07-05-2013, 08:25 PM
Mercy Comstock
Mercy had only been listening for the moment, listening and smelling and feeling, sight had not been apart of the equation. But then her nostrils flare widely as a familiar scent filters through her nose and her eyes narrow sharply as she pushes off the ground and rises, turning as she did so to look at Kali and the book she held.
She took several steps towards the woman, slowly, carefully and she frowned as Baja lost a finger, but remained fixated upon the book.
"That smell...." She says slowly. "Such potency...can you smell it?" She asks the others. "So old...so strong." She doesn't reach out for the book, not yet. Her eyes fix upon the strange little dagger, and though she has no reason to expect violence from Kali, a weapon is a weapon.
Kali
Kali smirks and shakes her head in amusement when Baja reveals the purpose for his ownership of the book. "Jesus, man. Get a subscription to People or some shit. Making them read this is just mean."
She furrows her brow when the binding peels back and flat-out ignores her clanmate's comment about the tear. She quirks her lips thoughtfull and sets to pulling the binding back. The more true title makes her blink, and she looks back at the other two. She's taking this book seriously all of a sudden. The knife just adds to that and she holds it very gingerly, moving it out to arm's length as she examines it.
She moves to set the knife down on the table and flip through the book. "Have you actually read this or just assumed based on the cover?" The words are directed to Baja, but then he stars cursing like a Romani sailor. She holds back the grin.
"Dude, I do have neighbors. Not that I care about them, but..." She looks at Mercy. "I don't have the super-senses on, but I don't doubt it. So anyone know who the fuck the Lernaean Quorum is and why was it being targeted by the Spanish Inquisition?
Mercy Comstock
Mercy simply shook her head at the inquiry that Kali made, the name the Lernaean Quorum could have been the name of a prog rock band for all she knew, and for all she cared. Priorties drove her, what she knew mattered and she would follow that path like a wolf on the scent of prey.
She held out a hand for the book, a silent request that, after a moment is reinforced by the words. "May I?" The tone is odd for Mercy, it is not gutteral or hoarse, it is something all together more cultured and human, but it feels forced, pushed out of her for that moment in an attempt to get a better sniff.
"I have smelled this before...."
Kali
Kali shakes her head amiably when Mercy asks to see the book. Whatever tension there may have been earlier when they first encountered each other outside the restaurant, it's completely gone from Kali now. Which is not to say that she necessarily trusts Mercy or is ready to pick out drapes, but she's not a potential threat to her interests for the moment.
Kali is all about her best interests.
"By my guest, chickadee." She hands the book to the Gangrel and heads off into the back room with little more than an half-muttered "excuse me." There are sounds of rustling around, metal clanging on metal and she comes back with a pair of needle-nosed pliers, some tweezers and kitchen tongs.
"Hand that hand over, Handy McHanderson," she says to Baja. "I'll get the fuckin' ring off."
Baja
While Kali is still holding the book, paging through it, she realizes that does seem to be written in that same English as the original cover, not the Old Spanish of the hidden one. It tells of Lerna and its history. A Peloponnese region of springs with a grand lake, it is perhaps best known for being the home of the Lernaean Hydra, the many-headed beast defeated by Heracles in his Labors.
But the area had been settled in earlier times of antiquity. It lists tribes believed to have used it in what, when translated to modern terms from the book, may have even been Neolithic. More than a half-dozen millennia ago, and in what also sounds like a rough estimation of the Early Bronze Age.
The historian who wrote the book also tells of it swelling with the largest tumuli, large prehistoric man made mounds, in all of Greece. Of the House of Tiles, a two-story building whose ruins were uncovered, with terracotta tiles comprising its roof in a time when such building materials were either rare or unheard of. Fortified against violence millenia before the birth of Christ, which the book refers to as the First Year of Our Lord.
It also recounts the Daughters of Danaus, an earlier legend of Greek mythology predating Heracles.
That is about all that Kali is able to get from her skimming of the book before she hands it over for Mercy. More time will be needed to truly absorb the thick volume's knowledge.
As for Baja, if the sizzle weren't enough of an indicator, the tips of his fingers - index, middle and thumb, the three he'd put to work trying to pry the ring free from the boney fingers - are badly burnt. Once he has regained his composure he just looks down at the hand.
