The list burns against Taako's breast but he doesn't have the heart to get rid of it. He wants to, desperately, wants to set it alight and watch it burn to ashes in his hands, wants to tear it apart until not even the atoms are left, but he can't. If Kravitz is right, he can't afford to lose it; it's the only thing strong enough to find Lucretia.

Lup starts speaking almost before Taako gets the door to the conference room open. He and Kravitz file in as quietly as they can. The rest of the party is already there.

Someone has gotten angry in here; the conference table is smashed almost neatly in two, and there are scorch marks on the walls. Taako eyes his sister skeptically and she wrinkles her nose at him in passing. Still the same old Lup then. Taako almost feels vindicated; it's nice that someone else is feeling the stress he has been.

"We have news and you're not going to like it," Lup says, gritting her teeth. "Barry?"

Barry Bluejeans is marginally more under control than his wife, who has flames licking at her curled fists, but his face is still grimmer than it usually is. He hasn't even taken his hood down. "We keep almost getting a lock on Lucretia's soul but we lose it almost a second later. It hasn't lasted longer than a minute, and nowhere near enough time to portal to her. All we can tell is that for now, she hasn't left the mortal plane so... She's not dead, at least."

"Fan-fucking-tastic," Says Killian, voice rough. "So what does this mean, that you can't find her for good? That she's, what, between planes or some shit? If she's on the mortal plane shouldn't reapers be able to find her? I bet Lucretia died before, wouldn't the Raven Queen have something out on her? A bounty?"

"She never died nearly as much as the rest of us," Merle murmurs. "A survivor, that one."

Lup runs her hands through her hair and growls in frustration. Taako feels disconnected from the sight somehow-maybe because she's his twin. It feels sort of like watching himself as he worked out what was happening all last week; he knows the fire of her anger because it has lived inside his own chest for days, licking at his innards, turning his brain to mush. Now, though, he just feels numb. The list sears at his flesh under his shirt. He doesn't want to have to pull it out.

"I think whoever has been able to teleport people directly into the Bureau is working on land now," she says, gaze never wavering from the map they've pinned to one half of the broken table. It tilts dangerously, but she doesn't seem to mind. There are a dozen little dots of light across the surface of the map, twinkling in vastly different locations; the most faded one is in Refuge, then another dim one in Rockport. One is in New Phandalin, and another brighter one in Neverwinter. As they watch, another light flickers into existence near where this world's version of Raven's Roost would be and Magnus lets out a strangled sound. Merle puts a hand on his forearm but the human doesn't move, his face stricken. Taako's stomach sinks and his sister continues. "They're teleporting every few minutes, so we can't do more than lock on to one location before they've moved to the next. It must be something like the bubble you guys encountered around Refuge, some spell that can contain an entire location within it while the magic does its work, because there were so many people working together in the Ragged Harmony-the magic to do individual teleportations of this magnitude every few minutes would be enormous and take way more time. We'd spot Lucretia's soul in time before the teleportation could take place. They've got to be moving everyone at once, including Lucy."

"And I'll bet they've got some kind of cloaking working too," Barry adds, tapping the newest light, which appears near Bottlenose Cove. It's Merle's turn to pale and his fingers slide off of Magnus's arm. Taako knows how he's feeling; Lucretia is so close to home, and yet, somehow, farther away from them than ever. "Of course, they've got nothing on us, and we can at least sense the faint traces of teleportation, but nothing more than that. We've got no idea what's waiting for us if we can even get a surefire idea of one location long enough to still have Lucretia be there when we arrive."

"So what?" Carey asks. "What can we do to-to slow them down or get some kind of stronger signal?"

Taako speaks up, voice like gravel in his throat. "Maybe we could figure out where they're going to teleport beforehand and meet them there."

"You think we could set up a trap?"

Taako tips his head in Davenport's direction. "It's what they did for us, isn't it? How hard can it be? Besides, they're running out of places to land a building that big; eventually they'll have to double back to places they've already been. If we set up teams in all known locations and then spread out to any place big enough that they haven't landed at yet, it's gotta turn something up."

"That-" Barry cuts himself off, contemplating the map, before nodding slowly. A light appears near the Stillwater Sea and Taako's heart fills his mouth. He almost misses Barry's next words. "That might just work. It would be easier if we had an extra pair of hands, Kravitz, to figure out where Lucretia's soul is. The signal would be stronger. Did you find anything useful to you yet?"

