Elyan searched around the room for supplies, muttering to himself. Soon after, he came back to the table and laid out a large piece of parchment. Using a recently acquired quill and inkwell, he started drawing a rough map of the city.
"Okay...if I'm remembering it right from what I've seen myself and from reading other maps, this should give us a good idea of all the places we're looking for."
He pointed a few places out and looked at Valeria.
"I think we should go after the guilds first. They have practically no ties to the king; not only that, they already have highly trained warriors and their own supply routes set up. If we can convince them to band together against the king, we'd be a force to be reckoned with against the king's forces. What's your take on this?"

Valeria nodded her head. "I was thinking just that." She smiled slightly. "If we talk one-on-one with the guild leaders, we could convince them that rebelling against the King would improve membership, or what-have-you. They should be on board with us." She straightened her stance and folded her arms. "Our only problems would be the guilds that have any less than reputable clients or members, whom have ties to the King. They'll be thrones in our sides."

Mathuriel searched around the immediate area.
"Damn damn damn damn damn damn and blast!"
He knew it was a lost hope to try and find her in this forest alone.
Then his sceptre started to shake.
"Oh. No."
Then he was running as fast as he could back towards the barn.

"Ella please... I... I'm inside, please PLEASE come help me...!"
Her sister's voice was coming from inside the temple's innermost shrine, which was shrouded in darkness - though something could be seen moving inside it.

Ella continued making her way through the temple, following the voice through turns upon turns of the temple until she was in complete darkness keeping her hand on the wall to follow it. When she heard movement she turned towards it
"S-Sister?"
she squinted her eyes trying to see through the darkness
"Please sister where are you? I'm here to help you"

The last thing Ella saw was a smile, then it all went black...

Ella gasped upon seeing the smile but before she could react.....

Elyan chuckled slightly with a wry smile.
"Fine by me, they can tell the king we're coming. Maybe he'll give us a proper welcoming this time."
He let out a sigh and folded his arms in thought, his expression becoming serious again.
"But really, we'll have to work quick if this plan is going to get anywhere. Hopefully, these guild leaders are good enough at what they do to know who's a spy and who's on the level. If not, well, we're gonna have to build up our little army as soon as we can so that the king can't just wipe us out."

Valeria folded her arms in thought. After several minutes, she unfolded her arms, and looked directly at Elyan, and said: "It would be better if we worked in pairs." She placed her hands on the table, and leaned forward, putting her upper-body weight on her hands. "In pairs, we'd have a better chance of convincing the guild leaders to join us in a revolution against the King."

Elyan scratched his chin in thought for a moment. He nodded and looked back at Valeria.
"Yeah, that makes the most sense. We'll have a better chance than if we went in alone, but we can still get things done twice as fast than if we all went together."
He briefly glanced at the map again.
"Well, it's not a perfect plan but I think we have enough to get started."
He started making his way to the door, turning his attention back to Valeria.
"Let's get Mate and Ella back here and tell them what we have so far. Sound good to you?"

Mathuriel burst in the door, looking on the verge of panic.
"We... might have a problem. Allora, can I borrow you for a moment?"

Valeria looked at Mathuriel and tilted her head slightly. "What happened?" She asked. She then looked at Allora and tried to hold back a smile, as she walked over to her a pulled out a piece of hay from her hair. "You have some hay in your hair."

"Ella. She's gone."
Mathuriel paused.
"And my sceptre sensed a hell of a lot of dark magic where she was, leading her away, baiting her. Something's got her. And it is definitely not friendly."

Mathuriel bowed his head.
"Her sister. She's been grieving over her. Something must have taken advantage of that, to lure her away. I fear the worst."

Mathuriel looked out of the window.
"I need your bird, Skye, to scout the forest. If there's even the slightest chance we can catch her before she's gone we have to take it - she's too important to lose."

"She went through the river, scent tracking's a waste of time."
Mathuriel turned to Valeria and Elyan.
"What have we got while I've been gone?"

Valeria folded her arms. "Elyan and I believe going to the guilds to gain their support would be a good start." Valeria replied. "If we talk to the leaders one-on-one, we can convince them to start a revolution against the King." She added, then unfolded her arms, as a saddened expression formed on her face.

Elyan nodded in approval.
"Right, the basic idea is that we'll split into teams to get as many people on our side as we can before the king can mount a counterattack. But of course, finding Ella comes first."
He look at Valeria, noticing her troubled expression.
"What's up? You look like something's bothering you."

Valeria blinked, and looked at Elyan. "I'm not sure...I mean, I can understand what Ella is going through...I just can't put my finger on it." She looked at Mathuriel. "I think finding Ella is our top priority." She looked back at Elyan.

Mathuriel nodded.
"I think the only reason the king hasn't just turned the countryside into a wasteland is because he's scared of killing Ella by accident in the process. If he gets his hands on her..." He shuddered.
"I hate to think what could happen."

Although he didn't show it, the same thought that Mathuriel had sent a shiver down Elyan's spine.
"Well, it looks like we're all in agreement about Ella, so where do we start?"
He looked at Mathuriel.
"I don't like the idea of just sitting on our hands while our little animal friends do all the work."
He glanced at Allora.
"No offense."
Then he looked back at Mathuriel and Valeria.
"We'll need someone to stay here and watch for them until they get back, but there's no reason the rest of us can't go out on foot and scout the area. I can move around in this kind of terrain without much of a problem, so I'll be volunteer number 1. Anybody else up for it?"

Mathuriel looked dubious.
"No offence, Elyan, but if a trained hawk won't be able to find her I don't think we can either."
He closed his eyes.
"I'll help search, but I don't think we'll yield anything. We have to try though."