While the teens had been catching up, a number of far more serious discussions were taking place across Erlenberg.

The closest to the teenagers, was the one in the Windwhistler household. Eleanor had gathered the senior executives of the Windwhistler Household to their regular conference table. A rather comfortable room, warmly lit with crystal chandeliers and centered on a well-worn, but nicely varnished oval table.

Eleanor stood up. “Before we discuss the topic for today’s meeting… I’d like to thank Edana for… keeping my enthusiasm for the Winter Tournament reigned in.”

Edana barely kept her mouth from falling open. Her mother hadn’t said anything after she’d drawn her away and had only excused herself to prepare something for this meeting. That she was being thanked for essentially going against her mother’s wishes was… unexpected to say the least.

“You’re welcome, mom.”

Eleanor’s gaze dropped. “Look, I know I tend to be a bit—oh fine, very demanding, but that’s why I need your opinions. Frances was nearly killed yesterday. And as new as she is to our family, she’s family and we need—” Eleanor grimaced. “I think we need to respond to this.”

“Oh no, I think we can all agree on that sis,” hissed Eleanor’s younger sister, Emelia. “I’ve had our intelligence group scouring our contacts. We’re building a profile of the referee who was killed. I can share what we have.”

Eileen, Edana’s older sister, nodded. “Newspapers are going to be favorable to us in tomorrow morning’s issue. We are ready to smear the Voidsailors, Windstorms and Seaskimmers.”

Eustace, Edana’s older brother growled, “The strike fleet is standing by and ready for your orders.”

“So are our security forces,” declared Danny, one of Emelia’s two husbands.

“Trading fleet’s ready to buy out our rivals and run interference,” said Donna, Ayax’s aunt.

Elearnor and Edana blinked. As both women scanned the room, they realized that every single one of their family members had the same, or a similar, grim look.

“What… but she just met you a few weeks ago?” Edana stammered.

A few of her family members seemed to look slightly abashed, as if embarrassed. From beside Eleanor, Edana’s father, Paul, chuckled. “Edana dear, even if Frances was a brat, nobody hurts our family and gets away with it. And as you know, she is the sweetest.”

Eustace nodded. “I still can’t believe she got a gift for every single one of us. I mean, sometimes people forget me!”

“The children really like her too. Speaking of which, can they visit soon? Eva and Edmund are beside themselves with worry,” Edward, Edana’s younger brother asked.

“Oh. I’ll ask her. I think she’ll be happy for them to visit. She’ll be healed by tomorrow,” said Edana.

Elearnor nodded slowly. “Huh, if we are all in agreement, then what should we do exactly? Edana reminded me we don’t actually know who tried to kill Frances. Emelia, what do you have at the moment?”

Emelia shuffled her papers and narrowed her eyes at them, only to grumble as she couldn’t make out the words. Greg, Emelia’s husband, handed her her reading glasses, which she put on with a whispered thanks.

“Right, the late referee who tried to get Frances killed was Raven Tanner, thirty years old, unmarried. She’s not actually a tanner by trade, but an employee of the Voidsailor Banking Company. Not a simpler clerk either, she’s a manager who worked in an Alavari branch for a while. Before you start saying the Voidsailors did it, let me finish!” Emelia hissed, glaring at her family, who closed their mouths sheepishly. “Raven looks like just some ordinary woman at first, but we have some contacts in some of Erlenberg’s Pleasure Houses, and well, she has a money problem. Gambling, clubbing, drinking, she’s in need of cash. Now, the Voidsailors could indeed have paid her, but it’s highly unlikely they wanted her dead.”

“Go on…” said Eleanor.

Emelia grinned. “Because she was at one point, the mistress of one Oscar Voidsailor. They’re not together right now. He’s seeing someone else, but I have it on good authority that he is not happy that she’s dead.”

Eleanor and Emelia’s brother, Ethan whistled. “Well that’s scandalous.”

