To say that Ibis had a bad day would be dishonest. He had a terrible day. At the Bewilderness, there was no sign of Rayla or Callum, not that he had a chance to look particularly closely. Coming to the Storm Spire from far away to at the behest of Queen Zubeia, Ibis wasn't familiar with the surrounding lands. He had no idea what he was getting into venturing inside the Bewilderness.

Ibis steered clear of the plants just to be safe. But had he realized just how potent the forest's effects could be, he would have been even more careful. As it stood, Ibis made the fateful mistake of pushing a large purple fern aside rather than walk around it. The areas of his skin that made contact with the fern's fronds reacted within minutes. His skin blistered and Ibis began to feel delirious. Everything afterwards was an incoherent blur. Given what happened next, Ibis was happy to not remember. By the next morning, Ibis awoke in the branches of a large tree near the edge of the forest, completely naked. He spent hours combing the surrounding area for his clothes while trying to ignore a furiously itchy rash covering some very unpleasant locations. Whether the rash was an expansion of the blistered portions of his arm that spread to the rest of his body, or if it he obtained this rash in some other manner, was a question Ibis didn't want to contemplate.

He stumbled out of the Bewilderness and into the sparse, patchy grass on the border with the Midnight Desert. Not only did he feel like the primal stone in his staff exploded in his face, Ibis also had nothing to show for it. He was no closer to finding his missing pupil. Now that he knew what the Bewilderness was like, Ibis feared the worst.

The sun barely surpassed the horizon, leaving the desert sands bathed in an orange-pink hue. Ibis shielded his eyes from the morning light. Sticking out from the dunes and the sun was a plume of smoke rising upwards. Ibis narrowed his eyes. The smoke came from far off, deep into the Midnight Desert. But he had no other leads.

"Manus, Pluma, Volantus!" Ibis summoned his mage wings and took off. Still sluggish from whatever effect the Bewilderness' plants had on him, Ibis lost control almost immediately and crashed into a pile of sand. After several other false starts, he managed to remain airborne and flew off in the direction of the smoke.

Nyx, Rayla, and Callum sat around the fire pit outside Erwen's house. The Earthblood elf walked in a semicircle, handing each of them a plate containing freshly cooked lumps of meat in a vaguely shrimp-like shape.

"Thanks, Erwen. Ya didn't have to make us breakfast," Rayla said. She gave her shrimp an experimental poke. Something seemed a little off about it.

"Don't mention it," Erwen took a final plate for himself and dug in. "It was the least I could do, what with not bein' able to help with the whole serpent thing."

"These are great," Callum said around a mouthful of shrimp meat. "I didn't know you could find shrimps in the desert. Is there a lake or river around here I just didn't see?"

Erwen chortled. "These aren't actual shrimps, mate. I just call 'em that because they taste similar. No, these are Midnight dune lice. I plucked 'em off the legs of Nyx's ambler."

Callum's chewing halted. "Dune... lice?"

Nyx had a similar reaction, but then shrugged and kept eating.

"I'm really sorry by the way," Erwen repeated, "If you had just shown up a few hours earlier I could've fixed you two up and still gave the soulfang serpent to that Claudia girl."

"Why do ya care about helpin' her so much?" Rayla scowled. "She's goin' to use it for dark magic!"

"Yeah, but she said it was really important, and I like helpin' people," Erwen smiled, still not understanding Rayla's objections. "For a human to be all alone this deep into Xadia? In the Midnight Desert no less? She must've been in some trouble."

"She's not in trouble, she is trouble!" Rayla shouted.

"She is," Callum nodded while attempting to discretely remove the 'shrimp' from his plate. "But she also used to be my friend."

"Yeah," scoffed Rayla, "before she tried to kidnap ya, helped her da' invade Xadia, and attacked Soren and Ezran with illusions so Viren could try to kill Zym!"

"What I'm saying is that maybe I could reason with her."

"Right now yer the person she'd be the absolute least likely to listen to," Rayla said while pointing at herself to remind Callum what body he was currently in.

Callum smirked. "Maybe not, but Callum could."

"Wait... No. No! Not a chance! Tha's a disaster waitin' to happen."

"All you'd have to do is talk her into giving you the serpent. I'll coach you through everything to say."

"Even if I did agree to it, which I don't, we don't even know where she is."

"You could just follow her tracks," Erwen suggested. Rayla, Callum, and Nyx stared blankly at him. "It's a desert. Until the wind picks up, her footprints should still lead from here to wherever it is she's gone off to."

Callum looked hopefully at Rayla. "Its our only chance. Unless you want to try and find another soulfang serpent."

"And that really could take years," Nyx said.

Rayla clenched her fists and took in a deep breath. "Fine. Tell me wha' to say."

Callum didn't answer. He gaze wandered away from Rayla and towards a point high in the sky.

"Callum?" Rayla asked.

Callum's face blanched. "Uh, I uh," he stammered. "I've got to do... um, I have to be somewhere else right now!" Callum scrambled to his feet and ran off behind Erwen's house. The others stared at his departing figure. Rayla got up to pursue him, but before she could, a Skywing elf dropped out of the air and landed in front of her.

"Callum!" Ibis yelled. He was glowering with a level of anger Rayla had never seen from the normally reserved mage. "First you don't show up for my lesson, then you vanish without a trace! I thought you-" Ibis paused and looked around. "Who are these people?"

Erwen waved and smiled. "Trees to meet you!"

"Yes, Callum," Nyx said, "tell him who we are."

Rayla started to answer by Ibis cut her off.

"You know what? I don't care!" He grabbed Rayla by the shoulder and led her away from the others. "Ignoring your studies for this, I expected better from you," he furiously whispered.

"Um," Rayla tried to explain the situation but Ibis wouldn't stop talking. From the way he spoke, it sounded like he'd rehearsed this on the flight over.

"I understand you're at a certain age, on the cusp of manhood, and you're eager to explore what it offers."

"Wait, wha'?"

"But there is a time and a place for such things, a time that isn't during our lessons."

"Wha' are you talkin' about!?"

Ibis didn't seem to hear her.

"If you cannot control these pubescent urges then I might have to reconsider mentoring you."

"Pubescent urges?!"

Several yards away, Callum pressed himself up against the wall of Erwen's house. He tried to make himself as a small as possible, hoping that some of Rayla's stealth techniques had rubbed off on him the way her fighting ones had. Callum slapped his forehead. How could he have been so stupid? That's what he had forgotten; to tell Ibis about the vision quest. The Skywing elf was no doubt furious with him. Callum would just stay back here and wait for Ibis to calm down a little before showing himself. Perhaps Rayla could explain what happened. Ibis wouldn't be as angry, if at all, with her. Except Rayla was in his body. Callum slapped his forehead again. He sighed and started to leave his hiding spot to save Rayla from Ibis' wrath but never got the chance.

Rayla stormed around the corner, just barely reacting fast enough to not slam into Callum. She crossed her arms and shot Callum a withering scowl. "What did ya do?"

"I forgot to tell Ibis we were going on a vision quest," Callum slumped his shoulders and stared at the ground.

"Well guess what? Ibis thinks we went to the Bewilderness to make out! He tried to give me 'the talk' before I explained wha' was goin' on!" Rayla shuddered a little at the memory. "How could ya be so irresponsible?"

"It's not like I had a chance to tell him with you dragging me out of bed for that stupid vision quest. Its your fault we're here in the first place!" Callum instantly regretted his words as they left his mouth.

"Wait, I didn't meant it-" but Rayla had already ran off.