A tense moment passed. Four people with weapons raised waited for their opponents to make the first move. It became obvious that neither of the siblings had seen Maggie arrive. After a few seconds, Hansen and Gretchen shared a knowing look.

Then they burst into laughter.

With a clatter, the Witch's Brand fell to the ground, and its flame vanished with a pop. Gretchen herself fell to her knees, giggling helplessly, almost to the point where tears were coming from her eyes. Hansen, meanwhile, was reduced to leaning on the Liar Bone for support, too full of mirth to properly stand. Suddenly, the situation didn't seem nearly as menacing as it had moments before. As his anger melted away into confusion, there was only one thing Abel could say.

“What?”

Hansen managed to regain control of himself as his sister wiped tears from the her face with a ruffled sleeve. “You...” he gasped, “were really going to do it! You were gonna brawl! Haha! Man, I'm sorry, but you got baited hard. We didn't think you'd take it so seriously!” The stylized halberd compressed itself to a manageable size once more, and Hansen replaced it on his belt. Gretchen's weapon found its way back into hers as well. Both seemed so gleeful whereas before they had only been nasty; it was hard not to believe that it all had been an elaborate prank. The siblings high-fived, and with that, the situation was defused.

Before Abel, Nevin, or Maggie could properly question them about exactly why they got them so riled up, the two were off. Skirting around Abel, whose polearm was still absently held in a battle-ready, position, Gretchen left first. Hansen's attention completely went to the vending machine that Maggie was perched on; after pulling out a candy bar and taking a bite, he left as well. By that time, his sister was gone, but after looking around for a moment Hansen seemed to notice something on the ground that nobody else could see. Following the invisible trail, he went exactly the way Gretchen had moments before. If either Nevin or Maggie got a glimpse of his eyes during that time, they would have seen that his irises had turned white.

“Well...” Abel said at last, still not sure how to react. “That was interesting. Weird though. They seemed so sure that they wanted to fight. We probably don't have a lot of time left before the assembly begins; we ought to grab a snack now and get going.” He looked up at Maggie, seating several feet above and in front of him. “Want to come with us?”