Following the inspection of the workshop, Lenoria bid farewell to Solveig and returned to the lodge. She found Alistair sitting by one of the round tables reading a book, his tunic a little wet from the dishes he finished washing. "Oh my gosh, I forgot about the dishes! I-I didn't mean to leave them all to you!"

"It's okay." Alistair put his book down and met Lenoria at the door. "I felt rested, and Miss Clara told me where you went, so I took the liberty of finishing the dishes."

"I'll get them next time, I promise!" Lenoria set her tool belt by the door and followed Alistair back to the table. She caught the warm, exquisite aroma of a familiar scent in the air, and spotted large beans on the counter and a pot over the fire.

"Forget the dishes for a moment and join me for a drink. I'm brewing some hot chocolate. Would you like some?"

"Al, you spoil me. Wait, this isn't the spicy kind again, is it?"

"Of course not. I know you can't tolerate spicy foods that well, so I didn't add cayenne peppers this time. I did make it with the roasted beans I purchased in the Jaguar Lands, though."

"Then I'll take some. Thanks, babe," Lenoria said with a wink.

Alistair hid his slightly flushed face as he went to check on the pot of boiling chocolate. "I-I ground enough beans for everyone, but I wanted you to taste the first batch."

"Oh, really? That's very sweet. If you keep spoiling me so much, I'm going to get fat."

"And that's a bad thing...how?" Alistair poured the hot concoction from the pot to a wooden tankard, placed it on the table, and slid it to Lenoria. "It's okay to indulge once in a while, you know."

"I guess you're right. Heeheehee..." She was used to budgeting for her meals when she lived alone, and any day there was a big payout, Lenoria would splurge the day before. Eating anything delicious Alistair was in the mood for felt so alien to her, because she wasn't used to doing so for many days in a row. She took a sip of the warm, frothy drink, which was absolute bliss for her taste buds. The weather was fairly cool at this time of night, yet she instantly warmed up from a single sip.

"I can see that you like it. I'll make some more and call everyone else. I hope Lisa is still awake; I want her to try some, too."

As much as she wanted to relax for the rest of the evening over a delicious drink with her friends, Lenoria knew it was time for serious business. "Al, make sure you make plenty. I actually want to talk to everyone about our plans moving forward."

"Sure thing. I had almost forgotten this wasn't how our lives were going to be from this point on." Alistair seemed saddened after sharing his thoughts, but he was quick to distract himself by mixing more bean powder into a new pot of water.

Lenoria used this opportunity to call everyone over, and after a minute Joanna groggily stumbled out of the women's dorm. She was followed by Clara and Tsukuyomi, the latter carrying Lisa in his arms. Tsukuyomi seated Lisa opposite of Lenoria, while Clara sat to her left and Joanna to her right. More tankards were placed on the table, and Alistair poured enough hot chocolate in each one from the boiling pot.

"There's a lot we need to go over, ladies. I just wish Caesar was here."

"How is he doing? Any updates," Clara asked.

"I sensed movement these past twenty-four hours, but he hasn't really moved from where he is." Lenoria crossed her arms. "Pearl says he might be trapped somewhere. Either that or he's just bidding his time. I'm thinking about going that way first thing tomorrow."

"Knowing him, he's probably okay. He's got a crew at his beck and call, not to mention a flying ship." Clara's face lit up when she took a sip from her tankard. "Exquisite as always, Alistair. Thank you."

"Thank you, Miss Clara. Drink up, everyone. I think we should all be in a good mood if we're going to talk about the future."

"Seriously? A boy made this?" Joanna picked up the tankard. "Can't be any better than the food Clara cooked for us." Joanna took a sip. "It's...it's so good!"

"Pretty good, eh?" Lenoria watched Joanna drink the whole thing in one gulp.

"It's not bad." Joanna tried to play it off as if it was no big deal but her face flushed both from the heat and the embarrassment from having to rescind the words she spoke prior to drinking it.

Meanwhile, Lisa's eyes sparkled after taking a sip, then offered the tankard to Clara. "Would you like some, Clara?"

"It's fine, Lisa. Alistair always makes enough for everyone, so I'll just get more from him if I want seconds."

"Are you sure? B-because I don't mind! Miss Eleanor gave us chocolate once a year, and we always had to share what little we had with each other."

"The situation in Norwich must be worse than I thought," Lenoria mumbled.

After some insistence, the gang convinced Lisa to drink everything in her tankard. With some hesitation, she drank it all, and not a single drop was left behind. "Sorry, it's just that I didn't want to hog all of it. Are you sure it's okay?"

