Author's Notes: Hey everyone, glad that you liked it, hope you like this one. As always I own nothing.
Wilhelmina had wanted them to leave at once, but Karl had told her that Olga would be suspicious if he just disappeared. He went down and gathered some breakfast, pausing to complement Olga on her cooking and telling her he would be gone for a while. He took the food up to his room where Wilhelmina waited. He started to eat while she stared at him impatiently. In an effort to get her to stop glaring at him and tapping her foot he offered her some. She sighed in an exasperated fashion and then tried the food.
"Not bad," she said after taking a few bites; "She can cook at least." After they had finished eating she departed out the window and Karl went to the door and opened and closed it for Olga's benefit. He then went down into the cellar and opened the hatch and followed the sewer route to Marx's own basement and preceded to the wizard's office. As always the man was behind his desk and if he had not met him elsewhere Karl would have sworn that the man never left his desk. He stopped writing and looked at Karl, who noticed that Wilhelmina was also in the room, blending in with the shadows.
"I trust you enjoyed your breakfast and are, at last, ready to be useful." Karl squirmed a little and waited for Marx to start speaking. Fortunately the wizard only gave him a look for a moment longer and then began to speak again.
"I called you two for a reason. I have already filled Wilhelmina in on the situation so she can answer any questions which you might have when I am finished." He paused for a moment and then began to speak again.
"Before you returned with the vampire an acquaintance of mine, one Roland Hull of the Gold Order, told me that his apprentice, Bertolf, had gone missing. Bertolf was working on an assignment for his master and Hull thought he simply had to go farther than expected and would be back. Some time passed and Bertolf did not return so Hull went looking for him and he too disappeared. I was concerned so I sent out some messages to other members of the magical community of my acquaintance and what I found was…disturbing. It seems that Hull and his apprentice are not the only ones to go missing.
"There have been other disappearances recently. Moritz Klessn, a Journeyman wizard of the Amethyst Order has also vanished, as has Agatha Gruben, an apprentice of the Celestial Order who vanished from an observatory near the city while her master was away.
There has also been a death. One Austein Dorchener, an apprentice of the Jade Order. He was attacked outside of the city. He made his way back into the city but died before he could identify his attackers. We have so far been unable to locate his master." He paused for a moment and closed his eyes and when he opened them again they were hard and cold.
"I want you two to investigate this, I want you to find out who is responsible for all this and I want it done quickly and I want it done quietly. I would do this myself but I have been called away and must leave in the morning. That is all." The dismissal was clear in his voice and Karl and Wilhelmina both departed. Once they were out of the room Wilhelmina led him to a side room which did not seem to serve any particular purpose.
"So you see the problem." She told him once he had closed the door. Karl nodded and then asked the question that he had been considering since Marx had explained the situation.
"These are not just people, the colleges are rich and important. Isn't the Watch involved in this?" Wilhelmina shook her head.
"No, my little puppy they are not. They are not because we do not wish them to be involved. This is a sensitive matter and they would only bungle it. Besides, they would not want to be involved, they fear magic like the plague and would prove to be more of a hindrance than a help."
"It will be the same for anyone we have to talk to wont it?" Karl asked.
"Unfortunately, yes. We trained you to be used to being around magic but many people are not and they seem to have a difficult time telling the difference between wizards and marauders from the Wastes." Karl sighed at her description of him, but merely shook his head and focused on the matter at hand. Once again he thought about Brother Werner and how he would look at the matter. Whomever had done this was clearly a large group or a person of considerable power to take on so many wizards. He mentioned this to Wilhelmina, who nodded in agreement.
"Good, I am glad to see that you are such a clever puppy." She paused in thought for a moment then spoke again.
"I am more inclined to think that it is a group. If it were just one person, or being of some kind, I would think that there would likely be more signs of it. Such individuals are usually not overly subtle in their activities." As she spoke another thought occurred to Karl.
"You said that most people are afraid of wizards, yet clearly whoever is responsible for these attacks is clearly not afraid of them. So we are likely not dealing with a crowd of peasants. Another point against them being peasants is the fact that they were able to overcome the wizards without apparently suffering casualties." Wilhelmina seemed to be getting into the spirit of things, yet she looked doubtful.
"They are certainly well equipped and seemingly well trained, but we cannot overestimate them. Most of the people that they have gone after were apprentices rather than fully-fledged wizards and trust me my dear hound, there is a great difference in power between them."
