Central United States

Michael watched Purrcy closely without crowding her. The Saturday activities honestly surprised him. He supposed they shouldn't. She'd already told him that they didn't have a lot of money to spend on vacations. The dinner and even one cheap hotel room were likely all she'd ever felt they could really afford. Somehow, for all they'd even specifically talked about how expensive the zoo or a museum was for her, he still expected them to end up at the zoo. They didn't.

Instead, they stopped at a convenience store to purchase a loaf of bread, a small cheap peanut butter, and an equally small and cheap bottle of honey. The most inexpensive bottled water - one for each person to carry themselves, one large box of raisins, and a splurge on one large bag of potato chips rounded out the food.

A roll of paper towels at less than a dollar. A question to the guards if any of them had brought with them pocket knives had let her pass by the deli's stand of mixed plastic-wear. They were done with the shopping before Michael was quite ready and were out the door again.

Bemused and trying to catch up, Michael followed along like the three guards did as they walked from there, ignoring all the bus stops, any taxi, any transportation that would cost money. They chatted happily on the walk. Purrcy would occasionally point to the top of an older building. Usually it was to praise an architectural detail, colors, or murals where most people wouldn't expect them to be on old stone and brick buildings.

Michael finally saw where Purrcy had learned to see the little bright details of life around her. She'd done this exact thing on Theldesia when she was relaxing in the middle of stressful situations: seeing the interesting and intriguing color, unexpected details, appreciating the little things most people didn't even see. It didn't surprise him that she shared them openly because she was used to helping her own children see them.

He had to slip his fingers into hers once he understood it. That habit had always made him pause to look at her more closely. To have her this close to him now while she did it openly and freely as part of helping her family relax made him swallow down his own sentimentality more than once.

They ended up in an out-of-the-way spot at the far end of an open canal built to draw downtown foot traffic. At the umbrella-covered tables, they pulled out their meager purchases and made peanut-butter-and-honey sandwiches using Bowie's pocketknife and the paper towels as plates and napkins. The raisins and chips were the sides and water from the water bottles washed the lunch down.

When they'd rested enough, there was a short walk to an inner-city park and playground. A "spherical object" came out of Hannah's pocket and they were playing catch in a circle until Teddy and then Stiletto got too bored with it and started chasing each other around. A few others joined in on that game of tag until everyone was sitting under the trees to finish catching their breath.

Again, Purrcy pointed out the little details. The little bird whose song she'd been listening to turned into a game to see who could find it first. Ericka found a little yellow flower in the grass that everyone had to look at. Samuel found five four-leaf clovers, three five-leaf clovers, and one six-leaf clover.

Purrcy explained he always found them rather automatically, but she could only ever see three-leaf clovers. That set the Eagles to the challenge of looking, and Michael couldn't help but try as well. He was as miserable at it as Purrcy, but it was fun when Stiletto found three, then Gareth one. Even Bowie's magic gift didn't give him an advantage on finding multi-leaf clovers, although he tried, too.

Michael was almost as surprised that the children didn't spend much time on the playground equipment like most children would. Teddy and Erika spent the most time, being the youngest, but when Purrcy was ready to move on, they didn't complain much at all. He smiled to see that they naturally gravitated to stay with her, never really leaving her side very far. The kittens had been that way on Theldesia, too, when she was near them. He could relate.

From there, it was the walk back to the place they would meet up with the children's father. Again, it was on foot, unhurried, along a different path, walking through a military memorial park on the way. Not much was said as they walked through it, but all four Navy men watched Purrcy's face as she looked up at the memorials with the names of military who'd fought from that city and died in the service of their nation for the various wars honored in that park.

It was enough to see her human expression finally. They'd already known without seeing it how she felt, but to be able to really see it made them all just a little more proud, just a little more thankful, walk just a little closer to her themselves. Gareth even had to finally give her a hug once they were a few blocks farther down. She didn't quite understand why, but she smiled for them all anyway, the smile of the mother who'd adopted an entire squadron of Navy boys so far from home and missing it terribly.

Michael kept watching Purrcy once that they were on the move again, being picked up by yet another military car after the children were gone. She'd gone pensive as they'd neared the transfer location. The goodbyes had been long hugs for each of the children and she'd not been able to watch her ex's car leave once the children weren't watching her.

