The Colonel was not a good story teller. He was a military man and as such he was used to standing before superior officers and giving reports. Such reports were short, sharp and to the point and that was basically what he told us. It took a lot of work by Lord Dryden to try and draw the colonel out a bit on the various points. It wasn’t that he had forgotten them, or that he was hiding anything from us, it was more that his military training had taught him to report the salient points from a military standpoint.

So if we had just asked him to tell us what happened he would have said:

“My wife was taken, I was told that if I did not do as I was ordered, she would be killed. I was told to answer their questions, act normally and that I would be given instructions. My final instructions were to dress as Jack, to provoke a fight with Lord Frederick and, or, Witcher Kerrass and allow myself to be killed. Then my wife would be released back towards the rest of her life. Instead, I was taken alive. You gentlemen know the rest.”

Not very inspiring or filled with detail.

If you would like the full transcript of Colonel Duberton’s interrogation, my understanding is that it is being made available. I have read it to remind myself of what was happening and it is a fascinating conversation between Lord Dryden and Colonel Duberton. I barely said anything. At first, because I was listening and later, because I was becoming depressed.

It should be mentioned that physical descriptions of me would still describe me as exceedingly pale and tired looking. Large bags under my eyes as well as a certain bloodshot edge to them. I also felt the cold to a rather extreme level so that even in a warm room, I was wrapped in several warm jerkins as well as a blanket in order to keep from shivering.

So this was his story. Paraphrased from the reams and reams of transcripts.

He had become aware that there was a large contingent of former Knights Errant and members of the Nobility who were dissatisfied with the way that Toussaint politics was going. In his line of work as a peacekeeper and leader of peacekeepers in foreign, conquered lands. This was not unusual and he has found that, in the main, if he just did his job then sooner or later, people’s resentment at his presence would eventually be replaced with gratitude. This is because people are aware that they have been conquered and are also well aware that if the Imperial armies decided to, then the occupation could be a lot less peaceful than it is actually being.

Such matters start with teaching the common folk to trust the new black armoured patrols and that such sentiment soon filters up the ranks. Such matters were made easier here by the fact that he was also involved in training his eventual replacements which he described as already being highly skilled.

He was quite self-recriminatory about the fact that he did not take the threat quite as seriously as he should have done.

He knew that the nobility resented the fact that his people enforced stricter border policies in line with standard Imperial practice and his prime concern was from banditry, sanctioned by the nobility in order to fatten coffers that were suffering under the new regime. He also expected attempts on his life and the lives of Syanna and Damien so that their replacements could come from the old guard.

He freely stated his astonishment that the Duchess would hand over responsibility of leading the Knights of Francesca to her treacherous sister given her past activities. He also made a point of stating that he was equally astonished at the way that Syanna had taken to her new responsibilities and the way that she leapt into the matter with both feet. I will quote here from the official transcript.

“(My concerns) got less as she went on and became more confident and experienced. She would always have questions. She could read at a frightening pace and would consume the books and textbooks that I gave her from the war academy on the subject of policing and law enforcement. I would give her a text, expecting her to take a week or so to read it and come back with questions. But she would stay up all night to read it and would wake me up with a list of questions on what she had read. Then she would have more questions about how this text disagreed with the other text and questions about what the circumstances were that she would choose one tactic over another.

“She had a particular insight into the minds of bandits and guerilla fighters that I did not expect and will serve her well into the future. She is also well aware that her weaknesses will lie with her temper when it comes to investigation work. But if she is to be my last student in this kind of thing. Then I can be proud of that, at least.”

His main thinking was that he was astonished that there were no actual attacks made on the Imperial guards and the nascent Knights. The worst that happened was that people would try to bribe him and his officers. The danger of corruption in the peacekeepers is real and so the Empire ensures that the officers and men of the peacekeeping units, which require more training and expertise than the rank and file, are well compensated to prevent this kind of problem.

So he described men approaching him in court to try and convince him to do this, do that, ignore this or that transgression. To lessen his grip on this border or to let through the such and such wagon train without inspections.

Again, this was not new or strange to him. Lord Dryden asked questions about these incidents and we were provided a list of names. Some of which were part of the conspiracy, others were not.

He stressed that such things are commonplace, even in regular courts that haven’t been conquered recently. There are always attempts at corruption and the like, it’s just one of the perils of doing business.

If he really pushed himself to think about it, then his first real contact with the conspiracy was when he was approached by Sir Morgan Tonlaire. He knew that Sir Morgan was not part of the conspiracy in the main, but he was occasionally used as a kind of buffer zone between the conspiracy and various candidates for recruitment.

He was approached in the open, in full court session and he was told that certain members of the nobility of Toussaint were concerned about the safety and security of Toussaint, after the Nilfgaardian forces had left. They invited him to a dinner at the estate of Alain de Moineau. He was told that it was a business meeting and that therefore, as was his habit, he didn’t take his wife with him on the grounds that she would be bored.

This seemed to be a common determination in their marriage. If his wife would be bored of something then he left her at home. I am left wondering if she knew that this was why she had been excluded, if she had made that determination, or if she might have risen to the occasion if she had actually gone alone with her husband to one of these parties.

So he went to the party. He was plied with wonderful wine, good food and beautiful servants. He was an old enough player of the game to be able to realise what was happening. He flirted with the servants without committing to anything, saying things like “If only I was free, but I love my wife too much to…” He pretended to be drunker than he was and to be more overwhelmed by the food and the surroundings than he actually was.

He spent his time trying to separate those at the meeting who were there because they actually had a grievance, those people that might do something dangerous with their new found determination and those men that were just there because they needed to be seen to be there because of other considerations.

Political alliances, marriage contracts, business dealings and so on. All of which are the sort of thing that would lead a group of people to going to a potentially treasonous meeting when they didn’t actually agree with what was happening.

That is why he thought that this was the first time that he met the conspiracy. What they were looking for was some kind of feeling from him. Some kind of statement or action that they could use to suggest the removal and replacement of Syanna and Damien so that the new Knights could be led by “men of quality.”

That quote seemed to stick out in his mind.

The intention was clear in his mind that they wanted to replace the leadership of the Knights of Francesca and then allow them to simply become the older order of the Knights Errant but with a new coat of paint. He described a common sentiment being:

“We all know that the Knights Errant weren’t perfect. And the opportunity to change that is certainly worthwhile, but there needs to be proper men of quality in charge of the reforms so that we can avoid the pitfalls of the past.”

He made his notes, departing for home at the end of the evening, noted everything down in his log, so that he could make a proper report to be briefed to Syanna, Damien and his senior officers in the morning.

He stressed, again, that this kind of thing was not uncommon in the line of duty that the Empress had chosen for him. He had to work hard in order to maintain his soldierly readiness and not become too fat or drunk to be able to carry out his duties while attending these kinds of parties.

After that, there were two other attempts in an effort to recruit him into some kind of concern.

One was in public, a private dinner with someone where they were insisting that the methods that were being employed by the new knights would not be stood for amongst the nobility and the general populace. Another was a party at a separate estate where people tried to prove that things were not going well. He noted that Sir Morgan was not at either of these two efforts. Sir Morgan would just confine his efforts to the courtroom and try to find legal ways to confound the new Knights and their methods.

Then the day was fast approaching when the Knights of Saint Francesca would be taking over from the Nilfgaardian regiment. There were going to be games, tournaments and the like, the coulthard family showed up and the dissenting voices seemed to have fallen by the wayside. He had been of the opinion that, like they so often do, these men at these meetings and parties had come to realise that their efforts were not as well thought of as they had previously considered. There would not be enough popular support to shore up their claims and they would find themselves on the wrong side of history.

Another quote:

“Such men are not stupid. It is always always factional. They might claim to be working for the betterment of the nation or area that they represent but sooner or later, their efforts are about extending their own power. The old system gave them power, the new system gives the power to the other side, which is often the younger side. So they know that the world is turning and that night will follow day.

“But instead of getting on board with the new methods and working to curtail the more extreme efforts, or seeing the benefits of what the changes might bring about. They insist to themselves and to anyone that will listen that the old way was the best and that there was never any need to change.

“The one constant in the world is that the old people will die off and the young people will have to take over from them. The young people will have new ideas to cope with the changing times that the old would never have considered and it will work for a while. And the old resent the young for not paying them the respect that they think they are owed. And the young resent the old for sitting back and expecting the world to stay still and their refusal to believe that anything might have been wrong with what was happening before.

“Just consider what a force the Knights of Francesca would have made if Sir Morgan had been there to coach people on political maneuvering. If Alain could have taught fencing or if all of those traditional knights had formed up behind the Duchess. Think of the force that they could have become.

“Instead, Syanna and Damien must spend just as much time watching their so-called friends as they must guarding against potential enemies. Men must be taken from the borders and the patrols in order to search the houses of people that should know better and to guard the common folk against the depredations of their… betters.”

