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[Halae]

[Mouchabière Residence]

Trick's assumptions prove to be correct. The bow-wielding woman shakes her head.

"No. This has gone on long enough. Any time we spend letting your people go is time you can use somehow. This will end today. Your people can flee if they're able but we will attack now."

The three other commanders of her army look at her with unsure and dismayed expressions (except for the hooded one, whose face is invisible) but don't protest.

"She doesn't want to do this," Sophie observes. Her eyes study the woman with her usual intense, piercing scrutiny. "She will hate herself for it for the rest of her life. But she believes she has to do it. I think this is the end of a very bloody war."

[Mouchabière Residence]

"War drives people to some pretty extreme ends. If it's been as bad as they're implying, then letting the guy's supporters go is suicidally reckless, even for a little time," Trick lets out a sigh. People killing people not even because they want to, but because they have to, forced by circumstance and necessity. Horrible.

[Reinholdt]

[Bellamy House]

The child calling out doesn't seem too out of place to Rein, given the loud noises that just happened. Reinholdt is on his feet quickly and dancing his way carefully over (so as not to step upon any small children) to the window to look. Wondering what exactly Annie and Ana had just done out there to cause such a commotion. Or perhaps it was one of Magtok's lame attempts to finally get back at him. It could theoretically be unrelated to all of them and just be a random occurrence, but that seems exceedingly unlikely given they weren't at a tavern.

Reinholdt himself looks far too catlike when he's peering out the window, trying to find the source of his current interests.

[Arkhosia]

[Uninvited]

"I-I mean, this is nice enough," Stasia replies, a little embarrassed, "but... I guess we could pick up where we left off earlier, if you want. She... um, probably won't feel anything if she's asleep I mean."

[Spookysitting]

Leis scans the contents with mild confusion. This kind of stuff was a little out of her wheelhouse. "Um, yeah, maybe that would work! I'll uh, see if your mom has any books on this kind of thing." She starts to look around the room for anything that could instruct them through this, moving quickly to any bookshelves or scrolls.

[Earl of Purple]

Bloodplunder House- A Midwinter's Night Dreaming

"So... I won't actually be in your dream, just a simulacrum of me? And a simulacrum of you will be in mine? How accurate will the simulacrum be? I don't have training in lucid dreaming, so... I can't control what I'm going to dream." So that might prove awkward, depending on how hormones influence things. Or just inaccurate, if his dream isn't the same dream Aigothurz is dreaming in Aikobaz' head.

[Morty]

[Mouchabière Residence]

As the two women speak, the commanders walk back to their armies and a battle is joined. It looks as horrible as battles always do, if not more - since there are five demigods striding the battlefield, smiting regular soldiers like so much wheat before a scythe.

"Corvus told me that Dragon-Blooded and Sidereals hunt down Solar and Lunar Exalted. Is this where it started?" Sophie wonders aloud.

Meanwhile, the woman with a bow ignores the teeming lines of soldiery and focuses on the Solar's lieutenants. She picks them off one by one with precise shots that bend space and probability to reach their targets. When Sophie's predecessor stands alone, an invisible arrow trailing starlight pierces his heart and he expires without a sigh.

"Survival... is control," she whispers, tears trailing down her cheeks.

As the Solar lies dying and his army routs, the divine spark of his Exaltation seeps from his body - though it's only visible to the visitors. It flies up to the sky and the sun, but before it can get there, it's pulled away, snared, caught and trapped in the dark between the stars. There it remains, until it's all but forgotten... but not forever, as eventually it found its way to Sophie.

[Halae]

[Mouchabière Residence]

"When a new ruler wants to take over, they need to hunt down the old monarch and their family. Given the way she's crying, this isn't just a blind power grab, but also something she considers a necessary evil," Trick's expression is colored by a frown. Sophie can tell from the way she's speaking that she's trying to remain analytical with this memory, but the way her hand is grasping for something on her belt that keeps flickering in and out of existence suggests there's more she's keeping below the surface.

[Morty]

[Mouchabière Residence]

The vision fades with the Solar's death. Other mirages flicker along the road, no doubt more memories to discover. But Sophie takes Trick's hand and shuffles closer to her first.

"This seems personal for you, love."

