Ishan lays a hand on Regeris's sleeve as the group starts gathering their things to leave.
"One thing," he says, as the inquisitor turns back to him. "I would have to leave that door open to be able to get back in if I leave. I can't beat that lock you keep picking."
"I should be able to hire a couple laborers to haul stuff from the market, but actually securing the place would call for a locksmith, and that might draw questions of deeds. Anything we leave here right now could be gone by the time we get back if I leave the place unlocked. The house drake cannot credibly guard it while I'm gone."
"What I mean to say is, I can clean this place and try to put what's here in order, but until there's someone here to work with I can only go so far. Of course you must go see that the temple and the kids are alright after this morning, but I'll need your help..."
As he's talking, Nebbin opens the front door to walk back out into the street only to find a little handcart and a young woman standing outside. The girl's attention is fixed on the west side of the building where two men, one older and one young emerge from the shadow of the alley there. The men's faces are grim and the younger one has tear tracks streaking the dirt on his cheek. The girl shakes with grief as the two approach.
The shifting breeze brings back to you the odor of the alleyway and the reminder of what made this place so unattractive.
Seeing the big man in the doorway, both men increase their step toward the girl.
"It's okay Myrie," the older man says to her. "Come along now. Abner grab the cart.
Regeris nods over to Ishan. "Let me see if I can disable the lock so it won't latch and the door can just operate normally. And if there's one thing we can find in Old Korvosa, it's a locksmith who doesn't ask questions. Seeing to the temple is my first priority but then we can get to work setting this place up..."
He notices Nebbin staring at something. "Everything alright there?"
Nebbin gestures to the wain.
"I think they left a body," he says, tears filling his own eyes. "Maybe we should make sure they're OK? Though they're probably not if they're ... leaving someone here."
Kayleigh tries to be surreptitious as she checks out the man and two children for any sign of the blood veil.
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Safehouse Three
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Kayleigh spots the rash on both men. It's pretty obvious they're ashamed at being caught and they hurry to gather the girl and the cart before they're called out. The family's grief and desperation are palpable.
Inside, Ishan smiles and thanks Regeris, then moves up to peer around Nebbin.
"Ah Kayleigh, let me take these," he says, when he sees what's happening. "I'll see if there's something I can do for them. Go check on your temple and the kids. If there's something you can think to do about the bodies, that might be the most pressing business here when you get back."
"I wish I knew where the Wain is. If their service is disrupted for long the town's going to be overwhelmed. The people here aren't allowed to bury their own dead. They have neither the place nor the custom of dealing with this themselves."
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The Streets of Northpoint
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Emi and Tassira are swimming against the current trying to get closer to Longacre, but they manage it. One moment they're dodging their way through a crowd in retreat, and the next they're beyond it and find themselves nearly alone in the street about a block south of the Longacre intersection. Up ahead small knots of red-plumed Maidens scatter what remains of the crowd with their shields and the flats of their swords. The air rings with the screams of the terrorized crowd. They may have enjoyed the spectacle of Blackjack's daring rescue, but they're certainly not enjoying the Maidens' reaction to it.
There's no sign of Trap along the avenue in front of the Church of Abadar. The great golden doors of the church are closed and a mixture of guardsmen and church houseguard stand among the columns keeping watch. In the distance, City Hall rises up over the street shops. Longacre sits next to it, and the square that hosted the execution is a little further west.
As they stand there trying to decide if getting closer is prudent a plume of black smoke begins to rise into the sky just to the west. Another fire. Just what Korvosa needs.
Ishan's offer comes a moment too late: Kayleigh's already moving toward the people. "Excuse me! Who did you lose? I can help you, if you'll let me."
More quietly, the priestess adds to the older man, "I can heal you and the boy of the blood veil."
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Safehouse Three
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The man places an hand on the boy's arm to stay him and turns to face Kayleigh. The look on his face is all Kayleigh needs to see to understand his despair.
