andres ♔ you're gonna catch a cold | from the ice inside your soul

[unhappily]

♬ jar of hearts - christina perri

WHO || Emma, Snow, Regina, Wynn. [closed]
WHAT || Wynn asks some of his Knights to investigate a strange matter on Andres Isle.
WHERE || Andres
WHEN || At the same time as this log ; mid-October
HOW || Actionspam

[ A few weeks into October, Wynn sends a message back to the castle asking Snow and Regina to make their way to the Isle, saying he has a small matter that bears investigation.  When they arrive at the castle, they're ushered by Woodhouse to a small parlor where he's waiting...  And moments later, their other mission partner arrives. :D ]

Comments

[unhappily]

We can try, although they're likely to have quite a head start now.

[unlost]

There's always the chance that they're still in hiding. A trail could lead us to where.

[And so she heads back outside to do a lap around the small home to try and locate anything they can use to pick up the trail (spot 26, track 24).]

[unhappily]

[ whoever left is no idiot. apparently, they know how to cover their tracks, and she'd find clear signs of their attempts, before it became impossible to figure out where it was going, partway into the woods.

it makes one thing clear at least: they deliberately didn't want to be followed. ]

[uncurse]

Hey!

[ Emma catches up with them out near the woods, looking between them like WOW FUNNY FINDING YOU HERE. WHAT'S UP, LADIES. There's a slight discomfort there, like she's questioning Snow silently about whether her mother trusted her or not.

She doesn't say it out loud, though. Tucks one hand into her back pocket and gestures with her other hand up the hill. ]

Good timing. I think I found something.

[unlost]

[Snow's brows are furrowed at the very well covered tracks, though she looks up with relief and happiness at the sound of Emma's voice.

Her sense motive was garbage again. Yay.]

What is it? We could use some good news. We sort of hit a dead end over here.

[uncurse]

I ... [ She looks Snow in the eyes, balks for a moment, then deliberately turns to look at Regina instead as she explains: ] I headed back to where I lost track of our guy to look around some more, and I think I found where he was squatting. When I turned the place over, I found this ... dagger. It looked magical, so I ran it over to Hasmed. He's got some theories on what's going on. Sounds like the dagger was bleeding magical energy over into him, keeping him from controlling it.

[unhappily]

You didn't think to come tell us about this before you went running off with it to who knows where?

[unlost]

[She's just going to swallow down the whole fact that there's a magical dagger involved in a case where Mr. Gold might be the culprit and focus on the...facts. /cough]

So they really can't control what's happening.

[At least that sort of confirms her theory.]

If they no longer have the dagger, then does Hasmed think these attacks should stop?

[uncurse]

I didn't want to risk futzing around with a dagger that could be causing explosions to wait and see what happened. [ Snapped sharply. She cools off when she looks at Snow. ] That's the idea. Without the magic of the dagger, this guy's probably just ... ordinary. We're gonna try to scry for him in case we're wrong.

But the dagger, it's — [ She waffles. Flounders, trying to muster the best way to explain this. ] It belongs to Gold.

[unhappily]

So he is behind this.

[unlost]

[Snow frowns, looking at Regina.]

Not necessarily.

[No really, how do they explain this.]

I don't think this is how it's supposed to behave. [Her frown deepens.] How is it even here? Shouldn't it have been left behind when he arrived here?

[uncurse]

We don't know.

[ She states that firmly. Whether it's Gold's doing or not, as far as Emma is concerned, remains unclear. So she holds her hands up to pause that line of thought. ]

It must have fallen through the Veil on its own. Hasmed has some ... theories, about why it's behaving like this. Let's just— [ She gestures behind her. ] He's getting set up to scry for the bastard that did this. We should get back.

[unhappily]

Maybe he'll be able to tell us where he got his hands on this in the first place.

[unlost]

[Snow just gives Emma a short nod.]

Let's go then.

[uncurse]

[ It takes her until they're approaching Hasmed's place in the castle to work up to breaking further news. As she pulls open the door, she notes, ] Hasmed thinks that if there's some kind of blood magic involved, the dagger's power may transfer. Get unstable. So whoever we're looking for is ...

[unhappily]

Extremely dangerous. [ don't sound so fucking excited regina. when they open the door, hasmed has the place set up with a giant mirror :'D aw yeah ]

[unlost]

[Snow seems to finally fucking catch on that Emma's discomfort is pretty intense (wis 22), but it's a little late for that as they all enter the room.]

Did you find anything else, Hasmed?

[eldritchweaver]

Not yet. I needed Sir Swan present before I began. [ he studies emma's face for a moment like wat, before gesturing them all over ]

[uncurse]

Me?

[ Emma bristles. ]

I don't know what I'm doing; I've never scried before.

[ But she's approaching anyway, looking rather like she's caught between a rock and a hard place. ]

[unlost]

[Snow's concern grows as she makes her way over as well.]

Does the spell require extra people?

[eldritchweaver]

I need your assistance in focusing the spell. It works best not only when we have one of their possessions at hand [ and he waves a hand, summoning a magical safe into the room, which he proceeds to open, and carefully remove ~the dagger~ from ] -- but when we have someone who has met the subject as well.

[unhappily]

Except she didn't meet him. Our expert tracker there lost his trail in the woods. She only found the dagger afterward.

[unlost]

[Snow looks REALLY CONFUSED. She looks between the three of them before her gaze settles on her daughter.]

Emma?

[uncurse]

I'm sorry. Until I brought the dagger to Hasmed, I thought it would be better if we never had to see him again. [ She turns to Snow, readily apologetic. At this point, the lie hurts too much to maintain, to look Snow in the face for, and she turns to look at Hasmed. ] Let's get this over with.

[eldritchweaver]

[ hasmed waves a hand over the mirror, intoning words in some snake like language. emma plz do a concentration check??? ]