Tassilda draws back her raven black hair over swirling horns and places her hands upon her hips. Narrowing a stare at the cluttered cargo area of the black sports utility vehicle, she scans the packed space and spots a familiar bag. She grips tightly on the draw string, braces herself with a boot upon the bumper, and yanks it clear out of the mass. Stumbling back from the momentum, she flings the sack over her shoulder and steps confidently towards the camp site. Deedri sits upon a foldout stool, sorts through boxes of medical supplies, and taps out an inventory into a tablet. Tassilda stops next to Deedri, cranes her head around, and watches with a smile. "That is quite the daily routine you have."

Deedri glances up, nods, and returns her attention to a kit of medical tools. "Yes. Just making sure it's where I remembered it... If nothing else. Yesterday was quiet, thankfully"

Tassilda sways her hips, narrows her light blue on black glare over towards the tent with a bolded Flames of the Phoenix logo upon it, and sneers her upper lip. "Well, for the most part... Save for certain individuals' nightly activities."

Briefly wincing, Deedri sighs and droops her furry, tufted ears. She pinches her fingertips upon a paper bag in a supply box and lifts it up into view. "Do you want any cotton balls? They worked for me and kept the noise... Bearable."

With a long drawn out groan, Tassilda shakes her head and rolls her eyes. "No. While I do greatly appreciate the offer, I just wish they would take their nocturnal antics out into the woods and leave us alone."

She slides a side-eye over to the logo bearing tent and furrows her gray brow. "They could grant us THAT much of a kindness."

Briefly surveying the forest vicinity, she notices the tall, strong, lightly armored figure of Junior Paladin Daedrican patrolling nearby. Tassilda makes eye contact with the reflective visor of Daedrican's full helmet, and Daedrican drops his head into a bow. A greatly amused grin grows on Tassilda's gray face, and she struts enticingly out towards him with a sly smile. Meters away from the campsite, she steps right in front of Daedrician's path, perks a curious brow, and focuses her light blue on black eyes upon him. "Now, whatever brings you here, Paladin?"

A light chuckle escapes the slight muffle of the helmet, and Daedrican stands proudly. "Nothing terribly exciting, my lady. A very banal patrol around the inner perimeter, before I do a final outer perimeter sweep. Quite mundane."

Tassilda dons an inquisitive smirk, and her gaze wanders around Daedrican's light power armored figure. "They most certainly keep you very busy with all your different duties."

Nodding with a muted shrug of the shoulders, Daedrican tracks Tassilda's interests. "It is something excepted of all junior paladins. With the rank comes responsibilities and duties. I am also expected to put forth the extra work to justify the armor."

With brief eye to visor contact, Tassilda suppresses a brief flit of embarrassment, controls her composure, and projects her confidence. "Yes. While on that very subject, I don't believe I have gotten a chance to see your face fully. It is very obscuring."

Daedrican tilts his helmeted head to the side, ponders a moment, and sighs respectfully. "I do apologize, my lady. It's a bit of a policy for those on active duty to keep their helmet on, especially the head and visor components. There is allowance with the lower face mask. But, unfortunate prior incidents by those of my rank have reinforced that policy."

Tassilda's suspicion twists her mouth to an unconvinced, slight frown. "Interesting. It seems that particular policy certainly doesn't stop Senior Paladin Maxon."

Daedrican gently bows apologetically and straightens his posture with a faint chuckle. "Well. He is THE Senior Paladin. And by his own admission, his hard head serves the task enough that it is rumored the helmet is completely redundant."

A smile grows Tassilda, and she covers a giggle with a free hand. Daedrican relaxes his shoulders and nods his head down with tinges of embarrassment. "But truthfully, my lady... I am still getting used to the suit, and it's recommended to keep the helmet on as much as possible during the initial training phase."

Grinning slyly, Tassilda lifts an inquisitive brow and glides her long, black nailed fingers upon her swirling horns. "And... I am assuming you don't want to be seen without horns on your head?"

Daedrican laughs and shakes his head gently. "OH. There's a little story behind THAT."

Intrigue ignites Tassilda's curiosity, and she gradually lifts her hand up, pointing towards the prominent black horns on Daedrican's helmeted head. "Well, I certainly hope THOSE don't belong to the previous owner of the armor."

Lowering his upper body forward, Daedrican puts his horns within reach of Tassilda's hand. "Oh no, my lady. They are most certainly MINE."

Tassilda attempts to hide the eager bite of her lower lip and firmly feels a solid, long, smooth, keratinous protrusion from the helm. Seconds later, she releases her grip and fidgets out her excitement to a calmer demeanor. Daedrican lifts his visor obscured eyes back up. Focusing her stare up, Tassilda grins slightly, curious. "SO, how did your horns ever end up there?"

With a long sigh hinting pass annoyance, Daedrican places his hands on his sides and straightens his posture. "Well, to use the power armor suit properly, I need to use the helmet that it was calibrated to. So, I decided to have my horns carefully sliced by one of our mages. I kept them in my footlocker, in hopes that maybe the engineers could eventually modify a helmet that might work with my horns after I had them reattached."

