Leo turned out to be a lot more useful than anyone expected. With his family resources, they acquired extra Pockets and goods, and campsite wards. Plus, Leo informed them that he had maps to various caches, if they needed to replenish. The changeability of the landscape meant that these maps were only a general guide, a bit of searching might be necessary to find the exact locations. He also supplied a description of the hazards and areas to avoid, although it was somewhat out of date.

No-one could get a meeting with Tomas. He and the senior Magisters, along with most of the City Council, were closed up with the Sage, plotting something. People passing by the room reported a lot of yelling, and rumors ran rampant. Probably, there would be more news later in the evening when another meet and greet was scheduled. Tenthé’s plan was to crash that party, corner Tomas, and discuss the trip.

As was walking down a hallway toward the main dining room, Tenthé rounded a corner and slammed into the Sage. Both of them went tumbling.

Tenthé was amazed! None of his wards had detected anything at all!

The Sage looked as surprised as he did. They both got up and eyed each other. The Sage was the first to say something.

“Hey, Tenthé,” he ventured. Tenthé replied with silence.

“Hm. Friendly. No need to be wary, boy. I’m here to deal with the Horde. In my own way.”

In spite of himself, Tenthé asked, “What do you mean?”

“I’ve been talking with several people and am having a hard time convincing them I am not the super-powerful magister they’ve been hoping for. I’m quite used to that.”

“You aren’t? Everyone says you’re a Sage!”

“It’s more a matter of my focus. As you may have noticed, I am very good at masking myself. I have other powers, but that is what I do best. I understand you are more of a disruptor. Me, I’m a hider.”

“A hider?”

“Yep. When the Horde arrives, I hide people so they can escape and rebuild. Oh, I usually cause a few distractions here and there, but mostly I help cities recover. It’s what I do.”

“Bet that didn’t make anyone happy,” Tenthé said.

“Correct. That’s why everything broke up early. I do enjoy the accolades while they last because, after that I‘m always shunned. They think I represent failure. Shockingly enough, the most disappointed of the people are the first to demand my services. They don’t understand why I refuse the majority of them. A city populated by only wealthy and sycophants won’t work. You may not know it, but my Sage name is the Sadness. That and because God's Damned Asshole was taken.”

That squeezed a laugh out of Tenthé. Bear would have laughed too, but he was sleeping since he found preparing for trips to be soporific. Normally, Tenthé would have shared that opinion, but he was actually looking forward to seeing what they might find once they were away from the City.

The Sage continued, “Word of my arrival has spread, mostly because I arranged for it to be so, and we are going to have another party this evening where I’ll be mobbed by requests to help get people away when things go bad. Maybe you can rescue me if it looks as if I need it?”

Tenthé was coming around to like the Sage. He seemed to be pretty normal, just like a few of the guys who cleaned the streets by the Mission. They did a job that few wanted, but took pride in it.

“I suppose. If you want me to,” Tenthé ventured. “My rescues are usually, um… well, let’s say… messy? Yeah, messy.”

The Sage was looking hard at him. “What are you talking about? With all that,” and he waved his arms, indicating the air all around Tenthé, “you should have no problem.”.

“What do you mean? I’m just me.”

“Okay, tell me,” the Sage started, “If the Horde was standing in front of you, could you beat them?”

“By myself? Maybe. I’ve only fought a few of them, and that was without their Mentor.”

“But, you could beat them?”

“Yeah. Probably. Might not be much left ‘cept me. And… I might not be me, either.”

“Ah. I see why the Council is scared of you.”

“They are? I wanted to hide what I could do. I figured it was working because, usually, once they think I can do stuff, everyone tries to order me around.”

“Has hiding your power actually worked out for you, before?”

Tenthé thought for a moment. “Nope. Not really. Not for long.”

“Tell you what, kid. I’ll make sure enough survive. You do what you have to. Let me warn you, though, if you stay, the Council will threaten the Horde with anything they can think of. Including you. It never works. Threats only push the Horde to fight harder.

“And another thing that is going to happen, this city will fall. It needs a big, fast, well-trained army, and many more defenses. The Horde is smart, they’ll use any weakness to its fullest, and the City, as it is, is not prepared. One person like you isn’t enough, and even adding in the Magisters, Guardians, and Gods won’t be enough. My job is to prepare for the worst. I can’t say what happened to your Dreamer, but it has doomed this City.”

Obviously, the Sage didn’t believe that Tenthé could do what he said, but that was okay. Tenthé felt no need to argue about it, so instead he said, “Maybe. But, I’ll keep doing what I think’s right. We’ll see what happens.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Oh, and another other thing. Have you talked to Isabell?” Tenthé asked.

The Sage thought for a moment, “Nope. I don’t remember an Isabell. Should I?

Tenthé laughed, “Yeah, you should. She’s a friend. I’m not sure what’s going on, but I haven’t seen her for a while, either. I thought she was organizing things, but if she wasn’t here to meet you, then I really don’t know where she got to.”

Tenthé turned and yelled to the air, “Hey Isabell, you here?”

There was no response. Tenthé declared, “Hmph. I wonder where she’s gone. She said she was everywhere.”

The Sage was looking at him with an amused expression. “Well... I don’t have much else to say. You go talk to your friend and remember your promise to me. If it looks like I’m being mobbed, help a brother out.”

“Sure. Bye,” and Tenthé rushed off, but slowed when he realized he had no idea how to find Isabell if she wasn’t answering. He’d never found a good way to detect the cubes, they were extremely stealthy. One thing he figured he should ask her was if she wanted to go on the trip with them. She might be too busy organizing things, but he kind of planned on her coming with them.

