Kire grinned at her soldiers’ resolve. Really, she didn’t deserve it, but she was grateful. Now she must do right by them and get them home. “Thank you for looking after them,” Kire said. “Your people have the eternal gratitude of mine. And thank you for your offer of help and hospitality, but yes, you’re right about our desire to go home. And if I don’t return my stubborn friend promptly to Envy he would give me a good dressing-down.” As she spoke, Edward met Aera’s gaze and smiled warmly. Before they depart, he made a note to speak to her and express his gratitude.

Meanwhile, Kire turned to Ysaryn. “Are there temporary houses at the peninsula that could shelter my men and women for the night? If not, we will bring them back to the caves, since the Little Ziad camp’s mostly empty by now.” She addressed the others next in the common tongue for the benefit of the elves, with Edward translating each part in Taakalon. “This is the plan for your transport: we will take you all back to a place where my friends are residing, and from there I will be taking you home. But I can only take back to Amria half of you today before it gets risky to use my magic, the other half will then have to wait a day. So I’d like you to decide amongst yourselves how we will split the group.”

“There’s one other matter,” Ed put in, facing Aera. “Kire needs to know how we had ended up here in the first place in order to make sure these incidents don’t happen again, or at least to prepare in case it does. So she would need to know the locations where each of us had been found, and from there be able to deduce the center of the magical abnormality that served as our entry point.”
“[i]We only need the locations where you have been found[/i],” Kire stressed to the soldiers. “[i]I won’t ask you to venture in close to the world gate and risk you getting lost. That goes for everyone else[/i],” she added, addressing the rest of her companions, repeating what she had said to her subjects in the common tongue this time. “I’m the only one who can move between this world and Amria at will, and I can risk getting closer to the gate’s location.” 
“[i]If I may, Your Grace[/i],” Ed said, not wanting to overtly undermine Kire’s authority in front of everyone else, then switching to the common tongue. “May we discuss this with the rest of your party? I’d be more comfortable if you didn’t go in alone, at least until a certain point,” he added in a quieter voice. “You still need people watching your back.” 

Kire huffed. "Fine."