"Don't worry about it, Lisa," Alistair reassured her. "It's like the chefs at House Leone say: 'Food is meant to be eaten. An emptied plate and emptied glass equals a happy stomach.' If you want more, I'll be happy to boil another pot."

"Try not to have too much, though. Too much sugar is bad for you," Clara interjected.

With Lisa nodding, Alistair started the process of making another pot. "While I do that, would you mind telling us what's on your mind, Lenoria?"

Lenoria nodded. "It's the end of the month. Gabrielle gave me until the halfway point of Albastru to not only get everything done, but to have time to spare to attend Starflower's trial. With him free, they may move the date later or sooner, depending on when he's caught. For now, we have to assume there are five and a half months - 155 days - to get this task done."

"She wants us to create living golems, correct?" Clara held her fist close to the left side of her chest. "You know my spells are available to you, Lenoria."

"Same here," Joanna said. "It's not like I'm going anywhere, at least not until Starflower's arrested."

"As are mine, my love," Alistair declared. "Whatever spells you need, if they are within my power to use, are yours as well."

"Thanks, everyone. I plan to make something cheap and durable, but even with those prerequisites in mind, we might need more funds than what we already have. And it's not like I can ask Gabrielle to find her own project, unless I ask for an advance on our pay. But the upside about this commission is that she's given me liberty to go about it however I want as long as we provide her the results she wants."

"Makes sense. What do you have in mind," Clara asked.

"First, I want to test out the equipment she's lent me. That's why I want to make Lisa's new chair first."

The rest of the gang turned to Lisa, who was as surprised as they were.

"Didn't I tell you yesterday I'd make you a new one as soon as we settled down? And I promised you earlier I'll make the best one in the world. But for that, we'll need adamantine."

Clara raised her hand. "You mean the metal Lorak used for his cable car? That's super rare, isn't it?"

"Normally, yeah. Which makes you wonder how the little guy got so much of it to begin with. He's either struck a deal somewhere or he knows places where we can mine some. And considering he's got his business up in the mountains, I'd say it's the latter."

"Why do you say that," asked Joanna.

"Even sturdy equipment like what the cable car uses needs to go under maintenance every now and then. What do you do when a part gets worn out so much you can't use it anymore? And what do you do when something goes missing because you carelessly misplaced it?"

"Um..." Lisa spoke up, but what followed was too inaudible for the gang to even hear her.

Lenoria made sure to smile at her. "It's okay, little baby. Tell us what's on your mind."

"I-I said you don't have to do so much for me," Lisa said softly. "I could never pay you back for the chair, the chocolate, or the makeover."

"Who said anything about payment? We do these things because we want to. Me? I like building things," Lenoria reassured her little guest.

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There was a mischievous smile on Clara's face. "That's right. She made a set of dolls once from one of the books she was reading. Which one was it? Handsome Knights from Outer Space?"

"Hey!" Lenoria flailed her arms adorably. "She's too young to learn about that one!"

"What about the time you handmade dolls of the entire cast of that one children's play, The Cowardly Squire's Brave Tales? I swear the blonde girl who journeyed with the knight reminds me of someone..."

"Oh! I know that one," Lisa said excitedly. "The squire is brave but gets all tongue-tied around his beautiful sidekick!"

Feeling embarrassed, Lenoria reflexively covered her reddened face when she felt Alistair's hand on her shoulder. "Huh. That explains a lot of things," said the boy. He refilled Lisa's tankard with more chocolate, just a little less than halfway full due to Clara's earlier advice.

"I understand!" Even after blowing on the top of the tankard, Lisa yelped after taking a tiny sip of the drink. She decided to put it down until it cooled off a little more. "Creating things is to Lenoria what drawing is to me."

Hearing that from Lisa snapped Lenoria back to the matter at hand. "That's right. I know some people like to draw what they like for hours. It's kinda the same for me, except I like to make dolls and robots. Being able to work on the things you love and get paid for it? A lot of people would consider that a dream. I would like to try my hand at making a mobility chair for you to test out the equipment I was provided with, Lisa, but I won't if you don't want me to."

"Would you mind if I thought about it? I-I don't want to cause any trouble."

Lenoria had a mind to keep insisting, but Alistair's interruption stopped her. "Whatever you want, Lisa. We're not going to force something on you if you don't want it. We also don't want you to sit through all the boring grown-up stuff we have to talk about. Would you like to go outside for a little bit, or go back to the room?"

Lisa yawned. It would seem play time had exhausted her energy reserves for the day. "I'm sleepy..."

"I'll have Tsukuyomi take you to the room now. I'll stop by later to read you another story if you can't sleep," Clara offered. "Is that okay?"

