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So (I like that word way too much) as most of you know, I'm not doing all too well. If you haven't read my latest journal entry, I'd ask you to do so.

Also, due to the same reason, I would like to make this story more reader-dependant. I have a main-plot in mind, but I would like for readers to make suggestions as to how they would like to see things play out. This would help me out a little, as I could see how others feel about this, and if I should continue on the same path.

Done with the jammering (For now) So (Told 'ya so) on with the story. Sorry for the long wait.

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I took the liberty of resting, down at the med-bay. Shin had managed to take care of most of the group - Shay-Lee helped him - and I had hauled the rest in.

I sat down on a vacant bed and took a look around. It didn't look too good. Jack's right arm would need some rebuilding for sure. His face would bear a few scars, without a doubt, and he'd be lucky if he managed to keep his left leg, according to Shin.

Moving my eyes to look around to Shay, I saw a troubled look on her face. She was tending to her brother, who had apparently managed to deplete his magical pool completely - again, frankly, I was getting used to it. He had avoided any significant damage, but was in a poor shape. River had told us that Raven couldn't take much more punishment to his magic-resources, or he might end up losing it all.

River. I glanced at the shark from the corner of my eye. I was scared of locking eyes with him, Crimson River, Diligence... And first, foremost, Wrath. He held a calm, yet sad, expression for the whole duration. During the battle with Pride, he had helped us out, yes. River also had helped in the care for the rest of us. But the shark had never once mentioned that he had been part of the Seven. I respected him, as a swords-master. But I was cautious of my master, as I could not trust him fully.

I moved my eyes over to Draco. The poor raptor is moving as fast as possible, getting medical equipment for Shin. The blue-scaled raptor seems worried, as he makes his way through the medical bay, skipping through the beds best to his ability.

Shin is currently tending to Lulu. She only required stitches to her forehead and a bandage on the back of her paw. The blond mouse only seems to have hurt her dignity, if anything. She keeps on checking on the knocked-out lion, as he lays on a cold medical bed.

Zach sits down next to me and gives me a quick smile - forced, in my own opinion. He got out with a pair of bruises and a scratch.

"So... Where's Iris?" The coyote asks.

"Iris... Iri-"

Tears form in my eyes, as I see her- no. Pride's head roll against the metal deck. Zach never saw Iris, did he? If he did, he must've missed what happened all together. I couldn't bear the thought of her, even if my feelings to her had grown cold towards her. She had still brought me into this world of magic. And that meant a lot to me. The swan had showed me the ropes of Seeking, auras and so many things... And it was all in vain?

I raised my left arm a little and looked at the strange word that seemed carved in my arm. Earlier, the word 'Vanity' had appeared on my shoulder. But since then, it seems to have rested lower on my arm, right under my wrist, so that whenever I looked at the palm of my hand, I could see Vanity on my arm, along my blood veins.

I looked at the coyote, and I was about to answer, but XIII cut in before me.

"Iris has taken a longer path." She spoke coldly, but I understood her good intent.

I pointed at Shin and told Zach to help him as much as the boy could.

"So... What happened up there?" I looked at the lynx in the eyes.

It took a moment, but her gaze met mine and she sighed.

"I knew she was bad."

"How?" I asked. She had noticed something that not even the Seven Virtues had noticed. That nobody on this ship had noticed. And in such a small time too.

"Magic can be tainted and hidden." She looked at me and I could see a white sliver dashing in her eyes. "But aura cannot. A tainted aura is such, and is seen as how it is."

Okay... So learning the auralite 'magic' as soon as possible would make sense...

"But how did you bring down her defense?"

"I attacked her sin." Her simple answer came like a bullet. Fast and short. I needed something in a little more detail.

"How?"

"I made her see who she was, how she was, and how she had gotten there."

"What?" It didn't make any sense to me, so I just made myself look stupid.

"I made her aura reflect itself on a mirror, when we first met."

I thought back. Yes. I had been speaking to Jack that time, and Iris had been very disturbed by something. I guess this was it?

"So what did she see?" I swallowed, wanting to know what it was, that the gorgeous swan had been hiding all along.

"She was almost a century old." XIII spoke softly, as if sympathizing. "And the years hadn't treated her as would be right."

I cringed at the thought. What Iris saw, most likely, was a decomposing body, ready to be eaten by maggots at any point. It must've been a pain for someone who's sin was Vanity.

"He... Hehe..." I heard Raven coughing to my right. Shin and Shay both darted to the wounded raptor, who turned his head towards XIII and me.

