The area exploded in a sea of Haze Trait.

Reina's dire warning came a fraction too late. Hawkins tried to reach her, desperately willing his exhausted legs to move. With all the battles against both the Overtaken, Gizmo and Reina herself, it was finally beginning to take its toll. His body couldn't keep up with his whirring mind, the tell-tale signs of a Transference too close for anyone else to interfere with.

"Hack! She's getting away! Gimme a boost!"

"Hold on, boyo!"

The Earth Traited reached out instinctively, the already crumbling ground responding in kind as it helped to springboard the Mediator forward. Cricket's plan was clear only to someone with such an unconventional Trait as his. To rescue an Agar on connection alone was incredibly risky but the fear in Hawkins' chest was more than enough of a reason to react.

"You will not win, Mediator. Memoriam will..."

Reina was barely audible against the shroud of Trait. Her form was completely submerged in mist but Hawkins could feel the air shift around the Singfall siren. The Transference wasn't finished yet. He still had time. Hawkins shot forwards, the ground crumbling beneath him. Lunging for Reina in a last attempt of desperation. A hand brushed against her scales, clutching only air. She was gone.

"Shit!"

Hawkins tried to contain his frustration, his fists balling in anger at such a simple bait and switch. There was no chance of locating her now and using her as a bargaining chip was completely wasted. The area was completely clogged by mist, too dense to see through even with the twins' flashes of Fire Trait. Hazard and Blaize attempted to illuminate the broken clearing with their pawsteps and Mantis attempted to clear the air with her Trait. It was no use.

"Move." Mantis spat, trying to warn him before her words were cut short.

Hawkins barely had enough time to recognise the emerald sheen of Cricket's eyes against the darkness. The static pull of Tarragon had swept over them all, leaving them frozen in place. The haze settled around them and began to part. All they could do was stare and listen.

The grinding sound of earth against metal, the smell of burnt stone and the forceful amber glow of the Overtaken was proof enough that Cricket was resetting all of Gizmo's hard work. Destruction to restoration. Exactly as the Tinker Mole had described.

"Is that...what I think it is? Is she..." Rin said, falling on deaf ears as the area they fought so hard to upend had returned.

It was a chilling thought to describe a Trait, a Craft in such a way. It was bewitching. Hawkins tried to fathom how Cricket had developed her Trait and strategy to this point. The only conclusion he could come up with was that she had learned from the other Enforcers. Be it through grimoire or an outside source she had been taught by someone. He just didn't know who.

Compared to Cricket's earlier attempts at a full frontal assault, waves of ambushes and receiving assistance from other Traited this was completely unexpected. They had prepared for her to bombard them with Tarragon and give away her position just like before.

Instead, she had rescued her Agar and blindsided them with such a simple manoeuvre that Hawkins' was kicking himself for not registering it sooner. Transference was hard to achieve but it was possible. Thinking Cricket didn't have such capability was what got him into this mess in the first place.

"Any ideas, Mediator?" Cull exclaimed, thawing out from the Tarragon's control thanks to the Infernal Triad.

Just as Hawkins tried to reply, his response was met with a light in the distance. Slowly the area became lit by stone pillars shrouded by flame, Cricket and the two Overtaken rose out of their trap and onto fresh ground beneath them. She moved like a luminous spider, her haze tendrils acting like extra legs while her unblinking eyes stared straight ahead at him.

The injuries she had sustained prior had pretty much vanishished, her tattered appearance replaced with the cold, hard steel of her Trait armour. But what caught Hawkins' attention the most was the thinly engraved emblem of the Excelliars.

He sucked in a breath of surprise, the black grimoires memories returning in waves of realisation. The sigil had been scratched out for a far cruder emblem of the Swarm but it stubbornly refused to go out. The metal shone green with veins of white like the eyes of its holder. No wonder Trait armour was so hard to achieve with blatant reminders of things they'd rather forget.

"Well, what do we have here? A traitor, a savage, and a group of chaotic Traited all working together to hurt my Agar. How...sickening."

Cricket's voice seemed to mimic Mantis' introduction, echoing against the pitch black clearing. She had no need for Tarragon now, speaking plainly and distorting her Trait much like her former attire. Without a word, Hack and Mantis immediately stood in front of him protectively.

The flames from Blaize and Hazard's fur and the Infernal Triad shielded and refuelled his unconventional Trait as much as possible. The Fire Traited twins remained the last bastion for the Tinker Mole's huddling behind them. Gidget was in no fit state to move after their last attempt to save him from the Overtaken. He had done more than enough in the last fight.

"Cricket...I know what happened to you. I can help if you just let me..." Hawkins began, his voice faltering at the thought of his prior failure.

