Ellis stared at a glass of water, lost in deep contemplation; he was sitting there at the bar of the small tavern. Someone cleared her throat. He looked up. Estell was sitting on the next stool beside him.

"When'd you get here? And what the hell took you so long?" he demanded.

Estell raised her slender index finger, indicating she wanted silence. An icy glare followed.

Ellis pursed his lips in response, a curt expression enveloping his features.

"Where's Ceres?" Estell asked softly.

"Well, last I saw her she was hanging around that small tent-market outisde – eager to spend the money we don't have. I don't know, I think she might be mad at me."

Estell smacked him upside the head in deadpan. "Of course she's mad at you! I'm mad at you, you sonofa-"

Ellis stood up defensively after shaking off the sudden attack. "Why the hell are you mad at me? I'm the one who should be mad at you two . . ." his voice trailed off as Estell's nostril's flared. Her hands, balled fists at her sides, were shaking slightly with rage. "Or not," Ellis conceded as he sat back down.

"Why didn't you say anything about Lloyd!" Estell exclaimed.

"I was going to-"he tried.

"When!" she demanded, interjecting. "When were you going to, Ellis? Hmmm, when?" She stood to her full height, about ready to throttle him.

"Alright, alright! Calm down!" He yanked her back down in the seat by her arm, then continued on in a strained whisper. "You think, just maybe, you might want to keep it casual? We're trying to keep a low profile, here, remember? Just attacked the king and all."

Estell pulled her arm from Ellis' grip. "Well, big brother, that'd be your fault too, now wouldn't it?" she said scathingly, demeanor resuming its usual serenity.

"My fault!" Ellis responded in disbelief.

"You're the one with the secret plans and lies," Estell began as she turned around on her seat, facing the counter instead of him. She took hold of the glass of water Ellis had previously found so engaging and gulped it down. "If you had been around we wouldn't have had to – you know, do what we did – and if you had told us about Lloyd in the first place, I wouldn't have been yelling at you right now!" she reasoned.

"Okay, okay. I admit all fault. Happy? Can we get back to exactly what happened there?"

"There were complications in the plan," Estell stated cryptically.

Ellis decided to let it go for the time being. "And are we any closer to getting, well . . ." he lowered his voice, "the purple and red stones?"

"Well, no, but we have Feyrbrand's."

"I know," Ellis remarked as he rubbed his eyes in frustration. "Still, it wasn't a very high yield for the spectacle you two conducted." He sighed. "I was afraid another wraith would strike before we did."

"Technically, it struck while we did," Estell pointed out.

Ellis looked at her pointedly. "Well, either way, you two effectively destroyed any hope of executing my plan now. Security's going to be way too tight to even try another assault, of any kind. Even the way I got in today would be too risky.

Estell smiled. "And how did you manage to sneak in today? Who was the lucky girl? Castle maid?"

Ellis smirked, then shrugged. "What can I say? It's a gift and a curse."

"So, what was this master plan of yours, anyway?"

"I'd get us in by way of an unbeknownst accomplice – this would be in the dead of night of course, as opposed to high noon. We'd rob them of their stones, all of them, then force the location of the remaining two out of them. Grab them. Be back home by breakfast."

"Worked in theory," Estell quipped.

Ellis just sneered her way.

oooooooooooooooooooooo

Ceres was trying on a floppy hat from one of the vendors' booths, wiggling it about this way and that. She posed for her sister as Estell approached.

"Hey, you're finally here. What do you think?"

"Ceres, you don't like hats."

"I could make an exception for this one."

"I think you should go and see Ellis."

"Why does he need a hat?" She laughed. "Hey, do you remember when we used to braid his hair into pigtails when he fell asleep? We should do that again some time – though I do sometimes feel bad when he gets those bouts of insomnia." She put the hat back, selecting, this time, a scarf to try on.

Estell grabbed the scarf and placed it back on its hook. "Look, enough distractions. We need to talk."

"About what?" her sister piped.

Estell eyed Ceres carefully. "Are you okay with all of this?"

She shrugged. "Of course, why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, I was shocked to discover that our long-lost and dearly-departed Lloyd was not so dearly-departed."

"Oh, that," Ceres remarked, shrugging again. "No big deal." She walked off to the next booth.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

The carcass was huge. So large in fact that it had to be cut up in order for it to be removed from the reception room. There was a horde of castle workers in there now. It smelled like death and blood, and it was damp from the melting ice. After she was sure he was alright, Emille had told him not to worry about the renovations the central wing would need – that she'd take care of all of it. And he wasn't worrying about it at all. He was standing on the balcony of his castle staring at the peculiar dagger in his hand.

Dart was leaning against the railing, watching the goings-on inside. "I'm going to kill him," he stated.

"Who? Lloyd? Don't waste your energy on him," Albert advised. "Besides which, I think he got a good enough beating as it is."

Miranda walked in from the wreckage.

"How is everyone?" Dart asked.

"Oh, fine," she said. "Lloyd's back in his cell for the time being. Shana's sleeping and Kongol's helping to haul off the rest of that wraith."

"Thank you," Albert said after a moment. "I was very lucky."

"Lucky that that dagger did the job," Miranda said with a smirk.

Albert nodded. "It's Wingly weapons that seem to work against these things," he said holding the spiralled blade up to the sunlight.

Miranda snorted. "Right, because Lloyd has been so helpful. His twenty-eight day prediction fell short by about twenty-seven days."

"Well, he obviously doesn't know as much as he would like to admit, but we can't deny that he's a part of this. Those other two knew him."

"Yeah, knew him well enough to keep him out of their business," Dart commented. "We'll have to find them and get to the bottom of this, but first I think Miranda and I should make a small trip to the Tree of Life."

"You think that Rose's spirit and your father's might still be there somewhere?" Miranda asked.

Dart turned around to look at the ocean. "There's only one way to find out."

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Thanks for reading! Thanks for reviewing! Least I know people still are reading. Thanks again.-k.ramsey