Author's Note: Short Chapter; busy with school and life in general.

Anise and Horatio returned to the mansion and found Remil dead over Jules. A knife laid by him on the floor. As Garth flipped the body over, he found a gaping hole in the man’s chest. Garth placed the knife against the wound and found the widths to match. He then swiped his finger across Remil’s face and lapped at the results.

“It is salty,” he concluded. “There is a mixture of both sweat and tear.”

“He was alive this morning?” Anise asked. “Who discovered the corpse?”

“Jacqueline, the head maid. And judging by the condition of the body and the stiffness of his features, yes. The stiffness is conclusive and the temperature is not yet the temperature of this room.”

“Why weren’t you watching him?” Horatio asked with a frown. “That isn’t like you, old man.”

Garth smiled bitterly. “Call it senility, but we received a message that Belford was fine, so we both went to get him. This is simply the honest truth, but Miss Tanya guarding Remil or simply her getting Belford is a dangerous proposition. I rather I be near her relative proximity.”

“I know Tanya can be a little odd, but —”

“Horatio, Miss Tanya is dangerous,” Garth smiled, shutting the boy up. “You were not there that day. But it is not an exaggeration. She and Miss Tan’ae here, they hold something dark and ugly. Speaking of her, I will go check on her and Belford downstairs.”

Garth left the room and closed the door. Anise and Horatio looked at the two corpses.

“This is strange.” Horatio declared.

“Two dead bodies. Sofie’s captured. A letter we cannot open. And a woman covered in fur. I think this is quite normal,” Anise laughed.

Horatio furrowed his brows. “I don’t understand you at all, sometimes. You change your attitude too often and easily.”

Anise smiled, baring her fangs. “Well, Garth was right. I have something dark and ugly in me. And I’m sick of it. I’m sick of not knowing what is going on. I’m sick of pretending I know what I’m doing. I’m sick of being a vessel for someone to control.”

Horatio stomped his foot. “That’s exactly what I mean! One moment, you’re cold and bitchy. The next you are like a little girl.”

“It’s called being human,” Anise retorted. Rubbing her eyes, she sighed. “Let’s simply get on with it. What do you think?”

“Garth mentioned it might be suicide,” Horatio said as he inspected the knife. “I think it’s another murder.”

“No, I think Garth is right,” Anise sighed and took the knife from Horatio. “My father was the head of the guards, and sometimes he would take me along when he is training recruits. The wound and the way the knife was and the formation of his hand, everything points to a self-inflicted wound.”

“So we are out of luck, then?”

“We can go ask Sena for a clue on tracking the grey-lurkers once more. Maybe the two events are independent of each other. There is no clear link — except, there might be. The woman covered in fur.”

“Don’t tell me you think the woman is Jules?”

“Who else would it be? Remil loves Jules. Why would he bring another woman to his home village? And doesn’t it coincide with the disappearance of Jules?”

“What? So we have our mastermind? This entire thing has just been a lover’s suicide and the governor may simply be dead? There is no correlation between the grey-lurkers’ rise in numbers and this?”

“It’s odd. If it was a lover’s suicide, why did Remil come back? Almost as if to put on a performance. And Jules’s death itself. It is dramatic, explicitly so.”

“Rather than suicide, why did he just not elope with Jules? Furthermore, how come Jules is not covered in fur anymore. The healer! Maybe the cure worked?”

“Yet, she is dead.”

“Is she?” Horatio asked and felt Jules’s neck. “There is no pulse. But the body is

warm.”

“Is that what Tanya meant?” Anise gasped. “Remil did not take to burying Jules in the cold earth. Nor did he move her to a cooler room. Yet, the body shows no sign of decomposing.”

“There was no need to, then. Perhaps Jules is only in a state of false death.”

“Remil hiding it,” Anise said with excitement dripping in every word, “must means that someone in this building holds malice against Jules!”

“But why did Remil kill himself? He never trusted us to protect Jules. If he is gone, Jules loses all protection.”

“It must all be an act. In fact, Jacqueline was the first to chance upon the body. She must have checked it thoroughly before deciding he was dead and calling the rest of us. Remil is most likely truly dead -- all to complete the illusion of a lover's suicide,” Anise decided. “Who would go after a corpse? This way, she is most safe. The death may also be part of the plan.”

Horatio nodded. “The only ones who he even wants to fool is Borge and Jacqueline. But why?”

“The governor. Those two must be involved in his disappearance.” Anise smiled. “We can use this information as leverage. After we capture the two servants, we can use this as evidence for treason against the state. Sena will have to tell us how to find the King then, if she does not want the entire city of Wolfsheimburg be razed to the ground.”

“You are devious at times, aren’t you, princess?”

“I rather refer to it as a demonstration of politics.”

“We have no evidence though.”

“Then let us create evidence instead.”

“A trap?”

“A trap.”