Mother had issued her orders! A slow increase in the severity of the pranking! There was a madness to the method, or rather the method was to create madness! The goal was to see how far they could push the thieves before they snapped. The minions would take turns causing chaos while Gina kept her awareness open to make sure the intruders were not getting wise to the wee folk. One mess up or two could be dismissed, after all people want to believe whatever makes them smart and reinforces what they already believe... it was a hubris thing. But if there were too many incidents it would be more comforting for the intruders to believe their were infested by magical beings rather than think they were collectively crazy.

All the thieves were asleep, it was time for Szef to help the family. It wasn't too hard to get to the back of the caverns unseen through the hidden walkways. None of the guards saw the dimly glowing fire wisp quickly fly into the chimney, ducking into the air vents that led to the inn part of the cavern. The faint glows and flickers in the firelight went unseen in the empty rooms. Szef was very aware of the bright personality that refused to be dimmed, and promised to find a way to work around that. Or maybe just find a stage where a bright personality would be an asset instead of a liability.

The wisp stopped in the vents above one of the bedrooms, a sleeping thief right below. There were slight blue ripples to the air, similar to the magic Sapana had used. Could be an alarm or defense set up in that space. Szef could use natural fire affinity to cause a blaze, but they didn't want to kill anyone, it would raise too many questions. Heal wouldn't do anything, except maybe make the target feel better. Levitate had some good options but it would be hard to not think it was a magical occurrence. Enchanting wouldn't work without being able to enter the room. That left Revert.

Szef looked around the room. There was a few things to target, some things were better than ever. Szef reached out a burning hand and muttered some words that could not really be heard. A tiny flame appeared and flew to the chest, the blue energy in the air rippled but did not break. The flame settled on the chest, a dull glow surrounded the wood it looked a little cleaner, Szef kept focusing on the chest... and kept focusing on the chest... one headache and an interminable time the chest reverted to it's despawned state. An organized pile of books, clothing and weapons settled onto the floor and sagged into a slightly less organized pile.

Szef sat back, and decided to cast Heal to take away the headache. Some unheard words and bright flame flared to life over the wisps already flickering shoulder, the flame dimmed and a pure white being dressed in a long white robe with four insect wings and large black eyes formed from the flames. The being held up its hands, holding a smooth white staff and a glowing orange cloud of energy that surrounded Szefs head, gently whirling and cracking with healing energy. The white figure and the glowing cloud faded into nothing.

Szef was left without a headache, and not only without a headache the wisp had never felt better! It was like it was a bright spring morning after the best sleep that could be had, a fit and filling breakfast including a glass of freshy squeezed spring water that goes straight to the head. It was disorienting to have the levies of the brain to suddenly be fully opened with no warning. A river of crystal clear thought ripped away the small amount of cerebral sediment that had accumulated since creation.

Looking back down in the room, the second target sat in the corner. The goal was to revert the thieves leather armor back into an assortment of parts, with how slow the last revert took and the mental refresher that Szef just got, it shouldn't be too hard to do. The flames of Revert were intense this time, and worryingly was resonating with Cooking. A figure stepped out of the flames, it the same size as the wisp that cast the magic. The figures skin was a dark umber brown wearing loose black clothing that shimmered with violet sparks of energy, the sparks flickered along four black insect wings. The figures hair was held in a high ponytail, the eyes were large, black and seemed to glow with a black light. It held it's hands up high, bangles of glowing turquoise defying gravity to hover around it's wrists.

There was a storm of orange clouds that ripped around the leather armor, a sandstorm of orange sparks shimmered throughout in a flurry of static energy. The storm burned up it's energy almost as it started leaving behind a very disassembled set of armor, so disassembled that it was still attached to whatever animal it came from. What was once a well crafted set of slim fitting leather armor was now a pile of dirt covered animal parts cut up in the shape of the patches of leather. The dark figure was gone.

Szef didn't know what wrong, but also did not care, this was more than what mother had asked for but it was too late now, that energy storm hadn't been loud but it definitely was not quiet, the thief was stirring and it was time to go. The flight through the vents was not quick enough, as angry yelling from the room behind attracted the attention of everyone in the gang, including the ones out in the caverns.

