<span style="font-style: italic"> Pale white skin. Hair as black as night. A familiar dress the color of Sin. <br/>The reflection of herself smiled softly at her, blood red lips curving into the same smile she always saw as a child all those years ago.  <br/>A hand came up to cup her cheek just like her mother used to.<br/><span style="color: red"> “Tee hee.”</span>  Her reflection giggled before drawing close as if to bestow a kiss on her forehead. <span style="color: red"> “Trying to escape?”</span> She could feel those ice cold lips on her forehead curve into another smile as it whispered against her skin a solemn promise: <span style="color: red"> “Like I will let you.”</span></span><br/><br/>Blue eyes shot open.  Adrenaline pumped through her veins as Lethe struggled between her fight or flight instinct and the clinging grasp of sleep.  Where was--she was in her bed.  In her apartment.  In Gless.  Not--not in Sin’s hands.  Her heart started to slow down as she processed this information before she groaned and covered her eyes with a still shaking hand.  Again.  And there was no chance she’d fall back asleep. Again.  She sagged into her bed longingly but knew sleep offered her no respite.  Instead, she sat up and made her way out of bed, childishly dragging her blanket with her to her bay windows.  Swaddled in her blanket, the ‘White Seraph’ stared out her window at the peaceful city below.  Gless: bastion of the Light.  The bell tower chimed: 4:15 and all was well.  It’d be another hour and a half before sunrise and morning prayers.  There was the meeting with the High Council today about the crystallized Sin.  She closed her eyes and rested her head against the cool windowpane, only to jerk back.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic"><span style="color: red"> “Tee hee. Trying to escape? Like I will let you.”</span></span><br/><br/>She pulled up a spare corner of her blanket and placed it between her head and the window, the fabric dulling the chill of the glass.  A flash of light and her keys appeared in front of her.  One, two, three, four, five, six.  Six hadn’t been enough, not if she needed auxiliary support and to engage in battle.  She needed more.  Closing her eyes, she directed her magic towards them to start the arduous process of forming another pair of keyblades.<br/><br/>4:17 and all was well.<br/><div style="text-align: center;">~~~~~~~</div><br/><br/>Lethe knelt on the ground, dully listening to the Council and Gil discuss the next steps.  It was clear that Gil wanted her squad to accompany his on his proposed expedition, and it was equally clear that the High Council didn't want that.  Normally, she would have joined in the debate to support Gil but she was just too tired.  These past two days had been anything but restful.  Liberal use of makeup was the only thing keeping her from looking frightful.  Besides, she couldn't blame the Council for wanting to keep her close.  They had just been smacked in the face with both an image of her falling into Sin and a display of her power.  It wasn't hard to conjecture further what would happen if the two were to combine.  Her memories of the dreams that plagued her were interrupted by a peevish voice beside her.<br/><br/><span style="color: blue">"What I ask of you is in line with that duty I swore an oath to. Why do I feel like the High Council is trying to stop me from doing my duties effectively?"</span><br/><br/>Lethe chanced a wide eyed look at her fellow Knight through the fringe of her hair.  She rarely heard him take such a tone, especially not to the High Council.  A pregnant silence descended on the group as everyone tried to think of an appropriate response before Gil finally broke it by apologizing.  It seemed these encounters with Sin were wearing on him as well.  She berated herself for not paying more attention to her fellow Knight, eyes finally noticing the bandage still wrapped around his head, but then forced herself to drag her attention back to the meeting.  This was important.<br/><br/>She stood up as the two were dismissed and walked out of the room and with her fellow Knight.  One week in the depths of Palaugrim: not nearly enough time to investigate properly and more than enough time to fall.  When the door to the High Council Chamber finally closed, she halted and turned to face Gil.  Besides the lingering injuries, he appeared fine.<br/><br/><span style="color: silver">"I'm surprised Brynhildr let you go in like that."</span>She finally remarked, lifting a hand glowing with<span style="font-style: italic">Healing</span>to his head.<span style="color: silver">"Or were you hoping to make a statement with that?"</span>She let her magic seep into the other Knight and cure his wounds, lingering long enough to make sure she attended everything, and then let her hand drop away.<br/><br/><span style="color: silver">"I'll inform my squad that we will be heading out soon and see if I can get it extended to at least two weeks."</span>Grisia or Deimos would help with that.  Lethe turned to walk back down the corridor to where their teams waited, in two separate rooms, of course.  (She didn’t quite trust her team to not have annoyed Gil’s squad into murderous thoughts.)<span style="color: silver">"When do you want to convene to discuss the expedition?  We should probably plan basic formations and duties ahead of time to avoid redundancies."</span>