After Meld extended her offer, Li noticed that Jeanne, Sylvie, and, in the back, Azhar were looking to him for a response. He did not often like taking the lead on things, but it felt more natural now. After all, he had been the one to kick this whole ordeal into motion in the first place.

But what did Li want to do? He could not help but feel suspicious of Meld and Thunderstrike. From what he heard, they, as two of the ten strongest heroes of the duchy, were essentially superweapons. It was odd that they would even be here in the first place. 

The thought did occur to Li that they were observing his actions but having two of them here was overkill. On top of this, there was no reason for either of them to show themselves if they were here solely to observe him. Rather, they were more incentivized to stay quiet and see what he wanted to do. 

This all went without saying that, up to this point, the duchess did not antagonize Li at all, recognizing on some level that doing so was highly imprudent. Perhaps the heroes could use their abilities to hide from Li, but the slightest of risks that he could find out would make surveillance far too dangerous for the duchess, and he hoped she was smart enough to know this. 

But that did not mean Li fully believed they were here for upholding law and order as well. At the same time, there was insufficient evidence to believe that they were not either. After all, Meld did have intel against Chevrette that Li did not, indicating that she and her fellow hero had indeed spent genuine time and effort investigating.

For now, Li wanted to ascertain how genuine they were. Whether they truly were here for this investigation and whether they would impede Li or assist him entirely. By interacting with them, he hoped to gain insight into their limitations and nature, what they could do and what they were willing to do. 

"If you want to get this investigation wrapped up, then like you said, we shouldn't be wasting time. How about we all go right now to Chevrette's estate together and make sure he's there so he doesn't run away?" 

"A wonderful idea," replied Meld without a shred of hesitation. "It will not do for him to slip through the cracks of justice now. I will use the full brunt of the authority vested within me as a Ray to make sure that Chevrette cannot leave the boundaries of his home."

"Agreed," said Thunderstrike. "I will alert Lys. The rest of you keep Chevrette under custody."

Thunderstrike nodded before leaping up, disappearing in a gust of wind as he soared away, likely to the City Hall where Lys's office was.

Meld looked at the beastwomen.

"They ain't goin' nowhere with you," said Azhar as he noticed Meld. The beastwomen shrunk back behind him, finding solace in his confident tone of voice.

"We are not equipped to host nonhumans, in any case," nodded Meld. "But they cannot come with us. It may be that they attack Chevrette, and I wish to minimize any variables that may prevent him from answering to justice. The people, too, may be cowed by them."

"They can come with us. I foresee no real issues with it," said Li. He understood Meld's logic, but he was being intentionally obtuse here, trying to see if he could push her to be against him.

Instead, Meld simply nodded. "Very well. Then shall we be off? The light of day wanes."

====================

They moved quickly through the city. Meld had hailed a large carriage for them ride in, and with her authority as a ray, allowed the driver to move through private lanes reserved for nobility and esteemed guests. As a result, there was no traffic nor were there Rivierans to gawk at the beastwomen.

"A carriage? I'm assuming you can't fly then," said Li. He sat in the back of the carriage, his back leaned against the grate that separated passengers from drivers. Beside him were the beastwomen and Triple Threat.

At the very end of the carriage, her black booted feet dangling from the edge, Meld answered, "No. I do wish I could, but you will find that my powers are quite middling compared to my nine peers. It is a miracle indeed that I am even within the ten rays."

"What exactly is your power?" said Li, wanting to know to what extent Meld was willing to lay bare her information.

"It is nothing special." Meld put her black gloved hand down into the carriage, where her broad brimmed hat cast a dark shadow. Her hand sunk directly into it, as if swallowed by a void. "I can hide in shadows and become undetectable within them. Nothing quite as flashy as Sunstar or Thunderstrike or Sunderspeed, I am afraid."

"I see," said Li. He noted that she did not hesitate to reveal her abilities, but then again, it was likely that the powers for all ten rays were public information considering they were revered heroes. "It must have been useful to infiltrate the centers. Speaking of, why don't you tell us about them? If we're going to raid them, we need to know about them."