Eileen nodded. “Oh yes, but it also means that he probably wouldn’t have authorized the hit, and if he didn’t authorize the hit, he certainly didn’t authorize the sabotage. Besides, it doesn’t fit the Voidsailor’s particular patterns. These murder attempts are far too brutal and it breaks Erlenberg law. They will bend the rules to their advantage, but break one? No way.”

“Then maybe it was the Seaskimmers or Windstorms?” Paul suggested.

Eleanor shook her head. “The Windstorms possibly, but it’s probably not the Seaskimmers, though. They’re whiny, but open assassination isn’t their style either.”

Edward frowned. “Wait, but the Windstorms haven’t killed anybody openly for years, and why would they risk it? Last time they did it, they paid a terrible price.”

Erin, Edana’s younger sister nodded, “Besides, this is a terrible time and way to piss us off. The Winter Tournament is sacrosanct. They hate us, but they have to know that this will reflect terribly on them.”

Eleanor nodded, fingers drumming on the table. “You’re right… but… if we’ve ruled out the Voidsailors, the Windstorms and the Seaskimmers… then who the hell tried to kill Frances and killed Raven Tanner?”

Across the city, outside the solarium of the Voidsailor mansion, a warmly dressed Ophelia Voidsailor was spying on her grandfather and the people he probably was going to be shouting at.

She was outside the solarium because it was a room on the very roof of the Voidsailor mansion and there were no other rooms next to it. Lying flat on top of the solarium, stomach against the tiled roof, Ophelia cast a spell on the glass window she was sneaking her way to. The spell would make it look like there was just sky on the other side, even when she poked her head over the edge of the window. Finally, she wriggled a playing card, spelled to be a sound conductor, through the gap between the window shutter and pane, and made herself as comfortable as she could.

Her grandfather, Oscar Voidsailor, for such a short half-goblin, looked like he was about to reach across the round table he was seated at, seize the female troll he was seated across and strangle her.

“Are you saying I orchestrated this sabotage? Are your pointy ears full of fish shit right now Rachel? I literally gain nothing out of this!”

Rachel Windstorm glared back, “Oh don’t lie, Oscar. You’ll make sure you’ll win the Winter Tournament—”

“Ophelia winning the Winter Tournament doesn’t matter when the city thinks we did it underhandedly or did you forget what happened to your father, Jack?” Oscar roared.

That silenced Rachel, who glowered at Oscar, but said nothing else. Oscar didn’t sit down however, and it took Oliver, Ophelia’s father, to gently pull his father back.

“You made your point loud and clear, dad.” Her father pushed his glasses back up and said in a quiet voice, “That being said, we demand to know if someone among us here authorized this nonsense.”

Rachel downed her glass of water and shook her head. “No. I liked Raven, and I assumed you were still friends. I just thought you had a falling out or something. And yes we have had differences, but you know I wouldn’t do that to you.”

Ophelia blinked and felt her stomach squeeze uncomfortably. She thought the referee had looked familiar. Raven had visited their mansion and her grandfather quite a few times. It wasn’t a good relationship by any means, Oscar and Raven sometimes would break into very loud arguments, but there were times she’d see the pair together, genuinely happy.

Oscar glanced at the elderly orc male at the table, who raised his hands. “I’m just as confused as you Oscar. I’m checking with my sons and daughters to see if they know anything about this, but so far they seem to be genuinely shocked.”

Oscar sighed. “Thanks James. I… apologize for being so short, this is… infuriating.”

“It is bizarre how much it looks like we did it,” said Basil, Ophelia’s uncle and Basileus’s father.

“Basil what are you saying?” asked Jacob, Jeffrey Seaskimmer’s father.

“Well what if this whole thing was a Windwhistler setup? What if the Windwhistlers had their own champion blasted?” Basil asked.

Jacob shook his head. “No, way too risky. I was in the stands. Ophelia hit Frances with a full fireball. She could have killed her and that would have jeopardized their chances at winning the tournament. That and assassination? Did you see how furious Edana Firehand was? If Eleanor did orchestrate this she’d just piss off the White Order.”