He spat that last word.

Formally handing responsibility for Toussaint over to Syanna at the feast, that didn’t mean that the work of the 4th Alba division was done. It simply meant that they moved into a more handover phase. The other thing that people mistake this for was that they assume that it was like using one torch to light the other before being instantly snuffed out. It wasn’t like that. There was a long period leading up to the handover where Syanna was effectively in charge.

She made all the decisions regarding things, including to the Nilfgaardian officers who were well trained to not look to their commander in order to check the orders. If there was a problem, then he, the colonel, would step in beforehand and in private.

But the truth was that it never needed to happen. Syanna already knew plenty and was intelligent enough to be able to delegate when she knew that she was out of her depth. So he was confident that Toussaint was in good hands. He was looking forward to enjoying the culture and lands of Toussaint with his wife before the passes cleared and then he would be moving onto his next assignment or onto a period of furlough. He was hoping for the second originally as his wife had been pestering him to start a family.

He stopped to weep a little when he told us that.

His wife was taken from him on the same night that the young barmaid Appoline was killed. The same night that Lady Vivienne was attacked. He had taken his wife to their lodgings in Beauclair as he did when the pair of them had attended a social event together. His wife was renting a small set of rooms above a dressmakers shop in the upper part of the city, far away from the parties and the market areas.

Another quote:

“She was a timid lady of a nervous disposition and demure character. She enjoyed standing on the edge of things and watching the world with a loving gaze. She liked to see beauty in simplicity and life in Beauclair itself was often a little overwhelming for her. She would take to horse and ride out into the countryside, under escort of course, in order to watch windmills moving in the breeze. Or to watch the comings and goings of folk on the main highways.

“She was peaceful and I loved her. She had arranged it all in her head. We would retire to a small cottage on my estates. We would maintain the house for when friends and family visited, but for the main part, there was a small cottage that she was in love with. We would retire there and build a family, living a simple life. Reading, working and raising our children.”

“It sounds nice.” Lord Dryden said.

“I would have found it boring.” The Colonel answered. “But I would have lived with it for her.”

We had to take another break there.

So they returned to their lodgings and went to sleep. He had been hoping for the two of them to make love given that the pair of them were so rarely able to spend the night together but she was tired and retired to her own bed chamber immediately.

Although he wasn’t drunk, he had certainly drunk enough to ensure that, although it took him a long time to fall asleep, he slept deeply when he was finally overcome.

He woke to find a sword at his throat, held by Sir Alain who was grinning in enjoyment. The hate in the Colonel’s voice for Sir Alain was considerable. There were a couple of other men there, one of which was holding his wife on her knees with a fist in her hair and a dagger at her throat. Along with that there was another girl, younger than his wife although older than her years , standing behind them.

He stressed that he wanted to fight several times. That he even reached for his sword and dagger but he was wearing night clothes and his opponents were properly armed. There was no way that he would be victorious before they would slit his wife’s throat, which was the threat implied

The attackers gave him his instructions then. The girl that was with them would masquerade as his wife, wearing her dresses and behaving as Madame Duberton would. He would give over the patrol routes and other tactics and strategy of the Knights and the guards. He was warned that there would be further instructions at a later date and that in the meantime, he should act as if nothing had changed. He was told that one of their number would act as a servant of the household to monitor the Colonel’s behaviour.

And should even a hint of misbehaving come from the colonel, then his wife would suffer a death that would chill the hearts of men and women all over the continent.

An example of how ruthless the conspiracy was, is that the man that was masquerading as the Colonel’s servant was one of those men that was killed in that time and place where Just Some Girl was killed, but we will get to that.

So he spent his days in business and when he wasn’t staying out with the regiment, which he managed to arrange for a couple of days, then he and the girl lived as man and wife. They even shared a bed on those occasions at the insistence of the servant on the grounds that he, the colonel, could be sent for at any time by the authorities and as such, why would he be sleeping on the floor or the rug.

He refused to actually have sex with the girl though, he couldn’t bring himself to perform in that regard.

This is when it happened.

“What was her name?” I asked.

“Who?” Colonel Duberton asked.

I felt myself frown.

“The girl who was being forced to pretend to be your wife.” I prompted.

“I don’t know.” He said, shrugging. “Just some girl.”

I have played that moment over and over in my head. It was one of those moments where I wish that I had said something. That I had slapped him, yelled at him or done something.

It was like what happens when a person says something obscene about a friend of yours. I get it a lot when people are racist and up until that point in time, I had actually quite liked the person.

Why was Colonel Duberton so dismissive?

The part of me that always takes the opposite side in a debate would say that he had just lost his wife, he was terrified for that purpose and as a result, it simply escaped his notice. Another thought would be that he didn’t give the girl a name because he already suspected that she might be doomed and didn’t want to name her in the same way that you don’t name the lambs that are heading for the slaughter yard in order to feed your family.

There are all kinds of reasons.

He might have cared, but the simple fact of the matter is that in the grand scheme of things, his wife was more important to him. It might have been part of his military training. That part of the training where you have to dehumanise the enemy, or the people that you pass by in order to be able to do your job. It’s the same part of you that has to harden your heart in order to avoid helping every single person that you pass on the street. He was at war and as such, he needed to get into that mindset.

But his uncaring attitude towards this struck something inside me. I could feel myself retreating from the room, retreating from the interrogation. I felt as though I was falling down a long dark hole.

Up until that moment, I had been thinking of Colonel Duberton as another victim of the conspiracy. He still was and I cannot deny that. I had been looking for ways to try and help him, to try and argue in public and in these writings that he wasn’t a bad man so that I could redeem him in the light of the public.

But instead, he had said that.

He was… lesser now in my eyes. I was hugely disappointed in him. Massively so. I had liked both him and his wife a great deal as he seemed to be an example of the good kind of Nilfgaardian. The king of Nilfgaardian that we need more of in the North. The kind of man that does his job and does it well, is understanding of those people that have been conquered and why they might be angry or upset.

And in that moment, that moment of horror and disgust. I gave up on him. The man that could be so callous towards an innocent girl.

The day following his wife’s kidnapping, while the guard and the Knights were all rushing around trying to figure out what was going on with the attack on Lady Vivienne, he was called to a meeting. It was there that he met the majority of the conspiracy. They asked him questions, lots of questions on the deployment of the Imperial forces, how the Knights would work, how the guards would work and the patrol routes. He was told nothing about what was going to be expected of him. Instead, he was allowed some time with his wife who was being kept in the basement of that house. The house in question was the house of Lord du Bas-Tyra that would later come up. The man himself was there and was an eager participant in the conspiracy.

The day after, when Miss Donnet was killed, they brought him back and had a meeting with him in the open. He met them at a tavern where the matters of the protection of the Duchess were discussed. He nearly rebelled then, it would appear that that was a line that he was not willing to cross, much to the amusement of some of the conspirators.

This was the meeting where he identified that Sir Raoul was part of the conspiracy. Raoul was sitting at an adjacent table. To all intents and purposes, he was sitting separately to the rest of the group, but he was clearly listening and as the colonel watched, members of the conspiracy would send notes to the table that Sir Raoul was drinking at, Raoul would read the note, scribble something back and have a servant pass it backwards and forwards.

It was a good system to throw off suspicion but Colonel Duberton could see it happening before his very eyes. He commented that Sir Alain, who was writing most of the notes, seemed particularly smug about the entire system.

The following day was the day that Flower of the Night was killed, which was when the Colonel started to put together the facts of what the conspiracy was doing. He couldn’t entirely understand the full scope of it, he thought that it was about undermining the abilities of the Knights and the Guard. He didn’t know who actually killed Flower of the Night, nor did he know who was wearing the costume of Jack at the time.

From there, the story moved quickly. He did his best to support the efforts of the guards and the Knights. But he knew that he was being watched. He claimed that he would be working his way towards telling someone or doing something to let people know what was happening, but then he would turn around and there would be a member of the conspiracy there watching him. Or the girl pretending to be his wife would be steered into his sightline to remind him of what was happening.

After the death of Flower of the Night, he was given his costume of Jack. he wasn’t involved in any of the actual attacks, but he was nearby, always nearby with the costume on and a conspirator nearby, holding a dagger to his throat and a threat on the lips. It was in this way that he watched the chase of Jack through the streets when young Lady Matamara was killed.

On the night that Madame de Launfal was killed he was there, watching while they daubed the blood on the walls in order to give their message and it was then where he realised that he was the intended fall guy, so that if someone saw, or came close to actually catching any of them, then Colonel Duberton would be pushed out into the street to be caught and to take the blame.

The closest to outright rebellion that he came was when Lady Moineau was killed. He had seen Alain in a rage when it became obvious that his wife was betraying him with the Witcher and was party to a vehement argument that almost came to blows between Sir Alain and Lord Velles. It was even something that caused more than a little amusement to the Colonel as he recalled Sir Alain threatening the merchant with his swordsmanship skills. Lord Velles told him that there would never be a duel. Velles told him that he would simply punch Alain in the face repeatedly until he stopped moving.

