freeZe had spent the entire day in the library of the Mage Guild and had only arrived at Shadow's house well after midnight. Her head was buzzing with all the information it had soaked up over the course of the day. As she was lying in bed trying to sleep, she let everything she had learned pass through her head again.

She had been looking for everything Mencur-Besh related, specifically for historical records about people like that one archmage Carol had mentioned briefly. She had found out a fair bit about Rockhaven's history along the side. While the records didn't make special note of it, she couldn't help but notice just how involved the Mencur-Besh were in Rockhaven's affairs.

After being built and abandoned by the Mencur-Besh, Rockhaven had been merely a hollow shell of a city. It took years for people to approach it or even decide that it was a good idea to live there, the only thing the city had to offer were nearly unbreakable walls and a library stocked with a handful of books. Those books were known as the Books of Knowledge, beyond their existence little was known about those books since they disappeared before anyone could make sense of the runes they were written in. freeZe knew better, Fire had mentioned once or twice that it had been him and Shadow who had taken the books, presumably because what was written in them was too dangerous to be left unchecked.

Rockhaven hadn't always been the de-facto capital of the server. That had only begun after the Mencur-Besh returned to the city a few decades after it had been discovered. If the records were correct it was only then that the city began truly living. While the general structure of Rockhaven's society was definitely of human creation, freeZe, again knowing better, saw that the Mencur-Besh had influenced every aspect of the city, though up to this day the most overt sign of their involvement was the eye in the central plaza.

What freeZe had been interested in the most was if there had ever been any events where someone tried to overthrow the Mencur-Besh. Sadly she came to the conclusion that up until this point all plots had been against a guild leader or the current king or queen. There had been one case where a plot came very close to succeeding but failed due to Mencur-Besh intervention, it was unclear if all of the conspirators had been caught or if anyone had gotten away. freeZe suspected that if any had gotten away they were not only angry that they failed but now additionally angry at the Mencur-Besh because they prevented them from succeeding.

freeZe wanted to keep thinking but finally sleep overtook her, her last coherent thought was that they should probably look for the remnants of that revolution. A second later she was already dreaming.

The next morning she was woken up by TehLulz knocking on her door.

He said: "Ambigious just went to get Undira, it'd be best if you were in strategizing shape before they come back."

Still half-asleep freeZe wondered how it was possible for Ambigious to wake up earlier than her, then decided to not waste any time thinking about it and instead got out of bed with an inelegant roll.

As she opened the dresser she couldn't help but notice that all of the robes inside had changed to match her elemental alignment. Shadow had probably spent a lot of time infusing the guest rooms with magic. Since all of the robes looked the same she picked the rightmost one.

She opened the door of her room and went down the stairs, yawning. After arriving at the bottom she looked over to the kitchen. TehLulz was hastily devouring a sandwich he had made for himself, evidently he had also gotten up fairly recently. Unchosen was sitting on the couch, reading what looked to be a large leather-bound book.

"Morning." freeZe said.

TehLulz looked in her direction and nodded, Unchosen replied but didn't look up. freeZe decided that it was best that she got a bite to eat before Ambigious returned with Undira so she followed TehLulz' example. Shadow's house didn't have a fridge in the usual sense, what it did have though was a room in which time magically stopped when nobody was inside, keeping anything stored there fresh indefinitely. As freeZe went inside she picked out a few choice bits of food and set off to the kitchen to make herself breakfast.

She sat down at the table and began eating. Halfway through her breakfast Unchosen asked: "Did you know that there is a poison that causes excoriating pain in your bones but never causes any actual harm?"

"Huh." freeZe just replied.

Unchosen said: "Sorry, it's just quite funny to see that specific poison between much deadlier ones. I… haven't had a lot of sleep."

Not much happened after that, freeZe just made conversation with TehLulz and talked a bit about what she had found out. Suddenly the door swung open and in came Ambigious with Undira following shortly after.

Undira said: "Shadow's got a nice house."

Unchosen replied: "She hasn't been here ever since the attack, we have no idea what she's doing. It would help a lot to have her here."

If freeZe was honest with herself she really could have used a couple more hours of sleep but there was work to be done. Her brother on the other hand was downright energetic, which was a rare state for him so early in the day.

