A few days after the goblin incident, Celeste woke up from another nearly sleepless night (the Goblin book helped put her to sleep for a while) when someone banged on her door. She groaned and sat up before straightening her clothes. She needed to get a hold of some more clothes or at the very least a set of nightclothes.

“Come in,” she stated, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. “I’m up.”

Rusty opened the door and stuck his head in. He wore a large smile.

“Micah’s here and he says he has some news for us!”

That certainly woke her up. Celeste sprang to her feet and rushed out past the blacksmith. He closed the door of the shed. Sure enough in the clearing, a bit away from his cabin was a dwarven caravan. The animals were loosed to graze and there were a couple of tents up, which probably meant they planned on staying around for a bit. Several of the dwarves were still wearing their face coverings, leaving only their eyes showing. It was hard to pick out a stranger amongst a bunch of other strangers when all you could see were their eyes. She nearly bumped into a couple of dwarves who were carrying a large pole, probably for a tent.

“Oh, pardon me!” She apologized. “Have either of you seen Micah?”

One of the dwarves pointed to an area where there was one dwarf giving instructions on where to move things. She thanked them for their directions and headed that way. When the dwarf saw her coming, he stopped and removed the face covering. Sure enough, it was Micah. The grin was certainly his.

“Ah, my young sleepy friend! I bet I know what you’ve come for! But first, perhaps we should wait for Rusty to arrive. After all, he’s the one that has to pay me.” He clapped a meaty hand on her shoulder. “You’re looking well! Though something seems to have happened to your face.” He mirrored the area where she had the goblin scratch (which was healing nicely) on his face.

“A close encounter with a goblin pup. We’ve got it all sorted...I think.”

“Rusty always did have a way with the goblins. I told him they related to his smell. He never laughed at that.”

“Because it’s never been funny.” It seemed like mentioning his name summoned the blacksmith to their location. He had his hammer hanging on its strap on his back. “Did you have to bring the whole caravan? I don’t have that much land…”

“Our usual place got flooded and it’s only for a few days before we move on again. The Renewers kept hassling us about information on something called the Unification group and the Revivers are in the height of spy paranoia, so they aren’t exactly giving us the warmest welcome at the moment. We’ll probably have to wait a bit before we go back, but I got the information you wanted before we left.” He indicated a nearby tent. “Come in and we’ll talk and you can pay me.”

“I’ll get the payment after you give me the info.” Rusty didn’t hesitate to enter the tent. Celeste rushed after him, anxious to hear what Micah had to say. Micah entered and sat on one of the mats before inviting the other two to do the same thing. He picked up a pipe. “You want to smoke, Rusty?”

“Not at the moment. Being in a smithy for a long time tends to put one off smoking.”

Micah held it out to Celeste. “I don’t suppose you want some?”

“No thank you.” She had a feeling she do something while smoking and make herself sick.

The dwarf shook his head as he loaded his pipe and lit it with a fire crystal. “You’re not giving very many options to be hospitable, Celeste. You’re going to make me like a bad host to the other dwarves.”

“Could you tell us what you learned?” Celeste asked before realizing she had been rude. “Please, if you would Mr. Micah.”

Micah rolled his eyes. “You humans and your titles? Mister, sir, madam… It’s all a bit much, to be honest. But enough about that, I shouldn’t keep you waiting any longer.” He tapped some of the ash out of his pipe into the fire pit before taking a puff of smoke. “What do you want to know first?”

Celeste thought over it. What was the most important piece of info that she needed to know at the moment? She didn’t think Micah would keep anything back, but he wouldn’t know what info to tell her if she didn’t ask the right questions.

“Um, did you learn anything about Madame Bustier?” She knew she should ask about her brothers, but she figured if she could find the Madame, they would soon follow and she would be a good source of information.

“The jeweler?” Micah breathed in some smoke before releasing it. “Yes, a few people knew of her in both camps. It appears that she’s dead, but I never got details on how or when exactly. It was a few years ago, but after the civil war.”

“I see.” Something had told her Madame Bustier wasn’t alive anymore, but she had ignored it. It made sense. The Madame hadn’t been young twenty years ago, so her dying of natural causes within the last two decades made sense. Still, that seriously dwindled the number of people she knew. She tried not to tear up. “And my brothers?”

“There are a few Derricks and a couple of Owains in both camps, but they’re too young to be your brothers. So, I asked if anyone knew a soldier named Derrick and a scribe named Owain. I did get results. But…” He sighed a bit. “Are you sure you don’t want a drink at least? I can tell you that the news isn’t what you want to hear.”

“They’re dead, aren’t they?” That was the only reason she could think of for Micah’s hesitance. Now, she didn’t bother to hold back the tears.

“No, the just may be dead.” He started quickly, trying to prevent what was no doubt an uncomfortable situation for him. “Their names are on the monument, so as of this moment they’re just considered missing, granted that’s been for several years and no one I talked to knew them personally.”

Somehow, that made her feel even worse. If they were dead, then that was that and she could grieve and move on. But since they were possibly alive, she would always wonder where they were. She was back to square one. The tears turned into sobbing. Rusty shot a glare at Micah.

