The following morning, Will and Alyss walked briskly through the town on the way to the castle. Everyone else involved in the previous night's events had already been planning to stay at the castle, and Jenny was gifted emergency lodging by the Baron. He had a debt to pay her from all the food he had enjoyed from her kitchens, so it wasn't difficult for Alyss to coerce him into giving her rooms for a few days until they had everything figured out.

Jenny was understandably distraught from the night's tragedies and everyone thought she shouldn't have to go home alone. Well, she wasn't technically alone. She and Gilan had been seeing each other unofficially for years now. They hadn't announced anything yet, but they were well known by most as a couple. As soon as he heard what had happened, he had sent a letter that he was on his way. They all knew Jenny would feel a lot better when she was with him.

Will and Alyss walked down the main road, the sun rising over their shoulders and the birds singing, much too beautiful of a day after what had just happened. They both paused as they passed by the ruins of the restaurant, squeezing their joined hands. More than half of it had been burned to the ground, and the other half was too damaged to be salvageable. It would have to be rebuilt from scratch. Smoke drifted over the town, and the entire village and castle had woken up to the news. Everyone within a ten-kilometer radius knew about the arson, and had their own rumors about why it had started and what the Rangers had done about it. Will hid his face in his cowl on several occasions to avoid the whispers from early risers in the town as they walked towards the castle.

A few moments later, when Will and Alyss had climbed the steps to the Baron's office and had just passed over the threshold, nodding a tired greeting to Halt, Pauline, and Horace, Jenny once again seemed to appear out of nowhere and flung herself into Will's arms. "Will, oh god, I'm so sorry about last night, I'm so sorry!" She was barely holding back her tears, shaking and obviously exhausted. Her eyes were sunken and her skin pale, still a bit swollen from crying. It was all perfectly understandable - her entire world had been turned upside down in a matter of minutes, all while being threatened with a knife and then an explosive. And even after Will managed to help her escape with her life, her entire livelihood had now burned to the ground. She probably didn't sleep all night, and hadn't eaten, so she was emotionally raw and destroyed. Her feelings, and the way she expressed them, were completely justified, and Will and everyone else in the room felt only sympathy and remorse for her.

But Will felt more than just simple sympathy. To be perfectly frank, he felt absolutely terrible about what had happened. He had sworn to himself that he'd be able to stop the fire before it happened, that he could save the restaurant. And then everything had stated burning, and he knew he had failed. He had spent the rest of the evening feeling like a complete and utter failure, like the worst Ranger to ever exist. Not because of the burned building, not really. Because he had broken a promise he had made to himself, and he had been unable to help his friend. Seeing Jenny and everything she had spent her life building destroyed had the same effect on Will - it was destroying him, too.

He sighed heavily, hugging her back, supporting her and she trembled against him while unsuccessfully holding back sobs. "It's alright, Jenny, you don't have to apologize, you didn't do anything wrong. If there's anyone who should apologize, it's me - "

"No, don't you dare apologize to me! You saved my damn life! You saved my staff's lives too! You saved everyone and I'll never be able to thank you." She stepped back, a flash of anger in her red-rimmed eyes making Will raise his hands in defeat.

"I was just doing my job, no need to thank me. I'd do it all again any day. But Jenny, I really am sorry." He let his head hang a little, pressing his lips together to hold back a stream of self-pity.

Halt, watching this dramatic reunion finally end, raised his eyebrows at Will questioningly. "Will, I'm sorry to interrupt you both, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd like to hear what happened last night. Would you mind filling us in?"

Will straightened and nodded. "Yes, sorry Halt. Tell me what you all saw, and then Jenny and I will fill in the gaps."

Halt recounted what he, Horace, Pauline, and Alyss had witnessed, with the sudden departure of the staff and the smell of smoke, then the flames, and their exit. When he finished, Jenny nodded to Will, letting him tell their story.

"I saw the stone in the pot. An exact replica of the original. I knew I didn't have much time to catch the woman I saw before she either escaped or set fire to the place, so I bolted for the kitchen, following the trail of the woman. There I found her threatening Jenny and the staff with a knife and a large bottle of kerosene."

"Interesting. Kerosene, and not magic. Good to know," Horace said, cracking a mocking smile. They all remembered the King of Celtica's manic words about magic and creating fire out of thin air.

