Captain Pulaski sat in silence with a stony expression as Alexi and Ana related the events of the last several days. They went into detail about the murder investigation and how it had seemingly turned into a much grander conspiracy, possibly against the entire district itself. When they finished, Pulaski sat back in his chair and folded his hands trying to wrap his head around these new developments. He took several deep breaths before speaking slowly, "You realize these are some very serious charges you're leveling here… even more so against a prominent public figure."

"Yes sir, we realize that but you have to believe us on this," Ana pleaded.

Pulaski nodded, "I do… there's only a few big problems, the first of which is…"

"The lack of compelling evidence," Alexi finished for him, "Yes. We know it's our word versus their word right now."

"Is there any way you can conclusively connect everything together?" Pulaski asked.

Alexi furrowed his brow and thought for a long moment, "Okay… let's review the facts and try to work our way through this. Our advokist Piotr Jelenik was killed by weapons that have been tied to the recent Rakdos riots in the district."

Ana nodded, "Those weapons look like they're being funneled to the cultists by way of the rogue Orzhov businessman Ravali."

"The thing is we need to tie the weapons to the murder itself," Alexi reminded her, "If Jelenik was sniffing around the Orzhov in his discovery process, they'd have a means and motive to off him before he got in deeper and found out the things we did."

Captain Pulaski folded his hands, "Ravali did say that agents of House Dimir were involved. Perhaps they were contracted out in some way as a middle-man or go-between for Judge Vandis and the other Orzhov?"

Ana frowned with a pensive expression, "It's a stretch, but it's still one of the only other leads we've got. We were told to look for these distinct Spire Runners and talk to them. They sound like Dimir operatives but it's possible they'd know."

"I don't like it," Alexi chimed in gravely, "It could be a trap… or we could just wind up chasing ghosts for all we know."

"I'm afraid we don't have many other choices Arrester Lazlo," Pulaski admitted with a grimace, "If we can get any information from them, it might lead us to Judge Vandis's motives for masterminding all this. If elements of the Orzhov are secretly in league with him, no doubt they'd stand to gain from him winning the local election."

"Which leads us to another problem," Ana pointed out, "Judge Vandis knows about Alexi and I interfering in his plans. It might not be safe for us to show our faces in public right now."

"She's right," Alexi nodded grimly, "We have no idea how deep Vandis's corruption might be within our own ranks. We already took a big risk coming here and talking to you Captain."

"I'm afraid there's not much I can do openly without getting in trouble or tipping off the conspirators," Captain Pulaski admitted, "For the time being, I think it might be best if you two keep your heads down and work this independently."

"Wait… am I understanding this right? You're actually sanctioning us to go rogue?" Ana asked in shock.

"Temporarily," Pulaski answered. "For now, everything that's been said does not leave this office and stays between the three of us. If there's a true conspiracy against the district and it's being led by one of our own, then we have to tread very lightly."

"Regarding the evidence sir," Alexi asked hesitantly, "Say we do manage to find these Spire Runners. Are we really to bargain for information with the Dimir? How far do we go?"

"Use your best judgment," Pulaski answered firmly, "If it's going to save the district, then do whatever you have to in order to get that evidence."

Alexi and Ana fell silent and exchanged an uncomfortable look before Pulaski cleared his throat and rose from his desk. "Until you have something to nail the conspirators with, I think it is best you keep your distance from the precinct. On the books, I'll take you off the case and place you both on administrative leave."

The two officers nodded in understanding while the captain scribbled a little note on a paper, folded it up and handed it to Alexi, "I'll be making some arrangements to help you find your runners. I'll be asking from someone I trust so bring these written orders to him when you need to."

Alexi tucked the paper away and began to head for the door with Ana. They paused a moment as they heard Pulaski call out with a level gaze, "Arrester Lazlo? Deputy Radic? Good luck to you both."

They both gave silent nods and headed out of the office, fearing the worst and uncertain of what new surprises they would come across next.


The two officers left the precinct building and headed back to Court Street where Alexi's third floor apartment was located. Once there, they dressed down to civilian clothes and spent the rest of the afternoon keeping out of sight just in case there were any more hired mercenaries or guild loyalists prowling around to try and locate the two. The fact that there was potential danger from both the Azorius and Orzhov ranks made things all the more difficult as they were some of the most powerful and influential guilds in the area with lots of eyes and swords at their disposal.

