"Time mana only comes from one source." Lilim told him simply, plainly.

"You two have a family member somewhere in your ancestry." She added with a light shrug.

"But hey, what do I know?"

♫Born of graves and left below ♪ Painted ashes, painted snow♫

"Sure thing." was all Lilim said.

"Do try to have fun." She added with a laugh, it was dark, foreboding, but it also had a decent amount of pain and the like to it.

She was not doing well, but was at least managing to maintain everything decently.

♫Born of graves and left below ♪ Painted ashes, painted snow♫

Erica didn't seem to even realise he was there. Whatever the elf that he worked for had done to her, was enough that she was likely completely unaware of anything or anyone other than who she was given permission to be.

The air in the room was cold, and she was barely covered, bound to a kneelingposition and unable to relax, physically.

Her arm was completely exposed, as well, the markings being weaker, as the mana had been drained an extreme amount.

♫Born of graves and left below ♪ Painted ashes, painted snow♫

He didn't get any sort of reaction from Erica until after he had finished freeing her completely. She didn't move, but as he placed a hand surprisingly gingerly against her cheek, he felt his mana seeming to react unconsciously.

It took about thirty seconds before she looked at him, her gaze a bit more clear than it had been before, as she seemed to actually realise that someone was there.

"I..." She started.

"Wh-...what..." She tried to follow up with, but was having a hard time with all that had been done to her over the time she'd been there.

♫Born of graves and left below ♪ Painted ashes, painted snow♫

Erica was silent, before nodding.

"... bedroom." She answered after about the equivalent of two seconds, maybe shorter.

"Just... yeah..." She added, wanting to try and have said more, but not finding herself able to for the moment.

♫Born of graves and left below ♪ Painted ashes, painted snow♫

"Oh really? Did the freak of nature actually grow a heart?" Lilim asked. Chris was about to make some sort of retort, before she sighed.

"How do you expect me to help? What the hell do you want me to do about it?" She then asked a few seconds later.

"I'm more than a little bound here. And that bitch you answer to may as well have stripped me entirely of my mana."

♫Born of graves and left below ♪ Painted ashes, painted snow♫

Lilim just looked to Chris before sighing.

"Can't do anything, can you?" She asked, her voice almost exasperated.

"Just pin it on someone else." She then said.

"Seriously. Make it look like someone else freed her."

♫Born of graves and left below ♪ Painted ashes, painted snow♫

Lilim just smirked.

"Of course I can." She said simply as he watched her hair seem to split a bit. The one clump that split off reached out toward him, beckoning for the blade.

"I may not have my mana, but my hair is not mana based." She commented with a shrug... or as much of one as she could make.

♫Born of graves and left below ♪ Painted ashes, painted snow♫

Lilim didn't say anything, just smirked lightly.

"So be it." She stated. It wasn't hard for him to tell that she was most certainly enjoying this.

---

She barely managed to reach over to her phone, obviously not in good shape. She realised her bed was soaking up as much as it could get, it seemed, as well, and she wasn't keen on that. She also knew that for the moment, she couldn't do anything.

She grabbed her cordless phone and brought it to her, grateful that it was still there.

She hit her speeddial, not sure which one, and waited. It was taking a fiar bit of concentration to maintain any semblance to how she was now. What Chris had done had helped, had made this even possible, but it was even more difficult for him to overpower the elf that had done this to her in the first place.

When the one she called answered the phone, he received silence on the other end. All he heard was the pained breathing from Erica.

"... h..." she started before sto0pping and taking a careful breath.

"help... p... plea... please..." She managed to geto out after a few seconds.

♫Born of graves and left below ♪ Painted ashes, painted snow♫

Erica was silent, kinda of cursing her current predicament. She was starting to hurt, had sustained an inexplicable amount of damage in however long she'd been there.

". . . c-come here..." She managed to get out, before wincing slightly. He sounded off, and she didn't know why.

Well, that was a lie, she had a suspicion, but she couldn't chalk it up to bein truth yet. Not until she actually knew, as she knew that those that said what she'd heard would likely lie.

♫Born of graves and left below ♪ Painted ashes, painted snow♫