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The Kid     The sun is setting at the time Zia gave for everyone to come to her home. Schedules have finally lined up just-so that her father will be home. As such, it would be an ideal time to grill him on the exact nature of the Calamity, where the source is kept, if it could be stopped... assuming he's willing to share information, of course.

    The Uran refugee's home is on a hilled street, and the structure is partially subterranean, constructed of wood, stone, and brass trimmings in the classical Cael style. Knocking on the wooden door summons Zia to open it almost immediately. She welcomes everyone inside with a fretful smile. While the exterior is all Caelondia, the interior is very Ura. Multiple fabrics in cool colors hang to insulate and for style. The place is filled with a spicy, earthen scent as an earthen pot sits over a low flame.

    "Thanks for coming," Zia says as she removes a white bandanna and an apron, before gesturing everyone into the den. It's dug even lower into the ground, and consists of cushioned seats around a wide table. "Here's probably the best place to talk. But... I can't tell if you waiting for him is the best idea. Maybe you might like to hide until he settles in? But then he might think you're an intruder..."

    She starts biting her thumb, anxiety clear on her face.
William Pauwel     Caelondia still inspires a sense of wonder in the young Chaser named William Pauwel. Not just the architectural and engineering feats, but just how thoroughly the city obliterated itself during the calamity. This hill and the home within it couldn't have possibly existed anywhere outside the Bastion itself back in that blasted time yet to come. And yet, here it is. A quaint home that wouldn't at all look out of place even back on the Tellurian plains.

Will gives Zia a smile as he makes his way in and settles down at the den. "I think it's probably best we don't hide, nothing more unsettlin' than someone steppin' out from your closet in your own home. That just makes us look suspicious. Let's just take things slow and one-at-a-time just like we did with the others, eh?"

Will breathes a relaxed sigh as he makes himself comfortable, resting his mechanical arms lazily on his lap. "So, your dad's still at work then, right?"
Alexis     Alexis is honestly not surprised to see the exterior look Caelondian (as to not stand out and attract attention) but the inside to be as Uran as permittable. Nor that it's partially subterrestrial. That too likely felt more 'at home' to the Urans from what she remembered of past (future?) info. Ugh I am not even going to go down that train of thought, thinking too hard about timey-wimey stuff just gives her a headache.

    She pauses in looking around as Zia voices her concerns and figits some, and reachs over to give her shoulder a reassuring pat. "He's honestly likely to be suspicious either way. Will's got the right idea."

    She looks at the gathering again, and shrugs her shoulders a little. "But if we've got too many folks here I can always step out. You've got better inquisiting sorts here."
Kotone Yamakawa So here they go again, Kotone was again in her traveling gear. Rather than stealth armour that would raise way too many flags, she was strange looking as it was. The long jakcet at least was decent enough and she had it done up today. She made her arrival and smiled a little at Zia.

"Good to see you and we could just knock couldn't we after he's had some time to settle rather than hiding under the bed as it were?"
Flamel Parsons     Parsons has his Secret Government Ranger outfit again, and he's stepped in in an eager and friendly way. "Well, in my opinion, best way to approach this is a months-long barrage of listening devices, stakeouts, and general shadowing, but I don't think we have the time for a friendly gesture like that, so we'll have to go with the classic." He says, cheerfully, heading inside the den and settling in. "Visible hands, no guardedness, and a lot of honesty. Just let him know we're here to help prevent him from being coerced into things."

    He then makes a few calming noises at Zia herself. "Take it easy, though, okay? You're doing fine. We can go from here. We're done dancing with the apocalypse quite so closely! I really appreciate what you've been doing, just take some deep breaths and trust us, and we'll do our best to be worth that trust!" She seems stressed out, and Parsons knows to keep anxiety out of things wherever and however he can!
Rory White     Rory White has chosen to use her human-guise, though now dressing in fashion that's more like the locals instead of the white gown that stands out like nothing else.