"You shouldn't be talking!" Shin almost yelled at Raven, still trying to keep as calm as he could.

"You... You remind me of a horror movie..." He ignored the tiger's warnings and coughed again. "You make people... Scared... Tell me..." He locked eyes with XIII. "Can you pop out of a... Tv-set... And scare people shitless?"

XIII took a moment to process the question, then nodded uncertainly.

"I'm not that good at illusion-magic, but I could manage that."

This caused Raven to burst out laughing again, coughing up a little bit of blood.

"Could you... Attach your aura to a... Video?" He kept on, nearly choking on his held-laughter, as if he knew where this was leading. I didn't. I had no idea. I was curious, but worried for the poor, tired raptor.

"Yes." XIII replied again, not certain if she knew anymore than I did. Which was zip, by the way.

"Fuck!" He laughed. "We have a... Samara on board!" Raven chuckled out loud, his eyes rolling in their sockets. Whatever machine he was hooked up to, it started to make loud beeping sounds. Shin started to panic and administered some kind of medicine. I don't know what it did, but it made the beeping stop.

"Samara...?" XIII repeated, cocking her head to the side a bit.

"He's like that. Raven cracks jokes... Even to the bitter end, I guess." I spoke, not really looking at the lynx. I was too busy trying to figure out if he would survive. Shin assured me that he would, and I trusted his word.

"I like it." She spoke louder, more certain.

"Excuse me?" I looked at her.

"I don't want to be called Thirteen for my whole life." I could see a sliver of a smile on her lips. And this time, I knew exactly where this was going.

I smiled at her and looked over to Shin. "Hey. Do you need us 'round here anymore?"

"No. You're all okay, stitched up and now you're just in the way." He snapped at us and pointed at the door, shooing us away. Zach was allowed to stay though, as he was not 'just in the way'.

I looked at the lynx again and smiled at her. "So. Samara. Want to get something to eat?" I forced out a smile, as I was still wrapping my head around everything. Iris' death was a mind-fuck, yes. But I decided to ignore that, for now. I'm sure that I shouldn't be caring about her now. She had deceived me for a long time, tried to kill me, and now, seemed to be stuck in my head for all eternity. It's not like she's permanently dead. Just a little more dead than alive, if that made any sense.

"I'd love to." She nodded and stepped out of the room, after me, closing the door behind us.

We walked down the corridors, took the elevator down to the food-court and held silent for most of the trip down. I decided to break that silence.

"Ahem... How did you manage to take out the other two sins?" I couldn't come up with anything else to ask.

"Quickly." Again, a ridiculously short answer.

I sighed and let the matter drop. We'd have enough time to sort that one out. Right now, I just wanted to have something to eat.

The Centaur was completely silent. I liked it that way. We sat down and grabbed a can of tune - yuck - as there was nothing better to share. Jack was the chef on board, as well as the captain, and he was up in sickbay for god knows how long.

Samara seemed to like it though. The lynx chomped her half the second it hit the plate. I smiled at her and then ate my own half. Although much slower. I didn't like tuna. I hate tuna...

"Samara." I cocked my head at her and smiled to the best of my abilities.

"Yes?" She imitated my appearance and listened.

"I'm not really all too familiar with the rooms here, on the ship." I started.

"And?" She asked.

"Well. I was thinking if you wanted to share my room for the time being?" I continued, cracking a genuine smile. It was a whimsy question, I know. But I preferred her company over anyone else's.

"I'd love to." She smiled and stretched a little. The lynx seemed to be relaxed around me, which made no sense to me.

If it was like... Imprinting, she'd have done so with the first person she saw. Not me. But if she actually liked me, that also wouldn't make sense. She was older than me, an adult at that.

"Me too." A chilly voice spoke out from next to Samara.

I thought for a moment that it was Raven. Then when I remembered his condition, my eyes flared open and I looked over to the other side of the table.

The jackal.

I sank into the shadow under the table and pulled Samara into it, out of harm's way. I released her on the opposite side of the room, where we both stared at the smoking dog at the table. The atmosphere of the room dropped immediately, from a cozy warm into a freezing chill.

"Kids these days..." He sighed. "No manners. None at all..." He wiped his lips with the sleeve of his ridiculous cowboy attire.

"His aura..." Samara stared at the gruesome face of the jackal, with typical feline curiosity. "It's not in his body... It's around him?"

I looked at the jackal, this time taking more time to examine him. He wasn't doing anything, so far. His body seemed to be on stand-by, judging from the constant movement of magic inside his body. I used Iris' magic to track the circulation of his aura, but was stunned to see the same that Samara had said.

