"She won't become a druid if she just lays about all day."

"On the contrary, Miss Uki I believe that is most certainly in the cards."

The two voices shook Freya out of her stupor. She had been resting all day and was beginning to be restless.

The mouse lay upon her childhood bed. Her bedroom was nested in the Uki burrow, a place that was no longer as restful as it had been.

Two days at home after she’d gone to the front and messed up a lot of the best-laid plans of mice and birds.

Freya could vividly recall the wyvern in her mind, trying to overpower her. But by that time she had a lot more control over her magic.

She’d pulled the scaled beast through her burrow-a pocket dimension- and thrust it upon the debutant scene. Of course, it had made waves. The rampage that went on afterward had nothing to do with her, and she was glad that the cats of the Marquisate were her enemies.

The two voices began again.

"You should know better than anyone that she needs rest after the time..."

The rabbits' voice trailed off and Freya strained to hear it. River had told her about how she was laid up for a few days after bonding with all three of her rangers, and she felt much the same. Whatever magic she had was spent. With that was all of the saved-up energy she had held onto.

She knew that she had tapped into just about every reserve, every snack she had ever eaten.

"I'll bring more rolls."

Her mother's defeated tone let her know that whoever had been seated outside her door had at least a modicum of the Uki Matriarchs' respect. She was probably a bit familiar with the male behind the voice.

Freya hadn’t the faintest idea who it was, but it sounded like someone with a thick rabbit brogue. Or someone trying to emulate the old country way of speaking.

She hadn’t encountered anyone in recent memory that had spoken using it for anything but parody or jest.

Frey stretched her tail and looked at the window. It was mid-afternoon in the later part of winter. The harvest had been done long enough for society to hold several dances. Idly she wondered if her mother would ask her to attend any more balls before she left. She smiled at the thought, then got up. She strolled to her traveling cloak and held it out. Then realizing that she would probably need a dress underneath it, she wriggled into a fair brown dress. Her old standard felt a bit large but otherwise normal.

Freya strode confidently to the door. A little crack in the door showed her that the rabbit was wearing a well-to-do suit.

She was puzzled by his face.

The rabbit looked like no one she had ever met. Freya updated her decision to just rush in and pepper him with questions. She had her mother on a need-to-know basis, except as pertained to her Old Grandpaw.

The rabbit outside accepted a plate of rolls from her mother. The older mouse sighed but didn't say anything. Immediately evident to Freya was that he was immaculately dressed and looked unremarkably average so far as rabbits go. His bold blue three-piece suit would have drawn eyes if it weren't the season for such finery.

"You are bound by nothing that we say in this conversation. I want you to know that from the start."

Freya cursed the bloody rabbit hearing that gave her away. The rabbit stared her down.

"Are you a relative of Captain Bell? Or the Bun family? Or perhaps the Cobblers?"

Freya opened the door a bit to speak with him. He sat across the well-lit hall sitting on a long bench with a small plate of rolls.

He hefted the plate towards her. She accepted it, taking it with one paw while using the other to extract her prize.

"In a manner of speaking, no. I work for the crown."

Freya's eyebrows raised up precipitously.

"And no, lass before you ask *she* didn't put me up to this."

He didn't specify the female in question but Freya had a good idea.

"What do you want with me?"

"It's not about me. It's what the *crown* wants with you."

"Ah."

She chewed on the most delicious roll she had ever tasted. Cinnamon notes meshed with the chocolate which was her mother's signature recipe for a bad or very good occasion.

"Rest assured that she only wants to extend to you the courtesies afforded to your future position, as well as offer you a gift of sorts."

Freya's ears perked up. The rabbit looked deadly serious at her. She had, of course, extensive experience in receiving gifts that were meant to convey a message. For instance, rolls intended to make her feel secure, or a Kapi date meant to make her decide upon a suitor.

"A gift? I imagine that there is some sort of golden string attached to it?"

The rabbit smirked, then adjusted the tie on his suit.

"I would hope that she didn’t attach strings to me," he said, chuckling.

Freya raised a single eyebrow at the exact allowable limit to push for a response.

"I work in espionage. As you are familiar with Lady Raina and Captain Bell, they are the face of the kingdom's intelligence collection apparatus. I am a field agent."

The rabbit drew himself to his full height, nearly half again as tall as she was with his ears fully extended.

"Agent Capybara, at your service miss."

He bowed deeply, his tophat a part of his flourish. She, in turn, curtseyed.

Freya eyed the newcomer cautiously. Then she took another roll.

"I suppose you're here to collect intelligence upon me?"

"Ah, Lass you wound me. I am merely here to offer you some training as well as tell you that we can be an asset to the circle just as much as the circle can be an asset to the crown."

Freya offered the plate back to the rabbit. He accepted it and placed it back, snatching up a roll.

"I suppose that you’re about to tell me about asset management and how the Mole stock market works?"

"These would be the other kind of assets. The flesh and blood kind."

"It's so good to be looked at like something of value," Freya said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"River said you were exceptional."

Freya paused, finally done with the cinnamon roll.

"You know the druid?"

"Know her? I helped train her!"

He smiled. Freya smiled back.

"River saved my life a few times. True I wouldn't have been in the situations without her, but that’s life."

"When she worked alongside us, she-her mission- was a fair bit more mundane. And certainly less dangerous."

"Less danger sounds wonderful right now."

The two sat back in their chairs. A shared view of a strong druid put them in a small group. Most creatures never met a druid or anyone touched by magic in their entire lives. To have an opinion on one? That was near as rare.

" So the crown wants me to ...what, be open to sharing things that the circle would be okay with me sharing?"

"You're right on the nose there, Miss. Mostly it's the formality of our meeting so in case we ever need to interact professionally, you don't have to wonder?"

Freya paused.

"And I supposed Captain Bell would say the same thing as well? And Tulip?"

"Naturally."

Freya had been looking for him to pass a few of her tests. He had. She would need to speak with Captain Bell anyway to clear up some socialite business anyway.

"Then you should consider me a valuable ally. Assuming nothing you told me is suspect. Now onto the other matter?"

The rabbit smiled.

"As you may be aware, there are many more languages than ours. There's whatever the cats speak, the lizards' speech, and I heard druids even have their own high speech."

Freya nodded, leaning in.

"Yes, what of it?"

"As we know some of your ability is to speak to languages of others, I would like to help you learn how to do some analysis of handwriting, as well as..."

He brought out a sheaf of paper. Putting it on the tea table, Freya wondered where he had just pulled it from.

"Teaching you how to use a Cypher. Your mother will be able to help you with reading and writing other languages, as she shares your gift, but this cipher is special to the coalition. I might even say that this in itself is the soul of the coalition. To be able to speak without fear of a message being intercepted..."

He trailed off.

"I am guessing that there's a bit in there about using words to represent other things?"

"You would be correct. The preponderance of things that our current cipher refers to are ... baked goods."

Freya immediately felt at home