Elizabeth recited the alphabet in sign language for what felt like the hundredth time - it wasn't, but she had been at it for a while now, getting used to the letters and committing them to muscle memory. Gelda also had her practice signing her own name along with everyone else's in the tavern. It wasn't easy, per se, Elizabeth knew she would forget something come tomorrow morning. However, she thought she was doing pretty well so far, almost smoothly able to sign everyone's names with only the occasional hiccup.

Gelda seemed to agree, smiling fondly as she watched Elizabeth sign, the cards neatly stacked in front of Elizabeth.

She had indeed asked about them. How could she not? The paper looked ancient. She'd also asked why they didn't practice downstairs - Gelda said she'd answer at the end of the lesson.

The lesson which came to a close when there was a soft knock on the door before it opened. Elizabeth startled at the sound, having been in the silent room for so long now around the one person who never made a single noise, ever. The sound of the door gently scraping against the wooden floor was almost grating, despite how soft it actually was.

Zeldris walked into the room - Elizabeth had almost forgotten it was his room too, not just Gelda's - with a small smile. He spotted the cards on the floor and his smile dimmed slightly before he gently shut the door.

"How's this coming along?" he asked, settling onto the edge of the bed not far from Elizabeth and Gelda. He was staring at the cards with a bittersweet expression, only glancing away when Gelda began signing.

Elizabeth wasn't sure what she signed, but it made Zeldris chuckle and glance at Elizabeth with a less sad, and more genuinely happy, smile. "She says you learn fast," he translated, pulling his legs up onto the bed. "Not surprised. You always seemed like a quick learner, even when you were younger."

"Huh?"

How would he know what she was like when she was younger?

Zeldris raised an eyebrow. "We both worked at the castle," he said. "The tutors liked coming into the kitchens to talk about their students with each other. They spoke very highly of you. Can't say the same for the other cooks."

Other cooks?

The memory of a cook with brilliant green eyes that caught her and Veronica stealing freshly made cookies flashed in her mind.

Oh.

Oh dear.

Elizabeth's cheeks were growing red.

"You were- you were one of the chefs?"

Gelda laughed - silent, even her laugh didn't make the faintest sound, but she was clearly laughing - and Zeldris rolled his eyes, soft smile on his face. And didn't that look odd. She'd seen the reassuring smiles and the teasing ones, sure, but never soft. Almost reminiscent. He answered her question with a nod, the soft smile turning into the teasing one usually reserved for Meliodas.

"Yeah, lots of treats vanished whenever I baked. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you princess?"

Elizabeth's cheeks flushed darker and Zeldris openly laughed.

"In our defense," Elizabeth said, words laced with their own embarrassed chuckle, "you always made the best desserts."

It was Gelda's turn to roll her eyes, quickly writing on the notepad before holding it up for Elizabeth to read.

Don't feed his ego

"Too late!" Zeldris was grinning when Elizabeth looked back up to him. He hummed thoughtfully. "Y'know, I haven't actually baked in a long while. With Ban on cooking duty maybe we can expand the menu and finally offer people edible desserts."

"You weren't able to before?"

Zeldris waved his hand slightly, almost dismissively. "Meliodas and cooking of any kind is a recipe for disaster. And since I was the one doing most of the cooking before, we had to stick with just meals that wouldn't take hours to make, y'know? Or need my constant attention."

"Maybe you should have opened up a bakery instead of a tavern."

Gelda grinned - and those were definitely fangs, Elizabeth realized, fangs glinting in the candlelight - while signing. Elizabeth recognized Meliodas' name, but glanced to Zeldris for the rest. He was nodding with a resigned expression on his face.

Catching her eye, Zeldris shrugged. "Beer is more profitable - plus, you get more chances of getting information out of drunks than you do people buying cakes." Gelda raised a brow at him, and Zeldris huffed, leaning forward to rest his chin in his palm. "Alright, and Meliodas can't live without alcohol. Happy?"

Gelda nodded, about to sign something else but stopping and glancing at the door. Elizabeth followed her gaze, but she couldn't see or hear anything out of the ordinary. Zeldris also seemed to tense slightly, glancing down at the cards almost forgotten in front of Elizabeth.

"You're keeping those, right?" he asked. Elizabeth looked to Gelda, who nodded again and held out a small box for Elizabeth that she hadn't seen in all her time in the room. "Alright. Don't let Meliodas see them."

Elizabeth's brow furrowed as she took the box - it was the perfect size for the cards, made for them, she realized. "Why not?" Wouldn't he be happy she was learning sign language?

Either she accidentally said that aloud, or Zeldris was just that good at reading people because he instantly reassured her as Gelda began quickly writing in the notepad.

"He'd be overjoyed you're learning, don't worry about that! It's just…"

The cards bring up unpleasant memories for him, Gelda finished.

"Unpleasant memories…?" Elizabeth repeated.

