There's no effect. There is, however, another sound, and James reacts to this one, too.

"Heard that one too. It's not some kind of hex, so I'm more than a little confused."

"...this noise actually reminds me of something. Remember that lightning humanoid I was fighting when we met?"

"Oh. Yes, this is very like that, isn't it. Strange."

He reaches behind his neck. "Taimi? Can you hear me?" Silence. "Still too much interference. Guess we'll just have to figure this out on our own. Do you think you can grab samples of incorporeal magical anomalies?"

"Uh. Maybe? It depends on what the incorporeal magical anomaly is made out of. I can do some different basic enchantments on some vials to cast a wide proverbial net. Proper equipment for the purposes of catching incorporeal magical anomalies would be leagues better, but crappy enchanted vials could work in a pinch. What with how we're away from waypoints and under a time crunch."

"Yeah. Do you want some preparation time?"

She shakes her head. "I'll enchant and walk at the same time. These won't be enchantments that are any good? No fancy materials to hold anything down, so the enchantments will fade to nothingness within the month at best. If we catch anything, we'll need to transfer the samples to something more permanent."

He nods. "Onwards, then."

Another sound he doesn't react to.

"Sound," she relays, not looking up from her bag as she retrieves the vials. "We should probably keep track of who hears what when, see if there's some kind of pattern to it."

"Good plan. Same direction still?"

"Yeah. Thataway," she adds, pointing with a vial. Okay, what minor enchantments would be good for maximizing her chances of potentially catching bits of some kind of unknown entity? Hmm...

"When I'm done enchanting this," she says as she begins enchanting, "I'm going to hand the vial to you so you can try to grab the sample while I enchant something else. There will be no trick to it, just waft the opening of the vial through the thing and see if it catches anything."

"Roger that."

He keeps walking and calling out whenever he hears thunderclaps. They sometimes coincide with Vetareh's, but most of the time they do not.

That's interesting, though she doesn't really have the brainspace to try and figure out what that means right now. Her attention is kind of spread a bit thin. She similarly calls out when she hears the thunderclaps, trailing along after him and trying industriously not to trip over stray rocks while enchanting and walking at the same time. For the most part, she succeeds. Soon enough, she offers James the very first enchanted vial of experimental maybe-it'll-catch-a-thing. It will be up to him to flail around like a crazy person with the vial.

There doesn't seem to be a pattern in the noises, except for how they're becoming more frequent over time.

But also, as they walk, it starts becoming clear that James's and Vetareh's noises are coming from different locations even if in the same general direction.

Vetareh pauses between vial enchantments to think about this.

"So, the sounds are coming from different locations, and we're not hearing the noises at the same time. I'm not sensing anything around us magically, but what if—I don't know. Little wisps of the anomaly thing attached itself to both of us when it died? Or something?"

"...hmm. But then why would the sounds have locations? Should they not be merely around us?"

"Tricks of the mind? Drawn to us but not precisely at us? The Fire Islands are nowhere near the bloodstone explosion epicenter, anyway. So if it's here, it's probably associated with us somehow. Maybe. Probably. I'm not sure; I'm just really just guessing. But I'm starting to think that this will be a tricky enough problem to solve that we need to make sure the islands don't explode first, then go to Taimi for backup and study and proper research equipment."

"The sounds are still mostly north from here and I can't see the start of the trail up the volcano yet, it might be worth making the detour anyway. I think we're getting close to whatever it is."

She considers this, then nods. "Fair enough, since it's not really out of our way. Just, uh, if this is the start of some magical thunderclapping anomaly hunt, I don't want to get too caught up in it and then explode."

"Let us definitely not explode," he agrees. "Anomaly hunts come after ensuring the island will remain here."

"Yes. But we'll see if we can scoop the whatever-it-is into my hack job enchanted vials on the way, because that sounds like an efficient problem solving trip if we can pull it off. Speaking of, back to enchanting, excuse me."

He grins at her and continues making his way to the sound's origin.

Eventually they're close enough to the two different sounds' locations that their paths diverge. From their strength, it's likely their origins are within sight of each other, if not quick running reach. "Should we go to mine first then yours?"

"Yeah. You're more mobile than I am and will have a better chance if it turns into some kind of chase." She transfers the rest of the enchanted vials to him; they all feel subtly different, magically speaking. Proper research equipment would cover all of these magic types (and probably a few more) with one device, but they do not have proper research equipment. They'll just have to see if any of these hack jobs can manage to catch and contain anything at all.

He accepts the vials with a raised eyebrow. "I'm more mobile than you," he says with a slight tug to the right corner of his lips.