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Most of the illusions sounded like the same inane teambuilding bullshit as the stupid constellation drawing exercise that he and Eris had been stuck into, but Lilie's description managed to catch Max's attention. Normally famous personages appearing wouldn't have been much of an interest to him - it was at the Crown's academy, after all - but that was precisely why the recollection stood out to him. What kind of state-sponsored illusion portrays Sybil Sinnenodel making old man Geoffrey her bitch? For an Eve, no less; it would've been a different matter entirely if it had happened in Varis' test to butter him up. If her leech sounded peeved about it though, it could've been a jab that Max was missing rather than some grand conspiracy that linked back to the Greta angle. Still, food for thought. Maybe he'd ask her about it when there weren't canine ears present.

He was surprised Maybelline or whatever her name was seemed like the only one interested in the conspiracy angle, though that wasn't too outlandish upon further consideration. Sure, she was probably a good little pawn, but she was on a first name basis with her leech. Flower Boy probably knew better than to stick his fingers into pies he didn't know the flavor of by now, and Lilie was airheaded enough she might not've even noticed Max said anything abnormal. The metal mage gave Aaron a delightful little grin, the type some shitheaded little brat gives another kid when he's about to tattle on them to the teacher.

Oh, how tempting it was to simply air out Varis' dirty laundry in front of everyone. The obvious reward was that Fido would probably faint on the spot, but beyond that, Varis would have a much harder time managing four different vampires that could be prying into his business than simply appeasing an overrated actor and dodging the detective work of his unenthusiastic lackey. The downside was, of course, that such a hamfisted approach would definitely bring extra trouble upon Max in retribution, and it wasn't like he'd discovered anything concrete enough to seriously hurt the leech yet. He'd have to settle for giving blondie a minor heart attack while he considered how to answer.

[color=8585AD]"I got one of the mental magic professors to outright admit it, if that wasn't a lie too. There were some... oddities, even considering the already odd nature of the test. Apparently Eric thought it was important enough to go to Ryner about it, and her cover story had more holes in it than the wall of an Astorio's training room,"[/color] He explained grumpily, more for Aaron's benefit than anyone else in the room. If he looked too invested, it'd be suspicious. He needed to play the part of the unwilling slave that halfassed his job and glossed over crucial details, not an actual investigative threat that demanded attention. [color=8585AD]"For some reason, he thought [i]I[/i] would be his best bet at uncovering... whatever she's hiding. I think he's just lazy. Anyway, I talked to the mage in charge, she fed me a load of crap that didn't even line up with Ryner's load of crap, and I couldn't even press her on it because she was under some spell that prevented her from talking further. Understandable, since I doubt vampires like having their minds read without some guarantee of privacy, but I just hate bad liars treating me like an idiot."[/color]

There, if he pinned all his anger on Ryner, he might get lucky enough to convince Aaron that he'd dropped Varis as the main source of investigation. That might at least stop the count from employing any active countermeasures against his digging, though he doubted it would do much to convince the man to drop his guard around whatever skeletons were lounging in the Sinnenodel closets.

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