"Roland Hull was a full-fledged wizard." Karl pointed out. "And they did not seem to have any trouble making him disappear."
"That was different. He went looking for them, they did not go looking for him. All the ones that they have targeted have all been apprentices." As she said it her words gave Karl a thought.
"How would they know?" She gave him a look which said that he did not understand what he was saying.
"How did they know that they ones that they were only apprentices? To most people it is impossible to easily tell the difference, all that they see are people in robes carrying staffs." Wilhelmina looked at him and slowly nodded.
"That's right. Most people cannot tell the difference. That means that either the attackers knew the people that they attacked personally, they can tell an apprentice from a full wizard or they were watching the wizards before they attacked."
"Wait a minute." Karl interjected; "How is that possible? Aren't you wizards supposed to be able to tell when someone is tracking you?" She gave him a look.
"Hmm, perhaps you are not as clever as I thought. Well, as much as people may think otherwise, it is possible for wizards can be taken off guard. It is hard, but if an opponent is quick and clever it can be done. Again, that points to someone who has resources and skill in fighting wizards." Karl did not like were this conversation was going. His mind began to conjure up images of man-size rats stalking through the streets, rusty knives in hand. He shook his head and forced himself to focus on the matter at hand.
"So," he said once it seemed that Wilhelmina had paused in her talking; "Where do we start our search?"
"I think that the most logical place to begin our investigation with Austein Dorchener. He was the latest victim and if there are any clues to be found they will be the freshest with his case."
"Where is his body?" Karl asked.
"At a nearby temple of Morr. Or was last I heard, hopefully the members of his college have not come to collect his body yet."
"Will the priests let us look at the body?"
"I should think so. I will pose as a page in service to Baron Wilhelm Von Schon. He is a distant relative of Dorchener and the priests will think nothing of it. You will be just some muscle hired to keep a little lordling safe while he carries out a task for the family." This last was said in voice which sounded remarkably like that of an adolescent boy. She smiled cheekily at him and they set off in the direction in of the temple of Morr.
The temple stood a little ways off from the buildings around it. It was set in a walled-in graveyard which seemed dedicated to the burial of the wealthier residents of the city. At the entrance gate stood two tall men clad head to foot in black plate armor and standing so still that if he could not smell them Karl would have sworn that they were actually statues. As Karl and Wilhelmina approached the knights moved together, just enough to block Karl and Wilhelmina from entering. As they drew to a halt a man in the robes of an initiate priest emerged.
"May I help you sirs?" He asked in a voice little more than a whisper. Wilhelmina took a step forward and bowed slightly.
"Greetings Father, I am in service to Baron Wilhelm Von Schon. This," she gestured to Karl; "Is my associate. The Baron was informed that the body of the wizard Austein Dorchener. He is a distant kinsman of the Baron and our master wished his death looked into and he sent us to look into the matter." The initiate bowed and the warriors moved back into their original positons.
"Follow me please." The initiate said as he moved back into the temple. He led them inside and down a flight of stairs into a room similar to the one Karl had been in before. On a stone slab lay a man's body, naked except for a sheet covering him from his ankles to his neck.
He had been of medium height and a slender build, though he had a slight potbelly. His hair and beard were long, brown and clearly had not been combed or washed in some time. Looking down at his feet Karl saw that they were covered with scars and callouses, as if he usually went about barefoot. At Wilhelmina's request, the sheet was removed it was revealed that there were a number of injuries on his body. The one which stood out the most was a gunshot wound on his belly and which looked to be the wound which had killed him. The other all appeared to be wounds inflicted by swords or other bladed weapons. The one exception was on his left leg, where a there was a gouging wound slightly above the knee. Though the flesh was ripped it had not been done so with a blade, rather it had been torn, as if something had ripped the skin straight off. Karl was about to comment on this when he saw that Wilhelmina was looking at something on the corpse's neck. She turned to the initiate and asked him to turn the head to the side. Once this was done Karl saw what had attracted Wilhelmina's attention.
There was a slight injury on the neck, it looked as if something had pricked the wizard on the neck. Wilhelmina seemed fascinated by it though Karl could not see why. It was clear that a wound that small could not kill a man. He was about to point this out to her when Wilhelmina motioned for him to come close and examine it more closely. He was not sure what she wanted him to do, but he dutifully leaned in and examined it. As he did so he caught a whiff of something emanating from the small wound. He did not recognize it and with people around them he did not dare change his nose in order to smell it better, all that he could do was to give a slight indication to Wilhelmina that he understood. She did not acknowledge his signal, but instead turned to the initiate.
