A month into his search for the missing children, Nikolai follows a stream in Disrael, Niseca to a lake, where he takes a brief rest and bathes. While he does, Violet Macar stumbles near the lake as well, shapeshifted into the form of Niseca-native Wood Elf. She doesn’t bother with stealth, making noises loud enough for Nikolai to hear her. He exits the lake and arms himself with a bow. He warns whoever is in the brush, and Violet answers in laughably terrible Nisequois.

On revealing herself, Violet is impressed by what she sees in Nikolai, and then shows her intent to go to the lake for water. Violet inquires about why he is alone, and Nikolai tells her that he left to search for someone. This piques Violet’s interest, and she questions him further, leading to Nikolai to explain in more detail. He tells her that Kidnappers had taken seven centaur younglings using magic, including his siter Maja. This catches Violet’s attention even more, and she offers her aid, and introduces herself as Mapleheart. He introduces himself, and his hawk Anja.

While Nikolai cooks, the two talk, Violet notes the experience in her journal, and she teaches him a couple of the Nisequois phrases she had been using. They remain there by the lake, enjoying their meal. (Migration Deviation)

Continuing on their journey, Nikolai and Violet cross through the Swamps Near Botherray. Violet tells her own stories, and bombards Nikolai with questions. He answers the ones about centaurs in general, but becomes silent when she asks about his tribe or his family. One question in particular about if people rode centaurs like horses is particularly offensive to him.

As they travel, they pass by small homesteads surrounded by impressively large fences and Violet uses it as an opportunity to talk about terrifying creatures that live in swamps. A little spooked, Nikolai bumps into a tree and something mucus-y falls onto his haunches. He bucks it off, and asks “Mapleheart” to help clean him off. Unable to fight her curiosity, Violet touches the stuff with her bare hands, sniffs it, and almost tastes it before Anja shrieks, stopping her. Looking up to the bird, another thing drops, this time onto Violet’s face. The things are Cheshire Slugs.

The two don’t realize it right away, but the slugs cause hallucinations. While hallucinating, Violet’s “Mapleheart” disguise begins to fade due to her lack of concentration, but she takes everything she sees as rather funny. Nikolai, having more vile hallucinations, sets down a path to try and leave the horrors behind, grabbing “Mapleheart’s” wrist. He manages to get them to a cabin (which to him, looks as though it’s in the mouth of a gigantic (but dead) creature), and they continue their hallucinations inside.

One hallucination they share is that monsters surround the cabin, more specifically: Pariah, a monster Violet spoke of before. But the longer they hallucinate, the less the monsters seem like hallucinations. While they attempt to fend off the maybe-hallucinatory monsters, Nikolai begins to ask Mapleheart if she really is Mapleheart. Not realizing she has changed back, she denies it - until she sees a reflection of herself in a smashed mirror. She attempts to change back, but the mirror fragments lead to her becoming a mishmash of faces.

Then, both of them fall asleep.

Nikolai is first to wake up, and sees a woman who is clearly not Mapleheart. Nikolai wakes her up, and upon seeing herself in the shards of mirror, she realizes what’s going on, and turns herself into normal Violet. Nikolai is not quite angry, but demands an explanation, demands to know if she has been lying about her other promises.

Violet explains the truth, explaining that she disguised herself as a Wood Elf to make Wood Elves trust her more readily, due to tribalism. Nikolai warns her that if she lies again, he will leave her behind. She finally introduces herself properly. (The Ominous Swamp Adventure)

Violet suggests they go to Sant Baissle instead of the capital in Disrael, due to her knowledge of most criminal material going to Disrael through Sant Baissle, and Nikolai leads the way. When they get close, Violet tells him about the kinds of people living in Sant Baissle - the good, who simply can’t afford to move; and the bad, who are the scum of the earth. She shapeshifts herself into a wood elf again, this time turning into more of a buxom fantasy instead of a person.

While Nikolai isn’t paying attention, Violet turns her quill into reigns, which she loops around his hands. She explains that he stands out too much, and that this will be a better cover. As they pass through the city, she describes how during the day the place is depressing with it’s poor, but at night it is a den of debauchery, a home to those desperate to break the laws of Niseca, which don’t apply here.

They approach a building manned by a muscled orcish guard who demands a password, and Violet attempts to talk her way through him to little avail. Then she tries threatening, him, which merely leads to the orc to pick her up and move her off of the steps. She returns to them, continuing to babble insults and threats, while behind them a group of men on horseback passes - one with a saddlebag eerily similar to Nikolai’s. Nikolai recognizes it as Maja’s Saddlebag

Nikolai bolts out of Violet’s grip, yanking her off her feet as Nikolai bodychecks the man off of his horse. Nikolai holds the man to the ground with a hoof, and questions him demandingly. Violet seems to let it slip that Nikolai isn’t her captive, and the guard approaches menacingly to inform her that there’s someone in there who does want to see her, after all. Realizing the jig is up, Violet transmutes her riding crop into a dagger, and threatens the man’s most precious cargo with it. The combination of that with Nikolai’s hoof on his chest and the reins around his friend’s throat convinces him to speak. He tells them he found it on the ship they came to Niseca on, a ship they took from Aissic. Just as he finishes telling them, Violet is grabbed from behind, and her arms are tied behind her back with rope. She transmutes the reins around Nikolai’s hands into a quill, giving him the freedom to fight back.