The persistent Ravnos doesn't answer her question. He pulls out a pair of gloves - of course he caries leather cloves with him - and this time is more careful when he touches the ring, holding it out toward Kali for her to use the pliars on as he bends back fingers already beset by rigor mortis.
They start working it off again, not giving up on claiming what he seems very sure is his trophy. So set upon it that he doesn't notice the rotting of his legs and the slashes healing themselves across his body as the two Ravnos set to the task.
"Book is the book I was asked for," grunt.
"Stolen from Settite in Vancouver four months ago. Did not need leads, she knew who had it. Been sitting on my fucking shelf while I wait for customer to show up. Then she says she is being double crossed. Paranoid. Does this to me," just as much like he's vindicating cutting off her hand as he is telling the story behind his ownership (9/10th of the law) of the book.
While they do this, Mercy is allowed to touch the book for the very first time. It feels heavy in her hands. When she looks at the knife, taking the book into account, and that second name it has, she may realize that the two are related. Only useful as the sum of their parts.
The Gangrel looks closer and it is if the blood has been inscribed into its pages and cover, etched there, the scent of the old vitae mingled with the aged vellum printing medium.
And she also realizes that another scent, the blood of a different kind and age, is actually upon the sharp piece of amber-embedded metal. The lines of its etching, the eye on one side and the pointing skeleton's hand, are filled with the dried old vitae, like it was used in some ritual.
And finally it dawns on her, through combined analysis and effort, that perhaps it is not a dagger - it has no hilt, though it is sharp - but instead maybe similar to the yad used by Jews to read the Torah.
Mercy Comstock
Mercy frowns as she looks at the book, sniffing it like an animal before eying the dagger, her frown only deepens as a variety of things click together in her mind, old dusty parts of her psyche coming alive as she considers the items as a whole...and not as their individual parts.
She then does something...slightly odd, she opens the book, glancing briefly at the writing before holding it up to the light and looking carefully. It is then that her frown deepens, the furrows of her face becoming like valley's before she holds out a hand.
"The...dagger please." She asks, it would seem that shes onto something. Her hand sat outstretched, waiting. She would not take it...she was trying to be cooperative, in her way.
Kali
Kali is quite handy with a pair of pliers. Take that as you will, but she sets herself to helping Baja get the ring free without actually touching it. "And your paranoid client who just fucked your world up...what do you know about her?" She's hoping that it's more than 'she's a bitch.'
Mercy asks for the knife, and Kali looks over for just a moment before nodding. She sets the hand down for a second and picks up the 'blade,' handing it to her. "Knock yourself out."
Baja
Baja shrugs. "Paid extra to keep it confidential. Did not question because who fucks with the snakes and does not want it confidential?" He actually looks like he might've once had sympathy for the request, especially for that little bit extra in exchange, but now that she's reduced him to a burnt and rotting version of his previously cultivated self, he looks no where near as forgiving.
Mercy Comstock
Mercy takes the knife and weighs it in one hand, turning it over in her grip as she considered the ramifications of such a thing. "This...is more then it seems." She said with a growl as she held up the amber to her eye and looked at the page through it. She did so for several moments before bringing the book down.
She looked at the others briefly as she considered her options and after a moment of looking around, she disregarded the desk, as she had been told to avoid it, and instead placed the book open upon the coffee table before Kali and Baja as they continued to work at the ring.
"This...is holy." She said, and not a moment later she cut her own wrist with blade, letting the blood seep onto it, before dabbing some of the blood onto the symbols...just incase. It is then...that she goes to look through the amber once more, seeking what she was certain was there.
Kali
She doesn't seem surprised by what Baja says, or even annoyed. She understands the business and that sometimes you have to take calculated risks with people. Unfortunately, that sometimes bites you in the ass or turns your legs to rotting flesh.
Mercy's statement that it's holy is also not a surprise, though that brings an audible look of disgust. "Fucking hell. Baja, homie, I think you've run afoul of goddamned hunters of some kind."
Kali
As soon as the ring is off, she's taking a step or two back. She kind of already suspected that when Baja got burned. "Congratulations, you have some kind of blessed ring that will end you if you put it on. Enjoy."
Baja
Kali finally manages to twist and turn the ring free and off of the hand. By the time it is off and she congratulates him on his new prize, his avarice seems to have subsided, and now he realizes that he could not even wear the thing without slowly burning til Final Death.
