[centre][h2]Morgana Faith[/h2][/centre]

As she watched the teams of agents from the OMR arrive at the compound in the aftermath of the battle, as she saw the Golem’s inert remains be hauled away for investigation and squads of dedicated curse-breakers scuttle around doing their dangerous work, Morgana wondered if she was supposed to be developing a taste for situations like this. Whether the excitement and adrenaline of field work was supposed to thrill her, to provide a change of pace from her usual, comparatively mundane lab work and entice her towards becoming an agent; to be more like Madeleine or Xaviron or Faye. That when she went back to her lab in England and didn’t have to worry about rampaging, untethered spirits, cultist armed with abominable knives and so on, she would find the peace of it all unbearable and long for the action again.

That sounded like the kind of thing that was meant to happen. It was how it would go in a story at the very least; the pulpy kind with the rather [i]interestingly[/i] dressed characters on the front cover.

As it was, Morgana couldn’t wait to see the back of this whole mess and get back to her regular job.

There was something to be said for being put into a situation where her knowledge and expertise was tested on the fly; having to prepare rituals and sealing circles on the fly was an interesting exercise and it was good to know her years of study was not incompatible with the task. But she longed to return to her previous work, to go back to tearing down the superfluous foundational concepts of magic and correct centuries and millennia of assumptions and superstition. But the experience was not without merit, to be sure.

Madeleine approached her as she stood and watched the activity around the camp, commenting on how her presence had made defeating the Golem [i]easy[/i]; not possible, easier. Strangely it didn’t come as a surprise to hear that the demoness had fought and defeated similar constructs before, nr that she was confident enough to do so again. The researcher and the warrior certainly were a breed. [color=c4df9b]“Less quick-thinking and more an excessive amount of trivia, really; I know enough about Golem’s to know their weakness, as do you. We’re just lucky the creator left behind notes on its construction.”[/color]

The suggestion of bonding time was unexpected. They had gone out for that meal together, what felt like weeks ago now, but aside from that Morgana hadn’t exactly been cordial with her co-workers. It wasn’t something she was particularly interested in, to be honest. She was a solitary type and focused on her work over her social life, so forming friendships with other people in the OMR had never been something she’d thought to do. All of her relationships at the moment were professional… and familial. Morgana had little desire to change that.

[color=c4df9b]“What happens next? Now that we’ve dealt with this little distraction.”[/color] They had come here because the cult was connected to their investigation and also because Madeleine felt they could handle it better than the local agents; that [i]she[/i] could handle it better. They were also here because they suspected that her family had some kind of connection to them, which Morgana had wanted to see for herself if it was true.

Now that she was here she could say the idea was… possible. The Golem certainly had nothing to do with her family and almost all of the curses that Madeleine had tripped or had thrown at her were generic fare; basic maledictions that could have come from any number of places, not necessarily sold to them by a very specific coven of witches. But some of the things that she had glimpsed while searching for the Golem’s maker, some of the notes on the blackboard or in the notebook…

She would need to take a second, closer look to be sure and something told her that she wouldn’t be permitted to do so if she tried, but the idea that this group had contact with witches was... probable. No, it was likely. But would it be [i]them[/i] in particular? Would it be her mother? Morgana had a low opinion of the woman, sure, but she knew that her mother didn’t do things without purpose; and often that purpose was substantial personal gain. But she couldn’t see the advantage to becoming party to this.

But if her mother was. If she had. If all of this was driving them towards a confrontation Morgana had been carefully screening her calls to avoid, what would she do?

[@Kumbaris]