As soon as Priya was settled into a routine the house flowed back to normal. Ed had been training again with Ko'Loss on how to use mana effectively and how to disguise his divine powers as mana powers.
For'Ten and Loran had drawn up a plan of action. The plan had to be presented to the council for approval if the knights wanted to continue protecting the young man and his mission.
The debate had taken longer than anyone had wanted. The council owed a great deal to the work of The Oracle and everyone there supported her. The other fact was that while everyone was in the council room and then in the general assembly room a mana driven contract was enforced. You could not do anything to directly go against the will of The Oracle or betray it. This was a passive power put in by Ko'Loss to guarantee safety.
The fact that The Oracle was essentially a neutral agent in the world guaranteed that it wouldn't overtly try to hurt humans or demi-humans. It just tried to guide them towards better self-management. If life died out in the world then The Oracle would have nothing left to guide. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement.
The bell rang inside the council room, For'Ten knew this meant that a decision had been made. When he went in he walked into a silent room. The different representatives looked at him while he walked to the middle of the circular room. When he reached the middle Gillian, the Ursal representative spoke first.
"We approve of the plan, but we wish to clarify a few things." He stood with his hands behind his back. His white fur glowed in the faint light coming up from the middle of the darkened room.
"Please ask," For'Ten nodded his understanding.
"First, by doing this will we be targeted by the human divines?" His first question was pointed and direct.
For'Ten shook his head and perked his ears. "It is not in their best interest, and the human divines are divided at current. This plan does not unify them as a front. Plus we have the support of at least 3 divines in the capital already. That should keep the citizens here safe."
A spokesman for the Owl folk in the back of the room spoke out of turn, "But what about the civilians further out? What about their safety..."
For'Ten snorted and dismissed the interruption, "If the party is sufficiently far enough away they will focus on us before they start to hurt the populace. Remember they are trying to preserve their way of life. Killing us does them no good."
Ursal scowled across the room at the Owl. His name was Phineas and he was always a worrywart, but the owl people forgot very little and were astute hunters. They were also cautious by nature. Ursal's gaze was immediately noticed and Phineas furled his feather before sitting back down.
"Are there any other questions?" Ursal's sudden displeasure was felt by all. People shifted in seats or shuffled their feet for those races that didn't use a chair. "Thank you then," Ursal said to the room before turning back to For'Ten.
"Here are our conditions. Travel in small groups. Attract as little attention as possible. When possible avoid large cities unless you have to find one of the groups. Also, you will receive a... gift... from certain donors to help you along the way. Nothing may be used in your travels that identifies you as a member of the council or an employee of the Glass Capital."
For'Ten could read between the lines. He understood that the council, and by proxy the people of the south, were supporting Ed and The Oracle. They just couldn't do it outright without running the risk of starting another war with the north.
Long after the meeting let out For'Ten and Loran met at Ko'Loss house. Priya was invited to the meeting as one of the souls but she had insisted she had work that day. She had informed them that she would help however she could but she was waiting to go back home. The others had accepted her answer and agreed to keep her informed.
The dining room table was cleared of the place settings and maps and lists had taken their places. A large map of the southern region was laid at one end of the table. At the other was a large very yellow sheepskin map of the north. Ed had stared at it for a while. It amazed him that many of the towns and roads were still the same. Only the names had changed with the ages. Ko'Loss was amazed that so little had changed since he last visited the north. He had expected new roads and towns.
Ed's bag laid in the middle of the table. The bag of disks was open on the map to the south. The empty disks were placed roughly where they guessed the souls were. Several were clustered around the southern tip. A few were clustered around the western edge and the rest were between.
On the northern map, one rested on the city of Ganel. Another one was in the countryside. Someone was traveling between the two areas, and quickly at that. The group assumed it was a merchant or a government official, one of the avian species probably at the rate that it moved.
"Is this as close as you could get it?" For'Ten studied the maps.
Loran and Ed nodded. "We took a guess based on distance. One of the markers is traveling at sea. The others appear to have been spread out. This would be easier if we had divine powers or teleportation magic." Loran said.
Ed looked at Ko'Loss who shook his head. The power to teleport had long since been lost. Immense amounts of mana would be needed to do that, and they were trying to stay incognito. Ed sighed, that would have been a lucky break.
Ko'Loss made a noise like a cough. Loran giggled, an uncharacteristically girly noise for her. "If I can make a suggestion." He started to say while moving away from the table. "There are some places in the world that The Oracle has access to. They are connected to the ruins. Also, you can bolster your speed with mana. Physical enhancements will work, it is a low-grade spell but you should be able to run faster than a horse."
"What if you are part horse?" For'Ten chimed in with a half-smile on his face.
