"...All right, I think we have to talk to her. But we're going in all the way under illusion, and we'll do an osanwë-barrier the second he bounces from her to someone else–" She pats Eren's neck. "And we've got to be fast. In and out." 

"...All right. Rolan, you watch Maitimo like a hawk...let's go..."

They start easing into the village, cautious, invisible. Stef is pretty sure this is a trap of some kind, but - well, they do in fact need to know what the trap does. He could back off, send someone else instead, but one, he has a suspicion the trap won't spring for anyone but him, now, and two, he's got an Adept mage and two Companions with him and they're the people who have the best chance of grabbing said trap and holding it open while they pry out everything it knows. To mix metaphors a little. 

A kid toddles along the river bank, playing a flute. 

Maitimo switches back and forth around the people he's paying attention to. He's got a routine; he goes between them in a certain order. He is enjoying the concert. He pauses to give himself horrible torturous pain; drops the observing-people for a little bit.

:...Ugh that's disturbing. Rolan, you don't need to relay straight to me, give me the highlights: Jisa has switched to Mindspeech to avoid any sound. :Let's move now: 

They slide into the shadow of the pretty stained-glass tower. Still under illusion. Jisa casts a sound-barrier. Then an osanwë barrier too.

"Hello?" she calls out, in Quenya. "We need to talk to you." 

The woman's husband answers the door. He has long blonde hair and is wearing white; he blinks at them in confusion. "Yes?"

:Rolan, do we have line of sight with– No? Good: She drops the illusion. 

Stef speaks, without dismounting; they might want to move fast, given the givens, and the barrier doesn't block Thoughtsensing, Rolan can watch Maitimo through it just fine. "Your wife thought she saw somebody disappear from a field recently. We need to ask you some questions about that." 

He looks baffled, and slightly affronted. Meldë, these humans want to talk to you.

Humans? 

Well, I don't know what else they could possibly be! They're not Quendi and one of them did something horrible to her hair. 

I will be down as soon as I've finished mending this. 

"Well, come in," he says politely, hoping that they won't, "and have some tea."

"We can wait here. It is somewhat urgent." He gives Jisa a meaningful look. 

:Yes, I'm on it, checking for compulsions: Are there any? 

"I have to insist," he says, because it'd be rude to only offer once; if Stef declines again then it'll be fine. "Meldë is busy but will be down shortly, I have no doubt."

No signs of magical tampering with either of these peoples' heads.

"No, really, it's fine." Jisa tries to smile reassuringly. "...Have you seen anything suspicious around town? Including any sign of humans, like us." 

"I didn't even see you until you were on my doorstep! Meldë thought she saw someone standing in the field the other day, who vanished just like so when she asked him if she could help him. She showed me, I can show you -"

He bounces the osanwë sense-memory of the field outside their house. The person is standing quite far away, though not quite far enough it could just be an odd shadow cast on the field.

Stef thanks her. Asks some more questions. When Meldë comes out he greets her politely. Asks about the sighting - asks some more, roundabout questions, he's not going to come out and say that they're worried about Maitimo doing something evil, and they don't have a Herald for a Truth Spell anyway, but Jisa is a Thoughtsenser too and can read both of their minds while they talk.

And Rolan watches Maitimo's thoughts. As soon as he suspects anything, if they're not making progress, they're out of here. 

He stops torturing himself. Goes back to his rotation. - notices her missing from it. 

Considers, for a second, whether there's any other explanation - well, it seems likely enough to be worth it -

- suddenly dedicates ALL OF HIS ATTENTION to persuading a flock of birds to knock over a lantern.

"–Thank you very much, that was extremely useful, pleasure to meet both of you we ought to be going," Stef says as fast as he can and still have it be reasonably polite, and they canter out of the tower's shadow - don't need to worry about avoiding Maitimo's 'eyes' since he's inexplicably intently talking to birds, why, what's he doing, "Rolan can you tell where those goddamned birds are–"

Jisa re-illusions them and holds the scrying artifact close to her chest even as the Companions break into a full gallop, headed out of town. She lifts her mental 'eye' high in the air. Fire, fire he's trying to start a fire - is there any sign of one... What's it for, a small fire isn't going to stop them, Maitimo shouldn't have been able to arrange for anything very flammable like oil to be nearby but goddamnit it she wouldn't put it past him...

The birds are flocking the lantern. The lantern is atop a stack of boxes, neatly labelled in Quenya. 

The boxes are lined up in a storeroom beside the cute little stone dam at the entrance to this village. 

The cute little stone dam explodes. 

Maitimo pulls back to look for other eyes he can look through.

He's not going to see them because they're not currently visible.

Need to warn the village... Rolan is busy and besides which Jisa badly doesn't want Maitimo to know the Companions were here. He can probably guess she was here, or Van, it was the osanwë barrier that tripped the trap - though it'd have closed on anyone important who came to question that woman, probably, Maitimo was watching, stupid, STUPID of them–

:DAM'S BREAKING!: she Broadsends to everyone within the radius of the village. :RUN! FIND HIGHER GROUND!: She has no idea yet if that's going to help - focus - the Companion will get them as far as they can as fast as they can, she needs to try to do something about this entire village of people that Maitimo is willing to take out along with them because of course he is. 

Scrying: how fast is the water moving how much of it what angle what direction what channels will it follow–

The water is moving fast, through the hole where the dam used to be, down into the river valley and up its sides. There is an accompanying roar. 

He leans his head against his mother's shoulder and sings along, quietly, to the concert.

Jisa bounces the scrying-image to Eren and Rolan, lets the Companions take care of directing them on the path that best avoids the flow while reaching for higher ground. The people in the village do not have magic horses which can reach a hundred miles an hour on a brief sprint over clear ground. 

She can't block all of that with a barrier and it's stupid to try. Honestly it's stupid to try anything if it comes at the cost of protecting themselves. But she can't Gate, stupid Valar, they have to run for it and she might as well at least try to save the village too–

Can she steer it? Jisa rotates her scrying-point, the water's moving fast but - can she make a partial wall at least, is there space to direct most of it to one side or another, so the remainder of the flood isn't enough to actually drown everyone? 

She could do a partial wall! It's not clear how much water will make it over it but it'll definitely be less.

Jisa plunks down a mage-barrier, ten feet high to start, she can't do the entire length of the valley but she can do a quarter-mile - it's eating her reserves fast but what's she got to save that for, a Gate she can't do anyway - she feels for nearby artifacts to yank from - checks, where's the water relative to the Companions–