Chris had initially had a rebellious expression of mute defiance on his face, but the longer Jonathan stared at him in silence the more he began to fidget as defiance was replaced by discomfort. After the initial excitement of safely arriving at the fallback, Jonathan had pulled Chris aside—or at least as far aside as was possible, given the limited room between the thorn bushes and the river—and started giving him The Look.

Discomforting Chris wasn't intentional; Jonathan legitimately had no idea what he should say to the rebellious kid. The tense walk back had given his anger a chance to simmer, but his focus on enlivening his magic meant that he hadn't had a chance to think through what he should say. Chris' behavior was absolutely unacceptable, but Jonathan had a feeling that just blowing up at him wasn't going to do him any favors.

Well, nothing for it. He couldn't give the kid the silent treatment forever. May as well just tell him where he was at and ad lib from there. "I'm quite angry with you, Chris." The defiant look started to make a comeback but switched to confusion as Jonathan continued. "Scouting out the Petty Baron's people was a good idea. But sneaking off to do it, and lying to Kylus about the whole thing, was absolutely unacceptable."

"You'd never have let me go," Chris muttered.

Jonathan shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. But we'll never know, because you didn't even try to ask. You just snuck off, which put all of us at much greater risk. You were at risk of getting picked up by those thugs. Sandra and I were at risk because we had to go try and find you. And everyone else was at risk because if the Petty Baron's people had forced you to tell them where the fallback is, or if we had been followed back, then everyone would be trapped." There came the defiant look again. "Look, I'm not saying that it's never right to take risks. I'm saying that you need to talk to us before you do something that's going to put the rest of us at risk."

Chris scowled and looked away.

Jonathan sighed and dragged a hand down his face. "Look, just…think about this, okay? I know you were trying to help, but we need to be able to trust one another and work together to keep everyone safe. If you don't feel comfortable talking to me about stuff, at least run it by Ethan."

Chris looked thoughtful about that, which Jonathan figured was about the best he could hope for. "Alright, with that out of the way…Ethan, Sandra, can you come over here? I want to know what Chris and Sandra noticed about the Petty Baron's people, and whether Ethan has any insight into what they're likely to do. From what I saw, I don't think we're in any particular danger here in the forest, but I'm not sure how we'll be able to tell when it's safe to go back."

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Jonathan lay on his back, idly gazing at the stars that were visible through the canopy of trees around them. His feet were towards the creek, providing him with a wider swathe of sky than would be available otherwise, and around him the kids' breathing had generally settled into sleep.

From what Chris had said, and what little Sandra had been able to observe from her place further back in the woods, the Petty Baron had sent around ten to twelve thugs with their objective unknown. From what Chris had been able to see, they were all people directly associated with the Baron.

What was unclear was whether this was a scouting expedition, a punitive expedition, or something else entirely. Ethan thought it represented a fairly large chunk of the Baron's immediate fighting force, but given that the survivor from his first attack had undoubtedly warned him about a demon, it was actually a bit odd that the Baron would have risked so many of his own people instead of hiring out or seeking help from the Quintarchal Church.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

In the end, Jonathan decided to camp out at the fallback for the night rather than risk anyone heading back to the orphanage just yet. He figured it was late enough in the day the thugs might stick around, but Chris hadn't noticed anyone carrying food or other supplies, so it was unlikely that they would stick around for much longer. He and one of the twins would try to sneak back and contact Mr. Geiller the next day to figure out if the orphanage was safe again.

For now, though, he got to enjoy the dubious pleasure of a night on hard ground outdoors. On the plus side, the stars were breathtaking; the lack of any sort of light pollution meant that even the small slice of sky visible through the trees had an astonishing number of stars.

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The next morning, Kylus opted to accompany Jonathan back to the orphanage, and while he watched from the woods, Jonathan worked his way around to the back of Mr. Geiller's property, keeping away from the orphanage's yard. He didn't see or hear any of the thugs, but the back door was open and it was entirely possible they were still inside.

When he reached the back of Mr. Geiller's property, however, he ran into a problem. Mr. Geiller had a rather thick hedge surrounding his entire lawn, and Jonathan strongly suspected there might be arrays installed to dissuade home intruders. Rather than push his luck, he worked his way around the far edge, surveyed the road, and when no Petty Baron gangsters made themselves known quickly made his way into Mr. Geiller's front yard.

"Confound it!" he heard the old man yell from inside. "I told you—" Mr. Geiller threw open the front door, brandishing that medallion of his before suddenly lowering it. "Oh, it's you. Come slinking out of the forest, have we?"

"No, it's just me and Kylus. Are those thugs still in the orphanage, do you know?"

Mr. Geiller shrugged. "I think they all went back to town a little bit ago. I kept myself clear of them, though, so I don't know if it was all of them."

"They bothered you?"

The grin on Mr. Geiller's face could only be described as feral. "They tried."

"Well, I'm glad you're alright."

"Yes." Mr. Geiller frowned and was silent for a few moments. "This safe place you think you've got in the woods…I'd like to see it. Maybe improve it a bit. I think…if this happens again, I'd rather go with you. Those idiots weren't ready for me, but I got the feeling they wouldn't make the same mistake twice."

Sounded like there was a story there, but Jonathan put a lid on his curiosity. "Sure, that would be fine. I need to check on the orphanage, though, and make sure no one stayed behind."

Mr. Geiller grunted. "You do that. Come let me know when everyone is back. I'll give the kids a lesson while you clean up."

"Will do." Jonathan waved, and left Mr. Geiller behind.

Rather than walk down the road to the front of the orphanage, he once more worked his way around Mr. Geiller's yard and into the woods where Kylus was waiting. After informing the youth about his plans, he made his way to the back door of the orphanage, approaching from the side where the woods ran closest to the building.

Jonathan took his time working his way into the building, making sure to move as quietly as possible, and checking every room.

The building was empty; the thugs had apparently left en masse earlier that morning as Mr. Geiller had reported.

But in their wake they had completely trashed the place. The kitchen was a mess of broken crockery, and not a single tool remained unscathed. The beds, when Jonathan made it upstairs, had their mattresses torn apart and stank of urine. Mr. Geiller's arrays in the front room were reduced to scrap metal. The sinks throughout the orphanage showed signs of abuse, and every single catalyst for creating hot water was gone.

By the time he returned outside to have Kylus let the kids know they were safe to return, Jonathan was all but seeing red. While the people were certainly safe, so much of the things that he'd painstakingly conjured were destroyed, and he had no idea how he was going to replace the hot water catalysts, much less Mr. Geiller's no-doubt expensive arrays.

Worse, the one place where Abigail, Jonathan, and the others had been able to find a modicum of safety felt violated.

He wasn't sure how he was going to accomplish it, but the Petty Baron had to go.