Despite their plans being derailed, the group had organised themselves accordingly as if nothing had happened. But the sting of overlooking such an obvious technique as Transference didn't sway his decision to help. They wanted to protect him. He wanted to help them. There was no time for guilt.

"Help? Oh no, Hawkinson. You've done more than enough to help me. Isn't that right, Gizmo?"

Hack's control over the earth below began to shift against him only to upend him completely like a deck of cards. A searing wall of crisscrossing spikes broke the group in half and half again. Their decisive formation crumbled underneath the mass of haze so thick Hack claws seemed to carve through it like cotton candy.

"Thank you, my Lady. I got the info I needed. You were right on both accounts, of course. He is the Bookkeeper."

The wind was already knocked out of him with Gizmo's betrayal but his way of providing gut wrenching information exactly at the wrong time was second to none. Bookkeeper. The last thing he ever considered was being a Keeper of Trait.

"What do you..."

Hawkins coughed, struggling to stand up against the horrifying force of the Overtaken's grip. It growled at him as if personally offended by his arrival, the Earth Overtaken splitting and reassembling the area like a maze with its other hand. It made sense why he was angry. After all, had Sleek not suffered as he did then perhaps he could've helped his little sister.

"Gizmo, you bastard! What the hell are you on about?"

Hawkins could hear the others loud and clear, a little too loud for how far away they'd been all split up. He struggled to call out to the others, the force of Cricket's Tarragon bringing him to his knees and clutching his head in pain. It was too much for him to process. Not without Wisp.

"It's unfortunate that the Laia has named him as my successor but I guess the dragon had something to do with that?"

The Mediator was keenly focused on Gizmo's bloodied claws clutching the black grimoire tight. Memoriam was struggling within his grasp, the chains glowing dangerously red. Hawkins fumbled for his pockets but only found a tattered notebook filled with notes in a handwriting that wasn't his own. Damn it. Gizmo had replaced it with Rin's.

"Bait and switch." He growled, sounding too unlike Hack to feel angry about falling for the same trick twice.

Without the black grimoire stabilising his Trait it was like the air had been knocked out of him. He couldn't think of a way out with Cricket's Imperial Tarragon searing into his brain. He tried to cry out in protest but the lack of weight in his pocket stung more than any predictable betrayal ever could. He should've been more careful.

"Indeed, Mediator. A simplistique tactique that I'm surprised you didn't see coming. Perhaps that smoke of yours blinded you to more than just the truth, non? Bindsmith's always know their grimoires. Especially when it is a family business."

Gizmo's phraseology continued to bug Hawkins, the Snakecharmer ability grating against his nerves and he bit back the urge to respond. Hawkins was inches away from the Tinker Moles' claws, crossed over in a sense of jitteriness over Cricket's Trait. Either that, or his days double crossing weren't quite over yet.

"I'm sorry, Hawky."

The Haze Trait parted enough to reveal the salamander-sized dragon encased in a stone cage. Bound by bars of Haze Trait not unlike himself, the miniature prison had been modelled after Reina's own contraption. Gizmo wouldn't look her in the eyes.

"I tried to tell you but..."

Odi's voice in the darkness was drowned out by her screams. Cricket playfully swung a trapped Odi in front of them like a taunt, her tendrils tossing her prison from side to side like a toy bird.

"Odi!"

Hack's yell of anguish made Hawkins clench his eyes shut, not wanting to relive the torture Cricket had put them through again. He could hear Hack and Mantis shrieking, attempting to judge whether or not he could reach them in his state.

"Don't listen to them, Hawkins. It's how they get you. Trust me. We don't care about any of that, just don't-"

"Mantis!"

The tell tell crunch of an Overtaken induced punch brought gut wrenching fear, Rin's screams echoing in his ears. If he could move then maybe he could help her, heal her, do something to get the black grimoire back. He attempted to shift his position away from the Haze Trait but every time he tried they coiled tighter around his arms.

The sinking feeling that this was all a trap made his struggle feel futile as his Trait waned against Cricket's emerald smog. They had planned this. All of this. His Trait needed to be tired out so the black grimoire could no longer repel them and could be opened. But for some reason, not without the Bookkeeper.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I never meant to involve you in all of this. Any of this."

Odi's voice, devoid of any joy or humour, began visibly shrinking away from any kind of movement. Her inquisitive nature had turned fearful to everything and anyone around her. The dragon's wings, now exposed by bone, twisted into incorrigible forms flat against her back in miniscule size.

"Tell me what we need, Arbiter."