"No," he says, though it comes less sure than what he'd said earlier. "Saw her. Smelled her blood," and he seems to be convincing himself it wasn't some human hunter. And he can still smell it on the hand. The same as he'd smelled it when he cut it off. Kindred vitae, not kine.
"Bitch was Kindred. But wouldn't even tell me her clan," and as he says it, the hand... It is as if by magic. It does was a Kindred hand maybe should do when severed. It slowly begins to rot, then mummify as the skin dries and draws tight, and moments later it begins to break down until within a few minutes it becomes dust.
Mercy has other things than questioning a Ravnos broker of stolen goods, though. The first time she holds the amber up to the open pages of the book, it shows only that same writing. The second time, she can see something that is not English. She may recognize it as Spanish. The same Old Spanish of the cover, which Kali is able to decipher, if a little slower than her fluency in the more modern Spanish tongue.
The double-sided blade, almost like a bookmark, can be placed down over the words and then slid from left to right to read through it. And it posits an entirely different history of Lerna and the powers that were at play there in ages past.
And, just as it is written in vitae and revealed by vitae, the stories it tells are not of the kine, but of those who bear the Blood of Caine.
Kali
She arches an eyebrow at Baja's protestation "Then she's some kinda fuckin' Holy vampire or some shit, considering she could wear the ring."
She looks at the hand, which chose only AFTER the ring was removed to dissolve, and she opens her mouth. Then shuts it. "Oh for fuck's..." The next few words she spits out are possibly some of the foulest in the Romani tongue. She stomps off toward the bedroom again while Mercy is Figuring Shit Out with the book.
"Getting a Dustbuster!"
Mercy Comstock
The wound on her wrist is licked, the wound sealed by the touch of Mercys tongue, and as she lays the blade across the pages there is a snarl of delight, pleased at what she has found...but that strange smile upon her face furrows once more into a frown as she realizes what she has found....she cannot read. A rumbling growl rolls out past her lips as she looks up at Baja and Kali.
"It was hidden." She said gesturing to the two bladed reader. "It's in spanish." She grumbles, obviously unable to read it. "Who speaks spanish?" She asks, pushing the book towards the others, even as Kali rose to get the dustbuster.
Baja
Baja has leaned forward from where he'd fallen back into the couch after freeing the ring. He'd just left it sitting there on the coffee table, next to where Mercy had been...
Unlocking mysteries. Spanish mysteries. Older mysteries. His focus returns to the ring, picking up the round silver setting with cut and polished black glass inlaid in it. The pliers had managed to nick and mark the setting, but not the glass. He takes them again and picks up the bauble but their metal teeth, examining it.
"Writing inside. Of course fucking writing inside. Of course fucking writing I can't read." He huffs, and though he wants to throw the ring across the room, it finally seems to occur to him that he is within another Kindred's haven. So, he instead sets it down and leans back into the couch again.
Should Mercy of Kali end up examining the ring, they will find it has etchings on the interior, those these are ones that neither of them will understand.
Kali
She comes back out with one of those mini-portable Dustbusters that looks like it's from the late '90s. "Spanish?" She gestures to hand the book over, her grin returning to some degree. She's still displeased with the idea of a holy ring hanging out in her apartment (and a holy book, for that matter), but she's putting that aside for an interest in being able to read coded messages in Spanish.
"Dame el libro, chica. I'll be our translator."
Mercy Comstock
Mercy nods to Kali's words, a brief look of relief flashing across her features. She had been worried that none of them would be able to read the text, and that would have meant she wasted precious blood for nothing. But Kali was to the rescue, and she shifted to allow the woman to sit down where she had been, and instead moved to gingerly examine the inside of the ring.
One might wonder how someone like Mercy would know about these sorts of things, ancient languages and secret messages in books, she did not look like the scholarly type, or even bookish, and certainly not an initiate of deep and mystical secrets. But as she looks at the inscription in the ring her brows furrow in displeasure and she hisses in frustration.
"We need an ancient historian...this language is..." She frowns as she tries to remember the name of it, or what she had heard it called all those years ago.
"Linear B." She croaks it out in displeasure and leaves the ring be....she had done all she could, for now at least.
Kali
She does indeed sit down where Mercy was and takes the mystical spy decoder dagger, starting to look it over. She snorts in amusement when Mercy says they need an ancient historian. She has no idea what Linear B is.