“Perhaps start with that piece of news first next time.” The half-dwarf started to pat down his pockets. “Now where’s that handkerchief? I know she washed it the other day…”

It was about that time that someone burst into the tent. Celeste couldn’t see who it was since they were behind her, but both Rusty and Micah stood up. It must’ve been someone important to elicit that kind of response from them.

“What’s going on in this tent!? You better not be causing trouble, Micah!” The voice belonged to a lady dwarf. They were arguably more boisterous than the men, which was why male dwarves spent so much time away from home. Or at least that was the joke she often heard.

“Dear, I’m with customers. Everything’s fine. The lass just got emotional and…” His assurances went unheard or ignored.

“Emotional!? The poor thing’s crying her heart out! I told you that you needed to work on how you deliver bad news.” Micah’s wife started to pat her back. “There there, sweetheart. Why don’t I get you some water and something to dry your eyes with, seeing that the two men in here are incapable of doing something besides sitting around like bumps on a log. Though seeing that he’s not married, Rusty has more of an excuse.”

Some water did sound good. It wouldn’t make her feel better, but it would provide relief for her dry throat. Celeste hated crying, but it was more because she felt drained and sluggish afterward more than any embarrassment or thinking that she had to be stoic all the time. She nodded in response to the lady dwarf’s request and she heard her leave.

“That’s my wife, Opal,” Micah explained as he smoked some more of his pipe. “She’s a real mama bear, so you might as well let her mother you a little bit. She won’t take no for an answer. Anything else you want to know? I never let your name slip. People were starting to get leery of me, so I decided not to push my luck too much.”

“No, but thank you.”

So much for Owain and Derrick being with the Revivers. But she didn’t understand where they could’ve gone. Maybe they went across the ocean to another country, but she couldn’t see them doing that. They would never leave their homeland just because of a civil war. She needed to find someone who them personally and ask them face to face.

Opal returned with some water and handed the cup off to her. She also offered her a moist rag to wipe her face with. She sat right next to her. Celeste wiped her face and drank some of the water. She was too exhausted to sob at the moment.

“What got you so upset, if you don’t mind me asking? Someone as young as you probably only hires an information broker to find someone. Who were you looking for? Parents, fiancé?”

“My brothers.” She replied. Micah didn’t give his wife details on his job. Or maybe she didn’t usually ask.

“And how long has it been since you’ve seen them? A few weeks, months?”

“Twenty years.”

Silence fell over the tent at her honest answer. Opal chuckled a bit, followed by Micah. He hadn’t heard about the elves’ discovery. That was good, then maybe the camps hadn’t heard either. She had a hard enough time accepting what happened to her. The last thing she needed was a bunch of strangers nosing in her business.

Rusty cleared her throat. “She’s being serious. The elves said that she was asleep for at least that long thanks to a time crystal. I wouldn’t believe it myself, but some Pinions came to my cabin the other day and revealed that information.”

Micah dropped his pipe and Opal’s mouth hung open a little bit. There was an odd silence outside. Rusty got up and lifted the tent flap. At least a dozen dwarves were standing there, clearly eavesdropping. All of their eyes were wide. She heard a couple of murmurs in the group.

“A time crystal? I didn’t think those existed anymore?”

“Twenty years? It must be true if the elves say so. They wouldn’t lie about the presence of such a thing.”

Rusty let go of the tent flap and shook his head. “Well, the whole caravan knows by now. We’ll just see how long it takes for word to get around if it hasn’t already.” He returned to the mat he was sitting on. “Say, Derrick was part of the guard, wasn’t he? Didn't they usually change their names once they reached a certain rank if they weren’t of noble birth? Maybe his name’s not Derrick anymore.”

Yes, Celeste knew that. But she had no idea what name to look for without going to the camps. But even if she did, would she recognize them? After all, they would have aged twenty years. The thought caused her to let out a great sigh.

“I have to go look for them myself. Maybe I’ll somehow spot them or them me.”

“Don’t go to the Renewer camp alone,” Opal warned suddenly. “They might not let you leave.”

“I don’t think she has to worry about that too much. Lord Davik only wants those that have useful skills. I mean, it’s only been in the last couple of years that he’s let farmers join up so that the camp can have a consistent source of food.” Micah laid his pipe aside. “Though Opal’s right. You shouldn’t be traveling anywhere by yourself. It’s just too dangerous.”

Yes, they were right, but she didn’t want to take Rusty away from his work and she had a feeling that they wouldn’t take kindly to Kyn. Part of her wanted to go right at that moment to ease her mind, but she knew better than to do that. She didn’t even know where the camps were. Celeste stood up.

“Thank you for bringing news, Mr. Micah and it was nice to meet you, Ms. Opal, but I think I need to be alone for a while.”

Without their leave, she headed out of the camp. She knew she needed to be doing something besides sulking around in the shed, but at the moment, nothing was coming to mind. Well, twenty years had already passed. Doing nothing for a day wouldn’t hurt anything.