[Whilst preparations and arrangements are being made towards the end of the December Market for visiting clients from Cairo and the upcoming grand event, David is doing something else a little closer to home. He has already taken the samples he needed from Ophelia; 'standard procedure', he has been reassuring her with a smile, and she is ignorant enough not to object to any of it.
The research and development team are slaving away and David is the one who has to initiate the experiment. The seal is a little different this month; not different enough to be immediately noticeable, but the thing inside Ophelia - it knows. Whether it thinks David has slipped up or David is doing it on purpose - it doesn't matter; the seal won't work either way.
That was all he had been tasked to do - 'let the beast loose so we can run diagnostics' - but David is not an unkind man. He knows that everything he does is not without repercussion, but if things were going to get violent either way, the more people got involved, the messier it would get.
Delivered to Gryff is a plain wooden box with visible seals on the top, bottom and the side with the creaky rusty hinges. Gryff is the only one who can open it, and inside is a vial protected by black foam. There is a cute Christmas card inside with a picture of a teddy bear, a plush reindeer and a levitating present.
"Use only in emergencies. Hope you haven't forgotten."
He writes a line in the journal; just a token something floating in his mind that he would occasionally contemplate. He might not be a philosopher but he is, after all, like most of the people here - a mere mortal with neverending strange questions.]
Will you think lesser of me, even if I cannot possibly sink any lower?
The research and development team are slaving away and David is the one who has to initiate the experiment. The seal is a little different this month; not different enough to be immediately noticeable, but the thing inside Ophelia - it knows. Whether it thinks David has slipped up or David is doing it on purpose - it doesn't matter; the seal won't work either way.
That was all he had been tasked to do - 'let the beast loose so we can run diagnostics' - but David is not an unkind man. He knows that everything he does is not without repercussion, but if things were going to get violent either way, the more people got involved, the messier it would get.
Delivered to Gryff is a plain wooden box with visible seals on the top, bottom and the side with the creaky rusty hinges. Gryff is the only one who can open it, and inside is a vial protected by black foam. There is a cute Christmas card inside with a picture of a teddy bear, a plush reindeer and a levitating present.
"Use only in emergencies. Hope you haven't forgotten."
He writes a line in the journal; just a token something floating in his mind that he would occasionally contemplate. He might not be a philosopher but he is, after all, like most of the people here - a mere mortal with neverending strange questions.]
Will you think lesser of me, even if I cannot possibly sink any lower?