"Sit down now, and enjoy your food," said Dyfrig.

"Thank you," Xavier smiled before leaving with his plate to find a spot to sit.

"You let them take Aalyssa?" Wulfsen asked.

The men all jumped to their feet. The lead man, Tristan, lowered his head. "We did try to intervene, but they had some of the Portside guard with the who said we had no jurisdiction to stop them. The Portside Captain said all of their papers were in order and he would have no cause to delay them, my lord."

"Papers?" Wulfsen exclaimed. "Aalyssa did nothing wrong! Where did they take her?"

"Yes, sir," Tristan said. "They had a writ from the King of Hazewood and wanted posters, that she was wanted for treason. They were returning her to Hazewood for her punishment from the King there."

"Like hell they are!" Wulfsen shouted. "Xavier- Gather a dozen volunteers to retrieve Aalyssa."

"I will gather them. We'll need paperwork of some sort declaring she has sanctuary," Xavier said. "I'll be back shortly."


He headed out to the training area.

Wulfsen nodded. He was furious that those men so easily let them take Aalyssa.

Tristan was chagrined, but without any sort of paperwork or insignia of the throne, he hadn't felt they had the legs to stand on to stop it. Besides, those elves were much larger than he and the men were, and armed to the teeth.

Dyfrig quickly parcelled up some cured meat and bread for the party to take with them.

The awkward young woman followed Sileas into the kitchen.

Sileas found Oscar. "Come along, Oscar. I have a few things to take care of so I'm going to ask my aunt and uncle to watch over you for awhile."

"I can wotch meself." Oscar said.

"I realize you think you can, but you're not familiar with this area or the people. Plus there are possibly some bad people around and I would feel better knowing you are under the care of someone I trust."

Oscar pointed at Bai. "He didn't 'ave boobs wen 'e were up 'ere before."

Sileas blushed as red as her hair. "That is not something you need to be worrying about, young man. Come along and meet Aunt Aislyn and Uncle Nelek."

"They're real and evryfink! 'ow'd that 'appen, isit? Is that gonna 'appen ter me, then, eh? I like bein' a boy! Blimey!" Oscar continued.

Bai felt even more awkward. He blushed too.

"You have nothing to worry about, Oscar, that won't happen to you. Now, stop embarrassing family and come along."

"Yer better be right." Oscar said sulkily, moving to leave the kitchen.

Sileas pressed her lips together to stifle her laugh. Short of someone casting a spell on him to turn him into a girl, Oscar was indeed in absolutely no danger of turning female. She headed for the healing room where her aunt and uncle were residing.

In the bustle of preparations for the wedding feast, an entire stack of dishes had been tipped and shattered on the floor.

Ila was keeping her head down. There had been now open harassment, no one had dared to touch her. But she could hear the murmurs, see the looks. She quietly got a broom and swept up the broken plate fragments.

"Thank you, Ila," said Dyfrig coming past with a large ham.

"When you are done sweeping, would you be so kind as to score the ham and insert cloves, please?"

He set the ham down on a nearby table and was off again.

"Are you su-" Ila started to ask, but Dyfrig was already busy working on something else. She suspected that Dyfrig was deliberately trying to spite the murmurers.
She washed her hands, then set to work scoring the ham.