Ethan stared blankly at Fauna atop the Sentinel Lighthouse.

In her eyes, he saw a fire that burned brighter than he'd ever seen in her before.

"Ethan," she said, "don't listen to her."

Beside him, Lamphrey shuffled briefly to show her indignation, but when she spoke it seemed more like she was sighing at this little altercation, as if she'd been expecting this.

"Well," she said. "The Hopla has chosen this hour to show her true colors."

Ethan's gaze flew to her, seeing the almost bored expression on her face.

Fauna, meanwhile, looked about ready to fly into a rage.

"You won't poison his mind anymore," she declared, leveling her staff at the Tialax mage. "I won't stand by while –"

"While what, Hopla? While your Lord asks for counsel and I oblige?"

Fauna hesitated, her gaze turning back to Ethan as the early morning wind whipped around them.

"Ethan, she's here to cause trouble. Her and her kind always have."

Ethan doubled blinked.

Well, this just got interesting, Sys quipped.

"'Her kind', Faun?" Ethan replied, surprised to see the usually quiet girl so animated over nothing more than a conversation with an ally. "I'd have thought you wouldn't be so quick to judge people based on the species they belong to."

Fauna's grip on her staff tightened. Whatever was happening in her mind, it was causing conflict inside her. But Ethan wasn't breaking through.

"Not her species – but her Class," Fauna asserted. "Her and her Sisterhood have always wanted one thing: control."

"How terrible," Lamphrey mumbled with another weary sigh. "And how sad that one such as you would cast such a thought aside, Hopla. After all, that very notion is why you are here."

Fauna's grip tightened again. She looked about ready to blast the Tialax into pieces.

"I've heard enough from you," she said. "Ethan, you must see that she's –"

"You are so very protective of our Lord, aren't you?" Lamphrey interrupted. "Perhaps due to your own family's demise. You see a leader in him, don't you? Perhaps even a father to replace your own."

"Shut up!"

A violet glow began to emanate from the tip of Fauna's staff. Her hands shook.

"Or perhaps you see something else," Lamphrey continued, unafraid. "It matters not. What upsets you is that your Archon is considering another perspective. What upsets you, really, is that his wishes may not align with your own."

Ethan turned abruptly. "That's enough, Lamphrey."

But Fauna shook, tears biting at the corner of her furry eyes.

"That's what you call this?" she cried. "Manipulating Ethan like this? Like you've tried to do to every Archon before him? Have you told him about your Sisterhood, Lamphrey? Have you told him about how you all don't care about Hybrids at all – that all you really care about is power? Maybe you don't know – but Ethan's here to stop people like you, not put you in charge!"

"That is the extent of your analysis, Hopla?" Lamphrey scoffed. "If you truly believe this, you know nothing about me, and less than nothing about my Sisters."

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"I know enough to know a fiend when I see one," she replied. "And I'll put an end to you if I have to."

"You don't have the mettle, Hopla."

"Try me!"

"Enough!"

Ethan had risen to full height, towering above them both and grabbing Fauna's staff before she could set off her stored spell.

"That's enough – both of you!" he shouted. "I don't care about what feud you two have going on, but – and this should be obvious – fighting among ourselves will do nothing but weaken our cause. This is pointless."

"This incident should tell you all you need to know about your so-called 'ally', Ethan," Lamphrey said, ignoring Fauna's death-like stare as though she were merely a cockroach scrabbling about on the lighthouse's roof. "Jealousy fuels her, not any sense of –"

"Lamphrey," Ethan said – his voice containing traces of his Roar skill to make his point crystal clear. "You will stop talking about Fauna like this. She's been on my side since before you have. You're the newcomer to this group. Remember that."

Lamphrey, after a moment, bowed low.

"I knew you'd understand," Fauna whispered. "But she's dangerous, Ethan. You need to –"

"And you," Ethan said, turning on the rabbit-girl with the exact same tone. "You'll stop snooping on us and let me decide who I choose to listen to."