"M-my wife. Taken just this mornin' by the Veil. Honestly ma'am, facin' the prospect of watchin' these two go like that... Or worse, having them watch me go and then bein' left to the tender mercies of the street..."
He swallows a peach-sized knot in his throat and scratches the rash on his arm absentmindedly. He looks down at his shoes.
"I can't pay you nothin' but respect."
He looks back up at Kayleigh, perhaps really seeing her for the first time. His eyes linger on the holy symbol lying plain on her tunic.
"You and the Everbloom, that is. I heard rumors of a priestess of Milani in Old Dock who could dismiss the Veil with a touch... are you...?" Kayleigh can literally watch hope bloom across the man's distraught face like a sun rising over the city.
"I'm so sorry for your loss," Kayleigh tells the man, her fears about the victim confirmed. When the man goes on, she listens solemnly, nodding when he guesses at her identity.
"Unfortunately, there's a limit to how many people I can heal each day, and as a general rule I try to use my powers on those closest to death, but I'll make an exception in your case: You and your family have suffered enough."
After using her enhanced positive energy channel to remove the blood veil from father and son, Kayleigh gives the family tips on how to avoid contracting the plague again. She also tells them about the physicians, and that she and Ishan will be in the area doing what they can for the sick until the Queen's people penetrate further into Old Korvosa...or for those who want an alternative to the Queen's demands.
"As for payment, you owe me nothing. Just try to do your part to help the city and its inhabitants when you can; we're all in this together."
Emi watches the scene at the Longacre Building for a few minutes and decides it's enough to satisfy her.
"Well Tassira, I think this is as close as we should get. The Maidens are certainly in a mood. That's enough to convince me what the guy said is true. Black Jack got Trinia out and away. Damn."
She shakes her head in amazement.
The smoke prompts her curiosity further.
There's a fire! We should go see what's happening. I wonder if it has anything to do with this?"[/b] Emi gestures toward Longacre.
Emi moves on, giving the Maidens a wide berth and she hustles on in the direction of the smoke.
Tassira's face pales as she sees the smoke and moves to follow Emi.
As Kayleigh heals the man, Regeris speaks up. [b]"Have you seen much of what happened with the Queen's physicians and the people they took?"{/b]
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Safehouse Three
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The man nods reverently when Kayleigh talks, hanging on her every word. He smiles when he sees Regeris coming up, but shakes his head when he hears his question.
"No, I guess they just started rooting around in Old Dock today. We been..." he covers his mouth with one hand and gestures vaguely toward the alley with his other.
"I'm sorry to leave her there. We thought the place was abandoned. There were already so many and there ain't been no Wain."
Ishan comes over and lays his hand on the man's arm. He intones something under his breath, a prayer.
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The Streets of Northpoint
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Emileva and Tassira navigate down a side street, staying a couple blocks south of the chaos of the avenue and steering straight at the column of smoke. Coming to the end of a narrow alley the two ladies find themselves looking into the back-side of a crime scene. Just off the edge of Jeggare Circle, alone on a grassy sward of the common sits a simple Varisian caravaner's wagon rapidly burning to the ground. A man lies on the ground before the wagon, unmoving. His shirt is stained dark with blood. A woman kneels over him, making an inhuman moan that speaks of grief and building rage.
Another man has his back to the two and is turned to face a mob of angry people. He waves a knife before him but there are just too many to intimidate.
"Dirty Horser!" someone in the crowd shouts. Another screams, "Burn her out! Justice for the King!". The knifeman spares a glance over his shoulder at the crying woman and before Emi or Tassira can act someone from the crowd steps up and cracks a board over his head, dropping him.
In the din beyond the scene, in Jeggare Circle itself the chaos from the botched execution is playing out on a larger scale. The flash of silver and crimson marks maidens and guardsmen trying to constrain a panicking crowd. Through the smoke the frightful guillotine blade is still held aloft by the mechanism to catch and reflect the morning sun.