Sir Raoul stepped in, one of the few times that he took an active hand in what was going on. Alain wanted to have Kerrass be the man who took the fall for the killings as a punishment for what had happened. Velles wanted to stick to the plan.

Of course, that was what made it clear that the plan was for Colonel Duberton to take the blame for things. He did not know how it was going to happen, but he was pretty sure as to what the result would be. He demanded to know why he should help and what would happen to his wife and so on.

In truth, I was no longer really listening by this point. The Colonel put up a bit of a fight on the matter. It was agreed that Kerrass would make a good scapegoat, the danger being what would happen if it was figured out that he was a scapegoat.

The argument went that the Knights would not expect more than one scapegoat. Therefore, if Kerrass was framed and found out to be framed, then it was more likely that they would fall for the second framing.

It would seem that the swift and decisive arrest of Kerrass meant that this plan had to be abandoned, despite the efforts of Sir Alain. Colonel Duberton had become rebellious however and it was decided that an example needed to be made.

The conspirators knew that the girl who was masquerading as Madame Duberton would need to be disposed of. They were also having some problems with Lord du Bas-Tyra who was threatening to expose the conspiracy if he didn’t get a bigger piece of the pie when everything was dished out at the end.

The Colonel was ordered to make a big fuss over being invited to dinner with Lord du Bas-Tyra. To escort his wife there and then they were locked in the dining room. The Colonel was, again, forced into his Jack costume and this time he was forced to bloody his own hands. He was part of the attack, along with the three other men that were waiting in Bas-Tyra’s house that night which were Alain and another two men that the Colonel didn’t know. The Colonel was made to kill the guards at the front and any servants that he came across.

He made an effort to kill them quickly and as cleanly as he could in an effort to spare them the horrors that would be inflicted otherwise. He was wearing the costume in case someone escaped.

Then Alain tied the Colonel up and made him watch while Just Some Girl and Lord du Bas-Tyra were tortured to death before his eyes.

He took the warning to heart and it was then, as the blood and other fluids dripped to the floor that he was given his final instructions. He was told that he would stay in his home or in his camp and a messenger would come for him. That he would, essentially, be told “Now” and that he should take his costume and his weapons. He should then start killing people in the city until men came to stop him. When that happened he should fight for as long as he could, or until he could be killed by either Lord Frederick or by Kerrass.

When the conspiracy heard of his death, they would release his wife.

And that was the long and short of it. It was quite late in the day when the story finished. There were holes in the story that would need to be filled by further questioning later, or in future interviews. Lord Dryden just had a few questions then. He asked why he believed that the conspiracy had kept his wife alive.

Colonel Duberton sighed and replied that he believed that they were men of honour. That they believed in what they were doing and therefore why should they lie. He did also admit that it was a hope born out of despair really. Every time he asked for proof of life it was explained to him that she was being kept at the Leblanc estate and that she was too far away for that proof to be given. He was definitely angry with himself for believing them for so long.

Why didn’t he tell anyone beforehand or during his torment? Beforehand, he didn’t think it would go this far and during it all, he was so worried for his wife that he didn't dare risk it. That he would look back on things and think “I could have done something there and maybe he and his wife would have been rescued, but the risk at the time was too much.”

I was fading quite badly by that point and when Lord Dryden declared that that would be enough for the day, I fairly shot out of my seat in order to flee.

I wanted to puke, weep and scream, preferably all at once, but I was also consumed with a concern that if I had to spend another minute in the presence of that man, then I would murder him.

“Don’t judge me Lord Frederick.” The Colonel said to my retreating back.

I turned.

“You were not there.” He went on, spitting his despair and turning it into anger. “You did not see the woman that you loved, the woman that you swore to protect being dragged from your marital bed by her hair. You did not see the pain and despair in her eyes. Do not judge me. What would you have done in my place? What gives you the right to look at me like that?”

To be clear, in my mind, I was not consciously wearing any particular expression. I was just looking at him. I may have been fighting back tears.

I looked down at him for a long time. It was clear that he was a broken man and I looked to see if I could find a small amount of pity. I could not find it, save for the fact that the man clearly deserved an answer. I took another deep breath and instead of looking for sympathy, I looked for anger instead.

“You are right of course.” I found the anger I was looking for, but I had no idea how long it would last. “There is no way of knowing how any of us would react in those circumstances. The truth, though, is that I would never be in your place. The woman I love and the woman that I am going to marry has not been trained from birth to be subservient to me. She has not been trained to be demure in every way and to be seen rather than heard.

“The woman that I love would never allow herself to be taken and used against me. I rather think that my pity would be reserved for the people that would try to do such a foolish thing. Indeed, it is far more likely, and a far more sensible thing to do, that they would take me in order to get to her. But even then, there would be no power on the continent that would stop her from rescuing me and taking me back into her arms.

“So I would never be in your position sir. It would never happen.”

He stared at me defiantly.

“As to what gives me the right to judge you?” I went on. “‘Just Some Girl’ you said.” I told him and spat on the floor. “Just Some Girl. What gives me the right? If all other things were equal. If I had been in your place and the woman I love was a trained Nilfgaardian lady of the court. If I had yet to help her to open up from her shell and become more independent?

“If I had been where you were and I had been brought a girl in an effort to keep me quiet. A strange young girl because you cannot tell me that you didn’t know how young she was, or what her standing in life was. Some villager or farmer’s daughter who would have been as terrified, if not more so, than the wife that has been taken from you. I would have recognised her as the hostage against my good behaviour that she was.

“I would have known her name Colonel. Even if I could not find some way to guarantee her safety or arrange her rescue, I would have known her name so that I could carry word of her to her family. It would be the least I could do for her. I would have known her name.”

His gaze fell.

“Just Some Girl.” I said again. “You couldn’t even be bothered to learn her name, could you.” I shook my head, unable to contain my disgust. “Just Some Girl.”

I fled, before I committed murder.

My illness got worse after that. Much worse, frighteningly worse. Days spent in bed, screaming and weeping.

So I missed the final stage of the investigation. I missed the part of things where it all came together in one cohesive whole and we properly learned what was going on and what had happened.

For the full report that was given to the Duchess in advance of the trials beginning, I can recommend travelling to the Ducal archives and asking for a copy, or you can actually send to the palace of Toussaint and ask for a copy to see what the report actually entailed.

I have never been part of this kind of investigation before. Hunting down monsters and bad guys, certainly. I’ve definitely done that. But this kind of… officially sanctioned and ordered investigation. I had not realised just how much paperwork was involved.

As well as the interviews that the conspirators had to sit through, the investigators had to do the same. Kerrass and Guillaume sat in for me on the duchess’ orders. On the grounds that everything I had done had been done in the company of those two men. As a result of this, all that happened for me was that some very serious looking men came into my rooms and read from the accounts of Kerrass first and Guillaume second. Then they asked if I agreed with those statements and when I did, I signed my name to say that I did and accepted that I would need to attend the trials in order to put this across to the chosen magistrates.

Who those magistrates would be was still up in the air. It seemed clear that the Nilfgaardian ambassador would be involved as this was almost certainly something that the Empress would have… views about.

But gradually, the story came out.

It was actually quite reassuring to discover how much I had gotten wrong. No-one blamed me but a lot of the justification for the various deaths was both less, and more, than what I had supposed, but I am getting ahead of myself.

The conspiracy started, or so they believed, shortly after the announcement by the Empress that the Knights Errant had been disbanded. In the weeks and months that followed the people who were complaining most vehemently against this decision of the Empress came to realise that the people complaining the loudest were always the same people.

Maybe a month into things, when the Imperial Guard were replaced by Colonel Duberton and the 4th, the conspirators realised that the Duchess was, or believed herself, essentially powerless in the face of the imperial decision. They decided that this was weakness on her part and as such, they decided that this was not going to be resolved by shouting in court.

As well as that, the brutal, heavy handed tactics of the Imperial Guard (remember that they are the elite regiment responsible for the Empress’ safety. They are known to have their sense of humour removed upon recruitment and any threat is a threat against the Empress and therefore is treason.) were replaced by the experienced peacekeeping diplomacy of Colonel Duberton and his men. The initial outrage was replaced by wary and cautious acceptance.

The conspiracy… which is a little unfair of me to call them that. They weren’t really a conspiracy yet and their membership was very different from what it ended up being. The conspiracy realised that popular sentiment amongst the townsfolk, villagers and field workers was going to shift more towards the alba division and the men therein.

They still, massively, resented the interference in Toussaint sovereign affairs by the empress and decided that the duchess was weak. They knew that the matter could not be pursued in court because the court massively leant towards the duchess.

So they started to meet in secret to discuss strategies as to how they could, and apparently this is a quote “wrest control of Toussaint away from the Imperial Tyranny.”

