Hal just nodded.

"All right." he replied.

"Come on, then." he told her.

With that, the two of them started to make their way down the stairs, but when they reached the bottom, they heard the door open.

"Hollie?" Vincent called out.

"We have to talk." he said, closing the door and making his way further in.

Hal was silent, as was Vincent, as the two of them locked gazes.

And that's when Vincent's mana flared up... violently.

"GET AWAY FROM MY SISTER!" he ordered.

Then, before anyone could say anything else, he threw a couple of orbs of wind mana right at Hal.

Hal released his hold on Hollie, and managed to dodge the attack, before looking at Hollie to make sure she hadn't fallen. She hadn't, but her balance was most certainly off a bit.

"Hollie, run!" Vincent said to his sister, as he started to form floating icicle spears in front of himself.

Vincent and Hal were caught off guard by Hollie's sudden verbal and mana outburst... to say the very least. However, Vincent seemed to be absolutely furious when he saw Hal being freed from it, and not himself.

"You!" he exclaimed at the djinn.

"Me?" Hal asked in a faux-innocent tone.

"Yes!" Vincent responded. "What have you done to my sister!?" he demanded.

Hal was silent as he heard that, before raising an eyebrow, and smirking.

"Ohhhh Vincent..." he responded. "Wouldn't YOU like to know." he said.

"What do you mean by that!?" Vincent asked insistently.

"Let's just say your sister is... quite the catch." Hal replied, a subtle smirk on his face.

"What do you mean by THAT!?" Vincent shouted further, clearing getting more and more agitated and angry.

Before Vincent could even say anything in response, he felt himself to be in great pain.

"AGH!" he yelled, clutching at his sides.

"What did you have her do!?" he asked Hal.

"I did nothing!" Hal insisted.

It seemed that Hollie had tried to teleport Vincent out of there... but there were two things that were messing it up.

The first was that Vincent was resistant to her mana, overall.

The second was that she didn't have the finest of control over her mana, in her current state.

"HOLLIE!" Vincent yelled.

"........very well." Hal responded.

He then snapped his fingers, and Vincent was gone.

He appeared in his backyard... or, rather, several metres above the ground, in his backyard. He flailed a little in the air, before he collapsed to the ground...

...right next to a woman that lived there, and was sunning herself.

"Ow." Vincent growled, as he started to get up.

"Oh, hello Racquel." Vincent greeted her.

"Sorry about dropping in so suddenly." he said.

"And I WAS off to see if my sister was all right." he confirmed.

"In fact, I'm going back there NOW." he told her, before freezing, in silence.

"...I'm not." he realized. "I've... been barred." he said.

"That goddamn djinn." he hissed further.

Vincent just sighed, but there was anger in it.

"Hollie's being tricked and manipulated by a djinn!" he told her.

He then proceeded to explain what he had seen, what he had heard, and what had happened.

"I KNEW it was odd that she'd been taking a day off a month, voluntarily." he said further. "She NEVER takes days off unless forced to." he reasoned.

"This has to be the work of that blasted djinn!" he declared.

Vincent was silent as he watched her go inside.

"..........hm." he muttered, narrowing his eyes.

--

By the time Hal and Hollie had heard the knock on the door, they were back upstairs, in her room, in the bed.

Hal was the one that got up, and made his way to the window in the room, looking down towards the door.

"...it's a woman." he told Hollie.

"She... looks to have a messenger bag, appears to have... stars... or something... on her face, and is wearing a dark hat." he said further.

Hal looked over towards Hollie, and nodded.

"All right." he replied.

"Back in a second." he told her.

With that, he made his way downstairs, and over to the door, he opened it up, and looked at the woman.

"Hello." he greeted her.

"I assume you are here to see Hollie?" he asked.

Hal was silent as he heard all that, and accepted the box of tea.

"I see." he replied.

"....hmmm." he mumbled.

"Ah! You must be Rocky!" he then said, snapping his fingers.

"Hollie's had nothing but the best of praise for yourself and your teas." he told her. "And, having tried some, myself, her compliments are well-earned." he said further.

"Thank you for this." he went on.

"And thank you for being more... level-headed..." he then added.