"Could sit here for a bit. But we probably don't need all of us, at least."

"—I wonder if we could just teleport or something."

"… That sounds potentially dangerous depending on if we word it badly?"

"Yeah I'm just lazy," he shrugs. "I guess we go back..."

Theo shrugs. "I can meditate from home, and last time it was within range for me to find it, so it shouldn't be too far out, if I just keep trying to catch it."

"Yeah, pretty much."

Shrug.

Well, back they go, then.

Theo meditates a couple of times on the way to make sure it doesn't suddenly reappear!

Nah.

He reports as such.

"Kero, do cards just... go inactive like that?"

"Not usually."

"Do you know of any particular cases where they would…?"

"Only if they weren't free... Cards that are sealed aren't detectable when they're not being used."

"… So someone else maybe caught it, right."

"Wait, but... Wouldn't you be able to notice them, meditating?"

"… Probably?" Pause. "But I didn't notice that dad was magical for a while – and now he's not – and so maybe, like, it's got a range based on how powerful the magic is. … Or something."

"And while that's possible and maybe likely, we should still probably think about what happened if it wasn't just captured."

"What alternative is there?"

"Card mysteriously stopped of its own accord? Except they don't do that, Kero said, so – I dunno? Not unless he's wrong about that?" Pause. "You have to be magical to catch cards, right?"

"Catch, yeah. Even see some."

"So it can't just be some stealthy non-magical person catching them for some reason, it'd be it stopped of its own accord, which doesn't happen, or got taken by someone – or, could it be damaged somehow? Accidentally knocked something onto itself and got knocked unconscious-or-whatever?"

"Cards can't do that."

"So the options here are – unprecedented stopping, which, could happen but would be unprecedented? Or being captured by someone, who then took it away." Pause. "What about if – could someone have captured it, then got it to do this for, like, however long, while not actually being around? Like, give it commands to follow without them actually being present?"