"I named it Spencer!"

"And it's somehow more disturbing."

"Don't listen to them, Spence!" says Taimi, starting to limp over to a different desk.

... Vetareh giggles, a little.

"I think I don't need to gaze upon Spencer's majesty, personally. What does it, ah, do?"

"Slow down, not-princess, I'm getting there!" She eventually reaches the other desk, which contains a cylindrical glass tube with some green liquid inside it, and floating in the liquid there's some sort of kidney-like organ. "When I first started messing with Spencer, I found out that it altered magic in a way I... couldn't quite figure out," she explains, for Vetareh's sake. "But I finally cracked it, and it's paradigm-shifting!" She looks at James. "The chak feed off ley energy, right? And we know that each dragon has a 'domain' when it comes to their magic; Zhaitan's was death, obviously. Well you know what's guaranteed to give chak a bad stomachache? Death magic! Spencer filters 'death' out of ley energy!"

"Oh, that's interesting, do you know if there are other creatures of this type that might filter other types of magic?"

"Not a clue! As far as we know, chak are unique—well, other than dragons I guess—but among normal creatures chak are the only ones that feed on magic like that."

"As much as I love discussing minutiae, how does this help us?"

"I don't know yet... But I will! I'll never sleep again! Now, I'm sure you're anxious to try out your moves against the real thing in the Fire Islands, so let's head back to the main lab."

Vetareh nods and amiably heads lab-wards. "Magic buildup of specific types can lead to creatures taking on characteristics from the magic. So, lots of death-flavored magic in an area can lead to lots of creatures with death magic. I think it'd be good for cleaning up areas where a lot of nasty magic occurred and making them more livable. Though I suppose with only death magic, if it only does the one type." Like, oh, Orr. The place where the dragon of death marauded around a lot. Like that.

But she does not want to talk about Orr right now so she does not bring this up.

"I bet that could be used in Orr," Taimi says, before stepping through the gate.

On the other side, two charr in military outfits seem to be waiting.

    "Rytlock Brimstone," one of them says.

"That's 'Tribune' to you, soldier."

    "Not any more, it's not. You've ignored numerous requests from the Black Citadel to account for your time in the Mists and explain this new... magic. Thus, you've been stripped of your rank and are hereby charged with dereliction of duty."

...

She doesn't think she likes a group that forces one of its members to talk about something as unpleasant as the Mists by arresting them if they don't. She makes an expression, but doesn't speak. This is Rytlock's show.

She'll just quietly recast her enchantment in case that happens to be necessary. For some reason. Like Rytlock resisting arrest, or something.

    "You're to come with us, Rytlock... Sir," says the other charr.

"And if I don't?"

        "We've been authorized to use force," the first one explains.

    "But we'd hate to cause a scene," the second hastily adds.

"I'm sure you would, pup. Getting this assignment, you two must either be the best warriors in the Iron Legion, or the ones with the worst luck..." He looks between the two of them. "So?"

        "Top of my class," the first charr says, a bit smugly.

    "But it's starting to feel like both..."

"Rytlock?"

"It's okay, Commander. I'll straighten this out. It appears I underestimated the citadel's response," Rytlock tells James, before turning back to the charr. "Hope you enjoy the medal I'm earning you today, soldier. You get to return with Rytlock Brimstone in tow."

    "Without a fight?" second charr asks, with hope.

"Depends on my travel accommodations."

    "You can have my seat!" he says hastily.

        The first charr snorts. "C'mon, Vikon, you gonna groom him too?" she asks.

"Sorry I'll miss out on all the fun, Commander. I'll catch up with you as soon as I'm able." The soldiers make their way to the gate (the one called Vikon sometimes looking over his shoulder nervously), and Rytlock follows.

Vetareh lets out a breath.

"I don't like that they're trying to twist his arm about it," she says, in an undertone. "It's not, the Mists are..." She trails off, then shakes her head. "See? I don't want to talk about it, either."

"He's a high-ranking official of the Black Citadel and he got new magic that could be useful to the military... I can understand why they would expect him to explain more than he has."

"Mm. Stripping him of his rank and arresting him for it feels like it crosses something of a line, to me." Then she shrugs, and looks away. "But I don't know how the charr work, and I suppose it's Rytlock's business."

"It could be argued that it is akin to treason to withhold critical military information, and Rytlock probably knew this was a responsibility entailed by the job going in. Rytlock's business, though, I agree." He shrugs. "So, looks like I'm headed to the Fire Islands, then."

"Exciting." She hums, thoughtfully. "... I think I'd rather swap back to my previous set of spells, my signet based monstrosity was very clever, but I think it's also too... mechanically fragile for my tastes."

"You did do pretty well there," he says, admiringly. "I had never seen a mesmer act like a battering ram before."

"Thank you," she says, a little smugly. "I'm pretty sure some people in Orr would have considered that some form of blasphemy."

In the background, she rips out all of her spells and begins carefully replacing them with her more familiar set.

"I'd join you, but I just haven't had many moments to work on Scruffy 2.0," says Taimi. "Plus, I need to start experimenting on the thing I told you about in the thing about the new thing findings..."

"I... understand?"

    "Help!" calls a suddenly-appearing asura, coming from the gate. "Someone help!"