Pending ceremony involving Donut and Katia that Carl can't perform until everything is fully settled.
Pressed by Mordecai about the warlords and the NPCs, Carl says the NPC problem is already settled — he hopes — and that he is more worried about Princess Donut and Katia. They still have to do the flower ceremony, but they can't until everything is fully settled.
Mordecai's reply is unusually gentle: "I know, son. Focus on that before you focus on anything else." Amid a chapter full of warlord threats, missing artifacts and hidden presences, it is the obligation the veteran trainer ranks above all the rest.
Unfinished obligation involving Donut and Katia that Mordecai says must come first.