[hr][hr][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/d6sWziK.png[/img][hr][hr][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAQ5tHu-uEI&list=PLPJny5xpzQqSZQnQXbSJztlcrjVp0o3tq&index=9]♫[/url][/center][hr][hr] It was dark and still in San Agustin de las Arenas. Scarcely a lick of wind could be found, nor a solitary cloud in the sky. Still, the palms whispered in the night. A spider spun its web silently amid the spines of a cactus. A scorpion made its way across an adobe wall. Then, a voice! It froze. [color=6ecff6]“Ricardo!”[/color] came the whisper: a hiss piercing the veil of quiet that hung over this place during the Hours of Ipte. It was Laelle. [color=6ecff6]“Ricardo!”[/color] The scorpion skittered away. A door squealed in high-pitched protest and a boy of about eleven peered out through it. [color=004b80]“Ugh,”[/color] he groaned, rubbing at his eyes. [color=004b80]“What?”[/color] Yet, he was alert, despite his show of annoyance: alert and ready to act. [color=6ecff6]“Did you feel it!?”[/color] Laelle demanded, her bright reddish hair thrown into a hasty ponytail. [color=6ecff6]“The weird energy!”[/color] He regarded her strangely. [color=6ecff6]“Reach out now: before it fades! It’s like what Jocasta and the Duke and those other guys used last year!”[/color] Ricardo did as she asked, leaning on the doorframe, brow furrowed. Then, his eyes widened. [color=004b80]“Whoa,”[/color] he exclaimed, [color=004b80]“You’re right!”[/color] She placed a finger forcefully to her lips and he made an unhappy face. [color=6ecff6]“We don’t want people to panic, okay?”[/color] [color=004b80]“Yeah, but they should [i]know![/i]”[/color] Laelle shook her head. [color=6ecff6]“They do,”[/color] she assured her slightly younger counterpart. [color=6ecff6]“At least the Afortunado. I can feel them waking up. They’ll defend us if we need it.”[/color] [color=004b80]“You think it’s like… bad news?”[/color] the boy questioned anxiously, rolling a marble back and forth in his free hand, and the girl shrugged. [color=6ecff6]“Hard to say,”[/color] she admitted. [color=6ecff6]“I just wanted you to know and be ready.”[/color] He didn’t seem quite sure what to make of that, but he thanked her. She moved on quickly to wake Amaya next, but the girl was already up and fitting an oversized hat to her head as Laelle crept up. The tethering had passed her ankles now and she was not exactly a silent mover. [color=92278f]“I [i]knew[/i] they’d be coming for us,”[/color] the younger girl announced, doing up the straps on her ankle braces. [color=92278f]“Ever since the king killed Duke Frannemas.”[/color] She shook her head, rising. [color=92278f]“I [i]knew[/i] it.”[/color] [hr][hr] Someone - or rather a [i]group[/i] of someones - had indeed come for them, but they did not bring a threat. By the time that the six students from Ersand’Enise slipped in through the hidden gate behind the Red Tower, it was clear that the entire refuge knew of their arrival. For all that the Zenith was a truly eminent magus, she perhaps didn’t quite understand the full strengths of tethered. That, or she did not care. Jocasta rolled silently through the halls of the place where she had spent about half of her remembered life: a place that still appeared regularly in dreams, but less so in nightmares than it once had. [color=ffdead]“Adorable little shits,”[/color] she whispered to the others who had come with her. [color=ffdead]“They’re all pretending to be asleep, but any half-decent chem or arcane can sense that they’re all alert.”[/color] [color=a187be]“Imagine sneaking up on tethered.”[/color] Isabella rolled her eyes, coasting along behind Jocasta. She was less garishly dressed than usual. Marci snorted, glancing at Yalen and Jocasta. [color=598527]“Fear us,”[/color] she half-joked, but it was clear that she was anxious and trying to distract herself. Not a single one of them knew exactly why they had been summoned, not even Jocasta - a Tan-Zeno, now. Then, they were at the lift and a single gas lantern flickered in the predawn gloom. A lizard, high up on the wall, shifted its oversized eyes to look their way and, deciding that they weren’t a threat, decided to stay put. The sextet rose, casting about with their magical senses and whispering amongst themselves. The lift creaked to a stop and its doors rattled open. A long colonnade stretched before them, a couple of lanterns dimly lighting their way. At the end was the room that had once belonged to Tavio Ortega. It was now Manuel Escarra’s. A cool lick of wind filtered through the pillars and stirred the leaves of a potted palm, but nobody emerged as they drew nearer. There was, in fact, no sign of life whatsoever. Seated behind a desk inside, however, was the distinct energy signature of a human figure, waiting for them. Striking out ahead of the group, forcing them to either keep up or slow her, was Marceline. The double doors were unlocked. She pushed them open, words already forming on her lips. Questions for her grandfather: the warden. Only… he wasn’t there. Instead, it was Amanda. Marci skidded to a halt. Jocasta did a double take. The woman who had been so frail the last time that they’d seen her - great in spirit but on the verge of death - appeared… revitalized. Her elbows rested on the desktop, fingers threaded together and not in the limp sense that they did when she used magic to control them. Her arms were thick and full, her posture healthy. [color=c4df9b]“Friends,”[/color] she greeted them. [color=c4df9b]“It is ever so good to see you, but I would ask that we all keep our voices down during this reunion if we might.”