The door swung open, revealing a weary Cydney. Her swollen eyes widened in surprise at her visitor.

"Lyn," she croaked, "why are you here? Aren't you supposed to be at the team meeting?"

The forlorn expression, as well as hoarse voice, rained daggers into Lyn's heart. "I canceled it, Cinna. I- I wanted to see you."

Ever since the duel last Friday, Cydney had not been coming over to her place. She had thought that she would at least get to see the petite woman during the scheduled team meeting, but she did not show up this afternoon either.

Therefore, Lyn had abandoned the team meeting without a second thought and showed up in front of Cydney's room.

Cydney let out a weak chuckle. Her eyebags seemed to suggest that she had not slept at all since the duel.

"I'm sorry, Lyn. I thought I told Millie; I- I wasn't feeling well."

"No, no, it's okay, you should rest." Lyn lifted her hands and showed off the bags she was carrying. "I brought some soup for you. And I also bought the bubble tea you always get. I- I thought maybe these will make you feel better."

A glint of delight flashed across Cydney's eyes. "Oh, Lyn, you didn't have to."

"Of course. Anything for you, Cinna. Can I come in?"

Cydney gave her room a quick scan before nodding. "Sure."

Lyn stepped in and took the chance to observe the room Cydney called home. It was modest and cramped, with no decorations or furnishings beyond a twin bed on the end of the room. Even though this was the first time she got to see the place in full, Lyn was sure that this looked a lot emptier. At the foot of the bed sat a large backpack that appeared to be filled to the brim.

Realization dawned on her. "Cinna, are you... packing? Are you going somewhere?"

Cydney did not reply right away, which made Lyn even more agitated. Dropping the bags down on the floor, she took Cydney by the shoulders.

"Are you going home, Cinna? Are you going back with Han? Was that what he was talking about during the duel? He was saying something about finding you and- and asking you to go back, or something, right? So are you doing that? Are you going back home with him?"

Cydney laughed at Lyn's influx of questions. She placed a hand on Lyn's, her touch as gentle as ever.

"Can I have some soup first, Lyn? I'm hungry."

"Oh, okay, yeah, sure."

Cydney laid a few pillows on the floor for the two of them to sit on. Humming to herself, she took out the container of soup Lyn had prepared.

Lyn, on the other hand, was frowning and tapping her fingers restlessly on her crossed legs. The thought of Cydney possibly packing and leaving still plagued her.

There was nothing Lyn wanted more than for Cydney to be happy again, so this was a good thing, right? It was a good thing for Cydney to go home, to go back to her family and friends, to smile and laugh again like in those pictures of her past, right?

So why was she so upset by that idea?

"Don't go, Cinna," she blurted. Regret hit her immediately, and she added, "Sorry, I... That was selfish of me. I- I shouldn't have said that. You should go if you really want to, and you should always, always do what's best for yourself, but... I- I... Well, just know that I'll miss you."

A small smile tugged at Cydney's lips. "I don't want to leave too, Lyn."

"So you're staying? You're not packing... to leave?"

There was a short pause before Cydney whispered, "I'll stay if you want me to."

Lyn jolted upwards. "Of course I want you to stay! You know I'll want you to stay!"

She reached her hand out towards Cydney, almost toppling the soup she was holding.

"Sorry, sorry," Lyn mumbled as she raised her hands. "I'll let you eat in peace now."

Cydney chuckled in response. They sat quietly on the floor as the petite woman finished the soup and the bubble tea.

"Like it?" Lyn asked.

"Yes. Thank you for this, Lyn."

"Of course. Do you want to come over for dinner later? I missed you."

"Sure. I'm going to clean up a little more, then I'll come over."

"Oh. Do you... want me to help?"

"No, I got it. I'll find you later."

"Alright, then. I'll see you."

Lyn gave Cydney a light pinch on her cheeks before leaving the hostel and heading back to her apartment. Thinking about their date later tonight made her feet light as feathers and her mood bright as the setting sun.

She was still pondering what she should make for dinner when she stepped into her apartment and came to a complete halt.

At the dining table, Irene, Millie, and Raph were sitting around a stoic man in a suit, their faces solemn and bodies stiff.

"Brendan?" Lyn frowned.

She remembered the guy from their big joint commission with the Quester's Association a while back. He was a nice, friendly dude in charge of the department that dealt with Forbidden Magic, but he had always seemed very busy with his job. It was surprising to see him just hang out in the apartment unannounced like that.

"What are you doing here, Brendan? And why are the rest of you still here? I canceled the meeting for the day."

Everyone at the table exchanged a strange, somber look.

"Well," Irene began, "you're going to want to hear this, Lyn."

"Did something happen?" Lyn asked as she settled on a chair. "Should I ask Cinna to come over as well?"

"No," Irene said immediately, "don't call her here."

"Oh, no, it's okay, she's okay. I just met with her and she's feeling better now. She's coming over for dinner later anyway so—"

"No, trust us," Raph said. His brows were contorted in the strangest way. "You don't want her here. Not now."

"What? Why?" Lyn looked around the table. The mood in the room was... peculiar, at best. Dread crept up Lyn's heart.

