"Yes. I'll try to select someone who will. Unfortunately the person he's most likely to be with right now - besides his father, I mean - can't read, but I do think we can find someone else."

The storm that was over the ocean yesterday has moved inland a ways; they walk through it and come out the other side all wet, but the ocean is clear and not very choppy.

Oh good, then they should be able to find unclaimed food and make it up to the castle where Frey is while the sun is still rising. 

She scouts the castle out and determines that Frey has spent the night with her maid. Which is good, really - there's no reason she can't tell the person she selects to let the maid come along and watch Frey in the forest, and the whole thing will be much less of a mess than if he'd been staying with his father. 

"I think we're best off asking one of the other concubines. I'm not sure how exactly to compose the note, though, if you have to copy it - I know what I'd write if it were just me, but not including names or a signature will be - bizarre. I suppose if you can't read what you're copying it might not be a problem?"

"I have never done anything of this sort before but if you write your name at the bottom of the note that doesn't feel to me like it's making any factual commitments that are falsified."

"That's good. I think at a minimum I have to include my son's name, too, though. Not including it just seems - I feel like if it were me I might worry the signature was forged and the person who really sent it didn't know it, or something."

"I won't know it just by copying the letters, I don't know your alphabet at all."

"All right. Should be fine, then."

So she writes a note, asking one of the other concubines to take Frey and (if the maid wishes) her maid on an early morning walk to the forest, down a particular path and past a tree that looks like this and into the woods a ways until they find the ring of mushrooms, which they should wait in the middle of until she appears, at which point they will be given the rest of the payment for delivering her son to her. 

She reads the note to Rana, without the names, and asks if anything needs to be changed before he copies it.

"It seems fine to me though I don't know much about humans. The payment makes them even for the favor?"

"I don't know how much the fairy rules think each thing is worth? Certainly my son is worth much more to me than the coins."

"The rules won't care unless the deal with me's broken. I just mean, in a human sense, it's enough gold for them?"

"Yes, enough to be worth it to them. Provided the Emperor isn't actively preventing people from leaving the castle, if they can usually, but I didn't see more guards."

Nod.

Then here is this note for him to copy.

He finds this weirdly difficult; they go through a lot of parchment. He keeps copying things wrong even though it's right there. But they get it eventually.

Well, as long as they have one sheet left; she doesn't need to hold Vigdis to any fairy deals. 

She delivers the note. And then they can be on to Akershus?

Yup!

Akershus is a little less than two weeks away. She's not sure how long it'll take to find a fairy ring, but hopefully not that long?

"I guess I don't know the area but there's usually one within in a day's looking, in most forested places."

"There are forests not very far away, yeah."

"Then we'll find it. I could go ahead, if we're pressed for time, I don't think anyone's claimed any of this."

"Mm. I don't actually know that I can effectively navigate over long distances by myself? I wouldn't want to end up wasting extra time by getting lost."

"Okay. I think we can probably get it all done today regardless."

Nod. "Looking forward to seeing them. I hope they're - I hope they prefer this." 

"You can explain the bit where the king isn't human and will replace all his successors."

"Yeah. They're not his successors though. It's hard to say for sure what they'll want. Especially with - people have spent a long time trying to get them not to care about me."