Sparrow flies lower, and finds himself listening to an argument as seven men tussle, three attempting to attack an armored man while another three try to stop them.

"I told her I'd kill them if I ever saw any of them again!"

"Kill who?"

"Her people!"

"He's not one of her people!"

"What's wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with you?"

"There's fairy magic about!"

"Curse you and your fairy magic! Help me slit his throat!"

"Let me go! Mercy! The camp's gone mad!"

"Let him go!"

"Make me!"

Unfortunately, Sparrow can't remember who these people are or what he's doing here.


The guards look at each other. "Yes," the woman says at last, "but for our loyalty to him we get our share of the take, while you've given us no tricks, no secrets, nothing but pretty words, and to follow your advice could leave us with nothing at all."

"You remind me of a girl I met once," Anthony states nostalgically, "Here's some lessons. Now for women, they have the best hiding spot built on them." Anthony continues to give lessons till the others feel they are ready for the heist.

Where's Yala? I'm supposed to be protecting her, where is she? And why are those men attacking Edric?

Edric, Sparrow vaguely remembers, has some way of seeing him when he's invisible. To counter this, he stays some distance behind faux-Edric's head while he considers his options. Edric may be the best lead he has back to Yala, so, personal vendetta or not, he's got to do something. So he tosses the smallest sleep spells he can make at the attackers; enough to dull their reactions, but not enough to make 'Edric' suspicious enough to go and look for a fairy.

There are glints from the non-attacking newcomers' wrists as the attackers' senses are dulled. They are easily pulled off the armored guard. Everyone continues to bicker.


"Okay, where's the boss?" the woman asks after the lessons are done. "This is getting ridiculous. He should be here by now." The guards -- who have all pretty much stopped guarding Anthony by now -- poke their heads out of the hut and look around. They see the group arguing and run over to investigate.

Sparrow's still not sure what's going on, so he elects to watch quietly for the moment until he can figure out what's going on and/or where Yala is.

Well, mostly quietly. At a suitable point in the argument, he drops in a quick audio illusion, in the voice of one of the men present; just three words, "Where am I?"

"Your boss keeps his valuables in the tent, no?" Anthony asks, implying now would be ideal to rob him.

"I think so. It's the big red tent nearby," the woman says distractedly as she and the other guards are running out of the tent.


"Here, you idiot," someone responds unhelpfully.

Giving up on the debate, Sparrow starts looking about for any other sign of Yala.

Much to his dismay, he quickly finds a camp full of strangers that appears to include Zaljan, who's promised to kill him should he see Sparrow again. Just to be on the safe side, therefore, he sends faux-Zaljan to sleep for a day or two before searching the camp for Yala.

Anthony catches up to the woman. "Boss is away. Everyone else is distracted. Now would be ideal for...?"

"For what?" she says, annoyed. "I'm going to find the boss and tell him about your ideas of burgling aristocrats. I'm sure he'll like that idea better than bowing and scraping to some mysterious scumbag telling him what to do." She pulls away and hurries toward the argument.


One of the women in the camp falls asleep and slumps to the ground. Another tries to wake her without success.

Sparrow finds a lot of tents with strangers in them, a few empty tents, a round hut, and Anthony.

"Oh, right. Good of the community. Right." Anthony makes sure nobody is looking, then sneaks over to the leader's tent.

I have to maintain Neutral Karma. Teaching them to steal. Stealing from them. Fair trade.

Sparrow is, meanwhile, thoroughly confused. What Edric, Zaljan and Anthony are doing in this camp full of strangers, and where Yala is, he cannot say.

Still, there's one way to find out where Yala is.

An illusion of Yala walks into the camp, looking about with wide-eyed innocence. Sparrow waits patiently for someone to notice her and say where they thought she was.

More people are coming out of their tents at the sound of the confusion, leading to even more charges of enemies in the camp, leading to even more confusion.


"Where did you come from?" a woman asks, running over to the Yala-illusion and trying to take her hand.


Anthony finds a cashbox, jewelry box, and several fine furs -- the take one might get from robbing one merchant -- plus a leather bag with enough gold to buy a wagon and two good horses. But aside from a bedroll, change of clothes, and some quite filthy woodcut illustrations, that's all -- there's no sign of any kind of ongoing hoard of loot. He also finds a small wooden box, empty, with carvings all over it. The box feels magical. With a powerful, dark sort of magic.

The false Yala, being about as easy to touch as air, backs away quickly.

"I got lost." she says. "I can't remember how to get back. Do you know the way back?"

"Back where, sweetie?" the woman asks, glancing between the Yala-illusion and the increasingly violent argument at the edge of the camp.