Weapons Bunker
This large underground stone room has been stripped bare, with the mounting points for shelves and weapons racks still visible on the walls. A wooden partition has been set up to divide the room, providing a curtained doorway to the back half. Before the partition are a bed, a washbasin and some temporary cabinets full of medical supplies, turning the armory into a mock-infirmary.

And time just seems to crawl by. It's late in the day following the rather exciting magical ritual. It took until mid-day before Natasha regained consciousness. Since then, she's not said much to anyone, but instead has knelt in a dark corner meditating. Gunther, in between bouts of pretending to be Zahn, is playing games with the otter twins. Nothing has happened, nothing at all. A few more days of this, and some of the people will very likely become stir crazy. "Hah! I have three X's, two squares, and five dodecahedrons, I win," Gunther declares! It's just about then when Olivia comes in, having just gotten off her work shift.

Amelia jerks awake, having started to doze off while leaning against the wall with her weapon. "Olivia?" she squeaks.

Olivia pushes the heavy doors shut behind her and takes a look at all the startled faces raised in her direction. "No, no, he's not with me," she says right away, trying to put everyone (somewhat) at ease. "I came by because I have some news. I think Axel and Natasha may have really done something to that necromancer after all!"

Axel, too, seems to have taken to meditation – or at least something like it. He's hunching on his feet in a corner and looking blank. In fact blank and not-at-all-here has been his usual state of being since things started to get a little dull. When they crept in to a lot of dull he adamantly maintained his position on the subject, remaining still.

"You mean Natasha was right about how her condition can effect his?" Amy asks.

When nothing attacks, the otter twins go back to focusing on the game. "I don't trust those dice," Bebe mutters.

Of course all this non-boring totally ruins Axel's boredom non-meditation. "Hrrk," he utters as he suddenly looks up, and it sounds vaguely questioning.

Olivia scratches at one ear. "Well, I was speaking more to the magical ritual we witnessed yesterday. You know, when Natasha gave all her energy to Axel so he could attack the necromancer? I think it actually worked! I don't know if he's physically hurt or not, but he seems to be suffering from a lack of energy now, too."

"If only we could attack the necromancer now while he's weak, instead of having to wait for him to come to us," Amy laments. She goes over to the bed, and lifts up a corner to reveal a long black lacquered coffin beneath it. "But I'm not hauling this thing all over the place."

"Pfft, the dice are fine. I don't use weighted dice, unlike Emmett," Gunther remarks to the twins.

Olivia nods at Amy's statement. "I wish we knew where he was, too, so we could attack early. But I have no idea of where that might be. He never gave any clue or indication of the place. Anyway, he also said that he doesn't want to come here today – he wants to wait until tomorrow morning. That and the fact the apparition he sent to talk to me kept coming apart indicates to me that Axel and Natasha did weaken him somehow."

Blue flames pop into existence in the corners of the dark room, illuminating it more. Natasha's eyes flick open and she focuses on Olivia. "Please, explain vhat vou mean by losing energy, please. How did vou figure dat? What apparition?" she asks.

"In the morning, hmm," Amy mutters, rubbing her chin. "I wish there was a safe way to use the Piece Maker down here without killing everyone. At least it'll be ready to use at the Gnarly Tree in case things go bad."

Axel seems to be listening, or at least he's doing a good job of staring at various speakers while looking focused. This lasts up until the blue flames appear and, like little glowing thieves, they steal his attention. He gets up and stares at the nearest one with rapt interest.

Nene nearly jumps as Axel finally moves.

The flame itself emits no heat. It's a translucent, ghostly blue, flame … just floating in midair.

"You're jumpy for an otter," Gunther remarks idly to Nene.

Olivia goes over to where Natasha is and sits, cross-legged, near her. "I really did expect the necromancer to come and talk to me personally this time, because that's what he said he'd do. Instead, he made an apparition out of pieces of cloth to talk to me. The thing is, parts of it kept unraveling and he kept having to put them back together. When I questioned him about that, he got mad and came after me, but the apparition disintegrated completely when he did so. That's what makes me think he didn't have a lot of energy to control the thing in the first place."

"No I'm not, I just got used to the bird-guy staying still," Nene retorts.

