Storm closed the front door behind her and went into the living room to pace. After her searching in Yransea came up empty, Storm wasted no time in deciding her next move. She sent her children over to her father with little explanation to him, despite the concern in his eyes. Avery was becoming suspicious as well, and Storm would not lie to him; she just had no answers to give.

Now, she turned to one of the only people she knew to communicate with - the Tunnelers. She didn't know many of the names other than Compass and Maze, but she had to try. So she had gone outside, used the signal Ewan had taught Avery years ago, and stepped back inside. She tried to be patient, but when she thought about her empty home and her absent husband, she could feel the anxiety ready to control her emotions.

Years. Compass knew the exact number, but tallying them only made the sick feeling boil inside him all the more. As he moved through the Tunnels in a steady lope, he felt the ache of his age in joints getting too old for his dreams. There had been a time he had hoped his network of informants would make a difference in the chaos of Rhydin. Ewan -- Quicksand -- had been part of that dream.

The word came the other day, and he hoped he would not have a call to explain or share what he knew. A futile hope. In the many years, not once had he heard the code specifically for Ewan's family sent through the Tunnels to him until that day.

It was his duty, he knew. He would not send another messenger. It took him a few hours, but he climbed out of the Tunnel exit just north of town and walked the rest of the way to the house in the woods and stepped around to the back, knowing he would be felt by the one inside.

The time had not helped much with Storm?s nerves, she just found other ways to use the energy. She cleaned the house until her arms ached, and even then she continued on till her back ached and she had nothing else to do. It seemed like days, but finally Storm felt the presence of another within her shields. She tried to keep her feelings in check, and even though she did not recognize the person, she went to the back door and peeped out the hole for some wild hope to see Ewan. Her heart knew it wasn?t him and the shape was all wrong. S he almost hit the door in frustration.
So, she waited silently by the door, quietly calling her katana to her hand as the person ? man to be exact, approached.

Compass came around to the back door. The signs of his work, the smear of soot along edges of hands hastily washed. The scent of iron and heat clung to his ash grey beard. For all his burly build, his knock on the back door frame was light. Almost felt ashamed that he feared to knock at all. Ewan had never been the one he worried about. In fact, having him among their number, even in a cursory way, had given Compass peace of mind. Past harms, those had been on duties for his country not the Tunnelers business.

Compass had never had direct dealings with Ewan's family, but he had seen them around town. He had also seen the warning in Ewan's eyes when anyone so much as looked at any of his family in a wrong way. This was not going to go well. Compass had a sudden need to relieve himself and fought that need.

She waited patiently near the back door, thinking of the ?mud room? as a bad place to be caught in. Still, she sucked in her breath, ?Do you have green butterfly wings??

"Can you tell me what is at sea?"

"Grey sails are at sea." And with that, she unlocked and opened the door for him. She waited until he was in sight before making her katana disappear. It didn't hurt her ego to see what he would think about that. "Most do not come through the back."

Compass led through the Tunnels for a little over an hour. When he climbed from the exit, conducting her up after him, they were in a brick fenced back yard of a squat two story home. Its rooftop of shingles aged, but no holes to be seen. The back door opened and Compass led her further on. Simple wallpapered hallway showed faces briefly peak out from doors and then go back in. A turn up the stairs and to a landing where the choice was two doors. The one with the guard is the door Compass opened with the swift turn of a palmed key. Beyond was an empty room. A single curtained window, no lamps, no fireplace. Not a single piece of furniture. Just a young woman, perhaps in her twenties, with short shorn brown hair and dark brown eyes laying on her back on the wooden floor. Her clothes were stained with sweat rings at her throat and pits of her arms. She looked up at the ceiling, softly whistling. Compass closed the door behind Storm. There were no words need be said. The finality of his offer before made clear in the silence. Ferret was Storm's to do with as she wished.

Thought did not return to Storm until they were out of the tunnels. The long, dark trek through the underground was only survivable with a blank expression and a mind to match. She didn't keep track of where they were going, and did try hard to figure out where they were - as far as she was concerned, one visit was all that she would need.