While Alexi boiled some tea for them to drink, Ana sat restlessly on a small couch of the apartment noting that despite the tidiness and relative simplicity of the living quarters, it felt a little safe and homey in a way too. A few odd paintings in small frames picked up in flea markets hung on the wall across from an orderly wooden bookshelf and desk. Late afternoon light continued to stream in from the windows but it wouldn't be long before they'd have to light some candles as well as the small fireplace in the corner.

"So partner, how do you suppose we go about finding these Spire Runners?" Ana asked as Alexi came over and offered her a hot cup of tea, "I doubt they're going to just come and greet us if we stand around on the roof tonight."

The Arrester took a sip of his tea thoughtfully, "Hmm... best we start by waiting until nightfall. These messengers and thieves tend to prefer working under cover of darkness."

"Lucky for us, we're supposed to have moonlight tonight," Ana noted with an encouraging smile.

"Right. That will be sure to help us if we're going to have a bird's eye view of the city tonight."

Ana raised an eyebrow and set her teacup down, "Sorry… what?"

Alexi smiled and brandished the small signed note Captain Pulaski had given him, "We're going to fly a patrol with the Skywatch this evening. This paper is granting us permission to conduct a special ride-along and patrol from the back of a roc."

Ana blanched slightly, "A roc? We're going to be riding on the back of one of those giant birds? I'm not so sure that's a good idea."

"Why? Are you allergic to them?" Alexi smirked in mild amusement, "Scared they're going to bite?"

Ana grimaced and maintained her uncomfortable look before he stopped and did some deduction, "Wait… are you telling me you're afraid of heights?"

The female deputy frowned and gave a mildly defensive huff, "Yeah… so maybe I am. What of it? Isn't there some way we could follow along with the hussars instead? I prefer horses much more."

"You know those Spire Runners would easily be able to slip into areas that horses can't reach on the ground," he reminded her while crossing his arms, "Would you feel better sitting this one out? I'd understand if you'd…"

"No," she replied flatly. It took her a moment to muster up her determination while balling her fists, "The Boros are a lot of things but cowards aren't one of them. I won't let you go into danger without backup."

"You're sure?" he asked.

"Yeah… let's do this," she nodded taking a deep breath.

"Glad to hear it," the Arrester smiled putting a comforting hand on her shoulder, "Now let's rest up and get ready. We've got a flight to catch later."


Late that evening, the two plainclothes Azorius officers headed to one of the Lyev branch aeries where their skyknights kept their mounts. Once there, they met with Captain Kiril one of the senior members of the Isperian Skywatch who was a trusted ally to Captain Pulaski. The older skyknight took the written order from Alexi and led them up several flights of stairs in the building to a large stable. There they saw several very large griffons, rocs, and even a sphinx napping in the corner. Kiril pointed them forward until they saw a giant brown bird who served as his mount and partner, a trusty roc named Talon.

The roc gave the two newcomers a wary glance until his master patted its beak and said a few soothing words. As Kiril got to work securing the saddles, Alexi and Ana hesitantly mounted the passenger seats of the extra-large saddle and secured their harnesses. The skyknight gave an amused smile as he hopped aboard and did one last spot check of everything, "First time on a roc? It'll be fine. Just be sure to hold on tight and lean with me into the turns."

The giant bird gave a restless squawk and began to flap its wings before Kiril led him out to the edge of the stable perch. As Talon spread its wings and took off from the perch, the three braced themselves as they were carried airborne into the night skies. From behind him, Ana gave a gasp and grabbed hold of Alexi for dear life barely keeping her eyes open, "Oh gods... we're so high."

The Arrester laughed a little to himself and smiled at the exhilarating feel of free flight in the open air; from the cool wind in his face to the excitement of defying gravity itself. Bright moonlight hung over the endless skylines of Ravnica accenting the beauty of the glittering city lights. He would have loved to just bask in the fun and the beauty of it all evening, but there was a job to be done. He called out to Kiril, "All right. Let's start the patrol. We all know what we're looking for, right?"

His companions nodded remembering the specific description given to them of the Spires Runners. Kiril steered his mount higher and had it level off into a glide, "I know a few spots around the district these runners might like hiding. If we stay high and quiet, we may be able to catch our targets with a fast dive."

