Mihk woke briefly under the care of the healers in the camp. He turned weak eyes to Nith, “ north, the girls gone north…” He whispered before succumbing again.

Nith did not know what to make of the man’s words. How could she move north? The dungeon was below them and should not be large enough to allow a lot of lateral movement. Certainly not enough that she could be moving north. Nith could not feel anything himself. The pressure he had felt earlier had died down, albeit slowly, as if it was moving… off… Which way… it felt like it went, north maybe. ‘That was the girls doing?!’ His mind unhinged a little. How could one person be the cause of such a down flow in magic. It was as if she was dragging the power straight from the heavens through the earth to herself. If she was able to do such a thing, he had clearly underestimated her.

Was she hiding something on purpose? Was it a sudden oncoming, a new growth unleashed upon her by some occurrence? What had happened that could cause such a phenomenon? Poor Nith had never come across such a thing, nor even heard tales.

Then the girl’s friend, Mel, awoke looking like a ghost had drained her. She was pale and unable to move of her own accord easily, she was overly shaky and had a distant look to her eyes. At least she was healthy, physically. There was no explanation for her sudden collapse either.

Too many things with no good explanations. Nith could only hope Mihk would come to his senses enough to take charge again. All this was very much beyond Nith’s expertise. He had sent a message to the college, asking them to send word to Stockmore mage guild, with an explanation of what had happened. Though with so little-known actual information, they would likely be unable to assist without another high-ranking official coming down here.

For now, all her could do was sit on his hands and hope.

Kip made his way over to Mel later the next day. After his sister had awoken, she was mostly incoherent, and unable to even control her own body. He was worried and had not slept a wink since the other day. Mic had tried to console him, but he was just not in the mood for empty words. He needed his sister to be ok. He knew the only reason she was out here was because he had dragged her along. In the beginning it was his insecurities that made him ask her. He just didn’t want to be alone, when the two had been inseparable as children. He knew he was putting her life in danger; he had even once told her it was ok if she settled down and left the adventuring life behind. Mel had merely snorted and said he would be lost without her. It was her choice. But it was his fault, or so he felt.

Mel was looking a lot better today. They had managed to feed her a little and get some liquids into her. Which was more than could be said about that mage who had come into the camp and took control. After he went all out against the dungeon, he ended up a mess. In fact, Kip was surprised the man was even still alive. Of course, Nick was not really any help. He was as clueless as everyone else.

Sitting down beside Mel’s bed, Kip took her hand into his and just sat for a time. When Mel awoke, she had a bit of a glassy eyed look to her still. But she wasn’t shaking anymore.

“You feeling any better sis?” Kip asked softly.

Mel turned her cold stare toward him. Slowly she started to come back to herself. Her eyes started to focus on him, instead of looking past him.

“We need to help Shae.” She replied tears forming in her eyes.

“How? We don’t even know what is happening here.”

“I... some… one? Told me she was in danger. I was told she needed us. Needed us to bring her back home.”

“Ok, umm.” Kip was not disbelieving his sister; weirder things were known to happen, “But where do we start? If these mages don’t know what is happening, what can we do?”

“I don’t know. It’s fuzzy. Like when you’ve had way too much to drink. My head hurts when I try to focus on what was said. There was more to the message, I just can’t remember.” She banged her other fist into the bed frustrated. “Ungh.” Then grabbed her head.

“Look. Rest for now. You can’t go anywhere like this. Take it slow. I am sure she will be ok for a bit, after all you were told she needed us, not that she was necessarily in peril, maybe just lost.” Kip gave her hand a squeeze, “But I promise, once you’re up and moving, maybe tomorrow or the next day of you feel up to it for real, we will try to figure out where she is.”

Mel looked Kip in the eye for a time, her eyes scrunched, head throbbing. “And bring her home.” She finished for him.

With a nod kip rose to his feet. “Get more rest and eat something if you can. I will be back later today and check on you again.”

Mel gave him a little nod. Then she closed her eyes and buried herself into her blankets. Then drifted off into sleep again, trying to hide herself for her pain.

With one look back before he left her tent, kip made his way over to Nith. Once he had the gnome’s attention, he began to explain what his sister had said to him.

“It seems she was your sister was given a vision from one of the gods. Since she is not trained to contact such beings of power, though very few are, she is having a natural reaction to being overloaded by their power. Even the smallest part of a god’s power is enough to destroy most people’s minds. Whichever God made contact with her; they were being very gentle. Otherwise, she would be brain dead.” That made Kip wince.

“Fear not. Your sister should recover in a day or two, and her memory of the vision should clear itself up and we may have a clue to all of this. I just hate being days behind when lives are at stake.”

All Kip could do was nod his agreement. Then seeing Nith was done his explanation he excused himself and went back to the twins. He chatted with them about what had transpired, asking them to be ready to move out when Mel was recovered.

They both assented and promised they would be ready to help when they were needed, of course. Then the three went about readying themselves.

The rest of the camp still buzzing. There was at least a beginning of an answer now. They could only wait.