[Moofius]

All of her chairs had been pulled from around her home. Nothing really matched and everything had a lived in, well loved feel. Safi had taken her desk chair for herself, doing her best to take the least comfortable chair so her guests could have the best. It had a hard back and a well worn cushion of blue and white stripes, the white faded to a dusty brown, the blue also dusty. It came with living in the desert.

Cuss, Tamoriel and Ardis had the couch. She'd gotten out her favourite reading chair for the younger, excited chaos that was missing one leg. Safi would be a liar if she didn't see a little bit of racket in him and lying more if she said there wasn't a bit of favouritism for it. Sobis was given a comfortable enough chair, but certainly the least comfortable of all the guests. Safi wasn't perfect nor had she ever claimed to be. An ex-hierarchy, though redeemed, was still ex-HIERARCHY.

Favouritism continued through to the teacups, Ishin having her absolute favourite and the only one without a chip, all the way to Sobis who had a... a mug. She used that mug for... well nothing she wasn't even sure why she had a mug to be honest. No, she was a teacup girl through-and-through. Sobis didn't seem to mind, in fact he didn't seem to like the idea of having a tea cup at all. Well good, it was lost on him anyway.

The seraphim took a careful sip of tea as she processed the groups last few days.
"Well it certainly sounds thrilling... and worrisome." She pursed her lips and looked to Faen, "Although Einsor being up to no good is hardly news, this seems to be a spreading thing... And taking over a Chaos... Well that would certainly up their ranks if they slowly started collecting Chaos not associated with with the Hierarchy, be they Original Thought or chaos like yourselves..." She smiled and looked to Cuss, "By the way you have quite the way with words, story telling is a gift not many possess in this day." Though there were a few more swear words than she would have liked, that just showed he was being honest.
Tamoriel had told a lot but it seemed a bit more to the point, "And your details were very suiting for a seraphim under Yepha. I'm sorry to hear that your circumstances have... forced you away from her. You would serve her better than myself, I think."

Cuss blinked and, were his cheeks turning a bit pink?
"Oh uh, thanks." He smiled and drummed his fingers over the top of the laptop wondering if he should have told Einsor off in that e-mail. Ah well...
"But that's essentially... the whole story. I don't think I've had so many close calls in so short a time period. Hopefully we're through the worst of it now..." Cuss laughed, "Ugh, I'm not even sure what we're doing to be honest. We got the treasure, fixed Ishin up and de-nanoed Sobis so..."

Safi smiled, "As I said, you're welcome to stay here as long as you like, so long as you don't cause any trouble in town." Safi frowned, "Faen has a hard enough time, I don't want my home getting a worse reputation because of you."

[Kyrit]

Other than the general basics, most of the story told by the group went in one ear and out the other, as Faen often found herself distracted while taking in the dynamics of their team. In some ways, a few of the members reminded her a lot of people she missed. First, and the most obvious even to Safi, was how much Ishin reminded her of Racket. There never had been enough time to explore that relationship to find out what sort of love she had for him (motherly or if it was something much deeper), but Faen had indeed loved the broken little Seraph and wanted to do her best to protect him to the very end. Not a day went by that she didn't think about him and his sudden disappearance, though her pain had now been slightly eased with the thought that the man that sent them all here might very well have been Racket.

Then there was Tamoriel, or Tim as he'd insisted on being called instead of Tam. His circumstances were much more different, but the fact that he couldn't return to the Vaults reminded her of Cassiel. At the beginning of their journey, Faen had clung to Cassiel probably far too much for the man's liking, but he was the only connection she'd had to the home she left behind for their crazy journey. Sometimes she still wondered what he was up to, and she even still kept the bible that the Fallen had asked her to hold on to at one point in time. It was a shame that their relationship had grown sour with the introduction of another seraphim to their group, but she still hoped he was doing well. Perhaps he was even with the young Chaos woman he'd wanted to free and had fallen to protect ages ago. Of course, Tim also did remind her a little of Safi, though the two were vastly different considering Safi could still communicate with Yepha... if she felt up to it. Still, they had both served under the goddess at one point in time.

The last connection, though probably the most incorrect, was that Cuss did remind her a little of Harutte. The man visiting them didn't seem to have the absolutely horrible luck of the Chaos she wished to see again some day, but they did both have a similar knack for spouting swears. He did also have his own sort of charm though.

