Selen had been talking about publishing an alchemy guide. "But we should also be collecting and spreading information from all of the villages, too. Not just a one-way transfer. The rural folk don't have fancy schools, but they have ideas too, and this world is badly in need of more widespread knowledge-sharing."

There was a fierce look in the bird's eyes as she spoke openly of the other world. Of Earth. Vonn held out a hand and said, "I agree, and before college I was a suburb mouse if not a country one."

"Sub-what mouse?" asked Kotta, who was in on the secret of Earth but not well versed in it.

"Figure of speech. Selen, how do you propose to go around gathering print-worthy ideas from all over the kingdom? And how will you fund the printing?"

"I've been thinking about that." Selen picked up a set of wooden dice and played with them. "We have to start small. Use my family mail business to encourage people to publish letters from the countryside, with some subsidy. Make it a weird competitor to the Grandbridge Knowledge Society."

Vonn affected a posh accent. "I say, these upstarts aren't in the same league as our own publication."

Selen rolled her eyes. "They don't even have a science journal yet. I've been pushing for one but I'm an upstart myself. It's not a useful enough group yet, fun as it is sometimes."

Kotta broke in. "Is there a place for me in all this scheming you do?"

Vonn told him, "I'm sure there is. But it's not my place to assign you one."

They were quiet for a moment, looking Selen's possessions over. Like Vonn, she had inherited the single room and meager belongings of a talented young person. Each of them had moved up to having a personal workshop and a little personal capital. Not bad for a year-plus of adventuring.

There was a knock. Sunflare the red Aves had arrived, twitching his tail. "Selen, Vonn. The Duke has sent for you two."

#

One of the Woven had come to the tower. Vonn still wondered if the vines that covered its bare skeleton acted like muscles, but they weren't placed in a way he'd expect for that. Maybe it was magic. Tiny bells gave it a musical chime whenever it moved. The inn patrons kept their distance.

Vonn shared a worried look with Selen, then asked, "How about Kotta?"

"What is that?"

"Me," said Kotta behind them.

"The Duke has sent for subjects Selen and Vonn. Come."

Kotta grumbled. "Good luck."

The jingling creature led them along the river to a palace in the city's northeast. A high stone wall circled a practical stone bunker that carried a rooftop garden and a more elegant second building of wood. Like the city temple to the Triad gods it had curving, interleaved beams like a basket or a bonsai. Lanterns of yellow glass stood out in the daylight like fruit or stars.

The skeletal guide led them through to a grove of trees resembling ancient Elves with their faces and leafy arms upraised to the sun. They almost certainly were Elves, technically given a long natural lifespan but spending most of it inert. Vonn didn't know whether to consider that a good bargain. The family on display here smelled of pine resin.

The ground floor was an office building with simple, tasteful furnishings, but the second floor held the real palace. Courtiers in black and silver watched them curiously. There was a couch seemingly grown into shape. "Have you been here before?" Vonn whispered to Selen.

"No, I think. I was questioned somewhere when I first arrived but they had me blindfolded."

The city's noise had fallen away. A Human servant warned them how to properly bow and address "His Lordship". They got ushered into a throne room of fine lacquered wood and dark carpet, where a green-haired Elf sat on a cushioned seat. His bare feet rested in a pot of dirt.

Vonn and Selen quickly knelt. Duke Ademlios of Grandbridge and the Northern Starry River waved one hand and said, "Rise. I hope the day finds you well?"

"Yes, your lordship," Vonn said, his fur prickling with unease as he stood.

"I'm told that you saw alarming things in the territory of Baron Kolm of my western domain."

"I saw, your lordship. Selen was involved but not present in the dungeon."

Selen said, "May I speak? Your lordship."

The Duke gestured impatiently. Selen took out the tainted magicite shard and held it up. A page-boy took it and showed it to the Duke, who scowled.

"A sinister thing," he said, and had the shard taken away. "Tell me exactly what you saw."

Vonn told the story while he stood there, getting verbal backup from Selen now and then. "And last I heard, the dungeon occupies a large area above ground. I didn't see that personally but Baron Bogstep and others did."

"Terrible. Simply terrible. I trusted the man to be a Baron under me, and in the borderlands at that. Now we see how that's been repaid. You say there's a second such tainted shard back in Shieldpoint, and others have seen it?"

Selen answered, "Yes. We didn't wave it around publicly, but we had the local Geomancer examine it along with our Baron's magic expert. They can attest that it has the same signature as normal magicite from the same place."

Vonn and Selen had planned what they'd say, to make sure it was both true and unlikely to tempt this man to dispose of all the evidence and witnesses. They'd brought along a letter from Bogstep backing up their claim.

The Duke slouched in his throne as he read the letter. "The question then is whether Baron Kolm was killed by his own vile working, or if he escaped to join his scaly brethren in the west. Then there's his pet Necromancer to find. I'll want to know if Bogstep's men find the bodies or any hint. Do either of you young folk know what Kolm was doing?"