"You can come in," the young man called from beyond the door.  When the door opened, Jareth looked surprised, but he grinned.  He was sitting on the bed, Amuné curled beside him with her head in his lap.  The girl didn't react to the new arrival.  "Oh hey, Lya.  What's up?  Don't mind her, she's just...troubled, I think."  He frowned down at his friend and squeezed the hand she was holding.  She'd not said anything since appearing in his doorway mere moments after he'd set his bag down, just walking up to him and silently demanding a hug.  Whatever Amuné was thinking, she wasn't ready to share.  "The people here seem okay.  Little odd, maybe, but not bad at all."

Amuné stared blankly ahead.  Her eyes were open, but she wasn't paying particular attention to what she could see.  She was scared and upset, far more than she felt she should be under the circumstances.  Like something awful had happened, and she just didn't know it yet.  Was she overreacting?  Had she made the right choice?  The strange feeling in the hallway, what had caused it?  And why was her power suddenly giving her trouble?  Was it perhaps the other Seer?  The interaction of one person's Sight with another was never certain, but she'd met a few others with the skill, and this...it felt different.  Maybe it was because the man was unstable.  Amuné didn't know, and for now she could do nothing but wait.

---

When Nunque reached out to her, the other Seer's mind hid behind the strongest shields she had.  Something had threatened her, or might have threatened, or was going to, even if she didn't know what or why.  Badly shaken without discernable reason and feeling like she needed to fend off an unknown threat, she'd poured additional power into her mental defences, the ones that had been so easily breached when he caught her by surprise in his vision.  The walls were deceptively smooth, but abruptly bristled into a sharp and thorny mass, as if she sensed him looking.  Not that she could keep him out -- Amuné wasn't that strong, not if he wanted in.  But the chances of doing it without her noticing were not nearly so good.  She'd devoted a great deal of attention over the years to learning how to defend herself, particularly her mind, and though she still studied methods and techniques, she had learned enough that the girl could no longer be considered easy pickings.

---

"I told you that you shouldn't go in without backup," the vampire grumbled.  "Look at you.  You look /awful/.  I hear you're lucky you got to help."  She poked his forehead with a finger.  "Next time, wait.  The least you could do is give yourself better odds."  Cera toyed with her bracelet, looking intrigued.  "Compulsion, huh?  That's a pureblood trait, if it's vampiric.  I can't do it, not more than a faint suggestion.  But there's other perks to being half and half."  She frowned.  "There's other kinds that do similar things, but I've never heard of a ghoul with that kind of power.  Not unless they were also using magic."  She tapped painted nails against the side of the bed.  "Oh, me?  A duplex -- not far from here, actually.  Why, you thinking of visiting, cutie~?"

[@TheMinorFall]