Jonathan spent a good portion of the next two days in the woods with some of the older kids along to help, first clearing out a passage into the patch of brambles and then on the second day beginning to clear the interior of thornbushes. He didn't make it through completely unscathed—the thornbushes were clearly years old, and he pricked or outright stabbed himself more than once—but as he had hoped the interior wasn't as overgrown as the outer layer and with another day or two of effort, he thought they would be able to make a proper fallback. He were even able to hide the entrance to the passageway they'd excavated by regrowing an outer layer of branches using magic, carefully trimming the thorns off key branches, and weaving them together so that they could be moved as a unit. It would require regular visits to ensure that it didn't grow back into the main bush and become impassable again, but given the relatively low amount of sunlight that made it through the canopy Jonathan was hopeful that it wouldn't grow together too quickly.

When he returned to the orphanage on the second day, Ethan informed him that Mr. Geiller had dropped by to inform them that he had the main array setup for their early warning system and Jonathan should expect him the next morning.

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Jonathan was arm deep in the dishes when Mr. Geiller arrived, and he reluctantly left them behind when he heard the irascible old man's voice in the entryway.

"There you are, boy," snapped Mr. Geiller. "Where were you yesterday? Those kids had some wild story about you gallivanting about the woods, of all places."

"Yeah, I was setting up a place where the kids can run to if the orphanage isn't safe for some reason."

"Well, I suppose that makes sense," grumbled Mr. Geiller. "Inconvenient, though."

"I would hate to inconvenience you," said Jonathan drily. Mr. Geiller just glared at him in response. "So what is it you need from me today? Are we burying this thing?"

"Not quite yet. First I need you to conjure some materials so that I can complete the array."

"Great. I haven't done any conjuring today aside from breakfast, so that should be fine. Where to?"

Mr. Geiller turned toward the room in which his diagnostic arrays were still setup. "In here should work. We can run you through some of the diagnostics while we're at it."

As they entered the room, Mr. Geiller waved vaguely toward the side wall. "Wait over there. I need to get some things setup." Jonathan obediently moved to the side of the room out of Mr. Geiller's way. "Have you been working with Abigail on developing your mensus?"

"Uh," said Jonathan, and Mr. Geiller shot him a scathing look. "I haven't exactly had a lot of free time recently."

Mr. Geiller muttered something under his breath before raising his voice again. "Fine, I suppose being targeted by a criminal gang is a reasonable excuse. You need to be practicing, though."

"I'll do it if I can find the time." Jonathan took a breath. He didn't want to snap at Mr. Geiller so soon after he arrived. "I don't know if you're aware, but aside from needing to deal with this Petty Baron ridiculousness, taking care of a bunch of kids doesn't leave me very much time of my own."

Mr. Geiller made a vague waving gesture, and returned to setting out several metal pieces in a rough row from the bag he'd been carrying.

"Speaking of the kids, the twins apparently are able to use Seelie Courts magic to communicate with one another over distance."

"Oh?" Mr. Geiller paused in emptying his bag to look up at Jonathan. "Any training?"

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"No, they said it's something they worked up on their own. Apparently they aren't able to show illusions to anyone else."

"Intriguing. I'll keep that in mind for lessons, and they might be useful for you to help figure out what you can do with your own Seelie Courts magic. Eventually." He went back to setting out unidentifiable chunks of metal and…a ball of yarn? Mr. Geiller grunted. "So that's where that went." He stuffed the yarn back into the bag.

Jonathan let it go. "On another topic, I've only done it twice, but I think I've figured out a way to come into contact with Ebola. I don't think it's communication, but I seem to be able to sense the thing's state of mind, I guess."

"Good." Mr. Geiller straightened up and surveyed his line of metal parts. "Keep working on that. I have no idea what you'll find, but that seems like a worthwhile line of inquiry. When you are able to do it on demand, I would be interested in observing. Although that's probably going to need the full detection suite, and I still haven't finished setting that up yet."

"Alright. Like I said, I don't have much time, but at least that's something I can do on my own once the kids are in bed."

"Fine, fine. Now come over here, I need you to do our first round of conjuring before we take a break for some diagnostics."

Jonathan could already tell this was going to be a long morning.

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Mr. Geiller eventually headed back home with a bag that was much fuller than when he'd arrived, and Jonathan dragged himself out of the room to make lunch. He hoped he had enough gas in the tank to conjure lunch; conjuring so many assorted array pieces had been exhausting. There was one piece in particular that Mr. Geiller forced him to conjure three different times before he was satisfied. Evidently the old man had decided to just straight conjure a rather complicated control plate—presumably because it was such a pain in the butt to manufacture by hand—but he wasn't happy with the Jonathan's accuracy in reproducing his desires the first couple times and had to explain in detail exactly what was wrong with each failed copy.

Oh god, he hadn't finished the dishes. Jonathan groaned aloud and headed for the kitchen, only to be intercepted by Ethan. "Hey Jonathan, I finished those dishes you left behind. We peeked in on you earlier, and it didn't look like you were going to get to them before lunch."

"Ethan, I take back every mean thing I've ever said about you," said Jonathan fervently.

Ethan looked uncomfortable. "You've said mean things about me?"

"No, I mean—look, it's just an expression from my original world. Seriously, thank you so much for doing that."

"You're welcome."

"Oh, and by the way: I'm going to need your help tomorrow afternoon. Mr. Geiller thinks his detection array will be ready by then, so we're going to take a little trip to the end of the road so we can set it up. I need to remember to conjure a couple of shovels this afternoon."

"Okay. What will this detection array do?"

"It should provide us an early warning if a bunch of thugs from that Petty Baron of yours try to attack us again."

Ethan looked like he was somewhere between relieved and uncomfortable. "Alright. Are you going back into the woods this afternoon?"

"No. No, I don't think I'm going to have the energy for that. I'd like to finish up the fallback, but I really need to spend some time on chores around here today, I think."

"How is the fallback looking?"

Oh, right, Ethan hadn't actually had a chance to see what Jonathan and the other kids had done since he was always on babysitting duty back at the orphanage as the next closest thing to an adult. "It's great! I think we probably have about one more day of work before we can take Bethany, Yanni, and everyone else out there for the grand tour. The center isn't quite clear of thorns yet, but I think it's going to work really well. I had Sandra and Kylus explore a bit further down the creek, too, and it should be easy to find, although I don't want anyone going into the woods on their own. We'll have to come up with some sort of buddy system, now I think of it, but once you hit the creek you just follow it until you find the fallback and as long as you kids are quiet in there, I doubt anyone will find you easily. Should at least be safer than the orphanage, if the Petty Baron sends more goons our way."

"When," said Ethan glumly. "Not if. He's definitely going to send someone else after us."

"Well, either way, we'll have a plan and we're going to practice to make sure everyone can find the fallback and get inside safely. Don't you worry, Ethan. We're not going to have a repeat of last time, and you're not going back to the Petty Baron no matter what."

"Thanks, Jonathan," said Ethan quietly, and Jonathan slung an arm around his shoulder and gave him a half hug.

"Cheer up, kid. We'll be fine." Ugh, he really wished he believed that himself. "Now, is there anything you're feeling like for lunch? Preferably something small, because Mr. Geiller really put me through my paces. Not sandwiches."

"Who do you think I am, Abigail?!" said Ethan in mock indignation.

Jonathan laughed, and the two headed toward the dining room.