"Do you know which wound was the fatal one?"
"From what we can tell no one wound was fatal, including the ones we found on his back. Rather we think he bled to death from all the wounds which he sustained."
"How many wounds in total?" Wilhelmina asked.
"We counted fifteen in total, of various levels of severity, it seems they were inflicted by at least eight different weapons. We checked the wounds and it appears that they were inflicted some time before death, if I may say he showed considerable strength to last as long as he did." He paused and then spoke again.
"Will the Baron be taking possession of the body?" Wilhelmina shook her head.
"No, they were kin but not close. He is sure that Dorchener's college will claim his body and bury him according to their traditions." The man bowed and saw them out. They went to a small tavern and found a pair of seats as far from the other patrons as possible and sat down to talk.
"So what have we learned?" Wilhelmina asked.
"We know that there was at least eight attackers." Karl said. Wilhelmina shook her head.
"No, we know that there was at least eight weapons. Most people have two hands and are capable of wielding two weapons, as you do. Most likely we are indeed dealing at least eight attackers, but we must not jump to conclusions." Karl nodded and, wanting to change the subject, brought something else up.
"What was that prick so interesting to you? I could smell something coming from it, but I am not sure what it was."
"It was likely caused by a dart of some kind. If that is the case it was likely smeared with some kind of drug, one designed to incapacitate him." Fortunately Karl saw where her train of thought was going this time. If the goal had merely been to kill the wizard then the attackers would have used the weapons which had inflicted the other wounds without the aid of exotic weapons like whatever had been used to launch the dart.
"So, why would someone want to capture a wizard?" To his surprise, she shuddered.
"I can think of several reasons and none of them are pleasant. There are…rituals which require blood to work. They are more effective when the blood being shed is the blood of one who has magic within them." Karl shuddered, his mind all too readily drawing up images of just what kind of rituals she was talking about, and found that the food had lost its flavor. He did not want to know any more but he had to if he were to find out what happened.
"Would these…events…require…more than one?" She had taken on a blank look, indicating that she was doing her best to not show any emotion. A good sign that she was upset.
"Not normally; however, if something big is going on, then more might be required." She took on an expression of distaste. "I have more knowledge of such things than many, but it is far from complete and there might be rituals of which I am unaware of." Karl decidedly did not like where their conversation was going.
"So what are going to do next?" He asked her.
"We are going to try to find the place where Dorchener was attacked. We know which gate he came into the city from and judging from the wounds that we saw it is highly unlikely that he went very far. The sites of the other attack were devoid of anything useful, but at those sites their attacks went according to their plans at least as far as we know. The attack on Dorchener did not go according to plan and it is possible that in their efforts to follow him to ensure he did not tell anyone what had happened that they left something behind."
"And how are we to find this place?" Karl asked. In reply Wilhelmina took a small cloth, in which was wrapped a lock of hair.
"I got it while we were looking at the body. Fortunately those with us did not see what I did. The scent will be much degraded by now so you will have to use your other form, which means that we will have to wait till sunset."
"What will we be doing in the meantime?"
"We are going to the observatory that Agatha Gruben, the apprentice of the Celestial Wizard, disappeared from. It is not far from here and when we are finished we can see to that other matter." Where they were going was not far so they walked out of the city and onto a small dirt road which led up into some wooded hills.
It did not seem to go anywhere but suddenly brought them to the top of a hill which was clear of trees. In their place was a cluster of buildings. The tallest of which was in the center with a large device which looked like the telescope that the captain of the ship which Karl had sailed on had had. Wilhelmina too was looking at the telescope and gave a dismissive sigh.
"Stargazers," she said in reply to the look which Karl was giving her. "They spend their lives staring at the stars and for what? Half the time what they see is so cryptic you can't understand what the message is, assuming that there is one. And half the time you can understand the message and its wrong."
"A little rivalry between your orders?" Karl asked with a slight smile. A smile which died when he got a good look at the expression on her face.
"There is no rivalry, we of the Gray Order dedicate our lives to sacrifice in service of the Empire and those who dwell within it. Celestial Wizards are cloud-headed fools, as long as there are stars for them to stare at the Empire could burn without them noticing it. They know nothing of hardship, sacrifice or duty without reward." She paused and shook her head.
