broke our truce?!"

Smile and Aquila, before uttering another word, were flung sideways into the concrete barricade behind them. The gravity was too much, as the impact shattered both their spines and skulls, killing them instantly. Before them, the cloaked mediator stood grasping Saul's derby hat in an unnatural position.

"My...you...how could you..." Saul gurgled the blood bubbling between his lips for a good minute until the knife violently forces its way out, lobotomizing the mage dead. Aquila's trinket clanged to the floor before a stunned devi who could do nothing but plead for his life. He backed away and huddled in the corner as the figure approached him, dangling Smile's pocketwatch in front of him.

"No, stop!"

The fear overcame devi so much that he had failed to see the mediator sink through the floor.

And then. Silence.

=========================

"911. What is your emergency?"

"Please send help. I see two men with a gun. PLEASE!"

"Calm down, sir. Can you describe the men for me?"

Azure dropped the receiver and let it dangle from within the booth. He exits casually and turns towards the direction of the Ruin, speaking only a brief phrase to himself. Minutes later, a thunderous explosion rocks the complex.

Minutes later, sirens would wail in the distance. Azure sighed, backtracking into the nearest subway with a sullen look on his face.

It is done.