Tristan woke up from his wonderful dream, finding Felicity curled up next to him. She must have slipped into bed, he thought as he gently extricated himself from her grasp and got up. How long has it been? He walked to the door and opened it, finding a fairy dragon attendant on the other time. "What's the time?"

"I think around late morning?" he replied.

Tristan nodded and closed the door, turning back to Felicity who was starting to stir. Walking over to her, he ran a hand along her shoulder. "Hey gorgeous, time to get up. We've gotta get back to work."

She yawned, and stretched a bit before grabbing his arm and clinging to it. "Mmm…good dreams…"

He playfully pulled her arm off of him, "Come on, we have to get going." Successfully extricated once more, he began putting on his gear, and Felicity helped him don the rest of the armor before she shifted to her fairy dragon shape. Nestling in her usual spot atop his head, she quickly cast Alter Form, turning Tristan into his Marius persona.

Exiting the Queen's Wood, Tristan made his way to the dirt circle, but stopped himself. "Right, we were going to ask The Matriarch about multiple rings."

"I did," Felicity replied as she made her paw-claw biscuits. "She said that there are only five in existence, and the remaining four should be held for future heirs should the worst happen."

"Makes enough sense," Tristan replied. "Oh! That reminds me, I should set the return location for Otherrealm Retreat here, in case I need a quick getaway."

Felicity poked the side of his head, "Then you'd be stuck here until the once-a-Season Citadel event."

Right…because the ring would only transport me to the last place I used it…which would be here in the Fey Realm. I really need a means to transport myself across Realms whenever I want. He sighed and spun his crucible, pushing the essence into his ring. Activating it, he returned with Felicity to the Citadel, and using the student pins, the two traveled back to the inter-Realm market. Heading through and acquiring some sweet pastries to satisfy their cravings, the two reached the Demon Realm rift. Handing over their citadel pins to the rift warden, Tristan stepped through the opaque film once more.

As soon as he arrived in Saumur, his bangle began vibrating. Oh, Eloise is trying to reach me. He spun his crucible and pushed essence into the platinum ear-cuff. "Hello?" he asked in Demon's Tongue.

Eloise's voice came through, in a whisper. A pained whisper. "Finally! I've been trying to reach you for days!"

Tristan immediately moved to the side of the market square and began walking toward one of the city walls along the clean, well-kempt streets. "What is it?" he asked.

"I went to talk to the Parslile estate over in Avonal, and they threw me in the dungeons! I don't have any gear except the ring for this spell, which I've managed to hide by swallowing it over and over."

Tristan grimaced in revulsion, "I'll come rescue you-"

"These are strong essence-weavers. You'll need to be cautious."

Tristan turned course and started heading to the eastern side of the city, planning to immediately head to Eloise's location. "Why did they throw you into prison?"

Elosie sounded exasperated, but she calmed her voice. "They…did not act like Demons. In fact, I saw no Demonkin at the massive, mountain estate. Only Demons, servant imps, and quasits. They were aloof, and all had a haunted look about them. I don't know why they chose to lock me up. But you need to get me out."

Tristan glanced up at Felicity and spoke softly in the Standard Tongue, "Eloise has been captured."

Felicity frowned, "Jail break?" she asked with cautious optimism.

"Yeah," Tristan replied. He swapped to Demon's Tongue again, "We're on our way."

Leaving the city was easy enough – very similar to the last time that Tristan left the capital. After giving his reason as wanting to travel for a contract, he was let through with no issue and walked with resolve. We need to travel faster, he thought as he kept moving on foot. He checked the sun in the sky overhead, noting it was just before midday. "Felicity, how big can you get now?" he asked in Standard Tongue.

"Last time I tried, a pony," she replied. "You're a bit too big to ride me." She giggled, "Well, in that way, I mean."

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Tristan shook his head at her innuendo, "Let's see about acquiring a mount." The road was fairly empty – merchants having already gone into the city, and presumably would leave later in the day. But there were a few, small farmsteads and tiny towns dotted around the capital. Stopping in one, Tristan inquired with a woman who was tending to a small garden in front of her house. "Excuse me. Any place to buy a mount around here?" he asked in Demon's Tongue.

The woman got up from her squat and turned to face him, glancing up and down and taking him in. "Maybe. Got coin?"

"I do," Tristan replied. "I need something to ride, and I'll pay handsomely for it."

The woman clicked her tongue, "Could try up the road. Beetle pens might be willing to part with one of theirs."

Tristan felt a wave of revulsion wash over him as the thought of riding a giant insect utterly disgusted him. "Anything…that isn't a bug?" he asked.

