As soon as Iris sat down in the tavern downstairs, a fresh cup of coffee was placed on the table before her. She would have liked to ask about it, but Yulia was already on her way to fill other orders and she didn’t wish to bother her. A brief search through the simulacra’s room didn’t provide anything too useful once the god went on her way. Being somewhat of a professional when it came to conducting searches, she had located several hidden items, but none of those provided much help with her conundrum. The official forms haphazardly stored under the bed all had blank spots where a name should have been, engravings on the jewelry seemed unrelated and quite a few of the seemingly personal effects were most definitely stolen or looted. By far the most useful clues were the subjects of some of the books as well as a bundle of spears in the corner of the room – specifically crafted to have bone cores in them to be usable by necromancers. Without a doubt, the resident of the rooms was a necromancer, and likely the creator of the drafts for her wings. Another clue that may or may not have been relevant, was the copious number of small bitemarks on various items. Too small to be from an adult and too deep to be from a child matching their size, her mind was immediately drawn to the goblin settlement a little ways outside of the city – perhaps the small critters knew something or possessed more clues?

Aside from King, who still sat in the same spot as before, Gilbert had taken a seat by the table while Iris had been out. The old adventurer flipped through a stack of official-looking papers while occasionally scribbling notes to a piece of paper by them. Though it wasn’t immediately apparent to an average onlooker, to a necromancer, he was clearly agitated by whatever he was reading and went through much more pipe tobacco than usual.

“Something wrong?” Iris asked and took a sip of the drink she hadn’t ordered.

Gilbert lifted his frown up from the papers. “I would hope not, but its starting to be hard to think otherwise.” He sighed and noticed that his pipe had gone out again. “The number of adventurers still out there and noticeably past the expected time frame for their quests is up… by a lot. Some of it is due to the cold weather, I’m sure, but I know most of these people and something feels off.”

“Well, when we lose contact with field operatives, the first thing we do is take a look at the expected risks of the mission. Sometimes we just have to assume they’ve been lost, if chances are that a rescue attempt would just have the same result. If there isn’t a clear reason, we might send in a team to investigate. Of course, whenever we can spare the time, one of the inquisitors will take it upon themselves to go and have a look. This is all handled by our spymaster, he involves the rest of us when needed.” Iris explained the usual procedure for similar occurrences in Mournvalley.

“The Guild has taken note of this too, no doubt, I requested these papers from them in the first place. It’s impossible to tell if they’ve done something about it already, but some of these folks are my friends… so waiting is difficult.” Gilbert said and took out a tin of tobacco to start loading his pipe again. “Some of these quests are difficult enough for things to have gone badly, that’s a risk we knowingly take, but the others… A party of five has been away for over twenty days when traveling should only take five in both directions. The quest itself is to clear out a coven of rogue mages, which can get dangerous since magic is… just shitty to deal with – but these people are competent antimages, with the kit and experience to specifically deal with stuff like this – and you’re telling me none of them has made it back? And there’s more than one of cases like that.”

“That does seem pretty weird. Are you planning on doing something about it?” The inquisitor asked.

“I don’t know… I’m thinking about requesting to go on a rescue quest through the guild. They might throw some funds or people at it, if they think it’s strange as well.” The old adventurer frustratedly muttered. “I’m certainly not foolish enough to try it on my own though.”

Iris covertly glanced around the room to make sure no one was listening to them before leaning closer to Gilbert. “The Guild is on alert about The Violet Sect, if you suggest that it might have something to do with them, the officials might be more receptive to the idea… and who knows, maybe it is the sect?” She whispered and took a sip of the drink that was starting to grow on her.

Gilbert nodded. “Good to know, thanks.” He mumbled and lit his pipe once more. “Good to see you finally got your wings. How are they?”

“They’re beyond fantastic.” The inquisitor ecstatically reported and spread her wings as much as she could without hitting anyone in the nearby tables. “The craftmanship is simply perfect and the design is unreal! I feel like-“ She suddenly stopped her praise and lifted her gaze to the ceiling above them, though in reality she wasn’t admiring the ceiling beams, but gazing at something far past them. For a brief moment, Iris thought that she felt something at the very edge of her now massively extended range, almost directly above them, but as soon as she started to focus on it, the disturbance disappeared and left her to question if there was anything out there to begin with. Figuring that it was just her powers adjusting to the wings, Iris let it be and used the pause to refocus herself. “Say, do you know anything about the second room in the first floor? The one by the innkeeper’s room.”

