They’d almost reached the housesled when that itchy sensation reached its peak. The path they were supposed to follow was obvious, Len had remembered it perfectly. The problem, such as it was, was that something inside her screamed to take a different one. Silently grabbing Keseryn’s elbow, she steered the girl away from the route they’d been following. Taking them down a small alley created by the gap between a set of the sleds. The girl complied without question, sensing her mentor’s urgency.

A moment later, they saw a trio of uniformed individuals marching past, curved blades at their hips and an entirely too serious look set on their faces. Len had seen the type before, the self-importance spoke of men who had the right to kill at their own discretion, and the set of their jaws made it clear that they were looking for the chance to exercise that discretion. She had no idea what their current goal was, but she didn’t want to be in their path to find out. Still, for all the alarm they brought to her mind, they weren’t the ones that were causing this feeling, there was something more going on here.

The space between the sleds was narrow and uncomfortable to squeeze through, the neat arrangement did a good job of using space and barely allowed the two of them to move sideways. Len had never been a claustrophobic person, but this experience was doing wonders to understand the mentality. She kept following the nagging sensation, pulled along as much as choosing it until she reached a point that she somehow knew was where she needed to be. An instant after she stopped, she heard a voice that confirmed her instincts.

“You promised me that they would be there, Keris,” said a creepily smooth voice. “Swore to me, even. You told me that you’d be able to have them here when the Banes arrived so we could arrange for a little disturbance that resulted in a tragic accident. Why did you fail?”

“I didn’t expect them to run off on their own,” Keris snapped. “You don’t understand how arrogant that woman was! The way she held herself in my presence, the nerve! You expect me to be able to keep track of a beast like that?”

“I expect you to honor our arrangements,” the voice said, steel edging into it. “If you can’t handle simple tasks like this, I can’t guarantee that you’ll be safe from your husband’s treachery.”

“They left me,” said Keris. “I tried to track them down but couldn’t. I don’t know what Balar was thinking bringing her in, but it’s pointless anyway, what can one Dark Elf and the blighted spawn of a Banished do, anyway?”

“Probably nothing, but that’s not the point. You need to understand that my employer doesn’t accept failure. Nor does he tolerate disrespect. Control your tongue, or you might lose it one day.”

“I… How DARE you?” Keris snapped. “Just because I’m working with you, doesn’t mean you can speak to me this way.”

There was a moment of silence before a long sigh escaped the man.

“You know, I’d rather wanted to put this off,” the voice had lost all pretenses of charm. “Not for your sake, mind you, I just wanted to be able to savor the experience.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You’ve betrayed your husband, offered up his allies to us, not out of some sense of patriotism or honor. You offered them up as a means of saving your own hide.”

“And what of it?” Keris’ tone was still defiant, but there was the slightest hint of unease in her voice now.

“What of it? Surely you understand that if your husband were to find out now, you’d be tossed aside. You sacrificed his son in this ambition of yours. You can’t imagine that he would forgive that.”

Len’s blood ran cold, a terrible suspicion of what had happened to make Fenris unavailable had happened.

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“Woman, you can’t begin to imagine what I’d dare. You have one final chance. Get the elf to the meeting place before the feast tonight or we’ll put your entire affair here on display for all to see. Balar will still be disgraced, we’ll get what we want, but you? You will be destroyed alongside him.”

Len glanced down at Keseryn and saw righteous indignation burning in the child’s eyes. She could hardly fault that, and felt some of it herself, but she was too busy thinking about what this might mean. Keris’ betrayal itself wasn’t all that big of a deal. It’s not like Len had expected to have that many allies here at the start, and the woman hadn’t been connected enough to events so far to be worth considering. The problem was this other figure. Not only was he trying to arrange something unfortunate for Len and anyone connected to her, he’d outright said that he worked for someone else.

It wouldn’t make sense for that someone else to be the Head. From everything Len understood of the structure of his place, if the Head had suspected that something was up, he’d have thrown Balar in the pit and left it at that. No, this was someone trying to do more than just see Balar ruined, they were looking to use that ruin as a part of some greater objective. It was possible that there was some other force involved that she hadn’t come across, but Keris had said that Claymar had an emissary here already, one who probably had gotten close to the Head and could gain greater favor by discrediting Balar publicly.

The Banes, whoever they were, weren’t under the control of this conspirator. They most likely were directly under the control of the Head or near enough to him that it made little difference. Claymar’s goals here were curious. Len had assumed that his goal was just to slaughter these people, but maybe he had something else in mind. Regardless, assuming that he was the one doing this, he was looking to do her harm. She supposed that it was just a matter of business at this point, but she decided that she’d be taking it personally all the same.

