“Do you remember what any of your assailants looked like?” Rainshear asked, anger lighting her eyes but not her words. Metea/Irric stood at her side with a glass rectangle like the one the server at the restaurant had used, tapping a stylus to it with a worried frown. “Don’t leave anything out. Even if it seems pointless, it might help us find Revel.”

Flow landed on Elach’s shoulder as Sechen started her story, making him stumble at Flow’s sudden weight. They cawed in surprise and hovered in place, flapping fast enough to create a breeze as they settled down on the ground.

“It didn’t really happen all that fast, but I can’t remember anything about any of the people. I don’t know if one of them had Issi that made me forget what they looked like, or if it was some kind of thing they bought, but all I remember is colourless grey blobs attacking Revel.”

Metea/Irric scratched something into her rectangle, and Rainshear waited for the scratching to stop before continuing. “Were their techniques obscured, or just their forms?”

Sechen paused to think for a few seconds before shaking her head. “Almost everything was obscured. The only thing I can remember that might help is how their techniques destroyed our room.”

“Can you bring us to your room so we can see the destruction for ourselves?”

“It’s all been cleaned up.” Sechen looked at Elach. “Was it still destroyed when you found me?”

“Nope. I had to break the door down to get in.” Elach said, turning to Metea/Irric. “You remember what the room looked like too, right?”

“Except for the door and the blood, it looked like it was in perfect condition. Like it hadn’t even been lived in.” Metea/Irric confirmed. “Not a single shred of cloth out of place.”

“Which means they either had someone with time, rejuvenation, or cleansing Issi.” Rainshear muttered, snatching the glass pad from Metea/Irric to write her own notes. “Can you remember if any of the attacks left the room cleaner than it had been before? Or if they burst into the materials they were made of?”

“I remember long slashes cut into the beds and furniture, dust falling down on us as Revel deflected something into the ceiling, and huge indents smashed into the floor where the last person’s techniques hit.” Sechen rubbed at her manifested arm. “Whoever was making the slashes eventually hit me in the arm, and then everything faded to black a little too quickly. I honestly don’t know how I lived that long with all that blood loss.”

“Revel must have forced your arm to manifest.” Rainshear muttered to herself, scratching the glass in time with her words. “You blacked out from the pain of manifesting combined with blood loss, and for some reason, your assailants didn’t kill you. That’s a very good sign that Revel’s still alive and well.”

Sechen frowned, but her face slightly brightened. “What does me being alive have to do with Revel’s safety?”

“Everything.” Rainshear said, gesturing at Sechen’s arm with the glass stylus. “If they couldn’t spare the time to check if you were alive, there’s a very good chance Revel did some serious damage to your intruders before she went down. Or she might not have even gone down; she could have run and forced them to follow.”

“And what if they did kill Revel, and just overlooked me?”

“There’s a really good reason for that, but it’s something I’m not comfortable sharing as a patron myself. Revel is alive. She either fled for her life and your safety or was captured after significantly damaging the intruders. I’m personally betting on the first option with what I know about Revel. Either way, though, they have to have left a trail of some kind.” Rainshear flourished her hands, and a length of watery chain connected the two. “But first, let’s clear your head. Grab the chain.”

Sechen raised an eyebrow and stared down at the chain for a moment, then reached out tentatively and wrapped her hand around the links.

“So how does this… GAH!” Sechen yelped, jumping back and cradling her hand as a few drops of blood splattered to the ground. “WHAT IN THE HELLS WAS THAT!? IT Hurt a lot.” She finished, all the bluster scraped clean as Rainshear’s Issi did its work.

“If you know a quicker way to get my cleansing Issi into your bloodstream, I’ll have to remember it for next time.” Rainshear said without a hint of mirth at Sechen’s pain, dismissing a chain that seemed pricklier than it had been moments ago. She leaned in, her face hardened and her eyes piercing. “Now, can you remember anything else? Any new details your panicked mind might have skipped over?”

“The glass.” Sechen said, walking back up to Elach’s side. She rubbed her hand against her shirt, and the smallest blossom of red spread out on the white garment. “The floors didn’t even scratch when the blades ran over them. That has to mean something, right?”

“It means a whole lot. This glacier is pretty strong for glass, but most metals and rocks would leave at least a scratch if they ran over it. So we’ve got someone with cutting power that either comes from a fragile physical form, like paper, or from something like wind.”

Rainshear tapped her lip, continuing to speak to herself as if she was completely alone. “The other thing that leaves us with is the most dangerous possibility; that the reason the glass didn’t scratch is that the attacker was using glass themselves. If one of Glasrime’s apprentices is in on this, everything gets complicated.”

“Because they have Glasrime to protect them?” Elach asked, startling Rainshear out of her monologue with his words. She looked at him with mild panic, and Elach narrowed his eyes at her in return. “Wait. Why am I…” he started, only to be interrupted by Metea/Irric.

“Not exactly, but close enough.” She said, drawing another panicked look from Rainshear. “Glasrime doesn’t give their apprentices free reign to do whatever they want, but it means there’s a chance one of Glasrime’s inner circle approved this wisp-napping.”