Gilbert was about to answer like there was an obvious answer to give, but suddenly realized that the answer he knew he once possessed was no longer there. He was absolutely sure he knew just about everyone in the inn and the rooms they lived in, and he knew a room so close to the tavern wouldn’t be handed over to just anyone. Through considerable mental gymnastics, he convinced himself that the simulacra lived there, but even if that was true, it made no sense as the whole truth.

Seeing the adventurer’s pained frown, Iris knew exactly what he was thinking. “That’s exactly what I’m talking about. Someone is missing – more than missing, erased.” She explained the problem she had woken up to. “So far I’ve collected very little information on them, but I have good reason to suspect that they are a skilled necromancer and likely have something to do with the goblins in that pile of rubble we first met in.”

At the mention of the goblins, King, who didn’t even seem to be following the conversation, abruptly stood up with the lights on his armor burning brightly. He reached over the table at Iris, attempting to demand more information on what was going on. Unfortunately for him, the inquisitor was still subconsciously wary of him and her wings reacted to the sudden movement before Iris herself even realized it. In a blink of an eye, one of the wings shoved aside the table in between them and the other one hoisted up the hefty machine like he was made out of paper, pinning him against the ceiling without the inquisitor spilling a drop from the cup of coffee in her hand. Something about necromancers and their kneejerk reactions felt familiar to Gilbert, so he was mostly just glad that he had been holding his stack of papers when Iris shoved the table and paid no mind to the altercation in front of him.

“Oh shit, sorry!” Iris exclaimed when she realized what she had done and lowered the simulacrum back down. “Your kind and us don’t really share a ton of cheery history, so my training kicked in just a tiny bit, you know how it is, right?”

To an extent, King did know how it was and held no grudge for the outburst.

Before the situation had a chance to develop further, Iris felt the disturbance in necromantic powers high up in the air once more, this time leaving no room for speculation. The image of a vile violet crack in the sky from the time she met a lich and confronted the sect crept up in her head, but the worries quickly vanished as she recognized the unique fingerprint of the power. “Why is she here…” She muttered to herself before turning to King and Gilbert. “It appears I’m being summoned for a parlay, please excuse me for a moment.” She explained herself and dashed upstairs to put on a couple more layers of clothing before she could even consider stepping into the freezing weather again.

King may have forgiven what had happened, but he still wanted to know more about the missing person and wouldn’t be stood up so easily. So, when the inquisitor returned downstairs and ran outside, the knight followed her – leaving Gilbert with the unenviable job of having to explain the ruckus to the innkeeper.

Once outside, Iris gazed up at the sky and could spot the distant outline of a flying skeletal creature, circling directly above her, looking for a place to perch on. Though most buildings in Valor were fairly tall, they weren’t exactly built to withstand a wyvern landing on their roof, which more or less just left the stone walls around the city as the only option. Iris quickly scaled up the wall of the inn, using her new wings more like spider legs than their what their shape suggested. Her experience in infiltration and escaping was apparent as she nimbly tossed herself onto the roof of the neighboring building, making it to the wall in a matter of seconds by using the wings to launch herself across any gaps.

A guard posted atop the wall had happened to notice her skipping across the rooftops and only greeted the inquisitor with an annoyed frown when she crashed into the side of the wall and scaled up the last couple of meters. “Can you people just use the stairs for once?” He tiredly suggested without moving away from a small brazier he was keeping himself warm with. “It’s like every dumbass who can do a flip just loses the ability to walk up and down stairs normally, and just absolutely needs to use their fancy grappling hook bullshit to get out of their beds.”

“Right, sorry about that.” Iris apologized and glanced up at the sky, where the skeletal beast was starting to descend towards her. “Hey, so… How do you feel about a four-thousand-kilogram undead wyvern landing on this wall? I’ve got a visitor incoming.”