Ko'Loss twisted his body to look at For'Ten, "Then you should be faster than your neighbor?"
For'Ten held in a laugh as he saw his friend struggle with the humor.
The plan formulated that Loran would help in the north. She would also head towards the two dots in the Eastern Lands. The Fay had forest walk and she could cover much larger strides of lands headed that way than towards the shoreline of the west. In that direction, the flatlands gave Ed and For'Ten enough of an ability to move using enhancements. The forest would just slow them down.
A list of final preparations was made and the plan was to leave from two different gates. Loran was going to enlist a friend and they were going to travel in groups of two. This hopefully would make anyone who followed them guess at who left with who. The remaining disks were split, Loran got two for her two targets and the rest went into a bag.
When the last decisions were made Loran was flicking through Ed's bag. She was actually being a snoop but she did it like it she was bored.
She sat in a chair and leaned back with the large book she had shoved in during the raid. She opened the first page and saw the header. Her eyes changed and she brought the book to her face. She read through more pages and then started to flip pages quickly. A note fell from between the first few pages which she picked up and put in her lap. She was still searching through pages when Ed noticed her with the book.
"Anything useful in there?" Ed said in an offhanded way. He was curious why she was looking through his stuff but also what was in the book.
"Ed, where did you get this book?" She asked. He gave her a summary of the job carrying cargo to the city and the crate it was in. She explained that when the crate had been opened at the Taxmen's office they had pulled the book off the top and given it to him as payment.
She whistled and closed the book. She motioned to For'Ten, "You have got to see this." For'Ten raised an eyebrow and stalked around the table.
She passed the book up to him and he cradled its soft leather binding in his arm while he read it. He nearly dropped it after the first few pages. He quickly thumbed through to the middle before closing it and putting it on the table. "Burn that damn thing, and quickly." He said, his face slightly ashen.
Ed was curious now. Ko'Loss was already headed towards the book to burn it. Ed scurried across the table and grabbed it. "Hold up Ko'Loss." he opened the book and looked at the pages. Crests and Seals were on each page along with what might have been addresses and other information. Some pages held stacks of numbers and gold stamps. "I don't get it, what is it?"
For'Ten shook his head. "All that wasted on the ignorant."
Ko'Loss grabbed the book. He thumbed through the pages. "Well this changes the game," he said. His voice was soft and seemed to echo from inside his body.
He held the book up in the air and pointed to it with the other hand. "This is a tax ledger. If you take this to the capital building you now have the title to all the accounts listed inside. Are you sure you got this legitimately?"
Ed shrugged, "Well Erust got it actually. It was a payment. The taxmen pulled it straight off the top of the crate of goods and handed it to me."
For'Ten nodded. He had done escort duty for the taxmen before and knew that when they carried cargo they always gave the item on the top as payment for escort. The thought was they should have gotten the most valuable accounts first, so they would be at the bottom. His mind sank at what would have been on the bottom of that crate.
Loran was leaning back in the chair thinking of islands and estates and becoming a great formal lady with the untold riches in that book. She remembered the sheet of paper on her lap. "Ed, what about this?"
Ed walked over and grabbed it. He opened the folded sheet and scanned through it. He knew it was divine by the glow but he hadn't expected the contents. "This letter signifies ownership has been transferred to the bearer of this book. All contents are now the sole property of the holder of this letter. For any questions please refer to the person holding this letter. He should be tall, human, and probably confused looking. Thank you!" and then the official symbol of the taxmen sat at the bottom.
Ed passed it to Ko'Loss who scanned it and returned it. "That will prevent too many questions. This clears up ownership. We shouldn't access too much of this book though. That is too much wealth too quickly. We should pull a small amount and split it for travel expenses."
Everyone nodded. Loran shrugged, her dreams of becoming a landowning lord of the south vanished before her. Ko'Loss agreed he would hold the book here while they traveled. Magic warding across his house would prevent anyone from getting it easily.
Loran was searching through the rest of the bag. She saw the book of scriptures, the magical road map, and some other small papers. She dismissed it and put it all back in the bag. The coin purse was tucked into its pocket and while she could feel the few dozen coins inside she couldn't access them.
The sudden shock of their extra windfall had changed the atmosphere in the room. Ed was thinking about the book and what to do with the money when this was done. They all decided quietly that the planning meeting was over. Ko'Loss agreed to have the butlers and goblins make what they could for the trip.
Ed and For'Ten agreed to go to the Knights depot and try to arrange the rest of the supplies. Loran asked about having Le'Liss trading supply some. All three looked at each other and then at Ed. "Fine, Fine, make a list and I will talk to Priya about it. We need to leave in the next few days before the gods start moving again."