The next day, as soon as the students had finished their studies, Pali had sent word to Instructor Benc to send Ferra to his classroom as soon as she was done. He had also sent for Dario.

"Instructor Pali?" Ferra said, entering the room. "You wanted to see me?"

"Yes, Ferra, I have something important to ask of you."

"Does this involve the search for Salis?"

"It does."

Ferra brightened up. "Did you finally get permission to search for her?"

"Yes, but there is a condition that requires your help."

"What kind of condition? What help could I be?"

"For some reason the military wants me to take a "family" with me when I search for Salis."

Ferra's eyes grew wide. "You do not mean…"

"Yes, Ferra. I called you here to ask you to accompany me as part of this "family.””

Pali saw a mixture of feelings on Ferra's face. To him, it looked as if she was not sure if she wanted to be excited, surprised, or uncertain.

"What will we be doing?" Ferra said after a minute.

"We will go through Toa Mirr disguised as a family of traveling merchants, but our official mission is to sabotage their supply lines and to gather information. When we are not doing these things we can use our time however we wish."

"Like searching for someone?"

"Yes, like searching for someone."

The look on Ferra's face showed that she was interested in going, but Pali had expected as much.

"Forgive me for being late," Dario said, coming into the room, followed by Calren.

When Dario saw Ferra, he stopped for an instant.

"No…" Ferra said, then looked at Pali. "You are not going to ask him too are you?"

For the moment Pali ignored Ferra's comment.

"What is it you want to ask me Instructor Pali?" Dario looked to be hiding his irritation when he saw Ferra but it was still noticeable.

"I am sorry Calren, but I need to discuss something in private with these to so I must ask you to leave."

"If it is about Helnion and Salis I want to help too," Calren said, making Pali wonder how many people knew what he was trying to do.

Pali thought for a minute about if he could accept Calren's help. He knew he could not pass him as a family member, but was there another way? Maybe he should let Calren know too and then he might have some ideas Pali had not thought of.

"All right, you can stay as long as you promise to not tell anyone about what we talk about." He turned to Ferra and Dario. "That goes for the both of you too."

"Yes, Instructor Pali." They all said.

With the two boys now here, Pali told them what he had told Ferra.

"So you want me to go into Toa Mirr and help sabotage them while looking for Salis?" Dario said. He looked skeptical of the idea. "And you want me to go with you?"

"Yes Dario."

"If I may ask a question?"

"Go ahead."

"Why me?"

"Because you knew Salis. I hope that having those close to her will make it easier to find her."

"I am sorry to say this Instructor but other than Helnion no one was close to her and having Ferra with us might make it harder for us to find her."

"I will not!" Ferra said angrily to Dario.

"She always seemed to run from you whenever she saw you while she was still here."

"She is just shy."

"Ha! I would not call Salis shy. If anything, I would say she hates people, especially the noisy ones that will not leave her alone."

"Enough," Pali said. "If you keep arguing like this, I really will think you are siblings."

"Thank the Deity we are not!" Ferra huffed.

"Um, can I say something?" Calren looked like he didn’t want to get in between Ferra and Dario’s quarreling as Pali saw him glance nervously at the two when he spoke.

"Go ahead."

"I know because of my ancestry that I could not pass as a family member, but I still want to go."

"Why do you want to go so badly?" Pali asked.

Calren blushed. "I… Do I have to say?"

"He has a crush on Helnion," Dario grinned and elbowed Calren.

Ferra gasped.

"I do not know what to say about that…" Pali did his best not to show his amusement.

"Dario! I told you not to say that to anyone!" Calren said to Dario through clenched teeth.

"It is decided!" Ferra said loudly. "Calren is coming."

Pali and Calren looked at Ferra surprised. Dario shook his head and rolled his eyes.

"As much as I would like to take him, we still have the problem of his appearance," Pali looked over Calren’s non Flaern characteristics again.

"You could always make him your slave," Dario said with a smirk. "Lots of people in Toa Mirr have slaves."

Pali frowned at this, "I do not think that would be appropriate."

"I think it would work," Calren’s face showed he wasn’t too fond of the idea, "I will not really be a slave so it should not be too big of a problem."

"I pride myself in being extra nice to slaves," Ferra’s face showed she wasn’t too happy with the idea.

Dario laughed, "I just might have to go with you guys if I get my slave."

"I will never call you "Master" Dario," Calren pushed Dario.

"But if you do not, then it will give you away."

"I think it would be for the better if Dario did not come," Ferra’s face had dropped at seeing Dario’s treatment of Calren.

