"You are the thing that's killing me From the inside out, let me be." -Trivium, "Built to Fall"

It had been another long night in a small series of them. Not that I really minded. The night was my time, after all. And I liked putting the fear of the gods into the things that stalked there. It was my job, after all, wasn't it' And I did it well. That wasn't even hubris. That was fact. Still, the game was changing. And, just in case, I was going to cover my own behind.

Before the sun rose, I had the scrying bowl cradled in my lap, full of pure water from a stream back in the woods. I chanted over it, dusting the surface with herbs and watching its reflection change from the whitewashed walls of my sanctum to the bleached stone walls of somewhere else. Cerberus, the bastion of my Tradition, out on Pluto. Its demotion from planet to dwarf planet hadn't made much of a difference to us, after all.

A quiet chime sounded, water pinging off of brass, even as the fluid in the bowl, held in my clasped hands now, shimmied, shuddered, and then cleared. Eyes, black as two drops of obsidian, stared into mine. I nodded first; even now, in all my uncertainty, the Old Man commanded my respect. The oldest of all of us, and the wisest. But even the wisest mage didn't know everything. Wasn't that the root of my problem' He'd known I was coming back to Rhydin. I'd told him as much. But he'd told me everything was quiet. Or, you know. As quiet as things ever got in Rhydin, because the place was a supernatural mess, a goddamned hodge podge of warring things that made Earth look like a child's playground.

"Cassandra," he said, quietly acknowledging me. "Is something wrong?" Ever calm, at odds to my irritation and, dare I say, anger too. I'd just spent two years on Earth doing exactly as I'd been told. And now I was going to have another war smacking me in the face"

Still. This was what I had chosen to do. I'd told Jo, that I hadn't turned away the bitter cup when it had been passed to me. No, instead I'd grabbed it with both hands and drained it. And now" Now, I was going to ask for more, and smile while I did it.

Maybe not smile.

"Senex," I responded, trying to school my face to a serenity that I sure as hell didn't feel. "We have a problem." Even though I wasn't sure exactly what the problem was. Yet. I still wasn't confident that I wanted to call on all the powers I had at my disposal. I had been named Cassandra for a reason. And Apollo's curse still held, though I wasn't the original Cassandra, so I didn't have all of that particular prophetess' problems.

I had enough, though.

"What is it?" he asked. The Old Man's expression tended towards the stern at the best of times. And now, all that stern focus was fixated on me.

"We have a rogue out here," I responded. I couldn't help but scowl at that, and his eyes glittered, even as his expression turned even darker.

"A Euthanatos?"

I shook my head. That much I could tell him. Besides, it wasn't as if whoever was out here hadn't been leaving his thrice damned calling card for a certain Hunter at every freaking opportunity presented. I don't think he'd counted on me, though. All I could hope—all I did hope, now—was that he was working by himself. Oh, sure, he had a bunch of demons apparently at his beck and call, too, but I'll be honest. I feel a damn sight better hunting and killing demons than I do about killing my own kind.

Except when they Fell. I suspected this was the case, here.

"Ecstatic, but I think barabbi. In league with demons. Probably pulling power from them after they feed." Even if I hadn't sensed that, yet. It was an easy jump. I was certain Rhydin was dirty enough that he could find a corrupted Node or three, or more, to draw from, but that meant potentially exposing himself. And exposing himself meant that someone would come after him. Jochin already had! Save the Hunter had gotten more than he'd bargained for.

Not like me. No Girl Scout, I, but I was prepared for this sort of thing. And really, consorting with demons was practically the Nephandi's calling card, anyway. I knew—or thought I knew, anyway—exactly what I was getting into. Senex's eyes bored into me, and I could tell even through the hazy image the scry showed me, that he was gritting his teeth.

"What else?" What else did I know, he meant. Not enough to satisfy either of us. Of that, I was sure. This, however, was where things got a bit sticky. I bit my lip, as the Old Man continued to stare, and then spoke my name quietly, urgently.

"There was someone hunting him already," I said finally. I didn't have to tell Senex who it was. Yet. Or at all, I hoped. "He got the drop on the guy, used Mind on him. He seems all right, I plan to keep an eye on him, but." Sure. Every Mage used Mind magick on people but usually as a necessity, to obfuscate ourselves and keep what we were secret. More so on Earth than Rhydin, but it was still something of a cardinal sin, to do what that Ecstatic had done.

"You know what you have to do, then. Do it," Senex told me.

I nodded, and swept my hand across the bowl, breaking the contact.

Nothing more needed to be said. The hunt was on.