Eisen looked at the tired envoys. It was deep into the night, and the discussions were coming to an end for the day. They had made a lot of progress today, and it luckily seemed like everything was headed into all the right directions, but that didn't mean that this was all easy by any means.
Eisen had to intervene a few times and guide things into a more productive direction since some of the envoys were starting to talk about personal grievances or being too unreasonable, not understanding the situation of the other side properly.
And at some point, Jyuuk, Xenia, and Brody had to leave as well to take care of some incident in the outskirts of town, and Van Horgh seemed particularly anxious ever since then, as though he was waiting for something to happen.
Eisen also noticed the flow of magic change around one of Van Horgh's assistants that was here in the room with him, as though they had gathered magic to activate either some kind of spell or magic item.
Eisen wasn't sure exactly what that item or spell would do, but he figured it was either some kind of escape item or a protective barrier. Just as he was thinking so, a message popped up in front of Eisen. He had told the others to only message him in emergencies so that Eisen could minimize his interactions with the system, but it seemed like this was exactly one of those emergencies.
Xenia: They summoned something in the outskirts of town. It's a ritual I haven't seen in this world yet, but I might be able to recover the memory soon. Brody and Jyuuk are whittling down on it until it runs out of energy, but it seems like it will take a while.
Eisen: Do you need me to come help?
Xenia: Just keep an eye out and tighten defenses. This is a 'thing' none of us have encountered before, so we don't know if it has abilities that can let it escape from us
Eisen: Got it. Keep me updated
The old man turned around and waved over Kiron. The half-dragon knight quickly came over, and Eisen whispered into his ear, telling him about the situation. With a quick nod, he turned back around and went to relay that information to the others.
All but one of the half-dragon knights made their way out of the meeting hall, as the others all went to take up proper defensive positions in case something was about to happen.
At the same time, Evalia came back into the room; she had briefly left when the other three had to already update some of the others and let them know to get ready for anything. It looked like she had also been told about what was going on, and seemed a little annoyed. Walking by the old man, she leaned in for a whisper.
"And here I thought things would go off without a hitch..." she pointed out, and Eisen laughed quietly, returning the whisper.
"It doesn't sound like it's a truly massive deal. And even if turns out to be a bit more than we expected, with all five of us here, there's no way anything could go truly wrong, is there?"
"... I think maybe that would be a good idea. Could I have one, maybe? I'll take it if I can't fall asleep without it," Ambriel suggested, and Eisen slowly nodded his head. Something about the angel seemed a little off, but Eisen figured that he might be imagining it.
Ambriel was in a pretty unique situation right now that they were clearly struggling with, so they might just not be able to deal with that sort of exhaustion very well.
Eisen reached into his item storage and took out a small vial that he handed to Ambriel, "Don't drink it too late though, or else you might not be able to wake up in time. Try to drink it before midnight, alright?"
Ambriel nodded their head, "Thank you..."
"Alright, go ahead and rest, you two," Eisen stood up with a smile, "There's something I've got to take care of now."
"Is it whatever you told that dragon kid about?" Satel asked curiously, "So somethin' did happen?"
Eisen smiled lightly, "I guess so. But it's nothing too bad, we're just being extra careful right now."
"Ehh... boring," the devil groaned, but Eisen just scoffed in response.
"Right, right. If I think I could use your help for something, I'll let you know."
"Sure, sure, do that. Though if you five can't handle it, I doubt either of us will be of much help."
"Well... you've got knowledge, at least. In some regards, maybe more than the five of us have," Eisen replied, "But either way, we'll handle it for now and come to you if needed. Again, just rest for now. Thanks for your work today."
And with that, the pair made their way out of the meeting room, and the guards and servants all left too. The last of the half-dragon knights quickly made his way to his post as well, and Eisen approached the balcony, quickly increasing his size and transforming. He flew up into the sky and looked into the direction where everything seemed to be happening.
Pretty quickly, he could tell that something was going on over there, as neither Jyuuk nor Brody were particularly good at 'taking it easy'. Of course, they could be quiet and discrete if needed, but clearly, neither of them thought that to be necessary right now.
And so, Eisen and Evalia approached the large dust cloud together.