"I agree," Dario gave Ferra a weary look, "Being called Ferra's brother makes me want to vomit."

"It is not like you have anything to contribute," Ferra said. "Except maybe drooling over and kissing the feet of any guards or nobles that we would need to get by and making them let us go by because they want to get away from you so badly."

"I DO NOT drool over people to get my way," Dario sounded like he was trying not to yell.

"Enough," Pali put his hand between the two, "Keep the fighting between yourselves for when we become a family."

"Huh?" The three children said at the same time.

Pali smirked, "If people see you two arguing like that nobody would expect that our family were spies."

"You forget that I do not want to go," Dario didn’t take his scowl off of Ferra.

Pali had never expected Dario to be easy to convince, but he had planned for this, being the Dugin born that Dario was, might change his mind.

"You do not want to come even if we compensate you?"

This sentence had the exact effect on Dario that Pali had wanted as he perked up at the words.

"What kind of compensation?" Dario’s scowl went away and gave his full attention to Pali.

"Everyone that participates in this mission will get paid for every target we destroy. What we get paid depends on the target."

"Can you guess how much?"

"At least five gold for the small objectives and I hear there is a particularly hard one that whoever takes it out will be paid one thousand gold."

"Wow," Ferra finally stopped scowling at Dario and looked at Pali, "Five gold. My parents never let me handle that much."

"That is because your parents are poor," Dario glanced at Ferra and smirked but didn’t turn away from Pali.

"If my family was poor, I would not be here. Besides, I would rather be poor than have a family that steals money from the peasants that live off of their land."

"My family does not steal. It is our right as landowners to take a percentage of the crops…"

"Please stop," Pali sighed.

Ferra and Dario glared at each other but then turned their attention back to Pali.

"Aside from your monetary payment," Pali said, continuing from where Ferra and Dario had interrupted him, "I have been told that anybody choosing to join the military after the mission will be granted one higher rank than one would receive upon enrollment."

At the mention of this Dario smiled, "Maybe I should give this job some consideration. Though five gold is not very much."

Pali shook his head at Dario's last remark. "Dario, if you and Salis had only one thing in common it would be your views on money."

"I admit," Dario seemed to think about something, "That was one of her good points."

"I should add one more thing," Pali said. "We will leave within the next week so you will miss school until we return."

What surprised Pali was that all three of the children looked pleased about this.

"All right. I will go, even if I have to be near Ferra much more than I would like." Dario said, now excited.

Pali shook his head again. He had never expected that the prospect of missing school would be the thing that convinced Dario to come. It was a good thing he had not mentioned that he would tutor them.

Pali was about to tell them their plans for the week when Ferra spoke, "Can I ask some questions?"

"Yes, Ferra, go ahead."

"How many people are we going to be taking?"

It was a good question and one that Pali was still not sure of.

"I want to take as few as possible. Considering my age it would be strange to have any children older than you and Dario, but I also feel that taking any younger children would only make our job harder."

"So just the three of us?" Calren asked.

"For now," Pali said.

"Next question!" Ferra said, Pali not liking the grin on her face. "Who is going to be our mom?"

Calren and Dario looked interested in this too.

"I have not decided yet."

"Ask Instructor Meric," Calren said.

"Why her?" Pali was considering her because they were close to the same age.

"Because she has really nice legs," Calren grinned.

"You noticed that too?" Dario grinned too.

Pali heard a disgusted noise from Ferra and sworn he heard her mutter 'boys' but was not sure. As for the discussion the two boys were having, to his embarrassment, he agreed with them. She had nice legs, among other assets.

"So what do you say?" Calren said to Pali. "She is not married so she should not be a problem."

"Aside from the opinion of some perverts," Ferra looked at the two boys, "I think Instructor Meric would be a good choice."

"Yes," Pali said. "I had been considering her because of the advantage her skill with the bow would give us and our similar ages."

"When are you going to ask her?" Ferra said.

"I think now is a good time."

"Can we come?" Calren gave Dario a look.

"Cheating on Helnion already?" Dario gave Calren a fake look of shame.

Calren punched Dario in the arm hard and then ran off. "I told you not to talk about that!"

Dario took off after Calren, rubbing his arm. "I never promised not to!"

"Idiots," Ferra said to herself.

"If you two want to come I am leaving no,." He turned to Ferra, "Are you coming?"

"I would never miss a marriage," Ferra grinned at him.

"We are not getting married." He was flustered.

Ferra laughed as they left the room.