All But Hopeless

-Border Forest, near Jocelynn's Brothel. 0 DSTR, Noon-

After Celestia had left, Katya had taken a brisk walk around the encampment to memorize where all of their things were. When she was done, she sat by the fire to warm herself. As the sun rose higher in the sky, the temperature on the forest floor rose, if only a little, although not much of the light got through the canopy. Nonetheless, she began to feel more comfortable, which, in conjunction with her lack of sleep, caused Katya to feel rather drowsy. Just as she began to give in to the desire to close her eyes, she heard motion behind her, but before she could turn around, Simon was right by the fire, nonverbally expressing how cold he was. Unfortunately, Katya was in a rather dour mood, so she did not find his antics humorous in the slightest.

Eventually, Simon cut to the chase, "So, what's the plan? Are we leaving Dalen or continuing on our mission?"

"Your friend promised not to tattle to the Dalen authorities, so assuming she keeps her word, we might actually survive going ahead with our mission," she replied.

Katya sighed, as she struggled to figure out how she wanted to explain this next part to the rigidly principled Simon. After a moment, she began, "So, um, here's the thing. I don't have any real idea where the book is nor where Sabina is. All I know is that she reportedly was spotted going to Dalen. With nothing more to go on, nor any actual authority to conduct an investigation outside of Verden's borders, our ability to actually get a bead on Sabina and the tome she stole is, well, unlikely... through conventional methods."

She took another breath as she struggled to control her anxiety. For some reason, she was afraid of how Simon might react when she told him that she was planning on relying on a supposedly magic necklace to guide her to some woman who might be able to somehow guide her to the stolen book. Actually, when she thought about it like that, her plan sounded quite absurd. However, she still didn't have a better plan. "But, er, your friend, she, uh, gave me this..." Katya pulled the ruby necklace out of her pocket. "She claimed that this could somehow guide us to her mother's house if we went east. Her mother apparently knows how to track down magic textbooks, or something. I don't know..."

Katya sighed again. "So yeah, I guess we could give that a try too if you don't have any better ideas."