As the sound approaches, Valerie brings her rod up and points it towards the door, preparing the shape of an imagos in her head, waiting, waiting... She looks to Ashlyn listening in to see if they're coming closer, going away, or what, and then...

Valerie slumps slightly with a breath. Her magic was good enough, seems like. "Okay, that's... worrying." She raises her rod, poking her ear with it.
_{Tune In: Gnosis 2, Forces 3, High Speech 2, Concentration 2. Reach Instant, Reach advanced duration.}
RSGdRIQi8d10
_{Reroll 10}
1d10
_{2 succ}

She then holds a hand up to call for silence and listens for a little while, in case they use a cellphone or something to 'report in.'

She also grabs her phone with the other hand to do her own report (getting to listen to the radio data for that, too.) 'They got some 'signs' that someone awoke, and 'felt something' but my magic held up under scrutiny and they didn't notice. Think they know someone is on their way ('trouble'.) I think they're leaving, but I'm still on my guard.'8d10·1d10

...If they have 'better things to do' than finding someone who awoke, then why on earth are they here? What's their oh so important business to still be here? Val and Ash survived, now she should be finding out what they're up to.

"We should tail them," she informs Ashlyn. "They've given up on Ethan's mom, but they're obviously here for something, so we should go, but carefully, and listen in."

She wheels on out towards the door. "Can't just let them run amok without knowing what they're up to." She tugs the door and peeks out to make sure the coast is clear before slipping out to have a look in the direction they headed off to.

Val is glad she's kept her chair in good working order as she silently rolls on through the hallway. This is really eerie looking, all those blank looks. Like they're... just frozen there, drugged out, if not worse. It's a potent spell, too, to be affecting so many. Much as she could try to dispel it, however, it's probably best to gather information before she gives herself away.

She rolls on over to the balcony's edge to peer through the railing... Moving forwards just enough to be able to look down at the source. She just needs visual contact to be able to listen in from any distance she wants, after all.

...as a good measure, she also sets her phone on silent before approaching.

An Urim? That's not a term she's familiar with... And Octavian? Another mage, clearly, in charge of ... whatever this is and what they're searching for doing... whatever this is with their artifact. So many questions, so much strangeness. She'll have to repo--

She glances to the nurse, then back at the casting. Oh, no, no way. Besides his nimbus being horrifyingly offensive to her, a lot of people will get hurt by this so she can't really let that happen. She targets the forming imago before it's expanded too far and shoves her own Forces into it.

_{Force Counterspell: Gnosis 2, Forces 3. Costs her 1 mana if he's better at Forces than she is. Clash of Wills}
hZKL4k5I5d10
<sub>2 succ

Reroll against tie</sub>
5d10
_{1 succ, for 3 total}5d10·5d10

Pentacle? They're seers??

She narrows her eyes at the use of his word. She hates that word. "Well fuck you too, buddy."

_{Initiative 5}
a1PArxau1d10
Initiative 121d10

She casts her spell, holds the Imago in mind, and...

Nothing.

Her imago tears, ripping apart.

"Nice try." He shouts darkly in High Speech, calling on his own sign as a dedicated tool. The hell kind of Obrimos specializes in Death?!

He doesn't target her, though - he targets her chair. Abruptly, it's transformed into ephemera, wisping away into unseen essence and leaving her to tumble painfully to the floor.

The woman swears, struggling and getting pinned, while Aster manages to dissipate into ephemera himself, vanishing as he phases out.

Well shit. She can attack him with Prime, but she can't perceive him.

Of course, he can't have gone far casting. She could probably imbue the enclosure with Ephemeral Enchantment before he escapes.

The Exarchs only know what bullshit the woman will cook up. Backup could stand to arrive faster!

It's hard to say if it worked. She's managed to disable two mages, temporarily anyway!

Then the windows on the side of the building smash and black-clad soldiers swing in from lines. And here she is pinned to the floor by her stupid legs.

Several of them slips catastrophically as Fate twists around them, falling with startled screams.

As they float there, losing control, she watches them and something about them is a little odd from her Prime sight. Then they begin time to unravel, shadows of Prime fading into nothing - Phantasms. Even the damage on the window was fake, an impressive use of illusion to hide truth.

