[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/BjtZNtv.png[/img][/center]
[color=ed1c24]Location[/color]: Hdur, Kindeance.
[@Eviledd1984][@A5G][@Randomness]
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[color=00a651][b]“There is a possibility that Henri will be willing to come quietly, I will make sure that happens.”[/b][/color]

Veronica resisted the impulse to audibly "tsk" her tongue at the brief glare her... [i]enthusiasm[/i] received, but she didn't bother looking contrite, not when she didn't feel a lick of sympathy. Honestly, it was beyond her how Matilda and Henri were considered friendly acquaintances, given his recent actions. Veronica certainly didn't know Henri in a personal capacity, but she didn't expect he'd be any different now than he had in the past. He was trusted to be the Royal Tutor, so he wasn't an idiot. He certainly wasn't a fool by any measure. Which meant there were precious few other conclusions to reach about his recent actions than active malice or some level of reckless arrogance.

Either way, Veronica wasn't particularly fussed about how the Royal Tutor was removed as a potential threat to the mission at hand, but she'd certainly admit to wishing to exact retribution upon him both for the Royal Family's sake... and on a pettier level, for compromising a mission she was personally involved in. The perfectionist within her recoiled violently every time she thought about the state of the mission. Veronica wasn't sure which she found more unforgivable in an ostensible ally, malice or incompetence, but she was starting to put some thought into it now.

[color=00a651][b]"Well, there is a place I was told where the prince possibility could be. But my informant needs a good night's rest before he can take us there. It is a village surrounding a fort, and from what I was told it is a two days on foot from here. And apparently, he had seen the kidnapping happen, while he was out hunting with his brother and his friends. Although I am unsure if he truly knows the location where the prince could be. Nor if he had really seen the kidnapping itself."[/b][/color]

[color=ed1c24]"A night's rest?"[/color] Veronica muttered, borderline aghast. She glanced at the now closed windows, knowing the sun had yet to even reach high noon. [color=ed1c24]"We don't [i]have[/i] a night's rest. With the unrest in the capitol and the compromising of this team's secrecy, conspirators will have surely sent a message by some means to the Prince's captors. Every hour we wait is another hour the enemy has to prepare... assuming they don't just kill the Prince and hammer another nail into this country's coffin,"[/color] she finished grimly. Shaking her head, she added, [color=ed1c24]"To say nothing of our present time limit. If it [i]does[/i] take us two days to even reach the Prince -assuming we even have the right location, that'll already be a day longer than our time limit, assuming a similarly lengthy return. No, we don't have time to wait."[/color]

And then, her gloomy demeanor faded, as her expression was overtaken by a fresh, toothy grin. [color=ed1c24]"And thankfully, we shan't need to."[/color]

[i]“If I may have a look at your map, young lady.”[/i]

The tall, shadowed man interjected, carrying a pungent medicinal scent intermixed with something... [i]other[/i] and simultaneously [i]familiar[/i]. Raising a single brow, Veronica replied, [color=ed1c24]"Just a moment, Ser."[/color] Rather than grant him immediate access to her map, the young vampire strode over to an empty table. Veronica unrolled the map a bit further on the table surface and steadied it, placing the case down on one end to hold it open and slipping a pencil out of said case.

[color=ed1c24]"Dame Matilda, you've given me just the information we need to narrow things down drastically."[/color] Arching a brow slyly back at Matilda, she smirked with a once more closed mouth. [color=ed1c24]"Two days by foot, was it?"[/color] The pencil in her hand sketched a quick series of flashes, drawing invisible lines in the air away from Hdur's marked location on the map towards several areas relatively near to the center of the vague circle. [color=ed1c24]"My scrying attempts kept getting rebounded. Kept having to adjust power input, constellation degree. Needed to see how the defense reacted. It's really an impressive thing, throws you back further the more power you hit it with, and you need to come at it with a certain minimum level of high force to even hope to latch onto anything inside. Means you can't really avoid being rebounded pretty far. Still, I did manage to find approximately the... 'center' in a sense."[/color]

She shook her head. [color=ed1c24]"But I digress..."[/color] The pencil etched several new marks on the map, emphasized and encircled a couple prior ones. Each of the locations had a thin line sketched to them, several straighter than others, cutting through forests and wilds instead of using roads. [color=ed1c24]"With a distance like 'two days on foot' as our guide, I can narrow this down to these few. I've accounted for both options that can be accessed by typical means -that is, the roads, which include the town of Thurn and the villages, Pesti and Fanghorn. I've also marked those that could be reached if we rough it straight through the wilds, which include the town of Darude and the village of Vickerville."[/color] Tapping her pale lips with the pencil, Veronica's brows furrowed, as she considered the array of locations. All in all, that was still a lot of potential hiding places for the enemy and their captive, too many really.

Sliding her hood back and shaking her ebony tresses free, Veronica pulled out a chair at the table and seated herself heavily. [color=ed1c24]"Admittedly, I'm not greatly familiar with this area except in passing, so any perspectives the rest of you could offer would go a long way."[/color] She tucked a little hair behind one ear, perching the pencil there. [color=ed1c24]"Granted, most of these locations are so close together that we could probably search two in a single day, but every moment counts."[/color]

[i]“It is as Guard Captain Matilda says. With two sources, I agree that likelihood of finding the prince here is good. Let’s see.” Solomon reached over the map and touched a couple of the villages named on the map, “The hunters say they saw the captors flee to a small village watched over by a lord. These villages are of decent size while having lord’s residence. This one in particular is a fort, constructed around the same time period as the lake ruins.”[/i]

[color=ed1c24]"Small village, huh?"[/color] Veronica remarked, nodding and listening intently to the cloth-swaddled man's input. [color=ed1c24]"Then that removes Thurn and Darude from the possibilities..."[/color] Solomon further elaborated the existence of a lord's residence as a feature, which ended up marking off Vickerville too. [color=ed1c24]"So, that just leaves Pesti and Fanghorn, both accessible by two day's travel on the road, faster if we push with urgency or access to a sufficient number of steeds."[/color]

Her crimson gaze rose once more to meet with the orcish black knight. [color=ed1c24]"Dame Matilda, it is my utmost recommendation that we set course at once, with or without your informant's rest. If need be, someone can carry him by horseback and do his share of the walking, but I fear we have not an ounce of spare time to wait. The moment we can possibly be in readiness, I will chart a course to pass through both of these locations."[/color] She frowned and drew silent momentarily, considering the logistics of traveling with injured in a practical and hasty manner. [color=ed1c24]"With time being critically of the essence, any recovery that must be done from injury or fatigue may be best done on the road. I suppose we could purchase a cart for them to ride in if necessary."[/color]

Sighing, her gaze turned imploring. [color=ed1c24]"I should clarify: my worry is not that we cannot bring the Prince back within the designated time... though that certainly contributes. Rather, it is that if we delay, we shall most likely be walking straight into a well-prepared trap."[/color] She half-grimaced, mouth curling oddly with the impulse to open and yet stay closed enough to conceal her fangs. [color=ed1c24]"Furthermore, if the enemy gets a message back to the Prince's captors before we arrive, who is to say they won't have moved him by the time we arrive?"[/color]