Nikolai does, using his size and horse-like lower body to his great advantage. He unbinds Violet’s arms, and then allows her to get on him for the swift escape.

They manage to escape, Violet mentioning that the experience of riding him (her first horse ride ever) was worse than finding out Perezus Hillington had just scooped her on a big story. He hadn’t enjoyed it either, but felt his pride wounding a bit that she had hated it so dramatically.

They then discuss their new clue: Aissic. Violet has been, Nikolai has not. He asks if they will be taking a boat there, and Violet suggests instead that they go through the tribelands of Dusula, to enter Aissic by foot - a slower option. Nikolai insists they take a boat - and Violet realizes they need to get the shirtless centaur something warm to wear. (Den of Debauchery)

By the 7th of The Scales of Judgment, the two arrive in Aissic. Violet suggests that the children may have been used to haul materials from Tarifa to Asmin, where the Winter Festival will be taking place in a week. When Nikolai asks if slavery is legal in Aissic, Violet’s answer is no - but she then recalls the evil effects of Enchantment magic, and asks him if he knows much about it. He responds that one of the kidnappers was an enchanter, which answers her question.

The two follow the long train of caravans on the road to Asmin, and as they walk she explains more details about magic to him. She uses her own magic as an example, describing how if she transmutes something she’s holding, she can make it incredibly accurate, perfect event. But then, if she doesn’t hold it, it’s common that something will be off. The stronger the magician, the farther they can be, but the magic works best up close - since distance gives magic some greater wear and tear.

When they arrive in Asmin, Violet gets excited over the festival, buying Nikolai cotton candy, who asks what it is. Violet is shocked that he has never had cotton candy before, offended almost. They briefly talk about candy before the circus being erected captures Nikolai’s attention, him having been told scary tales about circuses as a child. Violet agrees with his observation, but knows that they are unlikely to talk to to a centaur about centaur children they illegally purchased. As such, she pulls them both into in alley and shapeshifts herself into a fortune teller named Madame Zostra. The two agree to meet back in an hour.

Violet goes to the ”The Holt Brothers’ Circus” as Madame Zostra. She encounters some working men and attempts to convince them to hire her. They offer her a test: Tell them what their new act is this year, and she has a job. She guesses ‘The Dazzling Centaur’ - and the man merely smirks. It’s two centaurs. She shakes her head, and insists that the plural of centaur is centaur, and the men begin to argue among themselves about what the plural actually is.

They finally agree to give her a tent, and assign one of the men - Tabs, a slight boy as opposed to a fully fledged man - to show her around to everyone. As they walk, Violet continues her act by guessing things about Tabs to seem impressive. Before they can reach the cast tent, she asks for him to show her the centaur(s), as she has never seen one. Tabs refuses, and so Violet offers to read his fortune in return for a look.

She reads his love line, declaring that he will receive a kiss from a lovely girl before the end of the festival. It manages to convince him, and he tells her that they are being kept near Siegfried, the ring leader’s, tent. He warns that there’s a gnome out front, but it shouldn’t matter if she’s looking through the crystal ball. He then tells her that he’ll introduce her to the others, which reminds her that she can’t just turn around and grab Nikolai.

She decides to convince Tabs to bring her to an outhouse first. Once inside, she shapeshifts into herself - only twenty years younger, twenty pounds skinnier, and one cup size larger. Not her proudest moment, but necessary. Moving through the shadows of the outhouse, she manages to exit, and appear on the opposite side of the structure. As her fake self, she asks him for tickets, obviously flirting with him, and he remembers what Madame Zostra said. He gives her two tickets, and Violet takes one for the team and plants a light kiss on his lips. His first kiss (and from a pretty girl) distracting him enough, he runs off to tell someone about it, forgetting about Zostra. Then, she turns herself back into Violet, and goes to find Nikolai.

Meanwhile, Nikolai wanders Asmin and finds a market. A lady named Clara holding a baby flags him down and asks for help to set up her booth, as her husband had been injured and she couldn’t do it by herself. He agrees, happy to be able to do something that could end in results. Upon finishing, she offers him one of her pieces of jewelry in return for his aid. He chooses a simple gold band with a diamond inlaid at the centre - not realizing that the band is magical.