"I-" Kravitz darts a glance at Taako and Taako trembles but clamps his lips shut against the sudden surge of bile that rises in his throat. He slips a hand under his shirt and is surprised to find he doesn't immediately burst into flames when he touches worn, soft parchment. It feels even worse to give it up to Kravitz's waiting palm, like he's losing yet another piece of Lucretia, no matter how disgusted he is with its contents. "I have. Taako help me under-understand what it was."

Lup's sharp eyes snap to her brother's face when Kravitz's voice cracks. Taako knows he's not at one hundred percent right now with Lucretia's blood all over his shirt and his hands and probably in his hair too. His ears are pinned against his skull, twitching, and the tendons in his neck creak under the strain of how hard he's grinding his jaw. But he thinks maybe she is seeing something more, something in his eyes, probably, that makes her reel back a step and look at Kravitz like the list might bite. She even reaches out and clutches at Barry's arm, drawing him back a step too, but Taako just shakes his head.

"No magic, it's just," he has to clear his throat. "Just something I'd rather not talk about, but it's...it'll be strong enough." And then, to the others, when he catches Avi and Carey's bewildered expressions, "She cared about it, and I guess Krav can sort of track her through the emotions she tied to it or something."

Lup does not seem convinced. The others don't either, really, and Magnus and Killian and Davenport look like maybe they're going to press him on it, or ask Kravitz to open it and show them, but Avi pipes up before anything dramatic can ensue. "So, can you do anything with it?"

Taako has never loved Avi more. There is absolutely no way he can continue explaining exactly what Lucretia thought them all capable of to the rest of the group. Not now. Perhaps not ever. It all sticks in his throat, makes him want to dry heave and cry at the same time. It's hard not to get angry-how could she think them capable of hating her that much?

How could she not realize what it would do to them-what it is doing to them now- if Lucretia disappeared?

But Taako has been asking himself that kind of question for days, has been chasing that singular thought around and around in his head, wondering and wondering and wondering and he's so very tired. He just wants Lucretia back. He just wants to bring her home.

What happened to all that anger, elf boy?

I grew up, Taako thinks, worn out. I grew up. It only took me like, a week, tops. Lup would be proud.

Barry takes the parchment gingerly, and Taako can see Lup's fingers tighten on the bend of his arm, but he's more focused on Barry's face. He's pale as a sheet, eyes round and lips parted. He looks like he did just before he became a lich for the final time, when he realized they were going to lose absolutely everything. It's sweet, Taako thinks in some distant part of his mind where the horror doesn't quite reach, that he's so terrified now for Lucretia rather than of her.

"What's-" Barry chokes and unfolds the paper. He can feel it now, what Kravitz told Taako he could sense. Taako watches as Lucretia's hopelessness and longing and despair wash over his family and he can do nothing to stop it. A tear tracks down Lup's perfect cheek as she stares at where Taako knows her own name rests. The number two spot must smart like a bitch.

Whatever we do, we can't let Davenport know he's at the top of that damn list , Taako realizes, and he edges just a little closer to their old captain.

Magnus and Killian both ask for an explanation, but Taako still hasn't quite gotten over the ringing in his head since he realized what the list meant to Lucretia. They sound tinny to him, like gnats flying around his head. He has to shake himself, feeling like he's stuck in some gods-forsaken nightmare.

His brother-in-law's voice cracks, but he remains still as stone. "It doesn't matter what it is. This will do just-" Barry's face twists, hard, and Taako swallows the lump in his throat. "Just fine. We'll find her with this."

Lup nods, looking worse than Taako's ever seen her, even before she left without a proper goodbye. "We could probably pinpoint her next most likely location with how strong it is."

Barry lays the list out, careful like he's holding a newborn fawn, and spreads his fingers over it. Barry's palm is large enough to cover all of the names on the list and Taako has never been more thankful for anything in his life. Kravitz and Lup both step up to his sides, so that the three Reapers are lined, shoulder to shoulder, over the map of their world. Kravitz and Lup overlap Barry's fingers with theirs and all three press in, eyes glowing. Their robes whip in a wind none of the others can feel and Lup's hair dances around her. Their mouths shape the words of a chant no one can hear, faces contorting and twisting in ways that let the bones underneath come close to piercing through skin.

All the other lights in the room go out. One by one, the pinpricks of Lucretia's past locations wink out too, until the only light in the darkness is three pairs of deadly eyes, clouded with bright white. In the back of his head, Taako can hear ravens cawing, faintly at first but growing louder and louder as the reapers lean over Lucretia's last, most important, plan.

And then a single light bursts into being on the map.