Ralph yawned as a pounding on the door to his room woke him up. He wasn't sure what the reason was, but it was clear that whoever was pounding on the door felt it was important. Ralph stood up from his straw mattress, the moonlight the only thing illuminating his room as he made his way towards the door. He wasn't sure what this was about, but he knew whoever was on the other side of the door wasn't going to go away any time soon. His only relief on the matter was the fact that the door hadn't been broken down just yet.
Ralph yawned again as he opened the door, finding Feon holding a torch in her left hand, her other fist descending to hit Ralph in the face as she tried pounding again.
"Ow!" Ralph roared, comforted by the fact that it had been a glancing blow and not a direct hit to his nose, or anywhere around his eyes. "What's the problem?!"
"Sorry!" Feon cried, her face showing just how mortified she was about having hit Ralph like that. "I- I didn't mean to!"
Ralph wanted to rage at her some more, but with how contrite she looked, he felt his anger dissipating like a frost on a hot day. "Anyway, what's the hurry? I'd still be here in the morning."
"Oh, Amelia told me to wake you up. She said that all of you need to know what's in the content of the letter," Feon replied, turning to leave, looking like she expected Ralph to follow without question.
"Hold up. What letter? Why would Amelia want all of us to know what's in what?" Ralph felt like he was missing a few important details here. Ones that weren't going to keep him from going back to bed if they weren't answered.
Feon paused to look back at Ralph. "Amelia said she'd explain it all and to meet up in her room."
Ralph stared blankly at where Feon was a moment ago, where she'd disappeared around a corner in the hallway. He wasn't sure what the issue was about, but he knew that he wasn't happy with this development. Nor was he sure what was going on. All he could be certain of was that apparently a letter arrived, for who knows who, and Amelia felt it was important enough to wake all of them up in order to go over it right then.
Ralph sighed, looking back at where he'd been sleeping a minute ago longingly. Whatever this was about, he decided that it better be worth it. That if this wasn't something that could wait until morning, then he knew he was going to make them see just how unhappy he was about it. That he'd walk right out and go back to sleep if he didn't think it was justifying waking him up at this time of night.
Fortunately, he knew that Amelia was sleeping in Hannah's room, partly because Amelia didn't want to see what kind of room the Marquis would offer her, given he still wasn't convinced that she wasn't his lost love and wife, Milyah. So, she moved in with Hannah. Though, Ralph certainly wouldn't have liked to share the room he had with anyone, not with how small it already was. Though, an occasional meeting with everyone wasn't that big of a deal, it was still too small to share it with anyone in Ralph's opinion.
As he walked towards Amelia's room, he could hear Feon pounding on the door to someone else's room, making Ralph feel just a little better about the whole situation. Better that he wasn't the only one getting woken up with that method. Though, as he was turning around the corner, the door opened and Feon stopped mid-pound. Ralph had to keep from grinding his teeth with that. The fact that she stopped partway through that strike made it feel like when she was pounding on his door and hit him, it was more intentional for whatever reason than it had appeared, even though Ralph was pretty confident that he hadn't given Feon a reason to be mad at him or anything.
However, he did his best to let it go as quickly as he could, given he doubted that Feon was doing it really intentionally for the most part.
The room where Hannah was staying at was next to Wes' room, so it wasn't that far from that point, and Ralph made it just ahead of Wes and Feon. Wes looked like Ralph felt right then, where he'd rather still be sleeping and it better be important to disturb him like this.
When they entered the room, Amelia looked so bright and chipper that Ralph was very tempted to return to his room, no matter what it was that had been contained in whatever it was that Feon had mentioned. Ralph felt like she had said 'letter' but he wasn't that confident. Not with how mis mind was still partly asleep.
"You're all here, great," Amelia said before anyone else could say anything.
Ralph had to pause to look to confirm that everyone really was there and felt a little stunned to find that both Wes and himself were the last ones to enter. Which made him wonder why Amelia hadn't come to wake them up herself rather than sending Feon.
"Sorry it took so long," Feon apologized. "Ralph wouldn't wake up for the longest time."
Ralph sighed, wondering if that might have been the reason Feon hit him accidentally. He wasn't sure, but he also found it hard to care that much.
"Doesn't matter," Amelia said, interrupting Ralph's thoughts. "I thought all of you should hear this."
"Uh, first tell us what's going on. We're, uh, kinda in the dark here," Tim said, sounding like he wasn't happy about being up either.
"Right," Amelia said, as if she was going on to that very topic next anyway. "Feon received a letter earlier tonight. It was from Embris and none of you will guess where she is now."
"Just tell us already," Ralph groaned. "Stop trying to draw this out."
"Just play along," Hannah said, as annoyingly chipper as Amelia was right then. "You know how Amelia is when she gets like this."