[Halae]

[Mouchabière Residence]

Trick lets out a long breath, forcing herself to relax as she holds Sophie's hand as well. It takes her a moment to speak, and when she does there's uncertainty in her tone, "I don't... I'm not sure. Something about the situation bothers me. And I'm used to having a weapon on a battlefield."

[Ironsmith]

Bloodplunder House- A Midwinter's Night Dreaming

"So... I won't actually be in your dream, just a simulacrum of me? And a simulacrum of you will be in mine? How accurate will the simulacrum be? I don't have training in lucid dreaming, so... I can't control what I'm going to dream." So that might prove awkward, depending on how hormones influence things. Or just inaccurate, if his dream isn't the same dream Aigothurz is dreaming in Aikobaz' head.

[Bloodplunder House]

"That is the purpose of the tea." Aikobaz explains, nodding toward Aigothurz's still-untouched cup. "I don't expect you to be as practiced in dream exploration as I am, but you will not need to be. You will only need enough of an ability to understand that you are dreaming to try to do something with it; in this case, look into mine. After that, whether you will be able to control anything will be irrelevant; I will be right there to help you." She smiles.

"As for your question... in so many words, yes. You will have a simulacrum of me in your dream; a simulacrum that will behave as I would, more or less. And since 'as I would' includes bearing witness to your dream, as far as you are concerned, I am there. The distinction really only matters for true psychics, not observers like us. Were I truly in your head, I would be able to invoke your memories or force you to stay asleep, for example. But as the me there will simply be an image, you are still in full control of your dream at all times, and you would therefore be able to wake yourself at any time. And, of course, that cuts both ways; you will not be able to force me to do anything, either, nor will you be able to go rummaging around in my head without my cooperation. You see?"

[Earl of Purple]

Bloodplunder House

"So if I show the simulacrum of you a memory of mine, do you actually see the memory or is the memory you see invented by your brain based on its knowledge of me and my life?" Which might prove reasonably accurate, though perhaps not foolproof.

He's starting to drink the tea, though. He might grimace at the taste, but it depends on what the taste is like. He's not too keen on very sweet things, and would probably prefer it bitter.

[Ironsmith]

[Bloodplunder House]

Good news, then; mugwort has a mild, bitter flavor. Aigothurz will likely find the tea to his liking.

"Technically speaking, neither. But what I would see would be events as you remember them, or rather, events as you would want me to see them. I am prophetically viewing what would happen if I were to peer into your dreams; in your dream, you are recalling something, and so that is what I would see. But, were I to try to invoke it, to force you to show me a memory, that memory would be a fabrication of my own mind; I could no more force you to tell me anything in there than I could here and now, standing in this room as we are. You would probably actually be safer in there; in reality, I could theoretically pull out a dagger and start carving into you until you tell me what I want to hear, but in the dream, you can leave at any time simply by waking up, or even just by no longer looking at my own dream."

"...Not that that is what you were asking." Aikobaz backpedals, setting down her cup. "...The visit that inspired this experiment came from a true psychic. I was very much under threat at the time. I... simply wish to reassure you that such will not be the case here." And not that she's been thinking entirely too much about how to weaponize the technique.

[Earl of Purple]

Bloodplunder House

"But it's a reassurance, and it helps. I think I'm happy with what I know, now. And this is nice tea; I like it." Aigothurz is about ready to go to bed, though it depends on if Aikobaz has some way to ensure they fall asleep somewhat simultaneously. Hopefully it's not a soporific in the tea that he's just glugged down too fast.

[Ironsmith]

[Bloodplunder House => The Land of Nod]

As it turns out, she does not. And while drinking nice, warm tea and curling up on top of a goose-down mattress and under satin sheets certainly does a lot to encourage sleep, Aikobaz didn't slip him anything to accelerate the process. Which might have something to do with the fact that she clearly didn't need the extra help; she'll have already crawled into bed ahead of him, laying on her side and nearer to the window, taking just a moment longer to remove her hairbands and set them on her nightstand, leaving her long, raven-colored hair to cascade behind her. In a few moments, Aigothurz will hear the light rasp of her snoring just a bit; she's out like a light.

If nothing in particular keeps him up, Aigothurz is going to find he doesn't need to worry overmuch about falling asleep at the same time as her; when he finally does fall asleep, the tea will indeed confer a sort of lucidity to him, and he'll quickly become aware of the fact that he's dreaming. Her instructions from there should make it trivial to find his way into her dreams... if he doesn't muck around in his own for a little while first.

