Snippet #1541611

They were, in short, ushered out of Amon’s office, but not before Professor Windsor was told that he was effectively going to be under surveillance for a while. She felt a pang of guilt, but as she was constantly being reminded, it wasn’t really her fault. Technically, it wouldn’t have happened if not for herself and her choices, but… well, it wasn’t like she asked to be chased around by hired thugs. Hopefully this would be nothing worse than the usual case and he could go back to his ordinary routine in a few days or so.

“Um… there’s plenty of places to rest or eat if you need to. I’m headed down to the Archives. It’s a really interesting place, if you can get yourself in the right mindset anyway.” She knew from experience that this sort of thing was not one that a person got over instantaneously, so she offered a sympathetic smile and waved, disappearing down an adjoining hallway in search of the stairs.

The Guild, for all its openness, was actually something of a labyrinthine building. She supposed that made sense; were it ever attacked, there would be plenty of places for its denizens to hide in, strike from, and otherwise use to their advantage. Of course, Pan herself was not the best with directions, and occasionally wound up lost even now.

Not today, though, apparently. She found the winding staircase easily enough and passed a few landings before she reached the one she wanted. Granted, she probably appeared to be handling this a lot better than she actually was. It was hard to tell, but she was pretty sure that the sharp-eyed Amon had not missed the fact that she was shaking a bit. Really, though, she just needed to do something useful to calm her nerves and she’d be fine. Whether that useful thing was reading something that might help increase her knowledge or dealing with the more egregious practice injuries sort of depended on the day.

She’d check the infirmary later, just to be sure, but the apprentices didn’t have combat training until late in the afternoon usually, so it’d be a while yet. Either way, she was rather fatigued at present, mostly from the earlier battle and then a headlong, tense flight through Delta and half of Gamma. She really needed to consider moving closer to the border between districts.

She rounded a corner in the Archives only to come upon a most strange assortment of people. It looked like Scheherazade was here training again, but the Doctor (she still didn’t know his name, and by now doubted she ever would) and his apprentice were there also, along with someone Pandora had seen at the Guild maybe once or twice but never actually spoken to. She stopped in her tracks and blinked slowly, but they were definitely still there, and so she offered a too-bright smile. “Hello, everyone. I hadn’t expected to see most of you here.”

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Zade regarded the mage with a level of puzzlement that the latter obviously did not understand, and crossed her arms (not aggressively, just out of habit). “Weren’t you just attacked?” She found it somewhat difficult to believe that the woman would just be wandering the Archives, right as rain, after such an event, but then maybe it wasn’t so unexpected after all. She had always seemed to be rather foolishly optimistic.

“Oh… well, yes. I trapped the mercenaries in my house. Why?” Apparently, she was not aware of the circumstances surrounding this, and Zade decided she might as well inform her, too. They were all going to find out eventually anyway.

“Loki and Lord Taylor were, too. They’re fine, obviously, but Carlisle was apparently just here.” This was clearly news to Pandora, who had just assumed it was a solitary thing, as they usually were.

“I don’t suppose… were their any other targets?” Zade shrugged as if to say ‘beats me,’ and Pandora’s face took on a troubled frown, but she didn’t say anything further. She didn’t really know what to ask, actually; knowing the right questions wasn’t exactly her business, unless it was regarding some form of injury.