Lisa nodded and allowed Tsukuyomi to pick her up from her chair. She clung to his neck as best as she could and wearily looked at everyone else.

"Night, everyone. Thanks again for the chocolate."

"Good night, Lisa." The four adventurers waved at Lisa and smiled at her as she was taken back to the dorm room. Once the door closed behind her and Tsukuyomi, Alistair reached for Lenoria's hand.

"Sorry to interrupt you like that, Lenoria, but we did just meet Lisa," Alistair apologized. "I didn't think it would be wise to shower her with gifts this soon, lest we overwhelm her."

"No, you have a point," Lenoria admitted. "We can just buy one from a clinic somewhere, at least in the meantime. Poor thing was probably taught not to trust strangers. She's probably wondering if we'll finish what Demetrio started."

"I doubt it, she's definitely taken a liking to you," Joanna said.

"In any case, let's get down to business. I'll still need adamantine, whether Lisa wants the mobility chair or not. And to get that, we're going to need Caesar." Lenoria rolled her lips loudly before grabbing a clipboard out of her haversack. "With all the movement Pearl's sensing, we can assume he's still alive. But there's no telling if he's in trouble or not, so we'll need to round up a search party and leave as soon as we can." Scribbling something on the clipboard, Lenoria then set it on the table for everyone to see. "We would have three objectives, listed in order of importance. The first would be to find Caesar and his crew. We'll have to assume they're in trouble, and we have to be ready for anything. We already met plant monsters, fey, and undead. Let's at least try to prepare for all three."

"I'm under orders to follow you wherever you go, and my hammer is good against two out of three of those enemies. I'll take care of the front line," Alistair promised.

"Good. Pearl can detect how close he and the other Soulstones are, so I'll be going along. And Solveig can take care of the healing." Lenoria pointed her quill at the second objective. "Once we get Caesar, we'll locate the Hounds Soulstone next. It hasn't moved much from its current spot, but it's definitely somewhere in the mountains. If Caesar doesn't have it..."

Lenoria and Clara exchanged glances, and after a moment Clara realized where she was getting at. The elven girl shivered with dreadful anticipation. "No, no way! I'm not going there!"

"Come on, Clara. We'll be in good hands if you come along."

"I'm not marching into spider territory!"

"It's part of the quest!"

"Forget it!" Clara crossed her arms around her chest, pressing them against her body as if she was hugging herself. "I don't care what Pearl says, you can't make me!"

"What if I promised to keep all spiders away from you," Alistair suggested.

"Impossible! Spiders can smell fear, and I don't think I can keep it together when I see one the size of a house!"

Lenoria narrowed her eyes at Clara. "You're thinking of dogs."

"What if I just go in your place?" By raising one of her fingers, Joanna conjured an orb of water at the tip. "I can provide missile fire, and Lisa likes Tsukuyomi. You can stay here and babysit, instead."

Clara seemed happier with that arrangement, and with it the melee/range ratio was evenly spread. Lenoria wrote down her name and Joanna's on one side of the clipboard and Alistair and Solveig's on the other.

"That could work if Clara is willing. It may take some convincing, but we could probably get the pirates to help out with whatever else we need. Al can cover the front line, me and Joanna with ranged weaponry, and Solveig can heal. I'll have to ask what weapons she can use, though." Lenoria hovered her quill above the second objective. "I don't want to do this, but if the halfling's a sorceress, she's probably our best chance to walk out of whatever spider den the Soulstone is currently at unharmed. We could use firepower like that."

Everyone agreed so far. Clara would stay behind with Tsukuyomi to take care of Lisa, while Lenoria, Alistair, and Joanna traveled with Solveig to rescue the pirates.

This prompted Joanna to bring up another concern. "What do you think Solveig will say when she sees we're teaming up with pirates?"

"It's no use hiding Pyxis and the Argo Navis, so we tell her the bare minimum. We just leave out the part where we rescued a bunch of kids from Demetrio."

The kids. That was another bridge they had to cross, and soon.

"Solveig wielded the power to destroy undead when we rescued Alistair. Maybe she's not fond of Demetrio, either. I'll have to ask her. If she isn't, explaining the situation with the kids will be much easier. If she's on a mission from her god, then I doubt something like this will matter to her."

"If you want, I can go with you when you talk to her," Alistair suggested. "Followers of the gods of death aren't fond of necromancers; if we explain the situation properly, she might even overlook the whole incident altogether."

"Good. Let's do that. Worst-case scenario, we'll have to convince her somehow to keep her mouth shut. But I think she can be trusted."

At last, Lenoria tapped her quill on step three.

"Let's say we get the pirates and the Soulstone. We'll look for Lorak and ask him where we can get some adamantine. He'll probably want something in exchange, though. I wonder what."

