She woke when the first sun's rays reached into her bed chamber. She was annoyed to find that all three of her dragons had gone to get food from the Dragon Caretaker rather than guard her balcony like she had asked them to. Craven woke as she sat up to see her dress strewn on the floor along with Craven's armor and many of the pillows that had been on the bed.

"Stay with me." He moaned, stretching his solid body comfortably in the plush bed to reach his arm around her hips.

"Shiiy-ai." She said under her breath making Craven's eyebrows furrow. Her hand pressed to her forehead and he propped himself up on his elbow, running his hand up her thigh as if to ask what the problem was. "Damn it!" She cursed getting out of bed and going to the dresser.

"What is it?" Craven asked sitting up as he tried to decide if she was hung over or had lost something. She spun with a miserable look on her face that almost resembled guilt after she had thrown all her tunics out of the drawer.

"My herbs, Craven. I forgot my herbs." She said in distress as his eyes went wide with recognition about the seriousness of that problem.

"Can you buy some in the city?" he asked hopelessly.

"No, the humans don't have any... they're with Caius. I have to get to Caius before the end of the day." She told him as she paced and tried to decide whether she'd be able to wait for nightfall or if she could make up an excuse to disappear the entire day. Craven got up and stopped her pacing and she let him pull her body into a hug.

"I'm such an idiot! I wasn't thinking." She cried, pulling herself away from him to start putting on her clothes.

"What's the matter?" Rauka asked looking into the room as Craven covered his privates and Sephira looked up from where she had bent down to find her tunic. Rauka was surprised at how disheveled the usually very poised elf looked and Craven looked enormously guilty where he stood by the bed.

"I'm just an idiot." Sephira huffed, pulling her tunic over her head as Craven began to get his clothes on as if he had done something wrong. Rauka looked completely confused and stood still until Sephira stopped having a tantrum enough to explain. The orc's calm, motherly presence seemed to persuade her to spit it out and Sephira ran a hand through her messy hair to straighten it out before she began. "I need to get to Caius or I'm going to be pregnant." Sephira frowned, making Rauka's expression show her understanding at the seriousness of the problem and why Craven seemed to be a guilty party. Hearing it out loud seemed to make Craven swallow in fear.

"Okay." Rauka said as if deep in thought while Sephira and Craven put on their armor. Rauka was already fully dressed. "Maybe you can say you need to visit home to see a friend." Rauka said finally after Sephira had gone to use the bathing chamber for a moment and Craven tightened his armour.

"That might work, I guess..." Sephira said after she finished. She still had a deep worry in her eyes and for the first time Rauka realized the dark elf was younger than her. "How far is DeLise?"

"Maybe a few days if we were on faster dragons?" Rauka guessed with an uncertain frown.

"You don't think they'd know if I didn't really have any friends in DeLise?" Sephira asked.

"No, I think saying it's a friend is a good idea. They can't connect a friend with you and maybe we can spend longer with the others since they're closer?" Craven commented, with a slight note of guilt still in his low voice.

The three of them moved out into the main room after each putting their masks on and Sephira summoned her gold dragons, careful not to summon Caius by accident.

"Who do I tell that I'm leaving?" Sephira whispered as she felt like Azaesel and the whole Grey Council were all around them as she stood in the bright center room of her chambers.

"Azaesel?" Craven grumbled like he wasn't happy about it. The knock at the door made them all jump and then Sephira went determinedly over to it and was relieved to see Gia.

"Good morning, General." Gia said politely, but sounded surprised by Sephira's frowning gold mask. Sephira stood with indecision as she tried to decide if Azaesel might question or kill her maid if she had Gia deliver the news to him that she just up and left the morning after their eventful evening. She sighed when she heard a large dragon land on the balcony and Gia looked past her in fear before Sephira spun to see Azaesel. Craven and Rauka both looked down where they stood on opposite sides of the room and Sephira tried to make sure she was composed and not a mess like she felt like she was inside as she pulled up her mask.

"Good morning, my Lord." She tried to sound bright, but noted the vague worry that had permeated her voice. He didn't miss a thing and to her surprise, he strode into the room with a look of sincere concern on his handsome face.

"What's wrong, my beautiful General?" he asked.