"And she could have done just that in the morning," Wes griped. "Just tell us what we need to know so we can get back to bed."
"Don't be like that," Amelia replied, sounding almost hurt. Which Ralph knew wasn't the case. Not with the glimmer of amusement in her eyes. "You'll know why I called all of you here when I tell you the most important part of the letter."
"Then tell us already," Tim snapped.
"Fine. Be that way," Ameila shot back, looking like she was losing her patience as well.
"I will," Tim shot back.
Amelia sighed, looking like she was losing some of the wind in her sails. "Look, Embris joined a mercenary group and one of their members delivered the letter here tonight. It took a while before Feon got it, then she brought it to me so I could read it to her."
Ralph sighed, not wanting to interrupt and prolong this agony, but he had to keep himself from doing just that as Amelia kept dragging this on and on. Looking at the others, he had a feeling they were thinking pretty much the same thing as he was.
"The mercenary group found the gate that we used to come to this world through," Amelia finished, snapping Ralph's attention back to her.
It was surprising, Ralph would give her that, but he hoped there was more. Because he was quite sure he didn't consider it important enough to have woken him up just for that. Yet, as Amelia seemed to have finished, Ralph had a feeling she had reached the point of why she'd gotten them up.
After a minute of silence, Ralph spoke up. Largely because he wanted to be sure that Amelia didn't expect more conversation before she got to anything else. "So, that's it? That someone else found the gate and they're using it as a base of operations or something?"
Amelia blinked and actually looked a little hurt. "Uh, no. My point is who would have told them about the gate? Who is missing from our group that we don't know where she is?"
"Are you saying Charlie was mentioned in the letter?" Tim asked, sounding more alert than he was a moment ago.
"Uh, no. She wasn't," Amelia said, looking a little confused. "I'm saying that how would the mercenaries have found the gate if Charlie hadn't led them to it?"
"Look," Wes replied, looking like he was trying to be as patient as he could. "There's any number of reasons why Charlie might not have been involved with them learning about the gate. Someone may have stumbled on it for any reason and passed that information along to someone else. Charlie might have passed it on to someone else and that person found it and started a mercenary company. We just don't know that Charlie would have been involved directly with them finding that gate."
"And what makes you think that Charlie would have passed that information along?" Hannah asked rather smugly in Ralph's opinion. "Remember, Charlie was thought to be mute. That she couldn't speak. So, how would she have been able to pass it along if she couldn't communicate?"
"Look, what I'm saying is that we need to take a look. We need to be sure that Charlie is there or that she isn't. Maybe you're right and they found it on their own, but I'm confident that that's where Charlie is," Amelia added, looking almost like she was pleading with them to accept her words.
Ralph sighed. "Look, let's pick this up in the morning. We're all tired and would rather get more sleep right now and it's not like this subject is going anywhere. If we tackle it in the morning after we've rested up, then we'll at least be able to think through it and not be falling asleep on you."
Ralph suddenly wondered if what he said made any sense. He couldn't remember what he'd just said and worried that his being so tired had made him ramble on unintelligently. Not that he could un-ring that bell if so.
"Maybe, but I thought all of you would like to know," Amelia replied, making Ralph wonder if he'd made more sense than he usually did with what he couldn't remember saying. "Embris made friends with a girl named 'Jenn' and for some reason, I think that name's kind of out of place in this world."
Ralph blinked as Wes groaned in annoyance. "You should have led with that then," Wes complained. "If Charlie is going by another name, then we should look into that. Especially if she doesn't know we're looking for her."
"Wait, don't you mean 'why would she use a different name if she doesn't know we're looking for her'?" Hannah asked, sounding as confused as Ralph felt right then.
"Yeah, that sounds good too," Wes replied, sounding like he was getting ready to go back to sleep right then.
"This might be a good time to pick it up in the morning," Tim suggested. "As you can see, we're having a hard time thinking and waiting until the morning isn't going to make this harder to resolve. In fact, it might be easier since we're not going to be falling asleep as we try to reason out what it is that we're supposed to reason."
Amelia sighed, looking so disheartened that Ralph couldn't help but feel bad for her. He could see that she'd gotten excited at the possibility that they'd finally found where Charlie is, but at the same time, she needed to realize that making them deal with this while they were mostly asleep wasn't the best time to bring it to their attention, not when it wasn't something that wouldn't still be there in the morning for them to discuss. However, Ralph was also pretty sure she was just realizing that as well with how some of the sentences Tim and Wes gave certainly weren't the kind they'd make if they were fully awake themselves.
As Tim and Wes left the room, Ralph offered a thought that came to him, though he wasn't sure if it was because he was so tired that he was offering the thought to her like this or because his judgement was faulty due to the fatigue from the day.
