[Lauchenoiria]

In school, Natasha Robinson had chosen to study Eirian as her foreign language. Eiria also would have scored very highly on the KWSI if it hadn’t been for the political element, which made it an acceptable choice to Imogen. Carmen had no particular preference of where the family would flee next, so Eiria seemed as good an option as any. Camille was just tagging along, clutching the piece of paper that stated Natasha was her temporary legal guardian under Kerlian law, and refusing to return home.

The Chiu had already left, after acquiring a horsebox and vehicle to take back Jia’s pony. They had marketed their departure to the Zongongians as being related to Xia’s fast-approaching due date alongside some convoluted political nonsense they simply had to handle back home. It was in part true – Xia’s children appeared to be collecting nationalities like stamps from being born all over the place. If the trend continued, rumours would start that she was doing it on purpose, and that would be politically damaging.

One problem remained, however. Reena Patel was still in a Zongongian hospital in a coma following the abuses of her mother. In the worst-case scenario where the Zongongians became hostile to the group, she would make a perfect hostage. Therefore, they had to find some way to get her out of the country as well, without raising suspicions – or killing her in the process. Fortunately for them, Wosteaque provided the answer.

The archipelago nation had some of the most advanced healthcare in the world. Therefore, it would be entirely justified to send her for treatment there, given the Zongongians had so far failed to heal whatever was wrong with her. That was something of a misrepresentation of the situation, of course, but it was plausible enough. People with money would always become impatient with slow processes, and take any offer that would be faster, better, etc.

All the Robinsons had to do was get Camille to call Nirmala Patel and suggest it to her, claiming she’d visited Reena and she was concerned that she needed more advanced treatment, and pitch Wosteaque as an option that she’d “just happened to stumble across online”! Nirmala would have never taken a call from a Robinson, but Camille managed to get through, and Nirmala – who was pissed at her sister for the politics of the situation – made the arrangements remotely.

Now all they had to do was leave in the night. Carmen expected that they would be stopped if they tried to fly from Zongongia, but fortunately the Lauchenoirians had an open border with Zongongia and didn’t check their outgoing passengers very thoroughly. The plan would be to head to the southern border, get a ferry across the river, take the train to Melissa City and board the first flight to Eiria.

They would go tomorrow. Hopefully, all would go smoothly.