A few days have passed since the College's final decision to leave Envoy in her possessed state. Guards and the occasional mage from various spheres have looked in on her in the intervening time, as she attempts to pull herself together under her new "accord" with Inala. Some have come to offer assistance, some to chat, and some merely to take a few notes and then leave without much explanation.

On Harvest 19, a familiar gray fox'taur stops by and knocks on Envoy's ajar cell door. "Hi!" Yffryn says brightly, peering around the corner of the door.

Envoy perks up from her meditation and smiles to the Fnerf Dream Mage. "Hello, Yffryn! How do you like being the Dean so far?"

"Oh, it's not all it's cracked up to be," the woman says,waving a hand in dismissal. "A lot of paperwork, plus research and such like. I won't mind if they settle on someone else when the High Council confirms someone for the post. But I came to see how you are doing!" She looks solicitous. "Are you feeling better?"

The Aeolun giggles suddenly, then covers her mouth with a hand. "Oh, not really, which is good," she smirks. "It took some fine tuning, but Inala doesn't overwhelm me with pleasure now."

Yffryn has to giggle, too. "Such a strange problem to have! Still, I can imagine it must have been very disorienting for you. What are you planning to do next?"

"Well," Envoy says, looking a bit more serious, "I've got this long-distance spell on me to unravel. I was about to ask Captain Clover if one of her scryers could find out where the spell is actually originating from."

The small ball of light that has been Envoy's constant companion since she woke on Fox day hovers over her right shoulder while the two people discourse. It makes a little beep noise and swings over to the other side of her, in a fashion not atypical of it.

Envoy blinks, and gazes at the scry-ball. "Oh, I suppose I'm already talking to the Watch scryer then? I don't suppose you've already tried to trace the spell, have you?" she says to the glowing will-o'-the-wisp.

The Fnerf nods, equally sober. "I'm sure they'll be happy to do what they can. You might do just as well going directly to the Scryers … oh!" She blinks at the ball.

The ball makes another squeak and bobs, but doesn't otherwise answer.

"Your former Dean was also a Scryer, Yffryn," Envoy says. "I can't be sure that I can trust the School of Light at this point, so I'd rather rely on the Watch mages still. I wish this thing could be more communicative though." To the ball, she asks, "Can you lead me to someone that knows what I want, or have them come here?"

It beeps and continues to hover, motionless.

"I guess … that means they're coming here?" Yffryn asks, somewhat dubious. "Or ignoring you?"

Envoy giggles again. "If their assignment is to monitor me, I don't think they would ignore me at the same time." She stands up, and goes to look out into the hallway to see if anyone is approaching.

At the moment, no one appears to be coming, though Yffryn sidles onto the other side of the Aeolun to look, too. "What will you do if – when - you find out where the spell came from?" she asks as they watch.

"Then I'll visit Dean Fyiara of Chaos," Envoy says. "If there's any way to manipulate the spell through its link to me, she should be able to find it." Looking back to the watch-globe, she asks, "Is anyone coming? Bob for yes and beep for no."

The sphere bobs a few times, almost excitedly. A few seconds later, it makes another squeak.

Envoy puzzles at this. "I wonder if that means many people are coming, but one is staying behind? I suppose waiting here a few more minutes won't hurt." Smiling again, she asks Yffryn, "So … what are they saying about me out there? I know Caroban's main form of entertainment is still gossip."

Yffryn rolls her eyes at the ball's antics. "Scryers," she mutters. "Oh, yes, I'm afraid you're quite the conversation piece. Totally unprecedented that I know of, voluntarily allowing someone to remain possessed!" She smiles brightly. "Everyone's curious about you. Oh, andyou shouldn't worry so about the scryers' realm, Envoy," she adds reassuringly. "Whimver confessed everything under Mind-interrogation, and eventually Hymu and Ssrithiri gave up what they knew, too. We've rooted quite a few rats from our numbers under their implication, and I'm sure now the ring of conspirators is destroyed."

"Unless new ones have arrived on the island since then," Envoy says quietly. "I've been afraid to leave the Watch compound … but mainly because I didn't want everyone staring at me. I got enough of that when I first arrived on this world, and ended up in a circus sideshow."

Making sympathetic noises, the fox'taur nods to her. "I wish there was something I could do about that, but I don't know what. There's no way to make a secret of it, not with the kind of spell that's upon you. Spells, I should say, though only the possession one is active now."

Envoy peeks out through the doorway again. "Maybe I should just go and find Clover. I'm not sure what the scrying spell was trying to tell me."

