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Elias watches all of this play out from his office as he washes the blood from his hands and face and changes into a fresh suit.
He had initially been wary of his Archivist’s strengthened bond with Tim after the Prentiss incident. He feared that Tim would prevent Jon from being Marked by other entities, but Elias has been very pleasantly surprised. Tim has turned out to be quite the enabler of Jon’s most impulsive, self-destructive tendencies.
In fact, Tim seems content to get himself marked right alongside Jon, driven by the same desire for knowledge as the Archivist. Elias never expected Tim to fit the Beholding quite this well, but he is certainly happy to be wrong in this instance. With both of them progressing so well, he’s not going to interfere in their relationship.
It’s not ideal that they all know of Elias’s involvement with the more supernatural side of the Institute, or that Martin’s gotten more involved, but the veil was always going to have to be removed at some point, so Elias is ultimately fine with it. It will also be amusing, seeing how Martin and Tim will behave towards him now, whether they will be successful in pretending that nothing has changed between them.
His initial plan had been for Martin to function as a backup Archivist, in case Jon were to fail at any point, as has and continues to be a very real possibility, but Tim has become an increasingly intriguing prospect. After all, thanks to his goading of the Distortion, Tim now has all the same Marks as Jon, if you swap out Web for Stranger. He has also shown himself to be a good fit for the position. Elias will have to get him to start reading statements, and with Jon’s absence, there couldn’t be a better opportunity.
If Jon were to die, Elias thinks he could convince Tim to become the Archivist with very little persuading. In fact, he has a strong suspicion that Tim would come to him first and demand the job so that he could avenge both his brother and his precious Jon. Jon is still Plan A, of course; that Web Mark makes him invaluable, and beyond that, Jon has the best temperament for the job out of the three of them.
Tonight has been a night of promising developments all around. Elias grins as he adjusts his cufflinks, Knowing that the police will be calling him any second now to inform him about the murder. He is deeply satisfied with how things have played out.