She did however, pay attention to the faces that could be seen, and the quiet communication across the bland walls. It did not require interpretation. Walking up the stairs, Storm began to feel a sense of anxiety - what if she could not persuade the woman, and lose her one connection to Ewan? The anxiety was quickly clipped and shifted to resolve. As soon as she entered the empty room, she had no eyes for anything but the woman on the floor.

She took several quiet breaths, and then a few more. She studied her looks, and her apparent sense of ease. It brought on a small smirk, "Ferret - it seems to be a fitting name for you."

Ferret eased herself up to sit, eyeing Storm with a slow forming smile. "Thought so myself. You must be the wifie. Come to see who fooled your husband?" Pride glistened in those dark eyes.

"I have, though you are not the first, nor will you be the last." Storm placed her hands behind her back and idly walked a slow circle around the woman, "At such a sacrificial cost as well." A beat of a pause, "Where is he?"

A shake of her head, she did not even turn to keep an eye on Storm. There was a cocky confidence in the curve of the shoulders, all assured that she could keep her word. "Don't know what cost you're talking about. Catch the big fish with the little ones, right?" It sounded like she was quoting someone else, and likely she was.

"What cost? Well, you are here, shackled up like some beast, and left for me to do as I please. Obviously, nothing more than a pawn." Storm paused to glance at the window, before back to the woman.

Ferret's head rocked one way and then the other, but she grinned. "Pawn, but you need me. Need me to tell you something." With a sigh, she lay back down, her body was trim and she showed the hollow cheeked signs of malnutrition. "But, I won't. Still, you'll hope I will, so I'll live. I'll live long past when he's dead." She frowned and looked around to Storm. "You must not think too highly of your hubby if you are sure he's fooled so much. You might be better off without, I say."

Storm let Ferret's words ring for a moment, before she sighed deeply and promptly went over them, "Well, we are at an impasse. You do have information I need, and you seem to be unwilling to give it to me. So," she was done with the idle talking, and felt her rage spread heat through each part of her body. With her eyes glowing, Storm made the air around Ferret's neck dense enough to act like a rope, and started to pull her across the room with a flick of her hand. She was not gentle to slow down when Ferret's head would impact the wall - not that she was moving that fast to begin with, "something is going to have to give."

Gasping, Ferret clawed at the invisible rope of air, desperate to release its hold and unsuccessful. When her head hit the wall, the thunk dazed her as much as the constriction of her airway. It was the first sign of fear in the young woman's face, eyes wide, staring at Storm in amazement. She gasped out with the sparse breath, "You're a mage? He hates magic!" That must have been what Ferret had been told, how fervently she believed it.

So, Ferret did not know anything about Storm. It was perhaps, the most promising news thus far. Storm strolled over to the wall where the woman struggled against her invisible boundary, and stared down at her, "It is a good thing it is not magic, then. It is very, real." Then she frowned, "I find it rude that you are sitting during our conversation." Pulling on that "rope" again, Storm forced Ferret up and onto her feet, not pulling her high enough to take her feet off the ground, but high enough to where Ferret would need to stay on the tops of her toes to keep the weight off her neck, "Have you ever suffocated before, Ferret? Almost drowned?"

A whack to her head pulsed a painful rejoinder when Ferret found herself dragged to her feet. She hung there, trying to find something to cling to for support and wavered on her toes. "No," she rasped out, only able to think of answering that. Her eyes were wide and wild, desperate to try and anticipate what horrifying thing might happen next.

"Fortunate. It is not a pleasant experience." She watched the girl struggle, her wide eyes searching, "Everything slowly begins to burn; first with your lungs, and eventually to all your muscles. They beg for air, and no matter how hard you try to gasp, nothing will be sucked back in." Storm began to pull the oxygen away from the woman. She waited until she could find acknowledgement in Ferret's eyes of what she was doing.

A first, Ferret just shook her head, and then the realization. She opened her mouth wider, trying to suck in what was slowly slipping away. With nothing to do but feel the darkness closing around her sight, she stretched a hand out to Storm, begging in gaping silence for her to stop. Tears slipped from the corners of those bulging eyes.

