The sun didn't wake them where they laid in the dark chamber and the others had soon gathered in their main room when none of them emerged. Sorin ripped back the curtain and the sunlight poured in causing Sephira and Craven to groan and squint.

"Get out!" Sephira groaned in elvish, half-heartedly throwing Craven's dagger at Sorin who jumped out of the way and then realized she had thrown the sheath too. Sephira hid her face in her pillow and Craven flopped back on his back with his arms folded over his eyes.

"It's almost noon! I thought you might be dead!" They heard Dawn call to Malina and Demitro while Markus called softly into Isolde's room to see if she had woken up.

"They slept in the same bed? Are they married?" Nuka asked Luna in confusion where they sat at the table.

"Orcs don't marry." Rauka told him from where she stood facing the hearth behind them.

"Nuka they're like boyfriend and girlfriend, like Yumi and Po." Luna told him.

"Ohh, I didn't know elves and orcs could be boyfriend and girlfriend." Nuka murmured.

Sorin pulled the curtain back into place and turned back to the main room. "They probably shouldn't." he grumbled to himself.

"Join us and have some tea. I'm sure they'll be up when we get some food together." Rauka told the others. "Leuthil is getting some water from the well." She informed them.

Sephira couldn't bring herself to get up, even when she smelled the food Rauka was cooking in the main room at the hearth. Malina was the first of the sleeping ones to leave bed and then Isolde was drawn out by the smell of food.

"I'm hungry." Craven murmured to Sephira before he woke her up with a kiss. Life sprang to her lips despite her eyes remaining closed and he savored the feel of her warm, soft body beneath him knowing they'd probably have a long struggle ahead of them with no time to lounge in bed or enjoy each other's company for the night. She seemed to know the same thing and her hands felt down every inch of him as her tongue explored his mouth. "Baby, we have to get up." He breathed as she moved to kiss and nip at his neck. She just made a sexy moan and the cute smile on her face made him laugh as he kissed her lightly down her neck and ran his hand down her side. She breathed in his smell. He pulled at her shift to reveal her breast and she watched in curiosity until he kissed at her nipple and made her laugh in surprise.

"I never thought I'd hear a Duvendis wraith laugh like that." Malina murmured out in the main room as she joined the table.

"Only my sister laughs like that." Sorin grumbled, as he worried about how much trouble they'd be in for being so open. He could see the curious look on Isolde's face as she looked over at the closed curtain.

"She's your sister?!" Isolde asked with her eyes wide as she tried to picture his pale face and long blond hair which she hadn't seen since they had gotten to the desert.

"Yeah, what? Do you think Duvendis are all blond and blue-eyed?" Sorin laughed with a sharp-toothed smile beneath his mask.

"No, I guess not." Isolde answered, blinking.

"That explains a lot." Malina muttered. "She must be older, huh?"

"Ten minutes." Sorin nodded as he heard whispering and then Craven's laugh in the other room.

"What are they doing in there?" Markus asked, pursing his lips and glancing at Isolde, worrying about the effect of their behavior on her.

"The food's going to get cold." Rauka commented, before Sephira ripped open the curtain and appeared in the doorway with her tunic and pants on as well as her daggerbelt. Craven still wore his untied tunic and blackilt while he buckled his tall black boots near the foot of the bed. Sephira strode out with her silver eyes going to the food before she leaned over Sorin to pick off his plate.

"You look like you're feeling better." Sorin murmured in Elvish to her. She had a smile in her eyes for a moment and put her arm around his shoulder as she perched on his lap to eat out of his plate. The others seemed to watch her in fascination until Craven pulled out a chair and joined them.

"How long do you think it'll take to get to Arcadia?" Craven asked, directing his question at Rauka, making the others turn to her as well.

"I've only been to Arcadia from Gundam and when I traveled in the Hessian desert before, I only went to the coast and back. It took several weeks to get through the desert to the coast, but getting to Gundam it only took about ten days without stopping for more than a few hours at a time." Rauka told him.

"That doesn't really help..." Markus frowned.

"We've been in the desert for four days, but if we were on the Southern edge, we could be less than halfway to Arcadia." Rauka explained.

"Yeah, and we wasted a whole night." Leuthil said in irritation.

"We didn't waste a night." Sephira said sharply, making his blue eyes meet hers. "Remember, our dragons slept as well and have all likely eaten heavily during the night. They haven't been able to hunt during the heat of the day and they will have time to sleep off their meals while we prepare to leave in the evening."

"I didn't think about that. Maybe we will be able to fly further tonight since they've refueled." Markus hoped.

