Chapter Twenty Two

Morning crept in quietly through the gap in the curtain of trees, as the sun began to rise from the thicket. It caught everyone except the shift of half-orc guards soundly asleep or, in Xan and Ivendil's cases, sunken in Reverie; the other two elves had, each for her own reasons, chosen to sleep the way humans did. The fire had long died and what warmth had remained behind for a while more had ceded against the press of chilly morning winds.

Torri woke with her muscles stiff and lingered in the bedroll, shivering and pleading with herself to face the cold by coming out from below her blankets. Before she could accomplish that, Knave managed to precede her; she saw the mage first sitting up and shaking his blankets away carelessly, then stretching methodically and standing. He stared at the current three pairs of guards, then sighed and began to carry more of the wood that had been scattered around to the fire's former site.

"Let me help you with that," said Torri, as she dragged herself to a sitting position and rubbed her eyes to remove the last traces of sleep.

Knave turned to face her, still carrying a bunch of large lumps of wood and some twigs. "There's no need," he told her, shaking his head. "Better take the time and come to your senses properly." With that, he resumed his work on reigniting the fire; he started to arrange the wood into a neat pile in the center of a ring of stones.

The moon elf surveyed the scene – this was the most chaotic and disorderly camp she had ever seen. Assuming anyone else was in the area, there was no way they had remained unaware of its location. Not that it mattered, really; nothing or no one around would be stupid enough to attack.

The previous evening, Torri had, of course, removed her armor; no one in their right mind would wear metal for that long, no matter how light and flexible. She had shielded it from the environment's effects as best she could, by wrapping it up in another blanket. Luckily, that tactic had worked out well and her chain mail was safe for her to put back on. Coupled with the fabric of her shirt, however thin, its soft padding made her warm enough to get by, though she still felt frozen and clumsy.

Just when she arrived at his side, Knave finished reciting the words for some spell that ignited the wood, even despite its humidity, and the camp fire was brought back. Hugging herself, the moon elf stood there, staring down on the lively play of flames as they licked the wood and changed its composure.

"Should we wake the others?" Knave asked her in the end, shifting his weight as he turned to have a better view of Torri.

"Well," she was caught rather unaware by that question. "We could, but they're not urgently needed for anything."

"Amirah is missing," the mage announced on the most casual of tones. "I saw her rise and leave some good hours ago."

For a moment, the moon elf said nothing, only turned her head to look him in the eyes, while the only sound was the crack of firewood. He was quite surprised not to see her stress and rant about how he should have warned her when it happened, as he had expected she would.

"Why does a Shaaryan woman have a Calishite name?" she finally made a quiet inquiry.

Knave smirked. "I really thought I had been the only one to notice."

Torri's own expression was somewhat amused. "Our drow is also missing," she noted, in a somewhat secretive way.

The mage hadn't been aware of that, obviously, since his eyes drifted away in surprise, to check; indeed, Solaufein's improvised bedroll was empty also.

"And what might you have had to do with that?" he hazarded a guess, some sort of vaguely admiring interest for the moon elf's unexpected schemes surfacing.

"How astute of you," Torri teased, with a sly grin. "He wanted to see the moon, yes? I woke him up for that and, since we were talking and all... I asked him to be alert and keep an eye on Amirah. I watched her family, but they stayed here."

"They don't even know she left," Knave agreed. "I've been watching all of them on my own."

"I see," Torri quirked a brow his way and held his calm gaze for a moment, then turned her head, to look at the guards. They were far enough not to have heard a thing, but she still berated herself mentally for forgetting.

"So, where from?" Knave prodded a remark her way, not without amusement. "All that sudden tolerance for Solaufein. I'm impressed."

"He's got enough prejudice from Xan and Ivendil now," she explained with a shrug. "Doesn't need mine anymore."

"Interesting," the mage noted, unconcerned with hiding how intrigued he suddenly was. "Care to elaborate?"

"We do not change and grow through nurturing and safety," the moon elf replied sternly, flashing him a sharp glance. "We do it by facing and solving problems, or overcoming obstacles."

Knave hesitated; that wasn't the exact reply he had been expecting. "Not only," he dared to attack her opinion. "That is merely the hard way to do it. Quicker, maybe, but not necessarily more efficient."

"It is the only REAL way," she answered him promptly, on a tone that announced she would take no more contradictions kindly.

"Is that how YOU did it?" the mage pried.

The moon elf gritted her teeth together and began to clench her fists, before she could notice and break that move. "I was certain you would make such assumptions," she snapped.

"Much rather, reach such obvious conclusions," he smiled sensibly her way. "But... we are all entitled to personal beliefs and opinions..."

"Such as how I can't stand you," Torri muttered, then cleared her throat, to firmly mark the end of that discussion. "So, what is to be done for now?"

"I don't know about you," Knave shrugged, playing along, "but I'm going to try and outwit those guards in a manner that's actually useful."

"Well, that's surely going to be difficult," Torri mumbled a sarcastic remark aimed at his departing back.

Admittedly, the moon elf was surprised he had agreed to drop the subject and leave her be, at least for the moment. Well, things being what they were, she could focus on keeping and eye out for Amirah's return. Also, it wouldn't be bad if she could still follow the conversation from time to time, as much as possible from simply reading lips every now and then.

"Good morning, Miss," a voice – a man's voice – didn't allow her to carry out any of the two plans.

Torri turned around, to see one of Amirah's brothers standing a few feet away and looking at her, with a pleasant smile on his face. Sure, he looked polite and all that, but she didn't trust him.

"If you say so..." she muttered to herself, then forced a smile of her own to flash out briefly before speaking louder, for him to hear. "Same to you."

The man closed in a few more steps and stopped only to look at the fire thoughtfully.

"My name is Zorn," he offered.

"Toreen," the moon elf responded mechanically, pretending not to see the hand he had held out.

He had to lower it,eventually, but she could see him smirking discreetly as he did so, rather amused by the entire situation.

"Do you want anything?" the moon elf moodily renounced every last ounce of politeness she might have had left.

"Actually, yes," the man nodded, turning his head to stare at her insistently. "I'm sorry that I won't offer much in the way of an explanation, but... goodbye."

Torri blinked and her mouth opened to say something, just the moment he apparently spoke out the last syllable of a spell whose incantation he had somehow managed to put on hold while he addressed her. Before she could even draw her sword, not to mention strike the man down, the air around her shifted into a foggy whirlwind and, by the time images began to clear out again, she was nearly dizzy. Shaking her head and trying to dismiss the urge to lose consciousness, the moon elf took a sweeping look of her current surroundings.

Obviously, the spell had transported her somewhere else, but it seemed she was still in the forest, since trees were all around her. Aside from that, she could tell nothing at all about her location; not its distance or direction related to their camp's position, and not even if it was the same forest or not. There was only room for one certainty – she was completely lost.