Daryll held Ruli’s gaze steadily, even as the man threatened him, flashing his sharp teeth. “A pity, indeed,” he said simply, before catching Elva’s eye.
 “[i]What was that?[/i]” the healer said, gesturing at him. 
Daryll shrugged. “[i]Just trying to see what sort of boy he is.[/i]” 
Elva arched an eyebrow, smirking. “[i]My dear, you are full of surprises lately. Looks like the Wyvern blood is waking up in you.[/i]” Daryll snorted at that, before turning his attention back to Ruli. On a table nearby were loose leaves of parchment with writing on it, as well as notebooks, all of them with Daryll’s near-unintelligible scrawl. Not that Ruli or Gavin would have been able to read it, even if his penmanship had been neater than it currently was. He grabbed one notebook and started writing, following along with Ruli. 

“That’s bloody brilliant,” Daryll said, grinning, putting down the notebook and going to one of the shelves, pulling out a large rolled parchment from a protective cylinder. Elva cleared one of the other tables and together she and Daryll unfurled it, revealing a map of the Palace grounds. Already, various scrawls filled the marginalia of the map, written in his handwriting. “The thing about the Palace is that it’s on a raised hill, and consists of two major parts: the old and new buildings,” Daryll said, pointing it out in the map. He pointed to its walls, the gardens surrounding it, explaining how large the area was. “And here is where the Red Tower is.” Behind the Palace was an orchard, but towards the edge of it ran an old stone wall, separating the more groomed orchards from the forest beyond it. Not far from the gate of the stone wall sat the Red Tower. 
Gavin whistled. “If the Tower’s the one closing the circuit of the wards, that is a [i]lot[/i] of ground.” His eyes went over the map, already picturing how the runes should be placed and where, how far apart they need to be, and how many people might be needed to lay them all down as quickly as possible, silent for a few moments. “Have you thought that the Gemini might be counting on Kire walking into a trap?”

The cousins looked at each other, before turning their gaze on him. “More than once. I’d be surprised they hadn’t been preparing one,” Elva said. “Especially now that our armies are closing in on them, and that we’ve been capturing the traitor lords who had allied themselves with them.” She sighed, drumming her fingers on the table. “Which is the point of this whole scheme, isn’t it? Whatever they might be doing in there, the wards would nullify. And while they may know something of Kire’s Ring, the help of magic-wielders from another world is a wildcard that they couldn’t entirely account for. They could only prepare for so much, just as we are doing now.” 
“Why? Do you know something?” Daryll asked. Gavin chewed on his lip, still looking at the map, specifically at the area indicating the location of the Tower.

“Ikegai said something to me,” he began, and the word echoed eerily in the library once he had heard his own voice say the name out loud. “World gates have been an obsession for the Gemini. But he said that the Gemini have this belief, that once, before the magic went to sleep in Amria, they were more common. And you didn’t need all the sacrifices and whatnot to open the gates. Like what Kire does with the Ring. And the goal is to find that lost art where you don’t need that. Without the massive-scale blood rituals, you’d need to tap into the best sources of magic: places where traces of the old magic is strongest, dragon-blood, the blood of magic-users.” He looked back up at them. “What if they want Kire there all along? And after that stunt with destroying the gate, they know just how much potential her power has with portals now.” 

--
Kire smirked when Ysaryn answered, watching with her own feeling of satisfaction as the elf tested out the weight and feel of them. She grinned at Ysaryn’s compliments on the blades, chuckling as the elf turned to hug her, squeezing her back in a one-armed hug. “[i]They match the new owner, yes[/i],” she said with accented Elvish, winking at her. “[i]Promise me you will also survive, and I will call it even,[/i]” she added, before stepping back, going towards the section of the chamber where the armor is stored. “’Chainmail’, is what Ruli was saying, I presume,” she said over her shoulder, beckoning her closer, gesturing at the various kinds of armor. “Most of these are in larger sizes, but I’m sure there should be at least one in your size. You’d probably want something that’s lighter than full-on plate armor, hence his suggestion.” 

She stepped back to let Ysaryn have a look at which ones fit her best, nodding in approval once she had found the best option for her. “What Gavin said, about the limitations to Shadow-walking, does that worry you?” she asked, leading her back out the armory.