Giana had stopped crying. Her heart ached, but she realized that crying wouldn't solve the situation. It was nearing midnight and Agnis hadn't returned. The earlier girl talk hadn’t resulted in anything useful regrettably.

  Yvonne was sleeping next to her in a highly uncomfortable bed. She was unsure if the problem was the bed or that she had gotten accustomed to sleeping in soft tails.

  “I feel like I'm becoming a spoiled princess…”

  Giana got up and looked out of the window. Her eyes stung from crying. She rubbed them and healed herself.

  “I need to get my act together. What if he returns and sees me like this?”

  Giana made herself up as beauty is a vixen's pride.

  “All better!” Giana exclaimed and spun around in front of an [Ice Mirror].

  She looked back out of the window, hoping Agnis would pop up, but something else drew her attention. The full moon was bright and alluring, as if it was calling her. She reached out, and it was as if her mind was getting sucked in. Strange information just floated around, ready for the taking.

  “What is this? [Moontalk]?”

  Information about [Moontalk] entered her head.

  “Where is Deca… Where is Agnis Hourai?”

  Images and information flooded in of every sighting of Agnis Hourai under moonlight, but information about this particular night was absent.

  “Calm down Giana…maybe he is hidden in a cave…this [Moontalk] is connected to being a silver 9t right?”

  More information streamed into her head.

  “Wait it isn't? Lunar fox? What is that? Same yet different? I'm confused…”

  Giana couldn't find the difference between a spirit foxt or a lunar fox, besides lunar foxes being able to use Pagos and [Moontalk].

  “Can I use this to learn how to use Pagos?”

  Information flooded her head. Giana clutched her head and collapsed to the ground and her link with the moon had been broken.

  “My head!” She rolled around and continuously applied [Regenerate] and [Soothe].

  “I will have to thank Deca for his tutoring. This might have been unbearable without…”

  Giana got up, and her hair slowly turned silver. “Yv sure is a deep sleeper…”

  She lifted some locks and admired her silver hair in a [Frost Mirror].

  “I'm just like him now, but that doesn't matter if he's not here… I've had enough of being powerless!”

  Giana left her room, left the AA and left the city. She was afraid of the dark and afraid of being alone, but those got trumped by another fear; the fear of losing Agnis.

  She made sure to put distance between her and the city when she went 9t mode. She focused on all her memories with Agnis and let her charm magic go wild and use it to pull him in.

  “All this and the connection is this weak? Where are you?”

  No amount of pulling seemed to work, so Giana followed the trail. Folding space to warp was challenging, so she created frost slides. She enjoyed the scenery flashing by as she skated through the desert. She had never been able to move so fast!

  “So this is frost magic. I feel a bit chilly though…” Giana shivered a bit and sang a song to counter the frost magic induced chill.

  The trail got stronger weeks later as the Penumbra mountain range came in sight. But it would lead her beyond that.

  “Did he teleport to the other side of the continent? But why? And what about the ancient building? Did he drop it in the ocean? But why east? The ocean to the south is way closer…”

  Over a month had passed, and Giana's heart began to fill with fear and worry. Her destination was partially hidden by a large mountain range, but her Elgards eyes couldn't be fooled. The trail led towards Event Horizon, more specifically, the black hole it was built around.

  “Deca, no… please let this be deception!”

  The closer she came, the stronger the trail became.

  Giana had scaled a mountain with frost magic. She was shivering and had lost 3 lives due to frost magic related hypothermia but giving up or resting wasn't an option for her. This trip alone had gotten her more in tune with frost magic and foxfires.

  She warmed herself up with foxfires as she stared into the nothingness. Elgards eyes were useless in the face of this force of nature.

  “Stupid Deca…this is the reason why there are so few men left… What can I do… he isn't dead, but… isn't being stuck in a black hole worse than death?”

  Tears rolled down her eyes at the thought that Agnis managed to find something that was worse than dying.

  She tugged on the charm magic connecting them, she felt a lot of resistance, but there was movement.

