Rrayann glanced down at the paper Myth held in his hand then back up into his emerald eyes.

~The first of many hurdles has been cleared, Myth. The rest will not be easy, but at least you’ll know what to be prepared for when you reach them. And I’ll help you along the way. Besides, they may not be as tough as you think when you finally reach them and instead of having top leap over them, you’ll just be able to step over them with ease. But I’m sure your father is anxious to meet with the son he hasn’t seen or spent time with in a long time.~

Reaching out and giving Myth’s hand a gentle squeeze, Rayann smiled and nodded ever so slightly. When she heard Tanjee mention something about her brother, Rayann turned a concerned look upon Tanjee and Kwinn. She had only heard bits and pieces of the conversation between Tanjee and Ceri and wanted to hear what took place

”What happened between Kwinn and your brother?”

When Tanjee explained all that had taken place, Rayann blinked then looked to Myth before looking at Ceridwyn, Tanjee and Kwinn.

”I knew Aeolis was bitter but I didn’t think he’d ever stoop to this sort of thing.”

Ceridwyn listened as Tanjee told of Aeolis’ deeds and her brow furrowed ever so slightly. “I think it would be stating the obvious to say that something is askew here. I have sensed darkness since my arrival, and it is not the warped dark magic, it’s an energy of bitterness and jealousy. I am suspicious that…”

She stopped talking and stared off into the distance, she almost seemed to be in a trance. After a minute she blinked and looked back at the group, blushing slightly.

“I think it might be best if we have a look at that weapon. May I have it please?”

Myth turned his attention to Tanjee and Cerdiwyn as they began to discuss things. Myth's brow furrowed slightly as Cerdiwyn mentioned the feeling she had upon returning to the city. "I had a similar feeling about things upon entering the city proper myslef a few days ago. The home guard commander's attitude has some deep rooted issues."

Myth had almost forgotten he was still caring the staff and held it out to Cerdiwyn as she had requested. There was an ill intent lacing the enchantment on the object. It showed that the caster lacked a deeper understanding for the fine arts. A persons intent could act like a signature in an enchantment just as easily as putting a mark upon a blade. Releasing the weapon Myth folded his arms watching with interest.

Rayann listened to Ceridwyn and after heing what Tanjee said, it was clear Aeolis had some issues but from what Tanjee was saying, the change was rather a sudden onset than a gradual change. And if anyone would know Aeolis best, it would be his sibling. The fact Ceridwyn felt that tug of darkness about the city made Rayann think there was something far greater than just someone with an ill temper and jealousy at work here.

When the Elf mage seemed to go into a trance like state, Rayann quirked a fine brow. Obviously the elf had picked up on something. What exactly Rayann was unsure of just yet, but one thing was for certain, they just might be getting to the root of Aeolis’ actions and demeanor.

As Ceridwyn took possession of the staff, Rayann watched closely to see what the mage might be able to reveal to them. Glancing at Tanjee, the she elf also seemed to take a vested interest in what was about to happen. Rayann could see the concern and inkling of fear that crossed her face.

Ceridwyn took the weapon, it was heavy, and she had to adjust and grab it with both hands. Rebalancing the weapon awkwardly made it obvious she had made a good choice in not following the path of being a warrior. She looked at the object, running her hand up and down the length, her slender fingers caressing it gently. “Objects can hold secrets,” she said it more like a question than a statement. Kneeling down, she placed the weapon on the ground and reached into one of the hundreds of hidden pockets within her robes. She removed a small purple satchel and opened it. The contents glittered softly in the light of Silvanost and she removed a pinch, holding it above the weapon. Closing her eyes and concentrating, Rayann would immediately pick up on the movement of magic around them, followed by the whispers of the spidery language of the ancients.

The reagents in her fingers sparkled and she released them looking down as they made contact with the weapon. Instantly there was a light blue glow and she looked up at Myth, then to Rayann, the obvious sign of an enchantment coming into view. Her eyes drifted to all the people present and she spoke, “everyone pay attention…” She turned back to the weapon and waved her hand over it slowly as she hissed the language of magic again. A rippling effect began around the weapon and the enchantment began to dissolve away revealing a simple stick. The wood was obviously harvested from just outside the city in the very forest that surrounds Silvanost. She looked up at Myth and then shifted her gaze to Kwinn.