    "Agreed with William. Honesty and straightforwardness is the best approach, almost always. I just hope he is cooperative."
Priscilla     Though she'd since gotten over the 'before and after' vertigo of seeing Caelondia as a functioning nation instead of millions of tiny pieces floating through the sky, going to Zia's own home is still a bit of a trip for Priscilla. From the way she briefly hesitates to enter, to the equally misgiving and curious looks she gives at the internal architecture and choices of decoration, to the quiet, infinitely patient sigh she gives Zia when she starts chewing her nails, it's clear that the halfbreed still has some thoughts and feelings tied to the last time she'd gone through Ura dwellings, but not entirely the same when presented with those built for living rather than war.

    "Lady Zia . . . didst thou truly say nothing of the sort to thine own father?" she asks, with a slightly frustrated graciousness to her voice. "Not even as much as 'there art friends of mine I wish to introduce to thee'? I very much then hope that he is the sort not to panic whence presented with such." Really, Priscilla still has no clear mental image of Zia's father. She has a tough time inferring parents from the girl's behaviour alone in much the same way that she had difficulty imagining any of the other Calamity survivors in their natural habitat.

    Not about to run off into a closet to hide though, Priscilla seems to decide her authority on business here outstrips that of Zia's dad's property rights, and sits down exactly where indicated, where she can face the door, seeing as she happens to be the only 'well dressed adult' in the room (unless one is partial to tactical turtlenecks). "Wouldst thou care to giveth us his full name of address, at the least?" she asks.
The Kid     "Yeah, you're right," Zia says to Will as she opens the lid on the simmering pot. Thankfully, she finds something else to do with her hands in dicing a bundle of herbs and scraping them all in. "Sorry, I'm just... worried."

    "No, it's okay!" she says to Alexis in response to her light self-deprecating jab. "Having someone down-to-earth around helps, I promise." She looks to Kotone for a long moment, then shakes her head. "He gets jumpy when someone knocks on the door. Always worried it might be the Gravers..."

    The Ura takes a long, deep breath in response to Flamel's platitudes. Finally, she fully lowers her arm and gives him a resolved nod. "Right. Thank you." Unfortunately, that moment of calm is broken by Priscilla's terse query. Zia shakes her head and says, "No. Last time I invited someone over, he spoke to my father in Ura tongue. For a non-Ura to speak it is a grave insult." She rubs the back of her neck and smiles sheepishly. "Boy trouble..."

    But then, there is the sound of keys in the door, before the owner realizes it in unlocked. In strides Venn, Zia's father. He too wears predominantly blue, but in the form of a robe over a yellow shirt, bound together with a white belt. His hair is the same black as hers, but messy and overgrown. His chin is totally overcome by stubble, and his eyes are heavy with bags and exhaustion. But the moment he realizes strangers are in his home, he squares up.

    "Who are you? Zia!" he calls out, drawing the girl from the kitchen. "Oh... welcome home Dad," she says. "These are some friends of mine I invited over. Do you mind?" Her father immediately zooms in on Priscilla. "You are friends with the First of the Concord? Yes, I still keep up with current affairs," he says, pre-empting his daughter's surprise. "Now, what is it? Depending on how you answer, I may call the Marshals."He's hovering by the door, prepared to shout out at a moment's notice.
William Pauwel "Oh naw, I can definitely understand. One-hundred-per-cent. I mean, if I were in yer shoes, I'd probably be quakin' in my boots, too! But relax, it ain't like you're introducing a bunch of strangers to yer dad, right? We're old friends, it'll be fine!" Probably. At the very least, Priscilla is looking vaguely like someone who is actually here on official business, and may be the singular presentable adult in the bunch.

Which is something that Mister Zia's Dad seems to recognize almost instantly. Damn, it'd be nice to be that famous sometimes. Or maybe not? Maybe it gets inconvenient. Will should ask how many people ask Priscilla for an autograph later. Maybe he should get a few and sell them off? The Watch needs to get its funding somehow, after all!

