Kanae waded naked into the hot springs water. Its very warmth rejuvenated her and lifted all the stress from her aching muscles. Strange though. She remembered being somewhere else, not in Rudura village. Kanae pressed her back against a large boulder in the middle of the pool. The rough surface kneaded all the knots in her muscles.

"Alright, I'm coming in! Are you ready for me?" a familiar voice echoed from beyond the steam.

That was Arenade's voice. No mistaking it. The high elf's busty silhouette took shape in the mists. Kanae was getting nervous. When was the last time she had seen her wife? Weeks, months, a year? 

The waters rippled as Arenade stepped into the pools, and Kanae grew more excited after every wave that reached her.

"Oh, Kanae~" Arenade cooed.

"Just get over here already, and let me bury my face in those tits of yours!" Kanae exclaimed impatiently.

"KANAE TOYOMI!"

Everything vanished. Kanae snapped upright in the guest room of the Emerald Palace in Bravost, not in Rudura. It also wasn't Arenade standing over her, but a different high elf. Archbishop Patrice Starborne, hands violently shaking her awake.

"Damn you! I was having a nice dream! Let me go back to sleep. Arenade's chest was just within my grasp." Kanae laid back down and threw the bedsheets over her head.

"No, you don't. Early risers get more work done in the day. I've been told you made friends in those from Ordane's museum. Accompany me. Archbishop's orders!" Patrice yanked the sheet away.

Kanae reluctantly climbed out of bed and glanced across the room. It seemed she wasn't the only one who suffered a rude awakening. Delayn and Camilla stood outside the door, their eyes barely able to stay open.

Left with little choice, Kanae got dressed and joined them in going to Ordane's Museum of History and Relics. She fell asleep a few times on the carriage ride there. Both Saint Priests were nodding off by the window, too. Meanwhile, Patrice was bouncing with excitement. The sun was only just peeking over the deserts.

"Why so early? Can't we go in the afternoon?" Kanae groaned.

"Because the museum is still closed for another few hours, and I want to explore it before the public pours in. You are merely here to get me through the door. Whether by your friendship with the staff or charming your way in," Patrice explained.

Great…

They arrived at the museum, and it was closed as expected. Only two tired men watched the entrance from inside a cramped guard box. The pair played a quick round of rock, paper, scissors, and the loser emerged to stop them.

"Sorry, folks. Museum's closed for another two hours. Please, come by again later," an Arkesian human said.

"You're up. Get us through the door." Patrice pushed Kanae up to him.

"Listen, I don't want to be here either. I know Panner and Seif. Can you go get them? I'm sure they'll be fine with letting us in early," Kanae explained.

"No, you

listen. You can know Sultana Dudula for all I care. Come back in two hours—"

Kanae would rather deal with the consequences than Patrice, so she exerted a charm on the man. As he walked up to the doors of the museum, his companion rushed out of the guard box.

"Hey, hey, hey! What do you think you're doing?" he asked before Kanae charmed him, too.

"I feel like we're breaking all sorts of rules." Delayn sighed.

Door open and with no one to stop them, the group entered the museum. Patrice was absolutely giddy, skipping in and picking up a brochure from the information booth near the entrance. She marveled at the enormous sand worm skeleton suspended on the ceiling. Her eyes lit up like a lighthouse even though it was still dark inside.

Delayn whispered a spell, and the crystal end of her staff illuminated their dim surroundings. Not wasting one moment, Patrice raced through the museum like a child at a carnival.

"Wow!" Patrice planted her face against a glass display containing some earthen pottery. "All this history, gathered in one place… Wait, is that…?" She ran to another display that had various words in which the worn blades were greenish in color. "Bronze age swords!"

"Bronze?" Kanae peered inside.

"Bronze is made from copper, and copper corrodes over time until it becomes the color you see now. Tens of thousands of years ago, our kind made use of abundant copper to make tools out of. We eventually transitioned to iron, then steel, and only in recent centuries began to use adamantine, a form of steel tempered through magical means. There also exists a metal you and Petyr are familiar with, felsteel, which dwarves somewhat mastered working with years before adamantine. Ahhh~ there is so much to learn from our past. So much mystery to uncover…"

Kanae slowly backed away when Patrice continued in a lecture-like trance. Delayn and Camilla had wandered to an exhibit of an extinct, larger than present species of dire wolf being hunted by ancient Arkesians. She accompanied them instead, but they looked like they would rather be anywhere but here.

