Kire didn’t like lying to Ruli about Ysaryn, or not being entirely truthful with him, at least, but the elf’s warning about Ruli returning to Uvano in its present state echoed in her mind. As Gavin apologized to Rab for the discomfort of two portals in succession, Kire looked around at the three men, all of them looking lost, all of them needing guidance from precisely the person they needed to locate. Gavin, despite the determination he had put on earlier, had become more dejected, seeing how forlorn Ruli was. She took in a deep breath. [i]Okay.[/i] She gave Ruli’s hand one more squeeze for comfort before letting go. “Okay,” she murmured out loud this time. “Everything you need, we can find back at the Tower. The alchemy chamber is at your disposal; I'm sure Daryll won't object. I'll leave you to talk to Rab while Daryll gathers what you need." 


She returned to camp to fetch Daryll and found, to her surprise, that Sid was there. [i]Ysaryn, what in the seven hells? No wonder Zeke’s angry.[/i] The empress withheld the deep sigh at the thought of confronting the dark elf about this. “Does she know?” Kire asked Narda, who nodded. Suppressing another sigh, she called to Daryll, and together they returned to the Tower. Ed and Jan were waiting for them there, and while Daryll made straight for the alchemy chamber, Kire immediately explained what they knew so far. 


Gavin, meanwhile, was deep in thought as they waited for the supplies, reminded of his strange dream of being buried in the Tower, and in the forest, of the dead girl, and the mysterious figure. Some part of him felt he should know who these two were. [i]When the Wyvern and the Gemini cross paths, blood always follows…[/i] The remark disturbed him, but not just because of how ominous the visions had been. Why [i]the[/i] Wyvern? [i]The[/i] Gemini? He had assumed that the visions were speaking of the deep enmity between their families, but what if the voice was speaking of particular persons from each house? He glanced at Kire. [i]Us? But we’ve only crossed paths once…what does ‘every thread’ mean?[/i] He tried not to think about the vision of the dead woman. That chilled him to the bone.


It was a while before she and Daryll returned, Kire already looking more worn, though the moment she and Daryll approached, she steeled herself and hid it from her face. "Do you know where sunstone is quarried?" she asked Ruli, as Daryll went over the supplies with Gavin. "I spoke with Risa and a priestess of Solaralai earlier named Zeltzin. She seems convinced building a temple to her here would solve the problem, which part of me doubts, but I'm taking whatever slim lead we have over none."
"If sunstone's the same kind of stone the Ziad temple's made of, can't you just use that? Does it have to be new stone?" Gavin asked. "We've already been there, and the wards are already broken."
"I don't know. I'll have to ask Zeltzin." The thought of deferring to some fanatic didn't sit well with her, and that sentiment she wasn't able to hide from her expression. "I have a feeling Solaralai would just love me to crawl around the desert to look for new sunstone myself." She ran her fingers through her hair, shaking her head. "I'll have a tent set up so you three could get to work on these."


“We still don’t know why Envy was taken. A threat?” Daryll asked. “And…I had a vision of a woman that turns out to be real. Nothing to do with Solaralai—though it did serve to split us up earlier, which was when Envy was taken.” He paused at this, brow furrowed. “A distraction? Why would a goddess need to split us up? Unless…there [i]is[/i] a limit to her power. She’s had to have exerted too much of it, trying to control these villagers, giving visions left and right, [i]and[/i] kidnapping Envy." 
"Let's hope you're right, and Solaralai can't stretch herself too thin. If she needs temples to focus her power, that's another obvious limit. I'll be back later, I need to take care of a few things." 

Gavin watched her make her way back to the camp. "She's really the sort of person who needs to be doing something, isn't she?" he asked him. "I feel like I'm drowning, can barely keep my head screwed on straight." He glanced at Ruli, knowing he felt the same. 

"I hate to say it, because I wish it was otherwise, but--she's used to it," Daryll replied, arranging the materials he had gathered from the alchemy chamber. "She has to keep moving or she knows she'll drown, too. And with the crown, a lot more people will go down with her if she doesn't keep her head high. Many days, I'm still amazed she hasn't broken under that weight, though she's also had her lowest days. But this..." His voice trailed off. "I can tell she's struggling a lot more. She can't just brute force her way through this one, no matter how strong her will is. And she knows it."


Gavin nodded, then turned to Ruli. “There’re key parts of this spell Envy didn’t want to teach. I assume that's the blood magic ban,” he said. “It’d take a while, but maybe we can improvise the rest with Amrian magic. Might work better too, if we’re trying to trace him in Amria.” He tilted his head, looking at the older sorcerer. "If the goddess doesn't want you remembering anything, something about you is important somehow. We might havta start seriously thinking about why."

A tent with provisions was soon provided for them to work on the tracing spell. Kire was quiet, letting them concentrate on this task, while her own mind was occupied with the next step. [i]Find sunstones, consult with Zeltzin.[/i] Now and then her thoughts returned to the dragon and the temple in the vision she had been given. And, further back, the visions she had been getting each time Ruli used his Touch on her. All of those visions always involved the two of them. Something about that nagged at her, like her mind was just on the verge of guessing at their importance, but their meaning lay just beyond her reach.