Apparently, it was like an old man’s club that would meet once every week to discuss courtly strategies, play cards, drink expensive drinks and ogle the pretty serving staff. They even met in the upper floor of one of the larger and more expensive taverns in Beauclair.

This club included a number of people including some that would later run afoul of the conspiracy itself. Lord Palmerin was often invited but this would have been back when he was still drinking himself to death in pity and grief at the loss of his order and from everything he had seen.

The group also included Sir Morgan, Lord Tonlaire as is, and Lord Matamara. Yes, the same Lord Matamara who lost his daughter to Jack. We’ll get to that, it’s really quite sickening.

There were other members as well, that I am not mentioning because they did not get involved in what the conspiracy became, did not come into this story anyway and as such, I don’t want to bring their reputation down. They know who they are.

At this point, they were more a club than a conspiracy and it wasn’t long at all before there came a bit of a schism in the club between the younger and older members.

A lot of the older men had brought sons and nephews who they knew to share their political point of view. After all, they had been trained to that point of view so it was suitably dependable.

So what happened was the same thing that happens over and over again in the continent. The old people assumed that they were in charge and deserved the unfailing obedience and respect of the younger generation. They expected the younger folk to wait on them, hand and foot and hang on every word.

I’m paraphrasing a lot here. Both sides of the debate would be offended to hear the way I’m telling it. The older people would argue that the matter needed delicacy and finesse that the younger folk lacked while the younger folk argued, not unfairly, that all the older generation wanted them to do was to sit around and wait while not actually doing anything.

So the club spintered. Apparently, it’s still there although now it’s a place where older folk come together to moan about the old days when men were men, children respected their elders and women were grateful for the attention that they received.

Some of the older generation left the club for a variety of individual reasons. Lord Matamara discovered that his lifestyle was not any worse, indeed it was quite a lot better in many ways. Sir Morgan Tonlaire realised that the club wasn’t actually going to do anything useful other than sit around and moan about things and left to try and get things done in the court.

The younger generation left en masse. There were a couple of holdouts, men who were too far under their father’s thumb, or who stayed to maintain their father’s contacts but just about everyone else left. The smaller of the two groups of young people left to join the Knights of Francesca. Many of whom expected to find it to be an Imperial brainwashing camp and of those Knights, some are even rising up in the ranks. These were the genuine patriots that wanted to make Toussaint a better place and, so far, they seem to be working hard to make it so.

The other half left to go to Sir Alain’s house and complain, not just about the Imperial Intervention but about their fathers and grandfathers who weren’t giving them the respect that they felt they were owed.

It is uncertain at the time of writing which happened first, the older leavers or the younger.

I feel embarrassed as I write this as I can remember thinking much the same sort of thing about my own father. Holy Flame keep him warm.

And that might have been it. Small, dwindling groups of people who would sit around and complain about what was happening and about how the world was changing in ways that they didn’t like.

This is when Lord Velles came on the scene. There is still some confusion about who Lord Velles is and what his history was before he became a merchant, which happened around six months after the signing of the peace between the North and the South. It is all but certain that he is a Temerian national and it is plainly obvious that he has some rather advanced military training. It is also clear that he was injured at some point in the past.

Try as I might though, I can’t find him in any of the reference books about the Temerian peerage. He almost certainly didn’t fight at the Battle of the Line but it is clear that he saw combat.

Anyway, I digress.

Lord Velles was one of many merchants who, at that time, were making a small fortune for themselves by smuggling, although there was not much subterfuge happening, goods across the border. The bribes that he paid to the Toussaint border guards was considerably lower than what he would have paid in taxes on the wine and as such, he saw that as a good thing. The Imperial Guard, and later the 4th Alba, disagreed. So Velles had seen his profits slashed.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

He put together something of a merchant’s concern about the heavy handedness of the new border guards and took the petition to thed. My understanding is that the petition didn’t even make it past the herald’s secretary, let alone onto the duchess’ desk.

Velles complained to his customers and an introduction to the club was made. Velles, being a former military man, realised that what remained of the club wasn’t going to get the job done and said so. One of the, now we can call it a conspiracy, who was still going to the club made an introduction to Sir Alain and the rest of the conspiracy that was meeting at the Moineau residence.

And he promptly took them in hand and started to come up with the scheme.

By all accounts it was not going well. Despite being the host of the conspiracy and therefore being the defacto leader of the conspiracy, Sir Alain was far from entirely popular. Sisters, cousins and wives of the other conspirators had all been seduced or had made eyes at the erstwhile Sir Alain and as such, he was not well liked.

Velles was good at this, his strategy about undermining the new Knightly order was well founded and showed promise but at the end of the day, he was a foreigner. No matter how much money he could throw around for the recruitment of mercenaries and guards to help with the coming efforts, he could not break that glass ceiling. So the conspiracy was still not getting anywhere beyond minor kinds of scheming.

What did that look like? They knew that they were going to make some attacks, but not against who or who was going to carry them out. They knew that there would be problems like money trails to guards and mercenaries and if everyone was being honest with each other, they just weren’t ruthless enough to get the job done.

In comes Sir Raoul Le Blanc.

He had heard about the scheme because he was one of the targets for recruitment. He decided that his life was just too boring and that things needed to be shaken up. According to those people that were doing the interviewing, it was just as likely that he would have chosen the other side if matters had turned out the other way and he would have supported the progressives.

What he provided was the necessary drive. He decided about things like spreading the blame amongst themselves, he had everyone choose a target for themselves…

And it was he that added the Lady Caroline aspect to the conspiracy.

By all accounts, Raoul handled the entire thing masterfully. Even though I despise the man, he provided the necessary ruthlessness to the efforts but he also avoided fully committing himself to what was happening. He took on the guise of a royal advisor, the power behind the throne. Treating the other conspirators like chess pieces. According to the other conspirators, Raoul never attended a meeting at the estate of Sir Alain, but he could inevitably be found nearby as he hunted or trained or… I’m sure you get the idea. So the other conspirators would contact him and ask for his advice and his advice would be given.

But he never actually committed to the cause. He didn’t benefit from any of the victims that were chosen. The scheme would not benefit him in any way. There were no lands that he wanted to take over. There would be no money in it and he had no need for any more power.

The brighter members of the conspiracy began to realise that this made them vulnerable and insisted that he take part in some of the activities.

The conspiracy started with the seduction of Lady Caroline, several months before the Jack attacks were going to be taking place or before the handover of power was going to happen and then things started to move accordingly.

There is something reassuring in finding out that there were bits of this entire situation that you get wrong. All of this stuff I have told you about the foundation of the club, how that turned into a conspiracy and how that conspiracy might have eventually just petered out if not for the introduction of a couple of key figures and a large sum of money. That is not a new story. History, as I’m sure that you will know, is replete with this kind of thing and the vast majority of them do actually peter out. As it turns out, talking about treason is much more enjoyable than actually committing said treason. All it takes is the introduction of a man with the necessary drive and means to make it happen to tip over the line from one thing to the other.

So all of that, I could have predicted. It’s not uncommon and it certainly isn’t new.

I did get two things wrong and in the interests of full disclosure, I must admit that they were quite large.

The first is that the introduction of the Jack element of the killings was always part of the plan where I had thought that it was only instituted to put Kerrass and I off the scent. A theory which, looking back, was breathtakingly arrogant. It was Velles that came up with that particular idea. As one of the outsiders in the conspiracy, he brought an external view to proceedings and was able to point out some of the things that native people of Toussaint would not necessarily see. The first is that simple attacks on people would soon get the attackers caught and killed. Why?

Because there would be witnesses.

The conspirators were honest with themselves in one significant area. They knew that the Knights of Saint Francesca, while not nearly popular enough to completely do the job, were much more popular than the average Knight Errant. Toussaint loves people that try and if someone saw something, then they would run to inform the nearest Guard, Knight of Francesca or Imperial soldier.

So they had to drive away the witnesses. They could avoid the patrols and the soldiers, the idea to use the Colonel had already occurred, but beggars or passing townsfolk? Or people that might just open a window to see what was going on. That was not something that they could guarantee to avoid and therefore it was a risk that needed minimising. So it was Velles that suggested using Jack, not Raoul as I had suspected.

He argued that the people of Toussaint are afraid, on a visceral level, of two things. The first is Vampires, the second is Jack. There was some exploration as to whether or not the attacks of a Vampire could be emulated, but it was decided that, same as she had last time, the Duchess would just hire a Witcher. A Witcher who would soon neutralise the problem.

But Jack? There is enough ambiguity in Jack to cause real fear. Jack can be a normal man preying on the vulnerable. He can be a monster, hiding their crimes behind the mask of normalcy. He can be a non-human mutant or a magic user or some kind of otherworldly spirit. They also realised that it would be much easier for them to fake an attack from Jack than it would be for them to fake an attack from a Vampire.