"Juuuuuumpy," Gunther teases and grins.

Fluttering his wings, Axel hunches down next to the flame beside him and resumes his impression of a gargoyle.

"Mmmm, sounds like a spirit envoy formed by ritual. It's a relatively difficult ritual to perform. Vell, depending on skill, really. I coul' do one easily enough," Natasha remarks, considering. "Two t'ings about such a ritual, it does require concentration to maintain … and it has to be done at close range usually. So, dat would mean he's within a mile of de town."

"He could be on the swamp then, in a boat," Amelia suggests.

Olivia looks thoughtful at this. "Well, when the cloth creature disintegrated, it emitted a little puff of darkness, like a small black cloud. If that helps you to confirm your suspicions at all, Natasha."

"Mmm, maybe," Natasha notes to Amelia. She shakes her head to Olivia and says, "No really. De color of his spells is reflected by de 'color' of his soul, as it vere. He lives in darkness." She then leans back and seems to stare off into space, lost in thought.

"When you and Gunther met him in the woods, are you sure he was physically there?" Amy asks the Skeek.

"It was empty," Axel says suddenly, absently. "Like it wanted to consume, even though it was being fed."

Another knock on the door and a muffled female voice, "Hey, is anyone in dere? I have somet'ing people may be interested in… "

"He desires more power, more 'life'," Natasha notes absently to Axel. "His hunger will never be completely satisfied."

Olivia hrrmps. "Well, that explains a few things to me, anyway," she comments to Natasha, frowning. To Amy she says, "He looked real enough when we both saw him. He was carrying the staff and everything. That's how I heard him at first – the chimes on his staff were ringing."

"He was all covered, though," Gunther points out.

Amy goes to the door, and asks, "Who is it?"

Axel shivers, feathers rustling. "I was afraid. The thing," he points to where the apparition had been without looking, "was like a darkness." The man frowns. "A devouring darkness." Then he nods, still staring at the flame.

"It Liliana, de most awesome an amazin'," comes the reply from the other side of the door.

Olivia suddenly looks to Natasha. "Did you tell Lili where you were?" she asks in a low, somewhat alarmed voice.

"Me, no. But Amy went an saw her. Somethin' about searchin' for the necromancer. She must have been told sometime how to find de place if she found anything interesting," Natasha notes and glances towards Amelia.

"I didn't think she'd actually find anything though," Amy says. She goes over to the wall next to the door, and slides aside a loose brick. After fiddling with something hidden behind it, the door lock releases. "Okay Lily, open the door slowly."

And the door opens slowly. A hooded head peeks inside. "Dis isn' funny," the voice of Liliana notes. "It was hard enough findin' dis place… Heard Olivia while looking, followed 'er," she comments.

Amelia reaches through the opening and grabs the Gypsy, yanking her into the room so she can slam the door closed behind her.

Liliana squeaks and flails, fighting against Amelia's grip. "Hey, le' go already! Is dis any way to treat me?" she complains. The others see, well, a rather cloaked, hooded, and masked Eeee flailing about.

Olivia smacks her forehead with one hand. "Great. It looks like stealthy, I am not. That could be a problem, in the wrong circumstances… "

"Just a precaution, Lili," Amelia says by way of non-apology. "What did you want to tells us?"

"You be lucky I didn' bite vou," Liliana hisses at Amelia. "Jus' 'cause I got wit' Morgan before you, no need to be rough. Anyvay, I did a lot o' scouting about, and I found in trees out in de swamp … well, weird symbols cut into them. Dey, uhm, circle de town."

"What sort of symbols?" Amy asks. "Can you draw some of them for Natasha?"

Liliana digs in the robes she's wearing and pulls out some papers. "I can do better, I made rubbings," she says smugly. The robed Eeee then makes her way over to Natasha. As she walks, odd clicking sounds are heard. She kneels down by Natasha and offers her the papers. Natasha takes then in her hands and starts looking through them slowly.

Olivia, attracted by the clicking noises, looks at the robed Eee to see if she can determine the source.

Proving that he can't see without using his eyes, Axel turns his head from the flame to watch the Eeee enter. He cocks his head to the side in an apparent effort to see what she's showing Natasha.