"Dammit, and I just had my last ancient historian for dinner last night."
Mercy had only been listening for the moment, listening and smelling and feeling, sight had not been apart of the equation. But then her nostrils flare widely as a familiar scent filters through her nose and her eyes narrow sharply as she pushes off the ground and rises, turning as she did so to look at Kali and the book she held.
She took several steps towards the woman, slowly, carefully and she frowned as Baja lost a finger, but remained fixated upon the book.
"That smell...." She says slowly. "Such potency...can you smell it?" She asks the others. "So old...so strong." She doesn't reach out for the book, not yet. Her eyes fix upon the strange little dagger, and though she has no reason to expect violence from Kali, a weapon is a weapon.
Kali
Kali smirks and shakes her head in amusement when Baja reveals the purpose for his ownership of the book. "Jesus, man. Get a subscription to People or some shit. Making them read this is just mean."
She furrows her brow when the binding peels back and flat-out ignores her clanmate's comment about the tear. She quirks her lips thoughtfull and sets to pulling the binding back. The more true title makes her blink, and she looks back at the other two. She's taking this book seriously all of a sudden. The knife just adds to that and she holds it very gingerly, moving it out to arm's length as she examines it.
She moves to set the knife down on the table and flip through the book. "Have you actually read this or just assumed based on the cover?" The words are directed to Baja, but then he stars cursing like a Romani sailor. She holds back the grin.
"Dude, I do have neighbors. Not that I care about them, but..." She looks at Mercy. "I don't have the super-senses on, but I don't doubt it. So anyone know who the fuck the Lernaean Quorum is and why was it being targeted by the Spanish Inquisition?
Mercy Comstock
Mercy simply shook her head at the inquiry that Kali made, the name the Lernaean Quorum could have been the name of a prog rock band for all she knew, and for all she cared. Priorties drove her, what she knew mattered and she would follow that path like a wolf on the scent of prey.
She held out a hand for the book, a silent request that, after a moment is reinforced by the words. "May I?" The tone is odd for Mercy, it is not gutteral or hoarse, it is something all together more cultured and human, but it feels forced, pushed out of her for that moment in an attempt to get a better sniff.
"I have smelled this before...."
Kali
Kali shakes her head amiably when Mercy asks to see the book. Whatever tension there may have been earlier when they first encountered each other outside the restaurant, it's completely gone from Kali now. Which is not to say that she necessarily trusts Mercy or is ready to pick out drapes, but she's not a potential threat to her interests for the moment.
Kali is all about her best interests.
"By my guest, chickadee." She hands the book to the Gangrel and heads off into the back room with little more than an half-muttered "excuse me." There are sounds of rustling around, metal clanging on metal and she comes back with a pair of needle-nosed pliers, some tweezers and kitchen tongs.
"Hand that hand over, Handy McHanderson," she says to Baja. "I'll get the fuckin' ring off."
Baja
While Kali is still holding the book, paging through it, she realizes that does seem to be written in that same English as the original cover, not the Old Spanish of the hidden one. It tells of Lerna and its history. A Peloponnese region of springs with a grand lake, it is perhaps best known for being the home of the Lernaean Hydra, the many-headed beast defeated by Heracles in his Labors.
But the area had been settled in earlier times of antiquity. It lists tribes believed to have used it in what, when translated to modern terms from the book, may have even been Neolithic. More than a half-dozen millennia ago, and in what also sounds like a rough estimation of the Early Bronze Age.
The historian who wrote the book also tells of it swelling with the largest tumuli, large prehistoric man made mounds, in all of Greece. Of the House of Tiles, a two-story building whose ruins were uncovered, with terracotta tiles comprising its roof in a time when such building materials were either rare or unheard of. Fortified against violence millenia before the birth of Christ, which the book refers to as the First Year of Our Lord.
It also recounts the Daughters of Danaus, an earlier legend of Greek mythology predating Heracles.
That is about all that Kali is able to get from her skimming of the book before she hands it over for Mercy. More time will be needed to truly absorb the thick volume's knowledge.
As for Baja, if the sizzle weren't enough of an indicator, the tips of his fingers - index, middle and thumb, the three he'd put to work trying to pry the ring free from the boney fingers - are badly burnt. Once he has regained his composure he just looks down at the hand.
