“Nice to meet you, Eulisses,” Caitlin said, immediately settling on a first-name basis with him. “I like men with a strong gr-- wait,” she interrupted her small talk and squeezed his hand several times for testing purposes. Her face then lit up in understanding. “I see, it’s a prosthesis! You’re very good at using it too - I didn’t even catch it the first time!”

A misunderstanding, based on likelihood maybe? It certainly works in my favour, after all the time spent with Felicity and the others, I got careless in my conduct!

Eulisses proverbially exhaled the breath he held when she commented on his hand and forced a somewhat nervous smile. They went to a reading booth in the arcane section that was a little secluded from it, so they could talk without distracting the others even more. Eulisses sat down and looked at the woman to his opposite.

“It’s been a long time since I … got like this.” He gestured at his hand that was finally let go by her. “I’ve learned to come to terms with it and familiarity followed naturally over time.”

She nodded vigorously. “That’s great! You see, I’m a healer and had the displeasure of having to perform an amputation on one or two occasions. Seeing someone deal with such a fate so well is comforting.”

Casually folding his hands and resting them on the table in between them, Eulisses decided to get to the point, now that he had luckily averted a potentially dangerous situation. “So, what did you want to ask me about?”

“Ah!” Caitlin was reminded of her initial intentions and she got slightly flustered - or at the least acted as such - while she tried to find the right words. “Right, this ties in with my occupation as a healer, actually.”

She took a deep breath and her expression went dead serious. “Do you have knowledge of any curse that would cause a living being to wither and die as it dehydrates almost completely in a very short time span? Specifically, how to detect and or counter such a spell.”

Eulisses furrowed his brows and clenched his hands more tightly, as he replied, “Hm, let me think for a moment and see if I can recall anything that matches your description.”

A curse that causes death by dehydration? Unlikely, curses in general subtly change the victim’s mind or body. Specifically, they are designed to unfold their full effect over a rather lengthy amount of time. If she says that isn’t the case for her encounter, then that would leave, hm, most likely -- damn, I hoped there wouldn’t be practitioners here.

“I don’t think that it was the work of a curse. By your descriptions, it was most likely a spell of the Necromantic School, applied directly and without delay.”

Shaking her head in response, Caitlin replied. “I haven’t heard of a ‘Necromantic School’ before, but my patients encountered the caster several hours prior to the spell actually starting to affect them.”

He thought on the matter for a few more moments, but didn’t come up with another plausible explanation. If the caster in question hadn’t figured out delayed casting - a technique even Eulisses himself could only mimic to a degree with his scrolls - then it must have been a Necromancer.

“I don’t say it’s impossible, but in my experience, both a curse that works whose effects manifest as rapidly as you said they did or an actual delayed spell are very unlikely to be what has happened with your patients. Maybe somewhere in this library or through another person, you can find the answer that you seek, but by my estimation you’ve encountered a necromancer.”

She smiled politely and softly shook her head to appease him. “No, you’ve given me something tangible to look into, and when I just sprang on you with my questions. Thank you,” Catilin stood up and bowed towards him, after which she left their small booth. Eulisses stayed behind for a while longer, alone with his thoughts, before he continued in pursuing his original objectives in coming to the library.

--

The sound of knuckles on wood rang out three times in succession, as someone knocked on the door to the study. Felicity softly called out for them to enter, while putting the documents she was reading aside for the moment. She had occupied the room in their temporary residence, so she could work on some things, while Eulisses and Trevis were out on their own tasks. Meanwhile Reed ensured that the staff which was definitely reporting everything they were doing to their superiors - namely Secretary Anne-Claude Robineau - stayed clear of the immediate vicinity of the study.

The following conversation was only meant for privy ears. A very tall and slender man entered and simply tipped his wide-brimmed hat in greeting. Not uttering a single sound, he made straight for the chair facing her on the other side of the table and sat down.

Aware that her counterpart was not a man of many words, Felicity made it short in kind. “How’s the situation?”

“Khiphamid’s emissary’s called Nubia, lives in Asir, high-priestess of ‘Oo’,” he said in staccato speech and handed her a thin folder.

