The girls made it to the citadel shortly after sunup the next day, but as early as they were, they found the citadel group already hard at work sorting through the evidence collected. Without hesitation they pitched in, Kira finding herself working alongside Cassia, sorting through papers and picking out anything that looked as though it might be connected to the svers.

  "So what happened with the girls we rescued?" she asked as she pced another unreted record sheet to the side.

  "So far as I know, they're all still asleep. The human girl's name is Elissa Winscott, she's the daughter of a noble family that lives here in the capital. As best as we can make out, she had a habit of slipping out into the city in disguise to have a bit of fun. In one of these excursions, she ran afoul of the svers, and the next thing you know, she's 'packaged'" (Cassia's lips twisted as she said the word) "and ready to be shipped out gods know where. Luckily, we got there first. Today we'll send her back home, no real harm done, though hopefully she's a bit wiser for her experience."

  "What about us? I mean, she saw us and she heard the conversation between us and the amazon. There's no way she doesn't realize that there were demons helping you. Won't that cause trouble?" Chellise piped up, sitting across from them next to Katari.

  "We'll be sure to let her know to keep the details quiet before she goes. If we frame it as being for the sake of not tipping off the rest of the trafficking ring, I think she'll be happy to keep our secret," Brandis said, pausing behind Cassia momentarily. "Make sure you keep the papers from each building separated. We know they're fond of code, and some of these seemingly meaningless papers may turn out to be useful after all."

  A wave of acquiescence swept around the group, then as Brandis left with an armful of ledgers, Kira asked, "And what about the rest?"

  "Well, the amazon, ...Myrina, yes?" America nodded and Cassia continued, "Myrina was insistent on helping dismantle the svers, preferably in a capacity that lets her crack some heads together. We see no reason to deny her so long as she's willing to follow orders and work with the rest of us, including you girls." Cassia smiled at Kira, Chellise, and Katari. "We told her as much, and she agreed immediately. She's holding quite a grudge. It makes me wonder if there's perhaps more to her story than we know, but that's her business. Whether she wants to tell us more is up to her.

  "The catfolk is still unresponsive. We had the royal physician look her over, but according to him her mind has essentially shut down in an attempt to protect itself from the trauma she has suffered. Unfortunately, it seems there's nothing we can do for her besides take care of her and wait for her to come out of her shell, however long that takes. We weren't even able to get a name out of her so far.

  "As for the kitsune, she's still asleep. The physician examined her as well, and he concurred with Flint's original assessment that she's in a kind of enchanted sleep. As for when she'll wake up, we can only guess. She might wake up by herself at some point, or possibly she needs a trigger to awaken."

  "Trigger? What do you mean?" Kira interrupted.

  "I'm not too clear on it myself, but the way I understand it, if the spell was set up a certain way, she might need a specific action to be taken in order for the spell to disperse, like hearing a specific word or phrase or smelling a specific scent, for example. I'll admit that magic really isn't my area of expertise, so I'm just going off of what Healer Brann told us."

  "But that could be anything," Kira objected.

  "One of the prisoners that was captured st night might know," Katari said thoughtfully. "I am sure we could force the information from them if they do."

  "Good idea," America chimed in. "I'll let Flint know."

  Before she could say anything more there was an interruption in the form of the amazon, who came striding into the warehouse where they worked. She was dressed in a simple half-length green tunic which was clearly several sizes too small for her, tightly outlining her breasts and barely reaching her navel. She had coupled it with a pair of bck pants, the legs of which she had seemingly hacked off with a dull knife just below the crotch. These were also a size or two too small, making it impossible to close the front button and coming within a hairsbreadth of constantly fshing a glimpse of her pussy to anyone who cared to look. The back was not much better, the fabric unable to entirely contain her rge and muscur ass due to how high she had cut it, leaving the bottom of her asscheeks constantly visible. Looking at it, Kira had a sudden fsh of imagination, picturing the tortured cloth shredding into scraps as soon the woman flexed her muscles.

  Shaking the mental image from her mind, she focused on the amazon's face. She had to admit, the woman would be beautiful if she weren't constantly scowling ferociously at everything, with striking scarlet eyes, strong brows, prominent cheekbones, and plush lips. With the contrast her brilliant blue mohawk provided and against the backdrop of her warm brown skin, the whole presented an appearance not easily forgotten.