The guards came rushing into the bar at the same time those sleeping in the room got there, most were looking confused except one very angry head of the guards, Jason, who held a very sharp dagger in one hand. His two co-administrators saw the dagger and tried to ask what was going on, even trying to grab his arms to hold him back, but a wild swing of one arm and they backed quickly away to keep from getting sliced by the dagger in it. Without slowing a very determined walk and Jason walked right up to one of the guards who was on night duty and stabbed her in the abdomen.

Whoa! WHAT ARE YOU DOING! was the general feel of the sudden uproar. Bobert ran to his room and returned with a suture kit, splashed something from a bottle onto the injury and started to suture the wound, streams of light started coming from around his fingers as it started to heal as Bobert was stitching it closed.

Shelia came right up to Jason and stared into his face. "You have better have a VERY good reason for stabbing one of your subordinates."

Jason chucked with a grimmace. "Yeah you better believe I do." He walked back to his room as if he was getting a book to read, no anger or tension visible. He came back with a bulging blanket and dumped a collection of animal parts on the table. "My reason is I don't allow threats to go unanswered."

Everyone stared at the pile with disgust and confusion, Jason stood over the pile with a look of self satisfaction, as if his point couldn't be clearer. Shelia kept staring at Jason, it took a while for him to realize that they didn't get his point. He looked around at the still accusing looks with disbelief.

"I found this in my room, where my armor sits, it's obviously from a savagely butchered animal, the skin is still attached! It is a message, that SOMEONE..." he looked intently at the woman recovering from being stabbed. "...wanted me to be silent, one way or another. The only infiltrator here that could possibly get through the security in my room without immediately triggering it is Esmarina." He pointed accusingly at the wounded guard, then looked around at everyone's still angry expressions. "What? I didn't hit anything vital."

Bobert was still tending the wound, Shelia just looked tired, even more tired than someone just being woken up from a deep sleep.

"OK. It looks like the problems here run deeper than I had hoped. Jason, deal with this, but go through proper procedures before rusting anyone. Pick a trusted team of four to stay and everyone else is going. We are resetting this location. Bobert, you can decide to go or stay, I will head to headquarters, explain this mess and come back with a fresh team."

Bobert took that break to announce he would stay. It may be a mess right now but the opportunity was still here, plus he was getting tired of traveling, tired of switching roles, he was looking for a position to work until he retired for good. He had started his career years ago, as a cleric for the church, doing healing and clerical work. A few 'misplaced' gold had gotten him kicked out so he joined the Silvers Debole, the only group that would accept a disgraced priest. He lived his life trying to be clean, redeem himself in his own eyes and the eyes of God, and he could do that here.

Everyone left the bar, many headed back to bed, knowing that the next day would be exhausting. Szef slipped back into the dungeon after waiting for a while after everyone had left. This might be the break they were looking for!

Shelia didn't go right back to her room, but dragged Jason outside into the night. They grabbed their coats off a coat rack that had been anchored to the wall by the door leading to the caverns.

The moon was full, the winter air clear. The unwelcomed guests had built a roof over the walkway leading to the cave, the spray from the waterfall created shimmering anti-shadows of the falls built out of ice, falling off the stones around the falls and hanging from the covered walkway. The roof had done it's job of keeping the ice off the walkway.

The two stepped out of the falls into a tunnel of ice, filled with lines of light and shadow breaking through the water paused in time. The changing light that was cheerful to almost being blinding in the day now seemed sinister, as if in the random patches of shadow there was something to hide. The two broke from the tunnel and entered into the edges of the forest, it had been a rather humid day but the night freeze had pulled all that water out of the air and built a parallel forest of diamonds, every snowflake offered different facets to catch the light. It was amazing how the world could create something in one night so easily, but it would take an entire civilization generations to even come close to replicate that single moment in time.

