The island housing Alcor and a sleeping Caroli and Situla sailed on. The heroic figure, sword at his side, let his eyes make lazy movements, scanning the horizons for any more lost ones. There were other islands sailing about, but not as many as he had been expecting. He could only see two from where he was sat. The colourful mire of the Reaches swarmed around his island, and ripples flowed gently along the surface of the colours. He saw the reds and blues splashing into one another, purples and yellows mixing…

“Ripples?” he exclaimed, straightening up and staring very intently at the mire.

He shook Caroli and Situla awake.

“Ugh, what is it? I’m tired.” Situla yawned, sitting up. Alcor sighed.

“You do realise you have been sleeping daintily for many hours now, yes? At least nine.”

Caroli shrugged. “Don’t get distracted – what is it, Al?”

He pointed at the mire. “Look! That is a ripple, and if I’m correct about my gambit, I do believe that the island in the distance over there is creating the ripples in movement!”

“…Right.” Caroli said.

“And look closely at that island! As closely as you can – is it just me, or are there some figures sitting on it?”

“Holy shit, you’re right.” Situla said, staring at the island in the distance, spotting some figures sitting on it. “You think it’s them?”

“Who else would be out here? We’ve finally found them – the dastardly Yasen and her cohort of kids!”

Caroli smirked. “Oho, it’s time for the legendary protagonist of his own life story, Alcor, to defeat Yasen in single combat and rescue the poor human children!”

“That didn’t sound remotely like me.” Alcor replied, glancing at her. Caroli stuck out her tongue.

“Cut me some slack, I just woke up.”

Situla sifted through her pack, looking for something for eat. She pulled out a bag of nuts, shrugged, and started eating them. “What’s the plan, then?”

“Judging by the movement of the island, it’s curving towards us. So… yeah, if we stay on this island, we’ll run into them within fifteen minutes, and be close enough to intervene without having to be in the colours for that long.”

“Excellent plan. Let us prepare for the battle of a lifetime!” Alcor announced. They moved to the opposite slope of the island and laid down, effectively hiding them from the view of the other island – just in case anyone was watching.

“Food first.” said Situla through a mouthful of nuts.

Alcor sighed. “I suppose.”

As they ate, they began to discuss exactly what was going to happen.

“Alright, so our priority is those kids, since they’re dangerous to the Kings.” Situla suggested.

“I mean, you say that, but if they look anything like that other girl with Mizar, I can’t imagine they’ll be that tough.” Caroli replied.

“We must detain the children, however, since they are technically hostages.” Alcor replied. “If we can distract Yasen, one of you two can take the children to our island. After that, we’ll make the arrest and things should be fine!”

“Makes sense. Do we know what powers these specific kids have?” asked Situla.

“Nope. I can’t imagine it’ll be that important, the kids are a non-issue for this battle. Yasen is gonna be trouble; we were gonna message her, right?” Caroli said.

“We were! But on consideration, we should not give up our element of surprise just yet. We know Yasen is dangerous, and we can’t take chances!”

“Alright, Al.” Caroli relented. “So, I guess we just wait. We still have a while yet.”

“Be ready, though.” Alcor said.

The Voidian Officials sat and waited, hidden on the other side of their island, waiting for the battle to start. A short distance behind them, completely unnoticed thus far, was Mizar’s group, who were also catching up.