[center][h3][color=C2B280]Fleo Plector – her room[/color][/h3][/center]

Now that Fleo had stopped suppressing her fatigue, her tiredness affected her severely.  After collapsing into her bed, the dusty woman was out, every inch as quick and unceremonious as turning off a light.  Nolan's knuckles rapping on her door did little to shake her stupor, and his greeting went unacknowledged, for Fleo was somewhere else.

In her dream she stood at the center plaza of the town where her old guild had resided, and around her in every direction there stood uniquely familiar, yet indistinct figures.  She could look at their faces, and their clothes, and their bodies, but she didn't remember them; all she knew was that these were people she'd met before.  They were standing quietly in a circle around her, grimly motionless, all the more threatening for their lack of vocalization or action.  With lethargic movements and soft steps the crowd slowly pushed in.  Fleo sought in vain for an escape, turning around and around in an increasingly wild panic, until the figures stood clustered around her.  They raised their arms and reached for her with grasping, grabbing at her bandages and tugging with persistence.  Against that many people, and against those she couldn't help but feel she knew, Fleo was powerless to resist.  The crowd stripped her of her bandages, leaving her dust limbs horribly exposed.  Scared now that these people were not merely attempting to probe at her secret but intent on using her for some sort of purpose far more dire, Fleo began to fight, but the instant her limbs touched those around her they began to disintegrate.  She cried out in a low, soul-felt fear as her limbs melted away, and the rest of her fell to the pavement.  Around her loomed those faces, previously so familiar but now unmistakably inhuman and dreadful, and as Fleo impacted the pavement she sank through it, plummeting into a deep, dark pit from which she might never again see the light of day.  As that tiny spot of sunlight drifted farther and farther away, Fleo's torso began to disintegrate too, as if it were also mere dust.  By the time she was lucid enough to scream, her mouth had already gone.

Back in the room, the sleeping Fleo whimpered and fidgeted.  Her left arm, as if in response to the events of her awful dream, had begun to fall apart.

[center][h3][color=D8BFd8]Nero[/color][/h3][/center]

Grinning widely, Nero attempted to address Ayame's questions as she slung them.  [color=D8BFd8]“A train's a lot like a room if you're inside it, but with moving windows!  Even though it's going faster than a beggar to the bread lines, it doesn't really feel like you're moving at all when you're in it.”[/color]  He scratched his clean-shaven chin with a gloved hand when the young girl mentioned money.  [color=D8BFd8]“Now that you mention it, I didn't pay anything.  I guess ol' icy drawers paid for the whole squad, tehee.  I'll do something nice for her some time to make up for it.”[/color]  As for Lazarus, he couldn't quite say.  He glanced again at the angelic boy's prone figure with Shujin attending, but nothing interesting had happened yet.  Nero shrugged.  [color=D8BFd8]“He'll be fine in a little while.  Wizards have an infuriating tendency to get over normal debilitation pretty quick.”[/color]

When his little companion mentioned his clothes, Nero chuckled.  He had noticed the state of her garb, but declined to comment to see if she'd explain it herself.  Nero snapped his fingers, summoning the power of the Law of Raiment, and instantly swapped Ayame's clothes for identical, clean ones of a slightly darker color scheme.  What had before been white was now a cool blue, and what had been red shone now a radiant purple.  No speck of ice cream now besmirched the image.  [color=D8BFd8]“Right as rain!  There's not a thing in the world that a little magic can't fix.”[/color]  Her next news aroused his intrigue, but its lack of specificity kept Nero from inquiring further.  [color=D8BFd8]“Weird.  Guess this guild is a magnet for trouble.”[/color]

Just then, the conflict between Shujin and Lazarus emerged.  Nero watched with squinted eyes and a toothy, derisive grin as the Metal Make moulder revealed himself, validating Nero's suspicions.  The dark mage received no time to boast, however, as further events developed quickly.  Nero found the sudden details about Lazarus's past to be surprising, but he didn't greet the mentions of mass murder or dark magic with contempt or fear.  There had been more than sixty-three people at Strychnine when he had blown his top, however, but their deaths were hardly on his hands.  Since then, Nero had purposefully restrained himself from dishing out deadly curses, for aside from potentially bringing vengeance upon him, death had always seemed to him too...unremarkable of a solution for curing some of the world's ills.

In quick succession, though, both Sasha and Jarvis arose to oppose Shujin.  Nero laughed out loud.  Knowing the guild members would leap down his throat for what he was about to say, he kept his voice low enough so that only Ayame could hear.  [color=D8BFd8]“Heeheeheehee,”[/color] he giggled,  [color=D8BFd8]“So, the guild's comradeship and love trumps law, justice, and reason.  Truly incredible.  I really should join this guild; if I'm phony enough about who I am for long enough, the people will like me enough to let me get away with anything.  So Lazarus has hurt people in the past.  With magic like ours, it's not uncommon.  But he has run away from it, pretending to be someone he's not.  People can't ever escape from what they've done; they can only run from it, or learn from it.  I've owned my mistakes.  I'll get my punishment some day, and so must he.  Karma is the ultimate law in this world.”[/color]  But Nero didn't move from his seat.  In a place where might made right, he had no hope of influencing events in Shujin's favor.  Unless...?

Nero smiled again, and positioned his hand facing Shujin.  If a fight erupted between the metal-wielding Rune Knight and the Phoenix Wingers, he could secretly boost Shujin's magic power.  It wouldn't be enough to make him win -such a thing wasn't possible- but it would keep the fight from being totally one-sided, and allow Shujin to make a noble attempt to do what he thought was right.