“Kwinn, it is obvious you were set up, and unfortunately we know by whom, but our words won’t be enough proof to present to the judges.” She stood up and handed the stick to Myth. “It is apparent this was harvested recently, and just outside the wall.” She turned to Kwinn, “Can you take us to where you set your traps? If your work was altered we might be able to find the location of where this was cut, I have a strong feeling it was harvested close to where the crime was committed. The enhancement done to this stick was a simple one, it’s almost frightening that he thought the spell wouldn’t be able to be broken, or perhaps he didn’t expect things to go this far. My suspicion is he assumed the prejudice of the Silvanesti and the presentation of a lookalike weapon would be enough to have you convicted in a few minutes, and then the “evidence” could be destroyed before it was discovered to be a fraud.”

She turned and looked at Tanjee with sadness in her eyes, “Tanjee, I am sorry, but your brother has dark intents, however I am not convinced he is acting independently. There is a sense that something or someone, may be manipulating him, perhaps even without his knowledge.”

Tanjee watched with interest as Ceridwyn chanted the words that dispelled the enchantment to reveal nothing but a regular stick the same size as Kwinn’s staff. But at the same time, she felt a sickening in the pit of her stomach. How could her brother be so…..stupid? And why? He was strongly opinionated, much like she is, but he had never been so…..adamant about his dislike of humans. But even then, Tanjee couldn’t really remember him not liking them. He may have thought like most elves do in that they were the best of the best but he’d never been rude or insolent about it.

But if her brother was taking measures like this to place mistrust in humans, what else was he doing to cause trouble? And now that Ceridwyn and the others were on to his deceitfulness, what was that going to mean for him? His punishment could be quite severe and while Tanjee wasn’t happy with her brother right now, she did love him. He was, after all, the only living member of her family she had left. If he were to die, then she would be the last.

As Ceridwyn turned her sad filled eyes to Tanjee, the she elf nodded. It was evident by the look on Tanjee’s face and the tone of her voice she was disappointed yet relieved by what Ceridwyn discovered.

”It is OK, Ceridwyn. As I have said, Aeolis hasn’t been himself in a very long time. Perhaps it is best we find out what is going on here so we can get to the bottom of things.”

Myth scratched his chin as he watched the enchantment break away before Cerdiwyn. Much as he had guessed magic had been used to disguise the true object from view. Admittedly it was a bold and risky move by Aeolis, but not entirely out of character. Myth could only grumble at the circumstances surrounding everything though. The situation had an eerie familiarity to it that Myth did not like. When the elven mage mentioned possible control Myth's mind sparked with memories. Myth cleared his throat speaking with a haunted voice. "It isn't control so much by means of possession... but a poisoning of ones thoughts...."

Myth shook his head looking at everyone "However what I am thinking is only a theory. I'll need to see more before I will divulge anything further."

Looking to the canopy above Myth's eyes settled upon everyone once more. "We should be moving if we intend to return to the city proper in time to accept the royal invitation laid out before us."

Myth's thoughts were open to Rayann and to a degree Cerdiwyn as he thought about events long since past. He was focusing on memories from the days before he left the city. More accurately he was studying his own actions and mannerisms. Things were feeling uncomfortably familiar to him and he was searching his mind for possible answers. His mind had always been in a shrouded haze while in the Queen's employ, but here in Sylvanost his memories were clear as day. old arguments came to mind as well as accusations and in some cases full on fights. Myth's brow furrowed for a moment before he noticed a look on Rayann's face. All at once his mind the chaos that erupted in his mind fell into order. Reaching up he rubbed his temple "My mind seems to be getting the better of me this day... I apologize for my distraction..."

Rayann watched Ceridwyn as she performed the reveal spell on the staff in question. As the Elf Mage tapped into the magic around them, Rayann felt the current quickly increase and when the spell had completed it’s life cycle, the current slowed to a normal flow once more. Furrowing her brows, Rayann looked from the staff to Tanjee and saw the disappointment and sadness in her face. She felt bad for the young woman and hoped there was some sort of way this could all be cleared up.

When Myth spoke in that voice that was his, yet not, Rayann turned her attention to him and quirked a brow. It sounded as though he’d heard that saying spoken quite a bit. After all, he knew it verbatim without having to think about it. But what was more disconcerting to Rayann were the river of thoughts that suddenly flooded Myth’s mind.