Nebbin smiles as Ishan helps the man, a bit oblivious as always, but keeps looking back to toward the church, eager to get moving to make sure the former Lambs are OK.
Kayleigh catches a strange reaction from Ishan, seemingly out of the blue. Although she's usually not very good at hiding her emotions, she puts on a decent poker face, waiting until she can speak in private to her fellow healer.
Emi groans, wishing she hadn't insisted on checking into the fire. The situation around them is dicey, and she checks again to see just how far away and busy the Gray Maidens are.
"Tassira, I don't suppose you happen to have anything that would be be good for scattering a crowd do you? I wish I'd thought to bring my Guard cloak, it would actually be very useful right now. I sure don't want the Maidens to come crashing in here and mix us up with the rest of these people."
Emi moves forward at a jog, coming up beside the man who just got clobbered. She positions herself between The woman and the crowd so she can try to keep and eye on both.
She doesn't draw any weapons. Holding out her arms, one toward the crowd and the other toward the woman and injured men, and calls out to both.
"What's happening here? What's the trouble?"
Regeris quietly clocks Ishahn's face and frowning, he quickly chants a prayer of his own to detect evil.
"People have to leave their loved ones somewhere. How to deal with the dead will be a problem for this community since the Gray isn't an option. We need something better than a back alley."
"Tassira, I don't suppose you happen to have anything that would be be good for scattering a crowd do you?"
"I have colour spray or just shooting lightning into the air, but otherwise... not really."
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The Bridgefront Clinic
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The little family leaves with a lot more hope than it brought here with it, that much you can be assured.
Regeris's sweep for evil comes up with nothing.
Following Ishan back into the clinic, he turns and sits on a crate that's just about the right size. He seems a little dazed, like his focus is on someone who's not in the room.
"I'm cut off from the Grace of the First Vault. My prayers went unanswered."
He looks around the room, settling on Regeris as if the inquisitor should have his answers.
"It's because I renounced the tithe. In my heart... he sees it. That's what it is, isn't it? Did he do the same to you once? Or was it different?"
He turns to Kayleigh.
"I think I knew it could happen when I said it. Not that what I said was wrong. But that it was heresy and that it could lead to this. I might be alot less useful in this clinic enterprise than we'd hoped," he ends, bleakly.
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The Streets of Northpoint
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Emi puts herself between the closest members of the mob and the woman, but angry hands pull the man who once held a knife into the crowd. She couldn't have saved him. The fact that he doesn't scream probably means that shot to the head killed him in the first blow.
Emi's immediate attention is taken by two of the mob's angriest, who step forward naturally to meet her offered resistance.
"What's happening is I'm taking that Varisian witch and wringing her neck till she gives up the murderer she's hidin! An' if she's willing to die for the killer, then her head can roll too!"
"You have to the count of now to get out of our way!" he screams in Emi's face.
The man directly behind the speaker nudges him out of the way and reaches in for the woman.
"Can't you just pray to another god?" Nebbin suggests, helpfully. "Like Regeris? I mean, Milani seems to answer him and Kayleigh, so I'm sure she'd listen to you too."
Kayleigh purses her lips into the trademarked perturbed pout she often shows when something troubles her. She's had her own crises of faith, but her doubts then were mostly in herself, not in Milani.
"Maybe that's the reason," she comments, sounding doubtful of her own words. "But I was always taught that actions speak louder than words, and you'd stopped paying your tithe a while ago...."
Regeris' stony face breaks into a wide stare as he realizes what's happened.
"I ... my crisis of faith was like a dam bursting. I never once violated my tenants, or to be honest was tempted. Sometimes I wondered why terrifying creditors was a good use of the faith, but I believed with true zeal. When I uncovered a scandal and was told to bury it for the sake of political expediency, everything crumbled at once." He sighs. "I never prayed to him again."
He looks at Ishahn carefully. "It would be extremely unfair of me to proselytize to you right now so I will not. But tell me your story. WHat drew you to the faith?"