"Be honest, between Patrice and Gretchen, who do you guys prefer?" Kanae asked.

"Gretchen bossed us around, but she didn't talk much. Archbishop Patrice… makes me feel like I have coursework due the next day. All high elves are touched in the head, if you want my opinion…" Delayn pressed a hand to her face.

"Who's there? Thieves? Goodness, don't tell me security is slacking again!" Panner walked in holding a lantern and stared, blank-faced.

"Hello!" Camilla, who was in the middle of lighting her pipe, took a puff and waved.

"K-Kanae?!" He gasped.

After explaining the situation to Panner, he was a lot more understanding and even offered to give them a tour of the museum. In fact, the scholar found a kindred spirit in Patrice. The two talked at length about archaeology, even if it wasn't her field of expertise. She particularly enjoyed the exhibits on the fracturing of Savir into three states, blemished as the details were in Bravost's favor. On the other hand, Kanae, Camilla, and Delayn trudged along, never more bored in their lives.

The tour was winding down, but Panner enjoyed Patrice's company so much, he showed them to a secret room that contained ancient texts and tomes. It was a long room that might as well be a single corridor that stretched on. Both sides of the walls were shelves that contained all manner of written text, scrolls, and musty tomes.

Tables and desks looked like people were recently occupied, but no one wanted to put anything away. Books stacked high on one side and papers strewn about on the other. One desk even had an ink well spilled all over a piece of parchment. Lanterns with orange crystals inside them dangled listlessly from the rafters. The place was so dry, Kanae's eyes stung a little. Just opening her mouth lifted moisture away.

"We keep the room dry to preserve as many papers for as long as possible. Here, we translate old texts and transcribe those that are falling apart or becoming illegible," Panner explained.

"Fascinating." Patrice leaned over one desk to scrutinize their work. "But you are wasting a lot of time and energy doing all this by eye and hand. There exists a species of slime in the Commonwealth that eats parchment, but leaves behind ink residue. Even if the ink has faded, the slime will leave those parts alone. It results in cleaner texts for you to transcribe more accurately, rather than making guesswork on faded symbols. I can arrange to have some sent down here."

"That would be wonderful, my lady!" He beamed.

"But first, I would like something in return." She turned around and smiled.

There it was. Kanae had a feeling Patrice didn't just want to visit a museum. This archbishop was a shrewder person than most people gave her credit for. 

"I want copies," Patrice continued, "of every completed translated text and any translated text henceforth."

"I-I can't possibly. Everything here is technically owned by Her Majesty, Sultana Dudula!" Panner stammered.

She advanced on him until his back was to a shelf. "Oh, my fellow learned man, I do not intend to rob you or steal from your sultana. Does one steal by painting your visage? Nay. Besides, the likes of you and I are first and foremost academics. Our objective transcends lofty ownership of a monarch. We should all strive for knowledge, because how better can we serve the future? How will the future look back on us when they study the past?"

"You're right… You're right! I'll have scribes make copies for you" He grabbed her hand and shook.

"Patrice is… kind of terrifying, isn't she?" Kanae gulped.

"Tell me about it," Delayn grumbled.

Archbishop Patrice and the group didn't leave empty-handed. They came out with some translated copies that were only collecting dust. She hummed happily to herself on the way out.

"I hope that was worth screwing us over a few more hours of sleep for." Kanae yawned.

"Yes, it was." Patrice showed them two translated tomes, Hypothesis: Ancient Elemental Rituals of Savir and Forbidden Shamanisms of Elusis, Interplanar Relics Edition. "They had these two hidden away for whatever reason. Perhaps for good reason. But now, we may learn more of the Harpy King's involvement with the elementals. Knowledge, my dear Amethyst, is the grindstone to a steel blade."

"What the… How did you manage to get your hands on those?" she asked.

"Batting my eyelashes at Panner was all it took. At any rate, I will need a few days to go over all this. We may find pertinent information on the key to combating the Harpy King's elemental powers. If not, then perhaps the origins of how he came to them," the archbishop explained.

They caught a carriage back to the Emerald Palace, but Kanae wasn't feeling sleepy anymore. Patrice was already nose-deep in a book, eyes racing across the pages. How she was able to read that fast was beyond fathoming.

However, it was a load off Kanae's back having someone as intellectually capable as Patrice Starborne around. That meant less thinking for her and more focus on the important things for a succubus. Like fighting and sex.

