Silently, Elowen tilted her head slightly, furrowing her thin eyebrows as she noticed Rosa's growing angry expression. Not helping was the fact that Randal had basically just told her that the maid got jealous as a little girl. Even still, Wen was willing to try to be a friend to her, but Rosa barely gave her time to consider their options before bursting into a fit of rage. Her fierce and burning hatred were a stark contrast to the cool and distant girl from before– almost as though she had been possessed by something. "What…?" Wen breathed, eyes wide as the elf took on a form similar to that of when Edgest took control of Randal. Evidently, it was another wraith, though this one was more malicious than the mage's. She fearfully looked up at Randal, hoping for an explanation. "Who's Liyen?!" she asked, her voice shaking as a bolt of fire shot towards them.

They ran to a nearby ladder, climbing up into the streets as fast as she possibly could. Luckily, they escaped before they were caught in the roaring fire that erupted from the manhole. The flames seemed to scare off the mutants, giving them a clear path through that street at least. Wen clutched on to Randal's arm, running as fast as she could. But the now-possessed Rosa was quicker than the girl from before. She followed them, almost hovering above the ground while a red light surrounded her form. Although the Dryad knew better than to look back, she made the mistake of turning her head, causing her to trip on a bottle in the street. Losing her grip on Randal's sleeve, she stumbled and fell on her knees, scraping them on the way down. She scrambled to regain her balance but was shoved forward by the Rosa-wraith.

Elowen rolled onto her back and saw Rosa floating above her, though she seemed… gone. Rosalina was gone, now being influenced by some powerful menace. "R-Rosa, please, if you can hear me–" "Shut up and don't move." The wraith cut her off with a gruff voice, staring intently at the mage behind her. She was stunned into silence and couldn't pry her eyes from the unstable combination of consciousness above her. "Randal Hex, I wish to have an audience with your wraith. Call him," it commanded in an echoing voice.

Randal spun round tears in his eyes "No… I cant do that to him" his gaze meeting Wen's fear evident on his face as he continued talking his eyes becoming more steeled and focused "You hurt my loved ones" the mage pointed at the floating abomination his eyes glowing blue "So you are no longer talking to the wraith! you are talking to me!" the courage Randal seemed to show caused Liyen to laugh "Do you think you can defeat me with your simple mana when I posses Rosa's endless supply, you're a fool boy maybe that's why he chose you, just summon Edgest!" clenching his fists shaking in pure anger, his body beaten and exhausted from running through the city as tendrils of frost grew over the floor and the wind picking up behind him causing his hair to wildly whip around as frostbite started to crawl its way over the mage's skin as snowflakes started falling heaivily before turning to hail and then to sharp iciles being thrown around wildly even causing the Dark Wraith to back away with a snarl "Impossible, you'll freeze".

Beside Elowen while the spell seemed to glow and faint spectral image appeared "I never hated you kid, Randal simply lost everyone he cared about in one swoop and now he's willing to risk that for me" Edgest's face seemed to solidify with a small smile "He'll need you more than ever after today, don't let him go down the route of Liyen" a glyph glew on the Dryad's chest an old mana exchange that Randal had put on her during the fight back in Mamalak as the Wraith floated into Randal causing the frost to spread quicker and the wind to grow more intense as the young adult screamed out "No! You don't have to do this for me!" as Liyen reached out with firey tentacles pulling the blue wraith from his host "Finally I get rid of you and gain your power" slowly crushing Edgest as he uttered gasped words "Thank you" before shattering into a explosion of ice causing the two wraiths to blur and fade leaving Rosa on the floor muttering madness as Randal picked up a broken sword which resembled more like a knife raising it up as it covered itself with ice so eaisly it looked like the blade would shatter from the temperature "You did all of this!" he cried out tears rolling down his cheeks and freezing.

Everything went by so fast, Elowen hardly processed the events. At first, she reached her hand out to stop Randal from absorbing all of his magic energy in one attack. She knew for certain that he would not call Edgest willingly, but he would kill himself trying to stop this monster. But as the ice flew past her face, causing the Dryad to shiver, she heard a familiar voice, except he sounded… sad. Her golden eyes darted upwards to where the wraith floated as she clutched the glyph with her hand. "No, no no no no," Wen pleaded frantically, attempting to grasp the empty air where the old elf had appeared. "Don't talk like that! Randal needs you more than me!' Although she begged him to remain with his host, she could feel when his presence left. As the tension died down, she felt cold tears dripping down her cheeks. Edgest was gone.

Snapping her head around to where the mage stood, Wen realized that she had to stop him from doing anything irrational. Her gaze turned to the rambling Rosa writhing on the ground, and she shakily crawled her way over to the girl. "Shh…" she whispered, brushing her hair back to calm her down. The Dryad took a protective stance over the maid, giving Randal a sympathetic yet stern look. "This wasn't her fault," her voice called, wavering with adrenaline. "If you want to blame someone, blame Liyen."