"I was pulled into the church as an orphan on the streets of Indapatta, but before my mother died she taught me letters. I'm a fast learner."
He smiles and shrugs.
"They took me away from Vudra. To school in Absalom for twelve years before I was placed in the House of Healers. Now here, for four. Honestly I figured I would go home soon."
He digests Kayleigh's point for a minute, then replies.
"When the context of a life is laid bare, the thought behind an action may weigh more than the action itself. That choice was the first time I've ever held the means to pay my tithe in my hand and chose another use for it."
He look back at Regeris.
"I think it was the tithe. I need to meditate on this. To pray and perhaps seek atonement."
"So it is judged," says Regeris bitterly. "It was absolutely the tithe. A fee for a service is foundational - if you give handouts it undermines the very function of such great civilizations as this one."
His voice dripping with irony, Regeris casts a hand over the horrific poverty of the area they are headquartered in.
Kayleigh winces at Ishan's words, knowing she's still a ways from being able to cast an atonement spell on the Abadaran. None of her contacts at the Pantheon of Many can cast that spell either, she fears, but then a thought hits her. "Maybe Keppira d'Bear of the Pharasmin church could cast such a spell. It's been a while since we last chatted. Plus, we could ask why the wains are so behind schedule in Old Korvosa."
Cut him down, Emi!
"No," Ishan shakes his head, sadly. "Such an Atonement must come from the House of Abadar. With the aid of sacred texts or the intercession of maybe the High Banker himself. There is no way back to his grace but through the body of his church. No way save perhaps personal appeal."
He stands up and begins to push you all towards the door.
"Go check on your orphans and give my respect to the old men there at the Temple. Leave me with my thoughts and my conscience for awhile."
"Maybe I'll find something else to clean."
Once out the door you're hit again immediately by the rising stench of the dead, piled so near by. You have many problems to solve but that one seems to be getting worse fast. Looking into the windows of the neighboring buildings there aren't many signs of life. An occasional raised voice or cough, or maybe the barking of a dog somewhere deep in the building.
As you walk down the narrow lane, back toward Waydon Street and the day's traffic you trade the stench of the dead for the stench of the living. People shuffle quickly to their destinations to do the business that brought them out of their homes. No loitering or conversations. Little gossip or rumor to be had.
The long walk eventually dumps you onto Old Korvosa Boulevard, several blocks north of the temple. Turning south you quickly come to the back of a crowd filling the street. Ahead, the Maidens and Physicians have created a cordon, effectively closing the Boulevard to traffic. It's just as they'd done at the bridge the night before, only several blocks north now, with their quarantine now including the Temple of Aroden and some unguessed portion of Old Dock.
There are no signs of trouble to the north, toward the docks and the Constabulary, or on the road up Garrison Hill. Just here in the boulevard leading into the plaza the party is trying to reach. You could try walking through their cordon, finding and waiting in some queue and subjecting yourself to some kind of possible examination. Disguise might help. Or you could try some back way around the cordon, perhaps leveraging Kayleigh's disused flat. You have no sense of how complete their little quarantine is.
Nebbin looks anxiously at the line of maidens ahead of him.
"Do you think they know we're coming back? They can't be doing this all for us," he says in quick fashion, trying to dispel his own nerves.
He looks around.
"Maybe we can find another way there," he suggests.
Kayleigh's despair shows plainly on her face. "It's no use!" she says despondently. "Even if we find some way of getting around the cordon, we'd likely have to do so again to get back to Ishan. I was thinking about trying to use the sewers to slip in, but even if we were to get into those, most of the exits are sealed up tight; we might end up trapped down there."
"What's the plan if we hole up in my flat?" she asks Nebbin and Regeris. "Not answer the door when the physicians and Maidens come knocking? Or risk an examination?"
As the man tries to grab her, Emi jerks back from him and pistons her arm straight forward, striking at his head with the heel of her hand's palm rather than a closed fist.