At the mention of her name, the woman pulled out of her musings and gave a smile. "I'm sure they can't be any more of a trouble to the town than I am. I mean... at least they can keep themselves from looking like some monster roaming the streets. It's actually really nice to have company. I mean, we don't exactly get very many visitors out here. Even then, I'm pretty sure you guys are the first visitors in a while that didn't... well, judge me quickly for appearances I suppose. Though I guess you were in a bit of a pinch. If I'd been worried about a friend like that I wouldn't have cared what the person treating her looked like either."

She paused for a moment to pick up a cup of tea and wrinkled her nose. "And Safi's great company, but all she makes is tea." Golden eyes drew to the mug that had been given to Sovis for his tea. "She doesn't seem to understand that coffee is where it's at. I still can't understand how anyone can get anything done drinking tea. It just makes me so sleepy."

Tamoriel had frowned at the previous mention of Yepha. Really, if he had the choice, he would go back and continue to serve her. What had been done had been done though, and he was definitely a sore sight to most other Seraphim. Part of him did worry that Safi would report him to the higher ups, but she claimed to only provide them with relatively old information anyways. Hopefully if she did ever tell anyone about them, or just him even, she waited until they were long gone. She'd also mentioned reporting Ardis to them, which he wasn't exactly happy with the thought of. She... probably did deserve to be able to live in the Vaults though. It wasn't like she'd done anything to fall from grace. The poor woman just didn't even know she was a seraph.

He took a sip of his tea and gave a small nod. "I... acted a little rashly earlier today, but I personally promise not to cause any problems in town." Rashly was probably an understatement with how violently Tim had gone after that Dweller for shooting Ardis, but he had had a good amount of time to calm down by now. His eyes drew to Faen shortly before mentioning, "I actually do remember hearing about the two of you, or rather the group you were part of, before I left the Vaults though. I never expected to actually see you though, and I almost found it to be impossible to believe. I know there are probably some things you can't talk about... but maybe you could tell us a little bit about what happened back then so the others know what's going on? I also... have a feeling that the hole left above Lamenolai might be connected to the problems we've been having recently."

[Moofius]

Wings Safi hunched a little in her chair as she side-eyed Faen, "You're welcome to make coffee, Faen even if it is absolutely awful. Tea calms me down." Ever since Lamenolai she'd had an awful shake in her hands. It was something that tea cured up quite nicely and coffee... well coffee made it worse. It was quite literally impossible for her to work when drinking coffee and torturously difficult without tea.

Cuss perked up, "Oh coffee would be excellent." He grinned apologetically at Safi, whose feathers seemed a bit ruffled, "Not in the teacup, I swear." which relaxed her considerably, feathers smoothing a little.

"I... don't mind being without company..." Another change in herself. She prefered a small group (her and Faen) to just about anything else. More than two and people got... rambunctious and then somebody might have the idea to go out and do something and, well, it was just safer with only a few. The larger the group, the more attention was drawn to you.
"But a bit of good company now and then is nice... Lets you find out what's going on. I do enjoy visiting the chaos who pass through here." They never came to her home, that was much to dangerous for everyone involved. And yeah, getting news was good. Being news was... not so good.

At the mention of being known Safi scanned the group nervously. At the mention of Lamenolai and the potential tie in to... to the hole. Oh she'd caused that!
Her wings now cupped her sides and she looked away uncomfortably.
"I don't blame you for being skeptical. We were there and I honestly sometimes wonder," or wish, "if it was all just a dream..."

Cuss leaned forward, "Wait wait, you guys made the hole in Lamenolai? The one that goes to the Vaults?" he also looked skeptical. Safi only squirmed a little and pulled her wings in a little tighter.
"Yes, well, it was hardly on purpose." Her voice holding a defensive quality, "I, WE were all duped quite thoroughly I'll have you know. It was all very uncomfortable and quite frightening." She shivered, her feathers again standing on end to make her look a bit larger than she was even as she drew her legs up to her feet were resting on the seat of her chair.
Safi looked to Faen, "I will not talk about it if you are not comfortable doing so... And I will only tell you what I know is either known or rumoured about..." She actually smiled, if a bit tightly, "After I had returned to my post you would not believe the rumours I heard. I said nothing of course, it was not my place and most do not know we were there." She looked at the group feeling wary, "I would ask that you not tell others about me or Faen in association with the events in Lamenolai... We leave a peaceful, quiet life here and I would like for it to remain that way."