The Eeee is completely covered from head to toe. Except for her wings, nothing is really visible. ""Can someone hand me my bag I brought. It has some books in it," Natasha says absently.

Olivia offers as casually as she can to Liliana, "Hey, don't you want to take off your cloak while you're here? It is a little stuffy in this place, being closed up underground."

"Uhm, no, I fine'," Liliana says quickly and pulls her cloak around herself even tighter.

"I'll get it!" Bebe volunteers, and dashes into the 'back' room to fetch Natasha's bag.

Olivia looks over Lili's head at Amy while she's focused on Natasha. Something isn't right here, her expression plainly says. She slowly moves closer to the Khatta, just in case.

Amelia eyes Lili suspiciously now. "What are you hiding under there, Lili?"

"You know I haven't been feelin' myself," Liliana hisses towards Amelia.

The Kadie blinks, then says, "Oh, right. I forgot."

The otter girl returns with Natasha's bag, saying, "Every'ting is in there, you can go ahead and check!"

Olivia frowns and looks between the two. "All right, what am I missing here?" she asks, clearly confused.

Axel looks between Lily, Amelia, Olivia and for some reason the flame next to him. The flame doesn't offer Axel any opinion on the matter.

"It better be," Natasha warns the otter, giving her a look that could wilt flowers. She opens the bag and pulls out a tattered book and starts flipping through it, apparently trying to compare symbols with those in the book.

The flame just sits there being, uhm, a bit flaming really.

"Lili's had a sort of allergic reaction to something… local," Amy explains.

"Me consolation on de matter is I know Amelia vill suffer de same fate, someday, hehehehe," Liliana giggles. She's probably grinning too, but it's not visible.

Olivia's eyebrows threaten to vanish into her hairline. "Ah… right. Now I'm sorry I asked," she says, but looks again at the Eee, curiously.

"I show vou later in private if vou really want to know. Jus … not here, not near town," Liliana notes to Olivia.

Olivia nods and offers Lili a smile, finally relaxing somewhat. Man, this whole situation has got me really jumpy. It's not good to jump at the wrong things!

"Hah, I'll know how to avoid it by then," Amelia claims huffily.

"Vou jus' keep t'inking dat. Jus' remember I been a tutor, an' vou in for some surprises," Liliana notes to Amelia.

"That clever bastard," Natasha growls and closes the book. "Tomorrow is going to be bad."

The bird man reaches up and scratches his head with confusion at the interplay between the women, and when his hand falls he stares at it as if wondering where it came from and how it snuck up on his head.

"What is it Natasha, some sort of counter-ward?" Amelia asks, glad to be changing subjects.

Olivia's head swivels back toward Natasha. "Let me guess – he was lying when he told me that he didn't care about what happened to everyone else in Stonebarrow?" she asks grimly.

"No. He's been preparing a ritual to help with his little … attack. If I'm reading dese symbols right, which may be questionable, since it's not in a sphere I studied … he's preparing a storm ritual. Three of de symbols refer to conjuring fog, others, heavy rains. He's reducing visibility so he can move himself and whatever servants he has, easier. Thunder vill cover dere sounds, fog and rain, them from bein' seen," Natasha notes grimly and sighs. As she sighs, all the blue flames in the room also seem to 'sigh'.

"Crud," Amelia curses. "We can't use our heavy artillery in the rain. But unless he's planning to hit multiple targets at once, I don't think our plans are really effected."

"Vour tree archers will be useless," Natasha points out.

"What if you, you know, changed some of the markings?" Nene suggests.

Axel jumps a little when the flame near him sighs. Looking a bit alarmed, he reaches over and pats the flame as if to console it.

"Vell, I guess I be going," Liliana says and stands up. "Won't matter," Natasha replies, "De ritual is already underway. If it be affected now, it likely jus' backlash and hurt de person trying to change it."

Axel finds he can't really touch the flame. His hand just passes through it.

After a few attempts Axel just pats the outline of the flame instead. All this fussing makes him look a little bemused.

Amelia goes to unlock the door for Lili, while chewing her lower lip in thought.

