Hannah squealed as she peered over the basket of puppies and witnessed Eagle raising his swords over Brant's throat. She put a hand to her chest and watched, frozen in place.

She finally released her breath as Baird raced forward with his own sword poised to strike. He slashed deep into Eagle's back. Droplets of blood leapt up from the wound while electrical sparks danced around the blade. Audible agony poured from the other swordsman's roaring mouth.

Eagle leapt off of Brant and steadied his stance to ward off Baird's next series of blows. With clenched teeth, he leapt up and kicked Baird in the chest. He gasped and stumbled back into a row of wind chimes. Just as his backward momentum concluded, his foot caught on a plank of wood, recently fallen from a nearby cart. He dropped to his hindquarters.

After a moment, Baird brushed himself off and leapt to his feet. Before he could fully fortify his stance, Brant grasped his shoulders and shoved him down again. "Stop trying to get involved!" he shouted.

Baird glared up from the dirt. "Who just saved your ungrateful—"

"You. Needlessly." Brant replied as he snatched up an iron canoe paddle from a nearby shack.

Brant shifted his eyes forward just in time to block a pair of devastating blows from Eagle. He used the connection between the opposing weapons to shove his opponent backwards. Immediately, he followed up that move with a blow to the head with the paddle's heavy blade.

Eagle wiped his bloody mouth with his hand. "Deserving as you are of death, I have more important matters to attend to."

"No you don't." Brant retorted as he glanced around, "You just wanna dart out because the police are closing in."

"You're mistaken." Eagle said, "I only realize that I could never bring myself to kill you. My brother. The only brother I've ever had, even if you've now forsaken me." He wiped his eyes. "So I'm gonna find someone who can. For your own sake, Brant, run! Run and hide, and never let us find you, because we have no choice but to kill you, if we ever see you again!"

With that, Eagle spun on his heel and dashed off. He wove in and out of the thronging multitude as he made his escape.

"Does a god run?" he shouted after the blond escapee, exhaling visibly when he received no reply.

Hannah bit her lip and puzzled to herself whether Brant's words were directed at Eagle, himself, or perhaps both. Brushing it aside, she finally stepped out into the open and tightened her lips upon meeting Brant's gaze. For once, she had no smile to give him, or anyone, for that matter. The events stirring around her proved an overwhelming hurricane, beyond both her control and comprehension.

"Congratulations," Baird spoke suddenly from where he stood a few yards behind Brant, "You got him to run away. How's it feel to reject help and waste our time?"

"I didn't need your help!" Brant snapped, "I was doing fine!"

"Oh, so that's what you call having a blade pressed to your throat, back in whatever hole you crawled out of. 'Fine'. Duly—"

Brant snarled and took a quick step closer to Baird with a clenched fist. "One more word out of you, and I swear..." he finished the statement with a grunt.

"Well, there's a bright side to all this!" Hannah interjected, her tone cheery, but her face failing to match.

"Yeah. Nobody's dead." Baird remarked bitterly.

"Well, there's dat, and also—" Hannah began, before a beeping in her pocket snatched her attention away. She slipped her communicator from her pocket, and a genuine grin spread across her lips. "Aaron's callin'!"

Baird smirked. "I guess that is a bright side."

Hannah smiled at his remark before pressing the button to accept the call. "Aaron! Hannah here! How are ya?"

Aaron coughed on the other end of the line. "Pretty good, in general, but my masculinity's been challenged again."

Hannah giggled. "And what do ya mean by dat?"

"Well, remember that Falcon dude, the god of vision and something or the other?"

"Of course! He's standin' right next to me!" she replied, glancing pleasantly up into Brant's questioning blue eyes.

"Yeah, of course. Anyway, we fought someone of similar caliber just now, and I'm just like, I thought I was strong, but boy oh boy, these guys—"

Brant perked up and stepped closer to the communicator in Hannah's hand. "What did this man look like?"

"Hey dude, what's up with you?"

"I'm asking you a question, is what's up. Now answer!"

"Okay, geez," Aaron replied through his laughter, "so this dude had pretty dark skin, so he's probably Forbachean or Elwenite, maybe even Jasmidianite, and he had spiky black hair. Should I mention he was buff? Like about as buff as you, but a bit more—"

"I get the picture." Brant snapped, "You just faced Albatross, god of endurance."

Aaron snorted. "I can definitely get behind that belief. Nothing fazed that guy!"

"That's the point. Why'd you engage him in the first place?"

"Well, this dude we picked up along the way, Ace, he had this stone he picked up. It was shaped like a skull and kinda glowed red out of the eye sockets—"

Brant inhaled sharply. "The Indomitable Skull of Belaran!"

"Yeah...maybe that's it, I dunno. Anyway, the Albatross guy came up and started trying to steal the stone from Ace, and so we tried to stop him. And honestly—"

"Did you succeed? Did he get it?"

