"Okay, so what about God?"

  Kurt looked at Maxell, one eyebrow raised inquisitively. "What about God?"

  "Does he exist?" the college student asked. "I mean, if vampires and magical beasts and spells are real, then what about the religious aspect? What religion was right, if any? What happens after death?"

  Kurt considered Maxell's words for a moment, then turned to his right, where Conrad and Mila were. "Anyone want to take the stage here?"

  "Hell no," was Conrad's answer, he looked drained of all energy, lying flat on his back and covering his eyes with his arm.

  Mila, who was busy plying with one of Buck's pups, simply shook her head.

  "Oookay then," Kurt sighed. His hand went to his lap, landing on the furry direwolf head that was resting atop it. He took a moment to scratch Buck behind the ear, slump back on the van's welded door, and then he talked. "To answer your questions in order, Maxell, magic and religion aren't at all at odds. Magic is just an energy that exists between the physical and the astral, or transcendental, planes. Nothing unnatural or against any god's plans,"

  "Speaking of gods and religions, I have to say that there's no wrong answer there. There is a capital G, whether you call Him Yaweh, Allah, Ahura Mazda... It's all the same thing. At the same time, polyteistic gods are very much a thing too: Zeus, Shiva, Odin, Ra... they exist, or existed, pretty much as myth describes them."

  "And how can that even work?" Maxell cut in. "How can Zeus exist and be an actual god, whatever that entails metaphysically, while the Big One is also real. Aren't those mutually exclusive?"

  "Why? Because the Bible says so? I'm telling you that the gods and such are real, but that doesn't mean that everything humans have written about them is the truth. If the world worked as the Bible says it does, then all polyteistic gods would have to be demons. Well, I've met people blessed by some of those gods, and I have faced off against demons too, and I can tell you those two powers are very different. There are theories about how this works, and not even people in the know about magic and such have the definitive answer to that. Some think that the gods, lowercase g, are envoys of the Big Guy, not much different than angels, while others think that He is merely a particularly powerful god without anything unique about Him compared to, say, Odin save for raw power. In the end, just like always, you choose what to believe."

  Maxell didn't seem particularly pleased with that answer, but he pushed forward with one last question. "And the afterlife and such?"

  "The soul exists, that much I know. It is also known that it survives the body. About what happens to it afterwards...well, same as before, you have to choose what to believe." Kurt gave a non-commital shrug, and smiled almost apologetically. "Sorry I can't tell you exactly, man. Not like I've ever died before."

  Maxell frowned, lost in thought. Then his face softened, and he spoke, "It's okay, I guess. It is more than I had before." He fell silent for a moment, looking dubitative. "Say, can I ask you something? If it isn't too personal, of course."

  Letting the back of his head rest against the welded door, Kurt closed his eyes and hummed positively.

  "What do you believe in?" asked Maxell.

  "Believe?" Kurt asked back, amused. "There is not really much in which I can 'believe' or 'have faith in' now, is it? I know for a fact that the gods and the God exist. Hell, I have a twin sister who was born with a direct connection between her soul and the Big G's. Her name's Abigail, by the way, and her kind are called Saints. So I can't say I believe in anything so much as I know it exists."

  "It's more about what we choose to pray to than anything else," added Conrad.

  "And what is that?" asked Maxell. "Out of all the gods, big and small, which one managed to get you to pay a little more attention to?"

  "None," was Kurt's ansswer. "I've never had any sort of emotional connection to any religion or god, be them modern or old, and so I don't pray to them, because it would be forced and insincere. This is relively common amongst magic practicioners whose magic isn't dependant on the patronage of a god, like sorcerers and such."

  "So...you're agnostic?"

  Kurt shrugged. "About as close to that as you can get under the circumstances, yeah."

  From the driver's seat, Alfred sighed tiredly. "Max, dude, can you stop it with the questions for a bit, please? I would really appreciate some silence."

  Maxell turned to Alfred suddenly. "Dude, this is important stuff we are learning. Are you seriously telling me you don't want to know everything these guys do about how the world actually works?"

  "Not right now, no. I'm really tired."

  Maxell looked like he was going to keep arguing, but Amelia talked first.

  "Max," she called. She was sitting near the back, alongside Mila and the pups. "We are all as curious as you are about this stuff. It's just that, well, we aren't quite as curious for it to override everything else we are feeling right now like you are. Just give it some time, please."

  "...Okay, I get it," said Maxell, slumping back on his seat. "Sorry, everybody."