  Spoiler

  (Image by Rasipan)

  [colpse]"Ah, it's good to see you up and about," Cassia said. "Do you need something?"

  The woman paused ever so briefly, almost as if disconcerted, before decring, "I've come to help."

  "Excellent. Let me just fetch Flint, and then you can tell us what you know about the svers," Cassia replied. Standing, she walked towards the door, murmuring to herself, "Now where has the man got to?"

  As she left, an awkward silence descended. The amazon fidgeted in pce, avoiding looking at any of the girls sitting around the table. They did not share the same bashfulness, however, as each of them looked her over curiously, but it was Chellise that spoke first. "Wow, you're really big. Are you as strong as you look?"

  Myrina jerked at being addressed. "Yes," she answered, almost sheepishly, but with a definite undertone of pride.

  "Are all amazons as tall as you?" Chellise asked next.

  "No," Myrina answered, then caving to Chellise's openly curious expression, she continued, "Most of my people are between six and seven feet tall, except the men."

  "And them?" Chellise pressed.

  "The men are usually between five and six feet tall, but most are closer to five feet."

  "What is it like, having all your men be so much smaller than you?" This time it was America who spoke, her eyes gleaming with curiosity.

  "Not all are," Myrina retorted. "Every once in a while, one of our men grows to be over seven feet tall, and muscled like... like..." she hesitated.

  "Like a minotaur?" Kira offered. She was just as curious as the rest, though she tried not to show it.

  "Even more," Myrina said. "But not often," she admitted, almost sadly.

  "So what's it like?" America asked again, not to be denied.

  Myrina hesitated. "I don't know. What's it like being smaller than most of your men? I have never been the smaller one."

  This gave America a moment of pause. "Fair enough, I suppose. You wouldn't really have anything to compare it to."

  Chellise opened her mouth to ask something else, but just then Cassia reentered the room with Brandis in tow. Brandis took one look at Myrina's state of dress and immediately said, "I'm sorry, could you not find anything that fitted you? If you'd like, we can have a tailor alter something for you."

  Cassia chuckled merrily. "Six girls here, and it's the one man who first comments on our guest's choice of fashion."

  "That's not what I meant," Brandis protested. "It's just that what she's wearing hardly seems as though it could be comfortable. I don't wish us to be ill hosts, especially considering what she's just been through."

  Myrina's eyes narrowed. "This suits me, for now. Most of what you gave me was like what your women wear." She spared a gnce at America's skirts. "Amazons do not wear that much, ever."

  Brandis shrugged. "So long as you're content. But if we can give you anything more to your taste, just let us know."

  Cassia and Brandis each took a seat, offering Myrina one as well, but the amazon declined, evidently preferring to stand. Pulling a bnk piece of paper to her and picking up a quill, Cassia said, "Well, now that we're all here, what can you tell us about the trafficking ring?"

  When Myrina did not immediately begin, looking slightly uncertain, Cassia continued, "Why don't you begin by telling us how you were captured?"

  Sighing, the amazon began. "I am not the first amazon taken by these svers. We have had several of our people go missing over the st few months. I and several others were given the task of finding out what had happened to them. We expected a particurly nasty monster had moved into the area or something like that, not a sver ring. That they even dared trespass on amazon nds..." Myrina trailed off, eyes fshing dangerously. "To cut out the unnecessary details, we found no trace of our people in the area that they were reported missing. One day I was sweeping a patch of jungle alone when I was struck by a poison dart. It must have been a very strong poison to overcome my natural resistances, but I fell unconscious, and when I woke up, I was in that box you found me in, with those things in me."

  "Do you know how long you were in the box?" Brandis asked.

  Myrina shook her head. "I was fed many times, but the things they put in me made it impossible to keep track. I know I was put on a ship at one point, but that's all."

  "I see," Cassia commented, putting down her quill. "Well, it's less than I would have hoped, but every little bit counts. There are at least a couple points of interest which may help to tighten the net around the organization. Thank you for telling us about it."

  Myrina shrugged. "If it helps..."

  "I think it will," Brandis said. "We now know they've become bold enough to abduct amazons, from their homend no less. We also know they have access to a sleeping venom strong enough to affect an amazon, which is not exactly common. I'll pass that tidbit along to Jack as well and with any luck he'll be able to point us in the direction of their supplier."

