"Okay," you say quietly, ceasing your scans and withdrawing your ki. "That's not good."
"What did you find?" Altria asks.
"One human who's trying to conceal their ki and not doing a particularly good job of it, and something else that seems to absorb ki about as easily as a dry sponge soaks up water. I have no idea what it is, only that it's in the same room as the person I sensed."
"What manner of thing could cause the effects you've observed?"
"If I had to guess? I'd say it's some kind of undead - one of the varieties that feeds on life-force directly, rather than filtering it through flesh or blood." You scowl. "And wouldn't you just know it? Right now, all I've got to fight with is life-force. How about you?"
Despite the situation, Altria smiles faintly. "As it happens, I do have an alternative."
And just like that, there is a knife in her hand - at a glance, you'd say a five-inch blade, double-edged, good for slashing as well as thrusting. It looks modern and fairly utilitarian, although there is some kind of tracery on the hilt and the flat of the blade that glows faintly blue-white in the false gloom, as well as a grey-white glint around the edges. No bets that this weapon's magical.
"...where did you get that?" you manage.
"Ambrose," she says, once again packing entire paragraphs' worth of meaning into the word.
"Okay, you've got a magic knife. Cool, and it gives one of us a way to fight back if the life-eater in there comes out to play. Would you mind terribly if I called for help anyway?"
"I would not say no to reinforcements," Altria admits.
"Good." Closing your eyes for a moment, you focus on your ki and remaining magic, and give them both a good internal shake. It occurs to you that you and Briar might want to look into learning Morse Code or something, so you could send more specific messages; as it stands, you're limited to simulating the shifts in vital energies that normally occur during combat, and hoping that's enough to tell Briar to find you fast, and bring help. You dropped your scanning to do this because the disturbances were too likely to have been noticed while your ki was extended, but now that you've sent out the call, you let your energies settle and resume your low-end scan. The human presence and the un-presence are still there, and the former, at least, isn't reacting as if it's sensed you.
"Alright," you say aloud, "Briar should have picked that up, and our neighbors there don't appear to have noticed. I give it two minutes, three tops, before she shows up with Cordy and Lu-sensei in tow." You glance at Altria. "While I'm not especially eager to see him again, in case something goes wrong, do you have a way to call Ambrose?"
"I do." Altria digs into a pocket, and pulls out a gold-trimmed royal blue cellphone that looks about ten years more advanced than the ones you're familiar with. It also has a cute little lion-shaped charm dangling from one end.
"Let me guess," you say. "Ambrose?"
Altria nods. "He likes the idea of the cellphone, but he thinks the currently-available models were all based on something conjured up by a bored, third-rate hack of a warlock. So he, uh, improved on the design."
You're almost afraid to ask. The idea of a technologically-savvy wizard is kind of jarring. The idea of a technologically-savvy Ambrose is kind of alarming.