"Enough, let's see if we can learn anything here."
"Do we need to announce ourselves to her master?" She shook her head.
"No need, we may not even speak to them. If you ever want to know something about someone rich or important, speak to their servants. They know everything about those whom they serve and often as not are they are resentful. That is especially true for wizards. People of the lower classes fear and resent wizards and it is unlikely that they will feel any loyalty to those they serve." Karl gave her a look.
"And what are you?" She replied by giving him a condescending look.
"Why, I am a lowly member of the Altdorf City Watch, come to look into one them weirdo's disappearance." As she spoke her voice had taken on the tone of a man from the lower classes. She reached into her shirt and took out a badge which she attached to her shirt.
"That is not a Watch uniform." Karl said.
"No, but it is a Watch badge. You'll find that is all people see. I don't need magic to make the majority of my disguises work. You just have to put on an act and their minds will fill in the rest and. That is especially true with the Watch, those above them don't see them and those below fear them." With that they strode up to the main building. Once they arrived Karl knocked on the door and after a moment it was opened a by what appeared to be a servant. She was of middle years and a bit on the boney side. She had a narrow face and an unpleasant look in her eyes. She looked them up and down and when Wilhelmina showed her the badge she glared at them but did not close the door in their faces.
"We need to speak to Magister Ockmann."
"Well, you'll have to wait. The Master isn't here, he's gone." Wilhelmina looked alarmed.
"He hasn't disappeared too has he?" She rolled her eyes.
"No, he hasn't disappeared. And neither has his apprentice." Karl was confused and he clearly was not the only one.
"We were told that Fräulein Gruben had gone missing, we were sent here to investigate the matter." The woman gave another snort and spat.
"Oh, she is not here alright, but that is no mystery." It was clear that she wanted to continue, apparently enjoying having someone new to talk to complain to. Therefore, she needed little prompting to continue.
"She calls herself an apprentice, but she hardly qualifies as one. I've worked for their college since I was a little girl and I've seen wizards come and go. I know a real wizard when I see one. Oh, she has talent, she makes sure that everyone knows it too, but she does not apply herself. Her master is an old fuddy-duddy who spends more time out of his head than in it and she takes advantage of that. Spends her days staring into the mirror and worrying about her looks like she was the Empress herself." Seeing that she might go on like this for some time Karl moved quickly to cut her off.
"You said that she did not disappear." He prompted.
"Aye, her master may not know it, but I do. She has herself a suitor."
"A suitor?" Wilhelmina asked.
"Aye, a suitor. Every time the boy comes from the city with supplies he brings her letters. She reads them whenever her master isn't around and then she spends the rest of the day giggling like a tart. After the last letter she made a bundle of some cloths and stole food from the kitchen and then she disappeared. Mark me, she's gone to see her lover and she'll be back when she's had her fun."
"I see," Wilhelmina said. "You are most likely correct. Never the less, our bosses will want us to make a thorough investigation, so I am afraid that we shall have to see her rooms to see if there is anything there." The woman sighed in exasperation but let them in. She led them down a hall and to a door which she opened and made to enter but Wilhelmina stopped her.
"Thank you, we shall take it from here. We will find you if we require anything." The woman shrugged and left. Once they were sure that they were alone they began to search the room. The room was not large, ten feet by ten feet Karl guessed, but snug. There was a large bed, at the foot of which was chest. Against the wall was dresser drawers with a large mirror atop it, along with a basin and pitcher of water. Across the room was a dresser made of some dark wood.
"Well, what are we looking for?" Karl asked. Wilhelmina rolled her eyes.
"What did you think? The woman said the girl had a suitor. If so, we need to find any indications of that. He may know something and we need to speak with him." Karl started towards the chest at the foot of the bed but Wilhelmina stopped him.
"There will be nothing there. Apprentices have to have all of their belongings available for inspection whenever their masters desire to do so to ensure that they are not becoming tainted. If Gruben had any secrets she would not hide them in there."
"Well then, where would she hide them?" Wilhelmina looked around the room, a look of concentration on her face.
"Romances are discouraged among students so she would have to hide any letters. At the same time she would want them to be somewhere close at hand."