She'd been held by not just him, but Gareth too, with Stiletto rubbing her head until she sighed at them and said they were making a strange scene on the sidewalk. Bowie had agreed, but had also been soft for her. She rested her head on Michael's shoulder for the first part of their drive out of the city and into the country for about an hour and a half, not saying much.

The car took them to a military base where they were assigned their own car to drive. The boys were trying to keep Purrcy occupied to distract her from the loss of having to leave her children behind again. Michael was driving because he had the map of where they were going in his head.

In a break, he commented mildly, "There sure is a lot of flat open space in this part of the country." He wanted to know what her eyes saw here.

"Yes," Purrcy agreed. "We loved to take our vacations out into the country like this when we could have two to three nights away." He knew now she was talking about her and the kids. "It always helped us all calm down from the stress of being in the enclosed spaces of a city, to see the open farm fields.

"Corn fields are a beautiful dark green until fall, then they are tall and gold. Wheat is gold in the early summer, and the short soybean fields always give a nice variety when we want to see even farther out." She looked out her window. The others were also already looking at the scenery with new eyes.

"Of course all this was forest back when the first settlers came through. That's why there are trees breaking up the fields. Those narrower windy tree lines are the streams. The square forest-like patches were the firewood stands left alone since they also needed trees to repair log cabins." A history lesson in the middle of it all was just as appropriate as anything else she'd said.

"If we went south about another hour we'd reach the end of the flat and mild rolling land to where the Ice Age glaciers stopped creeping south and melted, eroding the land below them into the hills that are down there. That's a lot of trees - beautiful in the fall - with the farm fields up on the tops of the ridges. Sometimes we'd have to pull over just to stare in amazement at a valley, full of more farm fields surrounded by treed hills. Those were awesome views."

Michael smiled as Stiletto said respectfully, "It sounds like you were already seeing vistas long before you ran into the Debauchery Tea Party."

"Yeah, I guess so. Just the small, real ones," Purrcy agreed without much thought. Michael almost had to pull over right there. He gripped the wheel tighter and swallowed. He supposed he'd asked for it. They were quiet, enjoying the view with her from then on, until Stiletto needed music.

Then they had fun arguing over what music to listen to, with Purrcy stepping in as Mom again to make everyone take turns playing songs so they could all hear samplings of what everyone liked. She had the widest range, of course, and most of them they couldn't complain about, but some they did laugh at.

Michael was pleased when most of her preferences weren't too far from his own. Stiletto was unhappy rap was her least favorite, but no one was surprised, until she surprised them with one of her own. "I forgot about that one, until Stiletto challenged me," she admitted.

They took that as a general challenge and pushed her to find even more odd and esoteric things until she gave up, claiming an old taxed brain. Michael wasn't too surprised to see Purrcy relapse not too long after being allowed to relax again. He reached for her hand, knowing that sometimes got her tongue to loosen.

"It's nice to be here where all the music really is. For all there was a lot I could get to, there's a lot I couldn't. I would wish to be able to take some of those back," she said quietly. Again, he wasn't so sure she was really paying attention to what she was saying, since she just left it there.

He merely squeezed her hand a little and let the comment go. She'd have a lot of years to get to enjoy all the music she wanted. The comment was more because she was still getting used to being home on Earth. They'd all done that, too, in the months following arrival.

-:-:-:-:-

The hard part came when they neared their target just before dusk. Purrcy wasn't really back yet, was too soft to face taking out a facility with the cold dispassion she needed to have.

Michael found the place to pull out and look down on the facility. He stopped the car and they all got out to stretch their legs. Michael gave a specific look to the Eagles and they faded into the background. Michael took Purrcy's hand and led her to the not-very-high point to look over the facility.

Purrcy pulled him to stand behind her, wrapped his arms around her shoulders, and held on to his arms. But she didn't look down. Instead, she looked up. "I love to see the stars in the night sky," she said, relaxing into his chest as she leaned into him slightly. "I really want the opportunity to see them from the top of a mountain here on Earth, so there isn't so much atmospheric interference."

She fell silent and he looked up as well. These stars he knew well. These stars he'd been navigating by for just over twenty years. He already knew she loved to see the stars. They'd been looking at them together now for about that long, too, if Theldesia was included. They'd spent a lot of nights on the USS Ronald Reagan looking at them, too.

Purrcy finally sighed and looked down into the little valley below them at the lights that demarked the few buildings, reached by a gated road. It was so far out in the middle of nowhere it wasn't really fenced in this time. Michael expected a different kind of outer perimeter here.

