It was a long while before Envy straightened, the poison in his system making it an effort. 
“Paget!” He shouted. Paget was one of the senior women in the tunnels, one of the few who stayed after adulthood to help with the children. She came from the tunnels and gasped. “Is everyone else okay?” She nodded, her brown curls bobbing. “Good, keep them in their rooms. Send Russel to me.”

Russel came a few minutes later. He was a young man, a few years older than Aera, and, to his credit, he didn't flinch at the sight in the training room. He carried a black sheet with him and they covered Arauka's body. When Russel lifted it, Envy moved his feet in the dirt, trying to hide as much of the blood as he could. He'd get more sand later. Gathering the blades on the floor, he forced himself to stand and made for his room, leaning heavily on the walls. 
In his chamber, in the corner with a small rainbow of colored bottles of potions, he picked out the tiny black bottle and drank it down. He knew the tricks his sister used in her poisons, and she wouldn't have changed anything for him. She wanted him to live, only to be too sick to follow. At least anytime soon. By the time he'd be well enough....

“Paget and Cainne are going to clean her up.” Russel said behind him. Envy sat on the bed and Russel bent to help him clean up. The elf pointed to one of the darker bottles and leaned onto his side for Russel to pour over the hole in his rib cage. “They were like you.” Envy didn’t answer. “Did they kill Arauka? Why?”
Envy gripped the edge of the bed and hissed under the potion. “Because.” He snarled under the pain, his skin bubbling. “They do things like that.”
“Is that why you left?” 
Russel handed Envy another bottle and the elf rejected it with a wave of his hand. “Part of the reason.” Envy stood, still unsteady. “Arauka had a pendant. It looks like this one. Bring it to me.” While he was gone, Envy finished before turning his attention on the pendant Taris had given him. 

Something was up, if the shadow elf hadn't turned up just yet. Aera had said they were ready for him, so they must have grabbed him. Envy needed to get to him. Aera needed their help. His stomach twisted in knots, just thinking about her.
Russel handed Envy the pendant and Envy thanked him. “Now listen, gather the older kids, all of them, with the exception of Paget and Cainne, I need them with Arauka. Go to the castle, outside the gates. I need a distraction. A good one.” Obediently, Russel nodded and hurried away. Envy took Arauka's bloody pendant and the blade she'd dropped, assumingly a gift from Taris, and overturned a bowl of grapes on his table to throw everything into. 

“Vee?” The elf turned to find one of the small toddlers waddling into his room. He bent and hugged the boy. 
“Mikeal, are you okay?”
The toddler grinned, showing his few teeth. before wiggling from Envy's grasp to pick up the fallen grapes. Envy caught his attention again. “Mikeal, will you take a few grapes to mommy?”'The toddler grinned again and waddled off, holding a few grapes like they were a treasure. The elf went back to work, mixing a few potions and powders into the bowl. 
He was trying to use the objects that had been in the shadow elf's possession to pinpoint where he was, so Envy could shadow walk to him. The idea of it made Envy nervous, he hadn't tried in a few decades, but he needed to reach the assassin.
It worked. 
With a deep breath, he opened the shadows and focused on where he felt Taris was and stepped through, hoping the children had made their distraction. 

A few seconds later, he stepped into the corner of the dungeon and gasped. He lost his footing and fell, landing with a curse. The dungeon was well lit on one side, with Taris bent on his knees, hanging by chains on his wrists under the light. The Kataraian could hear the shadow elf's rasping breath and could see the smoke rise from his black skin.

“Taris.” Envy grunted, trying to push himself up from the ground. Leaning on a table, then the wall, he succeeded. “Taris, you fool. Wake up.”