"Sounds like a great plan," Ana mumbled with a mild look of dread, "I can't wait."

The two men exchanged a quick look and rolled their eyes before continuing on with their patrol.


Some time later, they soared above an area along the border of the district known for having lots of historic towers and ruins of soaring temples. As they glided silently overhead, Ana scanned the area until she spotted something and hissed in a quiet whisper, "There! Along those arches! Movement!"

The officers continued to hang in the air out of sight before they spotted a pair of figures in long purple hooded robes quickly making their way across the high ruins of the buildings. Kiril spurred his mount and gave a quiet command and the roc shifted its weight into a forward dive. As they began t pick up speed and angle in, the two Spire Runners sensed movement from above and spotted the Azorius riders bearing down upon them. The rogues quickly took off making bold death defying leaps and nimble parkour moves to try and find new avenues of escape. As they quickly and nimbly began to run along the tops of the ruins, the Azorius riders stayed on target and angled lower, trying to get closer until they reached a better place to dismount.

The rogues dodged a few passes by the roc and momentarily dove behind some ruins before taking off again and trying to use misdirection to fool their pursuers. Kiril gave a low growl, "Damn! These guys are good. We can't corner them of get close enough to chase on foot."

As they came about and made another low pass on the ruins, Alexi began to loosen his harness and tense up. His partner gasped, "Alexi? What in the hell are you doing?"

"The roc might not be able to pounce on these bandits but we can. I want you to undo your harness and hang on to me. Trust me. Kiril, get us in as close as you can to one of the runners."

The lawmage took a few short breaths and reluctantly did what he asked, "I hope you know what you're doing."

As the officers swooped down for another close pass, Ana held on tight to her partner as they both leapt off along a ruined platform and tackled one of the runners from above. The three tumbled over and rolled along the ground in a tangle of limbs before Alexi tried to grapple and restrain the rogue under him. The rogue went for a dagger at his belt and tried to bring it around but the veteran Arrester grabbed his foe's weapon arm by the wrist to restrain him. Before the rogue could come up with another countermove, Alexi brought his other arm around and smashed the chin of the spire runner with a forceful right hook. Seeing his companion in danger, the other runner drew her own dagger and rushed over to attack Alexi from behind with a leaping sneak attack.

At the peak of the female rogue's jump, she was suddenly knocked sideways as she was surprised by Ana casting a detention spell on her. The plainclothes lawmage had rolled over at the just the right time and in just the right position to counter the rogue's attack while protecting her own partner. Alexi glanced over to the trapped female rogue and gave a nod of thanks to Ana before cuffing his own stunned foe nearby. As Kiril continued to circle around from above and patrol for any other intruders, Ana kept her gladius and another spell at the ready in case their prisoners tried anything funny.

Alexi bent down and checked the two rogue's arms finding what they were looking for... tattoos in the spider shaped image of the guild House Dimir.

"Jackpot," the Arrester grinned as he stepped back and drew his own gladius, "My partner and I have been looking for you two."

The male rogue who had now recovered his senses snorted mildly, That was a nice trick but we have nothing to say to any of Azorius or their Arresters."

"The choice is yours," Ana chimed in, "You can cooperate or we can lock you up in a detention sphere for a really long time. I'm sure there will be people at the guildhall who would love to pick the brain of some Dimir operatives."

"You can't threaten us," the female rogue retorted in mild sarcasm, "You can't prove anything. We didn't do anything."

"Aside from trespassing in this area?" Alexi countered, "You might be wrong because we think you two were involved in something. Your friend Zoran Ravali tipped us off. Something about murders, illegal arms sales, and corrupt judges?"

The male rogue laughed, "You must be joking Arrester. You really think we're the masterminds behind some major conspiracy going on?"

Ana shook her head and stepped forward, "No. We think you're just the middlemen, but the ones who can tie this all together. We have bigger fish to hook rather than prosecute a pair of two-bit amateurs."

The female rogue sighed looked to her partner with a bored expression, "That one must be playing the bad cop here. Trying some petty insults to make us slip."

Alexi shook his head gently, "Listen, as much as I want to collar any of Dimir's vermin, I'm more interested in getting information."

"Are you saying you want to make a deal with us?" the male rogue asked in genuine curiosity, "That doesn't sound like the thing a brass tacks Arrester would do or say."

