“What the hell happened?” I ask, standing to go and look at the girl. I take her hand and feel for a pulse. ‘What the hell are you doing that for? You wouldn’t know a pulse if it leapt up and bit your nose.’

“I thought you said she would be safe.” Paolo is crowding around too, trying to see what is going on.

“She should have been.” Elara sounds confused and a little bit frightened. “In the astral, it’s literally just her mind exploring. Nothing should be aware of her except another astral being. And they are scarce to be found.”

“Well, it looks like this Night Man can damn well see astral stuff because he saw her.” My anger bites through my words.

Elara looks confused, but I can see her cogs beginning to whir.

“Maybe, maybe not. We need to wait for Naomi to wake up. She isn’t harmed physically; I think she just passed out as she was both very scared and rushed her return after a long astral journey.” Elara strokes her head gently. “I think she may have imagined him looking at her, but we need to talk it through with her calmly to be sure of what happened.”

“In the meantime,” Paolo says, grabbing his jacket from the back of his chair. “I’m going to go round up the town militia. I think we have a visit to the quarry to undertake.”

“Gather your troops, boss,” I say, looking at him. “But hold off on running over there until we hear what she has to say.”

Paolo considers, then nods in agreement and bustles out.

“Do you know what happened?” I ask Elara again, calmer this time. I know it wasn’t her fault, but my own shocked reaction had unfairly targeted her, and I feel bad about it.

“No,” she shakes her head. “I feel terrible that it went like this. I just hope it doesn’t have a lasting effect on her developing her talent. Dreamwalkers are rare.”

‘Fuck her talent,’ I inwardly shout. ‘She’s just a kid.’

“I’m sure she will be okay.” I reassure her, my voice so much gentler than my internal raging. I feel so conflicted. We needed this information, and to be fair, I blame myself as much as this damn Night Man for what happened.

‘I shouldn’t have agreed to letting her do this, mate,’ I chide myself, running a hand through my hair, the scratching at my scalp doing little to assuage my feeling of guilt. ‘But she came through; we know where they are.’ I was doing that pointless trick I had, arguing with myself would never get me anywhere, yet I continued to pursue the habit.

I take a seat on what had been Elara’s chair and gather her hand; together, we watch the girl quietly, talking through what happened and comparing our thoughts on the events and what they might mean.

From a magical perspective, Elara confirms my suspicion that once Naomi had unlocked them, her mana had rapidly surged.

“It was a lot faster coming to her than it was for me,” Elara concludes. “Maybe because she is so much younger. Most elves don’t unlock any magical potential they may have until at least their late teens. In my case, I was 23.”

We both look at her; my mind reflects on events. If she is this young, then would that mean significant power ahead or an early burnout? ‘I just don’t know enough to be able to judge.’

“Once her mana broke through, it just surged; there was nothing gentle about it,” Elara frowns. “It was almost violent in how it grew, and that scared me a bit.”

I look into her face, that fear showing clearly in her eyes.

“She needs a proper trainer, even more than I do.” Looking directly at me, I can see she is very serious. “And a lot faster, or she may harm herself with uncontrolled mana feedback.”

“I take it that’s not a good thing.” I shift uncomfortably. ‘Stop stating the bloody obvious, you twat.’

“No,” she says with a shake of her head. “Definitely not. I have never seen or experienced it, but at its worst, it can leave someone's mind completely scrambled.”

I suck in a breath through my teeth. We need to prevent that at all costs.

“So does she need to stop doing this until she gets training?” I take hold of Naomi’s hands over the top of Elara’s.

“No, in fact, the opposite. The more she practices, the better her control over her mana will become.” She glances at me again. “Though until she gets trained, the risk is always going to be there for her.”

As we watch and wait, I notice the smallest flutter of an eyelid, then with a start, Naomi sits up and looks around in a panic. Seeing she is in the room with us, she almost wilts into Elara and shudders a little as she gets herself under control. All the while, Elara holds her gently and whispers soothing noises into her hair.

Naomi takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly, looking up at us.

“He saw me,” she states simply.

“Tell us everything,” I say as tenderly as my generally gruff tones allow. ‘In the beginning, there was a big flash and stars rushed out…’ my inner voice sneers at me. ‘Shut the fuck up, Del.’ I answer it.

“I was going down the tunnel, the one at the bottom of the big hole in the ground,” she confirms. “It was spooky, but I wasn’t scared—not like Nate when he got locked in the feed shed.” She nods at that to confirm her self-proclaimed bravery.

Inwardly, I want her to get on with it, but I know I can’t rush her. ‘It's her story and her trauma, let her tell it her way and no nagging.’

“So, I saw lights ahead, flickering like reed torches, and I heard someone crying quietly.” She gives a little wriggle to get more comfortable.

“I saw round the corner, and it was a big room, with pillars and stuff, a fire in the middle causing the flickering and making the room look all smoky, hazy. I saw Emily; she was crying, and I saw Vita; she was lying down, I think she was asleep or something.” Taking a big, steadying breath, I can see her lip quiver.