Zeldris nodded. "Yeah. We… a while ago we used them to teach a good friend sign language. They… died, years ago" - Elizabeth's eyes widened - "and he's come to terms with it - we all have - but some things that remind him of them can drag up that grief. We learned the hard way that the cards are one of those things. Best not let him see them, okay?"

"Is- is it actually okay for me to have these, then?" She didn't want to accidentally damage something that clearly held a great deal of importance to the trio.

Gelda gave a firm nod at the same time as Zeldris said, "Absolutely."

Elizabeth hesitantly accepted that, nodding more to herself than the other two as she collected the cards and carefully slipped them into their box.

"Well… I'll see you both tomorrow, yeah?" Elizabeth said, glancing between them as they both nodded. It was getting a bit late, now. And Elizabeth was trying to not wake up past noon again.

Gelda signed what Elizabeth assumed to be 'goodnight' as Zeldris wished her the same.

She slipped out of the couple's room, and Elizabeth made her way to the room she now shared with Meliodas. She could hear the blonde downstairs bantering with Ban so, for now, she wasn't too concerned with him seeing the cards in her grasp.

Elizabeth found a place to hide the little box for the time being - she might change its location later - tucked safely behind some of the books Meliodas kept. She quickly changed into a nightgown and settled into bed for an early night, barely even stirring when Meliodas joined her.

King reclined on Chastiefol, staring up at the stars while idly tossing a small smooth rock he'd found between his hands. He couldn't believe what an idiot Gilthunder had been, confronting not just Meliodas, but two other Sins and Meliodas' family.

Really, it was a miracle the guy was still breathing.

The fairy had no doubts in his mind that, if they hadn't been pulling punches - which they had to have, King fought alongside Meliodas, Ban and Diane at least and they were strong even when they weren't trying - Gilthunder probably wouldn't have made it halfway back without collapsing and dying.

He wasn't too surprised about Gelda and Zeldris fighting. Logically speaking, anyone could have predicted that the captain of the Seven Deadly Sins wouldn't have let his younger brother and sister-in-law go without some knowledge on how to defend themselves at the bare minimum. And they have lived a long while, from a time when fighting was almost second nature.

He'd be outmatched too, just attacking the group head-on. Even if they weren't insanely powerful going against five opponents - six, if he included Elizabeth; and seven if he included the talking pig that they had somehow acquired - actually winning a fight would be difficult. With Chastiefol he could potentially do it, overwhelming them with its fifth form Increase, but that was ignoring the captain and Ban's speed alone.

Besides, he only wanted to kill one of them. But the one person he wanted to kill wouldn't be slaughtered by Increase. In fact, any injuries Ban could sustain from his attack would just heal within minutes. King had to use Fossilization on Ban.

But to use Fossilization would leave him weak for the others in the group to attack him…

King sighed heavily, glaring up at the innocent stars above as though they were the ones who had put him in this position.

He thought back to what Gilthunder had said.

They, supposedly, thought King was dead.

How could King use that to his advantage?

Diane was the only one who would be scared - maybe Elizabeth and the pig too - if he suddenly showed up, assuming he was undead. And he had a little faith that they wouldn't be that naive to believe Gilthunder entirely, not without actually seeing his dead body.

They were searching for the Sins, though, right?

If they were searching for all the Sins, that meant they would still look for him. King knew from experience Meliodas wasn't beyond negotiating with the dead - and the undead. Gelda excluded, Meliodas had resealed most of the vampires years ago while claiming that they were just upset after being forced into a slumber within the confines of a crystal for only-gods-know how long.

The captain was also too impatient to go looking across all of Britannia for a wandering spirit. Not that there were many - most spirits went to the Capital of the Dead once their bodies stopped functioning.

King sat up sharply with wide eyes, the idea hitting him with the force of one of Ban's Hunter Fest attacks.

The Capital of the Dead. He could go there and wait.

Unless they knew where Merlin, Escanor, or Gowther were. But even King hadn't located the three of them yet; hasn't been able to feel even a shred of their power in the last ten years. They were either doing a very good job at hiding or were dead themselves - though King doubted they were deceased, they were all too good at evading death for their own liking and King was about eighty percent certain Escanor was the only one of them that could die.

Well, it was his best shot.

Mind made up, King set off for Tala Village.

The morning came with the routine planning of how to move forward - now being decided outside as they all enjoyed a mouth-watering breakfast prepared by Ban. Elizabeth enjoyed the simplicity of it, even if they were discussing how to find dead people. Ban and Diane were bickering throughout, though it was clear that it wasn't anything more than that. Meliodas joined in eventually, before getting teased by his younger brother. Gelda watched on with amusement - in the shade of the tavern's porch - as the conversation spiraled away from their original goal for the time being while Hawk scarfed down Ban's food.

It was nice.

