“Ah, hold on,” she calls after him, “I have necromancer as my secondary profession, which might complicate that a bit. Not very much, it barely affects my magical signature, but I likely won’t be perfectly comparable to a mesmer without another profession.”

It takes Elodir a second to process what she says then he stops and whirls on the spot and dashes all the way back. "You have a secondary profession????"

Elodir is adorable, and she smiles accordingly. “Yes. I don’t think it’s easily replicable for anyone else anymore, unless another pantheon of gods shows up to replace the missing human one and helps with the,” she vaguely motions with her hands, “the fiddly soul bits. Though I don’t see why it wouldn’t be possible for mortals to figure it out without them, when I’m less primed to go mad or explode or something I’d be happy to be studied so that bit of lost history could be a bit less lost.”

"The human gods actually exist??????????????"

“Oh, yes, definitely. But they have left, so their neat presents like resurrection and choosing secondary professions are gone with them. But I once had an hour long debate with Lyssa’s avatar about the philosophy and uses of mesmer magic and the nature of illusions. My father spoke to Grenth’s avatar and was actually brought to the Underworld to help out with demon slaying or something.”

"I am going to need so much data—I still need to grab a necromancer and a mesmer, you're going to have to cast some necromancer spells for me so I can see that—I will return anon."

Away he goes again.

Vetareh giggles. “Certainly.”

Elodir: very cute nerd.

"I'm glad we ended up with him," James confides. "He is an extremely talented elementalist and has worked with Taimi in many projects. And also he has the best reactions to your ancientness out of the research Lightbringers."

“Oh, absolutely. The Order of Whispers could make an entire recruitment pitch based around ‘look at this nerd, don’t you want to work with him?’”

"I think the Order is not particularly focused on recruiting more researchers. They outsource most of it to the Priory anyway."

“Oh, I see. Poor Elodir, that has to be terribly frustrating. The adorable code phrases must only make up for it a little.”

"I think most people take them a little bit more seriously than that."

"Most people are allowed to be wrong about things," she says serenely.

"Do you have an alternative first-pass idea?"

"Not really, my point is not that they're impractical, just that if people are not delighted by their existence, they're incorrect."

He laughs. "Alright, I see your point. I am sure the other orders have similar things, anyway."

"But James, I was charmed by this one first!"

"That seems like a flawed decision criterion!"

"Yes, but there is no perfect decision criterion, so I might as well go with the one I find the most entertaining!"

"I feel like there's a flaw in that argument somewhere, too."

"Nonsense, I never make any of those, you must be imagining things."

"Of course, dear."

    Elodir returns, dragging an annoyed-looking asura and a charr.

        "Commander," the charr says.

            "Commander," agrees the asura. "I trust this is very important? This one," she continues, giving Elodir a look, "seems to think so, but I have learnt to not trust him."

    "A wrong lesson to learn if there ever was one," says the sylvari, unashamed.

Vetareh snorts.

"It's for the Commander, actually," it is so weird to call him that instead of by his name, but she knows how to play along to people's customs, "and also me, but not knowing me at all I expect helping him will be more compelling."

            "Now that is a surprise," says the asura.

"Vetareh and I seem to have been infected with some sort of magical affliction and the Lightbringer," (Elodir huffs when James uses this title), "wanted to use a necromancer and a mesmer as basis to analyse our magical signatures."

    "But she's special," the Lightbringer can't help but bring up, "because she has a secondary profession. Given to her by the human gods."

        "Is that so?" wonders the charr, turning to examine Vetareh with more attention than before. "I thought they had left."

"It's complicated. In any case, let's stop skipping the introductions here, why don't we?" says James, amused.

        The charr snorts. "Agent Nelia Poisonbreaker, at your service," she says, saluting.

            "Agent Smipa. A pleasure," the asura adds dryly. "And you're Vetareh, yes? Shall we get the pleasantries out of the way and finish this so I can get back to my work?"

    "Please forgive Smipa, I think she has been trying to stop drinking coffee and that has had an effect," says the Lightbringer.

Vetareh resists the urge to snicker at Elodir's and the Agents' antics, instead giving a proper Orrian curtsy.

"I am indeed Vetareh, a pleasure to meet you both. It's fine, I wouldn't want to keep you longer than necessary," she demurs.