Fanilly took a deep breath.

She couldn't exactly deny Lady Gertrude's words, as frustrating as they were. She was scared. They had to do [i]something[/i], but a fae realm sounded far beyond anything they'd encountered before.

At the same time---

This wasn't a battle. At least, their approach to the fae realm and this 'Moonlit Queen' wouldn't be. It was obvious this had to be approached not with violence, but with diplomacy. They would have to negotiate for the return of the Duke's wits, as opposed to fight for them.

If they tried to approach this in the wrong way, there was no telling what could happen. Stories of dangerous fae told of disappearances, strange transformations, the replacement of memories or simply mass confusion and scattering across the wilds.

None of that could be allowed to happen.

The Knight-Captain took a deep breath.

"We have no choice but to approach this as diplomats," she began, pushing her fears away into the back of her mind, "I agree. Perhaps... Sir Fionn and myself should take the lead in that regard."

While Sir Fionn did not have any sort of diplomatic training, his knowledge and relationships with the fae(exemplified by Lady Fiadh) seemed like a wise choice for some form of negotiation at the very least. As for herself, Fanilly recalled the more diplomatic side of her training fairly well.

Between the two of them, maybe---

"Er..."

Lady Fiadh herself... maybe she could work as diplomat?

"It's... a sort of person who helps one group talk to another so the situation ends favorably for both of groups."

It was the best simple explanation she could think of for the term.

Arken cleared his throat.

"While diplomacy is surely the right course, Sir Renar brings up an excellent point," he began, "The assistance of another fae of somewhat suitable power would be greatly preferred to trying to break into a fae realm on our own."

Of course. The diplomacy hardly mattered if they couldn't get into the fae realm in the first place.

"Of course, that necessitates finding such assistance, and convincing them to help," he continued, "All of which are, of course, [i]incredibly[/i] easy tasks."

[hr]

Though the look of concern was plain on Yael's face, she didn't say anything else after the aessyr's insistence.

The fairy paused for a few moments.

"It's... back that way!"

She turned, pointing back over her shoulder, towards the grove that she'd emerged from.

A metallic sigh emanated from beneath Sir Caulder's helmet.

"You may know your way around the forest, aessyr, but we certainly don't," he said. Despite his initial hostile reaction to the fairy's appearance, a hint of a more gentle tone could be heard underlying his somewhat gruff words, "It would help if you could tell us if there were any landmarks nearby, perhaps. Something we might recognize."

The tiny girl blinked, then her gaze drifted downwards.

"Um... u-um..." she fidgeted in the air for a few moments, her wings humming, "Um... o-oh! It's... it's... That Sleep place! Humans call it the sleep place! It's right by there!"

'That sleep place' was probably not particularly helpful.

However, there [i]was[/i] a location that wasn't so distant from here that could potentially have been where the aessyr meant. Thomlin's Rest was a well-known location within Brennan Forest, known for it being the resting place of Duke Thomlin, who perished from his wounds after slaying an orc chieftan.