[h1][center] James Moriarty [/center][/h1]

The mere usage of the word Papa was, for the most part, unknown to the masses as to its effect upon Archer. While most of the time he was the evil genius who plotted all sorts of nefarious schemes and ruled from the center of his web, that word had a most curious power. A power to turn him from that into...a grandfather figure. It was, after all, the secret weapon when keeping him in line. But only worked from a servant or master of the suitable age range.

[i]"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that, my dear Elferia! It would appear that whoever built this structure, clearly wished to enter it without getting wet. Explains the surface entrance we found!"[/i] It was incredible, to see the mad genius, acting every inch the doting grandfather, his pace close to his master, assurance in his tone. How much she knew of the reality of the situation was up in the air for others to guess much later, but he wasn't about to put her in harms way if he could help it all the same. Even as he sensed her gaze turning to Holmes, he placed a hand on her shoulder, and squeezed it gently, as if to assure her not to question it too much.

[i]"But Holmes is right, we should proceed. Depending on if this is a labyrinth, rather than a complex maze, we should find ourselves at the center eventually."[/i] Despite his wording, it gave nothing away beyond Archer's own knowledge of ancient words and the like. He was pondering about whether things were going to play out as planned, or if the others in the scheme would go to play to their whims. The King of Heroes could easily do so, and well, the King of Conquerors was a strong servant after all. He had brought supplies himself, but Archer planned to do any fighting if needed, as evident via the coffin like device he was carrying at his side. [i]We should all be fine, after all, if this was the work of a famous builder, they would have already made themselves known, no?"[/i]


[h1][center] Serene Drakos [/center][/h1]

Eventful. That was one way to describe the aftermath of Serene and Da Vinci's conversation with their only other contact in the city regarding a rogue servant and command seals being inverted as a power source. She'd been forced to make a call that night to a certain someone she had hoped to not have to call about the matter. But surprisingly, her father had been rather calm when told about the matter. Not as if he'd known, but rather not surprised by such a situation. He merely told her to keep him appraised of important developments, and that he'd reach out to some contacts if it turned out that yes, a heretic mage was trying to cause trouble, and the city needed assistance from hunters off the island. Something Serene had been left with after hanging up had been the sensation he wasn't telling her something...as if he already was ahead of her. It was probably nothing though. After telling Da Vinci what her father had said, the two had discussed a bit more of what to do, before deciding it was best to just sleep, then ask the other two to join them at the Administration when they had time. If there was anywhere bound to have the answers they needed, it would be there, or if not, well, surely someone in the city with a list of secrets to sell would be amendable to sharing intel...right?

So, that was how it came to be, that outside the entrance to Fusang City's nervous center, Serene waited with Da Vinci for the other pair to arrive, the quartet the most unlikely detective set, but stranger pairups existed, right? She was nervous though, and she had good reasons. All of this...bothered her, and she was not sure if the administration of Fusang would help them out or not. Hopefully it would go well, right? And it would just be a fluke regarding what happened with that Berserker?

If only, if only.