Raising his hand, he grips a horn, turns it a quarter way, and slides it free of a precision mechanical mount. Slightly grumbling in a mix of amusement and begrudging respect, he inserts the horn back into the socket with a twist. "Engineering... Surprised me... With a more immediate solution. Which I've come to appreciate, in a way."

Tassilda firmly covers her mouth and vainly contains the reflexive snickers leaking out. Attempting to work the ill-humor free from her face, she dons an apologetic smile and gazes into Daedrican's visor. "I am terribly sorry. I really don't mean to be rude. That seems endearing, in a strange way."

Daedrican slowly nods and sighs with a brighter tint. "I'm pleased you see it that way. I will admit... It took me a little longer to accept it myself."

Bowing to Tassilda, he glances down a path into the surrounding dense forest. "I hate to be rude myself, my lady, but I need to resume my patrol."

He pauses a moment and gazes down at Tassilda. "You are more than welcome to join me on the inner patrol."

Tassilda grins nonchalantly and nods in calm acceptance. "If you'll have me, Paladin. Just one moment."

She calmly pivots, strides over quickly to Deedri, and sets down her bag with a whisper. "Hey, could I leave this with you to-"

Deedri glances up from her chore, flashes a winking grin, and guides the sack next to her. "Go for it."

Backing away from Deedri towards Daedrican, Tassilda recovers her composure and mouths out. "Thank you!"

Daedrican gazes over to Tassilda at his side, and they walk together. Moments later, Daedrican cocks his head and politely inquires. "By the way, would it be too much trouble for you to indulge me in a few particular dialects of Emin, my lady? There's a few I don't encounter a lot that I believe you seem elegantly fluent in."

Tassilda blinks in brief surprise and presents a delightful smile with a wink to Daedrican. "Only if you indulge me."

A quiet laugh later, Daedrican voices a gentle, smooth sentence of an emin dialect, leaving Tassilda fighting traces of blush on her cheeks.

----

In the mowed field behind the ranch style house, Sotalia hovers a meter above the ground, holding onto Bach's arms. Drifting around, she slides the floating Bach around at her same level. "I think you're finally getting the hang of this."

Swaying into a tentative balance, Bach keeps his attention to his shadow directly below, darkening against the noon sun peeking out from the clouds. He grimaces briefly and steadies himself with the support of Sotalia's arms. "Yeah... I guess? It's not so bad at this height. I mean, we're close enough to the ground that I'm able to keep myself up in the air a little differently."

Sotalia glances down, watching the grass wave against an unseen force. Her attention wanders around the circular area of pressed down blades directly beneath Bach, and she inquires inquisitively. "Really? How is it different?"

With his focus upon the ground, Bach leans his weight, countering the force of Sotalia pulling him along. "Well, uh, it's sort of how the hover disc spell works to keep the disc up. It creates a virtual ball of force that acts against the ground and disc. I've got something similar worked up for this height, and it's a lot less draining."

Gradually steering Bach along, Sotalia searches around the top of her mind and hums in thought. "So... There's a limit to how high you can go due to the dynamics of maintaining the virtual force between you and the ground."

Bach gazes over to Sotalia and nonchalantly shrugs his shoulders. "Yeah. For the most part. It starts to get really hard to maintain after a few meters. I'm still having to propel myself to keep balanced on top, but it's a bit easier than normal flight."

He briefly peeks down below and grimaces uncertainly. "And... I'm at the mercy of the ground, since I'm practically rolling along it."

Sotalia blinks, eyes the wooden plank picnic table, and surveys the downwards slope leading into the rest of the field. Examining the terrain, she cracks a smirk out of the corner of her mouth, out of sight of Bach. She stops mid-air, releases Bach, and gradually pivots in place. "WELL, since you seem to have a good hang of this... Let's make it a bit more..."

Leaning forward to Bach, she lifts an eyebrow and narrows golden eyes. "Challenging."

She turns away from Bach and quickly gestures with her hands, quietly mouthing out a series of incantations. Bach cocks his head curiously to the side, narrows his glowing blue eyes, and scans up and down Sotalia's figure suspiciously. Sotalia momentarily bobs down and rises back up, a faint flow of energy swirling the air around her. Bach blinks in surprise and slowly floats away. "Uh, hey. Why did you just change up to a different flight spell?"

Resting her hands upon her hips, she tosses her wavy, fiery orange hair back over black, swept back horns and grins slyly with a glint in her golden eyes. "OH. THIS spell offers a bit more mobility than the hover spell."

With Sotalia gliding closer, Bach warily drifts further away and nervously, weakly chuckles. "Huh. Why would you need more mobility right now?"

He barely catches the mischievous smile, and Sotalia flies past him in a blur, traces of a trail shaking of grass blades leading behind him. A pair of black nailed hands clamp securely down on his shoulders and twist him towards the picnic table. With a strong push from behind, Bach coasts above the ground, holding his hands out for balance. He snaps his head over his shoulder and grits his teeth. "OKAY! What the HELL are you planning on doing NOW?!"

Sotalia giggles with an impish hint and steers Bach's body along through the air. "OH, nothing BAD. I just figured that if you can maintain this comfortably, I could ramp up the difficulty a LITTLE bit."

