Meanwhile, not far away: 

Karis is still hugging her newly-arrived Suncat and sobbing. She's trying to get herself back under control, but it's been such an incredibly awful few months and it's very, very hard. 

:Karis: A wash of reassurance and affection and pride, then a soft mental prod. :Karis. Listen to me: 

She sniffles. Takes a forced deep breath. "What." 

:I am so sorry. I know how hard this is, but - I think there is something that your Sunlord needs you to do. Now: 

(Why her. Why now?) 

Karis nods. Gulps. Wipes her face with her sleeve. "All right. I am ready. Where?" 

:You need to speak with Herald-Mage Vanyel. Follow me: 

Jisa sits on the floor of Vanyel's room while he sleeps peacefully - kept in that state by a gentle push of Empathy, nudging aside the pain and bad dreams that try to wake him - and leafs through the package. She might be only almost-seven years old but she taught herself to read when she was four and she's very good at it. 

(She has her fledgling Thoughtsensing extended to its limits, because she is definitely doing something naughty right now and doesn't want to get caught.) 

Oooh! What's that? Some sort of magical artifact? Except it doesn't look like one she's ever seen, before... 

Jisa riffles through the written instructions and manages to find the manual for the phone that Cam left. She gets to work on it. 

Savil finally reaches the Web-focus room, flops down on the bench, and spends a moment catching her breath. Damn it but she's way too old for this. 

Once her heart isn't hammering quite so hard in her chest, she reaches for the quartz focus - with her mind, not her hands - and into the Web. 

...Goddamnit. 

Savil surfaces. Tries to reach for Tran - fails - remembers that she's behind shields. Which technically she's keyed to, but she didn't get enough sleep last night and she's not in the mood to push through that resistance. 

She drags herself to her feet and slips out of the room. :Tran? False alarm. Lightning strike, looks like. Are you with Van yet?: 

:Hmmmmwhat? ...No, sorry, still with Randi. I can head over now?: 

:Thank you, but I guess I might as well go myself: 

Savil leans on the doorframe for a moment, rubbing her lower back, and then heads back toward her nephew's bedroom. 

Where Jisa is still attentively reading the directions on how to use the phone to talk to Cam - oooh, she likes Cam, and he had to go away and he hasn't played with her at all - probably because he's very busy, just like all of her other grownups - but maybe if she manages to call him using his UNBELIEVABLY COOL artifact, she can impress him with how clever she is and he'll want to come play with her again... 

Karis reaches the outer door to the Heralds' wing. 

She feels...numb, mostly. Far away from everything. 

Nobody is nearby to overhear them. "Sola?" she murmurs. "Do you know what my - our - what the Sunlord wishes me to say to him?" 

Sola's shoulder twitches, uneasily. :- No. Which I suppose means that you ought...follow your conscience, here: 

...That doesn't feel helpful at ALL but what is she supposed to do. Karis keeps walking. 

...Okay. Jisa is pretty sure that she understands how the 'phone' works now, and knows what she has to do to talk to Cam. 

She gives a little extra Empathy-push to make sure Vanyel stays asleep, and then presses the buttons indicated. 

Does this work? 

The phone lights up! It displays a row of three dots, slightly animated, and then resolves onto an image of Cam's face, where he is busying himself in the bio lab with various test tubes. "Hi V- Jisa, hello, what's up?"

"Hi Cam! I miss you! I wanted to–" 

(a brief pause) 

"- sorry someone's coming, I need to - canyoustayquiet -" 

Jisa shoves the armful of loose papers back into the bag they came in, dives under the bed, and holds her breath, the phone buried under her arm. 

Okay, she didn't seem to be having an emergency before, so... perhaps she's just playing hide and seek. He does science, glancing at the dark screen now and then.

The dark screen continues not to show anything, but there are footsteps - a knock - 

"Herald Vanyel?" The voice is muffled but recognizable as belonging to Karis. 

Vanyel drags himself up from the depths of sleep. "Hnng– oh, sorry, be right there -" 

More footsteps. 

A door creaks open. 

"...Oh. Karis. Er, what is it -?" 

Karis' current problem is that she still doesn't have any idea what to say! She freezes for an instant. "I, er -" 

MY DAUGHTER.

DO YOU TRUST ME? 

The voice echoes in her head, though somehow Karis knows it's not audible to anyone else. 

...Does she? After everything? 

What choice does she have. 

I trust you, my Lord, she thinks, and - relaxes, tries to open herself, the way she remembers from her prayers - 

Jisa is being very very naughty right now, and has all of her Sight open, and - aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah–

"Cam!" she hisses into her own armpit. "Cam something's wrong can you help–"