"Hey there Mister Zia's Dad. We're just here to see iff'n y'all would be interested in helpin' us save at least one world." Will twiddles his mechanical thumbs just a little bit. The brusque introduction to their mission might be a bit odd, but hey, it worked the last couple of times! "Name's Will Pauwel, y'all wanna have a seat and hear us out? We won't bite."
Rory White     "I would prefer to answer with introductions, first. It's only polite. Apologies for the unannounced visit. The matter is too dire for normal channels. I am Rory White of the Argonauts, Paladin Chevalier. We are here to prevent a disaster. The aftermath of which I can show you in vivid detail. I should warn you, this involves something akin to time travel. A fact that has me deeply unsettled. But there is proof."

    She's definitely not the best at this smooth talking thing, but at least she's seated nicely at the table with hands on her knees while she talks!
Flamel Parsons     "Hi!" Flamel says, waving eagerly. "I'm Flamel Parsons, agent of a vague yet menacing government agency, and we won't do anything to hurt you, or anyone or anything you value, pretty much no matter what you do. We're here because we think some really just awful sorts of people might try to coerce you into doing something you don't want to do, if they aren't already, and we want to make sure you have the chance to make your own choices instead."

    He puts a hand to his chin, thinks about what to say, and then decides to go directly into things, trying to learn at least a little bit from the past encounters with the pre-Calamity individuals. God, so much talking!! "I'll be as quick and honest with you as I can, since you're a pretty smart dude and I'm sure you'll make the right choice. The Caelondian superweapon -- the earth-ripping one -- won't work without your mancerly brilliance, and people know that. We're here to help make sure you aren't being coerced into helping with it, and don't get coerced in the future. We know about this because of a lot of temporal changes and suchlike; we had a chance to see one of the possible future states of things."

    Also, whatever the ethics of this may be, he starts a passive read on Zia's father's mind, keeping an eye on at least the surface thoughts, to see if he can find out about the current status of the coercion effort, if it's started yet at all, as well as to enhance their efforts to explain.
Alexis If this was any other situation Alexis would of muttered something like 'If he's worried about the Concord he should of seen the Confederacy' under her breath. But between the already tersing situation and that several people present are former members of the defunct super-faction, she keeps the snark to herself.

She also really wants to lean against a wall to remain casual, but doesn't know if that would be considered rude to Ura or not, so refrains. Instead managing to hold her hands up in a non-threatening jesture. "Just at least hear 'em out. And if it doesn't suit your fancy we'll just be out of your hai--" And then Rory goes right into the thick of it. She's starting to rethink considering the others better at the discussion matter.

And Flamel just gets a LOOK for the 'vague yet menacing'. Not. Helping. Eventually she just rubs her face with one palm. It's almost like the days hanging out with Ash, Misty and Brock. Total, utter contrasts, and yet they manage to work things out together in the end. Go figure.

"Name's Alexis," she finally just adds to the introductions, wondering if this venue hasn't already been shot to hell....
Priscilla     Priscilla is /just/ about to express some surprise that Zia's father, apparently 'Venn', knows who she is, before he hits that one right away. It's still easy to forget sometimes, but even then, the guy looks like he's barely left his lab or study or whatever kind of room he works in all month. "Indeed, I hath known Lady Zia for a significant time before the eventual downfall of the Union and the Confederacy. It is not so unusual to think of such in context." she says, folding her arms on the table.

    "If thou knowest who I am, then thou shouldst likewise understandeth that I am not here lightly. Thou wouldst wish not to call the Marshals, and I sayeth such making no threat of mine own. Pray, lock the door behind thee. This concerns thine work. Thou art a man of importance to it, but I believeth also a man who hast both been gravely misjudged, and who gravely misjudges those he works alongside. Thou art aware of the potential consequences of what thou hath wrought, but thou yet remaineth too either too trusting, or too confident, in how it shalt be eventually used, as absurd as it may be to say. Sit with us, for the moment. There is aught we wouldst elucidate thee of."
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa seems to understand the moment Zia talks about him getting nervous. "Very understandable, given what he's dealing with." She looks to Priscilla and nods for a moment. Well if one person isn't hiding she best not either. She pauses for a moment "It's an insult to learn your people's tongue? Strange it's normally a sign of respect on most parts of my homeworld."

