After drinking all of the wine from her flask, Caroline decided to wake everyone up from their sleep, just to make sure that the thing that just happened to her did not happen to other members of the team.

“That doesn’t sound natural, or safe.” when Caroline explained briefly to the team about what she encountered, Emily said with a big frown.

“So, none of you encountered that?” Caroline scratched her jaw, also frowning: “So it’s either targeting me, or targeting the one who happened to be on the night watch.”

“That sounded like a kind of psychic attack.” Michael said: “And looked like you fought it off with your mind. But to be safe, you’d better have someone take a look when we’re done.”

“Psychic attack? How is that done?” Caroline nodded and asked: “Is that an attack using some kind of psychic power or magic?”

“Precisely.” Michael said, his hand glowing in a gentle blue light: “Caroline, please focus on my palm and relax. I’ll give you some basic examinations - just to make sure your soul and mental state is not severely impacted.”

“Okay.” Caroline focused on the light shining from Michael’s hand, the light was bright but when she stared into the light her eyes did not feel even s bit of unease.

“You’re good. No apparent injuries to your mind. Just make sure the attack didn’t leave any lingering harm.” Michael looked at Caroline’s pupils and nodded: “Now, do you know what the attacker wants? You said you were asked ‘where did you put it’. So I would assume that the attacker wants something from you, or us.”

“I … I don’t think I have anything.” Caroline said: “This axe, and this shield are my most valuable items - maybe this flask, and the tier 2 artifact from Martin House.”

“Hmm, neither do I, at least nothing outside of the family artifacts and enchanted items I brought to the academy with me.” Emily thought for a while: “And my personal artifacts and items are not of that much value, there is no reason a psychic mage would make all these efforts just for these.”

“Beats me as well.” Paulo sighed and said: “I didn’t bring anything here beside this sword.”

“Could it be just randomly looking for something, and you are just one of the suspects?” Michael asked: “The thing with this hypothesis is, last night we were all asleep, in theory it would be easier to target us instead of you. And psychic attacks were stealthy by their very nature, and since you don’t have much experience dealing with psychic attacks, you wouldn’t have much of an idea if we’re under attack.”

“Thanks everyone. Let me worry about it instead.” Caroline sighed: “Sorry to have woken you. Why don’t you go back to sleep? We still have some time.”

“It’s fine. This is a pretty serious attack.” Emily looked at Caroline in the eye: “You’re sure you feel okay? We can make the move earlier and strike at their nest.”

“Sounds good, I’m in.” Caroline nodded.

“Let’s not delay further.” Paulo said: “I’m in as well.”

“No objections from me.” Michael said.

“Great, let’s move early.”

------------------------------------------------------

Another night, Jason ordered quite a lot of evening snacks at the academy canteen, and he seemed to be having a hard time dealing with the homework he was given.

“Holy crap. This is just too much!” Jason complained loudly, tossed all of his work onto the canteen table and packed up all of his books and notes. Without even finishing all of the snacks on the table, he just flung his backpack onto his back and stormed out of the canteen.

Just when he walked out of the canteen, a shadowy figure appeared behind him, and started following him from a distance.

This was a man, in a grey robe wearing a pair of glasses. The pair of glasses gave of a strange blue shine when he walked past the road lights. He also had something hidden in his leg pocket, could be a weapon, could be something else.

Jason walked with a limp and started wailing his arms around like he was drunk, or on drugs.

“Fucking Professor! Fuck your homework and reports!” Jason shouted with slurring words and bumped to the side: “I’m not gonna do it! I’m ...” Just when he was walking through a corner, he fell on the floor on his side.

Seeing that Jason seemed to be asleep on the ground, the man following him came closer and closer with caution. And eventually he came within just a few meters from where Jason was lying.

“Stop right there.” just this moment, a male voice came up behind this man in a grey robe: “Raise your hands above your head, don’t do any sudden moves.”

The man in a grey robe was stunned for a brief moment, then he did as Thomas demanded.

“Now turn around.” Thomas said: “Don’t do anything stupid, or I’ll strike you like you’ve never been struck before.”

“Clever, find someone to tail the follower.” the man’s glasses shone of blue when he looked at the silver guns in Thomas’s hands: “How did I not see you?”

“That’s your problem.” Thomas said: “Now talk, what are you following him.”

Jason walked up from behind the man and walked to his face, with his pen-spear pointing at the man’s face: “Now talk, glasses, why are you following me?”

Aimee silently walked to the man’s back, with two silver scimitars in her hand, ready to strike if the man dared make a move.

“It’s quite simple, actually. You took something that you shouldn’t have.” the man said with a smile, looking Jason right in the eyes, his glasses giving off a weird glow, which made Jason felt he was being carefully observed and examined, or, to use a proper word, scanned: “Give that back, and you’ll be fine.”

“You’re here to take the artifact for Martin House? How pathetic can you be?” Thomas asked.