For the minions in Gina's dungeon it was life as normal, and if it wasn’t, they were newborns so they had known nothing else anyway. Shale and Sapana had been busy creating a complex maze of traps and mind games, Pappi added some plants to the maze and tending to the private garden in the chambers the rest of the time. This left Szef and Kawn with little to do.

Szef tried to cook and even dabbled in enchanting. The enchanting was moving along, but there were few ways to test the enchantments and they didn't last very long. The wisp wanted to try something new, something exciting. The other wisps that had started helping in the kitchen were doing most of the labor for the maze, enchanting items to make them lighter, easier to manipulate or to sharpen tools.

What Szef really wanted to do was to make more food, cooking was intriguing. It was a balance of art and science, patience and precision, haste and waiting. Uden had brought back a cookbook, but most of the items were something unheard of in the dungeon, suggesting a much wider world than imaginable.

The crucible in Szefs room was the closest thing to a kitchen they had left, everything upstairs was too dangerous right now. Pappi had tried to help, giving what edible plants they had available, but there was only so many ways to make boiled herb water. The herb water was relaxing though and Szef was enjoying a glass mug of it, trying to keep a calm mind. There had to be some way to get something to work with, maybe he could lure the new chef down and...

- bwum -

CRASH

The sound of the boiled herb pot smashing on the floor shook Szef out of the state of inward focus, the mind jarring transition bringing an angry "WHY?" to the situation.

Kawn hovered in front of Szef, a foot still wet with now lukewarm herb water. "So terribly sorry for the mess, please excuse me" The voice was strong and direct, the volume and tone changed through the sentence in almost a playful manner.

- Bwum - Kawn disappeared from sight

Kawn got up and went over to Szef's room, a light knock and the door opened itself. The room was mostly unchanged, if you ignored the addition of a random objects covering almost every ledge and surface.

"This one could use your help"

A ball in Kawn's hand disappeared with a -bwum- . "You have my full and undivided attention"

It turned out that Kawn had four very different powers. The first was to summon living creatures, the most that was possible at the moment was small bugs and they didn't last long. The second was to summon non-living objects, they lasted longer but still disappeared back to the void after a short while. The third was the ability to move objects without touching them, sort of summoning them through the air. The final ability was to move objects without them moving through the space between.

It was the last power that had placed the sylph in the teapot, and it was the one that most attracted Szef.

"This one will try something first, please summon some food" A lumpy purple thing with sticky seeds on the outside -bwumed - into the space on the floor. "The sight of this thing does not make this one want to eat it." the wisp tried it anyway. It was sweet and bitter at the same time, very interesting, a note of - bwum - the food disappeared, including the chewed up bits and the even the taste.

"That was as expected, except the level of unpleasantness. This one will have terrible dreams of this moment".

"I did say it would not stay here long. I am unsure of where these things are summoned from, and do have a hard time summoning the exact thing I am thinking of. "

"It does not matter. When you teleport things though they have to come from nearby and they stay were you teleport them to?"

"You are correct, I have only just learned how to teleport myself, it gives me quite the headache, but as long as I imagine it as flying quickly to a location it comes out just fine. The several times I did not have a clear flight path in mind the headache was so much worse, after smashing it like an expert on a wall. Since I know the way from my room to yours, that caused no problems, other than your smashed pot."

"That will work for what this one needs. This lockdown is too much, there are things to cook with, things to try that this one has never experienced. Can you collect ingredients and teleport them down here? If you are about to be seen you can just teleport away correct?"

"That will be hardly any trouble at all, it is just practice in another location. I cannot vouch for the integrity of the goods once they appear down here, the might be less than... appetizing."

"This one can revert them to what they used to be, if it hasn't been too long. This ones appetite will stay strong."

"I will be off then, expect the first delivery here in just a few moments."

Kawn walked up to the locked door that led to the kitchen, then teleported to the other side. There was noise coming from the kitchen, probably Dan making food for the thieves. It was tricky to see a path through the kitchen, not knowing where people were, but there was no other way. Their culinary future rested on the decisions that were made today. Another teleport, the target was just a spot behind the bar.

