Callisto tilted his head as he picked up the pencil, trying to decide where to start as Finn began to type on that weird plastic metal thing in front of him.

Lily’s eyes widened at Alma’s words and she had opened her mouth to reply, an excited glint in her eyes until Finn almost leapt out of his chair with a flair of wings. She almost jumped out of her skin and whirled her head around to look over at Finntello as he began to recite what he had just found. Something clearly important judging from that reaction.

Callisto stopped his sketching and listened intently as Finn spoke, eyes focused closely on the paper in his hands. His eyes scanned over the picture that Finn had somehow transferred perfectly onto paper, he felt very..out of touch with all this technology. It was certainly Xevon, but he looked well better. There wasn’t a gaunt look in his eyes that lingered when he was in his own thoughts, or the spark of malice. He just looked normal.

His face winced, an almost mirror image of Lily’s as the callsign was announced. “That’s a terrible foreshadowing.” She murmured under her breath, the whirling between emotions making it hard to focus for a second.

“There’s nothing on the specifics of his discharge?” She questioned, more so to herself as she leaned over the table to get a better look at the picture. Despite her mind being distracted from the teasing Alma had given her, the remnants of blush still stained her features as she frowned down at the paper.

“You really didn’t know about any of this?” Lily raised her gaze to lock with Callisto, who looked impossibly pale.

“He never spoke about it.”

Callisto blinked before he made a small humming sound and quickly added the last piece of the rough sketch he had made. Sliding the paper into the middle of the table for the other three to see clearly.

“It is basic, but the general idea is there. Alma you need to keep this on you when we go back there, just in case we are separated.” He tilted his head to look over at her. “As for where to meet up..” Callisto paused to ponder on his location, glancing up at the ceiling and then back down. “The dining hall and bar are probably easier to find on the first floor.” He tapped his pointer finger on the location on the map.

Lily leaned back in her chair and brought her hands to rest in her lap, clenching and unclenching them together. “What if he attacks us anyway?” She pressed her question out, as uncomfortable as it was to ask, she wanted to know all the details she could.

Her eyes cast over towards Finntello. “And..if he isn’t all there in his mind, how do we bring him back?” Lily knew she was asking rather abstract questions, but there was a small chance Finn knew the answers. He seemed to be rather good at deducing answers from things he had read, Lily on the other hand was more of a hands-on, learn on the job approach.

Her head nodded slowly as she listened, trying to take in the important slivers of information as they were relayed to the group. This was a more complex task that Lily had thought she’d signed up for.

Callisto was staring as Finn with a blanket of confusion over his features, one eyebrow raised and lips slightly parted as he tried to unpack what was being said. A hard reset? Would that mean..He narrowed his eyes at his own conclusion, whether or not that was what Finntello was trying to say, Callisto still wasn’t sure.

“Are you saying that if we confuse him, he is going to black out and wake back up reset? As in, his brain?” His words came slowly, figuring them out as he spoke. He wasn’t exactly thrilled at the idea that Xevon could potentially be a completely blank slate afterwards, if that was what Finn was getting at. These people sounded like they were speaking another language sometimes.

His eyes flickered towards Alma and he let out a small hum. He supposed that if he were to call out to Xevon it would get through a little better than the rest of them. The question was, how far gone would Xevon be when they finally returned?

On top of that, using Xevon as a battering ram if they couldn’t pull him out of whatever mess his mind was in was not very appealing to Callisto. In fact, he hated that idea.

Lily let out a small sigh, a hand lifting to her hair to tuck a piece of the braid that had come loose behind her ear. Her eyes carried towards the window and she gazed out of it for a minute as the men spoke, still listening but certainly not focused on them. She needed to get her brain back to normal, to be able to focus only on this task rather than worrying about whatever shambles her life and family were in. However, that sounded a lot easier in theory than reality.

Callisto still looked just as confused as before. Though, he sort of understood the concept a little better. However..that meant likely a lot of Xevon’s time in the hotel was going to be hacked away. The implications of that made Callisto’s chest tighten slightly. There was no way he was going to leave Xevon in that place, either way.

Lily’s attention was brought back to the conversation as the topic of the ritual came back up again and she nodded her head gently. “Alma’s right, he wants us to meet him at 11 o’clock tomorrow, just before midnight.” She commented. Apparently they were being led to a special location, she knew it was the same one she had been sacrificed in the week prior. Having never attended that site for other sacrifices, it must be decked out in all of the cult’s prized possessions. Which brought about the thought, was there any useful items in there.

With a small huff, Lily lifted herself from her chair and offered Alma a small smile. “Thank you for dinner.” She hummed. “But I think Finn should cook for you once in a while.” Her eyes lit with a hint of amusement at her teasing remark as she worked her way around to the table towards the hallway.

“Goodnight.” Lily offered before slipped into the hallway and eventually the spare room. Once the door was closed behind her, she all but flopped down onto the bed and stared blankly up at the ceiling.

Callisto’s eyes had followed Lily as she made her exit, frowning slightly. “She is not..right.” He kept his voice barely a whisper, knowing that she could hear him if he spoke much louder. It was a comment more so to himself, but there wasn’t much he could do to fix the mess he had witnessed with her father.

Callisto tipped his head back to look over at Alma as she spoke, well she certainly didn’t have a good opinion of Kieran.

“Well, he barely acknowledged her when we found him.” He commented, rising to his feet with a small grunt as he stretched his back. “I cannot imagine I would be pleased to see my father after all this, let alone have him ignore me entirely.” Callisto had begun to pick his way over towards the couch, only peeking over his shoulder at Alma.

“Living your entire life under the veil of that cult is not something I would wish upon anyone. What it has become is not what I started it to be.” His gaze hardened slightly in his stern moment. “Veles has twisted into a cruel creature, he corrupts them all.” He lingered on that thought before he waved a hand and began situating himself on the couch.

“If things run smoothly,” Which they likely wouldn’t. “He will be out of our lives for good.”

Lily blinked as she heard the familiar sound of feathers brushing the wall as Finntelloe made his way to his room. Her head turned to the side to look at the door, half expecting it to open, but the soft sound of the other door closing drew a small sigh from her lips.

Sleep was the best thing to do right now, however Lily couldn’t feel the pull of it. In the darkened room, she began to worm her way through her mind in an attempt to straighten it out. There was no point in returning tomorrow night if her head was all over the place. Not when the lives of Finn and Alma were on the line, absolutely not.

Instead of sleeping, Lily remained on the bed in her regular clothes, the slightly large pink shirt skewed. While her expression was blank as she gazed up at the ceiling, her mind whirled.