Diversion

Back at the palace, things were coming to a head. The palace was nearly reconstructed, and that meant that Baak would be moving his "trophies" soon. There was little time to lose.

Alvar had been changing his appearance often to avoid detection since his arrival. So far, no one seemed to suspect that not one, but two elves were hiding in plain sight.

Brinn had decided not to tell Alaron about her beloved's arrival. The prince was surprisingly tolerant of many of her antics lately, including a heated discussion of whether to serve chocolate gnomes as the dessert for the coronation feast.

"Princess Mairwen" had insisted it would be fitting, but Cafer did not like the idea of people eating the heads off the little edible sculptures. In the end, Brinn prevailed, knowing that she would enjoy destroying the little chocolate beast almost as much as taking down a real one.

However, the spymaster was not sure that his tolerance would extend to Alvar or to the upcoming escape of Bukuri and compa