The man looked at Charlie for a minute and then nodded. "What do you need me to do?"
Charlie merely held out her hand as she put her head down on the table, using her left arm as a pillow as she closed her eyes and didn't say anything. She waited calmly until she felt the man put his hand in hers. The moment he did, she pulled on her magic and heard him gasp.
"What're you doing to him?" the other man demanded.
"I just showed him my memories," Charlie answered, taking her hand back. "It's done now anyway."
She could hear the first man breathing raggedly, clearly recovering from the sudden influx of information. Mildly Charlie wondered if that might be similar to how people felt on The Matrix when they had stuff downloaded into their brain.
It took a few minutes before the man recovered, apparently he'd done something or indicated that he was alright because the other man didn't say or do anything further, which Charlie couldn't help but feel a little relief at. She really just wanted this to be over with quickly.
"So, all you want to do is find the next gate?" the man asked.
"Yeah, simple as that," Charlie said, hoping they were just about done, not bothering to look up.
"Watch your tongue!" the other man snapped. There was a pause and the second man protested, "But sir!"
"Don't worry about it. If I cant handle this, then I'd have lost control of things long ago," the first man assured the other.
Charlie merely steadied her breathing and was surprised to find she was already nodding off. Her stomach had found a position it was fine in and didn't hurt so much, although the pain was still there, but with her drowsiness it wasn't that noticeable.
Though, she had the sense that the man was talking to her, but she couldn't be sure. If he was, then she wasn't able to make out anything he'd said. Sleep overtook her after that brief thought.
_
Beth was wondering what their hosts wanted with Charlie, but wasn't sure how best to inquire about it. After all, it wasn't like she thought Charlie was in danger. Just that she wondered when Charlie might get back. Although, she suspected that it might take a while.
Even though they didn't have a watch or a clock with them, or even a simple hourglass, Beth estimated that it had been around an hour since Charlie had been pulled away from them. She wondered if they should press their hosts to help them get to the next gate, but doubted it would help them get there any faster if Beth tried talking with them.
Especially since aside from the guards, the king's son, the king himself, and a few others, everyone seemed to look at Beth and her friends with suspicion if not outright hostility. Almost like their existence was an affront to them.
Beth had a feeling that they needed to get out of here as fast as possible, even if it meant spending a month or more in the world with the fungaloids. They might run the risk of having the spores making them like Charlie had been, but Beth was thinking that it might be preferable to what she suspected lay in wait for them here.
"Think we should save this for later or maybe hide it?" Ralph asked, indicating the food still in the room that hadn't been eaten.
"Where would we hide it?" Amelia asked. "I mean, we have our bags, but its not like we have any food storage containers with us."
"If you want to store it, just put it in your pockets," Hannah joked, largely because of how much a mess any of the food would likely make if put there.
The food was mostly things that looked to Beth like mashed candied sweet potatoes, some kind of roast, sandwiches, soups, rolls, and some kind of jelly that didn't taste like anything Beth had had before. Not that she didn't like how it tasted, just that she couldn't think of anything to compare it to.
"You could always eat more so you don't have to eat so much later," Tim suggested with a smile.
"Hard to fit more in when it's already full," Ralph retorted good-naturedly.
"Any idea if they'll take the food away any time soon?" Amelia asked.
"Couldn't say," Beth answered. "Though, I doubt they will. I mean, it took them long enough to get us something to eat, so having them take it away might take longer than it did for them to bring it. I have a feeling they're trying to avoid having anything to do with us as much as they can."
Ralph nodded. "Yeah, they seem to really be freaked out about us just being here."
"So, should we try to find where Charlie went to and try to make an escape from here?" Hannah asked.
"We'd have to rely on Ralph to do that, though," Wes said. "I mean, it's not like any of us could ask for directions as to where she went."
"Actually, after we got here, I got Charlie to do the trick she figured out to let me understand what they said and to have them understand me," Beth said. "I just hope that it still works when we don't know how far away she id."
"How far could she be?" Tim asked.
"I couldn't say," Beth admitted. Though, I remember walking through this place for at least an hours without climbing any stairs or going down any."
"Sure you weren't walking in circles?" Ralph asked.
"Maybe I was," Beth acknowledged. "But the hallways are so long and there's nothing to say where anything is located, so I can't really say where anything was. Though, nothing I came across looked familiar to me, in regards to hallways I'd walked down earlier in that excursion."