"Your dragons wouldn't have needed to feed if they hadn't wasted all their energy attacking the Nimbi." Leuthil argued.

"We wouldn't have gotten food stores and water from the Nimbi or have been able to sleep in a bed!" Sephira answered victoriously.

"Let's just focus on what we're going to do when we get to Arcadia." Dawn pressed in a calm voice.

"We need to dress as Nimbi and gather as much information as we can about how their armies operate." Sorin spoke up.

"We should also see if we can capture one to see if we can reverse Azaesel's curse on them." Malina insisted.

"Shouldn't be too hard to capture one, as long as we don't get caught. There will be a lot of goblins because it is the capital and center of their territory." Rauka pointed out.

"Maybe we should leave the dragons far from the city and travel in on horseback?" Craven suggested.

It took five more days to reach the outskirts of the sandstone goblin capital of Arcadia. The water and food had lasted, but they knew their journey was far from over.

"I think now is the time we need to split up." Dawn was the bravest to speak up in the early morning after they had circled back to land further from the city. "We need to make sure the information about the spells needed by Dagda make it back to the alliance." Her eyes went to Isolde and then to the two young nervous-looking Air Clan Ninjas.

"You're right." Markus admitted, looking at Isolde with a stern expression. "I'll take Isolde, Luna, and Nuka North to Earth kingdom Territory and we'll deliver the information to Cain. Then I can lead an army south to aid you in Thule."

"But we haven't finished the mission! Isn't that the point of sending us?" Isolde argued, looking around to the stern faces that all seemed to agree with the strange decision.

"You were never meant to fight." Markus told Isolde softly. "We only needed all the races to get the witch's help, I would stay but I'm not going to let you fly alone!"

"We need to get all the nations to gather their armies and you'll help us by getting Cain and Rukia to call on the other leaders." Craven pressed in his deep voice. Dawn could tell Luna and Nuka were both relieved at the decision.

"Fine, but why don't we leave after a few days after we've gathered more information about the Nimbi before heading back?" Isolde crossed her arms stubbornly and Sephira nodded.

"No! We can't risk all getting caught and not having anyone to get back to the alliance with the information about the spell." Dawn said with pursed lips.

"We can go back now, and get the information to our Ninigi." Luna spoke up.

"You can't go alone with one dragon. You wouldn't stand a chance if you were intercepted." Craven growled, making Luna look down as memories of Yuuki flashed in her eyes.

"We'll be delaying the information getting back to the alliance about the spell if we wait a few days and it's more important that that knowledge is conveyed quickly so they can figure out a different plan." Leuthil argued.

"You're right. Our plan of getting behind Nimbi lines all the way to the Grey Council is probably going to fail so we need a back-up more than we need to send information about the Nimbi. The Earth and Fire Kingdoms have dealt with Nimbi attacks and have information that we don't have already." Sorin pointed out.

"That's right. They've been fighting Nimbi already and it's likely that we won't have success reversing the curse anyway." Malina said. Isolde was disgruntled but nodded. She didn't want to leave the others to infiltrate the Nimbian army alone, but knew deep down she was so afraid she'd probably end up being a burden on their mission anyway.

"Okay. We'll go, but we'll be sure to send armies to aid you in Thule." Isolde insisted.

"Make sure the leaders coordinate their attack on Thule. My mother will be hard to convince." Sephira said in frustration, searching the sand for something she could use to convince her.

"She was convinced enough to send us, maybe she just needs proof that it's too big a problem for her to ignore." Sorin argued.

"Maybe it doesn't have to be a big problem if we are able to get to Azaesel." Craven hoped.

-

Sephira watched the Air Clan children go bitterly, thinking about how they would not waste time before passing on the information they've learned about the Duvendis to Rukia. She wondered too as Markus and Isolde took off if they would pass information to Cain, too. She adjusted the gold mask and hot turban on her head as she tucked her daggerbelt beneath the large Nimbi chest plate. She was unhappy to change into the bulky, sand-colored Nimbian armour and reluctantly gave up her ring daggers. She wore her black sword harness beneath the gold chest plate and could not part with her golden dragon-glass dagger, but she worried that the black weapons would be too obvious. She ended up taking one of the Nimbi curved swords and a dagger from one of the bodies. She hoped it would be enough to distract the other Nimbi from her Duvendis weapons. Sorin had done the same as Sephira, except he left his gilded dagger with his armor tied to Oryx's pack and took a bow from a Nimbi warrior along with a sheath and curved Nimbi sword. Rauka and Craven had easily found suitable Nimbi armour from the orcs that had died on the battlefield, and they seemed to blend in better than the elves. The naiads, too, looked as out of place as they felt and Malina and Demitro tugged at the constricting chest plate that they were so unfamiliar with wearing. The thick gold metal shoulder pieces seemed to press down on their sunburnt shoulders and Malina struggled to hide her thick dreaded hair beneath the turban.

