“Anyone looking, and I am certain loved ones are looking for you, Constance, will not care if you’re mad. They will simply see you are alive, and they will know where you’re going. And that will be all they will need not only to help them find you but give them hope.”

Without another word, Constance did what the others were doing.

She started searching the ground for a stone.

Tedrey found his own stone and went to a section of dilapidated wood.

He thought hard, but not long, about what he would write.

And then he wrote:

Faunus, The Rising is done. But the creature has risen. I hasten to Birchlire to tell King True.

That was going to be the end of it, but he found himself turning back.

Thank you for seeking me. I hope you find me, for I very much hope to see you again.

He was not certain that Faunus was seeking him, though knowing Faunus, and Lorenz (as well as Nyx), he felt sure someone was. That noted, since he knew someone was, he was in little doubt it would be Faunus.

He also wished he had not written that last part, at the same time he was glad he had. But once he did, he found he could not stop himself from going on.

If something happens to me before you find me, know you had a place in my heart, tell Saturn he did too, and tell Lorenz and Nyx I died the man they made me, thus I did such with a clear head and a full heart.

“Are you writing a tome?” Moira asked over his shoulder. “Or should we be away to Birchlire Castle?”

“We should be away,” he said. “Please tell the others to prepare to go.”

“We have naught but the clothes on our backs, Tedrey,” Moira pointed out. “We do not need to prepare.”

“Teddy,” he corrected.

“Pardon?”

He glanced at the “tome” he wrote on the wall before he looked back to Moira.

“My friends call me Teddy,” he told her.

Her lips quirked and then she said, “Shake a leg…Teddy.”

He smiled at her before he turned back to the wall, carved in a hasty “Teddy,” and then he gathered his women.

After scanning the area outside with some intensity, they left the stables and Teddy took the lead.

But as they moved out, Moira fell in step at his side.

“I am sorry to hear your mother met with an accident that took her from you,” he murmured.

“Good and right,” she mumbled in return.

“Pardon?” he asked.

“Nothing,” she replied, but then wrapped her fingers around his and walked much closer to his side.

Teddy felt the warmth of her hand, but also so much more through her touch.

Thus, he felt his head was positioned higher as he led them through the trees in the direction of Notting Thicket.

He also curled his fingers around hers.