Nexus closed his eyes tightly and tightened his hands, lowering them back into his lap.

	[color=00aeef]"He went off on his own and tried doing things his way when Alexis sided with me. She knew better. He didn't. He was stubborn, and he still is. All this wisdom and knowledge didn't fix that."[/color] Nexus rose his hands again, and summoned his mirror. Inside, now sat an image of him and Alexis in the same tiled room. [color=00aeef]"We looked for a mage as skilled as Teshra. But, there was nobody like him. Just as we thought, our research was going nowhere without his hands in the mix. We couldn't see atoms as clearly as he could, we couldn't manipulate electrons, and we couldn't shape the portal. In a year, our experiments went nowhere. With no progress, and very little money left, we were forced to retire the project altogether. Alexis was disheartened, but not because of the experiment's failure. For that entire year, Teshra had been missing."[/color] He sighed, and showed Jenso an image of Yzeira. His hair was longer, about the same length it was now, and he had a tattoo underneath his right eye, similar to the one that Zelriane had. [color=00aeef]"He approached us like this. [i]'I've done it'[/i] he spat in our faces. Alexis was furious. I was confused. The way he spoke, his mannerisms- everything about him has changed. His usual arrogance had redoubled. Instead of spouting claims without any backing, [i]everything[/i] he said... We couldn't argue with it. He was more willing to put himself, and the people around him in danger. And his attachment to things, like the tower he'd met Alexis in, had become distant memories. It was like he was gone for much longer than a year."[/color] The picture shifted again, back to Nexus, alone in his home. [color=00aeef]"We didn't want anything to do with his research. I had my own reasons, Alexis had hers. So, Teshra went back to wherever he'd been working. We didn't hear from him again for the next decade."[/color] Nexus' eyes closed again, and his disk disappeared. [color=00aeef]"Then it happened. The Tower disappeared. Gone, overnight. Alexis told me about it, nearly broke my damned door down. We both went to the base of the old library, and it was just as she said. The entire thing- Gone, like it was never there to begin with. No rubble, no signs of destruction, just a circular crater where it once stood."[/color] Nexus' hands trembled. [color=00aeef]"I was 70 when he came back. I'd never married, but I continued my studies. I learned more, and I improved my skills. I became one of the most acclaimed names of my generation. Alexis would have been there, right next to me, if she hadn't taken her own life after that tower disappeared."[/color]