As Kerii walked back to her home from Inspector Nilan's office, she still could not help but wonder why the man she turned into the inspector committed suicide. Albeit quiet, he seemed mentally stable. Well, as mentally stable as an occult member could be, she supposed. He had revealed the location of his hideout to Inspector Nilan. That much she knew. Perhaps he felt guilty about spilling that piece of information, but that was a rather weak explanation. Unless the man had some serious mental health issues that were not apparent at the time, guilt did not seem like a viable option, but some sort of emotion must have spurred his decision to kill himself. After thinking about it for a while, the most obvious one was fear. Fear often proved to be a daunting feeling, which could either make or break people. Considering the hooded man was definitely part of the cult, or at the very least had close ties with it, he could be afraid of the leader. If the cult leader found out that he had revealed sensitive information of any sorts, he could be the leader's next target. If the man would rather commit suicide than feel the wrath of the occult leader, than Kerii thought that her town would have much bigger problems than what was going on with the plants... or perhaps even Era, since that is where the next meeting would be taking place.

Unless, of course, the location was merely so that they could gather and conjure up a plan far away enough from Orchidia so that nobody would become suspicious of their true intents. That would all fall to shambles though once Kerii or another person went over to Era to either stop the meeting, or find out more about what was going on. If it was Kerii, she would honestly opt for seeing what their plans were, and formulating a countermeasure from there on out. For one, it would feed her insatiable curiosity. But for another, if there were simply too many cult members to deal with all at once, she could devise a plan to fight against them on her own once the time came. If Kerii ever did go to Era though in person to witness the meeting, she may have to act in the moment. Though in this instance (as this problem proved to be larger than the issues she normally dealt with) she would prefer to go in with a solidified idea already concocted within her mind, certain bits and pieces of information could ultimately change the whole scenario, even if they were tiny in comparison to the big picture. If such a situation aroused, she would simply have to go with the flow and do what she instinctively thought was best. Luckily, she had good instincts. She could think on her feet and make decisions quickly when need be. In fact, she often found that she defaulted to operating in this manner. Unfortunately, that could be seen as one of her flaws and may negatively impact herself in the long run.

WC: 516/2000

For now though, diving in without a plan worked out fine for the young elf. She couldn't be over-prepared, so that if one tiny thing went wrong everything would fall apart. If such an instance did occur, Kerii was nearly always able to adapt, but she almost never went into a situation that organized to begin with. As an example of her instantaneous behavior, when the mage went to bed, she had no idea what she was even planning on doing the next day. When she woke up, she still did not know. Having nothing better to do, she got ready and went to the guild hall where she laid her eyes on the request board. It was populated with fliers, each one holding information about a quest to take. Curious, she walked over. There were some that were of menial tasks, and others that were higher paying that seemed to pose more of a challenge. That day, Kerii only paid attention to the slightly higher paying requests, and was quite surprised when she came across one from a client she had never heard of before. Her name was Marlee, and it was more of her fiancé who needed assistance. He had been missing for an entire month and nobody has heard from him. This was obviously an urgent matter. If he was gone for so long, there was no telling what kind of state he was in. Of course, he could have simply left Marlee... After all, she had no clue what this woman was like, but she would give her the benefit of the doubt and assume that something bad happened.

Marlee and her fiancé owned a cheese shop in Orchidia, so she decided to go there to talk to the client before heading off to the manor. Upon entry, she found a woman with light orange hair at the cash register, waiting for customers. "Welcome! We have the finest cheeses in Orchidia!" she happily exclaimed. "I'd love to try some other time," Kerii replied, looking at the nice displays she had set up, "but I'm actually looking for your fiancé. You said he's been missing for a month?" Marlee sighed and sadly nodded her head. "Have you gone to the authorities?" Marlee once again nodded her head. "Yes. They looked through the manor, but couldn't find anything. Since he's been missing for so long, they aren't very hopeful in finding him. The longer someone is gone, it just exponentially gets more difficult to find them... according to the police, at least." That was definitely true, but it depended on the case. "Well, I'll see what I can do. I'll try my best to bring your fiancé back." With that said, Kerii left the cheese shop and headed towards the manor. Its address was listed on the request paper, along with a description of her fiancé. She honestly wondered if the man was even in danger or not. Marlee seemed nice enough, but first impressions almost never told the whole picture.

