Nia raises an eyebrow at the bird before noticing a small scroll attached to its leg. She unfastens the note, ruffling the bird's feathers.

Techno smiles at the crow and pulls out a bunch of seeds out of a secret pocket that Nia didn't know about, letting the bird nibble on it. She gives him a confused look, and he shrugs with a chuckle.

"You would also have some if your best friend was a crow whisperer," Technoblade defends himself. Nia giggles, affectionately punching his shoulder. "What's the letter say?"

"Oh, right," Nia says, opening it at once. Her eyes fly over the text upon the paper. "Oh, so Phil's hiding at Sara's current place in new L'Manburg and he says that he can't get to us because the compass you gave him was taken from him."

"Yeah, I have it." Techno presses his lips together. "I took it from Quackity before I . . . well, you know."

"It's alright, Tech," Nia reassures the piglin with a smile. She redirects her gaze to the crow that sits on his shoulder. "We're getting Phil out of L'Manburg, are we? Because I know Sara's not gonna take him here, she's planning to stay there for a bit . . ."

Biting her bottom lip, she doesn't reveal that Sara is doing recon to find out whether she won't be able to find some leads about the Revival Book. She's been to Tubbo's old library and Ghostbur's new library as well. Neither of them have even a sign of the Revival Book, however.

She also knows that Techno's itching to see Phil again and get him out of the country that has hurt them so much already. The execution. Wilbur's death. Nia freed Phil of the ankle monitors that kept him locked inside his own house, but it hasn't done much as she left him there alone, and he was forced to go into hiding in that country.

She didn't realize Phil wouldn't remember the way to Technoblade's house, and that is on her. She should've asked. After all, there was a reason Techno gave him a compass to get here. It is not an easy road from L'Manburg.

"Yeah, Ranboo, Tommy and I have created a nether portal to get us to the Dream SMP faster." Techno nods. "Not that Tommy's allowed to step foot in there, or me, in that matter."

"If it's just the two of us, we can easily sneak into L'Manburg. Sara and I could create a distraction while you two disappear without a trace," Nia points out, spotting Tommy and Ranboo in the corner of her eye.

The two boys walk out of Techno's cottage, laughing about something they've been talking about, followed by Ghostbur. She smiles at the trio, when Ranboo and Tommy start throwing snowballs at each other, while Ghostbur doesn't understand the slightly violent children's game. The ghost tries to make the two boys stop, saying they should calm themselves and giving them pieces of lapis lazuli.

"Tommy, Tommy please, calm yourself, have some blue," Ghostbur repeats whenever Tommy shouts at Ranboo.

"You're dead, Ranboo! I'm gonna win this!" Tommy exclaims, aiming a snowball at Ranboo's head. The enderman boy easily steps out of its trajectory, dodging it with a nonchalant laugh.

Being tall sometimes makes a person an easier target but with Ranboo, it's different. He's slimmer due to his genetics and he also happens to be more flexible than one would expect. At least in comparison to Tommy's constantly stiff posture and mechanical movements.

Nia glances at Techno, the two anarchists smirking. They both grab a fistful of snow and form snowballs. Their cold snowy projectiles hit both boys in the face, the snow splashing and slowly melting on their cheeks. Tommy's are bright red from the cold, whereas Ranboo has only one pink-colored cheek. The other remains a clean black of the endermen.

"Hey!" Tommy glares at Techno, whose snowball hit him. Ranboo wipes snow off his bare skin as it starts turning into water, cringing when he comes in contact with the liquid.

"Have some blue, Tommy," Ghostbur approaches the boy once more. "Calm yourself." The blonde shakes his head and refuses to accept the blue.

"I don't need any more, Ghostbur, look—" Tommy shoves his hand into the pocket of his pants and pulls out a fistful of small lapis lazuli gems that he's collected over the months spent with Ghostbur. (Nia's been told by the ghost that he regularly visited Tommy in exile for months.) "But thank you, truly," the blonde teenager smiles.

"Oh, okay," Ghostbur reciprocates the smile. Turning around to face the slightly taller half-enderman, Ghostbur stretches out his hand to Ranboo with the lapis. "Have some blue, Ranboo."

And, being too polite to decline even if he has a lot of blue from Ghostbur himself, Ranboo nods and smiles, taking it. "Thank you, Ghostbur, thank you." He puts it in the pocket of his black winter coat.

Nia grins, glancing at Techno. She moves slightly closer, their hands brushing, which makes the piglin look at her. He dons a soft smile himself, wishing that the slightly peaceful life that they currently have could last forever.

Though he knows they have to get Phil out of L'Manburg first and then make sure that the country doesn't get to cause any harm to more people. Tommy might not know it himself, but L'Manburg is a huge part of most of his troubles. The discs are a significant part of it, too, but his exile was caused by L'Manburg and the fact it was rebuilt. L'Manburg is the reason Tubbo — his supposed best friend — exiled him. Tubbo chose a country over his best friend. It's just not right.

But they don't see it. At least not yet.

"Oh! Stela! Do you want some blue? You look like you could use some blue." Ghostbur runs up to the enderwoman the instant she appears near Technoblade's cottage.

Stela tilts her head to the side, but accepts the lapis with a smile. One would wonder where Ghostbur keeps all the blue. "Thank you, Wilbur."

"I'm not Wilbur. I'm Ghostbur," the ghost corrects Stela with a smile, though a shadow crosses his expression briefly. Ghostbur is not very fond of the person he used to be when he was alive. Alivebur was a bad person to him.

"Right, I'm so sorry, Ghostbur," says Stela, pressing her lips into a thin line before awkwardly stalking away toward Nia and Technoblade. With a last glance at Ghostbur, she averts her attention to the two anarchists.

"Well, I looked at the nether portal that Ranboo created near here, so he could travel to the Dream SMP and L'Manburg faster, and it should be all fine. I just made sure it's a bit more hidden in the nether, so that people don't exactly notice it if they come across it," Stela informs them both.

"Cool. It's gonna be so much easier to get Phil out of L'Manburg this way," Technoblade remarks for himself.

"I suppose." Stela nods. "I think I might visit L'Manburg myself. To check out the libraries and all, you know?" The woman exchanges glances with Nia.

Techno furrows his eyebrows at them. "You're acting strange," he comments.

"Well, it's Trix business, so we can't exactly disclose much," Stela jumps in with an answer before Nia gets to say anything. She trusts Nia enough to know that the princess won't reveal anything about the Revival Book, but Stela's protectiveness sometimes kicks in involuntarily.

"Hi, Stela," Ranboo greets the woman once he notices she's at the cottage. He waves at her excitedly. Somehow, the aspect of somebody being part-enderman like him makes him feel less alone. Not that he actually is alone.

"Hi, Ranboo," she smiles at him.

"What are you doing here?" the boy asks, approaching the adults. Stela presses her lips together and shrugs.

"Just telling Nia I'm going to L'Manburg," she answers.

"Oh, awesome! I gotta go back, too," Ranboo grins. "To, uh, to check in with Tubbo and everyone, so they don't get suspicious of me," he clarifies after seeing the confused expression on Stela's face. "I kinda still work for the President and all, you know."

"Yeah, of course."

Strange, how despite Ranboo being a citizen of L'Manburg and being friends with the President, he's seemingly spent much more time with Techno, Nia and Tommy than in his own country. Or, the country that he is supposedly allied with.

"Can I come with you?" Ghostbur asks.