Before starting the next batch Unchosen looked through his available ingredients again, then realized he definitely had insufficient materials to test for the poisons that were lethal to Mencur-Besh, instead he decided to test for the remaining non-lethal poisons. When the batch finished, Unchosen was completely baffled, all experiments of the batch tested negative as expected, but one of them was undeniably positive.

The poison in the cloth was Shineroot essence, that was clear beyond a doubt. But that didn't make any sense, it would have just been metabolized into glowing wine like they had seen back in Drandin.

This opened up several other questions. Could it be possible that two poisons were used? Why? What if Shineroot essence really was the only thing in that drink?

Unchosen's thoughts were interrupted by the loud noise of the front door being pushed open forcefully. He jumped up from his chair and slowly opened the door of the alchemy room, a bottle of acid in his other hand to at least have some description of a weapon against an intruder.

It turned out that Unchosen's paranoia, while well founded, was unnecessary. The person who had opened the door was Ambigious. He looked to be very exhausted, like he had been running from something.

"Unchosen! We need your help." He said. "freeZe's been hit, silver bolts, no time to explain. We need someone to treat her."

Unchosen dove back into the lab, put down the acid, then rushed over to Ambigious.

Unchosen explained: "I don't have medical equipment but I know someone in the Alchemist Guild we can trust. How bad is it?"

Ambigious ran ahead, Unchosen quickly followed and closed the door, he hadn't realized how dark it already was. As he looked to the street he saw exactly how bad it was. freeZe was being carried by TehLulz and Undira, she had been hit by two crossbow bolts, external bleeding seemed to be limited but he didn't know about internal bleeding, especially since one of the bolts seemed to have pierced her lungs.

Unchosen said: "Follow me."

He went ahead of them as quickly as they could follow. There weren't any people in the streets, if they were lucky they wouldn't encounter anyone until the central plaza. If there was anything they didn't need right now it was more attention.

They arrived at the Guild without anyone taking note of them. Fourth door to the right after the first staircase… that was where they would hopefully find Egis.

Getting freeZe up the staircases without causing her too much pain was difficult, she was awake but only barely, it seemed that the immediate shock of the injury had worn off and she was feeling the full extent of her pain.

Without knocking Unchosen opened the door to Egis' lab and was relieved to see the spindly alchemist working on an experiment.

Egis quickly turned around, his neon green eyes pierced through Unchosen for a second before he recognized him. Before Egis had any opportunity to ask why Unchosen had barged into his lab, the others followed and at the sight of freeZe it seemed that the situation was clear.

Egis asked: "How did that happen?"

Ambigious quickly explained: "We were in the lower districts when a group of five people with crossbows showed up and started shooting. They belong to the same group that poisoned Fire."

Egis took a closer look. "Those are silver bolts, aren't they?" He quickly looked into freeZe's eyes to make sure she understood him. "Did you try to channel any magic after they hit you?"

freeZe nodded.

"How much?"

Ambigious answered in his sister's stead. "According to Shadow, she's got an exceptionally large pool of life force."

Egis sighed. "That'll leave some silver burns for a while. She will live once the bolts are out and the bleeding is stopped. Get her up on that table."

Egis pointed to a table that had a few empty diamond-glass alembics standing on it, then promptly sent them to the floor with a sweeping motion of his arm. They impacted on the ground but didn't break.

Unchosen admired Egis' work as he treated freeZe, he worked quickly and efficiently, first removing the bolts, then dressing the external wounds and finally administering a weak regeneration potion to eliminate any chance of the internal bleeding being lethal. freeZe remained on the table, still breathing quickly but with less pain than before.

Ambigious asked: "Why didn't you give her a stronger potion?"

Egis explained: "When struck by silver weapons mages lose the ability to properly channel their life force while the silver is in their bodies. Normally the silver can be removed and the wound can be treated like any other. Only if the mage tries to cast while in contact with the silver does it get complicated. The tissue surrounding the wound acts as if it was burned. The only way to properly heal these burns is by using the mage's own magical regeneration, in most cases using strong potions causes scarring."

Ambigious asked: "How long until she recovers?"

Egis thought for a few seconds. "A few days before the pain is gone, longer to completely heal the damage, the exact time is highly variable."

freeZe was meanwhile slowly falling asleep. Everyone else sat down on whatever was available.

Egis looked at each of them, then stopped. "You must be Undira."

Undira replied: "How do you know?"

"Erin told me about you a couple of times while she was working here with me, it seemed like she admires you." He paused for a few seconds, then stood up and extended his hand. "Where are my manners, Egis Degons. Pleased to meet you."

