"Come in!" she heard Sharp say through the door.

When she did, he looked at her and smiled softly.

"Ah, Sierra." he greeted her.

"Hello, hello." he said.

"Please, take a seat." he offered.

"How can I help you?"

"Ah, yes." Hal replied.

"A bit early, but all right." he then said.

He then started to put the money away, but then seemed to freeze for a moment.

".....Cecil?" he asked.

"You said his name is Cecil?" he asked her.

Sierra just nodded in response.

Hal responded to this by grabbing some papers and looking through them. When it seemed like he found what he had been looking for, he froze again.

"....dear lord..." he said in a hushed tone.

"....there's something wrong with the fact that his name is Cecil Jenkins." Hal responded.

He then put the papers down, cleared his throat a little, and looked at her.

"Sierra." he said.

"Cecil Jenkins is the alias of a wanted and dangerous man." he told her.

"You would very well be living with a man that caused you to kill Azazel like you did." he said further.

"And I'm dead serious about that."

"If this is the same man, then he's putting up an act." Hal told her.

"...Sierra, there's only one way to know if this is true." he then said.

"I need to call Ashley Encrae in here, and she can tell if you have drow mana in you... and if you do, she can take it out and identify it." he told her further.

"Is that all right?" he asked.

"If nothing else, we can eliminate him as a suspect if it doesn't match up."

Hal just sighed.

"Very well." he said.

"We'll do it THAT way, then." he told her.

He raised his fingers again, and snapped them.

"Wish granted." he said, as an aura of his mana surrounded her.

'Been doing this a lot lately.' he thought.

'This better not become a regular thing... though these ARE extenuating circumstances...' he added.

"......" Hal was silent for a moment, and then sighed as well.

"I'm sorry, Sierra." he said to her.

He then made a brief call to Ashley, telling her to show up in his office, and to just come in. Once the call was ended, he looked at the banshee again.

"...tell me." he mumbled.

"What did you learn, exactly, when I did that?" he asked her.

"....damn it." Hal cursed.

"That brilliant bastard." he said.

"Through the money. Nobody would have suspected it." he said further.

He then sighed and shook his head.

"I'm so sorry this happened to you, Sierra." he told her.

"But now we know. And he doesn't know that we know."

"That IS the question." Hal replied.

"We'll discuss it when Ashley gets here." he told her.

"They ARE related, after all." he sighed.

"She'd know about him, and perhaps how he'd work. Perhaps she'll be able to help us with this." he reasoned.

"The thing is, we have an advantage now. We need to be able to make it work for us."

"Ah, Ashley." Hal said.

"Have a seat, please." he told her, gesturing to one of them. When she did, he nodded slightly.

"We have some news about Cecil/Cedric." he then said.

"We know where he is, and how he's been infecting my agents." he told her.

"But before we go on, may I ask that you please remove his mana from inside Sierra again?" he then asked. "Without a doubt, he's placed more in her to try and control her again." he reasoned.

"It should be nowhere near as much, though." he then added.

"We are in a unique situation." Hal replied.

"It seems that your nephew is boarding with Sierra as a roommate." he told her.

"However, he does not know that we know this." he went on.

"I figured you would have some insight into all this." he then reasoned, sitting back a little.

"Tell me, what do YOU think is the best course of action?" he asked her.

"Just storming the building, guns a-blazing, is probably NOT the optimal solution here."