Celeste spent the next few days staying in Rusty’s cabin. She figured that with him gone, he wouldn’t mind if she stayed there. He'd probably prefer her over the goblins. She certainly got better sleep knowing that she could lock the door. Davik might be giving her time, but she didn’t know what Malatar might be up to.

Rusty returned a day before he had originally told her he would. She heard him coming and came out of the cabin.

"Is everything all right?" She asked as he unhitched his wagon. "You weren't supposed to be back until tomorrow. I haven't had time to clean the cabin…"

"Never mind that, Celeste. I've got something to tell you that I think you need to hear."

"I hope you didn't rush home just for that. I know you can't see your family too often…"

"No, there's another reason I came in early. I think there's trouble brewing on the horizon and I need to make sure that my defenses are shored up before anything happens.”

“Does this trouble have to do with that Unifiers group that’s cropped up?”

Rusty paused and raised an eyebrow. “What have you been up to while I was gone?”

“It’s a long story. I can explain things while I help you around here. Surely there’s something I can do.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll tell you. First, help me by covering this wagon.”

As they went about “shoring the defenses”, which was mostly laying traps and clearing up brush that someone could ambush the place from, Celeste told Rusty about what she’d been through. She didn’t tell him all the details and he didn’t press. She appreciated that.

“Well, at least we know that you did get put in stasis for twenty-five years and the elves weren’t just making up a story.” He replied as he covered the pit trap he had just dug. “And I guess you don’t have to wonder what happened to your brothers now.”

“I almost wish I didn’t know. They’ve both made it clear that they aren’t who they used to be.” But Rusty was right in the fact that there was some relief in knowing, even if she didn’t like the result. She picked up the shovel that he had used to carry it back to the shed. “And then there’s the whole ultimatum thing…”

“I’m not going to give you advice on that unless you ask. But look on the bright side, you’ve been adopted by goblins. That’s… something. Maybe you can move in with them.” He laughed at that statement.

“If they were lake goblins, maybe I’d be tempted.” Celeste opened the shed and placed the shovel in a place away from her cot. “Now, what was it that you had to tell me?”

Rusty looked around and threw a rock into one of the few bushes that hadn’t been clear. A yelp sounded from it and two of Buttercup’s siblings retreated toward the river. He nodded.

“Come inside. You never know who’s lurking about. I can usually tell when I’m being watched, but certain people can surprise me every time.”

Once they were inside the cabin, Rusty put on some water to make tea with. He sat on his bed and pulled off his boots. Celeste sat at the table. He got up and retrieved the cups.

"You know how those elves came here and said that they found more chambers in the cave that you woke up in? I think I found some dwarves that were there too. Or at least, someone I know found accounts that gave me the indication that they might have been there.” He went over to his bag. “I called in a favor and got the records. I would’ve looked up the dwarves themselves, but they’re all out with their groups and it would take weeks to find them.”

“Are you allowed to have those?” Celeste asked as he fished out a stack of papers. “It sounds like official stuff.”

“Allowed is probably not the right word for it, but I won’t get arrested for having them. I suspect that either very few people know about the time crystal thing or I wouldn’t have been able to get this.”

Rusty set the papers on the table, poured the hot water, and put the tea leaves in the cups before sitting down at the table.

“I would just give them to you to read for yourself, but it’s written in dwarven script. Seeing that you can’t speak our language, I figured you couldn’t read it either.”

“You’re probably right about that. I’m only now starting to understand some goblin language. It’s going to be a while before I even start on dwarf.”

Rusty started on the first page. “Now these four are pretty similar and this one is the most detailed, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to have all four just in case the others have something that the first one didn’t that I missed. Let’s see, these are dated a few weeks after the Shattering. Do you want me to translate all of it or give you a summary?”

“Give me a summary for now. Maybe later we can go over it in more detail.” Celeste tried to not sound too anxious, but she doubted she hid it that well.

Rusty nodded and started to look over the paper. “The one who made this report was a part of a group of four dwarven men who were celebrating one of them coming to age. For dwarves, that means consuming a lot of alcohol and wandering around the land for a few weeks. So keep that in mind if things start to sound a bit odd. That might be why these reports weren’t looked at as being important at the time. Anyways, things were going normally with the celebration. They knew about the civil war in Feon, so they made sure they stayed away from there, though they did get close enough to enter territory under Feon’s control. That’s when the oddness begins.”

