[h3][color=thistle]Io[/color][/h3]

The slowly shifting mist of knowledge swirled around Io as she meditated. It was in disorder. There wasn't supposed to be any movement, or flow to it. It was supposed to be completely static, unchanging, crystalline. Each mote of experience in lockstep, equidistant to the previous and next. 

This chaos vexed Io.

It had to end.

[hr]

Io 'awoke' against the cool earth. '[color=thistle]How long has it been?[/color]' She had lost track of time with her meditation. It was perhaps no fabrication to assert that Io had needed time to rest - perhaps not exactly in the same way as a living thing would, but in an approximate fashion. 

She rose to her feet. Given the impression she had left on the soft ground, she must have began thinking and became engrossed enough in the task to fall to the ground, where she must have laid for at least a whole night. She dusted herself off with a simple cleaning spell, getting a bearing on her surroundings - and a letter rolled from within her hood.

Nobody had bothered to carry her body anywhere, or perhaps even worse, bury her (as she likely appeared and felt like a corpse as she was lost in thought). Io mused that a letter was a positive outcome as she opened and read it.

'[color=thistle]Ah. This...[/color]' Io had just sorted her mind out, and yet she had a foreboding sense that she would need another stretch of meditation after this new event was done. She clasped the invitation in her hand as a cool, humid wind blew across her. '[color=thistle]Well. It could have already started, for all I know.[/color]' She set out for the temple grounds where the Task Force had met up before setting out previously, hoping to find someone there.

The weather had seemingly no effect on the residents, and they were as busy as ever preparing food - apparently for the Task Force before their mission. She had no appetite for the food - but a surprisingly appealing topic had cropped up on magical armor. Io barged in on the dining area in the most dynamic way a petite mage such as herself could manage.

"[color=thistle][b]Enhancing armor for channeling magic is an extremely interesting topic. Which approach does this armor take? Attuned metal? Inscriptions? Electrum plating? Artificial gates? Mana contacts? It couldn't possibly be micro-leylines?![/b][/color]" That arm of her research was hotly contested... when she was still alive, that is. Just the thought of it had excited Io.

After a moment, Io remembered the initial reason why she had come to the temple. "[b][color=thistle]Ah. And this.[/color][/b]" Io held the invitation up. "[color=thistle][b]It must have been delivered when I was busy... thinking.[/b][/color]" She eyed the other task force members that were already present - which happened to be... The majority of the males on the task force. She doubted her entrance would look great to any of them, but the allure of channeling mechanics had proven too irresistible.