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He'd misplaced the password to the email he used with Aventine, and there was no guarantee even that she would know some other random knight. In fact, there still wasn't any GOOD way to get a hold of the knights, as a senshi, short of having the glorious key of civilian identity which was a lot to ask. It was a toss up of randomly messaging every senshi and mauvian he knew or just hunting out every knight aura he felt in the city for 72 hours and hoping that the Mars Knight patrolled with some sort of regularity. As in frequent enough that it was inevitable to find him since there couldn't be that many full knights wandering about the city with any regularity since he'd barely met any himself.

It was somewhere around hour 60.
Thraen was exhausted.
Knight auras were hard to find in general of any sort, mostly just youma here and there and the occasional Lieutenant or Scout. Finally one appeared, faint a some distance away, moving. Patrolling I bet.

He shifted to a sprint again, surfing a bus briefly and then hopped to run along an overpass barrier wall while looking down on one of the loop roads that ingressed and egressed near one of the smaller freight and shipping airports. There were some large swaths of parking pave and abandoned auxiliary runways that were too short for the modern planes and no longer used since the economy crash and gas prices had grounded most of the small puddle jumper styled couriers.

There was the sound of a motorcycle, and he could see the lights of it along one of those runways from one of the rusticating hangars. With no other signs of life, chances were that it was the knight. The Eternal of gardens made his way down from the egress in leaps from street light to street light.

There's no way I can run as fast as a motorcycle even with an eternal's power. But since I'm the only other person here, maybe they'll come meet me up as well partway. Please let it be a mars knight, even if it isn't Kairatos. Even a mars knight must know how and where to find him.

A silhouette well festooned with too many flowers, branches and vines. Sad all the more that the uniform, for all its connection to gardens, didn't at least see fit to alter blooms to the seasons. Thraen did continue, making his way until he was hearing distance and heard the words offered.

It sounded the same.

"Kairatos?" It was called back in the minute or two before he was actual conversational distance, and forced to walk out the sprint that had been a necessity to cover distance belied by the human eye to detect candela in the dark.

Thraen lifted a hand as he paced by way of initial, not particularly suave, greeting. When he could speak connectedly he finally offered, "I was looking for you."

That's fairly obvious. Come one. 60 hours, and you've gone stupid.

"You're helping Bischofite. The starseed picture. "

"It hasn't. Bischofite told his lover, as they're working together on trying to keep him together long enough to make a second try. " Whether that was painfully obvious or subtle hiding of the connection, Thraen wasn't certain. It didn't serve the situation to leave anything hidden, in this case. Not if there was really going to be understanding of how dangerous things could be. "Alois told Quenton. Me."

Awkward enough in the moment holding his throat to find my enemy of the eve was the man I'd spent the morning with. Hindsight has made that no less surreal. And Faust's words....all this no less stupid.

"He's losing ground in keeping his resolve and awareness of his shackles. There's not much time for him internally, which may be some part of why no external punishment has come down on him. Metallia might be perfectly aware and confident that even this rebellion too will pass.

"Have you managed any feedback from anyone, research or progress on ....what the differences may point to? "

"Since at least the White Phoenix offensive organized by Wolframite, " Thraen nodded, hoping that the concur in knowledge was enough to let Kairatos know that he'd at least talked with Zirconia about the mirror starseeds. Even if there still wasn't much to go on with them other than they were coated and reacted strangely to Zia's magic. No other breakthroughs that he knew of.

No other breakthroughs.... The thought held in his mind as Kairatos shared the picture of the mangled starseed. "It doesn't look like the ones I've retaken from agents."

Surface observations of Alois' starseeds were about as useful as the ones of the mirrorstarseed- not at all helpful unless it pointed to some experiment or technique that might produce some change, effect, or cure.

The accusation didn't even ripple the stoic stone of Thraen's visage, or even deeper beneath where emotions did run apart from decisions. It was fair enough to accuse in such instances. People had very differing beliefs and reads of how situations of that sort stood in symbolic and in actual effect. "Be angry, if you wish."

