She appeared in a small forest with a light mist settling over it. She took a quick look around herself and muttered, "This had better have worked..." before walking in a completely random direction.
Of course, that random direction happened to be the one she wanted. Perhaps ten minutes later, she made her way out of the forest and into the outskirts of a nearby town. Though 'town' was a bit of a stretch, it was quite small.
Mhaiera wandered over to a man hanging around near the edge of town. "Excuse me..." she said softly to him. "I'm afraid I'm a bit lost... Would you happen to be able to tell me where I am?"
He blinked, and looked up into her dark purple eyes. "Yes, miss..." he said, shivering at the look in her eyes. "You're in the town of Burg."
Mhaiera bit her lip and developed a thoughtful look on her face as she said, "I see... Tell me... is there anything... signifigant about this town?"
The man's eyes went a touch wide at that. "Yes..." he said slowly. "This is the hometown of ex-Dragonmaster Alex and his family, but if you want to meet them at all, I think he and his wife have gone to visit friends on the mainland..."
"Oh, really..." she said with undertones of acid. "Thank you, you've been a great deal of help... One more question, though, if you don't mind..."
He nodded warily.
"Would you happen to know of any place in town where I might be able to spend the night?"
"I think so... Try around the centre of town, and if there's nothing, you should be able to find someone willing to put you up for the night..."
Mhaiera thanked the man and went further into town. Yes, this place would suit her purposes nicely. Quite nicely indeed. Though it would be hard for it not to, that whole matter of the 'hometown' made all the difference.
A Return Wave would probably be the most effective, though some modifications would be in order. But that wasn't something that would take too long. Just add an elemental quality to it, and that would take care of that...
There did indeed prove to be a small hotel near the centre of the town. While it seemed fairly new, it also had a well-used air to it. Mhaiera entered the hotel and casually booked a room 'for the next day or so' and managed to arrange payment upon departure.
Chuckling to herself about that, Mhaiera made her way up to the room which she had been directed to. Once there, she began her work retooling her spell.
That night, satisfied with the job she had done, she went outside. After wandering around the town for a little bit, she headed for the centre.
Mhaiera grinned. "What a picturesque little town... It's almost a pity it'll be gone by morning... Almost..."
She whispered a few words under her breath, then threw her left arm out, sending a jet of flame streaking away from her. Lighting everything it passed on fire, it eventually curved around and returned to her, stopping just in front of her.
Then, she turned in a different direction and did it again. Within ten minutes, the entire town was on fire.
"Luna!"
"What is it, what... Oh, it's you again... Now what? Did you have a pet cat that likes to eat people, or something?"
"This is important... I don't know how long I can do this for, but... You have to go home. Now. It's an absolute imperative."
"Could you make up your mind, please? First, you tell me to come here. Now, you're telling me to go home. Are you going to be picking one any time soon?"
"Luna, you have to go back... Mhaiera is... She's... I don't know what, but she's there, and I doubt she's making cookies for when you get back."
"Well... it wouldn't hurt, I guess... But if you know where she is and all, why can't you do anything to stop her?"
"What do you think I'm doing?"
"I think you know how I mean it."
"I suppose... In which case, I am doing something. I can't very well run around the world chasing after in my state, after all. If you mean directly doing anything, I need to set certain things up, which is effectively what you are doing. I'm overextending myself as it is, which probably means I'm going to have people with sticks running after me soon enough. I'm doing all I can. If I could do this myself without bothering you, believe me, I would."
"I... all right, I'll see what I can manage... No promises or anything, though."
"That's the best I can hope for. I need to go now, there'll be problems if I stay any longer."
"We have to go back to Burg. As soon as possible."
"What?" Alex said, startled. "What do you mean, Luna?"
Luna bit her lip. "I mean we have to go back to Burg..."
Shrugging, Alex said, "All right, but why?"
With a sigh, Luna said, "You know how Mhaiera just ran off like that? I... sort of... have been told that she's gone to Burg."
Even more surprised, Alex said, "What? Who told you? And how would they know?"
Closing her eyes, Luna hesitated a few moments before answering. "I... know how I am about secrets, and yes, I still think they shouldn't be kept, but in this case... I shouldn't really say who told me, it would only cause problems, and knowing who it was won't really affect anything... Please, you have to trust me on this one..."
Alex nodded. "If it's that important to you, then I guess it's all right... I mean, it makes me even more curious, but I guess it's all right."
Luna blinked, a tiny bit surprised. "Thank you, Alex."
With a slight shrug, he smiled at her. "So if we're going to go back, we should probably tell Mia or Nash that we're leaving... Unless you think either of them will want to come, too?"
They soon found the aforementioned duo, and as it turned out, they were indeed interested in tracking down Mhaiera, but they had to make a few arrangements first, and Nash reasoned that it would be best for him to remain behind.
A few hours later, though, the three of them were off to Meribia to catch a boat to Caldor Isle. Thankfully, they managed to arrive at the city perhaps an hour or so prior to the scheduled departure of one.
The trip to Saith was entirely too long, or at least it seemed that way to Luna. She was probably just nervous; that seemed a likely explanation for the apparent 'length' of the trip. Still, it seemed to go on forever.
However, they did arrive in Saith the next day, leaving only the trip from there to Burg ahead of them. That seemed overly long as well to Luna, but the sun was just starting to set when Alex, Luna, and Mia made their way through the eastern side of the Weird Woods and into the now no longer smoking ruins of Burg.
"What happened here?" Mia whispered, staring.
Luna was shaking her head. "No... she didn't... Did she...?"
Luna's mostly rhetorical question was answered by a low, clear voice ringing out around the trio in tones that would freeze the air. "I was wondering when you would get here..."