“He’s busy right now,” she says, again cutting him off. “Curl, what do you mean by fine?” She presses on, trying to pry as much information about the mission out of him as quickly as possible.

“Seren, who is that? That you're talking to on the phone right there? Is that Caleb?” Odem’s voice can now be heard coming from Seren’s background. Seren, who doesn’t immediately answer him, continues to glare at Curl as she waits for an answer.

“Seren? Is that Caleb? What does he want?” Odem pesters again. After several more seconds of this, she finally turns and addresses her brother.

“Yes, it’s PHADSYN. They were just reporting in on the Obelisk operation,” she says to him.

“Oh yes, I forgot about that. How d’it go?”

“I’m trying to find out right––” She begins to answer him in an effort to shut him up, but it is to no avail.

“Seren, I wanna speak to Caleb, put Caleb on. Let me speak to Caleb,” Odem incessantly prattles to his tense, younger sister. Seren stares at Curl for a bit longer with a wide-eyed glare, hoping that her eyes would demand from him what her words failed to. She then takes a sharp breath before exiting the screen. Odem now pops up.

“Ah! Hello, Caleb,” Odem says to his loyal subject.

“H-Hello, sir,” Curl nervously replies.

“I’m not your sir, Caleb. Oh my … oh my, Caleb.” Odem’s tone is suddenly one of dramatic concern. “What happened to your face? W-Who else is there witchu’ I see? Is that … is that Layla back there I see?”

Odem moves his face closer to the device that transmits his video feed to them so he now appears as a large head on their screen, squinting and turning in a superfluous effort to see who else is behind Curl. “Layla? You there? Is it … is that Layla back there I see, Seren? I can’t tell.”

“Yes, Odem, it’s me––we are all here,” Lay Mis says out loud from behind Curl.

“Oh, yes, now I can hear you, Layla. Well say something back there, I couldn’t see you.” Lay Mis responds by stepping closer to the monitor. “Oh, there you go! Oh my. Layla, my dear, you too? Look at your face. What happened to all you guys, huh? Seren, what happened to them?” he turns and ask his sister. An exasperated Seren rolls her eyes, shakes her head, and slightly shrugs her shoulders somehow all at the same time.

“We were ambushed, sir,” Lay Mis reveals to her master.

“Ambushed?” he exclaims.

“Yes, ambushed. As a result, we lost the target.”

“Seren, you hear that? They lost Burt. Well, are you guys alright at least? You need me to come out there? I mean I’m a little busy right now, but I’ll come out there if you need me to. I love y’all. All of y’all, y’all know that, right? I’m just a little busy,” he says to his beloved team. At this point, Seren is now also in the feed.

“Where is the Obelisk?” she asks in a much louder tone. “Where is he?”

“He was taken,” Lay Mis responds to her, trying her best to keep her cool while doing so.

“Taken? By who?” Seren fires back, spittle flying from her mouth, each answer causing her to grow more upset.