Storm released her hold on the oxygen, allowing the girl to replenish the air back into her lungs, "Terrible feeling, no? Now," her facade began to crack, showed the rage and fury that was just under the surface, "you tell me what I want to know." She stood close in front of Ferret, but not close enough to be in touching distance, "Or I promise that you will wish this is all I was doing to you."

"Absence from whom we love is worse than death, and frustrates hope severer than despair." - William Cowper

It was not until the late afternoon that Storm left her house the following day. Her attire was usual, with a cloak to ward off the dark, looming clouds above. A mostly empty pack stayed close to her thigh, waiting to be filled with needed purchases from the Marketplace. While Storm could not pull off anything more than a stoic expression, she at least didn't show the fear, anxiety, and anger that was constantly rolling in her chest. With a deep sigh, she started the longer trek to town.

And she showed no signs of her gift.

Much had happened after her time with Ferret. Storm shared her knowledge with Compass, and they had developed an immediate plan to stake-out the area on Leland Street to see if anything matched Ferret's information. If Leland Street led to Theral, there were a few plans of how Theral would lead to Ewan - but Storm knew what she would do, and would let the Tunnelers make their own decision.

After some inner struggle, Storm then went home and told her father the news. It came with some amazement that Storm held no reaction to the retelling of her story. Her body's emotions and reactions were held at bay - as if someone else was sharing their own horror story and not her own. And then she told the children in the briefest way she knew how. Avery tried not to cry, and Kellan didn't truly understand. She promised her children that she was going to give it her all to find Ewan and to bring him back.

Both of her sons shared her big, empty bed.

Cornelious helped Storm to build a temporary portal within the house. After Ferret's recognition of Storm as being Ewan's wife, she was now acutely concerned that her and her family were being watched. If Ferret was unaware of Storm's nature, than she could only assume that the people who had Ewan didn't know either. It would be a safer way to transport her family to safer place if needed, and would allow Cornelious to come and be ready at call. Her father offered no judgment to the situation, and for that, Storm was grateful.

The hardest part would be the pretending, Storm knew. She didn't go out during the day when she might have ran into friends - she didn't want to talk, or explain, how she was doing that day. She didn't know what to tell people, and so she would avoid the scenario. If Storm had her way, she would dedicate every ounce of her energy to finding Ewan immediately. But she had to sleep, and would be no good to Ewan if she ran herself ragged before even getting to him. Compass gave her a gentle reminder of that.

So tonight she would assist the Tunnelers with her sensitive hearing on Leland Street, and if she found nothing, would try again tomorrow and the day after. Her mind itched to go to the first location - the one Ferret had sent Ewan to and where he was captured - but in the end it would only deter her focus and energy. She had information enough. All that was needed before the evening began was for her to display commonplace life and do a little research of her own.

Storm did not go to the Marketplace first. Instead her stroll took her down old and nostalgic road to the library. If she was going to Leland Street, then she was going to be prepared. The Tunnelers may know their way around all of RhyDin, but she did not, and if things were to go array, the last thing she wanted to be doing was to be running blindly underground. With the later hour, Storm anticipated less people and therefore, more privacy.

She expected to be hit with warm memories of her time spent here with Ewan. She prepared her mind for it, and tried to steel her emotions against any overwhelming feelings that might come. She felt that she was doing well until she opened the door and stepped inside.

With one inhale of the familiar smell of dusty books, she exhaled sharply as if she had been punched in her middle. The pain and agony was staggering, and Storm nearly fell to her knees in despair. She didn't know what she was doing; never had she needed to find a loved one with this kind of urgency and fear. Ferret said she would outlive Ewan. His death was coming, or might already be here. She was not Ewan. She did not have resources or trained skills. All she had was her gift, a group of people she didn't know, and the will to find him.

That same will forced her legs to keep moving when she had been standing in the doorway too long. Numb arms and hands moved to grab the large scroll that contained the map for a city. She started for the fireplace out of habit, and had to forcefully move to some other location. Her heart could not stand any happy, but unwanted, memories. It was with hope that when she sat down, being able to look at the map would help to steady her unraveling facade. It did not.

