Breaking the silence, a glass being placed on the table just a small reach from Will's face. Her eyes opened docilely, eying the frosted glass and the droplets of spillage drooling down it's edge. Her lips felt dry and craving; her fingers twitched to reach out, but the black coursing into her skin burned scolding her and Will made no further effort to move. Hay Lin sat down quietly beside her. "I like Matt, he's such a nice person!"

Hay Lin's chirp was bright like a sweet bird.

Will's eyes sought after her in silence. Dead hazel watching morosely as the little Asian smiled to her, "Do you want some help?"

Will's fingers twitched longingly, but a dark coal was smouldering inside of her. The room around them seemed larger somehow, like an immense hall; it easily swallowed the sound of Will's saliva separating dryly as she parted her lips. But Will's eyes looked steadily to Hay Lin, who she knew could hear her. "…"

Her mouth closed. An intense and intricate mechanic to the muscles in her throat as she swallowed. Hay Lin's fingers tangled in Will's silently – those of her unscathed hand. Her chirp was inappropriately optimistic. "No one knows where Caleb went, Will. No one knows for sure if Nerissa did it!"

"Get your hands off of her." Hay Lin's black eyes weren't natural, looking up at her. The girl's fingers gently drifting away. Will's head remained lolled; her eyes watching intently over Hay Lin- who looked appalled. Stirring came from elsewhere in the restaurant as the others heard Orube's loud, unbending tone, but she remained stood in defiance. "I speak for Kandrakar and you-
Orube's yellow eyes inspected Hay Lin. "Will step away from her, now."

Obediently, with frightened eyes and a quivering lip – Hay Lin detached and distanced herself from the chair, calling earnestly, "Grandma!...?"

Orube's interest in her subsided then, and she strode: forcefully severing Will's wrist from where it lay – Orube brought the girl's hand millimetres from her buttery eyes and felt her teeth clench as Nerissa's seal corroded the Guardian before her. She pushed the chilling hand onto the table; circling it and studying what she was left for Orube to keep safe. Will's rogue, inflamed hair caught and curled around her pale, indifferent face: Will's eyes were softly bloodshot and her lips cracked open again. Orube reached out for the glass of water without looking and her slender fingers glazed it's rim.

…

Cornelia had darted in after Yan Lin, wondering what could possibly be left to go wrong with Will. The foreign woman knelt before Will, pushing Will's head back slightly – lain horizontal on the table – and pouring water over her mouth and chin. Cornelia's fists clenched, but without looking up her voice spoke clearly, "The congregation send me."

Cornelia's chest rose – startled – as the slight and nimble woman turned and stood in one elegant move, with cat-like eyes not on Cornelia, but they somehow felt as though they were boring into her skin. Hay Lin slipped quietly to the other side of Yan Lin, seeking comfort from her Grandmother. Yan Lin's voice was uncertain and granular, "There are five guardians, that is what has been."

"And so it always will be, Yan." Cornelia felt a scarlet brush across her skin, hearing the certainty in the young woman's disrespectful croon. She was Asian-looking, if Cornelia was made to label this woman in her early twenties. She stood adorn in white-embellished robe that looked fit for the cultural costumes often made by Hay Lin – but with wide airy shorts that cut below the knee and a wrapped top that was tide roughly around by a thick course of pink ribbon. Her hair was black and cut in a bob that grew longer towards her face; her fringe cut in an unforgiving point that only this woman's dainty, yet resilient face could find becoming. Cornelia had faced an overlord and his giant snake… but this woman was humourless and frightening. "I am not here in regards of replacement, unless the need suffices me. Yan Lin, I am unwavering and trained. And I was asked to be sent for here- by him."

Her head had turned and Cornelia's gaze followed to the door, that opened and- Cornelia felt her heart beating quickly as- Irma tumbled in, "We're here! She's here, we're… We're…"

Caleb's self-criticising, petrified green eyes darted over the scene; Cornelia swallowed, noticing privately that he was sweating and breathless. He had been careless, Cornelia realised; he'd been careless and reckless of Will, wherever he'd been.

…

"Will!" Caleb's rough fingers pushed the nervous sweat he'd developed franticly from his skin, undeterred by the contaminant stranger he passed by to crouch at the table from which Will had not been moved by any of what they'd been saying. She turned her head towards Caleb's, feeling his hot winded breaths that he panted onto her cold, decaying skin – but her eyeline didn't move from where they had been left last: looking at Hay Lin. It dragged across her eyes as Caleb's warm, welcome fingers broke the numb sensation. He tenderly laced his hand around her knotty hair and pulled her head up and Will didn't complain though it ached as though she had aged. She could feel – above other things – the difference between the stale dripping sweat and the fresh watered tears rolling onto her from his skin. He'd had a difficult morning, Will noted unflinching from him as he pulled her close into him and whispered intently, "I'm so sorry, Will- I don't know what condemned me to- Why I went- I-"

"Do you know her?" Will's lips had moved in the shapes needed to make those words, but she wasn't entirely certain that any sound had left them. His hand had reached for hers, that she had turned over to hide her pain when he'd made his entrance – the action motivated Will to animate, moving her head. She nodded at the foreign girl, who was looking disgusted by Caleb holding Will. "Did you ask her to be here?"

Caleb looked up, his body caved over her and his hair made a quiet sound that could be heard over the silence as he shook his head and everyone waited for answers from him. Caleb's voice was hostile, "I don't know who that is."

"My name is Orube and I have been sent, Will, by Kandrakar to protect where others fail." Will turned herself completely to register Orube. Her brown eyes felt heavy as if a dust had fallen over them and Will watched Orube's bright eyes flicker disapprovingly behind Will. To Caleb. "What an arrogant fool!"

Caleb didn't respond and Will's unbranded fingers moved behind her to find and comfort him. Her tormented, tattooed hand still lay where it had – concealing it's wound. Will felt like she might crumble, but stood, "He's just a boy. Caleb made a mistake."

Orube snickered, "Well I am a warrior. I am the next mistake Nerissa is going to make."