[Kyrit]

Faen had started to stand up and head to the kitchen in quest of coffee before pausing at Cuss's question. She pursed her lips and put a hand on her hips. "Safi! Don't make them think we did it. I mean. I guess some people would maybe blame us. Maybe. We didn't make the hole though." She looked to the side and mumbled out, "Think's fat ass made the hole, not us." With that she added in a quick, "I'm going to get a pot started, but I don't mind telling them about it Safi. We never get to tell stories, so I think it'd be fun to let people know a bit of what happened. I can't really go in to too much detail of my past before our adventure, but I don't think it'd hurt to talk about the adventure itself at least a bit."

Tim gave a small nod and said, "Don't worry. I don't blame the two of you, and I don't plan on telling anyone about it. I only vaguely known about the event as a whole since I didn't do any research in to it, but ah...." His eyes trailed after Faen as she left for the kitchen. "I must say, the golden scales are definitely what gave away that the stories were about you guys. You don't exactly see a Chaos with golden scales every day. I'm also in no way saying that the current events are your fault. Most definitely not. I do feel like perhaps the Hierarchy could be planning on using that hole. If Einsor is building an army of Chaos using these nanobots..."

He paused, looking down at the floor with a frown. "It's just a theory... but the fish Chaos that have been following us around are quick to worship Seraphim thanks to this 'her' they talk about. They mentioned that she came down from that hole. Anyways, the Hierarchy could be planning on attacking the Vaults after building up an even larger army. I know for certain that they don't like the fish Chaos and the fish Chaos don't like them."

He'd drawn the subject away from their story, but that hadn't been his intent. In an attempt to put things back on track, he looked over at Safi and forced a smile. "If the Hierarchy is planning on using this hole above Lamenolai to their advantage, knowing a bit about the events that led up to it might prove to be useful in the long run if we do continue to get mixed up in this mess."

[Moofius]

She blamed herself completely for the mess. It was likely unjust to do so but she did it anyway. If she had just questioned Yepha, put a bit of thought into what she was being told to do...

It was her job to question everything except Yepha. Yepha was absolute so it had never, but she should have, but to do so would mean...

She shook her head and such thoughts left her.
"I will concede that it might be in your best interest to know. Knowing more can only really help at the best, or do nothing at all. It would hardly hinder you... It's such a sensitive topic. One moment..." She stood and stretched her wings as she walked away, out of the room and down a short hall to her room. Most of the walls were dominated by bookshelves and they were lined with journals. She'd been here a very long time.

Sometimes it would take her awhile to find the journal she needed, but the one that held her adventure was so worn and battered there was no time spent trying to find it. She pulled it from the shelf and returned to the living room.

Cuss looked at the book curiously before he pulled out his own journal, half of the thing laminated awkwardly. This made Safi smile as she cracked the old thing open, happy to know she wasn't the only one.
"Alright... This all started because of me," Her head turned towards the kitchen, "or that is how I feel. Many do not agree. You will take what I tell you and you will treat it however you like. Yepha contacted me and asked me to gather a very strange group. It consisted of chaos, seraphim, dweller, even a human; it was a very specific group and we had a... vague sort of mission." Safi shook her head, "What I did not know was the voice who told me who to find and what to do was not Yepha at all. To this day I do not know how he accomplished that... that trick." It had been Yepha, she had been sure of that!

Safi sighed, "A group I had never encountered before, nor heard of, was pulling some strings..." Safi paused and laughed, "Ha! Golden ones, in fact!" She giggled to herself and covered her mouth, "Sorry sorry... Hahaha...!" Safi laughed for awhile and coughed before she continued, "There was some sort of prophecy. They needed the pieces of a key, which was us, this group... And they needed the Collector, the Seer and the ah..." Safi sighed, "The Executioner... I'm not sure what this prophecy was, or where these silly names came from but... It was a very complex thing. I've tried to find such a prophecy, but I've had no luck..."

"Essentially they used magic or science or... maybe both and had me working very hard to do all this work for them. We were the key to the vaults, apparently. They brought us together and we opened the hole and they... The plan was to use," and Safi lowered her voice a little, "to use Think to destroy the vaults. The golden thread allowed Dr. Habersham the power to control people. He planned to use the thread to harness Think... Or the Collector did... and ride him into the vaults and take over during the... The Blood Moon."
Safi turned to Faen who was the one who really finished things off while she sacrificed her humanity. She'd let her tell the details of that.

Safi made a point not to bring up that she was the Seer. It wasn't needed. All the parts had been there to open the door. Besides, Safi made for a terrible Seer. She hadn't seen any of this coming, nor had she seen the deception that was fed to her right from the start.

