Daniel followed after the agitated Tolsen and a very quiet stablehand called Kenton. Daniel had worked with Kenton before. If he wasn't so tired and hungry, he would have been vaguely embarrassed to be standing before the person who used to polish his saddle.

But the stablehand Branch felt wrung out and tired. At least Kenton was friendly. And after Jasper, Daniel would take a crocodile in a powdered wig as long as it wasn't actively trying to eat him.

The Tolsen came to some conclusion in his mind and spoke. "I will handle this, take the stablehand Branch to the parlor and keep him out..."

"Sir. We need Lordling Elswith...err, stablehand Branch. Red Circle griffins are...considerably more intelligent and capricious than most. The griffin stole a certain something that we were supposed to keep safe...We need someone the griffin likes and trusts."

"Fiddlesticks. Then stay close!" The Tolsen said when he noticed Daniel was several paces away. “Kenton, when and where did you last see the griffin?"

"I didn't see it. But one of the boys from central did. About forty minutes ago, near the aquatic zones. Which is strange as griffins dislike that region."

Daniel kept himself from reacting but almost smiled. A little over an hour and a half ago, he had been milking electric eels. Griffins could hunt by scent. Had his griffin been hunting for him? Or was it a trap? Someone luring Daniel into a difficult position...

It was not impossible. But at the same time, there was only so much harm that could befall him at the Stable...

"The griffin stole something, and disappeared," Kenton said quietly. "We have been looking since lunch, and we are running out of time. We need him, someone the griffin would come to. We only have perhaps an hour and a half left or else we will be in trouble."

"Which griffin?" Daniel asked.

"Quiet, faechild. This is already bending so many orders." the Tolsen said, hands wringing his cap.

Daniel felt his bindings enact. His overseer wished him to be quiet, and he was acting up.

But a good servant needed information to do his job.

He felt the bindings slacken just a touch. "Good sir, if you want my help finding it, I need to know which one," Daniel said through gritted teeth. "Aqulus is a sea griffin, Diver is a Northern Hyperborean griffin, Cinnamon Girl is a hybrid Northern Hyperborean/sonic charger, Manners is a giant-hill bred feathered beak, Sparks is a hybrid sunlander/shadowbourne. And Glare....is a griffin. Of some kind, we're pretty sure. They have different likes and habits. That means they would go to different areas if they were wandering. So if I am to aid you, I need to know more."

The Tolsen sighed, then put his fingers in his ears and hummed.

Kenton took his cue. "I don't know which one it is. The ones who spotted it believe it is one of the females, but none of the normal handlers who work with our birds have been able to lay their eyes on it, only standard hands have spotted her. The Red Circle is still out at campaign, with orders not to return until a certain game is over...But Lordlings have disobeyed orders before. Or worked around it. But this also means I don't know who is in."

"So it could be Sparks, Glare, or Cinnamon Girl," Daniel said, savoring the knowledge. He felt disquiet about meeting his former cadre again. Of the two lordlings of the Red Circle that had remained behind during the campaign, Kane and Regis, both of them had betrayed him. Were his odds any better than the rest of them? "Still tells us something. It is probably not Glare, unless you heard choking sounds in cobwebby corners or mewling 'GLARE'. That leaves Sparks or Cinnamon Girl. Sparks likes roosting in tall places, and Cinnamon Girl likes to play with drapes. So we can rule out short, windowless rooms. But more than that, the girls like starlight more than the boys, so rooms with skylights would be more likely. From the aquatic zone...there is a passageway to the moon bear rooms. It may be a step in the right direction." Daniel said, hoping that he remembered correctly.

"That narrows it down a lot! Let's hurry!" Kenton tapped the Stablemaster's shoulder, and the Tolsen removed his fingers from his ears. "He gave us a good clue!"

The newly formed trio broke into a sprint.

As he sprinted, Daniel came to realize that the Stable was behaving much differently than it had in the past.

There had been a number of busy workers before, in many of the occupied rooms. Removing soiled hay and liners, bringing feed in, taking a mount out. But through this doorway, the sound of others dropped away completely. The only sounds became the anxious huffs of breaths of the large critters. Deeper into the Stable they went.

