Rolan managed to fix the car with relative ease. It was only a loose cable, although finding it took some time. They ate a quick, warm breakfast / lunch and continued on their journey.

Two days later they arrived to Jenlen. Like Mereia, it was a harbor town, but it was considerably bigger. Lucas found that kind of strange, since the shrine of the spirits was in Rolan's hometown. If it was so important, why didn't more people live near it?

Rolan parked the car at the side of the town square. "Here we are. Let's go see if Jian - he's both the local keeper and sort of town leader - is at the town hall. If he's not, someone there can call his home."

Apparently Jian was at the town hall, as they were almost instantly shown to his office. He was an old man with thick beard and barely any hair on his head. "Rolan, is that really you?" he greeted the other man with a surprised smile.

"Good to see you too, Jian," Rolan replied. "How many years has it been? I see you're still stubbornly holding on to both your duties."

"Why didn't you say anything in your last letter? I would have prepared a better welcome."

"It was quite a sudden decision, I'll have to admit."

"Nothing bad has happened, has it?"

"No, not bad. Very good in fact." He pushed Kress forward a little.

Kress gave him a glare before he fished out the pendant hidden under his shirt - Lucas had reattached the chain to it after the two pendants had been joined as one - and held it out to show to Jian.

The old man's eyes widened. "Is that...?"

Rolan nodded. "Yes, it is."

"So this boy is..."

"He's the messenger. Acknowledged by the Sky spirits already too."

Jian bowed deeply to Kress. "It's such a great honor to meet you. I had not even dared to hope that the legend would come true in my lifetime."

"That's great." Kress wasn't really sure how to react. "Could we have the pendant, so we can continue on our journey?"

"Yes, yes, of course, but surely you don't need to go just yet? I'm sure everybody in this town would like to honor the messenger."

"We're really in a hurry..."

"Just for today. We'll get everything ready for a celebration in a few hours."

Both Lucas's and Mrei's eyes brightened at the mention of a celebration. Kress could practically feel their hopeful gazes at his back. He still wanted to say that it was not a good idea.

"Certainly we can stay till tomorrow morning," Rolan said before Kress could voice any protests. "But not longer than that. We still have a long way to go."

"Where are you heading to next?" Jian asked.

"Taora. When I was there for the last gathering, Malen was a keeper. I hope she still is."

"What about the others?"

"Kress had one, and Lucas brought Aidan's." He nodded to each of the boys in turn to let Jian know who was who. "In addition to yours, Malen's and Romi's, only one is unknown."

"Unfortunately I don't know who has the last one either. I met its keeper once years ago, but she was even older than me. She must have passed it on to someone else already."

It wasn't like the keepers kept records of who else held the keys. Once a decade there were larger tribal gatherings, usually in Taora, but beyond that they kept to themselves. They had always trusted that when the Sky spirits wanted the keys brought together again, they would find a way.

"I'm hoping Malen knows," Rolan continued. "If not, we will just go through every town one by one."

"I'm certain it will work out," Jian said. Then he bowed again to Kress. "I will get the preparations started. My assistant will show you a place to stay. I hope it will be to your liking."

"Remind me why we are doing this again?" Kress addressed Rolan once Jian was gone.

"It's called bringing hope to the people, kid. The messenger is an important figure to the Skyfall tribe."

"And it's a celebration!" Lucas added. "When was the last time you were in a party?"

Honestly speaking, Kress couldn't remember. "A very long time ago."

Lucas smiled. "Then I'm sure you will love it."

~*~*~

They were shown to a quite fancy motel, each of them getting a room of their own. Upon learning that there were bathtubs in the rooms, Mrei instantly disappeared into hers. It had been far too long since she'd had a nice, hot bath.

After a good half an hour of just soaking in the scented water, she washed her hair - which felt like something was missing with how short it now was, only a little above her shoulders. After thoroughly rinsing the blonde locks she slipped out of the tub, dried herself and donned a soft bathrobe. It was a little too large despite being children's size, but it was still so nice.

Someone knocked at the door. "Mrei, may I come in?"

She smiled as she recognized Rolan's voice and hurried to open the door.

"Hello there, beautiful," he greeted her half in jest. She was a very pretty child, though, sure to catch the eye of many a young man once she grew up. "I brought you some new clothes fit for festivities."

"Thank you!" This would be so great. "How should I put up my hair? What do you think?"

He smiled and followed her into the room. "It's a little short for that."

She ran her fingers through her hair again, her expression saddened.

"Hey, hey, lass, frowning doesn't suit you. Tell you what. If you smile again, I'll see what I can do about your hair."

"Really?" A hopeful smile lit up her features.

"Really. No promises, though. I was about your age when I last braided anyone's hair." Romi had never complained, but that might have been only because he had been her younger brother.

Mrei didn't seem to even hear him as she hurried to the chair next to the table in the room and sat down.

Rolan chuckled, took a soft brush and some sky-blue ribbons out of the bag he had brought and left the rest on the bed.

After several failures - and having to comb Mrei's hair back to order after each one - he was pretty happy with a simple braid gathering the hair from the sides and top and running down the back of her head. There was one ribbon entwined into the braid and another tied into a bow at the end.

"How's that? I'm afraid that's the best I can do." His hands were just too big and clumsy for this.

Mrei hopped down from the chair and twisted this way and that to try and see it from all possible angles.

Rolan was starting to think it was a huge disappointment." Should we just go to hairdresser's store?"

"Nuh uh!" Mrei turned to him, smiling. "I love it!"

That was a surprise. Also Rolan smiled. "That's good. I'll leave you to try your new clothes. My room is across from yours. Let me know if something doesn't fit."

~*~*~

Meanwhile Lucas had invited himself into Kress's room. He didn't try to push a conversation on the other boy or anything - he just was there, lying on the bed at Kress's side and staring at the ceiling. That was probably the only reason Kress didn't tell him to go away.

But soon enough it got really boring. "Let's go to the bookstore?" he suggested. "I saw one when we drove into town."

"We don't have any money," Kress countered.

"We could still go look. And I bet that they'd want to give you a few books if you just asked."

"That's abuse of status."

"I bet uncle Rolan has money."

"Why would he spend it on anything he doesn't need to?"

Lucas sat up abruptly and glared at Kress. "Stop being such a spoilsport! What kind of books do you like?"

Kress crossed his arms behind his head. "Anything goes. Fact or fiction. I'm used to reading whatever I'm given."

"So that's how you're such a walking encyclopedia."

"Walking encyclopedia?" He had never thought himself that knowledgeable. "What did you do in school? Sleep?"

"Eh, I'm getting okay grades. What about you?"

"I only went to school for a few years, but I was doing decently." He hadn't really started reading particularly much until he had been locked up. The books had helped him stay sane.

Rolan came to the room right in time before Kress was sure he'd have to agree to go with Lucas to stop this conversation - it was again going to a direction he didn't want it to go.

"I brought you new clothes. Jian is expecting us to look our best." Rolan didn't mention that it especially applied to Kress.

"Can we go to a bookstore?" Lucas quickly asked. "Kress wants to go."

"Hey! You want to go. Don't involve me."

"I just thought you'd want something to read."

"We can go tomorrow morning before we leave town," Rolan stopped the argument. "But right now you two need to take a shower and get dressed." He handed Lucas two bags with clothes in it. "Help Kress with his. Even I've never worn ceremonial garb like that." In his opinion Jian was overdoing things a bit. But as this was a one-time occurrence ever, he couldn't really blame the old man.