Colin's posts

"........I knew I would have to eventually." Vincent replied.

"I'm fearing this." he said.

He then bit his lip, and seemed to be wracking his brain for something.

"I... I need to find SOME kind of positive here..." he muttered. "Something to give Rowena hope..." he went on.

"Any ideas?" he asked.

"Is there ANYTHING I can say to her to lessen the blow from 'one of our daughters has been kidnapped, probably by an anti-mage group who may have already murdered her'?"

"Got it." Ash replied.

---

"...." Vincent was silent as Hollie appeared and said what she did.

"I..." he stammered.

"What...?" he started to ask, before pausing. "Wait..." he mumbled.

"No..." he whispered. "No, that can't be." he said.

"....Hollie, this is a major emergency." he told her, standing up from his desk.

"What do we do?" he asked her.

"....I'll have to see what they think." Ash responded.

"I'll make everyone aware of it, THAT'S for sure." he told her.

"But I'll see what everyone says." he continued.

"....." he was then silent, before sighing heavily.

"Damn it all..." he cursed.

"Yeah, just... do what you gotta go." he told her. "It's probably best we overreact NOW, before something happens to someone." he reasoned.

"...something MORE, anyway..."

"....because someone almost DID." Ash responded.

"Cass, we need to talk. Seriously talk." he told her.

He then got close and sat down in front of her desk, before sighing.

"Ashley was shot down again." he said.

He then proceeded to tell her everything that he told Sydney, and everything that Ashley had told him.

"...this is seriously getting worrisome." he finished.

"It's becoming global."

"......right." Ash replied.

"I'll let you go do that, then." he told her.

"I'm going to talk to Cass." he finished.

With that, he got up and made his way to a corner of the room, before using his mana to teleport out of the office, and appear in his own office at the guild he worked at, Candentus Lux.

He then made his way to the closed door of Cass's office, and knocked on it.

Authoritatively.

".....I know." Ash responded.

"...I'm scared for Vicki now." he told her.

"It's probable that she was taken by people that subscribe to that movement." he said.

".....but I don't think Alice has received a power boost yet." he muttered.

"So wherever she is... it's safe to say she's still alive."

Ash sat down and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Well." he said, looking at Sydney.

"Ashley's going to be all right, obviously." he told her.

"However, in general, our problems are growing and spreading... literally." he then said. He then paused for a moment, sighed, and continued looking into Sydney's eyes.

"This modern witch trial mentality? It's spreading." he said. "Ashley heard that it had spread to Auckland when she landed." he informed her further.

"This issue seems to be going global, fast. The Triad needs to start taking massive defensive measures, the Council needs to do so as well, and the guild system needs to be on lockdown until further notice." he finished.

Ash was silent, and just nodded.

"Right." he said.

He then lingered for about 5 minutes, making some small talk and making sure she was all right, before she practically kicked him out of the room, and he left the hospital.

He made his way to the Triad, stopping at the entrance lobby, and texting Sydney.

I'm at the Triad. There any way you can fast-track my talking to you, and not have to fight my way tooth and nail through the red tape here? he sent.

Again, Ash sighed.

"Yeah." he said.

"I'll go to the Council after I go to the Triad." he told her.

"I promised Sydney I would update her when I got more information." he explained.

"And unless you have anything more to say, I..." he went on, before pausing and shaking his head. "...I hate to say it, but I should go." he said.

"I really don't want to leave you already, but I get the feeling you'd use your drow mana to make me leave and give Sydney and Hollie the information if I didn't do it myself." he added with a bit of a wry chuckle.

"...on a vaguely similar and less pressing note, did your phone survive the ordeal or no?" he then asked her.

Ash looked at Ashley, almost stunned.

Ashley wasn't scared of much. But when she WAS scared, it meant things were real.

"...I wanna say I'm not." he said.

"But that'd be a lie." he admitted.

"We don't know what the future holds, in the worst way possible." he muttered.

"And that is one of the worst feelings in the world..." he mumbled further, before sending a text to Sydney.

Ashley's fine... but we have some serious shit we need to discuss. ASAP. it read.

"..........." Ash was silent, and nodded.

"...yeah..." he said.

"I... yeah." he muttered, repeating himself.

"The Triad and Council need to hear of this, too." he went on.

"This... this looks like it's turning out to be... another extinction-like event." he then said.

"....damn it all." he growled, obviously angry.

".....damn it..." Ash said quietly.

"That's not good." he said further.

"This Salem movement is spreading... and it seems to be spreading fast." he went on.

"...and to top it all off, no leads on Vicki yet." he continued.

"I'm worried what's going to happen when Mom finds out." he admitted. "Because it's only a matter of time." he reasoned.

"And what if you're not so lucky next time?" he asked her.

Ash just sighed as she said what she did, before he closed the door and made his way over.

"...makes sense." he said.

"Better safe than sorry." he reasoned.

"...so, what happened?" he asked her, sitting down in the chair beside her bed. "I mean, it's clear that you were shot down again, but... where? How?" he asked further.

"Were you flying above Scotland again...?" he asked her.

Awesome. she received in response.

I'll go there and see what I can learn from her. the next text read.

I'll text you with more info, if you don't show up as well. he then finished with the third one.

And then, predictably, Ash made his way to OLA and sat down in some chairs near Ashley's room, and waited.

And waited.

He waited until Rene came and got him, before making his way into the room.

"Ashley...?" he said, sticking his head in after he'd opened the door.