Felicity was surprised by the nature of her background, “The Khiphamidian god of death?” and took a look at the documents handed to her. They described what has been found out about Niobe, how she was born in Asir and joined the temple to Oo at a young age. She had recently presided over an excursion into the depths of the Qulcasir desert that took up a majority of the centre of the smaller continent. Upon her return, she was named high-priestess and elected to represent the congregation of city states at the four shields summit.

“Information about the nature of the excursion? What they hoped to find? What they did?” Felicity dug deeper, but was met with a shake of the head in turn. “Didn’t know. Others from Bessi’s merchant houses, not ecclesiastical.”

Flipping pages, Felicity read through the information provided about the other members of the Khiphamidian delegation and finally, what everyone's routines had been during their stay in Narlême. When she finished, she put it away and thanked the man.

“Everything seems in order, you provided sufficient information on them. What about Arcrary, isn’t Edmond Rochette representing it?”

Her counterpart lightly shook his head. “Can’t make actual concessions. Robineau has to sign off on everything. Will be present.”

Felicity chuffed upon hearing the Secretary's name come up. That woman was wholly unpleasant to deal with and, perhaps even more infuriatingly, competent to the extent that she could pose a real threat to their plans. “Edmond would have been simple to deal with, but I cannot think of how to handle her.”

“Easier than it sounds,” came the short reply, and with it, another folder of documents that she received. After quickly skimming over them, Felicity looked at her counterpart incredulously. “Are you serious? An affair?”

“Been careful. Very careful, but not enough,” came the affirmation. She looked over the information. The times matched, as well as the places that Duke Rochette and Secretary Robineau had been seen - if separate from one another. It would still be enough for the duchess to raise open suspicion, and they wouldn’t be able to talk their way out if what was written was true.

“An affair between the duke and secretary of state would press the latter to step down. The duchess does not have much sway with the nobility, but certainly enough for this. So, we can deal with her then as well.” She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms before her chest. “What remains then, is Wrachurid.”

“Didn’t hear back, probably dead.”

That caused Felicity to worry. She furrowed her brows and asked to confirm, “All of your men have been unmasked?” to which she received reaffirmation. “Does this have to do with the empress’ ascension to power?” Another nod.

She chuffed again in annoyance. That new empress was an unknown and, by definition, Felicity didn’t know how to prepare for that. She now regretted not paying closer attention to the northern empire from the start, a case that could now come back to bite her as it seems. Maybe she should have gone to Vodany Academy and make contacts?

But racking her brain now would do her no good. Instead, she should set out to fortify her position as much as possible, to account for anything she didn’t account for. The irony was not quite lost to her.

A possible saving grace was offered to her, however, as the man disclosed the only bit of information he had acquired prior to the purging of his agents. “Last I heard, Wrachurid’s sending Champion. For the tournament. Want to assign him leader of the coalition.” Her ears perked up on that. “Can he fight? Your Champion? Then, it will probably be fine.”

She had seen what Eulisses could do, if he wanted and had time and resources to prepare. Even if thrown head first into an unexpected combat situation, he could somewhat stand his ground. The presence of the tournament posed an uncertainty to her plans from the start, but with him Felicity thought they might actually have a chance.

She leaned forward and rested her chin on her hands. “Thank you Andrej, you’ve given me much to think about.” The man stood up and tipped his head, before wordlessly leaving the room and silently closing the door behind him.

She brooded over everything that had been brought to her attention, and what steps she should take from this moment forth to ensure her aspirations would come to fruition. And yet, it only served to harden her determination.

“Even now, the Empire, weakened as it is, is locked in strife,” she said to no one in particular, maybe to convince herself. “Toumart has long since fallen into debauchery and it seems even the Rochette duchy is not totally safe from it. And their gods only know what is going on Khiphamid, but they make sure to profit from everyone else. My own country, well … I don’t know just who it was that has been plotting against father and myself. Maybe the bandit situation and this devil of Eulisses’ have brought some leads into this direction that father could follow up on. But the point stands that we are not much better off than Wrachurid.”

They would all have to band together against the Planar Convergence if they wanted to avoid a second disaster that would shatter half of the main continent again. But there was the potential for so much more. And Felicity vowed that she would tap into it.