Bach glances ahead and returns his uneasy stare back to Sotalia. "DEFINE a LITTLE bit."

Sotalia winks with a grin, cranes her head to the side, and nods ahead towards the upcoming slope down into the field. "Well, just a gentle decline to start with."

Snapping his head forward, Bach concentrates his full attention upon the terrain. He reflexively extends his arms out a bit more, adjusts his stance midair, and prepares. With a hint of a smile sneaking out behind a nervous grimace, Bach swiftly rides down the incline, maintains a steady height from the ground, and easily buffers the return to flat earth. Laughing excitedly, Sotalia flies behind and propels Bach forward. "OH, you've done this before! What are you so scared about?!"

With Bach leaning into the turn, Sotalia directs him around the large boulder in the field. Bach aims his voice back with hints of hesitation slipping out. "Well, uh, um, I used to do similar WITH an actual hover disc below me! It handled the vertical, and I did the horizontal. So, this is kind of different!"

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The wind blows through Sotalia's fiery orange hair, and she loudly sighs with an understanding tone. "Fair enough. Still, I think it'd be good practice to get used to horizontal movement. So, if you still want, I'll gently push you around the field a bit..."

Her golden eyes shift over and stare longingly at the grassy slope upwards. Bach glances back and turns his gaze towards the incline. An adventurous grin forms on his sunned face, and he flexes his fingers in anticipation. "Fuck it. I got it figured out enough for a few more minutes. Give me some speed. Gods, it's been too long since I banked a good turn off a ramp."

Sotalia shakes her head in surprise, brightly grins, and squeezes Bach's shoulders, increasing the velocity. "Fuck yeah! That's more like it! Maybe even some launches up the slope afterwards?"

Bach laughs and snorts. "Ah, one thing at a time."

He examines the slope and traces a path up over the wooden outdoor furniture. "But... Maybe sooner than later?"

A curious smile graces Sotalia, and she follows Bach's stare. "Hmm, so there IS some truth to those stories Sebastian's has told about you two abusing hover discs."

----

In the dining area of the ranch style house, Aristespha, Bach, Cideeda, Dretphi, Sebastian, and Sotalia sit around the dining table with sprawling collections of maps, printouts, paperwork, notes, and tablets upon the tabletop. Each member slowly analyzes their section of the physical mass of information. Hovering overhead, Sebastian sighs contemplatively. "Gods. Plenty of places Noxian COULD go. But..."

He furrows his ethereal brow and groans. "Nothing that actually points to where he WOULD go next."

Bach settles into the back of his chair and rubs the strain from his blue eyes. "Yeah... It always seems like we find where he HAS been. And, admittedly, we STILL don't know what exactly he's trying to accomplish."

Glancing around the table, he shrugs with a grimace. "I mean, it's definitely not anything good. It'd just be nice to know some specifics."

Resting a tablet down, Aristespha crosses her arms and plays with her silvery blue hair in thought. "I have gone over the list of things in the database access history Nash provided. He is obviously looking into elder energy and information about its use. But... Nothing blatant about what he wants to actually use it for."

Sotalia twists her mouth and props her head up with her hand, staring her frustration into loose leaf notes. Tapping her finger idly, she wrestles a grimace and grumbles. "And for a supposed Dark Lord, he's been really quiet about his ultimate goal. Really bold about getting what he needs for it... I guess..."

Gazing up at a holographically projected display, Cideeda drags a claw tip through the menu scroll bar and watches the list of data files roll on by. She pauses in thought and glances over to Dretphi. "Did you find anything that matches what Faelatelia described?"

Dretphi slides over a topographical map between her and Cideeda. Tracing a finger along one of a few penciled routes, she circles out a peak in the mountains. "Here. Seems the candidate. Route matches her travel description."

Cideeda squints her emerald green eyes, leans closer to the map, and follows the latitude and longitude lines to the outer guides. "Wait. These coordinates. I... Remember seeing something really close to these numbers... Somewhere..."

Standing up from her seat, Aristespha balances herself over the table and spots the point's coordinates on the map between Cideeda and Dretphi. "Let me see if the Grand Library system has anything in that area."

She pauses a moment and blinks her violet eyes, cocking her head. "Now that I'm thinking about it..."

The tablet pops up an entry form, and Aristespha quickly types out the numbers. She sits back down and enters a series of search parameters, focusing fully upon the results streaming out from the query permutations. Bach searches his mind, his intrigue piquing, and he turns to Cideeda. "Wait. We have a printout of all the strange coordinates from that research base Nash translated for us."

Leaning away from the map, Cideeda's eyes open wide in revelation and her furry ears perk up. "That's right..."

She swiftly pulls her knees underneath her in the chair and reaches far over the table top to a heavily annotated printout. "I BET it's on there somewhere! That's probably where I remember it from."

Cideeda flips through a page and drags a claw tip down rows of numeric data. Her hunt pulls in the attention from the rest of the team. A few more pages later, her finger halts under a line right underneath a set of nearly matching coordinates. "OH. That's WAY too close to be coincidental."

