Rytlock snorts. "She got that right."

"Well at least someone here's willing to share the juicy details."

James glances at Vetareh, then says, "Okay, okay. We're all on the same team here. Rytlock is gonna share what he's comfortable with sharing when he wants to share it." James doesn't look comfortable with this but such is life.

Vetareh's pretty comfortable not talking about the Mists at all right now, yep. Factual 'this is what the Mists are like' is sort of okay, but starting to edge into dangerous territory with terrifying beasts made out of emotions. Emotional beasts are not things one tangles with lightly. Talking about her experiences, or someone else's experiences is worse, it's...

...Nope. Not right now. She's not doing it and they can't make her and they can't make Rytlock, either. She will deal with her baggage later, along with addressing the 'Orr' problem. It is only fair that she gets some time to exist in the world without having to get dragged right back to the Mists and to Orr, that goes for Rytlock, too.

She nods at James's assertion, and obligingly changes the subject. "So as I see it, the problem is not actually that the Dragons exist, per say. The problem is that they wake up and kill people and eat magic. Could we figure out ways to prevent them from eating, and maybe send them back to bed?"

"The problem with that is that they wake in cycles. Even if we made them go to bed, that would just be buying time, not solving anything."

"Buying time so we can solve it is important too," she points out, mildly. "But yeah, I don't particularly want to spend the rest of my life tiptoing around sleeping Dragons, either."

"And so far we have killed two of them so we know they can be killed," grunts Rytlock, a bit impatiently. "We don't know anything about sleeping dragons or stopping magic."

"Actually!"

"Go on, Taimi, I know you're dying to tell us this."

She grins—asuran facial expressions are much more similar to human ones than Charr. "First, remember my chak organ?"

"That horribly disgusting body part of an even more horribly disgusting giant bug you keep in a despicable blighting pod fluid?" asks James, in a careful deadpan. "Yes, I remember, despite desperately trying to forget."

"I named it Spencer!"

"And it's somehow more disturbing."

"Don't listen to them, Spence!" says Taimi, starting to limp over to a different desk.

... Vetareh giggles, a little.

"I think I don't need to gaze upon Spencer's majesty, personally. What does it, ah, do?"

"Slow down, not-princess, I'm getting there!" She eventually reaches the other desk, which contains a cylindrical glass tube with some green liquid inside it, and floating in the liquid there's some sort of kidney-like organ. "When I first started messing with Spencer, I found out that it altered magic in a way I... couldn't quite figure out," she explains, for Vetareh's sake. "But I finally cracked it, and it's paradigm-shifting!" She looks at James. "The chak feed off ley energy, right? And we know that each dragon has a 'domain' when it comes to their magic; Zhaitan's was death, obviously. Well you know what's guaranteed to give chak a bad stomachache? Death magic! Spencer filters 'death' out of ley energy!"

"Oh, that's interesting, do you know if there are other creatures of this type that might filter other types of magic?"

"Not a clue! As far as we know, chak are unique—well, other than dragons I guess—but among normal creatures chak are the only ones that feed on magic like that."

"As much as I love discussing minutiae, how does this help us?"

"I don't know yet... But I will! I'll never sleep again! Now, I'm sure you're anxious to try out your moves against the real thing in the Fire Islands, so let's head back to the main lab."

Vetareh nods and amiably heads lab-wards. "Magic buildup of specific types can lead to creatures taking on characteristics from the magic. So, lots of death-flavored magic in an area can lead to lots of creatures with death magic. I think it'd be good for cleaning up areas where a lot of nasty magic occurred and making them more livable. Though I suppose with only death magic, if it only does the one type." Like, oh, Orr. The place where the dragon of death marauded around a lot. Like that.

But she does not want to talk about Orr right now so she does not bring this up.

"I bet that could be used in Orr," Taimi says, before stepping through the gate.

On the other side, two charr in military outfits seem to be waiting.

    "Rytlock Brimstone," one of them says.

"That's 'Tribune' to you, soldier."

    "Not any more, it's not. You've ignored numerous requests from the Black Citadel to account for your time in the Mists and explain this new... magic. Thus, you've been stripped of your rank and are hereby charged with dereliction of duty."

...

She doesn't think she likes a group that forces one of its members to talk about something as unpleasant as the Mists by arresting them if they don't. She makes an expression, but doesn't speak. This is Rytlock's show.

She'll just quietly recast her enchantment in case that happens to be necessary. For some reason. Like Rytlock resisting arrest, or something.

    "You're to come with us, Rytlock... Sir," says the other charr.

"And if I don't?"

        "We've been authorized to use force," the first one explains.

    "But we'd hate to cause a scene," the second hastily adds.

"I'm sure you would, pup. Getting this assignment, you two must either be the best warriors in the Iron Legion, or the ones with the worst luck..." He looks between the two of them. "So?"

        "Top of my class," the first charr says, a bit smugly.

    "But it's starting to feel like both..."