Hawkins felt uncomfortable at the sound of Odi's title, not wanting to know the history behind that name. But the dragon refused to respond, the haze constricting around them began threatening to strangle Hawkins. Odi flinched not wanting to see him hurt but his confusion as to why continued.

His grey grimoire was instinctively protecting Memoriam through its old-timey Triad. The Tinker Mole wanted to break that connection. Gizmo edged the grimoire closer and closer towards the dragon as if attempting to ignite Memoriam through sheer will alone.

"The black grimoire doesn't belong to him. It's not his, I swear."

Hawkins could barely hear her against his pounding headache, his eyes unable to focus other than a blurry outline as if blinded by his own Trait. The familiar sense of brain fuzz forming into unrecognisable images burned in his peripheral vision. Not even Memoriam could help him decipher what was missing.

"Then who does it belong to, hmm?"

The thought of Hawkins being used as a vessel filled him with doubt towards Odi's intentions, the reminder of his mother's hold over him made him feel sick to his stomach. Comparing Odi to Kalaris was baffling but the sour taste in his mouth wouldn't leave.

The dragon had lied to him, the Enforcers had lied to him and even Hack had lied to him. But if the black grimoire had shown him anything it was what the truth could do to unravel a curse of his own making. They had lied to protect themselves from the Lockbind-inducing Eternal Death. The very thing that was tearing him apart without his Agar.

"I can't-"

"Stop it! Leave her alone!" Hawkins demanded, his smoke exploding in anger at how the Scale Shrieker was being treated.

He grit his teeth through the pain, Cricket's Tarragon rattling his brain as he attempted to learn forwards and his hands brushed against the stone bars. The Earth Overtaken grabbed him from behind and slammed him back onto the ground, his back throbbing in agony. Sleek certainly knew how to hold a grudge.

"Tell me. Tell me how to open it." Cricket hissed, her Trait snaking around the dragon's neck.

Odi trembled, her eyes glistening with tears but Hawkins couldn't budge. He didn't care what she had hid from them but Gizmo was using each other's pain to get them to break and reveal what they knew. A white hot pain spread up the back of his neck, Hawkins' arms going numb as if trying to protect him from the inevitable Eternal Death.

"I...cannot say. I can't. Please."

His mind wandered despite the dire situation, his breath expelling calmly despite his fingertips crumbling to ash. Cricket either studied the decaying Enforcers grimoires to help strategise or she had another teacher other than Hornet in close proximity to tell her what to do.

The biggest burning question was how Cricket had rescued her family so quickly? The winding questions gave him a lot to think about but the overwhelming fear slamming into him made his breathing unsteady. It wasn't just his fear. It was Odi's.

"Did you suggest using the Lockbind, huh? You and your putrid sister started all of this-"

"No. I did."

A resounding explosion ripped through the colliding maze, dismantling into brick dust that dispelled all ounces of haze around them. In the distance stood a lone Sand Wraith shrouded in a street light hue of glowing aubergine with only a single leg remaining.

"How...exactly did you do that? How...did you, you thieving little necromancer..."

Cricket's smug mask began to slip, her well crafted words struggling to grasp how Hack had performed such a feat. Hawkins looked up at the scene before him, struggling weakly onto his side without his left arm present due to the decaying ash.

Hack, however, simply brushed away the disintegrated form of his severed leg, daring to take a single step. His Trait made up the difference with a bloodied crook of stone before Hawkins could even register it happening. Whatever curse that had befallen him had no control over him now. His grimoire had made sure of that.

"The black grimoire Memoriam was sent to me to protect, not Hawkins. He has nothing to do with this, any of this. He's a good kid but...too kind for his own good. That's all."

Hawkins tried to reach his mentor but Hack's eyes were cold, narrow slits, a quiet fury emanating from every inch of his scales. There was no rapid rise and fall of his chest, no signs of exhaustion as if all his fatigue had ceased to exist.

Shadows poured out from the flickering pages of his grimoire, open wide with unfamiliar energy but it wasn't sinister. It rose along with the Hanging Sun streaking over the ruined courtyard, now growing with moss and saplings that no Traited could've produced without years of study. Not just Trait but necromancy.

"Liar."

Cricket wasn't having any of it, her Tarragon slamming into the newly restored ground. Hawkins could feel his brain rattling in pain, eyes streaming as the young Traited continued to torture the Sand Wraith. Cricket's haze formed into the mist tendrils they had seen plenty of times before but Hack stood firm, his vines entangling the blind girl and met the Haze Traited head on.

The intricate ivy seemed to absorb the Trait before it could disintegrate, its yellowish green leaves evaporating the choking green smog. It took Hawkins a while to recognise the dandraleaf and what he assumed was a variation of snitch weeds. Or was it radistrips? Either way, Caldorian plants had a lot of uses and Hack's experience with them bested anything Cricket could conjure.

