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Chad paid little mind to the conversation at hand, at least outwardly, and instead contented himself by polishing one of his fangs with his tongue. There was still a little blood on it from earlier. A finger came up to wipe at the corner of his mouth and, as suspected, it too came away with a smear of red. He'd been certain to not let even a drop leak out from that guard and onto the floor, but apparently he'd been less meticulous with his own cleanliness. How careless; she didn't even taste that great. Oh well, no harm done.

That small excitement aside, this operation had been far too boring for the vampire's tastes. He'd been promised a grand conflict with the nearby fortress, and instead he'd been relegated to rescuing idiot mages who'd probably already had their minds torn asunder weeks ago. It didn't help that Dionne's progeny droned on like she was in charge of the operation. Was that his purpose here? Protect daughter dearest from the big bad security guards who'd been left behind when they vacated this dump? At least she had the presence of mind to word her thoughts as suggestions rather than orders, though it was almost cute that she thought he'd need to be reminded to listen for footsteps and hadn't been doing just that since the moment they entered.

Once again, his attention waned as the little purple boy steered the conversation to an explanation of his parlor trick. At least, Chad was pretty sure that was a boy - he initially considered it might be a flat-chested lesbian with a bad haircut, but the voice suggested otherwise. Great Anastasia, what were they feeding mages these days? Andrei's mother had looked more masculine while eight months pregnant than Casper and Purple Nurple did under the best of circumstances. 

Chad expected the Eve's input to be more valuable, but he only offered a question of limited importance. Judging by the way he eyed the girl, he was either one of Dionne's sycophants or he somehow found the situation to be incredibly amusing. The Astorio sincerely hoped it was the latter, or this reassignment might actually become irritating.

[color=00cc66]"I guess we either drag the first one we find along or we stuff them somewhere safe and come get them after we've located the rest,"[/color] Chad answered with indifferent ease, as if they were discussing the logistics of navigating a grocery store rather than a potentially dangerous imperial prison. [color=00cc66]"I'm not averse to splitting up, but I think our little mages have recently become joined at the hip and I'd hate to leave them without a chaperone."[/color]

The larger group definitely posed more of a risk of discovery, but they were bound to notice that the last girl stopped checking in eventually and raise the alarm regardless. Besides, with how deserted the compound was, they'd probably be able to fight their way out if it came to it.

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