A chime rings out from Aristespha's tablet, and she lays it down next to the topographical map, showing the group. She slides through snippets of relevant referenced material for the results on screen and presents the connection to the team. "There are no exact matches. But, I increased the tolerances and extended the search to the historical archives. THAT pulled up quite a number of articles that mention significant activity around the general area regarding a number of old facilities."

Sighing, she rolls her violet eyes with an annoyed tone. "Which, of course, conveniently have no official records that ever documented exactly what went on there."

She hisses faintly with a frown. "Unfortunately, anything the Grand Library has on file is flagged as matching the common pattern for forged cover records. So, nothing official is likely to be correct."

With a commiserating sneer, Sotalia groans and shakes her head. "Well... So nice of them to keep it a surprise for us."

She pauses, backtracks the penciled route on the map, and points to the starting point. "I'm guessing this is where the Terra Priest commune is?"

Dretphi nods in confirmation. Floating above, Sebastian snaps his head downwards and squints below. He gradually drifts down and hovers roughly eye level to the rest of the team, moving an ethereal hand between the map and printout list. Sudden surprise fading into curiosity, he furrows his ghostly brow. "The commune location is on that list from the research base."

The rest of the team slides their attention in unison towards the particular row of numbers. Cideeda sways her head between the map and list and contorts her face between surprise and intrigue. "Holy shit. It is. Okay... What the fuck IS this a list of?"

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Gliding back upright, Sebastian lands next to the table on the hardwood floor. He holds his ethereal chin in his hand and searches his mind with a distant stare. "Okay... THIS is something. I think we really NEED to check out the place Faelatelia told us about. There's a lot more to that list from the research base. The Orth Ridge site being on it seemed plausible, since it was a big place with a lot going on. And, it was actually the only big thing we knew of on there."

Crossing his arms, he hums and further contemplates out loud. "But... A recent Terra Priest commune and some possible old ruins that have barely gotten anyone's attention over the many years that they have probably been there? That doesn't quite fit."

Dretphi lifts an eyebrow, tilts her head, and narrows her steely gray stares. "The commune was recent. The structures they use are old."

Bach angles up the list into view and scrutinizes the data. Sebastian steps next to Bach and cranes over, watching the analysis. "So. You got any thoughts on it, bro?"

With a defeated sigh, Bach shakes his head uncertainly. "There's something we're missing. Unfortunately, I think Noxian knows exactly what is it."

Aristespha fights a frown on her ivory face and projects an apologetic tone. "I wish I had more information. But, when Nash translated the coordinates from the data Cideeda uploaded, he checked the locations for anything. Even with the Library database for cross-referencing, it seemed to be fairly random, and he couldn't pick out a pattern that made any kind of sense."

Tensing her posture, she grimaces and grumbles. "Admittedly, there are a few areas in the Perimeter Weird Zone that would be assumed suspect. But... There are far more in completely normal farmland and in populated cities that have never reported anything out of the ordinary."

Cideeda growls slightly, her frustration slipping out. "It's GOT to be the extra info in the data sets. But, WHAT, exactly?"

Aristespha nods and swipes through a few menus on a tablet in front of her with a hopeful smile. "I will send Nash an aethermail with what we have found out. MAYBE, they have made some progress on determining out what that system was specific recording at the research base."

Sebastian grins and shrugs his shoulders with his hands out to the side. "Well, I think we have enough justification to pay this place out in the woods a visit. And until we check it out for ourselves, I don't think we're going to make any headway on deciphering that data."

He gazes over the team gathered around. "So... Enjoy the weekend, and head out Monday?"

The group indicates their agreement. Nodding, Sebastian smiles proudly and sighs ethereally. "Okay. Well, I think we'll ponder this some more tomorrow with our travel plans. Until then, I think we need to see what our..."

He hoists up an intrigued eyebrow and smirks slyly. "FAVORITE show has in store for us."

Sotalia slides her chair out, stretches her arms over her head, and smirks wryly. "OH, that's right. We didn't get to see last week's episode. Well, I need to watch the replay before the new one. I'm ever so curious to see how much Veevi pushed her luck."

Others depart from the table, and Dretphi notices Bach staring at a spot between the map and list. She walks over, cranes her head around, and inquires. "Theories?"

Blinking back to awareness, Bach glances up to Dretphi and shrugs plainly. "Sure. Plenty."

A frown pulls down the corners of his mouth. "None that I'm really happy about."

Dretphi pats Bach's shoulder and nods. She walks towards the popcorn air popper in the kitchen. "Understandable. Thoughts for another time. Let us enjoy popcorn now."

----

Inside the Amaranth's Wrath Game Emporium, customers wander between aisles of comic books, navigate tables of games, and hang out at glass displays, gawking at the latest merchandise. Three people stand around between the tabletops. A tall, muscular red-head teenager shrugs his shoulders and rolls his eyes. "So, yeah. Um, Shallen, you were fuckin' right. That blaster really is that powerful."

Blinking his green eyes, Shallen scratches one of his long evuukian ears and smiles with a hint of smugness. "I told you so. But, still, Dace. Damn... Wish you had called me or something. I would have helped you cut grass to see all THAT."

