Walter looked up from the map at which he’d been staring, brow furrowed, and watched Leaf as she stood by the open window of the Royal Library of Morbeet, looking out into the silent night. “You still think that we should follow the missing Neecroots to find out where they’re going?” He said.

  Leaf shook her head slightly as she turned to Walter. “The best path forward remains unclear to me.” Her lips twisted slightly as she thought. “I do not disagree with you that returning to Thhia and Deilmarkt to rejoin Dawn and Reeve seems the most prudent option before us, but I nevertheless fear what may come—maybe not soon, but someday perhaps—of ignoring at this seminal moment the disappearance of the Neecriots.” She turned back to the darkness without. “What may be a mere curiosity now could become a momentous pivot about which the realms later turn.”

  Walter looked back to the map. If only he could remember how Reeve had been able to travel so fast in some of the games he’d watched her play in the past. “Fast travel,” he said to himself. “She called it fast travel. And, usually, she just…” He pointed at the map and thought hard about going to Deilmarkt.

  At the window, Leaf was finding no answers in the dark stillness of the capital. She did not know who had attacked Deilmarkt, what had become of Dawn and Reeve and Reeve’s recently arrived friend, when, or even if, Dawn might be able to open a portal to retrieve them, where Dusk had been taken, and how best to leave Morbeet, once they managed to decide their destination. She turned and leaned against the window frame to look upon Walter at the table and thought that she did not even know how best to safeguard Reeve’s father without herself being slowed to the point of uselessness.

  She watched the halfling point to a location on the map, close his eyes, mumble something that sounded like ‘ass trouble,’ and then stand unmoving, face pinched with concentration, until he opened his eyes, glanced around the room, frowned, and repeated the sequence while pointing at a new spot on the map. Leaf wondered whether his mumbling had to do with the mule—but hadn’t it been a pony?—that had brought him up from the river Deiluyne before abandoning him during the troubles in Deilmarkt.

  After some time, and apparently having exhausted the unique locations on the map at which he could point, Leaf saw Walter stand back from the table, point one palm at the wall of the library, and, with the other, make circles in the air as he glared at the wall. This new activity consumed Walter for some ten minutes, with adjustments to his technique made at irregular intervals.

  Around the time Leaf began considering whether perhaps only she should leave Morbeet, be it to Deilmarkt or Wyste, with Walter staying in the care of Silver Leaf and Larry, Walter looked up from his gesticulations and noticed her appraising him.

  “Oh,” he said. “This is a portal spell I once saw a wizard in my world perform. Well, he was a sorcerer, actually.”

  Leaf nodded slowly. “Did it produce more obvious results for that sorcerer?”

  Walter smiled uncertainly. “It did…in the movies.”

  A knock on the library door saved both conversants the trouble of trying to clarify for Leaf what Walter had just said, and after the briefest of pauses, the door swung open.

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  “No progress?” Sea Mist said as she glided into the room.

  Larry ambled in a few seconds later. They came to stand opposite Walter and Leaf across the large table. Larry and Sea Mist still wore the clothes that reminded Walter of undergarments. Now that the undead guards had disappeared, it appeared that Larry was reacquainting himself with the palace kitchen, and under one arm he carried a large polished silver platter from which he frequently plucked morsels with his free hand.

  “It seems the hidden pathways Walter sought to shortcut our journey may not exist in this world,” Leaf said.

  “To be fair,” Walter said, “user error may be involved.”

  “Your destination is decided?” Larry said through a mouthful.

  Leaf shook her head. “I had hoped that Walter’s seemingly fanciful idea about using a map to simply appear where we wanted to be would unexpectedly bear fruit, and while he has investigated we have remained torn as to whether to rejoin our besieged companions or investigate your disappeared populace.”

  “It would be most helpful if you figured out what’s become of our citizens,” Larry said.

  Sea Mist cast him an impatient look. “But of course,” she said, we understand your concern as to what’s become of your comrades.”

  “I’m really sorry,” Walter said. He looked pained. “I’d hoped the fast travel would work so that maybe we could do both. Pop down to Deilmarkt to check on Reeve and everyone and then maybe we all could go look for the Neecroots.”

  Sea Mist looked heartened. “You would consider pursuing the mystery of our citizens’ disappearance once reunited with Reeve and the rest?”

  Walter nodded uncertainly, looked at Leaf questioningly, and received from her a small nod. He turned back to Sea Mist and Larry and nodded more confidently.

  “Then perhaps we can help expedite your travels,” Sea Mist said.

  “Misty?” Larry said. “Really? Are you sure?”

  Sea Mist looked at Larry for a few seconds, silent, and then nodded, as though convincing herself of something. She looked to Walter and then Leaf and nodded again. She turned back to Larry, leaned forward, and delicately wiped with her thumb some portion of his snack that had clung to his chin. “Yes,” she said. “This situation and our friends’ need compel me to reveal our close-held confidence.”

  Walter looked nervously between the two subjectless rulers. “Confidence?” He said and ran his hand absentmindedly up one pure green suspended. “That you’ve been ruling over an empire of undead guards cut off from the rest of the world for the last few years wasn’t your close-held confidence?”

  Larry put a clenched fist to his mouth. His cheeks expanded like balloons as he kept a belch from escaping, then spoke. “We made no secret of the undead in our realm, but they effectively did by preventing any departures.”

  “Come!” Sea Mist called brightly. “It is decided. We will speed you on your way, and you will return to our aide once your work in Thhia is done.”

  She spun and walked toward the door.

  Larry rearranged the platter as he started after her.

  “May I, please, ask where we’re going?” Walter said, not moving from the side of the table.

  “The highest tower!” Sea Mist called as she passed through the open door.

  Walter thought he heard Larry chuckling as he, too, passed through the door.

  Walter looked at Leaf. “In my world,” he cleared his throat, “or at least the stories of my world, things kept in the highest tower are generally not happy, friendly things. The highest tower is not where you keep your favorite pillow or your cuddliest pet.”

  A low sound—half-rumble, half-hiss—caused Walter to look warily to the corner where Nyx was curled atop a thick rug, next to which Bunce was reclined, legs splayed, as she groomed her belly with her tongue.

  “Sea Mist seems to think that whatever its nature, it could help us reach Thhia quickly,” Leaf said. “Come, let us see ourselves.”