#rivervale_lodge

Some time later, Brekke returns to Lodge, still looking preoccupied, but perhaps with a bit more intent.

She pauses after closing the door, inhaling deeply as she feels the wash of glamour from the balefire. Having recently spent some of her own, this feels like a warm welcome.

After a moment, their bedroom door opens upstairs. Frank appears, looks down.

"Thought it was you." he rumbles softly, as if the residents of the Lodge were all asleep and he didn't want to wake them.

She looks up from where she's getting coffee. Yes, even this late. "I did not mean to wake you," she apologizes. "I have learned more, though."

"I wasn't asleep." he comes down stairs.

She takes a sip. "I know you do not wish coffee, but I could get you something else?" she offers.

"Nn.... cider, if there is any."

She nods, sets her mug down, and gets him some cider. He so often gets her drinks that she appreciates being able to return the favor, and she touches his arm briefly after passing him the glass. "Come and sit," she says, moving to take a seat at one of the tables.

He does so.

She takes another sip of coffee. "I have been to speak with Jordan's grandmother. It is true, she is what we thought. I cannot say much in specific without violating a trust. But I do trust her, Frank. I believe she does not mean us harm."

Frank nods, accepting this.

"I believe I understand the information we received a bit better. She did a working. With my help."

An eyebrow, but he doesn't speak; just listens.

"Much of what we thought is confirmed, but in ways I did not quite see before. Adam is in the Dreaming. He wants us to protect Nabuni, Bunni. He is being protected by a willworker, of one of their houses called Merinita. Or...at least, that willworker wishes us to help Adam. Adam is being held by a minotaur in a castle...there was an image there I did not understand. I will show you. But we must get to him through the clock...and there is a unicorn who may guide us." She rises to fetch paper to draw the image of the line, the waves, the broken castle stitched together.

"A unicorn." he frowns.

She nods.

"Bunni mentioned a unicorn. She said it made a face at her." He makes a 'yuck' face, which is probably not the same on his face as it was on Bunni's.

"Hm. That suggests that it will reject one who is not 'pure'...and that discounts you and I."

"I suppose Adam as well."

"That may be part of why he remains trapped. The helper will not help him." A pause. "This means we must recruit another to come with us." She starts running through lists in her head.

Frank thinks, too.

"I would not wish to bring a childling into this. But I think most of our wilders are...ah... experienced."

"Agreed." Frank says, for both points.

"Unless...perhaps..." A pause. "Symon?"

Frank nods slowly. "He'd want to stuff the unicorn."

"And he may not wish to help Adam," she points out.

"And the start of college for them." She shakes her head.

He nods. "True."

"It would not be fair to them."

She mulls a thought that she seems reluctant to voice, but eventually says, "Connor."

Frank exhales. After a long moment. "Dagmar will worry. Gerd. And there is Lord Aiden."

"All true. But...he is older than his seeming, and more clever than we often give him credit for. And he will be with us."

Frank weighs it, disliking the apparent necessity... then nods. "Yes."

She nods. "I will speak with him in the morning. And with Dagmar."

Frank nods. "You said there was an image."

She takes another sip of her coffee and indicates the drawing she made after describing the vision. "I think the wavy lines mean a shoreline."

(A line, a wave pattern, and under that, a cracked tower with stitches)

"In the story, Haggard's tower collapsed, killing Haggard. This tower... cracked, but repaired?"

"Hm. That would make sense."

She clears her throat. "There is another detail I feel I should tell you."

"The tower was in view of the sea, I think, where the Red Bull drove the unicorns... sorry, yes?"

"I do not think it is of import, but I do not wish you to learn later and think I kept it from you. The working that Sybil, Jordan's grandmother, did...it required drops of blood. Hers, and mine. I know that is a dire risk with a willworker...but I felt there was immediate need, and as I said before, I believe I can trust her." She explains steadily and evenly.

"I watched her cleanse away the blood afterward, using alcohol. She does not have my blood now."

Frank frowns but... after a time.... nods.

She nods briefly as well, then takes another sip of coffee.

Frank rumbles, clearing his throat. "When?"

A curious look. "When do we leave, you mean?"

"Yes."

"I must speak with Connor. But sooner is better. Tomorrow or the day after."