"Ready?" Sephira asked as she led them towards Arcadia on a horse she had stolen at dawn. They had decided at the last minute that Sephira would be the one to speak for them since she had the leader's mask and that they would pretend to be returning from a failed mission where the previous leader had given her the mask after he had gone down on the battlefield, putting her in charge. Her only worry was the Duvendis weapons she possessed and the questions she might get about the officer she didn't get a chance to interrogate. Markus had explained what he knew about the organization of the Nimbian army, so Sephira was vaguely aware of how many men she should have in her control and how many ranks there were above her. She knew the Officer she had dispatched with was the leader of ten units of about ten soldiers each called a Centri and Markus said the Lieutenants command roughly six Centri's and the Lieutenants answered to Generals who led legions of about 5,000 Nimbi including specialized units of dragon-riders, cavalry, and the foot-soldiers.

The bay horse strode through the street and the goblin civilians scattered out of the way like cockroaches. Craven looked up to Sephira as she sat tall on the horse and seemed to look down on the goblins who seemed smart enough to have a certain respect for the strange armoured female.

Dawn was surprised how easily Sephira took to riding the horse and guessed Duvendis were taught to ride horses from a young age. Most of her own people didn't ride horses at all and would occasionally ride Elkendeer in certain clans. She wasn't sure she could ride a horse herself and was relieved when Sephira chose to speak for the group. She worried about the look of their silver eyes through their masks and thought maybe Sorin could pass for an adolescent orc, but Sephira was far too slight to be considered an orc and way too graceful and feminine.

Sephira stopped the horse suddenly in front of two Nimbian guards standing outside the entrance to a courtyard.

"Where's your commanding officer?" Sephira's voice was cold and she found it hard to resist using magick to disguise it, but it seemed to have the same effect on the two human soldiers. They shrunk back under her gaze and looked at each other before answering her.

"Officer Geru is meeting with the Lieutenant." One of them answered, sounding nervous.

"Why don't you show me where that is?" she commanded with an impatient tone.

"Right!" one of the guards saluted, pressing his fist to his heart, before he started leading her into the Courtyard behind him. She turned to the others.

"Stay here to wait for orders." She said slyly, before dismounting her horse and handing the reigns to Craven, who she could tell was unhappy with her order. Craven watched Sephira as she strode smoothly after the soldier with a grace he didn't see in any of the other Nimbi.

"What happened to your centri?" The guard spoke up. Craven was worried about how much a turned Nimbi could speak since he had only seen them fight, and held his tongue for one of the elves to answer.

"We were attacked by Valkyri on the way to Brahmapura." Rauka spoke. The guard looked suspicious even through his mask and his eyes studied the elves before going back to the orcs.

"I'm surprised some as small as you survived and not more like you." The soldier said, pointing to Craven. "Are you really soldiers?" he asked, looking like he was going to sound an alarm. Craven exchanged a look with Rauka before he made the split-second decision to knock him out. Rauka caught his limp body after Craven hit him in the side of the head with his sword and together they threw him on the horse. The horse balked in confusion and Craven barely held the reigns to keep it from bolting.

"Take him back and question him, Rauka and I should stay here and wait for Sephira." He told the others. Dawn nodded and Sorin's eyebrows pushed down.

"I want to stay too." He said.

"Fine. Dawn, you shouldn't come back. You don't look like Nimbi. You'll give us away."

"We'll use Isis and let you know any information we can get." Leuthil answered before the four of them awkwardly led the horse back down the street, catching the eyes of most of the goblins.

"They can't even lead a horse." Sorin said in exasperation.

"Maybe we should've kept the horse..." Rauka sighed as the guard started walking back towards his post at the gate.

-

"Officer...?"

"Sephim." Sephira answered as smoothly as she could, realizing as she started answering that she shouldn't use her real name.

"Where is your Centri? The guard mentioned you only came with a few men." The man in the gold armor with no mask questioned Sephira. She guessed he was the Lieutenant since the other had a detailed gold mask like her own.

"We were attacked by the Djinni in the night." She answered stonily.

"There was a Centri on the way to Brahmapura led by Officer Onem. Was that the Centri you speak of? Where is Onem?" the man questioned, looking particularly at the strange woman's eyes which he couldn't help staring at.

