Getting back to the workshop, the room had mostly cleared out; with the day getting late it seemed that most of the men had gone home. Interestingly enough, there was a man cleaning up the vomit from earlier, Daryl expecting it would either be Grace or Liam himself. He looked to his right to see Grace speaking with a handler at a table, something that he had not seen in a year or two. Leaning on the table next to Grace was Liam's staff, with Liam himself sprawled out on a table behind her.

Daryl could not tell if he was conscious or not, until the sorcerer shot up at the sight of him and started waving at him. "Oh hey, Daryl!" he called, his eyes a misty red. "Ya missed it! That freak almost killed me!"

Daryl made a stale expression hearing him repeat the same greeting from earlier verbatim. "I know," Daryl replied, "you told me already."

Grace turned around to smile back at Daryl, to which her handler looked slightly annoyed, and then she turned back around to listen to what he was saying.

Daryl walked toward Rod's quarters, wondering what all happened while he was gone. On his way there, Liam hopped off of the table, nearly falling over, and asking, "Hey, uh, do ya think we can get an inn somewhere? I'm gettin' sleepy..."

The swordsman rolled his eyes and said, "Fine, just wait out here for a minute. I have to talk to Rod."

"Awesome!" Liam cheered, throwing his fists in the air, nearly hitting Daryl. "Sleepover with Daryl!"

"Just don't expel on the floor again," Daryl ordered, going into Rod's quarters and receiving no response from Liam.

Entering the room, Daryl found Rod writing something down with a proud smile on his face. He noticed Daryl's entry and greeted, "Daryl, what brings ya in here?"

"I was just wondering what all happened," Daryl explained.

"Well, Liam's been in and out of consciousness," Rod explained. "The boy really can't hold his liquor, y'know! So, a couple handlers helped him up on a table. One of the handlers offered to clean up that mess he made in exchange for Grace taking a job from him sometime in the future."

"Is that what happened?" Daryl asked, a bit baffled that someone would do that despite her victory.

"Yup! They all cheered for her for a bit, and then a few handlers came up to her offering her their jobs. Grace picked the one who came to her first." Rod smiled wider than Daryl had seen in a long time. "She really is an excellent swordsman, isn't she?"

"Indeed, sir," Daryl agreed, "you must be very proud." An abrupt, sad look came into Daryl's eyes. Thoughts of his son came to mind, wishing he could have felt the same way about him.

Rod noticed the look on his swordsman's face, knowing exactly what was bothering him. "Daryl, you have Mallory, now. Someday, she'll make you proud. I'm sure of it."

Daryl nodded solemnly.

Rod looked past Daryl and said, "Speaking of the girl, where is she?"

"I..." Daryl scratched the back of his head. "...locked her in my hideout."

"You what?" Rod asked, half worried and half amused.

"It's a punishment," Daryl explained. "I told her to stay at the training grounds when Garrison was here, and she disobeyed me, so she's spending the night in there."

Rod cocked an eyebrow. "Well, I suppose that's one way to do it." Rod rubbed his chin, a more thoughtful look on his face as he looked down on his desk. "About that girl..."

Daryl frowned slightly, noting his serious expression, and asked, "What is it?"

He looked back up at Daryl, his stern face unchanging. "You saw it, too, didn't you?"

Without having to say anymore, Daryl knew what he was referring to. It was the look in her eye, the look that expressed a fiery contempt for those who wronged her. The swordsman nodded with confirmation and answered, "Yes, I did."

"I'm not saying you're doing a bad job," Rod started, "but Daryl, you have to be so careful with this one. You of all people should know that."

The image came back into his mind: the boy kneeling down, reading that book. Daryl turned around quickly in an attempt to get it out of his head, and then he responded to Rod with, "I understand, sir. I'll do my best."

***

The hideout was almost pitch black with the hatch closed. Mallory's only source of light was through a small crack at the left end of the hatch that moonlight was able to pour into. She was incredibly fatigued from the training and the encounter with the giant, but it was hard for her to fall asleep. It was not only because the wood was extremely uncomfortable to lay on with her bare arms, but it was also because she was so scared for the future. Thoughts of Garrison the Gargantuan trying to kill her ran through her mind, as well as the harsh training Daryl had mentioned before locking her in there. She wondered how much longer she would have to endure her time with this guild until she could finally find her father, and she wondered what her father was going through all that time.

Laying there, she turned her attention to the pile of tokens over her head. Instead of thinking of all the bad things, she decided to imagine that all of that money was hers, and her and her father would never go hungry again. She turned to lay on her belly, and she rested her chin on the floor to stare at the tokens, using the slim silver of the moonlight to examine the golden coins. Then, she took a handful of the tokens and started pouring them onto her free hand from the bottom of her fist, like sand through an hourglass. When her fist emptied, she made a fist with her full hand and repeated the process, alternating between each hand. She kept this up for what seemed like hours, the small amount of light entering the hideout beginning to fade away. After all that time, she felt her eyelids getting heavy, but she continued her hobby, thinking that if she stopped then she would just go back to thinking about a horrible future.

Soon enough, her eyes closed, and they stayed shut that time. Right before it happened, though, she felt a familiar sharp pain in her temple, but again, she ignored it. This time, she let herself fall asleep.

About a minute into her slumber, she felt her eyes open into what looked like a swirling vortex of black and dark purple. Although she did not feel like she was going any deeper into the vortex, it was like she was floating towards something. Actually, it was more like she was getting pulled towards it. Mallory did not know whether to feel scared or curious, but either way, there was nothing she could do about it. She had no control over her own body.

After a few minutes of this, something started to form at the center of the vortex: two thin ellipses traced with a shade of lavender. The outlines of the shapes were like lavender fires, filled with the same black color as the rest of the void. Then, right in the centers of each shape, small violet circles formed so that the shapes resembled a giant pair of slanted eyes. The fiery eyes stared at her for a moment, and then the feeling of being pulled stopped. In that moment, she felt like she was trapped in a statue floating above a sea of nothingness. That was when a low voice permeated the dimension, saying, "You thought about me today. How sweet."

Mallory tried to break free from her petrification, the eyes growing more and more intense as the fiery outlines continued to burn. She was trapped for what felt like hours, and then she heard the hatch open.

"Wake up," she heard Daryl order.

Mallory's eyes shot open, waking up in a cold sweat and breathing hard. She flexed her fingers, startled, yet thankful for the fact she was able to move herself again. The sharp pain ran through her temple again. She winced and rubbed the side of her head. It left her head immediately, and then she turned her attention to her master above her. It was finally daytime, the gold of the sun lightening up the hideout.

Daryl tilted his head upwards and said, "Come on up, now. You have training to do."