[Kyrit]

Coming back from the kitchen, Faen was carrying a tray with two coffee mugs and a pot of coffee. She didn't worry about the cream and sugar since there had already been some out for the tea. One mug was taken in her own hands after placing down the tray. By the time she'd filled her mug it seemed like it was two parts sugar, two parts cream, and one part coffee. While she loved coffee she preferred it to be much sweeter than most.

"Golden string that," she started to add as she took her seat back up, "Could only be cut with the scales of a certain golden Chaos. Now, Safi says she had to gather us, but well.. for me this journey started with a computer. I was at work when my computer started... well, talking to me. Words were coming up on the screen that I didn't type, I wasn't chatting with anyone, there shouldn't have been any viruses... I was given a mission to go on by our leader shortly after and since my computer had been telling me someone was watching me, I wanted the hell out of there and gladly went on the mission." She was purposefully vague when talking about work and her leader, not wanting to tell everyone where she came from. Granted she'd be happy to some day go back, but she didn't want to just let people know the place did exist for sure.

"I was sent on the mission with a fallen Seraph named Cassiel. Eventually we ran in to the rest of our group and... it seems that we were very prone to running in to trouble, much of which was probably caused by the two Chaos on our team. Oh! And I was, of course, the one human Safi mentioned earlier. Though I suppose many would have questioned my humanity, or at the least my sanity, even back then." She paused to take a sip of her coffee, remembering how even when she met the group she'd already had terrible scarring and one eye had already become permanently blue from trying to create a seraphim serum.

"Early on in our travels I... made mistakes." Her voice grew soft momentarily, almost wavering. "I only cared about doing what I knew meant I could stay alive, and at one point we were trapped and I was confronted by Dr. Habersham. I didn't think I could do anything to get free. I was human, I'd been stripped of anything I could have used to fight with, and he... knew about my experiments. After seeing him shoot and kill one of his own underlings all I could think of was agreeing to take the pill he offered me, though I'd learn the consequences later on. It was... filled with the string."

Safi may have blamed herself for a lot of things, but if anything Faen cursed herself to no end for the mistakes she had made, looking back on them. "The pill, or rather the string, allowed me to communicate with him. Or rather, early on it just gave me feelings of what I should do. That's... how we came to add another Seraph to our group named... Racket." She paused on that name, though she did give a smile. "He might have been the one that sent you all here, possibly. He was in a cell though and I felt like I had to bring him with us and protect him. Later it was discovered that Habersham was using the string to control people, and I started to become aware of the situation that I was getting well, for the lack of better words, tied up in. If I didn't find a way to purge myself of the string he would have ultimately been able to use me against my companions, though I did my best to use my connections to him to aid them instead."

She gave a look over to Safi and paused from the story momentarily. "I'm sorry for all the things I did, Safi. I went behind everyone's back so often back then, when if I'd just told everyone... maybe things wouldn't have been so awkward between us. I know I caused a lot of problems for you, and now... here I am, living with you in the end. Thank you for not giving up on me after everything I did."

[Moofius]

Cuss took the extra coffee mug (but not until after he'd drained the tea) and added a crap ton of cream. Not as much as Faen but enough that it did lean towards looking like a mug of milk and not so much a mug of coffee.'

Safi let Faen tell her end and how things came to be for her. Safi still wasn't entirely sure just how Dr. H or the Collector or whoever had managed to coordinate them all so well. It was masterful manipulation no doubt there. She sipped her tea and tried not to be too offended by the smell of coffee.

"Oh, Faen, nono... You were really cornered and, honestly we didn't know each other very well then." Safi sighed shakily, "I was a mess... I was so scared and confused. Yepha told me I had to keep everyone together but I couldn't trust most of you and it made things very stressful. Besides you didn't know me, I shouldn't have expected full honesty..." She got up and hugged Faen and Cuss averted his attention since this was... more private it seemed. The whole story was really fascinating but also confusing. It was hard to save his questions to the end.

"Hindsight is 20/20. All if this could have been avoided if I just questioned Yepha. Just once asked her why..." Safi laughed nervously. Asking could be grounds enough to become a fallen though but still. Just a few questions and Safi would have never left, never met any of them, Faen would have had to hurt herself.

