Valerina shuffled closer to Lynica and joined her in peering down the roof.

"Where is it?" She asked the girl, keeping her voice low.

"There, before the shop over yonder," Lynica replied, keeping her voice low too. Valerina looked at the place she indicated and saw nothing. She kept staring, not taking her eyes off the indicated spot until they began to water. For what it was worth, she caught the ground and part of a doorframe tilt slightly to the right before settling back down.

"Dastardly creature," Lynica muttered. "I envy it."

"Why?" Valerina whispered.

"What it is doing right now, I would never be able to do in a thousand years," the other girl sniffed. "Stupid little cheat."

Valerina spared the girl a glance, shrugged and continued watching the fellbeast for no other reason than because she had nothing better to do. It wasn't all that better because she couldn't even make out its figure so she was just effectively staring at empty space.

A piece of stone struck Lynica on her shoulder and she whipped her head back to glare at Voscov.

"Would you stop?" She hissed.

"I was aiming for Valerina," Voscov said in lieu of an apology.

Hearing her name, Valerina turned to look at the indifferent prince.

"You said that the last five times," Lynica snapped.

Voscov picked up a stone from atop the roof and chucked it at Valerina. The girl pulled back reflexively but it didn't matter as the stone missed her by a foot.

"I have bad aim," Voscov explained, and with how his expression never seemed to change, Valerina had no idea if he was being playful or not.

"I will not fall for that a second time," Lynica stated flatly.

Valerina tuned out the whispered squabble that ensued and made her way across the flat roof to the other side. She peered over the ledge, trying to find the other fellbeast she knew was stalking the street below. As expected, she saw nothing. Somehow, the fellbeast managed to blend in totally with its surroundings when it wasn't moving. Voscov had said that they had been able to see it from atop the roof when it had been stalking her but Valerina had no idea what to make of that.

The girl sighed and rested on her haunches. She turned her head to the left and gazed out at the horizon where bright black flames licked against the sky and golden tongues of power faded into the air. Things were quickly getting worse. She hoped Rowe was alright.

The squabble going on behind her increased in intensity, almost to the point that they were full-on shouting, and Valerina buried her head in her palms. The ships were, against all odds, burning, there was no way to get back, and these two were ruining her peace of mind and leisurely arguing like they were in their realmsdamned comfort lounge. Frustration bubbled within her. The impossible odds standing between her and retrieving her book, the fact that after all she had done, she would not be able to cure her ailment in any way since she would most likely die on this stupid island, and the anxiety flooding her because she had no way out of the slaughter box the island had become scratched at her heart and stoked the coals of irritation and anger within her. Valerina wanted to lash out. To scream and rave at the two idiots currently chilling out like they were not in mortal danger, but she held back. Barely. Idiots or not, it would not do to lash out at a prince and his aide since she would live to regret it.

But then again, nobody knew the Maesers were on the island, and Lynica and Voscov hadn't specifically identified themselves with their positions when they introduced themselves. Also, she very much doubted she would be alive to regret it so... who was she kidding?

"Would you two just shut it?" She snarled at them and they, predictably, paid her no mind. Frustration and anxiety clawing at her insides, Valerina looked about for a way to vent her emotions. Inevitably, her gaze fell upon the dozens of slightly cool white stones that had been baked into the clay bricks that made up the roof. She felt around and once she pried a couple loose, began to throw them in the general direction of Voscov.

"Just keep silent and let me think would you?" She hissed at them once she managed to nab their attention. "You do realise we are stuck on this island with the ships gone, don't you? How can you... when, how, argh!" She flung her hands above her head in frustration only to bring them down and bury her head within her palms again as she tried to hold back tears borne of helplessness. There was no way she was getting out of Sealarios now. For all that she prided herself on her wit and ingenuity, no amount of planning could get her off the island.

There was an awkward moment where no one spoke and the wind howled into their ears. Voscov glanced at Lynica and their eyes met. When they learned that Maeser Ellen was missing, the first suspect that had come to mind had been the girl they had caught scaling the fence - a presumably warded fence - and had recognised at dinner too. She was the reason Voscov and Lynica found themselves on the roof at the moment. Nothing quite drew Voscov's interest as a mystery and so they had joined in the search for the Maeser all due to a single reason. Voscov wanted to see.

