Volume I - Episode 122 Where: Cologne, Germany When: 1 month and 4 days after E-Day, 2:02 pm The collection of driver's licenses on Krystal's desk was growing. Four different people had knocked on her door over the past three days, and Jack had killed every one of them. Paul Barkley, Angela Marotte, Eric Schuhmacher and Philipp Schroeder. Who were you? And why were you looking for me? Krystal pushed the thought out of her mind and tried to focus on the task at hand. Experiment number 7. The previous six attempts at making a miniferno had failed, but she knew she was getting closer. Which was lucky, because time was running out. Jack was growing more and more desperate and unpredictable with every passing day. The only times Krystal and Klaudia saw him was when he emptied their waste bucket at night, and when he banged on the door throughout the day to demand a progress update. The original deadline he had given Krystal had passed two days earlier. He was growing impatient. The miniferno was Krystal and Klaudia's only chance. Their only chance of escape. Their only chance of ever getting out of here alive. They were locked in a high-rise bedroom by an armed and desperate man who had already proven he was willing to kill people who got in his way. The miniferno was their only chance at fighting back. Krystal had thought through every other alternative. She had thought of unlocking the bedroom door with magic, but without access to the lock's internal mechanisms, there was no way that was possible. She had thought of creating some kind of sedative to knock Jack out when he opened the door. But in order for a sedative to work, he'd have to swallow it. Klaudia could possibly make a fake batch of Nightmilk to feed him, but he was unlikely to take it right in front of them with the door wide open. And with the heavily reinforced bedroom door standing in their way, Jack's sedation or death would simply lead to a long and painful starvation. There was no other way. It all came back to the miniferno. Experiment 7, Krystal thought. This is the one. I've done everything right this time, I know it. She studied the flask in front of her. A white crust had formed over the bright orange gas she had spent so many days creating. She poured a small amount of bright blue injector fluid into the flask. It began to fizz and bubble almost immediately, eating its way through the half-inch-thick layer of crust. She had to work quickly. She stoppered the flask and fed a thin rubber tube through the seal. Klaudia took the other end and connected it to a Bunsen burner, which she placed inside the kiln on the far edge of Krystal's desk. The interior of the kiln had been smeared with a solaxium gel to keep it from melting. Unprotected, a fully-formed miniferno could vaporise a diamond. The kiln door lay open, pointing away from the women, its contents reflected by a mirror leaning against the far bedroom wall. Krystal knew it was risky to leave the kiln open, but she couldn't help her curiosity. This was her first attempt performing a spell this complicated. She had to see how it turned out. She had to see her very first miniferno. By this time, the injector fluid had eaten its way through the crust. There was a loud fizz, a pop, and a jet of gas burst through the pipe into the kiln. Another jet of gas quickly followed. Then another. And another. "Oh my God," Klaudia said. "Look! Krystal, look!" Krystal leaned forward in her wheelchair to get a better view. Oh, wow! A kaleidoscope of brightly-coloured gases swirled through the interior of the kiln like a scene from outer space. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. Creation. [CONTINUED IN FIRST COMMENT BELOW]