The Lor Starcutter awoke Magolor with the alarm he'd asked her to set before he went back to bed. He shot out of the room immediately after awakening, hoping he was up before Taranza. He wanted to get his cape back, after all, and if Taranza picked up on him giving it away in the first place, it'd be an awkward conversation to navigate. He entered the study, and took the cape back. After that, he went back into the main room to check on what was happening with the invasion. Seemed like a leg of the Ark had been taken out. That was good news. "Captain, she is approaching."

"You mean Susie?"

"Yes. Judging from her behavior and expression, she is displeased with something. Shall I allow her in?"

Magolor groaned. "As much as I'd love to say no, I probably should talk to her." The door slid open. "Hi, Susie! What brings you to this neck of the woods? Hee hee!" He pretended to laugh at his own joke.

"WELL, I have to bone to pick with you. You're doing something to stop us from improving the planet, aren't you?" Susie pointed at him as she made her accusation.

"I don't know what you mean! Why would I do that?"

"You want facts? I have them!"

"...Do tell."

"Well, there are these islands in the sky and some big, stupid plant that are unaffected by the mechanization! Those islands are covered in wanted posters that show a fixture of you being led through a crowd by a guy named Taranza. He knows how to take down whatever shield is covering that place, because he used to be the king. And I know you know who he is, because you're friends, aren't you?"

Magolor wrung his hands. "Saying we're friends is a bit of a stretch. I know almost nothing about the guy, and I absolutely don't know where he is right now. I'm just out here because I'm trying to figure out why this forest is immune to the mechanization."

"But you got him out of the country!"

"That was just basic empathy. I did learn some things while we were apart, after all."

"It's also pretty out of character for you to be this calm about a false accusation. You sure you aren't up to something?"

Magolor looked at the floor, and then looked right at Susie with a cunning smirk playing on his face. "Let's make a deal. I'll show you what I found, and you grant me a private meeting with President Haltmann. Is that alright?"

"What are you plotting, sorcerer?"

He left the ship, and illuminated a path to the cave. "Follow me. I've got a place to show you."

Reluctantly, she obliged. "I'll get you that meeting, as long as this isn't a trap."

He tapped a message on the side of the ship in morse code. As he tapped, he responded to Susie. "I suppose I'm in luck, then."

... .- ...- . / - .- .-. .- -. -.. .-

The inside of the cave was a nice reprieve from the mist, and it looked just as it usually did. "It's nice, isn't it?" Magolor's fondness for the inside of the cave wasn't something he was planning to hide.

"Egh, I don't like this at all."

What I wouldn't give to strangle her, I swear on every universe in existence. "Well, would you like to know where the mist comes from?" He was trying to hide the hatred in his voice.

"You know that much?"

"That I do. Come down here."

On the way down the waterfall, Susie was startled by Marx yelling at her from behind the waterfall. Magolor, who wasn't quite expecting it, decided on the fly that the best thing to do here was to feign surprise. "Hey, Magolor! Why're you and Susie down here at a time like this?"

"M-MARX? Don't be so casual about this! Where the fuck have you been all this time?" Magolor hoped Marx would pick up on the lie he was feeding Susie at the moment.

"Yeah! Don't sneak up on me like that!"

Marx stretched one of his wings. "Heheh. Sorry about that." He took a quick glance at Magolor, indicating that he figured the mage was up to something devious.

Although Magolor would have liked to say something to drive the lie in further, it was Susie who spoke next. "You son of a bitch! How dare you abandon us like that? Didn't you care about us at all?" Are we really hearing this from you, of all people?

Magolor figured that he could give this a good cop-bad cop approach, and given that Susie had naturally fallen into one of the roles, that only left one other. "I'm so glad you're safe! I was worried you died or something!" Don't reveal that I saw you constantly throughout the last few weeks. Please?

Marx gave a knowing grin. "Well, I guess it's good to see one of you again, after all this time. Although it looks like Susie hasn't changed at all. How've you two been?"

"I was just showing Susie the source of the mist that's down there. I imagine you know about it?"

"Yeah! I know about it! Mags, you've been down here?"

"I'm still not letting you call me that."

- .- -. - .-.. - .-. / .. ... / - -. / .- / -. .. -.-. -.- -. .- - . / -... .- ... .. ... / .- .. - ... / -. - / - -. .

When Taranza finally woke up, he felt noticeably better than he had the previous night. He still felt cold, and while his voice worked, it was hoarse and hurt a bit. He didn't want to trouble Magolor into having to baby him all the time, so he got up off the couch to try and get something for himself. As he looked around the living space, he found a few things that interested him, but more importantly, Magolor was nowhere to be found. He wasn't exactly quiet in his search, and Magolor had excellent hearing, so it was odd that he hadn't figuratively come running to see what was up. Taranza knocked on the door to the Captain's Quarters. No response. He silently admonished himself for falling asleep after Magolor left the previous night, because there would've been something that might hint at where he was now.

Taranza entered the main room, where the Lor started speaking. "Oh, good. You can move. You need to eat quickly, it's not safe here for you."

"What?"

"Susie of the Haltmann Works Company has arrived in the general vicinity. She is looking for you. In order to avoid arousing suspicion, you need to leave, and soon. Captain's orders."

At those words, Taranza hurried to grab some slightly overripe fruit from the pantry. "Where should I go to avoid her?"

"Magolor is currently with her and Marx in the cave you found him in a month ago. They are at the bottom of the cavern, so as long as you don't go there, it is likely you will be unseen. Go somewhere that wouldn't naturally be checked on the way from there to here."