“That and the entire Windwhistler family is up in arms about this.” Rachel shuddered. “I received a report that they’ve mustered their strike fleet.”

Oscar scowled.“Right, so it isn’t one of us, and it isn’t the Windwhistlers. We don’t know who it is right now, we’re going to find out but what matters is making sure the Windwhistlers don’t use this as an excuse to attack us. We need to appease them.”

Basil groaned. “Dad that’s a terrible idea—”

“No, Oscar, that's an excellent idea,” said James. He stroked his long white beard. “If we make it public enough, then the Windwhistlers can’t attack us without consequence.”

Ophelia’s father Oliver shook his head. “A public apology would lose us too much face. Let’s talk to the Windwhistlers first. I’ll go to Eleanor and discuss with her what we can do to make them understand we weren’t responsible.”

“That’s a good idea. What else can we do?” Oscar asked.

The meeting wound on for quite a bit and Ophelia, tuned most of it out. What she did notice however was that Rachel Windstorm seemed to be distinctly uncomfortable about the discussion.

When the meeting was finally over, everybody left, except for her grandfather, who was finishing up writing a note. Seeing the coast was mostly clear, she began to get up.

“Ophelia, did you get all of that?” Oscar hollered up.

Ophelia froze.

Oscar pointed at the window Ophelia was using. “I know you’re at that window over there. I can see your breath misting it up.”

Cursing herself, Ophelia scrambled down the solarium and entered in the normal way, head bowed appropriately.

“Sorry grandfather—”

“I would tell you not to do it again, but you’re going to do it anyway, so… what did you notice, and what are your thoughts?” he demanded.

Ophelia pursed her lips. “Well aside from what you discussed, Rachel seemed… nervous about something.”

“I agree. I don’t think she was involved in the attempt, but...she might know something we don’t,” said Oscar.

“Not like I can just ask Robert. He’s not talking to me anyway.” Ophelia tilted her head slightly. “Rachel and James were rather understanding of the Windwhistlers anger today. Usually, they’d be blaming them for everything.”

“You’re right. I wonder why…” Oscar glanced at Ophelia and frowned. “You don’t have to feel responsible for what happened to Frances.”

The young mage looked away. “I wasn’t.”

Oscar gave his granddaughter a knowing look. “Suuure.”

A day later…

Eleanor shook Oliver’s hand and watched him stride away through narrowed eyes. As the Voidsailor got into his carriage, the Windwhistler matriarch turned her back and strode to the practice grounds.

Frances was engaging in another practice duel, but this time, she was fighting Nobbo and Ayax together. She was losing, but through a combination of using a heavy magic shield, and some smaller offensive spells, she was staying in the fight.

Edana was watching her daughter with a look Eleanor could only say, seemed torn between worry and pride.

“Edana, can we talk?” Eleanor asked.

Edana glanced at Eleanor and nodded, before turning to Edward, who was also watching. “Have them go for some back and forth sprints before taking a break.”

“That’s going to make them happy,” Edward said airily, but he nodded and Edana went with her mother to the smoking room.

“So what’s the occasion, mom?” Edana asked.

Eleanor crossed her legs and drummed her fingers on her knee. “Oliver Voidsailor. He came to us with an offer for reparations, even though he quite vehemently states that the Voidsailors didn’t sanction this.”

“Do you believe him?” Edana asked.

Eleanor sighed. “I can’t see why I shouldn’t. I don’t trust the Voidsailors, or the Windstorms and Seaskimmers, but the attack… I thought it was them. It looked like something they could have done, except… it’s not really something they would have done. And… they offered us some pretty hefty concessions. All of this makes me inclined to think that they didn’t do this.”

Edana lifted her right hand, as if she was going to touch her nose, only to clasp her hands together.

Eleanor frowned, noticing that her daughter seemed...reluctant. “Edana, you have an idea.”

The head of the White Order winced. “It’s not a good one. Like really, it’s a terrible, terrible idea.”