Furry ears drooping, a fvalian man firmly combs fingers of thick black claws through his wild white hair. With red on black eyes, he stares in disbelief at Dace, holding his hands out. "REALLY! Come on! You KNEW I was back in town from High Alton. Seriously! My FAVORITE professor, SOMEHOW, drops in, AND is hanging out with one of THE dragons half of the whole dragon fandom has been trying to get more information about!"

Narrowing his eyes at Dace, he leans closer and frowns disappointingly. "And you don't even give me a call!?"

Dace shrugs nonchalantly and assumes a moderately apologetic tone. "I'm sorry, Tellerran. It's just I was really busy trying to get the job done. I was already running late and had to put off Cideeda's yard for a few days already."

Fighting down a smirk, he chuckles. "Then... I totally got caught up in the whole situation."

Tellerran slumps his shoulders, straightens his back with a long breath, and sighs with a perk of his ears. "Gods dammit. I mean... I can't really blame you on that one. I don't think I would have kept my cool long enough to get any work done. I mean, I barely kept it together when Professor Blaureiter got Lagi to visit towards the end of this last semester."

Reaching into his pants pocket, Dace pulls out two large blue black dragon scales and fans them out in front of Shallen and Tellerran. He grins smugly with a laugh. "Would freshly plucked dragon scales make up for it? Or should I just keep these for myself?"

Shallen and Tellerran each pluck a scale from Dace. Shallen nods and barely fits the shiny draconic covering into his shirt's front pocket. "Paid in full, man. But..."

He grits his teeth briefly into a grimace. "I just read up on the leaked copy of the latest errata's table of contents..."

Dace smirks and lifts a knowing brow. "Let me guess... They're trying to rebalance the blaster combo."

Groaning, Shallen shakes his head and rolls his eyes. "Gods, you know it. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted. I'll just have to find a new combo to cheese."

Dace watches the awe upon Tellerran's face. "Man. Totally worth it just to see your face. That one they let me pull off Lagi, since it was about fall off."

Tellerran carefully carries the dragon scale over to a table next to the group, flips open a binder, and meticulously slides it inside a protective plastic page. "Dude... Thanks... Wow..."

Rocking his head between his shoulders, he narrows his gaze into the glints from the lights overhead and the few beams of sun slipping in around the advertisement collage on the shop windows. "THIS... This looks so much better than any I've ever gotten from a convention."

He carefully presses down the transparent layer down, pauses a moment, and cocks his head curiously towards Dace. "Hey, did anyone say anything about Lagi's parents?"

Furrowing his brow, Dace thinks a moment, scratches the back of his neck, and twists his mouth uncertainly. "Ah... No. Well, nothing I overheard. But, Lagi would NOT leave Blaureiter alone. Almost tackled him, curled up around him, and was purring all time. Also... That dragon ate A LOT of the grass I mowed."

Tellerran's interest piques, and he quickly snatches a nearby mechanical pencil. Scribbling a few quick notes upon another paper page in the binder, he smirks eagerly. "Interesting. Professor Blaureiter would never say anything about Lagi's lineage... I wonder..."

Shallen snorts and shakes his head of dark gray, slicked back hair dismissively. "Ah shit. Do I sense another heated online debate in the future?"

Crossing his arms, Tellerran stands resolutely, flicks back his furry ears, and narrows his eyes facetiously at the other two. "Well, I can't fucking help it when someone wants to be wrong and post it everywhere they shouldn't."

The front door to Amaranth's Wrath opens and a tall, imposing figure steps past the threshold. Thomas surveys the shop proper and slowly steps towards the front desk. Steve sits with his full attention focused upon a small miniature in front of him. With a calm, precise hand, Steve lifts a fine, few hair brush and gently guides a tiny speck of paint along the minuscule detail of the plastic figure. Standing in front of Steve across the front counter, Thomas nonchalantly asks. "Sorry to bother you when you are in the middle of something, but have you gotten in the latest issue of Red Gear Rising?"

Steve reflexively lifts his free hand and motions Thomas to hold, finishing up the fine task. "Sorry. One second. Just need to get the hair highlights in there..."

With a final trace, he carefully retreats the brush. "And... There."

Thomas squints down at the miniature. Moments later, recognition emerges on his face, and he musters up an embarrassed smile. "Nicely painted there. But, I'll admit... There's A LOT more gray these days."

Lifting his head up, Steven smiles up at Thomas and chuckles. "Yeah, I know. But I'm going for the classic, first issue look. Okay, yeah, the latest issue of Red Gear Rising-"

Recognition dawns upon Steve, and he compares the Commander Blaureiter figure to Thomas in front of him. "No way- Holy. Hell. C-Commander Blaureiter..."

Shuddering out of the stupor, he blinks back to awareness. "Um, yeah! Totally! We have a copy of the new Red Gear Rising. So, I'm okay with taking your money... But..."

With a guilty smile, Steve chuckles and sheepishly scratches the back of his head. "I'd really rather take a few pictures and get some signatures. If... That's okay with you."

Grinning with amusement, Thomas nods. "Sounds like a deal to me."

