It was distressingly familiar, this ritual, but it was also ... not. This place was not right and it was wrong that it was Percy and that they weren't in Whitestone. Whitestone was Percy's home. They should be there. He should be home when they tried to bring him back. If felt like that should help, like it should be ... more solid that way.
But this was what they had. And it had worked for Vex, when she was far from home and in the middle of the lair of something evil. That had to meant it could work here, too.
Keyleth had tried to smile at Kash, because she was glad to see him, and grateful to him, despite the situation. But she knew it came out all watery and ... it probably would have been better not to bother. It was probably creepy, smiling at someone at all over a resurrection? Wasn't it?
Her thoughts were as unsettled as everything else. When Vax pressed in nearer to her, Keyleth gripped his hand automatically. Gilmore's appearance wasn't a surprise - the whirlwind trip here had included a tip that he was here, and Keyleth ... didn't smile at him. She nodded. That was probably less awkward. She wasn't good at gauging that sort of thing even when every part of her wasn't caught up in worry about Percy.
She gripped Vax's hand harder when Kash spoke, mind going blank, circling around a brief moment of panic that it wasn't working, before Keyleth caught up. "Did he ... his spirit not ... come with us?" That didn't feel right. It had to be something else. She thought of the dark, twisted shadow they'd last seen on the glass island. "Orthax," she said, swallowing. "The gun - Ripley's gun. It was in the bag. What if he's still ... connected to Percy, somehow? Keeping him from returning" If that wasn't it, then Percy just wasn't HERE, and there was no way to put him back where he belonged. Keyleth let go of Vax's hand, looking to see who had the Bag of Holding. Thank their frail, fleeting luck that it wasn't with Grog ... wherever he was. (Please let them at least be safe in Whitestone.)