As soon as she sent the text to Vincent, she heard a chime. A familiar chime, that she recognized as Vincent's text notification sound. And it was coming from the den.

When she made her way to the den, she saw Vincent's phone on the couch, it looking like it was haphazardly tossed there.

And when she checked it, she saw that it was at about 10% power, meaning it hadn't been plugged in or charged in... at least a few days or so.

Which was when she received a text back from Ash.

So what do we do? Scry for him? Send out some hunters to locate him? the message asked her.

"......right." Ash replied.

"I'll see if I can't get some Candentus Lux resources on it." he told her.

"...and Lindsay says he'll try and scry for him." he then said.

"We'll do all we can, Mom." he assured her.

"Should we tell Aunt Rocky about this?" he then asked.

"....good points." Ash admitted.

"Regardless, Lindsay's gone to scry, and I'll head to my guild." he reiterated.

"...what about Hollie?" he then asked.

"Should one of us tell her about this? Or should we assume she already knows? Or not bother?" he asked further.

"Because, I admit, I have no idea how to handle this kind of situation, informing-wise." he then sighed.

"I never thought it would come up."

"....hm. Fair point." Ash responded, before sighing.

"Just... all right." he said.

"I'll keep you updated." he told her.

They then ended their conversation, as Lindsay returned.

"Odds are he's gone to do some serious soul-searching and head-clearing." Lindsay commented.

"Whatever." Ash growled.

"I'm going to get some hunter power after him." he said, before disappearing.

Got it. Ash replied.

I will concentrate all hunter power to Australia, and force him back. she then received.

Do you know whereabouts? he then asked.

That's when Hollie noticed numbers on the bottom of the letter... obviously coordinates.

She relayed them to Ash, who said they would have him back within the hour, whether he liked it or not.

What happens, happens. was all she got in response.

It was clear that Ash was not happy.

He hadn't been directly involved in what happened, but it had hurt Rowena.

And that had made him particularly mad, himself.

Her target was the sort that, if he didn't want to be found, he wouldn't be found.

So it was immediately clear where he was.

She saw a man sitting in front of a fire, with a dingo laying down, head in his lap, as he roasted some meat on the flames in front of him.

"Hello." he said to her as she approached from behind.

"Came to get me, did you?" he asked.

"Because I was a danger to people." the man replied.

"My mind was unstable, and I was afraid of what I might do." he said further.

"I did not want to say anything else that was in the heat of the moment, and cause further damage." he went on.

"My own sister probably hates me right now, my wife wishes divorce..." he listed.

"When my world comes crashing down around me, I need to remove myself from it."

"Regardless." Vincent replied.

"I needed to go away. I needed to sort through everything, before I potentially said something that I would have regretted even more, and made things even worse." he went on.

"I invited Hollie and Rowena out here to see if they wanted to speak with me in private, but... perhaps they do not." he then said further.

"As evidenced by yourself being here."

"You're right." Vincent replied.

"I should speak with Rowena, and then with Hollie." he agreed.

---

Hollie was sitting at the head of a conference table, with many other people there, each of them ranting at her.

"How could you stoop to this level!?" one of them asked.

"You're not fit to be the head!" another declared.

"If you do not step down, we will pull all our power together and force you down!" yet another threatened.

Just them, as still another started to ream into her, the door was violently blasted open (and off its hinges), by Vincent, who stepped inside the room.

"SILENCE!" he bellowed.