Harpies have a kind of magic that makes you listen to what they say, and they use it to make people feel horrible.
I have no idea how we're going to find her! There are millions - billons - of shades here - and space is all folded in on itself - Kas, if we can't get her, how long will it take the damn thing to get bored with her and move on?
...answer's basically 'How the fuck should I know?', in alethiometer-speak. These things can't tell the future or anything. It could be - any amount of time.
Sue, if you've been concealing some ability to make people do things via link and you can force her to teleport, or sleep, or something - this is when to fess up. Otherwise I don't have any better ideas than flying around asking shades if they've seen her. Fuck.
She boosts her remote-viewing powers and her flight speed as high as they will go, and telekinesis for good measure. She sights on the river, extending her sense of physical space until she understands the boatman's route.
Then she flies.
Left alone on the dock, a white falcon screams. But not for long. Sherlock is moving fast.
He spreads his speckled wings protectively over Shell Bell's smew.
"No, no," mumbles the smew miserably, but he can't muster the wherewithal to force himself away from comfort a second time; he doesn't move away.
Amariah pushes what she saw of Shell Bell's initial trajectory.
Cam tries assorted phrasings to get answers out of the alethiometer that might help find her.
Kas tries, too, and he just pushes the meanings directly to Sherlock through the link.
There.
That is Shell Bell, and that is a harpy. She gives the harpy a telekinetic shove as she comes to a stop just beside Shell Bell.
Shell Bell looks up just long enough to identify Sherlock's face and then she flinches away.
The smew has quieted, but he's still shivering.