- bwum -

In the dining area the four thief strategists were arguing loudly about where to ambush a lucrative target, it's cargo was mechanical mining tools from the dwarves, going along the mountain roads, it's destination unknown.

"If we hit it too close to the dwarven stronghold they will start to put out more guards!"

"With a high-profile target like this there will be an investigation either way! we can't have it too close to this base, we just got established here, we will be immediate suspects."

"What if we just take it out after the crossing, it is almost certainly going along the mountains, where else would they need mining tools?"

"The dwarves almost never sell this technology; we are not going to risk losing this chance on an 'almost certainty'"

"We could just hit them here, take the wagon and bring the bodies along, make it look like they were hit down the road. Get their destination by playing the game?"

"We are not assassins, but it wouldn't be the worst idea to play the game then decide where to hit them. We can place teams on the two main roads out, and once we get the destination send a runner to inform each team, one will hit the target the other will hit another target. Maybe we can get another target while playing with the dwarves."

"Two targets on the same day at the same time, it wouldn't take much for them to find the common stop and once again this inn is a top suspect!"

With all the arguing everyone missed the -bwum- and a monster appearing out of nowhere above their heads in the shadows of the ceiling.

"A long reach from the bar" the monster thought and softly floated towards the rooms, trying not to be seen. It drifted into the air tunnels and into the first room.

The personal chest was full of things. Kawn didn't know what was edible and what wasn't, eating while working was unprofessional. There was about half a dozen of soft things bundled in pairs, they could be some kind of leaf... several small -bwums- and one of each of the things disappeared.

Szef was sitting, trying to find some peace and search inward, looking for path to some kind of individual goal. Again interrupted with a -bwum- and a splash. Jumping up, eager to see what ingredient Kawn managed to find, Szef ran over to the crucible and fished out a single sock. Another one followed, then another. Each sock was but one half of a pair. "Who does this? Is this on purpose?" Szef would have been angry, but the idea of the thieves running around looking for the missing socks made the wisp smile. Not the expected distraction, but a still a distraction.

Kawn kept going from room to room, teleporting whatever seemed like it could be edible. There was a strip of something chewy hanging from a metal loop, it had several holes in it at regular spots. Marks for portioning? There was no way to teleport just part of it, teleporting was just imagining it being in another spot, things are not just in other spots and in pieces. It took a bit of time to hack off the end portion and teleport it.

Kawn was in one of the last rooms, teleporting some stringy looking things winding through some boots, it felt like a good enough place to hold snacks as any. The looting was interrupted by the door swinging open., Kwan froze, not knowing what to do, what was needed right now was a distraction before the thief spotted the sylph. Deeply wishing for something to appear, a sudden -bwum- and a bird was in the room, a very angry bird with sharp claws.

The thief was going back to the room for some clean socks, the ones he was wearing was wet after slipping into the river. "Stupid mossy rocks, there are no mossy rocks in the city, that's where they should be right now instead of the middle nowhere forest."

Opening the door to the room he was forced to share a small and very angry hawk clawed into his face.

"BIRD! BIRD!" The thief ran out of the room screaming, blood dripping down his cheek and chin. He burst into the bar, still screaming "BIRD!" The two men and two women that were planning the next big heist looked up and started laughing.

"Trying to shave with your dagger again?"

"You need to work on your throwing skills, the target is the one that should be bleeding."

"NO! Really! There is an angry bird with sharp claws tearing around my room!"

"If you wanted to come up with an alibi for your injury, a bird in your room has to be the stupidest. The idea is to be vague so it can't be verified."

"Someone help me kill it!" The thief brushed off their taunting, knowing in a minute it would all be turned around once they got the bird.

"I will go help you with this dangerous monster, the bird protector of the inn" One of the female administrators said, pulling out a mace. Laughing and winking to the rest of the group.

They walked down to the room, the rest following. There was no bird in the room. Everyone was too distracted to notice the -bwum- as a wee Sylph took advantage of the empty room to teleport food down to the deeper floors of the dungeon.