[u][i][b]The Meeting Room.

[/b][/i][/u]

Rosalind was surprised that the monk was versed in magic. The way it worked in his world did not sound entirely different from the way it looked here. Yet, she was no expert. Twain was the resident magic expert on their team. 

"When Twain returns, you should discuss it with him. He will be able to tell you if your thinking is on the right track. It might be worth going back to the site and combing it over more carefully, rather than under duress. Yet, we are not certain the site is safe or secure. If we return we might be attacked by the dragon again... Or perhaps someone else trying to clean up or cover up this mess. If there are more of them, they might not yet know what happened to their comrades, they might not know there were survivors or witnesses. We also do not know their strength. They were capable enough of opening a rift between worlds, it destroyed them, but they might be more capable with simpler magics."

"If we are lucky, they were all there, and they are all dead. We might never know their purpose, but, they would not be a threat anymore."

The screen shifted, but the marks that Dimitri had made with permanent marker, remained. 

"We can not rely on luck."

The screen had turned to four new faces. Dmitri markings gave one a beauty mark, one a pair of lopsided glasses, and another a mustache. 

"These are the members of MOON. A small team within TRIDENT. Their missions are [i]always[/i] secret. I suspect their area of expertise is espionage, and undercover work. I myself only learned of this teams existence today." She sounded slightly annoyed by this fact, but continued as she rounded the table. A restless tiger frustrated by her prey; the mystery of the Rift. "They went missing several months back. MERCY, the team that found all of you and the site of the RIFT, was looking for them. They had tracked MOON to a city near the mountain, that is where the trail went cold. Then they detected the energy of the RIFT, followed it and... You know the rest."

"It might be a coincidence."

~~~

[u][i][b]
In Vaughtar's room[/b][/i][/u]

"Ah... I don't know exactly what time it was..." Winston looked at his watch. "It was daytime when you were found, I think, and..." He turned the rim of his watch. "It should be about 11pm at the moment. Why do you ask? Is your... Transformation cycle... Relative to the time or position of the sun?" That would be in alignment with the Earth-stories concerning gargoyles. "Fascinating, that that the time would still affect you this far underwater."

"You are right. We do not know how to send anyone home. It is [i]possible[/i] that we might find a way to re-open the rift. Yet, seeing the chaos and destruction caused by the first rift, that would be a big risk, and to be honest it is not our current priority."

[i]How Can I Help[/i]

Winston set his eyes upon the gargoyle with a serious expression.

"As I said, the Ritualists are all dead. Killed by the RIFT and the things that came out of it. Yet, there were also innocents killed. They appear to have used unwilling human sacrifices as part of their ritual, and, not everyone who came through the rift survived. You were fortunate to come through that portal and eventually wake up. Many others did not." Winston frowned, he was particularly disturbed as he recalled the images of the dead otherworlders. The beautiful mermaid who choked and drowned in the open air....

"We at TRIDENT consider this event a serious crime of a magical nature. Our priority is to find the ones responsible, and prevent them from killing more innocents, and wielding magic for their own perverse purposes, whatever that might have been."