[ it's simon! he's holding iggy ii, and balancing the comm carefully on his knee. ]

Seth is gone. He's not been home in weeks and I can't find him anywhere.

[ his tone is morose. even iggy looks unhappy. there's a pause, then simon clears his throat. ]

Alisha, can I talk to you?

That's what happens when you invite sand to a party, I imagine. It never did make a good house guest, you can't expect it to behave just because the party is outdoors.

Tsk, tsk.

[What, even a blind man can't miss a blaze that size.]

I suppose that brings us to the more important question of who invited Master Sand to the party in the first place.

He's been lurking an awful long time now, at this point, and I'm getting a feeling he won't be vanishing as our curses do.

It's been quite overdue, curse-wise, we all agree that much without saying. Let's not consider it a curse.

[He holds up a plate covered in sand.]

And let's hop to it, hmm? Things have just gotten serious.

Last night was so wonderful!

I was scared at first because last time it was dark all day, I think there were bad things around - but maybe the bad things were only in my head, I don't always know.

But the lights and, oh gosh, everything were just so pretty! I went up to the roof of the Library and watched from there almost all night and then I was so tired I just went to sleep in the Greenhouse. It's nice and warm in there, so it was okay.

Did everyone else have fun?