Again, Tarreiz was responsible for acquiring suitable clothing before they set out. The group walked for an hour or so before Crono stopped dead.
"Tarreiz, could you use magic to transport us to where we need to go?"
"To most of the places, yes," the Mage of Vision responded.
"Then why don't you?"
"I thought that you would never ask," Tarreiz laughed and complied.
The city in which they found themselves was nice enough, but nothing special. Water figured largely, with fountains everywhere and a river running through the city itself, splitting it in two almost equal halves. There were too many bridges to count connecting the two halves. Tarreiz led them to a square, in the middle of which was a pool of water. Kerrelei was seated at the edge of this, running her hand through the water, but she glanced up at them and smiled.
"Tarreiz. Is it time?"
"It's time."
Kerrelei nodded, rose to her feet, glanced around at them. "Do you know me? I'm Kerrelei, the Second Mage, the Mage of Water. Very pleased to make your acquaintance."
Crono quickly introduced the members of his group. "Yes," said Kerrelei almost absently. From a pocket she took a small disc. "This is for you," she told Robo. "It's a program that will strengthen your magical and physical defence, as well as allowing you free use of a laser attack that I like to call WaterFall. I hope that it will come in handy for you."
"Thank you," Robo answered politely and gave it to Lucca, who quickly installed it.
Kerrelei smiled again. "Please, spend some time in the city. I quite like it."
Tarreiz intervened before anyone else could say anything. "The day is yet young, Kerrelei, and we will need to walk to Quaren. I hope to make it there before nightfall."
"There to meet with Jhyskar. Will you be staying the night there?"
Tarreiz hesitated, spoke reluctantly. "I'll not take them to the Forest in anything but the afternoon."
"Ah." There was an uncomfortable silence before Kerrelei offered, "I could take them to the Forest for you."
"No. I wish you could, but only I can lead them to the Grove itself. None of you could even find it."
"That's true enough."
"Well," Tarreiz began so cheerfully that the others knew there was something wrong, "we will be off, then. Thank you for your co-operation."
"Any time." Kerrelei smiled at them, adding, "We're not all as difficult as Jandegar or Ciaruse."
"Indeed." Tarreiz turned to Crono and the others. "Come, you heard what I said. Quaren by nightfall."
"Wh-tsch!" said Lucca, making the sound of a whip. "Slave driver."
"Only when it's necessary," Tarreiz responded. "Do you want me to whup you in a snowball fight? Well? Do you?"
"Not if it's six against one!" Schala answered and a random snowball fight broke out amongst the group. This time it was Crono's group against the two Mages, Tarreiz and Kerrelei, who lost miserably.
"Who's whupping who now, eh?" Lucca challenged, reaching to help Tarreiz up from the snow where Schala had pushed her down.
"At least I have dry clothes on," Tarreiz answered, accepting her hand.
"What?"
Tarreiz grinned wickedly and put the handful of snow that she held down the back of Lucca's jacket. The young scientist shrieked and pushed the Mage back down again.
"Tarreiz, play fair," Schala warned. "And play in character while you're at it."
"Oh, she can be quite mischievous if you get her in the right mood," Kerrelei told them cheerfully, a fact that they actually knew from the previous adventure. Tarreiz had always been a little cold to Lucca, who at the time had been jealous of the attention paid to her by Magus, but the others enjoyed her company.
The Mage of Vision got to her feet by herself, brushing snow off of her clothes, and nodded to Kerrelei. "With any luck, Kelke and I will see you in Altrisiac."
"Yes, indeed," Kerrelei responded and, smiling at the others, disappeared.
"To Quaren," Tarreiz instructed.
"Wait, wait," Marle cautioned, holding her hands out in a halting gesture. "Can we stop somewhere for lunch first? I don't know about anyone else, but I'm kinda hungry!"
"Food?" said Ayla eagerly. "Ayla hungry! We eat now! Yes?"
Tarreiz gave an exaggerated sigh. "Who is running this show?"
Crono thought about this for a moment, pointed to Schala. "She is, actually. When you think about it carefully."
