Arelyn wiped the dust off her knife. Apparently nothing would prevent monsters from finding her, but at least they weren't the weird ones who she had to assume were sent by the Lord of the Night. She hadn't run into any more of them lately, but it was annoying when the normal monsters would act super sweet and all that before trying to kill her. None of them managed to succeed before, what made this different?

Cautiously she made her way through the hills. She had no clue where she was, but that wouldn't stop her. If she wasn't the Phoenix, then she felt that it was only fitting that she find them. Otherwise, all that trouble with the Lord of the Night seemed almost like a waste.

Unfortunately, the Neverseen base she'd spoke with Nemesis in had nothing about who the Phoenix was. The word was mentioned maybe once, but anything else about it had been taken or destroyed. Which left her back at square one; trying to figure out who the Phoenix was and hoping they weren't already killed. And that they believed her. And that they'd actually help her out with whatever it was they were supposed to.

Prophecies were annoying.

As she walked, a new idea dawned on her. The abandoned base. The one the Black Swan destroyed before they got that prophecy and started all this. Maybe there's something there...

Arelyn searched through her bag and pockets and sighed in disappointment. She'd found a few pathfinders in the Neverseen base where she ran into Nemesis, but unfortunately none of them led to the Neutral Territories. Just two to the Lost Cities and one to the ogre's kingdom. Arelyn actually didn't know enough of the Lost Cities to know what that place was called. Usually she stayed in the Forbidden Cities.

Well, there's no way I can go to the ogre kingdom without probably dying. And I have no idea where the others lead to in the Lost Cities. But I don't really have a better option, do I? Grabbing one of the pathfinders, she out it on a random facet and hoped for the best.

_______________________

It was definitely not the best place to end up.

Right outside of the Shores of Solace? Of anywhere, it had to be the home of Lord idiot Cassius. With her luck, he'd be home.

Would you look at that! Cassius was practically shoving Keefe out the door, probably so he would have to go through the torture of trying to have a diplomatic conversation with her. Keefe very obviously didn't want to leave, and Arelyn was tempted to just leave. She was clearly not wanted there.

Arelyn was about to leave when Ro whispered something to Keefe, who grinned and started walking towards her after sneaking an evil glance at Cassius. She wanted to feel bad for Cassius after whatever Ro had promised to do, but she couldn't. She liked Cassius as much as everyone else, and that was not at all. Keefe came to a stop a few paces away from Arelyn.

"So." He started, " You're back."

"Technically I got here on accident. Testing out some ownerless pathfinders."

Keefe shrugged, "Cassius wants you to leave. What'd you do to make him despise you this much, and may I use your strategy?"

Arelyn let herself smile, "All I did was yell at him. I'm sure that's a normal occurrence with you."

"Well, there goes that plan. Don't worry, I'll figure something else out."

"I'm sure you will. You always do."

Keefe frowned slightly, "You're acting different."

"A lot's happened in the last few weeks. Almost dying a few times does that to you."

"Look whose taking Foster's place as the person who almost dies every other day!"

Arelyn felt her smile waver, "You're not still mad about that, are you?"

"Wow. You still feel responsible? I told you, you're fine. And everyone else agrees. Well, maybe not Fitz, but he took it worse than everyone else. I think he feels like, any day now, Sophie will try to contact him, like when she and Dex were kidnapped years ago."

"Denial. I know the feeling."

They stood quietly for a while before Keefe glance back at the house, "Anyways, I'm supposed to force you off the property. I don't really know what Cassius expects from me, but I know I'm not doing what he says."

"You haven't changed, I see."

Keefe grinned, "I try not to."

Arelyn looked at her feet, "So. You told me about Fitz. You told me about yourself. How's everyone else?"

Keefe's smile faltered for a moment, but he kept it up, maybe for Arelyn's sake, "They're all doing surprisingly well. Biana did the same thing as me with the whole 'don't be sad' goal, and she's forcing Linh and Tam to go to Foxfire again. When Foxfire starts up again, anyways. Marella actually managed to lift people's hopes again by showing ways the Lost Cities was safe again. I think you were one of those reasons."

Arelyn's head snapped up, "What? How?!? I'm like, the worst person to use as an example!"

"Well, she wasn't there when they died. All she knows about you is what we told her, and she thinks you are a powerful protector. She also may or may not have discretely mentioned the demigods. "

"That's extremely unsafe."

"But smart." Keefe pointed out, "They now think that the Neverseen bases in the Forbidden Cities are being hunted by Annabeth and Percy. I highly doubt that's actually the case, but now people are willing to leave their homes, so I'm good with it. "

"And the Dizznees and Ruewens?"

"They're doing better than me, in my opinion. Edaline and Grady are letting Tam and Linh stay with them, if need be, Juline is still help the Black Swan, and Slurps and Burps is busier than ever due to Kesler making a ton of stuff Dex started. And everyone's helping them out. It's actually pretty great. "

Arelyn glanced at the door of the Shores of Solace. Cassius was standing near the door, glaring at her as if she would kill everyone. She smirked at him before looking back at Keefe, "Welp, Cassius officially hates me."

Keefe turned around and started laughing, "Man, he does! Seriously, what'd you do?"

"Just yelled at him about his awful parenting skills. He shouldn't have taken it that hard."

Keefe's grin grew, "Maybe I should try doing that again. Then he'll kick me out and I can stay with Grady and Edaline."

"Doesn't Grady hate you?"

"Not without Sophie around. Besides, we've sort of made up. "

"Sort of?"

Keefe glanced at Cassius, "You might want to leave. Cassius looks like he wants to kill you. "

"He won't. It'd ruin his reputation."

Keefe laughed again, "You're not wrong. Still, he'd find a way. You'd better go."

Arelyn smiled at him before obnoxiously waving goodbye to Cassius - whose reaction made Keefe laugh even harder - and slowly walked away, looking back every few steps to make sure Keefe was still alive.

She hadn't planned it, but she'd missed Keefe. She'd liked that talk. Pulling out her pathfinder, she decided there was someone else she should talk to. The Phoenix could wait.

Hey y'all! I finally updated! I apologize for the filler, but I honestly didn't quite know what to write besides "She got to the base" and that would've been annoying. I also was literally forcing myself to write so I wouldn't be leaving you guys hanging for over a week. So you get this. I have Thanksgiving break this week, so I should be able to update more often, assuming I don't just give up on literally everything. So, I hope you enjoyed, and I'll see y'all later! Bye!