Also, it was well known that I would be in Toussaint at the time, and given my notoriety and the experience with the subject of Jack, then Jack would be on everyone’s mind. Therefore using Jack made more sense. So it was partly about me. But I was more of an icing on the cake kind of situation.

So that was the first thing I got wrong.

The second thing I got wrong was why those particular women were chosen to be the victims. In that I assumed that the victims were chosen for their choosiness when it came to sexual encounters.

As it happens, Raoul and Velles worked quite well together, even if both of them believed that they were dominating the other. By which I mean that they both believed that they were leading the other on and manipulating them. So they both claimed credit for the plan while refusing to believe that the other person had anything to do with it.

We can be pretty sure that it was Velles who came up with the opening strategy. The opening attacks would be the most important. The main attack on Lady Vivienne was a distraction from the, actually far more important, kidnapping of Madame Duberton and the murder of Appoline the bar maid.

It was, and is, well known that the Duchess relies on a number of people for her rule of Toussaint. She relies on her sister regarding the security of the realm which is a relatively new thing. She has an older aunt that advises her on matters of the moral, traditional and etiquette nature and there is an old friend, big sister figure that advises on foreign policy.

All of them are formidable ladies, charming and terrifying in equal measure. Women whose minds work on a level that few of us dare to think. They are the Ducal equivalent of The Empress’ Lord Voorhis and the rest of the Empress’ advisors except that there are many Imperial positions rolled into the minds and bodies of just a few women.

Lady Vivienne’s role is that of domestic policy advisor. She knows about laws, politics and personal interplay and the like.

I don’t want to take away from the efforts of the other Ducal advisors or the Duchess’ personal secretary. Or the Herald or any of those things. But it could almost be said that Lady Vivienne is the person that those other advisors work for. It is a rare advisor that can get to the Duchess without first having to run things past Lady Vivienne and if they do end up meeting with the Duchess, then LAdy Vivienne is also in the meeting.

The fact that the Duchess had no close male advisor was one of many points of contention in the conspiracy.

To the courtiers in the room, it might seem obvious as to why she doesn’t. But for those people who don’t think that way, it’s because she is concerned that a powerful male advisor, no matter how loyal to her personally, would be treated as the de facto Duke by… well… the entire continent. People would just assume that he was in charge.

So the conspiracy decided to target Lady Vivienne based on that. The foreign affairs lady was set aside on the grounds that her death would not affect anything. The Etiquette lady would, likewise, not really change much. So it was down to attacking Vivienne or Syanna. They were concerned that if they attacked Syanna then she would become a martyr whereas attacking Vivienne would create a damsel in the eyes of the populace.

Which may play into everyone’s hands.

So they mounted an attack on Lady Vivienne. They made it a big, flashy and organised looking affair with lots of men involved. If they actually did get to kill her, then they would be ecstatic, but even if she escaped, then the attack would still have served its purpose.

They would have been a bit happier if she had been a bit more distressed by the attack rather than taking it in her stride, but that’s a different comment.

Madame Duberton was attacked at the same time to take advantage of the situation. Appoline was attacked because there needed to be an attack and a build towards more impressive targets. They knew that they wanted to start small and work towards something larger.

So why Appoline?

Each member of the conspiracy put a woman in the list of potential targets. This was both an effort to make sure that everyone was incriminated so that no one person could get away with anything. They were all equally invested in what was happening.

Why only women? Two reasons. The first was because they were under the impression that Jack only killed women. He does not. He kills to terrify and the sad truth is that the murder of women is simply more terrifying to the men that are supposed to be protecting them. Especially in Toussaint. The other reason was to provoke outrage in the populace and the court.

They knew that their conspiracy wouldn’t work without the court being on side. And the people of Toussaint would be incenced if the new Knights of Saint Francesca couldn’t protect the women of Toussaint. So there we are.

Why not random women? Because the conspirators also knew that it was actually quite likely that the conspiracy would not entirely work. So at the end of the day, the attacks needed to benefit them personally.

So why Appoline?

She was Velles’ chosen victim.

Velles is a merchant. Even the most sympathetic person to the merchant class of the continent would say, along with admitting the fact that the world would simply not work without them, that their first, second and third concern is about making more money.

Even Emma says that.

So that was Velles’ thing there. He knew that there is one inn that all trade moves through in Toussaint and that is the Cockatrice. There are other bridges over the river to be sure but none that provide such a direct route to the markets of Beauclair than the bridge of the Cockatrice.

The Ccockatrice inn and tavern has been there for centuries. There is even some myth around the place that there was an inn there when Beauclair was an Elven city, before humans had even dreamed of the nation of Toussaint. And for the longest time, the Cockatrice has beena family run business.

One of the reasons that the Cockatrice is so famous though, is because of the fish chowder that is served at the Cockatrice.

Why is this important?

The first reason is that the Cockatrice only makes it’s chowder from the fish that are caught amongst the nets at the base of the bridge that the inn rests on. The fisherman who owns the exclusive rights to that fish is Appoline’s ailing father.

The second reason is that the person who made and served the Chowder was Appoline herself. Appoline was one of the main attractions of the Cockatrice. Her beauty and charm meant that hopeful young men would travel for some distance in return for a chance to woo her and compliment her, undeniable, charms.

So Velle’s plan was to remove Appoline. Her father would sell the fishing rights in order to be able to keep himself and his younger children in care. Velles would buy those rights and charge the Cockatrice an increasing amount of money for the fish, putting the Cockatrice under strain. Couple that with the loss of business from the fact that the Chowder would not be as good as it used to be, as well as the fact that Appoline would not be there to be charmed any more. All of that would mean that the Cockatrice would begin to struggle.

Then it wouldn’t be long before Velles himself could move in and acquire the inn for himself. He would have unprecedented access to trade, merchants and all the gossip that comes with it. Those people that assign more sinister motives to Velles’ actions than simple greed, also point out that he would be able to provide untold information to his masters from what he would learn in such a place.

It was a good plan, if a little overcomplicated with all the moving parts. Emma has even suggested that it might still work, only for someone else to take over. She has gone to warn the Duchess of that possibility.

Velles’ chosen victim was the first to be killed on the grounds that he had put the money up for the mercenaries and guards that would be needed to mount some of the attacks that were needed. As he had the biggest investment, he stood to need a return earlier rather than risk missing out.

Or so he argued.

“Jack” was not invoked in the death of Appolline. It was a group of the most unsavoury mercenaries that carried out that particular deed. They were ordered to take her somewhere private and do the deed. They were to make it so that people who thought of Appoline’s body would have nightmares for days to come. Then they would take steps to ensure that the body would be found at a later date. The men in question did their jobs well.

Miss Donnet’s death was about land.

As I have written before, it was Miss Donnet’s intention to go to a nunnery. She had actually wanted to go to a nunnery since she was much younger, but her parents hadn’t allowed it. Her parents kept the tavern in the quarries docks. The small village next to the river with the quay that can load the stone from the quarry onto the necessary boats. There are also a couple of fishermen’s huts to help feed the quarry workers, the tavern to give the workers somewhere to go to spend their wages, a boat builder who mostly maintained those barges that weren’t up to the necessary standards needed in order to carry the stone down the river.

It was this whole little country within a country. The tavern had a couple of rooms as well, which were designed to keep those visiting men and women that would be ordering the stone during the negotiations. The tavern keeper was not the worst off in this situation and had bought some land with it. He had eyes for advancement and although he loved his daughter and was proud of her religious devotion, one of the reasons for her delay in heading off to the nunnery was because her parents hoped that she would change her mind and marry the younger son of a noble that lived in the local area. The land was to be her dowry, either in the physical form or the money after it being sold.

The noble in question had plans for that land. It was quite marshy and he was going to have it drained so that he could build a road over it that would be more stable and better maintained than the stone loading docks. Building a stone bearing wagon would be cheaper than building the right kind of barge and in exchange for the toll that he was hoping to charge, the little docking village would be made redundant and the noble would become rich. Eventually, he would be able to buy out the quarry completely and live off the proceeds. This, due to the fact that the quarry would still be providing stone until his grandchildren were grown.

But Miss Donnet wanted to go and join the nunnery. Which meant, according to the traditions of the area, that the money or land that would normally go to the new husband as part of the dowry, would instead go to the church. The noble in question was pretty certain that one of the church factors, who was a big customer of the quarry which provided stone for all the shrines and statues in Toussaint, had a similar idea to him and would have used the land accordingly.

The parents were sympathetic, they wanted the Lord’s good graces. And given that the quarry workers would still need somewhere to spend their money and negotiating factors would still need somewhere to stay, they were not worried about loss of business.

It was more a case of, if the daughter went to the Prophets, then their souls would be safe. And if she married the nobleman’s son, then their bodily comfort would be assured.

