"Yeah."

"And make sure the cats are okay. Before we leave. Or at least - that there aren't any injured here, they probably all ran..."

"Yeah."

"I'll- take care of the body, if you check on the cats and see if- anything's missing."

"Thanks."

She stands up, shaking and taking deep breaths, before running off, deeper into the house.

El gets some chalk out and begins drawing an array to make a hole to drop the body into. And then she'll need to close it up afterwards, and hide the spot but somehow mark it so she can remember it later...

Bellona finds one cat who was too badly injured to hide - he looks like he was kicked - heals him, crawls into the favorite kitty hiding places to find and heal the two who'd been able to get away but still got injured - doesn't find any dead cats but doesn't find all the cats she knows - cries a lot - finds the library practically turned upside down, a lot of texts from the alchemy section missing or thrown on the ground - finds the door to sensei's office forced open, sensei's desk's drawer pulled out entirely and papers scattered...

She's not entirely sure what's missing, not without sitting down and cataloguing everything.

She does a final sweep of the house and outside, finds some uninjured cats hiding and one injured cat she'd missed (heals that one too) - there's still cats missing and she can't stop crying but she keeps telling herself they must've gotten away -

She goes back to El.

"I healed all the hurt cats. I didn't find any dead. The alchemy part of the library and sensei's office had stuff thrown around, maybe missing."

"I'm gonna kill whoever did this."

El is brushing soot over the spot where Akira was laying.

"I'll help. They'll hurt."

"They'll hurt so much."

She helps finish brushing soot, then rubs at her stinging eyes, mostly managing to get soot on her tear-stained face.

"We should get to Dante's as quick as we can."

"Yeah. Let's- let's just go."

She takes a deep breath, then settles into a light jog towards Dante's mansion.

Back they go.

Dante's inside, in her sunroom reading.

She looks up when the girls enter, out of breath and soot-stained.

"Girls? What in the world - "

"Someone killed Professor Curtis. We need to borrow the Stone to bring her back. We'll make another one for you."

" - Oh no."

She seems distraught.

"Of course - though be careful dears, please be careful, this is a risky path you walk - "

She retrieves the stone.

"Are either of you hurt?"

"No. It was- it was over when we got back."

She hands the stone over.

"Let me provide you with horses for the return. They'll know to come back here, afterwards."

"-Don't know how to ride."

"Simply being carried is not too hard, but - I understand if you'd rather return on your own feet, then."

"Yeah."

"Good speed, then. I won't keep you."

"Thanks, Miss Dante. C'mon, El, let's go."

"Yes, thank you."

And back again they go.

It's a good thing Professor Curtis was a stickler for regular exercise.

It's a better thing they've already researched this, when Bellona was making extra sure it'd be a dumb idea to try to get mom back -

Still, making the array won't be fast, and their teacher's body will be stiff in rigor mortis by the time they're done.

Bellona, at least, has stopped crying, instead taking on a stubborn set to her jaw.

El takes the time to double-check the array.

It's not like she's getting deader.

Bellona helps, too.

They need to get this right.

And then they've checked every symbol, gone over every line, made tiny corrections and run into a point where they can't see any more mistakes -

"I think it's - time."

"Yeah. Ready?"