“Then why do you look like you want to say it?” Eleanor asked.

Edana stood up and slowly began to walk from one wall of the library to the other. “So… we’ve quite quickly managed to put significant doubt on whether the Voidsailors, Windstorms or Seaskimmers were responsible, right? We can’t say we’ve eliminated them as suspects, but it does not seem like they did it.”

Eleanor leaned forward, moving her hand in a circle. “Yes, yes, get to the point.”

Her daughter, frowning so hard that her features were almost scowling, sighed. “You’re not going to believe me.”

“Oh for the love of the Gods of Sea and Sand Edana, just tell me!” Eleanor exclaimed.

“I think the Kingdom of Alavaria is behind this,” Edana said.

Eleanor’s ears stiffened and her eyes widened. “Fishshit.”

Edana shook her head and turned for the door. “Told you you wouldn't believe me.”

“Wait, wait, no just…tell me why,” Eleanor took a deep breath. “Firecracker, Alavaria hasn’t interfered with Erlenberg politics for a long time. So your suggestion is… like a ship appearing from a fog bank.”

Edana spun herself to face her mother, a pensive look on her features. “That is a rather apt analogy. Anyway, you recall that Raven Tanner is a manager at a Voidsailor bank branch in the Kingdom of Alavaria right?”

Eleanor had actually forgotten, but she schooled her features and said, “Yes… but that could just be an interesting coincidence.”

Nodding, Edana sat down across from her mother and pulled her chair in closer. “It could be, but let’s consider this. Who would stand to gain if four of the most powerful houses of Erlenberg, two of which were considering voting for the same military expansion bill, started to feud with one another?”

It was as if the floor had fallen from underneath her to reveal a void. Eleanor felt as if she was falling, her sense of gravity all gone, overwhelmed by sheer horror.

She’d known that the Kingdom of Alavaria were unhappy with her city, her home. But the sabotage… if it was then, it would mark an unheard-of escalation.

And yet, despite her horror, Eleanor stilled her features and nodded.

“If it is the Kingdom of Alavaria, what do you suggest we do?”

“Be on guard, and start to actively share information with the Voidsailors. They stand to lose a lot if Erlenberg is attacked. For the moment though, we have no other real options. Only suspicions,” Edana said. She pursed her lips. “I would like to offer White Order mages to help oversee the rest of the tournament. Most won’t be more than trained apprentices, but the more trustworthy eyes the better.”

Despite her worries, Eleanor forced herself to smile. “That would help a lot, Edana. I’ll talk to Oscar about it.” Pursing her lips, Eleanor asked, “Do you think we should tell Frances about this?”

Her daughter sank into the sofa across from her. “I don’t want to, but as this involves the war, she should know.”

Eleanor blinked. “You are very open with Frances,” she remarked.

It was something that she’d realized after seeing her daughter and her granddaughter interact for a few weeks now. If say Frances wasn’t sure about something, or committed a minor faux pas, she’d immediately tell her mother. Edana for her part, kept Frances informed about anything important, never even hesitating to let her know about the politics of the city.

“It’s why we trust one another. She even knows about my wild days,” said Edana.

“I see.” Eleanor smiled. “It’s good you’re not making the same mistakes as I am. I always hid too much from you.”

Edana smiled sheepishly. “You’re at least trying to learn now. You were even trying to do so before Frances and I arrived. That’s what counts.”

Eleanor chuckled and got up. “Well, I need to talk to Oscar, you better get Frances ready for her preliminaries.”

“I think she’ll be able to ace them. Don’t you worry, mom,” said Edana.

Late that night, Rachel Windstorm rapped frantically on the door to her son’s observatory. After a moment, the door swung open, revealing her son in a bedrobe.

“Mom? What’s going on?” Robert asked sleepily.

“I’ll explain.” Rachel strode in, dress billowing behind her as she took a seat at the study table. Her son, looking rather lost, took the other. “Have you by any chance thought of any less than strictly legal ways to turn the tournament to our favor? Be honest with me.”