"Speaking from experience?" Karl asked, his tone teasing. She gave him a glare so ferocious that any further jokes at her expanse dried up. Seeing that her glare had had the desired effect, Wilhelmina turned her attention back to searching the room. Her attention was drawn to a small icon of Magnus the Pious. She turned it over and showed Karl that the back had been hollowed out and several tightly rolled pieces of paper where within.
"She would desecrate an icon of the Blessed One?!" Karl said in shock. Wilhelmina rolled her eyes.
"You're such a peasant at times, hound. It's just a piece of wood with a little gilding, it has no more power than all those fake relics that charlatans sell to gullible people." Something that he was thinking must have shown on his face, because she sighed again.
"We who wield magic have a somewhat more relaxed view of religion. Don't worry," she added in a soothing tone. "Dogs needn't concern themselves with their masters' and mistresses' ways. You just be ready to bite when told. Now be silent and let me look at these." She preceded to unroll the papers and read them while Karl watched.
No one in Karl's village had been able to read as far as he knew. To him it was an art as magical as any art which the wizards practiced. He did not know what the letters contained but Wilhelmina clearly was not impressed.
"Was this girl is a complete fool? Either that or her suitor is a dolt."
"What makes you say that?"
"These letters! Half their contents are copied from those dreadful Tilean romance plays. Hearts like wounded doves indeed, such tripe. I thought there might be some type of code, but no. These are simply the type of letters some ninny-headed fool who thinks romance is anything like those plays." Her voice had been rising but she forced herself to calm again.
"That was bold." Karl said. "The letter might have been seen by her master."
"Well, that should not have been a factor. What appears to be the first letter urges her to burn the letters, but it seems the little fool wasn't willing to give up her letters. Fortunately, the last letter does mention a desire to meet in the city." She paused and stared at the letters, a slight frown on her face.
"There is something about these letters, I'll have to look at them in greater detail later." She rerolled the letters and put them inside her shirt.
"We have seen all that there is to see here. Let's get out of here. We have that other matter to look into. We can devout more time to these letters once we are done looking into the other matter." With that they left the room. They found the woman and Wilhelmina told her that they were done, but they may come back later.
Once they were outside they made their way down the road till they were out of sight, as they walked Karl saw that Wilhelmina had a thoughtful expression on her face. Once they were out of sight Wilhelmina looked around till she found what she was looking for, a shady spot under a clump of trees that was hidden from the road. She went over and sat down. She looked up and rolled her eyes at Karl when she saw the expression on his face.
"Dog, it's barely noon, you show your true form now and the entire city watch will be after you. No, we have to wait for sundown. In the meantime I am going to put the waiting to some good and see if a closer examination of these letters can reveal anything of significance to our investigation."
"And what shall I do while you are doing that?" Karl asked. She gave an exasperated sigh.
"You're a wolf, go do wolf things. Go catch a rabbit or something." With that she turned back to the letters and completely ignored him.
With nothing better to do he briefly considered do just as she suggested and chasing a rabbit, but decided against, if he did any such thing she would mock him for it and he had no particular desire to go through that. So instead he plopped himself down on the ground and soon fell asleep. He was awoken some time later by a kick to his side from Wilhelmina. Looking around he saw that it was far darker than it had been before. His attention was called back to Wilhelmina, who was impatiently tapping her foot.
"Come, the sun is going down and we can get to work. Gods you are lazy hound aren't you?" Karl glared at her, but got to his feet and made to go. Before he could; however, Wilhelmina stopped him.
"It is a bit of a walk from here to the right gate. It would be faster if you were to take on your wolven form and I ride you." Karl sighed and took off his cloths and changed into his wolven form. Wilhelmina wrapped his clothing and weapons into a bundle and then climbed onto his back and giggled.
"We do this so often, perhaps I should consider getting a saddle, like those the Goblin wolf-riders have." Karl growled at that and she playfully whapped him on the top of his head.
They set off, Wilhelmina directing him with nudges from her knees. They drew as close to the city as they dared and then she guided him to run parallel to the wall till they neared a gate. She pulled out the hair and held it to his nose for him to sniff. He filled his nose with the smell and began to sniff around on the ground till he found the smell. It was faint and covered by a multitude of other smells. Fortunately, as he knew that the wizard had been coming towards the city and so headed away from it. He was also aided by the fact that it had not rained since the wizard had been attacked so the scent was still there.