The persistent Ravnos doesn't answer her question. He pulls out a pair of gloves - of course he caries leather cloves with him - and this time is more careful when he touches the ring, holding it out toward Kali for her to use the pliars on as he bends back fingers already beset by rigor mortis.
They start working it off again, not giving up on claiming what he seems very sure is his trophy. So set upon it that he doesn't notice the rotting of his legs and the slashes healing themselves across his body as the two Ravnos set to the task.
"Book is the book I was asked for," grunt.
"Stolen from Settite in Vancouver four months ago. Did not need leads, she knew who had it. Been sitting on my fucking shelf while I wait for customer to show up. Then she says she is being double crossed. Paranoid. Does this to me," just as much like he's vindicating cutting off her hand as he is telling the story behind his ownership (9/10th of the law) of the book.
While they do this, Mercy is allowed to touch the book for the very first time. It feels heavy in her hands. When she looks at the knife, taking the book into account, and that second name it has, she may realize that the two are related. Only useful as the sum of their parts.
The Gangrel looks closer and it is if the blood has been inscribed into its pages and cover, etched there, the scent of the old vitae mingled with the aged vellum printing medium.
And she also realizes that another scent, the blood of a different kind and age, is actually upon the sharp piece of amber-embedded metal. The lines of its etching, the eye on one side and the pointing skeleton's hand, are filled with the dried old vitae, like it was used in some ritual.
And finally it dawns on her, through combined analysis and effort, that perhaps it is not a dagger - it has no hilt, though it is sharp - but instead maybe similar to the yad used by Jews to read the Torah.
Mercy Comstock
Mercy frowns as she looks at the book, sniffing it like an animal before eying the dagger, her frown only deepens as a variety of things click together in her mind, old dusty parts of her psyche coming alive as she considers the items as a whole...and not as their individual parts.
She then does something...slightly odd, she opens the book, glancing briefly at the writing before holding it up to the light and looking carefully. It is then that her frown deepens, the furrows of her face becoming like valley's before she holds out a hand.
"The...dagger please." She asks, it would seem that shes onto something. Her hand sat outstretched, waiting. She would not take it...she was trying to be cooperative, in her way.
Kali
Kali is quite handy with a pair of pliers. Take that as you will, but she sets herself to helping Baja get the ring free without actually touching it. "And your paranoid client who just fucked your world up...what do you know about her?" She's hoping that it's more than 'she's a bitch.'
Mercy asks for the knife, and Kali looks over for just a moment before nodding. She sets the hand down for a second and picks up the 'blade,' handing it to her. "Knock yourself out."
Baja
Baja shrugs. "Paid extra to keep it confidential. Did not question because who fucks with the snakes and does not want it confidential?" He actually looks like he might've once had sympathy for the request, especially for that little bit extra in exchange, but now that she's reduced him to a burnt and rotting version of his previously cultivated self, he looks no where near as forgiving.
Mercy Comstock
Mercy takes the knife and weighs it in one hand, turning it over in her grip as she considered the ramifications of such a thing. "This...is more then it seems." She said with a growl as she held up the amber to her eye and looked at the page through it. She did so for several moments before bringing the book down.
She looked at the others briefly as she considered her options and after a moment of looking around, she disregarded the desk, as she had been told to avoid it, and instead placed the book open upon the coffee table before Kali and Baja as they continued to work at the ring.
"This...is holy." She said, and not a moment later she cut her own wrist with blade, letting the blood seep onto it, before dabbing some of the blood onto the symbols...just incase. It is then...that she goes to look through the amber once more, seeking what she was certain was there.
Kali
She doesn't seem surprised by what Baja says, or even annoyed. She understands the business and that sometimes you have to take calculated risks with people. Unfortunately, that sometimes bites you in the ass or turns your legs to rotting flesh.
Mercy's statement that it's holy is also not a surprise, though that brings an audible look of disgust. "Fucking hell. Baja, homie, I think you've run afoul of goddamned hunters of some kind."
Kali
As soon as the ring is off, she's taking a step or two back. She kind of already suspected that when Baja got burned. "Congratulations, you have some kind of blessed ring that will end you if you put it on. Enjoy."
Baja
Kali finally manages to twist and turn the ring free and off of the hand. By the time it is off and she congratulates him on his new prize, his avarice seems to have subsided, and now he realizes that he could not even wear the thing without slowly burning til Final Death.
