Arkady considers for a second, then asks: "Are trolls hard to hurt with crossbows? Patriarch Bergstor said something about needing a lot of crossbowmen."

"Hmm..." Felix makes a thoughtful noise and pulls out the tablet to start designing a schematic. "Piper? When you said bringing the Rose to light would cause it to alert the world... is that poetic, or literal? Sunlight or artificial? If the Rose is found without using light and sealed in a light proof box, could that delay the future vision of anyone peering through time trying to locate the Rose?"

"Trolls have fairly tough skin; they can be hurt by crossbows, but they can also outrun a horse, so unless you're firing through an arrow slit in a wall or have a lot of other crossbowmen with you, you're unlikely to get off a second shot. A sufficiently large group of crossbowmen can kill a troll even on an open plain, but a few of the crossbowmen will probably not survive the confrontation."

"Poetic," says Piper. "Something about the place where it is... hides the Rose. It doesn't need to be literal light - once the Rose is no longer hidden, everywhere will know."

Felix's stylus stops moving and he lets out a small sigh as he deletes whatever it was he was designing.

"So the whole world will know the Rose is in motion again regardless. Guess we better move fast, then."

Felix looks at Vanire.

"If that's all there is to it, I think we could handle a troll," He says. "Our vehicles can outpace any horse and our weapons have greater penetration and more rapid fire than any crossbow. Assuming all goes well the troll won't even know what killed it when we take to battle. That is, of course, assuming things go well."

Arkady looks a bit resigned. "If Ghwerig is not stupid, he will let us retrieve the Rose before he attacks us. At which moment Azash will know exactly what is going on, and will want Ghwerig to succeed. And he may not be the only one." He shrugs, then grins a bit. "Well, we probably will not be bored. Who knows, we may even be finding Zalasbra back at the ship."

Then he turns to Vanire. "By the way, your grace: when will your next patrol be going to castle Stokes?"

"He's smart enough to hang about near an Elene city for centuries without being spotted," points out Talen. "He's clearly not a complete idiot."

"Azash won't particularly want Ghwerek to succeed," says Piper. "If he gets the Rose and the Rings back, he's almost certain to use it to destroy anything that might be powerful enough to bother him. Including large parts of Elene civilisation - and Azash."

"We don't really have the manpower for regular patrols," admits Vanire. "We barely have the manpower to coherently respond to the troubles that we hear about, when we hear about them. Why do you ask?"

"We promised we'd send a small crew of Terrans to Count Stokes to help him maintain his abode in the absence of his regular staff," Felix says. "Our administrator wants us to escort the crew back to the Count's residence as they'll be few in number and carrying bulky equipment with them. We really do need to head to the lake to seek out the Blue Rose at the fastest speed, however, and really can't afford the distraction."

Felix coughs.

"We're hoping maybe you could send some Knights to escort them? The Terrans in question will be carrying equipment for large scale paper manufacture and bookbinding. It would be quite helpful in allowing us to spread knowledge that can greatly improve Elene society. It's something we could afford to put off if we really needed to, but I believe it would be moderately beneficial for both parties if this was accomplished sooner over later."

Vanire frowns, clearly mentally thinking about schedules and national security. "Is there any reason to believe they'd be in particular danger en route?" he asks. "And will they have their own transport?"

Arkady tells Piper: "True, Azash does not want Ghwerek to get all three pieces. But if he gets away with one or two of the three then nobody can use the Rose, and Azash is winning." He shakes his head: "I would not be surprised if the Hand shows up somewhere as well. We probably should try to be ready to deal with it."

"They'll be driving their own trucks," Felix says. "Same vehicles as what we use, but more loaded down with parts to build manufacturing facilities. It's fine if you can't, we'll figure something out."

"Actually..."

Felix mutters to himself for a moment before seemingly coming to a conclusion.

"You seem to have a lot on your plate and not enough time or resources to take care of it all," he says. "What if I talked things over with our leaders and see if we can get some people to come over and assist the Pandion order? Get a small collection of truck transports to ferry around Knights wherever you might be needed? Things have progressed at the colony enough that I think a few volunteers would be willing to go out and seek adventure."

"I have little doubt that it will turn up again," nods Vanire, to Arkady's point. "And it will no doubt be at least as strongly defended as it was last time, if not more so. You'll need a good strategy to deal with it."

"If there's no reason to expect danger and you've got transport arranged," continues Vanire, "then I can easily send a couple of people to act as escorts. They won't be Knights - my Knights are largely busy - but they'll be good men who will help where they can. As to your offer of trucks, there are certainly places where that sort of rapid transportation ability will be useful - I can't imagine it working well with horses, which limits it a little, but nonetheless I can probably use all the transport you can spare."

"Alright. I'll speak to the Captain and Administrator about arranging it, then if they agree we can drop everyone off here on our way to the lake and the volunteers can get their escort to Count Stokes like David wants," Felix says.

"Right," nods Vanire. "Is there anything else you'd like to go over?"

Arkady considers for a second, then says "Just one thing: if we supply trucks and drivers, will you be responsible for their supply? Feed the drivers, wood for fuel, metal for repairs, that sort of thing? I think it would make the Captain a great deal more likely to agree."