Robert’s ears stiffened and Rachel knew her answer, even as he nodded. “Well, yes.”

The Lady Windstorm grimaced. “Right, you need to abandon them. I know I told you to win at any cost, but there’s been a development.”

Her son spluttered, eyes wide. “Abandon—but without them, I won’t have a chance—it’ll be much harder, to defeat that upstart Frances and her cousin.”

Rachel sighed. “Son, I’m sorry, I made a big, big mistake. There are far larger powers at play here and right now, the Windstorms cannot afford to anger our few allies right now, or infuriate the many enemies we have.”

Robert stared at her, before his eyes narrowed. “Does it have anything to do with that teatime you had with Raven Tanner a while ago?”

Rachel stood up so fast the chair scraped back, hard. She was around the table in a flash, her hands grabbing her son by the shoulders.

“What do you know about that meeting?” she demanded.

“Just that Raven was asking you for advice about something and you told her to go ahead with it.” Robert’s eyes widened. “It couldn’t have been—”

“No. It wasn’t. We had nothing to do with it,” Rachel cut in.

“Then why do you look so scared?” Robert stammered.

“Because it does not look good, Robert. Don’t say anything to anybody about this. Not to Ophelia, or Jeffrey,” Rachel hissed.

“But… but they’re my best friends,” Robert stammered.

“Robert, the problem is that a Voidsailor, or Seaskimmer… someone from the houses might have tried to set us up, and not just us. They’re trying to set the entirety of Erlenberg up. I am not yanking your yardarm to say it would be safer to tell Frances and Ayax Windwhistler than them right now!” Rachel released her son’s shoulders. “Promise me you won’t tell your friends.”

Robert swallowed and nodded slowly. Rachel smiled, hugged her son briefly, before bidding him goodnight and storming to her bedchambers.

If she’d dallied a little longer, or been a little more focused, she might have heard the sound of someone breathing outside of the window to her son’s observatory.

Jeffrey Seaskimmer, clad in shorts and tunic, slipped in, eyes wide. “Robert. What was that?”

Robert quietly restored the silencing spells to the observatory and shook his head. “I have no clue. Something… something serious is afoot. It’s all to do with Raven’s death and the attempt on Frances’s life.”

Jeffrey, trembling partly due to the cold, grabbed the spare blanket from where he’d thrown it aside in the scramble to get out. “I remember you telling me about that meeting before… all of this. You said Raven was asking your mom if she should go ahead and accept a job from an “Uncle Andy.” They didn’t discuss the details of the job, though.”

“Not that I know of. I… it had to be the sabotage of Frances’s safety ring.” Robert narrowed his eyes at Jeffrey. “You know nothing of this, right?”

“No.” Jeffrey winced. “I shouldn’t be telling you this, but… it’s only fair for you to know my dad gave me a similar talking to earlier this afternoon. He… he wasn’t as alarmed as your mom, but he suspects something is afoot.”

The mirror in Robert’s room pulsed softly. The two boys exchanged a glance, quickly pulled on better shirts and sweaters and rushed over to it.

The image of Ophelia in a nightgown swam into view. Her hair, normally braided into pigtails, was a mess.

“Robert I couldn’t get—Oh, having one of your sheet-wrestling nights I see?” she giggled slightly as Robert and Jeffrey blushed. “Anyway, my dad—”

“Came into your room telling you not to talk about what you know about Raven Turner’s death?” Jeffrey quipped.

“And told you not to talk to your friends?” Robert asked.

Ophelia arched an eyebrow and popped, “Yes.”

“Wanna exchange notes?” Robert asked.

“Definitely!” Ophelia exclaimed. She swallowed. “Robert, Jeffrey, sorry about the ball thing um—”

Robert sighed, “Look, I was… being an ass. I’m sorry too.”

Jeffrey nodded. “I’m sorry as well. Though, you do have a nice ass Robert—”

“Jeffrey, not the time!” Ophelia hissed. “Apology accepted, let’s get to work boys.”