The senior Karathani in the barracks speaks to Kolath on the communication device as they make their way to the barracks.

"The detector has gone quiet", he says, "The legion are combing the place looking of rogue wizard. What are the Academy of the Mind planning to do?".

Kolath


"They are conducting their own investigation, expanded somewhat due to our input," he said, glancing briefly at Hollis when he said our.

"One of their people is accompanying us to assist with our part of the investigation."

<Marlith>

He bowed in response to the off handed introduction.

Hollis

"It is good to be wanted, eh?" Hollis said, with a mischievous grin.

Kolath


He glanced over and down at Hollis, one eyebrow arched slightly and the merest hint of an answering grin on his normally stern expression.

"It depends, one would suppose, upon who wants you and for what."

Hollis

"I meant wanted for your skills ... or your company," Hollis replied, with an insouciant grin. "Not wanted, dead or alive.

"I suppose if no one wanted you for anything, you might consider the latter."

They're met at the gates of the barracks by both Kavarluis and Lavuyl of The Karazthan.

"Our detector went off", says Lavuyl, "Active for half a minute, then went silent. I believe The Academy can do a read on it and determine the individual responsible from that imprinted on the machine"

"The prisoner remains in his cell", says Kavarluis, "No evidence of psychokinetic ability; no magical melting of bars or guards".

Kolath


He nodded his acknowledgment of the information update and turned to Marlith.

"Would you like to see the prisoner now?"

<Marlith>

He blinked at the question. People of power did not ask his opinion, let alone what he thought someone should do. He regained his composure, or at least tried to, before replying.

"That seems like a reasonable next step", he suggested, hoping that it was the right answer.

Hollis

"I'll stay out of your way," Hollis whispered to Marlith. "But if you get in trouble, sing out and I'll do whatever I can to help you."

She squeezed his arm. "Good luck, and thanks for helping. You're a pretty brave guy."

<Marlith>

Her 'reassurance' was more the opposite. He had not been to worried about the safety issue until she brought it up. =Was= there something He should be worried about? A moment ago he hadn't thought so.

He gave her a somewhat forced looking smile and a tentative nod, but his body language had drooped a bit as if he was getting ready to face a firing squad.

Kolath


"Good then," he said with a curt nod and gestured for the other two to follow him as he headed for the holding cell.

<Marlith>

He was sure that it was too late to turn and run. So instead he turned and followed Kolath.

Hollis

Hollis brought up the rear, whistling softly, pleased with herself for trying to reassure the volatile Marlith.

He was always as nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rockers, so she undoubtedly had given him new-found confidence.

He didn't really *look* any more self-assured, however. Maybe it was genetic.

Kolath


He paused outside Guruinath's cell and vouched for Marlith and Hollis.

Guruinath looks at them morosely.

Without warning, the detector device begins squawking. The air in the cell starts to shimmer.

Then there's a sound like a large thunderclap, and Guruinath is gone. Disappeared right in front of Kolath, Marlith and Hollis' eyes.

All that's left is an empty cell smelling of ozone.

Kolath


The Kandar Legionnaire's eyebrows moved up in amazement as his jaw moved in the opposite direction. After a moment, he turned to Hollis and Marlith.

"How did he do that and why didn't one of you stop it?"

<Marlith>

He blinked, not really sure what he had just seen. "Stop what? =I= have no more idea what happened than you apparently do", he began, then abruptly closed his mouth as his survival instincts began to opperate. He belatedly added, "Sir", and bowed his head and considered what he had seen.

He shuffled over to the detector and began to check the readings to see if there was anything that would help figure out what had just happened.

Hollis

"Looks like we have a rogue Academic on the loose," Hollis said. "Unless Guruinath's people have figured out how to duplicate what Academy mind wizards can do with a gadget.

"And stopping that is not something I could ever do. I could grab him and hold on if someone sought to carry him off physically, but this ..."

She shrugged. "It's over my head. Way over."

Kolath


"Well," he said scowling, his voice taut, "is there any way to track where he went?"

<Marlith>

"I don't know yet, Sir. I hope to get some indication from the monitoring device", he said returning his attention to the device.

Hollis

"Scary thing is, who at the Academy is in on this? We go back and complain, maybe we end up telling the wrong people. Maybe they sent Marlith here because he wouldn't have been able to stop Guruinath from leaving ... no insult intended, of course, none of us expected this."

Kolath


He looked from one of his companions to the other, still scowling. Kolath much preferred things to be straightforward with no complications of magic and or mind manipulations. He grunted softly as it occurred to him that he seldom got what he wanted in these areas.

"Well, anyway, this needs to be reported immediately. At least to the Legion."

Hollis

Hollis turned on their new associate. "Marlith. IS there someone at your place who would gain by supporting a crazy man like Guruinath? Someone who seeks to overturn the academy and gain from the chaos that ensues?"

<Marlith>

He looked up briefly from his examinations, "I should report to my superior as well. And Mistress Gurnyla might have a better understanding of who would be able to accomplish this feat."

Hollis

Hollis made a face. "Are you sure she is not involved? I never got that feeling around her when we met previously, but you might know your people better than I."

Kolath


While the other two were talking, the Kandar Legionnaire stepped out into the corridor and informed the guard of what had just happened.

"Make sure the duty officer is informed of this," he finished and then stepped back into the cell area.

<Marlith>

It was such an unthinkable question that it took Marlith several seconds to realize what Hollis was suggesting. He could not form the words to begin to explain all the reasons why that was such an absurd suggestion. So he simply shook his head and went back to his analysis of the monitoring device.

