"So..." Rath started after their mother left. "That was a short shopping trip."

"She saved some of Iris' clothes," Char replied.

"I knew it," Rath grumbled. "That means you're still on the hook the next time she wants one of us to go shopping with her."

Char snorted. "Tell her that. She'll take whichever one of us she wants to."

"True." Rath sighed and slouched against the sofa. "Are we going out this weekend?"

"Doubt it."

"Come on! We haven't gone anywhere since getting Iris out of here."

"Nothing's been stopping you."

"Except pity for my lovesick little brother, moping around, thinking about his girlfriend all the time," Rath retorted. "But she's back now, so why not?"

"You heard her. She's going to be stiff for a few days," Char reminded him. "And once she sobered up, she was really embarrassed about the last time, anyway."

Rath smirked. "You two were all over each other."

"Yeah, well." Char didn't really know where he was going with that, so he just shrugged and grinned. That had been a very enjoyable night, even after he touched down in the clearing next to Jonah's tower after a full twenty-four hours of battling the blizzard. Iris hadn't been drunk anymore when she woke up, nor had she suffered any ill effects from the flight due to the precautions they'd taken, and that had reinvigorated him to pick up flirting and teasing right where he left off. She played along, even allowing him to pull her into bed and hold her close when exhaustion finally caught up with him. But then the morning came. He sighed and frowned. It had all seemed bittersweet, leaving her in the care of his friend and her long-lost adopted brother when he didn't want to leave her at all, but it was just bitter, knowing now that he left her with a monster.

"You didn't know," Rath said, pulling Char out of his dark thoughts. "He's been fooling everybody his whole life."

"That doesn't make me feel better," Char muttered.

"Then how about this," Rath offered, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees, his blue eyes gleaming with mischief. "Covert operations aren't Kelnor's thing. That's all us. And we're the ones who will have to do it, anyway, since we have natural hair and eye color for humans. So. Ever been to the human capital city?"

Char shook his head, and then a memory from his childhood came to mind. "Actually, yes," he said slowly. "Father took me once. I had to have been fresh out of flight school."

"Inside information. Perfect."

"Not exactly. We never went anywhere near the castle, and I don't remember much of it."

Rath waved his hand dismissively. "It'll all come back to you. So, we go as soon as she's recovered?"

Char rolled his eyes. "Little problem with that. The war? We can't just fly in."

"Covert. Operations," Rath repeated. "We fly in as close as we can, and we go on foot the rest of the way."

"We're talking about days of walking," Char reminded him.

"Yeah," Rath said dismissively.

"Without flying."

"So?"

"You're going to hate it."

"Probably."

Char chuckled. "Okay. If Kelnor doesn't come up with something better-"

"Which he won't," Rath said smugly, leaning back against the sofa again.

"Then we do it our way."

"Yep." Rath interlaced his fingers behind his head and kicked his feet up on the coffee table. "I should look up Misa this weekend."

"I don't think she'll be happy to see you."

"Why not?"

"You haven't talked to her in two weeks," Char pointed out.

Rath shrugged. "I haven't talked to anybody in two weeks. There's a war on, you know. She'll understand."

"Uh huh. Tell me how that goes later."

A moment of silence fell, and then Rath said, "Probably shouldn't tell Iris, in case that Micah can get inside her head."

Char thought it over. "Probably not. Although he doesn't know what she's been doing right under his nose."

"That we know of. He's too smart to underestimate."

"Yeah."

Another beat of silence, and then, "Sorry about your friend Jonah."

Char sighed. "Yeah."

"How'd Father meet him?"

"In the capital, I think. When Jonah was still in school. He said Jonah reminded him of us."

"Really?"

Char nodded. "He was about the same age as you, actually. Liked getting out in the world, exploring, seeing new things. Not that big on people, though. He did a lot of camping, where he could get away from everybody for a while." Char groaned and put his face in his hands. "Which was something else I should have picked up on. When I left Iris there, she asked if Jonah ever left the tower, and he said there wasn't much outside to interest him."

