{-Noa-}

He had, technically, met all of the council members before. Every couple of years, every ruling figure of the five nations met to talk about policies and issues that affected all of them; he always accompanied Aymer since he could never really trust Noa to stay behind on his own. Not like he minded going—before all the stories-turned-real and saving-the-world stuff, he liked the opportunity to sit in on important meetings. It gave him something to do, something to prepare for.

But just because he, theoretically, knew each of the members of Merith’s council, didn’t mean he actually knew them. Aymer had actually advised against interacting with them, given their reputations and Noa’s somewhat-complicated status.

And, well, sitting in the same room as them now? Everything Aymer warned about was right. Merith had seemed slightly unsettling, but the members of his council nearly made Noa wish he could leave the room entirely. But heroes had to deal with some things that they felt uncomfortable with, right? How would he prove he wasn’t just a defenseless kid if he left as soon as they had to talk to some quite-honestly-scary men? So he stayed, just glad that he didn’t have to be the one to do the talking.

“Let’s pool our knowledge to try to find little Lady Mira, shall we?” Vadur asked, growing an unnerving smile.

“She’s certainly not going to come out of her damn hiding hole on her own,” Merith remarked.

Noa knew that someone had to say it—how it was far more than something she did out of her own free will. But he certainly wasn’t brave enough to and, after a brief glance at the others, he had a feeling they weren’t, either.

“Not like I’m complaining,” Elo muttered. “I quite like the peace and quiet away from all of her interruptions. I’d almost like to wish that it could last longer…”

Luses didn’t seem any more interested in the truth than Elo did, yet still he pointed out, “But then we’d have a much bigger problem. And however annoying that brat was, with all the ways she tried to stop us, they’d be nothing compared to those idiots who have taken to looking up to her.”

Finally, Noa got himself to mumble, “Those are the people you’re supposed to be ruling. Shouldn’t all of you want what’s best for them..?”

Merith laughed. Condescending, he replied, “Of course that’s something a kid of Ilatenes would say. All you know are those farms and forests. Any of my other opinions would breach the level of formality we should maintain, so let’s just leave it there, shall we?”

“We’re not here to talk about that anyway,” Rennyn said. “We’re here to talk about Lady Mira—to figure out where she is now, and how we’re going to bring her back. We asked around and it seemed like she was definitely last seen around the castle. Do you have any ideas of her whereabouts besides that?”

“Well, there are many places within the capital she could’ve gone to, and it’s certainly not my job to babysit her while she’s in the castle,” Merith remarked. “Likely everyone in the capital knows by now that she isn’t here. I’m sure there are a few of them who are too dumb to actually come up and say anything about her whereabouts, but they might listen to you.”

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“I have a feeling that isn’t going to get us far. I’d much rather we take a look through the castle instead, if that’s alright with you?”

Merith let out a long, drawn out sigh. “I suppose if it’s for the sake of finding her, then you can. I intended on having a couple more high-profile visitors over, but I can’t exactly do that with kids like you running around, so go ahead. Just don’t mess with anything you’re not supposed to.”

“Do you realize how bad that sounds, given the current circumstance?”

“Then let me rephrase: you’re here to look for that damn cousin of mine, and nothing more. Anything that’s not related to her isn’t any of your business. Is that understood?”

They all gave their agreement, and that seemed to be the end of the meeting. Merith and the council members left first, making their opinions on the “kids” rather clear as they left. At least it meant they might not interfere too much while those same “kids” actually did something about the current situation…

As soon as they left, Rennyn abruptly stood up. “Let’s get started. I have a feeling that King Merith’s likelihood of giving us the Goddess’s Shield when this is all over is directly related to how long we take to get it all done.”

“But this isn’t just about the Shield, right?” Lyrei prompted. “This definitely isn’t just something we should be doing so that we can get what we need and get out again. You’ve heard the same things about how important Lady Mira is. She needs to be brought back.”

Before Rennyn could say anything, Seldir stood up for his possible point of view. “This isn’t our fight to have, though—it’s theirs. I, at least, agree that this is about more than just the Shield… but, in the long run, this isn’t something we should get ourselves too invested in. We’ve got another mission outside of this.”

Rennyn himself, though, seemed to have little to say for himself. He simply continued towards the door and remarked, “Come on, we’ve got to get going. Lady Mira isn’t going to magically show up again if we wait any longer.”

So they followed him as he left the room and took to wandering the halls, until he was able to talk to a servant about Mira. The servant clearly didn’t know a lot about the situation—Noa assured them when they were done that they had it under control—but still recounted when they last saw Mira, and the directions to get there. That, at least, was enough of a starting point.

“Seems like there wasn’t anything different about her schedule until she went missing,” Rennyn muttered, though it mostly sounded to be to himself. “She definitely went missing in the castle, but no one’s seen anyone suspicious come and go. It was like she was there one minute, then gone the next…”

After a moment’s consideration, Lyrei offered, “Oh! Kaylin and I can go look through her room and see if there’s anything there. Maybe she kept notes or has some letters that could help us find who’s behind this.”

Kaylin nodded, even if she didn’t look quite as certain. “I suppose we can still try.”

“Alright, just be back as soon as you decide something.” Rennyn nodded, but Noa had the feeling he was only half-listening to what they were saying. “The three of us can stay here and look for something. We’re bound to find something eventually… and as long as we don’t take too long to find it, things should be pretty simple from there.”