Colin's posts

When the beam connected with Illias' head, he let out a scream... but it was a scream that wasn't human OR animal. It didn't even sound of their world. The best way to describe it would be "if mana could scream, that was what it would sound like".

As soon as that happened, Hal stretched out his hand. When he did, the pen was surrounded by a very dark purple glow... so purple, it was almost black.

"Nngh..." Hal grunted.

"The pen's got a good hold on Illias." he told Hollie.

"But I've managed to get it to not be able to get to the tome." he said.

Hal was silent for a moment, before smirking.

He then flicked his wrist, and they saw the lock glow for a fraction of a second.

They looked back at each other for a second, nodded, and Hal burst open the door.

What they saw was rather harrowing.

Illias was sitting at his desk, pen in hand, tome in front of him. He was surrounded by arcane mana, to the point where it was visible to the naked eye, the closer it was to him. It seemed to envelop him, almost like an aura... but it was clear that the man was acting on its own.

His eyes were filled with arcane mana, the substance almost oozing out of them, and sparking as well. Though his pupils and irises could no longer be seen, when he looked at them, his expression was clear...

'Help me'.

Sharp nodded, and the two of them left his office immediately.

They hastily made their way to where Illias' down was, able to pass through the lockdown barriers thanks to Hollie's mana. She could get through them naturally, and she quickly gave Hal 'special permissions' with her mana.

As they got closer to Illias' dorm, both could feel just how steeped the area was getting with arcane mana... but that was mostly because Hollie was arguably the most powerful mage on the planet, and Hal was a djinn.

"...for arcane mana, this is thick." he said quietly.

"And we're going to need to act extremely fast, we can't waste a moment." he went on, looking at the door handle and very gently trying to open it... only to find it locked, unsurprisingly.

"It'll be too noisy to pick the lock or break down the door." he whispered to her.

"Yeah, had it installed a couple of months ago." Hal replied.

"The confirmation to make it technically hasn't come back, but... well... he had a good case of 'she'll allow it, you know it, lemme get to work on it while I'm here'..." he then admitted.

"Anyway, yes, let's go." he agreed.

"We need to separate them, and we need to do it now." he reasoned.

"...I shudder to think about what is happening to Illias at the moment." he then said quietly.

"One second." Hal replied.

He then went to one of the walls, slid open a small panel, and pressed some buttons on the electronic pad that was there. As he did, a blue light shone out from the device, and formed into a complete wire-frame 3D plan of the entire building.

He pressed a few more buttons, feeding more information into it, before a red dot appeared somewhere in the scheme.

"Right then." he said.

"Looks like Kiah was right." he commented.

"Illias is right in his dorm."

Sharp paused for a brief moment, and sighed.

"Illias." he told her.

He then relayed to her what Kiah had told him, sparing no details, but making sure the information was passed on quickly, so no time was wasted.

"So I have good reason to believe that he has it." he said.

"Meaning the help you sent in hasn't gotten to him yet." he then reasoned.

Sharp watched them go, before quickly returning to his office.

Once there, he called Hollie.

"Hollie, get to my office." he told her.

"NOW." he said.

"There's a very good chance I know EXACTLY where the book and pen is." he said further, showing her that things were coming back to him, and that he knew what was going on, even if vaguely, at the moment.

"....." Sharp was silent as he saw the bruise forming.

"I see." he said.

He then turned and waited impatiently, until the medical transporter showed up.

"She took a nasty spill down the stairs." he told them.

"Get her to the med wing to get looked at, as she has some concerning bruises forming." he said further. The medical staff nodded, before looking at Kiah.

"Ready to go?" he asked.

When she nodded, she suddenly felt herself lifted up off the floor, and levitated.

"Can't teleport due to lockdown, so this'll have to do." he explained.

Sharp was silent for a moment, before sighing.

He grabbed his phone and called Angela, telling her where they were, and asking her to send someone to get Kiah, so she could be taken to the medical wing.

"....it's not like you to be so clumsy." he told her.

"...the pen and tome..." he then mumbled, fragments of his memory starting to piece together again.

"I need to tell Hollie about this." he said.

"They need to be stopped." he finished, referring to the pen and book, as opposed to Illias, himself.

"............." Sharp was silent as he heard what he heard, and heard the phone call end.

"That does NOT sound good." he muttered.

About a minute later, Sharp rushed out of his office, and made his way DIRECTLY to where Kiah was, almost as though he knew exactly where she was.

He rushed towards where she was, and saw her laying on the floor.

"Kiah!" he exclaimed.

"What happened!?" he asked her, concern evident in his tone.

"Excuse me?" Sharp responded.

However, before she could respond to him, she felt something odd... or, rather, she DIDN'T feel something.

Which was to say, she swore she should have felt another stair beneath her, but she didn't.

Instead, she felt nothing but air... somehow, she'd missed a step.

And that meant she was tumbling forward now, down the stairs.

"Huh?" Sharp asked.

"The pesticide hunt?" he asked.

"Oh, it's used in various commercial cleaning products, I'm sure it was an honest mistake." he told her.

"I'll make sure Anya is properly compensated for it, so don't worry about it." he went on... which alarmed her even further.

"What's the second thing?" he then asked.

"Oh, nothing that I know of." Tyson admitted.

"But I'll bet this is hard on him." he said.

"I mean, he and Peyton get along, but... well... there's nobody here that DOESN'T." he reasoned with a small smirk. "And Rylie was the one that saved his life, so he's pretty close to her." he went on. "Not to mention he and Azazel are a little unsure about revealing what they are due to worries of discrimination... so they have a small bond over THAT..." he continued.

"So... yeah, poor guy's had several of his friends turned on their heads." he sighed.

Of course, Tyson didn't know about how Illias would secretly shoot small glares at Anya when she got chummy and close with Kiah... but Kiah noticed it a few times... never thought much on them.

Until now.

"I haven't heard Sharp mention anything about the pesticide." Tyson said.

"...but that's worrying that not even Mira can get in." he continued.

"And yeah, I've heard about Azazel and Rylie." he then said further.

"Rylie giving up on her motorcycle, saying she's done with it, that it's too dangerous, going to sell it... just... doesn't make any sense." he muttered.

"And Azazel suddenly trying to hide the fact that he's a demon, taking drastic measures to hide it, acting like he's never said he is... like he's ashamed and afraid to show who he is." he went on.

"...poor Illias." he then mumbled.