Waits now however and then sees oh boy trouble.

She has no chance to reply here as Zia's dad strides on in. She will just not shoot glares at Flammel, he's a good guy but damn the man sometimes goes full Government spook.

"I am Kotone Yamakawa, Zia has been a very good friend. Lady Priscilla does indeed speaks the truth..."
The Kid     "I'd rather stand, William Pauwel. And my name is Venn, please use it," Venn says tersely to the man with the robot hand. He then turns to Rory at the mention of 'time travel' and snorts. "I was not born yesterday. Stop beating around the bush and tell me what you're selling so I can throw you out."

    So Flamel begins talking, and Venn does not like what he hears. Immediately, he crosses the room and clamps his hand over the Psychonaut's mouth as best he can. "Quiet!" he hisses, eyes flicking around anxiously. "How do you know of it? Have you been spying on the Mancers?" His mental state screams anxiety that goes beyond the here and now, fear, confusion, and worry for Zia.

    Alexis raises her voice, and Venn settles enough to at least release Flamel. "... fine. But do not mention 'that.' If word gets out, it will be my head that rolls." From the way he's speaking, he doesn't mean that in a metaphorical sense. He looks to Priscilla for a long moment. Then, slowly, with the air of a man walking towards the gallows, he approaches his own door and locks it. "... you think I'm fool enough to not know their intention?" He laughs, a hollow one with no mirth. "No, I understand exactly what they plan to use it for."

    He nods to Kotone, and finally sits. Zia is visibly relieved, and she immediately begins serving dinner for everyone. It's closest analogue would be 'curry,' served with something akin to couscous and stone-baked flatbreads. It's certainly hearty, but very hot. Venn downs half his plate before beginning.

    "This project... you are right, only I can finish it. It works on old Ura geometaphysical concepts. Drawing in the land's abstract 'power' to devastating effect. I went into the field to use it as a power source... I wanted to join the Cinders, not the Mancers." He rubs at his face and massages his temples. "They plan to use to to utterly collapse the land above the Ura lands. Seal them in their caves to slowly die out. 'Prevent another war,' they say, but... you don't get into the Mancers young. Each and every one of them was around during the war, and they're still nursing grudges. They want revenge, whether they admit it or not."

    He looks up at everyone and shakes his head. "I don't know how you know of it, or why you even care. Caelondia won't release it to you," he looks to Priscilla. "And they won't disarm it without a fight," here he looks to Rory. "But if you can do anything, please... they threatened to take Zia if I didn't complete it. I've been stalling as long as I can but they're running out of patience, they..."

    He hides his face as a wretched sob arises from his throat.
Alexis Alexis accepts the food with a polite thanks to Zia. The girl did wonders with what limited scraps and a campfire she had in the Bastion, a meal made in a proper kitchen has got to be a good 4-5 stars. Though before she starts eating she huffs softly. "You could say we've seen it work... and then some." Someone already mentioned time travel after all. Gestures at the rest of the group with her spoon. "One of them can explain better. I'm just morale support."

With that contributed she digs in. The heat doesn't bother her. Fire trainer that grew up on a volcano, after all. Hot and spicy is perfect.
Rory White     It's quite clear that Venn's upset. Rory notices this. She shifts rather uncomfortably in the chair, about the only body language that comes to mind at the moment.

    Most of her attention is on processing all of this information and analyzing it.

    Which is what leads her to quickly ask for clarification. "Is the weapon functional, even partially, in its current state? Your safety, and Zia's safety, are easy to guarantee... all we have to do is hide you away somewhere while we deal with the problem. However... they will not do anything to her, if you truly are necessary to finishing it. After all... you could sabotage it in a way they might not detect. They would have to be dreadfully blinded by this grudge to not realize this."