The transcendent moment that the two administrators stepped into was not lost on them, but the needs of the moment twisted the wonderland into a cold world of sinister glints and gleams, like blades could spring from any surface at a moments notice.

They stood there, next to the river with it's layer of frozen lace reaching out over the ever murmuring water, glints and glimmers moving across it's surface, as if it was creating and tossing out the gleams of moonlight that had been caught on every surface of the landscape.

Shelia was the first to speak. "When did it become so hard? What is it about this place that is so different than every other place we have been to?"

Jason took a minute to answer. "What do you mean?"

"Maybe you just don't see it, maybe this is a vacation to you, we haven't had any hearts to pierce, or voices to silence, no nosy local gangs getting in our way... but everything here is off. We found this place investigating why the mobile team didn't check in. Found no trace of them but signs that they went to that inn at some point. We have a moral problem, with people lashing out randomly in the most idiotic ways I have seen since the first week of training with the company, someone disappearing, now the whole incident tonight... It's just not like it usually is, like this placed is cursed or something, like there is a dark power working against us, one that we are not prepared to counter."

"Yeah, I get some of that. Could be a chipped blade with nothing left but to cause some damage. Everything should go better after the reset."

"That's the thing though, I am not so sure the reset will actually fix anything."

"Do you think it's the locals? If you think they are causing problems we can just remove them right now"

"No, the owner is to scared and out of his depth to come up with anything that we wouldn't spot before he did it, the bartender is too smart to try anything and she almost seems to prefer us to the owner... ...I am not sure what it is, it's just a feeling nagging at the back of my head everytime I walk into that place, like... did you ever go to church?"

"Yeah, my parents were real religious, prayed every day, believed the whole 'take care of those lesser than you' thing. One reason I became a guard, to look over the lesser species and the weaker people. Over time I realized us Langdens aren't really that special, there is just as much muck our boots as anyone else's, not that I would say that out loud in any other company... But I still pray now and then, try to remind people that the powers of creation belongs to the creator and all that. Why?"

"I went to church once, when I was older. There is this feeling in the air, when everyone gets together for the same thing, their minds focused on the same thought, it is like their energy adds to the energy of the person besides them and besides them and it creates this giant whirlwind of shared energy, all of it adding together, feeding each other and eventually comes back to the people as something bigger than they gave, bigger than all the bits put together"

"Something like resonance? It happens when soldiers march in step on bridges or hard roads, creates a vibration that can tear the ground apart."

"Yeah! It becomes a resonant thought and it becomes more real than anything else, a consciousness bigger than everyone present. Some say it's God, others say it's mob mentality, others say is the divine inside us."

"That last bit sounds like mage blasphemy"

"Maybe, never had dealings with those types, but whatever it is, I get that same feeling here. Like there is something larger than us controlling events from the shadows."

"Like some kind of Holy ground?"

"I don't know, like I said, I was never religious. All I know is if there is something truly bigger than us, guiding our fate... It doesn't want to make life any easier."

"Maybe, you might just need some time to clear your head. When you look too hard for monsters in shadows, the shadows eventually turn you into a monster."

"Yeah, my dad told me that when I was a kid too. Doesn't really matter anyway. Tomorrow I will be gone, shouldn't be more than 3 weeks, and when I come back it will be with a new crew. Take care of yourself, sit on the stash and keep it quiet, let the locals do their thing and don't take any risks even if it's for the payoff of a lifetime."

"No worries Shelia, keeping things safe is my job, I'm not a thief after all." He gave her a wink.

She laughed. "Yeah, I guess your not. You Ok though? After what when down?"

"I'm fine. The lesson may have been a bit harsh but like I said, if I was aiming to kill her she wouldn't be breathing right now. Could be all this not knowing what's going on is getting under my skin too."

"Well, you have 3 weeks to sit around and drink, make good use of it."

"That, is an order I would take any day." He grinned and stretched.

They walked back to the cave, nothing was really worked out, but sometimes just knowing other people see what your going through helps. The night continued it's gallery of glitter behind them, a display just for the fox and the owls. One of the silvery lines in the river flowed upstream rather than down.