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Agh, but what sense did that make? Why announce her arrival so publicly if she’d intended to conduct stealth operations against him?

Perhaps she’d changed her plans partway through. Perhaps she’d wanted to give him something to worry about. Or perhaps she was just one of those mercurial individuals who never really made plans in the first place, much less stuck to them. Daro had known a few like that in his time. They always drove him absolutely mad.

Regardless, he needed to go check on things now.

Or. No. Wait a moment. Did he truly need to do that? Wouldn’t that be precisely what his unseen opponent would expect him to do? And even if not, doing so might alert them that he was onto their game.

Yes. The smarter move, therefore, would be to either play along or do something completely unpredictable. And besides, he had confidence in his work. The weaves were strong. They could resist tremendous efforts to damage or otherwise tamper with them. Not to mention, none of the perimeter sensors had alerted him to any unexpected visitors. And while that was hardly proof of security, he had spent considerable labor upgrading those sensors himself.

He should have more faith in himself, he decided. If he panicked over every little wrinkle, he wouldn’t last through another year of this secrecy, let alone ten.

What to do with this Water Dragon, though? The man was giving him a look like he was expecting to receive terrible news. Not assuming that Daro was actually going to help him, eh? Sensible. From what Daro had learned of the Rainlords’ recent exploits, they must’ve been growing quite accustomed to things never going their way.

On this day, however, Daro was pleased to surprise. “Very well. I shall help you.”

And the ensuing expression on Zeff Elroy’s face was as enjoyable as Daro expected. “...You will?” said Zeff.

Daro turned and began walking. “Follow me,” he said as he reached into his vest for a pair of devices. A Remapper and Needle, as he’d dubbed them.

The Remapper was a messy cluster of metallic circles connected by thin, flexible rods. To the untrained eye, it probably looked like some of kind of monstrous, janitorial key ring--which wouldn’t be entirely inaccurate.

The Needle, however, looked very little like its namesake. It was more akin to a baton with a sturdy handle, though the mechanical tip did conceal a few sharp points within it.