    Rory is either being VERY BLUNT or sarcastic, given the actual sequence of events. It is quite difficult to tell which here.

    "... But, so long as the device is NOT functional, we can confront the Mancers directly. ... I would like to speak with a man named Rucks, among them."
William Pauwel     "Right, Venn, sorry." Will chuckles-- not exactly nervously, more just sheepishly. Even with two robot arms, Will is still ever that too-upright cowpoke country bumpkin from a backwater planet. "Well, anyway. Uh."

Time travel.

Right.

"It's like what miss Rory said. We saw the outcome of the Calamity for ourselves-- and turned back the clock to put a stop to it before it could ever happen again. And it's way, way more powerful than just a matter of collapsing the Ura tunnels." Will shakes his head slowly, "If you're that curious, I'll tell y'all exactly what it did. But I don't wanna burden a mind with that kind've knowledge, so instead lemme just ask you somethin'."

"Do you know a Mancer named Rucks?"
Flamel Parsons     Parsons just kind of accepts the hand over his mouth. With a habit of approaching things the way he does, he's not exactly unused to things like that. He waits until all this settles out, and then digs into his own bit of the curry-like dishes. "We can help. We know you're right, and we have every tool necessary to approach this." Parsons says, keeping his optimism. "It's a heavy problem, but I know it can be solved. A grudge is hard to kill, but believe me when I say you've got the right man to kill a grudge -- and leave the grudger!"

    "We know about it because it already happened. Or, rather, they tried to make it happen, and you turned it in reverse, in a way; you saved the Ura, at least as best you could. We helped another Mancer's device turn it back. Now we're here to make sure it doesn't happen again." He explains, between chewing. "I'm a specialist in Psychonautry, which means I can take a team directly into their mind and fight the psychohazardous formations of grudges, prejudices, and hatreds of all kind directly, so that they have a clear mind that's burdened down a lot less with the traumas of war. After all, any good vague yet menacing government agency has some mind control techniques to work with! And my allies are no slouches either, the espionage and martial capacity that they have can be used to defuse this whole nightmare!"

    He gestures with his own silverware. "We want to know the names of people to look into. We know one man in there we can depend on -- Rucks, like my friend said -- and we just need to push forward from there. As long as we know who's pushing for the weapon and somewhere to start defusing the situation, I'm sure we can do this." His eyes are wide and... Still, still seeming so intensely hopeful. "Everything looks really dark, but I promise, it'll all be okay! You were strong enough to save the Ura the first time around, and I'm sure that if we help you this time, you can save them this time too, and prevent the disaster while you're at it!"

    He takes a firm, strong look, his posture going as inspiring as he can get it. "I know you don't have much reason to trust us, but your daughter knows what we can do, and why we're here. I promise we'll get you out of this mess, and we'll make sure none of your work makes the disaster you're worried about. Everything will turn out okay, as long as we put all the right work into it!"
Priscilla     Priscilla lets slip a more weary noise as people immediately throw out the time travel card again, as if it were somehow even remotely necessary to describe the situation. "Mine apologies, Sir Venn, for the enthusiasm of the young ones. Whether or not thou wouldst choose to believeth them fully, I bedgrudge thee not, as it is contextually irrelevant besides. What matters at this moment is the project itself, and those who work to see its completion."

    "Thou art an intelligent man, no doubt. Thou art aware of its true purpose, and the intentions of those around thee. Thou art also aware of thine own near-powerlessness in dealing with it by thineself. What thou art not aware of is the true scale of what it is that thou art working towards. With the intelligence we possesseth, I wouldst go as far as to say that thou hath disastrously outdone thineself, Sir Venn. This weapon is not one that must be fired selectively; it is one that cannot be allowed to fire at all, at the Ura, or anyone else. If thou wish for some idea, this creation is one that not even I wish to possesseth, so great an evil is it for so little gain. A blunt instrument of terror, at very most."