Now that they met Valerina though, they were not so sure she had anything to do with the kidnapping. She just didn't have this feel about her. The way she carried herself was more desperate and dainty than assured and professional. Lynica saw no way the girl could have pulled off the act since she looked to be an amateur in every way. That conclusion still left her presence at the manor the night before unexplained but that was neither here nor there.

"There is a portal," Voscov said eventually, addressing Valerina. The girl didn't move for a second as a tiny seed of hope blossomed in her heart. Then her head raised and her eyes bored holes into Voscov.

"What?" She asked.

"A portal. City lord's manor," Voscov explained. Valerina didn't dare believe it.

"But... how?" The girl blurted before quickly snapping her mouth shut. It made sense. The Maesers hadn't come by ship after all. Obviously there was a portal somewhere on the island.

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This she could plan around. Now there was a goal at the very least. Some way she could get out of here after she got her hands on the book and her father's letters. The flicker of hope in her heart turned into a roar and strength filled her limbs.

"What are we waiting for then?" She asked, hopping to her feet. "Let's get going."

"Of course. Let's get going. And the practically invisible fellbeasts on both streets to our sides would just let us leave," Lynica snarked.

Right. There's still that, Valerina thought. But there had to be something they could do. There was a portal out there - a way out of this nightmare - and Valerina was determined to get to it.

She swung her eyes about, only now truly taking in the rooftops around her. Most of them were the hip and gable sort with an unnecessary beam running down its length where the side inclines of the roof would normally meet - Sealaroan architecture was quite distinct from that of the other nations of Nireavat - but there were a couple of flat roofs like the one they were on here and there. More importantly, however, was that there was a flat roof just directly before them that would take them deeper into the city.

"We can jump from here to there," Valerina suggested. "And from there get down to ground level and keep going."

Lynica walked up to her side. "We have thought of doing just that. Have a look and think again." She gestured at the gap between the two buildings. The road seemed to be a main thoroughfare and was quite large. "None of us can make that jump."

Valerina frowned. "But you were able to get me up here in a single leap."

Lynica scoffed. "I used an elemental technique. I cannot jump that high."

Valerina kept silent for a while, squinting at the other roof. "You said they were sensitive to sound right? They can't see? You're sure?"

"Yes," Lynica replied. "They chased us for quite a while before we managed to deduce that but we are certain of it."

"And they are kinda razatches so they should be sensitive to essence too," Valerina mumbled. The cogs in her head were turning and they were turning fast. "If... If we, hmm, that's it," she snapped her fingers and spun to face Lynica, a smile on her lips. "We jump. If you aid our jump with your technique, we can easily soar past the street and onto the other roof. If what I know about essence is correct, the fellbeasts would swarm here since this is where the essence was released or used or whatever."

"And they wouldn't see us cross over since they are blind," Lynica added. "The idea has merit, I'll tell you as much. But there is a single problem." Valerina frowned slightly.

"He's injured," Lynica said, gesturing at Voscov who had, Valerina just realised, not shifted from his position since she arrived. And neither had his hand left his lower left abdomen either.

"A flesh wound," Lynica explained. "Cuts mostly through skin but it would keep getting wider and worse the more he moves about. So no, we're not going jumping across a twenty-meter-wide street anytime soon."

At that Valerina grinned and her mind spun, cooking up a plan that would benefit everyone. In theory.

"I could help. I am a physician. In training," she said. Lynica raised an eyebrow in response and Valerina hurried to assure her. "I can bind up his wounds a bit now if I can get a strip of cloth and then can get him healing salves if we get to the inn where I had dropped my things. It's on the way to the manor so we wouldn't be going off course too much."

Lynica kept silent for a while, thinking. In the end she looked to Voscov. The prince shrugged. "If she says she can do it then why not?"

Lynica pursed her lips before reaching down and pulling out a curved dagger from between the folds of the skirt of her dress. Valerina watched warily as she spun the dagger around her fingers before grabbing its blade and offering her its hilt.