"These are... unusual circumstances," Alexi replied with mild grimace toward Ana before turning to his prisoner, "So how about it? Are you willing to spill on what's going on?"

The rogues exchanged a curious look with each other before nodding, "In exchange for immunity."

Alexi growled at the statement but Ana chimed in with a level scowl, "That'll depend on if we believe your story or not."

The female rogue scoffed, "All right... what do you want to know?"

"For starters, do you know who killed Piotr Jelenik and Mireia Svoboda?" Alexi asked.

"We did," the male rogue said bluntly.

Ana's eyes went wide and she sputtered in surprise, "What? You're lying on purpose now... just to throw us off."

"No. It's true," the female rogue said calmly, "We were hired to do the job by Zoran Ravali of the Orzhov Syndicate."

Alexi kept a hard gaze on the Dimir agents trying to determine if they were misleading them, but he couldn't sense any dishonesty yet, "Why would he do that? He didn't have any personal vendetta against Jelenik."

"True, but he had to protect himself and keep a nosy advokist from rooting out his illegal arms deals to the Orzhov Syndicate," the female rogue continued. "We were told to use Rakdos style weapons and methods to pin the crime on them."

"Well you didn't do a good enough job," Alexi frowned, "Ravali was an idiot if he thought he could fool the Azorius officers."

"About those weapons," Ana prompted the the rogues, "Where are they going and why?"

The rogues exchanged a smirk before the male answered, "Simple, they were being funneled to Rakdos cultists all over the district. We had a hand in overseeing the shipments and weapon sales."

"That's a huge job! Ravali couldn't have been working alone to arm all the cultists in the district," Alexi exclaimed

"You're right Arrester. We were just a middle-man to the third party in all this... the real spider at the center of the web."

"Judge Isidore Vandis?" Ana asked.

The female rogue nodded, "Now you're understanding it."

"No. We're not," Alexi exclaimed in shock, "Why the hell would an Azorius official be doing something like that? Jeopardizing the very safety of the district and arming our enemies."

The male Dimir rogue sighed, "You're not looking at the big picture Arrester. The Rakdos are nothing but chaos, violence, and destruction. Vandis is billing himself to be the shining symbol of law and order."

"So he's covertly funding crime and terrorism so that he can win the coming election on the platform of more law and order," Ana deduced, "His law and order."

"You'd best not waste time," the rogue laughed, "The elections are very soon and we predict the Rakdos will be causing a lot of mayhem very very soon."

Alexi lowered his gladius and looked to his partner in dread. He was feeling sick to his stomach as all the dots had suddenly been connected in this conspiracy. He glanced back to their captives, "If we're going to grant you immunity, I assume you have hard evidence to implicate Vandis? Something physical?"

"Of course Arrester," the female rogue smiled coyly, "To the Dimir, information is everything and we make sure to hedge our bets... to keep leverage on everyone so that they'd regret any attempt to turn on us. The purple glass bottle in my thigh pouch. Take it."

The Arrester carefully bent down and found a small pouch on the leg of the rogue. The female rogue gave him a suggestive wink too, "Feel free to take anything else you'd like while you're at it."

Alexi scowled and drew back before the male rogue chimed in again.

"Put the bottle by our faces and remove the stopper. Hold it there for several seconds each."

The two Azorius officers exchanged another uneasy look before doing what the Dimir agent said. Once the bottle was opened, Alexi could feel a gentle magical suction and strange blue glowing wisps of energy began to snake out of the rogues' noses, mouths, and ears. The strange vapors swirled and were completely drawn into the bottle causing it to glow gently. All the while, the two rogues' heads lolled to the side as if they were in some momentary trance or stupor.

Ana took the bottle and studied it a moment before giving a grim smile, "Very clever... it was a voluntary mind siphon. The specific memories of all these dealings have been extracted from their minds and bottled up here. Mages can access these memories, but they've been completely wiped from the spire runners... meaning it would be harder to individually prosecute them now for separate crimes."

"Excuse me? Who are you two? What's going on here?" the male spire runner asked as he came out of his stupor, "And why are there manacles on my hands?"

Ana tucked the bottle away and nodded to Alexi, "Let them go. We've got what we want... and it seems the Dimir got what they wanted too... a means to escape prison."