"Hamsteel? Hampass? Compster?"

"What are you doing?" Asked Emery in confusion.

Emery and Nefeli were now heading towards the location of the egg of the dragon prince on foot and Nefeli was getting bored.

"I'm picking a name for our compass hamster." Said Nefeli innocently. "Hey, question, how does my presence not mess up our directions? I'm connected to the sky too."

"Math and dragons are absurd." Said Emery and it only made Nefeli more confused. "There's no way an elf can harvest more primal energy than something that lives on the stuff even with the distance difference. Can you imagine all the calories archdragons would need if they relied on food like us? We all would've starved to death by now. As for the math part, it minimizes the margin of error caused by you. If you want details, start reading about the Pythagorean theorem or whatever it's called in Xadia."

Throughout Emery's whole speech, Nefeli continuously nodded while barely understanding anything.

"Got it. Next question, how are you so calm all the time?" Asked Nefeli curiously. "Like, we nearly died just a while ago and you're just...you."

Emery frowned at the question. Actually going through death makes it and everything that can cause it a hundred times less scary. It freaked out too many people to count and he still hasn't told a soul about his truth. So faced with a question like this, he decided to change the topic.

"How about you tell me why elves hate artificial magic so much?" Said Emery with a deep frown.

"Questions game, got it." Replied Nefeli with finger guns. "Well, there're many different opinions. Some say humans shouldn't be trusted with another form of magic and another says they can't allow humanity to turn their magic to filth any more."

"Right, because they're the pure saints in this situation." Said Emery rolling his eyes. "Sending assassins and thieves across the border THEY made to murder and rob someone who's just trying to help his kind, y'know, like a saint would."

"Heh heh heh...got it." Said Nefeli with a nervous chuckle as she scratched the back of her head.

"Can you stop saying 'got it' all the time?" Emery snapped tiredly.

"Got it...that was the last one, I swear." Replied Nefeli awkwardly, causing Emery to sigh.

Emery ignored her and focused on the compass hamster as it changed directions very quickly and started pointing somewhere else.

"Compster! What did you fin" Asked Nefeli worriedly eyeing the hamster toy.

"Compster?...forget it. Maybe they're running away from something or someone?"

"No, there aren't any elves around so it means no danger and . They're just not on foot anymore. We can't catch up to them like this." Nefeli countered in a serious tone.

"We can if we know where they're going." Added Emery putting a hand on his chin. "But that would mean a high possibility of meeting other humans."

"Ooh, don't worry, I've got- I mean, I have the perfect disguise." Said Nefeli excitedly before putting on a robe with a hood that hid her face and wings that she pulled out from her bag. "Now, for the backstory. I am...a traveller from Neolondia who happened to help you with my trusty knife while you were attacked by some elves."

"Huh, I thought the wings would be harder to hide...wait- knife?"

Emery raised a brow before he stepped back when Nefeli unsheathed a large combat knife out of nowhere.

"Wh-where did that thing come from?" Asked Emery narrowing his eyes.

"I don't know, I wasn't paying attention when I stole it." Replied Nefeli cheerfully. "I use it for stealing."

"Ugh, are you addicted to stealing or something? It's getting very scary." Said Emery with a deep frown before Nefeli froze.

Emery looked confused. Nefeli was completely frozen. She didn't respond to anything he said. It wasn't until he shook her hard enough that she snapped out of it.

"Huh? Wha-? What were you saying?" Asked Nefeli in confusion.

"...do you have trauma or something you wanna talk about?" Asked Emery with as much concern as he could give at the moment.

"Pfft, Whaaaaat? Trauma? Are you joking right now? Of course not! My will is made of steel! Not afraid of anything!"

Emery stared at her with a look filled with doubt. He knew when someone had something to hide, it takes one to know one.

"We can talk about it later." He said before taking a deep breath. "Let's just go."

Nefeli nodded excitedly before the two marched onwards...to the Banther Lodge.

xxXxx

"That's a lotta knights." Said Nefeli before letting out a whistle as she and Emery stared at the lodge from a bush. "Why are they even here?"

"That's the Banther Lodge." Muttered Emery with a deep frown. "Usually the princes go to this place during the winter."

"And maybe it's where they're hiding the princes." Added Nefeli with a mischievous smirk as she wore Emery's glasses to look professional.