► SHOW SPOILER

A bolt of lightning splits the sky as Aigothurz finds himself standing in the middle of a cobblestone street, flanked on either side by dilapidated buildings. Recently dilapidated, apparently... some of them will appear to have been violently demolished with explosives or perhaps manually, through the use of sledgehammers and crowbars, resulting in uninhabitable piles of rubble. Various bizarre-looking people wander the streets, of the sort of population distribution one might expect to see in the Nexus... there's a human woman there, an orc rummaging through the rubble there, a nereid peddling fish there (and looking quite disgusted with herself), a demoness in a tomato-stained pillory over there, and so on. Loudspeakers have been installed at every corner and shower the streets with propaganda, read out by an entirely-too-passionate and nasally voice.

"Obey! Conform! Abstain! Ignore! Deny! Refrain! Cease! Appease! Shun! Avoid new sensations. Avoid all sensations! Avoid any sensation! Avoid unnecessary pleasantries! Avoid necessary pleasantries! Avoid libation! Avoid fermentation! Avoid all these in combinations! And above all, never forget, who is the boss of you! Me! I am the boss of you! I am the boss of you!"

"Wretched, isn't it?" Aikobaz will greet Aigothurz, having apparently popped up behind him from nowhere.

[Morty]

[Mouchabière Residence]

Sophie decides to go through her own impressions of the scene, in hope that some of them will help Trick narrow down what's bothering her.

"I can't help but think about all those soldiers. And those followers of his that they mentioned. Caught in a power struggle between demigods, like pawns on a board. Did they even know what was happening? Or just that the leaders they looked up to now wanted to kill each other?" She squeezes Trick's hand and leans against her. "And when he died... his Exaltation was trapped somehow. I think it must have spent a long time in there before it passed on to me."

[Earl of Purple]

Bloodplunder House- The Sandman's Realm

Aigothurz will put his back to Aikobaz to try and avoid awkwardness before he drifts off. His dream-self is possibly slightly larger than his real one, and clad in a fur loincloth, hobnailed boots, and a bandoleer across his chest, the hatchet hanging at his hip. This may distract Aikobaz, but Aigothurz has no issue with his current wear. It's reasonably traditional orcish summerwear, and it's always summer in his dreams. "Yes, it is. Where is this? Your home?" Aigothurz doesn't have much experience of cities; he's only seen Inside before this. He can't say he's super impressed by them, and can't see why anyone would want to live here.

[Ironsmith]

[That One Metallica Song]

"Yes and no." Aikobaz manages, as the (male) orc behind her gives Aigothurz a wolf whistle. "This is a version of the town surrounding Zenith, my old home. Specifically, a version where one of the local powers has seized control of the city in my absence." She waves to the only human being here and quietly purchases a pair of over-ripe tomatoes from her, offering one to Aigothurz. "My dreams usually start here if I don't direct them somewhere else first. Given their prophetic nature, I don't know if this is a real vision of something that may occur in the near or distant future, if it's a real vision of something that has already happened, or just a manifestation of my worries. It certainly does not help that there are elements here that are entirely fabricated and can be traced back to troubles in reality. For example."

The empress turns and hurls the tomato at the pillory-bound demoness, who lets out a little squeel and covers her face as best she can. "Ugh! Hate you so much, Aiko!" Mary's voice yells shrilly at the two of them.

"I am reasonably certain Brignole does not age five years, travel to Zenith, and gets herself bound up next to a convenient vegetable vendor." Aikobaz adds with a little smirk. "But it makes for an immensely satisfying situation."

[Earl of Purple]

Bloodplunder House- Master of Puppets

"Right. Cities and towns do not appeal to me. I don't like being surrounded by such... walls." Aigothurz inhales deeply and closes his eyes. He's going to try changing the setting to one he's more familiar with, washing away the houses, streets, and people and replacing them with a flat, open landscape with waist-high grass. In his memories, the grass is dry yellow-green, however in order to test something he's visualising it as purple. He's planning- if it works- to ask Aiko what colour it was after, to see if that's something that carries over. About halfway to the horizon behind them is a camp, a collection of yurts and tattered silk tents repaired with furs and wool, though it appears empty, and to the right is an outcrop of gleaming white rock, crowned with what looks like a gazebo carved straight from the stone. On the other side, water gleams on the horizon. If his efforts work, Aigothurz breathes a sigh of relief and relaxes visibly, in a way that he doesn't at PREP or in Inside, save in some of the larger parks.