"Back off!" she shouts.
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The Streets of Northpoint
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Emi's attacker ducks enough to make her blow inconsequential. Her strength and balance though, catch him by surprise and she shrugs off his pathetic grab attempt. He spins around and is joined by a mate to square off against Emi. Other members of the mob push by.
"You better run, you little b~###!" he growls.
In the tussle, another of the mob quickly gets the other woman's arms pinned. She screams and kicks savagely as she's lifted off the ground.
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Old Korvosa Boulevard, Old Dock
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Tassira's eyes flash and she slides a piece of spider web from her spell component pouch.
She starts repeating something in a droning, arcane voice before throwing the web into the middle of the mob, causing it to erupt into a mess of sticky strands that ensnare and restrain limbs!
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The Streets of Northpoint
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Tassira's spell erupts in the midst of the mob wrapping more than a dozen people together into one sticky mass. Luckily that mass doesn't spread to the burning wagon or many of the people caught in the mess might die. The web alone causes enough shrieking you would think that it had caught fire. Those fortunate enough not to get trapped in it push forward in panic, upsetting Emi's attackers and separating the two women.
At the height of the chaos the red checker of the guard bursts onto the scene, using shields and bats to take control of the burning wagon. Behind the guards come the Maidens, steel in hand and promising no mercy. The guards are saying something but it's lost in the scramble to flee. Forgotten by her attackers and clinging to parts of a torn dress, the young woman slips down a nearby alley and flees from guard and mob alike.
Emi tries to maneuver through the crowd to keep the distance between the Maidens and herself from shrinking while trying to spot Tassira.
After seeing Ishan run out, Regeris shakes his head sadly, torn onwhether or not to push at the man about how the problem isn't his faith, it's his God.
Regeris unhappily observes the cordon from afar before turning to Kayleigh and Nebbin.
"I can almost certainly get through via a variety of means and get a sense of what's going on with the cordon. It may be the easiest way to handle things. In the meantime perhaps you two can talk to people who have been through and see what information you can get."
"Alright," Kayleigh says to Regeris, although her tone is reluctant. "We'll meet back here in an hour or two...or further back up the boulevard if the Queen's people extend their cordon." It's obvious the cleric is nervous and uncomfortable with the whole situation. "Be careful!" she urges Regeris. "Find and trust in your hidden strength," she adds, paraphrasing an old Milanite aphorism.
She turns to Nebbin and her nervousness melts away; it's obvious she's already found her own hidden strength in the mighty but kind-hearted warrior. Seizing his hand in hers, she smiles and says, "Let's find out what we can about this cordon and how the Queen's physicians are going about their business of dealing with the blood veil in Old Korvosa."
Nebbin blushes furiously, as usual, as Kayleigh grabs his hand, though he smiles warmly at her when he realizes it's just the two of them ... and everyone else in the street.
He does his best to help her as she asks around, smiling warmly at the people Kayleigh's talking to and trying not to loom.
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Jeggare Circle, Northpoint (Tassira & Emileva)
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As the flood of people wash by, Emi's forced to give up the man who made his stand against the crowd with a knife. He's trampled and she would be as well had she stayed there with him. It turns out quite alot of people turn out for the public execution of the person accused of murdering the king. It feels like half of them decided to stay for the afterparty and are now trying to run down this alley when the guard's showed up.
Emi twists and forces her way through the throng to Tassira's side.
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Old Korvosa Boulevard, Old Dock (Regeris, Nebbin & Kayleigh)
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"Right. Guess that's our cue to get out of here?" Tassira asks, already turning on her heel by the time Emi reaches her.
Emi grabs Tassira's hand so they won't be so easily separated again. She starts working her way through the crowd, not fighting the flow but moving with it while angling toward the edge. She leaves what comes next up to Tassira.
"Do we go after the woman from the wagon? I saw which way she went. Or do we just get out of here and start back? Your choice."
