At this point we decide to take a break for lunch and brainstorming. How will we get into the tower, prove that the scanner is indeed there, and then use it to find the missing animals? Needless to say there isn’t much chit chat within our group. Folas, Briareth, and Valkallyn are too busy thinking, and Adamar and I are both too cautious about being overheard by the wrong person.

After lunch we have the rest of the day to ourselves, and so decide to go out by the moat for some privacy since Master Cellica will be conducting classes in the Greenhouse.

Unfortunately for us, other students apparently have decided to spend the rest of the day swimming. The areas near the entrances are crowded with picnic baskets, blankets, and happy wet Elves. We are forced to go almost halfway around the outer wall just to find someplace to talk in private.

Once we find a secluded spot, Briareth breaks the silence first. “So does anyone have any ideas to get up to the tower?”

“We can’t just go up there without any idea of where we are going. We’d be caught too fast.” Valkallyn says.

“I saw that problem too.” I mention, “I thought we might be able to send one of Adamar’s bugs ahead tonight to scout the area and actually find the scanner, then have a mission later to manipulate it.”

“Then later, when we need to manipulate it, I could be on bug duty.” Adamar replies, thinking it over. “Problem is, the walls in there have an annoying tendency to move around. If I can figure out the approximate directions to our destination though, we might be able to navigate regardless. However, for the final mission we’d certainly need some sort of code so I can communicate with you through the bug.” At this comment Folas’s face screws up, like he is constipated.

“Folas are you okay?” I ask.

“I’m trying to think. I had a glimpse of a great idea but then it slipped away, and now I’m trying to catch it again.” I blink at him, not quite sure what to think of his statement.

“Well, if you can catch it please share it with us.” Adamar says, apparently taking it in stride. “In the meantime, what are we going to do if we actually find the animals? We can’t go to the teachers with the information.”

“We could always free them by ourselves.” Briareth comments. Adamar raises an eyebrow at him and points out a flaw.

“What if we run into an Aberration while we're at it? When one of the Masters was describing it to another at the meeting, he said that you have to restrain it and then burn it in a kiln for three days. We don’t have the materials or time for that.”

“We could have someone on back-up, ready to run for the Masters if things go badly.” I comment. “After all, it doesn’t take a ton of people to free a few animals, right?”

“Or I could scout that location beforehand, with someone as backup, in case we need someone who can free the animals immediately if it looks like they are in danger.” Adamar suggests.

“Adamar you don’t mind your bugs being used so much?” Asks Folas. “If I had a spy network like yours I wouldn’t want to put them in so much danger.

“Not really. Adamar replies. “ I can always get more, and this will test their capabilities and my prowess as a user. I think it will be a learning experience for me. A chance for me to test their design and my capabilities.”

“So now all we need is to assign positions.” Briareth says. “For getting into the tower tonight, we only need Adamar. But tomorrow, we will need at least one person to go with him, and someone to cause a distraction. They should probably be troublemakers, so that no one suspects that we are up to something big…” He trails off as he notices all of us staring at him and Folas, whose face is still screwed up. “What?” Briareth asks.

“Well you two are the obvious choice.” Valkallyn says.

“Wait, what?” Folas and Briareth say in sync.

“You guys used to get in trouble all the time together. It makes sense that you would work together to sneak into the Masters’ tower.” Valkallyn replies. “Now all we need is a reason for your break-in in case you are caught. Any old thing would do.”

“What about curiosity?” Adamar suggests. “Maybe you want to see what a certain teacher’s living quarters are like. Perhaps some sort of bet? For example, if Master Edraele’s bedroom is as gloomy as his classroom or if it is normal. Or something of that ilk” He gestures, opening up the floor for other options.

“That sounds like something they would do.” Valkalyn responds nodding. “It's perfect.”

“Hold up here!” Briareth protests.

“Um. What are we talking about?” Folas asks.

“Oh, we're going to have you, Briareth and Adamar working together to get to the scanner tomorrow.” Valkalyn responds.

“Okay.” Folas says, nodding.

“If you get caught, because we can’t let them know your real reason for being there, you are going to say that you had a bet on Master Edraele’s room being as creepy as his classroom.”

