Hi!

Thank you to all those who wished me the best for the Wattys, shared my story on Twitter or Facebook, and/or voted on the previous chapters!

I've been pretty busy so unable to answer to many comments and messages, but I'll do my best to get to it. Meanwhile, know that your comments are greatly appreciated!

Also the beautiful fanart of Bree you can see above is by @Dhymitrius!
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Recap:
With the impending attack, the citizens of Sol are all heading to the safety of the forest, where Hailey did her best to lifts their spirits (as much as you can with an army coming your way, anyway).
At the end of last chapter, her conversation with Autumn gave her an idea...
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Chapter 30

I was so caught up trying to figure out the if's and what's of my idea that I forgot to look where I was going and only saw that someone was coming the opposite way at the last minute. I stopped dead in my tracks and took a step back, stumbling on a hidden root and barely managing to keep my balance.

"Sorry," I said, grabbing a thick branch to steady myself and blowing some hair out of my face.

"No, it's my fault, sorry." A familiar voice apologized.

I looked up to see Chase looking at me with worry.

"Are you okay?"

"Oh, yes, I'm fine. Thanks. Actually I was looking for you," I said, rearranging my bow between my wings.

"What's the matter?"

I looked at him blankly for half a second. Why did I want to talk to him again? Oh, yeah, right!

"You know that place where the king is whose name I can never remember? If the enemy knew the king was there, would they attack it?"

"Amaris? Well, Amaris is, contrary to Sol, an older city that has fortifications. Considering there's about half of the Aeolus army there, and that they now know that a second enemy body is here in Sol, it would be quite stupid for the enemy to attack just like that. After all, surprise was our enemy's best asset for tonight's attack. That would be gone by the time they reached Amaris. Since this enemy has already proved they definitely aren't stupid -I mean, we don't even know what to call them, their army suddenly grows twice as big, and I could go on- they probably wouldn't attack Amaris." Chase explained in details, figuring that the answer seemed of great importance to me.

"And, you did say earlier that the enemy's purpose for coming here was, according to you and Anselm, solely to find the king?"

"I did," Chase said, a glint of interest in his eyes.

"Earlier today -or I guess yesterday- my grandfather told me that you didn't use phones, partly because you didn't want information intercepted. What if we purposefully had the enemy catch a message that said the king wasn't actually here?"

Chase gaped at me for a second, and I felt my cheeks grow hot.

"Sorry," I rambled, trying to cover up my embarrassment, "There's probably a billion reasons why that wouldn't work, but I was just thinking, you know, that if we could draw them away or something-"

"No, you're right, that could actually work!" Chase interrupted. "This is probably the smartest thing I've heard all morning! Hailey, you're a genius!" He took off, his brown wings flapping quickly, calling out behind him, "I need to find Bree, we don't have much time."

I watched him go with mixed feelings jumping around inside me: relief, pride, hope, and- forgetfulness? Darn it! I had forgotten to ask him where Anselm was.

I looked around. Now would be a good time for Lynn or that yellow-winged messenger to randomly show up, as they had a habit of doing. Of course they didn't, they were much too busy elsewhere, but now I had no idea how else I was supposed to find Anselm.

"Hailey!" Autumn called out from behind me, breathing a bit heavily. "Didn't anyone ever tell you you can't just walk off on people like that? What was that about anyway?"

"Sorry," I apologized, and debated telling her my idea. On one hand, she was my friend and definitely trustworthy, but what if my plan failed? By telling her, I might just be setting her up for false hope and disappointment...

"Hailey, what's wrong?" Autumn inquired.

There was no way I could keep quiet about it and not feel guilty, so I just hoped that my idea was actually going to work and explained everything to her.

Autumn's eyes widened. "Wow, that's a great idea! Trick them into thinking you're sending messages for help, but actually feed them the information you want. What did Chase say?"

"He thought it was a good idea, and that it might work, so he went to see Bree."

Autumn rolled her eyes and opened her mouth, then closed it without having said anything. She leaned closer to me and said quietly, "Speaking of the devil..."

I turned around and saw Bree landing further away, just at the edge of the forest.

"Come on, let's go talk to her," Autumn said.

"Bree," she called out when we were within earshot. "Did you talk to Chase yet?"

Bree arched an eyebrow delicately.

"How do you even know about that? No, wait, let me guess: Hailey told you everything." Her tone was bored, but her eyes were cold. "Now, Hailey, some witch with a stick up her butt once told me to go do something useful while she actually tried to keep everyone safe. I didn't know gossiping fell into either of these categories."

She paused thoughtfully while Autumn looked back and forth between us with a puzzled expression.

"Then again, that same moron also advised me to go bully little kids, so I'm not going to take her too seriously."

I gritted my teeth.

"You know that's not at all what I meant."

Bree smiled smugly, and as much as I didn't want to let her end this conversation thinking she had gotten to me, we had more important things to discuss.

