>>602>Ceri closes her eyes for a moment as she sits, taking a deep breath to try and recover some energy."They're failing more and more often, if this keeps up. . ."
"Caw!"
>Ceri opens her eyes to see a raven standing next to her, hopping about and pecking on some stones."Oh, you're back, you managed to follow her and observe for a while then. What did you see?"
"Caw."
>The raven hops over to Ceri and she rests her hand on its head, blinking. When she opens her eyes again, they have switched to jet black.
>Ceri keeps her hand on the raven's head for few seconds, then pulls away, her eyes returning to normal when the contact is broken."Not much then. . . still, only three of them? Has the outside world really become that inhospitable to us? What else are we missing?"
"Caw."
>Ceri looks over to the raven, and chuckles."You've earnt yourself a rest, go on, fly back to the rookery, recover your energy, afterwards I'm going to need you to look into mr Fischer, the way he spoke at the Conclave - I think he was hiding something."
>The raven flies off, leaving Ceri alone again."Only three Hydes. . . and defences too dense for me to peer through with my usual methods - I'm going to need to slip through using one of them."
>Ceri picks herself up from the ground, using her staff to help support her weight, and taps the lake again to part a new path"The eldest, that man, is unlikely to fall for any tricks. . ."
>Ceri walks along the path, dismissing it again when she reaches the shore."The middle one has already seen me in person, that would make things difficult. . ."
"Maybe the youngest then? She could easily fall for a trick, give me the crack I need to put eyes in their home proper. . . "
>Ceri stops for a moment, deep in thought."But what would work for that? Does she like birds? Maybe I could turn up as an injured bird, play on her empathy. . ."
>Ceri winces as her train of thought is interrupted by the rift above shifting slightly, a pulse of light travelling up the "branches" on her arm"Well, looks like I need more information. . ."