“Okay.” Folas says. “But why is Briareth protesting?”

“We already did that one! Have you already forgotten Folas? They’ll know it’s a lie!”

“Oh yeah.” Folas’s face lights up with remembrance. “No wonder that was sounding familiar. I miss the good old days.”

“Wait, you two actually did that?” I say confused.

Valkallyn looks shocked. “Why didn’t you guys tell me about this?!”

“Yep, you’ll have to come up with a different excuse for us being there.” Says Briareth “We didn’t tell you because you were in your righteous stage Val.”

“You know I don’t like it when you call me Val!” Valkallyn says indignantly. “You guys can come up with your own reason for being there, because apparently I don’t know which reasons you have already done!” She crosses her arms and turns her head away from Briareth. I think she is pouting.

“Oh come on Valkallyn, don’t be like this. We need everyone working together here if we're going to find the missing pets and prevent any more deaths.” Wheedles Briareth.

“Hmmph.” Valkallyn won’t even look at him. This is slightly amusing. Apparently, Adamar agrees with my assessment and has turned to watch.

“I’m sorry, okay? We won’t leave you out again, I’ll make sure of that. Also, you would have told on us.” Briareth bumbles, trying to get back into her good graces. Valkallyn sighs.

“Okay, I forgive you. I’ll admit it, I might have told on you at that time. But that still doesn’t excuse you for not telling me earlier. I’ve wanted to know the answer to that for ages. If you tell me the answer to it now, I’ll help you find an excuse.” Briareth looks mildly uncomfortable with this solution, although I don’t see the problem with it.

“Weell, about that-” He begins nervously.

He is interrupted by Folas shouting “I’ve got it! I’ve got it!” and looks very relieved to be let off the hook.

“What is it, Folas?” I ask.

“I remembered the thing that slipped away!” Folas answers triumphantly.

“Well what is it?” Briareth pushes.

“We can use Master Cellica’s begonias to communicate with each other!”

“That,” Adamar says, sounding surprised, “That is, actually really clever Folas.”

“I know right?” Folas looks really proud of himself. “All we need is to grab some clippings when she is out and then we can all be connected.”

“Could we do that this evening, perhaps while everyone is at supper?” I ask.

“I don’t see why not.” Adamar says. “So, to make sure we are all in agreement, tonight we take begonia cuttings, and I do some reconnaissance. Then tomorrow, either in the afternoon or evening, we will have Briareth create a distraction. Then Folas and one of my bugs will go up to find and use the scanner. If Folas gets caught, he eats his begonia, and I try to escape while he gives the Masters some plausible excuse. Any questions?”

“I have one! Why does Folas get to go up there and not me?” Briareth says.

“You can swap if you want.” Adamar says, shrugging. “I just placed you on distraction duty randomly. Both of you will have to time your actions perfectly if we want to pull this off, so you will need to be in complete agreement with how you are going to do this.”

“Do you want to swap Briareth?” Folas asks curiously.

“No, I’m good, I wasn’t sure if you wanted to be the distractor though, because then you have more fun with little risk.”

“Oh no, I prefer to have fun with a lot of risk. I find it makes the fun funner.”

“Anything else?” Adamar asks, “Or are we all in agreement?” No one says anything. “Excellent. Who wants to be on the team to get the cuttings?”

“I’ll go.” I say.

“Me too.” Valkallyn says.

“Great.” Adamar says, “in the meantime, I’ll prepare my bugs, and Briareth and Folas can prepare for tomorrow.”

We spend the next two to three hours playing around, swimming, and waiting for classes to officially end. Once the supper bell rings most the students head back inside, and our group follows. When we reach the portcullis we split into our smaller groups. Valkallyn and I, Adamar, and Briareth and Folas. We decide to meet in the Great Dining Hall in thirty minutes if everything goes okay.

Valkallyn and I stalk silently through the grass. We aren’t technically forbidden from visiting a classroom after everyone has left, but I don’t think Master Cellica would be happy to see us stealing her magical begonias. Valkallyn seems to understand this, and keeps quiet. She’s really light on her feet, but that’s probably from practice since she was a common companion in Briareth and Folas’ troublemaking.