The aura is only within the body. Magic can be stretched out of it, but aura can never be completely displaced from the person possessing it. So how was his aura manifesting itself within the smoke he breathed out?

"A new recruit?" Graverobber grinned after giving us enough time to examine him. "I kinda liked the pretty one more. But she's cool too."

I cringed as he referred to Iris. "What do you want?"

"Hmm... Lemme think." The white smoke he breathed out wrapped around him and he vanished. I followed the trail of the smoke, the magic in it, and he appeared exactly where I thought he would. Two meters in front of me. Good. At least I could track his movements as he made them. That'd come in handy, if I had to fight. "I remember - and please, correct me if I'm wrong - I remember asking you to let me teach you, eh?"

"And I remember rejecting your offer." I snapped back at him, keeping my cool. I also remember how our last meeting ended.

"Well. I was thinking more of a... truce." He smiled.

"What?" This made no sense. None at all. And I didn't like it.

"Must I repeat myself?" He sighed in a joking manner.

"Why?"

"Full of questions... I like that. Reminds me of myself, in my younger days..." He chuckled. "Okay, I'll play. I don't want to go on and kill you, at the moment. Instead, I want to help you find the Virtues."

"So that you could do what you wish to the Mirror?" I interrupted him, already knowing where he was going.

"No." He smiled. "Yes, that would've been my plan, but there has been an unfortunate twist in the events that lead me to seek their deaths in the first place. Now, I simply wish to warn them."

"Of what?" I pressed on.

"Even if I like questions, it doesn't mean that I will answer them. What I have to say is for their ears only. But trust me." He nodded towards me. "This is much bigger than just the Seven Deadlies. And even I have my limits of toleration. Especially when it comes to morons with creepy swords."

"Forgive me for not trusting you." I kept eye-contact with him the whole time. I didn't blink. I didn't want him to have even a split second time. "Even if I ignored the fact that everyone on this ship wants you dead, why would we help you?"

He took some time to think, nodded a few times, whispered to his side as if there was someone there, then spoke up.

"You have a good point. What if I made a deal?"

I gave him a curious glance. "Deal?"

"Well you can't agree, if I won't give you the terms, hmm?" He chuckled. "Equivalent exchange. I scratch your back, you scratch mine. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, blaa blaa, eh?"

"What are you suggesting?" Samara spoke up. I hadn't expected her to do so, but welcomed the third party.

"Well, ma'am. I am suggesting that Ry-"

"Thane." She corrected him, before he even had a chance to make a mistake.

"Aah. So he knows already?" He smiled. "Good. I never liked that name in the first place."

"Go on." I urged him, still keeping tabs on every move he made.

"Well. That necklace Thane is wearing. I believe that Pride let you believe that it's something that it very well is not, am I correct?"

"I can't answer that, if I don't know what it's supposed to be." I snapped again.

"Well. What did she tell you?" He waved his cigarette around.

"Nothing. Besides that I can't take it off or I die."

He raised his eyebrows at me and laughed out loud. "She what?! Oh that little bit- You know what? That's just silly. Of course you can take it off. In fact, I'd implore you to do so as soon as possible!"

I frowned at him, lacking any trust in that stitched up face of his. "Give me a reason."

"I'm sure you've seen that insignia somewhere else, eh?"

The knives. The shoulder-pocket. The thirteen guardians... Something... Shay told me about it a while back.

"Thirteen Shadows of a Doubt?"

He laughed again. "No, boy. The last one is, yes. The serpent dreichoon is the Shadow of a Doubt. The rest are the Guardians of the Night."

"And that should mean what, exactly?" He was irritating me on purpose. That was easy to see.

"Well. The fact that you are a dreichoon, have wings and I saw your poison work - although not a full-grown's venom, at that. It means that you are the last Guardian of the Night. Simple, eh?"

"No. And I still don't know what it means."

He sighed, then looked at me. He sat down on a chair and slid one towards me. I sat down, but not before checking if he booby-trapped it. He didn't, so I sat.

"There are three kinds of dreichoons, okay?" He spoke nice and slow, as if I was the latter. "One," He raised his fore-finger. "The pure-bred ones. Humans would call these four winged dragons, nothing more, nothing less. Two," he raised his middle finger. "The kind every hybrid represents of their own species. A mixture of both human and dreichoon qualities. And last, definitely not least," he uncurled his ring finger. "Three. Your kind. Although a mixture of both the first and the second, your kind has been trapped in the more human-form. That necklace, as you like to call it, brings out the first form."

