Welcome to Gaia! ::

Remisa merely gave the slightest nod she possibly could have. It was evident that she was still skeptical of the good wishes of anyone who was entirely human. Tianara couldn't blame her. In the general sense, anyone who had not been one of them - had not lived among them - could not really understand the magic of the seafolk. But that was in general. Joshua was a specific case, and he was special. Tianara was sure he understood.

The two girls traded silent glances: Remisa's uncertain, Tianara's reassuring. It was Tianara who spoke first. "You were right. It's time. And we need you to contact all those who you feel you can trust. We're going to need help."

"All?" asked Remisa, looking startled.

"All," repeated Tianara. "We need all the help we can get."

Tianara happened to catch Joshua's rolled eyes, and her voice spoke serenely near his ear. Don't blame her. She's just afraid. We all are. And she doesn't know you. Should Joshua look her way, he would catch her lifting her shoulder in the universal gentle shrug.

Remisa nodded again after a minute. "I have a few that I can speak to," she said simply. "I don't know what will happen after, but I know that I can trust them as I would trust you." The you was directed at Tianara, not at the group in general - she wasn't sure of most of them, to be honest.

Tianara smiled. "That's a good start," she said firmly. "We'll start working our way out from there."

Tianara's eyes rose suddenly. Frowning, she stood. Then she turned to look at Joshua. "We have to go." Her voice was surprisingly firm and steady. "They're back. I don't know if they have anything for us, but we have to go." She looked at Allen and Aria, uncertain. Would they want to come along? What about Mac - would he?

Didn't matter. Sorry had just let her know - faintly, and straining - that they were home. And she knew they had to go back and talk to them, whether they had anything or not.

"Come on," she told Joshua. "We have to hurry."

Tianara lingered just a moment longer. "You know you're welcome anytime," she told Allen and Aria quietly before she looked at Remisa. Clasping the girl's hand, she said softly, "We will speak of this again." Leaving it at that, she waved a goodbye to these people she had come to consider her friends and ran to catch up to Joshua.

When she had caught up to him, she said, frowning, "Allen and Aria aren't coming back with us." She didn't offer any opinion on this - she didn't have to. Her uncertain voice was enough to say that she was a little worried about them changing their minds.

"Sorry reached me," she said. "She was really pushing - they're probably all exhausted. I hope there's no bad news."

"You're sure?" asked Tianara softly, her voice trembling a little as she spoke. "I don't think they'd ever turn against the merfolk, not completely, but what we've seen today...it might have changed their minds about helping us." She didn't know Allen and Aria well - and hell, she didn't know that much about humans to begin with - but, well, you never knew, did you?

They hurried down the path until Tianara caught a glimpse of water, and the beach. "We're there," she murmured, relieved. As she broke out of the trees onto the sand, she was already calling out to them in her own tongue. Then she went still. There was absolutely no one to be seen.

She turned to look at Joshua, confused. "Where are they?" she asked. She knew she had heard Katalina speak to her. And she knew Katalina had said they were back at the cove. So where were they?

Tianara nodded. "They did. Sorry talked to me. She was really reaching, though - maybe they aren't quite here yet?" She stretched her wider range - admittedly, she was tired, so it wasn't much wider - and searched for them. She called out again in her own tongue. For a moment, there was still no response. Then the water rippled slowly, and Jinx surfaced, looking grim. At about the same time, Joshua would feel the slight shiver in his mind that meant he'd made contact with the one he was looking for.

Barely.

Jinx looked up at the two of them and sighed. "We reached almost everyone, I think," she said blandly, knowing that that wasn't what they were worried about. "Those we didn't get to are very well hidden. They'll be fine."

"What about the others?" demanded Tianara, losing patience with Jinx's game-playing. "Where are Sorry and Narcis and Nezik? Why did it take you so long to answer me?"

Jinx rolled her eyes, but glanced at Joshua with a trace of something like apology. "Sorry overdid it," she said. "Narcis and Nezik are back at the coral with her. She must have called the two of you out with the last power she had." She shook her head. "Narcis kept trying to prevent her from doing that, and now he's freaking out. Understandably." Sitting back in the water, she tilted her head. "What have you got?"

Tianara, however, was frowning. "Again? Already?" she asked worriedly. "She can't afford to do that too much, Jinx. I can't believe Narcis let her."

"He didn't," said Jinx defensively. "She just wouldn't stop."

Tianara didn't seem to find it worth arguing about. Instead, she waded into the water. "We found Rhiannon, Kiro, Mieka and Remisa. How many more are there? Will we be able to reach all of them?"

"We won't, but their clans will," said Jinx dismissively. Then she tilted her head and listened. "Nezik is coming up. Narcis is going to bring Sorry along in a minute or two. I told him we ought to try an Awakening, but he says no."

Jinx shrugged. "No reason you would have," she replied, ignoring Tianara's warning look. "An Awakening is when one member of the merfolk who's gone too far is fed power from the others so that they wake up sooner. Narcis says it's too risky, but I think it would be easier."

"Narcis is right," Nezik piped up as he surfaced. "An Awakening isn't safe, Jinx. Not when we don't have anyone of her clan to do it. Better just to let her sleep it off. It's not like there's anything she has to do that none of us can do while she sleeps."

Jinx eyed him. "You're of her clan," she pointed out. "So's Narcis."

"And we're almost as tapped as she is," retorted Nezik. "All three of us. It's just not worth it. We'd exhaust ourselves, and even all together we probably don't have enough to wake her. So just agree with your brother for once."

Jinx gave him a cool stare, but didn't press it any farther.