The cooks accept her explanation that she's picking up food for someone else, after a slight glare.

The trees are apples, something wrinkled and blue, and cherries. A team of pickers are constantly plucking the ripening fruit that grows unnaturally fast. "Don't distract me," Elizabeth says, tense. "This is... A lot of magic. Need anything? I can be done in a bit."

"Nope. I'm good. Don't worry."

Ame grabs an apple and takes the food back to Abyssia's tent.

Abyssia has cleaned up and washed a bit and tidied her tent and pack and is now in panties and a nightshirt, sitting cross-legged, brushing her hair. She smiles at Ame. "Hello again."

"Hey. I got one of each, I figured we could split them half and each have a full meal with some variety that way."

Arranging her Healing Slime as a backrest for both of them, Ame plops down next to Bys and sets the food out in front of them.

Abyssia is quieter now. She talks a bit about how strange it is not to eat fish all the time, and other smalltalk, leaning against Ame.

And when they're done, she lets one hand settle on Ame's lap and says, "Not gonna lie and say I don't have feelings about it, but... Have fun."

Ame pauses, then she smiles and shakes her head. "You're a good friend."

She gathers her gear, and casts the dismissal on her Healing Slime.

"Save those feelings up and take them out on me when we have sex tomorrow night, alright?"

She exhales sharply and shakes her head, chuckling a bit. "We've only met today, but we do seem like a decent pair. Yeah. Sure, I'll do that. I wanna meet that Elizabeth properly tomorrow if you can mention it to her? And have fun!" This time her send-off is warmer.

"I'll tell her. And thanks. I will."

Ame gives her one more quick kiss and ducks out of the tent, heading back towards the center of camp.

Things are settling down a bit as the twilight dims. People are eating, joking around, relaxing by fires. A few people are playing instruments and singing songs about all the beautiful places they've seen. Elizabeth's trees are being chopped down, and the girl herself is sitting alone, turning the Wyldfire Staff over contemplatively.

Ame strolls over and summons an eighteen-mana Lube Slime next to Elizabeth. She flops down on top of it and bounces atop its squishy mass for a few moments.

"Hey. Abyssia wants to meet you. I think she might want to join up with us."

"Turning into a proper adventuring party leader, are you? She seemed kind of grumpy to me, but maybe she's not a morning person. I can talk to her, though, sure."

"I guess we'll find out if she's a morning person in the morning. Right now she's sleeping. So how're your knight dudes?"

"Properly respectful. I won't need you to intercept their attentions at all. Arthur is kind of sweet actually. Even the one who was trying to boss everyone around is just a bit too serious."

"Cool."

Ame rolls over onto her back. G'damn but the Lube Slime is comfy. She gives Elizabeth a look, upside-down.

"Arthur's sweet, huh?"

"Mm-hmm. He's nice, I'm pretty sure he's just genuinely kind and caring. And cute. And I like the way he thinks. I've got a silly crush."

"Good for you," she says, sincere.

After a few moments, Ame rolls off her Lube Slime and stands up. She looks around to see who is currently looking her way, and how, while peering carefully into shadows to make sure she isn't missing anyone.

"Hey," Ame says, her voice low. "Remember that thing I didn't want anyone to overhear? Now might be a good time."

This is going to be tricky to balance. If it were up to her, she'd just park herself in the middle of everything and have all the horny guys line up. But even if she has a better than zero chance of getting away with that kind of thing in this world, that's still going to be straining some people's tolerance. On the other hand, maybe that'll make for a more distracting spectacle.

But first she needs to get Elizabeth up to speed. And possibly let her talk Ame out of snooping.

"Let's go get some wood," Ame announces. "I wanna make a sign."

"Oh! I can make that tree a ways down the road grow a sign-shaped branch, no problem!"

She walks with Ame and whispers, "You never explained that and then I got distracted. I want to know the crazy and interesting things that happened to you, yes."

When they get to the tree, Ame leans against it, and starts explaining in low whisper.

Firstly, she describes the 'confusing conversation' she had back when she was healing at the brothels.

"That's scary if it's all true. There are spy agencies but those answer to kings, they're not - entrenched murderous clans with powerful secret abilities and lots of allies. All you could tell about their real form was 'tall and black'? Like, night-sky black, not just dark skinned? Hmm..."

"Yeah. And if the Grail Church has managed to keep the secret this long... that's a terrifying level of competence. I don't think we can be too paranoid about this."

Ame pauses.

"Now here's the new twist. The Waltmanns supposedly aren't involved-involved, but they might be somewhat involved. So last night, when Alectai mentioned meeting a Waltmann, I slipped away and followed him." Ame recounts the half-conversation she overheard between Alectai and one of the Waltmanns. 

"...You know, we oughta be pretty careful where we talk about this. Very few places are actually pretty safe from getting overheard."

"Yeah. I don't plan to repeat myself. And I wrote my notes in... a cipher." In English, actually, but.

"I want to know what the item is."

"Who wouldn't. Could be anything. Mind, I know bits and pieces of shadowmancy but I'm not a proper shadowmancer..."

"I see three pieces to this. Locate it. Reach it. Identify it. Not worth the risk if we can't do all three without arousing suspicion. If I can, I'll... observe it being delivered, but I can't count on having that opportunity. En route might be our only chance to find out what is being transported, and to find out if it's connected to the 'confusing conversation'. Do you think its worth trying?"

"If you want me to identify it, uh..."

She stops walking and mutters to herself a bit. "Damn my curiosity, I'll probably have to touch it if I can't recognize it on sight. Be ready to heal me if we do that it fucks me up, please?"