Kire sat on the floor of Envy’s chamber, thinking it over. “It’s possible. I couldn’t imagine this wedding not having an ulterior motive that would serve her and Ikegai more than it would Itallo or Cordon,” she said, glancing at Ruli before looking at Envy. “They keep talking about big plans for Cordon, big plans for the city, and the wedding is going to inaugurate all this. Gods, that wedding is tomorrow.” She hissed, squeezing her hands into fists, and stewed in her own thoughts for a few minutes.

“We have a few options. Quickest but most troublesome: I could just kill the bride, the groom, and the Gemini at the wedding.” Kire was only half-joking. “But I would still need to find their master. And I don’t like the idea of them taking elves for some secret purpose. Another option, should we be able to track him down, would be to find that half-Kartaian that Ruli and I had encountered and hope he would give us some way in. Track them or follow them to wherever they are taking the slaves, somewhere close to Itallo’s gem mines. If we could ask help from Ysaryn and her people, the better. Blood magic, as I’ve mentioned before, is heavy on resources. Wedding and bedding a lord would assure them that they would have those resources. Compared to Ziad, looking at it from a tactical perspective Cordon might have a lot more to offer. Else, why go through the trouble, as you said.”