Pausing from the latest rules debate between Shallen and Tellerran, Dace waves towards Thomas. "Oh! Hey, Thomas!"

Thomas glances over and waves back. "Dace! Good to see you. Nice shop you all have in town."

Shallen halts his next sentence, pivots in place, and gawks at Thomas. Tellerran's red on black eyes widen, and he eagerly questions Thomas. "P-Professor Blaureiter?! W-What are you doing here?"

Thomas scratches the back of his head of gray hair with a cybernetic arm and nonchalantly shrugs. "Well, since I'm down here to visit friends for a few weeks, I figured I'd find a place to make sure I don't fall behind on the Red Gear Rising series."

Blinking in stunned silence, Tellerran visibly ponders a response. Thomas sighs with a smirk and points to Tellerran. "By the way, I really liked your final paper for class. Really demonstrated a good handling of dragon biology and genetics. Though... I'd really avoid citing certain forums as resources in the future."

Tellerran nods blankly, and Shallen recovers some of his composure. Dace nudges Shallen with a sly grin. "Hey, ask HIM about THE blaster."

----

A chorus of heavy footsteps from large, heavily armored soldiers stops at the perimeter of an elaborate camp. The team leader turns his helmeted head and nods to the team of other similarly suited Chrome Crusaders behind him. "That was a nice quiet outer patrol. I'm certain anyone in the area will think twice before getting too close to the base camp. You are all relieved of duty for the rest of the Sunday afternoon."

The squad of heavy armor troopers divides up and disperses out towards different parts of the grounds. Watching the unit slowly scatter, Trakenthin straightens his stance in his suit of polymer plate and nods respectfully towards the leader. "Captain. Thank you for allowing me to accompany."

The captain returns the sentiment and bows slightly to Trakenthin. "Thank you for offering to join us for another day. Not many would willingly tolerate us powered armored ruffians for these long patrols."

Trakenthin smirks under his clear face shield and proudly stands. "It was enjoyable."

Tilting his head to the side, the captain crackles a laugh through his helmet's voice box. "Damn. You're definitely a brave one. Hey. After the final stretch of the operation tomorrow and Tuesday, feel free to ride with us on the return trip. Now, go get that armor off. I'm sure you're soaked from the heat without a suit cooling system."

Trakenthin nods and calmly walks off into the Chrome Crusaders camp site. Searching the area, he glances out the corner of his hazel eyes and watches a small Next Adventurers of Nexus recording crew tag along. A young male and female fvalian concentrate on getting video and audio, and an older man instructs the duo around. Trakenthin draws in a long breath and quietly grumbles out his rising frustrations. He surveys the vicinity further and locks his attention upon familiar voices bickering nearby. Sharply turning around the corner of a cargo truck, he spots the Flames of the Phoenix's black sports utility vehicle. He snaps his gaze towards the source of the argumentative yelling and spots Veevi and Tassilda mid squabble. Veevi places her hands on her hips, leans forward at Tassilda, and petulantly mocks. "OH? Do YOU not know the spells yourself?! Because it certainly takes you FOREVER to get to the fucking point!"

Tassilda sneers indignantly and growls out her irritation. "I take my time because I am TRYING to teach you REAL MAGIC. Not some absolutely trite, discount store, toy tricks that you picked up from that GODS DAMNED OLD WITCH!"

Veevi's fuzzy ears lay back and her short-haired tail puffs out. Crosses her tan, stripped arms, she tosses back her pink hair and glares with her pink pupil eyes towards Tassilda. "At the rate you do everything, I'll be an old witch before I learn anything from you!"

A mean smile pulls across her face, and she averts her stare briefly and slides a mocking glare back. "Speaking of toy tricks, did you remember to bring enough copper powder for your fireballs?"

Despite her vain attempts of suppression, Tassilda cringes visibly and winces up a sneer. Her light blue on black eye twitches, her cheek muscles tense, and she grits her teeth. Trakenthin stands patiently flush against the SUV, peeks out from cover, and watches the camera crew trio dart off for the ideal angle of the tense stand off between Tassilda and Veevi. Cautiously, Trakenthin eases over into the small campsite off to the side of the main base and slips quietly into the large tent, distant, opposite of the Flames of the Phoenix branded tent. Resting his sword and shield to the side, he tugs off his helmet, unstraps free of his under armor, and slides off the equipment into a pile. With a long sigh of relief, he shakes some air underneath his sweat soaked underclothes and rests down upon a nicely made, custom bedroll. Staring blankly at the leaf shadows dancing on the tent top, Trakenthin zones out, the ambient sounds of Veevi and Tassilda verbally clashing filtering into the background noise.

Minutes later, he blinks back to awareness with the prompt of an electronic chime. His hand rummages around the mass of equipment nearby, and he retrieves his aetherphone. Holding the device above his head in view, he taps through the security prompt and navigates through a few menus. On the display, bit by bit, an aethernet site slowly trickles into existence. Trakenthin smiles at the title "Shayuri's Study" and scrolls down the page to the latest entry. He stops upon the picture heading the latest entry in the blog. The image shows a young, tall woman with piercing hazel eyes and long silvery hair, excitedly presenting a brand new book with a brilliant grin on her tan face. Trakenthin smiles warmly and reads the paragraphs, delight blatant on his dark bronze face.