"Meaning?"

He sighed again, then leaned towards me and spoke very slowly. "Shiny thing on your neck make you big dragon."

I got it. I got it, and I wasn't stupid - much. Can I say that? I'm not stupid, much? No- Argh! Focus! I looked at the necklace and then gave Graverobber a suspicious look.

"You've still given me no reason to trust you."

"Okaaaay... What if I give you a way to keep the Shadow in check, completely, and for good?"

"You might persuade me, but not the rest of the crew. You should convince Jack, River and Lulu, before me."

"True, true. But they trust you, do they not?"

"I guess..."

"So there! Now. If you would allow me to teach a certain crystalline trick to young Zach, he could bind Prothero into a crystal. There he could not interrupt every thought you have!"

"He doesn't. He's been silent for a while now. He threatens me a few times, but that's it. Prothero holds me no harm. You, however," I glared at the jackal. "you ripped Jack's arm off, scarred River and-"

"Yes, yes. Me bad, you good. I know how it goes. Sheez. Why must I talk like the king of the apes? Are people really that slow around here?"

"What?" King of the what-now?

"Ignore that. But that would allow you to access his full strength, without his annoying side-comments. Doesn't that sound good?"

I nodded. It did. But I couldn't go on with his plans. Then again, if I could stall him enough time to get one of the more experienced fighters, we might have a chance.

"Listen, kid." He glared at me suddenly. "If I wanted to kill you, or the whole lot of you, I would've brought down the ship without ever walking into it. I will fight you. But not now. I don't want to overpower you completely."

"How can we trust that you won't do anything?"

"You can't. But I will give you my word. I will even share information you require of the Seven. Although you should ask River about that. Not me."

I ignored that matter for now. River was on our side at the moment, so I didn't need to pay mind to his words. But as I thought about what he had said of Zach earlier, I came up with a thought.

"Samara." I asked.

"Hm?" She cocked her head at me. I could feel her staring at me, but I maintained eye-contact with Graverobber.

"Fetch Zach. Don't let the others know why, or who's here. Just tell him that I need him here, asap."

She nodded and took off, not really running, but definitely fast. Samara was confused. She hadn't seen the jackal, nor had she seen what he could do.

I stood there, staring down Graverobber. He returned the favor, grinning as he did so.

"Well, well, well... So... Uhm... What's up, kid?" He fidgeted in his chair. I didn't buy the 'awkward-act'.

"Quiet." I didn't feel like listening to him speaking. I had my idea. If he didn't go along with it, I'd have to attack.

"Fine, fine. Sheesh... At least your pa's a nice guy. Even if he's kinda-"

"Shut i-" What? "What?!"

He only stared at me, smiling. He must've been screwing around with me. More than likely, yes. Although he did know my name. Chances were that he wasn't lying.

Samara came back with Zach, and they both walked up to me. Graverobber gave the kid a quick glance, before looking at me.

"So. You want me to teach him now?" He scoffed, obviously not happy with the boy's presence.

"No. I want you to agree to let him lock you up." I remarked quickly, nodding towards the young crystalline guardian.

"Hmm?" The jackal cocked his head at me, taking a deep breath of his cigarette.

"As I understand it, the crystal that you use, Zach, negates magic. Is that correct?" I didn't look directly at him, but I made sure he knew I was addressing him.

"Yes." He replied nice and quick.

"And that means that if you made a box, locked a mage in it, he wouldn't be able to use magic. Right?"

"Yes." Zach answered after giving it a moment of thought.

Graverobber only laughed. "If ya think that that'll stop me, you're wrong! But." He smiled at me. "If those are the terms, ya better make me a big box, cuz I ain't gonna pace in a two by two. Got it?" He grinned with his sickly mouth. "Gets boring after a while.

I broke eye-contact for a moment, not really too sure about this plan anymore. I looked at Zach, who gave me a puzzled look. He let me in his mind, and I listened.

There's no way he could break through. That's the whole point of crystalline guardians in the first place. To prevent the use of magic within holy areas. He's bluffing.

I nodded at him silently and looked back at the jackal.

"Deal?"

"Deal."

Zach stepped closer and swallowed. He had heard about this infamous mage before from us, and had always shown signs of genuine fear at the mention of Graverobber's name.

"Mage-trap." He muttered and clapped his hands.

All I could see was Graverobber's grin and a sickly white trail of smoke, vanishing behind a thick crystal wall, enveloping him completely.