“Mmm, I wouldn’t mind another one of those,” she said, grinning, as he pulled her against him. Some time later, however, Kire heard a loud knock from the front door of the house, and she groaned, collapsing onto him but unwilling to get off him. “Ysaryn,” she growled, forgetting the absence of the elf’s signature on the other side. “Maybe if we keep quiet she’ll go away,” she whispered.  But when the knock game again, Kire sighed heavily. “Stay there. I’ll be back,” she said, grinning as she climbed off and quickly put on his shirt and pants, hurrying to the door. 

“What the fu—oh.” Kire blushed crimson as she saw Ed on the other side. He had walked from Ruli’s house after quickly realizing it was empty. His brows were raised, his gaze momentarily noting her outfit before he cleared his throat.

“I won’t come in, don’t worry. I wouldn’t be bothering you unless it’s important.” He fished a letter from his coat pocket, handing it to her. “Remember when you told us oh so very vaguely to keep you posted about ‘anything strange’, which, given the high concentration of weirdness that’s happened to us so far, doesn’t exactly narrow the field of ‘strange phenomenon’ we should be on the lookout for?” 

“Uh-huh,” Kire said, narrowing her eyes at him as she took the letter. 
“We might have a lead on that. We can discuss it upon your return.” He glanced ever so slightly over Kire’s shoulder. “Say…in a half hour?” He pointed his thumb over his shoulder. “I’m going to the top of the cliffs to watch Ysaryn and Zeke spar for a bit—and possibly get chewed out to kingdom come—so I’ll wait for you there.” 
“Fine. Wait. Why are you going to be chewed out?” Kire asked, and Ed waved it off.
“I’ll explain later,” he said, already on his way to the top of the cliffs. 

Kire went back to her room and pouted at Ruli, shaking the letter in her hand. “Duty calls,” she said, not bothering to hide her disappointment at that. “Do we have any coffee in here? And breakfast food?” she asked as she pulled off his clothes to put on hers. “Though I suppose I can have more cake, instead.” 

She wandered into the kitchen once dressed, going over the letter. “Well. It’s not people flying,” she said aloud, after her second read. “But a forest had apparently grown overnight at some town, and people behaving strangely within its vicinity. Nobody’s gone in yet to inspect it.” She sighed. “[i]I’m[/i] going to have go in to inspect it, I suppose.” 

She glanced at the letter again. "By the way, I was meaning to ask...the wards you and Gavin devised for the Palace. I was wondering if you could help do it again, only this time for protection. Like the wards Envy puts up."