:Oh, so buildings five miles away, and loud things around up to fifteen miles away. But when you're distracted, only around two miles. Did I get that right?

That seems wise. We can stay here for now, and I can try going to the library myself or the food bank to see if they pay special attention to me. Maybe the food bank tomorrow, so I can try to get us a bunch of food, and then the library later or the next day. I'll cast a vigor spell beforehand so that I can run away if I need to. It makes me faster and gives me better endurance. You should stay at the edge of your range and listen closely, and run away if you hear anything bad's happening.

You're right! Computers are really good and useful!:

:Yeah, that all sounds good. Okay, I'll print the food bank map. Anything else before we go?:

Marina will put back the books and the CD and other sundries back to where she got them, or at least near them. She'd prefer that they leave as small a trace as possible. She'll gather up her notes and take a pen – it is such a good pen with an in-built ink reservoir!

"I can go now. I follow you."

Denice gathers up the printouts and waffles over taking a tote bag from the stack under the desk before settling on yes. :I don't want to accidentally drop any of our papers anywhere, some of them are important and it feels too much like leaving them a clue.: And then they can go, turning off the lights and locking the door behind themselves, and head back through the woods and along a few roads to the house Denice has picked out. She gets noticeably tenser as they go - it's getting closer to daytime and a few early risers are up and about and could see them - but they make it there without incident and before the sun has had time to do more than gently brighten one side of the sky.

Denice picks the lock on the back door, revealing an empty and unfurnished house. She suggests that they sleep next to the door they came in by, for the best chance of getting out without being seen if someone comes in through the front door.

That's very valid! She was thinking the same thing too.

Marina will follow. Denice's power continues to be super useful and good.

"That is smart." She really wishes she had antiglamor spells...but she does not. And she won't be able to rederive them – antiglamors are Tranquil.

She will lie down on the floor sleep. It's terribly uncomfortable, but she's tired. She will hold Denice in her arms, if she lets her.

It's not comfortable in the slightest but it does beat 'behind a dumpster' or 'under a bush', so Denice isn't complaining. She has no objections to snuggling up, either, though in such close quarters Marina might end up noticing that she has nightmares.

Poor girl. She will hold Denice tighter and stroke her side. Will that comfort her? She'll stop if she detects that it's making her more fearful.

A Tranquil ritual can banish nightmares, or more specifically, all dreams. She wonders whether it's possible to derive a Flowers ritual to banish nightmares. It would have to be a different mechanism. Probably one that fills your sleep with pleasant dreams such that there is no space for nightmares. It would be a very fun Flowers research project!

She falls asleep again contemplating how she might have approached it.

Petting her wakes her immediately, with a quiet gasp and tense stillness while she tries to figure out what's going on.

:I'm sorry. Did I wake you up? You were having nightmares and I was trying to soothe you.:

:Oh. That happens. Please don't touch me about it.:

:I apologize. I will no longer do it.:

She will return her arms to their previous positions.

She's too unsettled to go back to sleep immediately, but the cuddling is nice and she can listen to what the people in the nearby houses are up to, and eventually she drifts back off.

She wakes again with a start around midmorning, looking alarmed but not immediately inclined to bolt out the door.

Marina will stir, but not to full awareness – she was in the middle of a sleep cycle. Is something happening?

Denice murmurs something soothing and settles back down after a moment, so presumably not. (Someone's baby up the road pulled a pan out of a cupboard and the sound startled her, in fact.)

It seems that she's not going to be able to get back to sleep, though, so after a while of trying she pulls some of the printouts out of the tote bag, trying not to jostle Marina too much, and starts reading them.

Marina will be soothed, and will continue to sleep for another forty five minutes, after which she'll wake up in earnest.

:Good afternoon. Something that I should try doing, that I forgot to do yesterday, was try and see whether casting sensory wards would work here and be useful. Sensory wards, after being put down, let you sense things at that location as though you were there. You can attach any sense to a sensory ward, but sight and hearing are most common. The range is similar to yours – I can pick things up from my wards from up to ten miles away, but the acuity decreases the farther you go – but I have to place them there beforehand. Do you think it would be useful?

I have a permanent sensory ward on my house back in Kosofo so that I can check on things even when I'm out doing business.:

:That sounds really useful if it works with my hearing, yeah.:

:I can cast it on this house, but I'll need foci for it to work. Something spherical and smooth is best. And organic. Rocks or glass are inorganic and dissonant with Flowers. Something like wood, shell, horn, or pearl is best. Do you think there's anything around here that's like that? Or a seed, maybe. Are there any in the yard?

I can attune the sensory wards to you too – I've done it before for guests and my foster children. It's kind of elaborate though. It will take...half an hour to an hour depending on how quickly you can get the mental state for the ritual.:

:There are acorns, if that's spherical enough. In the woods behind the house a little ways.:

:Perhaps, if they're squat and round.:

She will go outside and carefully gather up a bunch of acorns, sorting them and picking the ones that look the most spherical after she's removed the cupule. 

She'll lay them out on the floor and kneel in front of them. Be My Eyes doesn't take a lot of energy, but it requires a fair bit of Control, and Control Marina has.

:I can attune the sensory wards to you, which will let you see through them if you want, but you'll have to participate in the ritual. If you do want to participate, I'll guide you through it.:

:Yeah, let's try it. Just for sound, not for sight, though.:

:Ah, sorry, these are sight wards. I can get materials for hearing wards too. Bones are resonant with sound, especially ear bones. Do you think there are any here?

I'll cast sight wards first, to see if warding works here the same way. I'm thinking yes, since my other spells and rituals do. If it works, I'll cast the hearing wards and include you. I wonder whether your enhanced hearing would work on the wards...on priors, I think not. It would be really cool if it did, though!:

:If animal bones work, yeah, there's some in the woods, but they're farther in and I don't want to go out during the day, I can get them tonight.:

:Do you think you can send to me where I can get them? You can send sensory information via Telepathy too, with practice. That way I can get them. It's best to do Flowers rituals near noon, because noon is resonant to Flowers. It will be harder to do it at night.:

Denice considers this. :I'm not sure I can send all the stuff I'd use to find them without hurting you.:

:Normally I'd offer to test it – I haven't experienced any negative side effects from using Telepathy to transmit sensory information, even one that's not accessible by mundane means, such as me receiving what Opens get from Clairvoyance. But...we don't have reliable access to healing, here, so it seems unwise to take the risk. I'll cast it tomorrow noon, then.

Do you want me to try going to the food bank today, while you listen? Actually, I should try learning food and request/question vocabulary first. Given that I won't be able to use Telepathy to talk to them without alarming them and exposing myself as a cape.: