The others were already waiting for us in the study when Maeve and I arrived. There was food and drinks set out as well. Sir Colm and Feichin were seated at the table in the middle, the twins were at the table to the right. And as usual, I couldn't tell which was which.

I moved to sit at the table with Kelly and Keira. Or maybe it was Keira and Kelly. Either way they were both to my left. While we all sat, my fae-mom remained standing for now.

"I will leave the five of you to make your plans together. Before you get started though," Maeve looked at the knight. "Sir Colm, there is something we must share with you in confidence. I ask that you keep this to yourself."

He nodded slightly, "Provided it doesn't require me to break my vows to the king, I will keep your secret m'lady."

"Thank you." Maeve then explained, "Three years ago Tegan faced a vargur. She nearly lost her life, and the encounter almost cost her a leg. Since then she has been cursed with an injury that will not heal. To this day she requires ongoing healing magic, every second day. Both Kelly and Keira are able to work the healing spell, which is one of the reasons they must accompany my daughter on this expedition."

She sighed slightly, "I share this with you because you must understand, Tegan is unable to march long distances. Nor may she climb, run, or carry any great weight."

I watched as the knight's eyes widened slightly as he realized the implications of this. One of Feichin's eyebrows creeped up slightly as well. I had a feeling he didn't know I suffered ongoing complications from that injury. In fact, I realized Maeve probably made sure as few people knew about that as possible. It was after all a weakness, a potential liability.

After a few moments Colm replied, "I see. Now I understand why you were quick to send her abroad on horseback, but reluctant to let her travel on foot. What sort of distance can we expect to cover in a day?"

I responded, "I can walk about three leagues in a day. But that's on level terrain. Over rough ground it will be less."

After a moment I added, "My walking is at a normal pace, it's not that it takes me all day to cover that distance. But I tire quickly, so after I've gone that far I need to stop. And uh, I'm better the day after the magic. The day before the next treatment I do get a bit slower, and can't go quite as far."

"I see," Colm said, looking thoughtful. "Are you still prepared to embark on this journey, Lady Tegan? Knowing the risks, and with your condition in mind?"

I nodded, "Yes. It's Brádaigh business, and as you said it is imperative. My mother must remain here, so the duty falls on me. I have to go."

The twin sitting furthest on the left added, "And if she's going, then we're going with her."

Sir Colm nodded "Very well then."

"And if we're done talking about all that, let's get on with things shall we?" Feichin sounded impatient. I had a feeling he was the kind of guy who hated being indoors. Maybe he was claustrophobic, but more likely he just preferred open sky above him and trees around him, rather than walls and ceilings.

Maeve nodded slightly, "I will leave you all to it." With that, she turned and left the study.

After she was gone, we all helped ourselves to some food. Then the conversation resumed, as we began discussing the plan.

Feichin had a gulp of wine and asked "How far are we expected to travel?"

"I will get us to a spot about six leagues from castle Griofa. From that point, it's about five leagues through forest, the last stretch should be clear. Maybe even farmland."

The huntsman ate a bit of meat then looked thoughtful as he chewed. Finally he said, "The woodland will likely be rough, but fairly level. There may be some rolling hills but nothing too steep. So a minimum of two days travel for Lady Tegan... To be safe we'll allow for three days."

He decided, "We'll bring food for four days. It won't be safe to have fires, so no cooking. We'll stick to salted, smoked, preserved meats."

The rest of us stayed quiet for now, eating a bit as we all just listened to the expert.

Feichin continued, "We'll divide Lady Tegan's supplies and the knight and I will carry them, so the Lady isn't weighed down too much. There'll be no need for changes of clothes. We'll travel light and rough. Just blankets for sleep, no tents."

He looked to Colm, "Sir knight, do you know how to use a bow?"

"Yes, of course." Colm nodded.

Feichin looked at the twins, "And you two lasses?"

"Yes." They both nodded and spoke in unison, doing their creepy twin thing.

"Combat, or hunting?" The huntsman didn't bat an eye at them talking in stereo, but Colm stared a little.

The two redheads again answered together, "Targets."

"And you Lady Tegan?" Feichin asked me. "I trust you'd rather rely on magic?"

I nodded, "Yeah I don't know how to use a bow yet. I'll stick with my magic."

The huntsman stated "Then you'll need three bows, and I'll bring my own. You'll want two dozen arrows apiece, with bodkin points."

Colm raised an eyebrow, "Two dozen apiece? You know we're hoping to avoid combat, we won't be fighting a war. We certainly won't be taking down a castle ourselves."

"Aye, I know." Feichin nodded. He glanced at the twins, "No offence to the young misses there, but if we do find ourselves in trouble I don't expect them to hit anything. It's a world of difference between shooting at a bale of hay, and shooting at a man who's moving or hiding, maybe shooting back, and who screams when you hit him."

