Memory Woods Hut

"Pfft, you, I'm not worried about. You are not your sister. That's what Libby said to you, wasn't it? I know you struck some sort of deal with Libitina, or a favor was asked of you or something. You're in the clear, mostly, provided you can explain what happened that day at some point," Magtok answers, brushing aside Feia's offer to convince him they're all in this together with foolish naivety. Yes, let her think he's already been won over, that the weak-willed cyborg has just given in and accepted his place in their plans. Play the fool, Magtok. It's what everyone's expecting you to do.

"Venny though, he's the one I'm not so sure about right now," Magtok remarks. "He might be stupid and sentimental enough to think Mommy's going to take him with her into the Feiaverse, especially if he successfully impresses upon her his loyalty and usefulness by infiltrating the opposition and rooting out the last few threats to her unholy ascension," the cyborg points out, wiggling a finger in the half-dragon's general direction, before reaching into his robe to produce a can of soda he'd stolen from Faction's minifridge a few weeks ago. He gives it a toss towards the catfish on the floor, who leaps up into the air, distends its ugly mouth, and swallows the entire can whole. Based off of Magtok's entirely nonchalant, indifferent reaction to that bizarre catch, I think that might've been what he expected to happen. He pulls out another can, opens it, and takes a sip.

"That's fine, though. I have a contingency for that. Needs has a spell he's configured to act like a sort of remote explosive. They'd cling to his body and then either fade away after the day is saved, or erupt in fire the moment his betrayal is known to us. Allowing us to slap a few of those on him would go a long way towards putting my fears to rest," Even if everyone vetos it, which is very likely to happen, he's probably going to tell Needs to plant a few spells on the guy anyway. Also, while Magtok technically hasn't lied, his explanation isn't exactly how the spell works. Venmaunt is probably one of those spellsword types anyway, though, definitely not the kind of dedicated mage who'd have any real chance of making heads or tails of his brother's atrociously sloppy spell lattices.

Heck, even Feia herself might have trouble reading the kind of High Arcana Needs produces. Needs once told him, as a point of pride, that when the time came to confront Feia, she would be facing a spell that could not, would not ever be understood. He had added so much superfluous trash to Draken's favorite sorcery, created something so abominable and obscene that it would take years just to find the activation chant, let alone the right thread to pull on to safely dismantle the casting. Anyone who actually dedicated their life to understand the spell would spend most of them locked in a narcotics-induced fugue, just to keep the resulting migraines at a manageable level. It was, his brother bragged, almost as byzantine and grotesque as the Magbot source code.