Gavin cringed at Ruli’s question. “’Almost’ doesn’t count, right?”
“Nope,” Daryll said, not looking up from the notes he was browsing through. “I’m shit at physical stuff, but even I know that much.”
“Right. Was afraid of that. I’m good for a street brawl but not war,” he admitted. “But I’m only going if you need me there. And I haven’t decided yet if I’ll say yes.”
Daryll looked up from his notebook. “I understand it’s a big thing to ask of you,” he admitted. “Only say yes if you’re sure. Though, I’d also like to point out you might need to decide by the end of the day, before the war council.”
	The scholar turned to Ruli. “You’re right. Ed would be needed on the field to command the soldiers. And especially if we’re disguising Kire. We can’t have both of them invisible from the battle.” 

--
	Kire laughed at Ysaryn’s remark, rolling her shoulders. “[i]Funny. Was thinking same,[/i]” Kire replied in Elvish, returning the wicked grin. At Ysaryn’s challenge, the girls ‘ooooh-ed’, with Etta dissolving into giggles as they stood back and found a place to sit. “First you have to help me get the crown back, though,” Kire pointed out with a laugh. “And if I win…hmm. I don’t know. Ask Ed if he’d like to have dinner with you? I don’t know how it works for elves,” she added with a shrug. “I just want to see if he’ll get flustered, for once.” She unsheathed her own sword.
	
	Each round went by fast. Ysaryn was light on her feet, and Kire recalled the first time she had watched the elf spar with Bolym back at the mountains where she had first met the Ziadi. She didn’t dance around. Certainly wasn’t like Jan, who was calculating with every move and barely took risks, or Ed, who, the few times she had been able to spar with him this past six months, had combined his long experience as an Amrian swordsman with the Raielwen’s prowess. By the end of their session, they had won two rounds each. “You don’t hold back at all, do you?” she laughed, breathless.
	Kire was on one knee, her sword at Ysaryn’s side, while the elf’s sabers were inches from her neck. “This makes us even,” she said out, red-faced from the exercise. She grinned. “Looks like you’ll have no problem with your sabers.” She climbed to her feet, brushing snow from her knees as she caught her breath. 
“It was kinda like watching two versions of Kay, isn’t it?” Pres whispered, after the end of the fourth round. 
	Etta giggled. “Kinda. They’re different but sort of the same somehow.” 

A servant had approached them, politely informing them that there was food and drink ready for them, and that they had called Daryll and the others back, too. “We should do this again. I want to see you in hand-to-hand. I’ve been curious ever since I saw you training with Bolym,” Kire remarked, sheathing her blade as they followed the servant back inside. “Is there spiced wine?” Kire asked, once they were seated around the table. 
	Elva and Daryll both frowned at her. “Now, Kay,” Elva said, pointing a fork at her. “You know what happened the last time.”
	Kire went scarlet, glancing at Ruli briefly, before Daryll went on.
	“Yeah, it’s never a good idea to let this one have a hangover at an important meeting,” he said to the others, shaking his head. “You’ll start a whole other war.”
	Kire almost breathed out a sigh of relief when she realized they weren’t going to bring up the particular incident she had in mind. She cleared her throat and told them about the sparring session, with gleeful commentary from the younger cousins as they ate.



 Afterwards, with the girls excused, she asked the men about how their planning had gone, and Daryll explained what they had accomplished so far. 
	“And thus far, we’ve agreed that it might be best for Ruli to be our decoy. We would need your blood for that, too. And, if Gavin agrees, his blood would be used to conceal you.”
	“Unless there’s an alternative,” Gavin put in. 
	Kire was silent, thinking over the details. While she was anxious about Ruli drawing most of the fire as the decoy, he at least had the capability of holding his own in a battlefield. She was concerned with Gavin, though. “I can use my blood for the decoy. Barring the use of Gavin’s is there anybody else’s aura we could use?”
	“No.” Gavin spoke up. “No way around it. Unless you got another Gemini.” He sighed deeply, but his eyes showed he was resolute. “We could find an alternative, but the council is tomorrow, and the battle would happen not long after that, right?” 
	Kire nodded. “This isn’t an easy thing to agree to.”
	“I know.” 
	“I’ll ask you again tomorrow, right before we leave. Just to be sure,” Kire put in. 
Gavin smiled briefly at that, but said nothing else. 
Elva sighed. “I suppose then you’ll start working on this decoy thing tonight?” 
“Now that we’ve decided who it is, yes.” 


Kire went with them back to Daryll’s house. Much of Daryll’s work she could barely follow, and with three of them working together, she tried to make herself scarce, until it was time to draw blood from her. Daryll watched closely, both intrigued at the process and slightly worried, knowing how ambivalent Kire was with this kind of magic. Gavin, though, felt…peculiar. The last time he had gone anywhere near any kind of blood magic felt like a lifetime ago. This was both familiar and totally different. They were doing this to protect someone. [i]Against my kin.[/i] He had no affinity for them yet beyond shared blood. But it was still a strange thought to reckon with. 

She did see the look on his face, but said nothing yet. [i]Let him think through it.[/i] After that, she returned to her restless pacing until Daryll insisted she go somewhere else until they were finished. Kire hunted down Ysaryn, ready for that rematch she mentioned earlier, this time without swords. By the end of the day, Kire had a thoroughly good workout, though her mind was definitely still racing, thinking over how the war council would go tomorrow. She was mostly quiet over dinner too, not wanting her thoughts on the coming battle to seep into dinnertime talk while Etta and Precy were with them. Once dinner was over, Gavin asked Daryll if he could have a room to stay at his instead of the manor, wanting to look through the library in the alchemy chamber. Happy to finally have somebody who was enthusiastic about talking to him about his work, Daryll agreed. 

Deciding it would be best to turn in early and have a clear head for the meeting tomorrow, Kire went for a short bath in the hot springs before returning to her room to retire for the night.