The day finally came to an end for Meesei's pack and their tag-alongs. None could deny the euphoria of finding their beds, wherever they slept, but the quality of sleep amongst them varied.

Janius lay awake for a while before he could get to sleep. He found himself ruminating over what to do about Aurana, each minute trying and retrying another fuzzy idea in his mind. He eventually realised that the reason for his lack of good solutions was the conflicting objectives. There simply seemed to be no good way to get his parents to realise their wrongdoing without getting directly involved. In turn, there was no way of keeping himself hidden from his parents without leaving Aurana to the whims of fate, regardless of any advice or assistance he could provide otherwise.

He drifted off without realising it. He was woken up by Kaleeth wincing at how tightly he was holding her around the waist in his sleep.

The pack was updated over breakfast that Areldril was still working on written resources for them. Therefore, they would not be leaving for at least another night. Marod had no trouble getting permission from the count to continue accommodating them. Lunise was nowhere to be seen.

After breakfast, the pack went in different directions. Sabine dragged Fendros away to the courtyard to immediately begin their training. Sabine intended to at least teach him some cursory methods of active resistance before she began throwing spells at him, so it would be a long day. Rhazii and Julan went to watch and to spar with wooden wasters themselves if they got bored. They wanted to be around just in case Janius' parents did end up coming to the castle like they said. Janius stayed on a bench in the mess hall with Kaleeth to discuss their plan, still assuming the parents would not come to them.

With an empty plate in front of him, Janius twirled the rim of his water mug with one finger, holding the vessel at an angle to the table to roll it in circles on its bottom edge. "So, going from what we came up with last night, I've been thinking and a combination may help us the most." Though Janius was refreshed from his rest, he was no more enthused about the subject. "I'd like to speak with Aurana, see how she interacts with mother and father. If she is scared to stand up for herself, I want to encourage her to overcome that fear. Otherwise mother and father might just bully her back into the old state of affairs after things change. As for other approaches, I've played over ruse after ruse in my mind and I cannot come up with anything suitable. I've been putting it off. I'll have to confront them myself." 

Janius turned his eyes up from the mug. "Julan came up with something that might be a strategy, actually. He pointed out that as long as Aurana has nothing to be accused of, they won't have any precedent to constrain her further. If I take as much blame for anything as I can -- if I antagonise, or at least become a scapegoat, the risk to Aurana is little. If I can make mother and father realise what they're doing, even if they officially disown me, it may be worth it in the end. What do you think? Did anything new come to you since last night?"

[hr]
A few hours after Janius and Kaleeth's conversation, Lunise was finally spotted in the castle again. Where she had been or what she had been doing was a mystery. She was back to her old self, outwardly. Her dark purple uniform draped with the usual otherworldly superiority that its almost full covering emanated. Her face was similarly upturned in her apparent scowling disgust of most things around her, silent as it was. She glided through the castle grounds with her shoes sounding a clapping march on the stone below. It was roughly midday by the time she found Meesei again.