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“Turn it up to eleven?” Lydia said. “How do we do that? Actually, how do we do the confusion thing to start with?”

“It’s easy,” Matthias said. “For us anyway. You instinctivly do it against hostiles already–” He broke off and turned to stare at Alsia. “That’s why you won’t tell anyone where Keylaria is, isn’t it? She’s subconsciously hiding herself and you trust her subconscious’s judgement? At least I get the sense she’s not aware of herself yet.”

Alsia gave a half-smile and nodded. “Right on all counts. I don’t think she even wanted me to know but something happened that gave her away.”

Darylyan scowled. “That’s why I feel like I’m missing something obvious, but I still feel like I’m blocking myself as well. Something is odd here.”

Alsia just glared at him and he sighed.

“Just make sure Xantaria doesn’t find her,” he said softly.

Alsia’s scowl deepened but after a moment she sighed. “You know Xantaria getting close to finding her is the only thing that could make me not kill you if you found out where she was.”

“You’re wrong,” Lydia said. “It’s not the only thing.” She couldn’t grasp what she was seeing any more clearly than that feeling but she was sure she was right.

Alsia narrowed her eyes at Lydia and shook her head. “I dread to think what else could.” She rose to her feet. “I should get back. I need to check some things now the crack is mending.” She bowed to Alaryia and spoke quietly in draconic before embracing Elsed and disappearing.

Lydia watched her go, still trying to chase her premonition down. “I can’t get anything more than that,” she said finally.

“I’d guess you’re butting up against the confusion,” Julie said. “I could show you how to get around it but my gut is telling me it wouldn’t be worth the effort in this case.”

“And might actually make the situation worse,” Lydia agreed.

“But we’ll all know by the end of autumn anyway,” Marian said. “For good or ill.” She frowned as if trying to grasp at something. “We should check with Joanne if it’s safe for her but I have a sense that what we’ve achieved today is an important step forward. I mean closing the tear obviously is but removing Mitakrian as well.”

“Speaking of Mitakrian, is Lady Chaya doing okay?” Adrian asked. “Will she need any backup?”

“She probably will,” Indaturan said. “For now, she locked out the rebels but they have her under seige. We’ll all send help to break that, won’t we?” He looked around at the others.

“Of course,” Alaryia said. “Endaria has already gone to help and Est is organising some of her own troops to take along.”

“That’s good then,” Adrian said. “We should get back and see what’s happening. I suspect closing the tear won’t stop the emergences immediately so we need to be ready to respond.”

“Yes, let’s,” Matthias said. “I want to see how its disappearance is being reported.”

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