The noble, who was among the older members of the conspiracy, was a greedy, ascetic kind of man and had taken his son with him to join the conspiracy initially. It was through the son that we learned about this plot. The noble was a rich man already, far richer than you would think to look at him. The lad had gone along with it because he had found Miss Donnet attractive and the idea of all that money was seductive.

Their theory went that if Miss Donnet was dead, then the innkeeper would be inclined to sell the land for a huge profit. Therefore, Miss Donnet had to die.

“Jack” that night was just a floating of the idea. A suggestion that the conspiracy hoped would catch on. They had bigger and bigger plans for Jack, but they also wanted to build a sense of dread in the countryside. They wanted to invoke Jack without actually invoking Jack. Their reasons for this were rather wooly. The person who put the mask on and carried out the deed was one of Alain’s cronies.

Alain had a habit of riding out into the countryside and seducing women. He was not so far gone as to go out looking for someone to rape in the manner of some noblemen that I could mention. Whatever else might be said of him, he liked his women, at least slightly, willing. He had ridden into the village some months prior in order to have an ale and to see how those “less fortunate” than himself lived. He had seen Miss Donnet but she had walked off when the sensible young girl had realised what he was there for. Alain didn’t mind, he was young and handsome enough that there were other women that were more willing and easier targets for his charms. But one of his entourage had liked the look of her and had tried himself.

She was clever enough to spot this and went to sit in her father’s common room and help out with the inn. Her parents were saving her for her hopeful marriage and the younger nobleman fled with his tail between his legs.

Then the chance came up to have his turn and salve his injured ego at the same time.

The fact that the attack only succeeded in a measurement of killing Miss Donnet was a source of some fury for the conspiracy. It completely undermined everything that they were going for. A Jack who had nearly been caught. A man left with his dick literally hanging out. Jack was in danger of becoming a complete figure of comedy. A laughing stock rather than something to be feared.

The man responsible was soundly thrashed and all but incarcerated at Alain’s estate so that he couldn’t mess the matter up any further.

The Conspiracy decided to up their game from there. Miss Donnet had been chosen by all the conspirators putting their chosen targets into a hat. It was understood that you couldn’t kill your own target as part of the joy of all of this was that you had the perfect alibi. The person that you wanted dead would have died while you were surrounded by other people and therefore, no-one could possibly suspect you.

The conspiracy wanted something a bit flashier by this point. They wanted the notoriety and so a few of the lesser targets were set aside for a hopeful future. Although Velles would confess that there was a lot of lip service paid to the choosers of these kinds of… he called them “lesser” targets.

That says something. I’m not sure what it says, but that says something.

They chose Flower of the Night next. There were several of these noble people that would have been quite happy at the news of the death of the high level courtesan and it was the motive for her killing in which I was closest to accuracy. There were several of these men that were offended when she had turned them down and refused to accept their custom. There were some more, slightly more naive people who wanted her dead in order to protect their reputation.

One man in particular had a reputation for being pure and virginal. One of those character things that men portray in the tournaments. Also important for upcoming marriage contracts. However, if it was found out that he had engaged the services of Flower of the Night on several occasions, then that would have fallen apart. This was conveniently forgetting that the Belles brothel kept careful records of who had engaged whom and for what purposes.

Her death was actually quite carefully planned. They were not entirely confident in their scheme and were slightly overcautious. They chose their drunken beggar carefully so that the word of Jack’s return would spread through the countryside. They killed Flower of the Night horribly and then arranged for the beggar and thief to be there and witness the proper return of Jack.

They couldn’t have been prouder of the results. The man wearing the Jack costume that time was Lord du Bas-Tyra who was already making himself a nuisance, demanding more influence and respect while overinflating his importance. So the conspirators that were in charge of those kinds of decisions decided that if anyone was going to be caught wearing the Jack costume, then it should be him.

The conspirators were even slightly disappointed that he didn’t get caught.

Then came the death of Lady Matamara on the night of the party. This one… This one hurts. Not least because I just couldn’t understand it.

One of the conspirators was the younger Lord Matamara and he wanted his sister dead. Specifically, it was the older of the two brothers. The veteran of the wars who had lost his arm in combat and had become a military mind. The one who was trapped in a low ranking position as an adjunct to a general, engaged to the general’s much younger daughter.

As things turned out, the young Lord was deeply resentful of this situation but could not afford to escape. His funds, even upon inheritance, would not be rich enough to attract a better marriage which would have given him the excuse of calling the wedding off. Nor would the funds secure him promotion out of the dead end posting in which he had found himself.

One of the problems here was the fact that his Father, Lord Matamara, the unofficial huntsmaster to the court, absolutely loved his daughter. She was, by far, the favourite child and had promised her a huge dowry so that she could have her free choice of the suitors that came after her.

The younger Lord Matamara resented this. That bit I can understand, it is not easy to realise that you are not your parent’s favourite child. What I cannot understand is the resent that he had towards his sister. I would have told him that too if I had had the chance. From all accounts, his sister was a good, decent and wonderful young lady. A bit too proud of her youth, wealth and beauty but unlike some, she did not use these things as a bludgeon to beat people to death with.

But to him, this made the matter worse. He argued with his father that she had all the advantages anyway. Youth, charm, intelligence and beauty, why did she need money as well? The father did not listen and sent his son off in a rage.

With her death, that wealth would now revert to the estate. Lord Matamara the senior was distraught when he heard the news about his son and heir’s involvement in his daughter’s death. He demanded to see his son, throwing around lots of unsavoury comments about how Syanna must have framed him. How dare they besmirch the good name of his house and so on and so on. He was granted access to his son who, essentially, blamed the Father for everything.

Four days after the arrest of Colonel Duberton. Lord Matamara ran himself a nice hot bath and slit his wrists open with a hunting dagger, to be found by his youngest son.

The older son then claimed immunity on the grounds that he was now the Lord Matamara but the duchess refused and insisted that no-one could be above the law in this case. The youngest son is now Lord Matamara with land, wealth, title and responsibility that he didn’t really want at a very young age. Lord Palmerin has promised that he will take care of the younger Lord and it will be admitted that if he plays his cards right, he will have a promising future. He just wishes it had come to him by any other means.

I don’t understand that one and that’s why it disturbs me. I can understand greed. The desire for more money is a motive that I can comprehend. I have never been poor, but I have lived without, when Father was trying to teach me a lesson. I have had to make decisions about whether to pay rent on my university rooms or being able to eat, stayed in when my friends have been out drinking and I have had to walk past when there have been things in market stalls and shops that I have not been able to afford. I know about the desire for more money.

I can also, to my shame, understand thwarted love and lust as a motive. Loneliness is hard and I have laid in my bed looking at the ceiling after a night of watching my two closest friends being wrapped in each other’s arms while joined at the mouth. Only to listen to my landlord having loud sex with his chambermaid. So I can understand all of that.

But I cannot understand hating my sister enough to want her dead. But it wasn’t even that really. It was the cold hearted dismissal of that family bond. By all accounts, the young Lady Matamara had loved her brother and admired his devotion to duty. For him to just have an equation in his head which would be adjusted to his benefit if his sister was removed… I don’t understand that. I know that it’s a common situation among families where younger siblings and children are disposed of in order to secure wealth and political alliance. But I don’t understand it. I’m glad I don’t understand it. I would give anything to have Francesca back.

That is one that I do not understand.

That killing was the first time that the conspiracy put on a show. They wanted to put everyone on the back foot, to convince them that Jack was involved. We don’t know the intricate details of what happened that night but we do know that the chase with the guardsmen was carefully orchestrated. We know that Sir Alain was the Jack that killed Lady Matamara’s guards and began the chase. We know that the chase was carried out by various people wearing a Jack costume that could be hurled aside. Little more than a mask, hat and elongated cloak that could be thrown over a wall and we know that it was Alain in the graveyard, having taken a break to get his wind back to fight the guards and actually murder Lady Matamara.

He did not complain about this and had, apparently, leapt at the opportunity. His romantic course was set with the intention to have him marry Lady Caroline but he was still looking forward to having mistresses by the dozen. He rather depended on the position of Duke to give him a certain amount of charm and allure to the opposite sex.

It probably would have worked at that.

Lady Matamara had indeed turned him away at various points and spent some time avoiding him at parties. He had been insulted by that and had decided to pursue some vengeance.

There was also a certain realisation amongst the conspirators that there were greater and lesser members of the conspiracy. Alain, Velles, Lord Matamara from the distant posting, and a couple of others. But the hierarchy was also dictated by who could wield a sword well enough to convince people that they were Jack. Velles, Alain and only a couple of others had the necessary training and experience.

Raoul refused to do that. He, at least, knew that the Jack entity is not fond of copycats and as a result, he refused to wear the costume or to be anywhere near the attacks when they were being committed. This did not sit well with some of the more junior conspirators and it was here that it was decided that he would be the one to house Madame Duberton.