"You know, while the name 'Jenn' might sound out of place in this world to us, it could be a nickname of sorts for another name that sounds weird to us," Ralph commented as he slowly made his way over to the door. "Besides, why would you connect the name 'Jenn' to Charlie? It's not like the name Charlie has anything to do with a name like 'Jenn.'"
Amelia shook her head slowly as Hannah patted her shoulder comfortingly. "I just thought that if we found Charlie we could then be certain that whatever griffin canyon we found is the one we wanted or not, no matter where it is."
"The faster we find it, the faster we can get out of here and avoid whatever it is that Beth's gotten us wrapped up in with that figure who wants to us to kill the queen," Hannah added quietly.
Ralph shook his head, not sure how to respond to that. He'd be happy if they could find the griffin canyon and Charlie, but he had a feeling that they were more involved in what was happening in this world than they should have gotten in the first place. That they'd need to stay in order to settle their involvement before they could really move on. If that was even possible.
"What is it?" Amelia asked, her tone making it clear she'd follow Ralph to his room in order to get an answer to her question.
Ralph merely sighed, not sure exactly how to begin, but knowing his ability to get back to sleep likely depended on him giving Amelia an answer that she'd accept fully and satisfy whatever it is that he'd inadvertently triggered in her. "Look, even if we find Charlie and the griffin canyon, are you going to be content to just leave things the way they are, regardless of the commitments we've already made here?"
"What're you talking about?" Amelia asked, sounding confused. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Ralph wasn't really surprised. He supposed Amelia hadn't made any of them personally or directly, but he was pretty sure that she just didn't realize the effect their involvement had had. "Well, first, Beth did promise to teach Feon how to fight, and I don't think we've made much progress on that front," Ralph started off, though as he thought about it, he supposed that the slaves they'd freed when Beth bought some and had some decide not to stay at that church could just be left here with the Marquis and let him deal with that mess. "Then there's the fact that you'd started training Cinder to be your nurse, and I'm pretty sure you haven't completed that training, right?"
Amelia blinked, opening and closing her mouth, like she couldn't think of what to say in response. Though, Hannah seemed to recognize the predicament Amelia was in and jumped in to rescue her friend. "Hey, Cinder can figure out the rest on his own. He doesn't need Amelia to train him in everything."
Ralph merely shrugged. It wasn't his call or responsibility to figure that out anyway. All he could be certain of was the fact that Amelia had essentially committed herself to that and if she wanted to abandon that commitment, he wasn't going to try and stop her. After all, it was her choice and he didn't feel like trying to get her to do what she likely would beat herself up over if she didn't get it done herself.
"Well, we could always come back," Amelia said, sounding like she had an idea, one Ralph had a feeling he wasn't going to like.
"What're you talking about, Amelia?" Hannah asked, sounding like she was with Ralph and just as lost with Amelia's sudden remark.
"Well, it's just that if we leave this world, we'll be getting sent back to the time we left Earth, right?" Amelia asked, sounding like she'd already decided on what their answer was going to be.
Which Ralph supposed was fair, in that he didn't have the energy to even think of any real response to her question. Instead, he let Hannah take over responding to it. Especially with how both of them seemed to be fully awake and not tired in the slightest right then.
"Yeah, but why would we come back here? Not only would it take a while to get here, we can't exactly expect Heathcliff to send us through time so our families don't realize we were gone," Hannah replied, sounding almost reasonable to Ralph, which he assumed was just because he was so tired.
"Hey, I haven't figured out all the details, but returning here would allow us to fulfill our obligations in this world while still being able to leave when we find Charlie and the griffin canyon. I mean, it's not like we can't return later on."
"And get back involved with the issue Beth got us involved with somehow?" Ralph added, wondering why he wasn't trying to sneak away from this conversation and get back to sleep.
"Hey, that's something we'll have to figure out on our own, okay?" Amelia shot back. "Once Beth returns we can talk about it and try to figure out how to get out of that and avoid it if we ever return here. What we need to really worry about is finding out where Charlie is. Eventually we'll find where the griffin canyon is, since that's not moving. However, Charlie can move around without us knowing when or why, so we can't be sure that we'll be able to find her as easily as the griffin canyon."
"You know, maybe Ralph's right," Hannah remarked, surprising Ralph, and not just because she was agreeing with him. "Talking about this in the morning will be better. We'll be able to be better rested and won't need to wonder if Ralph's going to fall asleep on us while we're talking."
Amelia looked at Hannah like she'd just been betrayed. As if Hannah was supposed to be on her side, regardless of any other considerations.
"Hey, all I'm saying is that we pick this up in the morning. I'm starting to fade a little, myself. So I can see why Ralph hasn't been saying much about this topic," Hannah added, which seemed to soften Amelia's expression, though Ralph suspected that Amelia was probably starting to feel tired as well and she just didn't want to admit it directly.
"Fine," she huffed, not looking happy in the slightest. "In the morning it is."