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The sick dread bloomed. Tianara closed her eyes, feeling ill and miserable. "I want to say no," she said softly. "I wish I could say no. But...I have to say yes. Yes, someone could have. Everyone knew that Sorry and Narcis and the two young ones were the main spearhead of the effort to stop a war. Anyone who...who would want a war..."

Those like her brother. Those like Mrian, she thought, a shudder going through her. "Anyone who wants a chance at the humans, they might go after Sorry and the others. With them gone, they have a better chance of rallying the merfolk against the humans. And you're right. Sorry would feel perfectly safe around one of her own. She wouldn't even have thought of one of them being a threat." She had to close her eyes against a sudden sting of tears. "Same with Nezik. Even Jinx and Narcis wouldn't have it spring to mind or anything."

She paused to regain control of herself, took a deep breath. "The only good thing about that is that if one of the merfolk did participate in their disappearance, they're alive. There's no word for murderer in the merfolk tongue, did you know? They don't kill one another. I can't remember any stories of them doing so, even. If there was another one of the merfolk involved, they're not dead."

Then she closed her eyes again, still thinking. "If one of ours did this, Joshua, it must have been an older, stronger member of the merfolk - Narcis especially is not all that young himself, and he's quite powerful. Especially if Jinx and Sorry were being threatened, he'd use everything he had to protect them. If he was overpowered...that would take a lot of magic. Or strength. I don't think one person could do it alone."

She flashed back to the Dark One, and the secondary magic she had felt in it. Merfolk could do sleeping spells, she thought, shuddering. Oh God. Oh God. What had she gotten the four of them into?

"No, you misunderstood me," murmured Tianara in response, still thinking it through. "The Dark One already wanted to redirect itself from you to me - I was the weaker prey. It was just that you were challenging it, so it would have had to respond to that challenge. Someone else's magic would simply have channeled it away from you and to me, so it could do what it already wanted to do. No control required."

She shook her head. "But the sleeping spell, or whatever it was...that would have taken someone else's magic. Merfolk can do that. I've seen healers do it plenty of times - Rokshiden has done them for me before when I was ill."

At last, she simply sighed, giving up on trying to answer all his questions. "It might be, Joshua. I really can't say more than that. It might be. It's likely it is. But I can't be sure." She rubbed her forehead with her fingertips. "Whoever it is, I don't think they would have sent the Dark One after Sorry and the others. Why would they? Why make it threatening when it could be so easy? All they would have to do is get them alone or in ones or twos, say 'Hey, I found something, it might be important, can you come take a look?'..." Tianara shuddered a little. "And they would go. No questions asked."

She closed her eyes. "Easy enough after that to get them somewhere isolated, get them unconscious or otherwise subdued, and find a way to keep them there. It wouldn't be difficult - I can think of ten different ways even I could do it, if they trusted me enough."

Tianara relaxed a little bit under his hand, which sort of surprised her. She'd thought she'd still be awkward around him after what had happened before. But, well, there were more important things to worry about now. "That's all right," she said quietly. "They were questions that we needed to think about."

It was probably because she had relaxed that she first felt it as they continued moving. "Stop!" she cried, halting so fast that the water nearly shoved her back again. "Did you feel that?" She looked at Joshua, her eyes wide with something like hope.

Just for a minute, she thought she'd felt Katalina's magical signature. That meant that she was on the right track, and that she might soon be able to find the place where the mermaid had gone off track.

Then again, it might be her own wishful thinking.

((Ok, now where is everyone atm? I have something planned. And The barrier at Joshua's place has a 1X barrier, which means they can't get in but the Dark Ones can project themselves through it. The 2X barrier at Aria's means that they cannot project and is more powerful.))
Mac sat next to Aria on the couch, interested in the channels, but more interested in discussing the situation of the happenings of late. "Hey, I was wondering..." he began to speak, but suddenly stopped, and had a lifeless stare looking at her. The power surged, and the lights flickered. Mac giggled, "Its right outside and can't get in" he said, "With both of our barriers, its impossible, I'm glad it wont interfere with us in here" he looked up and kept smiling. He snapped back into his conversation with Aria, "Sorry, I was gonna ask if you wanted to watch a movie" he finally asked.

Mike's voice was heard in the shower, "AHAHAHAHAAA!" Laughing triumphantly.

He pondered at the idea, "Sure, lets watch the Little Mermaid" he said, "its a classic". He had a dopey cat-faced grin as he said it. He certainly looked pleased just being with Aria. "You know the legend got passed down enough to become a movie, maybe watching it will make me remember parts of my past life" he suggested.