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“I felt something looking at me and turned around. It was the Night Man, and he was coming right at me.” There is an obvious rising panic in her little voice. “I clapped my hands and the next thing I knew, I was here with you both.” She looks around. “Where’s the elder? I thought he was staying while I looked for Vita.” It was obvious from her small confusion, there was no memory of her original sudden return and passing out.

She looks into Elara’s eyes. “Was I brave? Did I do it right?”

Elara hugs her very tightly.

“Yes, Naomi, you were very brave and did a great job.” She kisses the top of Naomi’s head. “You are a totally amazing young Dreamwalker, and I bet you are the bravest girl in all of Stonebridge.”

Naomi gives a delighted giggle, and I can see the fear and tension melting from her.

“Braver than Nate.” She agrees and jumps off Elara’s lap.

“Can I go home now? It’s getting late, and Mummy will want me home for supper soon.”

I smile and nod. “Yes, lass, head home and don’t get sidetracked, straight there, you hear?” As she runs out, I stand and stretch. My back creaks and pops. ‘Man, I didn’t know I was so tensed up,’ I think, holding out my hand to assist Elara in extracting herself from the couch.

“We need to go see Paolo,” I say to her. With that, we both head out the door.

The market square is a chaotic bustle. People are running about, various big men strapping on rudimentary armour and taking weapons from a storage shed attached to the elder's house. Among the men, I see Jake and Merl, faces grim as they chat quietly to one side. Merl is absently testing the edge of his sword with his thumb as he speaks with the innkeeper. I also spot the man I saw making barrels the other day—Mr Cooper, perhaps? ‘Mind out of the gutter, Del,’ I chide myself with a grin.

Elara taps my arm, and I turn to see Paolo hurrying over to us, fighting with a buckle on his jerkin as he comes.

“I saw Naomi leaving to run home; was she able to tell you anything?”

I feel Elara tense up a bit.

“Yes, she is fine, thank you for asking,” she informs him tersely. “No lasting ill effects we could find.”

I give her a look. ‘Easy, tiger,’ I think, then add to Paolo, “She managed to give us more information, but we will find out more when we get there.”

“Are they…” he starts in a quiet voice.

“Alive?” I look him in the eye and see his fears. “Yes, at least she was able to tell us Emily and Vita are. She wasn’t able to check anyone else, as the Night Man butted in.” Paolo lets out a sigh of relief. I can see his focus shift from worries about his friends' survival to a more urgent need for their rescue.

Elara takes over at that point, her voice having lost the annoyed edge from a moment ago.

“Whoever he is, he may be a lot more dangerous than we have been thinking.” Paolo looks visibly worried at that, rubbing his hands together nervously.

“From what Naomi was able to tell us, he could almost certainly see her astral form, and that means he has at least some magical ability.” With a shrug, she adds, “She couldn’t describe him, though, and to be honest with you, she was too scared of him to push her.”

The elder nods and thanks us before turning away and raising his voice as he starts to get the small militia ready.

‘This is going to be a shit show, I just know it.’ I’ve had enough problems fighting a couple of goblins, and the bandits would have killed me if it wasn’t for Elara and Misty. I look up. At what, I don’t know. But I am starting to feel angry, scared, and alone. ‘You are a total bastard, BB,’ my inner psych shouts at an uncaring sky. ‘How the fuck do we fight magic?’

It’s weird, feeling alone when surrounded by people, with my closest friend and ally in this strange land standing right next to me, and new friends just feet away. But the total alienness of my situation is starting to get to me.

I feel a nudge against my mind and look down. Misty is sitting against my leg, looking up. ‘Not alone,’ I feel her say. Letting out a long-held breath, I reach down and scratch her head. ‘Thank you, girl,’ I reply.

Standing back up, I rub my hands together and brush an imagined speck off my leg. I look to Elara and give her a smile.

“Shall we?” I ask.

I step forward and raise my voice to be heard above the general hubbub around us.

“Right, guys, we need to head off if we are going to do this before it’s completely dark.” Eyes are on me now, some in confusion at this stranger to the village trying to take charge. Paolo steps in.

“Del here has been leading the search for me to find the missing and figure out what was going on. For now, he is in charge of the rescue.”

This seems to settle at least the surface concerns of the villagers. Merl gives me an encouraging look of approval.

“Drinks are on me when we get back with them,” adds Jake to a small cheer.

Even I, tense as I am, have to chuckle at that.

“We don’t exactly know what we are getting into when we get there,” I continue to the now quiet and attentive group. “It’s possible he may have some magical powers, and we know he uses Listwort freely to subdue his victims.”

There is a small nervous murmuring at the mention of magic.

“However, we also know that at this moment, the kidnapped villagers appear to be alive.” I see grins of relief surrounding me and glance at Elara, who gives me an approving look.

“So, let's get there and see what we can do to make sure he never takes anyone again.”

There is another cheer, and the men of Stonebridge’s militia gather themselves up, and we head out.