We're all missing you. Ilias responded.

We're all looking forward to when you come back. h then sent.

Especially Jake. He misses one of his best drinking buddies. he added with a laughing emoji at the end.

Peyton's been a bit lonely as well, even though you chat daily. he then revealed.

...you didn't hear that from me, though. he stressed in a following message.

Later! Ilias managed to respond before she signed off.

When she made her way to the door and opened it, she saw Vincent standing there, smiling.

"Hello, Mira." he greeted.

"You got some time?" he asked.

"We want to meet up downstairs." he told her further. "And you really ought to be there." he then reasoned with a light chuckle.

Vincent stepped through the door, but only enough to let it shut behind him, waiting patiently for her to finish up what she needed to.

"Oh, just some end-of-expedition stuff." he responded.

"Last minute dealings, discussing plans for afterwards." he went on.

"Talk about the exciting things we discovered." he added with a laugh.

"And enjoy a really nice buffet set up for everyone." he then told her further, smirking to himself a little.

"Let's go." Vincent then said.

As they walked, he took out his phone and sent a text. A quick one. And then put his phone away. He smiled at her afterwards, as they made their way down to the elevator, got in, and took it to the ground floor.

Once off, they made their way to where the banquet hall was, and Mira noticed a sign that said 'reserved for special event'. Was easy to guess it was for this little informal meeting they were going to.

However, when he opened the doors to the banquet hall, Mira saw that it looked like there was some MAJOR shindig happening. There was a LOT of food spread out, multiple of EVERY dish the hotel served and catered, and SO much alcohol, champagne and otherwise. And everyone looked over towards them, letting out a loud cheer, as the doors behind them shut.

"THERE'S the lady of the hour!" Lanston exclaimed, making his way over.

"Nice of you to join the party!" he told her with a wide smile.

"Oh, we know." Lanston responded.

"And I think, by the end of this, you'll have humbled ol' Richard." he whispered as he got super close.

"...he has his pride as a drinker, believe it or not." Vincent told her, as the three of them walked further in.

"And yes, I fibbed a bit." he admitted.

"This is very much mostly a party to celebrate your discovering Aegis." he revealed.

"We'd do this anyway, but it's a reason to REALLY let loose." Lanston declared with a hearty laugh.

Lanston just laughed, as Vincent rolled his eyes, as they made their way to where the other 2 were. Once there, they were greeted, and Richard grabbed a bottle of champagne that had been in a bucket of ice.

"Excellent!" he said, as they were all given glasses for the drink.

"Before all else, this is to commemorate a historic moment in archaeology!" he declared, popping the cork off the bottle, and pouring each of them a generous amount of the beverage.

"Skål!" he said, as they all clinked their glasses together in a toast.

"We have this place until noon tomorrow." Vincent told her. "So this party may last a while." he said.

"As it should!" James responded confidently.

They all saw it. As soon as she said that, Richard's expression changed... ever-so-slightly. His eyes hardened a little, but he sipped his champagne, before looking directly at Mira with a smirk.

"Is that so." he said.

"I'll have you know that I can handle my liquor with the best of them." he told her.

"Why, I've won numerous competitions of... varying local levels, admittedly. Drinking isn't... exactly the sort of thing one needs to be promoting for contests on large scales..." he mumbled.

"But I've become infamous among the Scots, the Irish, AND the Finns!" he declared.

"You think you can outdo me, Mira Greyson?" he asked her.

Richard responded by slamming down the rest of what he had, and looking harshly at her.

"Pick the starter." he said.

"Scotch, Vodka, or Rye." he told her.

"We'll just SEE who drinks who under the table." he said further.

"Aaaand here we go." Vincent mumbled.

"Shall we go and get some food?" he suggested to the other two.

"Let them work this own on their own terms?"

"Relax, we know the drill for when Richard enters a drinking contest." Vincent responded, as Richard grabbed a bottle of... VERY good Rye, from what Mira could tell, and poured it into two glasses with ice in them.

"It's happened before." James told her.

Richard handed one of the glasses to Mira, but then put his own to his nose, gently inhaling the aroma.

"...this smells SO smooth." he commented.

"This may be a drinking contest, but no need to be barbarians about it." he reasoned.

"Well, if this is going to happen, might as well taste good." Richard shrugged.

"And we shall." he said, before they clinked glasses and started to drink what was in them.

As they did so, Vincent just sighed as the rest of them made their way to the food.

After about 4 hours, Vienn looked over and saw that the contest was STILL going. And that Mira was very clearly winning. Something she had NEVER seen before.

Vincent noticed this as well, and laughed.

"Something tells me Richard's never actually drank with a dwarf."