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Tianara wove through side streets and alleys that she couldn't have known were there. Every so often, she'd put her hands out blindly just before running into a building, walk around it and then seem to pick up the trail again. "Here." Her voice was sleepy and certain. "She's in here."

She'd stopped in front of an apartment building. Walking in with no apparent forethought, she went to the buzzer numbers and trailed her finger just in front of them, apparently lost in consideration. "Third floor," she murmured. "Third floor...Apartment 13-A. I think. I think it's A. Maybe it's K. But it sounds like A."

Her distant, unfocused eyes turned to Joshua and Allen. She seemed to stare through them even as she asked, "Now what?"

((omg on the news just now somewhere in the world people have sighted mermaids and now there's a reward for someone who finds it first T-T they better be nice to them))

Mac smiled, "I could go for some simple noodles if you want, I don't want to bother you with something complicated" he told Aria kindly. He slipped his shoes off as well. He reached into his pocket and grabbed a shell, and thought it would make a neat little gift. "here, its just a gift for being nice to me" he said.

((OOC: LAWLS. Is it like that chick who dressed up as one? She had people going for a while. XD))

The buzzer rang for a few seconds. Then a soft voice answered. "Hello? Who is it?" As soon as she answered, they would know Tianara had guided them right - the voice on the pager had the same musical accent that Tianara did; the one that came from a life with the merfolk.

Before Joshua or Allen could answer the woman's question, Tianara did. Her eyes still faraway, still not looking entirely herself, she said, "It's me. We've come to tell you it's time. Can we come up?"

There was a moment of silence. And then, very quietly, the voice on the other end said, "I'll buzz you in. Come up." And the doors to the inside of the apartment building swung smoothly open.

Tianara glanced at the other two, smiled sleepily, and walked into the building proper.

Tianara glanced back at Joshua with a look of perfect, even slightly amused acceptance. She seemed quite calm about the whole thing, considering how worked up she'd been about it all earlier. Without the slightest change of expression on her face, she followed Joshua onto the elevator. She didn't seem to entirely shake off the effects of whatever it was she had done until they stood on the third floor. Then she took a long, ragged breath, and her eyes brightened again.

"All right," she said softly, as she stared at the door to the apartment. "Here we go." And the door opened inwards to reveal a woman. She was quite young and pretty, with soft brown eyes and a tentative smile. True to Tianara's earlier predictions, she had a baby on her hip, its tiny hand fisted in her smooth blonde ponytail - and the crashing and yelling from inside the apartment suggested it wasn't the only child around.

"Just a moment," she said to them. She looked away from them towards the source of the noise. And although that sweetly accented voice remained perfectly calm and pleasant, it carried clearly. "Mitchell Robert Lythgoe, Rebecca Marie Lythgoe, Alexis Leslie Hall. Settle down right now or I'm taking that game and putting it in the trash." The noise level went down almost instantly, and she turned back to smile at them. "Sorry. I babysit the neighbour's daughter, since they all go to preschool together. Please, come in." She held the door open for them with one hand. "First door on the left is the living room."

Tianara walked alongside Joshua. Although the trancelike state was gone, she still seemed fairly calm. And why not? The ocean children might as well have been kin. Tianara clearly felt safe in the home of someone like her.

Upon entering the living room, it was evident that this woman kept close ties to her roots. The colour scheme was blues and greens, painted and arranged to resemble the waters where she would have lived out much of her life. Photographs and keepsakes all seemed to be from various trips to the beach. The photos tended to feature a dark-haired man and two young children - presumably her husband and kids. They both took after their mother, as far as it was possible to see from eight-by-six photographs.

The noise level from the other room was rising again, and after a moment it was evident that another of Tianara's predictions had come true.

"No, you have to do this!" cried one of the kids - probably about the game in question. "'Cause we're the mermaids and you're the evil sea invaders!"
"But I wanna be the mermaids this time!" insisted another small voice.

Tianara, glancing up, began to giggle. "How appropriate," she murmured. "Considering what we're here for."

The woman entered then. She smiled a little when she saw them all still standing. "Please, sit," she said. "The longer you stand, the longer good manners say I have to, and I don't mind admitting that dealing with those three wears me out." She shifted the baby to her other hip in a practiced motion and said, "I'm Rhiannon." Looking over the three of them, although her gaze hesitated slightly over Tianara - obviously she, too, recognized kinfolk - she asked, "And you are?"

Rhiannon sat down with a weary sigh. "Ah, yes. Joshua and Allen. I've heard of both of you." She smiled ruefully, stroking the now-sleeping infant's fine dark curls. "I suppose it makes sense that you would be the ones to escort her," she murmured. Her eyes rose with a question in them to Tianara, who smiled faintly.

"Tianara," she said softly. "We're looking for all of them. All of us." Sitting as Rhiannon had, she got right to the point. "War is coming. They need all the help they can get, but they don't know who they can trust. Except for us. We're as much their children as the ones born to them. They need us now, Rhiannon." She didn't seem uncomfortable to be using the woman's first name, nor did Rhiannon seem overly surprised to hear her use it. "Will you help us?"

Rhiannon seemed to gaze into the distance for a few minutes, still stroking the baby's hair. "Yes, of course," she said quietly. "You know I will. I think the kids might benefit from a few weeks with their grandmother, however...they're too young to be caught up in all this." She smiled sadly down at the baby. When her eyes rose again, they were clearer, and full of a quiet strength. "What must I do?"