Getting a sample from Fire's drink had been easy enough, the whole tablecloth was stained with it and the soldiers stationed in the palace allowed him to cut off a generous patch. What had taken Unchosen the longest was getting into a position to ask in the first place. There had been plenty of other people ahead of him, what exactly they wanted in the palace wasn't clear.

It was already past noon when he exited the palace, the sample of tablecloth balled up and stuffed into a large glass cylinder he had taken from the alchemy room in Shadow's house. He sincerely hoped that the poison was still in the cloth and hadn't evaporated, according to Irna Bluemoss' book there was quite a number of poisons which would do exactly that.

He crossed the central plaza quickly and returned to Shadow's house, nobody seemed to be surprised by him carrying around a cylinder of stained cloth, alchemists probably walked the streets with stranger things in hand.

Unchosen unlocked the door and went straight down the corridor. The alchemy room was exactly opposite the library. The inside was similar to the lab he had studied in in Fire's base, everything was covered with obsidian, ingredients and tools were orderly stored in various cupboards.

He put on his protective gloves and mask, then opened the cylinder with the cloth and cut off a small strip. It was time to begin the tedious process of identifying which of the thousands of possible poisons had killed Fire.

They were walking through the walls of the lower districts again, the demon didn't know much but what it did tell them was very interesting. It seemed that there was a multitude of hidden rooms scattered through the ground below Rockhaven but only one other portal had been activated, that same portal had been very active in recent times. The demon had told freeZe the portal frequency since as a mage she was the only one in the group able to set a portal to it.

She had decided against travelling directly to the portal since it seemed unwise to teleport head-first into what had to be the conspiracy's headquarters.

While they walked, freeZe let the portal frequency pass through her head, something seemed familiar about it but she couldn't place a finger on it. Further pondering was cut off by the wall in front of them opening up into a tunnel.

Undira said: "Let's just follow this one for a while, maintaining enchanting trance for that amount of time is exhausting."

TehLulz nodded.

freeZe had never been in this tunnel before, she asked: "Undira, where is this?"

"Hmm… I think it's back near the entrance we used, we went in a big circle around the city."

Ambigious said: "Good thing we're very used to walking." He then paused and said: "Wait… I'm feeling something. No idea what but something's over that way." He pointed down the tunnel.

"What do you mean?" Asked TehLulz.

"Funny story. I ran into Shadow when we were at Rock Bottom. She kind of told me that I had the same magic detection potential as freeZe but no actual affinities."

freeZe opened her sense for magic. There definitely was a spell being cast a ways down the tunnel. There was nothing suspicious about that but sneaking around the unknown parts of Rockhaven already had put freeZe on edge.

She asked: "Should we avoid it?"

The others shrugged. TehLulz said: "Can't go into the walls right now, trance is gone and I'd need a few minutes to get back into it."

After he had stopped talking whoever was casting the spell came around the corner. It was a group of five, they had a bright orb floating above them, evidently the spell they had felt, all of them were wearing concealing clothes and very clearly carried crossbows. Nobody had to think twice to know that this was bad news.

It seemed that the group had spotted them too, one of them yelled: "It's them. Fire at will!"

Ambigious and TehLulz were only armed with the daggers they always kept on them and none of them were wore armor so they took the logical course of action and ducked into a niche. No second too soon, crossbow bolts flew past them and impacted somewhere down the tunnel.

freeZe knew that she was the one who had to act, running up with a dagger was suicide, magic was the only option. Her eyes lit up like green flashlights, she felt how her life force started activating, ready to be converted into whatever deadly element she desired. She had to think back to the Graveyard of the Forest where she first encountered her magic's will. Now that will was fused into her own.

freeZe concentrated her magic into her hands where it became small bolts of electricity bouncing between her fingers. The spell was ready. She stepped out from the niche, suddenly she felt an impact on her lower right abdomen, then another on the same side but higher on her chest. Her magic fizzled and her eyes fell back to their regular lightless glow. She heard two more impacts behind her, the other bolts had missed.

Everything felt very slow, freeZe looked down and saw two crossbow bolts lodged in her torso, a split second later the pain set in, only to be quickly dampened by the adrenaline in her veins. Her magic still didn't come back. She realized that the bolts must be either coated in silver or made completely from it. Whenever she tried to summon up her magic it felt like her life force was weighed down by heavy anchors.

As her world returned to normal speed, she heard one of them yelling: "Hit the mage!"

The group started reloading their crossbows, the one who hadn't fired lined up their shot. freeZe wanted to run but seemed unable to move. She felt a hand pull her back into the niche, it was Ambigious.

Her brother said nothing but the expression on his face spoke volumes. If he had armor of any kind he'd have stormed out there and attacked but even through his anger he knew that it just wouldn't work.

After a few hours of work Unchosen had been able to verify that there was indeed poison left in the cloth, which allowed him to take a few hundred poisons out of the equation. He had also been able to disqualify a large portion of the poisons in the book using a series of broad tests.

The difficult part was about to begin, he had roughly twenty poisons left in his list of potential candidates. Eliminating those would be more difficult since instead of crossing off whole categories with one test he'd have to randomly test for specific poisons. At least he could prepare and run several experiments at a time to speed the process up somewhat.

Alchemy was very relaxing to Unchosen, he felt right at home between the different reagents and the laboratory gear, it took him way back to when he studied chemistry. Naturally the practical parts weren't the only thing that interested him, otherwise he'd have dropped out of his studies in the first semester. Examining different reactions on paper was essential to successful research, it had been proven to him time and time again.

