"What have I done?!" Thorin yelled back at Dis, momentarily forgetting he was in the wrong when confronted with so many pounds of angry sibling. He sagged then, his anger melting away into a look that was both apologetic and mulish, a rather odd combination. Thorin was not used to being wrong, and had in fact never been so wrong, so he was currently having trouble knowing how to handle the situation. "Dis please relax, I will handle this. I just thought it would be best to give Mara some space before I go home to apologize."

"What did you say to her?" Dis snarled, still looking outraged, though with a flicker of fear that Thorin could not make sense of.

Thorin winced as he recalled his words again. "I found her outside the walls," he muttered, as if that were explanation enough for the way he had acted. "I might have called her naive, and said she would die like her kin if she kept running off unprotected." He scrubbed a hand down his face nervously, his eyes on his sister who was offering him a look so furiously dumbfounded that she had apparently been rendered speechless.

After a long moment she recovered herself enough to give him a stinging slap, and Thorin reeled back with a grimace of pain, though he offered no protest. He knew he deserved that, and likely it would happen again when he confronted Mara.

"Go find her," Dis ordered him forcefully, taking the smiths hammer out of his hands and shaking it threateningly in his face.

"What do you mean find her? She's at home isn't she?" Thorin asked, a feeling of rising dread creeping up his spine.

"No Thorin, she's not. She left, and you had better bring her back," Dis growled menacingly. "She is family, and she needs us as much as we need her. Go fix it, and do not come back until you do." She stalked out of the forge after those final words, tossing the hammer aside as she went and nearly taking Thorin's foot with it. He cursed, jumping out of the way as it bounced across the floor. Leaving it where it lay, he hurried out into the town, trying to think who she would take refuge with.

Within a couple short hours he had a full search party combing through the entire town, his initial guesses having turned up nothing. It did not even occur to him to ask the gate guards if Mara had gone outside the walls again, so he focused on the houses, the market, even the mines where she had never been before. Dis had been informed of his efforts, and was noticeably more forgiving when he trudged through the door in despair at nightfall, empty-handed. No one that he had spoken to had seen Mara, she had not gone visiting that day, and after her shift with Oin in the morning he had not encountered her again. Thorin had even gotten some of the children to show him their hidey holes, in the hopes that she might have taken advantage of some small space to get a little privacy.

"Any news?" Dis asked him, her worry deepening when Thorin shook his head, an utterly broken look in his eyes.

"Where is she?" he whispered hoarsely. "Mahal, this is all my fault. If something happens to her..." He slumped down at the table, head falling into his hands with a groan. He suddenly lurched to his feet again with a cry of realization.

"What is it?" Dis asked him fearfully.

"When she left me outside the walls, she said she was going home," he murmured, his words horror-filled. "It never occurred to me that she might mean something else..." he trailed off, spinning to race back out the door as Dis fell into a chair. The thought of Mara outside, alone like she was before, sent her mind into a dizzying spiral of worry.

Thorin had nearly sprinted to the gate, yelling his question to the guards as soon as they were within earshot and drawing the attention of anyone nearby. They had been in the process of closing the gates for the night, and glanced up in surprise at their king stampeding towards them. Both listened to his explanation, looking regretful as he finished speaking.

"I'm sorry milord," the elder of the two replied. "We just got on shift so I have no idea if the lady went out. The earlier guards just left to ungear themselves, they should still be nearby." The two bowed as Thorin hurriedly thanked them and left to find the answers he needed. The other shift was indeed nearby, and he almost bowled them over as they had been returning, having heard his yells and guessed what he was after. Their confirmation was all he needed to spin into a panic. Mara had left, and if her earlier words were any indication, she had gone to a place he knew nothing about. It could be anywhere! He immediately sought the help of one dwarf he had always trusted.

Balin opened the door at his frantic pounding. "Thought you might head this way," the elder dwarf said calmly, stepping aside so Thorin could get in. "Dis was just here," he explained to the questioning glance Thorin threw his way.

"Do you know where she's gone?" Thorin asked hopefully, face falling when Balin shook his head.

"Nothing concrete," the old scholar informed him, grabbing an old book that had been lying open on the table. "All I could find was this." He pointed to the relevant section, a small paragraph of type beside a curious picture, all under the title Fae Valley. It was a history book of some sort, but the section on Mara's people was predictably lacking. It said nothing more than that the valley was hidden, and that only those who knew where to look would find it. The picture was their only clue. It was a sort of pictograph, very simple and consisting of only four symbols, three of them in a triangle formation around the fourth. The top symbol was three curved, green lines connected together, looking rather like hills. The one down and to the right was unmistakably a tree, colored silvery white. The one down and to the left resembled blue waves. All surrounding a cluster of grey angles, like the peaks of mountains. The center symbol had one other clue to confirm it was indeed a reference to Mara's home. A tiny yellow flower nestled between the peaks, the sundrops that were only found in the sacred valley.

"What does this mean?" Thorin cried in frustration, after they had been staring at it for what seemed hours.

"I would say it is telling us that the valley resides between the places these other symbols represent," Balin said patiently, trying to keep Thorin calm. He grasped his friends shoulder comfortingly. "Don't fret laddie, we'll find her and bring her home. All we need is right here, we just have to figure it out."