Chapter 13

“You could focus a little harder on the conversation.”

Bastian looked up to see Trendan leaning over his table looking at him. “You think me focusing is going to give us the power to sneak in, undetected, and get the man out of there?”

Straightening, his brother scowled down at him. “No, but more ideas might help.”

Shrugging, Bastian got up and went over to the fridge, opening it, he looked inside and then changed his mind and closed it. He glanced at Tor as he opened the coffee pot. “She thought I was cute.” He grinned.

Tor grinned and then shook his head. “And I believe also told you to go away.”

Bastian looked at his brother, of course, he’d told them all the bad bits of the meeting, he’d been waiting centuries for. “For now.” He shrugged and went into autopilot as he set up the coffee maker to brew. “I’m focusing on the good parts.”

“What good parts?” Trendan demanded.

Adding the grounds, he flipped the switch and then turned around and leaned on the counter. “How about she knew the Solrelm sigil?” He pointed to his own shoulder. “Or that she can see those with dark souls? Or that she knows a soul is reborn.” He looked from Trendan to Tor and then Ulric. “How many times can you say a person knew that?” He paused long enough for them to speak, but knew they wouldn’t. “Exactly.” He crossed his arms over his chest and nodded. “She’ll call, you’ll see.”

Trendan rubbed his hand over his face. “Okay, fine, there were some oddities. Now, can we focus on figuring this out? I personally don’t want my memories wiped if we get caught doing this.”

Ulric nodded. “I was thinking more body parts being severed, but a mind wipe would suck too.”

Bastian blew out a breath; they were right, he needed to focus on this. He went over and leaned on the table, looking at the map Ulric had brought of the secluded camp the most recent missing dad was in. There were three rows of bunkhouses, and a main building. “Do you think all those there have had their minds wiped?”

“I checked.” Trendan said quietly, as he ran his finger along the roadway between the barracks. “Most have normal lives and families, outside of working there, but there are several with clean histories.”

His brother’s way of saying there could be more there they needed to talk to. Bastian frowned. “What do they do here?” All three men gave him a bored look. “What? I was a little distracted by the fact that I finally caught up to the soul I’ve been chasing forever.”

“Research,” Tor said.

“Research?”

Tor nodded. “Environmental research.” He got up and went to the cupboard. “Mostly for the areas dying off.”

Bastian reached around him and grabbed a cup and set it beside his. “I can’t be certain, but I’m fairly sure that will improve now.”

“How so?” Trendan nodded when Tor held up a cup.

“Alterealm had that same issue, a large area that kept dying off. Come to find out Arwan was sucking the life out of it to power his spells, stay young or something.”

“But they have him now.” Tor held out a cup of coffee to him.

Bastian took it and sat back at the table.

“Wouldn’t he die if they cut him off from it?” Ulric sat back and crossed his arms over his chest, not interested in coffee at all.

Bastian shrugged. “I could ask next time I see one of them.” He blew on the hot liquid. “So our dad is a scientist?”

Trendan shook his head. “No, he’s a cook.”

Raising an eyebrow, Bastian looked at him. “That’s easier than kidnapping a scientist.”

“Is it?” Trendan took the cup Tor handed him over to the table.

“Yeah. With the banquets coming up, we can borrow him for help with that.” He shrugged. “No one would dare deny help for that.”

“That’s true.” Trendan smirked. “And then he doesn’t make it to the banquet hall. We need to figure out where we’re taking him to meet up with the FaTerra princess.”

Ulric nodded. “If it’s here it’s going to have to be a very off-the-grid, well-kept secret.”

“Alterealm is too hard on a body,” Tor added.

“Yeah, we don’t want him too ill or anything.” Bastian stared at the map on the table. “Somewhere safe that none of ours can find him and drag him back.”

“You think white flags will go up when we go borrow him?” Trendan finally sat down and stopped looking so uptight.

Bastian smirked. “I don’t know about that, but when he doesn’t return, red ones will be springing up all over the place. I’m sure whoever wiped his memory is monitoring him.”

Rubbing his hand over his jaw, Trendan stared at the table for a second. “Where are we going to take him?”

“I don’t know yet, give me a few days.” Bastian turned and glanced at the calendar. “The Banquets are approaching quickly.” He looked back at Tor. “We need to see if Aireese can get to and from the place without requiring any of us. If she’s seen it’s going to cause questions being asked that we can’t answer.”

Tor nodded.

“I’ll call her.” Trendan stared at the map. “You find a location and tell no one outside of this room.”

Bastian groaned.

“What?” Trendan sat upright again.

“Getting Liri back for the banquets is going to be harder than kidnapping the father.”

Trendan smirked and stood up.“I’ll leave that to you, brother, you can finesse her better than I.”

Bastian looked at Tor.

“It’s true,” Tor said with a smirk.

“Fine.” Bastian shook his head and picked up his cup. “I’ll finesse the woman that would rather stab me than attend the banquets.” Each year he had to basically negotiate with her to get her to attend them without fuss. How many years had he been doing it now? He thought twenty but couldn’t be sure. Sometimes he forgot how young she was.