    She lets the rest of the questioning go for a little while in order to graciously try the food, partly because there are a lot of questions that the others are capable of, and are in fact, asking. She needs the time anyways to focus hard on suppressing any indicator that the food is actually way too spicy for her, doubling down on her poker face perhaps slightly too hard. The low flame of the oven gutters briefly when the afterburn kicks in, casting a couple of weird and crazy shadows in lieu of a more ordinary teary-eyed response. Bread. Definitely the bread.

    "Before thou wouldst attempt to do so, if thou wouldst: Sir Rucks is another agent of ours, in a sense. He is one we art familiar with, and wouldst be able to work with productively if we art able to maketh contact with him. We knoweth of his involvement for a reason; thou wouldst not be leading us to anything compromising that we knoweth not of already." she says, finally. "In honesty, the most thou couldst do along such lines is to illuminate for us where it is exactly that thou dost this work."
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa will take the food if it's offered good things she's used to spicy food at the very least. "Yes, the project...Old men with mentalities like that almost ended my world when I was a child." She does not go into detail but her tone carries a lot of weight to it. She looks to her companions how does she broach this? Then Priscilla speaks. Think thinks for a moment on what Priscilla says while she enjoys the food, it's pretty good food all things considered.

"Why do I care about here? Your daughter has made a hell of an impression as have a few others. I think this world is worth helping as cheesy and trite as that sounds."
The Kid     "Rucks..." Venn murmurs as he stirs what remains on his plate together. "I know him. He's one of the best they have. Only the brightest get to work on multiple projects. He comes in from time to time, actually gets what I'm doing. If they got rid of me, they would bring him on to complete it. Most of the time though, he's working on his pet project, the Bastion. Don't know why an evacuation point needs someone like him on it, but..."

    He shakes his head at Rory. "Absolutely not. I'm watched every moment I'm there. The best I can do is make it look like the calculations are harder than they are. I could maybe do something just before it fires, but if it fails to work, it's on me. And if it's on me, it's on Zia."

    Everyone talks like Rucks is a known ally, something that draws a dry chuckle from Venn, which eventually explodes into a fully belly laugh. "Are we talking about the same Rucks? He has the biggest grudge of them all! His whole unit got wiped out during the War, and so did his father. But I'm not surprised he got to you, I've never known him to say an honest word." He downs another mouthful before shaking his head. "Don't rely on him for a second."

    He then looks to Priscilla. "We Mancers have a secret lab under the city. Our official 'headquarters' is the Lodge of Thought, atop First Landing Hill. That's mostly for school tours, non-sensitive paperwork and collaborative experiments with other guilds though. There's a secret elevator behind the staff room bookcase. You pull 'On Caelondia's Future' to open it."

    There's the sound of a carriage passing outside, and Venn freezes. "Is there anything else? I don't know to what degree they watch this place, but I don't want to find out."
Alexis Clearly the Rucks they knew had a change of heart, after seeing just what sort of end revenge can bring. But that's just a thought to muse on, bringing it up would really just cause more confusion, and Venn probably wouldn't really believe them anyways.

"I... think you've given us as much as you can," Alexis murmurs as she passes her now cleared dish back to Zia. And keeping her voice low as she looks to the others of the group. "That's probably something you... subtle sorts should look into." Alexis is about as subtle as a kickball to the groin, and she's well aware of it. "I like a challenge, but that's not a big group thing."
Flamel Parsons     "I'll rely on him no-question." Parsons says, his face suddenly going rather intense. It's not hostility, it's just... A kind of dedication. That man died for Parsons' sake, and though he's not really going to waste time trying to defend his honor, he is definitely gonna make sure he keeps his own dedication to him. "But I promise I won't bank everything on him." And then he glances at that sound of a carriage, eyebrow perking up.

