As soon as she was physically capable of it, Erica dropped to her hands and knees, breathing heavily.

"I... well... from that? I'm all right." She said before carefully getting to her feet again. Once up, she just looked to Ash and held her marked, still glowing, arm and hadn out.

"Let me finish." She then said.

"You still have some of the print on you, let me remove it completely, now that I can." She said. He nodded and stepped forward, allowing her to place her hand right where she saw the mark.

As she did so, he could literally feel it being erased from his skin, even if he wasn't completely aware it was there in the first place.

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

Erica let her hand drop, but there was more to it than just letting it fall. There was an almost listless aspect to it.

"I..." She started, falling silent before finishing that before sighing, heavily. She realised why he was asking, and was willing ot bet she was really starting to not look so hot.

"I'm... all right.... for the moment." She answered, meeting his gaze. Due to being a Fyrane, he could feel the cracks in the 'shell' around her.

He could also identify who that mana had come from.

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

"I... I know." Erica siad after a few seconds.

"I just... I planned on going there after I fixed you." She added after a few seconds.

"really, I am all right for the moment. I have no idea how much longer I can hold out for this though." She admitted.

"Just... little things have been piling on and making all of that," she was referring to the little bit of protection she had so she could clean up the mess, "break and chip away faster." She sighed, heavily, here.

"And I really get the feeling I'm going to be absolutely useless soon." She admitted before pausing.

"Oh,r ight. The 'me' that you met before wasn't me." She added, figuring that information would be nice for him to have. "Long story short, there's a duplicate of me running around, and she took off. Not sure where she's gone now, though, I admit."

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

Erica was silent before nodding.

"Just... ask me later." She said simply.

"Because, yeah... not sure I can go into intricate detail at the moment." it was about here that Rowena made her way back outside, her hair still shockingly dark, but no rune or anything around her. She seemed normal, albeit a bit concerned.

"Lindsay's expecting you, Erica." She said, concern in her voice.

"Ash, if you'd be so kind to send or take her? I'd rather she didn't have to deal with the barriers for the moment."

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

Erica merely took a breath b efore nodding.

"Thanks for the ride." She said before stepping into the room. Lindsay beckoned for her to close the door, which she did.

". . . sorry about dropping in like this." She said after a few seconds.

"I'd planned on just making an appointment if you were busy." She added.

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

Erica didn't say anything, before just making her way to one of the more comfortable seats in the room and sat down. It was just one way to show how she was getting to be the type to just do as she was told, but considering what she'd been through, it was very much not surprising. At all.

"I just..." She started before sighing lightly.

"I'm sorry. I don't even know entirely what's going to happen." She added.

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

Erica was silent for a few seconds.

"I..." She started before shaking her head.

"I'm not sure how much good we can do right now." She added.

"I can feel it, the protection that I had from Chris... just..." She shook her head lightly, bringing a hand up to it.

"I don't know how I'll be when it shatters, and my fear is that... I'llbe as I was when I was ... there."

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

Erica didn't say anything for a moment before pausing.

"Oh, I .. Ash asked your mom to contact Rocky already." She told him, an dhe could hear it in her voice, could hear how tenous her grasp on everything was beginning to be.

"Just... thank you, Lindsay." She said before sighing lightly. It was definitely getting to be more difficult to actually do much of anything on her own, and he could tell.

". . .dammit." She muttered, obviously unimpressed with that.

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

"I certainly hope so." was all Erica said before Lindsay was able to feel the cracking grow. He was easily able to sense the mana, considering he was a Fyrane.

---

She was silent as she made her way through the halls, quite unimpressed. The one she was looking for hadn't been answering her summons, no one knew where he was, and she was not interested in dealing with whatever shit was going on.

As she found him on the floor though, she just cursed.

She stood over him and just used her mana to wake him.

"The fuck happened to you?"

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

"Landon, huh?" She asked, before smirking.

"Then I suppose I need to teach him a lesson." She added before looking at the one that was with her.

"Get your sister to prepare him. We both know she's quite effective." She said. "If she resists, just use the pendant she wears."

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