"Ah... shit." Sev winced a little at the words. He couldn't help but glance towards Vex, whose face was as impassive as he could make it — but he knew Vex well. He saw the way the lizardkin hunched over just a little bit more, the way his tail coiled around his leg; he saw the disappointment swim in his eyes.

He was familiar with it, even. Part of him thought he recognized that sort of disappointment. It was a hope that the people you cared about had changed for the better.

"You're familiar with them?" Lendel asked.

"You could say that," Sev said, doing his best to keep his voice neutral. "We met up with Wisfield before, when they were negotiating for control of the new dungeon up north."

"Ah," Lendel nodded. "You're the team that dealt with that. I remember. The researchers that came back..."

Lendel paused, trailing off; he winced slightly. Sev noticed.

He remembered how nervous the researchers had been. So many of them had fought Kestel on delaying the report back to Elyra — presumably, to the nobles they worked for. Kestel had been left broken and bedridden, and even now required more crystals than they had to spare to heal.

"Did anything happen to them?"

"I... don't know." Lendel sounded reluctant to say the words, and didn't meet Sev's eyes when he spoke. "I would have looked into it, normally."

"Shit," Sev muttered. He glanced quickly to the others — Misa looked pissed, Vex looked worried, and Derivan was inscrutable as ever, though he'd moved to stand beside Vex. The lizardkin was leaning on Derivan ever-so-slightly, though, and some of his worry for his friend abated.

"We can find out," Vex said after a moment, straightening. "Wisfield handles most of the researchers, right?"

"They come from a few different noble houses," Lendel said. "But Wisfield coordinates."

"We'll need to talk to Wisfield anyway, if they were the ones that funded you, and if they knew all this was happening." Vex's tail lashed about behind him. "This kind of funding is standard practice, though."

"They're not supposed to try it with the Guild, but they got us in a moment of weakness." Lendel sighed.

"That would make sense." Vex's eyes hardened slightly. "I noticed they made a lot of progress with their Principle the last time we met up."

"Principle?" Derivan spoke up, his tone questioning.

"It's what I mentioned before. Every noble house is founded on something valuable they discover about magic, or about the system; basically anything that improves Elyra's security or military might. They call it their Principle."

"That's a little pretentious," Sev voiced, frowning, and Vex gave a little snort.

"It is," he agreed wryly. "I didn't come up with it."

"What's Wisfield's Principle?" Misa asked, folding her arms. "I remember what you did with them, but you never explained what happened."

Vex nodded. "It's usually considered taboo to discuss a Principle outside of the house," he said. "But I think I don't really care right now. Wisfield's whole thing is telepathy and mental skills — communication, not control, as far as I know. It's why they're in charge of most negotiations. I wasn't really sure Drunkard's Beard would do anything to them, but I had a theory that it worked by tapping into whatever the system does to facilitate mental skills."

"And you were right. That's how they all got fucked up when you threw some moss at them."

"I guessed they found a way to link up and make their mental skills more powerful." Vex nodded. "I... don't like that I was right. That has implications."

"No kidding," Misa muttered.

Sev had been watching Lendel, Rekka, Tibeus and Lorella as Vex spoke; the four other adventurers each had different expressions on their faces. Lendel looked frustrated, like he blamed himself for not being prepared for the possibility. Rekka seemed like he was inflamed with righteous anger more than anything. Tibeus struck Sev as almost looking bored, and Lorella seemed the same, though slightly more controlled.

"Hey, Derivan?" Sev said. Derivan glanced up at him. "Do those two still have [Reinforcement] up?"

Derivan paused, and then glanced at the wizard and cleric. Both of them winced. "Yes," he said. "It is... not as entrenched within them as it was with Lendel. But there will still be some damage if I break the connection to the Guild."

"I'd like to know how you can do that," Tibeus said. "It would be useful for the Guild—"

"Tibeus," Lendel said, giving the wizard a withering glance. "Turn off [Bond Familiar]."

Tibeus paused. "...I can't."

"This isn't the time for games—"

"No, I mean, I can't," Tibeus said, a note of genuine panic entering his voice; Sev almost automatically let a pulse of [Diagnose] touch the wizard, though all he got back was that he was experiencing an entirely normal panic attack. "I just tried. [Guild's Hope] stopped me."

"Did you really name the Guild that...?" Misa muttered, and Sev snorted; he'd had the same thought.

"I thought you said you'd be able to turn it off." Lendel's tone was sharp. "You've been turning it off every time we rotated out, haven't you?"

"I have!" Tibeus raised his arms up. "I don't know why I can't now!"

"He is not lying," Derivan said, glowing eyes flickering a little as he stared at Tibeus. "He is trying."

"How do you know that?!" Tibeus demanded, turning some of that panic into an entitled sort of anger, stalking towards Derivan; Misa stepped in front of him, large and glowering and towering right over him, and he balked.