In the past, Elswith had been unable to truly explore the Stable. Well, beyond the few times, he managed to slip into the deeper places. In the past, as he had traveled deeper in, he used to feel as though he was pushed into the more populated places again, desolate zones giving way to brightly lit and friendly stalls of horses. Now, it almost felt like the Stable was opening forgotten places to show him things.

Was it due to becoming a worker?

Or was it due to something else? He was beginning to feel the Stable differently than he ever had before. Like it wanted him to explore it.

Was it trying to show him something?

Or was it just his overtired mind?

The Tolsen and Kenton were oblivious to Daniel's thoughts, however, and continued to race. It was beginning to feel unnerving, being in the deep parts of the stable.

"Why are we angling so deep?" The Tolsen stopped. "This is the pathway to the Cold Ones."

"I don't know. I was thinking of where we needed to go, the Eastern red room to gather the others, but maybe I got distracted. I think I have it now." said Kenton.

Daniel said nothing.

The trio started sprinting again, and after a few minutes, they returned to the shallower part of the stable, where things and rooms only moved occasionally, and almost never when one was walking through it. The air of the aquatic creatures smelled of fresh seaweed and rotting fish, drifting in from the doorways to the left. But then Kenton went right instead, and after several minutes found the correct doorway.

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There was the entrance that led toward the Eastern Red room at last, a half collapsed doorway that anyone taller than an average doorknob would need to duck to enter.

Daniel entered first, already familiar with this space. The warmth of the room touched Daniel as he entered, the scent of cinnamon and paprika and clove swirling in the air. Daniel looked around the room. The Eastern Red room was a massive room, the floors were a maroon jasper, the walls a cinnabar and a red marble, the fixtures amaranth red, and the furnishings were vermilion, crimson, and scarlet. There were pillars and columns of red jade. Even the distant ceiling dark beast blood red. The room itself tapered off, a massive triangle, with a doorway at the narrow point, and an entrance directly opposite it from in the middle of the wall.

They emerged into the Eastern red room, where dozens of stablehands and workers were milling about. They looked exhausted, and Daniel truly believed that they had been hunting after the griffin for hours and hours. He recognized some, but many he did not. When the Tolsen arrived, the bedraggled workers quieted and merged upon him. Daniel was impressed with the Tolsen’s ability to manage his people; orderly and calmly. He may not be the quickest or smoothest talker, but watching how he organized his people and answered a vast variety of questions, he was good at helping his people accomplish their tasks. That was a worthy skill.

Daniel looked around the room. The Eastern Red room was a massive room, the floors were a maroon jasper, the walls a cinnabar and a red marble, the fixtures amaranth red, and the furnishings were vermilion, crimson, and scarlet. There were pillars and columns of red jade. Even the distant ceiling dark beast blood red. The room itself tapered off, a triangle, with a doorway at the narrow point, and an entrance way that led back toward the aquaitic zone most of the time.

"First group goes to the moon bear room and the second group to the Owls Scope. Break out in pairs of two from any doorway you encounter. If you come across another team, then both go back the way you came until you get a new doorway and repeat. Look in rafters, and around curtains. I'll take the first group. Kenton, you take the second. And keep your eyes on the little Lordling. We don't have much time. Go, and be safe."

The groups must have been predetermined, because everyone knew which group they were in. Daniel followed along as they jogged through the door on the tapered end of the Eastern Red room. There was a straight passage to from the back that led directly to Owls Scope, a circular tall room with long curtains and rafters. No griffins, but...

One other stablehand called out "I see some fresh feathers, it could be griffin feathers." He pointed to a high loft overlooking the room. A boy was pushed forward and climbed from the various perches until he ascended to the top. He reached and took the feathers, before climbing down swiftly.

Once on the ground, he handed the feathers to Daniel without asking, and Daniel took them without explanation. It certainly could be from a griffin. It was the right color to belong to Cinnamon Girl. They were newly dropped, the kind of feathers that are discarded after a recent grooming session.

Daniel gave his assessment, aware that this may be a trap. "It seems possible that we have a lead. If it is from a griffin, these were dropped no more than twenty minutes ago."

From the Owls Scope, the large group headed to the next passageway, "Let's hurry!" People started calling out for the griffins, and the pairs split off at each intersection.