"I need to go home for a day or so." She told him, making him furrow his eyebrows. "I've been worried about a friend. I have a feeling like she's in trouble and I just want to check on her." Azaesel nodded immediately.

"I'll come with you." He said predictably, making her look up with something like begging or maybe just a stubbornness in her blue eyes.

"I'd prefer to go alone. It will be a shock to see my dragons as it is and I know you have duties here." Sephira said convincingly. Craven was hopeful that the yellow-eyed hybrid would heed her wishes and was satisfied that he seemed to believe her story wholeheartedly.

"Okay." Azaesel nodded with a look like he was concentrating on deciding what the right thing to do was and ignoring his own wishes for the mesmerizing dark elf.

"Do you want food for the journey?" Gia bravely spoke up in the silent room to Sephira's surprise.

"No thank you." Sephira said softly as she waited for Azaesel to make a move to either stop her from mounting her dragon or to leave himself. It seemed like it took him forever to decide his next move.

"I had plans to show you something today since it's a rest day... On Freja's day there is a meeting that I want you to attend." Azaesel told Sephira with his gold eyes pointed at the floor like he was focused on not looking disappointed but to Sephira it only made him look more disappointed like a little boy who was denied something he wanted.

"I will come back as soon as I can." Sephira told him, stepping close to him and lifting his chin to make meaningful eye contact with him. The sincerity of her expression made the corners of his mouth pull up slightly and he just nodded before Sephira looked to Rauka and Craven and the three of them stepped carefully around Qetesh to jump off the balcony onto Sephira's three dragons.

*

When they were a good mile away from the castle and Sephira and the orcs had both spun in their saddles to make sure they weren't being followed, Sephira reached out to Sorin. She tried not to have her feeling of embarrassment near as she just wanted him to know she was coming and not divulge the more urgent reason for her visit. She felt his excitement so strongly she was smiling when she opened her eyes. She made sure to point the dragons toward the Southwest where she knew DeLise was located on the way out of the castle and as soon as she felt they were far enough away she tilted their route to go straight West towards Sorin and the others. They flew in relative silence and the flight took most of the day. They only had to stop when the dragons were tired.

"Why are we stopping?" Craven asked, looking around and seeing only fields and rocky hills around them.

"These gorram dragons are tired." Sephira growled, trying not to upset her dragons if she let them know her annoyance was with them. The poor beasts did the best they could, but she could feel their wings and chests aching and they had slowed to a sluggish pace.

"Oh." Craven muttered, looking at the white gold female that looked back at him with innocent ruby-red eyes.

"I'm starving." Rauka said, clutching her stomach as she got down from the sandy yellow male.

"Me too. I guess I should've had Gia bring us some food." Sephira said from where she laid back in the saddle of the gold male, who was not as tired as the other two, but happy to take a break.

"Is there anything around here we could eat?" Craven asked, looking out to the mostly empty fields. There were some livestock in the distance and a few fields with crops, but the nearest abode was further than the eye could see.

"Let's just get to the others. They'll be able to spare some food, I'm sure." Rauka insisted.

"How far are we? I feel Crow but I can't really tell how far he is." Craven asked.

"Not long now. As long as we aren't spotted, we should be fine." Sephira answered. Part of her wanted to instruct her dragons to rest and then join her while having Caius, Crow, and Cerberus fly to come get them, but she knew she was just being impatient.

After another hour of flying on the slow beasts, they landed where the others were gathered in the rocky outcropping that Sephira was already familiar with since she'd seen it through Caius and Sorin's eyes. She got down off her dragon and flew into her brother's arms with barely a glance at the orc who had joined the group.

"You're okay. You're here now." Sorin whispered in Elvish. He knew from the moment he saw her the reason for the urgent trip and she knew he knew as he held her tightly. She breathed in his familiar smell that lulled her back into memories before things were so complicated. Her arms were tight around his abdomen and she had her face close to his neck as he enveloped her shoulders in his arms.

Craven and Rauka both ripped off their Nimbi masks in unison as they leaped down from the tired gold dragons. Rauka was relieved to run her hands over the smooth scales of her red, black, and yellow dragon who had his eyes closed and his mouth open in happiness. Craven let Crow squawk at him as he hugged Dawn and then Erek, who he was overjoyed to see looking sentient and aware of who and where he was.

