I'll put money on it for three reasons. One, the factions have invested interest in our survival so they'll actually put in the effort, two, the Summoned are all exceptional people from their own worlds and they're not going to leave us, and three, we still are able to communicate, albeit badly.

[ Istredd considers these all very logical things. Money and power will go into the effort to find them. Istredd is not actually worried about whether they will be found, the question is if they'll be found in time, not that he is going to clarify that to Mat. Mat already seems very focused on the negative, and while Istredd has literally never been called an optimist, he is going to try it on. Pragmatist, more often than not yes.

This situation is a little more anxiety-provoking than usual because Istredd feels more responsible now than he would have a few months ago. He has positioned himself as a leader in Thorne intentionally, or at least a teacher people can count on. That means what he says and does matters, especially now. But he's never been in a situation like this. It is probably inevitable it will break him.]

I was able to communicate some things to Lucifer, Yennefer, Stephen, and Kyle. I'm confident they will take it and run.

[ Sure they only understood half of what he said, but still, important half! ]