Daniel eased his way back away until he was standing abreast with Kenton. He had questions he wanted to ask, and he didn’t particularly care for the others to overhear him.

Information time: "What exactly is missing."

Kenton opened his mouth to answer, but no words came out. "That's weird." he tried again. Or he made it look like he was trying but was actually lying. Regardless if he was a double agent or not, Kenton shrugged. "Can't tell you. The words won't come out of my mouth. Is that because of the Game?"

Another pair split off, calling for the griffin.

"Perhaps. Or the Law of Fae has some complication regarding that information." Daniel stepped around a fallen pillar as the material of the hallway changed from stone to plaster. He decided to be brunt. "What is the Tolsen Stablemaster's affiliation with the Sky Court?"

There was another doorway, and two more fae departed.

"None. Tolsens don't get involved in much politics..." the Law of Fae rang true, but that didn't matter much. Kenton believed the Tolsen had no interest in politics and no affiliation with the Sky Court, and the Law of Fae said Kenton did not lie. But that did not mean that the Tolsen did not, just that Kenton did not believe he did. Kenton continued after a moment's thought "But I think the Stablemaster's overseer is a cousin of an earl from there? Maybe?"

The Law of Fae remained neutral. It rarely answered purely speculative questions.

Daniel sighed. Kenton seemed to have no truly useful information for him. Or he was pretending not to know to avoid scrutiny.

The group came into a room with three doorways. A pair went into the one on the left, and another pair went down the one on the right, and the main group continued down the middle path, as it was becoming very small indeed. , and the main group was becoming very small indeed. Daniel continued walking with Kenton.

"Do you know of any activities of Lord Fredar?" he asked.

"He does not come here often. He has little use for his griffin anymore, and little use for it before he ascended to his glorious Lord status."

Another pair split off, down a small crooked doorway. Now there were only Daniel, Kenton, and two others.

"Anyone coming into the Stable who normally avoids it?"

"My primary duties are to polish leather saddles and tend to reins. I don't get out of my workroom very often. So I won't know. But no one has been telling any rumors."

The last pair left down a grand marble entryway, and Daniel found himself alone with Kenton.

Daniel was preparing his next question when Kenton surprised him. "I need to warn you. They are working against you. Funny you should mention the Sky Court because I saw the schedule. They are leaving the responsibility of the discarded griffins to you. These are the griffins that fail training, or their Lordlings failed. These griffins are nearly feral, and they have maimed fae before too. You must do whatever you can to avoid that..."

"Does that include the Sky Court's own Lordling Parcel's griffin? What was that griffin's name? Kyndal?"

"I don't work with the griffins, only their tack. No one flies them, so I don't work with them. But the rumor is that she's the worst of them. Completely unapproachable. She'll attack on sight, raise her talons in the air!"

Well, Daniel had just stumbled into another little game. Because the southland griffins didn't attack with their talons. Their jaws were incredibly strong, and they had some small elemental attacks, but the front talons were significantly weaker. It was against their natural behavior to even faint that kind of attack. Unless someone had carefully trained it to do so. Parcel must have some game in mind.

Daniel tapped his fingers against each other in a quick little pattern. "Those discarded griffins were to be a punishment for me?"

"They are nearly feral. They are savage."

Daniel remembered how frantic the Tolsen had been when Daniel had been inside the griffin chamber.

They may have made a mistake. Those griffins were not bad. They were just bored out of their brains and so neglected that they had regressed. And they weren't feral. If they were truly feral, they would have left the Stable behind and joined a wild griffin flock.

They were waiting for their masters to come back and play with them again. And outside of Kyndals master, Daniel felt certain that those masters never would.

But unless one had extensive griffin training and the patience to work with a wounded creature, they would only see the hissing, snarling massive creatures and see monsters.

Well. If everyone thought it was terrible, Daniel had no reason to dispel their worries. He didn't want to be reassigned.

"In games such as this, one must do one's best," Daniel said, to reassure Kenton.

But Kenton was gone. And Daniel was in a completely different section of the Stable than he had been in a moment before. There were no exterior windows, no skylights, only light from old, flickering lighting rods along the ceiling.

And for the first time in a month, Daniel could not feel the ever-looming Game.

In fact, he couldn't even feel the Law of Fae.

"I might be in trouble," he whispered.