He was rather surprised by her yet again in this day of surprises. "How many, Michael? How many are here? How many can we save?" The Queen and High Priestess was asking, quietly.

It wasn't a sudden change from what she'd been before. Rather it was as if she'd merely moved from one topic to another, and had already been the Queen who loved but served even more. He was reminded of the song she'd sung him to sleep with the night before the Sect War had really begun.

He sighed softly, understanding. It wasn't necessary to become cold and hard when it was time to get the work done that needed to be done. It was just necessary to have the firm conviction within that it did need to be done.

"One floor above ground. Four underneath. Half the outbuildings are traps, and the fence is scattered tripwire traps, mostly to keep people in, or dead if they try to leave."

Purrcy took in a deep breath and nodded. "Then we aren't going in." He could only hold her tighter, knowing how hard that was to say and follow through on under the core of what was necessary.

"Come here my sons," she called softly and they arrived around the two of them. "We'll go inside first. Recon from a distance, Bowie. Are they expecting us? What traps have they set for us inside and can we dance through them?"

They were silent while Bowie went. "A few obvious traps, Hahaue," he said when he returned. "Most everyone in there has refused to cooperate, regardless."

Purrcy gave a nod. "Of course," she murmured, likely already coding. "Stiletto, take Gareth. Tell them we're here, those who can hear you. Tell them we'll help them take the place down how ever they want it to be done."

Michael blinked and his heart clenched. She understood, like they all did. These were Amerkan Adventurers. They were brilliant strategists from living the game on Theldesia for so long, having to survive in worse than TV survival show environments.

They were also so angry they'd already worked out what they would do if anyone came from the outside to help them. These would already be dangerous killers just waiting to strike. It was unlikely they were afraid of death, although a few might have given up by now to despair and long-term fear.

"Feel free to tell them that you are two of the few remaining survivors to come out of a prison similar to theirs," Purrcy added as the two stepped into the code realm.

They took each other's hands, then were an invisible bird holding on to a faintly sparkling moth. The ikiryō bird flapped in an erratic pattern forward and then blinked out as the ikiryō moth stepped to the next safe space to walk to.

"Bowie, here's the code to take out the trip-wire traps. You know where the traps are. Clear a lane for them to escape through, if any manage to get out. We'll make it look like an inside job, then clean up so they can't be followed for a few days."

Purrcy took a breath and gave Michael the hardest job. "Michael, get a head-count of staff. I'm going to wipe the place off the face of the planet. If you can get any of the lowest levels who are only following orders out, do it as fast as you can. We can't leave anyone who will pass on proof or push for it to start back up again."

Again, Michael held her tightly, knowing she was crying for the fact that any of them had to die, whether the tears dripped down her face or not - even the staff. She loved the corporal as much as the private as much as the Commander, even if the men following their orders inside this location weren't military.

Michael crafted the one spell he could use in this case. He pulled up a multi-cast shield spell and focused his intent as he let it build up and waited on Bowie.

When Bowie shifted to let them know he was ready, Michael asked him to mark the innocent staff in the building. They were fortunate that the total numbers of staff was low generally. Even better was that most were bunked together for the night already.

Even Purrcy relaxed to see the small cluster in one corner of the building. She gave a small nod. She'd be able to direct how and where her explosion did the most and least damage. "Make sure those stay asleep until after sunrise, Bowie," she ordered.

They stood there and waited until they heard from Gareth and Stiletto. "They're monitored constantly by the computers. They've learned how to tell when magic is going to be used, with an electrical read. Similar to what Tetorō used back in the lab. If the computers can be shut down so the alarms don't go off, they'll take care of the rest."

"Tell them when they get outside, if they do, to look for the pale runway lights," Bowie said. "If they'll stay between them, they'll be in the clear."

"Roger."

"I'll start the computer failure on your mark," Purrcy said. "I'll need a sign when the last one is clear of the facility to take it out in total, but if they're going to be too close, I won't wait. It would be better for us to lose Adventurers than to have the wrong people stay alive."

"Roger."

They waited again until the countdown was given. Purrcy cast her first spell. Bowie's spell to remove the trip wire went off at the same time as the first spell came from inside the facility, blowing prison doors open.

"Gareth, return," Purrcy said shortly, focused still. Stiletto and Gareth reappeared by the time the first person to escape out the doors was headed for the open space Bowie had cleared.