"...I think we should head back. We've seen all we need to, and I don't think we'll make any progress fighting this disease if we stick around."
After some deciding, Regeris decides to go with the left path to keep clear of the river and wave street and avoid a chance of being pinned down.
Regeris finds that the Plague Doctors have created a shallow and broad bridgehead in Old Dock. The further west the inquisitor probes, the closer he draws to the active focus of the quarantine's expansion. Every few blocks they have posted a guardsman to maintain vigil on the cordon line. He finds a gap and takes advantage of a fortunate distraction to slip past the line and steal a block of southing. Pulling his neck scarf up over his face he blends in with the rest of the thin crowd behind the quarantine line, back to the plaza surrounding the temple. Parked next to the temple is a Pharasmin's Wain.
Although Emi has kind of hoped Tassira would opt for trying to find the woman, she wouldn't have offered the decision to Tassira if she didn't intend to abide by what Tassira chose.
She's almost certainly right anyway.
"Right. As soon as we clear the crowd, we'll circle around all this mess and go to the north edge by the river to see about getting back across."
The guards don't pursue the crowd. They just form a perimeter around the burning wagon and let the crowd melt away. The two varisian corpses lie where the mob left them.
Looping around the chaos takes Tassira and Emi back to the steps of the museum, and down memory lane to the investigation of a murder that Rolth has so far gotten away with. From there it's a straight shot around the base of Acadamae Hill to the Great Tower and the bridge back into Old Korvosa.
As they come into view of the tower, however, they come to a terrible traffic backlog. There's a huge crowd around the tower gate which leads out to the Narrows road and the bridges back into Old Korvosa. If this is the route they are taking they will be waiting in a massive queue for a while.
Looking around in frustration, the ladies see few alternatives to that.
Tassira and Emi grind their bones for an hour in the line to cross back over to Old Korvosa before someone finally opens up a line for individual pedestrians. So much of the line is made up of wagons carrying the city's commerce into Old Korvosa. Tucked in among the traffic Emi spies a Pharasmin's Wain. It's no wonder the corpses are piling up in the alleys.
At the head of the line there is a table setup in the gatehouse next to the slow-moving traffic. Two guards flank a young man sitting at the table with a huge ledger open in front of him. In front of the table the next person from the line answers questions asked him by one of the Queen's Physicians. It's not really possible to overhear the questioning over the sounds of wagons, livestock and the general din of the traffic stream being inspected, not until you're close enough to make leaving conspicuous.
"What is your name?"
"What is your business on the island?"
"Are you aware of the extent of the spread of the plague among the city's poor there?"
"Are you aware of the danger of leaving the quarantine, and that to re-enter it you must be admitted by a qualified physician?"
The physician circles the person being questioned throughout. No one is detained or turned away, and no one asks any questions of the physician, but every name is taken, along with some other notes that the young man works on furiously while the physician asks his questions.
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"What is your name?"
"Alexa Dorne." The mage says, folding her hands before her.
"What is your business on the island?"
"Making a mail delivery."
"Are you aware of the extent of the spread of the plague among the city's poor there?"
"Yes."
"Are you aware of the danger of leaving the quarantine, and that to re-enter it you must be admitted by a qualified physician?"
Or I can just ask Kayleigh to cure me, quill-pusher.
"Yes." She nods, answering all of the asked questions.
Regeris stares for a moment at the wain before swallowing his horror and confusion. He starts to move closer, watching for anyone he may not want spotting him.
Emi steps up after Tassira.
"What is your name?"
"Veda Calvus"
"What is your business on the island?"
"I'm returning home from a stay with family outside the city."
"Are you aware of the extent of the spread of the plague among the city's poor there?"
"Yes, I've heard."
"Are you aware of the danger of leaving the quarantine, and that to re-enter it you must be admitted by a qualified physician?"
"Yes."
Nebbin turns to Kayleigh during a quiet moment as they try to get information.
"I'm sure everything's OK inside," he says. "Everyone was healthy when we left."