While he was thinking three of his experiments had finished, he double checked with Bluemoss' book and then crossed off five items from his list. Admittedly, none of them could have harmed Mencur-Besh anyways but he'd rather eliminate those first since he wasn't sure if he even had the ingredients to test for the ones he was looking for.

In the meantime another experiment finished, allowing him to cross off two more poisons, leaving him with thirteen remaining. He quickly went through the entire list again to see which poisons he should test for next.

Undira whispered: "Don't pull the bolts out."

freeZe finally regained some manner of control over her body. She could barely speak since her right lung seemed to have stopped functioning. She said: "They have silver bolts."

Undira replied: "Still, it'll probably bleed you out."

Another round of suppressive fire flew down the tunnel, the group was significantly closer now.

freeZe desperately tried to use her magic again but any attempt was blocked by the silver. She knew that silver could only block a certain amount of energy before becoming saturated but she also knew that it was a very high amount, too high even for her.

As the next five bolts zipped down the tunnel Ambigious jumped up and threw his dagger at the group. They heard a cry of pain. Ambigious' throw hadn't been very accurate but the dagger managed to get stuck in one of the assailant's legs nonetheless. Not enough to stop them but enough to buy a bit more time.

freeZe thought about what Shadow had taught her and if any of it could help her now. She then remembered something Shadow had told her but she had heard it another time from the professor at the Mage Guild. He had talked about how burnout doesn't affect mages casting with an external source since the magic never goes through the caster's body.

"Ambigious." She said. "There is a gem in my right pocket. I can't reach it."

Without hesitating Ambigious reached into the pocket and retrieved the gem. Even through the dampening influence of the silver freeZe could feel the energy contained within. She took the gem in her left hand and slowly put herself into a more upright position.

She said to her friends: "When I step out, cover your ears and close your eyes."

She had to muster up the rest of her concentration to be able to direct the magic inside the gem, which promptly started emitting sparks. freeZe waited for the next volley of bolts. A completely different thought went through her head, these people didn't seem to be disciplined, they didn't move in formation or bothered to stagger their shots. These people were not soldiers. freeZe pushed the thought out of her mind, she could worry about it later. As soon as all five bolts flew past, freeZe stepped out again, sparking gem in hand.

With a pained shout she unleashed however much energy she could manage from the gem. A thick bolt of lightning shot out of the gem, striking the crossbow of the foremost person, then taking the path of least resistance through the others. One of them reacted quickly enough to create some sort of rudimentary personal barrier, which absorbed most of the spell but shattered and let the remaining energy through.

A blinding flash and a deafening thunder filled the tunnel, once she could see and hear again, freeZe observed the aftermath. The four unprotected assailants had been instantly turned into charred corpses, the fifth one seemingly had survived but was lying on the floor screaming in pain.

Now that the danger was over, freeZe herself was reminded of the two crossbow bolts stuck in her torso by her own ever increasing pain. She grit her teeth and started walking towards the only survivor. She might be wounded but she still had questions to ask. However when she opened her mouth to ask them, all that came out was a painful cough.

Ambigious, TehLulz and Undira ran up to her side. freeZe gave them a thumbs up to signal that beyond her wounds she was fine, then pointed at the survivor, who by now had recovered enough to transition from screaming in pain to cowering in fear.

While Ambigious helped his sister sit down, Undira slowly walked up the survivor, apparently a woman, who was now with her back against the tunnel wall.

Undira leaned in and asked: "Do you know what happens when you attempt to imprint a rune in living matter?" She delivered a swift kick to the woman's ribs. "Do you now?"

As she got no reply she continued: "Rune rejection is a very ugly and painful process but it's almost never fatal." She used her demonic voice to conjure up a rune floating above her hand while continuing to speak in her normal voice. "And you're about to find exactly how painful if you don't start talking!"

After fully processing the threat being made to her, the woman responded: "No! I'll talk!"

Undira said: "That's a good start. Now, what kind of unholy conspiracy are you part of and who is at its head?"

The woman swallowed, then reluctantly started: "We… don't want them here in the city. They control the court for their own purposes."

"Who?" Undira snapped.

"The… Mencur-Besh. We just want the city to be free, they need to die."

Undira continued: "You didn't answer my second question. Who is your leader?" She moved the rune closer.

The woman flinched. "I don't know his name. I only know he lives in a house not far from the Mage Guild. It… it has blooming nether wart patterns on its wall."

"More!"

"I don't…" Undira moved the rune directly in front of the woman's face. "Wait! No! He has a… a book. Don't know what's in it but it must be important."

TehLulz walked over to Undira, he said: "I think that's all we're getting out of her."

The woman looked up hopefully. "May I go now?"

Undira pondered for a few seconds, then made her rune disappear. She said: "No."

All hope vanished from the woman's face.

Undira leaned in further and further as she talked. "You conspire against the Mencur-Besh to kill them, when we start asking around you try to kill us and next you'll probably run to that house with those wonderful patterns and tell your praised leader exactly what happened so he can send more of his attack dogs after us. You can promise what you want, I'm not taking that chance."

Undira turned to TehLulz. "Dagger."

TehLulz hesitated but then reached into his coat and handed his dagger over to Undira.

Suddenly everything started getting dark. freeZe had been so focused on Undira's interrogation that she had completely forgot about her own situation. She desperately tried to stay awake, she wanted to see Undira finish what she had started. However just as Undira raised the dagger, freeZe was enveloped by darkness, the last thing she heard before completely losing consciousness was the woman's scream.