[Ironsmith]

[Bloodplunder House - That Works Too I Guess]

"Is this what your home looked like? Before coming to the Nexus?" Aikobaz asks, thumbing the grass and examining it somewhat skeptically. "It's very..."

squich!

The empress frowns and scrapes her foot against a nearby rock, grimacing at the sound of her boot scraping against the stone. If he listens closely, Aigothurz will be able to hear her saying some very un-regal things under her breath.

He'll also be able to hear a trickle of flowing water nearby, even if there isn't so much as a stream nearby, along with the sound of waterfowl calling to each other in the distance. And the next time he looks up, he'll be able to see a crystal palace intruding on his dream-vision's skyline... though it will never appear to get any closer and isn't consistent about which direction it's in, only that it's present and around here somewhere.

"...I take it your intent was to show me around?" Aikobaz asks, once again planting her boot on the ground and warily looking around for any more livestock leavings.

[Gullara]

[Uninvited]

Eliseo laughs lightly, not want to disturb Ana too much. "Yeah, sure." He agrees with a grin, and tightens his arm around her. He dips his head down and kisses her. They got immediately interrupted earlier, but this time they get a little time to get tongue tied.

At least until there's a knock at the door, and before they can really process it, Kitsuki opens the door. "Sorry, but we nee-" She stops when she sees the trio. "You really have remarkable timing, Eliseo." She does not sound impressed.

Eliseo feels a bit like a deer caught in the headlights. "Uh, hey. Bad timing I guess?" He smiles innocently. Hard to do when he's sandwiched between tone of the situations.

Kitsuki crosses her arms. "Ana, we need to talk to you about something with Siana."

[Shadowcaller]

[Spookysitting]

"Um, one of these can help us." Eshe declares. "Maybe we can get an animal spirit to chase them off?" She muses.

"You don't know how to use those, Eshe." Jaazha complains. They shouldn't be in mommy's cabinet!

"It can't be that hard! Maybe this one." She grabs the mask of a rhino. "This can run them off!"


Meanwhile the other three girls lean back out of view. "There's two more of them?" Orlane complains.

Rosabel takes a warning look back the way they came to make sure they haven't been followed yet. "We gotta hide, quick."

Orlane looks across to the bedroom, but they can't cross the hallway. They'll be seen for sure! "The boot closet! We'll hive and let the other ghost go by." Rosabel nods and the trio scurry back a short distance and take a hard turn into the entranceway. They pull the closet door open as quietly as they can, crowd inside, and shut it behind them. Then they wait.

[Uninvited]

"I-I mean, this is nice enough," Stasia replies, a little embarrassed, "but... I guess we could pick up where we left off earlier, if you want. She... um, probably won't feel anything if she's asleep I mean."

[Spookysitting]

Leis scans the contents with mild confusion. This kind of stuff was a little out of her wheelhouse. "Um, yeah, maybe that would work! I'll uh, see if your mom has any books on this kind of thing." She starts to look around the room for anything that could instruct them through this, moving quickly to any bookshelves or scrolls.

[Spookysitting]

Leis might just recall that she got instructions from Astrana along with the key. The two rods in the cabinet were for self-protection. Point them at the dangerous person and call out the command word (which she would also know). That was it.

She won't find any instructional manuals in here since it was only Astrana that was supposed to use the things in the cabinet. There are books on the subject but its not something she would have a easy way to look through for any relevant information. At least not in such a short time.
The masks that the children were not taking out were meant as tools for possession and communication. Not something little girls should be messing around with. Astrana had been strict about that point in particular when she handed Leis the cabinet key.

Of course, Astrana had never been clear about if the rods worked on ghosts or not. The way she had talked about them it seemed like they were meant to subdue more physical intruders.

Meanwhile, the girls, both those in the closet and those in the main bedroom, can hear the witch-ghost calling out something. They might recognize it as a spell of sort since both their mom and Leis had used such words on occasion.
Then there's a poof sound followed by a flash of light. Though they can't see that anything has changed where they are.

