Colin's posts

"I need to be there." Chronos replied.

"...actually, that's technically not true." he then said.

"I CAN do it from here, but I can't get ALL of it." he told her.

"If I do it from here, the chances of some remaining are absolute. If you want it ALL gone from him, I need to see him face to face to do it." he explained.

"So. If you insist upon this, then you need to get me there."

Chronos looked at her in silence, before sighing.

"....fine." he said, sitting up.

"If you want it gone, it'll be gone." he told her.

"I assume you mean NOW?" he then asked, standing up fully.

"And judging from all you've said, you don't care about how I do it." he went on.

"Never heard you have such venom in your tone before." he then admitted.

When she emerged on the other side of the door, she saw blackness.

Sheer and utter blackness.

However, after an unknowable amount of time later, she suddenly found herself surrounded by clock faces, swirling around her, getting faster and faster... until they suddenly disappeared, revealing Chronos laying down on a sofa.

".......yes?" he asked, looking at her.

"....then, as I said, I have no jurisdiction over what you do." Hal replied.

"You outrank me in every way." he said.

"I cannot stop you from doing anything you want to." he finished.

"...just don't tell me exactly what you will be doing." he then said.

"The more ignorance I can plead, the better."

Hal just sighed.

"I have no idea." he said.

"Surely he'd know where Vanessa IS, but he's been unwilling to speak with anyone, and any efforts to coerce the information out of him have proven less than successful." he went on.

"So, frankly, he does have info we need, but it seems to be locked tight." he lamented.

"If he dies, then I get the feeling we haven't lost much."

"......" Hal was silent for a moment, hearing the choices he was given.

"...Syraene, I am not one to sentence judgement, or kill someone so suddenly." he told her.

"Last time I did that, it was warranted, but I almost lost the Unit because of it." he said.

"That being said, I have no control over what YOU do, as you are not employed by me as a full-time employee." he went on.

"What you do to settle whatever beefs you have is YOUR business."

Hal looked at Syraene as she said what she did, and looked a bit confused.

"....eh?" he muttered.

"Admittedly, that confused me." he told her.

"His mortal mana, but not ALL his mana?" he asked her, clearly still a bit confused.

"Care to... elaborate on what you are referring to?"

".....hm." Hal muttered.

"That... well, his mana is... well... it's technically dark elf." he said.

"It's complicated, but he was a human with necromantic mana, but an attempt was made to change his species to dark elf, which had... er... well, it resulted in the man you witnessed." he told her further.

"So he has access to dark elf mana now, but I think he lost almost all his necromancy in the process. I'm not sure, admittedly." he then went on.

"Still... the fact that the guard seemed to miss the conversation IS weird..." he admitted.

Ryker just smiled as Eke laughed at it.

"Heh." he chuckled quietly.

"We've come a long way." he said.

"...a giant magic bear...?" Aly suddenly asked.

"Oh, we've had... an eventful life." Ryker replied.

"We've had a lot of adventures, to put it lightly."

"....." Sharp was silent as he heard that.

"Hm." he mumbled.

"We only have a few people here that require guards and an escort at the moment..." he said.

"Can you describe them to me?" he asked.

"Any notable features?" he asked further.

"Well, he has pale grey skin..." Peyton started off, which seemed to be enough for Sharp.

"Oh, damn it, it's Christopher Jenkins." he growled.

"...but what you describe IS strange, though." he said. "He has the mana restrictors on, so he shouldn't be able to do anything with his mana..." he muttered.

"Of course." Sharp replied.

With that, the two of them stepped into his office, and he shut the door behind them. Once he did, he sat behind the desk, and she sat in front of it.

"What is it?" he asked.

"What's on your mind?" he asked her.

"You say it's not extremely important, but I can see it's weighing a bit on your shoulders." he then commented.

The man watched her go, and smirked to himself, a satisfied look in his eyes.

'And the gears move even MORE...' he thought.

Meanwhile, Peyton managed to make her way to Sharp's office, and was told to wait for a moment, as Sharp was out. However, she was told he'd be back momentarily.

Sure enough, about a minute or two later, he stepped into his receptionist's area.

"Oh, Peyton." he said, seeing her there.

"My apologies, have you been waiting long?" he asked her.

Just as she said that, she heard the elevator ding, and it looked like they were back on schedule.

"Maybe." the man replied.

"But yeah, hope my info helps." he told her.

"A shame dark elves are so hard to kill." he added.

"Hey!" the guard snapped at him. "Watch it!" he warned.

"What, can't even say 'hi' to people?" the man asked, sounding offended.

"....hm, that's a good point." he replied.

"Or IS it?" he then asked.

"I have it on good authority that Vanessa Encrae has that second djinn under her command." he then told Peyton.

"If you were able to get that djinn away from her... then you could help your friend and her daughter." he continued.

"Well... possibly." he then added.

"After all, it's only a theory that 2 djinn could do something about it."