Hollis

"I'll take that as a 'no comment'," Hollis said. "Kolath. I think Marlith here cannot imagine any situation where an Academy wiz would turn on his own people and join up with Guruinath and his group, whether it is the full Karazthan or just some disaffected or power-hungry members.

"Me, I would have agree with his disbelief until recently. Now I'm seeing too many weird things to write any possibility off. But what do we do about it? I can try to sneak into the Karazthan and look for Guruinath, but he may not go back there and besides, I don't know if I could pull that one off.

"I can go back to the Academy and talk to what's her name, the one that sent Marlith along, but what if she's in on it? How can we tell?"

Kolath


His frown grew even more severe and he paused a moment before replying.

"I have no reason to suspect Gurnyla, but, then again, I have no proof that she is not involved."

He turned to the other man.

"What say you, Marlith."

<Marlith>

He had tried to ignore the discussions about Gurnyla. He really couldn't expect Hollis to know any better. And now apparently Kolath had spent so much time with Hollis that he was doubting his own better instincts.

"Grunyla would never condone anything like ... let alone be involved in such evils", he said with conviction.

Hollis

Hollis shrugged. "Hey, up until we saw Guruinath vanish, I wouldn't have thought so, either. But *someone* did that ... and it wasn't me or you or Kolath. So how can we know who to trust?"

Kolath


While he awaited the approach of the duty officer, the Kandar Legionnaire paced the cell, wishing for something that he could do that might make a decisive difference.

He paused for a moment and his gaze refocused on Marlith.

"Explain to us the reason for your conviction concerning Gurnyla."

<Marlith>

He looked up, a deer in the headlights sort of expression on his face. "There isn't any one 'thing' to point to Sir", he began. "But I have been working with her for a very long time and there are things you just ... sort of ... 'know' about someone that you have spent so much time working with."

Kolath


He pursed his lips slightly in thought for a moment and then nodded.

"Then, barring subsequent information to the contrary, I will accept your judgment."

Marlith has a passing familiarity with the device; although it's of Karazthan manufacture, he knows a little of the principles of how it works. It's really only an alarm device, which triggers when there's a disturbance in the ambient psionic background of the area.

But every psionic in Kalyr has a unique mental signature, and one sufficiently skilled in The Way of Vision can can detect traces of it on anything powers have been used on; just like a fingerprint in the dust at the scene of a burglary.

It's not the first time Kolath has known of people vanishing; the last time involved psionic amplification machinery on board a ship anchored in the river. That ship now lies on the bottom of the river, sunk by artillery fire on Kolath's command.

<Marlith>

He acknowledged Kolath's 'grudging acceptance' of reality with a respectful bow of his head. Since he had finished his evaluation, he offered his assessment.

"It might be possible for someone with skill in the Way of Vision to tell something", he offers once he had finished his examination. "I would suggest that the chair and the detector be examined and it might be best done in place so as to minimize any disturbance to the residual energy signatures. And the sooner the better. If you do not have someone on call, we could check with Mistress Grunyla. I am sure that she could find someone sufficiently sensitive."

Hollis

It still seemed like letting the zughru clean your flame lances to Hollis, but there wasn't a better option, to tell the truth. She just decided to bite her knuckle and not scream.

Marlith knows that, despite claims to the contrary, not every skilled psionic in the city is a member of the Academy of the Mind. There are a few underground 'independents' who operate below the Academy's radar. And the temples seem to attract those who believe their abilities are gifts from The Guardians.

He doesn't have many contacts at the temples, but he does know the young human priest of Zardor, by the name of Jorlak. He was involved with searching the library for references during the episode with the Drarth.

Kolath


"Then can you get word to Gurnyla?" He turned to Hollis.

"And do you know any other... talents we could contact." A glance back at Marlith.

"Or you, for that matter."

"Not really," Hollis said. "I would just go to the Academy and make myself a nuisance until Gurnyla finally came out to talk to me, just so I'd leave them alone."

She turned to Marlith. "How about you? There are plenty of wild cards outside the Academy, or so I have been told. You know anyone we can use?"

<Marlith>

"Not directly", he admitted. "But there was a human priest that has spent a lot of time researching in the library and he proved himself to be pretty useful during the incident with the Drath. He is a priest Zardor named Jorloc?", his face scrunched up as he tried to recall, "... no that isn't it ... Jor=lak=", that it his name", he said with a smile.

Kolath


His gaze was suddenly distant, unfocused, as he pondered over the name Marlith mentioned. Kolath had heard that name before, but, for the moment, he couldn't quite...

The restaurant. His eyes widened and their focus sharpened.

"I think I met this priest... at the restaurant just before it was bombed."

<Marlith>

There were just too many terrible things going on. He longed for the simple peace and quiet of the library.

Hollis

"Where do we find this Jorlak character?" Hollis asked.

<Marlith>

"I would suggest starting at the temple. If he is not there, they should know where his is."

Kolath


"Then let us head for the temple."

Kolath was not as much a man of action as he once was, back before his head injury, but he still felt better doing something rather than... philosophizing. He turned to leave the room.

"I'll just let the guard officer know where they can reach me if necessary."

Hollis was happy to follow along. At least they were going somewhere.

<Marlith>

Since he had not been explicitly included in the 'we', he was quite happy to remain behind, and maybe even get back to his normal life.

Kolath


He advised the guard at the door where he was headed and then glanced back at the other man.

"You are coming, are you not? After all, it was your idea."

<Marlith>

He had only mentioned someone that might be of help to them. He had not suggested he accompany. But it was pretty clear what was expected.

With an inward sigh, he turned to follow, wondering what he had gotten himself into now. He would have to remember to keep his mouth shut in the future.