"He's always joking, but he's only funny half of the time."
Aeotha was smiling in a less strained way. It wasn't the time to smile, people could have, and likely were.. in danger. Danger. Aeotha was an expert on the impossible. A Priestess who could navigate the Underdark not once, but twice. That's how the elves saw it. The only thing she was actually sure of was that these things always seemed to happen when she was in the area and she had a problem with the word no, and impossible. Not that she didn't want to help.
Of course she wanted to help. That was the only thing she was good at.
The priestesses behind Aeotha were all listening intently, most were keeping themselves quiet and respectful but one out of the line actually gasped at the idea of passing through the sphere. Aeotha lowered her head a little and looked back at the line of priestesses. They didn't understand yet. This was why she did not want to be the leader, she couldn't possibly think about ordering any of them to go through the sphere, or into it. The idea though, was sound. Aeotha pressed between the angry grandson and smiling grandfather to look more clearly.
The other priestesses didn't move.
"It does not feel overtly magical in the normal sense of the word. I've ruled that out. But I have yet to be allowed to actually step into it. To do so is thought suicidal. But if there is a force inside of it, projecting it outwardly and preventing people from leaving then it's what I intend to do."
Aeotha looked out of the corner of her eye at Skandra, then at Shantar.
"Getting into it isn't impossible. But no one has come out who has tried it. The first scouts to find it lost three men before they gave up their pursuit and called upon other forces. And if the passage was painful no one screamed. But they walked in and never walked out. Any ideas?"