We still don’t know for sure when or how Madame Duberton died. My theory is that she was held captive by the others but when she was taken to Raoul’s estate, he saw the risks in keeping her alive and simply ordered her throat slit on the grounds that she could never then be used as a weapon against him. He claimed, as I predicted, that he had no idea that she was in his manor house and that, by then, many members of the conspiracy that were implicating him, were lying out of jealousy of his status and skills.

The conspiracy knew that I was involved after that, along with Kerrass. The intelligence that Anne had provided through Lord and Lady Tonlaire was part of that.

According to a couple of the conspirators, it was the death of Lady de Launfal where it all started to go wrong.

They knew that I was ill due to various sources and they knew that I had had a falling out with my family on the subject. So they reasoned that if they pushed me on an emotional level then I would break. They were confident that the danger to the Jack pretense was from Kerrass and myself on the grounds that we were much more likely to see through the ruse than the investigators from Toussaint.

So the idea was born that the way to neutralise me was to push my emotional boundaries, in other words, to push me and push me and push me until I broke.

They had predicted that my getting involved in the investigation was almost certainly going to happen. There are, now, two continental experts on the Jack entity, one of which was Lady Yennefer of Vengerberg but she was out of Toussaint. And the other was me. Given that I was going to be local, it made sense for me to be contacted. So they knew that this was going to happen.

So the scheme was to start to push me to my limits. Anne was already in place and through normal mischief making, my spear was arranged to be stolen and they made sure that I would be humiliated at the party of talents. Raoul volunteered for that. Both to show that he was willing to take part in the conspiracy, but also because he hated me with a violent passion.

That, at least, he was honest about.

They also had a pool of targets that Jack could attack that would infuriate me and upset me.

More than one conspirator wanted to kill Emma. They would have preferred to have killed Ariadne or Laurelen but that would have angered the Lodge of Sorceresses. Which includes a dragon nowadays lest we forget. As well as the fact that the conspiracy were still men of Toussaint and they still had a visceral fear reaction to angering a vampire.

Emma was far too well protected as she travels under considerable escort whenever she is abroad in Toussaint. It is well known how unpopular she is in certain circles and as such, her safety is as guaranteed as it can be anyway.

Anne was another target that was suggested but her use as an informer meant that she would be safe in this regard.

So they had another couple of targets in mind.

I don’t know who the other targets were. The conspiracy was aware that I was friendly with Lord Palmerin de Launfal and that they reasoned that the thought of his wife’s death would upset me.

I rather thought that it made me angry but Ariadne argues that this is not necessarily mutually exclusive. “Anger can be just as overwhelming as anything else.” She says. And therefore, it was not necessarily a bad idea.

Lady de Launfal was on the conspirator’s list anyway because they were concerned that she would blackmail a couple of them with their sexual tastes.

I’m not going into what they liked in the bedroom that Lady de Launfal knew about.

There was also the hope that killing his wife would help to destabilize the Knights of Saint Francesca. So I did, at least, get that one right.

But instead of upsetting me and sending me over the edge into upset and despair, it galvanised me and the conspiracy watched in horror as I leapt into action and started really helping the Knights of Francesca and the guard zero in on some suspects.

Lady de Launfal was not killed by any of the big names in the conspiracy. They had all caught a bit of the fear Kerrass and I. She was killed quickly, brutally and by several people including the dead Lord du Bas-Tyra. His accomplices will probably never be known. Bas-Tyra was given the job with a resounding, “You want more rewards, then you have to take more responsibility.” He was less than pleased that his target was such a Lady as he was neither attracted to her, nor did he have any particular grievance against her. He rather wanted to enjoy himself in a less than savoury way and this desire was neutralised by the fact that he was sent after Lady de Launfal.

After that, the conspiracy regrouped a little bit. They considered the possibility that the deaths and attacks would need to end sooner than any of them had wanted or anticipated. Therefore, they agreed that it was time for Alain to become a widower. They needed him to be open to marry Lady Caroline down the road. They knew that we would suspect him because of his political leanings and because he was one of the few that was capable of pretending to be Jack in the first place. So they also reasoned that if they killed his, Alain’s, wife then that would provide him with the perfect avenue of protest to get away with things.

They also dreamed up the distraction that they could frame Kerrass for Lady Moineau’s death.

According to the witnesses, Alain was incensed when he found out that Kerrass had been having an affair with his wife. It simply didn’t occur to him that his wife’s eyes might wander and he was absolutely furious. It wasn’t until several people, including Raoul, sat him down and pointed out how much of a benefit this was. It meant that they had another, tailor made scapegoat in the figure of Kerrass to blame the murders on.

Alain took to this idea firmly. He had visions of Kerrass standing before the hangman and for Alain to whisper in his ear that this was revenge for what Kerrass had done.

The conspiracy expected Syanna and the guards to believe in Kerrass’ innocence and to keep him out of the cells. They knew he would lack an alibi because on those nights when the other women were attacked, he was lying in the arms of a woman that would now be killed. So he seemed the perfect scapegoat. It would also help confirm the incompetence of the Knights of Francesca if they had been told about Kerrass’ guilt, and then they had not arrested him when there were more deaths.

It was like a dream come true. Even more so than their initially intended scapegoat of Colonel Duberton. They also knew that I would believe in Kerrass’ innocence and that I would kill myself to prove it, thus neutralising me.

Unfortunately for the conspiracy, Syanna promptly arrested the Witcher meaning that future deaths could not be blamed on him.

And there needed to be future deaths. They had realised that they had a vulnerability in the figure of Lady Caroline who had realised that something was wrong with what she was being told regarding, well, everything. So much to Sir Alain’s distress, the decision was made to cut their losses and remove Lady Caroline from play.

It was Velles that was sent to do this.

Why Velles?

Because they didn’t want to trust it to any lesser people who might make mistakes and unmask everything. Because they knew that we were already watching Alain. Raoul wouldn’t do it and so Velles was the best remaining choice. And of course, he missed.

The conspiracy realised that we were onto them now. They could feel the noose tightening around their necks and they were afraid. Mortally afraid. Visions of Knights and guards and Imperial soldiers knocking down their doors tormented them endlessly. As well as that, Colonel Duberton was becoming fractious as it had been a while since he had seen his wife. There were also a number of conspirators that were upset and angry that their intended and desired targets had not been killed, so what was the point of it all? Lord Bas-Tyra was one of these people.

So Velles and Raoul called a meeting. They admitted that it was always going to be possible that the plot would have to end early which was why the scapegoat of Colonel Duberton had been put in place from the very start of the matter. The conspirators were told not to do anything foolish and that if some, or any of them were arrested. That they were to say nothing. Deny everything and refuse to accept the legitimacy of the investigation.

Then Colonel Duberton would be activated and everything could, and would, be pinned on him.

The inner circle had a more private meeting where they agreed that some examples needed to be made. The “lesser” conspirators needed to be warned about the consequences of making noise and Colonel Duberton needed to be reminded of what was at stake. So they came up with the slaying of “Madame Duberton”.

They arranged for the Colonel and the girl who was masquerading as Madame Duberton to be invited to dinner at the house of Lord du Bas-Tyra. The Colonel was convinced that this would be a moment where he would see his wife for the first time in a long time. When they got to the house, the conspirators emerged, forcing the deaths of the other servants and guards, much to the horror of Lord du Bas-Tyra. Then they beat du Bas-Tyra to death before forcing the Colonel to watch while they did… horrible things to the nameless girl that they had sent to live with him.

Horrible things, all the time warning that he would need to play his part, or the same things would be done to his wife. He was instructed that should he hear of the arrests of any of the conspirators, that he would take his costume and cause a massive scene until he should allow himself to be killed by either me, or Kerrass.

Why me or Kerrass? So that it could not be claimed that it was the Knights of Francesca that brought an end to the Jack crisis. It was outside help.

The killing of Lord Bas-Tyra did exactly what it was supposed to do in that not a one of the conspirators complained after that and they all fell in line. Not that they had much time to formulate any kind of idea about rebelling against the orders that they received.

Just about all of the conspirators, to a man, including Velles, Alain and Raoul, were absolutely astonished at the “Throw the elbow” gambit of Captain De La Tour. Not one of them thought that the guard, or the Knights had that kind of thing in them. That willingness to go beyond honour and to do whatever it took, completely blindsided them and more than one of the conspirators were actually really impressed with it.

Their account of the day was that they knew that the plan regarding Colonel Duberton was in place. They rather thought that one or two of them might be arrested as part fo the coming things. It was almost certain that Alain was going to be arrested and the opinion of him was falling amongst the conspirators. He did not exactly inspire confidence or loyalty after all.

They heard about the duel where Kerrass challenged Alain. Apparently, it had been some time since anyone had had the nerve to challenge Alain regarding his antics. There had even been some surprise that Alain himself hadn’t challenged Kerrass on the grounds of Kerrass’ affair with Lady Moineau. So many looked forward to hearing about Kerrass’ destruction. Many even complained that they did not dare attend the duel for fear of being too heavily associated with Alain and as a result stayed away.

