Lily paused the moment ice formed around her on the ground she giggled and started sliding around on it in circles having fun. She nodded in acknowledgement about the little wyvren and slided to the edge of the ice before stepping off of it and taking a peak inside the bag. "Oh, so cute. I was worried someone was hurt somewhere but she's safe that's good." Both of the women had something that spoke so half jokingly but sounding serious Lily said with a smile, "The only voices I hear are the ones inside my head." It technically was the truth but not in the way she made it seem. She could hear and communicate with creatures through her mind and would sometimes even pick up projected or loud thoughts of those around her. She let out a little laugh and headed down the tunnel once again. 

A little ways down she paused. They were at a fork in the road. "Hmm, there are several living things down the right path, their auras are a bit… sinister, down the left path there is only one that I can pick up at the moment but it feels like it's blocked off partially so we may have a collapse in the tunnel. It's hard to tell it's state of being with the block but it's probably safe to assume it's similar to the others. Which way would you like to go?" She asked turning to the other two ladies.

It seemed this ice queen of sorts wasn't as cold as she intended herself to be. Marcasite behaved well, and retreated into the bag to rest. When the elven woman took out the tomes from her bags, it was very clear that they were hexed. Carrying a cursed object on one's person for too long would have serious long-term effects on the owner's mind, but no one had asked her for her advice. Lily the stated that the only voices she heard were those in her head, which Liselotte acknowledged with a smile. "Telepathy I presume? Standard fare for mages." The fork in the road presented a choice, and a challenge. Which was safer for them? Which wasn't? This was quite the conundrum.

"I suppose I would choose the left passage. That blockage sounds like something I'd like to investigate, if that is the only difference between the two. Either way the inhabitants aren't very hospitable to guests, so the less distance we go in the faster we can pull back to retreat." The final vote would fall to the other silver-haired elf. Whatever she chose would be the tiebreaker.

Cijor was in his tower, he needed to go, Miri was probably waiting. But the old wizard needed to take his potion, he hated the thing, it tasted like ogre saliva… because it was ogre saliva. He drank a huge cup of it and wiped his mouth with his sleeve, shivering, feeling his features slowly turn less wrinkled and his body becoming more fit. 
Then in a flash of dark smoke, the tower was empty.

 Suddenly out of nowhere, the girls saw a flash of blinding light from in front of Miri. An old man, looking now to be in his late fifties, his eyes much wiser. He was dressed in a blue and gold robe with his white hair running down his back and a gray beard falling all the way to his stomach. He held a staff that had a slight glow to it as if his recent teleport still had its lasting effects.
"Miri, I'm back, have you fou-… who are these two?"

Miri had already explored down to the blockage, she was actually the cause of it. The passage was overran by spiders but they won't be able to go the other way due to all the angry spiders and demented spirits. She closed her eyes and began focusing on her hand which was pressed in a crack on the blockage. She had walked ahead as the other two were talking and trying to decide.

   She began pushing ice into the crack, breaking and splitting the stone. Her hands slowly coated in thick ice and it began up her arms as she worked. Every second she spent using Mana was another degree the tunnel cooled down. By the time she made a decent walkway to squeeze through into the next room, a blinding light filled the room. She wasn't use to the light but knew the scent of the old friend and wizard, Cijor. Out of either childishness or pure surprise, she leaped back, freezing half his beard and the floor as she landed between the other two. Her armor echoing as the three inch thick ice slammed against the floor and slid her straight into a wall before she was able to stop. The floor however, was too slippery to stand securely on. She heard a question but was too dazed to understand it.

She gave a smile and little laugh as Liselotte guessed right. "Only a bit, I don't practice on people so unless you are purposely thinking very loud and projecting it I won't hear it. Creatures and plants on the other hand, I hear them well." She explained as to give comfort that she wasn't just going to read her every thought.  The ice queen seemed to have all but ignored her and went down the blocked passage. Lily sighed and said quietly to Liselotte, "She doesn't seem very good at communicating with people." She made to follow the ice queen but bedore she could start forward another aura appeared. Immediately Lily hummed with magic small sparks skittering across her skin. The ice queen was then back near them with ice skidding her back to a wall. A stranger had appeared, she narrowed her eyes at him. Her childlike innocence was replaced by seriousness with the appearance of this person. After a few moments she relaxed slightly, letting go of her magic and looking between the ice queen and the old man. "Miri? I take it that's your name then. Hehe, I was just calling you ice queen in my head." She said in a slightly teasing manner as she slid her way over to Miri and assessed her condition as she asked, "Not hurt are you? If so let me know and I'll make it all better." 

A bright childish smile returned as she looked at the old man. "I'm Lily since you seem curious. Do you have a name I should call you or should I just call you grandpa?" Her eyes looked him over as if assessing him before they slid behind him to look at the blockage. "Oh, it's open. If no one is in any need of assistance I believe we should start forward and see what's down there, it could be something fun. It feels like something fun." She said with a devious looking smile by the end. She had kept it to herself but with the blockage opened she could feel the aura she had before a bit clearer, there was still something blocking it but it may not have been a physical object.  That made her curious, very curious. She slid her way to the edge of the ice and peeked through the opening in the blockage that miri had created. "Hmm, seems like a long tunnel, I wonder what awaits at the end."

Liselotte gave a little sigh as she agreed with Lily. "It's not unheard of for those in noble rank to be a bit…removed from the rest of the world. I've seen a small share of such things." The woman refused to give any information, even in making small talk. Yet she could hardly contain her own emotions, so it was likely she was not used to interacting with outsiders. She followed after Lily only to find that everyone had stopped. About to ask what was the matter, her own question was asked by Lily herself. A strange man in his twilight years was present, and he seemed to know the snow woman well. Not wanting to be redundant she waited for the man to introduce himself. However she was already looking for any clues that would reveal his identity even before then.

The garb and air of this man was that of a learned scholar, a sorcerer as well. His age was unnecessary, as it likely was trivial in this case. To her surprise, that blockage Lily had detected was no longer there. Had the man removed it in a blink of an eye? The air felt heavy with the aura of magic, even stronger and headier than that of her professor. Professor Myouga's aura was like a blinding light at high noon, strong and clear while radiating wherever it could reach. This man's aura was like a dense fog, or a cloud of smoke. It hung in the air and lingered, condensing itself with time. Turning to the elf woman whom she learned to be called 'Miri' from Lily's offhand comment, Liselotte inquired. "This is an acquaintance of yours, perhaps? I hope he won't mind traipsing along with us three young ladies." A coy smile formed at the edges of her lips as she leaned on her bo staff. The ground was somehow slick here, so this was a good time as any to have it out. Like Lily she was curious as to the nature of that barrier from earlier, and when they all were ready to go she would move along.