"Either me or Alfador," Schala responded cheerfully. She had been carrying the cat this whole time, although Magus had entrusted him to Lucca's care, not Schala's. Nobody thought that Magus would really mind if his beloved sister looked after the cat instead.
"We will stop for lunch," Tarreiz informed them as though the notion was distasteful, "and then we will continue on our way. You had better eat quickly."
"Is it possible that you could choose the place, please?' Robo asked her politely. "The last time that nourishment was consumed by the humans here, it had been drugged and Lady Marle was taken."
"Just Marle will do fine," Marle corrected him (although her name was Nadia anyway, so what did it matter?).
Tarreiz nodded, ignoring Marle. "You do have a point. If you had known anything about Jeraska, you would not have chosen that particular inn."
"Hey, we're new to town," Crono shrugged. "Point us in the direction of some tasty but not too expensive food and we're there!"
They dined (okay, they lunched) at a rather nice inn and were given their meals free simply because the innkeeper wanted to please the Mage. As a matter of fact, he fell over himself to ensure that they were comfortable and happy, which apparently included trying to marry his eldest daughter off to Crono. He declined. Repeatedly. When they eventually managed to get themselves out of Quandria, it was only to find that they ended up in Quaren an hour or so later.
"Good work," Tarreiz murmured absently as she led them through the city. It looked greatly similar to Quandria, only there were more people here. The people first scattered out of the way of the Mage and then turned to stare as she and the strange people with her walked past.
Jhyskar was waiting for them. "Tarreiz!" he said in cheerful greeting, acknowledging his fellow Mage first much as Kerrelei had done. "Fancy meeting you here. Just happened to think you'd drop by?"
"We were passing through, and I figured I may as well let you meet this lot properly," Tarreiz answered, although all of them knew very well what was actually going on. "Jhyskar, this is Lucca. You have something that she would rather like in her possession."
"Of course, of course." Jhyskar moved to the young scientist, twisting a ring off of his finger as he did so. He held this out to her. "Take it," he urged as she hesitated. "There's no obligation for it. I won't be showing up later and demanding payment for it. This will strengthen your magic and give you control over something I like to call spontaneous Combustion. A little spell I happen to quite enjoy. Okay, so Combustion isn't exactly little," he acknowledged. Taking her hand, he dropped the ring into her palm and closed her fingers over it. "You don't have to wear or keep it if you don't want to."
"I'll keep it," Lucca told him. This was the first time she had really met Jhyskar, but she liked him already. "It could come in very handy. Thank you."
Jhyskar inclined his head to her in acknowledgement before glancing over at Tarreiz. "Jandegar says there's something you're not telling us. He says this group is missing two members."
"One I cannot touch," Tarreiz responded. "Wherever he has gone, I cannot find him. The other, the wizard, travels. Neither is important here. Neither will cause Jandegar, or anyone else, any concern."
"You know where Magus is?" Lucca demanded.
Tarreiz glanced at her, nodded. "He is well and he thinks of you frequently, with longing in his heart. That is all that I can tell you. Janus will return to you, Lucca." The Mage lifted her eyes to Schala's. "To both of you."
"What now, Tarreiz?" Jhyskar asked curiously.
"I thought we would spend the night here, if that's quite all right with you."
"You'd stay here if I wanted you to or not. …And then to the Grove?"
"To the Forest, yes."
Jhyskar studied her almost compassionately for a moment. He began, "If you want, I can – "
"I can travel to the Forest without you there to hold my hand," Tarreiz snapped back. "Jandegar assigned to me this task and I am going to complete it no matter what. It isn't the Forest that bothers me, anyway. That's only a lot of mindless wood. The Forest means nothing to me."
"All right, all right! I was only trying to be helpful."
"I'm not a child, Jhyskar. I don't need any of you to protect me from anything. Now, if you'll excuse me, we have work to do."
"Mindless wood?" Marle asked of the Mage as they followed her once again through the streets of the city.
"When you see the Grove, you will understand," Tarreiz responded bluntly.
Marle nodded, thinking to herself, 'And with any luck, I'll understand more than just the wood.'