Olivia rubs her forehead. "Guess I'm going to be blind and half-drowned when I lead him here, then," she grumbles. "Or else he plans to complete the ritual soon after arriving."

"It no' a pet," Natasha remarks to Axel. "It jus' a simple spirit light I use instead of regular candles." She snaps her fingers and the flame near Axel poofs out of existence.

Liliana makes her way to the door, making that odd clicking sound again. She leans in to whisper something to Amelia, then giggles.

When the flame vanishes Axel jumps again. He frowns, looking a bit like someone took away his friend, then sits down on his butt. "Oh," he says disappointedly.

Amelia grumbles, and pulls the door open for the bat. "Thanks for the information, Lili," she says, actually sounding sincere.

Natasha snorts, looking a bit amused. She then waves her hand lightly. The remaining flames glide over to Axel and proceed to bounce around him. One of them even bounces on his head.

"No problem. Glad to be of help," Liliana notes. "Ta!" And with that, the Eee disappears out the door.

Closing the door again, Amelia asks Olivia, "Could you find your way down the ramp and to this door in the dark? Because then… uh… never mind. It's too risky."

"Uhm, what if the Necromancer isn't coming here?" Gunther says from where he's been sitting. "What if all of it is some grand distraction from some other goal?"

"It's still the only goal we know of, Gunther," Amelia says. "Even if he realizes Zahn isn't here, Natasha is here, and we can lure him in with her if we really have to."

Once the Eee is gone, Olivia glances at Amelia. "Well, if we can't figure out where the necromancer is to attack him first, but we still want to force his hand while he's weakened, I can only think of one way to do that." Then she looks nervously at the Khatta. "If you're willing to try it, that is. It was your suggestion, though, after all."

Then the Skeek adds, just catching Amy's question, "And, er, what d'you mean, find my way in the dark?"

"At dis point? We force him tonight, it dark. He come tomorrow, it dark an wet. No much difference, really," Natasha points out with a shrug.

"The outer hall has a special sort of booby-trap," Amelia says, "But it won't work if you need to be kept safe."

Olivia raises her eyebrows again. "And what kind of trap would this be?"

"There are bellows hidden in the ceiling that can pump out clouds of really fine flour," Amelia says. "As soon as someone enters with a torch, lantern or anything hot really… it will all explode and blast them back out."

Gunther hehs. "You folks still have that? I've seen the plans for that. Surprised it's still working after this long. That's older than the dam, isn't it?" Gunther comments.

"Well, yeah," Amy tells Gunther. "One of the big reasons for moving the mill out to the dam was that nobody wanted it near the town, because the old one would sometimes explode. We use the same trick for our cannons and as part of the Piece Maker."

"Right, you wanted the mill near us so if it blew up, it wouldn't kill anyone deemed 'important', eh?" Gunther remarks dryly.

"No, because it was easier install ventilation fans," Amelia points out.

Olivia stares at Amy and shakes her head. "Sheesh, you're making Dontgointhe Castle sound like a playground compared to this place!" she exclaims. "You're right, though. Pretty risky if I'm along."

"I suppose we could leave the lights burning outside, then trigger the bellows once you were in here and we had the door closed though," Amelia says. "The doors are made to handle the blast."

"Just stick ol' bird boy out there," Gunther notes and motions towards Axel. "He seems to like to blow things up… "

Axel seems to perk up at this. He looks up and smiles hopefully.

"Umm," Amy says, looking at Gunther. "It probably won't work anyway if the fog spills in. The important thing is to get the necromancer locked inside with us without any minions. Misty or not, archers firing down into the hall will be sure to hit something."

"He could try and keep the air dry," Gunther says and shrugs. Natasha glances towards Amelia and points out, "The archers von't be much good if he's already undead. It's uncertain what he is, remember. Perhaps I shoul' enchan' some bolts, no?"

Olivia looks a little confused now. "Okay, so before the plan was to try and trap the necromancer inside with you folks and have me on the outside to let you out," she says. "But is the plan now to trap his zombies on the outside with me on the inside? I sure don't want to be around when the crossbow bolts go flying… but I guess you have the getting out part covered anyway with that little latch behind the bricks."