Pressing fingers to her eyes, Storm rubbed gently and continued down her cheeks. She was able to wipe away the moisture in her eyes before it had the opportunity to roll down her cheeks. Fingers bridged over her mouth, she took several long breaths before opening the map over the small table.

She would memorize the area of Leland Street until she could see it perfectly behind closed eyes.

Storm noticed Theral beginning to stir on the ground, and she kept an air platform firmly above him to keep from standing, "Deal with you later." A quiet mutter, she was about to send another note to the Tunnelers above when a knock came from the door. A quick glance around gave her no indication of the location of the keys. She kept a tight shield around her person, before standing next to the door. She spread her feel around it from the inside, acting like fingers, and then pulled - taking the door and several stones away from their hold and out. Storm felt no sympathy as stones and ultimately, the door landed on Poul. She didn't step in right away, unsure of those inside. Instead she blindly created thick, dense air inside the room, hoping to minimize or stop movement all together until she could get in. She couldn't risk any harm to Ewan.

The sound was something unfathomable, the grating of stone against stone, screeching protest of door until it was all gone in a whirling explosion of dust and debris. Isaac jumped back and coughed his way to find the knife Ewan had been using to cut the woman's freedom with slices to his body. The floor was speckled and dribbled with blood drying dark around the prone body of Ewan.

The knife was still in Ewan's slack hand. Isaac found, though, he could not move toward it without determination. It was as if the room filled with molasses and he had to fight for each step.

Ewan's heart beat rapidly, his breath shallow and swift. There was so little blood left everything worked harder for it to do more. His eyes rolled back and he lay there with hundreds of slices along his legs, arms, and torso in a chorus of red.

Storm took one step into the room, and through the dim layer of dust, saw the bloody body that was Ewan, and the man slowly trying to make his way to him. Her anger spike as she saw him aiming for the knife in Ewan's still hand, "No!" The yell was raw and angry as Storm tossed his body against the wall angrily with another platform. She held him there as she ran into the room and knelt at Ewan's side. The bandage around his heart was little in comparison to the endless cuts that covered his body. She looked for signs of life from movements in his chest. His eyes were closed, but she tried anyway. "Ewan?" Carefully, she took the bloody knife from his hand, and griped the handle, "Ewan, I'm here." She hoped to see any sort of alert or recognition on his face. If not, the man stuck to the wall was surely going to regret this very moment.

Ewan had nothing to give. His pulse fluttered at his neck. There was a weariness to his body, a bloody naked creature, so cold. Were it not for the brightness of some of the blood, that hummingbird like pulse of a rapid heartbeat, he would be as an empty vessel like so many before him.

Isaac did not have the time to shout his dismay or proclaim anything when he hit that wall, it all went dark. Such a blow ripped his consciousness away, but he was still alive in a limb twisted flop on the floor.

"I have him. The man in the room is the leader, and Theral is near the opened door. Keep them alive and leave them here. I will return for them. The rest, you may do as you please." Angrily, Storm glanced up at the man responsible, and there was no gaze to met. She didn't have time for him at the moment- there was almost no time for Ewan as it was. He was so cut up and weak, Storm was scared to touch any part of him. And so she carefully cushioned his body with her elements, and lifted him off of the ground. The nearest holding house was ready, and at least Storm had her gift on her side to quicken the short journey.

Still, this man was not to be left unpunished upon first meeting. She gripped the knife and walked up to the man and quickly assessed his hands. Finding the right to be more calloused, and therefore more dominate, she pressed it back and flat against the wall before driving the knife through the tender flesh of the palm with gifted strength behind it to lock the knife into the stone. If it required the Tunnelers to cut through the hand in order to get the man off the floor, then so be it. His scream didn?t phase her as she transformed to her element and helped to cushion Ewan and get him out of the building as fast as she dared to go. A floating body wasn't the oddest thing these peopl had seen.

The sound of what seemed to be the walls collapsing was the first warning. When the call went up to the first guard finding Theral, the group began to gather the important documents, each going about their business to collect or destroy before they started to flee. But each exit was blocked, each way they went ran into Tunnelers.

The pain jolted Isaac into a shrieking wakefulness. All he saw through the cloud of pain was Ewan's body floating away. Magic. Ewan hated magic.