A Case of Libel

[Laz]

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Taking the paper that contained the rundown of events, he spent several moments looking over it. It was interesting to see that the Administrator was so adamant about certain aspects of his story. Marston's eyebrows almost vanished beneath his brow as he saw a copy of the first set of demands that the Confederacy had made prior to the Chief Arcani declaring open hostilities to them. "So, they want her dead?" he asked, tapping the table with the paper's side. "Wouldn't have thought they'd go for something that drastic, though. Then again," he trailed off, further studying the paper.

His reverie was broken when Lyell continued to speak, to which he simply replied: "Ms. Lyell, I am here now. Do go ahead and show me what you intend to so we can be done with it." It was highly unlikely that Lyell would present anything that would truly worry him. Then again, he hadn't expected the Confederacy to demand the head of the responsible person, and he was technically high in rank than the Luminary...

The recording he watched in uneasy silence. He tried to interrupt it several times, but Lyell cut him off harshly each time, only adding to his apprehension. The atmosphere, the tone, her bahaviour — all of it put him on edge, made it difficult for him to concretely articulate what it was that worried him in his head. The recording ended, leaving Marston with a longing for its morbid imagery to come back, because now Lyell would speak again. He listened to her words, her tone of voice calculating and even, making all that he would have had to gainsay evaporate. Standing leaned against the table, her arms crossed, she appeared to be taller than him, even though she actually was a quite diminutive woman. "Uhm, yes, the, uh, Guildmaster is unreachable; you're right," he found himself agreeing with her, not knowing what else to say.

He didn't want to get killed. The gravitas of what he had done that day in Omicron Delta finally sunk in and he felt cold fear run down his spine as he realized just what Lyell was insinuating with her last remark. "Y- you want to rat me out?" he asked, his voice surprisingly firm — he was nothing if not a good actor. "Are you out of your mind, Lyell? What do you think you're going to achieve with this? All you'd do would be damage the Core's image even further!" A trace of anger found its way into his voice. Here she was, this new Guildkeeper, and acted as though the entire Core belonged to her!

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