He spent the next few hours searching for her, with no luck. It was worrisome, but he didn’t automatically assume the worst. Isabell was super strong. She should be able to take care of herself.

Eventually, he gave up. She wasn’t anywhere he looked and he’d covered a fair amount of ground. Plus, he was getting hungry and there were still things he had to do.

The get-together for the Sage would have started already. Maybe they would have something to eat. Tenthé headed toward the main dining room.

The room was packed. As Tenthé made his way to the buffet area, he noticed the Sage being mobbed, just like he’d said. Even as he watched, one family group was pushed aside by another. It was as rough as the Sage had predicted.

While he ate, Tenthé thought about what he could do. Bees were a possibility, but maybe something else less painful would be better. It probably didn’t really matter, but he could try to be nicer. It would be a challenge.

Looking around, Tenthé found that Tomas was nearby, appearing distracted as he nibbled on a dessert that was smeared on his face in places. It was odd to see him like that. Usually, he was very particular about his appearance.

Tenthé piled a plate high and moved beside Tomas.

“Hey, Tenthé.”

“Mmph.”

“So, the Sage didn’t quite turn out to be what I had hoped for. Look at the feeding frenzy out there. Houses fighting Houses all for a chance to be saved. If they put that much energy into defending the City, we might be a good deal readier.”

“Mmphth.”

“Yeah, I agree. It appears the rest of the world has written us off. No-one wants to join a lost cause. Quite disappointing.”

Tenthé swallowed the last of his food.

“Uh… a bunch of us want to see what is happening in Angel City,” he began. “It seems stupid that to think that the Horde would be sitting outside a city they can’t take when we’re here, just waiting to be plucked.”

“Plucked? Yeah, we’re truly plucked.” Tomas said morosely.

“Yeah, but I don’t think we all should give up yet. I guess, what I want to know is… um, can we go? Elishua, the Envoy, and me?” The last he rushed out, worried Tomas would shut him down.

Instead, Tomas thought for a moment, then said in an off-hand way, “Elishua has told me that you aren’t too happy with what we’re doing. But, believe it or not, we have discussed the possibility that someone undertake a scouting mission, outside of the current effort. I… uh, we, decided it might be a good thing. In fact… certain powers were unexpectedly enthusiastic that you should join the mission. They stated it was the solution to several problems. I have no idea what that meant, but… who am I to say any different? Just the head of the College and the Magical defenses. I argued we should… well, never mind.

“Yes. You can go, along with Elishua. And the Envoy. And also yes, I saw through her feeble excuse to go back home.

“But, if you meet the Horde along the way, I urge you to return with utmost haste. If that’s not the case, and assuming you survive the Wilds and reach Angel City, then we may have time to come up with a solution using the information you uncover.

“Personally, I’m still not convinced letting you go is the correct thing to do. But I agree, we need to know what is going on, out there. Even if all we can do is cut and run.”

With this dour statement, Tomas took another bite, smearing more food on his face.

“Don’t worry so much, sir. I’ll do my best. And, maybe the worst won’t happen.”

“If you meet the Horde, do you think you could stand up to them?”

“Don’t know. They wouldn’t be a threat if they were easy to defeat. I think it would be interesting to find out. To be honest, I don’t trust what anyone here says. Already, a lot of it doesn’t make any sense.”

“Yeah, I’m worried too. Their life of constant raiding has made the Horde a nearly perfect force. We need everything to be working flawlessly to oppose them successfully.”

“Do you think whoever has the Dreamer knows how bad it’s going to be?”

A little emotion peeked out from behind Tomas’ facade. “They have to! But even so, they aren’t doing anything they should to prepare! Which is one more thing that makes no sense!”

“Yeah, and that’s part of why I want to go. Maybe there’s something else we could do, but… I don’t know what.”

Tomas glared at Tenthé and growled with barely suppressed anger, “I have no idea, either! But dammit, I hate wishing for a miracle instead of having a solid plan.”

“I guess. And, uh, thanks.”

The good part was that now they had permission to make their trip. It would be better if Tomas had a little more faith, but at least they wouldn’t have to sneak out.

While they were talking, Tenthé had come up with a way to get the crowds away from the Sage. Quietly, he released some of his rats, and they promptly scurried off. The crowd was so dense that it would be a miracle if anyone noticed, but that wasn’t the idea.

Tenthé waited a moment and activated his spell. Suddenly, a number of Sages appeared and began wandering around. After a short pause, the hubbub grew as people found themselves next to the Sage and chased after him to plead their case.

With much of the attention diverted, the real Sage was quick to act. As Tenthé watched, he seemed to fade, becoming so uninteresting that nobody cared to look his way. Even Tenthé lost track of the man.

That was pretty powerful magic. Tenthé turned his attention to the crowd, which was surging back and forth as everyone chased after the fake Sages.

After a few minutes, Tenthé was somewhat amazed. Everybody was so intent on getting special treatment that they hadn’t figured out what was going on.

He sent another command and all the Sages scurried for the doors. The crowd followed. Soon there was almost no-one left in the room.

“Well, that was interesting,” Tomas commented. “Fastest I’ve ever seen these people leave a party. Usually, we have to kick them out and more often than not, we find out they’ve stolen half the booze.”

He sighed, then added, “Sometimes I wonder why I even try.”

Tenthé decided he’d had enough. It was late, and they had to finish up their preparations tomorrow, although, with Leo’s help, everything was as ready as it could be. Perhaps they could leave early! That was a shock. Maybe the first time he’d managed that with a group.

Nah. Something would go wrong.

On this positive note, he made his way to his nest, still thinking about Isabell and wondering what she was up to.