He looked back at the knight, "I expect us two will do the bulk of the work, and hope the lasses will do what they can."

The twin closest to me on my left nodded, "We understand. If we wind up fighting, we'll do our best."

Feichin nodded, "Good enough." He stuffed some more food into his mouth, then loaded some into his coat pockets as well and stood up. "Now you know what we need, I'll be on my way. I'll meet the four of you before dawn, by the garrison in the south woods."

He drained his glass then walked out of the study without another word.

Colm looked a bit perplexed as he watched the huntsman leave. Then he turned towards me and asked, "So we're leaving tomorrow at dawn. We'll be spending the day on Earth, will we be at your home?"

"No actually," I shook my head. "I'm going to take us straight from here to the forest near castle Griofa. No point wasting a day hanging around on Earth."

The knight looked surprised, "How do you mean to do that?"

I shrugged, "It's mostly the same as crossing over. We need to travel where the veil is thin, but instead of going all the way across to Earth, I'll get us sort of halfway out then we just come back to Otherworld. But in a different spot."

"It's kind of like going out the front door then coming in the back door," I added.

That brought a slight smile to the man's face, "So the stories are true. You really are a crafty one when it comes to magic."

I shrugged again, "Save the applause for tomorrow. I've never actually done this before, I'm just assuming it'll work based on what I read in a book. Anyways I think it's important we get there sooner rather than later. And if we have to waste a day on Earth, I'll probably get lazy and want to just stay there a while."

Colm frowned, then finally got to his feet. "I'll speak with captain Siobhan about securing the weapons and supplies Feichin wanted. I suggest the three of you turn in early tonight and sleep well. We may not have another good night's rest until we're back here next week."

Me and the twins just nodded. I knew he was right, and the next several days were probably going to suck. I was never into camping, the only camp experience I had so far was our first trip here three years ago. And back then we had a bunch of people doing all the work for us, and we had nice cosy tents and hot meals and stuff.

With Colm gone, me and the twins finished eating then wound up back in our room again. They were still trying to learn those two spells that they'd been working on for the past few days.

One of them laid on the bed, I assumed it was Keira since she had the book on combat spells. The other sat with me at the table by the windows. I assumed that was Kelly, she had the book on defensive magic.

And I had the two maps my fae-mom gave me. I was hoping to memorize them so I wouldn't need to bring them with us. Then I could just give them back before we left, and wouldn't have to worry about losing them.

I focused on the map of Griofa first, especially the location to the east of the castle, deep in the woods. I was starting to think of these spots as waypoints. It was easier at least to call them that, than 'a place where the veil is thin'.

The map was kind of interesting in the way it described the waypoints. They were marked the way you'd expect, a fancy symbol that was basically a glorified 'X' marking the spot. But in addition to that there was a little bit of prose, written almost like a spell. It described the location in terms of how it felt, to the magical senses. The handwriting was interesting too. It had a familiar shape to it, the letters were almost soft and rounded. It was definitely a woman's writing.

At one point Kelly leaned over to look at the map, asking "What's that you're studying babe?"

"It's the area around castle Griofa," I replied. "Mother loaned me a couple maps to help me get us there. I want to memorize them so I don't have to bring them with us."

She got up and moved around to look over my shoulder, so she could read the writing. "Have you been making notes on Maeve's maps?"

I rolled my eyes "Not a chance. Those are the original notes I guess, maybe from whoever made the map?"

"It looks like your writing," Kelly pointed out.

"Well it's not," I stated.

She continued staring over my shoulder for another minute or two, then leaned over and poked her finger at something in the bottom right corner of the map. "That's kind of freaky, babe."

On the map just above her fingertip was a set of initials, presumably whoever had drawn up the map. They were written in the same familiar soft handwriting. Just two letters, "TB"

I stared at it while Kelly said, "I bet that stands for Taralynn Brádaigh."

"Wow," I felt my eyes widen. "These could have been drawn up by Taralynn herself... That's pretty wild."

Kelly sat back down again and picked up her book. She shrugged, "Yeah. I was thinking though, it's also pretty wild that her handwriting looks like yours."

"No it doesn't," I frowned. "Anyways, you two really need to finish learning those spells this afternoon. And I want to memorize these maps. Then we should have an early dinner so we can all get into bed early."

Keira had been quiet through all of this, but she finally spoke up now. "You heard the Lady, sis. She's ordered us into her bed as quickly as possible. So less talking, more studying."

I blushed, but decided not to respond. I knew Keira was teasing, and maybe she was hoping to get me flustered. She was right though, we all needed to study.

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