"Damn it." Hal cursed.

"But very well." he said.

"I will do all I can to find out what's happened. And try and stop this from happening again." he assured her, using her own words.

"It may be tied to this Vyran person, but that's just a theory." he went on.

"I'll see if anyone I was meeting with knows anything about it, or has any sort of lead."

"I shall do so." Hal responded.

"I promise." he said.

With that, they exchanged good-byes, and he left, making his way back down to the planning session.

"My apologies." he said as he entered.

"It seems that the situation has gotten far more complicated suddenly." he told her.

"A nexus has been shut down. Disappeared."

Hal was silent for a moment.

"...that's right." he said.

"She told me it was Stongehenge. A recent nexus that very few people knew about." he went on.

"How did...?" he started to ask, before pausing.

"I know how." he sighed.

"That's where your base is, isn't it?"

Azazel, who was there as well, merely sighed.

"Makes sense." he said.

"Being situated on a nexus would be the optimal location for you. Especially one as new as that one, in a place that's rumoured to just have mystical powers anyway." he reasoned.

"Hiding in plain sight." Hal summarised.

"Or a variation thereof." Azazel clarified.

"Regardless, that means Vyran has actually succeeded in commandeering and absorbing a nexus." Hal then said, his tone heavy.

"I'm going to have to." Hal responded.

"The problem is, we have very little knowledge about Vyran." he said.

"We have what Icesska told us, and what YOU'VE told us, but Icesska is no longer here." he went on. "The only other one that we might need... and when I say 'might', I mean 'probably definitely', is Lyrei." he told her.

"But she is unconscious, and none of us know how to wake her up." he lamented.

"I remember she told me that she is the crux of Runes, and that to wake a crux up, another crux is needed, or similar magic needs to be imbued within them." he continued. "And the closest we come to that is the mana produced by runestones." he said further.

"But it is effectively a lost, forgotten, and dead practice."

Hal raised an eyebrow when he saw the newcomer.

"Eh?" he mumbled.

"We have a patient in the medical wing. Name's Lyrei." he told her.

"She is essentially the key to saving our realm, but she is unconscious and the only realistic way we have of reviving her is to use runestones." he explained, truncating it severely, but still getting the point across.

"Why?" he asked.

Hal accepted the folder and nodded.

"Thank you." he responded.

"The fact that you even know of runestones is impressive." he then told her. "It's not something that comes up often? Might as well say it's forgotten knowledge. Relegated to nothing more than mere legend and fiction, even among OUR circles."{/b] he said further.

[b]"Regardless, thank you." he repeated.

"I'll make a note you finished it and wrapped it up, and file it away later."

Her smirk had not gone unnoticed by Hal, but he decided not to say anything.

He didn't like when Vanessa seemed to have eyes for one of his employees or friends, but they were under a truce right now. And she seemed to be honouring it completely. So he would extend that respect, and not say anything.

For now.

He then sighed, shook his head, and looked at the papers they had.

"Regardless, we need to think up a plan of attack that seems like it would have SOME degree of success."

"Indeed." Hal responded.

"Azari is the kink in all this." he said.

"Well... one of them..." he then mumbled.

"As you said, Vyran has a puppet that is knowledgeable about the complex, which puts him at less of a disadvantage. The other is that he is insanely powerful now that he has control of, and has absorbed, the nexus." he said further.

"That is not as immediate of a concern as one may think." Azazel chimed in.

"Oh?" Hal asked.

"As far as I know, nobody as ever successfully done this in the history of... well, anything. However, theoretically speaking, I don't care HOW strong one is, when you absorb THAT much power, it's going to take everything you have to not explode from it. One would need to properly contain it until one learned to control it." he said further.

"I'd guess, from what I've heard of him, he'll be vulnerable... relatively speaking... for 4 or 5 days." he finished.

"I'd go as far as to say that's unthinkable." Azazel told her.

"If I were to wager a guess, at this point, he's probably laid up... wherever... in the complex, and he's using most of his energy and will to contain the nexus' power." he said further. "And a little to maintain his hold on Azari, to act as a guard of sorts." he went on.

"So we don't have ALL the time in the world, but odds are Vyran will not want to act hastily." he continued.

"If he moves in such a vulnerable state, then we will be able to intercept, and make him lose his old on that power." Hal concluded.

"Precisely." Azazel confirmed.

"For now, we need to concern ourselves with a proper team to invade the complex."