[Earl of Purple]

Bloodplunder House- Dreams of the Whispering Sea

"Partly. This is the Whispering Sea. Mostly I wanted to escape the city. I don't like them, it's all so... enclosed, and noisy, and there's no escape from it, except in my dreams. The camp's around a waterhole, the river on the horizon is the one Ecbatana sits across, and there's another clan around somewhere without a champion. I don't know who built the shrine up there, or who it's dedicated to. Something inside screams if you get too close and then yells insults at you. At least, I think they're insults. I didn't recognise the language, but it sounds like insults. Then it throws stones." Might be interesting to investigate it, but given neither of them know what it's truly like inside the shrine it might not work very well.

[Ironsmith]

[Bloodplunder House - Whispering Sea]

"That certainly sounds... curious." Aikobaz says, looking up at the stone gazebo. "Would I be correct in assuming you've never been inside? And that you would like to be?"

If she gets an affirmative response, Aikobaz will smile and hook her arm around Aigothurz, before taking another step forward and stopping right in front of the shrine. They didn't exactly teleport... logically, they must have made the walk, and then the climb, up to the shrine, and if Aigothurz thinks about it, he'll even be able to remember them making the trip, but it will feel as though no time has passed between their setting out and their arrival.

The shrine will certainly seem real enough... if Aigothurz has never been this close, there are going to be details he's never seen, and which Aikobaz likely didn't provide, either. And whatever is in the shrine will be able to perceive them, as though they're truly there. The empress already has her hand raised in anticipation of screaming and throwing of stones.

[Earl of Purple]

Bloodplunder House- I Dream Of Djinni

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! Gnickuf uoy thgir reporp, lla eth yaw! Draggarb, lliwi taeruoy ekaf dna tish llaeth yawnwod ruoy kcen! Taeruoy ekaf, taeruoy ekaf taeruoy ekaf! Reggub ffodna kcufa sup dellif reclu nieth esra foa nekorb nwod dlo gan, taeruoy ekaf thgir wondna revenemoc kcab!" The tirade, which is loud and androgynous, continues in a very similar vein, and it's followed by hurled stones. This close, they're thwipping through the air very fast and although most are only the size of gravel some are larger and even the small ones are thrown with enough force, this close, to dent steel armour- and whatever's throwing them not only isn't visible but it's aiming for eyes and other notable weakpoints. The stones in question are also all oceanic jasper, which is not what the rest of the shrine or outpost are made of.
"Yeah, this is... basically what I remember." The grass, when Aigothurz stopped paying attention to it, stopped being purple and returned to its native colouration. Aigothurz holds his hands in front of his face and manages to deflect most of the stones from hitting him.

[Ironsmith]

[Bloodplunder House - With The Light Brown Hair]

"I would hope so. I'm... trying to keep this within the bounds of reality, but it's a lot harder with someone else here." Aikobaz frowns, holding out her hand as the pebbles stall in front of her, hanging in the air for a moment before drifting down to the ground like flakes of confetti. "I mean... I have to focus on this being a reflection of your dream, mixed with the prophecy of what would happen if we were to go up to this shrine you remember seeing, and the provision that we're not going to get seriously hurt by whatever is in there... and I don't know how much of your dream is influenced by what you want." She stops and points to the shrine, raising her voice. "Enough of that! Come outside this moment and we will not harm you! If we go in, I can make no such promise!"

[Arkhosia]

► SHOW SPOILER

[Uninvited]

Eliseo laughs lightly, not want to disturb Ana too much. "Yeah, sure." He agrees with a grin, and tightens his arm around her. He dips his head down and kisses her. They got immediately interrupted earlier, but this time they get a little time to get tongue tied.

At least until there's a knock at the door, and before they can really process it, Kitsuki opens the door. "Sorry, but we nee-" She stops when she sees the trio. "You really have remarkable timing, Eliseo." She does not sound impressed.

Eliseo feels a bit like a deer caught in the headlights. "Uh, hey. Bad timing I guess?" He smiles innocently. Hard to do when he's sandwiched between tone of the situations.

Kitsuki crosses her arms. "Ana, we need to talk to you about something with Siana."

[Uninvited]

Ana sleeps rather peacefully against Eliseo as Stasia leans up to press her lips against his. She's definitely more than happy to make out for as long as she gets, though she occasionally has to pace herself and remember not to disturb her resting counterpart.

When the knock comes at the door, Stasia makes a muffled sort of "Eep!" and pulls away, hand jolting from Eliseo's thigh. She shrinks a little under Kitty's gaze, the tips of her ears burning - and it takes her a second to realize Kitsuki is addressing her after a glance back towards Ana. Then she swallows, a little pale. "I- okay, um- can I... change, first?"

