Jessa and Dhiren rise late due to how late they ended up sleeping. Dhiren pulls up his pack and heads out of the palace with Jessa at his side. They find Sorid and Kallen waiting for them as they leave the palace. They are carrying the twins and Jessa is pleased to be able to kiss them goodbye before heading out.

"I'll need to have a talk with my parents and you when I get back." Dhiren tells Kallen as Jessa finishes her goodbyes to the very sleepy children and her mother.

"Yeah, we heard about the need for you to leave with Jessa. Don't worry about it, Prince, we will make sure that every thing is set so that you and Jessa can do what you need to do."

"We'll be sparring this morning, dad. If his guard isn't up to snuff then they will have two weeks to get that way before we leave to go north. I won't tolerate sub par guards. Can you just imagine what the snooty high elves would say? There is no way I'll tolerate that. 

"I want Sorsha to come, she is well trained now, but I'm not so sure that she'll be able to leave the children for such an extended amount of time."

"I will make sure that they are well cared for if she chooses to go, Jessa. Let her know that." Sorid tells Jessa soothingly.

Jessa smiles tiredly to her mother. "Thank you, I have no doubt that they will be well cared for. But it would be hard for any mother to leave their children for that long."

"How long do you think it would be for?"

"At least two months, perhaps longer depending how long it will take to deal with the idiot high elves. Then of course we have to deal with the human leaders along the way. There's no telling just how long we'll be. Alliances will be incredibly important or there will be no stopping the evil minions to overrun and destroy all in their path.

"I've never had to deal with any leaders other than here so I have no idea just how difficult it will be."

Dhiren snorts at her words, "The human leaders will be more stubborn than a contrary mule and twice as ornery. Yet, evenso they will be far more tractable than my, oh, so loving cousins. The sun elves are even ignoring the silver dragons so they will be damn near impossible in dealing with them."

Jessa looks at him thoughtfully before smiling mischievously. "Oh, shit, Dhiren you will be in for a good show now. Just let Jessa at them. Besides she ranks them, she's going to put them in their place. I would suggest after introducing her to the court that you take a seat and watch your wife deal with the fools." Kallen says smirking a bit.

"I'm not that bad, Kallen."

Sorid snorts a very unladylike sound. "Jessa, you have a way of making even the most arrogant and snotty people listen to you. Usually by cutting them down to size and making them feel like they are idiots for not listening to you in the first place. I wish I could be there to see you do it to those fools. Even Zira says that their god is getting fed up with them. They aren't listening to him when he's told them to pay attention to the silver dragons."

Jessa looks thoughtful. "Did the dragons come in their human or elven forms or did they come in their natural forms?"

"I believe that Zira said that they came in their elven forms. Why? It shouldn't make a difference which form they come in."

Jessa smirks, "No, it shouldn't but we all know that some people are only impressed with size and titles. Do you think it would be possible for me to meet the Silver king?"

"I'm sure it would be, but you should talk to Alaric about that. He has ways of talking to the other dragons that we don't. Going through the goddess and their deities isn't the most efficient way of talking." Sorid says as she shifts Sunny to a more comfortable position.

"Very well, I'll talk to him once we get to Castlerock. I don't think we'll be leaving today. They likely won't be in shape to travel and I know that I could use another night of resting before heading out." Jessa tells them.

"You will be sparring this morning?" Kallen asks intently.

"Yes, I want to see how far they've come. If they need more instructions I'll be very unhappy." Jessa says and gives Dhiren a sidelong glance. He winces, it's been a month or so since she's last tested him and she is expecting him to have become better. He thinks that he has but isn't sure.

"Then I'll come over in a couple of hours. They likely will still be waking up after celebrating last night."

"Very well. Two hours then." Jessa says before taking the reins of Moonglow and mounting up. Dhiren does the same with Wind. They decided to take the horses since she'll be leaving as the princess of the moon elves. After they get to Castlerock she will no longer be the caravan guard Jessa Brightblade, she'll be known as Jessa Silverblade, crown princess of the moon elves. Having one of the royal horses will be expected of her at that time.

"Jessa," Josnick calls out to her as she comes to the camp.

"Well, Josnick, hadn't expected you to be up already." Jessa greets him fondly.

"Well after the generous food you sent for us I figured that the others wouldn't be in any condition to stand watch. There hasn't been much bandit activity since you cleaned them out three years ago, so I took a chance and stood watch alone. Besides I believe that the elves would have alerted me if they spotted anything." Josnick says shrugging. "It was my gift to the guards in celebration of your marriage."

"Well that was very thoughtful, Josnick." Jessa gets a bad feeling. "Listen, once we get back to Castlerock, don't take too long to unload your stock and buy for Kyron. I have a bad feeling that things are going to be explosive shortly."

Josnick nods morosely. "I've heard that the old king is more than a little ill. The prince is nice enough, but he won't be the puppet that his father is and that's going to cause problems. I'll spread the word, but not many will listen to me."

Jessa laughs bitterly, "Just like they didn't listen three years ago when they were warned about the pass. Some people refuse to learn. There are none so foolish as those that refuse to learn. Just do what you can."

"What about you? Are you going to do anything?"

Jessa smiles sadly, Dhiren however, breaks in. "Actually, we will need to present ourselves to the human court. It's protocol for when there is a wedding or coronation or birth within the ruling members."

"Should we have invited them to the wedding?"

Dhiren shrugs, "They didn't when the current king married. They might still use it as a slight to them, though. They are very arrogant, worse then the elves before you got to them, Jessa."

Jessa smiles and it isn't a pleasant one by any means. "Well, then I guess we'll just have to meet those arrogant fools. Would the prince be among those we'll be presented to?"

"He should be, why?"

"I have some words of wisdom for him and a possible way to help him." Jessa waves it off as she tells that to Dhiren.

"Well, he certainly can use all the words of wisdom he can get. Those councilors are no better than bloodsucking leeches." Josnick sneers at the leaders that surround his king.

Jessa starts laughing. Her laughter isn't delicate like bells pealing or silver chimes. Dhiren finds that her laugh makes him want to laugh along with her. It is rare to get her to laugh like that, so uninhibited and free. He loves hearing it.

Her laughter is what wakes the majority of the guards up.

As they stand and start stretching elves are seen bringing in breakfast for them all. That makes them all wake up much faster. They all have learned to enjoy the elven food. They will miss it when Jessa will no longer be taking them through Silva.