[Kyrit]

Faen smiled, gave her a hug back, and shook her head. "You had no reason to question her since you had no clue it wasn't her. Anyways, during our travel we met this lady in the swamp. Esp told us the tragic love story of a Seraph and a Chaos. The Seraph had been sent down with a spool of thread to tie every human together so they could better understand one another and thus hopefully put an end to the discord among them. She could see her effort shining through as people started to understand one another and knew that she was doing the right thing. Eventually she met a man in the woods only to find out he was a Chaos. He wasn't there to attack her though, and in fact, he was quite envious of her. She spread peace across the land, while all he could do was create discord. He wanted to help her though, and eventually she accepted his help. With the extra help she was able to get her work done even faster. It might sound odd to all of you, as I'm sure most Chaos don't want to believe such a thing is possible, but... she started to fall in love with the Chaos. Long story short though, their love couldn't be as the threads were eventually found to be connected to her and she had to continue her job. She disappeared and he went off in search of her. His only option in hopes of find her was to cut the very string she tied people together with and try to follow it to her. Other Chaos noticed his ability and eventually killed him, took his scales, and melted them down to make scissors with which to cut the string. These Chaos brought discord back to the lands."

She took another pause finally to take a deep breath. Really, she didn't have to tell them the entire story in order to tell them about their own adventure, but.. she felt as though she owed it to Nerastiel to let others know the tale of her and her lover, since she was pretty sure Nerastiel had kept her from dying when Faen had turned in to the golden Chaos during the fight with Think.

"We'd been unable to find anything that we could cut the string with, but this gave us a new hope. Only thing was that, well... the scissors weren't scissors any longer and they were in Dr. Habersham's labs. I still hadn't told anyone of my ah.... condition by then, but we managed to get in to his labs. They had some... interesting things there. Pretty sure one item in their vaults was like... one of LB's fangs! Crazy, right?"

She could still remember the utter feeling of doom she got from just touching the fang, feeling like the entire world was going to implode on her if she removed it. "Once we had the pieces of the golden scissors though I found a place to melt them down and ah... well, I suppose this is where I should really explain my.... appearance. My research was on... I suppose you could say turning humans in to other beings. I never managed to make a serum that could fully transform me and my experiment with seraphim failed, but with the aid of a virus I could inject myself with the cells of a chaos or dweller and temporarily gain attributes of them. So, my idea was to make a serum using the scales of the golden chaos. It was dangerous, but I managed to do it and used that chance to try to cut the strings. Sure enough it worked, and I didn't have to worry about becoming a puppet any longer! That... wasn't the point that I became like this though."

Another pause and her coffee was downed. It'd been a long time since she'd talked so much for sure. "In the end, we weren't able to stop Habersham before his plans were set in to motion. Actually, I'm pretty sure we set them off prematurely even. Anyways, in the end we had to fight Think. I don't think he really had control over himself really, but we still had to do it. I was terrified of losing the friends I'd made, terrified of losing the one I'd promised to protect. There was little I could do as a human though, and even with injecting myself, I would be no where near his level of power. So... I injected myself multiple times. Overdosed if you will. It was a huge risk, and I'm pretty sure I almost died."

She closed her eyes and smiled, thinking about the soft caress of the Seraphim she'd seen. "Honestly, many of my memories get pretty fuzzy sometimes. But what I do remember is that I was completely a Chaos at that point. I remember fighting with everything I had to protect those I wanted to protect. I suppose... I probably let him, the golden Chaos, take over and do most of the fighting really. It was almost like blanking out and then waking up as... well, this."

[Moofius]

Cuss was leaned forward and listening pretty intently, even tapping  his journal which made Safi smile when she noticed it. Mostly she was listening to Faen tell her end of the story. She'd really been wrapped up in her own little story, her own personal problems when all of this was going on. When she'd found out about the strings and stuff there had been very little time to consider Faen's feels before everything went absolutely insane.

"We fought Think on a Blood Moon... It was pretty intense I... I don't really know what we were doing. I don't think we knew, we just knew we had to stop this. Without Faen's sacrifice we would have never been able to stop him from getting through and... well I can only imagine what would have happened if Think had gotten into the vaults as he was." The seraphim shook her head, "He was stopped but Dr. Habersham, and the Collector, died in the battle..." As far as Safi knew, anyway. She still wasn't sure who or what the Collector was, "We never learned how to close the door and the group scattered quickly. The only thing holding us together was my single minded need to keep them together." One hand rubbed at her temple, "so once we found out we'd been used and after saving everything... There was no way we were going to stick together any longer. I... burned a lot of newly constructed bridges that day. Even Faen left and came back much later..."

Safi flipped through her Journal, a few scattered pages full of red ink could be seen between the black pages. They looked... manic as they flashed by.
"We opened the door as a full key but we had no idea how to close it. It was all very precise just to open. I know they work to close the hole but nothing so far has worked." Safi fidgetted in her seat, "I worry that we would have to again find everyone that made up the key to close it again but... Without the Collector that could be very difficult. I don't know where any of them are now. So... That is it, essentially..."

