An Owl's Rise

"Please just calm down and listen." Lucia said to pacify Evelyn, Bylur, Rehni, and Aralee.

They were incensed by her proposal, but after taking a few seconds to calm down, understood that Lucia would not say something simply to infuriate them. She most certainly had a good reason.

"If saving the imprisoned owls truly is something that we wish to do, then completing all of our objectives at the same time would be for the best."

Lucia explained that it would be far easier to let Osvaldo and Uriah gather the owls for them, and then eliminate the two Deamhain Sect members. At that point they could free the owls and pin the blame on the Miris Sect. If done correctly this would cause tensions within the Tyrannis Union. A conflict between multiple sects might even break out.

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"But how are Osvaldo and Uriah supposed to collect the captured owls. Evelyn killed their informant, and the information they would need is now gone." Rehni said, bring up a major flaw in Lucia's plan.

"Leave that to me. I have some experience spreading information and having it reach the ears that I want." Lucia responded confidently.

While the intel that Uriah had paid for was lost, Evelyn had wringing it out of the informant before killing him. All Lucia needed to do was learn it from her, before subtly disseminating it to Osvaldo and Uriah in a manner that would not breed suspicion.

"Okay, let's say that this all works. How does it change the rest of our plan? Will we still go ahead with the same methods to assassinate Osvaldo and Uriah? What are we going to do with the owls once we free them? If we just send them off on their own, they're bound to get captured again or killed." Aralee said, voicing her concerns.

"I believe that we can eliminate the two Deamhain Sect members in the same way that we already agreed upon. As for how to handle the liberated owls, that is something I'm not sure about. Does anyone have any suggestions?"

The room went quite as the five of them thought about this solution to a very large obstacle in their way.

Just freeing the owls was only the first step in rescuing them. A group of giant owls flying around was bound to be noticed and the Miris Sect would send people to recapture them. They would never be able to escape back to nonhuman territory where they would be relatively safe.

"Ah! Bylur said, his face lighting up as he had an idea. "Why don't we just use a return ticket to the Verdant Warlord's Domain. That will get them out of here without leaving a trace."

However, while Bylur thought this was a great suggestion, everyone else could only give him confused looks, wondering if he was serious.

"Bylur, you know that those tickets can only transport one individual at a time. Even if we used all of the ones in our possession, it wouldn't be close to enough." Evelyn said.

"Not to mention, that doing so would reveal the location of the domain. Letting that information spread is a surefire way to tipping off some major power and having them monopolize the entrance." Rehni said, shaking her head.

Having unfettered access to such a treasure-trove was one of their greatest advantages. If they became cutoff from the Verdant Warlord's Domain, it would become much harder for them to continue advancing.

"Okay, I concede that sending a bunch of strangers to the domain is risky, but I swear the return tickets can send more than one individual. It can do up to twenty."

To prove his point, Bylur took out the single return ticket he had acquired and showed it to everyone else.

Each of them took a turn examining it and found that what Bylur had said was true. The return ticket he had really could send twenty entities to the vicinity of the domain's entrance.

Of course, it was not that Evelyn, Lucia, Rehni, and Aralee had missed this function, it was that Bylur had obtained a completely different magic item from the ones they did.

"Bylur, this isn't a regular return ticket. Why did you grab this one over the normal type? I'm sure that it must have been far more expensive."

Evelyn wanted to know what Bylur's thought process had been when he used the valuable resources gathered in the Verdant Warlord's Domain to purchase something so obviously extravagant. They had been operating separately up until recently, and had he needed to use this ticket as a quick escape it would have been a massive waste of resources.

The answer to Evelyn's question was actually quite simple. Bylur had not foreseen a possible situation where he needed to send several individuals back to the Verdant Warlord's Domain, this had simply been the only return ticket he came across.

When the first member of their group had discovered the undeniably useful item, each of them had set out to obtain at least one.

Yet, Bylur never found a normal one, only discover a far rarer and pricier version meant to be used on large groups.

"Well, I suppose that this means that we can send all of the captured owls to the forest of giants if we want to. Still, I think the final decision should be up to you Evelyn." Rehni said.

As the one that originally found the entrance to the domain, everyone deferred to Evelyn's judgment on whether she wanted to risk it being discovered by the world at large.

There may not have been any guarantee that the rescued owls would even discover the domain as the ticket only brought them to the vicinity of the entrance, but the possibility was certainly a dangerous gamble.

"We don't have any other concreate way to help the owls imprisoned in the Miris Sect. If we can't think of something else, then I say that we use Bylur's mass return ticket. The risks be damned." Evelyn said, her eyes brimming with determination.