Druvis Ⅲ: ...!
Druvis Ⅲ: Vertin ...
Through the window, she sees a beam of light penetrates the statue suspended in time.
Druvis Ⅲ: I saw ... Vertin ... by the "Storm" ...!
Druvis Ⅲ: ... No.
Druvis Ⅲ: It's just a nightmare.
Druvis Ⅲ: ...
The slender figure gets up. The lobby is as spacious as it used to be, but she's the only being walking across it now.
Druvis Ⅲ: A nightmare overly real.
Druvis Ⅲ: Is it because I haven't seen them for so long?
Rarely this place would be in such serenity.
Since their return to the Foundation, each one of them has been invited to a one-on-one talk with the Foundation's personnel.
Druvis Ⅲ: Vertin ... was the first to leave.
Druvis Ⅲ: She said she was going to talk to Madam Z about which department we would belong to. I haven't heard from her since then.
Vertin: Yes. Here are their background reports I wrote for your perusal.
Druvis Ⅲ: Then, Sotheby.
Druvis Ⅲ: Her boredom was swept away by the invitation. She departed in such a haste that her beloved doll was left behind on the carpet.
Vertin: This is Sotheby. A well-educated lady born in a traditional arcanist family.
Vertin: She comes from an extremely privileged background. Her family had a special influence around the world.
Vertin: Besides, she has limited social skills and scientific knowledge. It will be difficult to assimilate her.
Druvis Ⅲ: Compared to Sotheby, Mr. APPLe was apparently not very happy to be invited. When he left, he turned a little green.
Vertin: Mr. APPLe, under his modest and gentle appearance, lies a sharp perception by nature.
Vertin: Being so erudite, he always has his own views of our historical intelligence.
Vertin: As far as I know, he remains upset about Captain Regulus's involuntary affiliations with the Foundation.
Vertin: While Regulus has never been truly accepted by the Foundation.
Vertin: She has missed out all the education and training a member of the Foundation should have received. The influence left by the outside world on her is like a banner among the ordinary staff in the Foundation. A banner way too salient.
Vertin: Once the banner was held up, new arguments were raised, and thus exacerbated the factional conflict inside the Foundation.
Z: Factional conflict? There ought to be no factions in the Foundation. All of us share one common goal. You should know that well.
Vertin: But the conflict has been there all the time.
Vertin: And it only grows.
Z: ...
Vertin: The group that believes in "mankind supremacy" is splitting the Foundation's belief apart.
Z: ... So, time isn't the only thing you've been observing these years.
Vertin: The conflicts cannot be covered by regulations anymore, Madam Z.
Vertin: The "Storm" has been here for 8 years. None of the people who are left behind can shake off the influence it brought.
Vertin: Human technologies are being reversed, while arcanum is blooming.
Vertin: The unexpected first "Storm" brought more than half of the Foundation's elite members away from us. The number of staff of the House of Integratus and the Committee cannot compare with that of their heyday even now.
Vertin: In order to contend against Manus Vindictae, we have kept absorbing arcanists from the outside world ... However, the dissenting voices have only grown louder ...
Vertin: Loud enough to be heard, and have become a faction that couldn't be shaken—the Mankind Caucus.
Vertin: Beyond their control, these new arcanists only brought fear. They demand an unchallengeable power to make decisions and a harsher control of arcanists.
Vertin: Madam Z, I don't want my friends or me to be the sacrifice of this conflict ... As we were four years ago.
Z: ...
Z: That's why you handed in the background reports of those arcanists as the evidence for your proposition in the negotiation.
Z: Vertin, what do you want?
Vertin: A neutral, safe, and legitimate place for us.
Z: What if I'm also on the side of Mankind Caucus?
Vertin: I don't know whose side you are on. But I believe the future you pursue doesn't end up with the Foundation being split apart by factional conflict.
Z: ...
Vertin: That's what I learnt from that stormy night.
Vertin: Your eyes told me ...
Vertin: ... you didn't belong to that chess game.
Z: ... You may leave the reports. I need some time.
Vertin: No matter what your decision is ... thank you.
In the middle of the office stands solely the lady in white.
She flips through the files, sighs, and then picks up the phone.
Z: Please put me through Delegate Mark.
The long hallway is located between the Committee and the House of Integratus, forming a bridge between the two loci of power.
Familiar and unfamiliar ones bustle around in the hallway, holding proposals that only have a one-in-ten chance of passing.
Medical Staff I: Hey, Vertin!
Vertin: Hello.
Medical Staff I: Your friend is waiting for you in the rehab center. Mesmer Jr., remember?
Medical Staff II: Let us take you there, so you guys can catch up.
