Lunch hour. Morgenthau's Office, Department of Mysteries.


            "He did what?"

Virgil Carstairs stood in the middle of the white room, still in the full body wetsuit that he'd been wearing for his shift in the Brain Chamber. It was black and form-fitting, and it gave him a severe appearance as he spoke to his superior with an incredulous expression. Yavin was sitting on the windowsill behind his desk: the one that overlooked a lighthouse on a cliff in the dark night.

"It was an, ah, an accident," he explained as he crossed one leg over the other and smiled dryly. "Quick on the draw, our Solomo--"
            "She's a squib, what the fuck was he thinking?" Virgil interrupted brusquely.

The young wizard joined him on the windowsill, passing by the trio of skeletons on the visitor seats (one of them had turned up in a Hawaiian shirt this morning). "This is precisely what I didn't want for her!" he continued and ran a hand through his wet blonde hair. "Being prodded at like a freak. I'm going to send him nightmares."

"She wasn't prodded at," Yavin replied curtly, spectacles gleaming, "and, hm, and she isn't a freak. And please don't send him nightmares."

But he knew this was emotional displacement. It was Virgil who feared being prodded at and being perceived as abnormal. Not that that would be a helpful observation to make at this point - they had been over such ground before. It just hadn't ever been this noticeable.

            "I should have been there," his protege scowled, staring out towards the lighthouse. "I'm definitely going to be there for the Death Chamber."

Yavin's expression softened and he followed the gaze; they watched the light beam out towards sea. Someone lived in that stark white tower, alone, drawing ships in and warning them away. What a job it was, to see everything when the world can see nothing. One mistake and lives were ruined.

He played with the idea of telling Virgil that they would force Iona out when the time came and if she refused to leave. No. No, Virgil would only try to stop it from happening. And he might succeed, with premeditation. Wouldn't like the idea of obliviating the Reid girl either. Yavin was already playing against Iona, he couldn't afford to play against his own Unspeakables too.

"You will be there," he told Virgil as they continued to watch streaks of light cut through the night. "Don't you, hah, don't you worry."