Maddox shrugged his shoulders after Master Jamie continued explaining the situation at hand. In his opinion, he could retrieve the book by himself with the Council being none the wiser. But it would seem that Jamie wanted to do more than just retrieve the book. The mention of dark mages earned a slight twitch from the red-haired mage, but otherwise Maddox seemed disinterested in the plan. On the inside, however, he wanted to perform this mission immediately. Retrieving the book for Wes's sake would be easy and almost dull. But confronting the corruption in the Magic Council... something like that hit a little closer to home for Maddox.

As the crowd dispersed, Maddox sat down at the bar. He pulled an ashtray over the counter to be closer to himself as he withdrew a cigarette with his other hand. Only after lighting his smoke with a similar trick as he did earlier did he notice Sasha sit down only two seats away. Soon afterwards, a new face struck up conversation with her. Considering the two new people that just joined this day, it wasn't a surprise that there were people he was yet to meet that joined while he was away. After taking a drag and blowing out the smoke, Maddox rotated to face Sasha and Mayt. "Long time no see," he greeted Sasha, before looking past her to Mayt on the other side. "You must've joined while I was out working. The name's Maddox." With that, Maddox pretended to tip an imaginary hat before taking a drag on his cigarette again. "By the way..."

Maddox blew his smoke out away from Sasha and Mayt, before returning his red eyes back towards them. "You were the one that thinks Master Jamie's idea sucks." He removed the cigarette from his mouth and held it a few inches away from his face. "I'm not going to criticize you for thinking differently than the rest of us. But I must know something... What would you do in Jamie's position with that knowledge?" Out of context that could be taken somewhat offensively. But Maddox had a genuinely curious tone to his words. After a brief pause, he smiled and chuckled to himself. "Sorry about that. I ask strange questions sometimes. Anyways, how've you been Sasha? This your boyfriend or was that Lazarus?" With his final words he chuckled again and put the cigarette back in his mouth. He and Sasha had joined Phoenix Wing around the same time, but Maddox had slight seniority. With that history in mind, he couldn't resist a bit of teasing.