But, soon the joyful nature of the scene had to be squashed. They were on a mission, after all.

Meliodas, surprisingly, had been the one to end it.

He stood and clapped his hands together. "Now then! Back to the original point - finding the others. We have pretty much no information on their whereabouts except for King, which Lil Gil has claimed to be dead."

"Which doesn't really clear up where he'd be," Hawk said.

Diane hummed softly, leaning forward to wrap her arms around her legs. "Not exactly."

Hawk made his own confused humming sound. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Exactly what it sounds like," Ban said, leaning perhaps a bit too much against one of the railings of the porch for support. Elizabeth couldn't believe he was drunk this early. But no one else really had any qualms about it, so she kept her disbelief to herself. "The dead have to go somewhere, right?"

"Exactly!" Meliodas exclaimed, "The Capital of the Dead, to be exact."

"The dead have a capital?!"

"Think of it like this," Zeldris said. "This universe is a building, and like most other buildings it has rooms. Those rooms are called realms. Brittania is in one realm, the Capital of the Dead is in another right next door. It's not a place in Britannia, but the door to access it is."

"So… where is it?" Elizabeth asked.

A thoughtful look appeared on almost everyone's faces, but before they could try to come up with an answer Ban shattered the silence rather quickly.

"Tala Village. 'Bout a three-day trip that way." Ban pointed in the direction he meant. "Maybe less because of Master's mom."

Diane's nose scrunched up slightly. "How do you know where that is?"

Ban glared at her, but before he could say anything else Zeldris cut in. "That's unimportant - what is important is that it's a start. If King's dead, or any of the other sins for that matter, the capital is a good place to look first. Otherwise we'd be wandering aimlessly, and from the sounds of it we're under a time limit, right Elizabeth?"

Elizabeth jolted slightly to sit straighter when all eyes looked to her. "Truthfully, I am not sure. The Holy Knights can enact their plan whenever they want, whether that be next week or years from now. But, we can assume it'll be soon. It's best to assume it'll be soon."

Meliodas was nodding along. "We can't just have Mama Hawk walk until we get there though. She can make it, almost easily, but since Diane can't travel on her we'll have to stop more frequently. So, I'm not really sure how long it'll take for us to get there. Gelda?"

Gelda tapped her chin in thought for a moment before signing.

"3 or 4 days, minimum."

Meliodas nodded. "Okay, so about half a week. If we leave within the next few hours, right?" Gelda nodded. "Right then! Let's start packing things up and getting ready for the trip, and we can decide what to do while we're traveling because it'll get quite boring just sitting around doing nothing."

"Maybe Ban'll finally teach you how to cook," Zeldris said. Ban scowled at the idea. "You did manage to teach Gowther years ago in just two days."

"He's a chef, not a miracle worker," Gelda signed with an amused smile. Diane laughed loudly upon seeing the sign while Meliodas huffed and glared at his sister-in-law.

"Just for that, I'm making you your lunch."

Gelda raised a brow. "You're going to poison Zeldris?"

Ban snickered while Meliodas flushed ever so slightly, stumbling over and eventually giving up on coming up with a retort. Zeldris himself had pink-tinted cheeks, but he just rolled his eyes and pinched Gelda's arm lightly as a reprimand before getting up.

Elizabeth wasn't sure what Gelda had signed, and no one seemed to be inclined to translate for her as the group began to disperse. Zeldris and Gelda began cleaning up while Diane stretched, preparing for a long walk. Ban finally slumped all the way down on the porch and it was a shock at how fast the immortal man could fall asleep, while Hawk went to help Gelda and Zeldris in the clean-up with a promise to eat all the remaining scraps.

She wasn't really sure there was anything for her to do, she was going to help the married couple pack up the picnic, but Meliodas stopped her.

"Actually Elizabeth, I want you to come with me for now. Is that alright?"

Elizabeth tilted her head, brows furrowed ever so slightly. "Of course, but ah… where are we going, exactly?"

Meliodas grinned at her and pointed just a little ways away, where Elizabeth knew if Mama Hawk stood the area would still be vastly empty on her back. "Just over there. You don't know how to use any weapons, do you?"

"Um, no?"

"Thought so! I wanna show you how to at least use a dagger to defend yourself."

"Why would I need a dagger?"

He shrugged. "Don't know, but it doesn't hurt to carry some kind of weapon on you, y'know? Daggers are pretty easy to carry and conceal." He gestured to the rest of his family through the window of the tavern. "I want you to be safe in case you're ever separated from us."

"Ah… okay then," Elizabeth said slowly, accepting Meliodas' hand to help her up. She supposed that was a valid concern. In Dalmary, she wasn't able to do much of anything besides run and take a beating; any kind of weapon would have been useful in at least deterring her attackers.

She followed Meliodas to the little clearing where he handed her a wooden replica of a dagger, and her lesson began.