"One, the largest center, is a supply warehouse by the docks. It is here I believe that most slave shipments are initially processed. Then, slaves are transported to upper Riviera, into complexes underneath a restaurant and a cemetery reserved for noble names."

"Quite odd," said Sylvie. She shifted uncomfortably, evidently not liking Meld. Occasionally, she glanced back to Li whenever she wanted to speak, and Li would nod to let her. "You observed these areas for many days, investigating deeply into their origins and activities, and found nothing tying them to Chevrette?"

Sylvie had caught onto the fact that Li was withholding information about the farmers. Jeanne did not know, but she could read the mood in the carriage and understood that the strategic talking was meant for those better suited for it than her. 

Perhaps it was because Azhar was now linked to Li, but the hinterlander also understood that he should not speak as well. 

"None of the properties are tied to Chevrette," said Meld. "Well, not directly. The warehouse is publicly funded, and Chevrette has been a part of funding most public projects, so that itself cannot incriminate him. The restaurant has been an independent family venture for several generations, and the cemetery is linked to the Finlay family which was disbanded after the duchess's reformations."

"Still, no ties at all?" questioned Li, more to get information from Meld than to actually know. He already had all the evidence he needed to incriminate Chevrette.

The farmers' combined testimony could absolutely put the nobleman under. However, Li not only wanted Meld to reveal her information, but also to bait Chevrette into playing a card that might get him out of this arrest. Li did not know what Chevrette had in mind, but he was certain that he had some form of secondary plan in the case that he was accused, and he wanted to keep the farmers as a counter to that. 

"Chevrette has many ties everywhere, and thus it is hard to pin any significant personal investment on his part. His father knew the Finlays, but his father also knew every single other noble family in Riviera at the time. There was no special treatment to the Finlays that we know of. Chevrette dines at the restaurant we speak of, but so do most of the city's elite."

"Diversified investments," said Li. "But to keep an operation of this scale going, there needs to be middlemen managing it, especially if Chevrette himself never appears. Target them, and I'm sure you'll find someone willing to confess." 

"I did have a similar thought." Meld shook her head. "All the drivers and traders working in the centers are under a mind controlling spell of some sort. They move in perfect unison and efficiency, as if parts of a hivemind. That is why we suspected that some devilish Warlock that survived the purges of yore was running this, not Chevrette."

"If it's mind control, you're right to assume it's a warlock," said Li. He nodded to himself.

Meld and Thunderstrike had no ability to divine magic. They had no ability to cleanse someone of brainwashing or find the source of a spell. Likely, they could not practice magic at all because they were not half bloods like Jeanne. 

Li began to understand heroic limitations and strengths even further, but he decided then that he knew what his course of action would be. 

"There's three places to raid. How are you going to divide forces among them?" said Li. 

"The knights of Lys can secure the warehouse, for they have the most numbers among us. I thought to have me and Thunderstrike take upon one of the two uppertown centers and the adventurers such as yourselves the other."

"Change of plans. Jeanne and Sylvie will follow you and Thunderstrike to one area. I'll go with Azhar to another."

Meld cocked her head, and Li could tell that Triple Threat were confused too. Still, he continued. "Jeanne and Sylvie are familiar with magic, so I'm sure they can help you."

Li looked to Sylvie, and she nodded. He wanted Sylvie to keep an eye on them so that the two heroes were not left unsupervised, but he did not want to say the quiet part out loud. "And I've figured out that I work very well with Azhar, but not so much with others. 

The real reason was that Li had a grasp of what tier of warlock was running this, and he was fully confident he could flush the warlock out and extract a confession from him, if it could even be classified as a "him". But the method Li had to use needed quite a bit of privacy, and Azhar, his very own follower, was the only one he could rely on that for.

Li rolled his shoulders as he readied himself to assume his true form again.