He went on for some time, often losing the scent and then having to smell around for some time till he found it again. After a while he found that he could no longer find the smell and was about to give up when he smelled something else. The smell of men, they were far off the road and Karl could think of no good reason for them to be there. He followed the smells till he found himself in a grove of some kind. As he entered it he found that the smell of Dorchener was stronger here though faint, it seems he must have spent a lot of time here.
"Here?" Wilhelmina asked. Unable to speak Karl bobbed his head up and down. She patted his head again and dismounted.
"Good boy." She said as she put his clothing and gear on the ground. He growled and changed back into his human form and quickly changed.
Wilhelmina seemed to pay no notice, focused on examining the grove. She muttered something under her breath and Karl could scene the magic gathering around her. After a moment the she stopped her efforts and the magic dissipated.
"Dorchener was here, I can feel the wind of Ghyran and it is strong here. He would have spent a great deal of time here. Did you find his scent again? You seemed to have lost it there for a while." Karl shook his head.
"No, not till we got here. There were the smells of other men, they were what led me here." That gave Wilhelmina pause.
"You smell them here?" She asked. Karl nodded. "And it is stronger than Dorchener's?" Again Karl nodded. She was silent for a moment then spoke again.
"I have an idea, but I need to be sure. We need to look around and see if I am correct." She would say no more and merely started to look around and told Karl to do the same.
Karl did not know what they were looking for, but duly began to look about. He soon began to notice that there were signs of a struggle. The ground had been churned up and he found a hole in one of the trees. There was nothing in it but he put his face next to it and smelled it and detected a whiff of black powder. He called Wilhelmina over and she too examined it.
"As I thought." She said after she had finished looking at it. Karl quirked an eyebrow at her and she continued.
"You said that the smell of the other men were stronger than Dorchener's, that means that they were here after him. The bullet hole you found shows why. They came here to remove any evidence that they were here."
"Why would they do that?" Karl asked. "This place is a good way away from anything and it is unlikely that anyone would find this place."
"When word of what happened to Dorchener reaches them the others of his order will likely come here to look for clues. Obviously whoever did this feared that they would be known to the Jade Wizards and they did not wish to have this deed laid at their doorstep." From the look on her face Karl that she had some suspicions as to whom this might be; however she said no more. After looking around some more she declared that there was no more to be found and that they were returning to Altdorf. Karl resumed his wolven form and Wilhelmina once again mounted him and they returned to the city. A short distance from the city he resumed his human form and they entered the city shortly before the gates closed for the night.
They made their way through the streets to the house that Marx had given to Karl. Olga was surprised to see them but Karl simply said that Wilhelmina, who was still in masculine garb, was an associate and would be staying the night. He then asked to prepare some food and have the other bedroom on the second floor prepared. He and Wilhelmina went up to his room. He opened his mouth, but Wilhelmina told him to say nothing till after the food had come and they need not fear interruption. They waited in silence till the food was brought, some bread, potatoes and boiled beef. Once Olga had been dismissed to her bed for the night they set to eating. Once they were done they turned to what they had learned that day.
"Whoever did this obviously did not want their presence known." Wilhelmina said.
"Who would do that?" Karl asked. Though still puzzled by this attempt at subterfuge, he found that he felt somewhat better that their unknown foe was attempting to hide their presence. When he had faced the Skaven, while they had hidden behind their catspaws at times, they had not attempted to hide the fact that the events had occurred. This hopefully meant that the foe that they faced now, whomever that may be, were not the rat-men. He found that he much preferred that idea of facing men than those creatures.
"I don't know." Wilhelmina said, though once again Karl got the impression that she knew or suspected more that she was saying.
"I shall have to report back to Marx on this matter, he may have more information." She rose from the table and moved towards the window.
"Once I have spoken with him I shall return, leave the window unlocked." With that she opened the window and dropped through it. Karl did not know how long she would be and decided that he could not go to sleep till she returned. Fortunately, he did not have to wait long. Less than an hour later she slid through the window.
"What did he say?" Karl asked.
"He suspects things, but he will not commit himself yet and he said that we are to continue our investigations. Meanwhile, he will be making his own line of inquiry."
"Will we continue to look into Dorchener?" Karl asked. Wilhelmina shook her head.
"Not at the present time. I think that we have learned all that we can learn in that quarter for now. No, I think that we shall look into Gruben.
"I reread those letters and I think I found out what was disturbing me."
"What was that?" Karl asked. Outside the weather was beginning to grow cold and the wind had picked up. Wilhelmina paused to pull her boots off and place her feet near the fire before she began to speak again.
