Zel pondered. When Cethin joined the orbs together he was reminded of something. The tablets had depicted the six spirits bound together similarly, but as two separate "orbs" to maintain balance. He wondered why they'd been separated if indeed things had ever been like that. More relevantly though, Zel thought that joining everything together would do little to help. To give one entity ultimate power would induce corruption and destruction, and there would be nothing powerful enough to balance this great force out should something go wrong. Unless there was yet another six spirits out there, which he highly doubted.<br/><br/>Thinking about it, Zel supposed the biggest flaw with the scale system the tablets had depicted was that the spirits were arranged in fighting groups. To attempt to attain balance through fighting didn't quite seem logical to him. He figured there had to be some moment for peace... Perhaps that was what this was. If (assuming they'd been bound in the first place) the spirits had been separated in order to give pause to the fighting, then why should things be in such a chaotic state now?<br/><br/>Suddenly, two details clicked inside Zel's mind. He had neither evidence to back them up, nor the self-assurance that his assumptions were correct, but he toyed with the idea anyway. If, hypothetically, after the spirits were separated, Umbra was no longer occupied with fighting Origin, then perhaps its chaos would be directed elsewhere. And with Origin being both weakened and apparently having been gone from the world for quite some time, Umbra would definitely not be occupied with fighting her.<br/><br/>Now Zel considered the rather intriguing detail of the powerful magic he was sure Cethin had. Where does one get power in a chaotic world where magic is dying? From chaos itself, of course. At that moment, Cethin jumped right to the top of Zel's suspect list for Umbra vessels. Conclusion: They were not in a good situation right now. Plan of action... possibly stall for time, do his best to get out of this tangled mess and avoid fighting. In a magic versus magic battle, Zel would surely lose in this weakened state... And while his skin, hate it though he may, protected him from most physical attacks, there was little it could do against magic.<br/><br/>After Cethin made it clear he didn't feel like waiting, Zel gave as little hesitation as he could in his answer. "Why yes," he said confidently. "I have decided." He gave pause for the briefest of moments before speaking again as he drew his sword. "'Paradise' is not made in a day, and you, sir, are far too impatient." Yes while Zel desperately wanted to avoid violence, for all of their sakes, the logic in him said there was simply no way around it. The only chance they'd been given to save Larea and the spirits was to resist this man.<br/><br/>He did give one last option for peace though, diplomat that he was. "Perhaps if you were to prove your patience," he said, holding up his sword like a master, "I would reconsider."