My head feels cottony and numb. It's like it is trying to remember what an ocular migraine feels like, and failing miserably.

Even so, I'm finally able to focus in what feels like forever. And where do I get my awareness back? At a table sitting across from a furious Elder Isis. Not that anyone without experience sitting across a furious elder could tell. Her face is carefully blank, but her eyes… they are looking at me like I'm a mosquito that somehow deleted her dissertation, destroyed the backup, and set the computer on fire for good measure.

Lou is sitting next to me, staring down her own set of elders.

Where is Damian?

"Damian has not returned. He probably set you up to be captured and retreated."

Did I say that last thought out loud? I must have…

"He wouldn't do that. It is not in him to leave friends to be captured." Lou says softly. It is distracting, and I find it difficult to think of anything beyond Damian not being one to leave us behind. I look at the elders, they don't seem to be having the same trouble. In fact, Elder Isis looks even more angry.

I would expect her to tear into Lou, verbally eviscerate her and make her wish she had never been born.

Instead, she glares at me. "We will be leaving for New Eden as soon as the sun sets. Once there, you will be confined to quarters until Elder Remus catches up with us and we can decide a suitable punishment for you."

"Elder Remus isn't here?" I look around the room, hoping to see him. "He was right behind us. He caught up with me in London…"

Lou looks at me sharply, she looks like she wants me to shut up, but I don't know why. Why would telling them I had seen Elder Remus somehow get us in more trouble?

The Elders look at each other concerned. They seem to be having a conversation we can't hear or understand. Two of the other sirens leave the room, and a phoenix flashes out. Elder Isis sighs, "The two of you will be confined to the dungeon until we receive word from the search party. If we can not find him in two days," she looks sharply at me, "we will proceed back home and I will decide your fate."

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Lou's father pulls out a pair of heavy shackles, and chains us to each other. Then, he leads us up to the dungeon cells in the highest parts of the castle. Apparently, the castle continues into the core of a hollowed out island. The cell he gives us has a dry shelf that I heave myself up on so I can spend some time out of my suit. The cell door closes and locks below us. Lou stays in the water, but leans her upper body on the shelf like a party girl at a pool party.

Somehow, in al the confusion about Remus, they have forgotten to take our bags. Or maybe they just can't imagine anything being in those bags that might cause them trouble.

Lou puts her bag on the shelf next to me. She takes a pad of paper and a pencil out of a waterproof pouch, and writes "It is likely they will separate us and take you home."

"Looks like it," I respond verbally. I can't believe our adventure is over. Will I ever have an adventure again? Or will my next adventure be a war with the humans?

"I want you to take my bag with you" she writes.

"Why?"

"Damian is missing, so is Remus. There are thing in my bag for most contingencies. If you get in a fight, or if you need to rescue someone, it will come in handy."

"Okay…" I say unsure as she opens the bag. It seems to have one of everything! Fishing line, paper and pencils, rope, a detailed atlas, glow sticks, a camera, C4…

Wait! C4?

"Are those explosives?"

"Yes" she writes.

I pick up the bag, turning it this way and that before looking in it again. It is really light, and seems to hold more than I would expect. "How—" I start.

"It is dwarven made, woven with old magic. Loki commissioned it for me. It tends to keep things dry, and will hold ten times its volume without increasing in weight."

"Loki?"

"You call him Damian."

"Wait, Damian is Loki? Like, as in, the Norse God?"

"Those stories are based on him."

"Is that what he meant when he said it would be difficult enough for him to convince the elders of anything because of his reputation."

"Probably."

I sit there dumbfounded. He is much older than I thought. "Why isn't he an elder?"

"They don't view him as trustworthy."

"Oh." We sit in silence for a moment while I process yet another seismic shift in my understanding of the world.

"You should move your things to my bag," she writes, tapping her pencil on the paper until I notice the new addition. I'm not sure how long ago she wrote it.

"Why?"

"Because the magic that makes it work, also makes it easily overlooked. You will be more likely to keep ahold of everything if it is in my bag."

"Got it," I say as I start moving the things from my bag into hers. She takes my empty duffle, folds it up, and also sticks it in her bag.

"Don't lose it, it is my favorite bag." She writes.

"I won't," I respond.

We wait in silence for the elders to come release us, hopefully with Elder Remus in tow.