Ambigious said: "We have much to discuss, to the war room!"

A few minutes later they had all gathered around the table, Undira asked: "So, what do you know so far?"

Ambigious said: "We think that the poisoning was done by some individual or group, most likely a group, which either wants to prevent the Axe from leaving Rockhaven or has some other motive. If they wanted to kill Hadrin and his court they could have easily done so but they chose to specifically poison Fire, which makes it possible that they have something against the Mencur-Besh."

freeZe added: "I haven't found much about previous attacks on Mencur-Besh, either because there weren't any or because the records aren't complete. Then again, it's the only lead we have."

Unchosen explained: "I spent the last night reading through this book and so far none of the poisons I saw were capable of causing that quick of a death in a Mencur-Besh."

Undira was meanwhile looking over Ambigious' notes, after a few moments she asked: "Have you asked the Guard to let you get a sample?"

Unchosen asked: "You can do that?"

Undira nodded. "As long as you take the sample under their supervision, yes."

"Huh. I should do that today then."

TehLulz asked: "So, Undira. What do you know about anti-Mencur-Besh groups?"

She said: "Quite a lot actually, I know a few names of people who are fairly outspoken with their opinions, though they might not be the ones in charge, too high profile. Over the years there have been several groups who wanted the Mencur-Besh out but usually they either quickly disbanded or were not militant."

freeZe asked: "So, any idea who we're dealing with?"

Undira scratched her head. "Maybe. See, years back someone actually tried to recruit me into something, they thought that because I researched the Mencur-Besh I might be a valuable addition. I didn't take their bait but in hindsight it might have been useful to gain some sort of information."

Ambigious asked: "Do you know who tried to recruit you?"

Undira replied: "Not by name, no. I do remember his face though, vaguely. Quite an ordinary face, which doesn't help much, I suppose. When I think about it now, there was something interesting. Multiple times he mentioned something about 'down' when referring to their meeting place, which can only refer to the lower districts."

TehLulz said: "Makes sense, it's a lot easier to hide a larger meeting down there than it is up here. Maybe they always meet in some establishment, maybe owned by one of them."

Unchosen meanwhile continued studying his book, still listening to the conversation on the side.

Ambigious said: "Makes sense. But we can't just open every door in the lower district in the hopes of finding a conspiracy in the making."

freeZe was just about to say something but stopped when she realized that she wasn't actually allowed to say it in the presence of Undira, which her Eye-and-Claws mark reminded freeZe of. It was like a subtle resistance, she could easily ignore it but she knew it was there for a reason. She carefully thought about her words, maybe it was better to phrase it as a question and let Undira tell her what she knew.

She said: "Unchosen mentioned that you also researched the enchantments in the artificial bedrock, what did you find out?"

Undira replied: "Well, beyond that they are really complex and contain runes I've never seen before, not much. I was able to vaguely see some of what they do, for example the entrance gate's enchantment allows it to deform itself without external magic. The runes also keep moving around whenever I try to get a closer look at them. It's really crazy stuff, I didn't even know that enchantments could do that."

TehLulz seemed to face similar problems as freeZe, he said: "From what Fire told me, a lot of the city is enchanted in some way."

Suddenly Undira's face lit up. "You know what I also found out? I once had a friend explain the specifics of portals and from what she said switching destinations is actually a very difficult spell that can't really be made autonomous. With the potion I found out that the portals in the Mage Guild aren't operated with magic alone. There are actually tiny demons sitting in them that do most of the heavy lifting when it comes to linking up portals. Tiny and foul mouthed demons at that, which is how I found out that they were in there in the first place."

freeZe said: "That could be useful… but for now we'll need those names and locations where we can find them. Our time is probably running low and we best start doing some questioning."

Undira asked: "We could also just dump my list at the Guard once it's written down."

Ambigious shook his head. "Nope, if there is only one corrupt guy in there we have a problem."

"Fair." Undira said.

Unchosen stood up. "While you do those names, I'll look over to the Guard and see if I can get some samples to finally shed some light on what this wonder poison is."

After he had left the room Undira began: "Jardun Rainfall, assistant professor in the Mage Guild. Sandra Treebranch, Carpenter Guild. Norin…"