/Guild Officer: Nix: Hopefully they won't shoot me.

Nix flew out the window and this time headed toward the orchards. He perched comfortably in a tree for sometime before moving to another tree.

/Guild Officer: Ronnie: What you seeing Nix?

/Guild Officer: Nix: Nothing yet, doing the bird thing in the orchard.

/Guild Officer: Nansu: What's the bird thing.

/Guild Officer: Nix: You know, flying from branch to branch and pecking things.

Nix hopped off the branch and took to the air, keeping low he pa.s.sed through the barrier and headed North.

Within a few minutes, he pa.s.sed over the ambush site, according to Semmi all the Dha.s.si races maintained a camp outside of Parliament. The Parliament was supposedly surrounded by a large neutral area where conflict isn't allowed. The a.s.sa.s.sination attempt of the Ain'Dha.s.si youths was a clear violation of that agreement.

Nix gained as much elevation as he dared, making sure to use the upper branches of the forest trees as cover. The sounds of blades clas.h.i.+ng caused him to pull up and land quickly on a branch.

/Guild Officer: Nix: Fighting...

It only took a moment to zero in on the combatants. Two figures chased a third through the woods. Nix took to the air and closed in, it was a running battle that showed just how fast and agile the Dha.s.si are. From the sounds of their grunts and curses, all three were male. The pursuit managed to catch their prey twice but each time he fought them off.

/Guild Officer: Nix: All three fighters are masked, perhaps that's normal for Dha.s.si.

Finally, the fleeing warrior made a mistake and took a deep cut to his chest. He backed up to the river that Nix had flown over a few days earlier.

/Guild Officer: Nix: Jump in idiot...

The a.s.sailants spread out, backing him up to the river. The more aggressive one leaped out and slashed at the wounded Dha.s.si. "We'll see if Raine keeps leaders.h.i.+p without your backing old fool."

The wounded man leaped backward into the water, submerging himself while his enemies cursed loudly and pursued. Nix left the branch and climbed quickly.

/Guild Officer: Nix: Hopefully I have some clout with the Ain'Dha.s.si camp.

It only took Nix a few minutes to find the camp, he had been forced to go above the trees for a few moments to spot it. Once he knew the direction he flew straight for the camp. The Ain'Dha.s.si camp was set up where the river curved, forcing the current to slow quite a bit. There were dozens of white tents.

/Guild Officer: Nix: Their tent city is nicer than ours. Where would the big wigs be?

/Guild Officer: Jun Li: The biggest tent, probably in the middle for protection.

The biggest tent was easy to spot from the air, there was a large table set up outside of it with several people sitting down eating. Since Nix didn't have time to waste he landed right in the middle of the table.

Nix cursed silently, he was hoping to find Del Tali but she wasn't there. The men at the table stared for a moment.

"Hey! It's the Winter Sparrow!"

Nix turned his bird head to look at the speaker. It was the larger youth from the a.s.sa.s.sination attempt.

The Dha.s.si beside him stared at Nix, his face looked young but Nix had the feeling he was definitely one of the Elders. His eyes were so pale they were nearly white, his snow-colored hair was cut short. "You said it understands?"

"Yes. Del said the same thing."

Nix flew back in the air, hovering over the table for a moment before flying toward the river. He did this a few times.

/Guild Officer Nix: F*ck guys... Figure it out already.

The older Dha.s.si stood up. "You want us to follow you?"

A minute later Nix was flying downstream over the river while the Dha.s.si kept pace on the far side. They had sprung into action unbelievably fast.

Less than two miles downstream they found them. The wounded man was standing in knee-deep water with his back to the steep riverbank. The two attackers turned at the sound of horses, Nix was too far away to hear anything but they fled quickly into the forest.

The Ice Dha.s.si brought their horses into the water, stopping a few meters away from the wounded man. The elder seemed to recognize the wounded man. "I'm Morai Sai Tali, you are hurt but I will not ask my healer to help a masked dha.s.si."

The wounded man pulled his mask down. "Tura Delyn Xai well met Grand Elder Morai Sai."

The elder made a gesture and one of the dha.s.si dismounted and approached Delyn. Nix watched from his perch on the bank as the dha.s.si healed the wounded man.

"Thank you for rendering aid. I would most certainly have perished if not for your timely arrival." Delyn finished the statement with a deep bow, oddly the elder wasn't looking at him but at the riverbank.

"This Winter Sparrow seems to have a knack for saving dha.s.si. He came to our camp and then led us here." The elder held out his hand, palm up. "Come."

/Guild Officer Nix: Fine... I'll peck your old eyes out if you try and nab me.

Nix hopped on the hand of the elder, up close the pale eyes looked even older.

"You're saying the bird brought you?"

The sound of more horses stopped any further conversation. A half dozen Fir' Dha.s.si exited the woods, their mounts sent water in all directions as they splashed toward the Ain'Dha.s.si.

Delyn held up his hand when they were close enough to see his face. "There is no conflict here. Be at peace."

The masked leader of the group nodded and dismounted before pulling down her mask. "Master Delyn... Are you well?"

Delyn nodded. "Manners first apprentice, you stand in the presence of Grand Elder Morai Sai Tali."

/Guild Officer: Nix: Morai, Tura, and Serai are all t.i.tles right?

/Guild Officer: Semmi: Correct: Morai, Serai, and Tsai are all Ain'Dha.s.si ranks. Bera, Tura, and Ura are Fir' Dha.s.si ranks.

Nix didn't realize the newcomer's ident.i.ty until she bowed.

"Greetings Honored Elder, I'm Raine Xai." She wore the plain brown leather armor that Nix had seen in the courtyard, there was a black recurve bow slung across her back.

Nix decided he had stayed long enough and hopped off the elder's hand before flying downstream. After several minutes he turned back toward Parliament.

/Guild Officer: Nix: On my way back. I didn't get to explore much. I'm like a hero-bird or something. I'll brief you when I get back.

**************

A half an hour later, Nix was recovering on the couch with a cold beer in his hand. While he was out Pon and Wind made a quick run to the courtyard. "This is speculation, but I'm guessing that there are factions within Clan Xai that are battling for control. This Delyn character is obviously one of Raine's supporters."

Semmi nodded. "He's also a Master Ranger. Raine is his apprentice."

"I didn't see him with a bow, only swords."

"This is part of the brief that I will be sending out in the next few hours. The Ranger cla.s.s has two paths, the sword, and the bow." Semmi closed her hud and leaned back in her chair. "You look tired Nix."

"Everyone get some rest, we are going to hit Mermaid City hard tomorrow." Nix grabbed the pillow, clearly intent on using the couch.

/Guild Officer Jun Li: Sounds good Nix. I'll be on the morning raid.

Nix waited until they all file out, only Mina had remained. "You seemed troubled Min."

Mina nodded and sat down. "The Chaos Gate, I failed miserably."

Nix shook his head. "No one was expecting that Min, next time you will be ready."

Mina grabbed his hand, squeezing it slightly. "We were married and living in the beach cottage."

Nix smiled. "A cute daughter named Lisa who liked to draw on Soup's sh.e.l.l?"

Unexpectedly Mina started crying. "Yes... She was beautiful and sweet. We shared the same illusion?"

"I suspect that all of us shared things to some extent. The strength of the illusion was that it presented something nice. In your case, a daughter." Nix hugged her close for a moment while stroking her hair.

After several minutes Mina stopped crying and sat up straight. "How did you break the illusion?"

Nix shrugged, not wanting to say that he had to kill the illusions of Hyai, Mina and Shae to break free. "Head back to the SeWorld Min, I'm going to rest here a bit."