The locals give Arkady a blank look.

"You use animals to deliver messages?" asks Count Radun. "I've never met one capable of repeating it back to me... never mind to anyone else."

Arkady grins. "Back home there is a kind of bird which always flies back to it's nest when released. We call them homing pigeons. Take one with you on a trip, tie a small message to it's leg, and it will fly it back home for you. We used to do that a lot before we invented faster ways to send a message. A bird like that would not let Martel talk to his troops in the field; but it would let them report back home quickly. If you were having one, anyway."

"...I rather wish we had such birds now," says Vanire. "If Martel was using the like, we could track him down in all sorts of new ways. For one thing, he'd actually have to stay in the same place for a significant amount of time."

Arkady nods, then looks at Sir Ulath. "I am also thinking you might need to be somewhere soon, Sir Ulath. Not every chapter head can be as easy going as Sir Vanire, and it's been a couple of weeks since we left the ship."

Felix shrugs.

"I'm sure we have the egg embryos for carrier pigeons on the ship somewhere," he says. "Give us a few months and we could probably grow some messenger birds for you if you're willing to pay for it."

Sir Ulath snorts. "I'm on assignment to save the Queen," he says. "As long as you're working on finding that antidote, best way is to help you. Guess that means heading for Rendor."

"A tempting offer," says Vanire, "but even if we had the pigeons, I don't see any way to persuade Martel to use them. So. Actions going forward, gentlemen. I think we can probably deal with the Primate, at least in the short term - the most important matter is to get the Queen cured. I can send a messenger to try to catch up with Sir Sparhawk - if you Terran gentlemen are agreeable, I think you could probably do the most good in Rendor, trying to track down this poison. Rendor's neither a pleasant nor a safe place; I believe you can probably handle yourselves, but if you'd rather stay out of there, I can send in a group of Knights to try to track down a sample of this Darestim."

Nate leans back.

"Getting some pigeons might not be a bad idea. Our radios are having some trouble cutting through some rather puzzling interference, and until we sort that out, carrier pigions might not be a bad way to go."

"As for going to Rendor, we'll need to check back with Command back at the ship, and even then, I'd like to try having a chat with that Crime Lord we bumped into back in Cimmura first. People like that often have ways of getting ahold of certain goods, or at least know people who can."

"It'll be quite some time yet before we're able to get the birthing vats up and running," Felix tells Nate. "Those things require a lot of specific expertise and manpower that we won't have for a while yet, so for now we're utterly reliant on whatever animals are native to Elenia and the lands beyond."

Felix thinks.

"Yeah, probably a better idea to head back to the ship first, for resupply if nothing else." Felix says. "Until we get a supply of coin I'm unsure any talk to a crime lord would be of help to us. Those types of people likely aren't the sort to give away anything for free. The best course of action might be to head to Rendor to look for the Darestim ourselves and see what we can do about getting money in the short term while we travel."

"Coin isn't the only currency. We have enough information about his operation to cause him some serious trouble. But it's useful to have friends in low places sometimes, and you don't get to be in charge of an operation like that by being stupid. An exchange of favors is often worth more then an entire sack of gold."

"How does the old saying go, 'a gun in one hand and a sandwich in the other'? Be better if we had a sandwich to go with the gun," Felix laughs.

"If this - crime lord - can get hold of a sample of Darestim for you to find an antidote quickly, the Pandion order will happily pay any purely monetary cost," states Vanire, firmly. "Though it might be best not to tell him that until after you have a price - he'll no doubt inflate it if he knows."

"Information is often useful as a currency. How valuable would knowledge of fingerprinting techniques be to a thief who has never encountered them before? Especialy if it's likely to be used fairly soon by local law enforcement?

Arkady looks a bit askance at this. "From what I have read, neither..." he considers who he's speaking in front of, and continues "...of the big spy agencies back home were having good long-term results from making criminal gangs more powerful or efficient. Better, I think, to use money. But either way, that is something for the folks back at the ship to consider. Whatever is being decided, everyone has to live with it."

"Yeah, I'd rather take the long road than do anything that could empower the local criminals," Felix says. "We've got months of time still yet. It's an option to look into, but not something that need be considered immediately."

"Fingerprinting?" asks Sir Ulath.