James stood there dumbfounded, staring at the brother he hadn't seen in a decade.

     "Twill?"

     Surrounded by the small squad, Twill continued checking his cart for any repairs it might need. At the sound of the man behind him he stopped and turned around to spot an older man, barely able to stand straight up smiling at him.

     He inspected him thoroughly and noticed his eyes were identical to--"James?" Twill asked. He dropped a piece of wood down to the ground and hobbled over to his brother, grabbing on tight for an embrace that was long overdue. The cracking of their joints against one another didn't hinder the hug that they both desperately needed.

     "I thought you was dead," Twill said, trying to sniffle up the tears that would soon fall. He squeezed on tight to James, still unsure if it was real.

"No, little brother, I'm just old as dirt now."

"And bald," Twill added.

They released their hold on one another and laughed a hearty laugh that vibrated against the mountain, brightening the darkness that lived beneath it.

     ~*~

     Gwen reached three floors below Dia's and rounded the corner to a hallway of evenly spaced doors all holding the same dark wood finish. After years of navigating the halls of the fortress, Gwen found that she no longer questioned which one belonged to whom. She knocked on one frantically and waited only a moment before assaulting the door once more.

"Now what?!" She heard Tara yell from inside the room. The sound of her rage was obvious from the stomping of bare feet against the floor. She opened the door, dark hair disheveled with eyes barely open, and a snarl that was about to break through.

"Tara, I'm sorry, but this is important," Gwen kept her voice low.

"More important than sleep?" She asked with a low growl.

"Can I please come in?"

Tara leaned back against the door frame and sloppily threw the door back, leaving just enough space for Gwen to squeeze by. As soon as Gwen entered the small room she paced rapidly back and forth, biting at her nails, and failing at keeping calm. Tara yawned on the way to her cot and sat down, grabbing a blanket and placing it around herself.

"What is so damn important it couldn't wait until later tonight?"

"Dia is up to something," Gwen answered.

Tara yawned once more, "And? She's a vile lady. I wouldn't be surprised," she picked her feet up from the floor, about to lie down comfortably.

"That man we picked up? He's the reason Talion was decimated."

Tara shot up from her nearly rested position, intrigued. Gwen remained pacing a small width of the room, her hands shaking against one another.

"What do you mean?"

Gwen took deep breaths, trying to calm herself to give better details to Tara,"he collected money from the townspeople in Talion, saying that he was buying their freedom from the furies."

     "But they can't buy--," the sudden realization hit Tara and she brought her hands in to rest her head on as she rubbed at her brain to wake it up.

     "She's planning to do the same thing to the four other towns that surround what used to be Talion."

     "This is unbelievable," Tara shook her head, baffled at the tremendous greed Dia possessed.

     "What do we do?"

     "We warn them," Tara replied. She rose up from her cot and rushed to put her clothes on. Gwen stood there ridgid, watching Tara rush back and forth in her room, first grabbing her boots, followed by her slacks.

     "But the rules?"

     Tara went for her cape hanging on a hook beside her bed. She turned to face Gwen and looked her in the eye very seriously, "if Dia isn't following the rules then they mean nothing now."

     Gwen nodded in agreement. "So what's the plan?"

     "First, we're grabbing Erin. We'll take that Twill character with his cart so we stand a better chance of not dying from exhaustion," Tara stated, tying two strings at the top of her cape.

     "But what about Dia?"

     "We need to come up with an excuse so she doesn't suspect anything. We can talk it over with Erin but we need to go."

      Gwen walked through her door followed by Tara who paused for a minute to turn back into her room. She grabbed onto the stack of miniature parchment squares and tucked them into her satchel before running back out, careful not to rip them.

     ~*~

     "Erin! Erin!" Tara yelled through the door to Erin's room for a good minute before getting fed up with her inability to respond. She finally threw open the door to see an empty bed and an empty desk with no sign of Erin.

     "Where could she be?"

     "I have no idea. Lunch is already over so she should be in here," Tara walked a small circle in Erin's room with her finger tapping against her lower lip.

     "You don't think she could be in another room with someone, do you?" Gwen asked, still standing in the doorway. Tara thought hard for a moment before remembering the look on Erin's face when she had saw that new none Damien earlier.

     "It's a long shot, but we can try one more place," Tara hurried out of the room and down the long flight of stairs until she came to the nones' quarters. The halls remained quiet, save for a loud banging of running feet. Rounding the corner was a winded Erin, hair askew, tying up the strings of her cape. She stopped short noticing Tara and Gwen before her.

     "I have something I need to discuss with you," Erin blurted out, still trying to catch her breath.

     "So do we and I doubt you have us beat," Tara stated.

     Erin looked at them befuddled. She smoothed out the wisps in her hair before tucking it under her hood.

     "Let's go then. We can use Damien's room."

     "Is that a good idea?" Gwen asked Tara.

     "It's probably the safest option. The last thing we need is other furies hearing about it."

     All three of of them nodded in unison and ran down the hall as fast as their legs would take them.