Now that Liyen was gone the abominations felt no threat as they lumbered towards the group roaring loudly before Randal overwhelmed with anger and hate glared at the beast causing it to pause before being impaled through the once human skull as the spear of ice erupted causing ice to form from the exit wound causing a mass spikes to vine away from the back of the skull and slowly turn red from the leaking blood which even that froze after contact with the ice, however not being used to this amount of mana at once Randal's hand was purple with frost bite deeply coated with frost which shone in the night "You dont understand Wen, when you make a pact with a wraith they become you, you see memories of their journeys and they see yours" the mage ran his last good hand through his hair leaving frost to coat a few strands as his eyes were so blue it seemed as a blue flame was caught inside them as he grasped at the ground "When she accepted that bond, she became as much Liyen as Liyen became her and she did it all for what a fake feeling of love and the need for power!".

Time stood still as a figure seemed to hobble through the snow as the head maid let a small smile at the boy before whacking him on the head with her cane "Boy I watched you grow up, and so did my father's father. he knew from the day you were brought home that you would become bond with him something to do with being unbound from the river of death" Randal looked at her tears causing his eyes to grow sore and red as she cupped his cheek "He viewed you as a son, and like any father he sacrificed himself so you could live a full life" the two started laughing about how the wraith was an assface before seeing guards and soldiers alike shocked at the damage caused by such a young mage before the maid patted his head to go explain what happens to the guards allowing him to talk to the Dryad with a nervous look etched across his face with a deep intake of air he started talking "I would understand if you were scared of me now… but Wen I love you and I want you to be my partner" looking up at the clouds that parted to view enough sunlight to glitter of the small patches of snow that had started to thaw "We can travel, get away from everything because we both want to see the world and then when we grow older we can come back here and live happily" resting his tired head against hers.

Something was different inside of her, now. She wasn't sure what exactly had changed, but she could not bring herself to look at Randal the same way, even though she desperately wanted to. As Elowen watched the old woman calm the mage down, she knew she was supposed to be feeling happiness, or relief, or anything. But her heart was empty. That was when she realized that it wasn't that something had changed. It was that her feelings hadn't changed. Seeing him lose control and nearly attack his oldest friend had just made it easier to see. Shaking her head, Wen chuckled dismissively. What was she thinking? Randal had been there for her from the very moment she'd left the forest, so of course she loved him. Then, why did it feel more like an obligation than a decision? That must've been normal; he probably felt it, too.

Smiling earnestly up at him, Wen cupped his face in her hands and placed a tender kiss on his lips to reassure herself. For the most part, it worked, and her doubts were forgotten. "Of course, I want to be there for you," she stated firmly when she pulled away. "I will go with you anywhere, Randal." And she meant that. Elowen would follow Randal anywhere he asked, so long as he wanted her there. Which was why she needed some time to rest. "But, before we do anything rash, let's go home. It's been a long month." Entwining their fingers together, they slowly began the long walk home, leaving a confused Rosalina to be helped up by some city guards.

When they got home he looked around the place as if it was a foreign country, the young mage read a letter left on the table informing the mage about the spire event that happened weeks ago before throwing it on the fire watching the embers float up "That mission was a mistake, the Academy sent me only as a heavy hitter and didn't take in effect the risks of said process" with a quick laugh and a hand through the hair "Edgest said Thank you…" grabbing hold of the table hearing it creak under the effort "Ive spent my life reading books and ridding the world of ghosts, how boring must of that been for him and yet he thanked me for it so I wanted to let him have more adventures see the world with him but in the end that all it took for him to disappear" the quiet sniffiling could be heard as he tried to keep his glance away from anyone before heading towards the study.

Randal had sat in the uncomfortable Oak chair looking through books for almost half a day until pausing with a small smile waving to one of the servants who went to inform Wen to see him if she had time before starting speaking to himself facing the window behind him "How many hosts did you have Edgest… from the ones my father recorded until he died we have a young slave fighter, a knight rumoured to be a angel and even a simple monk" lifting up his glass of wine frost covered its glass quickly making the inards of it turn solid as he read curiously "The only one that would be alive at all would be the latest one, meaning he must know about Liyen which means theres a chance I can learn to seal his soul away from the realm of the living. This Viserys Serpentine could prove our only hope to stop him for good" as he turned with his eyebrow rose taking notice of her entrance he muttered an enchantment a small glyph forming upon Wen's hand but different from the one that she once bore its design seemed more linear with pieces resembling cracks running through it before it dulled to barely noticeable upon her skin "I couldn't live with myself if I harmed you while using my mana, it was the reason for the old one" The mage uttered quietly before continuing "We need to find this man Wen, he could tell us things even help me become less danegrous" his tired eyes looking more like the portrait of the man above the study fire, the painting showing a man dressed in fine wears holding a book and writing feather eyes the same as Randals but his hair almost black like the night sky with a few specks of grey the name written in a golden tag said 'Tristan Hex, Head Of Magic' even as they spoke Randal stroked his stubble which had slowly grown over the last few weeks until he noticed how much he had truly changed since meeting Qadim and the Dryad in the forest even if it wasnt for the better.