"Isolde already blessed the arrows," Amy notes. Turning to Olivia, she says, "The plan is still the same, unless you'd be stuck out there with zombies. If there are zombies with him, you're better off in here."

Olivia nods, her face clearing. "All right, got it. I'll do the best I can!"

Natasha actually looks annoyed at that and grumbles darkly, "Stuc' in dis hole, can' do anything."

As if to show Natasha can do something, Axel points at where the flame used to be.

"You said you could make one of those spirit-envoy thingies, right Natasha?" Amelia asks.

"Of course, it's no' that difficult," Natasha replies.

"Well, what can they do?" the Kadie asks.

"Depends on how much time is put into the ritual. Some can act as spies on an inanimate object. Some can be used to transfer de spirit of the caster to another place and see or act through it. T'ink of it as an extension of vourself, in a way. Of course, attacking it will weaken the caster, too," Natasha explains.

"Can they touch or move things though?" Amy asks.

"Yes, if it's small and light enough. Dat's why he animated cloth vith it," Natasha replies. "Vhy?"

Of course Axel doesn't have an opinion on all this planning. He's quite busy, you see. He seems to be having merry fun with the flames that have tackled him, with much making of bird noises, and many futile attempts to swat, pet, or and hold insubstantial will-o-wisps.

At this point, Axel has two 'flames' sticking out of his ears, and one perched on the end of his nose. They adamantly refuse to be moved no matter how much Axel swats at them.

"Hmmm," Amy muses, tapping her halberd against her shoulder in thought. "We've got a cannon in the other storage room, and maybe enough thistlebark to make a scatter-shot round, if something can fire the cannon when the zombies… if they come… are right outside the door."

"Ah, but if I was focusing on that, I no be paying attention to anyt'ing in here," Natasha notes. "I be very vulnerable."

"An, maintaining de envoy through an iron door would be … difficult," Natasha adds.

"Oh well, it was a thought," Amelia says. "Can the spirit spy see through fog at least?"

Trying to tease the fire off his nose makes Axel go crosseyed, and he doesn't seem to have even realized he has flames coming out of his ears yet. That sort of multitasking, and let's face it, perception skill doesn't appear to be his strong point half the time. Eventually he gives up and trying to move the immovable, and he gets a uncharacteristically cunning look in his eye.

Natasha considers that. She then nods and says, "Ves. It see by spirit energy, really. De auras of t'ings."

"So, you could have it outside, looking for approaching zombies or whatever, and let us know what's coming before we have to close the doors?" Amy asks.

The flame just sits there flickering and mocking Axel. "Nyeh nyeh nyeh," it would probably say if it could.

"Ves. I coul'. As long as he isn' looking for it too hard, at least," Natasha says. "Like, say, embedding it in a torch or somesuch. De fire would help mask it."

"We'll have to set a lantern outside then," Amy notes.

"Dat vould vork vell, yes," Natasha says and nods. "Inanimate ones are also easy to set up and maintain. Moving ones use a lot of energy."

A distortion seems to limn Axel briefly before expanding in to a very visible heat haze. Suddenly, with a moderate sort of "foom!" sound, a perfectly respectable reddish-orange sort of fire appears on his nose. It mimics the existing ghost-flame in size and shape, but this one burns, and it gives off enough heat to be felt by those close by.

Axel grins, looking quite pleased and, yes, even a little triumphant.

"Fire! Fire!" Gunther wails and leaps up. He runs around the room a couple times, then grabs one of the glasses nearby that was left over from dinner. The determined squirrel darts over to Axel and dumps the water on his head. Unfortunately, it doesn't put the fire out completely … so he goes for … MORE WATER!

"WATER," cries Axel in alarm! He flails wetly, and yet partially still aflame, and his heat haze suddenly flares again.

"Axel!" Amy yelps, and reaches for the blanket on the bed… but thinks better of it when the water doesn't work. No sense letting the blanket burn up…

Natasha, meanwhile, just puts her head in her hands and sighs.

Olivia jumps at all the screeching, then points at the bird-man. "You see?" she exclaims. "I told you he sets himself on fire!"

"How do you put him out though?" Amelia yells at Olivia. The otter twins try to help by grabbing onto Axel's waist, so that he doesn't move around so much.

