"Great, thank you," she says, repressing a sigh. Hasn't she had enough shadow bullshit in her life. No? She gets to go to the Plane of Shadows now, too? Hooray. "Get yourselves somewhere safe, maybe inform some people in charge that Red Wizards attacked you and that we're handling them."

This is to cover for Safiya more than herself. Frankly, she expects she'll be fine when the authorities inevitably show up. Safiya, on the other hand, might be mistaken for one of the attackers, what with also being a Red Wizard of Thay. Best to get the witnesses that can attest that Safiya helped defend against the scary wizard invaders out early, to control the narrative.

To the back! Where probably there won't be anyone except a creepy looking portal!

The actors flee, thanking them as they go.

There is indeed a creepy-looking portal. When they enter the room containing the creepy-looking portal, Safiya's face twists in pain again. "Something's - not right - I told them not now! Why didn't I - aaah!"

Oh, dear.

"Safiya, what's wrong? You look like you're in pain."

"There's this- ringing in my ears, and this- burning- my skin's burning! No, please don't!"

"... Okay, I'm not doing anything." She sheathes her rapier and holds up her empty hands, far away from spell components. "It's going to be all right." Probably. It's probably going to be all right.

Safiya calms down gradually. "I- I thought you were- oh, dear. I suppose I won't get away with the barrow excuse again."

Ciaveth's lip quirks. She doesn't say, 'You didn't get away with it the first time,' but it's probably apparent from her expression.

"If you'd rather not talk about it and just move on and focus on Lienna's unwanted Red Wizard guests, I understand. Not like I have any proverbial legs to stand on, there. But if that happens in the middle of battle, I might not be able to protect you."

"Yes... yes, you make a good point. I suppose I should start from the beginning. As long as I can remember, I've heard... voices, that are not quite my own. Though this is only the second time the voices have been accompanied by pain, like the time in the barrow. I keep hoping to find some logic to the whispers, but they just come and go without reason. They sound human... familiar, almost. Quite often, the voices are more of a distant haze. But sometimes, whole words come across. During my apprenticeship, I read from the wrong scroll and, not knowing what I was doing, nearly incinerated myself. Before I could finish the chant, a voice in my head cried out and broke my concentration. It saved my life."

"Familiar, hm. Could be some kind of permanent monitoring spell put on you, but - that doesn't explain the empathic element at all, does it. Well, I have no idea what it is, but I don't think you're insane." Or, well, she doesn't think she's unmanageably insane, anyway. Ciaveth doesn't really think of herself as perfectly sane anymore, really, so that's nothing to flinch at. "Since they were so well timed and appropriate. But pain's only come twice, in all your life?"

"Yes. Those incidents were also far more... intense... than usual. Typically I'll hear the voices as if they were across the room, but this time I almost got lost in it... I thought, for a moment, that the voice was my own."

"That sounds frightening. I'm sorry. And these two incidents happened on the same day, hm. How are the voices now compared to what they're usually like? Louder, softer, about the same?"

"...I hadn't thought to check... but... usually there are one to three voices talking over each other... and now there's just one."

She pauses.

"It could be a coincidence," she says, sounding slightly ill.

Ciaveth winces. "It... could be, yes. I. I suppose that if it isn't, then. It could only happen once more. Cold comfort. I'm. I'm so sorry."

She shakes her head, feeling a little sick herself. "Well. Shall we go? I have two castings of greater invisibility prepared, once we find the other wizards we can give them a proper ambush."

Going back to business seems like it'd be good for both of them right now, frankly.

Safiya smooths over her expression. "Yes, let's. This portal will lead to a sort of... inverted parallel of our own reality. Not everything is as it seems in the Shadow Plane. Still, if our wits are about us, we should have nothing to fear."

Safiya is explaining this not because she doesn't think Ciaveth knows this already, but because it is soothing for nerdy wizards to state things that they know out loud to sound like they have control over things. She knows this. She's like, a quarter of a proper wizard. She gets it. It's a little annoying, but she'll let it slide, considering the circumstances. Honestly, it's not nearly as annoying as what she had to put up with before.

She nods. "Should be exciting, I've never been to the Plane of Shadow before. Despite my copious practice with outsiders that come from there."

"Hopefully we won't run into any such denizens on this occasion. Just my schoolmates and their fiendish minions."

"Hopefully."

First! Buffs! They both get Protection From Evil and Fox's Cunning, and then Ciaveth gets Cat's Grace, and then Safiya gets Extended Greater Invisibility and Ciaveth gets the non extended version of Greater Invisibility, because she is not the squishiest squishy available and so should not get the fanciest invisibility. And then, through the portal! Quickly before the invisibility wears off!

There's a single Red Wizard in here (well, besides Safiya) and an erinyes.

Safiya casts Split Disintegrate. The wizard collapses into ash; the devil warps out of existence.

"I've been quite lucky today," Safiya muses. "People do sometimes resist that, you know."

"Careful, call attention to it any harder and the universe will conspire to make sure you're going to fizzle the next one entirely," says Ciaveth, and then no time to waste c'mon through the next room before the invisibility wears off...

In this room, there's a table. It's got straps on it, to hold down someone's arms and legs, and it's soaked with still-tacky blood.

Perhaps it looks familiar?

NOPE SURE DOESN'T RING ANY BELLS THIS HALF ELF IS GOING TO KEEP WALKING BECAUSE GREATER INVISIBILITY ONLY LASTS SO LONG AND LINGERING ON TRAUMA CAN TAKE QUITE A BIT OF TIME, NEXT ROOM.

In this room, the shadowy equivalent of the Veil's main stage, there are two Red Wizards and two erinyes, standing around a burned skeleton. One of them flickers with magical protections.

"I thought I smelled incompetence," Safiya murmurs beside Ciaveth. "That's Khai Khmun, one of the most worthless piles of sputum ever to wear the red robes of Thay."

Ciaveth's invisibility wears off. The Red Wizard startles. "You- Araman warned me of you, monster! I want no trouble from you - run back through that portal, and I'll let you live."

Ciaveth huffs an annoyed breath. Of course, this is when the invisibility wears off. Well, Safiya has a bit longer, hopefully she can sneak to somewhere unexpected.

"Noted." She crosses her arms, and looks at the skeleton. "Lienna, I assume? You realize I had much more reason to talk to her than you did."

"Well, I was sent here by the great Araman, and with Lienna dead I've earned a promotion. It's a shame the old hag didn't put up much of a fight. She destroyed herself in a blaze of fire... must have known she couldn't best me. But when Safiya comes to investigate, I'll flay her. And I doubt she'll put up even as much of a fight as poor Lienna... or Nefris."

"Nefris?" She has a guess at who that could be, but she hopes she's wrong...