“Any chance it could land about a hundred meters that way?” The guard sighed and pointed along the wall at the next guard down the line. “As a policy, anything undead isn’t allowed inside the city, but on the wall technically isn’t inside and we tend to consider it an extension of coming up to the gate. It’s not really against any rules, but it is going to involve an incident report on my part, which is tedious after standing up here for hours. I’ve got a wife to get back to, plans for the evening and everything.”

“Oh? Good for you. Anything fun?” Iris asked while keeping an eye on the wyvern.

The guard’s frown turned into a smile as he thought about the evening. “Yes, actually. She’s been getting into painting recently, so I was going to grab some supplies on my way back so we could put together a few canvas frames for her to work on.” He explained happily. “But you know, being stuck at the barracks for an extra hour or two writing a report would mess up our plans – if you catch my drift.”

Understanding the problem, the inquisitor nodded. “And what about that guy over there? Doesn’t he have a family to get back to?” She asked regarding the other guard posted on the wall in the distance.

“Oh no, not at all! Klaus is just going to piss away his time and money like always. All you’d be doing is a favor to everyone by keeping him away from mead and women for a couple more hours.” The guard said, clearly trying his best to convince the necromancer to move. “All you need to do is walk past the third brazier that way and you’ll be in his patch of the wall – and you’d have our eternal gratitude.”

Since she was asked nicely, Iris shrugged and scurried along the wall to the next guard, doomed to receive paperwork for the evening. She explained her case to him and got more or less the same annoyed answer, but no convincing excuse to not land a large skeletal wyvern on this particular part of the wall. Luckily, Klaus the guard promised to mind his own business for a while as long as the visitor didn’t attempt to enter the city. King managed to catch up to the inquisitor as well, but also noticed the incoming creature in the sky and seemed willing to wait for a better moment to be brought up to speed regarding the missing person.

With the suitable spot found, Iris signaled the visitor up above to land, and the wyvern made its final dive towards the wall. The beast’s skeletal wings no longer pushed air around like they used to, but as a thrall it functioned mostly based on memories of some kind and landed much in the same way a living one would have – simply powered by the might of the necromancer in control of it instead of physics. Stopping in the air, directly in front of Iris, the beast flapped its wings a couple of times to halt its momentum and seemingly compared its own massive wings to that of the necromancer before touching down on the ancient stone wall. Lacking any wind caused by the wings, the whole ordeal was uncannily silent or even gentle, to a point landing several thousand kilograms of bones could be. While the rider of the beast descended from its back, the guards Iris had met signaled the others below that the situation was under control.

Clothed in several layers of blue and black clothing as well as a pair of goggles that made surviving in high altitudes while moving at high speeds at all feasible, Inquisitor Sapphire took her first look at the city of Valor. Originally, the keeper of the inquisition’s army of undead thralls and collection of greater undead beings, she had been in charge of much of Mournvalley’s potential for warfare at a larger scale. Now that Teal was indisposed and Maya had disappeared, it meant that their responsibilities also fell on her as the only remaining military official in the inquisition, and without the guidance of The Empress Coquelicot, she could have been called the de facto ruler of the entire state. Obviously, the other remaining inquisitors had their duties and powers, but ultimately any action that required more than a few capable hands had to go through her – however, the problem was that it was not at all the position she had sought and she had multiple times threatened to leave, only staying until now because she was more so devoted to the inquisitors she saw as her family than their cause or Mournvalley itself. Iris knew of this and was fully aware that every moment she spent in Valor was burning up Sapphire’s ultimately limited patience – and frankly, she was terrified that Sapphire had come to inform her that it had finally ran out.

The inquisitors stared at each other for a moment, Iris tried her best to gauge the mood of their meeting but could get precious little out of another well-trained necromancer, especially with the fogged-up goggles and scarf covering up Sapphire’s face.

“Well?” Sapphire suddenly said in a demanding tone and spread her arms.

“Must we? People are watching.” Iris sighed and nodded towards the modest crowd that had gathered to see the wyvern.

“I don’t care. Rules are rules, Little Birdy.” Sapphire ignored the plea.