  There was a slight pause. "Well, I guess we had better get back to work, these papers won't sort themselves. Did you want to help with this?" Cassia directed the st sentence towards Myrina, who shook her head.

  "I wouldn't know what to look for. Do you have a training yard? After spending so long locked in that box, I need to stretch my muscles."

  "Yes, we do. I can direct you to it if you'd like," Brandis offered.

  "Yes. ...Please."

  Brandis rose. "Follow me," he said, and the two left the room. Everyone else got back to work, and there was silence for the next fifteen minutes, until Kira suddenly smmed her open palm into her face.

  "What's the matter?" excimed Chellise.

  "I'm such an idiot!" she groaned. "I should have made Carrow copy down the key to the code. He would have had to have known it. I just completely forgot about it with all the other things he told me. I've made things so much more difficult than they needed to be!"

  "Don't be too hard on yourself," America tried to console her. "Without the information you did get out of him, we wouldn't be here now, and don't forget, we have some of those scum in custody right now. It shouldn't be too difficult to squeeze the code out of them."

  Kira looked somewhat mollified. "Yeah, but even so, that's the sort of oversight that could really cost us." To herself, she thought, 'The boss wouldn't have made that mistake. I've gotta do better.'

  "Well, no sense in beating yourself up about it," Cassia interjected briskly. "We'll get the key one way or another. For now, let's concentrate on the task in front of us."

  But it proved more difficult than expected to get anything out of the prisoners. To a man, they maintained a stony silence no matter what threats or promises were made to them.

  "Why do we not simply put them in a room together and begin killing them slowly and painfully, one by one, until one breaks and gives us the information we need?" Katari suggested.

  America looked horrified, and even Brandis' eyes widened, but Cassia merely shook her head. "That's not how we do things," she said gently. "Svers though they may be, we do not kill unarmed prisoners."

  Katari shrunk in on herself slightly. "Oh. I just thought..."

  "That they have done worse? You're right, but stooping to their level even once puts us on a very slippery slope. It's better not to even start down that road."

  Katari nodded, and Cassia seemed satisfied, but the issue remained. Eventually Brandis resorted to asking Kira if she could possibly enthrall one of them.

  She shook her head. "Maybe, but I kinda doubt it. The only reason I was able to enthrall Carrow was because he didn't view me as any kind of threat, but these guys will definitely have their guard up, so unless one of them is under level ten, there's not a whole lot I can do, and Chellise is an even lower level than me."

  "Well, maybe..." Brandis trailed off. "It's possible. I'll check their levels and get back to you."

  While he did that, Kira decided to check what the amazon was up to. Between the five of them, the women of the citadel group had made short work of sorting out all the encoded documents, only taking a day to finish their task, and now they were sitting and discussing possible pns for moving forward while Cassia halfheartedly picked over several papers and a ledger in an attempt to break the code.

  The human girl had left the day before, her parents coming to the citadel personally to take her home. The three Dark-races had stayed well out of the way, and all that had been told to the parents was that their daughter had been kidnapped by ruffians. Any mention of a rger organization had been avoided, and the now subdued girl had readily agreed to keep the secret. She didn't seem like a bad girl to Kira, just naive, though she supposed this experience had gone a long way towards teaching her how nasty the world could be.

  The catgirl reminded Kira a little of how Violetta had been when they had first found her, causing a seed of suspicion to sprout as to what may have happened to the young succubus, but she pushed that thought to the back of her mind for the present. Instead she focused on doing what she could to help the beastfolk come out of her shell, though she knew it was likely to take a while to see any real progress.

  The kitsune simply slept peacefully, probably waiting for whatever trigger was meant to awaken her, so that left only the amazon, which Kira found in the training yard again. Myrina had decided to forgo any weapons, instead savagely pummeling a training dummy with her bare hands and feet. Even as Kira entered the yard, she hit it with a particurly vicious blow that snapped its support pole and sent it flying backwards. Undeterred, the rge woman simply moved to the next dummy in line and began giving it the same treatment. Three other fttened dummies attested to the strength contained in the amazon's rolling muscles.

  Myrina paused as Kira approached. "You need something?" she asked shortly.

  Kira shrugged. "Nothing in particur. I just came to see how you were doing."

  "I'm fine." The blue mohawk swirled as a fist smmed into the dummy's chest, hard enough to break the burp which contained its straw stuffing.