"Craven, I can't thank you enough, my friend." Erek said after a quick hug where he sat on a rock by the fire.

"What's with the new armour?" Malina asked as she looked over at the beautifully crafted golden armour that Sephira wore as she still embraced her bother with her silvery blue eyes closed and her dragon purring loudly by them.

"She was promoted to General by Azaesel." Rauka told them with a bit of a laugh. None of them seemed to find it as humorous and Erek looked shocked.

"She's Duvendis?" Erek asked as he peered over at the pair of Duvendis dragons that seemed drawn to the strange Nimbi woman.

"We've infiltrated the capitol, as I'm sure you were told." Craven said, looking to the naiads and Undine where they all stood hesitantly.

"That's what they said..." Erek looked at Leuthil who pursed his lips.

"We must not have mentioned it. Anyway, what brings you here so suddenly? We didn't think you'd come so soon to check on your friend." Dawn asked, joining Craven and Erek where they sat near the fire.

"Do you have any food?" Craven frowned, clutching his stomach that had stabbing hunger pangs.

"Of course." Dawn murmured, with a glance at Erek who swallowed like he was going to be sick.

"Make your tea and join us by the fire." Sorin said softly in Elvish as he relinquished Sephira and she took a deep breath. She nodded, letting Sorin retrieve her tea pot. She stepped onto Caius' paw making his purring get louder as he pressed his nose to the backs of her legs and crouched for her to reach his pack. She was able to find her mixed herbs easily and Sorin filled the tea pot with water before hanging it over the fire. Sephira turned around and let Caius press his forehead against her and she smiled under the gold Nimbi mask as she stroked him. She was surprised how long she had gone with out her beloved beast whom she hadn't left since she got him when she was ten years old.

Sephira joined the others who all gathered around the fire with her tea clutched in her hands and she found that she had to take her mask off to drink it to her dismay. She could see the surprise on the orc's face as his eyes seemed riveted on her and she could feel Sorin's discomfort beside her.

"The entire Grey Council and Azaesel are in Thule." Craven announced, not noticing anything odd about Sephira having to take her mask off. Erek's eyes couldn't seem to leave Sephira's face and she just looked down as she drank her tea.

"How did you get out of there?" Malina asked.

"Sephira had to tell Azaesel she was visiting a friend in DeLise where she's told him she's from." Rauka answered, making Malina turn to analyze the almost vulnerable expression on Sephira's face as she sat with her brother's arm around her.

"And he just let you go? He hasn't noticed that you're not turned?" Dawn asked carefully looking over Rauka's brown eyes and Craven's handsome clean face.

"She cloaks our eyes if he looks too close, but he is infatuated with Sephira so he rarely looks at us." Craven explained, making Dawn smirk a little bit.

"Oh, well, I guess he's a man..." Dawn laughed lightly.

"They all are." Sephira spoke up, making them all turn to her as she put her empty cup down and stood up to move closer to the others. "The Grey Council are all human with only Azaesel being half orc. He says his father was a druid like the others of the Grigori." She told them. "Let me show you." She said, her eyes going white as she sent them images of Jupiter and Iovis, Hyperion and Eclorian, Sol, Astraeus, and finally Helios. Leuthil received the images the quickest from Isis and then she saw the others' eyes go far away as they no doubt studied the silly human costumes the Grey Council was wearing.

"That's only seven. Aren't there nine members?" Demitro asked first.

"Along with Azaesel, that's eight. I didn't meet the last member, but Azaesel assured me that all the members were present." She explained. Sorin was surprised she was using her regular voice and he had almost forgotten how that was against the rules of their people. He knew she had used her regular voice with Azaesel and now he saw that she had not only used her regular voice as she met eight out of nine Grigori, but also they'd seen her face. He didn't fail to notice her mask was not in view in any of the images.

"They all have three or more dragons, with Azaesel having seven including the gorram three headed one." Craven told the others who all looked appalled at the thought of nine druids each with more than three dragons.

"Shiiy-ai, seven dragons!" Malina exclaimed with a deep worried look.

