April 30, 2005
"Of course, he wants your help now, but why doesn't he go after Andrew himself?" said Sebastian.
"If he genuinely wants your help, why ask through fire message, as if you were in trouble? Unless it's a threat in disguise, and you'd get arrested if you don't?" said Stephanie.
"No one at the EBEE has my new hologram code and he doesn't know where to find me, which makes it difficult to send a pigeon. A fire message is probably the only way he could think of to send me an urgent message. I don't know why he won't go after him himself."
"And before another elder gets killed? Is he implying he doesn't care if agents get killed?" said Sebastian.
Sebastian got up and went where Coralis stood to look at the message she received.
"After everything they have done to you, I hope you aren't planning on helping them," said Molly, still sitting at the dining table between Stephanie and Jeremie.
"No, they're on their own against Andrew," said Coralis as she opened the second drawer of the corner table next to the couch.
She pulled what looked like a pen out of it and retrieved the parchment from Sebastian. She returned to the table, flipped the parchment and scribbled something on its backside while still standing.
Frank, sitting beside her, touched the parchment to see if he could read it as she wrote it, and he was glad to see he could. He read her message to the rest when she was done before she sent it back through their gumball machine.
'Elder Rolland,
I do not know what Elder Pratz has done to The Rogue Paladin, but Elders Alfredino and Roumwiz brought his wrath upon themselves when they betrayed us. I will not be interfering in the conflict between The Rogue Paladin and the European Bureau of Elemental Energy.
Clean your house.'
"You tell him, Blue!" said Jeremie.
"I am not planning on helping Andrew in his crusade, but I will certainly not be helping any of the EBEE elders. I can't get distracted by their mess. I've got enough on my plate as it is."
"Distraction kills," said Sebastian as he returned to his seat next to Stephanie. "I think you made the right call. You don't owe them anything and I'm sure Andrew killed Elder Alfredino for you. If anything, he did you a favour."
"If Andrew thinks he did me a favour, I'm hoping he won't play that card to get me to join him."
Later in the evening, Frank turned on the television to see if Andrew made the news with a twisted narrative of the recent events. The Rogue Paladin and his Order of Silver Blood weren't mentioned in the late-night news coverage, but the name Andrew Waterway was now listed as 6th on the Most Wanted Witches list.
"No justification was given for his change in ranking. They are afraid of him, they aren't even bothering to come up with a reason," said Frank.
"They probably tried to label him as an armed and dangerous manslayer but can't provide any sort of evidence without exposing themselves," said Sebastian.
"For once, however, Blue is being pushed down the ranking," said Stephanie.
"It means they think he's a bigger threat than me, but I'm still top 10 with Alejandro, we only moved down to 9th and 10th."
Over the next 2 weeks, Andrew killed a few more agents and fully moved his operations to Switzerland, and his name was gradually replaced by the name of The Rogue Paladin on global lists.
Coralis saw the fear of him growing among the population as the press covered the death of the EBEE elders and agents as if they were humans.
May 14, 2005
"Andrew would never go against humans. His mate, Lalima, is fay, but she isn't pure-blooded. Her mother is human. Shortly after the war started, during the time I tried to stay away to protect Frank, elemental foes went after them and he sent her in hiding. Her human relatives helped her hide. He loves Lalima deeply and is too grateful toward her family to ever go against humans," said Coralis to Louis when he came over with Linda to visit.
"Do you know the agents he killed?" said Linda.
"I only know Blum Frenzy. The day we were assigned to protect Minister Massina, Blum and his apprentice Xanita were with us."
"Xanita is the one who killed him and framed you for it, right?" said Linda.
"Yes, and Andrew told me at the time, when he was investigating my case, that Blum tried to protect her and covered for her."
"What I find odd, is that Andrew never got in touch with you over the past year, nor did he reach out to you since he started on his rampage, when many of those he killed have tried to have you killed first," said Frank.
"He probably tried to contact me after when he found out I escaped jail, but I don't think he knows I broke my hologram and lost my cell phone that night. I don't have a pager anymore. Same for Alejandro, he may not have broken his hologram in South Africa, but he ditched it before leaving Spain."
Meanwhile, Lalima couldn't sleep. She was lying on her back, above the covers, with her eyes wide open. She couldn't stand being kept hidden. She felt captive within her own house with nowhere to go and restless. She loved her mate dearly, but she could count on her fingers how often she saw him during the past 6 months.
She had enough. She grabbed a duffle bag and stuffed a few changes of clothes and personal items. Without making a sound, she sneaked out of the small house owned by her human brother and walked to the dock by the sea. She kneeled and removed the first plank from the dock, then grabbed a portal out of the hidden compartment before replacing the plank.
She wasn't sure where she wanted to go. She only wanted to get out of what felt like captivity to her. Closing her emotions from Andrew's end of their bond, she decided to go to Northern Ireland, to a spot near his family house where they often went before being forced into hiding.
She took in her surroundings after closing the portal behind her and smelled the air, her eyes closed. Remembering the past, she started to walk aimlessly toward Andrew's family house, not knowing anything of the storm Andrew had created.
Feeling movement around her, she stopped walking and opened her eyes. She found herself surrounded by five women wearing a dark red cloak. Before she could ask them who they were, she collapsed on the ground.