"It's like an illusion but it doesn't need a person controlling it," he says, then steps through the pink energy field—

—and promptly disappears.

Sure, okay, through the pink energy field she goes.

The sensation is not quite the same as using a waypoint but it's similar enough that they probably have some magic/technology in common. On the other side, there's a subterranean lab.

James is waiting for her behind the stone console straight ahead.

It'd make sense if this worked a bit like the waypoints, they're both made by asura.

Time to follow James some more! She did say she'd be a duckling yesterday, didn't she.

("Bah. Forced to mingle with the rabble," one of the asura researchers mutters when she steps through.)

James types something into the console then says, "Okay, back through the same gate."

She gives the asura researcher in question a raised eyebrow, and then: yep, back through the same gate, she guesses!

And on the other side: another lab! Only Rytlock and an asura even tinier than the other ones are there, though.

    "Took your sweet time," the asura says, looking up from the console at the pair.

"Taimi!" James replies in his business voice. "Please tell me there was some sort of calculations error. Primordus is really active?"

    "An error? You think I made an—hey, good to see you too. And nice to meet you, not-a-princess."

"Sorry. I didn't think we'd be dealing with another dragon so soon."

Not-a-princess waves at Rytlock, then curtsies politely to Taimi. "Nice to meet you in person, too, Taimi."

Rytlock sniffs the air... and makes some sort of charr facial expression at James and Vetareh.

"So, about the dragon, I have good news and bad news..."

"What's the bad news?"

"Great idea! Good news first!" she says, and starts walking with a noticeable limp towards two hexagonal tiles with consoles. "Feast your eyes and blindfolds on this!"

She notes the charr facial expression, but not having exactly interacted with many charr, she doesn't know what it means. The air sniff and direction of the facial expression implies some things, though. It's not very hard to guess what he just figured out. A bath doesn't help a ton with getting the smell of each other off if they have it together. She's kind of uncomfortable about this information being available to the public, and shifts her weight a bit from one foot to another. Still, she's not sorry, ashamed, or interested in denying it. If anyone tries to tell her she was wrong to spend the night with him, then she has a knife and a couple hexes they can introduce themselves to. Rytlock doesn't exactly have a gaze to meet, but she can give him a calm, steady look of 'Yes, and?' She is completely certain that no one on that floating rock is going to be surprised that she and James are sleeping together. No one. Well, maybe the minister. He seemed kind of dense.

The fact that charr seem to be able to tell who has been intimate is... good to know, though, she guesses. She really wishes that information were not under their purview, but apparently it is, and it's not like anyone can do anything about that. There might be a spell for disguising it, or they could take separate baths, or—but no, she doesn't actually want to arrange her personal life around this. They get confirmation of a thing that most smart people would eventually figure out on their own, good for them, it's still not their damn business.

Her eyebrows quirk a bit when Taimi pretends James asked about the good news first, but, okay, sure, eye feasting may commence?

Other than whatever charr facial expression he directed them, Rytlock doesn't seem to want to comment on it, and instead elects to "look" at Taimi and say, "Different tile on the ground? Impressive."

"No! This is another one of Rata Novus's secrets I discovered!"  she says. "Stand there and you'll be ported to this crazy simulation room the Novans developed but never finished. —sorry, there's only two," she tells Vetareh.

"That's all right, there were a few things I wanted to work on anyway. And realistically speaking, if put in a crazy simulation room, I am going to be too distracted by the crazy simulation itself to pay attention to anything actually going on in it."

"So you managed to finish this, then?"

"Well... no. I couldn't... you know... figure it out."

"What's that?" Rytlock asks, maybe a tad too amused.

"I couldn't figure it out, okay?" she admits. "Just so happens to fall outside my giant, incredibly deep pool of knowledge—whatever! It works now. I called in Moto, an asura with some experience in that realm. He got it up and running for me!"

"Is it built for running many kinds of crazy simulations, or is it more specialized?" she asks, and then she clamps down on the next five questions she wants to ask because there is a Dragon on the loose. Somehow, she suspects that Taimi is the sort of person that could fall into a magical theory talk for hours. Sort of like her. As a responsible adult, Vetareh would like to keep on track.

"It can process numerous experimental theories and, yes, 'crazy simulations,' but the Rata Novans developed it to test themselves against various Primordus minions."

But how does it process the numerous experimental theories, how does it calculate what things to show, how in-depth is the simulation's simulations, does it do touch and heat and the like, does it also simulate magic that enemies use, by what mechanism does it do any of this, what is the construction of the systems, how—

Learning all of the details of how this works is not conducive to being a better mesmer in a more modern time. She was already clamping down on her urge to ask questions, but now she has to do it hard enough that she... can't actually think of things to say. There are only questions. That she cannot say.

James watches the procession of thoughts going through Vetareh's head as reflected on her face and laughs then shakes his head. "I'm sure you'll be able to ask Taimi all about it later." He looks at the asura. "You probably did not call us here just to show Moto's genius off."

"I don't know if I should be offended by that. I'll choose not to. Anyway, yeah, wanna check it out?"