Ada
Aegar unexpectedly returned by the time Ada returned to the party. Willow was eagar to return home and after feeding and grooming him Ada followed up on Fritz's progresses with magic. For the moment, he was getting the hang of alchemy, and had succeeded in making a bean grow into a plant. She paid the inn keeper 5 crowns the next morning. 4 for the room, and a very generous tip of a single crown. The horse's hooves clattered as they left the courtyard and leaped onto the gravel, holding their heads high and ears pricked with interest. They travelled for a couple of hours, and Ada imagined murdering Aegar five different times. Each one more gruesome and gory than the last. The sights amused her and she struggled to keep from smiling.
Eventually Ada saw what she needed to: a thin trail of smoke rising out the forest tree tops.
She pulled the wagon over and spurred the horses into the forest. With the help of Aegar the trees seemed to lean out the way for the wagon to push through into the deeper parts of the forest. She hoped out the drivers seat and landed like a cat, with bent knees and ankles. "Aegar! This is your forest, so what is that smoke over there?" When he could not respond she raised her eyebrows and muttered something about a know-it-all. Fritz thought he heard her say "not such a know-it-all now are you?"
Ada shooed them all out the wagon and gave each a water skin and a small bag of food. She was reluctant to give anything to Aegar-under the impression he would bound off and find his own- but when he gave her big puppy eyes she handed them over. Then Ada locked up the wagon. First with a large brass key she kept on a chain, along with four other keys, and several rings. One being from Kirin's father. Then secondly with magic. Fritz and Fimion watched amazed as she moved around the wagon - from which the horse's were unhitched and let free to do as they please - chanting spells. First a golden shower rained down on the wagon and it became still and even sagged a little. Then it lost it's paint became dull and began to peel, the wheels sank into the Earth and as a finishing touch, Ada added a hole in the roof. She explained to Fritz that Duplo- who was still inside as a soft toy could get out, but no one could get in. If anyone were to look in the hole in the roof the wagon would appear empty and abandoned. With no floor and no contents. It broke Ada's heart to see the wagon like this, but the thought that only she could undo the spells comforted her.
As she turned and walked away, the party following, she thought she could feel the wagon glaring at her from behind her back. "Aegar, what's the quickest way to get to the trail of smoke?" Eager to show off his knowledge of the forest he trudged on before all of them and still having received no explanation, Fritz and Fimion followed.