Philosophy is great for times of war and times of peace. But there was once a great man who said, “If you need to shoot. Shoot. Don’t talk.” OK. Well maybe it wasn’t a great man, but it is good advice either way.
Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt. - Sun Tzu, The Art of War
The fact that Phraan, Ruven and Elen were part of the problem, rather than the solution, was not all that shocking. The fact that they had their own game plan and had been easily able to prey on Karl and Erin’s insecurities and desires to drive a wedge in the group was also not a surprise. The concept that some of the elven instructors were casually drawing up plans to put a hit on my friend and my dog did catch me unexpectedly. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe Leirin, it was just that I hadn’t seen that level of depravity coming.
It was late and I could tell that Leirin had come to me immediately with the information, which I appreciated. She did it out of concern for my friends, but really more for our relationship. I already knew that Leirin was extremely capable, though over the coming weeks and months she would show me just how far I had underestimated her and her team. As Leirin shared this dark news and her thoughts with me, I also read her into my ideas well.
It was time for us to disappear. Some figuratively and some less so, but I felt that the Emerald Sea had likely outlived its usefulness. Since my experience at Ghostlight Falls, I had become very interested in the Giantspire Mountains, where legend held that the dreams that I experienced were originally trapped. There had to be other things of merit to find in such an interesting place and I was planning on finding those things.
My rough plan was to purchase a bounty of materials, spend a week or two preparing in the Treefort, exit the city, activate my stealth skill in full, build a permanent base camp in the Giantspire Mountains and spend my time exploring. I had some ideas for projects that would allow me to keep up with folks and help out if needed, but I didn’t really think that the Emerald Sea was the place for me to keep growing.
With the team splitting and some new threats to our safety emerging, I figured that I could amend my plan a bit to help my remaining party mates relocate to Eastern Tear and continue their advancement with some real experts. I think that Leirin immediately saw the benefit in the plan, but recognized that it would both need to be the team’s choice and something that we successfully negotiated with the wild elves. The wild elves weren’t a trusting bunch, but I was hoping that with a little help from Galan and Deldes and Delirin we could hook it up. If not, then I guess I was going to need to figure out how to fight it out with Phraan, Ruven and Elen. I had come a long way, but I didn’t like my odds in that fight at all and neither did Leirin, but I had a plan for that too if it came down to it.
***
Leirin sent some folks to collect Sarah, Queakers, Jim, Karen and Kelly for a nice brunch at my apartment the next day. Leirin also brought a delicious brunch from her cafe, so the brunch thing wasn’t just a cover. She had Aquilan there who shared what he had heard and Leirin shared with the team much of what she had shared with me the night before.
Leirin wasn’t just another beautiful, renowned brownie magic artificer. She was part of the larger organization of the Seelie Court, the ruling organization of the fae, and she was in the Emerald Sea on official business. There was a lot more than a tutorial going on in the Emerald Sea and we were on the cusp of the first significant escalation in the area. Tense relations between the various peoples and kingdoms with interests in Region Eleven were a fact of life, so Leirin and her clan had been gathering information and maneuvering their interests for a cold war at best and an open conflict at worst.
The tutorial had originally brought us to the Emerald Sea. Our only real reasons for staying put were the tutorial and our friends. Thankfully it didn’t take much deliberation to convince the team that what Leirin said was true or that spiriting them off to Eastern Tear was a good idea. Most of the team had gotten to know and like Deldes and Delirin, so the thought of Eastern Tear was a little more palatable right off the bat. Additionally, we didn’t fit in at all in the Emerald Sea and the tutorial participants had been so isolated that they hadn’t made any connections in the town outside of the tutorial.
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Eastern Tear also hardly felt like a step down. The team would potentially have access to experts, insights and resources to support their continued growth that they didn’t have in the Emerald Sea. This was especially likely now that their teachers wanted some of them dead. Karen didn’t feel right about leaving Lyle, Erin, Lando and Karl in the clutches of the elven tutorial instructors, but Leirin seemed to think that they were relatively safe and that telling them now would put us in much more danger. Karen wouldn’t give up, but eventually settled for sending a letter from Eastern Tear.
We started planning immediately, assuming that we’d be able to work out something with Galan to convince Beluar and the wild elves to help us out. They had to get their stuff out of their “hotel” and I figured the sooner the better. Leirin actually arranged for a few people to be available to head over with them and help out after our brunch. We spent a few more hours making the remainder of our plans.
Planning to leave everything familiar for the second time in less than a year was a surreal experience. Walking away from friends and businesses didn’t feel right, even if I didn’t put enough time into either to really justify my pining over them. I really didn’t live anywhere anymore. I was just passing through, but I knew what was important to me. I wanted to support the people that I cared about even from afar, sometimes preferably from afar. I was sad to leave Lyle and I thought that I would miss Lando a bit, but the truth is I was willing to sacrifice those relationships for those that mattered more to me.
In the end I gave up my apartment to Jim and Karen. Those two definitely needed some privacy and it felt good to give them somewhere that they could have that and prepare for a departure that I was betting was harder for them than the rest of us. Of course, those two offered one of the rooms to Kelly, who seemed happy to move on from the tutorial as well. I got from Sarah that she had been stifled by the group, the tutorial and Erin for a while now and that this was actually a welcome change for her as well. Queakers felt that she had already learned all that she could from the elven instructors and didn’t give a change of scenery a second thought. She was excited to “be with her people in nature.” The dog was getting kind of weird, but she had found her own way and was a good friend to us all.
In another move that felt risky, I came clean to the whole group about the Treefort. I thought that Sarah might actually take a swing at me. Queakers just used her communication board to say, “Bad Harris.” I could tell that Leirin wanted to talk more, but that she also felt that it wasn’t the time. That was fine with me, as that way I could catch her and Galan up at the same time. For now I agreed to share the space with Sarah and Queakers as we prepared to leave the Emerald Sea.
***
This had already been more meeting and talking than I was absolutely comfortable with over the past few days, but it wasn’t over yet. Immediately after brunch, Leirin and I headed to the board game cafe for a little Risk, some tea, a bit of light spycraft and a very unexpected conversation. Galan was there and it was clear that he was already aware of the details from last night. Galan had his signature serene smile as Leirin quickly brought him up to speed on the rest. He did give a little chuckle when Leirin described the Treefort. Once she was done relaying our conversation, she left to collect Deldes and Delirin, as we were hoping that they could help us reach Eastern Tear and negotiate with the wild elves there on behalf of my party.
When we were alone, Galan turned to me and said, “Harris, I am much older than you and I have spent the greater part of my life exploring this world. I have pushed many boundaries and stared at what lies beyond, but now when I look beyond what I see is blurry. This is not how things should be.”
He no longer wore his serene smile. Galan was serious. His eyes looked deep, distant and very, very old as he continued, “I will teach you to make the compass that you saw me sell to the human explorer in your dream. I have refined it over the years and I expect that it will be quite difficult, but if you learn to make this compass I have a feeling that it will lead you to many, many things both here and in the beyond. If you can make that compass, no matter where or how we meet in the future, I will always know you.”
He didn’t give me a chance to respond. It wasn’t a question. It wasn’t even a test. It was a goodbye. Galan’s smile returned and it reached his eyes as he said, “I feel as though I have been asleep for a long time, but meeting you has stirred me from my slumber. I see many interesting things on our horizon, but to get there we’ll have to fight. Leirin is very clever, but conflict like this cannot be resolved so easily. I think that you see the wisdom in avoiding a fight Harris, but when this fight comes to you, make sure that it ends with you too.