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“I agree. You guys do that,” I replied. “You should also consider the possibility that Nalyon lied. Varga said he smelled deception on the guy, didn’t he?”

“Yeah. What do you mean he lied? About Inalia?”

“Maybe he has no idea where she is. Maybe she got out. She and Eira were talking about escaping, weren’t they?”

“You’re right,” Varga said after a brief pause. “Eira will know something.”

Hunter cut in. “Tae, tracking rule number one. If you want to find someone, look for their family. Wounded or scared animals tend to seek out safety. In Inalia’s case, that could be her home. She’s from a different domain, if I remember correctly.”

“Hadeen. Yes.”

“She’s got a mother. Chances are that, if she escaped, Inalia went straight home, to either warn her mother or take her away. That could be your best shot at finding her before Nalyon,” Hunter said. “But you’ve got to move fast. The Armed Forces are bound to circle that house, too, and soon.”

“Thanks, Hunter,” Taeral replied. “That’s a very good point. We’ll mobilize now.”

“Guys, pardon my bluntness, but I’m really not liking the Cerixians’ attitude,” Lumi interjected. “I’d like to step in and talk to the high chancellor. I’ll run this by Derek and Sofia, but I doubt they’ll say no.”

“You want to intervene on our behalf, Lumi?” Taeral asked, and I could almost see him smiling.

Lumi chuckled. “The Cerixians clearly need some convincing to drop those ludicrous charges. I might as well come in as an ambassador of GASP. You should be more focused on finding the Hermessi responsible for our problems, not proving your innocence to these people. It’s absurd.”

We all thought about it for a moment. I nodded. “She has a point,” I said, then looked at Field and Aida. “What do you guys think?”

Field exhaled sharply, then shot us a grin. “I think a swamp witch never hurt anyone.”

“We’ll talk to Derek and Sofia, and let Draven and Serena know, too,” Aida added.

If anyone could provide the muscle and power needed to fast-forward this to a constructive conclusion, it was Lumi. Clearly, Cerix was a lot more complicated than we’d originally assumed, and the knowledge that the Hermessi could have children added a new dimension to our quest.

If Taeral’s suspicions were correct, and there was, indeed, a connection between all these scattered puzzle pieces, then they were desperately in need of a most powerful swamp witch. I couldn’t think of anyone other than Lumi for this.

I could look after her apprentices while she was away.

“It’s settled, then. I’m hauling my ass to Cerix, and the big kahunas will surely agree to this. Once Aida and Field explain the situation, of course,” Lumi said.

“We’ll send over some soil samples via interplanetary spell bubble,” Taeral replied. “You don’t need to go through the same loops that we had to deal with.”

“Agreed. I don’t appreciate trees trying to kill me, thank you very much,” she shot back.

There were a lot of strange things happening in the In-Between right now. Some had caused innocent people to die. As different and strange as they were, these events were also related, though I couldn’t yet figure out how.

The fire fae exploding. The rogue Hermessi. The murderous cults scattered across the universe and reaching all the way to Cerix. Cerix itself with its seemingly crooked leadership and… fertile Hermessi… It was a lot to take in.

But I had faith in Taeral and his team. Most importantly, I trusted us to pull through. We’d dealt with much worse, over the years.

A voice in the back of my head whispered, What if this is much, much worse?

We’d have no choice but to keep digging and find out.