After bundling everything he scraped together in some silk, he left the ship and headed for the cave. He wouldn't actually go down to the bottom, of course. He just ducked into one of the side tunnels and hid behind a shelf of rock. As he bit into an apple, his eye was caught by something strange on the other side of the room. Behind the other shelf of rock, there was something that resembled a slightly open door. He could see half of a candelabra holding it open.

After eating the rest of the apple, he steeled his nerves for what to do about the door. It was entirely likely that it led down-precisely where he wanted to not go, so he took the apple core, and threw it with precision through the crack in the door. If there was someone on the other side, he should be hearing a response to the apple core. There was nothing. He darted across the room to the door and opened it, quietly. On the other side was a staircase. In order to avoid going down into a situation he was completely unprepared for, he picked up the nearby apple core, ducked mostly out the door, and threw it down the stairs. A few seconds passed, and nothing happened. He went down the stairs and saw another door at the bottom.

Continuing the apple core strategy, he safely maneuvered himself into a room that looked like a kitchen. It had some more food in it, but he absolutely wasn't about to steal food from whoever lived here. He checked one of the two doors that led out, of course throwing the apple core first. There was a bedroom on the other side, which was naturally empty. There was an empty nightstand, a bed that had not been made, a closet full of… bow ties? The most noteworthy thing in the room was a bookshelf full of books, a majority of which Taranza had read before. Most of them were torn up, with four exceptions. He flipped through the four books, but found nothing of interest.

Taranza left the room, did the apple core trick with the door he hadn't checked yet, and opened the door. A hallway with a waterfall at the end. He crept down the hallway, and heard voices coming from the bottom. He couldn't make out what they were saying, but he knew that was his cue to go no further. Wait… one of those voices was Magolor! That was him, Marx, and Susie down there! He went back down the hallway, and went into the kitchen. If they were coming up anytime soon, he'd want to be close enough to hear them if they were talking. A few minutes passed, and then the faint voices became clearer.

The first clear sentence he heard was from Magolor. "I think about five pm tomorrow would be good. I have some things to look around at today, and to catch up with Marx."

"That will be fine. And I guess you really weren't hiding any fugitives, were you?" That would be Susie.

"Of course not! Would I lie to you? Now you really should go, the Ark is being attacked and you need to stop it!"

"Roger! I'm outta here!"

Magolor and Marx entered the hallway. Taranza didn't want to go back up the staircase, because he knew it'd take him right to where Susie was. He also didn't know where the two of them would go, so he just looked for a hiding spot. He crammed himself into a cupboard and listened as the other two entered the kitchen. Marx wasted no time cutting to the heart of the matter. "What was that all about? How did you even get into that situation?"

"You, of all people, shouldn't get to ask things like that." It took Taranza longer than he cared to admit to realize that he was grinning like an idiot at that remark. "Anyway, that was mostly just me leading her on a goose chase to hopefully save Taranza. She's looking for him, and whatever she wants, it's bad. I told the Lor to help him, so with any luck, he'll have done something to-hang on." The door to the cabinet opened. "Not bad. It would've been even better if not for the fact that I could hear you smiling."

Taranza tumbled out of the cupboard, got up, and dusted himself off. "You have an unfair advantage, your ears are too good."

Marx was less than pleased. "Do any of you want to tell me what's going on here?"

Taranza glanced at him quizzically. "Do you not know about what's happening above ground?"

"No, I live under a big pile of rocks. Is something important happening?"

Magolor and Taranza went on to explain the invasion, and how Susie was looking for Taranza. Marx seemed to understand the gist, until he asked a question that no one was expecting to hear. "How does any of that explain the new secret room behind the bookshelf?"

Magolor froze. "That wasn't there before?"

"Well, I thought you would know when it got there. After all, it opens with your name."

Magolor's eyes widened, but he didn't respond. Taranza's unease at the original question had turned into suspicion. "Magolor, what is he talking about?"

"I… I'm… I didn't do that. That room was made by someone else."

"Who?" Marx and Taranza asked in unison.

"I don't know exactly who. But I can guarantee it's the same person who attacked you, Marx. They've been following me for a while, and set up that room with the intention that I'd find it. I'm fairly confident that a large amount of the events that have occurred recently have been caused by one individual, pulling the strings from the shadows." Magolor spoke in a low voice, as if he was worried someone would overhear him.

"That sounds… difficult." Taranza didn't want to sound like he didn't believe it, but the way it was phrased made it sound too complex and large-scale to actually happen. Perhaps he was just mistaken? "What led you to this idea?"

Magolor recoiled, as if he'd just realized he shouldn't be continuing. "Uh, well, I…" He stumbled over his words. "Shouldn't you be getting back to the Lor soon? I don't imagine you're feeling very well."

He decided it was probably best not to pry and make him uncomfortable. "Now that you mention it, I suppose I have been moving around a lot today. That can't be very good for my health."

Marx didn't seem to get the approach at all. "Are you really just gonna drop it?"

"It's not that. I just don't think prying any further is going to yield any good results. I understand him well enough to know that unless you can drag something out of him kicking and screaming, he'll only tell you the truth if he wants you to hear it."

"Then why not do the dragging?"

"I don't want to hurt him."

Magolor made a face that was half smile, half grimace. "Thanks, Taranza. We should be going back now, right?"

"Yes. Thank you for your hospitality, Marx." They left up the staircase.