There was a moment of silence and Cuss shifted in his seat to lean forward, "That... is an incredible story... Seriously that blows ours out of the water. So I have to ask..." Cuss leaned forward and turned to Faen, "When the hell did you fight Seibel and when did the Hierarchy get involved?"

"Oh!" Safi grinned, "Ahahaha, well that was... a mistake. We sort of... accidentally summoned Seibel when trying to figure out what in the name of the Vaults was happening. Anyway since we summoned him he sort of... tracked us down and that's when we fought Seibel." Safi pulled down headsharf and shook out her long, wavy brown hair and touched the top of her head, "Even including the battle with Think, that may have been the most terrifying moments of my entire life."

[Kyrit]

Looking back on it, Faen felt a little bad for leaving Safi when she did. She'd pretty much just bailed on her like everyone else did and hadn't really bothered to keep in contact. The woman had wanted to live a peaceful life with Racket somewhere, but the man disappeared one night while they were staying at a hotel and left her devastated when he never came back. She did also still want to find Haru and see if he wanted to join them, but... it was possible that would cause more trouble than good. Still, she did want to see him. Maybe if they were traveling.. Maybe she could go with them and find him.

She was pulled out of these thoughts upon hearing Cuss's question though. She blushed slightly and covered her face with her hands. "OhZu'haiIstillcan'tbelieveIdidthat." That was certainly one memory that was fuzzy, and it was probably because she'd tried to force it out of her mind. "Haru.. Haru didn't realize that the symbol would summon someone and we'd tied this guy up and threw him in the closet and.. and... Yeaaahhh. It wasn't just Seibel either! Those.. Those twins. But.. but.. Seibel. He hurt Safi. And... I still can't believe I actually shot him."

She looked at Safi once again with another apologetic gaze. "I'm sorry we left! But.. I was so scared. I should've kept trying to fight. Maybe then you wouldn't... have... been taken to those labs."

".... Labs?" Finally Tim asked a question. "Did you by any chance go to Einsor's labs?"

[Moofius]

Safi made an ick face that, on one who was so serene (if a bit uncomfortable and nervous) was quite comical. Cuss chuckled.
"It was quite awful and yes. We summoned Seibel, Zeirk and,.. Kreiz?" Safi twisted her mouth to say their names, "It was very frustrating, actually. " Safi huffed, "I couldn't go back and retrieve anything from that first site since they imploded it all. Rude."

Safi rubbed her head and shuddered, "Ugh he touched me, right on my head he touched me and his form of teleportation is incredibly uncomfortable. I would not recommend it to anyone." She looked at Faen shocked, "If I could have traded places with you and avoided that mess I would have... Still might..." Safi shuddered, "I'm glad you escaped it. We shouldn't have fought at all but we couldn't run so, no, I don't blame you for running when you did. That was a horrendous experience. If you had stayed it would have been all of us in those labs." Safi was trying to assure Faen while telling a story, it was a lot going on and she wasn't this use to having so many people involved in such a deep conversation.

"Yes we... A few of us from our group ended up in the labs that Einsor runs. Seibel took us there. They healed us and put us in small rooms... took our things." Safi scowled, "They took my journal which is private! I can only assume they know everything I had written down to that point."

It made sense then that the Hierarchy could be trying to use the hole they'd made to the vaults. They likely knew more than she did now, what with their own resources.
"We... We were taken to see Einsor and one of his co-workers a... A Doctor Crites. Or well... Hnnn, I was." Safi hesitated since well, this directly involved the fact that she was the seer.
"I don't know why they did it... Not exactly I mean I've theories..." She paused, "Perhaps because I was a seraphim under Yepha, trained to observe and learn, or maybe it was that Seibel had damaged my mind, either way they wanted to see me, specifically. They... They put a... a helmet, some sort of helmet on me and went into my mind."

Safi stuck her tongue out in distaste, "The Crites fellow, he was... friendly enough but he was going through my memories, he seemed to be looking for something. I never found out what. At the time I just wanted to get out. We..." She looked at Faen and shook her head, "We escaped uh... feigned loyalty to the Hierarchy, or at least neutrality or preferential treatment... I've no idea but they let us all go after that. I can only assume that they thought I would be more valuable walking about than trapped in their lab."

