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‘You shouldn’t go touching strange materials,’ said Orolix, still wrapped in the echo of privacy. ‘These trees could be dangerous.’

He supposed that was true, but it was a bit late to be fussing over it. He gripped the tree a little harder. Yeah. Definitely felt like there was metal in there. ‘This town could be an even better hiding spot than we hoped for,’ he said, not taking his eyes away from the greenery. ‘All the buildings and trees will conceal us from the enemy.’

‘True,’ said Orolix. ‘But that may also make things much worse for the people here. If our pursuers have proved one thing to us, it is that they are not going to give up. If they truly lose track of us, I have no doubt that they will begin to tear this place apart until they find us again.’

Damn. Couldn’t really argue with that logic. And this group wasn’t exactly in a position to protect the hapless citizenry, either.

As they continued onward, deeper into the city, Taj wrestled with his uncertainty.

Agh. What should they be doing here? Hiding might work for a little while, but it clearly wasn’t a long-term solution. He tried to think. He’d had discussed their objective with Orolix repeatedly on the way here--just as the reapers had discussed it with each other--and it was clear enough that they needed to get topside again, but how were they to accomplish that, precisely?

The reapers knew of various great holes that led back up to the surface, but actually reaching them was another matter. Not to mention, the closest ones were also the most dangerous. There was apparently one that led up to the Swallow’s Nest in Egas, but did they really want to return to Sair, right now? Certainly not. That would be a death sentence, unless they somehow got confirmation that Egas had not been overrun by Abolish.

Furthermore, according to the reapers, the chances of finding a great hole that was not already under someone’s control were virtually nil. And since all of the holes that the Sandlords controlled could not be trusted, it was not going to be a simple matter to secure safe passage through one.

But he supposed that was a starting point, at least. If they were going to have to parley with or beg someone powerful in order to get back up to the surface, then the first task was to find such a person, no?