The moment Frostina turned toward the lake I was already moving.
Not running. Walking. Purposefully. In the direction of the barrier's northern perimeter nodes which genuinely did need checking and was also conveniently far from the lake, the marketplace, the restaurant, and anywhere else Frostina's tour would take her in the next two hours.
I handed Torra to Flame with my eyes.
Flame understood immediately.
"Frostina." He said, catching up to her. "The lake has a specific section for the jellyfish. I'll show you."
Torra grabbed her hand from the other side.
"And the marketplace has a fish stall. Joren's really nice. And Azylan's restaurant you have to see because the menu is different now and there's a tasting menu that needs reservations but Elder Elka can probably get you in-"
They took her left and right toward the lake.
I went north.
•••••
The northern nodes were fine.
I checked them anyway. Thoroughly. Twice.
Then I checked the western nodes.
Then I walked the full eastern perimeter at a pace that prioritized coverage over speed.
By the time I finished the light had shifted to the amber quality of late afternoon and the marketplace was at peak activity and Frostina's voice was occasionally audible from the direction of the boutique, which meant the tour was going well and she was either delighted or in the process of acquiring opinions about the ready-to-wear display Oliver and Olivia had put together.
Probably both.
I went to check the barrier seam I had recalibrated after the morning's engagement.
••••••
From what Torra reported later, the tour proceeded as follows.
The lake first, Flame delivering the jellyfish information with the thoroughness of a guide who had been present at the original collection and felt the historical context was important. Frostina stood at the water's edge and looked at the stocked lake for a long time without saying anything. Then she said it was adequate. Then she said it was actually very good. Then she sat down at the bank and watched the fish for twenty minutes while Torra threw small pieces of bread in and narrated which fish went for them.
The marketplace next. Joren recognized her and waved from the fish stall with the easy familiarity of someone who had heard the stories and felt no particular intimidation. She bought something from every stall. Not because she needed it. Because she had salary coins and had been away for months and the marketplace was there.
Azylan's restaurant. Elder Elka had appeared by this point and had the particular air of someone who had known Frostina was coming and had made arrangements. They had the corner table. Azylan brought out things that weren't on the standard menu, the specific dishes he saved for occasions that warranted them. Frostina ate everything and said nothing critical about any of it, which from Frostina was the highest available praise.
The boutique last.
Oliver and Olivia had reorganized the front display since the merchant access had opened, the ready-to-wear section taking up the full left wall, garments in sizes and designs that had evolved significantly from the early months when the settlement had been making tunics and calling it progress.
Frostina walked along the display slowly.
She stopped at a deep frost-blue piece with structural shoulders and clean lines that Oliver had apparently designed with no particular person in mind and which fit her like it had been made specifically for her.
Oliver looked at Olivia.
Olivia looked at Oliver.
Neither of them said anything.
Frostina bought it without asking the price.
She was wearing it by the time she left the boutique.
••••••
The evening settled over Eryndor.
Frostina sat in her house with her lake fish from Joren and her boutique purchase and her full stomach from Azylan's restaurant and the warmth of a settlement that had been genuinely glad to see her back. The new residents had been introduced throughout the afternoon. The Seaphero survivors had received her with the careful respect that people gave to things that had been described to them before they encountered them in person. She had been gracious about it in the way she was gracious when she was full and had been shopping.
She sat with all of this.
The new marketplace. The lake. The sea trip she had missed. The expanded territory. The ready-to-wear boutique. The tasting menu. Sixty-something residents where there had been twenty.
Leigh's voice when she had asked about sending a message. Through what, he had said.
She sat with that specifically.
The communication stone was on the table in front of her.
She looked at it.
She picked it up.
She turned it over in her hand.
Two taps to connect. She had done it this morning. She had done it three months ago when she first arrived at Branklore. She had been doing it every time she needed to reach Leigh since he gave it to her.
The communication stone that she had been carrying the entire time she was stationed in Branklore.
Through what, he had said.
She put the stone down.
She picked it up again.
She put it down.
She stood up.
She sat back down.
She stared at the stone for a full minute.
Then she stood up and walked out of her house with the particular energy of someone who had arrived at a conclusion and was not going to let any distance stand between them and the person responsible for it.
••••••
I knew the moment she stood up.
The tracking function on the necklaces was passive but it read intent as much as location and Frostina's intent at that moment was broadcasting clearly enough that I didn't need the tracking function.
