Anzael recognized most of the people in the room from the times they had watched the scrying mirror. An he found himself working through them with simple monikers. Friend, annoying human male friend, father, dangerous snapping elf friend, woman friend, fighter he didn't know and stinking mess in the corner. The mess seemed to be creeping towards the far side of the room.

They had planned to do this a little more smoothly, diplomatically even, but at some point Vasha had suddenly drawn his weapons and changed course, yelling something about danger. They followed the crystal here to the palace, half prepared to be dealing with seeing Verana betrayed, under attack, fighting for her life.

Eliminate the threats, that was their current mission.

But she wasn't here.

Instead they met a loose group defensive full of angry, dangerous faces, most of which were human. He had to tell himself that until they knew what had happened, they would be in a stand off and there was no need to injure anyone. He couldn't fight, not yet. He didn't know what the threats were, and if all else failed, he would have to hunt down his Princess before killing the rest of them if he needed to.

Or after. Maybe he could kill them and find the Princess afterwards.

The little one who had nearly shot them with arrows in the mountain pass, her father, stepped forwards, lowering his blades ever so slightly. The man seemed to know enough about Vayans to signal his willingness to talk before he spoke, his words rusty, but accurate. "We are not your enemies. But you need to move out of our way. We do not have time."

"Where is Nama Veranandein?" Pharos growled in return and in a different situation it would be amusing.

Anzael had put together enough that Pharos considered the girl a daughter, even without a blood bond and he was growling at the girl's actual father, who probably did not know who Pharos was any more than Pharos knew who the angry little sprite was. Anzael knew his humour was inappropriate but he watched the two dangerous men square off on one another for a long moment with a growing sense of amusement.

Did they know each other? He wasn't sure, but he didn't think so.

The man's eyes narrowed for a moment, teeth baring sharply in challenge. "That is what you're getting in the way of. We need to go find her."

Anzael heard Vasha growl, low and dangerously and as he glanced around the room, he saw the five of his group tense. But at a signal from their Crown Prince, they shifted they stances from fight to talk, but him... he was interested in the moving pile of excrement that continued to inch further and further along the floor. Anzael followed the filth casually as he listened to the conversation.

"Find her where?" Vasha sometimes wasn't known for his intelligent statements and Anzael locked that one away for another time, when they could laugh victoriously about each other's mistakes.

If she was missing, they wouldn't know where she was, silly Prince.

One of the humans said something, and there was a pause before the Feysha man responded in Vayan. " She was taken. We believe they've already gone out to sea. Let us go find her, come with us if you will, but we need to go... now."

Pharos glanced to Vasha, giving his son a hard look, drawing out the reluctant agreement from the Prince. "Alright."

With that simple statement, the five of them sheathed their swords and stepped back. With a nod from the one the humans fashioned a king, one of the other men sheathed his blades and sprinted out the door.

As the portal closed in front of him, Anzael put one foot down on the creature that turned out to be a human coated in sewage, stopping him from sneaking out of the room as the Feysha translated. "He said that his ships will be ready to sail in minutes and that we best follow him. How good are you at hunting boats?"

Unconcerned over the tactics that he'd be filled in on later, Anzael crouched down by the creature, grabbing him by the back of the neck and hefting him up into the air. After wrinkling his nose at the smell, he carried him squealing and kicking back towards the group. "What is this thing?"

"If you tell us what the ship looks like, or if she's visible from the air, we can find her... otherwise, we wouldn't know where to start." Pharos offered before glancing towards Anzael, giving him a hard look. "Whatever it is, put him down."

The Feyshan that wasn't the Princess' father, the snapping elf, nodded, and glanced towards Anzael and offered a shrug, managing in broken Vayan. "He was involved in the plot. He did tell us what was going on but not before it was too late. And not willingly"

"Anzael, how about you air him out, and then put him down." Vasha grinned darkly to him, nodding towards the window.

Despite their stunned silence, Anzael felt the eyes of the humans on him as he carried the human to the window and leapt into the air with him in one hand. He lifted above the castle ramparts with a few beats of his wings, clearing his lungs of the smell of the creature in his arms.

He supposed he should feel slightly guilty, listening to the man scream in terror as he carried him higher and higher, until the air was thin and they couldn't see the ground for the cloud cover. But Anzael had a rather simple moral code. Anyone who threatened his family did not deserve a second's thought.

"Good bye, filth." Anzael ducked his head to whisper in the man's ear, silencing him.

After a few seconds of silence, his cargo began begging and pleading for mercy. But Anzael merely let go of the creature, before turning and diving back toward the palace.

He wheeled through the air, hearing screams of humans as he swept overhead towards where the group of humans, Feysha and his Brethren were making their way from the Palace.

Instead of landing and walking with the rest of them, he continued to glide overhead, providing overwatch as they moved down to the giant ship that was waiting in the water below.

From his vantage he could see smaller ships racing out to sea, fanning out in all directions, and he circled, looking for any sign of their sister. He flew for several minutes, circling above before realizing he wouldn't know the first thing to look for, other than her brilliantly coloured wings.

Anzael sighed and glided back to the deck of the ship, landing beside his Prince and shaking his head.

This wasn't going to be a simple mission.

Watching Pharos pacing the deck and pointedly ignoring the Princess' father, he wondered if it was going to break out into violence before they found the bastard humans they were hunting.