"Their dragons are simple. Only the three-headed one, Qetesh has noticed me contacting Sorin." Sephira told them with a glance back at her three gold dragons that were too intimidated to come closer to the other foreign dragons.

"Is that who blocked my message yesterday?" Sorin asked quickly.

"The druids and Azaesel speak elvish, I overheard a conversation between Azaesel and the one called Helios. Qetesh was not able to decipher the message, only to block it. Azaesel isn't aware of my intentions and he thinks I'm unknowingly using magick." Sephira told them, with almost a feeling of pride at the fact that she was able to fool almost the entire Grey Council.

"I can't believe they don't know you're an elf." Leuthil commented pursing his lips at the mostly friendly looks on the human faces she had sent images of.

"I cloaked my tattoos." Sephira shrugged, thinking of all the elvish script and magickal symbols that covered her body.

"Your eyes though. How do they not know from your eyes?" Demitro asked, shaking his head.

"Yes, they aren't orc eyes." Erek said quietly.

"Only one has seen a Duvendis to my knowledge and he barely spared me a glance."

"What do you mean?" Malina asked. "How do you know one of them has seen a Duvendis?"

"Because she cut his arm off after the bastard electrocuted me!" Craven growled.

"Oh yeah. There was a Grey Council member in the attack." Dawn breathed as her eyes went far away to recall the harrowing experience over the fields North of the dark forest.

"I almost forgot he electrocuted you..." Leuthil smirked.

"It's not funny. If they all have that power, we're going to have a hard time killing them." Sephira pointed out.

"Azaesel has the speed of a Duvendis and the strength of an orc. With seven dragons and one with three heads..." Rauka brought up making them all feel hopeless as they pictured the tall orc hybrid and Sephira couldn't help the scowl on her face.

"Just because he has the strength of an orc, doesn't mean he's impervious to a blade. I will have to surprise him..." Sephira sighed.

"You have us. The three of us can kill him." Craven pointed out as he put his arm out to her and she took his hand and let him pull her into his lap. She had worry in her eyes and Dawn felt awful for putting such a burden on her. She was alone against the entire Grey Council and had made her way through the ranks of the Nimbian army in only a few weeks.

"Could we coordinate an attack while they're all gathered in Thule?" Erek asked, looking to the Undine and Naiads and then making eye contact with Sorin.

"There are four armies in Thule all larger than any elven or naiad forces." Craven murmured.

"They plan on attacking Gundam soon. We don't know how long they'll be in Thule and we'd have to get a message all the way North to naiads and Earth Kingdom to have a chance." Rauka said.

"That's right." Sephira cringed as she remembered Azaesel telling her about attacking Gundam to have more turned orcs.

"I think Demitro and I should fly back to Ariemme and give her the information that we have about how they're cursing men and orcs." Malina spoke up.

"She may know more than us and maybe she'll be able to fully reverse it." Demitro agreed.

"Fully?" Craven asked looking at his friend who looked a little gaunt, but otherwise his normal self.

"I wasn't fully cursed, Craven. They have a harder time cursing Valkyri because of our connection with our dragons. I'm guessing Seeg is alive somewhere and that's why they couldn't finish cursing me. If you hadn't gotten me out..." He said darkly, with a look of deep gratitude towards Craven and Sorin.

"I thought you were going to send more turned soldiers to us." Sorin spoke up to Sephira.

"It's too risky. Azaesel has been watching too closely." Craven answered before Sephira and Rauka could.

"I'm going to try to go with them to Gundam. I may be able to kill a smaller number of Grey Council members if they part from the others." Sephira announced.

"We shouldn't. We should focus on Azaesel." Craven argued.

"We'll decide later. Let's focus on what we want the alliance to do. Maybe the alliance could send aid to Gundam before the attack." Rauka said in a strong voice.

"I think getting the naiads to meet with the Undine to discuss the curse is a good idea. If we can't get any more turned soldiers then it makes sense to at least get the information we have to the Empress and the Lord Sith." Leuthil said, speaking of Ariemme and Celebria.

"But we can't just leave Sephira and the orcs alone in Thule surrounded by the entire Grey Council!" Sorin argued.