Valerina accepted it reluctantly and looked at Lynica askance.

"Cut your dress. Anything past shin level would only serve to impede you. You can use the strips to bind the wound after you are done," Lynica explained.

Valerina gave a slow nod. It made sense. Kind of.

Lynica pulled out another blade from somewhere else and over the next ten minutes both girls proceeded to whittle Valerina's dress with all its layers down to shin level as Lynica had said. The aide had explained that she would very easily trip on an ankle-length dress, while a knee-length one would expose her shin to bruises and scrapes when she inevitably fell or stumbled. Valerina refrained from pointing out to the other girl that she was wearing an ankle-length dress too. As the matriarch of an assassin house, she had to know what she was doing.

Not long after that Valerina got to work binding Voscov's injury with strips of her clothing. While she was not technically a physician in training, she did know more than a few things related to the art of medicine and healing. Maybe as much as, if not more than, official apprentice physicians. She had compromised between her mother's desire to keep her safe and her own relentless desire to learn to fight like most kids her age could and had to take a deeper look than most into medicine and the curative arts so that random cuts and bruises would not kill her. That said, while she was not officially a physician's apprentice, she was certainly as capable as one.

It took her over two minutes to bind Voscov's injury appropriately - yes, she had been surprised when she learnt that just tying up an injury in whatever way seemed convenient at the time was likely to make it worse in the long run. The injury seemed to be skin deep but it bled copious amounts of blood for a flesh wound. Valerina suspected that a vein or some such was nicked. Maybe an important one if the prince was unlucky. Moving about too much would certainly cause the gash to widen no matter how well she bound it, but there was no way she was telling them that. She did have some of aunt Maggie's miracle healing salves back at the inn (she didn't go anywhere without them) so if they paced themselves, they would likely get there before the situation got unsalvageable.

"All done," Valerina declared, pulling away from Voscov to sit on her haunches. "How do you feel?"

Voscov leveled her with a deadpan stare. "It hurts," he stated dryly. "Am I supposed to feel something else?"

Lynica snorted and Valerina felt colour flood her cheeks. "Right," she coughed, trying not to let her embarrassment show. "Right. We can get going now." She rose and turned to Lynica. "So how are we to do this?"

"Just keep your wits about you when we jump and try not to fall when you land," Lynica said as she helped Voscov to his feet. "Too much?" She asked the prince.

Voscov had to devote a moment to unpacking what it was she was asking about before answering; "I can handle it, let us get going already."

Lynica acquiesced and the trio made their way to the edge of the roof. She led the others to crouch at the very lip of the roof and kept her focus forward.

"On the count of three," the aide said. "One, two, three!" The floor below them shoved against them pushing them forward and into the air before practically exploding at their feet, huge chunks of debris carrying them through the air and toward the roof on the other side of the street.

As much as she tried to land on her feet and not her knees, Valerina found herself getting rather intimate with the floor for the second time that day, barely managing to stop her face from meeting the ground in what would have been a decidedly uncomfortable kiss.

She felt the rocks sprinkled into the mortar making up the roof digging painfully into her palm and she rolled quickly onto her back and brought her palms close to her face to inspect them. Thankfully she hadn't gotten any puncture or scrape from her rough landing. The girl sighed in relief. She really wasn't looking forward to having her essence seeping out of her while in an environment like this.

She stood up and tidied herself up, brushing down the clusters of dust that had stuck to her skirt.

"So we descend?" Valerina smiled at Lynica and Voscov who, she realised, hadn't fallen to their knees upon landing.

"We'll travel over the rooftops, I think. Unless you want to deal with razatches as you move," Voscov gestured behind him to the roof the had jumped from.

Valerina's smile wilted slightly as she realized that traveling across rooftops was even an option - like, who does that? Her smile dropped completely when she noticed that the roof they had come from was already swarming with six-legged fleshy monstrosities that were scrabbling around the place, likely looking for them.

She sighed. Over the rooftops it was. She only hoped she would not get too injured in the process.