"Oh, it was just a fun fact."

    And here comes Elodir, arms full of strange artefacts, most of them made of stone with glowy runes and veins.

"Of course it was," says Vetareh, deadpan. "Welcome back, Elodir, what toys did you bring?"

(Oh no, why did she have to use that phrasing, after her previous conversation with James her mind is immediately going to - well, things that would not be unwelcome in a sexual encounter, nooooo whyyyyyy!)

"Long explanation or short explanation?"

“Long!”

Insert long explanation here!

They're basically various different flavours of the same thing, though, with changes mostly along axes of sensitivity or how to operate or how delicate they are or size or how replaceable they are.

Hmm!

Okay, so they should have something very sturdy and hopefully not difficult to replace should it get dropped in a volcano or something. Not because they plan to do this, but because this device will be handled by herself and James. And, well. She motions to James to demonstrate, in lieu of trying in words. ("And while I think I'm better about wanton destruction, I don't actually think that's saying all that much.") Difficulty of operation isn't a problem. Axes of sensitivity is the tricky prospect here, but they should focus the most attention towards the principle school of aggression, and flavors of magic that trend towards madness when unstable.

So he proudly presents them with a cube. It has a circular depression on the top which "lights up different colours depending on background magic". It doesn't do much else—it was built exactly for the Commander's type of situation, so it's designed to withstand a lot but doesn't have much of an interface, which would be more fragile than the device itself. Any data it collects can be read by another device, locally in the OoW headquarters, and it's actually quite detailed. It just, well, does need to be read by the specialised bit of equipment here.

Excellent! It sounds perfect! Vetareh will take it and keep it safe(...ish) in her mesmer bag. She is very excited to do more magical field research, and also hopefully not go insane.

    "So, I think... that's all?" says the sylvari, sounding a bit disappointed.

James nods slowly but looks at Vetareh with a questioning look in his eyes.

"For now, I think so, yes." Poor Elodir, losing his new nerd friend so quickly! "But we will be back soon enough with data, and maybe if we're feeling very efficient I can make up my mind about joining the Order of Whispers or not, hm?"

That seems to cheer him up.

"Then let us be off."

"Let's!"

She has no idea where they're going next, but! Yep, let's go there. She will be following James. Does James know where they will be going?

On their way out: "So, do you want to go fetch some Bloodstone magic right now or later? I believe it is not that urgent, or Elodir would have been more worried, but we can get it out of the way already too."

"It seems like the sort of thing we should work on solving sooner rather than later, considering. But then I don't know what else we would be doing instead."

"We could take a wrong turn on the way out and I could do you against a wall until you lose all ability to form coherent thoughts," he suggests casually.

She sporfles and turns slightly pink, then busies herself with unpinning Taimi's communication device from her collar to stash in her bag.

"W-well! That, that came a little out of nowhere, but it's not like I know this maze of twisting passages..."

"Out of nowhere? You were thinking it earlier, don't say you were not," he points out.

"Only idly!" Okay, yeah, that's not a great argument. "In my defense, I was bored!"

Here's a turn that they may not have taken on their way in. "So am I meant to be merely relief to tedium?" he wonders idly, still leading the way.

"No! That's just a side benefit, you have many other good qualities."

She is going to follow him down whatever bizarre path he's taking her! Hopefully they can get lost somewhere sufficiently out of the way.

"Like knowing my way around this maze, I'm sure," he says, taking another wrong turn and then immediately pushing her against a wall, both arms on either side of her. "That must come in pretty handy, mustn't it."

She is delighted with this state of affairs, and drapes her arms across his shoulders and leans towards him. One hand entwines in his hair to pet him.

"Depends on if anyone will come across us or not! If you just think you know your way around this maze, and don't, we will have some explaining to do!"

"Maybe I like the thrill of the risk of getting caught."

"Have you been caught often?" she wonders, archly.

He leans closer to her ear, close enough she can feel his breathing, and whispers, "How often is often?"

Then he moves down to trail soft kisses down the side of her neck without waiting for her to answer.