A somewhat harried-looking fox of medium build, wearing the golden robes of a scryer, hurries along the hallway towards her. As he see the Aeolun peeking from her room, he waves, the sleeve of his robe flopping.

"Oh," Envoy says, coming all the way back into the room. "Someone is coming after all."

"That's nice," Yffryn says, smiling brightly at her. "Perhaps I'd best get back to my work and let you consult with him. I did want to say, though, that I hope you'll find some time to discuss with me what you may be able to do for us of the Sphere of Dream. I'm sure that if we put our heads together we can find a resolution to all our problems!"

Envoy nods and gives Yffryn a brief hug. "I hope so too. I still need to rescue someone from Gorphat."

Yffryn cocks her head curiously, while the fox enters the room. "Oh? Well, we can talk more of this later. Ta-ta!" She gives her little cheery wave, smiles to the scryer, and bows out.

Envoy bows to the entering Mage. "Thank you for coming."

The fox mage runs a hand through his head fur, then beckons to the glowing ball. It comes to him like a dog to its master, and he murmurs a word to it. The glow on it fades, and it drops to the palm of his hand. "Ah, that's better! Terribly draining, maintaining it so much. Phew." He exhales, then nods to Envoy. "I am Mage Koley of Stars. Now, what exactly are you looking to do?"

"Well, I was wondering if the source of the spell on me could be located," Envoy explains.

"Doubt it," Koley says, running a hand through his fur. "You mean, precisely where it's coming from, right? Shortly after we started having problems with comatose Dream mages, the College attempted to figure out who was casting the spell. Several of the most powerful scryers of the College tried to determine who was casting it, but the culmination of their ritual only determined that some potent mages were involved in shielding it from their detection."

Envoy hmms. "So my being awake wouldn't make a difference then? Were the other scrying attempts boosted by Chaos Mages at all?"

The fox shudders delicately. "Not on the first try, as we thought that Chaos magic would further muddle the results. They made a second attempt after the first failed, and employed a pair of Chaos mages, including Dean Fyiara, though she wasn't dean at that time. Same net results – nothing. It's very well shielded. Of course, shielding a specific thing or piece of information is always easier than finding it." He sighs, fingering the non-glowing scry-ball, which now looks like a small cloudy sphere of crystal.

Sitting down, Envoy sighs. "I was also hoping it might be possible to affect the main spell through my link to it with Chaos Magic, but you've probably tried that already as well."

The mage guffaws, then controls himself. "Excuse me? Affect it how?"

"In any way at all," Envoy says, blushing a bit at the laughter. "I hoped it would tell us something useful, at least."

"I mean … the other spells were meant to keep the Dream Mages comatose," the Aeolun says. "But the casting Mages probably didn't expect one of their creations to get loose and possess someone. Maybe it isn't as protected as the other kind of link."

"Maybe not," Koley concedes. "I'm not an expert on the subject. But about Chaos magic – I can't imagine even the Dean could do anything to the casters of the spell even if we could find them. Magic's just not that precise at a distance."

Envoy blinks. "What if we tried it in Babel though?"

"If the spell on you actually is originating from Babel, then trying to locate the casters from there might work better, and if we located the casters, a Chaos mage might be able to do something to interfere with the spell," the fox says, after considerable contemplation.

"What about scrying from Master Zahirinee's pool then?" Envoy asks. "They went to a lot of trouble to make sure it wasn't working before casting their spell, after all."

"Zahirinee might be able to locate it, too. Even at the College we don't have an artifact to compare with his pool." He looks wistfully at the crystal in his palm. "That's the trouble with being on a sky island; magic's just not as potent as on the surface. Any road, yes, perhaps he could do it. If you could convince him to let you."

Envoy smiles. "I stopped the Ice Golem that the Mages sent to destroy his pool. I'm sure he would be happy to help get back at them."

"There's that." Koley wrinkles his nose and pockets the small crystal ball. "Is there anything else you had questions about?"

"I think that answers most of them," Envoy says. "I'll need to see Captain Clover, and find out if arrangements can be made for a trip to Zahirinee."

Mage Clover receives Envoy somewhat nervously, flicking her ears to and fro as the Aeolun relates her interest in visiting Master Zahirinee. After some shuffling of papers, she allows that this might be doable, although the Aeolun will certainly need an escort of some kind, and she will have to consult with her superiors, and the proposition may have to wait until the next High Council meeting. "This is all so very irregular. I suggest you visit the acting Dean of Dreams if you truly wish to do this. If she approves, the Council will be more likely to allow it."

Envoy nods to the Lapi. "I will let Yffryn know, and see what she thinks. Thank you so much for your hospitality and protection these last few weeks. I hope I didn't cause you too much trouble."