"No," he says, though it comes less sure than what he'd said earlier. "Saw her. Smelled her blood," and he seems to be convincing himself it wasn't some human hunter. And he can still smell it on the hand. The same as he'd smelled it when he cut it off. Kindred vitae, not kine.
"Bitch was Kindred. But wouldn't even tell me her clan," and as he says it, the hand... It is as if by magic. It does was a Kindred hand maybe should do when severed. It slowly begins to rot, then mummify as the skin dries and draws tight, and moments later it begins to break down until within a few minutes it becomes dust.
Mercy has other things than questioning a Ravnos broker of stolen goods, though. The first time she holds the amber up to the open pages of the book, it shows only that same writing. The second time, she can see something that is not English. She may recognize it as Spanish. The same Old Spanish of the cover, which Kali is able to decipher, if a little slower than her fluency in the more modern Spanish tongue.
The double-sided blade, almost like a bookmark, can be placed down over the words and then slid from left to right to read through it. And it posits an entirely different history of Lerna and the powers that were at play there in ages past.
And, just as it is written in vitae and revealed by vitae, the stories it tells are not of the kine, but of those who bear the Blood of Caine.
Kali
She arches an eyebrow at Baja's protestation "Then she's some kinda fuckin' Holy vampire or some shit, considering she could wear the ring."
She looks at the hand, which chose only AFTER the ring was removed to dissolve, and she opens her mouth. Then shuts it. "Oh for fuck's..." The next few words she spits out are possibly some of the foulest in the Romani tongue. She stomps off toward the bedroom again while Mercy is Figuring Shit Out with the book.
"Getting a Dustbuster!"
Mercy Comstock
The wound on her wrist is licked, the wound sealed by the touch of Mercys tongue, and as she lays the blade across the pages there is a snarl of delight, pleased at what she has found...but that strange smile upon her face furrows once more into a frown as she realizes what she has found....she cannot read. A rumbling growl rolls out past her lips as she looks up at Baja and Kali.
"It was hidden." She said gesturing to the two bladed reader. "It's in spanish." She grumbles, obviously unable to read it. "Who speaks spanish?" She asks, pushing the book towards the others, even as Kali rose to get the dustbuster.
Baja
Baja has leaned forward from where he'd fallen back into the couch after freeing the ring. He'd just left it sitting there on the coffee table, next to where Mercy had been...
Unlocking mysteries. Spanish mysteries. Older mysteries. His focus returns to the ring, picking up the round silver setting with cut and polished black glass inlaid in it. The pliers had managed to nick and mark the setting, but not the glass. He takes them again and picks up the bauble but their metal teeth, examining it.
"Writing inside. Of course fucking writing inside. Of course fucking writing I can't read." He huffs, and though he wants to throw the ring across the room, it finally seems to occur to him that he is within another Kindred's haven. So, he instead sets it down and leans back into the couch again.
Should Mercy of Kali end up examining the ring, they will find it has etchings on the interior, those these are ones that neither of them will understand.
Kali
She comes back out with one of those mini-portable Dustbusters that looks like it's from the late '90s. "Spanish?" She gestures to hand the book over, her grin returning to some degree. She's still displeased with the idea of a holy ring hanging out in her apartment (and a holy book, for that matter), but she's putting that aside for an interest in being able to read coded messages in Spanish.
"Dame el libro, chica. I'll be our translator."
Mercy Comstock
Mercy nods to Kali's words, a brief look of relief flashing across her features. She had been worried that none of them would be able to read the text, and that would have meant she wasted precious blood for nothing. But Kali was to the rescue, and she shifted to allow the woman to sit down where she had been, and instead moved to gingerly examine the inside of the ring.
One might wonder how someone like Mercy would know about these sorts of things, ancient languages and secret messages in books, she did not look like the scholarly type, or even bookish, and certainly not an initiate of deep and mystical secrets. But as she looks at the inscription in the ring her brows furrow in displeasure and she hisses in frustration.
"We need an ancient historian...this language is..." She frowns as she tries to remember the name of it, or what she had heard it called all those years ago.
"Linear B." She croaks it out in displeasure and leaves the ring be....she had done all she could, for now at least.
Kali
She does indeed sit down where Mercy was and takes the mystical spy decoder dagger, starting to look it over. She snorts in amusement when Mercy says they need an ancient historian. She has no idea what Linear B is.
"Dammit, and I just had my last ancient historian for dinner last night."