The two meet up again, and Violet has both good and great news. She tells him that the good news is that she’s a genius con artist, and the great news is that she’s found two centaur younglings. She then explains where they are being kept, about the gnome guard, who she assumes has some kind of magic.

They make a plan for Nikolai to stay at a distance with his bow, while Violet attempts to get past the gnome in the form of Tabs, the circus boy, and Anja acts as lookout. Violet insists they need codenames. Anja’s codename becomes Eagle Eye, Violet’s Quiet Girl, and Nikolai’s Biped.

They go over the plan for the rest of the day, fine-tuning it, and when night falls they begin their approach. Violet makes her approach as Tabs, worried about the risk she was taking - and not even a risk for her own sake. The gnome notices her approach, and his hands burn with a spell. He recognizes Tabs, and asks what he’s doing there, and so Violet lowers the bucket of food for him to look into. The gnome tells him they don’t get any food tonight after they messed up, and so Violet attempts to empty out some of the food, showing the bucket again with less.

The gnome finds this behaviour strange, and tells Tabs to leave before he sets his pants on fire again. Violet decides to change her plan, and hits the gnome in the face with the bucket before transforming into Daisy Wright, her second most common form. The gnome is surprised by the transformation, and Violet calls out Nikolai’s codename in a sentence. Nikolai hears, and fires an arrow that knocks the gnome’s hat off. It distracts him enough once more, and he dives to barrels nearby. He attempts to send fire at the source of the arrow, but can’t find it.

Violet throws the bucket at the gnome, hitting his head, but not knocking him out. She turns the upended bucket into a quill and bends down to pick it up. She then turns it into a wooden panel, and manages to hit the gnome hard enough to knock him out.

Violet goes inside, seeing the two centaur younglings chained to the centre post of the tent, heavily marked in scars and bruises. Focusing on the younglings, Violet doesn’t notice the person behind her, who snaps his whip and trips her. The person is a man, he’s Siegfried, and he gets atop her and binds her legs and hands. The man was also Tabs’ father.

The man rants at her about radicals stealing his property, about how he’d bought the younglings fair and square. He mentions people from Muerte in black cloaks. She tries to struggle away, but he grabs her hands and ties her wrists together, still ranting about animal rights, and oppression. He tells her that people like him are truly oppressed, and Nikolai interrupts him from behind, arrow notched to his bow and up against the back of the man’s head.

The man makes a comment about Nikolai being an animal, that a human wouldn’t kill a man from behind. Nikolai responds by saying that if being human means kidnapping and starving children for entertainment, he would rather be an animal. Then, Nikolai fires the arrow, killing the man and leaving his limp body on top of Violet as he goes to check on the younglings.

Anja screeches as Nikolai tries to unchain the younglings, and Violet attempts to get the ringmaster off of her. She shifts to a thinner frame to slip out of the binds, and then back to her normal, Violet-self to push… And then she sees the gnome, in view from the tent’s entrance, getting up. She sees the gnome spotting inside the tent, and watches him come inside and aim fire for Nikolai, who is too focused on the younglings.

Violet manages to use adrenaline to kick the ringmaster off of her, knocking him into barrels, which crash and leak an amber liquid on the ground. She jumps in front of the fireball being sent to Nikolai, taking the spell in her shoulder with great pain. Nikolai notices now, and fires an arrow swiftly between the gnome’s eyes, killing him just as he fires off another fireball. This one lands near the barrels, and the fire catches the liquid - oil - on fire.

The tent quickly begins to go up in flames, and the younglings are still chained. Between her injury, the amount of magic she has used, and the fire around them, Violet is unable to focus on transmuting the chains into something more breakable. Eventually, she makes them hotter, until they are hot enough to pull apart. As soon as the younglings are free, they and Nikolai run out of the tent. The crowds gathering and too surprised, and don’t start the chase or attack on them until too late.

Violet transmutes herself as convincingly as possible into the gnome - which isn’t very convincing - and manages to get outside, telling the others that ‘he’s’ inside. Tabs, and others, immediately realize this is the ringmaster, and the panic is enough to make Violet not suspicious. She stumbles through the lines of tents before someone grabs her, and she struggles untils he realizes it’s Nikolai, and she’s put her on his back.

After a whole night’s worth of running, Nikolai and the younglings stop. They find a winter stream, and Violet drops the unconscious Violet into the snow, covering her with a blanket to better protect her from the sun.

Nikolai tells her that he has to return to Niseca, to bring the two younglings back, and Violet insists that their next clue leads them to Muerte, and so they need to go there next. He tells her that she will go to Muerte, and he will go to Niseca. Once the younglings are home he believes they will tell him everything they remember. Violet fights him a little, but eventually relents and agrees to meet him back where they found one another.

The two then part ways. (Cold Case)