Olivia steals a glance at Natasha. "You can't conjure up some water yourself, by any chance?" she asks the Khatta weakly.

Natasha suddenly stands up and her fur bristles out. "All RIGHT, that is ENOUGH!" she yells forcefully, spinning to face Axel. Eyes narrowed and brow furrowed, she extends her hand outward and chants.

Axel's a bit hard to hold on to. It's not so much that he's slippery, which he is a bit due to water, but more that he's increasing his impression of a human-bird torch. At least the increasing flames cause the water to evaporate quickly. The downside: now Nene's tail is on fire.

A bright light arcs out from Natasha's hand, striking Axel square in the chest. Axel finds himself suddenly unable to remain standing … or move, really. The sensation is much like not having slept for three days, and the exhaustion hitting him all at once.

"What was that?" Amy demands. "Did you pull the energy back out of him or something? We need him to almost kill you, remember! If we have to do that, anyway."

Axel's aura winks out at once when he's struck by the light. A majority of the reddish-orange flame goes with it, although a few patches of fire persist, these apparently powered by simple chemical reaction – and including Nene's tail.

The bird-man's physical strength does its own sort of winking out. He falls to his knees, wobbles, then falls over on the non-burning otter girl with a weak, "ark."

One otter squeals and hops around, slapping her tail against the floor to try and put out the fire, while Bebe tries valiantly to hold Axel up. She lasts five whole seconds before getting squished.

Olivia gets up and hurries over to Axel and Bebe. She pulls the otter girl out from under Axel with all her strength, huffing and puffing. "You… okay… Bebe?" she gasps.

Natasha turns slowly and levels her gaze on Amelia. "Do not take that tone with me. I've exhausted my patience," she says in a harsh, warning, voice. "The spell is a simple drain, to shut down his spiritual powers before he sets this place on fire and ignites your stores of powdered flour by accident. Once he calms, I will simply reverse the spell and return it. Or, would you prefer me to just let him burn this place, and everyone in it, alive?"

Amelia calms down and winces at the rebuke. She isn't used to women talking to her like that. "I just wanted to know," she says. "We may still need to blow everything up if things go badly tomorrow anyway."

Although Axel's fairly weighty being six feet tall with wings, he doesn't feel as heavy as he ought to. Or rather he feels lighter than his size might suggest. It's still enough to squish Bebe, however, but at least he's somewhat soft at the feathery areas.

Bebe finally rolls Axel off of her, and Nene shows the scorched spot of her tail to Gunther.

Natasha glances back over to Axel and extends her hand again. Her chant is rather similar to the one she made earlier. The energy flashes again and Axel finds himself feeling more or less back the way he was a few minutes ago. Natasha, however, winces and clutches her chest in apparent momentary pain.

"Was that supposed to happen?" Amy whispers to Natasha. "Are you alright?"

Gunther takes the tail … and dumps his refilled waterglass on the scorched spot. "That had to hurt," he comments to Nene. "You don't even have much fur to begin with!"

Olivia eyes the Khatta with concern as she reverses the effects of the energy-drain, but she asks (once she gets her breath back), "If we're finished trying to blow ourselves up here, I have another question for you, Natasha. If you're okay, that is?"

"What do you mean I don't have much fur?" Nene gasps, and checks to make sure she's still lush and fluffy.

"Ech, I botched it. Didn't focus enough on the spell. Serves me right for being arrogant about it. Even simple spells need focus," Natasha remarks and waves her hand. "I'll be fine in a moment. Simple spell, bad effects don't last long."

Axel lays where he fell, although his eyes are wide open showing he's well awake. He peers about suspiciously.

Gunther pokes Nene with his tail. "You don't have fur like this," he points out.

Bebe leans over Axel until she's nearly nose-to-nose with him. "Don't do that again," she says not-unkindly. "The burning bit, not the falling on me bit."

"You don't like fire?" Axel sounds amazed, as if this were an incomprehensible concept along the lines of "chocolate is gross."

"I could never swim with something like that dragging at my bum," Nene counters, smoothing out her tail.

"Fire has its place," Bebe says, leaning back. "But the middle of someone's face is not that place."

