After Maribeth gets a note at dinner, she disappears for a few days. I’m tired of watching everyone else search out spells, so I spend most of the week studying in our lounge, waiting for her to come home. But I keep having these weird dreams…

Everything is GREEN, and I am running. It almost seems like a jungle, but even more green than that. I’m running and there are voices all around me. Not like the steam monsters. I can’t understand them. The dreams come every night, but they aren’t scary. I don’t know if I’m even running away from something or to something.

When Maribeth finally comes back to school, I message her to make sure she’s okay. She tells me her grandfather has died. I tell her we aren’t doing the thing anymore, and she says good or she’d have to stop us. WHAT??? But I let it go, I don’t want to know what she means. She says she still isn’t sure if she can talk to us. Might not be safe for either of us.

Nat tells me of more weird dreams, but maybe about the future. Moments later in class, Maribeth asks Malden if mana can cause strange dreams, and Nat and I both snap to attention. He voice is Loud. Maybe her grandfather dying gave her her voice back. Malden says mana can cause strange things to happen to a mage who has had too much. He says sometimes mages need to dry out and not use mana for a while, but advises her to see Raltus if she’s feeling ill. She asks permission to dry out, and I wonder what she was doing while she was gone for three days.

Maribeth asks if mages can make other mages dream things. Malden says yes, but it’s illegal and frowned upon. Then everyone gets into an strange discussion about legal and social consequences, and how you would prove such a thing, and how enchantments can protect you. Then we talk about the Certimun from the weekend. It’s a social consequence, I guess.

After class, I tell Nat that I had weird dreams too, and Nat heads off to talk to Professor Aleria. Apparently Aleria made Nat stare at the lake without looking at it for his lesson. But then the dream came again and Aleria said to Find It. We all have a big discussion about the insanity of this. We all agreed to stop looking for the mana smugglers, but this sounds like it’s going to drop us right down into it, and then we’re All going to Explode! This is crazy!

Maribeth drops a note at our dinner table asking us to come to her room late tonight, and for Nat to leave the pin or don’t come. This is strange, but we agree to go. All but Klyce, anyway. Maribeth fills us in that the Maggia had threatened her grandfather, that’s why she stopped talking to us. But he’s dead now. She says she’s had dreams of her grandfather saying she should have stopped us, but the explosion and fire is only a set back. She thinks it wasn’t a dream, but a warning. She doesn’t want to be involved with them, and her Mom is alone now.

Remy mentions the fire at his house. Maribeth says that her grandfather was given a severed horsehead. That the Maggia knows what happens on school grounds. Then she looks at Nat and says that other people have that pin, and we could be being tracked or listened to with it. Nat insists that it isn’t magical.

We all have nother arguement about protecting our families and not getting involved. Remy won’t stand aside, he’d rather fight. Nat tells everyone about the dream and explosion. Nat will try harder to see details tonight. We might go check it out, but then we’re going to run and get adults. We can’t fight Maggia, but we have to help if we can.

After class, we head out into the city to go find the dock in Nat’s dream. The first one we go to is very busy, and we keep getting shooed away. Seems to busy for secrets, so we go on to the next one. There are lots of shut-up buildings here, and Royalist graffiti, and workers with red armbands. The boys detect magic and find one building full of it, so we go around for a better look.

Nat looks without eyes and feels an urgent pull towards the building. Looking for real, sees men in fullplate climbin up and going in.

Klyce stops Nat from charging in and we hastily make a plan, just like in Sanctum. And just like the game, nothing goes quite right. I play messenger, though, keeping everyone connected and up to date. Gerhardt and Remy send in their familiars to get a look inside. There are definitely crates filled with jugs of mana. A strange small boat enters the warehouse from the waterside. There are 5 guys talking in Italian waiting. The fullplate guys climb around the rafters, spying on the men. The boys are already changing the plan.

They talk Maribeth into going up in disguise, knocking on the door, and pretending to be a lost little girl to draw some of them out. The familiars then see five Asian people climbing out of the boat and walking up to the men. They argue about deliveries and customers, apparently the firey explosion did hurt their business. Maribeth knocks on the door and interrupts their conversation. Everyone pulls weapons then freeze and the Maggia leader comes to open the door.

Maribeth does an amazing job of playing her part, and he calls over a guy named Lou to take her out of there. With the odds changed, the Asians spring into action, killing two of the three remaining Maggia, and the fighting begins. Lou is carrying Maribeth away, and my job was to keep her safe, so I run off after her.

A short while later, there’s an explosion back at the docks and I run up to Lou and demand he give me back “my sister.” Not wanting to know what the explosion was, terrified of what we might find, Maribeth and I head back to school. The rest of them, thank mana, catch up with us, being escorted by the previously absent guards, just before we get to school grounds.