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For one thing, just knowing that his kin were still stuck in Miro was kind of a downer. It was tough to relax even for a moment when he knew that he could've been working, instead. Time was precious, after all.

And for another thing, the city itself seemed to have changed. It had become significantly tenser, Raul thought. At first, he thought that the battle at Miro might somehow be responsible for this shift, but he soon learned otherwise.

It was the RPMP. The Ridgemark Private Military Police. They had begun openly clashing with the VMP near the city limits. And as a result, the RPMP's presence within the city had increased dramatically.

They were worried about spies and saboteurs.

Plus, there were both Vanguardian and Abolish forces in the city, too. They weren't fighting, but that was only because of the RPMP. If that grip loosened, then Ridgemark would almost certainly turn into a battleground, too.

All things considered, it was a nutty situation, Raul knew. Four different armies, all in such close proximity. Five, including the Rainlords. How the RPMP had managed to keep the peace this long, Raul had no idea. It was certainly impressive, though.

And to top it off, the city was still accepting tourists like everything was fine. Every casino Raul visited was packed with people, even more than he remembered.

It was not, however, merely due to his own skill as an intelligence gatherer that he was able to learn so much about the difficult situation in Ridgemark, at the moment. That had been part of it, of course, but he couldn't rightly ignore the more obvious reason.

The RPMP had made contact with him directly.

He didn't actually get complete confirmation that it was them, but it was the only thing that made any sense. Of the other three factions in the city, only Abolish might have been able to identify him at all, and even that was unlikely. He had almost never removed Invisibility during the fighting.

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But then again, nothing had really gone the way it was supposed to ever since they arrived in this crazy land. Originally, they'd only been sent to gather information on the Sword of Unso and possibly retrieve it. But then the war broke out, and they were suddenly tasked with checking on the little town of Miro. Then his brothers were captured. Then reinforcements arrived to help him rescue them. Then a rather secretive group of strangers appeared and gave them aberration-harvested Invisibility rings.

And even after all the action they'd seen, even after recovering his brothers Adan and Esai, the stalemate over Miro had not changed.

That was why they had decided to adjust their tactics. The Blackburn Triplets had been tasked with gathering intel again while the rest of the group remained behind to hold Miro.

It was a risk, of course. The Lady Evangelina Stroud had not seemed terribly pleased with the idea, and Raul couldn't exactly fault her for it, either, considering two of them had gotten captured before. She had every reason to be worried about a repeat of that scenario.

But it was still the right move, Raul felt, and he was glad his elders had decided to go for it. The Triplets weren't all that useful in holding Miro. That was largely up to Leo and Cousin Melchor. The brothers' talents were better utilized this way.

And he didn't just feel that way because it had let him return to Ridgemark for a few days and enjoy a bit more of that luxury. That had certainly been a nice bonus, though, after camping under the stars almost every night and participating in pitched battles with a bunch of violent psychopaths.

Sadly, Ridgemark had proved more difficult to indulge in this time.

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Between that and all the talk about patience being "not merely a virtue but a liberating necessity," about "Young Hector" being a "budding Gartanas," and about "time not being time," Abbas didn't know where his own mind was, right now. Perhaps the smartest thing to do would be to lay down on that ancient bed over there and have Worwal knock him out.

The thought was certainly tempting. Maybe the world would make sense again after he woke up.

Wishful thinking, most likely.

No, he wanted to hear what Hector had to say after he returned from his "journey" through the Forge. That was more important than his fatigue.

Ugh. He had so many questions, but they were all muddled together in his mind. If nothing else, he would have to begin studying--

Hmm?

What was that?

A light in the Forge. Within the glass orb, it was faint but there.

And it was sustaining itself, too. Not like before, when it had only flickered and sputtered.

Abbas stood up slowly, eyes unblinking as he took in the scene before him.

The Forge had reactivated.

-+-+-+-+-

Raul Blackburn sure hoped this was going to work.

It probably would, he kept telling himself. He just had to keep his head. To stay alert. With Invisibility as his disposal, the chance of failure here was virtually zero.

In theory.

The VMP couldn't possibly have any Invisibility-penetrating detection technology on their hands yet, right? This power was still too new. Abolish might have developed their own countermeasures for it already, but from all the intel he'd been gathering over the last several days, the VMP and Abolish were not directly working together in that way.

Phew.

If someone had told him a day ago that he would be single-handedly breaking into a heavily fortified compound belonging to the Vantalay Military Police, he would have told them they were insane.

This had not been part of the plan, to say the very least of things.