Welcome to Gaia! ::

Arielle calmly watched and waited while Ophiuchus readied this package for Lin. He was truly a thoughtful man, she thought, to do this for a student. She admired and respected that, and liked to think that, if put in the same position, she would be doing a very similar thing. At his question, she paused for a moment.

"Lin likes... lilies,* I believe. She is such a dedicated student, and so eager to learn, that I do not often see the side of her that is not a student, but just a person. Or, I should correct myself, I do not see it quite as often as I would like. She's just such a nice girl..." Arielle trailed off, not wishing to ramble on like a crazy old lady (though she was neither crazy nor old) to Ophiuchus.

As she did so, she felt a sudden large spike in dark energy, and it caused her to sit up even straighter than before, her eyes widening at first in shock, then in slight fear, then calming slightly in recognition and resignation. She ignored the little pricks at her head, pain from the residual dark magic that was affecting her elven half. Nymphs, though essentially light creatures, are immune to the effects of dark magic's signature. Sadly, she did not inherit full immunity, though it is not difficult for her to simply choose to ignore the pains.

((*Laura, if that's not true (I admit that I didn't look very hard), please feel free to correct it.))

Elsewhere, Athena was beginning to get fed up. Ialo hadn't contacted her or anything to say when they were leaving to go save Danni, and it was starting to get old. What the hell was taking him so long? Why couldn't they just leave now? Ugh. That's it.

In five minutes, Athena-time, if he had not--

Oh, look. Five minutes is up. Leaving the class she was currently in (under the excuse of Please, can I use the bathroom? It's an emergency! and taking her bag for added effect), she walked quickly out and a short ways down the hall. Then she paused, glanced around, and began to sprint to Ialo wherever Ialo was. She planned on going to his office unless her sense of smell guided her elsewhere.

"Well... in and out," Ialo added. "I'm not really worried about PEOPLE coming after us as I am gravity... and other natural forces - like, say, combustion." He watched the screens for a moment, and was extremely nervous as the temperature graph on the convertor spiked considerably, before falling down again. "I think just unplugging it will work."

Athena paused outside of Ialo's office. He wasn't there; his scent wasn't strong enough. She sniffed heavily, following it... to the roof? Hiding none too carefully (or too intentionally), she listened as Ialo talked to Kai. There was something else going down? Something that involved explosions?

She shouldn't be there and she shouldn't know, but she wanted to help! Anything for a giant explosion! (Except giving up pasta.) Her tail wagged slightly in excitement, and she walked over to the two people. "Explosions?"

"Lilies are nice," Ophiuchus said absently. He glanced up at the sudden change in colors and the spike in dark magic, but he was hardly affected, not to the degree Lin and her Headmistress were. His expression was very thoughtful and serious as he continued to pile book and lessons into the box, and conjured up beautifully dried lilies. Real ones wouldn't travel well.

And that magic... Riser was regaining his strength. Admittedly, that was a good thing. Riser had proved to be a valuable ally, and had gone so far as to save everyone's lives (though Ophiuchus wasn't entirely sure why, or how). On the other hand, Ophi would have to tread carefully again. Existing was a very nice luxury. But if Riser chose to continue to stick around, Lin would not be able to return.

"Hey..." Ialo objected quietly. He didn't say anything else, because Athena was there. He had already allowed her to get involved with confronting the Ancients (not a brilliant idea, but Ialo needed to see for himself what they were doing with Danni's soul, and he had to bring back Ambrose. At least HE was still alive. Hopefully), he was certainly not going to let her follow him into a building filled with KNOWN dangers.

Arielle noticed how Ophiuchus simply ignored the dark magic--it seemed that it did not bother him, though she could tell the he knew it had happened. Someone with such an aura as Ophiuchus would have to be stupid to not have noticed it.

Concerned for Lin, she asked, "What was that?" Obviously, she knew what it was, but she was more curious about its reason and whether it was a common occurence. If it was, she did not know that Lin should return to Mystic Fountain at all. Dark magic was dangerous for her health.