Clearly fed up with waiting, Harriet threw her head back and groaned impatiently while turning on her heel and waiting elsewhere. When she turned around, she revealed that she had a dagger sheathed on the back of her belt, but she wore no more weaponry.

Fendros and Janius were too tense to sit around while they waited. They shared a short conversation with one another, most speculating on whether Galsek would go to his allies quickly, and what they would find there. It was possible that they would be tracking him for a few days, perhaps even weeks if it came to it. Before they could dwell on all the possibilities, Meesei said the word and they all shifted to leave.

"About damn time..." Harriet muttered just loud enough for Meesei to hear.

Once they were outside, Galsek's tracks in the snow were imprinted consistently, but it was barely a kilometre when they quickly faded into nothing. It was unclear what method Galsek was employing, but even his scent started to fork out to the point where it was impossible to find without going down many decoy paths. Meesei's ring kept their course true, however. No amount of tricks would deny that.

The warband marched on for about an hour before any physical evidence of Galsek appeared. They found a shallow cave up against an outcropping that caught Harriet's attention. It wasn't much of a cave so much as a large divot under the rocks, but it contained some torn strips of fur, thread, and wool. The glint that caught Harriet's eye was the false ring near the top of the pile. Harriet walked up to the cave, stooped to pick up the ring, and turned to show it to everyone. "Here's your ruse," Harriet held the ring under her thumb and flicked it in an arc towards Meesei's front. It's metallic sound lingered as it flew, silencing abruptly where it landed. "Have you still got his trail?"