"The Night Force doesn't lie. Not about this, Cricket."

Hack's calm and strangely natural mention sank like a stone in Hawkins stomach, a sharp intake of breath was all he could do to try and form words. He wasn't angry or scared, just...disappointed. Disappointed that both Odi and Hack had to hide part of who they were and what they were affiliated with because of fear and bias.

His fear and bias. Hawkins couldn't help but still be wary of their history but unlike his initial drunken ramblings back in Grimmordials, he could at least admit he needed more time to let them provide a full story. But the Night Force name still sent chills down his spine.

"Did you ever wonder why I kept quiet for so long? That I was the one cursed instead of Odi?"

Cricket's subdued response betrayed how much pain she was in, her Trait unable to focus on the battle-hardened Mediator. She flinched at Hack's words, Hawkins ached with sympathy as he watched her struggle with remembering what happened. She didn't want to remember but it was causing her incredible pain to continue to forget it.

"No. Why should I care?"

Her petulant response made Hack sigh, seeing no point to elaborate further to try and reach her. Hack weaved the black grimoire away from Cricket's grabby Trait, his rocky prosthetic merging with the shifting gravel.

Hawkins barely recognised his mentor's fighting style, his usual precise movements were desperate and scrappy but highly effective at being unpredictable. It was like every punch towards the haze resonated like the pulse of a drum.

"It is my job to protect Memoriam from those who wish to abuse it. Whether that is an entire country or a misguided child. Needless to say, I abandoned that duty for another."

The pins and needles Hawkins had felt prior were fading and his missing limb was being replaced and replenished by a glowing spray of azure petals. Caldorian flowers. Shadows replaced the flesh of his arm as ivy melded the preexisting ash back to its original form. The Eternal Death had stopped.

"I know the consequences. I won't abandon it a second time."

The truth burned in Hawkins chest like a hot poker, aching and burning away any attempts to salvage any heart he had left to deny it. His heartbeat pounded in his ears, despite everything moving in slow motion. Hack had given up his duty to the Night Force...for him.

"You aren't the first wannabe Keeper of Trait to try and stop me and you won't be the last!"

Hawkins tried to break away from the chaos and help Odi but she was nowhere to be found. Gizmo had scarpared with an unruly grimoire and a caged Od who were probably long gone into the mists. Cricket's debilitating Trait was everywhere and Hack wasn't letting up either.

The darkness permeated the glowing green smog and colliding piles of earth but he couldn't tell where the other Enforcers were in the battle. A flash of purple light struck the Haze Traited with the base of his palm, Hack's attack searing through Cricket's chest.

"I never said I was a Keeper."

The sheer impact sent her flying into a broken section of pillars, her Haze Trait exploding in a chain reaction big enough to make even Gizmo jealous. The Overtaken attempted to follow her to no avail, the darkness making it too hard to track her after such a devastating attack.

Hack wasn't finished yet.

His tricky beesnap pollen had clung to Cricket's hair and now burrowed its way through the cracks in the Overtaken's hewn out body. Cricket struggled to her feet, oblivious to her older brothers distress and began to cough from the pollen.

The Bewitcher stared blankly at the stubborn Sand Wraith, her body succumbing to the paralysis before she forced another Transference to activate and immediately disappeared.

First Reina, then Gizmo, Odi and now Cricket. But Hack just kept his focus on the sole remaining target in front of him.

"Stand down, Sleek. It's over now." He said calmly, the parasitic beesnap flower doing more damage than any Trait had done in seconds.

The Earth Overtaken howled in pain, a desperate cry for help to his younger brother but the Fire Overtaken did not arrive. It tried to use Hack's own Earth Trait against him for a second time but Hack's corrosive botany was too much to push back against. Not even a Fire Traited like him could stop the crumbling ash of a necromancer.

"Hack..." Hawkins began, but he knew there was no point asking.

The Sand Wraith clung to the fading Overtaken, his breath expelling in slow, deep breaths as if matching the Earth Overtaken beat for beat. Hack's necromancy spread only to the small patch of earth in front of him, filling it with the same azure flowers that had helped him earlier. But Sleek still crumbled away, his Overtaken form growing smaller and smaller by the second.

"These are Solaris flowers. I don't know if you'll recognise them due to your current state but they are from your home. From Nocturus."

Hack's voice was far kinder now as he helped lower the struggling creature to the ground. The Overtaken seemed to growl in understanding, its bulky size being shed like the shell of a turtle. Instead, a young wiry boy no more than a few years older than Cricket emerged from the monstrous Overtaken while still retaining half of his garish features.

