Violet stormed up the stairs as faint lighting cast teasing shadows across her face. She hated Bishop. She hated his voice, his smile, his lectures, and knowledge, and...

Violet stopped, her brain whirring like a blender of murderous thoughts. Without even thinking about it, her feet had guided her to the door of the medical bay, it's pristine walls shining like an angel compared to the drab grey of the stone cave around her. It was like a breath of fresh air, a beautiful blanket of sterile thoughts where she could finally lose Bishop.

"Well, looks like part of the trio finally made its way over here."

Violet's attention snapped to the doorway as the blonde woman grinned back at her. Her eyes were as bright and lively as Violet's nerves, but she couldn't help but feel more relaxed at the sight of an old friend.

"Hey, Perry." Violet tried to disguise the relief in her voice as she was ushered into the room. Perry was one of the several normal moonshadowers who lived and worked in Home, recruited before she even finished her apprenticeship. She was one of the most talented doctors their hidden cities had to offer, skilled in everything from surgery, dentistry, and physical therapy. She was even the one who had overseen Violet and Em's transformation into the Guard, making sure everything from their perfect eyesight to their quick healing was in line.

But even with all of her talent, the most important thing about Perry was the gossip. Whenever Violet felt lost in the bustle of The Guard's work, she could always count on Perry for the latest local news and sarcastic comments on whatever was going on in Camelot.

"So, where's Bishop?" Perry gave one of her award-winning smiles, so knowledgeable of every little emotion. "I'm surprised you two weren't here earlier, with Em and all."

"I'm..." Violet faltered unsure how to respond. Bishop had given her every reason they should've gone earlier, but she couldn't remember a single one of her arguments.

"Naw, it's okay." Perry seemed tiny beneath Violet's towering, muscular form, a little doll busy at work as she floated from table to table. "If it helps, he's perfectly fine. He just had a..."

"A freakout?" Violet rushed through her words, silently praying that she was right as she plopped herself into one of the chairs. It was so much easier to talk to Perry when they were eye level. Perry paused, her hands balanced precariously over a table of cleaning supplies.

"Actually, no." She stated, more surprised by herself than Violet. "But I was up all night dealing with him. He's fine, really. It's just...complicated."

Violet nodded, her sharp eyes putting together the dark circles under Perry's eyes and shaky movements. She was exhausted, tired of dealing with the same patient for hours. Although she was sure Perry was used to pulling long shifts, she knew better than to let her friend stagger on.

"So, what's new outside of Home?" Violet prompted the gossip, knowing that a break from work would relax Perry. Just as she expected, her face lit up, ideas pouring into her mind. "How's Camelot?"

"Actually, I spent the weekend in Alfheim," she seemed to sigh with a breath of relief, slowly sinking into the sea of gossip. "It's been a while, but there's so much I have to tell you."

"Remember that teenager you rescued in the woods? The one from Centralia?"

Violet nodded, feeling all of her troubles fall away to Perry's excited ramble. Of course, she remembered the kid. He was the first one who had ever escaped from the Capital of all Luminescent-run cities: Centralia, Pennsylvania. It wasn't until The Guard had visited an old safe house on the outskirts of El Dorado that they had found him, half-starved and driven mad trying to survive what Centralia had done to him.

The non-luminescent teenager had gone after them with a knife, had almost torn himself apart trying to knock them out by absorbing their light, but the most horrifying thing was his form. Sunken in and more bone than muscle, he had starved himself, but not because he didn't want to eat. The poor boy was so lost in his madness to survive, that he never knew the pain came from hunger. With all the other threats tearing him apart at each corner of his mind, lack of food seemed like the last thing to kill him.

"I actually wasn't assigned that mission," Violet stated recounting tales of the mad teenager. "But I heard It was a tough case. The kid was a maniac."

"Well, get this, the kid's way better now!" Perry grinned with excitement as all exhaustion melted away, her hands full of tongue depressors. "And he's getting married in three months!"

"You're kidding, right?" Violet leaned forward, lost in the pointless drama. The kid hardly seemed able to recover, but she had heard much more dramatic stories from Perry before.

"Not at all!" Perry excitedly moved back to the counter, shoving the tongue depressors into a glass jar before moving over to a stack of medical forms. "And he's marrying a little immigrant girl from Atlantis! Can you believe it? The girl traveled all the way from Polynesia just to get a job!"

"Oh my goodness, but imagine what her parents are thinking?!" Violet cut in, her brain whirring with every last fact she knew about the mysterious Atlantis.

"I know!" Perry practically whispered her guilty knowledge, squeezing a pack of instant ice packs close to heart like a secret. "They must be so mad! Their little girl leaves her home, abandons her culture, and marries some surface-dwelling former psycho!"

"Some half-human former psycho." Violet corrected, remembering just how much the Atlanteans hated people above the sea. Marrying a surface dweller was bad enough for the poor girl, but a human- she would be lucky if her parents ever talked to her again.

"So, anyway, I heard from a friend of a friend about this Dobra Škola. They've completely renovated the school." Perry jumped around as quickly as she floated from table to table, organizing every last thing. "But Karena and Gray, you know- that cute patrolman who married the school nurse-they found this whole little lab in one of their maintenance closets. Volcano mice quills, ground dragon shells, mayberry seeds, the whole deal."

"I see that stuff all the time," Violet poked in again. The scene was one so common, she would be more worried if they stopped showing up. "Some kid thinks they can resurrect their dead fledgling with some ancient spell and a little lighting. It's old news."

"Yeah, but they found books, like, really old ones." Perry was quieting down as she shook a bag of cotton balls into another glass jar. "Thing was, they were all about werewolves. Seems like the kid was trying to catch one or something. They had everything to knock one out."

"But that's nothing compared to the fight those school kids got into." Perry had wandered over to a mess of files as Violet's mind began to wander with her. "I heard you guys got called in to break them up once, and let me tell you-you should've been there again."

"It was a mess like they were ripping out each others hair and..." Violet jumped, the sound of a bell causing her sensitive ears to twitch. Instinctively, Perry checked her watch as she set everything down.

"Well, I guess it's time to go check on your boyfriend." She teased, Violet's cheeks growing red with embarrassment. She loved Perry's gossip, but she also had a knack of knowing all the drama about her too. Nothing got past Perry before being deeply analyzed like a soap opera. "C'mon. He's this way." She stated as Violet followed her deeper into the medical bay, her cheeks growing red with embarrassment.