[Kyrit]

Faen gave a small frown and commented, "Yeah, but I actually... kinda would've liked to meet them. I mean, they're scientists, right? I think they would've been fun to talk to. Maybe I could've helped everyone get out faster even! Or... maybe they would've wanted to keep me for their own experiments... Yeah, maybe it's good I didn't end up there with you guys. There's no telling what they would've done to Ailou." Her eyes trailed down to the floor before she leaned down to pet the beast that their company had been a bit afraid of at first.

"I can only imagine how uncomfortable that must have felt," Tim started out as he sipped on his tea. "As you heard from our story, Cuss and Sovis met one of his co-workers as well. Crites might have been looking for a way to get in to the Vaults easier since they'd managed to get their hands on a seraph, yeah." Sadly, none of this helped provide him any clues on how the Hierarchy might be wanting to use the hole. It did confirm that they probably knew a fair amount about what had led up to the hole appearing, but it didn't help him find out what they wanted to do with it.

He let out a sigh, leaning back slightly and looking at the ceiling. "Well, I guess maybe it's not even something we should be dragging ourselves in to. I am... interested in all of it though. I can't help but want to know what they're up to. Not just the Hierarchy, but the fish Chaos too. It's always possible one is just trying to keep the other from achieving their goal, but... what is that goal even? Why is a seraphim working with this cannibal tribe of Chaos to collect body parts?"

"Sounds like a quest," Faen butted in, grinning behind her coffee mug as she shot a glance at Safi. "A quest for knowledge. You served Yepha, so it sounds right that you want to know. Don't you want to know what's going on too, Safi?"

[Moofius]

"You'd likely be an asset to them. They'd leave you your pet but have you continue their experiements..." Safi sighed and sipped her tea, "But they would want you to join them, I think. You're quite talented and obviously willing to go to the extreme. Honestly, I would argue that Einsor's people are talented, but their greatest asset is simply not caring what effect their experiments might have. They don't care for the subject, just the outcome." Safi's feathers had become increasingly ruffled as she spoke about Einsor before she relaxed again.
"As your group has undoubtedly noticed..."

Safi nodded grimly, "We've very little information on Einsor's inner workings as you know but after being abducted I tried to find what I could. Not much on this Eichburg that I recall. Drugs, he specialized in drugs but that's all I know. Drugs and crazy but honestly all of their files have crazy so..." She laughed, a little bit more at ease when she did this time. It was easy to joke and laugh when they were far away.

At the mention of the chaos they had found, that seemed to worship Tamoriel Safi perked up. As far as her own studies went they seemed a fascinating lot.
"I've learned of many different Chaos religions and beliefs and tribal happenings. Many chaos are more uh... civilized than what you describe, but I have a regular nomadic tribe who sound similar. Our communications are few but perhaps what I've gathered on them could be of some use?"

Of course at the mention of a quest, of adventure, Safi clammed up and sat back on her chair looking rigid.
"It's... It's really not my... my specialty." She covered lamely, "I mean the whole Einsor bit. These Chaos sounds quite... interesting, but it could really upset the data I am gathering here if I just went galavanting off again." Safi drummed her fingers over her notebook nervously, "It would hardly be accurate if I missed even a few days of of observation and..." Safi trailed off lamely, hands now kneading the journal and some of her dress.

Cuss looked between Faen, who seemed to want to join them, and Safi who wanted nothing to do with adventure.
"Well lets not rush into anything. I mean we don't even know what we want to do, you know?" Cuss tried to make things a bit more relaxed, smooth things over, "I'd love to rest up and get my bearings and... If you might be willing to share... I'd love to be able to better sense out seraphim... Seems like this is a skill that might serve me better than I thought..." He looked specifically at Tim and Ardis. It wasn't accusatory just... well point made.

Safi frowned, "Hmm well I think you should cultivate that on your own. That could be considered an action against the Gods. I can however provide you with the journals I have on runes and sigils of seraphim and chaos runes. Or anything else you might want to learn about. Faen and I even sat down and wrote out the legend of the golden chaos and the thread with as many facts as we've managed to gather."

[Kyrit]

Safi obviously saw clear through Faen's intentions and quickly shot them down like a hunter expertly downing a spooked bird. She pursed her lips and gave a small frown, almost going as far as to stick out her tongue. Safi was great, but Faen did get lonely with just her around. Sure, she'd been used to locking herself up in her lab and not seeing a single person for weeks at a time, but going on their journey had changed her a good bit. She still didn't have particularly good people skills, worse than before even if you considered how many ran at her sight, but she'd grown fond of being connected to at least a small group of people. She could understand though. If she were in Safi's place, Faen was sure she'd probably feel the same. The woman's trust had been betrayed, her nerves were shot, and she just wanted to stay where she knew everything was safe.

