Missing In Action

"That was, yes, thank you, exactly what we'd hoped." He paused, considering the tension in the room, and stopping himself from going in to more detail just then on some of the other possibilities. "That will be a great start. I think the sooner we can do something, the better we'll all feel."

"Athea," Thruik said, raising his hand palm up. A brief shimmer revealed the tiny winged form of his familiar, standing in his palm.

"Please inform Oculus Evern that I beg her assistance in a ritual matter at her earliest convenience. Be sure to impress upon her the urgency of the request; time may be a factor."

The sprite flitted off through the door at speed while Thruik turned to his friends.

"That'll take some time, but I should be able to have some word by morning."

He fixed Vedran with a concerned look.

"Are you okay?"

He felt for a moment like everyone in the room was starring at him, and the attention wasn't making him feel any better. He glanced at Brenn and Agy, who'd defaulted to letting him do the talking since they'd arrived.

"Are any of us? I mean, at least I've had some sleep recently..."

Agyness shook her head to clear it; she'd been staring into space.

"Yeah, uh, I don't think either of us," she said, indicating Brenn,"have slept in well over twenty-four hours. Its just been one thing after another, but we didn't want to leave off without getting here and letting people know."

"Luckily, it doesn't seem like the news has really gotten out yet, even in Thantopolis," Brenn piped in. "Obviously they have more to worry about, but I think the Union will want to know that their current poster team is missing. They'll need damage control, and we should be able to spin it into a mission or something."

Vedran perked up a little at Brenn's comment. "Yes - that's a great idea, at least for the general public. But the Union aren't the only ones we will have to tell... But I can talk to Monti about that." He set that idea aside for a moment, for a time when he could deal with it a little more privately. "You said you'd already been to see Halatir, though?"

"Yeah, we had to figure out a few things with him," Agyness answered, sitting up. When we went out to investigate the cult's base, we came across some, well, enemy combatants, as Tzesira rightfully identified them, but they're kids. And they don't seem like especially bad kids, really, just raised...wrong."

She shook her head and sighed.

"One of them negotiated their surrender, and they all came more or less quietly. Kallista didn't like the idea of handing them over to the Palatine, so she filed the paperwork to take them into her custody. They're older, so the orphanage didn't seem like the right place for them, and Delona posited the idea of housing them at Halatir's dojo."

"I didn't like the idea of leaving them in Thantopolis, and Brenn didn't want to burden Yarr with a bunch of teenagers of questionable intent, so we brought them with us when we took the portal into Highmark. A surprisingly short talk with Master Halatir later, they have a place to stay, at least for the moment."

"Well, I'm glad then - thank you for taking care of that. Them." Should he make time to visit with them? It would probably be good, he decided, and give him something else to focus on. In the mean time, though... "Is there anything else that we can take care of tonight? If not, you two should probably get some rest."