Kire could see the objection in Envy’s expression and that he was about to put it into words, had known it was coming. She hadn’t been completely sold on the idea of using Gavin’s blood, herself, and had she been in Envy’s position, she would have said the same thing. 
Gavin frowned when both of them went quiet, then huffed, crossing his arms when neither explained. “What’s going on? What’re you lookin’ at me like that for?”
He stopped when Ruli and Ysaryn arrived, and he made his way inside to sit, his annoyance not enough to trump his curiosity. 

Kire gave a small smile to Ysaryn, spotting the gesture Ruli made. “Chieftess,” she greeted back. The expression on her face told Kire the elf was practically ready to jump into battle now if she had to. But her smile disappeared as Envy snapped. Though her own spoken Elvish was still rough and clumsy, she could follow the conversation decently. She cringed a bit when Ruli pointed out she could understand, suddenly quite relieved she hadn’t told Envy about the circumstances behind her accidental summoning of him. She looked at Ysaryn, nodding. “[i]I follow[/i],” she said, hoping she got the pronunciation right. 
“Well I don’t,” Gavin put in, annoyed. “Can I add Elvish to my lessons, then?” Kire reached over to pat his back, which only made him grumble.
Kire listened to Envy berate Ruli, not daring to interrupt, while Gavin rested his chin on his hands, narrowing his eyes at them, knowing full well they were keeping him out of the loop about something that likely involved him. 

Kire was at least glad for Ysaryn’s distraction. “Two swords. And a battle,” she promised, then grinned a bit wider. “You’ll see Myka and the girls again. And Ed misses you. He tries to be sly about it, but I can tell.”
“So what happened?” Gavin put in, a little impatient. “After that one went ‘poof’?” he asked, thumb pointed at Ruli. 
Kire glanced at him, a little amused. “Alright. From the top, then.” She told him and Ysaryn what she had told Envy about the portal accident and elaborated on the plan to stealthily set up a ward around the Palace grounds, leaving out the detail about blood. But as she talked about the ward gambit, she could see the look in Gavin’s eyes, like the wheels in his mind were turning, thinking over the implications of it even without her bringing it up. She knew he had cast wards and learned runes as Ikegai’s mage-slave; there was no way he didn’t know what that entailed. 

“That’s—a really big ward, you know,” the lad said cautiously.
“I know,” Kire said, then turned to the others. “Two days to prepare. My cousins are helping with the materials. The war council convenes after that.”
Gavin, expression guarded, watched Envy, waiting to see if the Kartaian would say anything about the matter.