As we approach the greenhouse, we slow down. There is movement inside. I frown. This is unexpected and might crimp our plans a bit. Who could it possibly be? Perhaps Master Cellica stayed late for some reason? Maybe she wanted to finish grading student papers.

“What should we do?” Valkallyn whispers to me.

“Wait for the person to leave. It's our only option.” I whisper back. We can’t come back at a different time. The rest of the group are counting on us to get the begonia cuttings tonight. If we wait for a different time, then the whole plan would be delayed, and Myrddin might die.

We wait, and wait, and wait. It feels awful, endless. Every second that passes is another second where we could be caught. I don’t know how much time has elapsed, I’m too focused on trying to quiet my heartbeats, but I can hear crickets beginning to chirp and see a few fireflies come out. Surely it has been hours before the person inside the greenhouse stands up, yawns loudly, and stretches.

I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding as Master Cellica walks out of the greenhouse and towards the Great Dining Hall. Valkallyn and I wait for about a minute to make sure she is really gone, then we begin our approach again.

We get into the greenhouse and immediately begin searching for the potted begonias.

“Found them!” Valkallyn whisper-calls to me. I creep over to join her.

“How many do we need?” I ask quietly.

“Um…” Valkallyn hesitates. “Two plants should be enough, I think.”

I grab a pot and she does the same and then we head out. As we reach the doorway, I notice a problem with our plan.

“Where are we going to store the plants, Valkallyn?” Valkallyn blinks, “We can’t just bring them in to supper.” I say. “That will surely be noticed.”

“I’ll go to supper now,” Valkallyn responds after a five second pause. “To tell the others that you are fine. You go and deliver them to your dorm room.”

We part ways, she goes to the brightly lit northern L, and I go back into the darkness. I arrive at our room without much trouble, aside from a near encounter with a fellow student hurrying to supper. I ducked into a nearby nook, avoiding him to forestall any questions. When I finally arrive at the Great Dinning Hall, supper is in full swing. I grab a plate of salad, plop myself down next to Briareth, and focus on eating. But before the first forkful is even halfway to my mouth, two familiar voices start chittering at me and I almost groan aloud.

“Faladel, where were you?” says Erryn

“We were getting worried when you didn’t show up for supper.” comments Eldrin.

“Why are you late?” His brother finishes.

“I had to drop some stuff off in my room.” I say, then take a bite of my salad and chew noisily. I hope they get the hint. I don’t want to talk to them right now. I don’t know how to talk to them right now. I was kind of hoping that, with all this new stuff on my plate, they could just disappear or something.

I don’t even know what to say to them at this point. Adamar says I can’t reject them outright, but I don’t want to keep up this charade of chivalry any longer. They want me for either information or for influence, and I don’t want to give them either.

Thank goodness they don’t decide to press me for more information about what I dropped off. They don’t press me about our earlier conversation that ended in a stalemate either. In fact they mostly stay quiet throughout dinner. I’m not sure if this is because they got my silent ‘nope’ signal, or if it is because other people are around, but I appreciate it either way.

Their appearance though means that they are probably going to stick around, and maybe try to ask more leading questions when there are less people around that I can pass them off to. That is unfortunate, and will probably be distracting in the long run. I really need to come up with a plan to deal with them, but I can do that later.

As supper ends, I head off to our room with Adamar and Briareth. We have a lot to do tonight. Adamar has to scout, we have to prep the begonias so that we can all communicate with each other using just two plants. I don’t quite understand how that will work yet.

When we arrive at our room I show Briareth and Adamar the results of Valkallyn’s and my stealth mission. Two nicely potted Begonias sitting on the desk by my bed.

“Excellent work Faladel.” Adamar says, hurrying over to it. “I hope you learned how to make the bracelets in King’s Archers training Briareth?”

“Yep.”

“What do you mean bracelets?” I ask, confused.

“The innovations you miss when you're in prison for 22 years.” Adamar says, sighing. “One of the new army communications devices. They made the begonias two-way so that you can talk back and forth, to report movements and casualties and stuff. They also made them like bracelets, so you don’t have to carry pots around. They haven’t been released to the public yet, but almost everyone knows they are coming soon. Technically only people who have gotten special army training, which of course includes King’s Archer trainees, are able to make them.”

