Gael arrived at the crude walls of Yeavinkhall. He thought it was unfitting for such a small town to have stone walls. The stones were of all shapes and sizes, as if there were no funds to build it but they built it nonetheless. It did have quite a sturdy gate Gael thought as he entered the town. A guard with a big moustache approached him.

‘Good afternoon! May I ask what brings you to Yeavinkhall?’, the guard said.

‘Oh I’m just passing through’, Gael said. ‘Could you point me towards an Inn?’

The guard explained where he could find ‘Yeavinkhall Inn’. He had decided it was best not to be too open about the case. Him searching for a magical flower could draw unwanted attention to him. Gael made his way to the inn over one of the few paved streets. Yeavinkhall Inn was a small ill maintained building. The poorly lit inn had some simple furnature ad adjacent to the main space were a few rooms. The only person in the inn was the woman behind the bar. Gael bartered for a room with a window, so he could let some light in. It was a small room with a bed, table and chair. Gael unpacked and started to read his notes in preparation of the coming night. Outside he looked at an alleyway and the back of a butchers shop. As he heard the squealing of pigs Gael sighed in the realisation of his poor choice of accommodation.

After a while someone else entered the inn. The inkeeper spoke with a young man. Then there was silence followed by footsteps towards his door. Gael quickly covered up the case file and changed the page of his notebook. Someone knocked on his room’s door. Before Gael answered the door slowly opened. He saw a young man with fancy clothing and a friendly face followed by the moustached guard. The young man spoke with a soft voice:

‘Hello! At first my apologies for disturbing you. I am alderman Marvinion. I was told we had a new guest so I thought it would be nice to have a little chat’.

The man stood in the door frame, while Gael sat at the small table in his room. A bit overwhelmed Gael could not hide his annoyance and answered: ‘Well, chat away.’

The alderman’s face folded in an overly friendly smile. ‘I was curious what your business is in Yeavinkhall’.

The innkeeper was leaning over the counter to watch the spectacle.

‘I am just passing through. I would like to stay maybe one or two days, make some drawings of the village’.

Gael showed the men his notebook were pictures he drew on his last days in Challiste could be seen. ‘I like to draw’, he added, and surprised himself how easy he lied to these people. He just wanted to be left alone so he tried to come of as innocent as possible.

‘But is there something wrong? Shouldn't I have come?’

‘Of course we do not want to cause you any trouble,’ the young alderman said, ‘We had some trouble with visitors in the past. Especially when they have an university clerks bag’.

Unease rose in Gael's gut.

‘Oh but this is an old one they wouldn't use any more. I bought it from some clerks when they were in my village, Eswik’, Gael said.

‘Eswik’. The alderman said and looked from Gael's notebook back to Gael.

‘I see you have drawn a black signpost. We’ve been told the stories about the black signpost of Challiste’s market. It would seem that you have been to Challiste. Have you visited the university?

‘The University? No, I am just a farmer’.

‘Can we take a look inside the bag?’

Gael now understood what kind of hole he had dug for himself and started:

‘Oh do you really need to? I would appreciate it if....’

‘Stop. Just, please. Stop.’ Alderman Marvinion said and took a menacing step inside the room.

‘Look. Either you are from the University or you are a farmer who bought a clerks bag. Show us the bag or we take it and hand you over to the Marshal.’

‘Okay, okay.’, Gael said, raising his hands in surrender. ‘My name is Gael I am from Eswik’.

The alderman silently waited. Gael grabbed the clerks bag and got out the case file.

‘But I got hired by the University to work on a case’.

‘You lying University scum. The file!’, the alderman commanded.

Gael handed him the file and the alderman started looking at the pages.

‘Tell us more’, The alderman commanded while still standing intimidatingly in the middle of the small room.

‘The University is in search of a flower. I figured it would be around here somewhere’.

‘And with around here, you mean the forest?', the alderman said to Gael's surprise.

‘Well yes, I think I might be able to find it in the forest clearings’.

‘At night?’, the alderman asked. Gael had feared the conversation would go this way and reluctantly answered:

‘Yes, at night.’

The alderman turned the final pages and finally said:

´I suggest you take you research elsewhere, because under no circumstances I am giving you access to the forest’, Alderman Marvinion said and returned the case file to Gael.

‘Can't you make an exception? This research is important... for me’, Gael said, trying to appeal to alderman, but the alderman lost his composure again.

‘You think you are better than us?! Are you going to nose around riling people up with superstitious tales?!’

‘Of course not, if you let me in the forest I’ll even prove there aren't any!’, Gael argued. Alderman Marvinion composed himself again.

‘I will do no such thing. I don't know how they do it in Eswik, mister Gael, but here we have our laws. I won't make exceptions for visitors and certainly not for above-it-all University folk’.

‘Look, I understand in the past some of the University did bad things. But I am not them. I don't ask a lot, I just want to search the forest. I’ll talk to no one, and I will leave tomorrow morning.’

The alderman was silent for a second and looked at Gael.

‘You will leave indeed tomorrow morning’, he said, ‘but you are not leaving the walls tonight! You are not allowed to leave the inn until the gates are closed. And that is final!’, alderman Marvinion said. Before Gael could object the alderman commanded the guard to stay behind. The alderman left and with a small grin the mustached guard sat himself down at one of the inn’s tables.