"Well, shouldn't we at least try and figure out where Charlie is?" Amelia complained.
"Oh how about I start it out?" Beth asked, yawning the moment she finished her question. Then when she was done, she continued, "I have a way to find Charlie. Not that Charlie knows about it."
"Is this an ethical thing to do?" Tim asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Probably not," Beth admitted. "I mean, I didn't see how it could when I didn't even talk to her about it first."
"So, in other words, you bugged her," Wes stated flatly.
"That sounds so underhanded," Beth replied with a mock hurt tone. Then a moment later continues with her regular tone, "But, yeah. Pretty much."
"So, where is she?" Amelia asked.
"Hey, I don't have a GPS on her," Beth protested. "I just can tell in what general direction she's in. Not where her exact location is at any time."
"So, shouldn't you get going then?" Wes asked.
"Trying to get rid of me that quickly?" Beth asked, a smirk on her face.
"We're not the ones talking big about knowing where Charlie is. Though you could always let us look for her instead," Ralph commented.
"And if we let you go, who knows what problems you'll cause," Amelia remarked. "I mean, we do want to get out of here sooner rather than later and if you cause problems, as it's really only a matter of time that you will, then that'll make it harder for all of us to get out of here. Even if we just go back through the same gate that we used to get here."
"What? You guys really think that little of me?" Ralph protested.
"Pretty much," Wes confirmed.
Beth could only smile in amusement. Ralph pretty much had walked into that on his own, so she didn't feel like helping him out any. Although, she wondered briefly what excuse she should use to leave the room to look for Charlie. Especially since she had the feeling that the guard was there to keep them in the room as much as to keep them safe from any other threat.
'Well, I could use your help for one thing," Beth said to Ralph after she thought of an idea.
"What? You need me to strip and go streaking?" Ralph suggested, a look in his eyes that told Beth he would if she gave him the go ahead.
"Thanks, but I'd rather not go blind," Beth replied, "And I'm pretty sure that they might not take too kindly to that."
"Only one way to find out," Ralph said.
"And only one chance to show you're not a compete pervert and someone that needs to be locked up for his own good," Beth answered.
"Well, at least we'll know it's a bad idea," Ralph insisted.
"I assure you, it is a bad idea," Tim said.
"Spoil sport," Ralph muttered.
Beth sighed. "Anyway, would you help me out for a minute?" Beth asked. "I just need you to let them know that I need to go to the bathroom."
"Ah, a fake out, huh?" Ralph asked, looking like he was getting interested.
"Uh, kinda," Beth said. She did need to go and she figured they wouldn't b e able to say for certain how long she should be in there.
"Alright, I'll let them know," Ralph said.
Beth wanted Ralph to let them know so they wouldn't be aware that she could understand them at the moment. After all, they hadn't really shown themselves as really that trustworthy. What with first holding them in those interrogation rooms and then making them wait forever for the food. Beth didn't feel particularly willing to just letting them know about all of their abilities. It just didn't seem smart to do so.
Though as Ralph went to the door, Beth picked up her puppy hellhound, primarily because she didn't trust her friends to not name her puppy behind her back. She hadn't come up with the perfect name for the puppy, but she was working on it.
"Excuse me," Ralph said to the guard, sounding rather bored. "My friend needs to go the bathroom. Would you point it out to her?"
While Beth wasn't sure if he was just sounding bored for the benefit of the guard, she wouldn't be surprised to learn that Ralph was indeed bored about the whole subject altogether.
The guard looked at Beth for a moment before turning back to Ralph. "Tell her the fifth door on the left around the corner," the guard said, pointing down to her right.
Ralph then turned to Beth. "You got that?" Ralph asked.
"You need to translate Ralph," Beth replied quietly through gritted teeth.
"Huh?" Ralph asked, looking a little surprised and confused.
"If you don't translate, I'll have to start opening doors as if I didn't understand her," Beth added, trying to remind Ralph that she wasn't supposed to understand what the guard said.
"Ugh, fine," Ralph groused. "She said, the fifth door on the left around the corner."
Beth nodded her thanks at Ralph, then flashed a smile at the guard and made her way to the door indicated. Fortunately, she was out of sight of where their bathroom was, although as she entered, she only found seats for their version of a toilet. Which looked a lot like the outhouse that Zepha's farm had.