  Kira said nothing, watching as Myrina began to mutite her target with noticeably more ferocity than before. After about a minute, the amazon paused. "Why do you care, anyway?"

  Kira shrugged again. "I don't, not really. But if you can help us save our friend then it's worth making nice, at least for a bit."

  Myrina let out a bark of ughter. "At least you're honest about it." She returned to punching for a bit, then paused again. "Why are you working with humans?"

  "Brandis pretty much said it all the night we saved you. We had the information, but we couldn't do much by ourselves. We knew the princess wanted to catch the ring, too, so we decided to see if we could work together. Turns out we could."

  Myrina narrowed her eyes. "That's it?"

  "That's it. ...Hmm, I suppose it doesn't hurt to tell you. We're not here entirely on our own. We have a... boss who wants to stay hidden, at least for now, so we're doing this partly for him. But we do want to save our friend; it's just lucky for us that our boss wants us to save her too."

  "Who's this friend you want to save?" asked Myrina, going back to mauling the training dummy.

  "An elf named Safara."

  That got the amazon's attention. Wheeling around, she stared in naked disbelief at the busty succubus. "You're trying to pull my leg," she accused her.

  "Nope, it's the truth. It does sound pretty unlikely, I'll admit, but if you don't believe me you can ask Cassia or Brandis," Kira replied, unperturbed.

  "How'd you get an elf to tolerate you long enough to become friends? They hate Dark-races even more than humans do."

  "Oh, that was due to the boss. He convinced her that maybe we're not all the bloodthirsty monsters you Light-races try to make us out to be."

  "Huh." Myrina turned back to the training dummy, brow knitted in thought.

  "Your turn," Kira said. "How come you're so hellbent on catching the svers? Even if I consider the revenge angle, it still seems kind of excessive."

  Myrina visibly tensed up. "None of your business," she snarled.

  "Fine, fine." She was about to say something more, but just then Kira spotted Brandis walking across the yard towards them.

  "Good news, Kira," he said as soon as he was within easy speaking distance. "Most are at least level eleven, but one of them is level nine. You should be able to get what we need out of him without resorting to more unpleasant tactics, though I admit, I don't much like the sound of your Seduction in any case. It sounds too much like mind control to me. Good morning, Myrina," he nodded to the amazon, eyeing her destruction of the training dummies.

  Kira shrugged. "It's not like I chose it, it's just what I was given. Go to war with the army you have, right?"

  Brandis sighed. "I suppose so. Can you do it immediately? I'd like to get it over with as quickly as possible."

  "Sure. It's not exactly pleasant for me either, dealing with scumbags like that. The sooner it's over with, the better, so far as I'm concerned."

  Myrina had stopped pummeling her training dummy and was gncing between them with ill-concealed curiosity. As they left the yard she followed, at first almost timidly, but when neither of them seemed to mind her presence she rexed. Together they made their way down into the dungeons, and a short bout of Seduction ter, Kira rose from the entranced body of a greasy-haired young man, stifling a shudder as she did so. 'Fuck, I miss the boss. These guys make my stomach turn. It's not even that they're svers, it's... something else. Not sure what.' Out loud she announced, "Done. My hold isn't very strong, but we should be able to get him to answer most of our questions."

  "Good," replied Brandis, who had turned away uncomfortably while she whispered her sweet nothings into the ear of the prisoner. Myrina, on the other hand, had watched the entire process with every indication of interest.

  "Let's start at the beginning," Brandis continued, stopping in front of where the man y. "What is your name, and what did you do for the trafficking ring?"

  The only response was a narrowing of the man's eyes.

  "Oh, my bad," Kira said, realizing her error. "Listen, you. I order you to answer any questions this man asks you as truthfully as if it were me, understand? Oh, and sit up."

  "Yes, mistress," the man replied, but almost woodenly as opposed to the soppy, svish manner Carrow had had.

  Brandis repeated his question, and this time the man answered, in the same toneless manner. "My name is Bruis Norson. I was an assistant to the Inspector."

  "Do you remember an elf named Safara?" Kira interjected, her eyes alight with expectancy.

  "I remember an elf. I never heard her name, mistress."

  "Did she have white hair?"

  "Yes, mistress."

  "Do you know where she was sent?"

  "No, mistress. I only know that her destination was somewhere up the Phoebe River. She was special cargo, and spent less than a day in the Inspector's keeping."

