Nadine was my escort to the tower.

“We haven’t heard much about this one,” she said as we made our way there. “He’s said to be of noble blood, but without a title - a second son or something like that.”

“I see,” I said. For all their reassurances earlier, the two guild officials were taking the Inquisitor very seriously. On their advice, I was dressed for a social occasion, rather than in my armour. I was wearing my trophy daggers openly, which somewhat spoiled the look.

“That can work either way,” she continued. “They can buy into the superiority doctrine, in the hopes of someday getting a title, or they get burned by their treatment as a second class noble and start to despise the class.”

“Not as simple as Koenig made out,” I observed.

“There are a few Inquisitors that were raised from common rank,” she explained. “They tend to be more loyal to the King, so they’re the ones that get sent when there are noble interests at stake. I’m not sure what to make of him sending a noble, and an unknown one at that.”

“Maybe the King is testing this guy more than us,” I speculated, as we arrived at the tower and had to maintain a dignified silence in front of the guards. They seemed to be expecting us and allowed us entry without a challenge.

“This is as far as I go,” Nadine said, as we stopped near a door that I knew led a sitting room. There was a nervous-looking guard standing in front of it. I nodded to her and followed the man inside.

I quickly noticed that they’d changed the furniture. Instead of comfortable chairs, there was a large desk at which the Inquisitor was seated, and a single chair for me to sit on. Two guards were in the room, standing still enough they probably counted as furniture.

“Sir, this is Senior Master Kandis Hammond,” the guard said, saluting. “Ma’am, this is Inquisitor Dunnar.”

Seated behind the desk, the man didn’t look terribly imposing. He had a square looking face and black hair cut very short. Then he looked up at me.

Whoa. Those brown eyes packed a strong punch of [Intimidate]. I don’t think the guard was a target, but he whimpered a little as he quickly left the room. To my surprise, [Charm] let me keep my composure, and I curtseyed and took my seat.

“My brief on you has you at Level 4,” he said, frowning. He didn’t diminish his intimidating pressure one whit.

“I have a high [Charisma],” I said. “And my social skills are perhaps a bit higher than what you’re used to adventurers having.”

He grimaced and looked back to his papers. “I’m sure you’ve been warned to give your full cooperation to this investigation.”

“Of course, I intend to,” I said. “Might I enquire what it is you are investigating?”

“You don’t know?”

“I’ve heard rumours of course, but I don’t like to rely on them,” I explained. “And if I know what you’re seeking I can give better answers.” That was an attempt at [Persuasion], but it crashed against his own defence. I hadn’t exactly worked out what defended against social attacks, and from what I’d read, neither had anyone else. Certainly, your highest social skill total had something to do with it, but there were other factors. The prevailing theory seemed to be that there were additional, hidden, stats that acted as hit points and armour did for physical damage.

He seemed pleased by the fact that my [Persuasion] hadn’t broken through. Pleased enough to give me what I wanted anyway.

“As you likely surmised, I’m investigating the death of Baron Baer.”

“Is that all?” I asked idly. “I’m sure that the Guild officials have had many complaints about Baron Marseau’s recent behaviour.”

“There’s no mystery there,” he said, with a smirk. “The Baron is simply making sure his business outside of the town is kept private.”

“And that’s not a concern to the King’s investigator?”

“It literally happens outside the Kingdom, so no,” he explained. “Nor are his… arrangements with organisations that he makes to keep order within his domain.”

“Well, I already knew that,” I said sourly. “But if that’s your only concern, then I doubt I can help you more than the papers you’ve already read.”

He frowned. No doubt he’d expected to browbeat me into contradicting the testimony already given. I wasn’t sure that was entirely off the table though.

“Let’s talk about this fellow in red and gold you saw. Baron Marseau blames him for the murder.”

“I only had the briefest interaction with him, the entirety of which should be in your notes,” I said. “Has he been seen in town?”

His smile was my only answer. “You gave a description to the Guild, but you are an [Illusionist] are you not?” That smarted a bit, but he probably had that information from Marseau, who had it from Aubey.

“I don’t have the profession, but I do have the skill,” I admitted.

“Then can you show me what this man looked like?”

That felt like a trap. Not wanting to show off my Phantasmal spells, and not wanting to change myself to match a wanted killer, I opted to cast [Static Image] and placed an A4 photo of Jürgen with a forest background on Dunnar’s desk. Facing him, obviously.

He raised his eyebrows in surprise and tried to pick the image. His fingers went through it, of course.

“Impressive. Such detail from such a brief interaction?”

“A good memory is essential for [Illusion Magic],” I explained. I cast a similar [Static Image] of the dead Baron next to the first.

“A wonderful trick,” he said. “I’m sure that the Baron would have liked to see the face of his nemesis, but I’m not inclined to share it.”

“He can always ask for himself,” I said.

