{-Lyrei-}

  “Hm? Those kids? Yeah, I see them around every now and again. They’ve been asking merchants about stuff for a couple of weeks now, actually.” The old merchant looked up from the wood he was carving, just to make eye contact with Seldir. “You haven’t been away from each other for that long, have you?”

  It was impressive how casual Seldir was able to be. “We’ve had a couple of on-and-off relations, and we haven’t kept in touch with each other recently. Part of the reason we have to be out here talking to them.”

  The merchant didn’t really seem to believe them, but he also didn’t seem like he was willing to ask questions. Maybe he was able to piece together a little bit more than anyone else did, and he just stayed silent. Maybe he felt that whatever was going on was more trouble than he was willing to get himself into. Either way, it should probably just be thought of as a good thing.

  Instead of expressing any of his suspicions, he prompted, “I’m guessing you kids are trying to find the other ones? Hoping that I know what direction they went after I last saw them?”

  “More or less, yes. Anything that you can tell us about what they asked about or where they are would definitely help.”

  “Well, unfortunately for you, I keep information about my clients just between me and them. Can’t really do anything in the business without some trust, you know? So I’m afraid that you’re either going to have to find out about them somewhere else, or give me something that’s going to be worth breaking that trust.”

  The three of them looked at each other. That, apparently, was where their luck was going to run out. It might not even be worth the effort to try to force it.

  “We’ll get moving.” Seldir stepped away and gestured for the other two to follow him. “Thanks for what you could tell us, though. We’ll keep asking around.”

  The merchant didn’t say anything else to them, simply going back to his carving. Lyrei made a mental note to probably not try talking to that guy for the rest of the time that they were here.

  “Do we… really have any other people to ask?” Noa prompted, once they’d gotten far enough away from the merchant. “We’ve already talked to several others, and he was one of the few that actually seemed to have seen them. And he sounded like probably the only one who was going to have any information about where they might be now…”

  Lyrei shrugged. “I’m pretty sure he was well past starting to see behind that lie. Who knows what he was thinking we were, or what he would’ve done if we kept pushing him.”

  Slowly, Seldir nodded. “The less attention we draw to ourselves, the better. There’s still a couple of places we can visit before we’re left to figure it out on our own. Let’s check those, and then we can bring back what we learned to Rennyn and Kaylin. Maybe they’ll be able to make better sense out of it than we can.”

  …

  After a while of wandering and asking around, they were able to make a list of items. Lyrei was just barely able to make sense of what they could all be used for—the closest thing she could think of was a fireworks show or something, but it had to have been more malicious than that—but all that mattered was that they knew what it was. They’d spent practically all day out there doing what they could, and returned just as the sun was starting to set.

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  To their surprise, though, Kaylin was waiting for them inside. As soon as she noticed them, she got up and walked over.

  “Did you find anything?” she prompted.

  “A little bit,” Seldir said. “We’re hoping you’re going to be able to make a little bit more sense out of it than we could, though. Hopefully it’s something you’re going to be able to recognize.”

  “Is Rennyn okay?” Noa asked. “I kinda thought you were going to spend the entire day with him.”

  She nodded. “He’s fine. I just… wanted to make sure I knew as soon as you got back. There’s some things we wanted to tell you, and it sounds like you’ve got something to tell us, too. But we’ll take it one step at a time. It’s not going to do anyone any good by piling information on right at the beginning.”

  Lyrei was pretty sure it could go without saying, but she still felt it important to point out, “Do you realize how kind of ominous that sounds?”

  Kaylin paused to think about it. “Sorry,” was the first thing she said. Then she gestured towards the stairs. “You three can all go upstairs, and I’ll get us all something to eat. You’ve probably run around a lot today, so you deserve some time to rest.”

  They silently made their way up the stairs and to the room Rennyn was staying in. They looked at each other, but… none of them made a motion to open the door. Lyrei actually hadn’t seen Rennyn in pretty much the entire time they’d been here. The other two boys stayed in the room with her—since Kaylin slept with Rennyn most of the time—so she’d never needed to go in there. Was the rest because she was avoiding it? Maybe. But in her situation, there wasn’t anything she could do to help, and otherwise it just felt like interrupting whatever Rennyn and Kaylin had going on.

  After a moment of the three of them just standing there, they heard a voice on the other side of the door.

  “You can come in, you know.” It was Rennyn—a realization that was almost surprising, aside from the fact that it really shouldn’t be. “I can tell you’re all just standing out there.”

  Finally, Noa was the one to push open the door, and gave an honest excuse, “We were a little nervous…”

  “You’re looking better than the last time I saw you, though,” Seldir remarked.

  Lyrei… couldn’t quite see what he was. Maybe it was just because she hadn’t seen Rennyn at all since he was unconscious, but he really didn’t look different. He was kind of sitting up, sure, but there was something else in his eyes. Like it was a struggle to stay there, wherever “there” was. He was still fighting so hard, more than any of them were likely to ever understand. Yet he was still standing. Metaphorically, anyway.

  And maybe that’s what Seldir meant: he was still fighting. Just like they all needed to.

  They couldn’t let Dhymos get the better of them.

  It seemed even Rennyn didn’t really believe what Seldir had said, but he slowly nodded. “Doing what I can, anyway. Maybe that’s… something it’s finally time to talk about. A little later.”

  “Can we assume that that ‘later’ isn’t just an excuse to avoid it completely?” Seldir prompted.

  Rennyn sighed. “No, I’m pretty sure we’ve all learned from that. There’s a lot we need to talk about—a lot of stuff we should’ve talked about a while ago. But it can’t be all at once. I… don’t blame you, if you’re not willing to trust me when I say it’ll come eventually—soon, even. All I ask is that you’re willing to listen when that time comes.”

  It took a moment, but they all nodded. They each wandered over to a chair and sat down.

  A couple of minutes of silence later, Kaylin pushed the door open the rest of the way, and nudged it back closed again. She offered Seldir, Lyrei, and Noa something off the tray she had, then sat down on the edge of Rennyn’s bed. They had a mumbled discussion about something until they both took one of the remaining plates.

  “It seems we’re all ready now,” Kaylin said. She looked back over at the others. “How about you go first. What were you able to find while you were out?”