"Euthanasia is a tricky moral argument in any field, let alone a war in which there is a magical infection with effects the autonomy of the very brains and emotions of a being. You mistake where the value and worth were, or what was being done, or maybe you believe very different strictures of the definition of love."

"Which is the greater injustice, Kairatos- to help to kill your lover, saving them pain, saving them from becoming a puppet in actions to a will dominating and overmastering their own so completely that they have become a monster? Or leaving them to it- offering their mind and reason over to Metallia to devour. Saying that just being alive is so precious and my own hands so pristine and I cannot love them enough to save them because of that? Alois made many of his own decisions, bad ones, that made more monster of him than ever Metallia did. But at the time we did not know that she would be patient in his trying to be free. It seemed certain that the General Sovereigns would know, would leash him further or some other mangling as sure as one appeared unannounced and unlooked for to save Leto's last moments. Alois was in full agreement, consenting. I do not ask you to agree yourself to the strictures, or even to understand euthanasia if it is not in your nature. Try me as a murderer if you like when the time comes. But please don't get in the way if it comes to that necessity again. As Bischofite he has ruined tens if not hundreds of lives with his schemes. If purification through some other ritual combination cannot end that legacy, the choice of a quiet death does."

"When does and does not Big Brother watch...what does or does not Metallia know of when her puppets try to cut their own strings?"

"He survived. He came to me. We talked. There is time to try again, as long as the sword of damocles just dangles and has not fallen. He will try again, at least he was convinced of the effort as I spoke to him. As I said, time IS running out. Alois' strength is neither in his will or his patience- a feature that has made he and I complementary to each other. "

Thraen considered the grasses and broken asphalt around them, the hollow eyes and mouths of the abandoned hangars, "Zirconia hasn't been able to crack the mirror starseeds. I expect other than 'that looks strange' there wasn't much to offer on Alois' starseed either. There's no starseed surgery magic out there forthcoming to try as a new procedure and the only people who can touch them ad nauseam are the Negaverse. With no more research available, its is all just stabbing in the dark with different variables. "

"Have you been to other purifications? Iris had others with her to spirit her away out of her own power. Can it only be attempted on a timeframe determined by something? "

Thraen considered the words and tone offered, stepped back with slow and deliberate grace from the knight's weapon distance and nodded. He doubly kept his own tone devoid of emotional inflection.

"It wasn't meant as a lecture, rather an explanation, " the barrage of curse words peppering personal values of when someone was trying enough in his magnanimous estimations was as much a lecture on the defined grounds. It was also vehement enough that it was plain that whatever views Thraen himself held were neither welcome nor up for consideration. They were even actively spat on- 's**t behavior'.

Here is one taken his way or the highway, I suppose. And what choices do I ultimately. There are people willing to work with Alois. So I am beholden to their whims to see him still helped. I will do my best not to sabotage your better methods and encouragements, Knight. Plainly they are working so very well.

"I wasn't asking you to personally speed up everything. I don't know how purification magic works. Who's energy it uses, how a royal is able to manage it, how often they can- these are not points that have been shared public knowledge. Nor inborn. " This was gone south fast. Apologizing for troubling him would probably just be interpreted as petulant hostilities. Speaking at all, then, was a mistake. And so was just leaving and looking for some other source of help and knowledge. "If you have any of those answers, I would appreciate the answers. If you don't, I will keep looking."

Damned either way with this one. How pleasant. I would have managed that speaking to Iris herself. Maybe Irene? She didn't volunteer much at the Black Watch, so the whole team must be cagey about what information they share with others and who does it. Good for protecting themselves, I guess. I don't know. This is a dead end- what do I try next. Who has a chance of having some piece of information that could help....even Aquarius is lost to me, who seemed to study and know much.

"There's nothing for it then to keep up with the risk of questions to those who might know, or who proposing experiments to those with the power and objects to experiment with then. Even knowing what doors are closed is something. Thank you, Kairatos, for at least answering."

Thraen gave a respectful nod, backing another step before turning on heel, "A better night to you."