Gareth immediately returned to his body and cast a healing spell on Purrcy. It was none too soon. Her next spell went off just as that person was reaching the outer edge of the cleared runway. That person was lit up briefly in the magic realm, as if he'd been scanned.

Gareth had to heal Purrcy for every four people who ran through that passage. The others were watching the facility carefully. "Hahaue," Bowie warned.

"Countdown," Purrcy said, not changing her focus.

Bowie's countdown was short and faster than Michael liked, but when he reached the final number, the first explosion rocked the innards of the facility. That cascaded rapidly until with a great roar, the entire place became a large sink hole that collapsed.

That set off a lot of the trip wire traps still remaining so that the ground around the facility was suddenly also full of smaller potholes. The final two people escaping the facility were caught by those explosions and stumbled, but continued to run on once they caught themselves, if painfully.

The four men waited quietly until Purrcy returned to them. She took a breath and reported. "Your shields held well enough, Michael. They'll have to dig themselves out or be dug out. I've left them water and food caches along the route out so they'll hopefully live long enough.

"The spell on the exit of the Adventurers gave them all new faces and erased their memories of being able to do magic. I left in the fear of where they'd been so they'd keep running, but mostly they'll only remember the general fear and dread and that they were experimented on, but not the specifics.

"The same memory wipe was used on the surviving staff. They won't remember they were specifically looking for magic. I've confirmed as best I can the rest didn't survive. Bowie?"

"Confirmed," he said quietly. "I've erased any remaining paper records, including any scraps. You took care of the computers sufficiently they won't be able to retrieve anything from them. I've also erased any scent of magic use from the field, including my runway lights."

Stiletto said a little sadly, "Those still with will and with magic got prepared and got out. There were a few who were too broken that had to be left behind. They'll be fine now."

Michael and Purrcy both nodded. It wouldn't hurt to have them as evidence to convict those who had sanctioned such a thing to be opened and run. It was sad, but they understood that the broken were just as content with the release of death - intimately since they'd wished for it many times while on Theldesia and not been granted it at all.

They stood there looking down at the dark hole in the dark ground below them a little longer, then walked back to the car and climbed back in. Michael backed the car up and returned them to the back road they'd come in on.

Gareth looked back over their shoulder for a while longer, then turned to sit forward again. "It looks like the hammer of God hit it. If that doesn't make them fear the Caretaker and TechnoMagus of Theldesia, then not much makes them afraid at all."

"Particularly since there's no trace of an external detonator anywhere in the hole," Bowie agreed. "Only the obvious ones at the trip wires. And what level of damage they could do is just as obvious in comparison."

Purrcy dropped her head, folding her hands together in her lap, and the ikiryō ears on top of her head folded sadly forward. Michael hunted for a bit, then picked the only one that was coming to mind. Quietly he sang:

Mine eyes have seen the coming of the Glory of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on.

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.

Gareth's tenor picked up the second verse and chorus:

I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps;
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps.
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps,
His day is marching on.

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.

Stiletto surprised them with the next verse, since none of the others knew it:

I have read His fiery gospel writ in rows of burnished steel!
"As ye deal with my condemners, so with you My grace shall deal!"
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,
Since God is marching on.

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.

All four men sang the remaining verses:

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat.
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him; be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me.
As He died to make men holy, let us live to make men free!
While God is marching on.

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.*

They allowed the quiet final verse and chorus to fade into silence. Only Purrcy's quiet sobs sounded in the car. Gareth rubbed her shoulder from behind her and Michael let her hold his hand as tightly as she wanted. She'd stood properly as Queen to get the necessary job done. Now that it was over, they could reward her with a release of the tears she'd cried inside the whole time.

It was a hard thing to go from the mother of her children who loved and missed them very much to such a thing in one day. She'd once again fulfilled both roles perfectly, and this time because she really did choose to on her own, even if she didn't really want to have to. The combined grief of both events was more than she should have to suffer through silently.

When she'd finally cried herself tired enough to sleep, Purrcy shifted to fox small enough to fit in her seat and curled up with her tail over her muzzle. Michael and the boys relaxed and quietly talked themselves down, then, following their own patterns they needed to in order to recover after obeying those kinds of orders.

When Michael hit a major highway, he pulled over. He picked up Purrcy from the front seat and had Bowie and Stiletto trade them places. "Keep going west. You'll see signs for the next base about dawn. We'll get food there and the next switch of transportation."

"Yes, Sir," Bowie answered and got them going again.