"Hey! I can't see!" Exclaimed Emery angrily as he tried to snatch his glasses back.

"Huh, me neither." Added Nefeli cheerfully.

"Oh god, just please give it back!" Exclaimed Emery angrily.

"Pfft! You look so funny without them!" Said Nefeli after she took off the glasses.

"We're trying to be sneaky!" Exclaimed Emery angrily.

"And you're not doing a great job at it." Said a voice familiar to Emery but not Nefeli as its owner opened up the bush to see them.

"Oh who could've figured that out? Of course, it's none other than the great detective, Gren. Now help me get back my glasses."

"Okay, okay, here you go." Said Nefeli with a pout as she returned the glasses.

As Emery took back his glasses and started cleaning them with his shirt, Gren spoke in a grim tone.

"Emery, the head artificer... he's dead."

Nefeli let out a very confused look and Emery looked just as confused.

"Dead? Who said that?" Asked Emery with a deep frown.

"We just got the message from Katolis." Replied Gren dejectedly.

Suddenly, the image of Viren popped into Emery's head. Emery easily put two and two together and realized what was going on.

"Son of a-"

Gren quickly noticed Emery's anger was different from the grief from loss. "You're...not upset at his death?"

"Yeah, super sad. Loved the guy like I love myself. Anyway, I need to talk to you and General Amaya...in private."

xxXxx

"So what your trying to say is that YOU are the head artificer and the high mage is lying to everyone?" Said Gren in disbelief as he signed the words to Amaya. "H-how?"

"It was a cover, Gren, I'm too young to be the inventor of something like this. One of the ones who knew of this cover was Viren." Said Emery with a deep frown. "And now he's..."

Amaya immediately began signing something to Emery and Gren began translating.

"Now he's using it to his advantage." Said Gren calmly. "For war."

"Thankfully, there's a way to stop this war." Said Emery and Gren signed the words to Amaya. "The egg of the dragon prince hasn't been destroyed. If we deliver the egg to Xadia and prince Ezran is still alive, we should be able to avoid the worst case scenario."

Amaya nodded as she understood before she signed something for Emery and Gren translated.

"Alright, where's the egg?" Gren asked Amaya's question.

"It was here a while ago." Said Nefeli as she admired one of many artificial sun magic light bulbs hung around the lodge. "Then left on something much faster than foot in that direction." She continued as she pointed in a direction while still admiring the light bulb.

Everyone turned to Nefeli and before long, Gren asked a question.

"Who's she?"

"A friend." Deadpanned Emery. "Just tell me. Did anyone come here and leave recently. Could be anyone."

Amaya froze before frantically signing for Emery which Gren translated.

"The princes. They were here a while ago with an elf. They must have the egg and they must be thinking what we're thinking."

Amaya suddenly got out of her seat and everyone knew what she was thinking and Emery quickly stopped her.

"Can you stop for a second? You can't search all of Xadia and Katolis." Said Emery earning a glare from Amaya. "You don't know how to find them, I do. I'll go and make sure they're fine. You have more important things to do...like having a chat with Viren. Something I can't do now that that the head artificer is quote unquote dead."

Amaya paused for a good minute before giving in to Emery's proposal. She then signed something that Gren quickly translated

"We'll get you a horse and some supplies." Said Gren calmly before Amaya left the scene.

As Gren was leaving, he saw Emery's friend try to steal a light bulb and it seemed that Emery did too.

"Don't you dare! That thing takes power from the wind turbines outside and if you disconnect it, it'll stop working."

Nefeli's shoulders dropped at Emery's threat as she pouted causing Emery to sigh.

"I have a better one in my bag. Just leave those alone." Said Emery before whispering in a tone that everyone heard. "God, I feel like a babysitter."

Gren shrugged as he finally walked out of the room before speaking nonchalantly.

"They seem like good friends."

xxXxx

For our dear guest who thought it was weird that Emery didn't prepare any way of protecting himself and wasn't wary, have you read the first chapter? I believe I explicitly wrote something about him not knowing how to set up protections. As for why he wasn't wary, the kidnapping happened too early and it's not like he's a fighter who could've shaken off Nefeli even if he was as wary as it gets. She's much faster than anything he can react to.

Tell me how I did. Leave a review.

Toodles.