“Ah. Yeah, that wouldn’t be good.” Elach said with a nod, his mouth set in a concerned line.

“So, that leaves us with one huge question.” Rainshear said quickly, holding up one finger and clasping Metea/Irric’s shoulder with the other hand. The cloudy woman’s eyes became glassier for a moment, a splash of Issi coming along with Rainshear removing her hand.

“Why did they go after Revel?” Rainshear continued. “The pool of wisp manifestations here isn’t exactly huge, but Revel was attacked in a fairly public place where plenty of people could have witnessed the attack. There had to have been a better time and place if this was a coordinated and premeditated attack.”

“You think this was a spur-of-the-moment thing?” Sechen asked, clenching her fists by her sides. “They just decided to murder me and take Revel… wherever the hells they took her?” She gestured widely, eyes growing wide as her arm threatened to slip out of its binding.

“I do.” Rainshear nodded. “Out of all the manifestations we have tabs on, you and Revel were at the lowest risk of harm. Nobody had been tailing you, there weren’t any whispers about Revel’s origins in the shadier parts of the glacier, and you only got here yesterday. Without letting anyone know ahead of time when you’d be making your way to the glacier.”

“Didn’t you have a room ready for you at the hotel when we got there?” Elach asked.

“We did. But it was an anonymous reservation put in through one of Rainshear’s associates’ networks.” Sechen said. “So unless she thinks someone is selling her information to outsiders, there’s no way they found us that way.”

“There is a… chance that might have happened.” Rainshear said. “We never keep a trail of who’s used our services, so your names and even how many people the reservation was for would never have leaked, but one of my associates went missing last month. If they leaked anything, there’s a chance Revel wasn’t targeted at all.”

“They were banking on a wisp manifestation being in that room, at that time.” Sechen said, shooting Rainshear a look of pure malice. “Didn’t you stop to think that, just maybe, you should have changed the reservations after one of your ‘associates’ disappeared?”

“We did.” Rainshear said a little too defensively. As if she’d been caught in a lie. “But someone must have gotten their hands on the shuffled room arrangements. Or, somehow, your and Revel’s room was shuffled to another room that had been reserved for another one of our clients. But that’s something for me to worry about later. Right now, I need to meet with one of my informants. Metea/Irric, go with Sechen and see if anyone at the hotel saw or heard anything happen last night. There’s a chance Revel isn’t the only wisp manifestation that’s gone missing.”

“And what about Elach?” Metea/Irric asked.

“What about him?” Rainshear turned to look over her shoulder as she walked away. “He’s not a part of this. Send him back to the cafe and have him wait for us to get back.” She paused, then added; “Go back to the cafe, Elach. Wait for us there. And don’t turn off any of the sprinklers; the plants need their water.”

“Oh. Right.” Metea/Irric said with a slight frown, and Rainshear waved back before turning and jogging away. “So, I guess we’ll see you back at the cafe?”

Elach wrinkled his nose, then shook his head slowly. “I’ll go back after I finish searching what you and Rainshear didn’t have time to search.” Elach said, looking up at the four upper rows that remained unsearched. “Just because Gilt hasn’t been captured yet, doesn’t mean there aren’t any wisps in those cages.”

Sechen shot Metea/Irric a look. Metea/Irric looked back with pleading eyes, and Sechen sighed with a small smile. “So, Metea/Irric hasn’t scared you off yet? She didn’t come on too strong?”

“Well, I’m betting the way you were introduced to her was a little bit different than how I was.” Elach chuckled. “But no, if what happened this morning didn’t drive me away I think I’m here for the long haul. Or the medium-haul. The however-long-I-decide-to-stay-here haul. For… some… reason.”

Shaking his head, Elach clenched his teeth while Sechen turned to Metea/Irric. Rainshear had done something to him. He knew it. But he couldn’t focus on it long enough to do anything about it. Maybe… maybe he should just go back to the cafe and wait.

“Now, I know you’re short on friends right now,” Sechen said with a smirk to Metea/Irric, “but Elach just gave us his word he isn’t going to run away if we leave him alone for an hour.”

“I didn’t… I have friends.” Metea/Irric huffed as her face coloured. “Just… not many of them.”

“I know, I know. Comes with the job.” Sechen said as if they’d had this conversation before, then addressed Elach. “We’ll be at the hotel whenever you finish up here. Ask the snake manifestation behind the desk to call for us, then we’ll meet you in the indoor park.”

“Shouldn’t he go back to the cafe?” Metea/Irric asked in confusion, looking between Elach and Sechen. “Rainshear said he should…”

That sealed it. Metea/Irric was in on this, whether she realized it or not. Something was coming from her words, and it felt like a much weaker version of whatever Rainshear had done to him. He still couldn’t break whatever it was, but now he could consistently acknowledge it. And possibly work towards breaking it.

“Sounds good.” Elach interrupted, looking skyward as Flow took off. “I’ll see you two in about an hour.”