[/color] Marci stared at her mother, disbelieving, and Amanda’s eyes flicked up and down the youth as well. [color=598527]“...Mom?”[/color] Amanda nodded. [color=598527]“Mom how!?”[/color] Marci demanded, rushing forward, and perhaps her speed caught Amanda by surprise. [color=c4df9b]“It was just like you said: white aberrations, mija.”[/color] She backed away from the desk, ‘on two’, no different from Jocasta and Isabella, and embraced her daughter. [color=c4df9b]“I was on the brink. Almost choked in my sleep three months ago, just after your Caldores visit. I’d made my peace with Lady Ejerran. Then, a few big ones appeared. We tried to treat as many of us as we could, but those of us ‘on zero’ took priority, for obvious reasons.”[/color] She released Marci and regarded the others. [color=c4df9b]“So here I am, with a second lease on life.”[/color] Jocasta was rushing forward too, positively unreserved, Isabella also a victim of that same joyous disbelief. [color=c4df9b]“I had always intended to surprise you,”[/color] Amanda admitted, hugging Jocasta as well, and then any others who cared for a similar embrace. When they were done, she motioned them away from the desk and all seven of them proceeded through the double doors. [color=c4df9b]“Might we walk and talk? ”[/color] the oldest of them prodded. [color=c4df9b]“I find myself very eager to be on the move these days. I spent five years sitting there like a piece of furniture, you know.”[/color] There were no objections raised and, if there had been, she’d have disregarded them anyhow. Then, it was Marceline who spoke. [color=598527]“Umm… say, Mom?”[/color] [color=c4df9b]“Mmmhm, Marci?”[/color] [color=598527]“Where is abuelo?”[/color] For a moment, Amanda didn’t speak. She merely coasted along at the head of the group as eyes wandered across the refuge in the minutes before the sun’s light first started to make itself known upon the horizon. Then, her hands took hold of her wheels and scrubbed what momentum they had. In an instant she turned. [color=c4df9b]“That is part of the reason you have been called here,”[/color] she admitted. [color=c4df9b]“Something strange has happened.”[/color] Marci’s face became a mask of alarm, but her mother held up a hand to forestall any comment. [color=c4df9b]“He is okay, so far as I know. He is out right now, investigating the… occurrence.”[/color] [color=ffdead]“Occurrence?”[/color] demanded Jocasta. [color=ffdead]“What [i]kind[/i] of occurrence? His letter contained next to nothing!”[/color] [color=c4df9b]“Chela,”[/color] the older woman chided, [color=c4df9b]“You know I would’ve told you if I could’ve. Lower your voice, I pray.”[/color] Jocasta swallowed and nodded. [color=ffdead]“Right. Sorry.”[/color] The unmistakable feel of a sonic dampening bubble took hold around them, and Amanda regarded those gathered. [color=c4df9b]“One week ago, Warden Escarra was out on patrol. He likes to join them once a month, as if he’s still a ranger.”[/color] She set her hands upon her wheels, nervously, as if about to start pacing as Jocasta often did, but then she seemed to think better of it. [color=c4df9b]“Things have been tense these past few months, since the good duke died. Sancho has been eyeing this land for reasons unknown and there is every chance he will disband this refuge. We continue to exist in a sort of legal limbo, though we are, de facto, an independent state. This is a guarded independence. We are strong. We have been scaring interlopers off with the advantage of our range, but they are many and we are…”[/color] She reached up, momentarily, to brush some stray hair from her face, and shrugged. [color=c4df9b]“Few, as you know.”[/color] Amanda pursed her lips. [color=c4df9b]“There are a couple areas within a day’s ride or less from us that may be used as staging for these sorts of assaults. One of them is the cliffs that you can see from the walls, and the other is the lost city of Zarfan, in la Garganta del Ejerran. So, we patrol them.”[/color] Now, she began pacing, and the others fidgeted in restless response. [color=ffdead]“So, what did he find?”[/color] Jocasta prodded, and Amanda shook her head. [color=c4df9b]“We aren’t quite sure, but it’s activity: there in the lost city.”[/color] She regarded them steadily. [color=c4df9b]“You were all there last year, I believe, at least briefly. It is a strange, haunted place,”[/color] she warned, shaking her head. [color=c4df9b]“Many of the people of this land maintain it is filled with the spirits of Zaqhory murdered in the conquest. Others say it is the haunt of bandits, or has been taken over by demons, or is perhaps home to a vast colony of sand wyrms or even something worse.”[/color] She came to a stop, resting her hands on her wheels and gripping them tightly enough that her knuckles showed white. [color=c4df9b]“I do not know which - if any - of these is truth, but the Warden found activity when he went there: he and the two Afortunado - Oscar, whom you know, and the youngest one, Laelle, who I believe you also know - sensed movement inside and… something like people, they said: people or monsters. The Warden returned those two to the refuge and set out with most of our rangers. We are vulnerable right now should we face an attack, but this bore investigating. To my knowledge, that is where he is right now. You’ve been called here for two reasons: to join him in investigating and to help guard this place while the rangers are away.”[/color] Her speech concluded, she regarded them all with a sense of grave purpose. [color=c4df9b]“So long as you are willing.”[/color] [hr][hr]