At the bottom of the essay, Trakenthin stares at the comment button. His expression wanes into uncertain apprehension. Tapping the aethersite's menu, his hazel eyes rest upon the contact info button. The fingers on his free hand flex nervously, and his face wrestles with a frown. Seconds of visible deliberation later, he clicks a button on the side of the phone. The screen turns off. He releases a long, doubt filled sigh. Resting his aetherphone off to the side, runs his fingers through his dirty blonde hair and shakes his head slowly.

----

Along the rough dirt path, the humvee shakes and bobs, barely squeezing through the narrow openings between the trees in the thick forest. Cideeda leans out the driver's side window and stares far ahead, down the route, grimacing. "Damn. I think this is as far as we can go driving. This path seems to end up ahead, and the trees are just too thick to even try threading this thing through."

Sebastian's ethereal form glides up between the front seats and surveys the scene ahead. Nodding in confirmation, he smiles understandingly and sighs. "Well... Don't worry. You did great to get us this far down this route."

Scouting out the windshield, he tips his head back, and his gaze follows the trail to the far off end. Staring distantly up the steady incline in the horizon, he squints out into the background mass of brush, trees, and canopy. Dretphi inspects a map, checks the readouts from a positioning application on her aetherphone, and examines the features of the area around the humvee. "We are at the mountain base. Good time. We have hours of daylight left."

Sebastian glances back with a proud smile and addresses the group. "So... Stop ahead, get the humvee turned around, and do a little exploring nearby?"

Everyone else shows their agreement, and the vehicle rocks again over another dip in the dirt road. Cideeda grumbles, shifting her focus towards a clearing ahead. "Sorry about that. Gods. It feels flat enough for a few meters, then there's another drop or bump. At least the clearing ahead looks large enough that we can get turned around easily."

Dretphi stares suspiciously and traces the strangely rectangular perimeter of the treeless, grassy opening. The humvee rolls into the flat area. With hard cuts of the steering wheel and a series of direction shifts, Cideeda navigates the large, old military vehicle gracefully and aims the humvee facing towards their path of origin. "That should do it. We'll be ready if we have to leave in a hurry."

Glancing over at the central control console, she presses side buttons and studies the readouts flashing on screen. "Capacitors are charged. I'm going to give the powerplant a break for now."

A muffled, downwards pitching whine resonates faintly into the cab. Sebastian glances over the group. "Okay. Let's check out this clearing first. And, then, we'll judge how we want to proceed."

Peeking out the windshield, he furrows his brow at the dense forest starkly surrounding the rectangular clearing. "Ideally, I'd like to at least locate the entrance Faelatelia told us. But... If there's anything too crazy, we'll return here and figure it out from there."

Sebastian zips up through the roof and floats overhead. Humvee doors open, and the group disembarks. In the minutes, Aristespha, Bach, Cideeda, Dretphi, Sebastian, and Sotalia fan out a few meters from the vehicle into the clearing. Dretphi stomps the ground with her heavy armored boot, visibly ponders the sensations, and kneels down. Inspecting the soil, she digs into the earth with a gauntlet covered hand and lifts up centimeters of rich, dark dirt. She attempts to go deeper. The plating on her gauntlet scrapes against a hard, rough layer of ancient asphalt. Puzzling briefly, she lowers her head close to the ground and studies the topology of the clearing. She stands up quickly and calls out to the rest of the team. "This is an old parking lot."

Cideeda cocks her head, scratches her chin with a claw tip, and slowly lifts an inquisitive brow. "THAT explains why the path leading here was so odd. It's probably a paved road that's fallen apart and been covered up with layers of dirt from runoff. Oh, I bet the drops are where chunks of asphalt are missing and the bumps are tree roots growing underneath."

Nodding in agreement, Dretphi points to either side of the path leading into the clearing. "No old trees near the edges. Only younger trees."

Approaching the top of the tree canopy, Sebastian hovers high above and calls down. "It certainly looks the part up here. I don't know if this is THE exact place, but it's certainly something."

Walking along the edge opposite to the entrance, Bach notices a strange pile of rough rocks. Leaning closer, he spots a scattering trail leading into the underbrush. Pulling aside a thin patch of long grasses, he reveals a heavily deteriorated pavement stairway. The top of the stairs meets remnants of a decorative stone path, leading distantly upwards into the woods. Bach pivots around and faces the rest of the group. "Hey. I think I found a path up the mountain."

Sebastian floats down next to Bach, scrutinizes the discovery, and nods. "Nice find, bro. That matches the type of path Faelatelia told us about."

Aristespha, Cideeda, Dretphi, and Sotalia join Bach and Sebastian. Sotalia's golden eyes trace the sparse rock route, and she rests her hands on her hips. "Well. That's definitely going to be a hike up."

Dretphi shrugs and tilts her head towards Sotalia. "An inconvenience. We have traveled worse."

