He was starting to get very tired. He didn't have much time left. "I'm going to have to go in a minute," he said. "It sounds like you can handle things on this side. I'm not going to have enough left to contact Allia until I rest, but don't you dare go and blab all of this, sister. Talking through the amulets isn't secure, else I wouldn't be doing this now. Let me explain it to her when I can talk to her." He looked down, at the map. "We're not going to be able to work like this, so you need to get to Suld as quick as you can. I'll be stepping it up to get there as fast as I can, and Shiika and her generals should be arriving about the same time as me."

"Alright. I'll send every ship available to Dala Yar Arak and pick up your pet Demoness' army," she said with a slight frown. "I'll also send for some reinforcements, but I can't take too many men from home."

"Why not?"

"Politics," she grimaced. "If I strip the army, the nobles may get bad ideas without someone there to keep them in line."

"I thought you stepped on them."

"Wikuni nobles unstep very easily, Tarrin," Miranda cut in. "They'll cooperate until they see an opening. Then they'll exploit it for everything it's worth."

"Kill them," Tarrin said in an offhanded manner.

"I can't do that!" Keritanima gasped.

"It's easy. Send orders for your men to round up and kill all the nobles. Then they won't be in your way anymore."

"That's barbaric!"

"It's effective," he said bluntly.

"It'll start a civil war!"

"If there's nobody left to challenge you, who are you going to have left to fight you for your throne?"

Keritanima stared at him, then exploded into laughter. "It sounds like an easy way out, but believe me, brother, it's not. Not that I didn't think of murdering the lot of them about twenty times a day for five months."

"It's your kingdom," Tarrin shrugged. "I'm about to lose this image, so is there anything else you need to talk about? Just do it quickly."

"It seems like an awful short time."

"I've had a busy day," he said shortly. "If I were rested, I could have stayed here an hour."

"Nothing pressing comes to mind, at least more pressing than anything else," she said. "When can you come back?"

"After I rest."

"Then we'll hammer out the details then. I'll think about this and propose a plan when you come back."

"Alright. I'll tell Allia as soon as I regain some strength, and then I'll figure out some way for all three of us to talk at the same time. Privately." He fretted. "This would be easy if we were in the same place."

"Reality is a pain sometimes, brother," she grinned. "That image of you is starting to get fuzzy, so I think that this is the end of our visit. I'll see you soon, Tarrin. Be well, keep your eyes on that bonesack, and-oh, yes. I love you very much."

"I love you too, sister," Tarrin replied with a warm smile. "Keep her out of trouble, Miranda."

"Always, Tarrin," Miranda said calmly, giving him a gentle smile. She still hadn't changed. Still quiet and inobtrusive, and watching absolutely everything that went on around her. Still one of his dearest friends.

It was hard to go. After so long being separated from Keritanima, he didn't want to leave her, even this surreal image of her. She was his sister, and they should have been together. Months and months apart, and now he had to leave her once again. But now he knew that he could see her whenever he wanted, that she was only a moment away, and it made him feel much, much better. With Keritanima's help, he could find her whenever he wanted to see her.

It didn't feel like a goodbye. It felt more like "until tomorrow."

Tarrin regretfully withdrew from his image, and sent his consciousness flying back to his body back in the desert.

He opened his eyes to a sight he'd never thought he'd see. Sarraya was sitting on Jegojah's shoulder, listening intently as he explained what was going on with their little sand map. "Sarraya!" Tarrin said in surprise. "When did you get here?"

"A while ago," she replied as they both looked at him. "Jegojah here said you went off to talk to Kerri. What did she have to say?"

The curtness of it took him off guard. "Well, she agrees with most of it," he replied uncertainly. "She thinks they'll attack from the north instead of the east, Jegojah. She thinks they'll move across Tykarthia then hook around the Skydancer mountains, then march down the coast."

"Hmm," Jegojah sounded, looking down. "That path, it appealed to Jegojah at first, yes, but the Toothwood, it is in the way. Safer, it would be, to come down the mountain pass and march across Sulasia, yes."

"Toothwood?" Sarraya asked.

"A dark wood of danger in southern Tykarthia," he replied.

"Jegojah, there are no forests in Tykarthia. They cut them all down to make ships."

"Ah. Jegojah, his mind is a thousand years behind us, yes," the undead warrior said ruefully. "Jegojah, he needs a current map."

"That's no problem," Sarraya said, gesturing. He felt her touch her Druidic magic, and a large vellum map simply appeared on the ground before them, a very large map depicting the entire West. "This is as current as yesterday afternoon," she chuckled.

"I take it Jegojah explained things?" Tarrin asked.

"He was filling in the details after a hasty summary," Sarraya replied. "At least that was after we tried to kill each other."

"You didn't!"

"What can I say? I'm a barbarian," Sarraya grinned at him. "You're a bad influence on me."

"The Faerie, she appeared but seconds after you entered the trance, yes," Jegojah said with a calm expression. "She thought I meant to attack ye, yes. When Jegojah, he surrendered his swords, the Faerie, she stood down, yes."

"You have too much attitude for someone so small, Sarraya."

"I'm a big girl now," she grinned as Jegojah studied the map with palpable intensity.

"You think what he says makes sense?"

"It all fits, Tarrin," she replied seriously. "It all fits together a little too well to be a fantasy he conjured up."

"That's what Kerri thought too," he replied. "She doesn't trust Jegojah, but she can refute the logic of his claim."

"Kerri sounds like a smart girl."

"The smartest woman alive, Sarraya," Tarrin said seriously. "When Kerri does your planning, you can't go wrong."

"The Wikuni, she has a point, yes," Jegojah finally announced. "Without the Toothwood, Tykarthia, it is the safest way to go. The Sulasians, they would be trapped between the Dals and the force marching down from the north, yes, and they would be annihilated. That would leave Suld defenseless."

"Kerri figured the same thing," Tarrin said. "You'd make a good general, Jegojah."

"Jegojah, he was a general, Were-cat," Jegojah said with a smile and a glance at him.

"That's getting annoying. Why do you keep saying your name all the time?" Sarraya asked churlishly.

"Jegojah, he knows no other way to speak," the undead warrior said uncertainly.

"You're using Shacean grammar with Sulasian words, and it's getting on my nerves!" Sarraya snapped at him. "Try saying I or me instead of Jegojah!"

"No wonder it takes a Shacean ten minutes to say hello," Tarrin mused. "I never knew their language was so complicated."

"Je-uh, I, me will try."

"No, I, me! Just I!"

"I-I will try, yes," he said with a glance at his shoulder, where the Faerie was located. "The Faerie, is she always this way?"

"Usually," Tarrin said dryly. "Somedays she's worse. She must be in a good mood."

"The Wikuni, she has a point," Jegojah repeated. "Je-I will think on this."

"I can't do anything else right now. I burned up all my strength talking to Kerri."

"How is she?"

"Doing fine, Sarraya. It was good to see her again. I thought it would make me homesick, but it had a completely opposite effect. I'm in a really good mood now, for some reason."