"Onem went down in battle and I took up command." Sephira said firmly.

"What are you?" the Lieutenant asked, leaning closer to look into her eyes. Sephira considered killing them both for a second, but knew she wouldn't get far using that tactic.

"I'm an Officer and I need soldiers to command." Sephira hissed, her eyes narrowing as she stood closer to the Lieutenant. The Lieutenant stepped back and swallowed, before he turned to look down at the parchment on his desk.

"There's a post open in Thule. You can take your remaining men to aid on the training grounds. There, Lieutenant Corsan will provide you with a new Centri." The Lieutenant signed an order and handed it to Sephira. She couldn't read the strange writing and was glad her mask hid her frown.

"Yes, sir." She said in velvety voice, before saluting and backing out of the office to make her way back towards the courtyard. The guard had returned to his post as she entered the courtyard and she noticed immediately that the horse was missing along with the Undine and naiads.

"He left his post." Craven told the soldier as Sephira appeared behind the guard.

"Where's my horse?" Sephira demanded, making the guard jump since he didn't hear her approach. The guard skirted Sephira to stand at the gate and Craven bowed to Sephira, which made the guard tilt his head. He started saying something and Sephira realized their cover had already been blown by the look of the guard's posture. She killed him quickly with her dagger and let him fall to the stone threshold before accompanying the others and striding away like nothing happened.

"You probably should've saluted..." Sephira laughed to Craven as they walked purposefully but not too quickly down the crowded street and were relieved there were no Nimbi soldiers in the crowd.

"That did not go well." Craven growled when he ripped the mask off of his face as they made their way back to where they had planned on meeting.

"It went fine on my end." Sephira laughed, waving the Lieutenant's order.

"What's that? An order?" Rauka asked.

"Yeah, to go to Thule." Sephira said. The muffled screaming was the first sign the guard had regained his consciousness and Sephira and Craven looked at each other before jogging over the ridge to get to the others. Sorin beat Sephira to the silencing spell and weaved the sign instinctually before silencing the prisoner.

"What did you do?!" Leuthil asked in surprise.

"What has he said?" Sephira asked.

"Nothing, he's just screaming for help." Dawn said in exasperation.

"Have you not tortured him?" Sorin asked in confusion. Dawn and Leuthil gave him a reproving look.

"Well, how do you get information out of him without torturing him?" Rauka asked, taking off her mask.

"He's not a turned Nimbi..." Craven said in disappointment.

"We need to know what Nimbi that are turned are able to say and do." Sephira said. "Maybe we should get an orc Nimbi tonight?"

"They're too often in groups." Sorin argued.

"Yeah, we had rough time getting this one out of the streets without getting stopped." Malina said.

"Why don't we just torture this human until he tells us what he knows? I'm sure the Duvendis could show us a technique or two." Demitro said, turning to Sephira and Sorin expectantly. Sephira was unamused and she felt Sorin's decision before he made the choice to permanently silence the Nimbi soldier.

"What? Why'd you do that?!" Malina asked in turmoil.

"We wasted all that energy carrying him over here." Dawn frowned.

"Now we'll have to bury him." Craven said, calling Crow from where he was not far away. Sephira noticed him close his eyes and smiled at the idea of Craven having the ability to link with his dragon. Crow came with the other dragons on his tail and instead of digging the hole that Craven had imagined, the silly Raptor ate the Nimbi whole. Sephira's laugh made Craven smirk.

"Well, I guess that works too." Dawn said bashfully.

"What happened with the Lieutenant?" Leuthil asked.

"I have an order to take the remaining soldiers North to Thule to the training grounds." Sephira answered.

"Wow, how'd you get that? I thought he'd have you figured out and you'd have to kill them to get out of there." Malina admitted.

"They've never seen a Duvendis. Only the Grey Council member that we met on the battlefield has and the few Nimbi that were able to flee that battle. I will have to pose as half orc." Sephira guessed.

"Half orc, half human?" Dawn asked, skeptically.

"Maybe." Sephira shrugged, knowing the shape of her ears and tattoos would still be hard to explain. "We should get some Nimbian horses to ride to Thule while the Undine and Naiads follow along with the dragons and try to keep out of sight." Sephira plotted.

"Should we try to get an orc Nimbi here? Or maybe we'll meet one on the road." Rauka suggested.

"It's probably better to meet them on the road. It'll be easier to explain the disappearance than trying to get one alone here. There're too many eyes in the city." Craven decided.

"I agree." Dawn and Leuthil said at the same time.