"What, tap them for mage-energy? I - hmm - maybe I could teach them to do concert-work, like mages and Healers can. It didn't occur to me before." 

"It's a different kind of magic, and using ours doesn't make us fall over exhausted, but there are lots of elementals around if that could help."

"Maybe. I can use nodes, they exist around here too, but - I still need the energy to control them, so it doesn't help with how tired I am at the end of the day." 

"...how does that work? If I tap an elemental then... it's like pouring water out of a jug, the water all makes it to wherever I'm pouring it."

"Maybe it's different because elementals are people too and they're doing some of the directing it? Heartstones can be more that way - they're a magic thing we have, they hold a lot of energy but are also a bit intelligent in their own right. But node-energy is just like - a waterfall, or a kettle of water under a lot of pressure, or something. It's not controlled, so the mage needs to do a lot of work to make it flow evenly into a spell instead of, I don't know, exploding something at random." 

"I don't think it's that the elementals are helping out, considering."

"You know, fair." Jisa yawns again. "All right, I'd better sleep. I can go with Enara and try Gating her back tomorrow, see if she can get together some people for us." 

"Okay. Is there anything else she needs to know for the people on that end to decide who to send?"

"Not that I can think of right now? Er, I guess we should decide how many people we can realistically hide in the woods, obviously we can't fit more in your dorm room." 

"We really can't. But the woods are probably fairly safe as long as they go out far enough that they won't be running into children playing, and they keep an ear out for random mushroom-gatherers and woodcutters."

"Also they'll have Companions, who all have Thoughtsensing - er, you can use that to feel people coming even if you're not reading their minds at all." 

"I imagine that would help, yes. Uh, very close to the city there are probably no wild elementals left. But - if there were any -

- they'd have stayed that way by killing anybody who got close."

"...That makes sense. The wild one I met right after I arrived tried to kill me when I talked to it, which was so confusing at the time but now I get it." 

"Yeah. I wish you'd had a better introduction."

"Mmm."

Jisa can't think of anything else to say, so she smiles tiredly at Maurabel and settles herself under the bed again. 

Maurabel goes about her business. Penumbra and Wood wait around.

Jisa sleeps. 

Since she went to bed early and also slept a bunch of the afternoon, she wakes up well before dawn. This is kind of good, though, since she's supposed to be Gating Enara at dawn. She rolls out from under the bed and stands up as quietly as she can, using a tiny mage-light so as not to trip. 

Penumbra's awake. The shadows thrown by the mage-light flicker as she notices. She doesn't say anything.

Jisa gives her a little wave, holds eye contact and then reaches out with a very tentative Mindtouch. Maybe it won't startle her so much, that way. :I'm going to meet my Companion and Gate her back. So she can bring more people to help us: 

Penumbra nods.

:Can you tell Maurabel where I've gone when she wakes up?: Jisa adds, and slips out. 

Once she's outside, she extends her Thoughtsensing a little, enough to sense if anyone tries to sneak up on her, and creeps toward the edge of the city. 

Nobody tries to sneak up on her, though people are starting to mill around. Some have been up for hours already.

Huh. She wonders if it's usual for people to be up that early, or whether it's somehow to do with their suspicions about the 'foreign mage'. Either way she would rather not be conspicuous, so at one point when she's not in sight of anyone, she quickly illusions herself. It's easy to do in dim light like this. 

She withholds from reading people's minds about whether they're usually awake at this time, and keeps heading for the edge of the city. 

The woods are as woodsy as ever.

Enara slips out to meet her, nuzzles her ear. :I found a nice meadow to graze and sleep in, but I missed you: