We talked the hours away.
I couldn't tell a Parian a lot of things. Some because they were simply too big, like Cauldron, the truth about Scion, the fact I knew her identity and that of pretty much every other local cape worth note. Anything about the future, and a great deal more.
I also couldn't tell her some things because they were just plain to weird to believe. The nature of my powers, Malfeas, and the bloody days in it's gladiatorial pits that had given them to me, that I had learned all of the things I knew about her world from a book in my world. That sort of thing.
What I could however tell her was that I was from a world without capes, I'd ended up in a place unpleasant I really, really didn't want to talk about, and had then ended up dumped off in this world without even a shirt on by back.
Oh, and I didn't always used to look like the natural result of someone baddly waxing lyric without any thought to what 'skin of marble' and 'hair like the deepest night' actually would look like.
Then we talked about what happened since I go there. I explained one of my powers was covering myself in my shadow and shaping it into a sort of pseudo form as a disguise, and that while it was one of a number of powers I had, all were limited to a finite pool to fuel them. A pool I had nearly exhausted fighting the Simurgh.
Yeah I caught some flak again for making an Endbringer fight my first Cape fight. I wasn't about to explain that those weren't actually the worst odds I'd tackled before.
Not that I really wanted to think about that right now.
The conversation wasn't entirely one way. Parian talked a fair bit herself, both in the form of questions that told me a fair bit alongside what they told her, and just in outright talking about the city. About the places that were dangerous in the form of idiots with guns, the ones with fools with cameras and of course, organizations with ambitions.
The conversation with Armsmaster came up, and she asked me about that, mostly it seemed to figure out what the armored man was playing at now. She didn't seem to regard the Protectorate highly. Didn't openly disrespect them, but did complement my blunt refusal warning me that they'd try other ways to pressure me in.
I also explained that while I was penniless at the moment, I had a good source of income in the city. I just needed to wait long enough to recharge and look human again, something that wouldn't take that long really.
She inquired what the source of money was. I played it off as someone at the fight telling me where I could get decent paying non-supercrime related money but I had to keep my source unspoken.
She pressed a bit on that but I managed to deflect her. That bit was actually... easy. Frightfully so.
I hadn't put a lot of thought into just what I was becoming yet. I still honestly didn't have the time to do so considering the likely accompanying break down that came with.
It was actually fairly invigorating overall. My exhaustion hadn't quite disappeared, but between the coffee and mental stimulation I'd almost forgotten it. Parian was wonderful company and I was regretful that the time slipped away as fast as it did.
But it did, and after only a few hours, I'd regained enough power to don my shadow once more without needing to flare my anima at all.
I was back to an acceptable tank of power, reasonably well fed, Navigator of Unknown Skies had patched up my hurt. I was almost at one hundred percent.
Almost being a key word. As even though I'd recovered a lot faster then I'd expected, it was still nearly one in the morning when I ended up saying my goodbyes and I was definitely feeling it, stimulants or no.
Which was... off. I mean I'd pulled all-nighters before they took it out of you, but this actually tapped me out a bit worse.
I mean under raw statistics my stamina wasn't even half my speed and strength but that was a game. I was still Exalted. It felt weird to be lacking compared to where I used to be able. At least on a physical level. I knew I took a big hit to the head in the process but up until now I'd felt nothing but so much more powerful when it came to my body.
It was... off-putting really. Reminded me just how much I had changed in a way even harder to deny, reminded me for all that the pluses outweighed the minuses the minuses were still very much there. Killed the power high right where it stood.
But as tired as I was, I was still standing.
That was more then enough for this next part.
I took the form of a non-descript shmo in a suit, a nice suit. Not quite middle aged, black hair peppered by white, a nearly kept but slightly lopsided beard, green eyes, but not green like the fires burning within me.
My target was well organized, wealthy, and paranoid. In both his public personas he kept himself surrounded by well armed and trained professionals. More over, while he likely kept a fat stack of bills on his person his real wealth was in his accounts and resources. Things I didn't have anywhere near the skill to access, much less take for my own.
But I knew someone who did have that skill, and plenty of motivation to help me.
The question came down to how to contact her.
Fortunately that was actually almost as easily said as done.
I asked one last favor of Parian before I left, to borrow her phone for a moment, and access to a phone book.
The phone run once, twice, three times, four times, then on the fifth ring it was picked up and a tired voice answered, "Who is it?"
"Hi, can I speak to Brian?" I questioned.