Unchosen said: "There is actually another reason why I came here. So, I got a sample from the poison and ran some tests…"

Egis finished Unchosen's sentence for him: "…to find out it was Shineroot essence, something explicitly harmless to Mencur-Besh. We seem to have come to the same conclusion."

Unchosen idly picked up some lab ware. "That pretty much confirms that something strange is happening here." He then looked over to Ambigious: "So, did you find out anything down there?"

Ambigious said: "Well, for one that Undira isn't someone you want to have mad at you. Otherwise, you could say that. Wait…"

Ambigious got up and walked over to Egis, extending his hand. Egis understood, Ambigious wanted to see where in the Eye-and-Claws hierarchy he stood.

"Well… we already bent the rules once today." His gaze went over to Undira. "Egis, Undira, we might have a few things to tell you."

It seemed that Ambigious didn't know where to begin so Unchosen took over for him, they had already brought him up to speed on Undira's mark. From what he remembered, Egis' mark was just one rank below theirs.

"First of all, I'd like to make sure all of us here are…"

To Unchosen's own surprise Egis seemed to have picked up on where he was going. He asked: "Players?"

"Exactly. I know all of us are, Undira?" Unchosen asked, glad that he didn't have to dance around the issue.

Undira said: "Yeah, one of the first as you might suspect. Got in a bit after they went big with their recruiting."

Unchosen said: "Good, then we can talk openly here. I would have liked to avoid bringing this up since both Fire and Shadow advised us against it but neither of them have been available in the last few days." He took a deep breath. "We have a hacker problem."

Egis said: "I'm assuming this time some damage was done."

TehLulz explained: "That would be an understatement. They have the server under their control and are holding new players hostage, I don't know the exact relation to real time but it must have been at least a few days by now."

Undira said: "Wait… you're implying that Fire's a player as well. Am I hearing what I think I'm hearing?"

"There is only one player-controlled Mencur-Besh and that's Fire, if that's where you're going." Ambigious said.

Unchosen continued: "Now, Fire somehow got captured by the hackers as well, which is how we ran into him. He freed us from the slave mine they are running and now we're trying to find pieces of the physical manifestation of some type of backdoor the admins put in. The Axe is one of those pieces, so Fire may have slightly lied about why he needs it."

Egis asked: "Do you think this attack has anything to do with the hackers?"

TehLulz shook his head. "No, they haven't been on the server for long enough, this is an old conspiracy that might date back to a very early failed coup. From what Fire told us they also don't know nearly enough about how this world works to be able to poison someone at a royal banquet in Rockhaven."

Ambigious continued: "That's what we knew before we went into the lower districts. Now we know that they meet in an isolated room in the depths of the city that's only accessible through a portal. We also know that their leader lives in a house with nether wart blossom engravings and has a book where everything about the conspiracy is written."

Egis thought for a moment. "I might know where that house is, in the section behind the Mage Guild. I can't quite recall his name but he is a Life mage with a fairly high position in the Guild."

Undira smacked her hand down on the table she was sitting on. "I always knew something was up with that guy. Used to be outspoken against the Mencur-Besh but all of a sudden went quiet after the failed assassination of Queen Rebecca Runewright of Rockhaven… I always loved the alliteration of her name… nevermind that, it makes a lot more sense now."

"How do you know it's exactly him?" Unchosen asked.

Undira said: "Simple, only one high-ranking Life mage in the entire Guild. The others either teach at the University or aren't really interested in rank."

Unchosen asked: "So, now that everyone knows what is happening, what's our next move?"

Ambigious immediately said: "I say we break into that guy's house and steal his book, then take it straight to Captain Bedrock, very unlikely that he's against us and if he is we are screwed either way."

TehLulz said: "For a plan you came up with on the spot that actually sounds very reasonable."

Ambigious grinned. "What? My spontaneous plans are always reasonable."

Unchosen remarked: "It doesn't involve punching the hackers through their computer screens like you suggested in the quarry multiple times, so I'm inclined to agree."

Undira asked: "But how do you actually go about that? We can't just walk up to the house and melt open the door."

A few seconds of silence passed. Undira and TehLulz looked at each other, both having realized that they very well could.

Egis said: "I would advise a bit of caution, it is very likely that the house is guarded or at least watched. This is a task for a single person. There are also a couple of mixtures I theorized that would be perfect for just this occasion."

Unchosen said: "That's a good idea, we should wait until morning either way, a burglary is one thing but a burglary and a fight against a mage is another. I also have the feeling that we'll want this guy alive."

"It's decided then." Egis jumped up and rubbed his hands. "Unchosen, if you would be so kind and help me brew the potion? It'll be a long night."