The date is March 8th...for the first time since he vanished, Arrell finally communicated with us.

And he told us to leave him alone.

The princess thinks he just needs some time by himself, but I know that’s not the case. If it was, he could just go into Alterspace and close the rifts. He wouldn’t need to run away like this.

Something happened, and I need to figure out what. So I’m not going to stop searching for him.

But for now...there’s more dangerous things that need to be taken care of.

“Two pages found and being looked after by no less than five guards at a time. Six pages are still out on the loose, but citizens have been warned to not come into physical contact with any strange pieces of paper and to report any findings to the Royal Guard immediately.” False recapped the situation as she paced back and forth in front of myself, Risk, and Nimble. “Four more dead bodies have been located, but none of them have been confirmed to have died from this article due to lack of witnesses, and since our arrival, no more ponies have gone missing.”

I nodded in a manner that was practically robotic. I already knew everything she was saying. Risk and Nimble did as well, but they were in no more a position to get up and walk away than I was, if only because we didn’t want to annoy False. She was more or less our leader now that Arrell had vanished, and now that she was surrounded by her fellow guards in a familiar environment, she felt very much in her element. That was a combination for a rather fearsome commander.

“...portion of the city. Asylum? Equestria to Asylum, do you copy!”

I jumped a bit, yanked out of my thoughts. “Huh? Oh, um...y-yeah, I got it...”

False, who had previously been looking at me a little irritably, now looked concerned. She turned to Risk and Nimble. “Change of plans. Risk, on your way out, flag down a guard and tell them to check around the castle instead.” He nodded. “...what are you waiting for, Nightmare Night? Go!”

They quickly got up and galloped out the door. I started to follow, but False put a hoof in front of me. “Stay behind, Asylum.”

I looked at her in confusion, but obediently stepped back and took my seat again. Once the stallion and colt got outside and shut the door, False turned to me. I looked back.

“...you aren’t giving up, are you?” she asked.

I tilted my head. “Pardon?”

She sighed, heading into the kitchen. She came back out a minute later with two cups of coffee, setting one down in front of me and the other in front of herself as she sat across from me.

“Thank you...” I took a sip, the hot liquid flowing down my throat. I smiled. I needed this…

“So...Arrell.” She took a sip of her own drink. “I take it you’re not going to give up on chasing him?”

I sighed and nodded. “I know he said to leave him alone, but...”

“‘But’ nothing, Asylum. I’m with you on this one.”

I blinked and looked at her. “...you are?”

She nodded. “Arrell isn’t acting like himself. It’s as if one day he was normal - relatively speaking - and the next, he was going crazy. I thought maybe he just had a weird dream, or maybe he had some kind of connection to the article we were going after, like he did with that hoodie. But then we grab it and he just runs away...it doesn’t make any sense.”

“Exactly...we need to find him before he hurts himself.” I took another sip of the coffee. “I heard he was in this city, but...apparently he’s left.”

False nodded once more. “It definitely wouldn’t make sense if Arrell just stayed in one place to wait for us where he can easily be found. He’s either running from place to place, or staying somewhere that he thinks we’ll never look.” She sighed. “And he’s covered all his tracks, too...we can’t use the Fine Rock to find him, since now it only locates his saddlebags and their portal to Alterspace, and he left those behind. And he won’t open an ordinary rift to Alterspace, so we can’t track him through that...”

I didn’t say anything. All she was doing was making me realize how hopeless the situation was. I sniffled a bit as I idly poked at my now-empty mug.

“Maybe we just need to think like Arrell in order to find him,” False suggested. “Hmm...are there any places that are special to Arrell that he’d go to?”

“Y-Yeah, but he wouldn’t go there...” I shook my head. “He told me once how he was so used to stories where a character would go missing, and then they’d be found somewhere ‘special’. Like the place where they first met their friend, or their old home, or something like that. If he really wants to stay away from us, he’d be too smart to follow that same trend, because he knows we’d start checking places that are important to him. He’d end up going somewhere completely random, or someplace we don’t know about.”

She sighed. “Great. Guess we’ll just have to scour Equestria for him then, huh?”

I thought about it...and shook my head.

“No...I know him. No matter what state he’s in, there’s always one thing you can count on...he won’t go somewhere he’s never been before without someone there to guide him. And if he’s avoiding others...” I stood up. “It doesn’t help narrow it down very well thanks to how much we’ve traveled, but it helps. Wherever he is, it’s somewhere he’s already been, or at least close by.”

False blinked at me, then slowly smiled. “I never would have thought of that...you’re a smart girl, Asylum.” She chuckled. “Now I see why Arrell liked you so much.”

I blushed and stared down at the table. I heard her get up and step over beside me, and jumped slightly when she put her hoof on my shoulder.

“We’ll find him. I promise.”

I raised my head to smile weakly at her. She smiled back before giving me a quick hug. “Feel better?”

“Y-Yeah...” I began, but trailed off when somepony began knocking on the door. False turned and walked over, opening it up to reveal two guards standing there.

“Find anything?” she asked. I was surprised by how easily she switched from being caring and gentle to being in charge and commanding.

“We found a third page,” one guard replied. “But we also have a problem.”

“Your friend...the young colt?” the other guard broke in.

False’s eyes widened. “Nimble? What about him? Is he missing again?”

“On the contrary, we have him under very careful watch,” the second guard responded. “He didn’t recognize the page as being one of the articles, and...”

My heart skipped a beat even before he finished his sentence.

“He picked it up.”

Author's Notes:

Let's see how long I can keep doing this "one chapter a day" update schedule.

...I don't care if it's fifteen minutes until midnight, I still got this up today! It counts!