An uneasy frown curls the corners of Aristespha's mouth, and she studies the area. Stepping away from the group, she draws in a deep breath and blinks her eyes to a glowing violet. She sweeps her stare around into the dense forest surrounding the clearing. The unease remains upon her ivory blue and gray hinted face. She carefully gestures, clearly voices a series of incantations, and finishes by throwing her hands out to the sides. Shimmering energy expands out into a bubbling wave and swells into the vicinity. With the distance, the pulse of magic fades and disperses. Nothing more happens. The surprise on Aristespha's face sharpens, and she furrows her brow, narrowing her stare into plain woods. "There is absolutely no spirit activity nearby..."

Sotalia crosses her arms, firmly grips her elbows, and twists out the faint anxiety upon her light tan face. "Oh gods dammit. Here I was hoping that tiny, weird feeling I was getting from the ambient magic flows was BECAUSE the spirits were messing with it. Great..."

Bouncing her golden eyes between the perimeters of the clearing, she wrestles down a grimace. "Now, I'm just uncomfortable with this place."

With an uncertain smile, Bach glances over to Aristespha. "Well, we are still far from that one part of the forest that had a concentration of spirits. Maybe they, uh, just don't wander this way often?"

Gritting her teeth briefly, Aristespha sighs with a shake of head. "I thought about that, too. There are no signs they have been here recently. That is typically a bad indicator when there is a huge hive in the area. Often a sign the area is purposefully avoided."

The unease rising up in Bach guides his stare up the scattered stone path into the heavy woods of the mountain. Cideeda's furry ears droop, and she groans, anxiously picking her claws. "I guess it's my turn to add to the creepiness factor... But..."

Flicking her furry ears between different angles, she frowns. "This place SOUNDS different. Even from when we first got on the dirt road. I can hear wildlife, but... It seems really far away. Nothing close by."

With an apprehensive curl to her upper lip, she grips her vest, flexes fingers, and scans the vicinity. "The air has an OFF smell, too. I don't know WHAT exactly. But, it is different."

Dretphi bites her lower lip and sighs loudly. The rest of the team's attention shifts her. Reluctantly, she frowns suspiciously, her steely gray eyes searching the forest, and explains with a regretful hint. "Have not seen animal nests. This area has been undisturbed for a long time. There SHOULD be nests. There are NO animal nests. No old ones. No remnants. No animals to make the nests. This area IS avoided."

Directing her gaze towards the entry path, she wrestles down her anxious expression gradually. "Stopped seeing game trails during transit. Few I saw did NOT lead this way."

Bach grumbles, rolling out the tension in his shoulders. "Fucking hell. No wonder Faelatelia wanted nothing to do with ANYTHING involving this place. We haven't even gotten to the front fucking door, and this place is weirding me out."

Shaking his head, Sebastian crosses his ghostly arms and grimaces. "No shit, bro. Gods. What the hell happened here?"

He pauses in thought a moment and furrows his brow. "I think even the damned sword is on some kind of alert mode. Still trying to feel that one out."

Sotalia smirks at Bach and playfully rolls her eyes. "You know... The perimeter fence outside the Orth Ridge site with all the warnings felt more welcoming than THIS."

Bach snorts out some of his anxiety and adopts a commiserating, humored smile. "I know, right? I mean, I guess it makes it less nerve wracking when you know people tried to dress the place up before they left."

Cideeda grins wryly and stretches out her body suit covered arms. "Yeah. At least you know there were actual survivors, and they were well off enough to post warning signs."

Moments of silence loom over the team. Dretphi shrugs her shoulders and summons up a hopeful smile. "I have not seen any dead animals. Believe that is positive."

A wave of tentative agreement spreads through the team. In the eerie, awkward quiet, from the strange clearing in the middle of the dense forest, the team stares up at the path ahead and the obscured destination, hesitation looming over. A minute later, Aristespha coughs and twists her grimace into grim acceptance. "Okay... I do NOT think we are going to find any more good things about the situation while standing here."

Sebastian nods, assumes a bold stance, and presents an adventurous grin to the party. "You're right, dear. Let's gear up for the hike, see where this path leads, and, at least, find the entrance. Depending on how much daylight we have left, we'll see about exploring further than that."

Gritting his teeth, he contorts a reserved smile. "And... I'm not against just coming back down for the night and saving most the exploration for tomorrow. So, let's take our time getting up there. No need to rush into this creepy mess."

Aristespha, Cideeda, Dretphi, and Sotalia walk towards the humvee and start readying equipment. Standing at the crumbling ruins of the concrete stairs, Bach slowly exhales out his tension and stares at the stone strewn path. Sebastian slides next to Bach and quietly inquires in a comforting tone. "Hey. You okay, bro?"

Bach nods slowly and sighs. "Yeah. Well. As best as I can be. I don't know. I get the feeling this is going to be a strange one."

With a smirk, Sebastian tilts his head to the side and drops his arms to his sides "And, that's different than anything we've done before? But... I know. Gods, I hate to go into this blind, but I don't think we have much choice."

Shaking his head, Bach glances over to Sebastian with a smile. "No. We really don't. I mean... We could just ignore it. But... That doesn't really help us out."

He straightens his posture and grits his teeth. "We NEED the information."

The brothers idly survey the scene ahead of them and return to the humvee to prepare.