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"Honestly? I can't say whether they came from the archives or not. Irisa did the researching portion of what we were to retrieve." Talon told him, leaving out the fact that he had no idea what was what in the Vatican itself. The rafters they'd spent most of their time hiding in could have been the archives for all he knew.

"The gloves were found when I wasn't present. As for the other items, they had been left under the guard of one of the priests there and were gathered from him."

Something about the way Julius had asked led Talon to believe he was about to be informed that all of this had been grossly incorrect. But if those hadn't been the correct items, what were they doing there and what HAD they been for?

Feeling pinned, as though Julius's eyes were boring straight into him through the blindfold, Talonfaust complied. Not because he wanted to, but because at this point, he felt there was no alternative BUT to.

"The first was the statue that emitted its own light." he began. "A tree had been set up in honor of Christmas and the statue had been placed at its top like a decorative angel. I had thought that strange, admittantly, that a relic mistaken as holy would be used in such a frivolous way. Irisa found out a day later that it had been the act of a boy being apprenticed by the priest keeping the items and suggested we keep an eye on him."

"The apron was acquired a few days later when the same boy was intending to flush it into the sewers. It had been crafted in such a way that not only was it impossible to dirty it, but it repelled filth of any form. We persuaded him to give it to us instead, and in doing so, were also given the name of the priest. It was decided Irisa would next search the priest's chamber for the remaining items while I kept him otherwise distracted. It was during this that she found the cube locked in a small chest."

"After getting the cube, we were met by the boy again. He had somehow come by the goggles and gave them to Irisa saying that the priest had thought that they had once been used to "see the truth". "

He paused then, trying to recall if he remembered anything else and found nothing had come to mind. Short of recounting the dialog of the encounters, that was as much detail as he was aware of.

Talon sighed a bit, his ears folding back in a chided manner. "I didn't have much of a choice, I'm afraid." he explained. "Initially I had thought the plan had been to get the artifact away from the boy without being seen or noticed as minimally as possible, but Irisa called out to him and approached before I could stop her."

Talon, unsure of what suddenly required quieter surroundings, only nodded in agreement and prepared to follow Julius into said office, feeling quite out of the loop and not liking it one iota. "All right."

Entering the office was like entering another world entirely as the homey feel of the shop was replaced with colder air and differently-colored wood. His wings flared slightly behind him in reaction to the cooler temperature...what -was- it with Julius and cold places?

Talon landed a short distance from Julius on the desk, enough to give the ancient a respectful amount of space, and nodded once. "It appears that way, yes." he said quietly. He was reminded again just how different of a place Earth was in comparison to Gaia...or the fact that no one here batted an eye at the sight of a fairy, bonded or not.

Talon cocked his head slightly, taken offguard. "I suppose so." he said at last, placing his hands behind his back and trusting that whatever it was Julius needed, it wouldn't be damaging to him. "What would you like me to do?"

Talon watched as Julius drew near and then, obediantly, offered out his left hand. For once, the even number of digits on that hand didn't concern him as he was sure someone who had lived as long as Julius had seen stranger.

Remembering the pain of his merging, Talon felt a swell of unease stir in his belly as he watched Julius and the efforts he was exerting. When the glow began and the beginnings of warmth enveloped his green-tipped fingers, his first impulse had been to recoil from the ancient's touch. However, he forced himself to remain collected and still.

Julius HAD given him the courteousy of warning him the merging would hurt despite the fact he'd already known, he had said nothing of the sort about this.