What seemed like an eternity flew by before Veritas's knuckles hammered on the office door. Shinsou knew it was the electromancer straight away, simply from the manner of his rapping. It was as if a drunken man was knocking on his locked front door to wake his pissed off wife and this was always telling of the mood Storm was likely to be in.

Neither Shinsou nor Canen spoke again as Durandel slipped to the door and let both Veritas and Felicity Rhyolite enter in tandem. In every way possible, they were completely dissimilar; his best friend Storm with his ageing, hardened features, slicked dark hair with the odd fleck of grey, with hers flame red and wavy. His eyes seemed cold and his gaze sharp as he took in the sight of Canen next to Shinsou, whilst hers were wide and eager to explore. While Felicity was by nature a bright and emotive person, Veritas could be dry and introverted. While her smile was enthusiastic and endearing, his spoke of mischief and arrogance. They were both intelligent and athletic, but in vastly different ways; Shinsou wondered if it would take a miracle to get them to work together.

"Lord Osiris," Felicity stopped in the centre of the room, on the red carpet, and stood to attention respectfully. She seemed more tense than usual, and the Telgradian could probably guess why.

"Seems like everyone is on edge,” Storm finally spoke, breaking the fragile silence with a characteristically sculpted expression of neutrality on his face. He leaned against a nearby bookshelf, breathing deeply of the fresh tobacco he had lit in the well of his pipe. "A couple of the guards needed an attitude adjustment, as you probably gathered. Next time they'll remember whose hand it is that feeds their sorry asses. Anyway, I assume we're not here on a social call?"

Shinsou smiled as Felicity shot Storm a sideways glance whilst the wizard's eyes explored Canen. In turn, the Khaian seemed as bemused by him as Felicity. Anyone else would have considered the electromancer rude and uncouth, but the Telgradian knew him well and this was his way. “You assume correctly, my friend.” he replied, his voice low and melodic.

He outstretched a palm towards his guest, and then back to them. “Canen, this is the co-leader of the Brotherhood, Storm Veritas, and General Felicity Rhyolite. Now, Durandel will see to your needs, and I'd be grateful if you could follow him to the guest quarters. Please forgive me for not seeing to this myself, for I must discuss your information in detail with my colleagues and there is a lot to be done, as I'm sure you can appreciate.”

Accepting at last Shinsou's 'invitation' to leave, Canen noted the pair and nodded in acknowledgement before leaving the room with the elf. Finally, it was just the three of them.

"Canen is a Khaian," Almost immediately, Shinsou dived into the details, “Now, I doubt either of you have ever heard of a Khaian, as they are not native to Althanas, much like me. They have many interesting characteristics, but the most important one is that their people tend to live for hundreds of years and don't age. Why is that relevant?"

Neither Storm's nor Felicity's expressions wavered. He realised they'd probably grown accustomed to such long winded stories from him. He turned his gaze and looked through the window, at the scouring sun.

“This is why. Four hundred years ago, a man who happened to be called Arius Mephisto was the leader of an army called the Castigars. Canen claims to have lived in that time. He told me that he was part of a force dedicated to fighting him, and that they thought that he was trying to find ways to become immortal by fucking about with dark magic, specifically time. He obviously tried something and ended up destroying his original body, lost his physical form, and then Canen said he attached himself to a set of armour. They then called whatever the end product of this was 'ISOS', and after a skirmish he used a portal to escape. Storm, does this sound familiar to you?”

Veritas faltered with his pipe, raising his eyes to the ceiling in thought. "Bits. There was a set of armour here when we took over from the council. Executor ISOS's armour. But we destroyed that; every last bit, and there was no sign of anything living in it. So, can't be the same guy. The portals stack up though as Arius was keen on those. I don't know, Shin. This whole thing sounds like a crock of shit. How do we know Canen isn't a Mephisto plant, fucking with us?"

“Canen brought me a shard of the armour” Shinsou continued speaking, “It could only have existed in his time, before we destroyed it, or he's a fucking magnificent counterfeiter. I know it's a lot to gamble on, but either way, I'm working on a theory. Assuming all this is true, this means ISOS and Arius have always been one and the same, and the Arius we know is just a host body he subsumed when he got to our time. Can you see the issue?”

“…He could be anyone.”

The simplicity of Felicity's reply was cold water to a fire. There was a collective pause for a minute as everyone absorbed the statement.

Exactly. Which is why-

Storm could see the determinedly downcast lines of Shinsou's brow, and finished the Telgradian's thought.

"Which is probably why we can't find the fucker." he ventured.

“We have to flush him out, somehow,” Shinou answered, looking up at the pair again. As always, he caught the flicker of emotion in Felicity's eyes as they met hers; and then his gaze immediately escaped again to the neutrality of Storm's. "There are a whole host of scenarios. Number one; he could still be in his old body and just be very well protected; the last sighting of him was about four weeks ago. Number two, he's switched bodies and is going to keep doing this until he finds the right fit. Either way, the one common denominator is that if Canen is right, and I realise that's a big "if", he is looking for a powerful body; something unique."

The young woman took a deep breath. "How many special bodies are out there? How would he know where to look, or who to choose?"

“I don't know. Maybe he has an ability like mine, where he can somehow sense power. His current body allowed him to be quite proficient in magic, as me and Storm found out, but he's missing his ring finger now and that'll limit his ability to shut us out again." Shinsou replied, his voice low once more.

Again his words were simple, but they offered no solution. As the sun cast its glare over Whitevale, the convened mulled over the future with pause for thought.