  "Damn," Kira muttered, then asked, "Do you know anyone who would know where she was sent?"

  "Yes, mistress. The Boss would know, possibly the Inspector as well, and one of the bookkeepers. Perhaps others as well, I don't know."

  "Were any of those men in the building with you when you got captured?"

  "I don't believe so, mistress. There was a bookkeeper among those captured, but I don't think he was the one handled the transaction of the elf."

  The succubus sighed, then asked, "Do you know how to read the code the trafficking ring uses?"

  "Yes, mistress."

  "Finally, some good news," Kira muttered. "Right, you're going to write down how to decode it for us, and then-" she broke off, realizing how she had hijacked the conversation. Sheepishly she met the eyes of a faintly amused Brandis, saying, "Sorry, I kinda cut in there, didn't I?"

  "That's alright. You were concerned about your friend; I can hardly bme you for that." He gave her an understanding smile, before turning to interrogate the enthralled man himself.

  Kira stepped back, thinking. Once they had the key to the code, all they had to do is find the record of Safara's transaction, and then they could be on their way to finally rescue her. Her thoughts were interrupted by Myrina, who asked, "Did you have to make him... finish?"

  "Huh? Oh, you mean make him cum? Yeah, that's necessary. Something about the pleasure of the release breaking down the barriers of his mind, if I remember right. Trust me, if I could have done it without, I would have."

  "Why?"

  Kira frowned. "What do you mean?"

  "You're a succubus. Is that not how you feed?"

  "Yeah, but I'm not nearly that desperate. Feeding on him would be..." Kira shuddered. "Eugh. No thanks." She looked up at the amazon. "Succubi don't just feed indiscriminately, usually anyway. We have our own tastes too, you know."

  A tugging at her consciousness attracted her attention, and looking back at Brandis, she said sharply, "Don't push it, or I'll lose him!"

  Brandis cut himself off in the middle of his next question. "I thought you said he would answer our questions," he said, looking at Kira.

  "Most of our questions. My hold isn't very strong, remember? It's not as simple as he's enthralled or he isn't, there's a lot more to it. What were you trying to ask him, anyway?"

  "I wanted to know everything he knew about this Boss of his, but he cmmed up. He also didn't want to tell me about the Inspector."

  "Surprise, surprise. If all their people were happy to bb about them, they wouldn't have sted this long." Kira inspected her thrall briefly. "Okay, so you can keep asking him questions, but if he doesn't want to answer you have to let it go, alright?"

  Brandis nodded his understanding and went back to interrogating the prisoner. At the end of half an hour he finally stepped back, saying, "Alright, I think that's everything I'll be able to get out of him. Unfortunately, he didn't know anything about the kitsune, but I was able to get some useful information out of him. You can release him now, or however you do it." He handed the paper containing the code's key to Kira.

  Kira nodded, and stepping forward, she told the prisoner, "Okay, so when I release you, you won't remember anything about answering any of our questions. So far as you'll remember, you're still refusing to cooperate with us, understand?"

  "Yes, mistress," he said dully.

  Reaching inside herself, Kira found the link between herself and the prisoner and severed it, causing him to slump forward slightly before he recovered himself, the light returning to his eyes and an expression of stony obstinance once more settling on his face.

  Without a word they left, but as they climbed the steps out of the dungeon, Brandis gnced over at Kira. "Was that st command really necessary?"

  "Honestly, probably not, but I figured better safe than sorry. This way, if he somehow escapes or is able to communicate with someone on the outside, he won't be able to spill the beans on how much we know."

  Brandis nodded. "Good thinking. I'm pretty sure we've broken the back of the trafficking ring here in the capital, but there are still all the other cells."

  They found everyone else in Brandis' office, the room still just as starkly functional as the first time Kira had seen it. "Good news, everyone," Brandis announced. "Thanks to Kira here, we have the key to the code used by the trafficking ring."

  The room erupted into mingled questions and cheers. Holding out a hand for silence, Brandis continued, "With the help of her Seduction, we were able to pull the information out of one of the prisoners. Now let's get to transting all of these papers. Keep a particur eye out for anything that could match Lady Cidrin's description. I believe that was one of the terms of our deal, after all." He smiled at the three Dark-races. They exchanged gnces, knowing very well that they had not been as specific as that, but like Kira, neither Katari nor Chellise particurly wanted to argue the point.

