Gloria turns to Phoenyx:
"The Snakes are a cabal of Guardians. They play hard. They are cleaners. Or first response warriors. Take your pick. Venois has been using them as hunters more and more often."
Icarus continues to Guru:
"The Ladder and the Guardians are practically one in the Golden Consilium. Sometimes I wonder if they even consider themselves to be separate Order's some times. Ladder; Guardian. Both the same."
Corbin grunted as Puck interjects with his suspicions. He slowly hauls himself upright, and Icarus crosses the floor to assist; the mage might have been healed by Kaze but the long term psychological and physical trauma is taking much longer to work out. He frowns, the lines on his drawn face growing deeper as he focusses on the computer.
"We took our information from a back up server. An old server. Almost completely forgotten. I had only heard rumours. So had Striga Mortis - and it took the two of us working together to put the pieces together, so I doubt her information was bad. She is no pawn of the establishment. Venois must have been using her own resources as well... We ended up in a race to find it and thats when many of my allies burned themselves to buy us time, one way or another."
His voice wavered with effort as he studied the records, a shaking hand running across his scarred forehead. He stopped speaking, his speech ending in a resounding sigh. A tremor ran through the injured Libertine, then he sagged and if it not been for Icarus' steady hands, Corbin would have folded to the floor. Instead, guided by his comrade, the Libertine sagged back into his seat.
Gloria stiffened in her seat, eyes suddenly wide and bouncing from one individual to the other.
"What? What are you saying? Corbin!"