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  "It's fine, man."

  "Yeah," said Alexis, who was reclining against the back of Alfred's seat. "It's just natural to be asking questions after all that's happened. Just...give it some time. We have all the time in the world to bring ourselves up to snuff."

  As she said this, she waved her rose her smartphone up, showing off the most recent addition to her contacts list. 'Quester's Order' it read. It was the number of Mr. Anderson's office phone, which every member of the order had to memorize in case they were somehow stranded. The quest group had relied it to the college students with the instruction to call it and tell whoever answered it everything they had been through, but only after one or two days had passed, when the whole Red Aura bussines should have been cleared up.

  They reached the skirts of the city when there were only weak wiffs of sunlight left in the sky, and the city's skyline had already lit up with its own illumination. They stopped at a small road motel, and Conrad, Kurt and Mila dropped off.

  "Well," Mila said, looking at the building before turning back to the college group, who had all gotten out the van to see them off. In order to avoid drawing unnecessary attention, Buck and his pups stayed in the van. "I guess this is it. This is where we part away."

  Maxell let out a small smile."It feels kinda melancholic, if I may say so." The corners of his mouth trembled slightly, and he covered it with his hand. "Dang it, man. It's been less than a day, too."

  "Well, it has been a very intense day," Conrad pointed out. "Which reminds me..."

  Without a word, he walked up to Maxell, and offered him a hand. "Thank you for saving my ass back then."

  Smiling, Maxell nodded and shook the offered hand. "God luck with your quest, man."

  "Thanks," Conrad said, softly, as he pulled his hand away. Maxell almost didn't have the time to let go of it, it had been so quick.

  For her part, Alexis and Mila pulled each other in a tight hug, saying their farewells with far more emotion and far less concisivness than either of the aforementioned boys.

  Kurt observed both contrasting interaction with amusement, which kept him from noticing Alfred and Amelia until they had gotten within arm's distance of him.

  "Hey," he said, looking at the pair. "Well, it has been... quite an experience hasn't it?"

  "Yeah," Alfred answered, and both he and Amelia laughed briefly. Alfred stepped up, offering Kurt a hand which the young swordsman shook gladly. "I really want to thank you, Kurt, for everything you guys have done for us. We are alive because of you. And also...well..." He took a deep breath, and his grip tightened. Not at all to the point of being painful, but still enough to be noticeable. "For this too."

  "It's nothing, really," Kurt said. "Just try and keep quiet about you guys having it, please. It is something of a secret technique of my order."

  "Will do, don't worry," Alfred look at Kurt in the eye, and Kurt saw worry on his eyes. He suddenly remembered that Alfred was the only one of his group Kurt had trusted with the least reasuring details of their quest. Alfred pulled Kurt into a hug. "Best of luck, Kurt. I hope we will meet again."

  With that he let go of the boy, stepping aside for his girlfriend to speak. She thanked him for everything, smae as Alfred, but then she too hugged him, and said something to him very quickly before separating.

  "Thanks for everything."

  With that, she let go.

  Aftr a couple more minutes of farewells and goodbyes, the college group got back on their van, and began driving down the road. The three questers observed them as they went.

  "Will they be okay?" Kurt found himself asking.

  "They'll live on," Conrad said solemnly. "So long as they live, they'll be able to be okay."

  Mila hummed. "Plus, they have each other. I bet they'll be just fine."

  With that, they turned and walked into the motel. They booked a room with two beds, and started planning for their next move as soon as they got there.

  "Can you feel it?" Kurt asked Conrad.

  Without a word, the blond swordsman let his Blue Aura rise, coating his body in lightning. When looking closer at it, Kurt saw that the energy cloak stretched towards one of the walls, as if pulled by a magnet.

  "I feel it," Conrad Confirmed, letting his Aura die down. "It's like a pull on my guts that leads me in a specific direction."

  "So the Red Aura is close," Mila said. "What now, then?"

  Kurt did not how to answer that question. Their quest was to locate the thing and then inform. His eyes went to the phone on the nightstand. Could they say that they had located it already? Or would they have to properly pin down where that cult was hiding?

  They idea of risking their lives yet again made Kurt's stomach churn.

  "I'll tell you what we do now," Conrad said, pointing at the bathroom door. "We are going to shower all this grime off. Then, I'm gonna go get some pizzas or something and we are going to eat until our stomachs pop, and then we are going to sleep. We can think about the quest tomorrow morning."

