Bosrunner? Could he be the one that had lost his pin? Verlate quietly, and quickly crept up behind him. She was thankful that they were both walking on carpet flooring, it hid much of her noise, and along with the long hallways of her order, it made it much easier to keep watch. When she first saw him, she noticed that he didn’t have a pin in the correct spot there, or at least she thought that she did. If she could just force him to look towards her, she would be able to get a view of him at least. She hurried up, and bumped her shoulder against him, causing him to drop some of the items and tomes that he was carrying.

“Oh shit, I’m sorry,” Verlate said, hurrying in front of him. “I’ve been just preoccupied lately, let me help you pick that up.” She looked him over. There it was, He had the pin right on the left side of his chest. She must have not been paying too much attention. She leaned over and started picking up the tomes.

“Oh, It’s alright, Ms. Verlate.” He said.

“No please, it was my fault, at least let me help you pick it up.”

Ms. Verlate? She had never been called that before. Did others in the order view her as a superior? She hadn’t been here for longer than Bosrunner, perhaps a few more years at the most. Although, others within the Wilted Rose did seem to carry themselves differently around her. Although was that due to her proximity to Alarotha, or were they hiding something from her? Perhaps that was all that was anyway, lies, deceit. She sighed, she was getting restless. She couldn’t let these thoughts fester, she had to stay focused on her mission. Nobody could know about Wilted Rose’s involvement with any current necromancers. The missing village had already been circulating, and many pointed the finger at the Wilted Rose’s involvement. Their necks were already on the line, if they had even one more slip-up, all of them would die. And yet, she could find nothing, nothing at all. She had been investigating the missing pin case for the last few days now, all leads went nowhere. Alarotha had no idea who could have been missing a pin either, She didn’t want to make a public announcement as that might blow Verlate’s cover. Verlate had followed up on a lot of leads. Bosrunner, Dukh, Compassiun, and many others. Yet none of them turned out to be any sort of lead.

She finished picking up the last of the tomes that Bosruner dropped. She once again viewed his chest, there it was, albeit a little bit dirty. She handed him the tomes and nodded at him. He quickly scurried off to wherever he was going. Was she suspicious, perhaps? It was possible, it felt like she had gotten absolutely no sleep since she and Tyrannus had gotten back from their adventure. She didn’t let Tyrannous on to what she had found there. The only person she could trust now was Alarotha. Tyrannus had his pin still on him, so he wasn’t suspect. She wondered if one of the members had died recently, and just had left their pin, or had gone missing. Yet the last member that left was seen just a week ago and had sent a letter just today, telling about their events. Verlate shook the thoughts from her mind, Alarotha was following up on members who weren’t here, it was her job to track down members close by, and see if there was anything suspicious. She found the pin close by here, it was likely that they hadn’t gone far.

Verlate quickly walked down the winding halls toward her room. There were more priests and paladins here than usual, no doubt ordered to be here. They were even conducting an investigation in a room close to hers. She locked eyes with one of the paladins. It was hard to see her eyes under the helmet she wore, yet she knew exactly the way that she looked at her. Vermin, a rodent, something to be exterminated. Verlate hurried into her room and shut the door. There had to be something that she was missing, and she had to find it out fast. Who was next? Her, Tyrannus? Alarotha? The only reason that Alarotha was still alive, was that she commanded order amongst her people, and even then it was clear to Verlate that her command over her people was slipping and fast. She never would have imagined one of her own people might be raising the dead, they felt like family to her.

There was a sudden knock at her door. Her heart sank. It was her next, wasn’t it? She looked around her room. There wasn’t anything here that could incriminate her, yet did that truly stop them? What’s stopping them from just using whatever they could find to have her swing? Her breathing hastened, and she started hyperventilating. She couldn’t be found now, not while there was still so much to do. If she was going to go, she wanted to make sure the others were safe.

There was another series of knocks at her door, six knocks in a row. She heard a muffled voice behind a door. It was, familiar? Yet who? She walked over to the door. The beat of her heart drowned out any other noise. She grabbed the cold brass doorknob, and turned it. She swung the door open.

“You look like shit.” He said.

Verlate brought her gaze upwards. “Sisyphus?” She asked.