I was at the northern perimeter.
I activated the invisibility spell.
The settlement went about its evening around me, the lamp posts bright, the marketplace winding down, the residential zone warm and lit. I stood at the northern edge and watched Frostina emerge from her house and begin moving through the settlement with the focused directional energy of a predator who has identified a target.
She went to the Sequoia tree first.
Not there.
She went to the barrier's eastern nodes, which were places I sometimes stood in the evenings.
Not there.
She asked Torra. I watched this from a distance. Torra shrugged with the genuine helplessness of someone who actually didn't know, which was accurate since I hadn't told anyone where I was.
She asked Flame. Flame looked around the settlement with his mana senses active for a moment and then said something that made Frostina's eyes narrow.
She was looking in the right direction.
She raised both hands.
I recognized what she was building before she released it. A wide-range detection spell. Not the passive ambient sensitivity of a dragon's natural mana perception. The active kind, the kind that required a significant mana commitment and pushed outward in all directions simultaneously looking for signatures rather than just feeling for presence.
The kind that would find a hidden mana signature inside an invisibility field.
She released it.
The pulse went out across Eryndor and the surrounding territory and found me at the northern perimeter inside the invisibility field standing very still as though that would help.
It did not help.
Frostina turned north.
I dropped the invisibility field.
There was no point.
I heard her coming before I saw her, the footsteps with the particular rhythm of someone who had been building momentum for the last several minutes and was not slowing down.
She appeared at the northern perimeter.
She stopped in front of me.
She was wearing the new boutique purchase. The frost-blue structural piece. She had clearly been wearing it through the entire investigation and the detection spell and the walk to the northern perimeter and the effect was somewhat undermined by the expression she was wearing over it.
"The communication stone." She said.
"Yes." I said.
"Which I have been carrying." She said.
"Yes." I said.
"For three months." She said.
"Yes." I said.
"And you have one." She said.
"Yes." I said.
"And you could have contacted me." She said. "At any point. To tell me about the lake. Or the sea trip. Or the marketplace. Or the sixty new residents. Or the jellyfish."
"Technically." I said.
"TECHNICALLY." She said.
"The barrier work was important." I said. "You were focused."
"LEIGH."
"The Branklore defense required your full attention." I said. "I didn't want to distract you with non-operational information."
"THE SEA TRIP." She said. "THE GLOWING JELLYFISH. THE SQUID ON A GRILL. NON-OPERATIONAL."
"At the time." I said.
She made a sound that had no words in it and started doing the thing with her arms again, the air around the northern perimeter receiving what the path had received earlier.
"I was defending a kingdom." She said, between arm movements. "ALONE. While everyone was at the SEA. With JELLYFISH. And GRILLED SQUID. And you could have told me and you DIDN'T-"
She continued in this direction for some time.
I waited.
When the arm movements slowed I went to my item box and took out two barrels of rum. Set them on the ground in front of her.
She stopped.
Looked at the barrels.
Looked at me.
"Compensation." I said. "For the missed events. And acknowledgment of sustained exceptional service at Branklore."
She looked at the barrels for a long moment.
"Two." She said.
"Two." I said.
"Good ones." She said.
"From Stunfore." I said. "Eastern vineyards."
She looked at them again.
The arm movements had fully stopped.
"This doesn't mean I'm not still upset." She said.
"Noted." I said.
"I'm going to think of other things I missed and I will bring them up." She said.
"I expect so." I said.
She picked up one barrel with each hand and looked at me with the expression of someone who has won something and knows it and is also aware that the winning was partially engineered by the other party and doesn't fully care.
"Next time there's a sea trip." She said.
"You'll be informed." I said.
"Through the communication stone." She said.
"Yes." I said.
She walked back toward the settlement with both barrels, the frost-blue boutique purchase, and what was left of her dignity.
Torra appeared from behind the nearest lamp post where he had apparently been watching the entire exchange.
He looked at the retreating Frostina.
He looked at me.
"You knew she'd figure it out." He said.
"Yes." I said.
"You hid anyway." He said.
"The northern nodes needed checking." I said.
Torra looked at me with the steady, knowing expression he had developed somewhere in the past two years that was entirely too accurate for a eight year old.
"You were hiding." He said.
I walked back toward the settlement.
He followed.
"You were definitely hiding." He said.