When she glances back, she sees the twisted flooring around the man was wrenched open.

Then a shape materializes next to her, the man raising a blade covered with entropic fire - and then is slammed to the ground by a growling, panther-human shape. At first, she thinks it's Ethan (once her heart stops pounding at a mile a minute) but Ethan's hair isn't that long, he doesn't wear a doctor's coat, and he certainly doesn't have breasts. Savagely, she shreds him and bites into his throat, shaking him until it snaps.

Ethan is certainly here. She saw his magic.

She turns her harsh eyes and bloodied jaw to her, growling deep in her chest, but then recognition dawns and she stops. Panting, she lashes her tail before it, her fur, and her jaw retract and return to normal.

"Valerie?" She wipes her mouth, looking at the blood on her arm and then down at the man she killed, his body still. "...I thought that was you. I saw him about to hurt you."

She seems strangely serene about it. A predator's calm.

"I was in a place where everything was eating everything else, but the cycle... it was beautiful, virtuous. The old gave way to the new and yet never truly died, only living on in a connected whole. I smeared my blood on a stone that sang with the wind, and it was like my eyes were opened... I'm so confused."

"Mom?!" Ethan stares at her as he comes up the stairs, mind blown.

Ashlyn checks cautiously for the Seer remaining. "I think she's suffocating."

The door opens and a group of mages blur into the building, including Ikenga. The remaining Seer tries to cast a spell, but they lock her down and get to work figuring out what she did. Ikenga lifts her hammer and quickly restores the floor to its original condition, then bounds up to meet her.

Ethan thuds into his mother, tears welling up, while she watches everything with endless surprise and curiosity. She oofs and smiles down at him. "...so this is why you never tell me about your day."

"Mom... I'm so glad you're okay."

He squirms free, going to scoop Valerie up into his arms. "You too. God."

Ikenga gives her a sympathetic smile and has her scoot aside, the Moros dispelling the Gate spell and dropping her chair back.

"Let's get you four out of here. We'll clean up - and chin up. However it happened, you managed to hold off two Seers and showed some clever thinking."

"I'm terrified out of my wits!" Ashlyn says cheerfully. She comes over and takes Valerie's hand, sharing a shaken grin.

"Octavian?" Ikenga's face darkens. "Yeah. I know about him - he's made some noise in the city before."

"Janet?" Parvati asks, going to the shaken nurse Valerie saved earlier. She's curled up in fetal position in a corner.

The woman looks up at her in mild terror. "...Dr. Srinivasi? What's going on...? Oh, god, your mouth! Are you okay?" She gets up a little.

"I'm fine." Parvati looks aroundand frowns slightly. "I don't really understand, either, but these people are friends of my son. I think we should listen to them."

The people in the hospital are starting to come awake, and with the body removed and the floor fixed, the only sign anything would be wrong would be the time passed and two employees missing without cause. Hopefully, no one affected was in surgery. Valerie finds a van waiting outside, but it's not convenient for handicap so Ikenga summons a Lyft.

The act is so mundane that it almost gives Valerie whiplash. She just had a knockdown fight with two other mages, barely avoiding getting stabbed in the process, and watched a man die, but she's standing on the side of a street in busy Monday traffic, waiting for a taxi.

Parvati gets the opportunity to gasp again when her son recasts the spell that lets Valerie see his mien. They talk in low tones, Ethan's relief at being able to tell her palpable.

To think - at home, right now, her dad is a Sleepwalker thanks to Lakshmi.

That Parvati chose - unconsciously - a panther form to protect Valerie can't be a coincidence. It's adorable watching her run her fingers through her son's fur - though she's worried more after he tells his story about being lost for months when she thought him just out of touch for merely weeks.

Together, they help catch her up to speed.

Ethan helps Valerie out, looking up at the sky now clearing from her mood. "I've been thinking of doing a video talking about - you know. How difficult it's been. Not the full story, but... I dunno. I don't think I can be happy-go-lucky Noway for a bit. I managed in that last video, but it was hard."