"It's fine. If we're in trouble our dragons can fly us out. Even together we won't be able to defeat them. We need to be strategic." Sephira said, sitting up straight where she straddled Craven's thigh. She could tell Sorin was worried about their entire group disbanding and leaving her, Rauka, and Craven to some terrible fate.

"Desoto and Tethys have the images you sent from that hellish place. Ariemme may be able to figure out what they're doing to make that black stuff." Malina said.

"Ugh, don't even mention it..." Erek grumbled, sounding sick as he covered his mouth and resisted the urge to vomit.

"Maybe we should get the images to Celebria..." Dawn suggested, sharing a look with Leuthil.

"The images may be able to convince Feuryn. Have Celebria call a council with the Duvendis." Sephira demanded, referring to her mother by her title.

"Maybe you should pull out of Thule and we should all get back to coordinate an attack." Sorin suggested not to Sephira's surprise.

"All that work would be for nothing!" Craven growled, sitting up behind Sephira as she held her arm out calmly and stood up.

"No, we're too close and with my rank as General I think I can get us more information." Sephira told him, looking down at him with the fire reflecting off her eyes which unlike Sorin's were not full of fear or worry but determination and strength. It wasn't enough to convince her brother and he got up and went back to his tent.

"Are you sure it's alright? We can stay while you gather more information." Dawn said to Sephira as she stood by her side. She reached out to touch her shoulder and then thought better of it.

"I won't be able to send messages or images while the Grey Council is in Thule." Sephira said unfortunately.

"Maybe you could fly out away from Thule to send the messages and then fly back?" Dawn asked, making Sephira turn her deliberating expression on Dawn. For once, Dawn found that the dark elf's eyes did not make her uneasy as they peered into hers.

"Maybe..." She agreed, with a hint of hope.

"Send the naiads. If the humans got back to their people with the information about the Dagda's spell, they may already have a plan in place." Craven said.

"I can take the information about the Gundam attack back to the Fire Kingdom." Erek said.

"How will you get back? You can't walk." Malina asked.

"Here. Buy a horse." Sephira said, handing him some Nimbi money.

"How did you get that?" Leuthil asked, looking down at the new-looking gold coins that Erek analyzed in his dark brown palm.

"They do pay me." Sephira smirked.

"I didn't think about that." Dawn muttered.

"I'm going to speak with my brother." Sephira said, striding away and grabbing the Nimbi mask off the rock she had been sitting on and the cup that held her tea as she went.

When the naiads and Undine had gone off to speak in Elvish about how the naiads could get Ariemme to have a council with Celebria and the Duvendis' Feuryn, Rauka decided to take Cerberus on a quick flight to stretch his wings.

"Craven," Erek said to his friend in a low voice as they sat alone by the fire. "Have you mated with a Duvendis?" He asked in a grim whisper when Craven's amber eyes met his.

"Quite a few times..." Craven smirked, his unconcerned tone making his friend's worry only grow.

"Craven, you're going to get yourself killed." Erek insisted with his voice high in worry. "She's beautiful, but they are deadly. I'm nervous about having just seen her face. I'm shocked she hasn't killed everyone here." Erek whispered.

"It's not what you think, Erek." Craven told him lightly, before seeing the look on his friend's dark face. "I'd rather be dead than not be with her." He murmured, looking down away from his friend's worried eyes.

"What if she has you under her spell?"

"Then, I'd rather stay under her spell." Craven answered stubbornly.

"What about Tyruh?" Erek implored, making Craven's face twist in confusion.

"What about her? She has other mates besides me." He said remembering the look on her copper-toned face when she told him he wasn't her only mate when he asked her what she thought of him.

"She says that, but nobody's actually seen her with any other mates. She's in love with you, my friend." Erek insisted softly. Craven wanted to roll his eyes.

"Well, I never felt the same." Craven grumbled, knowing it was only partly true since he did have feelings for her and had even been exclusively with her for a time. She had assured him that she was just as prolific as him when it came to how many mates she took to her bed and didn't seem worried about him leaving her for another mate so he moved on, thinking she didn't have feelings for him.

"She hasn't spent a day not thinking about you since you left." Erek told him, making Craven feel slightly guilty about how he left things with the fiery orc female.