Roo fell silent on the other side of the line. "Melat?" she asked after a few minutes. "What did she look like?"

"Uh," he paused. Altirian? "Blonde hair, pretty average height. Utility belt. Nothing that remarkable. She fixed the power, but it went out again."

“Feofil…” she said slowly. “I didn’t send anyone, and that doesn’t sound like any of Ghyrrie’s people. You said she came on my orders? Did she only go to the basement?”

A cold sense of dread settled in Feofil's chest. "No," he replied quietly. "She went upstairs too, to check on something-- I didn't catch what."

“Okay,” she exhaled. “Okay. So she bypassed the wards. That’s… concerning. You need to get out of the house as quickly as you can. I’ll head back right now, I should be there in twenty minutes.”

"Out of the house--?" He looked to the windows, outside of which a wall of blinding white swirled furiously. "There is a veritable blizzard out there. Can I do anything else? Protect a room, maybe?"

“We don’t know what she might have infected. If she already entered the house…” Roo exhaled. “Okay. Okay, the princess’s room. There are extra wards etched into the walls - I think it was a nursery at one point. That might be safe.”

"Okay. We'll hole up in there until you get here. Anything else I should know?"

“How long has Parisa been gone?”

"Maybe five minutes?"