“It's actually quite easy.” Briareth says, cutting the flowers off the plant with a tiny pair of scissors. He murmurs some words under his breath and with each flower he snips magic sparks fly from his fingers and merge with the blossoms. As soon as he’s built up a small pile Briareth starts making the clippings into bracelets. I watch for a while, but am soon bored. I can’t understand what Briareth is doing, and legally he can’t tell me. I turn back to watch Adamar who has pulled a strange orb from somewhere, and is polishing the surface.

I’m not quite sure how to describe the orb. It seems to be layered, but not really. I would say that the first part is clear, and then there is a layer of pale peach-ish fog, which is hiding a third layer of something dark. But it isn’t quite layers, for although there seems to be something clear in front of the clouds, when I look at the orb from a side view, I don’t see the ‘clear area’ that would be visible near the top.

When Adamar is done polishing the orb, he sets it down on the table by his bed, sits down, and casually moves the books to form walls on either side of the orb. He notices me looking, and moves the books onto the floor.

“You can watch if you want Faladel.” He comments. “Just try not to break my concentration please. This is a delicate process that moves my mind into another body. If I mess up I could go into brainshock, which is not a fun experience”

“Alright.” I say eagerly, and move a chair next to his, peering into the orb. He places his hands on either side of the orb. His pupils dilate, then disappear. The orb’s fog clears away, revealing an entirely black layer underneath.

It

It is awake again. He has a new task for It. He needs It to find something, something in the floating towers. There are still students around, so He must be very careful with It so It won't get caught.

He sends It scurrying through the grasses outside the building He hid It in earlier. Should He get It up on the pathways, or wait for someone to use the lift? There was no guarantee that someone would use the lift anytime soon, but the paths are easy to get caught on as there are no grass or shadows up there. He sends Its scanners skyward. It can’t see anyone on the paths, so why not try them? If going up fails, He does have all night to wait to get up there, although He thinks that He and His roommates wouldn’t enjoy having to wait so long for their information.

He sends It scuttling through grass to the main classes area. He knows how to reach the high walkways. He sends It scrambling through dark and abandoned halls filled with empty classrooms; through a busy classroom where some STs are hanging out, grading papers and chatting up a storm; through halls that are devoid of life except for a few students doing make-up work.

Eventually It ends up at a staircase. It can climb staircases, although It takes longer than a person would. He sends It scurrying upwards to the top, where a trapdoor leads to the night sky. This is restricted territory now. He should have It advance cautiously. Thank goodness most of the teachers are downstairs, that leaves this whole area deserted.

He wonders idly if the new curfew rules will be put in place tonight or if they will wait for tomorrow. If they are going to implement them tonight it means that the other Masters already know of them and have agreed that they are necessary. Then the Masters would have to distribute the news to all the non second year students. There is simply too much to do in one afternoon, the rules will probably be in place by tomorrow.

He has It race across the paths to the Masters’ Tower. He’s had It go up to the wall before, and even onto the pathways, but never into the Masters’ Tower. The penalties for getting caught there are much harsher. He would be invading their privacy after all, and they don’t like that. Nevertheless, that is what He has to do tonight. There are lives at risk, no human ones as of yet, but that could change very quickly especially if they are dealing with what He suspects.

It reaches the Tower without hindrance. He has It travel through what seems like endless quarters while searching for the information. He is surprised at how little resistance there is. Shouldn’t the teachers have more barriers for Him? Perhaps a restricted magic zone, or some sort of notification barrier like the one he encountered last time? Maybe they are only on the rooms instead of the corridors. Or perhaps He has already set them all off with It. This thought causes Him to spur It on to greater speeds. If He indeed has already been noticed then the main thing is to get It in and out without getting caught.

Eventually It finds a strange dark room with glowing things inside. There isn’t a door to this room, but Its sensors say there isn’t any way out besides this entrance. He has It pop inside and scan the room as a whole for magical tech. A few things light up, most of them are small, and so can’t possibly be what He is looking for, but there is one thing that might be His goal. He sends It closer for a better view. Yes, He has found what they are looking for. Time to return to the others and tell them of the mission's success. He sends It back the way It came.