“Why’d you take it?” Felicia asked. I’d given a brief explanation last night, and then gotten some sleep. Now, after a more detailed description of last night's events, we had moved on to speculation and second-guessing.

“I guess I just didn’t want that guy’s - whoever his employer was - plans to succeed.”

Felicia looked at the blue and indigo scrap of cloth. “You think they wanted the Duvost’s to be blamed,” she mused. “But is this really enough evidence for even suspicion?”

“That’s the weird part,” I said. “From what he said, they plan on blaming Baron Marseau.”

“He would be the obvious suspect,” Cloridan said. “Even if this had been found, they’d only have the Baron’s word that it was found on the scene.”

“So everyone would believe the Baron did it, while he knew the evidence was genuine… well not planted by him at least.”

“It's too convoluted,” Cloridan objected. “They had an assassin in the tower, why not just take out the Baron?”

“They don’t want him dead,” I replied. “Initially the assassin said something about trying to bribe or blackmail him… I think they want him to do something… turn against Aubert maybe?”

“Where do you get that from?” Felicia asked.

“Well, if we assume these Grey Hands are employed by the same guy, we know he wants the Aubert dead. And if they’re trying to lay blame for the murder on him as well…”

“That might work…” Cloridan allowed. “If there were some other incidents and the employer -”

“I think he might be the Duke of Arryen?” I hazarded.

“Fine, if the Duke then supports Marseau against this murder charge… It might work.”

“But,” Kyle finally spoke up. “There’s not anything pointing to Aubert anymore, so what’s going to happen now?”

“I doubt that will disrupt the plan completely,” I said. “It might delay things a bit. The thing is, we’re probably not going to be aware of any further developments. Unless there’s a noble gossip source I’m unfamiliar with?”

“Not really,” Cloridan said. “News trickles down, but normally well after the fact.”

“So I guess we’ll have to see what happens next as we go on with the plan.”

“We have a plan?” Felicia asked, surprised.

“Well, the bare bones of one,” I said. “We have to get Edele out of there. Which means we need to know how to get to her, a way to get her out, and a place to hide her until we can get her to her family.”

“A tall order,” Cloridan said. “Maybe we should wait a bit before filling in the details?”

I shrugged. “Maybe.”

It was true that this wasn’t a good time to scout out the tower. The guards were on alert, and no one was allowed to leave the town. Leaving your house was discouraged by foot patrols of aggressively suspicious guardsmen.

Stuck inside, I figured it was a good time to finally enchant my daggers. I’d picked up a pair of runes from Mandel that were much better than a simple [Sharpness]. [Empower (Finesse)] and [Empower (Agility)]. It was a shame that Mandel didn’t have [Empower (Strength)] to complete the trio, but this would do.

I’d also be trying something a little more complex this time. Mandel had sneered at my simple circles of runes. Apparently, a real Enchanter wasn’t satisfied with just shoving an effect onto an item. This time I was going to do what Mandel suggested was the bare minimum and trigger the enchantment on being held by me - or the others. As long as they were there when I was doing the enchantment, I could add them directly into the configuration.

A more complex enchantment meant a higher mana cost, of course. I calculated that this configuration would require an ambient mana of twelve…units. (I’d forgotten to ask Mandel what units you measured mana in.) That would work for dungeons, but I wanted it to work outside, so I was going to have to add in a mana crystal and a [Gather Energy] rune. Which took the complexity up even further, but that was fine. The new configuration would gather energy when it wasn’t in use, and then trigger when I held the daggers. At that point it would start draining the crystal… depending on the mana levels where I was fighting, I figured there would be enough juice for about five minutes of fighting.

Once it was all planned out, I called everyone together to do the first [Sense (Person)] rune. They watched me work for a bit longer, but then they drifted away, I think. I wasn’t really paying attention, as I had to concentrate on the work.

You have crafted a Dagger of Dexterity , Quality: Great. You earned 280 XP

Nice. I cheated and charged it up manually to test it out. Plus one Agility felt pretty nice as I moved about, dodging imaginary blows. I gathered the others - it looked like they were still trapped inside the house. I got something to eat while they all tried it out, and then we went back in to start Dagger Two.

You have crafted a Dagger of Deftness , Quality: Great. You earned 280 XP

Now, I was… still not dangerous. Oh, I could probably get a few blows in while invisible, but I couldn’t do damage to match our front line on even unaware targets. The good thing was, these daggers would continue to give me the plus one even as I increased my abilities, so they would continue to be useful as I got more ability points.

Declaring my work over for the day, I joined the crew to see how their day had been.

“Weird,” Felicia summarised. “We mostly just stayed in all day.”

“You’re allowed out, but those patrols sure give you the stink-eye,” Kyle agreed.

“I’m not sure what they think they’re accomplishing,” I said. “I’m almost certain that assassin is halfway to Arryen by now.”

We all agreed and commiserated on how stupid this was, but there wasn’t anything to do about it so we went to bed. In the morning, we received word that the Guild wanted to talk to me.