"I want to..."

The Overtaken's words were raspy, as if inaudible for years on end but Hawkins hung on to every word.

"I want to go home."

Hawkins eyes were wide as he spread his Trait outwards, the dwindling smoke weaving together in a large spider web to provide some manner of privacy. His heart ached for the young Traited, clearly succumbing to the same fate he had done mere moments ago. The Eternal Death came for them all.

"I know. The Laia will not take you. But I will."

Hawkins stared at how his mentor interacted with someone who was once trying to kill him. The Overtaken. Sleek the Earth Traited. He was both and his longing to return to his final lasting place conjured the beautiful silver trees of the Ironthorn forest forged in the Smoke Trait that he created.

"I know you. She called you...her compass."

Hack didn't respond, simply nodding as Sleek struggled to stand up any longer. Hack caught him as the Earth Traited legs scraped against the ground, the space where his toes used to be now staining the flowers with ash.

"Creed..."

His voice was softer now, cracking with an overwhelming amount of emotion as the spines against his back began to fall away.

"I will see to it that he is taken care of."

"Crick...et..."

Hack refused to speak, instead focusing on the task to assist Sleek into being as comfortable as he could. Hawkins hadn't realised he had sat down beside them, hauntingly silent but the flower petals wound its way through his fingers.

"My sister..."

Sleek's bright blue eyes filled with tears, struggling to form the words needed to narrate a lifetime of mistakes.

"I know. I know what she did to me...but..."

"Rest now. You'll see her again." Hack reassured him, his response settling the boy at ease but only just for a moment.

"Sashio..."

He sat upright, the Mediator attempting to follow his gaze towards the open expanse of shadow and smoke. Much like before, Memoriam offered its guidance despite the distance between as a golden scaled dragon emerged right where he said it did.

"She's here. She's right here." Hawkins blurted out without thinking, wincing at Hack's sudden expression.

Another dragon had emerged from the shroud of the black grimoires call, an ochre brown dragon laced in ruffles of skin and scales alike. Willow. Hawkins barely recognised the two towering dragons, now reunited with tails intertwined as if all their fighting had been meaningless.

"Bookkeeper..."

His Smoke Trait snapped to attention, barely noting the title as belonging to him let alone the nudge given to Sashio to move ahead. Willow's visage faded as the dragon stepped into the flower filled ring as it gestured for him to do the same. Hack did not say a word.

"You need the Timekeeper...to open Memoriam. You need...her name."

"But I don't want to open it-"

A sharp intake of sound was enough to stop him mid sentence, the claw on Hack's lip enough of an incentive to stay silent. His protests didn't matter to a dying man attempting to give his last request. Even one as young as Sleek.

"Please. My sister...she mustn't know what we are. What turns us...Truant."

The Earth Traited was now no more than a torso, the remnants of his body lay beneath him in a small pile guarded by an unruly Sand Wraith. A Sand Wraith who more than likely knew that the black grimoire had more than just a soul inside of it. It had information that could not be spoken aloud.

"The Lockbind. Is it turning them..."

Sleek tried to move but soon found he could not, insistent on relaying his cryptic message however he could. The Eternal Death crawled up his hands to his shoulders in rapid time but still he fought it back.

"No. No. Promise me. Cricket...cannot know. She cannot know...Hellgrind...is the same. It's the same."

Hawkins didn't realise how choked up he was until his eyes were blurry and his hands shook. He tried to cling onto the boy's hands but they disintegrate into dust in a second so he did the only thing he could think of and let his smoke provide what comfort the boy had left to recieve.

"I promise. I promise, Sleek. I won't."

The Mediator shook his head, trying to clear his eyes of tears without looking away. If he looked away he might miss something, anything to prove that the Earth Traited had been more than his death had mapped out to be.

The spirits of those the Overtaken had slain stood before him but the two dragons hid them from view long enough for Sleek to forget his sins. The Enforcers would remain trapped for some time but the dragon who bonded with him would not hold it against him.

"Thank you...thank you, Mediator."

Sleek smiled at them both before turning to ash with his dragon. The earth embraced the boy as Hack fulfilled his duties and allowed the earth to form into a familiar shape. A Flickerwick candle. The wick emerged sleepily from its cocoon as the presence of a young soul lit the candle with a small flame bright enough to blind them.

Hack diligently went through the Last Rite with him, pausing at each breath taken and every word stumbled before returning it into the space between his grimoire. The Ashes of the Fallen would be the perfect place to allow Sleek to rest for good.

When all was said and done, Hawkins burrowed his face in Hack's arms and cried.