Will raised an eyebrow. "I will say, the oil must have been spiked with something extra, explosive or otherwise, because I've never seen kerosene burn that hot that quickly. But we don't have a way to ever know that for certain, so we'll let it go for now." He bit his lip, already feeling worse as he knew he had to admit what had happened. "It tried my best to get her to talk, I stalled her for as long as I could. I even got her to let the rest of Jenny's staff leave quietly while I spoke to her, but in the end I couldn't get close enough to stop her. She let Jenny go, but threw the oil all across the room and then into the large cooking fires, making the whole place erupt into flames. Jenny and I had to crawl our way out the back door."

Will knew he sounded crushed. He felt like a huge weight was being pressed down on his chest. A cool hand gently grasped his, and when he looked down, he saw it was Alyss. She was looking at him, her face expertly calm, but her eyes revealed her fear lurking under the surface. Will knew her well enough that she would speak to him later about it, but it pained him all the same to see it.

"I never thought about it until now, but we would have been drenched in the oil if Will hadn't pulled us under a table, and then we would have... exploded," Jenny said softly.

"Good thing Will did." Halt nodded at his apprentice grimly in approval.

Will barely even reacted to the praise. He wanted to get this story over with. "When Jenny and I got out the back door, I sent her around the side to meet you all, and I hid for a while, waiting for the woman to make a break for the trees. When she did, I ran after her, she led me around to the front, and that's where you all saw the rest."

After everything calmed down, since Halt already lived in the castle, he had been more than happy to volunteer to speak to the woman, since interrogation was one of his favorite past times, even in retirement. "I spoke to her earlier this morning, she shared some information with me, but a few facts she refused to say. I wanted to wait until I resorted to more... desperate measures until you all had heard it from her." He gestures to the door gallantly. " To the dungeons we go."

The group filed down the stairs, and then down again, and then down once more until they had reached the lowest level of the castle.

They wove between the cells until they reached the very last one, where the only thing lighting the cool darkness were a few small torches. The woman lay in the corner, her cloak covered in a mixture of mud and her own blood crumpled underneath her. Will started in surprise and as he saw his arrow still embedded deeply into her shoulder. "Halt, wasn't she treated for her wounds?"

"I had the guards wait. I figured she deserved to be treated once she told us what we needed to know." Halt's eyes glittered under his cowl in an all too familiar way. This was why Will always let Halt do these things, he enjoyed them immensely. Although sometimes, it was possibly a bit too much. But Will couldn't do much about it now, the damage had been done. May as well take advantage of the chance now, he thought. She did try to burn me alive, after all, she doesn't deserve my sympathy or kindness.

"Tell them what you told me," Halt ordered her sharply.

She spoke softly, but quickly, her eyes glued to the floor. She clearly understood that she shouldn't waste anyone's time here. None of them were inclined to keep her alive. "I was sent by Esus to seal our ceremony with a sacrifice. He demanded many lives, so I selected the building with the most people inside it. I was only supposed to throw the bottle in the fire and then leave. They told me nothing else."

"What was in the bottle?" Will asked.

The woman looked up at them all, pausing as her eyes met Will's. "Kerosene, and something else that... someone else put in."

"Who?" Halt almost shouted.

"I will not say!" She tried to scream it, but she was too weak from blood loss and it came out as more of a croak.

"Are you a druid?" Will watched her eyes widen at his knowledge of the word.

"How do you know about that?"

"Are you?"

She shook her head, looking down at the floor again, but didn't answer him.

"Who sent you here?"

She shook her head again. It seemed she had closed herself off.

Halt turned to Will and spoke softly, but pitching his voice in the right way so that the woman could still hear it. "Will, don't you think it might be a good time to take that arrow out of her? We'd hate for her to bleed to death before she could answer our questions," he suggested mildly.

He unlocked her cell door and started to reach down towards the arrow, but Will stopped him. "Perhaps I should do it. It's my arrow, after all. I would like it back in one piece."

Halt saw the gleam in his apprentice's eye and stepped back to allow him into the cell.