"You said you can break the connection?" Lendel turned his gaze to Derivan. "Do it."

Derivan nodded. Sev watched as the armor reached out invisibly; there was no physical movement or change save for a faint dimming of his eyes...

Tibeus shuddered and stumbled; Lorella winced a second later.

There was a moment of silence.

"You don't have the authority to do that, Lendel," Tibeus said, his tone affronted. The wizard's cloak billowed around him as magic began to gather, and Vex reacted, though subtly; Sev only noticed because he was used to the lizardkin. One hand slipped to his dagger, and small movements carved out a tiny rune into the air.

"I am the leader of this team." Lendel frowned at his friend. "What's wrong with you?"

"This." Lorella spoke, for the first time in this entire conversation; now that Sev paid attention to her, he saw a faint flicker of divine magic as she tried — and failed — to do something to heal herself. She reached out and he almost flinched, but instead a box appeared in front of him as she shared a status effect.

[Remnants] [Malus]

Leftovers of a change.

At the same time, Tibeus lashed out, a runic circle suddenly forming in the air in front of him; fire mana gathered, strong enough that Sev could feel the heat even without any form of [Mana Sight].

Yet as soon as it finished gathering, the mana dissipated harmlessly; Vex's own spell triggered, the wizard having cast it in preparation before Tibeus had even begun to cast his spell. Sev almost whistled — he had to bite his lip to stop himself.

"Holy shit, Vex," Misa said, not nearly as concerned about polite self-control.

"What the hell did you do—"

"Tibeus." This time, when Lendel spoke, his words resonated like he'd used a skill; Sev flinched, and even Misa looked up at him, her hand automatically going to her mace. The effect on Tibeus was far more significant — the wizard's gaze automatically flew to Lendel and stuck there, like he couldn't look away. "Stand down."

Tibeus struggled with himself. Lorella didn't say a word, just watched her teammate struggle against the binding of whatever skill Lendel had used; she didn't seem inclined to involve herself.

Slowly — forcing himself to do it, and looking like he hated every moment of it — he seemed to relax. The wizard stood completely still, closing his eyes and cycling his breathing.

"I want to ask if you can heal this," Lendel said, glancing at Sev, his gaze speculative. "But that costs you something, doesn't it?"

"...It does," Sev said. He would have hesitated to admit it, but it didn't seem like there was much of a point; Lendel had already seen him collapse when he cast the spell. He did want to help Tibeus and Lorella if he could. "I can try—"

"No, Sev," Misa interrupted, her voice harsh. "I'm not sure we should've let you try to heal Lendel at all, if the cost was going to be that severe. We're going to talk about that when we get a chance, believe me."

Sev... let that go. Misa stared at him for a moment, as if she was expecting him to have a response, and she seemed to relax a fraction when he said nothing.

"Most of us need to rotate out," Lendel said, glancing at Lorella and Tibeus. "This... isn't going to work. Most of us are compromised. We're not even the only adventurers in this building. I'm surprised no one else came running."

"Sheer luck," Rekka said. "Most of them are out right now, running errands and stuff. And it helps that we made the Guild really big, so everyone that is here is pretty scattered."

"No kidding," Misa said, eyeing the ceiling. Sev glanced up —

— Yeah, now that he paid attention, that ceiling was really far away.

"We'll need to break the [Reinforcement] effect before you rotate anyone out," Sev said, ignoring the slight sense of vertigo the sight gave him. "Unless you can do that manually somehow."

Derivan shook his head before Tibeus could answer. "There is no central mechanism that can be disabled," he said. "The effect will have to be manually broken, and we will need to try to reverse what has been done to the Guild."

"Can't we leave it like this?" Lorella asked, frowning. "It's bigger. It's nice."

"It will continue to grant [Reinforcement] if its connection to the system is not broken." Derivan glanced around. "I do not know if breaking that connection will restore it to its original size. There is a chance it will not."

"That's the first thing we need to do, then," Sev decided. "We can't leave the Guild like this, not if it's just handing out the buff to anyone that stays here long enough. Who's to say Wisfield and Ashion aren't already sending in people to take advantage of it?"

"That's not..." Tibeus started to say, and then he frowned, stopping himself. "Shit."

"No kidding." Sev gave the wizard the most deadpan stare he could muster.

"I'll set up a meeting with Wisfield in the meantime," Rekka said.

"Just be careful." Lendel glanced at the four of them. "This meeting isn't going to go like the last one you had with them; you don't have the benefit of the Guild's skill-suppression enchantments. They're going to be able to read you completely."

Sev glanced at Vex, briefly worried — but the lizardkin surprised him by grinning slightly, stepping forward with Derivan. "There might be something we can do about that."