They're somewhere else.

It's cold. Bitterly cold. Snow swirls all around them. There are other features of the new landscape beyond blinding whiteness and cold cold cold, but they might take a minute to become obvious.

She hadn't had time to figure out what to say to Genea, and the generic 'watch out' seemed like it wouldn't be helpful at all, so she hadn't said that.

This means that Genea's first awareness of the situation is an instant of body language and then being - here.

It's freezing. She's never felt such cold in her life - the north of Southern Crossing gets cold enough in winter for a sprinkling of snow sometimes (she's never seen this much snow before either, but she doesn't think of that first.)

Warmth. Warmth warmth warmth. Non-mages die if it's too cold, don't they (the north of Tscher has considerably harsher winters than that of Southern Crossing.) Not this fast though, right, she just needs a moment - if she doesn't immediately get something she'll fall back on fire but she thinks she can do better -

Figuring it out like she's doing the wards would take a bit more, but if she just - 

Aye goes suddenly hot (or maybe just making heat out of herself, like some odd version of throwing fire without the fire?). Like some kind of mage furnace, heating the air around her. Enough to chase back the cold, let her breathe alright again. She does that.

"Are you alright? I mean, are you - not dying of cold, right? Or - anything else?"

"I'm fine. If that's what the being warm's about it's, um, working. 

...what is - happening?"

"We seem to have walked into something? Or, something seemed to appear where we were walking. I was looking out I promise - no idea what it was. Or what it did.

Except for the being somewhere else part, I think it did that.

Assuming we are somewhere else and this didn't just happen to where we just were. Think it's the somewhere else, though." She puts power into wards again, tries to think of more wards she might not have thought of and then do those. And also looks around.

She also does the last of those.

They are on a hill near the ocean. There is a mountain to the left, a wide beach leading to a dark ocean, illuminated by moonlight, to the right. What isn't covered in snow is barren rock or ice.

Except for the ragtag fleet of boats festooned with lights in the bay, a few miles down the hill. It's hard to make out details but the boats all seem to be loaded down with people. The ones nearest the beach have run up against the ice and people are trying to get out safely and work up the beach, carrying lanterns and backpacks. They're all bundled up in heavy coats. Some of them are children.

She has seen snow and ice before, but not this much or like this. She hasn't seen ocean before at all. She stares. 

"Well. Without all that water if it weren't 'Settlers, part II', my best guess would be north Tscher - or north Kashjar I guess, maybe they don't have wards against whatever-that-was either. Don't think Kashjar's enormous water thing is north enough either, though, come to think. So - Settlers part II? Maybe.

I'm assuming here by the way that 'people disappear and show up somewhere with a lot of snow and enormous water and then they come right back soon' isn't something where there's stories all over Southern Crossing about it and I just missed them."

She's focusing mostly on the people now. She shakes her head.

"If they - didn't come back, though -."

"Same from ours. Even mages - I mean, no one's missing me, people go off if they want to - even if someone says they'll show up somewhere no one's going to think much of it if they don't. 

If they happen a bunch you'd think someone'd catch them scrying, but if they're scry-proof and no one knew they were around to notice that missing -"

Still looking at the people. "They might not even have mages."

"Or might have something different - no reason to think we're where the Settlers came from."

She calls up water, stretches out a screen. Summons up the location of the people, viewed as though from closer up now. 

They're shouting to each other and helping each other disembark. It's proving difficult without a proper dock - their tools do things like lift big crates or give off light. They're building ramps across the ice. A small group is looking at a map, held carefully sheltered against the wind, and then points and start walking inland.

There are a lot of boats. A trail of lights on the boat-prows, a dozen near the shore and more stretching off towards the horizon until they become indistinct. Hundreds of people, at least. The boats are made of metal, covered in ice, and seem - poorly maintained, ramshackle, not designed for this.

"On one hand I kind of want to go see if I can help. On the other hand they might try to kill us. Doesn't look like they're doing anything magic right now, but that doesn't mean they don't have something for trying to kill us."

"Going to be true of anyone we see."

"True!

I can try to make something to keep you warm here and all that if you'd rather I try it alone first?"

She looks around, rather warily. "I think I'd be safer with you. Don't know if they have something like Beasts here, or -"

"Alright! I'll keep you hidden for a bit then, assuming that works here, if you don't mind. Also keep myself hidden for a bit while I try to grab some language."

She doesn't mind.

Then - they are definitely not here to hurt anyone and there is no need to pay attention to them everyone can just ignore them for a bit, just don't pay any attention to them -

And she teleports them within shouting distance.

Nobody notices them! They continue unloading things and people onto the icy beach. Strange metal tools, packages of wood and cloth. They don't have much supplies, though. The group heading inland gathers more people and sets a moderate hiking pace. About thirty adults and a few older children and teenagers. They talk to each other in low voices, sounding hopeful and determined. They hammer a wooden stake with an arrow pointing inland, a trail sign, into the ice a few hundred meters up the beach before continuing on.