[Earl of Purple]

Bloodplunder House- I Don't Know The Lyrics

"Thus far it's working." Aigothurz winces as another stone manages to go past unnoticed and thwacks into his bellybutton.

"Kcuff uoy thiwa ytsur efink! Thgir putoeth essivam denomiad lemmop! Kcits tipeed edisni dna tsiwt, litnu uoy deelb tuo!" The stones are still being thrown, but some are being pulled back again to strike Aikobaz from behind. They're a bit slower with the pull as well, but might still catch her offguard enough to get hit by one from the front.
"I think that's a 'no'. Maybe it can't?" Aigothurz stops deflecting the stones, instead altering his body so that they can't hurt him any more.

[Halae]

[Mouchabière Residence]

Sophie decides to go through her own impressions of the scene, in hope that some of them will help Trick narrow down what's bothering her.

"I can't help but think about all those soldiers. And those followers of his that they mentioned. Caught in a power struggle between demigods, like pawns on a board. Did they even know what was happening? Or just that the leaders they looked up to now wanted to kill each other?" She squeezes Trick's hand and leans against her. "And when he died... his Exaltation was trapped somehow. I think it must have spent a long time in there before it passed on to me."

[Mouchabière Residence]

"They never know, is the problem," Trick says with a deep and weary sigh as she squeeze Sophie's hand, "They're always forced into situations they can't control, where it's fight or die, by people who control them. It's... ugh. I want to move on. The exaltation - it definitely seems like it got captured somehow."

[Keeper]

Bed Talk

"I probably explain it poorly." Jaahlyn says in a sheepish tone. "And yeah, MERC has people but you need to hire them first. Don't think any member but me work for free." She pauses. "Maybe I could convince the members to hire them again, but after the disaster that the concert was I'm not sure they would be willing to."

Bed Talk

"Okay, nix that idea, then. Well, okay. There's like five different hero organizations, what about them? Surely one of them would be interested in stopping a murder?" Jim suggests.
Surely this can't be this complicated?

[Ironsmith]

Bloodplunder House- I Don't Know The Lyrics

"Thus far it's working." Aigothurz winces as another stone manages to go past unnoticed and thwacks into his bellybutton.

"Kcuff uoy thiwa ytsur efink! Thgir putoeth essivam denomiad lemmop! Kcits tipeed edisni dna tsiwt, litnu uoy deelb tuo!" The stones are still being thrown, but some are being pulled back again to strike Aikobaz from behind. They're a bit slower with the pull as well, but might still catch her offguard enough to get hit by one from the front.
"I think that's a 'no'. Maybe it can't?" Aigothurz stops deflecting the stones, instead altering his body so that they can't hurt him any more.

[Bloodplunder House]

"Ow!" Aikobaz winces as the stones shotgun over her back and she collapses, prone, in front of the shrine, an indignant sneer forming on her face. "...Okay, you know what?" She snaps, standing up again. "I have had it with this rude little goblin. I'm going to-"

The empress squeezes her palms and takes a deep breath. "...I will be back momentarily." She continues calmly. "And I would hope you have an appetite for duck."

With that, she steps into the shine, still deflecting any more stones thrown her way.

[Gullara]

[Uninvited]

Kitsuki raises her eyebrows at Ana, then at Eliseo. The boy covers his eyes. "I won't look, promise." He swears.

She scoffs. "Your mother would at least maintain the pretense, but I'll let you off this time." It's not like she doesn't know what these two get up to.

Back to Stasia. "Yes, we can wait for you. I'm not sure if you both should be there, though." She nods to the sleeping one half fox. "But maybe it's fine to let her rest."

[Spookysitting]

As strict as Astrana had been, she hadn't accounted for maid Leis. "Leis, help me tie it." Eshe asks while holding the rhino mask to her face. She turns around to give Leis access to the straps.

Upon hearing the spell from outside, Jaazha pushes the bedroom door closed. Too much for her nerves. She comes properly into the room now and stops to assess all this. She knows this is asking for trouble, but there's a more pressing concern. "What are you wearing, Leis?"


The other kids stay tucked away for the moment. Orlane has her ear pressed against the closet door to try and detect the movement of the ghosts outside.