The woman cackled, "What are you, some type of coward?"

Tristan just left the woman and began to jog. I'm not riding a giant beetle, he thought as he elected to instead push his body to a sustainable, but faster than walking pace. The road was firm under his feet, and even at a jog, thanks to the trial of the sap, he was able to run very fast. Then, a thought hit him. Oh, I'm such an idiot. "Felicity," he said in Standard Tongue as he skidded to a stop on the road. "Hold on tight."

She gripped onto his horns like a pair of handles, "What are you going to do?"

"Fall with style," he replied as he curled his legs under him and jumped up as high as he could. Spinning his crucible and pushing the magic essence to his shoulders, he whispered, "I will glide on these mighty wings!" As the wings began to manifest above and behind him, he angled his toes down as he had practiced and directed essence to his feet. "The skies unfold before me!"

He went rocketing up into the sky, with Felicity screaming in sudden shock at the massive acceleration. Tristan felt giddiness rise up in him as his stomach tingled, and he kept his eyes affixed on the skies as he ascended well over a thousand feet up, and then he rolled his shoulders back a bit to glide forward. "You good?" he asked.

"That was intense!" Felicity replied with a giggle. "But we're going a bit slow-"

"Hold tight!" Tristan angled his toes behind him, "The skies unfold before me!" He blasted forward, shooting across the skies like a silver comet as the wind tore at his face and made it impossible to see. He had to push some of the essence from his crucible into his armor to activate Scales of our Foe, and have the visor come down to cut down the air cutting into his face.

Felicity was whooping as she held on, "So fast!" she shouted over the wind. "You never told me you could do this!"

"Recent development," Tristan shouted back as he kept spinning his crucible and when he felt the speed drop down, used another Dragon Leap to surge forward once again. But, the second he felt his crucible drop below a quarter capacity, he angled down to the ground. Pumping his legs as he leveled out approaching the road, he landed in a run, and then slowed to a jog before he was able to come to a stop. Huffing in deep breaths, he just stood there on the road.

Felicity tapped the top of his head, "We should have been traveling like that the whole time."

Tristan shook his head as he swallowed down some spit and all the spells faded. "No…it's too obvious."

"Should've gone invisible first, then," Felicity commented.

Tristan grimaced and cursed internally, Damnit. She's right. That would have been an easy fix to the situation. It's not like I'd need to sustain the invisibility the whole time, just takeoff and landing. He looked around, Well, we're in the middle of nowhere. He began walking along the road, letting his essence refill. "We'll travel like that again when I'm full up."

Felicity made herself comfortable between his horns, "I'll keep an eye on the rear."

The rest of the day passed in bursts of aerial travel, with Tristan only turning course once they reached a fork that led northeast and southeast. Taking the southeastern one, they made good time into the lowlands that quickly gave way to a larger mountain range. A handful of times, Tristan spoke to Eloise through their artificed communication items, informing her of his progress.

As he was wrapping up his report and making camp in a small cave off to the side of the road which was shallow and had signs of prior use, she gave him a warning. "Make sure that you sneak in. I think springing me from the dungeon, and sneaking out, is the right way to go."

"We don't want to investigate?" Felicity asked over the shared connection, as all of them were speaking the Standard Tongue now that they were out of the capital. "Sounds like they have something weird going on."

"For all we know," Eloise replied, "This could be their usual setup…but the haunted appearances…and I should clarify, by haunted, I mean they looked like they saw something horrific and were numbed to emotion."

Tristan frowned, "They could have done some spell to remove emotion, or suppress it, perhaps." He finished pitching the tent and set up the small camp stove to cook up a hot meal of grilled starberries on metal spikes. "We should at least try to see if there's something we can help with. Perhaps if we fix their problem, we can get them on our side in our plan."

Eloise sighed, "Perhaps. It's late, you need to sleep. That method of travel you described sounds ingenious."

"Once I get my gear, we can use Otherrealm Retreat and get back to the Citadel. Then, just as you did, back to Saumur, and head to speak with the Tousles and Alphinaud."

"Okay. When I get closer, I'll use Locate to try and find you, and your gear. But I still think it would be worth investigating, and just having our escape ready to use at a moment's notice."

Felicity added, "We should at least look around for some stuff to steal if they're not going to be on our side! A Demon House of essence-weavers means they must have some neat stuff to take!"

Eloise was silent for several seconds before replying, "Goodnight, you two. Thanks for coming to get me."

"We're in this together," Tristan replied. "We'll be there tomorrow."

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