-:-:-:-:-

Breakfast in the base mess hall was immediately followed by being approached by a young officer carrying a phone. He handed it to Michael. "Sir, if you'd follow me, I'll show you to a private room for your conversation," he said.

The young officer turned to Bowie. "If you'd care to accompany the Commander, you and he can trade when he's done."

Michael turned to Purrcy, who was still quiet this morning. "I'll be okay with just Gareth keeping me company," she said without much energy. "I'm just a little restless. I'm sure he knows where I shouldn't tread. Stiletto should sleep if he can before we're on the road again. Perhaps he can do that while standing up outside your door." She tried to smile at her little joke.

All four of her guards looked back at her soberly. She wasn't fooling them, but it did look like she wouldn't run today - if they didn't take too long. Michael still frowned at her. "Take Stiletto, too," he said.

"One was enough on Shrine Mountain," Purrcy said back, too tired to be icy, but the chill was still behind the words.

Michael drew in a sharp breath through his nose to keep it silent. He bowed slightly. "Very well, m'lady. Stiletto you'll come with Bowie and me." Michael gave a stern look to Gareth who nearly bowed back, then switched it to a salute.

Michael motioned to the young officer who'd been sent to fetch them. He turned and led the three men out of the mess hall and into another building nearby. He escorted them to a room on the first floor and saluted.

"Have Bowie call now from another room," Michael ordered him. "She'll behave for only a short while. She sent Stiletto as her warning to be quick."

"Yes, Sir," the young officer ended his salute and turned to Bowie as Michael released him with a nod and stepped into the room with the phone in hand.

"Keep an eye on Purrcy," Michael said quietly to Stiletto as he closed the door just as quietly behind himself.

"Yes, Sir," Stiletto answered just as quietly from his post outside the door.

Michael picked a chair out of the three in the room and sat down. He pushed the Talk button on the phone and waited with it at his ear. He was asked to give his report first. He did, from the time they'd left the USS Ronald Reagan until their arrival at the base that morning.

There was thoughtful silence as the person on the other end contemplated the report. He assumed most of it was consideration of what Purrcy had chosen to do about the facility they'd taken out the evening before. Perhaps notes were being written down, and perhaps not. Others might want to know what was done and what Purrcy was capable of. That didn't mean anyone wanted written evidence left around.

"What's your current assessment of her capacity to continue forward?" he was asked.

Michael pursed his lips a little. "Given that she's just come from having to give up rights to her kids, she's understandably depressed. Time to recover from that would be beneficial.

"She was like this when she had to walk away from Nyanta-san for good here on Earth. She requested we take the slower route of driving through the countryside so she could recover a little more before we returned to civilization and duties. I recommend we be allowed to do the same at this time.

"There's enough of us we could drive pretty much straight through from here and still arrive on time. Open spaces are healing for her." That was true for airmen who needed the open atmosphere, and for sailors who needed the open ocean. Purrcy needed the natural rolling hills and plains. "I believe she'll be able to face the next duty better than not if we do, based on past experience."

"Is your opinion on her commitment still the same?"

"Yes."

"Very well." The line went dead. Michael put the phone down into his lap and sighed. He took his own moment to relax in quiet solitude.

When both he and Bowie were done meeting their reporting requirements, they left the building. Bowie texted Gareth. When he got the reply, he showed it to Michael. We're at the base chapel. She's been in meditation since we found it. Michael only gave a nod and followed Bowie's feet that led them there.

He couldn't be surprised, given Purrcy's mood. It wasn't that she was feeling the need to repeat things, it was more that she needed the connection to God. The reassurance that she hadn't given up the right and moral path in walking the path she was required to walk this time. Having to sign her rights away as the primary caretaker of her children, when that's what defined her from the beginning had made her footsteps unsure, her path insecure.

They met her and Gareth as they neared the chapel. She didn't want the face of pity or sappy sympathy, then. Michael only calmly took her hand and placed it into his elbow, then continued to hold it there warmly with his other hand. "We'll join your meander until Bowie gets the call the car is ready," Michael told her. Purrcy gave a nod.

It wasn't long before the three guards went invisible, walking far enough away to not appear to be with them. She was still very prickly with more than one obvious guard present. This sorrow needed the solitude of the mountain top today.

-:-:-:-:-

Henrietta cleared her throat, having been given her time to speak at the Log Horizon Systems meeting. She leaned forward on the table just enough she could look directly at Shiroe. "I received the translation of the documents forwarded to me from Purrcy this morning. They are her finalized divorce documents." Shiroe felt himself go a little soft and sad.

