[b][u]Sargon - Hisn-ul-Zahra City Plate - Rhodes Island Oripathy Clinic - Late afternoon[/u][/b]

Baltasar was distraught that Aisha had knocked out their only lead, but Minimalist was able to calm him down, admitting that he himself was here to search for a missing friend, but that it would be reckless to charge out into the desert unprepared. With that, the group returned to the Rhodes Island clinic. Baltasar went back to help out with the orphanage but requested to be contacted when Aisha invited them to confront the Victorians.

[color=a187be]"Did you find him?"[/color] Selim asked, but the look on everyone's faces told him all he needed to know.

Operator Polka had returned to the office by now and proceeded to treat Aoife with a mix of some soft music she played from her accordion and the use of some sonic equipment she borrowed from Selim. She could influence originium crystals with her musical arts, and could stabilize the volatile substance, slowing or preventing their further growth, but unable to reverse it. In this manner, she could stave off the impending progression of Aoife's oripathy, though she hoped one day that she would be able to cure it altogether.

A while later Earthspirit arrived. Her messenger duties brought her to Hisn-ul-Zahra, and she commented on how the gate security seemed particularly high-strung. Minimalist explained their encounter at the gate and the altercation that had supposedly preceded it. At the mention of a professor of Sargonology, Earthspirit's eyebrows furrowed. Sensing her concern, Minimalist pushed her to explain.

[color=FFFDD0]"I would hardly call the field of Sargonology a science as it is as much research as it is fiction, romanticism, and exotification. But it has become a very popular topic in Leithanien, which is troubling. A few years ago, a Sargonian tablet written in several ancient languages was discovered and brought back to Leithanien to be deciphered. The tablet regaled the rise to power and military exploits of a Sargonian dynasty referred to as the 'Sun Kings of Sargon'. Based on nothing but speculation, Leithanien poets and composers have been writing epic and fantastical operas about the 'Sun Kings', fabricating tragedy and drama, but it has captured the imagination and zeitgeist of the country. More concerning, however, is talk among the nobility that the power of the Sun Kings came from some ancient weapon, and if that is what the Victorians are here for, then either they're on a wild fowlbeast chase, or they have evidence to suggest that such a weapon is real."[/color]