Their link was so complete now that Rayann felt as though she were watching it all play out like a theatrical presentation right before her eyes and the players were Myth and Aeolis. As each scene flashed and played out, Rayann felt a great deal of frustration and down right hostility. When Myth finally got his thoughts under control, Rayann blinked and nodded her head and they started heading out following Kwinn’s lead as to where he had set the traps to alert the Guard of possible intruders.

~Don’t apologize, Mel’amin. I rather like having this…open book of Myth’alas to read. While I know it’s not particularly something you like, it does help me understand things better as far as you are concerned. I can imagine it’s difficult knowing someone has an almost unprotected access to your very thoughts. Don’t hesitate to tell me if I tread where the ice is thin., I’d rather avoid it all together then realize I strayed too far and am about to fall in well over my head.~

Kwinn heard the sadness and anger in Tanjee's words as she lamented the change in her brother. Kwinn did not know the elf, perhaps at one time he was much different.

Ceridwyn unlocked the secret of the staff, it was a phony, made to look true by magic. It was nothing more than a tree branch freshly cut from the woods around Sylvanost.

"I can take us there, it is not far beyond the wall."
Kwinn said as he studied the twig in Ceridwyn's hands, Aeolis had gone as far to use magic to try and cast doubt on him, what was his end game? In elvish culture such tricks were considered cheap and beneath them, if it could be proven that Aeolis had done this he would perhaps have to answer to the courts himself. Elves simply did not frame people, they did not use magic to further their own means, they had more respect for the power than that.

Maybe the elf did these things out of fear, perhaps he could not abide his only sister caring for a human. Kwinn could almost understand this theory, he might do many questionable things to protect a sibling from a broken heart. The ranger could not see this being the case, these choices did not seem motivated by a misplaced sense of familial duty, they seemed much more destructive.

Kwinn was frowning as he lead the group to the Eastern gate, the very one he and the Home Guard had passed through to see what could be done to further protect the city.

We set many snares and traps along here, dozens of them." Kwinn walked deliberately into some waist high grass, within a few steps he set off one of the traps, a thin almost invisible cord wrapped itself around the ranger's feet, he fell to the ground quickly and was unable to move.

"You see, there is nothing wrong with these defenses." The ranger said as he laid on his side, his feet and arms bound tight.

Ceridwyn could not help but giggle out loud as Kwinn set off his own trap. She could see why Tanjee was so drawn to him, the man had a very free spirited air about him, the kind of personality that drew you in an forced you to interact and enjoy his presence. She knelt down and began to unwrap the snare around his feet speaking with that same giggle in her voice, “A well constructed Snare Master Kwinn, it caught the culprit in an instant.”

After she helped him to his feet she looked around a moment, checking here and there as Kwinn pointed out other locations of traps that had been set. Finally her keen Elven eyes noted a small disruption of some foliage and she motioned for Kwinn to hand her the false staff, sure enough the cut mark on the stick matched that on the tree.

“Well my friend, this is where the branch was cut, there is no question about it.” Looking around she could not see any other disruptions in the area, if Aeolis was the one who did this, he certainly did a fine job of covering his tracks. “Things are completely undisturbed apart from this small bit we found, and unfortunately magic won’t help us to see into the past. One fact remains however we have definite proof that Kwinn was framed. The real trick is going to be figuring out who did it, suspicion is only that until we find something more rock solid to take to the judges.”

She looked at the group for ideas, this was about as far as she was able to take them at the moment.

Myth simply smiled at Rayann tapping his skull. "If there was a place in my mind I did not want you to be I would tell you. You already know what you can find if you dig down deep enough so it is not like there is a lot you don't know already."

He looked past Rayann and descended the steps to follow Kwinn as the ranger prepared to lead the group to the staging area for yesterdays endeavors. Given the time of day and how long it likely had taken them to find where Kwinn was Myth was not expecting to see much out of the ordinary. There had been plenty of time to clean up any inconsistencies that someone could notice. This entire thing was thought out well for the most part. Myth frowned as old thoughts began to surface.

Upon arriving on the scene Myth watched as Kwinn made a deliberate move into a trap and set the thing off to prove a point. Stifling a chuckle Myth only shook his head before he set about examining the various contraptions in the area. He was very quiet and very thorough in his examination even removing a pin from his hair to gently poke at things. His ear twitched slightly as Cerdiwyn made her assessment of things. Standing Myth rejoined the group.

"Sadly the truth of the matter dictates that the lack of truth leads us to the culprit. You have a good eye on you Cerdiwyn but it isn't trained to see some things." H held up a hand "I mean no offense with that statement."