"Looks like something is going on at the palace gates," Delayn said.

Kanae followed the Saint Priest's gaze to a feline beastman trying to enter, but the guards repeatedly shoved her back.

"That's Kara!" Kanae exclaimed.

"What?" Camilla poked her head out just as one guard shoved Kara a little too hard that she fell to the ground.

In the next moment, Camilla was gone. She wasn't in her seat anymore.

"Oh, shit…" Kanae and Delayn uttered at the same time.

Camilla instantaneously disarmed six guards and leveled her rapier at the one who pushed her sister. Archbishop Patrice demanded the carriage to stop, and they rushed out to put a stop to the fight.

"What's going on here?" Kanae asked.

"Th-The girl was trying to get into the palace. We're only doing our job to stop trespassers!" he explained.

"Kanae, Camilla… I'm sorry! I was looking for you two. You told me the other day this is where you were staying, so I came to find you… It's about Seven. He left for Elusis!" Kara cried.

Both of them exchanged uneasy glances.

Since Kanae and the others were only guests of Sultana Dudula, they didn't have the authority to grant another person entry into the palace. The group pulled Kara aside to speak by the carriage. Poor girl was still shaking. Her eyes were red, too. Dried tear stains marked her cheeks.

"Take your time. What did you want to tell us?" Camilla rubbed her sister's back.

"Seven… He's gone. I woke up this morning and found his letter under my door." Kara handed them a hastily-scrawled letter which Kanae read aloud.

"I'm sorry, Kara. Tell Kanae I'm sorry, too. But I'm done being weak. I have to go to Elusis to save Theena. There's something that I can do as the Harpy King's son, so I'll leverage that. By the time you read this, I'm already long gone. I promise to bring her back, and when I do, we'll go on adventures like old times. After all, we vowed to become Veterans one day. Your best friend, Seven." Kanae sighed heavily after reading it all. "That idiot."

"If that harpy friend of yours left in the night, he has already crossed a great deal of distance by now. Especially since he can fly. There is no possible way any of us can catch up now," Archbishop Patrice explained.

"But…" Left behind, Kara's ears drooped as she sulked.

Everything seemed fine yesterday. Maybe Seven had just gotten better at hiding it lately. But this wasn't good at all. The Harpy King's agents had tried kidnapping him before. By going there alone, he was practically handing himself over to them. Or maybe… that was the point.

Damn it. Arenade wasn't going to be happy about letting her little brother figure get taken like that. Watching Kara hurt by this ordeal stung, too.

"Archbishop, please allow me to go to Elusis ahead of you guys to rescue Seven," Kanae requested.

"Denied," Patrice replied curtly.

"W-Why not?"

"This isn't a vacation. The Harpy King seeks total conquest, and he's holding one of our own Knights of Colors hostage. I'm here to bring order to chaos. To tidy up a convoluted mess. And make known of the unknown. We must approach this carefully," she implored.

"Seven's going to get himself hurt. If you won't go, I will." Kara turned to leave, but Camilla grabbed her hand.

"Wait, I… I'll go with you," Camilla said.

"Camilla, that isn't happening." Delayn folded her arms. "You were assigned to safeguard Archbishop Patrice, and she didn't give you permission to leave her side. Abandoning your post is a dereliction of duty."

Everyone was at a standstill, and no one wanted to budge. But to the surprise of the entire group, Patrice relented first.

"One day. We will set off for Elusis tomorrow. Your friend is already long gone and there is no catching up to him, that much is sure. It doesn't mean we can't prepare to raise our chances of success. I shall speak with Sultana Dudula and Sultan Cerberus to secure us a mode of transportation. Amethyst, gather the members of your hall and ensure they are ready to depart. Will that suffice, child?" Patrice asked Kara specifically.

"Y-Yes, thank you!" Kara bowed.

"Hmph. I suppose I can read the rest of these on the journey to Elusis." She glanced down at the stack of books and sighed.

"Archbishop, I'm against you going to Elusis! The Harpy King has already shown hostility towards Amethyst, and he will certainly extend those sentiments to you," Delayn protested.

"Stay? And pass up the chance to witness first hand the Harpy King's command over the elements? Absolutely not! Observation, Delayn, is one of the greatest forms of study!" the archbishop exclaimed fanatically.

Delayn took her glasses off, pinched the bridge of her nose, and groaned.