"Seduction is out the window." Clara felt everyone's eyes on her. "Don't look at me like that. I'm just pointing out goblins don't look at us the same way the taller folks would. They are like us in some ways, but they look at humans and elves the same way we would look at a primate."

"Hold on, what about the one that complimented the way I smelled," asked a concerned Lenoria.

"He must have been the oddball of the bunch. Every demographic has one. They're not attracted to us, otherwise."

"Good, because I'm not going to seduce a goblin." Joanna crossed her arms in a huff. "A defender of love and justice such as myself shouldn't use those methods, anyway. But how did you know seduction wouldn't work, Clara?"

Nothing but silence as Clara calmly sipped her tankard of hot chocolate. Lenoria simply shrugged while Alistair, being who he is, looked at Clara inquisitively.

"Uh, Clara?"

"I think what's more important, now that we have a plan, is that we should think about what to do with Lisa and the rest of the orphans." Clara sadly pushed her empty tankard forward, and when Alistair offered to pour more, she refused the offer. "I want to talk about it now so that we're all on the same page once you come back."

"What do you mean, Clara? We can just adopt them all and have them live here!" Joanna placed her hands on her hips and posed heroically. Yet, while she may have expected the others to take her side, Lenoria and Alistair smiled bitterly at her. "Right?"

"It's not that easy. Or maybe I should say...it's complicated." The situation felt all too familiar to Alistair, and it seemed to him Lenoria understood where he was coming from. "People, especially those who are easily impressionable, tend to latch on to the ones who save them. It wouldn't feel right to adopt her, or any of the children for that matter, just because we were there at the right time."

"It was a heat of the moment thing, Alistair! You know that! Everyone knows that!"

"I know that. It's just...to them, we're heroes. We saved them at a low point in their lives, and because of that, they may put their trust on anyone who does the same for them in the future. I think they should find people who will raise them as their own."

Lenoria eyed Joanna with sad empathy. "It's a messed-up situation, but they have to learn that they can't trust every stranger they meet."

"As opposed to what, strangers they can trust because a piece of government paper says so?!"

Joanna's words had, once again, caught the trio by surprise. Even if none took her side, they could see that her wisdom was valid.

"I didn't mean to put this responsibility on all of you when we said we should rescue them, but we can't just abandon them when that bald old man is still out there! What if he finds them? At least here, we can hide them and give them a fighting chance!"

"That's a good point." Alistair clenched his teeth defeatedly. "We can't hide them from Lord Demetrio forever. But...my point still stands. What if they trust the wrong person one day?"

"Teach them what you can and pray for the best," Joanna answered quickly. "Everyone makes bad decisions sooner or later. But shielding them from every single danger could be bad for them if they don't learn what's good and what's bad. The kids need a good teacher, and after seeing you speak and fight, you get Melodious Aquamarine's seal of approval, Alistair Adams!"

Alistair bashfully scratched his head. "You truly mean that, even though we disagreed on this matter?"

"I can tell you only want what's best for them. If it wasn't for that old wrinkly bastard running around, I would agree that we should at least return them to Norwich. But you saw the undead; you saw the minotaur; and this Demetrio punk probably memorized what the kids look like. They aren't safe anywhere in Thule."

Joanna had thought about the matter this much already, despite not voicing her opinions before. Lenoria wondered if there was more to this heroine than she let on.

"So don't foist those kids on someone who might not even be able to protect them. Let's raise them for the time being, and once the coast is clear, then we find a safe place for them."

"I'm in favor," Clara announced. "Joanna is right. This situation is far from normal. If we just drop this responsibility on someone else's lap, there's no guarantee they'll be able to protect the children. Even worse, they themselves may hurt them."

"You're right. We just arrived in Thule, after all," Lenoria added. "We'll be hard pressed to find people we can trust. If things were different, we could all march down to Norwich and build a new orphanage for them. But who knows; maybe this Demetrio guy left spies behind in case the 'rebels' returned. And if they see us with the children, there goes our cover."

Lenoria added a new objective, not above or below her current ones, but written on the right side of the clipboard.

"We protect the orphans for the time being. If we find someone they like and we can trust, then we'll get the adoption process started, wherever we may be. Until then, we'll do our best to take care of them. All in favor?"

Clara raised a hand.

Alistair raised a hand.

Joanna raised a hand.

And Lenoria was the last to raise hers. "Motion passed. Let's make our way back to Norwich and locate Caesar from there."

"Thanks, guys." Joanna bowed her head in gratitude. "Let's get ready and set out ASAP. Who knows what a bad example those pirates are setting for the kids."