Lord Daron Fulba sat beside his son, Dodi at the dinner table, coaching him. The table was cleared of all cutlery and one one side there was a stack of thick textbooks and grimoires, many of them from Lord Daron's personal library. A lot of what Dodi was learning at the warfare school were things that he knew, so he gave him personal lessons every other evening when he was free.

They were halfway through a buddle multiplication technique when he received a wave prod. He picked it up and felt Segi's essence. She told him about what had happened at Lord Cepher's house the day before. At first, he took the news with a somber expression, but when he heard that Rubric Makon was alive, he was overjoyed.

The conversation soon ended, and with a grin on his face, he reached out to Lakan to ask about how their mission was going. Lakan picked briefly and said he they were in the middle of a mission, he promised to wave back later. Lord Daron nodded and hurried out of the house, calling his colleagues for an impromptu meeting.

Back at Navon, Makon and Murik had disappeared. As soon as the day broke they'd left Lord Cepher's floater. Segi had let them go because she had General Makon's essence, but when she tried to use it to prod him, it failed. She realized that he'd reformed his essence and was now unreachable.

"Reforming one's essence... That's drastic." Lara said. The entire group still remained on Lord Cepher's floater, everyone else, including his personal staff, had been evacuated. His mansion now lay in charred ruins, although the smoldering had since stopped. A significant portion of the garden survived. Mullam had chuckled at the finely groomed garden that surround the heap of stones and burnt wood that was his former mansion.

"He doesn't want to be found." Deyion said. "He did save our butt back there, maybe he's up to something."

"That's exactly why we need him." Segi said. "I need to know if he knows anything about Ganz. I'm tired of chasing the man around like a whiff of smoke."

"We really have no idea where he could be now, do we?" Deyion said. "Our only lead was here."

"Royi hasn't reported back." Segi said. "Ganz could very well still be in Saymor."

"Just wave to Royi then. Let's hear from him." Lara said. Segi nodded and brought invoked another wave spell. The smoke from the burning paper was invisible in the daylight and it quickly fizzled away, as if it was never there.

A few excruciatingly long minutes passed and Royi's heartbeat finally began to fill the space in Segi's anxious ears. Segi relaxed and waited for Royi to speak.

"Hello" his voice came.

"Hello Royi!" Segi said. "What took you so long to pick this?"

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"I was in the middle of trailing someone. I couldn't pause for a chat." He said.

"Who?" Segi asked.

"Ganz still has men here for sure." Royi said. "I just trailed one of them to his house."

"His house?" Segi asked, confused.

"Well, where he stays anyway." Royi said.

"Well how do you know he's one of Ganz's men?" Segi asked.

"It's a long story." He replied. "I've been busy all night. So many fascinating things happening here."

"Er... well, okay so what should we do? Should we come over there and help you out?" Segi asked.

"You didn't find any leads in Navon?" Royi asked.

"Oh, yeah we did actually. It's a long story." Segi said. Royi laughed.

"Stay in Navon for the time being. Take care of whatever is going on there, However, stock up on speed, preferably low cushion. I may need you guys here in a pinch and a hover caravan simply won't cut it."

"Okay Royi. Thank you." Segi said, She cut the wave link and looked back at he group, Shielding her eyes from the sun behind them.

"Is it just me or is the sun brighter up here?" She complained as she walked towards them.

"Actually it's the dust. There's less dust up here." Mullam said. "Anyways what's the plan now?"

"Zeron may still be in the city." Segi said. "Or any of his remaining men. Let's do a sweep and fish him out."

They nodded and dispersed.

---

"Makon is alive?" Lord Fugap gasped. "My goodness!"

"Best news I'd heard in weeks." Lord Daron said, grinning from ear to ear.

"And to think, only a few months ago, you guys would have wanted him in prison." Lord Vikitor said. They were in front of Hall Bolak, waiting for the others to arrive for the meeting, but Lord Daron had already spilled the beans.

"I'll issue the man a personal apology when I see him." Lord Daron said. "Trying to reason with Ganz was a grave mistake."

"Well since we're on that topic, I have some good news of my own." Lord Fugap said. "The War Mages of Pirun have been hard at work. They've liberated Keltu and Okanyak. I was told it was extremely difficult. Ganz's men put up a serious fight."

"Thank goodness." Lord Vikitor said. "They seem capable enough, should we recall our men from Kanam?"

"Well to be fair we already told them we have men in Kanam." Lord Fugap said. "They're expecting us to liberate it for them."

"Besides, Kanam is of personal interest to us." Lord Daron said. "The Chawbig river route is vital."

---

"Wow you can see the Chawbig river from up here." Lakan said to Hark.

They were currently on the roof of the governor's house. It was evening and the sun was bright orange and reflected off the river far off in the distance.

"Look at it." He said to Hark who was also looking. "Absolutely gorgeous."

"Are you guys fucking kidding me!" Binko snapped in a harsh whisper. beckoning at them frantically. "We have a job to do here for goodness sake."

"Come on guys," Regar said. "I'm sure there's a better vantage point we can see the river from later."

Lakan and Hark looked at each other and shrugged with smiles. Then followed Binko.

The group, crouching, walked along the roof until they reached the very top of the governor's quarters. Lakan was quite familiar with Pirun's architecture and was able to point it out.

"So how do we enter?" Regar asked.

"Quietly, through the windows." Let's find his study and enter through there.

"The study should be down there." Lakan said, Pointing about two meters away. "You guys stay up here. Let me scope it out."

They nodded.

Lakan moved over to the point on the roof where the study was. using a latching spell, he lowered himself down from the roof and peeked into the window.

His blood immediately ran cold.

The governor was in his study, and he having a discussion with Ganz Lara.