Sighing, she quickly took care of what she needed to do. Then after cleaning up what she could, she carefully opened the door, so it wouldn't make any noise and moved in the direction away from where her friends were. She hoped that Charlie hadn't gone in the other direction. It would complicate things at the very least.
While she could tell generally what direction Charlie was in, she couldn't be sure that the hallways would lead her as directly to her friend as she'd like. Yet, the only way to find out was to do just that.
As she started walking, Beth couldn't help but feel pleased at how she'd left the small trinket she'd once used as a focus. She hadn't used it for long, but thought it would at least be useful as a potential focus at the time. Which also meant that she now could use it to track someone who she'd been close enough to either give to them directly. She partly wondered if Charlie still remembered she had it on her.
She wasn't sure how far she'd gotten, but it wasn't very long before she could feel that Charlie was right by her in a nearby room. So, she made her way to the door and listened without touching the door.
"…that." A man said. "As such, we have to be careful how we handle this."
Beth knew who was talking, though she couldn't remember getting his name. Though, she felt like he should have at least introduced himself when he had spoken to her last.
"Are you sure about what you saw?" another man said. "Couldn't it have been Something that you imagined?"
Beth also recognized this voice, though she couldn't really remember much else about him. He just didn't really stand out in her mind.
"It could very well have been, but I saw in her mind where she came from as well as why they're looking for. They are sincere in their desire to not cause trouble, " the first man said flatly. "Right now, I'm inclined to believe what I saw in what she showed me. I haven't known any thought mages to be able to deceive when they did something like that."
The other man sighed. "If you are that insistent on moving forward with that, at least give us time to prepare for working with them. It might be what we need to get more on board with your way of believing and get to be in agreement with each other. However, on the other hand, you might be the one who will change your view of trusting these newcomers. We have no way of knowing what it will turn out to get what we expect to find." the second man said. "Don't worry about what you think you know. We might learn differently as we observe them while we get supplies ready."
Beth wasn't sure she liked what direction this conversation was heading, but she couldn't say that it necessarily sounded bad. Maybe their group just needed time to rest and relax. Although she wasn't sure that the others might agree with her on this matter.
Of course they could also be thinking something else altogether. Not that she could think of what it might be. Though, she wondered if it might be that she just wanted them to not be up to anything underhanded. Besides, the supplies they mentioned might be in relation to helping Beth and her friends out rather than anything else.
Beth shook her head to clear of it of the thoughts that threatened to drag her into a panic. If she really wanted to, she could take any number of interpretations of what she'd heard, but doubted most of them would be accurate.
"Still, what do you plan on doing when they do continue on their travels?" the other man asked.
"What I have to in order to protect this nation," the first replied. "We have no idea what this portends. Only that we have to start preparing now before the war starts up again. The more worlds we can get on our side, if not under our control, the better. Maybe we have years to do this, maybe days. Though, once the thought mage wakes up, please escort her back to her friends." The first man paused for a minute and Beth had a moment of fear when she thought she'd been discovered. "I have a feeling that whatever she and her friends do, it's going to impact that war once it starts again."
"Should we tell them any of this?"
"No, there's no reason to give them anything else to worry about. They have enough in finding that griffin canyon. Who knows where it will lead them, but griffins are dangerous enough on their own. If they'll have to deal with them, then there's no reason to distract them with something that might not even occur in their lifetimes," came the reply, as the door handle started to turn.
Beth quickly ran to the nearest door, as quietly as she could, and ducked into it, hoping the room would be unoccupied, but more interested in getting out of sight. While she had a feeling she wouldn't get in trouble for having listened in on that conversation, she wasn't sure if she should let them know she heard. She felt it was first important to discuss things with her friends first.
She'd started to close the door as quietly as possible when she heard the man speak again. "Remember, don't speak about any of this to anyone. Most don't know these details and we should try to keep this quiet as long as possible. We don't know what our new guests know themselves, but we need to keep them from being able to spread anything that could be sensitive. If we don't, who knows how long it'll be before we have other problems from our own people."
Beth didn't hear any response, but did hear the man walking away. After she listed for a full minute to his footsteps away, she then carefully opened the door to the room she'd hidden herself in, and started to make her way back to where everyone else was. She had a feeling she should just tell them that Charlie was asleep. After all, she couldn't think of who else they'd be talking about at the moment when he'd mentioned a thought mage. Besides, she did remember that Charlie was getting ready for a nap when the guard had come for her earlier.