“Now, this isn’t a trial,” the Guild Master said.

“That’s very reassuring,” I lied. I was sitting in a comfortable stuffed armchair, across from three others filled with the Guild officials. As I spoke, a mirror silently appeared behind them, courtesy of [Static Image]. I wanted to see if there was something behind me triggering when I lied.

To say that my guard was up would be an understatement. I didn’t know why I’d been asked to come here, but I couldn’t think of any good reason. Good for me, that is. I’d wanted to come fully armed and armored, but made do with my dress with the concealed slits for my daggers.

“Is that why there’s no lie-detecting enchantment here?” I asked. I let the mirror fade away. They hadn’t asked me to surrender my weapons, and I wasn’t sure if it was courtesy or sloppy procedures.

The Guild Master made a face and gestured to the youngest of my three interviewers. That person, a young man with blond hair, cleared his throat and spoke up.

“Yes, as this isn’t an official Guild investigation, the normal procedures don’t apply.”

“Damn things are useless anyway,” The Guild Master snorted. He was a large man, with red hair and a full beard. “Only keep them around to cover our asses with Central.”

“So if this isn’t a trial, and it isn’t an official investigation,” I said carefully. “What is it?”

The blonde man looked at his boss, who showed no sign of speaking. Taking that as a sign, he continued, but he kept his head at an angle to keep the man in view.

“Baron Marseau has some questions, for and about you,” he said. “As an adventurer, you fall under our jurisdiction so he consulted with us before taking any action.” His eyes flicked over to his boss again. “It was… agreed that we should handle any questions that needed to be asked.”

“Like I was going to let that snake get his hands on any more of our people,” the Guild Master growled.

“So… this is the alternative to getting taken off the street by guards?”

“…I’m sure it wouldn’t come to that.”

I let the silence drag out a bit, and then changed the subject. “I’m sorry, I know Master Koenig of course, but I’m not sure about your name… Officer?”

“Ah, I’m sorry,” the man said. “I’m Millard Rochon, Officer is kind of… unwieldy. Just call me Millard. And this is -”

“Nadine,” said the Deputy Master, speaking up for the first time. “No need for titles for us either.”

“Just Koenig is fine,” the Guild master confirmed. “Not like there’s another one in town to be confused with me.”

“Thank you,” I said. “Now, can you tell me what this is all about, first? I’ve heard rumours…”

Koenig glowered again, but Nadine took over the conversation. “After the feast last night, Baron Baer was killed, along with five guards.

Five? That surprise helped me display some shock at the news. “But he was at the feast,” I said. “I spoke to him…”

“Yes, yes, it's all very tragic,” Koenig said dismissively. When I raised an eyebrow, he shrugged. “Nobles killing each other is pretty much business as normal for them. I understand you were involved in a recent assassination attempt in Anchorbury?”

“I helped foil one, if that’s what you mean,” I said with a bit of ice. Involved? I thought. Is Aubey spreading rumours about me?

“Sorry,” he said apologetically. “What we’ve heard is all third hand. Can you give us some details about that event?”

I narrowed my eyes, but decided to accept the apology. “Two members of the Grey Hand were disguised as servants and attacked the Count and his son.”

“How were they identified as Grey Hand?” Koenig asked.

“By their weapons, as far as I was concerned. I don’t know if they had other identifying features.”

“A few members have mentioned noticing you have a pair of Grey Hand Athames.”

“I took a pair as a trophy,” I said.

“Can I see them?”

I took one of them out. “I recently enchanted these, so the name’s been changed,” I said. I really should have done this sooner.

He glanced over it. “Not bad,” he said, and looked over at Millard. He got up and fetched a ruler from a nearby cabinet. They measured the length and width of the blade, and then gave it back to me.

“It’s not poisoned,” Koenig noted.

“It’s designed for it, but I didn’t loot any poison samples,” I said, shrugging. “And you can’t buy that stuff from an Alchemist.”

“True,” Koenig said. He got a serious look on his face. “The Baron was killed by a knife of the same size as that one - with poison.”

“You’re not suggesting…”

He shook his head. “Marseau may suspect you, but that dagger isn’t evidence. Lots of daggers are that size, and plenty of criminals use poison. If we were to judge by the wound, we would look to the Grey Hand as the ones responsible.”

“Criminals like the Fang?” I asked, ignoring the part about the Grey Hand.

“Damn straight, which points right back to the Snake,” he said with some relish.

“Marseau is a suspect?” I said, “Why would he kill his friend in his own house?”

“My own theory is that Baer stumbled onto one of Marseau’s schemes and was going to expose him,” Koenig said with some satisfaction. “Or was going to blackmail him, and Marseau didn’t like the price.”

“How does it work, if the Baron is accused?” I asked.

“Normally the Count would have to step in and settle matters,” Koenig explained. “But -”

“But he’s still getting confirmed at the Capital and won’t be back for weeks.”

“Aye,” Koenig said, somewhat surprised at my knowledge. “So either the King sends him back early, or he sends someone to take care of this. An Inquisitor.”