Iris groaned and reluctantly approached the other inquisitor, who immediately embraced her, and being a fair bit taller than Iris, lifted her up from the ground. Ever since the death of Alice, Sapphire had made up and mercilessly enforced a rule that she will hug each and every available inquisitor once a day. No excuses had ever been accepted and no exceptions had ever been made. It always succeeded to make Iris feel better, but the way Sapphire decided to do it, often as publicly as possible, was embarrassing.

“What a beautiful pair of wings you’ve gotten. Who made them?” Sapphire said without any intention to let go any time soon.

“DO NOT TOUCH THEM.” Iris sternly replied and moved them as far back she could. Not to be rude, but because of how Sapphire’s powers manifested.

The Inquisitorial Keeper herself had a fairly small and even hard to notice footprint, but any suitable thrall would fall entirely under her control with the slightest touch, no matter who it had belonged to, and would remain so until she herself relinquished control. During the coup in Mournvalley, much of Amaranth’s thrall army was stolen by her and it was perhaps as impactful for the outcome as the deaths of the other red ones. There was even a rumor that she had taken over all but one of Coquelicot’s arms when the she was being tested for her current position. Needless to say, a mere touch from her would once more rid Iris of her wings.

“If you have wings again, you’re coming back home, right?” The keeper asked, full of hope.

Iris winced. “It’s not that simple. There’s something I need to finish here before I can go.” She said and braced for the disappointment she would cause.

Sapphire let go of the other inquisitor and leaned against the parapet to look over the city. “You know I can’t keep it together much longer, right? I’m not a leader, never wanted to be one and never will be one – just not cut out for it. The thanes are getting uppity since no one has seen Coquelicot for so long and now even Teal is gone… Even Madame Sanguine is sending people to probe for weaknesses in our rule, and I just don’t know what to tell them! You folks always make diplomacy seem so simple, but all I can do is ask them to wait for one of you to return and that’s not going to work for long.”

“I know that, and you know I’d never put you in that position if I didn’t think this would be worth it. Neither would Teal or Maya if they could help it. The thanes are simple to deal with. Their main worry is that they might have backed the wrong horse during the coup, but it’s easy to pacify them with a show of strength. Parade your thralls around, show them that our grip of iron doesn’t tire. Also, remember that silence is a better answer than uncertainty. If you don’t know what to say, just tell them that their concerns were noted and send them away. As for Madame Sanguine, there’s nothing either of us can do about her, since she only speaks to Coquelicot directly. She’s probably just sending people to you because boss hasn’t visited her lately.” Iris gave some advice regarding some political factors within Mournvalley, something usually left to Teal or Her. The moment she had decided to stay in Valor for a while longer to get to the bottom of her investigation, she knew she would be putting strain on the inquisition as a whole and risking a great deal, but something in the back of her head kept convincing her that it was the right thing to do, that whatever she would discover would be worth it. In an effort to instill some confidence into Sapphire, she leaned on her shoulder to the city with her. “How’s Coquelicot anyway? Still unreachable?”

“The situation has developed and I’ve had to move some of the thralls from the border to the towns around the castle. Luckily whatever Teal is doing seems to be working and the Ouans are backing out, for now.” Sapphire sighed. “Duke has told me to not discuss the details outside, but let’s just say that we need you to come back, now. My attention is literally divided to thousands of places at all times, I can’t keep putting out fires everywhere at once, not alone. I can’t sleep more than a blink maybe once or twice a day… I… I… Its just one complaint after another and there’s nothing I can tell these people! There’s not enough of anything to go around and I have no fucking clue where anything is or who is in charge of what, because none of this is my job!”

“Aren’t Duke, Celeste and Cyan there as well? Surely they can take at least some of the pressure off you?” Iris asked. The other three inquisitors were never really seen as representatives of the inquisition within Mournvalley, and their names didn’t carry the same weight, partly by design. Most of what Duke did was beyond classified, Celeste was out of the country more than in, and Cyan was stuck keeping an eye on Coquelicot’s situation – likely just as swamped as Sapphire.

