Vincent paused as Alyssa left. ‘She’s kinda cute’ he thought to himself as he rose from his crouched form. The ashes had been scraped out of the oven and he took Alyssa’s lead and headed to the library. As he walked through the double doors he shrugged off his coat and tossed it aside into a pile of dirty laundry. He glanced at his white cotton shirt and frowned at the large tomato streak down the center. He quickly stripped off his shirt and glanced around. A very sleepy Stella poked her golden haired head out from the bundle of blankets she was wrapped in and cooed in her strange chime language.

The scholar chuckled and pulled a shirt on as he limped over to her and ruffled her hair. “Shhh go back to sleep.” He chuckled as he glanced around once more. He snatched his cane from a random spot on the ground and stretched his knee a bit. While his first soak in the springs had done him a lot of good, it was not necessarily healed all the way. It still throbbed after extended use, and he imagined he would need a long soak and several more months of therapy before he would ever be truly ok.

Leaning on his cane he limped out of the library and found Alyssa standing at the stairway descending deeper into the base. “Ready to go?” he asked cocking his head to the side.

“Yeah.” Alyssa nodded smiling slightly. “Lead the way Vincent.” She gestured to the stairs and the scholar. Vincent sighed a bit and leaned against the wall and began to descend.