All of them, with the exception of Sir Raoul, were astonished when the Knights and guards came to arrest them. The only thing that varied between all of them was the degree to which they protested.

Velles was pretty sure that the game was up almost immediately. He was only invested in certain aspects of the scheme, he was confident that it could not be entirely proven that he was involved. The only time that he had been directly involved himself was when he had attacked the cottage containing Lady Caroline and because no-one else had been involved in the raid, he could easily claim that it was only hearsay and the like that would put him there. He was not guilty of treason given that he was not a native to Toussaint…

That point is in contention. Even though the matter has been resolved, there is an argument that because we are all part of the greater Empire of Nilfgaard, plotting against a foreign client Kingdom is still plotting against Nilfgaard and is therefore treason. The legal arguments about that are going to continue for a long time I think.

… So he thought that he was largely going to get away with it. He traded an agreement for his cooperation and told them everything. He had kept meticulous notes on every meeting that he had attended and every conversation that he had had. It is these notes that give us the clearest picture of what was actually happening as part of the conspiracy. But he told us what was happening and Syanna, who had led the raid on Velles’ compound, ordered the arrests without even needing to consult the Duchess.

Pretty much everything else is known so I will skip through most of it. Alain did not really help very much. He was in a state of shock in the immediate aftermath of his loss to Kerrass, insisting over and over again that Kerrass had cheated. That Palmerin was biased against him and so on and so on. The other conspirators followed their orders. The example of Lord du Bas-Tyra was still fresh in their minds. And apart from anything else, they were confident and secure in their positions and their plan.

It simply never occurred to them that we would be able to turn Colonel Duberton against them.

Raoul had spotted the vulnerability. He had guessed the reason, or excuse if you prefer, as to why Kerrass was challenging Alain to a duel. He simply asked himself the question as to why Kerrass had not duelled Alain before. When he got the answer he didn’t like, he retreated to secure Madame Duberton’s body.

Why had the body not been destroyed, hidden, buried, burnt or otherwise? Because they knew that such things could be found eventually. Whereas if they kept it inside the manor house, the searchers, including magical ones, could be forbidden entry by rules of sovereignty. He didn’t have the body burnt because he was concerned about the risk of Madame Duberton turning into a Wraith of some kind.

A fear that was not entirely unfounded.

The other problem that Raoul faced was that the conspiracy still didn’t trust him. And for good reason. So he kept the body on their orders so that there was some incriminating evidence that could mark him. The fact that the conspiracy had ordered him to keep Madame Duberton a prisoner, and he had killed her instead, actually horrified more than a few conspirators.

Raoul’s intention was to secure the body until the conspiracy was dealt with before disposing of the body and everything that came with it in as polite and respectful manner as possible given the circumstances.

That was still the plan but Damien was closer on his heels than he had expected. A fire would have been spotted, a group of people leaving with a body would likewise have been spotted. So he took the guards and Damien prisoner using the pretext of the fact that the lands were his own to police. He was confident that he could use his money, reputation and prestige to tie up legal things about the capture and his refusal to accept Damien’s authority.

But I challenged him and he just couldn’t resist.

And so the entire thing came tumbling down.

As I say, I came to this information long after the fact. After Colonel Duberton’s admissions and naming of Just Some Girl, I fell apart and got really sick. There were good days and bad days. Days when I could follow along with what was being discovered about the conspiracy and other days where I could barely take anything in. I was permitted from my bed twice. The first was on the day that we carried news of the death of Just Some Girl to her family. The other was where I attended the memorial service for the victims of Jack.

It was a bleak day, the families of Appoline, Miss Donnet and Just Some Girl were given full cavalry escorts to the memorial and they were given places of honour at the following wake. The service was nice enough, moving and touching, but the Wake afterwards was strange. I found it to be an almost parody of grief.

When my time comes, a kind of simple version of the Skelligan wake is my favourite. More quiet drinking, laughing and eating amongst friends rather than the axe-throwing, wrestling, bards climbing on tables with couple’s sneaking off to dark corners, but not entirely off out of sight.

For Toussaint there seemed to be a whole lot of ceremony around the entire thing. People wore ornate, dark dresses. Jewellery was, at the same time, simple and ornate. Normally silver and pearl.

I remembered a piece of correspondence that I had had with Lady Yennefer when we were working on a draft of our book and she commented that, speaking on a purely surface level of things, she quite enjoyed Toussaint memorials because it meant that her fashion choices were not too obscene in the middle of the Toussaint court.

What I’m saying is that there was a lot of Black, White and Silver in the ensembles. But it was no less fancy for all of that. There were cups of mourning. There were special dishes that were produced with the pieces being taken to those families that had lost someone first and foremost. There were songs of mourning which caused the entire court to bow their heads in solemn displays of grief.

It went on and on and on. I probably should have left much earlier than I actually did, but I felt that I had some kind of obligation to stay for much longer. A feeling that many people took every opportunity to chastise me for later.

After that, the legal process began in earnest and it was among the more frustrating things that I have ever been part of.

By this point it had sunk into the minds of the conspiracy that they were in trouble. They were scared, angry and frustrated. Many of them believed that they were innocent of all charges. Why? Because they, personally, had not been involved with any of the attacks and because their chosen victim had not been one of the ones selected to be killed. Therefore, because they had not committed any crimes directly, they should just be let go.

It had to be explained to them, over and over and over again that this was not how treason works. That conspiring to commit treason is the same thing as actually committing treason and that they would be punished for that. This did not sit well with them at all and they fought it, every step of the way.

I was interviewed by the lawyers on both sides of the case on multiple occasions. The entire process was far from pleasant and the only reason that I didn’t just flee, persuading Kerrass to come with me, is because that might have meant that some, or all of the conspirators were going to get away with it.

That and because I was still really, really ill.

Life in Toussaint was going back to normal now. Syanna and the rest of the Knights of Francesca were distracted by new crimes and new crises. There was a concern that information about Velles contacts and his merchant endeavours would have gotten out into the wild and as such there was a danger of increased smuggling happening. There was a burglary at the estate of Lord and Lady Tonlaire where it seems that people were after the contents of Lady Tonlaire’s Blackmail ledgers.

There was the murder of a Lord where one of the vigilance committee’s that had been formed during the Jack attacks believed that we had missed some of the conspiracy. So they took the matter into their own hands. It turned out that the Lord in question had had a mistress in the figure of a member of the Vigilance committee’s wives. An excuse was looked for to justify murder. It was found and the deed was done.

It was also in that period where Anne went to see her former colleagues at the Belles of Beauclair. Ariadne and I went at the invitation of the madame as we were the betrayed clients. I wanted to speak up on Anne’s behalf. She had forbidden Gregoire from attending the… ceremony really is the right word I suppose.

She was exiled. The process was not pleasant. They trotted out every man, woman, boy and girl that worked at the Belles and one by one they walked up to Anne and slapped her in the face for the betrayal of a client’s confidences. It was awful to watch as the tears streamed down Anne’s face. I tried to intervene but Ariadne hauled me back.

When they were done, the Madame nodded and produced a, not small, bag of money which she handed back to Ariadne.

“She had no choice.” I tried to say. The entire process had been deeply disturbing and upsetting to me.

“Do not interfere.” Madame Isabelle snarled at me. “These matters are beyond your concern. You have no idea what we have to live with.”

“He knows better than most.” Ariadne said, calmly.

“Be that as it may.” The Madame said. “I apologise to you both as clients. Should either of you ever come back to my doors again then you should know that there will always be food, wine, a bed and a partner of your choice to keep you warm. You have our deepest regrets for what has happened and hope that you will not hold this bitch’s betrayal against the rest of us.”

Anne sobbed at this last statement.

Isabelle signalled and the vast majority of the staff turned and went back inside the building, leaving only a couple of the older women out in the cold.

Isabelle approached Anne and lifted her back to her feet from where Anne had collapsed to her knees and gave her a hug. The remaining women joined the hug and there was the sound of sobbing coming from the hug. When Anne recovered her composure, Isabelle led us back into the Belles where there was a party of farewell in the offing.

The brothel knew that Anne had no choice. That could not stop her from being cast out. But now that she was cast out, they could celebrate her coming wedding with pride.

I received a number of invitations that night. So did Ariadne for that matter.

But I was still sick and I deferred with the best grace that I could manage. The women would not let me go though, getting Ariadne to promise that she would let me visit them all at a later date when I was feeling better. Anne looked on smugly, her tears long since dried up. Apparently she had been telling tales.

Ariadne was gracious about it and told everyone that I could come, but that she, Ariadne would come at the same time.

More than one woman got an odd, slightly intimidating, thoughtful look about that.

It was a little over three weeks after the arrest of Colonel Duberton, a few days after the memorial when Emma, Mark, Laurelen, Kerrass, Ariadne and I were called to the Duchess’ study.