“What are we going to do about it?” she asked.

“Once we have the ones we can track,” Danielle said, “we need to sweep this whole place anyway. The goal is still to find out what is happening to the astral space and stop it. If our people are still out there to find, we’ll find them.”

“And how long will that take?” Thalia asked.

“We’ve surveyed enough to know the astral space is only a fraction of the size of the world it’s attached to,” Danielle said. “We don’t leave until we retrieve all our people, living or dead.”

“Quite right,” Emir said. “And as it happens, my people are specialists at finding things over large areas that are often hidden with magic. Hope is by no means an outlandish choice.”

Thalia nodded. “I want to hear as soon as we find anything.”

“Of course.”

* * *

The support camp outside the aperture was an array of large tents set up near the opening. The aperture was in a crevice in a rocky outcropping and people were coming out in a steady stream. On the astral space side, the healers were in triage mode, healing people up just enough to send them through the underwater aperture. The soaking wet adventures were then sorted into two groups. Those in need of further healing were taken to the recovery tents, while the rest were sent to the dormitory tents.

Vincent was in charge of the camp and had roped Jason in as his assistant. There wasn’t much call for Jason’s cleansing ability, just the occasional infection. Vincent was in charge of making the actual decisions, with Jason’s job being to sort out any problems with enacting them.

Jason’s biggest responsibility was dealing with people who weren’t happy with the arrangements and keep them from bothering Vincent. It was, Vincent claimed, the entire reason he chose Jason to assist him. Even after escaping the horrors of battle, there were some who felt the need to complain about the accommodations. These were the ones who never saw the frontline and were evacuated first.

“You expect me to stay in a tent with all these people?” a nobleman asked Jason.

“You were in a tent during the expedition,” Jason said.

“A private magical tent! This is just a tarp with poles, and as for what you generously describe as beds—”

“Listen, mate, you’ve got three options. Option one is taking the accommodation and shutting your damn mouth. Option two is you sod off into the desert and find your own way home. Option three is you hang about making a nuisance of yourself and your mouth gets shut for you.”

“You think you can treat me like this? You have no idea who you’re—”

“Fellas!” Jason called out loudly, over the top of the nobleman. “We’ve got another option three.”