"What's going on?" she demanded. "Since you're here, Brendan, is this about the Witches, or something? Did you guys figure out where they are located?"

Brendan adjusted his tie. "We're still working on that for now, and we'll be sure to contact you once we get some information. But I'm here today for another case."

"So, another commission, then?" Lyn was still unable to understand the situation. If it was a commission, why did they not want the whole team to be here?

"Yes, essentially. We're hoping you could help us, and the police, capture someone." Brendan took out a list and started reading from it. "This person is on the wanted list for multiple state police departments across the country; Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Colorado specifically."

"Oh. What is this person wanted for?"

"Multiple counts of assault against police officers, allegedly."

Lyn paused for a while, waiting for Brendan to continue. When she realized that that was it, she let out a short, incredulous laugh.

"Wait, what? You're kidding me right?"

"Unfortunately not."

Lyn still could not help but laugh further. "You're telling me that the largest organization in the world, independent of any government bodies, is working with the US police for small crimes like these? Since when does the QA bother themselves with these things? Don't you have witches to catch or quests to oversee or something?"

Smoothing his jacket, Brendan let out a long sigh. "You don't have to remind me of all the work I need to do. But yes, you're right, we don't usually care about things like that at all. However, we will if it helps us.

"Typically, before we put out a commission to capture Forbidden Magic users, like the Witches, we need to have very concrete evidence proving that they are indeed Forbidden Magic users. Otherwise, we aren't allowed to go chasing them down like that. Therefore, we spend a lot of time investigating and gathering evidence on each case we receive, and then there's a whole other legal department in the QA that would then grant us the authorization to put out a commission, like the one you guys did a while ago.

"However, on certain, very rare, occasions, we don't have the ability or the time to do all that. That's when we will cheat a little; we'll do a background check on the suspected Forbidden Magic user, and if they are also wanted by the government, we will work with the government to capture them, and then we'll do our investigation and everything else from there. The government is always more than happy to cooperate with us since these people are usually powerful mages that the police can never succeed in capturing."

"So what?" Lyn stared at the QA employee in disbelief. "You're asking us to capture someone you're just randomly accusing of using Forbidden Magic? How is that right?"

Brendan raised his eyebrows. "No, not randomly. Look, I'm not a fan of using this method too, but in this case, we have to. We have some... compelling evidence that this person is a Blood Magic user."

Upon hearing that, Lyn's indignation instantly dissolved.

"Oh," she whispered, "that's serious."

"Yes, it is. Very serious. Which is why we want to catch the suspect as soon as possible, and not waste time on all that authorization stuff."

Lyn nodded, but still felt queasy about the situation. "So what exactly is it you want us to do? Capture this person for you?"

"Yes, and also, question them for us, too. If they are indeed a Blood Magic user, we'll take care of them. If they're not, then just hand them over to the police and be done with it."

"Question them?" Lyn gulped. "How?"

"Use a drop of this." Brendan took out a small tinted bottle from his suit pocket and placed it on the table. Tapping it gently with a finger, he explained, "State-sanctioned truth serum. Another perk of working with the government."

Lyn's blood drained from her face. Truth serum was a highly controlled and regulated potion used on high-level criminals or during testimonies for high-profile cases; it could only be used if it was state-sanctioned for these purposes, otherwise, it was illegal to even possess the potion. Blood Magic was a crime that certainly warranted the use of truth serums, but Lyn was still distressed with the idea of using it.

"Truth serum, for real? H- How sure are you that they are a Blood Magic user?"

Brendan tilted his head to the side. "We received an anonymous tip-off with some very... convincing images."

"Anonymous tip-off? How do you know it's not a setup?"

"Good question. We're also interested in finding out who was trying to tip us off; we're suspecting that there may be a secret group of Blood Magic users and that this may be sort of a 'betrayal-within-the-group' thing." Brendan tapped on the bottle of truth serum once again. "We hope you can find that out for us too. Beyond asking about Blood Magic, ask them what they know, who they are working for, everything."

This was the strangest and most ridiculous commission Lyn had ever heard. Not only did they have to find and capture this possible Blood Magic user, but they also had to question them extensively? Using truth serum?

"I- I don't know, Brendan," Lyn muttered. "Are we really the best people to do this? We've never done anything like this before."

"To be honest, we'd normally reach out to guilds like Allies of Order for commissions like that, but this situation is... rather unique. I thought it'd be best to ask your team first."

Lyn blinked. "Oh, why?"

Brendan glanced at the three other team members next to him as if seeking permission to finally tell Lyn the truth. They were all avoiding eye contact, however; Millie's eyes were red and teary, Raph looked like he was about to pass out, and Irene was scowling and, to Lyn's surprise, blinking away the tears in her eyes.

Wait, since when did Irene ever cry?

"Well, that's because," Brendan said, staring straight into Lyn's eyes, "the person we want to capture is your team's fighter. Cydney Yen."

ϟ☁ϟ☁ϟ

A/N: Dun dun dunnn...

The QA has their eyes locked on our poor Cinnamon Bun...