Siffrin felt so... so tired.

"Siffrin!" Mirrabelle exclaimed as he fell to his knees.

His stomach screamed and sweat poured down his face. It was so cold. He was so tired... going through the house alone... it took so much.

They hated him they all hated him right?

"We're almost there," Isabeau tried to reassure the rouge. "Come on. Get up. The housemaiden she can..."

Siffrin had gone through the house alone. And they were so... so tired.

Their vision began to darken...

"No..." Siffrin shook his head. "No more loops..."

"Siffrin!" Odile exclaimed. "We can figure that out! Loop told us everything we can-"

Siffrin felt like his brain was melting in his skull. "Sis?" He asked Mirabelle

Mirrabelle covered her hands with her mouth and held back tears. "Come on..." she begged. "Please hold on."

"Sis?" Siffrin asked again in his delirium. His family...

Family...

Where was his family?

"I..." Mirabelle took his hand. "I'm here... your family is here..."

"What's happening?" Bonnie demanded. "He's gonna be OK, right?" Bonnie knew on some level what was happening. They knew, and started to crying. "Siffrin... come on. You went through the entire house by yourself. You can do this."

"I'm so proud of you sib..." Siffrin began to cry. "But I'm so tired... I'm so tired..."

"No!" Bonnie screamed, crying. "No! No you can't die! You said we would protect each other! I can't protect you if you're dead! No no no no no!"

"Young one you are NOT dying before me," Odile demanded, helping Isabeu carry the rouge. "Come on. The housemaiden she can..."

Who was that voice? He felt so tired...

There was a kind older lady who... cared for them... she...

Odile's heart shattered as Siffrin gasped out. "Mom?"

Odile maintained composure. She held back her sadness and replied. "Yes?"

"Are you proud of me?" Siffrin gasped out between labored breaths.

"Y-" Odile lowered her glasses to wipe away a tear. "Yes... but if you want me to be truly proud you'll keep going. Come on! We're almost there!"

"Isa?" Siffrin asked. "I..."

"Save your strength," Isabeau begged. "Please..."

"No..." Mirabelle begged.

"I'm..." Siffrin wheezed. "I'm going to... take a little nap..."

"No stay awake!" Odile demanded.

"He'll just loop right?" Bonnie asked. "He'll loop and try again and tell us and we can help him and... and..."

"HOUSEMAIDEN!" Mirrabelle screamed at the top of her lungs rushing ahead. "HOUSEMAIDEN! WE NEED HELP NOW!"

Odile lost her composure and began crying. "Siffrin! Wake up!"

"He'll loop back," Bonnie demanded, crying. "Right? He... he has to loop back! That's what Loop said, right?"

Isabeau didn't say anything and merely lowered Siffrin to the ground gently.

"Why won't you answer me?" Bonnie screamed.

The Housemaiden entered with horror and shock on her face. "Oh Change!" She rushed over as quick as she could and began to examine Siffrin.

Mirrabelle was inconsolable. "You have to do something! Please! Please! You have to something! Anything!"

The Housemaiden checked for a pulse, and a grim expression crossed her face.

"What are you WAITING FOR?" Mirabelle screamed. "HEAL HIM! BODYCRAFT OR SOMETHING! ANYTHING!"

The Housemaiden didn't say anything. She simply shook her head.

"No..." Mirabelle sobbed.

Isabeau turned away and vomited from shock and stress.

"You're all useless!" Bonnie screamed. "You can't even protect him when he needed us most! Useless useless useless! I hate you! I hate all of you!"

"Bonnie," Odile pleaded, reaching out to them only for her hand to be slapped away before Bonnie ran away crying.

Odile sighed. "I... I'm going to go after them... I... excuse me."

Odile left, silently crying.

"His sacrifice wasn't in vain," The Housemaiden tried to reassure the two that remainded. "The country is saved thanks to-"

"Shut the CRAB UP!" Mirrabelle screamed. She instantly covered her mouth in shame and muttered out, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I..."

Mirrabelle ran off, leaving only the housemaiden and Isabeau.

"Oh god I need to sit down," Isabeau was shaking so bad he could hardly stand. "I... I can't do this."

"Young man," the Housemaiden tried to comfort him.

