The sun was barely peeking over the walls of Rockhaven as the gates to the palace opened once again. The cloudy sky burned in a bright orange color.

The four apprentices slowly went down the few steps in front of the palace gate. They still weren't over the shock of the events of the feast, the only exception Ambigious who instead was burning with suppressed anger.

A growl escaped his mouth, he said: "We need to find the bastards who did this."

Unchosen nodded. "I agree. Even if it's not a permanent death, someone still poisoned Fire in front of everyone. The delay may cost us."

Nobody said anything further until they were well past the central plaza, the silence was only broken as they were closing in on Shadow's house.

freeZe asked: "Where did Shadow go off to?"

"Don't know." Unchosen said. "Heard her mumble something about 'finishing the deal', probably meant that she'll negotiate for the Axe. Anyways, does anyone have a key to the house?"

freeZe pulled the requested key from a pocket of her robes. When they arrived she unlocked the door and they went inside. Instead of getting some sleep like the king told them to, they got together in one of the unused guest rooms that Ambigious had declared the 'War Room' using a handwritten sign on the door.

They had moved the bed out of the way and instead placed a table and four chairs directly under the hanging glowstone lamp. Unchosen managed to find plenty of paper and TehLulz discovered a book about Rockhaven's history in one of the drawers, the book contained multiple maps of the city.

They placed all that on the table and sat down.

TehLulz began: "So, now that we have some things to make a plan, where do we begin?"

Ambigious said: "That's a good question…" After a pause he said: "We don't really have anything that we can base our suspicions on."

Unchosen said: "We could start by thinking about who would be interested in killing a Mencur-Besh diplomat. First ones that come to mind are people who don't like the Mencur-Besh."

freeZe added: "Could also be that they want the Axe and don't want it to leave the city."

Unchosen said: "Don't know about that. They must know that Shadow would just finish the negotiations and get the Axe either way."

Meanwhile Ambigious had started writing down possible groups of suspects, as it stood the list was very short and the categories broad.

After a bit TehLulz said: "It could also be that they wanted the city to be locked down, maybe they just need a few more days to act."

"Possible." Said freeZe. "The city will remain on lockdown until the assassins are found, which may take a while if it really is part of a distraction."

Ambigious said: "Something just came to my mind. If they really are banking on being able to stay hidden they must know the city well, so most visitors are off the list, at least when it comes to being the head of whatever this is. It's possible that we're dealing with long-term citizens here."

freeZe added: "We can most likely also rule out any Eye-and-Claws since their interests should line up with those of the Mencur-Besh, that and Fire made it very clear that traitors are quickly found and harshly punished."

Unchosen speculated: "Our assassins also need to be familiar with the Mencur-Besh to some degree since they knew that the poison they used could kill Fire. During my alchemy lessons Fire told me that most poisons can't harm the Mencur-Besh and a large part of those that can are quickly metabolized into something harmless. There's only a handful of poisons that can quickly and reliably kill a Mencur-Besh."

freeZe asked: "Happen to have a list?"

"No…" Unchosen said. "We never worked with those and from what Fire said they are very obscure or rare. I also didn't read all books on poisons I could find, I focused more on beneficial potions."

Ambigious seemed to remember something. "Reminds me, Unchosen. I ran into Undira again in Rock Bottom and she said she needed a potion mixed."

"Huh." Unchosen said.

TehLulz said: "We might as well go around town doing various things, as it stands right now we need a better idea about who we are looking for. We might as well ask around our respective guilds to find out more. Maybe we can even pinpoint some groups that are anti-Mencur-Besh."

freeZe said: "Shadow mentioned that the Mage and Enchanter Guilds were quite averse to giving the Axe away. It would make sense, mages don't like giving away power and enchanters are similar."

TehLulz added: "Enchanters also really don't like secrets being kept from them, which could be a possible source of distrust towards the Mencur-Besh."

Ambigious kept writing down important points, now his sheet actually looked like somewhat of a start.

He said: "So, tomorrow we'll try to find out as much as possible about who could have something against the Mencur-Besh. That's the most likely group to commit that assault, also the only concrete group we have."

Unchosen said: "I'll find Undira tomorrow and try to make that potion. While I'm at the Alchemist Guild I might as well ask around there, maybe Undira herself knows something."

Ambigious said: "You'll probably find her at the Enchanter Guild or somewhere in the lower districts, Rock Bottom most likely. If she's down there you can't miss her, she'll be glowing like a lighthouse."

freeZe asked: "So, in the evening we meet up here again, right? It might be a good idea to make some copies of the house key for each of us, you can do that, right Ambigious?"

Ambigious nodded.

Unchosen said: "Alright, it's decided then. Now we really need to get some sleep, I suspect that tomorrow will be quite a demanding day for all of us."

Everyone stood up and went to their respective bedrooms, only Unchosen decided to ignore his own advice for a bit and instead went to a different room. That room was Shadow's library where she had amassed books about various subjects, according to freeZe there were also unique notebooks here that she had bought. Most of those notebooks were about studies on the Mencur-Besh, naturally this was part of the effort to find out what people knew beyond what the Mencur-Besh easily let on. Unchosen hoped to find details on the Mencur-Besh metabolism in one of those notebooks, which would help him identify the poison that was used on Fire.

Most of the Mencur-Besh related notebooks were not stored in the bookshelves but in labelled wooden boxes. Unchosen opened one such box and started digging, picking out one notebook at a time and quickly flipped through the pages to see if it was relevant.

About twenty books in he found the first one that could be useful, it held research notes about tests an alchemist had done on a certain breed of subterranean fungus that produced the same substance that Mencur-Besh metabolism was built around, in its pure form known as drandinian Heavybrew.

Unchosen found two more books, one about the exceptional senses of the Mencur-Besh, the other one was a near-exhaustive list of known Mencur-Besh deaths and their causes.

After he was done searching he put the other notebooks back into the box but left the box on the floor in case he needed something else from it. Additionally he looked through the bookshelves, searching for a certain tome he had seen at Fire's base but never read. He quickly found what he was looking for, "Toxins and Toxic Substances by Irna Bluemoss", it was one of the most expansive lists in existence yet only few alchemists owned a copy since the author was relatively unknown.

The heavy book was bound in plain leather and completely unenchanted. Even if it would take a bit to find it, the poison Fire had been killed with simply had to be in there.

With the books under his arm Unchosen went up the stairs to his bedroom and put them down on his desk. Instead of opening one of the books he decided to go to sleep, there was no use studying the texts now if it meant that he would be tired tomorrow. His current priority was to find Undira and ask around in the guild.

While falling asleep Unchosen tried his best to recall the way down to Rock Bottom.