"At first the letters just seemed like some horrid tripe, but on closer look at them showed something more. The writer of the letters was trying to control Gruben. We don't have any of her letters but from the ones we do have the writer is urging her to leave the observatory and come meet with the writer and countering arguments that she seemed to have made that she could not, though she does not appear to have made many of these nor require much persuading.
"There is also the content of the letters. There is…something about them. The words do not seem…heartfelt. It is almost as if they were written by someone who wanted to write something romantic but did not know how and had no true desire to make an effort to do so."
"So you do not think that the person who wrote them is actually her lover?" Karl asked.
"I am not sure, though I am beginning to suspect that that is indeed the case."
"Why would someone engage in such a farce?" Karl wondered aloud. He had not really been speaking to Wilhelmina, but she answered him anyway.
"If the writer is, in fact, not her lover then it seems that the main purpose of these letters was to lure Gruben away from the observatory. Marx knew of the place that the letters mentioned for a meeting place and it is both discreet and isolated. It would be a good place for an ambush."
"But if they are not lovers how would they meet?" Karl interjected. "She would not go somewhere at the request of letters from someone she did not know."
"Celestial Wizards are not like those of my order. They are much in demand by those gullible enough to think that they can see the future and these people often invite Celestial Wizards to their homes. Additionally, Marx told me that Gruben is from a wealthy family. So either way she would have had plenty of opportunities to meet someone who could feign affection for her.
"From the description the servant at the observatory it sounds as if Gruben is one of those people who are inclined to believe all of that romantic nonsense."
"Why though?" Karl wanted to know. Wilhelmina looked at him and he continued.
"What I mean is, that it seems like this Gruben is not the most intimidating of people and these attackers, whoever they are, are not shy about attacking magic-users. Why go through all the trouble of luring her out when they could have just assaulted the observatory and seized her?"
"You make some interesting points, but you are leaving out a few factors. She may believe that she is living in some romance play, but that does not mean she would be easily taken by force. There are many men who are complete fools about everything except when it comes to using sharp pieces of metal to kill other fools. Additionally, there is the matter of her master. He may be a bumbling old fool, but he is still a master wizard and it seems as if our unknown friends are reluctant to face a full-fledged wizard when they can avoid it."
"Do you think that they have any magic users of their own?" Karl asked. Again Wilhelmina shook her head.
"I do not think so, I sensed no magic other than that employed by Dorchener. No, whoever they are they seem to employ purely mundane weaponry, though they appear to have access to weapons which are both exotic and of the best quality. Whoever they are, they have money behind them." She paused and gave a long yawn.
"Well, I am tired and there is nothing more to be learned tonight. In the morning we shall go to where Gruben was supposed to meet the letter-writer. It is unlikely that we shall find anything there, but you never know and someone may have seen or heard something that will be of value. I'll also have to check with some of my other sources." Karl had expected her to gather up her boots and go to the other room, yet at the same time he was not that surprised when she merely pulled off her pants and slid into his bed.
Determined not to let her have it all her own way he shifted into his wolven form and flopped down on the floor. He thought he might have heard her chuckle but he did not bother to look. Lying where he was he was close to the bed and she reached out to stroke his fur and scratch his ear. He sighed in annoyance, but in truth he did not really mind. In fact, it felt rather nice. As the smooth motion of her hand continued he thought about what he had learned today.
It was clear that they were up against a well-equipped foe, who also possessed cunning and resources. He also could not shake the suspicion that Wilhelmina knew more than she was telling him. This was not the first time that they had been in such a situation, so that was not so unusual. What was unusual was her not telling him. Usually she practically leaped at the chance to let him know how much smarter she was than him. He did not know why she was holding information back from him. He did not like it, but as he drifted off to sleep he comforted himself with the thought that she would tell him when the time came.
Author's Notes: Hey everyone, I hope that you liked it. I find that I enjoy writing mystery arches and I hope you are getting as much pleasure from it as I am. Do you have any suspicions as to the attackers and their motives? I would love to hear them as we progress, we may or may not see them in the next chapter. Till then please pray for the persecuted Christians in Pakistan, they are having a rough time and all who suffer for their faith. Also for the people effected by the Ecuadorian earthquake, the victims of the Bagdad bombings, a woman who fell off a ship and all who need prayer. Bye and may Jesus bless you.