Aloha, Magi!

Phillipus handed Maris a stack of organized leather-bound journals. "There are annotations when necessary, and an index in the back for ease of access. Otherwise, the contents have been copied to the letter," he smirked, "albeit more legibly. Lazarus's notes are in a dark red ink, and mine are in blue. All the diagrams should have keys and references."

"Oh goodness." His eyes sparkled. "I'll get right to it." He retreated to a corner with Caster to flip through the notes. Marchosias lurked nearby.

Kirei was just getting ready to board a plane for Italy when his phone rang. He noticed the number, and probably shouldn't have been surprised. "Hello. Is everything alright?"

"Guess what!" Lazarus began cheerfully, "It seems that Ozymandias and the other team's lancer are going to be causing some trouble. We don't know where the lancer is going, but Ozymandias will be heading to Egypt. Would you an Atalanta like to come assist us with him? I certainly don't want you two to be bored."

Kirei sighed. He turned to Atalanta. "Apparently Ozymandias is heading to Egypt to cause trouble. Would you want to join the effort to stop him?"

She smiled and the glint in her eye said she was definitely ready to battle, "I'd love to, but if you'd rather relax, I'm alright with that too."

"I don't mind. The sooner he's taken care of, the more time we'll have to relax." He went back to the phone. "We're in. Give us a time and place and we'll meet you there."

Lazarus gave Kirei the information for when they'd be arriving and which flight they'd be on, before hanging up and getting to work on some other things while Yui spoke to her father. He took a break to say hello to the kids with her before returning to work.

Aaron meanwhile went to his room to gather his stuff. He did miss his husband, but he kinda didn't want to go home. Even though Julian hadn't sounded super angry, which put him at ease, he wanted to go hang out and take care of business with the others. Oh well...

After getting off the phone with her family, Yui went to Aaron's room. "Are you sure you don't want to come with us first? We could really use your help taking care of Ozy."

"Oh! Well I'd kind of like to, but if Julian wants me to be home I should probably get home,"he made a sorry shrug.

She was starting to understand why the others were giving him strange looks. "I don't suppose we could change his mind? If he knew what was at stake, he might be more amenable. I don't think anyone wants a mad former Pharoah trying to take over the world."

"Well...I could ask I suppose. I didn't think to mention it honestly..." he took out his phone and began texting. A reply game almost immediately, and Aaron smiled, "He says absolutely! Awesome. I guess I'll be heading to Egypt with you guys then." he gave Yui a wink, and went out to join Phillipus to make party food, if he wasn't too busy planning super scientific stuff.

Phillipus was slicing crosses into ends of grape tomatoes for a bright berry and greens salad, and gave Aaron a friendly smile. "Good news, I see?"

"Great! It'll be fun. I mean, apart from the mortal peril parts," she laughed, then went to rejoin Lazarus. She thought to herself while he worked. She didn't like to pry into others' personal business, but she wondered if they could do anything to help Aaron. His situation somewhat uncomfortably reminded her of Byakuya.

"Yep! What can I help with?" His attitude seemed to have genuinely brightened as he washed his hands and waited for instructions.

He pushed a basket of fruit towards Aaron. "Would you mind slicing these up and putting them in that punchbowl? There's a party drink from Spain I'd like to try, it's from long after my time but it sounds delightful!"

" Fuck yes! I love this stuff!" He went to slicing happily, tossing everything in as he went, "Another fun thing to do is inject a watermelon with Vodka."

"Vodka?? In a wat-" He gasped. "It would seep into the fibrous fruit!!" He patted Aaron's back, grinning. "You are a genius! I knew someone from Russia, in my past life. Well, a lot of people did, there were many travelers and students, but he was unique. Quite the gifted mage."

"Well I wouldn't say I was a genius, but thanks anyway," he continued chopping the fruit, wondering out loud to himself, "I wonder how long vodka has been like...manufactured?"

"Well it was around when I was, so I'd say it's quite old," he chuckled. "It's easy enough to make that anyone could make a still, regardless of their finances. It could even help their finances, for that matter."

"From Russia, you say?" Yui said, making small talk. "I guess I don't know how common travel was in that part of the country at that time."

"That's definitely true. It was really prevalent here during prohibition, I read. It was definitely very lucrative," his mind wandered as he started thinking about making his own liquor. "Well not here, here. Just in America."

"It was more difficult, certainly, without trains and automobiles, but it was possible. Carriages could take someone so far, and boats ferried people across the English Channel and Mediterranean Sea often. My friend came to Salzburg via Poland, and then it was just a jaunt further south from there."

"Interesting. I wonder if his family's still around? I know mage families can be quite old, but even 500 years is a long time in the mage world."

"Perhaps! His name was Makiri Tsolgen, I don't suppose that rings any bells?"

"Hmm... Makiri... That does sound oddly familiar. I can't quite place it. Maybe my father would know." She took out her phone and texted her father, getting a response back from him a few minutes later. As she read it, her eyes bulged. "Makiri? You're sure his name was Makiri? Makiri Zolgen?"