[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/qSXKgkY.png[/img]
[sub][@Nanaya][@AThousandCurses][/sub][/center]

Of course it had to be related to the government or the academy, with a backdoors option found only through the approval of that eccentric Headmaster. Only made Ciara more important, in truth, if she was indeed the Umbralist that all others thought she was.

Perhaps he ought to have stuffed her inside the World Between Doors while he had the option to, and pretend that she had utilized her shadow-teleportation to give everyone the slip? Ah, but he doubted that she was biologically any different from a regular human. Ciara hadn't warped in the same way that Flanchetto spoke of, which was another subject that intrigued the ever-curious Strigidae.

And then, of course, there was the subject that involved Chunji's complete about-face in terms of personality. All of a sudden, he was smiling? Making jokes? Displaying sarcasm? Otis's needle paused as his gaze flitted between Chunji and Rio, before he put his kit away and pulled out his gun instead, loading bullets into the chamber.

Not, of course, because he expected Chunji had been possessed by that imp, but rather because the carriage had stopped, and it appeared no one knew why.