  "That..." Kurt began to protest before something in him shifted. "That sounds great, actually."

  "Yeah," Mila agreed. "I think we have more than earned one night of proper rest after all we've been through."

  "Fine then!" Conrad chirped, pulling his shirt off. "Since I'm the one that got the closest to dying today, I'm first. Mila, you can go second, and Kurt can go last."

  The two agreed to the arrangement and Conrad got into the bathroom, taking a quick shower and coming back out with a fresh change of clothes. He took some money from their funds (Of which they actually had more than half of what they originally had been given) and after asking about what the both of them wanted, he moved for the door.

  Then he stopped, right at the threeshold.

  "You guys," he called. "There's something I wanna tell you." He turned to them, looking very tense, and took a deep breath before speaking. "You are the best friends I've ever had. I'm glad I got to spend this time with you."

  He blushed, looking away as his face twisted and his eyes grew bright. Before he could receive any sort of answer, he turned back again and dashed out the room, closing the door behind himself.

  "Wow," Kurt said after a little.

  "That was..." tried Mila, before trailing off. She was smiling, and a small snif escaped her nose.

  Kurt chuckled, shaking his head softly. "Yeah...It sure was."

  They looked at each other lovingly, for a few seconds. They blushed, and Mila scurried away to the bathroom to take her shower. Left in the silence of the room, Kurt's eyes went back to the phone. It couldn't hurt to give a report on their situation, could it? The last one had been all the way back before the Ruth Incident, after all.

  He picked up the phone, pressing the speaker to his ear, and entered the number. It got picked after just two tones.

  "Yes? Who is this?" came Mr. Anderson's firm baritone from the other side.

  "Hello,sir," Kurt answered. "This is Kurt speaking."

  A moment of silence, then the sound of something being dropped on Mr. Anderson's desk. "Kurt," he said, somewhat softly, before he regained his focus. "It has been over a week now. Did something happen?"

  "A few things, actually."

  Kurt then procedded to recap the entirety of the quest, even the parts Conrad must have gone through already. Reaching Boston and encountering the Solomonic Order. Learning sorcery (Which had drawn a sharp gasp from the man when Kurt told him.). Melalo. The train. The sorceress and Ruth. Teaching Mila Pneuma. And finally the vampire incident.

  "And that's just about it, actually. We are currently at Phoenix, waiting to do our next move."

  "Kurt," came the bearded sorcerer's voice. "There is no next move. I need you to give me the address of wherever it is you're staying at. I'll be there to pick you kids up tomorrow night at the absolute latest. Then we'll go back home."

  "What?" Kurt asked. "Sir, there's no need for that. We are all okay, and Conrad's got a trail on the Red Aura. I actually think we could participate in the raid to the cult alongside-"

  An impact came from the phone's speaker. The sound of a fist slamming against hard wood.

  "Kurt..." Mr. Anderson called through gritted teeth. He sounded chocked up. "Please just give me the address. Please."

  "S-Sir?" Kurt called. He had never heard Mr. Anderson talk like that, like he was about to cry. The man was a pilar of emotional strength, a true stoic who never showed fear. Hearing him like this...It didn't sound right, and it made Kurt feel scared in a way that he couldn't explain.

  "Goddamnit!" the man growled, slamming his fist down on his desk again. Kurt heard,through the phone, a door being opened and Blair's mutted voice asking something he couldn't understand. Mr. Anderson dismissed her, telling her to go away and that he would tell her later. A moment of silence, a door closing shut, and Mr. Anderson spoke again. "This isn't how it was meant to go, Kurt. This level of danger...I would have necer sent you if I had known. Please, just tell me where you kids are so I can take you home. You have done an amazing job. You've got the Aura's rough location. That's more than enough. Please, Kurt, just let me go and take you home."

  Kurt told him the motel's address. He didn't even doubt.

  "Thank you, my boy. You've done an amazing job. Saved a lot of lives too. I'm proud of you kids."

  "It's okay, sir." Kurt them rememmbered something, a memory from before the Ruth Incident. "By the way, sir..."

  "Yes?"

  "Please forgive Conrad for his rudeness on his last call to you. He was pretty stressed out and...please forgive him."

  Mr. Anderson fell silent yet again, but this pause carried an ominousness with it that Kurt couldn't explain.

  "My boy," the man said, his voice nearly trembling, "What are you talking about? This is the first call I've received from you kids."