  Cassia quickly copied out the key on several different sheets of paper so everyone could have one of their own. Surprisingly, Myrina pitched in as well, taking a copy of the key and setting to work with a will. Before long the room was quiet, the only sounds the scratching of quills and the rustling of paper as someone turned a page.

  They began with the documentation recovered from the svers' center of operations, but even so, it was several hours before America suddenly excimed, "I think I've got something here!"

  Everyone looked up. "What is it?" Brandis asked.

  "I've got what looks like a receipt for an elven package, dated about a week ago. It was headed for Eldfall, and then" -she did some quick transtion- "to an estate in the country outside the city."

  "Fuck yes!" Kira cried, leaping to her feet and knocking over her chair. "Finally!"

  "That's definitely her!" Chellise squealed in jubition. "Hold on, Safara, we're coming!"

  Katari said nothing, but her glowing eyes betrayed the same etion the other two dispyed. Nor were they the only ones celebrating. Cassia had let out a fervent "Thank the gods," and even Brandis could not suppress a delighted smile. Only Myrina did not have much of a reaction, merely watching the rest of them celebrate.

  Cassia quickly got them all under control again, however, by pointing out the need to form their pns quickly now that they knew where to look. "I think I'll stay behind for now and continue transting all of this, but the rest of you should set out as soon as possible."

  "We can charter a fast river boat to get us there inside of a week. I can also have a small detachment of soldiers ready by tomorrow morning, so if we can find a boat ready to sail by then, we should be able to get underway by noon tomorrow, if everyone can be ready by then," Brandis said. "Lieutenant Carter should be able to handle the remnants of the trafficking ring in my absence."

  "We'll be ready," Kira decred. Chellise and Katari both nodded.

  "I can be ready by then as well," America agreed. "But what about the kitsune and the catfolk?"

  "No need to worry, I'll make sure they're taken care of," Cassia said. "I assume you'll be going as well, Myrina?"

  "Yes," the amazon nodded.

  "Well, it's starting to get te, so I suggest everyone retire for the evening to pack and take care of everything that needs taking care of," Cassia stated, looking around at them all. "I'll keep working on this a bit longer. Who knows, I may come upon something that will be useful to you."

  With a general chorus of assent, the party broke up, the three Dark-races making their way back to the small clearing outside the city for possibly the st time. "I think we should leave a message behind so Daddy knows where we went," Chellise spoke up as they carefully packed their things.

  "Good idea -don't you even start!" Kira barked at Katari, who had begun to open her mouth, skepticism clear on her face. "We all know what the chances of him coming back are, but I don't care. I'm going to trust that he can, somehow, and act accordingly."

  Katari closed her mouth and bowed her head in acquiescence. "Very well," she said. "How should we go about it? We need to be careful to ensure the message is difficult to find or understand for anyone but my lord."

  They all fell silent, thinking. "I've got it!" Kira excimed. "We'll put the message in that little knot of bushes the boss liked taking us to for sex and make a trail sign here in the clearing pointing towards it. It's hard enough to find the entrance that even if someone does stumble onto the clearing and understands the trail sign, the chances are pretty good that they'll miss it and keep going past."

  Katari nodded. "As good a pn as any. But what should the message say?"

  "We should probably stick to the basics. Say that we've left for Eldfall to save Safara, and that we're working with America. If we keep things vague, it'll lessen the potential damage if someone else does discover it."

  Katari nodded again. "Good. I will leave the exact wording of the message to you."

  Once Kira had written the message, she read it through several times, trying to see it from the perspective of a stranger. Satisfied that she was not giving away any potentially disastrous information, she pced the message in a small leather satchel to protect it from the elements and hid it in the aforementioned knot of bushes. Straightening, she took a deep breath, imagining for a split second that she had caught a hint of Fenrir's scent. The memories this prompted sent a fsh of arousal through her, but she pushed them to the back of her mind and returned to the clearing to finish preparing alongside Chellise and Katari.

  Despite the excitement of finally having a solid lead on Safara, the mood was somber, all three thinking about Fenrir and the possible dangers he might be facing. Their imminent departure seemed to have brought it home to them just how unlikely it was that he would ever return to them, and while Kira steadfastly repeated to herself that he had done impossible things before, she could not entirely suppress the creeping fear that if they left, they would never see him again.

  TheBestofSome