"But, I've seen lots of otters swim fine with larger things dragging from their bums," Gunther points out, looking confused. "I've seen you all wrestle in the water."

Olivia nods and stays silent for a minute, to allow Natasha time to rest. When it looks like the Khatta is a bit better, she asks, "I just wanted to know if there's any way to protect oneself somewhat from the necromancer's dream-magic? I could probably use the help myself and Zahn might need protection, too… because I just remembered something else we talked about during his last visit. If Zahn is very bad off, the necromancer said he might be able to nudge him into death through the dream world."

"Oh. Okay." Axel nods, head sliding against the floor. This seems to concern him. He eyes the floor. "When did I lay down?"

"WHAT?" Amy blurts at Olivia.

Olivia looks contrite and hangs her head. "Sorry, Amy," she apologizes. "With all the fire and screaming and people falling on each other… I just forgot. But at least it came back to me!"

Amelia just stands there twitching, with her tail poofed out to nearly double its regular size.

Natasha looks at Olivia oddly. "Ah. that was probably more threat than reality. As far as I understand it, anyway, it's very hard to stop someone's life through a dream. Perhaps a scare that stops a weak heart … but that would be about it," Natasha says and sits back down. "Warding dream intrusions … well, I'm not very versed in such arts. I'd need to consult my books on that," she admits. "Sorry."

Nene nudges Gunther, and whispers, "Better fill another cup of water. Amy looks like she's gonna burst into flame next."

"No way," Gunther whispers back to Nene. "I don't want to get within ten feet of her when she's like that… "

"Not in the face," Axel insists, apparently overhearing the whisper.

As much to calm herself as Amelia, Olivia goes over to her friend and begins trying to smooth her tail fur back down with soothing strokes of her hands. "I needed to ask, anyway," she says. "During the last part of my only dream-contact with him, he tried to make me experience suffocation. It was… pretty effective. I was about breathless when I woke up! So I don't want anything bad to happen to Zahn in his dreams, weak as he probably is."

"The easiest way to prevent such would probably just be to make sure he doesn't dream at all," Natasha suggests. "There should be potions that can induce dreamless sleep."

The stroking works, and Amelia begins to calm down. "I'll turn his skull into a lamp, and make it sing lullabies," she grumbles.

"Zahnrad's skull?" Gunther asks, horrified.

"The NECROMANCER'S skull you moron!" Amy snaps at Gunther. "They aren't completely DEAD after you chop them up. Just really really annoyed and embarrassed!"

Olivia gulps and keeps stroking Amy's tail fur, as she is obviously not calm yet!

"Ahh," cries Axel at all the yelling. He grabs on to Bebe and tries to hide behind her, perhaps expecting to be zapped again.

"Moron!? MORON!? I'm not the one who let my brother get nearly beaten to death WHILE ON GUARD DUTY!" Gunther yells back.

Amelia stops twitching, and just stands frozen. Nene scoots away from Gunther helps her sister hide Axel.

"I was in the right place to help him," Amelia says, very calmly and clearly. "If I had been with him, I'd be the one recovering and he'd be dead, and maybe another innocent person would be dead too."

Axel seems to lose interest in self-preservation when he spies Nene's singed tail tip. Frowning, he tries to nab it with a hand.

Gunther remains glaring at Amelia for a time, then just slumps. "I want my brother back," he says weakly, suddenly looking like the weight of everything has come crashing down on him all at once.

Olivia lets go of Amelia's tail now, just in case she needs to move.

"Don't talk as if he's already gone," Amy says, a bit more sternly, but with care in her voice. She lets out her breath, and seems normal again. "We'll stop the necromancer, or die trying. And even if we die… I'll still fight him."

Olivia sighs and rubs her temples with both hands now. "Heh… are we sure we don't want to force the necromancer to come earlier than he'd planned? Because it seems like the stir-crazies are about to take their toll on everyone, putting us at odds when we can't afford to be. At least all this would be over with sooner… and when we think he's weakened, to boot."

"Maybe we should, Olivia," Amelia says. "We need to disrupt his plans. He probably can't get the weather ready again soon after he unleashes it this time."

