Colin's posts

"Door's open!" Hal called back.

She opened it and stepped in, as Hal looked at her.

"...you're back soon." he said.

"Which... means it's either really GOOD news, or HORRIBLE news." he muttered.

"Which is it?" he asked.

"And WHAT is it?"

"Ah... right." Rene responded. He was wondering what Erica's 'vested interest' in Kelly was, but he realised that this was NOT the time to be asking about such things. Time WAS of the essence right now, after all.

"I shall do so." he told her.

They then said their goodbyes and he hung up.

"...damn it, the Fallen are one step ahead of us." he cursed.

"We need to find a way to TRACK them." he growled.

"...Excalibur?" Rene asked.

"...damn it." he then cursed. "Damn those Fallen." he growled.

"Right, I need to figure out a way to find her, and them, FAST." he then said.

"We have NO clue what they'll do to her, or how soon they'll do it." he reasoned.

"Erica, thank you for bringing this to my mind." he continued.

"With this knowledge, we can at least DIRECT our efforts."

Rene paused for a moment.

"I..." he stammered.

"I had not considered that." he admitted.

"...holy crap, that's actually probably what happened." he then said.

"The weird mana residue is probably from them." he went on, pausing yet again for another second.

"...but why?" he then asked.

"Why KELLY?"

"We're working on it." he said.

"All we know is there was a strange residual mana in the room after." he told her.

"We're analysing it now." he continued.

"But no alarms were triggered, no guards alerted, cameras in the hallway didn't seem to pick up anything..." he listed off.

"We don't know WHAT is happening." he sighed.

"I'm sorry, Erica."

She was waiting for close to 20 minutes before she received a response. Her phone rang and she heard Rene's voice when she answered it.

"Hello, Miss Windsor." he said.

"Or, Erica, if you prefer. I do not remember which you go with." he admitted.

"You were calling about news about Kelly." he said further, before pausing.

"...I cannot answer that." he told her.

"She's... she's gone. She's missing."

"...." Hal was silent as he watched her go.

"Hm." he mumbled.

He had a feeling that, even though they'd received good news, she was still focusing on the worst possible outcome.

Not that he could blame her.

But he wondered if there was anything he could do to help her. He doubted it.

"This will be a more direct way." Hal laughed.

"Now, let's get to work." he said.

"We have a time limit to get this done, so let's get this done!" he declared.

"She could tell he was trying to cheer her up and spur her own, while keeping both their spirits up, but she could also see that there was sincerity there. They finally had an answer.

And a viable one, too.

This was the best news anyone had received in a while.

"That is fair." Hal said, as he grabbed a business card of his and wrote down some numbers on it.

"Here." he then said to her, handing it over.

"Since you seem to have already met Ash, here's his cell number. It also has Rene's professional phone number on it." he went on, before pausing again.

"Ah!" he then exclaimed, grabbing ANOTHER business card and handing it to her.

"Rowena's professional card. If you call and say I sent you, she'll be more willing to speak with you on a more casual level." he assured her.

"Just in case you needed that info."

Hal looked at her and smiled softly.

"She's at OLA." he told her.

"I don't know the specifics, you'll need to ask either Ash, Rowena, or Dr. Calder." he then said.

"If you want to check up on her to keep your mind distracted, that's understandable, and acceptable." he continued to assure her further.

"I'll leave it entirely in your hands."

"Of course she will be." Hal assured her.

"We just need to check up on her." he said.

"She IS recovering from a parasite, from what I recall, but it's been a bit, and what little I've heard, she IS stable and recovering nicely." he continued.

"We'll just need to see HOW far along she is." he reasoned.

"And, ah... 'help'... if need be."

Hal was silent for another moment.

"Sword set in stone...?" he asked.

"OH! Excalibur!" he told her.

"I guess the wish granted the information that Michael can be taken down by the might and legendary sword Excalibur." he reasoned, before pausing and thinking about it some more.

"...wait..." he mumbled.

"So Kelly Fyrane is the key to solving all this...?" he then asked himself.

Hal nodded once more.

"Done." he said, snapping his fingers.

This time, what she saw was... still a little confusing, but it was VERY clear to her. She saw an image of a sword lodged in a large boulder. She saw someone pulling it from the stone. She saw Emelie rising from a pond and presenting the blade to someone.

She saw Kelly finding the blade in an underwater cavern.

But it was the same. The sword. Until it was nothing more than the sword right in front of her face...

...and then she 'woke up' again.

He sighed again. More heavily this time.

"Admittedly, I don't know HOW my mana reacts to Fallen." he told her. "However, I am... VERY certain it cannot eliminate one. Let alone an archangel one." he lamented.

He then paused for a moment, scratching his chin.

"...it MIGHT be able to tell us HOW we can, though..." he then said further.

"When it comes to gathering information, very few things can block my mana."