"I'm gonna be way too busy," Robyn said, fixated on the plans. "But next time you're crawling through a vampire-infested shitcave, I'll be sure to make something up."

"I'll go," Pockets said. "I'll need a while to put together some bugs. I don't know exactly what I'm dealing with so we'll need to cover all the options."

Liam smiled. "Alright. We can talk more tomorrow. I need to get back to Riverhead before dawn and I'm cutting it pretty close as it is."

"Well if you want enough to liberate that base, you'll have to come with me to the shed," Robyn said. She stretched her back, and gestured at the phone. "You two sort out the logistics. I'll be back."

She slipped past Maggie and opened a cupboard. After grabbing a clear plastic sports bottle from the shelf, she murmured "That's not mugwort," into her apprentice's ear.

"Oh, but it's dark," Maggie whined.

"I have a whole bin of flashlights in the garage," Robyn replied flippantly. "It's the one marked 'flashlights'."

Robyn opened the door and beckoned Liam out. "You've got time for a conversation. C'mon."

It was a short trip to the grove of trees that protected the heart of the village. She looked up at the stars and sighed as they walked.

"So what if I told you that Pockets doesn't want to go back," Robyn said.

"She's a grown woman," Liam remarked, looking sideways at Robyn. "She's free to make her own choices."

"It might not be my place to ask, but do we need to worry about any long term effects? She's been like this a while now, and if she's proposing to continue indefinitely we're well into uncharted territory."

"Ever seen Death Becomes Her? I'm imagining that kinda situation," Robyn said with a shrug. "But when Maeve is back, things might look a little rosier. But she's willing to deal with it. And I hope you're not going to try and talk her out of it."

"Why would I try to talk her out of it?" Liam asked. "Its her body. What she does with it and who she chooses to be is up to her. I mean if she wants to be human again, well.... we might know something about that. Its her call."

"Are Jack and Maeve coming back?"

"She's feeling a lot of emotions and they're all new to her," Robyn said. "So don't take that personally."

They reached the grove of trees, and Robyn paused for a moment. "They're not coming back right away," she said. "But once the book is out, they're going to be coming back here. Maybe not forever, but for a little while."

"I hardly take it personally. This thing we have is an affliction, not a blessing. But its one I've learned to live with. If she's found another path forward that conflicts her less, I applaud her. There are certainly times in my life where I might have opted for the same."

"Is the book still coming out? I thought the whole purpose was to bury the recipe out in the open so that the Tremere wouldn't see it coming until it was too late. Only now we're handing out the recipe and the Tremere have sidelined the fugue in favour of engineering their own escape."

"Even if I trusted the government to release the full info," Robyn said, ushering him through the grove. "Which I don't. It also contains spells of detection, protection and direct offense. I'd say it's more important than ever to get it out there. The manuscript is almost finished."

"Well that's great news. You keep drilling down on that. I'll wrap up the base with a bow on top and get Jacob and company across, then I'll focus on the warrens with Pockets. Once the book is done though, you and I ought to seriously consider where we stand with - our other priorities. Before Jack and Maeve get back, ideally."

"Honestly, I think we should take advantage of the distraction while we can," she said. "I really don't want to let the Temple of the First Tribe fall under military control. Or politicians."

She moved through the trees, and they moved around her as she led the way to her inner sanctum. It looked much the same as before. The heptagonal altar in the centre had a new wooden mold frame constructed on its face. It appeared as though she was laying a new foundation on top.

"There's one other thing that we have to do," Robyn said. "Nex needs to know about the cure. We can't put it off any longer, or there'll be hell to pay. I don't relish having the Tal'Mahe'Ra as an enemy."

"Tonight?" Liam asked. One way or another it had to get done. He'd figure out the handout after.

"Nah, keeping the gummint off our sacks is the big thing," Robyn said, ushering Liam into the hut where she did the bulk of her ritual prep work. "Let's do it first thing tomorrow."

She took the sports bottle and filled it with the viscous yellow-brown liquid from a spigoted drum. She rapped the lid, and it sounded mostly full. Enough there to appease the armed forces, but they'd need to make more soon after.

"I'm gonna whip up a fresh batch during the day tomorrow," Robyn commented. "The process involves sunlight, which should be a fun challenge for a sunless city."

"I'm not sure that's a problem I'm equipped to solve," Liam said as he took the bottle. "Unless you need the help of a well intentioned German Shepherd."

"I'm gonna file that under 'not my problem,'" Robyn said, tossing the sealed jar to Liam. "Let Nex's creepy friend Breaker worry about it."

"That should be enough for your base's well," Robyn said. "I'm guesstimating the exact size, but I skewed generous."

"Thanks, Robyn." Liam held on tight to the jar. "I should get a move on. Hopefully the day goes smoothly. I'll come back early tomorrow and we'll sort out this business with Nex."

"Yeah, let's," Robyn said, leading Liam back toward the grove's hidden exit. "And if it asks, we took so long because we needed to conduct a large-scale test."

"That sounds credible," Liam said with a grin. "Alright, I'll see you then. Goodnight, Robyn."

Liam took to the air before Robyn even made it back to the cottage. He had a lot of ground to cover even as the bird flew.

Liam set down by the power substation for the third time this evening. Cal wasn't even trying to hide this time. He looked like a pile of underbrush leaning against a four-wheeler.

He watched Liam reform as a human, and shook his head. "Not gonna lie," he said. "I'm crazy jealous of that trick."

"Its not worth it," Liam said with a shake of his head. "Honestly."

"I've never taken a childe, and I probably never will. You lose too much of yourself. I couldn't do that to someone else."

He smiled. "I was a self-loathing catholic before I was a self-loathing vampire so I've had a lot of time to reflect on this."

He held up the sealed jar. "Here. This should more than cover the base."

Cal shrugged. "You wanna talk losing pieces of yourself, you should try my job," he replied. "But I guess even I get to retire from it someday."

Cal opened the lid and sniffed it. "So what's in this, exactly?" he asked. "And what if I get some on me when I'm doing this?"

"I don't know what's in it," Liam confessed. "I'd say that was above my pay-grade, but that's not exactly true. I'm just not smart enough. Not by a long shot."

"I do know you can overdose on it if you aren't careful though, so I'd put the lid back on it until I was ready to use it if I were you," he said, gesturing to the jar.

"Oh word?" Cal said, nodding. He mimed taking a sip before snapping the lid back shut.

"I guess I'll see you at the base after sunset?" he added, as he hopped back on his four-wheeler.

"Yeah. I'll come a little after sundown. The woman who makes this stuff needs me for something first. After that I'll make for the base."

"Good luck today."

"Never relied on it before," Cal said, giving him a wave. "Bring something to toast with." And with that, he rode off into the night.

The flight back home was tense. The sun threatened to rise over the ocean, and Liam had to keep his altitude low. Fortunately, owls excelled at swift acrobatics.

Robyn had done him the courtesy of drawing the curtains on the upper floor, but the whole house was asleep when he arrived. Even Caleb, who had evidently tired of the hard-packed earth of Tim's pup tent and was now curled peacefully in the dead-centre of Liam's bed.

[1 EXP for the scene, +1WP]