“Alright, everyone, gather round- especially you Rendy, this is mostly for your benefit,” Gareth said as he stood in the study looking down at a map he had pinned to the table. They had only recently breakfasted and Orenda still had her mug of coffee, which she had refilled and feared she may be overindulging in. But she still couldn’t hold her liquor and it seemed to do a little something for the hangover.

“Here’s the thing,” Gareth said to her, “None of us, except for Draco, have actually been to the Burrow. I didn’t want to just show up there with the Emerald Knight after me, and Xac set up his land long after he just… disappeared on that battlefield, apparently- which makes so much more sense now that I know Lapus can do that…”

“Now that you know teleportation is possible?” Orenda asked him.

“I don’t know that that’s what happened,” Gareth said, “Xac was never very clear on what happened. He’s never very clear on anything. He’s not exactly known for clarity.”

“So you don’t actually know where he lives?” Orenda asked.

“Why the hell would I ever step foot on Urillian soil again?” Gareth asked, “Especially so close to the capital? No, I have no idea where he lives. That’s why I called this meeting. We need to have a plan in place, because we’re going to need to hide once we reach the shore- and we certainly can’t sail up in the Burned Roc, they’ll spot us in a second. We’re moving deep into enemy territory. I don’t think you understand how dangerous this is. We normally take people on in the dead of night far offshore in rowboats. It’s been a good twenty years since I set foot on Urillian soil… No, I know nothing. Draco, darling, would you be so kind as to tell us what the hell we’ll be doing?”

“I suggest, Captain,” Draco flew from Impy’s shoulder and alighted on Gareth’s outstretched arm, “that I do a reconnaissance mission first. It’s been a while since I’ve been to the Burrow myself. But if something were to happen to me… I need another map. I need a map of the earth continent in more detail.”

“Darling could you?” Gareth asked, but Bella was already hunting through a cabinet. She rolled out the new map and pinned it on top of the old one.

“Right,” Draco said, “hold me lower, Captain, I don’t want to hop around on the table with my claws. I may tear it. Now, unfortunately, the Burrow is actually… quite close to Capital Town. It’s less than a week’s journey on foot. Less than a day by air. If Xandra knows about the rebellion in the fire colony, it’s likely that the guards will be out hot and heavy. I honestly… don’t know how you’re going to sneak two fire elves, an unmarked human, and a dwarf to the Burrow. We’ll have to row out- you can’t take the carpet back and forth like that, we won’t be able to get close enough to shore. Give me something to write with, captain, or a pin or… anything.”

Gareth handed him a pin, and he leaned forward with it in his mouth to stick it into the map.

“There, on the edge of the agricultural district between those small rolling hills you’ll see an orchard. There are all sorts of things there, pears, apples… star fruit. There’s a stately farmhouse and a few other buildings that look like slave quarters, for appearances. As far as anyone knows, that place is owned by Lapus Lazuli. Everything important is well hidden. It looks like a normal farm on the surface, not unlike the others that surround it. Xac’s been strategically buying up land for years, though, under Lapus’s name, so it’s quite secluded.”

“Don’t they recognize that name?” Orenda asked, “As the djinn?”

“I imagine ‘the djinn’- seriously, can we please stop saying that?- was a secret until a few days ago. Even now I don’t think we’re advertising his name,” Gareth said, “Lapus Lazuli is a fairly common water elf name. It’s similar to precious stone, pronounced almost exactly the same. Poor bastard has probably never had a birthday cake spelled right in his life.”

“My point is,” Draco said loudly, “That the burrow is huge and if we can get there we should be safe. It’s the getting there that will be a problem.”

“Right,” Gareth said. “We’ll certainly be conspicuous. Perhaps…”

“Perhaps we could wear make-up?” Orenda suggested, “Lighten our skin, wear hoods, and pretend that Bella is our slave?”

“No, that won’t do,” Gareth shook his head and seemed insulted that she had suggested it. “They would still recognize my mask, for one thing, and for another I hate every single thing about that plan.”

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“Well you wouldn’t wear your mask, in that plan,” Orenda said.

“It’s so far inland,” Bella said, studying the map.

“And so close to the castle,” Gareth said, looking around the coast, “The closest port really is… it’s the one capital town uses… the same… that’s where…”

“Where I was born?” Orenda asked.