“I haven’t even seen any of them in the last two days! the only reason I dared to leave here was because I sensed Duke was somewhere near the headquarters!” The keeper exclaimed exhaustedly. “I can’t say that I want to go back either. This wasn’t what things were supposed to be like… We used to all hang out and have fun together, then Alice died, Phthalo fucked up, Periwinkle just straight up vanished… Now boss left everything to us and we’ve become less than a team - just some acquaintances occasionally working together… You guys used to be my family.”

Iris slipped her hand inside the thick leather glove Sapphire used when flying and squeezed her hand, leeching off warmth from it. “We still are. None of us were prepared for how things are, but we’ll manage. I will manage, you will manage and so will the others. When this is all over and done with, things will be like they used to, I will make sure of it. We will get Teal back, find Maya and Cobalt, and even Periwinkle. We’ll spend the days working hard and the nights celebrating – together, every single one of us.”

Sapphire squeezed Iris’ hand in return. “It would be great to believe that, but right now it seems far-fetched. I’m even worried that you’re finding it a bit too comfortable living in this place…”

Looking over the city and its incredible variety of people, who were getting bored since no one seemed to be fighting the undead wyvern and started to disperse from the crowd that had formed. “I can’t lie to you, it does have an allure to it, but the reason I can’t leave isn’t that I don’t want to. My place is in Mournvalley, with you and the others, and I wouldn’t have it any other way, but I think there is something I can achieve here that will ultimately help us more than I can do back home right now.” She admitted, staring at the window to the mysteriously vacant room of the inn. “Once all this passes, I will bring you here to show you what I mean by allure. Believe it or not, you can get a free hot bath just by telling the guard you’re a necromancer when you come in. They’ll even wash your clothes, it’s great.”

Iris couldn’t tell if her promise made any difference in how Sapphire felt about the situation she was in, and was forced to take the following silence as a sign of acceptance, whether it meant that or not. Unprompted by one another, both necromancers shared the thought that their meeting was being wasted talking about such serious matters and didn’t want it to go on for any longer than it needed to. Iris could only do so much to help her overworked friend, and Sapphire no doubt knew she would have to forcibly drag Iris out of Valor if she wanted to get her back to Mournvalley, so neither of them would benefit from it any more than they already had.

“Your hand is very cold.” Sapphire pointed out to break the silence.

“Yeah, and the other one is even colder.” Iris snickered and shoved her other ice-cold hand under the scarf covering Sapphire’s face, placing it on the keeper’s neck. “On behalf of The Empire, its ruler and the inquisition that serves them, I, Inquisitorial Saint Iris am commandeering some of your warmth, upstanding citizen. Though I am within my rights to do so, I do apologize for what inconvenience this may have caused and urge you to take pride and comfort in the thought that your possessions are being used for the greater good of Mournvalley and its people.”

Sapphire shuddered from the cool touch but endured the minor annoyance for the good of her homeland. While allowing iris to rest her head against her chest and enjoy the warmth, the keeper visibly regenerated from her weary state, even she couldn’t tell if this was simply her motivation returning, or if this was something Iris could knowingly do.

“If you’re really not coming yet, I should return.” Sapphire finally whispered, content with the promises given to her. “Duke might be the only person worse at leading than me, better not leave him alone for too long.”

“You are The Keeper of Mournvalley, armies rise and fall with a wave of your hand. For as long as you stand, so will the might of our kind – let it not falter.” Iris whispered back, echoing some of the final worlds Coquelicot had given to Sapphire. She pulled away and spread her wings to their full extent. “The day after tomorrow. That’s as long as I can bear not coming to your aid, but I know you would manage ten times longer if it was needed.”

“I’ll hold you to that.” Sapphire said without an ounce of levity in her voice. “Keep me waiting and I will do what I must.”

Giving Iris a quick peck on the forehead through her scarf on her way to the wyvern, Sapphire lifted herself onto its back with is wing and darted up into the sky. Iris shoved her hands into her pockets to keep them warm and watched the beast disappear into the horizon before letting out a sigh of relief. Though she had set a time limit to herself, it did mean she didn’t have to worry as much about Mournvalley for the next couple of days, and could focus on her investigation.