A smile came back to her face at the mention of the legends of the golden chaos. "In fact," she started out, her smile almost more of a devilish grin, "I've gone back and made sure to include some nice details! Esp didn't describe how they looked but, uh. I guess you could say I have the perks of knowing some details... rather well. Nerastiel was so pretty! And.." If one watched close enough, they might see a faint red tint creep across her face. "Gendraggutte didn't look so bad himself if I must say so."

Tim gave a small nod to Safi. "Yes, I'm sure our group will need to take some time to figure out what we want to do. I don't plan on forcing anyone to do something they don't want to, as interested in all of this as I myself am. I'd certainly enjoy going through your journals to see if there are any sigils I can pick up that will aid us. I... would definitely like to learn that one you used to nullify the Dweller poison."

As he mentioned the poison there was a fair amount of regret and sadness visible in his eyes, followed by a worried glance shot toward Ardis. "I've been piecing together ones that I can remember off the top of my head, but it would be nice to copy down a few in a notebook for reference since I've lost all of my own notebooks. Also, if you would like since you're offering to share so much knowledge with us..."

There was a short pause as he looked down at the ground. "I... can't return to the Vaults, but I am still loyal to Yepha. I'd be more than happy to provide you with a detailed report on everything that's happened so far and happens from now on so that she can have this information. It might prove useful to them if the Hierarchy's goal is to assault the Vaults."

[Moofius]

Safi sort of rolled her eyes when Faen talked about what they looked like. Did it really matter? Safi generally didn't see hot or not as far as people went. Defining features so she would remember them but that was all really.

"Well," Safi said, standing up and taking her teacup with her, "I am just going to get some more tea and I'll bring out the journals I've filled up, and get you a notebook as well!" She had a ton a TON of notebooks that she was filling up at a regular pace.

Safi went to the kitchen, still listening intently if the bright, intelligent eyes on Tim was not enough of a clue, she did stop pouring when he paused as she waited.
She had to bite her tongue from revealing... some of her more intimate thoughts on the Vaults. Sometimes they really were a backwards lot. They kept her who was CLEARLY shaken and less than useful, and questioning the Gods but would through out a seraphim like Tamoriel for a moment of desperation.
"I'll bring out two journals. I'll write some sigils for you," She smiled at Tim, "and you, Ardis." another smile for the newest angel, if only in self-awareness.
"Healing, protection, hiding... maybe a few more combative ones but they're hardly my specialty... Seraphim of course since that would work best for the two of you."

Cuss perked up, "Do you have Chaos ones?"
"Of course," Safi fluffed her wings up as she started down the hall to her room, "What do you think I am, some mindless warrior seraphim under Zu'hai? Psh!"
Cuss laughed at that and sat down looking excited. Cool, Chaos runes and sigils. He was Sigil literate but he'd never really cast any runes. Could be useful to have, you know?

Safi returned with about five different journals which tumbled across her dining room table.
"Alright lets see, fresh journal for you to report in..." Safi said passing the plain brown, bound journal to Tamoriel, "Fresh journal for me to re-write my Seraphim sigils in..." She took that, "for you to keep. My book of sigils, plus the one I got from Dr. H." At that she puffed up proudly. She'd stolen that when she'd been captured, quite fun.
"Chaos Sigils," She passed the journal to Cuss who found he had to calm himself down or accidentally corrode the thing.

He took it a moment after Safi gave him a funny look and he just grinned and shrugged.
"You can copy them in your own journal, yes?" Safi asked and Cuss nodded.
"Yeah, it's a bit of a mess..." He shrugged, flipping it open Safi could see enough to make her inner note-taker die a little. Her outer note-taker made an uncomfortable noise and she had to look away.
"Golden Thread story and what we could find of fact... I actually went to the vaults and found a lot of this..." Before Faen had returned actually. Safi had gone to the vaults to sort of... recoup for awhile. While she'd been there she'd manically devoured every bit of information on anything to try and make her adventure make sense.

It had helped a little but she'd still been left with many unanswered questions.
"Anything else?" She asked, taking a sip of tea and nervously scanning the walls, checking for anything to be tripped. She never saw her sigils unless she was writing a new one or checking to make sure they had not been tampered with. Outside of these checks they never lit up and Safi hoped they never would. It would mean something had tripped them.