He flipped to the next page.

“This dwarf said that they went to sleep one night after a lot of celebrating, but then they woke up in a completely different place. Dwarves have slightly better eyesight in the dark than humans and even elves, but there was no light and he could barely make out anything, just a cave. But he managed to find his way out and found his friends outside. They weren’t sure where they were besides somewhere in the mountains, so they headed south.

As they were trying to figure out what happened, they encountered a group of refugees from Feon who was being attacked by bandits. They intervened, rescued the refugees, and led them to where the Order of Clarice was. The Order let the refugees camp not too far from them on the understanding that they would eventually leave. As it happens, those refugees were the founders of the town now under the Order's protection, providing care and a haven for those that seek it."

"So the dwarves had no idea that they'd been gone for weeks and not days? And no one found this

She wasn’t hurt by the fact that the dwarves hadn't seen any of the rooms when they were stumbling out. After all, neither had she. But there was a small part that whispered that if they had paid a bit more attention to their surroundings, maybe she wouldn't have had slept for 25 years and missed so much. She still would’ve missed the war, but maybe she could've helped her brothers… Rusty poured the tea.

"I will admit that dwarves are not the best timekeepers, especially when drunk. It's not unusual for a coming of age celebration to disappear for longer than planned." He put the paper down. "I guess the authorities at the time chalked it to them being at the right place at the right time. Dwarves have never been the type to question why or how something happened."

Celeste nodded and sipped her tea, which helped some of her bitterness go away. What-ifs were the reason she didn't sleep well at night.

"Thanks for telling me, Rusty. That just leaves… eight more rooms besides mine according to the elves."

"Are you sure those Pinions were telling you the whole truth? You know how elves can be."

"I'm sure they're keeping back something, but I can hardly do much about it if I go myself. The last thing I want to do is upset the elves in charge, especially if I end up having to seek refuge with them."

"You’re probably right." He sipped some of his tea. "How long do you have?"

“When I first got the letter, it was two weeks. I think that was a week ago. It’s a bit hard to tell. All those days just blur together.” Celeste swished the tea around in her cup. "Has he bothered you any?"

"No. I don't know if it's because I'm a blacksmith or if it's because he considers me a dwarf and thinks that causing trouble with me will cause trouble with them. Or perhaps I'm just not important enough for him to take notice."

Celeste sighed. That sounded nice. Maybe a tad lonely, but she’d take loneliness over everybody clamoring for answers from her or giving her suspicious glances. Rusty promptly changed the subject.

"I need to tell you about the Unifiers, don't I?" He finished off his tea. "While I was visiting my folks, a group came around looking for recruits. Let's just say that the way they talked about the Revivers and Renewers wasn't the most peaceful."

"Was the one doing all the talking named Johan? He was the one that came to the Order's camp when I was there."

Rusty nodded. "Yep, that was his name. I left shortly after he arrived and started stirring things up, but I have a feeling that he walked away with recruits or at least some dwarven mercenaries. I don’t know if he’ll bother me for weapons, but he’ll probably be tempted to make camp near here. It’s far enough away that Davik can’t ambush them, but close enough that it wouldn’t take them long to reach Davik.”

“What makes you think they’ll go there first? Orsic’s people would be closer.”

“Because given the unfortunate venture of the Unifiers earlier, they view Davik as the bigger threat. I don’t know much about tactics, but I’d want to take out the best fighting force first before going after the other one.”

“Hopefully they’ll hold off until I give Davik my answer.” She did not want to have to try and avoid a whole army on her way back if she came back. “Speaking of going, do you know if the graveyard of Feon is safe? There’s someone I have to visit before I go.”

“As far as I know the vines don’t go that far out of the city. You should be good on that account. Plus it’s considered neutral ground, so you shouldn’t have to worry about accidentally getting stuck in between a Reviver and Renewer fight. May I ask who it is your visiting?”

“The woman who I worked for before....” Celeste gestured all around here. “And the spot where my parents are buried. They don’t have markers, but I know the general location. I also want to look for anyone else I might’ve known.”

“Do you want me to come with you?”

“No, I need to do this myself. You have plenty to do around here.”

Rusty nodded. “All right then. But you know how you said the goblins adopted you? That means that they aren’t going to let you go anywhere alone ever again.”

That was a welcome change. Celeste was tired of going everywhere by herself, even if her traveling companion was going to be a goblin she could only understand sometimes.