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Hello once again, Scienteers! It has been a busy week to say the least, and while I cannot share any of the progress I've made on my scientific endeavors at this time, I hope you will take my word for it when I say that I may have made some of the most monumental progress of any researcher of this day and age! Of course, maybe I shouldn't get too far ahead of myself, but given that I was able to finally wrangle in that project that kept making me lose days of my life, I would say I am getting closer to a real scientific breakthrough in the near future! Granted...if my theory doesn't work out the next time I try it, then I'm back to the drawing board, but we'll have to see. That's not what I'm here to talk with you all about, though. It appears that a decision has been reached with regard to our AEI friend, Hero's Journey! In case you missed last week's update, here is a recap for you.

Hero's Journey:

The stealth mission into Voleur Den seemed the smarter choice, and Vander only had to shoot Mason down once about charging into the den before the mercenary relented. Instead, they crept into the den, and found that sneaking their way in was...easier than expected. In fact, there were no thieves around at all, save for one—the girl. She was sitting on an old looking sofa, and next to her there was a small pile of belongings. As soon as Mason spotted the thief, he scowled and marched right up to her.

"Oh brother. HEY. What did I tell you about stealing things from other people?! You can't just take money from people like that and then run." With a smirk, he added, "At least not without giving me a heads up first when you do it."

The thief scowled back and looked away from him with a snarl. "Whatever. It's not my fault that you couldn't keep up. Maybe if you focused less on muscle and more on moving, you would have caught up to me sooner."

Vander stared at the both of them, mouth ajar. When he didn't react, Mason let out a loud, warm laugh that echoed around the chamber, then turned back to face Vander. "Sorry for all the trouble. My sister likes to grab things from people and bail sometimes. She's gonna return what she took from you back now though, and we'll help you find your missing friend to make it up to you. Isn't that right, Madeira?"

Madeira the thief snarled, but begrudgingly got up and returned Vander's wallet to him. Vander was relieved to discover that not only was his wallet still intact, but all of the money he'd had was still inside it. He looked at the remaining pile of items, increasingly certain that none of them belonged to her in the first place. Mason looked at the pile and seemed to think the same. "What about all this other stuff? Where did you get this all from, who does it need to be returned to?"

Refusing to make eye contact with Mason, Madeira said nothing. She shuffled her feet across the ground, then finally muttered, "Doesn't matter."

Vander ignored their conversation in favor of staring at a locket in the pile, one that he knew he'd seen on more than one occasion. He finally raised a hand, and the siblings stopped speaking, both looking at him with surprise. "That locket. It's Aidah's. Where did you get it? Where did you find that?!"

Madeira stared at it, then shrugged. "Dunno, some white-haired guy had it, I just took it because it looked shiny and I wanted to keep it for myself, ya know..."

Madeira kept talking, but Vander tuned her out. His options were to try and find clues leading to the creature that had captured Aidah, or try to find this white-haired man that somehow had Aidah's locket. Both seemed like they could lead to Aidah, or they could send him on a wild goose chase. No matter which, it was going to be an uphill battle, but with his wallet back, Lyel at his side, and now Mason and Madeira helping him out, he felt like at least he might stand a chance. He just had to decide what to do.

Last week, I asked you all to once again decide the fate of our unfortunate hero and his slowly growing party as they try to save Aidah. After what seems like very little deliberation, you all appear to have reached a consensus about what the team should do next! From here, Vander and the team will try to find the white-haired man! Of course, this leaves me a lot of work to do as far as experimentation goes, but the bright side is that I think I can put off my other project for a little while, now that I think I've finally found a breakthrough! We'll see what that project has in store for me later, and I'll be back next week with an update on our AEI friend. Until then, Sciencers!