Will crouched down next to the woman, the tip of his longbow brushing against the floor. "Here's how this will work. I shot this arrow at close range from a very powerful bow. It's probably managed to pass clean through your shoulder and has gotten caught on it's way out. I can remove it from behind, or I can pull it out the way it went in." He removed a clean arrow from his quiver, holding up the razor-sharp head between the two of them. "See how it's barbed? If I pull it out the way it came in, it will hurt badly. It's like tearing a wider hole in your shoulder. The other way will be much smoother and faster, and you won't damage your wound any further. Do you see where this is going?" He put the clean arrow away. "If you answer our questions, the arrow will come out quickly and we'll patch you right up. You'll be well on your way in just a few hours. But if you refuse, well," he smiled slightly, but it never reached his eyes. "You'll tell us eventually, it'll just hurt a lot more."

Halt watched in pride as his apprentice's comments made the woman's eyes widen significantly. She started begging, "Please, please don't," but she didn't offer any answers to their questions.

Will's hand flashed forward, grabbing hold of the long arrow, but not pulling. Not yet. "This is your last chance. Are you a druid? Who sent you? Where are you planning to burn next?"

"I can't, you have to understand, I can't tell you! They'll excommunicate me!"

Will let his eyes soften. "I know, but you also have to understand that I'm trying to save lives here. You don't matter more than the innocent Araluens you and your people have already murdered for your own purposes. So tell us, please." He took his hand off the arrow, his voice softening now too. "I don't want to have to hurt you. I'm like you, I don't want to hurt people or upset the balance of nature with senseless killing. Please."

Her head hung down, but this time it was in defeat. Her hand slowly raised itself to her collar, where she winced as she pulled aside some of her clothing. A tattoo, a dark marking on her skin, with ancient Celtic symbols sat above her collar bone on her wrinkled skin. The biggest marking was a swirl of black ink in dark bold lines.

"I am a druid. I have no idea how you know that, but I am." She pointed to her tattoo. "This swirl is the mark of all druids, no matter who they worship. But these," she gestured to the many smaller markings, "These represent the different gods I have served in my lifetime."

"Do you have powers?" Will asked softly, quiet enough that only she could hear him. Halt frowned at this, trying to lean forward to hear him, but gave up.

She shook her head. "I do not have magic, not like Llewellyn. She is the only one in our grove, our tribe, that has been blessed by Esus."

Will's head jerked up at the name. "Llewellyn? Who is that?"

"She is the co-leader of our grove, along with another man who calls himself Afanen. He does not have powers, but he has divine guidance from Esus. He is the one who chooses the place, and Llewellyn sees that it is done. She gave me the bottle, and sent me to this town to finish our sacrifice."

She must be the one who can control the fire, like the King said. "How can I find both of them?"

She swallowed. "They wander the forests near where they can make sacrifices. I don't know this area well, I don't know exactly where they were, I swear."

Will nodded. "I believe you. We'll find them ourselves, they can't be far." He reached into his pocket, revealing the stone. "And who is the wicker man?"

She shook her head. "It is the symbol selected by Afanen to mark the places were we burn sacrifices. I do not know its meaning, but he can tell you. It is a closely kept secret." 

As Will stood to leave, Jenny, supported by Alyss, came closer to the cell bars. She reached out and wrapped her fingers around a bar, steadying herself, before saying, "Why did you try to hurt me? Why not let us leave and burn my diner after?"

The woman looked genuinely sorry. "I had to make certain there would be sacrifices. Esus does not accept anything without bloodshed." She wrung her hands in her lap, wincing from the pain her shoulder. "I am truly sorry about your restaurant. You seem like a good person and you did not deserve that. I should have chosen a different building."

Jenny stepped away, shaking her head wordlessly. They locked the woman back in her cell, and after ordering the guards to tend to her wounds, they started up the stairs again, in a silent parade as the group considered everything she had said.

Will ascended the stairs last, after Alyss, and one of the guards who had begun tending to the woman called to him. "Ranger Will, would you like us to retrieve your arrow for you?" 

Will shook his head, his lips twitching at the gruesomeness of actually keeping that arrow, all covered and stained in blood and flesh. "No, burn it, toss it, just get rid of it. And take it out of her cleanly, she's endured enough pain." 

Then he turned sharply and followed the others up the stairs. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Only a few hours later, just before lunch, Will and Horace were in the courtyard accompanied by everyone else to see them off. They had all agreed that finding this tribe, wherever they were, and forcing them to see reason and leave would be their best option. Or at the very least, their objective would be to stop further fires from happening. The way that result was achieved was left to Will and Horace's discretion, and they would send messages on their progress over the next few days.

