Pauline was impressed with the foreigner. As she pulled a chair to sit at Rodney's tea table with the girl she realized that regardless of the girl's nationality she wasn't much different from the youth she was used to in Castle Redmont; in fact, she somewhat resembled her own Alyss physically though had obvious differences in their actual traits. What was more, she had the same energy and merry spirit the young ones had, ranging from Horace to Will and even Jenny. They were all around the same age and shared more than any of them had actually realized. But most of all, as the courier observed the soft face contracting in a frown as she bent to look at her task, Pauline realized what most reminded her of her children—as she had come to think of Will, Alyss and Horace—was the fact that they had overcome so many challenges and gone through so many adventures and yet kept that spark of lively youth in their hearts. Every time she looked at Maiah she realized the girl hid more than she let out, especially when it came to her feelings and her personal past and it worried her to know she was now carrying the weight of two nations on her shoulders.

More so, few days ago, when Maiah had still been unconscious, Pauline had realized that even when the Rangers and Seers shared so many things they had an important factor that divided the cultures of the two nations. Where in Araluen there were values of honor and loyalty based on respect, friendship and love, those from Mazoniria were based on pain and fear. She doubted the scars she had seen on the girl's back while she helped the nurse change her bandages were from some terrible accident in one of her adventures; in fact, she would be surprised, after meeting Prowessa, if it was this cold woman who had done them to her own apprentice. No matter how many times Halt got angry at his apprentices he would never dare hurt them, if anything he would correct them and given them one of his peculiar sermons on how it could cost them their lives further on. Both nations had achieved the same results through different paths and with different consequences, yet in the end, who would the rulers fall on when the population is not there to aid them?

Pushing her sentimental thoughts aside, she forced herself to pay attention to what she was doing and helped Maiah figure out what they were doing with the maps. Sometime later Halt joined them to check up on what they had and see if they could find a meaning to the letters from what was on the maps. However, it wasn't until almost two hours later that all of them got back together to join the pieces and make sense of what they had in front of them.

"Looking at the letters, they are mainly reports of Seers' progress in the territory and they are accompanied with a map of Araluen." Will concluded suddenly realizing Halt was letting him lead the team in this. The thought made him a little queasy since it was giving him a lot of responsibility though it was nice for Halt to recognize him in such a way. "Judging by the fact it only covers Redmont and its surroundings I believe they haven't gone farther in. However, from Maiah's calculation we have more than two Seers in Araluen by now and probably getting ready to meet with the troops soon."

"How long?" Arald inquired after a somewhat long silence.

Will thought for a second before looking at Maiah.

"Not exactly sure." She said. "I approximated some numbers but they are sure to change. I arrived to the West Coast four weeks ago and when I left Alia was barely forming troops and calling the state to action. It takes about five weeks from Mazoniria's east coast to Araluen, so nine weeks ago Alia began mobilization. Assuming it takes around six weeks to call the whole state to arms and one more week to organize the ships and set sail that means they have been two weeks in the sea by now, leaving us three until they arrive."

"Three weeks!" Halt wished for the thousandth time for the knights to keep their exclamations until she was finished. "that's not nearly enough time to even notify all the fiefs much less actually mobilize the royal army."

"Well, I calculated it to be three weeks in optimal conditions and considering they take the fastest ships." She replied quickly. "I am not sure how many men Alia would bring and the condition of the ships at port. Not to mention its hurricane season and there is a special formation that must be kept which won't allow one to get ahead of the others."

"And they don't have the fastest ship since they brought the Seers in it." Will intervened trying to help her out. He knew even if all the conditions went against the Mazonirian troops they still had just little over a month to organize everything and regardless of his faith in his country he knew getting a whole country into war mode would take more than five weeks.

"What about the Seers? How many do you think could be here?" Pauline said stirring the conversation away from what everyone already knew would be a challenge. "judging by the trip and time."

"If mobilization began nine weeks ago the first Seer to get notified would have been Prowessa and she would immediately head north calling those that inhabit the northern region. So in total I would say three Seers made the trip to the Joint of Cliffs—the northern tip over here—taking approximately two weeks to make the trip (considering they rode nonstop except for the five hour break at night and ate on the way) where they would take the Lacandu and sail for almost three weeks in good weather conditions until they arrived to land. That would mean it took them five weeks to get here, about a week after myself though in those five weeks Alia probably called the two left in the South and West sending them to the Cliffs where they would arrive in six weeks and then sail for three. If it took about two weeks to notify them then two and six and three would make eleven weeks from when I left for them to get here. So they would probably arrive with the rest of the troops or a little before."

"If they are favored in all?" Rodney restated trying to find a way they could determine what of these advantages had they met. The fact that all their calculations were based on what the girl thought would take to travel in her country and hypothetical assumptions meant none of their plans could make any sense, at least not strong, logical, easy to deal with, sense.

"Yes. In real life it would probably go from three to five weeks but assuming it was longer could prove—"

"Deadly."

"Duncan will not be pleased when he realizes he has three weeks to mobilize troops. Even less when he learns we took two weeks to try and deal with it ourselves."

"I think that is the least of our worries at the moment." Halt said straightening up. "I'll deal with it when the time comes and I expect Crowley has already begun to make some movements with Duncan. For now, I think our main concern is to get to Castle Araluen and show this plans to the King. Meanwhile, it is perhaps wise to begin notifying nearby fiefs especially those in the west coast. We should part tomorrow at first hour so we can get there sometime soon. And a good night sleep will be quite helpful in that case. Probably last time we get to sleep in an actual mattress for a few weeks."

Wordlessly, it was understood the matter had been dismissed for the time being and realizing Duncan would want to see the information, Halt folded it carefully to take them with him. Rodney watched them leave his office as he sat on his chair and slumped back feeling as if in a matter of minutes someone had dumped twenty five years of constant battle on his shoulders. He felt twenty five years older. How did she do it? Maiah looked even younger than Will yet at times surprised them all by being as mature as Halt himself. And if she came to represent her country then he knew what happened when one forced a bunch of children to rule an empire.