"She was required to sign all rights to her children over to her ex-husband, retroactive to the date of the catastrophe. She is allowed virtual visits, phone calls, and at minimum one physical visit per year with them." Lots of faces went sad over that.

"She's required to pay child support. I'll include that specific number in my summary email to you. I've already set up her account to automatically pay it monthly to the address that was included in the paperwork."

Henrietta paused to fold her hands together. "Included in the files and paperwork I received was notice that the U.S. military is handling shipping her personal effects from the United States to our facility.

"She included specifically a note stating that the boxes that her ex kept of her things will completely fill one of the small apartments. She's willing to rent one just to store them, since she'd have to rent storage space anyway for them."

Shiroe's eyebrow went up and Henrietta gave him an almost dark look. "The furniture coming will take up another one, most likely." Shiroe swallowed the protest in the face of the look he was getting. "Her mother was staying close by while Purrcy was unconscious in the hospital so that she could know her daughter was being looked after properly.

"Her mother refuses to come to Japan with her, so will be moving to be close to Purrcy's brother. Purrcy and her mother spoke at length about the division of the family property. There are specific family heirlooms that her mother refuses to allow the son to have, and requires Purrcy to bring with her here."

Shiroe gave up. He was quite sure Purrcy would have only accepted the minimum. Furniture and large items of the family heirloom sort she definitely couldn't refuse. If one didn't say no to the Hahaue, one certainly didn't say no to the Hahaue's hahaue.

It didn't quite end there. "Purrcy included an additional comment from Michael. He also has a few effects he can't leave behind. He says that they'll take up about as much wall space as is available in their current apartment, and perhaps the smaller things can fit on the hutches Purrcy will be bringing with her."

Shiroe closed his eyes, easily seeing just how small their apartment was. Americans were not used to the small living quarters the Japanese were, even if Purrcy and Michael both had never been overly cluttered with things until now suddenly. "Do you have a recommendation?" he asked, although he already knew what it was.

"I recommend that you immediately begin renovations. Either the next two people down move, or you give in and let her move to the fifth floor. I expect they'll need at least three rooms of space, minimum.

"Michael likes to cook, so you could expect making a fourth space into a kitchen a highly effective bribe to keep him in the building, rather than finding a house in the country to move them to. I'm sure that Purrcy would also rather escape at this point." Henrietta pushed up her glasses and gave him as sharp a look as he ever gave anyone.

Shiroe interlaced his fingers and looked up at the ceiling a little as he contemplated the situation. He really didn't want to have Purrcy move down the floors, but it was true that it was going to inconvenience more than one resident to keep her on the seventh floor.

"My room's open," Akatsuki said softly.

Shiroe gave an absent nod. That was true. If there was one who could be convinced to move if they could remain on that floor, that might be sufficient. "It is only right for the Queen to have the same floorspace as the King," he said softly, almost as absently as the nod had been given.

He returned and looked at Henrietta. "See if the current residents would be willing to move. If they'll argue strenuously, then I guess I'll have to live with the fifth floor option, but you know I'd rather not."

Henrietta looked away from him as she gave a nod to say she'd take care of it. "I did warn you from the beginning, you know."

Shiroe sighed. "I know," he answered. He'd not had enough faith in himself, nor in his guild was what they were upset about. He was paying for that lack now, in their eyes. But it wasn't really that. He knew how they worked.

"I was never quite sure she would be convinced to come at all. She would have made Michael stay with her if he'd fought that hard for her to her face. I didn't take into consideration that she might be sent against her wishes." There were depressed sighs around the room. Henrietta closed her eyes and relented, then moved on to her other agenda items for the meeting.

Shiroe wished he could pet the Purrcy who was sorrowing. She had loved all of the Adventurers and Creatures of Theldesia because she was hurting for her own children. Now her deepest fear had come true. Her own flesh and blood had been taken from her. Shiroe hoped that Michael could help her find peace with it. He already understood with a similar pain.

At the same time, Shiroe was relieved. She couldn't be called back by the children in the United States permanently. She would remain in Japan with those children whom she had taught to rely on her and who needed her, too. They would do their best to help her when she was with them again.

He took a breath and relaxed, returning to paying attention to the rest of the meeting. He'd tell Crusty first thing after the meeting so he could also stop worrying.

*Battle Hymn of the Republic, Julia Ward Howe, 1861.