She backed off, trembling.

"Ethan…"

"I said enough!" the Archon roared again – this time with such strength that the very foundations of the lighthouse shook. "You're so ready to tell me who the bad guy is – but I'll tell you that at least Lamphrey has the guts to disagree with me. Every leader needs that. Even an Archon."

Fauna's expression was a strange mix of confusion and sorrow. She lifted a hand as though to touch her Lord, and was met with him turning away.

"What I don't need is someone who just goes along with me because they think I'm right. Because they think I have all the answers. I'm human, Faun. Just like those people leaving this village tonight. Just like the person who this Host used to be. I make mistakes, and if I'm being honest, I'm walking in the dark here. I won't turn away advice when I can get it."

He avoided her gaze – hers, and Lamphrey's – and instead sat down on the balcony of the lighthouse again.

"Leave me," he said. "When we're ready to cast off, I'll join you all again."

Lamphrey did as she was bid, leaving Ethan with a nod and a curt snigger at Fauna as she passed. The Hopla, meanwhile, lingered for a moment and looked at the sagging shoulders of her Archon before she turned and left, more dejected than when she'd arrived.

You had to do that, Sys told him when they had both left. The fact is, you're right: all this dissent won't help anyone. Especially considering the enemy you have to face.

Ethan wanted to nod, but the gesture wouldn't quite come. Instead, he resumed looking out at the bleak castle in the distance, mind fixated on taking down the sadistic Doctor that dwelled within.

He looked down to see that his claws had clenched of their own accord.

"Sys", he said. "What's happening to me…"

…

Griffon's Watch

Haylock skipped down the deepest bowels of the castle dungeons, giddy like a child in a candy store.

Every now and then he bid a fond hello to his newest experiments. Down here, in what he called the 'Freezer Room', he had a plethora of new, unstable specimens which were beginning to ripen. He looked at their frozen faces, and saw the agony that writhed under their skin – those who still had faces, anyway.

"Alas, poor Thaddeus!" he giggled to himself. "You were a most dutiful servant for a time, my friend. For your years of service, I gave you the best gift I could offer: a martyr's death."

The Doctor stopped at a particularly large cylindrical structure at the end of the macabre hallway of screaming faces, and palmed its surface.

"You're angry, Archon Ethan," he smiled. "I can feel it. Good. Come to me with all your pain. All your frustration. All your doubts. Come…and let me set you free. After all, anger is like pride – it often precedes one's fall. And only once one has fallen can one experience true bliss."

The cylinder opened, revealing the agonized screams of its prisoner – a man who was covered head to toe in jagged spikes of ice, most of which had pierced his internal organs and injected him with a serum of the Doctor's making. Something special. Something wicked.

"Something made just for you," the Doctor smiled into the blue-tinged face of the prisoner.

The tortured man writhed, trying in vain to protest against his captor. Once, those protest had been much louder. Now, they were barely a whimper in the cold, unrelenting darkness that was his new life.

"You…you can't…do this…to me…" he sputtered. "I…am…I am royalty!"

"Indeed," Haylock laughed. "And how regal you look in your new suit of armor. I must admit, when the Greycloaks first brought you to me, I was skeptical about your usefulness. But you have grown into such a lovely little pet, even though you still struggle against your fate."

The prisoner writhed as the Doctor smeared his hand across his cheeks, embedding another ice crystal into his jaw.

"And it is fate, isn't it?" Haylock said. "Fate – the hand of good Kaedmon – made you a King. And that same hand made me an architect of wonders. I think the two of us were destined to meet. I think we are...made for each other."

Amidst more laughter from the Doctor came cries of torment from his slave, until the final crystal took form, and all that was left was pure, blind rage.

"Come King Lysandus," Haylock chuckled. "The enemy of Kaedmon is approaching. And you shall be our Lord's welcoming angel."

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