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  “I…I can still save him! Enough being the damsel in distress! I don't care if it's only once. Let me be the hero this time!”

  Giana dropped all her frost magic and pulled on her connection.

  The slow progress was what kept her going. She had been slow all her life. Patience and perseverance were some of her strong points. She did not eat nor sleep. All she did was pull.

  Hours turned into days. Days turned into weeks and after 2 months, she could visibly identify a ball of fur. It was roughed up, but she recognized those tails.

  “I…I did it…”

  Giana healed up and rested and prepared for the final stretch.

  “Just a bit more and I can hold you…”

  A mana wave went out. Time glitched and space distorted. The pull had recommend and a time-lapse got forced on to it.

  The furball escaped the gravitational pull of the black hole after Giana warped it through the thick glass like dome, containing this behemoth of a natural phenomenon.

  “I did it Deca. Please wake up.”

  There was no movement in the furball.

  Giana confirmed that he was alive, but…something was off.

  “What is this instability? Deca, what have you done…”

  A gentle application of charm magic uncurled Agnis.

  Both Agnis and Nilah were unconscious.

  “Your arm…”

  Healing magic got applied, but the arm didn't return nor did Agnis wake up. Nilah woke up and made strange sounds.

  “I'm sorry Nilah…I couldn't do anything…”

  Nilah pushed her head into Giana’s palm.

  “Thank you for protecting him. Do you know what's wrong with him?”

  Nilah jumped up and drew runes on a rock with frost.

  “I can't read that, sorry…”

  Nilah drew other symbols on another rock.

  “Is that Draconian? I don't know that either…”

  Nilah jumped at Giana and pulled her towards Agnis.

  “What do you want me to do? I should have brought Yv…”

  Giana couldn't understand what Nilah tried to tell her.

  “Oh! Agnis did this with you once. I will ask questions, and you will hold up tails. So…can I wake him up?”

  Nilah responded.

  “9 tails, so I can. Is the method standard, like healing magic?”

  Nilah replied with her tails.

  “3 tails, so that's a ‘not really ‘? Uhhm, is it difficult? 1 tail? It is easy? Then what do I need to do?”

  Nilah blasted a rock and started drawing again.

  “What a smart fox…hey Nilah I can't read… wait…these are normal drawings.”

  Giana looked at the strange, messy drawings Nilah made.

  “As skilled in drawing as your owner eh? I have no idea what you drew… how come that he can do all those amazing things but draws worse than a toddler… is that a butterfly?”

  Nilah held up 1 tail.

  “Hmm lips?”

  Nilah jumped and held up 9 tails.

  “You want me to kiss him?”

  Nilah pointed her tails at another drawing.

  “They're just scribbles in a circle… is that a walnut? I need to kiss a walnut?”

  Nilah created loud glacial sounds and Giana clutched her head. “Ouch, Nilah stop giving me a headache!”

  Nilah jumped and pointed at the scribbles.

  “Kiss his head? How is that a head Nilah…it looks like a walnut or a brain…”

  Nilah pointed at the 2 next drawings.

  “Something strange and a magic circle? Hey how come that magic circles are the only things you two can draw… but… do you perhaps mean that I should kiss him with brainwash magic?”

  Nilah jumped around and waved 9 tails.

  “Hey Nilah… you do know that its called Charm magic and not brainwash magic right? But thank you.”

  Giana lifted Agnis’ head and gave him a charm laced kiss.

  It reminded her of those human fairy tales where the prince would awaken the princess with a kiss. This was not quite like it, but she had wished to be the hero in this situation.

  Agnis arm healed as charm magic poured into his body and she could feel movement. She lifted her head and caught the moment his eyes opened.

  Tears flowed her cheek for the umpteenth time since their last meeting.

  Deca? With silver hair? You look gorgeous. I see… so you've died too. I'm so…

  Giana sealed his lips as more tears flowed. She didn't want to talk. She just wanted to make out.

  ?