"Truth be told many of the devices around us have been reset recently. Some of the faulty traps were mentioned as being discovered and chances are the commander of the home guard would have ordered them all reset this morning after the discovery. Doing this eliminated our chances of finding anything more than the home of that branch. That was the only thing he couldn't cover up short of burning the tree, but I doubt he expected us to look into it or something may have been done to the tree."

Taking a breath Myth looked around "He is not smart in the ways of magic but he knows procedure and protocol and how to best get around them. I guarantee we would have found something had we been here this morning, but that is the past. Trying to catch him in the act is going to be tough but at the same time he is so over zealous in his thinking we could lay our own trap for him." Myth simply smiled with a broad grin.

Ceridwyn listened as Myth spoke, she knew that this was his area of expertise, not hers and when he mentioned he meant no offense she simply smiled and nodded. It was a gesture of knowing he was right, she would miss much that he would see for this was his playground, not hers.

As he mentioned setting their own trap, she smiled again, looking around at the group. "Catch the cobra with the tactics of a mongoose, I like what I am hearing."

As Tanjee followed along with the others, she couldn’t help but pray and hope Aeolis wasn’t the one responsible for framing Kwinn but for some reason, that sinking pit in her stomach seemed to be deepening instead of shrinking. When Kwinn showed them his devices Tanjee felt her heart sink even more.

What was worse was when Myth began looking around with a critical eye. Even before he said anything, Tanjee knew he would have a plan for catching her brother. She suddenly found herself torn between to duties. Duty to her brother and family and duty to her people. Blood always ran thicker than water but Tanjee knew if she did anything to jeopardize this plan, her credibility with the people of the city and her reputation would be forever tarnished and she could never regain their full trust again.

But Aeolis, for all his faults, was her brother. The only other family member she had and of she lost him, she lost so much. Her eyes moved from Ceridwyn to Myth to Rayann then to Kwinn. There was no doubt the Ranger was weaseling his way into her heart but did he feel the same way? He wasn’t afraid to show his affection for her but she wasn’t sure if it was a fleeting thing for him or not. If she lost Aeolis, she didn’t know how long she would have Kwinn. If he even wanted to stay after the dust settles. She certainly hoped he did b ut she would also understand if he didn’t.

Her decision was going to be extremely difficult and as of right now, she had no idea what it was going to be but she wasn’t going to say anything one way or another. Aeolis had done a serious injustice to Kwinn and he needed to answer for his actions, that much was clear. What made the waters murky was just exactly how much punishment he would be subjected to.

She would have to wait and see where the chips fell.

Rayann didn’t have the eye for things Ceridwyn and Myth did when it came to things involving Elves and how they did things. But when she saw Ceridwyn and Myth analyze the area around the devices and how quickly Ceridwyn and even more for Myth picked up on things, she knew the right people had come to check things out for themselves. As Kwinn fell prey to his own trap, Rayann couldn’t help but chuckle softly along with Ceridwyn on how Kwinn demonstrated it for them.

It was clear Kwinn had done everything he was supposed to do and Aeolis was smart enough to make sure everything was reset. It still didn’t make any sense as to WHY Aeolis was being so adamant about making sure he made Kwinn’s life miserable as well as caused trouble in general. There was certainly more here than what met the eye.

As Myth began to formulate a plan, Rayann could already see the direction this was going to take and she liked the way Myth was thinking. There was no doubt what ever the Prince was crafting would be a fail safe plan to snare the fox in the rabbit snare.

”Well….looks like some plans have to be finalized before we can take action. Why don’t we go back to the city and start putting things together and see what we can come up with?”

Ceridwyn smiled slightly and looked at Kwinn, reaching out she touched his shoulder with her delicate, slender fingers and looked up into his face, “We will find a way to absolve you of this crime Kwinn, I sense no darkness within you, and we will make sure that the leadership of the Silvanesti know it.”

She turned to Rayann and Myth. “You two need to get ready to meet the Speaker of the Stars, Tanjee and Kwinn and I will take care of this situation for now. You can join back up with us when your done.” She looks at Myth specifically, “That is a much more important task for you at the moment, the healing of Father and Son, and that of the Silvanesti rest in the balance. Concentrate on that, sometimes it’s ok to focus on yourself.”

She smiled and started walking back towards Silvanost. The guards snapped to attention when she passed, and she simply shoke her head at the gesture.