The vexing thing was that he was quite right. With the discovery of the dig site a month before her days were certainly full at the moment, and with a veritable plethora of curiosities that were being passed around the department like they were children with toys. Still, it was a shame. She had been so sure there was a secret in the depths of that artefact that could change how they manipulated time for good and the Egyptian government, she suspected, were quite aware of that fact and intended to keep their secrets to themselves.

Short-sighted, but Marlena knew she would be a terrible hypocrite to deride anyone keeping secrets.

“It was more the thought of how much could have been achieved, how many people helped,” she admittedly candidly, her ire deflating into regret rapidly. Sometimes her work was nothing more than a series of disappointments that was only occasionally interrupted with a triumph and she had been hoping very much that this might be one of the brighter moments. “The manipulation of time has only been used for trivial things so far but if we could harness it properly there’s so much more we could be doing. Surely you’d agree that making the world a better place is part of our job here?”

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MJ: still raising the graphics bar as of 2022