"Just..." Isabeau pleaded. "Please... leave me alone."

The Housemaiden sighed solemnly, "I'm sorry but I must ask. Did he have any requests for his body if he..."

Isabeau sighed and placed two fingers to his ear. "Loop? Can you hear me?"

"Barely," Loop replied in a static-filled voice.

"Did Sif say what he wants done with his body?" Isabeau chocked back sobs.

"He wanted you to carry his ashes," Loop replied. "Why do you-" There was a silence of realization. "Where's Stardust?"

Isa lowered his hand and declared, "I think he wanted us to carry his ashes."

"I understand," The Housemaiden nodded. "You... you should discuss this with the others. The body will be preserved until you reach a decision."

Isabeau nodded as the head Housemaiden began to walk away. She stood out on the balcony in the next room, and began to sob quietly, knowing on some level this was caused at least indirectly, by her use of wishcraft, and blaming herself.

As the people of Dormont celebrated the fall of the king, Mirabelle went into her room and locked the door, shaking and hyperventilating. She has just cussed out the head Housemaiden, Siffrin was dead, and she was a horrible follower of Change. She...

There was a knock on the door. Mirrabelle sat on her bed crying, and didn't answer.

Another knock.

Mirrabelle groaned. She wanted to scream and cry. Why couldn't they leave her the crab alone?

"Mirrabelle?" The voice of her roommate asked. "Are you OK?"

Mirrabelle shut the door in her roommate's face and sat with her back to it, still crying.

"That's OK," her roommate assured her sitting behind the other side of the door. "We can just... talk like this. What happened?"

Mirrabelle said nothing.

"You won," her roommate elaborated. "Is this about... I saw the body. Did you know them?"

"We were siblings," Mirrabelle sighed. "And he... he's gone."

There was a moment of tense silence before the roommate continued. "What was he like?"

"Really sweet," Mirrabelle replied. "But timid. Insecure. He... why didn't I see it? He must have been in so much pain and we didn't do anything."

"You could spend a lifetime finding ways to blame yourself," the roommate replied. "But healing starts with self forgiveness Mirrabelle. You couldn't have expected him to charge down the king alone."

Mirrabelle shook her head, "I could have saved him somehow if I had just-"

"No this wasn't your fault," the roommate replied. "Besides if anyone to blame she is."

Mirrabelle stood up, "Who?"

"Oh boy," the roommate tensed up, realizing Mirrabelle didn't know. "OK so you know how Wishcraft is a thing-"

Bonnie read over the book, crying and struggling to see the words through their tears. Then they saw it, and a smile of denial spread across their face. They slammed the book shut and took it up towards the Head Housemaiden.

Odile thought to herself about what Siffrin had called her. "Mom." She was the eldest and she had a responsibility to protect them. She had failed. Siffrin was delirious and speaking with no filter and in his dying breath... he had called her mom.

An old expression of Ka Bu wisdom crossed her mind. "A mother who buries her child has one foot in the grave herself."

Bonnie rushed by, crying and laughing. Odile grabbed them, "Bonnie there you are!"

"I found it!" Bonnie cried out in a fit of borderline insanity. "We can still fix this! We can still fix this look!"

It was an old story the Head Housemaiden had kept. A story about Wishcraft creating a person.

"If it can create new life-" Bonnie explained. "It can revive it. Right?" Bonnie's deluded confidence broke back into crying. "Right? Tell me it's true. Tell me it's true! I don't care if you're lying to me! Just tell me it's true!"

Odile merely hugged Bonnie without a word, tightly.

Bonnie screamed. "I don't care if you're lying! Just tell me it's true! Tell me we can bring him back! Please!"

Odile looked at the book which had fallen to the ground. Open.

It had to be true.

Right?

He had called her mom.

She...

It had to be true.

"We will," Odile assured. "I promise."

Odile merely held the crying child as they cried themself to sleep.

Odile picked up the book, it in one hand, Bonnie in the other. The story echoed in her head. It had been translated by someone. Someone who had to have known about Wishcraft. Odile recalled seeing the tally of wishes in the Housemaiden's office. She closed and pocketed the book, and began her march to the top floor.

She had some questions for the Housemaiden...