“I don’t believe that would be a good idea,” he said. “It would only encourage his false belief in this fellow as the assassin.”

“Oh?”

“You’ve encountered the Grey Hand, Mistress Hammond,” he said. “Do you think they’d have any trouble at all escaping first the tower, and then the town?”

“No,” I admitted. “They seemed quite skilled and probably have enchantments or alchemy. I don’t think the walls would hold anyone with decent [Climb], [Jump] or [Strength].”

“This has all the hallmarks of a Grey Hand assassination,” he told me. “The poison, the weapon, even the angle of the strike. Of course, determining that it’s Grey Hand is only half the problem - no, only a third.”

“You need to know who sent the Hand,” I said. “What’s the other third?”

“Getting Marseau to accept it and get him to give up this ridiculous obsession.” He gave me a conspiratorial grin. Was this the effect of [Charm]? He wasn’t exactly treating me as a suspect now.

“The new Count Duvost had some speculation about who was behind the Hand that came after him,” I said carefully. “I wouldn’t want to accuse any nobles myself, but could this have been ordered by the same employer?”

“Perhaps,” he said. “But I’m actually hoping you can help me with the third part.”

“The obsession? I’m not sure that-”

“I have a theory you see,” he said, talking over me. “That this… fellow, is meant as a distraction for the good Baron, someone for him to obsess over catching while his real enemies go unhindered.”

He looked at me, but I didn’t say anything, so he continued.

“When you think about it, it seems quite absurd that there have been so many sightings of the man, but no one can catch him. He seems to be quite the slippery character.”

“Perhaps the fault lies in the competence of those searching for them?” I tried.

“Or perhaps there’s another explanation,” he said. “When you have an Illusionist in town - whether or not they have the profession - you have to ask yourself, could they be responsible for any odd happenings in that town?”

“Are you accusing me -” I started, but he interrupted again.

“Oh no, nothing of the sort,” he said lightly. Then his voice hardened. “I don’t need to accuse you of anything. Gerald!”

The door opened and the nervous guard came in.

“Are they in custody?” Dunnar asked.

“Yes sir, all three of them,” the man said.

“Excellent,” Dunnar said approvingly. “Mistress Kandis, I’m going to keep you restrained here in the tower for a time. We shall see if that causes the mysterious man in red to disappear.”

“I thought you only cared about the murder,” I asked nervously. The guard took out a manacle and attached one end to his wrist.

“Oh, I don’t care about whatever… this is all about. If you even are the one that’s responsible. I’m just removing a distraction. If the man is sighted in the next few days, you will be free to go, with my apologies. If he doesn’t… well if it goes on for long enough to be persuasive to the Baron, we’ll have another chat, and see if there’s anything that you know that will be worth me not handing you over to him.”

He smiled, as the guard approached me very carefully and attached the manacle to my wrist. I didn’t resist - there were more guards blocking the only door, so I doubted I could slip out even if I went invisible.

“Thank you for your cooperation,” the Inquisitor said smugly. “I’ll see you in a few days, one way or the other.”

“Well at least we’re comfortable,” I said to Felicia. “I was afraid they were going to throw us in a dungeon or something.”

Instead, they seemed to have thrown the four of us into a guest suite. Why a guest suite would be pre-fitted with locks, I didn’t want to know, but this was near where Edele was being kept, so perhaps it was just a spare hostage suite. We’d had our weapons confiscated, but we weren’t searched. It was all very polite so far.

“How can you be so calm about this?” Felicia asked. She was… not panicking, but not far from it.

“It should be fine. In a few days, we’ll be cleared, and will be free to go back home.” I glanced around, but there weren’t really any good options here. If I wrote something down, Kyle would have to be told it anyway.

“On an unrelated note, back where I’m from it was a common practice to put arrested conspirators together and listen to them talk, see if they incriminate themselves.”

That was not news that Kyle and Felicia wanted to hear, but they got the point quickly. Cloridan seemed unsurprised.

“So I should ask, how’s the house? Did they have to smash their way in?”

“Nah,” Cloridan said while Kyle gave Felicia a hug. “They showed up and were very polite, but very insistent that we came with them. Seeing as you were already at the tower, we reckoned that coming quietly was the best option.”

“Did you get a chance to secure the knives?” I tried. Cloridan laughed.

“Yeah, they’re safe enough, at least for a while.”

“Well. Inquisitor Dunnar is going to be keeping us here until the fellow in red and gold appears again, thus demonstrating that we have nothing to do with him. So getting out of here will just be a matter of waiting.”

The others made sounds of agreement, but I could tell from their faces that they knew what was really going on. The only way we were getting out of here was if I managed to escape - and have that escape not detected. Then I could whistle up another illusion of Jürgen and sneak back in again.

I gave my best impression of a reassuring smile, but I have to admit it felt brittle from this side.

“Don’t worry guys,” I said. “This will be a doddle.”