When I arrived back to the lodging house that night I wanted nothing more than to collapse onto my bed and sleep till the end of time. It had been a hard night, and I was wore to the bone. I knew I had several new bruises to add to my extensive collection and I would be sore as ever in the morning. So it was reasonable to want some sleep, but I wanted to talk to Ersken about dropping in on those merchants tomorrow before Ahuda mustered us for our daily 'baton practice'. I limped up to my rooms and dropped off my gear. Thanks to a stop at the bathhouse I weren't too dirty and my clothes were relatively clean. Then I limped back downstairs to Kora's room, where I knew I'd find Ersken.

Surprisingly, Kora was awake when I entered the room, sitting up in bed. She was pale and looked exceedingly tired, but from the way she grinned at me I could tell she was fine. That was reassuring in itself. If she can't manage a smile then there's something wrong. Sure enough, just as I'd thought, Ersken was sitting next to her, his arm around her waist. I'm surprised he'd e'en left his room for watch today he was so worried. He'd pelted me with questions the whole day, every time we seen each other, and I wasn't sure I could take any more. So it was good. She could answer all his questions now, and save me a massive headache.

"Glad to see you're awake," I said to Kora. She shrugged, smiling.

"I wasn't till Ersken here showed up. Said you sent him." I blushed. I had been hoping he wouldn't tell her that part. I should have known he wasn't 'bout to keep anything from her. I'd worry 'bout him trusting her so completely, if it were anyone but Kora. She'd never take advantage of him like that. I didn't miss the sheepish grin on Ersken's face at Kora's comment.

Then I turned to Ersken. "Got someone who may have seen something last night and I want you to come with me tomorrow to meet 'em." His face darkened, all business now.

"Who?" he asked.

"Some Scanran merchants arrived in town around the time Kora and them was attacked. I think mayhap they saw something. They're staying in the Hidden City o'er on Harken Lane, 'cording to Mistress Carver." He smiled. He'd met the young redhead, when the six of us; Aniki, Kora, Ersken, Rosto, Phelen and me had gone walking through the Nightmarket on our day off. She'd tried to catch his eye more than once that night, until Kora got annoyed and took him to look at herbs.

A thought struck me.

"Kora, if you don't mind, I never got your side of the story. Mayhap there's something you noticed that the others missed." It was possible. As a mage, Kora tended to see things in a slightly different light than the others, who tended to think that most problems could be solved with a good weapon. There had been numerous occasions her input had come in useful. Kora frowned, propping her chin in her hand.

"What did they tell you?" she asked, her forehead creasing slightly.

"Said there was five of them, two mots and three coves. Said it was like they wasn't entirely there." She thought for a moment, a thoughtful look on her face.

"That much is right, but there was more. I doubt the others noticed it though 'acos they ain't mages." That was something I should have thought of earlier, rather than nearly a day later. "Nothing I threw at them did a thing, like, as you said, they wasn't entirely there. The magic seemed to bounce off them, didn't affect them a bit. Even my fire spells seemed to slide right past them. The most bizarre thing I ever seen or heard of." I didn't like the sound of that. It wasn't natural. I've heard of mages powerful enough to reflect the magic back, but never had I heard of it being ineffective.

I'd see if I could get Berryman to talk to her. For all he's a gem mage, he knows more'n a bit 'bout the strange magics of Tortall. He was one of the few who'd heard of my gift 'afore. Mayhap he would have some ideas. Certainly he'd come up with something better than I would. The two leads I had weren't much, but they was more'n I'd hoped for. Things as strange as this tend to leave a big impact and little evidence.

A/N: Sorry bout the long wait. I've been busy this month. Gone on vacation every weekend.