    "I dunno how much watching goes on here either, actually! But if it helps, I'll take a quick look outside and try to wipe memories that we were here, should cover our bases well enough." He says that with such a casual and hopeful tone that it's hard to believe he's talking about anything more than mundane cleaning. "You've told us about all we should know at least. Unless you think there's any particular person I should start with! We'll take a visit and I'll look around to see what I can find."

    "Everything's gonna be okay, alright Venn? You've got our promise. Talk to Zia about this, she knows what needs knowing about us, and you can figure out how trustworthy we are. You'll see it either way. Depend on us, and this can all turn out okay!" He flashes a confidently optimistic smile, then... Vanishes! He pops into invisibility, flickering out the door in a way that should be hard for any observer to see; Parsons intends to do a quick cleanup as fast as he can, not checking minds to see if they're working for Mancers so much as just trying to group-wipe whatever he can about his conspiracy from lesser brains.

    He left his plate. He should have helped put it in the sink at least! What a hurry he left in. Well, at least this got sorted out well enough, and he knows where he needs to go and what he needs to do!
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa says "Rucks hummm?" She nods for a bit she listens to what Venn has to say to them he's risking a lot telling them what he is telling them. She enjoys the food for a moment longer before she replies. "You have done more than enough sir, we can work with that." She thinks more the images of the ruined city filled with people turned to ash still haunts her and there's no way with how her augmented mind works for the memories to fade in time. She wants to prevent that dark future from occurring very badly, they now have the information on where to find it. "We will do our damnest on this I give you my word on that for what little it's worth."
William Pauwel "Maybe seeing the world end made him change his mind?" Will murmurs, not quite matching the genial old gentleman they knew back on the Bastion with... whatever vengeful man Venn knows in the current age. "I dunno. But the man I knew never begrudged anyone for what they were. He was a gentle, wise sort of guy. But I guess we'll see."

Will shrugs slowly, then. "...Anyway. The only thing I can ask y'all to do is to hold on tight. Keep your cool. Don't worry, we'll keep Zia safe, no matter what might happen. Worst case, we can bring her places the city'll never find her." Will raises a mechanical arm in a scout's salute, "Chaser's honor."
Rory White     Hearing THIS about Rucks, Rory actually manages to FROWN. "... This may explain a few things. Perhaps he is a very different person, before the Calamity. Still, he was instrumental in giving us this chance to prevent it. He deserves a chance to help us see it through. Perhaps when he sees what transpired, he will realize how awful this course of action is... perhaps." She can really only hope.

    But after Flamel mentions his reassurances, she decides to add her own. "... We will NOT allow any harm to you or Zia. Or anyone else, for that matter, over this misguided crusade towards genocide. Absolutely will not."
Priscilla     Oddly, despite how very attached she had been to Rucks, and may still be, Priscilla manages to crack a thin, dry smile at that. "Indeed thou art right, Sir Venn. He is a man who plays his every word and deed close to his chest. I hath known him to tell the entire truth only once. That once was well enough for mineself, in order to understand him."

    Then, Venn actually gives her the location. Her horned brown lifts very slightly in pleasant surprise, but perhaps it only goes to show how desperate he is for a way out. "Thou hast been most helpful, Sir Venn. Rest assured that we shalt see thee and thine daughter safely out of this. If thou art able to give unto us what we requireth, thou shalt at last be freed from this burden." She stands up from the table so she can follow Parsons out (invisibly), in case what he promised really becomes necessary.
The Kid     Venn takes a long moment to compose himself, but he finally pulls himself long enough to say, "Thank you..." Zia looks similarly grateful as people get up to leave. "Thank you all for coming. This went better than I could have hoped. Please take care heading home."

    As he heads out, Flamel would feel the mind of a single Graver on-watch from a nearby alleyway, but he's not expecting any trouble, and so any mental invasion is easily accomplished. The hill that Venn mentioned dominates the skyline in the setting son. It immediately has a much more ominous air now that they know that a superweapon waits beneath it...