Alyss held her husband's gloved hands between hers, looking into his eyes. She did not want him to leave, but they both knew he had to. Halt and Pauline would let her stay in their guest suite so she wasn't alone, and she had plans to meet Cassandra when she arrived at Redmont later that day, along with comforting Jenny and helping her start planning to rebuild her restaurant. All in all, it was going to be a busy day and she would have plenty to distract herself. But for now, it still wasn't enough.

Pregnancy had made her clingy. She hated it, but she couldn't help it. She felt mildly sick in the mornings now, something Will helped her soothe by making her tea the minute she awoke. She would miss having his arms around her as they slept, and his cups of tea, his warm hands rubbing her back. But this wasn't a long trip, he would be back in a few days at most. So why was she so overly concerned about his absence?

She didn't know.

Something felt off about this whole situation. Someone was lying, she could tell. Whether it was the mysterious woman, the King of Celtica, she couldn't be sure. But somebody was, she could feel it in her bones, and it terrified her. 

Because lying, in this case, meant someone was going to die.

And that someone could not be Will. She simply would not allow it. 

She could not bear it.

"Be careful," she said, and rested her hand on his face, running her thumb across the brown stubble that covered his cheeks. He was trying out a beard these days, with some success. So far, she thought he looked alright. If it got longer, she wasn't so sure.

"I always am." His wonderful warm smile reached into her very soul. He gently kissed her, and then his face grew worried.

Ah yes, she thought, the conversation I was expecting.

"Alyss, you know I would never tell you what to do. I trust you and your independence, and I will never tell you how to live your life, no matter the circumstances." His eyes dropped to the ground and he pursed his lips.

Alyss hid a smile. He's nervous. How adorable.

"But I just want you to be careful. Stay with Evanlyn, and Halt and Pauline, they'll be able to help you and maybe even keep you safe, if the need were to arise. Remember, the King of Celtica and his entire group of dignitaries are still in Araluen, only a few hours ride from here. We don't know what's going on here yet, not really, and I don't trust them. So please, stay safe, that's all I ask." He let out a long breath, as if he was relieved that he had finally said that to her face.

Alyss only smiled. "Of course I will. I understand the risks, and I understand why I need to stay safe." She hugged him tightly. "We will meet our child soon, and everything will be okay. Even this, all this madness, shall pass."

Will murmured into her shoulder, "In eight months, we'll have forgotten all of this, and we'll be able to hold the baby in our arms."

"We will."

He swung up on his horse. "I love you." She could see in his eyes that he didn't want to leave her. He did this every time, no matter how excited he was to go off on another mission. It was endearing, to say the least.

"I love you. Come home soon, don't do anything stupid."

"No promises. Stay safe."

She waved to Horace, and the pair clopped off down the drawbridge, quickly kicking up to a trot and disappearing from sight.

She watched the empty trees for a few minutes, savoring the silence, painting the image in her mind of Will's safe return and her reunion with him as he swung down and held her in his arms once again.

"My Lady?"

A voice, one she did not recognize, greeted her, snapping her out of her dazed state. She turned, and saw the seal of the Celtic King on his vest. But it was not the King.

It was the younger man who had fiercely protected the King in the courtyard when he had first arrived. She still remembered his name, it was Athol. He was the one who had tried to cleave Will in half with his massive sword. She only nodded at him, reluctant to give him an audience after what he had tried to do. 

He pushed on even when she didn't answer him. "My Lady, do you know Ranger Will?"

She wondered if he was just clueless, or if he truly hadn't been watching them only a few minutes before, and quickly smoothed her face as she finally met his eyes. "He is my husband, yes. What do you want?"

He looked uncertainly from right to left, and then back at her. His hands trembled almost imperceptibly in front of him. But Alyss was a Courier, she thrived off the imperceptible.

"I have information you may want to hear. It's about the King."

"King Carr?" Alyss raised an eyebrow. The fierce warrior that was prepared to defend his king with his life is now offering information behind his back? What kind of game is he playing?

"Yes. There is a secret uprising against him the court. They mean to rebel."

Alyss wasn't sure she could believe a word he was saying. "Rebel?"

"They want to kill him."