"When they are needed, I will get them." Hal told her as they reached his office.

"Once you have the mice, the coin will teleport you back to my office when you use it." he then informed her, imparting his mana into the coin and giving it to her. She accepted it, nodded, and disappeared.

It took a bit for her to be able to locate and acquire the rodents... close to two hours, but when she teleported back into his office, mice in tow, she saw Hal was on the phone, and he raised a finger towards her when he saw her appear.

"Yes.... yes. Yes, we will receive him by the medical bay. Yes. Yes, I will be there personally to accept him." he said into it. "Thank you." he finished, before hanging up.

"Your partner's body will be here VERY soon." he informed Mackenzie. "Seems when you know the right people with the right connections, paperwork and red tape can be breezed through." he chuckled.

Hal looked to the rodents on her shoulders, and nodded.

"Good, good." he said, though she could see the minor guilt behind his eyes. He didn't like what their fate was to be, as he didn't like harming any living creatures, full stop... but he knew there was no choice here. The stakes were... FAR too high for the lives of rodents to be weighed.

"Glad to see it." he told her.

"Now, as far as your partner's body goes, anything special we need to know in terms of preserving him?" he asked.

"Anything that needs to be done for the ritual, or if his biology is a little weirder than anyone else's?" he asked further.

"...right then." Hal muttered.

"Good thing we got to him before any sort of procedure could be done on his body." he commented.

"But we'll keep him preserved until the time of the ritual." he assured her.

"All we need is for the remaining materials to be ready, which should not take long at all." he stated.

He then looked at the rodents, and sighed quietly.

"They really do seem to be peaceful creatures. One would never think they'd be responsible for so many forest fires in the past."

"I guess they evolved to be more subterranean. Makes sense. They don't cause fire underground, and their own flames give them light to see down there, so there was no real need for any dramatic evolutionary changes. Not externally, anyway." Hal shrugged.

"And it should be. Hopefully." he then mumbled, before standing up.

"Right, where will they be kept?" he asked.

"Will you be keeping them with yourself, or will they be house elsewhere?" he asked further.

"As for myself, I need to get to the medical bay receiving area."

"Very good." Hal responded.

"I'll leave you to tend to them for the time being." he told her, before the two of them headed off. The dorms and the medical bay were in the same general direction, but Hal soon broke away from Mackenzie.

Which was when Ilias walked past, and seemed immediately on alert, his snakes popping out from beneath his hair.

And they were darting their tongues out WILDLY.

Hungrily.

Ilias paused for a moment as he heard that.

"...excuse me?" he asked.

"Ember Mice?" he asked her, before booping the snoots of his snakes.

"Down girls. Down." he told them, looking at Mackenzie now.

"I didn't think they existed any longer." he said.

"The last remains of one were found decades ago."

"...I see." Ilias responded.

"Ah!" he then exclaimed, remembering something.

"Right." he said.

"I have that vial of my venom you asked for." he told her.

"I have it ON me right now. Was coming to give it to you, actually." he told her further.

Ilias followed, and he noticed the Ember Mice looking back towards him, and he kept his snakes from getting TOO far out of his hair.

"I admit, I'm surprised." he said.

"Those mice are VERY calm." he commented.

"One would think that they'd be nervous or anxious with snakes around." he said further, before pausing.

"...unless my snakes are punching up FAR above their weight class, so to speak..."

"Well, yes, they DO rely on their venom." Ilias responded. "They..." he then paused for a moment.

"Wait..." he mumbled.

"They don't use their venom to kill prey. They use it to fend off predators." he recalled. "They receive nourishment through me..." he continued, before pausing, coming to a realisation, and putting a hat that he had in his pocked on.

He then paused again, before sighing.

"And NOW they've calmed down." he said.

"They weren't being aggressive, they were SCARED."

Ilias made his way to the box and set the vial down inside it, closing it and locking it with the key.

"Done." he said.

"Still... the fact that you needed the venom of a gorgon-born, and not a flat-out gorgon is... well... it's worrisome." he commented.

"Just because it's SUCH a rare ingredient. There's a not a lot like me in the world." he said further.

"Lucky I work here."