WC: 516+503=1019/2000

As Kerii made her way over to the manor, she played a dozen situations throughout her mind. According to the flier, Marlee's fiancé originally went to the manor to sell their cheese shop. The authorities investigated the manor, but to no avail. There seemed to be no trace of her fiancé. Marlee did not tell Kerii what the inspectors did end up finding, but if she neglected to mention anything, it must not have been important. She didn't even mention who lived at the mansion her significant other was paying a visit to, which seemed strange to Kerii now that she thought about it. One would think that, that sort of information would be useful to have, but apparently not. Still trying to be optimistic, the elf would give Marlee the benefit of the doubt and blame the lack of information on her being worried sick about her partner.

Once the mage came upon the manor, she tried to decide how to enter it. Obviously, something fishy was going on. Of all the scraps of information she gathered, one conclusion she was able to draw was that there was a potential villain residing within the house Marlee's boyfriend tried to enter. He likely knocked on the door and asked to speak with the homeowner, where he may or may not have been apprehended. To play it safe, Kerii decided that she would sneak into the house. Was that illegal? Technically speaking, yes. She did not have a search warrant, but she was on a request. Besides, it wasn't the first time she had sneaked into places she shouldn't have, and should she be caught, it was not her first time escaping either. If Marlee's fiancé was still trapped in the mansion after all these years though, the whole request, and all her actions, would be worth it.

The elf found a window on the ground floor that was cracked open -- an odd decision for winter, but she wasn't complaining. It was suspicious, to say the least, but she would take what she was given. Kerii peered through it, and did not see anyone. She slowly pushed the window further open until it was just wide enough for her to slip through. She flinched as the window shut behind her. Though it did it on its own, she hoped that it was just gravity, and began her search throughout the house. It was eerily quiet. Perhaps nobody was home… well, except for the duck that began to follow her, but the Draken had a strange feeling that was not the case. Cautiously assuming that she was alone, but not letting her guard down, she found a staircase leading into the basement. The lights were on, but were dimly lit in the hallway. The temperature dropped a few degrees, giving Kerii a strange feeling. She eventually stumbled across a room laden with medical equipment, which she was more than familiar with, and then some others, which she had never seen before. She was too nervous to touch them. Regardless of what they actually did though, there was clearly something strange going on. Eventually, the elf entered another room where she saw Marlee's fiancé. Only, something was off.

WC: 1019+536=1555/2000

The man was alone in the room. He looked exactly like the description in the request. She even double checked to make sure that it was he, and everything physically seemed to check out. That was not what surprised Kerii though. It was his response when she asked: "Are you Marlee's fiancé?" He turned around, a zoned out expression on his face. He quaked in reply. The elf blinked a few times. "Excuse me?" Once again, the man quacked like a duck. She turned to the duck who was still following her and raised an eyebrow. It began flapping its wings at the man, but would not quack itself. In fact, now that she thought about it, the duck did not make a peep this entire time. "I can't believe I'm dealing with this," she grumbled, taking the grown duck man by his wrist. She led him over to the room with all the medical equipment and strange tools.

The elf rummaged through the cabinets to try to find something that would reverse whatever was done to the man. He was acting like a duck, and the duck that was following her was acting very, well, unduckish. Her eyes fell across an empty beaker labeled 'Switching Formula.' Next to it, was a full beaker labeled 'Reverse Formula.' On the counter beneath the shelves was a journal. She picked it up, but before she could open it, she heard the voice of a man speak in a stern tone. "Take your hands off my journal." The elf flinched and dropped the book. She turned around to see a male with ruffled hair wearing a lab coat. "What's going on here?" she demanded, gesturing to the man and the duck. "Oh, I see you've come across my little experiment then." Kerii put her hands on her hips and gave him a look, signifying that she wanted more information. "I was able to switch the minds of this man and that duck. Isn't that amazing!" The mage looked to duck and then to the man in astonishment. It truly was an incredibly scientific feat, which she admittedly wanted to know more about, but she didn't have time for that. "That's nice and all, but I'm going to need you to turn them back. I assume it has to do with the beakers over there?" "Oh yes, but I'm afraid I can't do that. My experiment is not yet complete." "Then I'll have to forcefully do it myself," she warned. The mad scientist just laughed. "And what can you do?" Without warning, the elf dashed to the scientist. He grabbed a scalpel from his pocket and attempted to slash Kerii with it, but she grabbed it from his feeble hands and threw it to the side. Grabbing one of his tools, she hit him upside the head, immediately knocking him out. She scrambled for the reversing flask and read his journal. To reverse the effects, all you had to do was pour the potion on the heads of the two parties: in this case, the man and the duck. She did so, and they began acting like their old selves. She took the man back to Marlee and was rewarded for her work.

WC: 1555+539=2094/2000