Oliver

For once he was home with the sunlight drifting in through the windows. His nerves were still on edge but he had fetched himself a cup of coffee. Indeed it almost seemed too early for the Mercar household as he went back into the main living room.

To see Tessia, her legs folded beneath her as she thumbed through the tome she was reading.

"Where's Mom?" He announced his presence.

She looked up and blinked at the top of the stairs. "Oliver...why-"

"Where is our mother?" He repeated, his teeth gritting.

"I think she is in the kitchen...why?"

"Thank you," he bowed his head and made his way into the kitchen.

And there he found her, her Antivan features looking stark in the morning light. She too looked at a book while she sipped at a tea cup in her hand, from here he recognized it as some pamphlet from one of the local Minrathous tabloids.

He managed to sneak in without drawing her attention which made this easier as he closed the door, the click finally got her to look up.

"Oliver-" she smiled at him, then grew grave, he cursed himself but he wasn't able to keep his emotions from his face. "What's wrong sweetheart?"

"We've been a friend of Magister Borontius for years...our two families have been in alliance for years..."

As his voice trailed off he noted the increasing alarm on her face, "Oliver, what is this? You're scaring me!"

He went over to the window and looked over the back grounds, "You know I never realized...never bothered to ask. Never bothered to check in. How did my father die?"

"It was a freak carriage accident son, a drunk Liberati, he drove Rikius's carriage off the road and into a ditch."

"And," he continued as if not hearing her, "I've heard...rumors."

"What rumors?"

He considered his next words, his tired brain working on the problem, how to present himself. "Talk around the Magisterium is Magister Borontius is working with the Venatori. That he is a part of the Venatori. So given our family's connection to his...I have to wonder." His voice took on an increasing edge with each syllable. "How did our father die?"

Mara had the decency to look properly offended, she backed off, but stretched to her full height, arms folding over her chest. "Oliver if you are suggesting that-"

"How did he die!"

His voice carried all the authority he could muster, of the Vigilante, the soldier, the Magister. He didn't want Tessia to overhear, to at least leave her innocent to the crimes their family may've been responsible for, but his mother left him little choice.

Of course if she refuses to crack then its either she is innocent after all, or she is a harder nut to crack. I can't exactly torture my own mother in broad daylight in our own kitchen!

And for a painful second, he held his breath, she looked up at him.

Then she blinked, crumbled, tears filling her eyes.

"The Venatori killed your father. They used blood magic on the driver. Made it look like a drunk did it your father he..."

"He. What?" Oliver felt his fists clench, he towered over his mother, rage boiling off of him.

Mara started sobbing, it took her a few minutes to recover.

But Oliver did not budge, did not move to comfort. Only stood there, letting his anger roll off him like a blood mage's aura.

"He...he went to Magister Borontius." She started when she got somewhat control over her breathing. "After you left the family fell into debt. Our interests in the east were threatened by the Qunari. Our allied trading fleet was wiped out by their marauders. We needed help...and we went to our old friend for it."

For a second logic penetrated the fog of rage which had clouded his mind, but he also knew he couldn't relent. "How did we go from a simple loan to being killed in the heart of a Venatori plot?"

"You know the Magisterium Oliver!" She choked out. "It became one favor after another. Soon though we noticed that some of them had a...suspicious air about them. Some things for Magister Renata, or Magister Erimond. Then we noticed that a Lucerni bill was foiled, a Shadow Dragon plot exposed, it wasn't much, but it was enough of a coincidence that we noted."

She sighed, "Rikius confronted Borotnius about it, he didn't even deny it. He was working with the Venatori. He was one of their..." she snorted... "their officers. But he also mentioned that he would kill us, expose us, kill Tessia if we talked, and then he asked us to do a series of favors. More and more depraved. More and more open for them. But we were already too involved to stop."

He stood there, finally relenting a bit, backing off enough to give her space, but the rage had become cold and determined instead of blazing hot.

"After all the speeches we made, about how horrible the Venatori were. About how they were going to drag the Imperium down into the same age of darkness that released the blight upon the world. About how there was no place for them and we should be doing everything to normalize relations instead of creating more slaves...he even made a speech in the Magisterium supporting the Lucerni!...all those words were what? Just wind?" He snorted.

"No Oliver, they were serious, we made a mistake that-"

The rage came roaring back, "A mistake! Why didn't we go to the authorities? Why didn't we stop them?"

"You know the Venatori, you know how powerful they are, we couldn't do anything. And then when your father grew a conscience...I don't know how they knew he was going to go to Radonis. But that is when they killed him for it. Then Borontius told me what they had done."

He stood there, considering, he went back to the window, sighed. The daylight coming in over the Nocen Sea provided no light or warmth for his soul. Thoughts raged within him, contradictory, plans and considerations.

But he knew what his father must have known. He couldn't just go to Radonis or the Magisterium, even if he could convince his mother to help him and repeat what she just told him...

The politics of the Magisterium, the same ones he and Ressa and all the rest were trying to over turn, made that hard to imagine. Harder to achieve. Borontius had every advantage going for him. A Magister. A Mage. Someone from a high born and older family. Someone who had managed to keep his Venatori connections hidden without a whiff, somehow the Shadow Dragons had known, but the truth was even with his own suspicions he hadn't heard a single bit of scandal from an official source.

What evidence did he have that I do not?

Then there was the matter of how the Venatori knew his father was going to turn informant.

In the end though he had little choice as he made his way over to the entrance to the kitchen.

"O-Oliver."

He stopped and turned at his mother's call.

"What are you going to do?"

In the end a million different retorts flowed through his mind. Whether he should speak on his authority as a Magister or the bravado of the Rook both had their temptation.

In the end he was left with a simple declaration, "Whatever I have to."

A small sob followed him out of the kitchen.

After his nap he went back to the warehouse, dusk had fallen, and he looked around into the faces of Aleia and Daggone.

"We are going to help Ressa and join with her in the raid on Magister Borntius's estate."

Aleia uncrossed her arms and advanced, "But Oliver-"

He locked eyes with hers, his mouth stiffened.

"Couldn't we do this by ourselves? Now that we have this lead?" Aleia changed her tune at the last minute.

He shrugged, "Magister Borontius is a Venatori. He is the Venatori we've been hunting for since I've been back. We need to put a stop to him. But we need evidence. Something beyond reproach if I hope to bring it to the Magisterium. So we work with the Shadow Dragons...for now. See what they have. Move on from there. Any other complaints?"

Aleia glanced at Daggone, then shook her head.

"Then Daggone you get into contact with Ressa...tomorrow we move."