A Night to Forget

[Sören]

He'd almost forgotten they were there. In fact he hadn't entirely expected them to follow; he'd told them the wall had existed longer than Natalie had been missing, and he thought he'd made it clear it was a power-made thing -- but, perhaps not. He had been talking mostly to himself and expected them to follow his train of thought. He didn't bother correcting them now. So far as he was concerned, either Natalie was already dead or she was able to take care of herself. What else was the point of being born different.

Interrupted from his inspection of this new area, he turned to Jay. The confusion was evident; he had assumed from the beginning that they both understood what he was, and he had made no efforts to hide himself. The question was unexpected. "You should. That is strange,"
he agreed. Mildly curious. It seemed a deficiency, but not one that was his problem. Or perhaps Jay was not what he thought he was.

It explained why he'd had to gesture them back, though, and slowly a possible explanation began to unfurl.

The amulet.

It had hidden him from the lake guardian's unique senses, and he had continued to wear it without much thought to the consequences. Hardly a conclusion he was going to share with strangers, though. He shrugged instead, and chose to take the question literally. "That maelstrom you can feel has component parts. I suppose there are no official terms yet. Easier to see and feel than explain, anyway."
He spoke almost on rote; it wasn't the first time he had relayed these things to another. But if Jay couldn't see it made any explanation a little useless, and he didn't know how much the other man even knew about the gift.

"There was a scream,"
he added. "Faint. Somewhere beyond. This power, it makes the senses stronger when you hold it."