"Stop that. You didn't know, and it's already over and done with," Rath said firmly. "So. What was our father like with Jonah?"

Char dropped his hands to his lap and shrugged. "Just like he was with us. I don't think Jonah ever told him he was an orphan, but it was almost as if Father adopted him. You know those trips he'd take us on, where we'd just go off for days at a time and rough it?"

"Yeah. Mother always complained about what a mess we were when we got home," Rath said, chuckling.

"We'd do that, human-style. Jonah could almost start a fire faster than I could with my breath. Apparently he'd take Iris out camping, too. That's how she managed after the battle at Little Rest until we found her."

"Wondered about that," Rath muttered.

Char glanced over at his brother. His expression was unusually glum.

"Father talked about bringing you along, but he didn't think you wanted to have anything to do with humans," Char said quietly.

Rath shrugged. "He was right."

"He usually was."

"And when he wasn't, Mother was."

"Still is."

A pause, and then Rath said, "Funny how things turn out."

"Good morning again," Iris said, emerging from Char's bedroom in a dress this time. Char thought for a moment that he kind of liked the picture she painted in his robe, and he half-wished he'd gotten a better look at her when she was just wearing his shirt, but he shoved those thoughts aside and got up to meet her. The fairies flitted away from her arm as he took it, trailing behind them as he led her to the sofa.

"Up for all day now?" Rath asked, a teasing smirk back on his face as he watched them settle side-by-side on the sofa.

"Hopefully," Iris said. "I'm not really used to having anybody except the fairies around afterwards, and I just kind of napped when I felt like it in the tower."

Char draped his arm around her shoulder, suppressing a smirk of his own at her blush. "If you need to, go ahead. I don't mind."

"Because that's not awkward," she commented, dropping her gaze to her lap and the fairies settling there.

"They're obsessed with you," Rath observed.

"They're only alive because of her," Char explained.

"It's not just that," she said, holding her hand out palm up. A fairy landed there, and she smiled. "We're friends."

They spent the rest of the day much the same as the day before - waiting. At least the heaviness of the day before was mostly gone, though Iris' accounting of what happened to her lingered in the backs of everyone's minds like dark shadows in the corners of a poorly lit room. Evening came without a word from Kelnor, and Iris announced that she was tired and was going to bed. Rath stared in disbelief at Char as he let her disappear into the bedroom alone.

"Uh, Char?" he prompted.

Char sighed and stood up. "Go to bed and mind your own business." He heard Rath snickering behind him and chose to ignore it, following Iris into his room. She was easy to overtake with her stiff, slow movements. He caught her about the waist and turned her to face him.

"Char, what are you doing?" she asked, her brown eyes wide with surprise.

"Kissing you goodnight," he replied, sealing her lips with his before she could say anything else. Her response was tepid at best. He pulled back and studied her face. Exhaustion was written in every line and shadow.

"You really are tired."

She nodded. "Sorry."

"Don't apologize," he murmured. "If you need to take a nap during the day, it doesn't bother me. I just want you to feel better."

She gave him a weary smile. "I do feel better. A lot better. Thanks to you."

He smiled, too, and kissed her forehead. "Goodnight, Iris."

"Goodnight, Char."

Rath had vacated the sofa and the fairies had converted it into a bed for Char again when he returned to it. He could see why Iris liked the little creatures so much. It wasn't just that they anticipated every need and fulfilled it before anybody thought to ask them. They were cheerful little things, flitting and darting about as if they hadn't a care in the world. And they didn't. Not anymore. Thanks to Iris, they had escaped Micah, and, as Rath observed, their attentiveness toward her went well beyond their usual helpful nature. They were never far from her. If they weren't busy doing something for her, they rested on her lap, the cushion next to her thigh, her hair. It occurred to him that they might pose a problem when the time came to infiltrate the human capital city.

But that was a problem for another day.