A/N:Most of you won't realize the meaning of this chapter and it's name but you'll see. Things are about to go bad!
The air at the foot of the couch folded inward without any drama, without any wind, without any of the showy affectations a goddess of ARIA's grade was perfectly capable of producing if she'd wanted to—and ARIA simply was there, one heartbeat absent, the next heartbeat present, standing already at the end of the couch with her white hair pulled back over one shoulder and her face arranged in the gentle private register she only ever wore when she was about to handle Peter.
She looked at Linda first... ARIA had a thousand priorities and Linda was, in the architecture of ARIA's care, ahead of nearly all of them right after her Master.
"Linda," ARIA said softly.
"He's gone," Linda whispered. "He came in heavier than I've ever felt him, and he went under in less than two minutes, and I can't lift him."
"You don't need to."