"Ech, you have probably twelve hours or less before he's coming, according to Olivia," Natasha points out, then sighs. "May as well wait and have us all at full strength for him, anyway."

"If he gets here and we can't deal with him, we'll consider drastic measures," Amelia says, looking at Natasha when she says it. It's pretty clear what 'drastic measures' implies.

Olivia nods. "Well, it's Axel's and Natasha's decision, if we decide to go that route. And you'd have to give me a little head-start to get out of here before you attempt it. Because once the necromancer detects what's happening, he's going to call on me quickly. And I can't be here when he does, or that would look suspicious!"

Natasha dips her head towards Amelia. "Understood," she says calmly. "In any event, if he doesn't show tomorrow morning, well, then we consider forcing it, agreed?"

"Agreed," Amelia says. "But he's invested too much effort into tipping things in his favor to back out at the last moment, I think."

Olivia looks at Natasha with worry in her eyes, but she nods firmly. "I agree, as well."

Finally nabbing his target otter tail, Axel's eyes narrow with focus. His heat-haze aura returns, though different than before, and limns him in a faint distortion. It's rather as if the distortion were were calm while the previous one raged. Peaceful, more like the gentle flames of a fireplace. Shortly after the hand that touches Nene's tail ignites in a similar flame.

But, for all its similarities to fire, Axel's hand fire doesn't burn. It doesn't even produce heat. In a way it's like Natasha's fire, but there is another difference to it only Nene can feel. Her tail suddenly tingles as if it were suddenly experiencing pins-and-needles.

Nene looks over her shoulder, having expecting to see Axel sucking on her tail. Her eyes go wide when she sees the ghost-flames, but she doesn't panic.

The pins-and-needles feeling fades after a moment and is replaced by a deep heat, similar to a warming balm or ointment. It's rather pleasant really.

"Great, looks like I have to get more water," Gunther mutters and starts to get up.

Nene shakes her head back and forth to Gunther, eyes going wide again.

"Er … " Gunther starts to say, then shrugs and sits back down again. "All right. I'm sure someone can make you an, uhm, tail toupee."

The otter girl breaths a sigh of relief.

The sensation continues, and continues, and … continues. Axel doesn't move, and the effect maintains itself, as does his aura. It seems apparent after a while that whatever he's doing isn't going to do anything exciting soon, and that it's going to take some time. A bit like the balm it feels like.

"Your magic is a lot more interesting," Gunther whispers to Natasha.

"Just expect to be woken up early, Olivia," Amy tells the Skeek. "And if you don't get woken up… well, he may know how to find this place already anyway, and not need you, except as a hostage."

Olivia looks around the room at everyone, as if trying to burn their images in her memory. "All right, I'd better get back to the Weavers', if there's nothing else. I'll make sure I tell Morgan to have Isolde put together some sort of dreamless-sleep potion for Zahn, just in case. And… the next time I return, he will be with me. Please be careful, all right?" She nods at Amy's comments. "Yes, I've already had some thoughts in that direction, now that you mention it. It's one of the reasons I want to be someplace else when you attack him, if at all possible. So he can't use me against you."

Natasha stands and walks over to Olivia. The Khatta reaches out and without a single word touches the Skeeks cheek. She smiles briefly and sadly, the says in a gentle voice, "Be strong." Then the ex-mage quietly walks back to her corner and kneels back down. Her eyes drift closed again and she resumes meditating.

"Don't worry about a thing, Olivia," Amy says, trying to sound cheerful.

Gunther's comment gains further validity as Axel's magic continues to remain unchanging. At least it produces light. Were the onlooker bored, they could read by it.

"I'll make sure you survive," Amy reassures the Skeek. "That way, we'll all have your permanent colorful cloth flowers at our funerals at least!"

Olivia's eyes wander briefly to the Khatta and she says softly in reply, "I will do my best." Then she turns to Amelia and says very seriously, "It's rather hard not to worry but I'll try not to lose my head over it. But I also want you to know that if things go badly… I trust you. I trust your actions and your decisions. Just do what is necessary. All right?"

"I will, Olivia," Amelia says, sounding serious now. "The necromancer will be stopped, whatever the cost."