The tempting thing to do here was to confront Keris directly. The woman was shaken from the discovery that she wasn’t nearly as in control of events as she’d wanted to believe, and might just snap entirely with a little more pressure. Len rejected that course almost instantly. She was unreliable and, more dangerous than that, the sort that thought she was better than others. Not only would she take the first opportunity to betray Len even if she was temporarily cowed, she’d be all the more likely to lash out directly. It wasn’t likely that she’d try to take Len on in a personal fight, no… she seemed to sort to run to the cops and cry about what a threat that mean woman over there is, please protect me!

Len glanced down at her left hand. It had clenched into a fist without her noticing it and a trail of blood was oozing out of it. Hissing softly, she released the grip and took a look at her palm. Nothing too serious, but it’d sting for a while, probably best to get some ointment on it when they got back to the house. As much as she didn’t like this news of new threats, she particularly didn’t care for Keris, and hoped that she wouldn’t have to burn a bridge with Balar by doing the woman permanent harm. For the moment, though, that didn’t matter. She knew what the woman wanted of her and could use that to her advantage. Ushering Kes back, the two slipped out of the makeshift alley, it took some doing, but eventually they were able to emerge a good distance away from the house, then make their approach.

“Where the hells have you been?” Keris snapped at them as they came into view.

“Oh, taking our time and seeing the sights,” said Len breezily. “It’s a marvelous city you’ve got here. Some great food options, too. A shame you couldn’t join us.”

“I could have joined you,” the woman said through clenched teeth, “if you had slowed down and let me keep up. Honestly, I don’t see why you choose to be so rude to me. I was to keep you out of trouble.”

“No need to worry about that, my dear,” Len replied, patting her on the cheek, then smiling at the furious blush that came to the woman’s face. “We found our own way just fine. We might have been back sooner, but decided to see what else we could dig up with our time. So sorry.”

“You were meant to be back here an hour ago.”

“Were we? So sorry, Balar never gave us any specific timeframe. By the way,” she said, tossing the thought out as an offhand sort of thing, “have you seen Fenris lately? It’s been a while since I had a chance to chat with him and I’d really like to catch up.”

Keris’ face blanched slightly at the mention of the elder child of Balar’s house. It was a confirmation that she didn’t care to have, but had still needed. Her eyes narrowed slightly, but she kept the rest of her mask intact. She caught sight of Kes starting to lose her own cool and quickly slipped an arm around the girl’s shoulder to reassure her. None of this seemed to register for the oblivious Keris.

“I have no idea what that boy is up to these days, it’s none of my business.”

“What your son is up to is none of your business?”

“Fenris is no son of mine,” she snapped. “He was from Balar’s first wife, before she died.”

“Oh, that’s terrible.”

“It’s ancient history. I worry about my own children and leave that oaf to deal with his son as he sees fit.”

“Well, Keris, this has been a delightful chat, but I think my friend here and I will be retiring to our quarters for a nap. Never fear, we’ll be up in time for the feast.”

“What?” Len barely kept her smirk hidden at the squeal of shock Keris made. “You can’t!”

“Why would that be?” Len adopted a look of confusion. “Surely, there isn’t anything else needed of us before that, is there?”

“No, er… yes! There is something we have to do first.”

“And what might that be?”

“Uh, we have to… that is, gowns!”

“Huh?”

“We have to get you gowns for the feast. Balar wouldn’t want you in this common clothing. We have to get you properly dressed.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” said Len casually, “I’m sure these will be fine.”

“No! You represent our house at this, I won’t have you looking like commoners.”

Len glanced at the gaudiness of her own dress, then at the likely expensive gauntlet that came with Kes’ garb. Then, apparently with reluctance, shrugged in defeat.

“If you say so, lady,” she said. “But first, Kes and I are going to retire for a bit. We’ve been on our feet for hours and could use a break.”

“If you must,” said Keris, positively radiating impatience. “Just don’t take too long, the sooner we get there the… the better they’ll be able to serve you.”

“Right, well, like I said, we’re not that worried about it, I’m sure whatever they put together will be fine. Don’t worry, though, we won’t keep this place of yours waiting for long.”

Keris scowled but couldn’t come up with any meaningful rejection of the stalling tactic, she followed them inside, stalking their every move before they made it inside their room. The very instant the door closed behind them, Len cracked a massive grin. Kes looked at it in confusion, but Len waved it away. Couldn’t be too sure that the woman wasn’t hiding right outside the door listening for anything she could use to help herself.