“Yes,” Gareth said softly.

“Then we shouldn’t use that one, obviously,” She said, “We should go… here. To-Seaweed Beach? Really? That’s the name of a town? That’s terrible…”

“No,” Bella said, “It would add weeks to our journey on land and we simply don’t have it. Xac is in danger. We take the most direct route.”

“But it’s literally right outside the walls of the castle!” Orenda argued.

“That’s the wall to Capital Town,” Bella corrected, “The castle is actually a sort of fortress. They can seal up the gate and keep out intruders and hold a good number of people inside.”

“Well whatever,” Orenda said, “My point is, security is too tight.”

“Speaking of security,” Bella asked her, “Where is that sacred, priceless staff?”

“I put it in my wardrobe,” Orenda made a face, “It was annoying me. The thing never shuts up. It’s taken to talking incessantly and I find many of its suggestions disagreeable. I think I really will put it back once I’ve finished with it. It vexes me to no end.”

This was true, but not the complete truth. The full truth was that any time the staff saw Anilla it acted as if it was frightened. It told Orenda that it had seen things, that Anilla was dangerous, was a betrayer, and that she should be struck down, should be killed, before she had a chance to do something horrible.

Anilla had never been anything but kind to her- but Orenda had to wonder.

Since the first day she had met the halfling she had gotten a bad feeling about her. She was far too chipper, far too optimistic to be healthy or realistic, as if it was an act that someone was putting on, someone who wanted too much to be trusted. She had been so forthcoming with information about her private life that it spoke of a kind of naivete that someone as old as Anilla claimed to be should not have.

Orenda knew that she had seen her magic signature before, she just couldn’t place it.

But she had no reason to be so apprehensive- and she had to remind herself that she often distrusted people who had done nothing to deserve it. She was slow to open up to others, but that was not necessarily a sign a maturity. And even if it was, it was possible that Anilla really had been isolated most of her life, had only recently left her tribe and began to travel. It made sense that she knew so little of the world.

She could not let that staff get into her head. She didn’t like the things it told her- because it told her things that she wanted. It promised her power and answers, things it should not know that she wanted. Sometimes Orenda would think something, not speak it aloud but simply think it, and the staff would respond as if it had heard her.

Orenda wanted to get rid of the thing as soon as possible.

“I can be sneaky!” Anilla said, “I’m so small I often go unnoticed. But if we really need an earth elf, why don’t we call Captain Glenlen? Or Steve?”

“That’s true,” Bella said, “With his new scars I doubt he’d be widely recognizable. Has he even been to Uril proper before? Would anyone recognize him at all?”

“Steve has,” Orenda said, “He deserted from their army. I don’t know if there’s anyone left who would remember him… he’s so old.”

“No,” Gareth said, “That’s a terrible plan. We just send Draco ahead with the warning, and then the rest of will sneak in the good, old-fashioned way going the long way round. That’s the most sensible thing to do. We wear traveling cloaks and keep under cover of darkness. We camp during the day- Uril is almost all woods- and we travel at night. We just stay alert and stay safe.”

“Gareth,” Bella warned.

“What? That’s the best plan. We just have to be sneaky. It isn’t like we have no Knights along the way- there are safe houses all over Uril.”

“There were safe houses all over Uril. It’s been a while and security has probably gotten tighter.”

“Well, we’ll find out when we dock,” Gareth said, “As soon as we get close enough, we row out to Seaweed Beach which, by the by Orenda, darling, is named for the color, not the plant, and see if our dear old friend Feno is still running the Glamorous Seagull. If he is, he can point us to our next location.”

“I suppose that’s really all we can do,” Bella frowned.

“We’ll be going from safehouse to safehouse?” Orenda asked, “Like the humans did to escape?”

“Yes, but backwards,” Gareth said, “And if we get caught… if any of us get caught we cannot be taken into custody. It is said…”

“It is said that Xandra can look into a person’s mind,” Bella finished his thought, “And we all know too much about the Order. We do not let them take us alive.”

“Right,” Orenda agreed. “I don’t think they can. Not unless they have the Emerald Knight with them, and he’s supposed to be in the frozen north.”

“If you can trust the demon,” Gareth said without looking at Bella.