Aaron sighed. "Can you stop interrupting? Yes, he got it. He was too strong, and I didn't have my gear. If I had it, then that'd be another story, but yeah, he made off with it."

"Funny enough," Hannah interjected, "we just had a run-in with one of those gods, ourselves."

"Boy, the world's just crawling with them at this point! Which one did you guys find?"

"Eagle, god of blades." Brant answered.

"And what was his deal?"

Hannah paused for a second. "He wanted this gem from a necklace I had. It's a long story."

"Huh, well, unfortunately, I don't have time for long stories, because my battery's almost up."

"Oh, gotcha." Hannah replied, "Well, how'd your meetin' with the Danlashian government go?"

"Let me ask Wendy." Aaron said, and after a second's pause, he added, "She says she's 'bloody gutted' about the whole thing. You guys are still in Antapeño?"

"We are!"

"Alright, we'll probably make our way there."

"Okey dokey!" Hannah replied, "I'll see ya soon!"

"Yep. Hope everything's..."

Aaron's voice became lost in crackles, and then silence overtook their call. Hannah sighed and slipped the communicator back into her pocket.

Baird cleared his throat as he held up the basket of ulaetia eggs. "Well, I think we've kept Abby waiting long enough, don't you?"

Hannah nodded vigorously. "Oh yeah, I reckon we should head back!"

With that, the three trudged back down the path that led to Baird's home. They walked in silence most of the way.

********************

About an hour later, Baird, Abigail, Hannah, Brant, and Khemera had eaten breakfast. Now, Baird and Hannah helped Abigail clean up the kitchen, while Brant meditated outside and Khemera listened to the radio out in the living room.

Baird turned to Hannah, handing her a wet plate. "Do you have any idea what's up with Princess Chariya?"

Hannah shook her head as she took the plate and rubbed a warm towel over it. "No clue. I know she slept in the Butterfly last night, since you guys only had two rooms, but I ain't seen or heard from her since."

"That's strange." Baird remarked, falling into silence for a moment. "She wouldn't just up and leave, would she?"

"I don't think so. Chariya's too goal-oriented for dat." Hannah sighed, "I never did tell ya 'bout the base in Jasmidian, did I?"

"You didn't."

"Well, after ya went upstairs for the night, she tried to contact them for an update. Problem was, they never responded. Brant thinks they couldn't respond."

Baird slowly nodded. "Oh, that would make sense. So she's distraught about it, more than likely."

"I think so. She does a lot of prayin' when she's in distress, sometimes excessively." Hannah bit her lip, snapping back into the moment as she realized a pile of wet plates had accumulated. As she snatched one up, she said, "So anyways, I think she's gonna be all the more adamant to get this support from Antapeño, since she ain't gettin' any more from Jasmidian, and the forces she did have there are prolly dead."

"That makes sense." Baird said, grinning at Abigail when she planted a random kiss on his cheek. He turned back to Hannah and opened his mouth to say something more, but the doorbell rung and snatched his attention away. "I'll get that."

He placed the soapsud-covered spatula back in the sink and strode over to the door. He peeked through the peephole and upon sighting Chariya, with her ten-man force standing behind her, he swung the entryway open.

Baird tightened his lips as he took in her face in greater detail. She stared up at him with reddened eyes, framed by baggy eyelids. Her cheeks also appeared flushed.

He mustered a small smile. "Good morning, your highness. C'mon in."

Chariya wiped her nose with her sleeve. "Thank you." she peeped.

Baird nodded. After a moment's hesitation, he placed a hand on her upper back and guided her into the living room. "Just make yourself comfortable, and I can make you some tea, if you'd like, too."

The princess nodded. "That would be nice, thank you."

"Of course. Oh, and I think you'd be glad to hear that Aaron and his party are on their way here."

Chariya's eyes brightened somewhat. "I am glad at that news. How did their meeting with the Council go?"

Baird bit his lip and silently debated over how to answer. She has enough on her plate. "He said he'd give us the 'full scoop' when he gets here." he finally replied with a smile.

"I shall eagerly await it."

"Me too." he replied with a courteous laugh. "Well, I'd better go get that tea for you. Feel free to sit with Khemera, if you so desire."

Chariya nodded. "Every day, my countrymen prove dearer and dearer to my heart."

"A beautiful sentiment." Baird said before stepping away to the kitchen. He could only hope that Aaron's return would bring her enough joy to outweigh the bad news he would bring with him.

********************

A/N: Good morning, people! (Or evening, afternoon, whatever.) I hope you enjoyed that chapter, and if so, please remember to vote and comment. And also, don't go anywhere if you have a few minutes, because I'm gonna be posting chapter 14 right after this one.

In fact, I don't have any questions burning in my mind to ask ya'll, so I guess I'll just cut it here. I'll get onto posting the next one as promised.