The Forgotten Zodiac

((Oh. I guess that wasn't much of a hint, then. Oh well.))

Verolen turned and blinked at Byrne, then motioned for the human to follow him. When Byrne did, Verolen led him to the hollowed trunk of a huge tree, where a closed door stood and grey smoke filtered out from a hole on top. "Rush is...making something. Something that can help Sylas. Didn't you know? Sylas is...forgetting things. It's getting bad. We've gotta fix it, and that's what we're doing. The potion requires some hair of the target's, so..." Verolen raised the lock. Rush opened the door about that time and snatched up the hair, retreating back inside the trunk and getting back to work. "It's a...delicate process. Rush predicted the potion would fail a couple times, so I got him a whole lock of hair instead of just one or two. It's easier that way."

Byrne nodded to show that he understood, but he didn't have anything really to voice on the matter. He looked up at the smoke rising out of the tree, and pointed. "Isn't that a hazard of some sort?" he asked.

"Yes and no. This is where Versha makes her potions. Look, the smoke just goes up through that hole in the canopy. And just up there is a filter that makes the smoke dissapate faster, so it's not giving away our location. The most it can hurt is a passing bird. Make it fly blind for about two seconds. Not much of an issue. Rush is using a special wood that doesn't make much smoke in the first place, and the entire trunk is fireproof from the inside out, so nothing could happen if something goes wrong." Verolen shrugged. "Hey, how's that arm of yours doing? If it starts hurting, I would ask Eve to help you out with it. She's a master with Dark Matter. I mean, just look at Manny," He chortled.

Byrne held out his arm so Verolen could get a bit better look at it. "It's all right," he said. "I mean, it's beginning to feel somewhat normal. My nerves feel kind of dead, but I'm getting used to that. I feel stronger, too."

"I'll keep that in mind," Byrne said, nodding. "Is there anything in particular I should prepare myself for? You know more about this than I do..." he said.

"I dunno. Sorry," Verolen shook his head, unable to offer any sort of advice. "Just...take care not to hurt anyone who's trying to help you, yeah?" He shrugged. "Again, if you want advice, you should go talk to Eve. Here, I think she was upstairs..." He wandered off, expecting Byrne to follow.

Byrne did follow Verolen, for lack of anything else to do, and wanting to know more about the new strength he had.

Eve was sitting against the wall upstairs, talking away to Manny and Verdi.

Verolen greeted her happily, but stared as Verdi hissed at him and ran out of the room entirely. The demon prince decided not to question things. "Hey, Eve, Manny. Byrne needs to know more about his hand." He smiled.

"Oh, well I suppose I could help with that," Eve said, motioning for Verolen and Byrne to come over and sit by her and Manny. The human did so, sitting down by Eve so that his Dark Matter arm was by her. She reached over and touched his wrist gently, then smiled. "My, you've got a lot of it, there. You got this from Manny, yes? He's quite densly made."

"Not in the stupid way. In the tightly packed way." Verolen added.

Manny blinked at the two of them, then stared at Byrne's hand. "I merged with you. My hand is yours now." He touched it gently and held Byrne's hand, watching as a slightly brighter pulse of light swept along the red, vein-like trails on Byrne's arm. "It took my old form. That form was scary..."

Byrne winced slightly at Manny's touch, not from any pain, but from the reaction of his arm and the words the mannequinn spoke. "Your old form? It's not going to... attack me, is it?" he asked.

"Oh, no no," Eve assured quickly. "It'll never hurt you. You and it are one now, and it knows better than that. It has a consciousness of its own, you know... heard any voices that aren't yours in your head?" she asked, leaning closer as if that'd help her figure that out.

"Ah..." Byrne slid back a little. "No?"

"It likes you. I like you, so it likes you." Manny shrugged.

"Do you not like Sylas?" Verolen frowned a bit.

Manny stared at him for a few moments. "Sylas can be scary...and he doesn't really talk to me much. I think he dislikes me, so I dislike him. Byrne is quiet and nice..."

"I see..." Verolen wrinkled his brow, but he wasn't about to say anything about it. But with this information, it was basically Manny's fault that the Dark Matter backfired and attacked Sylas...

"Oh, thanks, Manny," Byrne said, smiling. Eve, on the other hand, glanced to Verolen as if observing his thought process. She looked down for a moment, then said, "Let me know if you think you're having any complications. I can probably explain them away."

"Yeah, okay," said Byrne. He stood and looked to Verolen. "Now what?"

Verolen blinked, then realized that Byrne was asking what else to do. "Oh. Nothing much, I mean...you took the tour, right? Hey, we can go get some lunch. The game should be fresh, it's just about dinnertime anyway." He smiled.

Byrne nodded. "Sounds good." He paused a moment as his stomach growled, then grinned. "Sounds amazing, actually," he said.

"Great. C'mon, let's go." He led the way out of the room, leaving Eve and Manny behind.

"He was not happy when I said that I didn't like Sylas," Manny murmured. "I could sense it. He didn't like me saying that. Is he mad at me, mommy? 'Cuz I hurt Sylas?"

"No, no, darling. He's not mad at you, because he knows that you didn't mean to hurt him. Right, darling?" she said, hugging him gently.

"Of course I didn't mean it, but it still happened," Manny blinked, patting Eve's back like he normally did. "Oh well. There's nothing I can do about it now."

"That's right. So there shouldn't be any hard feelings over it," she said, touching his shoulder.