Dawn, Prime Shard, 2565 A.D.

Archos Alpha Site, Northeastern Continent

"I know how I'll be spending the weekends." Barb announced as she flopped onto her bed. "That. Was. Amazing."

"I take it you liked your game," Alessia laughed, sitting on her own bed and pulling up her copied notes from the library. Rather than overlaying them on her arm, she used the tried-and-true method of projecting them onto the white sheet. She thought about transferring them over to her PAD - but there was a chance it could be flagged. The PAD was for work-use, after all.

"Liked it?" Barb whistled. "I loved it. It was really hard to remember why I was even there. Duke Lanslet was cold at first, of course, standard Duke-of-the-North fare. And I was just a poor commoner, lost in the forest after bandits attacked the caravan I was in and blown by the wind onto his doorstep. He was suspicious, naturally, but allowed me to rest and bathe. And when I chose the blue dress from the wardrobe to put on, and he saw me in his dead wife's clothes - why, naturally, every romance cliché you would expect followed. He defended me from an attempted framing, he rescued me from wolves on the mountain, and even risked his life to get me Laughing Bell flowers for my birthday - "

"You got up to a lot," Alessia interjected.

"That isn't the half!" Barb sat up and grinned mischievously. "Every ten minutes or so was a new day or scene gametime, after all. And I made good use of it. I baked him a cake with berries from the garden - every cold-hearted Duke must secretly love sweets, after all, it's like a rule - and he totally melted. We were inseparable within the week. And he took me everywhere I wanted! So of course, I made use of that." She winked, "and not just to scandalize the servants. I had him take me all around Chalcedon, especially to all the mountains. We even made love in the cutest little Inn nestled under Highcrest Falls - "

"Spare me the details," Alessia held a hand up. "Or wait, maybe not. You were in Chalcedon?"

"The country? Yah. Typical plot with the Duke and his people eking out survival in the hostile north, while the King plays politics behind the scenes to fatten his own pockets."

"I was in Prinas, one of the Five Sovereign united nations. We were at war with Chalcedon, apparently." Alessia pursed her lips, "so I couldn't find out much about Highscrest Falls. It was one of the possibilities I narrowed it down to."

"Well, if you really want to jump past the Duke's sexy six-pack and straight into business," Barb shot her a look, "I don't think it's Highcrest. It was cold, yes, but there was a tribe of Ketters who lived there, as well as some merchants. The mountains didn't seem as spiky as the ones we saw, and the waterfalls at Highcrest were too wide. It was almost the perfect tourist town, complete with little shops. The Duke bought me two of everything I looked at, of course." She flopped back down on her bed, hugging her pillow with a smile.

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"Hmm." Alessia looked at her list. "That brings me down to four contenders: In the southern hemisphere, Afmirim falls bordering Gael, or Rilpanah in the Gate mountains; in the northern hemisphere, either Lilpanmir in the Northern Wastelands, or the Water Wall just east of the Great White Desert. Were any of those on your list?"

"List?" Barb raised an eyebrow. "I didn't really keep a list," she confessed, "but I did ask the Duke some questions and sneak a peek in the library during a couple boring subplots. I thought for sure it was going to be Highcrest, but then it didn't look the part when we got there. Anyways," she thought for a moment, "I think it's one of the northern waterfalls. It's nothing concrete. In the Duke's library, the few maps he had used little jagged icons for some of the northern mountains. Most of the southern ones had a more rounded look. The Gate Mountains, especially, I remember those - they looked like little arches, as if inspired by actual gates, not just a gateway to someplace else. Plus, the lighting when Farash was taken," her voice quavered, "didn't it seem like the lighting of mid-morning rather than afternoon, with the sun blinding from one side like we were looking northeast?"

"Yes, but that could be just because I live in the northern hemisphere back on Earth. I'm a bit biased, there." Alessia turned back to her list. "But there's another possible clue, too, unless I'm grasping at straws - do you remember hearing a weird sound? Like a high keening whine, or cry, or wind, in the background?"

"Now that you mention it, yes. It was a little odd, but could have been wind through alpine wildflowers. Although it was still down below."

"Exactly! Some of the plants are musical when disturbed. Failing that, it could have been wind through some sort of structure, like a fortress. Or both." Alessia gestured at her list. "And some of the waterfalls take their name from the Ketter language, where every syllable has meaning. There was a book in the library in the various waterfalls that translated the names. So Afmirim falls is, 'Cold-water-nature,' pretty basic, but Lilpanmir means, "Music Over Water."

"Music over water? That could be it, then." Barb nodded. "At least, it's as good a guess as any. I'm not sure the shrieking noise was especially musical, though."

"I'm trying hard not to think of the hundreds of ways we could be wrong." Alessia groaned. "But I have to hope."

"Ok," Barb leveled her gaze, "we have a potential location where Farash and Kai might be. Now what are we supposed to do with that?"

Alessia swallowed, "whatever we can - whatever it takes to get them back."

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