Was Cecil actually showing bitterness? Again another surprising revelation and something that Machina were not traditionally able to express, not as genuinely as Cecil was. The more time he spent with the machine the more curious he became about it and the more questions which arose. Some point later when they weren't busy repairing Cecil he would need to make time to examine him more closely and try and solve this mystery. For now however they would have to sit on these revelations. With Cecil's casts finished and cooled Norman moved to begin the final repairs, using heavy leather gloves to handle the pieces and set them in place. A welding torch was fetched from a rack for him and helmet with a head shield as well, which he needed to wipe several times to clear the visor. 

"We've just got to weld these together and you'll be as good as new. Amuné you might want to step back a little, there's going to be plenty of sparks." Setting up the torch and flipping down the visor Norman rolled his sleeves down and put Cecil's replacement parts carefully in place before igniting the tool. Over the soft roar of the flame he hummed to himself as he worked, eyes unblinking as he focused on his job. Moving slowly he let the flame lap at the gaps in between the metal and made certain there was not a single space before moving along, ensuring the seal was as perfect as possible. It took only a few moments and the task was finished, the metal around the fixtures aglow as the metal continued to cool. Before putting away the tools Norman double checked every seam and examined every joint and piece of Cecil's shell, leaving nothing to chance. Only once he was certain that there were no other repairs needed did he finally set aside the tool and mask, a smile of satisfaction on his face as he wiped it free of sweat.

"And you're as good as new. It's unfinished metal so we'll need to paint it later once it cools, but otherwise it's finished." Patting Cecil on the shoulder he called for the engineers nearby to take away the tools and spare parts, preemptively gesturing for Amuné to wait as he suspected she'd try to hug Cecil the moment he'd given the clear. "He still needs to cool off, and we should let him move around a little to test for stiffness before we let him go," Norman explained before turning to Cecil himself, "How are your energy reserves? Did your battery take any damage, do you need to be recharged? They have everything here if you feel like you need it." 

[hr]

"Numbers eh? You mean like how the Vazra had numbers? Lotta good their numbers did them," Gage pointed out with a smirk, "Admit it, your clan wasn't as strong as theirs, you just got stronger is all. Unless that pride of yours won't let you own up to it." Was their entire clan really as weak as the Princess was? They were supposed to be one of the dominant Dimuran clans so that seemed strange, maybe Nymira was just exceptionally weak? They had Dimurans of their own and each was powerful in their own right, Kensen included, but was that unusual for their race? "Either way you're not wrong, the two kids are useless. The boy I can understand, he ain't nothing special and no royalty, but the Princess? Makes you wonder what the hell sort of training they give their people if they can't even kill a damn Rökorm." They had technically passed though and they'd shown they were willing to fight for Mutebo's sake, that should be good enough for the boss. And so long as the little miss wised up and didn't act like she had the run of the place they would do just fine. 

"Only question now is what is Tali going to do with these brats. I doubt they're gonna join up with us, but you know damn well she ain't gonna let them run out and get themselves killed either. Ever since that old bastard Cedric kicked it she's been trying to do his work, it ain't suiting her." Anyone else in the group could have taken on the role and they could have gone back to traveling and picking up work where they went, not fighting some stupid war against the Church. 'Course what they were doing was wrong but it wasn't up to them to fight it, but Cedric had asked and Taliya, for whatever reason, had answered the call. "Probably going to get stuck training them, just like we do with all the fresh meat. Gotta make sure they can at least last a day on their own," Gage continued with a groan, rubbing his neck before glancing sidelong at Kensen, "Which means you're stuck training the Magi again, especially since their elements are ya own. Have fun with that."

Getting back to Mutebo was a blessing and Nymira couldn't wait to actually sit down and rest. The last two days of fighting had really added up and were taking its toll on their bodies, and having to half-carry Ethan down the mountainside didn't help that any. When they reached the streets again she let him go to walk under his own power and did their best to keep pace with Kensen and Gage who were in far better state than they were. Had she the energy to do so she'd likely have thrown a fireball Gage's way when he yelled at them for the fifth time to pick up the slack but even creating a spark would probably make her collapse now. 

"You know.. My arm doesn't hurt so much now, I think the worst of it has passed," Ethan said with a halfhearted smile, promptly rebuking that statement as he stumbled and jostled his arm, wincing as a hand shot up to cradle it. "Ow... I guess all things considered we got out of that pretty okay," he continued, chuckling as he slogged alongside Nymira, "Kind of wish Kensen and Gage would actually tell us we did a good job. I mean we did, didn't we? We passed their test and we're alive, that seems like a good job to me."

"We nearly died when it should have been a simple task, and we would certainly have died if they hadn't dealt with the Vazra. I think we did a terrible job," Nymira spoke bluntly, frowning as Ethan tried to argue her point. "It's one thing for you to struggle, you're inexperienced. I should have had no issue with that fight even if the enemy was new to me. The fact remains that I have a lot of training to do before I'm worthy of taking my father's place at the head of the clan." Had her father ever fought a Rökorm before? Vazra were common in their region as were other breeds of beasts but she had never encountered such a creature in her life. Come to think of it she knew very little of her own father's early life, or that of many of her clan's elders. What sort of trials had they endured growing up to bring the Rumia clan to power?

[hr]

There was no mistake, Lionel knew this person. Even if she had tried to disguise herself he never forgot a face and he'd seen her about in the cities before, he even remembered her name. Though Adrianna tried to play it off initially when he persisted she finally had to accept the fact someone here knew who she was, dragging him off to the side to speak in private. Laughing as a joke was made about Kurt he smiled innocently at Adrianna, folding his hands behind his back and leaning towards her.

"Oh I'm not looking for a two bit street performer, don't be silly! Though his magic was really neat," Lionel said, tilting his head curiously, his eyes closed as he continued to smile, "And don't worry, I'm not here to oust anyone. I get why people run away from that and I respect it, there's a lot of people here that are like you. In fact I'm surprised you're not in Taliya's group with everyone else here, that seems to be the popular thing to do. I guess you're free to do whatever you want though." There was safety in numbers but then all of Mutebo was a haven for Magi, whether you belonged to an organization like Taliya's or not mattered little. But why had Adrianna left? Now that was the one thing he didn't know here and he was curious even if he was sure he had the answer. She was a healer assigned to the Church, there was a good chance that she'd left because she was worked to the bone taking care of their Hunters. Sure enough she confirmed his suspicions and stated as much, telling him all he needed to know.

"Me? Oh I'm like you really. I didn't like what the Church had me doing so I left, that's all!" Finding a stack of crates alongside a wall Lionel sat atop one and crossed a leg over the other, leaning back into the wall. For a moment he seemed to silently appraise Adrianna as he looked at her without a word, folding is arms across his chest and tilting his head again. After a time of silence he smiled again and clapped his hands, leaning forward and placing his hands upon his knees excitedly. "So what's your plan now that you left? Are you just going to live your life here in Mutebo and hope everything blows over? Who knows, some people think the Church will stop eventually and things will settle down," he said, lifting his shoulders in a shrug and smiling thoughtfully, "It's a really optimistic view, but I don't buy it. That's why I'm helping Taliya! But you're not, I know I've never seen you there." He looked to Adrianna again and his eyes narrowed slightly, the playful gleam disappearing as his smile waned, "So what are you planning? Where does Adrianna... Sorry, [i]Adrian[/i] go from here?"