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And here was the heat, even worse than had been on the submarine - absolutely bone-searing. The little whimper on the other side of the door would tell anyone who heard it that those on the other side found it equally painful to the touch. Nevertheless, the cracking sound persisted - whoever was on the other side really, really wanted out now. "No," the voice repeated, clear and strong enough now for Joshua to be able to discern that it was female; thus, probably it was Jinx.

The door creaked, squeaked, rocked a little, but it remained stubbornly in place. Whatever Jinx was doing was not sufficient to get it open. Perhaps it was a similar spell to what Narcis had mentioned was going on with the door to the submarine - it could be opened from the outside only. Once inside, it was as good as a wall.

All movement stopped for a second. "Hurts," the voice explained flatly, regaining a bit more of its personality. Then the attempts started up again. Jinx had to be burning herself severely to keep this up, but she didn't seem to care.

"Hurry," Jinx muttered. She seemed a little surprised, which wasn't too weird - this would mark one of the first times she and Joshua had conversed mind-to-mind. It was likely that the normally human-spurning Jinx wouldn't have thought Joshua to be much good at speaking telepathically.

The door shrieked unhappily when Joshua forced the makeshift crowbar into its seam, and actually did inch open a touch. Then it stopped dead, and the cracking sound began again. Jinx's voice spoke up after a second. "See if you can get the end of it through. We can push from both sides."

It was a reasonable thought, and she was probably hoping that the door wouldn't shut on an inanimate object.

Jinx was apparently a lot stronger than she looked - on her first push, the crowbar almost pulled out of Joshua's hands before the strength slackened. Apparently realizing that she had to be a little more careful, she eased up, pushing enough to be useful without making Joshua lose his grip - she hoped.

The door shrieked again, raucously, but unhappily began to slide open once more. Several times it stuck, earning soft curses in the bubbly language from the other side - at least, it was likely that they were curses.

When at last it squeaked open far enough, Jinx gazed out at Joshua with solemn eyes for a minute or two. "Hold it," she told him. Then she disappeared - for a moment. She reappeared, pulling Nezik along with her. The young merman looked confused and dazed, but he at least was also awake. The Siren gripped the bar firmly, holding the door open, and shoved Nezik through. Ignoring the burn, she braced her hands on the door and slid through after him, hissing softly when her sides brushed the door.

Once out, she tilted her head at Joshua before glaring back at the door. "Which way did they go?" she demanded. "I'm going to find him, and I'm going to kill him!" Her tone of voice made it ultimately clear that she was not just venting her frustration. This was an actual threat.

Jinx glared briefly, apparently not thinking this an acceptable answer, but then sighed and shrugged irritably. "Fine," she muttered - aloud this time. Maybe, like Katalina before, she only had so much telepathic speaking she could do, and who knew how long she had been straining to get ahold of Narcis or Katalina?

She shot Joshua a look as they slipped carefully through the tiny hole in the pile of stuff - her occasional muttered curse words and Nezik's little sounds of pain as Jinx pulled him through proved that it was not quite wide enough. "Isn't it obvious?" she replied. "Tried to get me away safe and got knocked on his silly head for the trouble. He's too sweet for his own damned good."

Nezik gazed up at them with wide, confused eyes - obviously he wasn't quite all together yet. But he was coherent enough to ask, "Sorry and Narcis?"

Jinx, too, turned her look on Joshua. She wanted to know, too.

Nezik had tensed a little when Joshua spoke of Katalina's condition, had gone nearly rigid when he talked about losing Tianara, and by the time the boy actually got to mentioning that someone should check up on him, the young merman was resolutely shaking his head. "No way," he replied, sounding a little clearer and a lot more stubborn. "They took Tianara away? They caught her?"

Jinx, who had looked through Joshua's memories and knew exactly what had happened, said simply, "She let them, didn't she? So they wouldn't catch both of you." The Siren traded glances with Nezik, and then looked back at Joshua.

"No," she said at last. "Nezik'll be fine. You'll never catch up to them alone, especially since you can't sense them, and Nezik would need me to come with him to make sure he didn't get lost." She took a moment to smirk at the merman, who sulked a little. Then she continued, "We'll come with you."

"They would," said Jinx. "They were her kin, after all." Nezik shot her a pointed glance, and the Siren shrugged. "What? If he didn't know by now, he'd have figured it out," she said tartly. "He's not stupid, for a human."

"The highest of backhanded compliments," muttered Nezik. "Come on, let's go." His tail lashing, he sped up, making Jinx follow, until they were alongside Joshua once more. The boy said quietly, "Joshua, if it's what Narcis was worried about when we were all being held together...what happened when they took Tianara?" It was almost interrogative, as though the merman was trying to figure something out. "Exactly?"

Although Jinx could have told him that, it seemed Nezik thought it would be best to get it right from the source. He didn't want to run into this blind if it turned out to be what Narcis had thought.