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Meanwhile, the night before on the Metropolis mission...
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Pointless... How utterly pointless.

So long they spent on pleasantries and yet nearly no time was spent in pursuit of this supposed agent of the Traveller that they were supposed to assist in catching. It seemed strange enough that a largely reclusive country would invite students to solve an internal dispute with agents of the Traveller. Any country with a self sufficient government would likely have mages of their own to take care of such matters so given how placid the state of matters was this was likely a political arrangement. As such Yalen's news came as no surprise to her.

[color=crimson]"I suspect until the traveller's agent forces their hand our 'escort' is unlikely to afford us much freedom to pursue clues."[/color]

_
Such was as much as she had to say on the matter for that night. The food was sufficient. She ate not to taste but to absorb a sufficient amount of nutrients for her body to distribute. Needless to say her meal was terminated far earlier than most of the other students who went about pursuing other matters whilst she returned to her room to wait. It was annoying to feel as useless as she felt here. Without grounding in the culture or even the language she was mostly left to support the efforts of the others, keeping her magic use minimal to avoid exposing too much of her specialties preemptively. She kept to mystical forms of scanning exclusively, waiting for a moment where her skills might be required.

Perhaps there was an eagerness to validate her art, to prove that she can do more good than harm with what she's studied. On the other hand she was quite happy with the night passing without a bloodbath. Having to demonstrate her skills publicly would put her at risk of more scrutiny and she had underwent more than her desired share of that already.

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Meanwhile, Metropolis mission, present day...
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It was no mystery to her that some of her team members had gone out during the night to engage in extra-judicial activities. She had that particular matter already factored into this investigation plan. What bothered her was that she was unable to keep track of them. Without means of contacting them it would have been all to easy for any one of them to have been killed without any hope of interception from the main group body. Aside from that the main consequence appeared to be that their efforts over the night left them lacking in fervor for the daytime. Rookie behavior really.

Trypano ate little and spoke even less. Small talk was for small people. She had some respect for those who could pick through the broken language of these people and gather small hints of info from it but she had her suspicions that many of her schoolmates were not conversing tactically. Alas, it spared her the time to review the details around them while they were caught up in this theater of words.

_
The land was much like a wealthy lord's trophy wife, plenty of splendor and glitter. As they say however heavy makeup conceals the bruising. She looked not for all that was good with this land for a land that was good would have no need for their ilk around. Her eyes looked to the people around them. Their guides, their guards, possibly other things concealing themselves magically. Beneath all the gold, silver, silk and armor her attention was on the meat stuffed within. Who was weary, who's pulse was higher than resting, which guards were watching and which were otherwise occupied. As an outsider she studied them as an outsider might, peering at their little lives from above, perhaps literally given her height.

Only the folders on the details of the murders they were meant to be investigating took her attention away from this. She had made a request to see the bodies themselves but it seemed they would need to receive clearance first before they'd be authorized to inspect them. Something told her that they were unlikely to gleam anything useful from the evidence by the time it would be sanitized for their viewing. She'd need to wait for a fresher corpse to inspect, something she was sure would be showing up given these recent spikes in magic activity.

_
Much rhetoric was spoken by the Exemplar Wu Long as well as the captain in regards to their own land. She listened, but in lieu of response she kept her focus on the states of those around her. Words were plenty and cheap to trade but a bullet or well placed dark bolt could shift the dynamic of this conversation drastically should they be caught unawares. Out of politeness she ate alongside the others but she did not drink and her eating was purposefully slow, taking in little while her mind remained alert. The opportunity to wax philosophically on their culture was better spared for times when other's lives were not at stake.

It seemed an incident was taking place nearby. The guards seemed uneasy but the Exemplar thought it fit to let them spectate this, perhaps as a demonstration of sorts. A flexing of their power or even a subtle warning.

Of course Kaureerah, seemingly unaware of their own situation, exclaimed in righteous shock at this. One of the others would be better fit to de-escalate this situation, she would not weigh in on this matter.

She quietly hoped her team members had a single diplomatic bone in their bodies. Having to help them survive a blood-bath against Retan's many magi would be grueling and an international incident to say the least. All attention she definitely didn't need.
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Involved - [@dragonpiece],[@Force and Fury],[@YummyYummy],[@pantothenic],[@McKennaJ71],[@Ti].