"Thank you for telling us this little story, but as much as I regret interrupting such a thrilling tale, there's something actually important I want to talk about." I said bittersweetly. "You still haven't answered Autumn's question."

"So your name's Autumn, then? Okay, whatever it's not important."

Autumn swallowed bitterly, and I narrowed my eyes. Bree should know exactly who Autumn was. Not only had she been with me on several of our encounters, but Autumn also hung around the training fields often enough for many warriors to at least send her a smile in greeting when she passed them.

"Don't worry, Bree, we all understand that it's already hard for you to remember simple things like breathing, considering how few brain cells you have, so we won't hold it against you if you can't remember our names." I said with a fake, condescending smile.

Bree's jaw clenched. "Isn't that hilarious? I don't remember you having such a great sense of humor when you tried throwing knives at a target the other day. Emphasis on try, since you failed epically."

I felt my face flush at the memory of my earlier failure.

"Okay, I'm just going to interrupt this conversation before any of you try to kill each other," Chase landed besides us. "I found the... guy who takes care of messages and stuff, whatever that position is called."

"Head of Communication, maybe?" Autumn supplied, relieved at the interruption.

"Yeah, that's sounds good. So anyway, I found that guy, explained everything, and we wrote the message we wanted. He said he needed the Royal Stamp to make it more believable, though. Anyone know where Anselm is?"

"I actually have been wondering this too..." I said.

Bree shrugged. "Shouldn't he be in the forest?"

"I didn't see him there," Autumn said.

"Of course you didn't," Bree muttered.

I threw her a glare, and she answered with a taunting smirk.

I gritted my teeth, knowing there was nothing I could do against her, and turned my attention to Chase, who, unaware of our little exchange, was looking around us, as if Anselm was going to come out at any moment.

As if on cue, Lynn strode out of the forest, looking busy. As I said earlier, she always had this knack for showing up just when someone needed her.

"Ah, Bree, Chase. Who should I address about the food supplies? Also, I've done a count, and everyone is safely in the forest, besides the Elite Archers, a few workers, Carson, three messengers, two guards, and yourselves. Oh, and Anselm, of course. Do you know where he is? I need to ask him a few things."

"You don't know where Anselm is?" Chase repeated.

Bree clicked her tongue against her palate in aggravation.

"Of course, there's always this one person who can't just follow simple directions and do what they're asked to do."

"So," Lynn inquired, "You don't know where he is either?"

Bree waved over a messenger, but he had no idea where Anselm might be either. While his disappearance seemed to merely annoy her, it clearly added an extra weight of worry on Lynn's shoulder, who hurried back into the forest with more frenzy than before, but at least with the new information that some guy named Stuart Hameldon could help her with the management of the supplies.

A whoosh of air made us all look up at the newcomer.

"Mark," Chase greeted, "No one has any idea where Anselm is, can we do without the Royal Seal?"

Mark, a man in his late twenties whom I assumed to be the afore-mentioned Head of Communication, shrugged his dark grey and red-spotted wings.

"Yeah, we'll just use the Royal Mail seal. I thought it'd been lost, but the retired guy whom I asked to write the letter in backward script knew where it was kept." He lifted his right hand to show a ring on his finger.

Then he produced a roll of paper out of a pouch around his waist, and, handing it to Chase for him to hold, took out a bit of red clay-like material. I frowned in confusion for a moment before he struck a match and I realized it was wax.

The letter was sealed efficiently, both Chase and Mark evidently knowing very well how to do it. Then, Mark blew in the small silver whistle around his neck.

Everyone looked up expectantly, and I followed their example.

A small spot in the night was growing quickly bigger, and I stifled a gasp when I realized it was a bat. I inconspicuously took a small step back, but Mark raised his cuffed arm for the animal to land on. He seemed unfazed by the thick clawed feet digging into the leather of his cuff as the animal hung quietly upside down, and slid the message in a small pouch placed for this effect.

A smitten smile on her face, Autumn leaned in to pet the fruit bat on its fury head.

"Aw, you're so cute," She cooed. "Flying foxes are just adorable."

I made a chocking sound. "Autumn, it's not a dog. In case you haven't noticed, it's a bat you're petting."

The bat suddenly opened one of its wings, and I jumped, eyes wide.

"Don't say that, Hailey. Look at it, it's adorable! It's like a soft, fuzzy teddy bear," She cooed again.

I snorted. "Yeah, the other day, you called a lizard cute, so I think we can safely say your judgement for cuteness is a bit impaired."

"But lizards are cute!"

Chase laughed, "Autumn, I'm pretty sure you'd call every animal cute, even a snarling grizzly bear."

"I'm not even going to try to argue with that," Autumn said with humor in her eyes.

Bree snorted in derision.

"Whatever. But, really, Hailey, I'm not even surprised you're afraid of bats."

"I'm not afraid," I protested.

Bree smirked knowingly, and Mark swung his arm up, letting the bat fly away with the message.

"Now we wait, and hope for the best."

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