He gave her a small grin, and welcomed himself into the room. Verlate closed the door behind him. “Alarotha said that you might need help with something, and I’m assuming that it has to be pretty important, considering just how much I was paid for this.” He said. He looked back at Verlate.

She looked like she had just seen a ghost. Sisyphus didn’t look anything like when she saw him last. He was wearing the robes of the Wilted Rose, did he become a member? No, the more likely thing was that he was given those robes by Alarotha to blend in much better. Sisyphus noticed the look on her face and gave her a small reassuring smile.

“Are you okay? I didn’t mean to offend you if-”

“No, sorry, I just thought you were, somebody else.” She said shakily. This could be great news, she thought, Sisyphus knew all about subterfuge and hiding within plain sight. If there was any way for her to find out who was hiding within their own ranks, it would be Sisyphus.

Sisyphus started picking up objects around the room. He found a small ceramic statue that was sitting on a bed stand. “What’s this for?” He asked.

She walked over, and took the statue from him, and set it back on the nightstand, “Caivero, he was one of the first Aspects of death.” She said. “I like to look at him as sort of a way to remind me where we've come from, and what I’m now fighting against.” She sighed, look at how far things have come.

She looked over back at Sisyphus.” What did Alarotha tell you about what’s happening?”

He shrugged. “Quite a bit, but she believes that there might be a traitor within your order, and she wants me to help you search for them.” He said. “I’ve sent some of my people to look into possible missing people, but let’s just see if anybody’s just misplaced it, or if they’ve got the wrong pin.”

She nodded. The pins that they used denoted rank, however, everybody that she saw had the pins that they were assigned. She looked at Sisyphus’ robes, and the pin that he was wearing. It was a small silver pin, with the Wilted Rose’s symbol in it. On the upper left corner of the pin, there was a small sun engraving on it. The pin denoted a much higher rank than many other members within the order, likely to stop the Followers of Faith from interrogating or otherwise bullying him, the same rank that she had. Other pins were made with copper, or nickel, with both of them being lower ranks than her, Disciples and Faithful with the pins having other noteworthy features. The one Alarotha has is special, it’s the only fully gold one, with the same engravings that her pin has.

She sat down on her bed and invited Sisyphus to sit with her. He sat beside her. The bed wasn’t too comfortable, but it was the most comfortable thing in her room. Sisyphus pulled out a small, glass flask from his left chest pocket. “Anything that you’ve found in particular?”

Verlate shook her head. “I’ve got a few ideas in mind, but they’re long shots.” She said. “Everybody that I’ve checked so far has the pins that they’re supposed to, as well as none of them are missing one.”

Sisyphus started rubbing his hands together, was he cold? The room was a little bit frigid, fall was starting. “Is there anything that we should double-check on?” He asked.

She thought about it for a moment. “Perhaps we could check the member registry, it keeps the dates of when all the members joined and their ranks, it was helpful to see if any members were wearing a pin that was not of their rank.”

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Sisyphus nodded. “It’s worth taking another look at that, especially now that you’ve gotten out and looked at a lot of the members.”

“Then we need to go to Alarotha’s room, she’s got the records there.” She said

Verlate and Sisyphus got up off the bed and headed toward the door. Sisyphus grabbed the doorknob, and Verlate grabbed their shoulder.

“Don’t make eye contact with any of them out there, and walk as if you belong here.” She said.

Sisyphus nodded. “Done something similar like this before, I know what I’m doing.” They said. She nodded.

He opened up the door, and walked out into the hallways, Verlate left the room, and lead him towards Alarotha’s room. Sisyphus kept his distance behind her, it was better that they didn’t travel together, drew less attention. Anybody here could be out against them now, there was nobody they could trust, least of all the priests and the paladins. It felt like the walk there took forever, even though their rooms were close to each other. She made it to Alarotha’s room and knocked on the door. There was more shuffling happening in the room. What was she always moving around in there? Did it sound like something glass, perhaps? The shuffling stopped. Verlate opened the door to her room. Alarotha was slumped over behind a desk in the corner of the room. She was resting her head on her hand, and looking over some papers. She closed the door behind her. Alarotha looked up at Verlate, and gave her a small smile. And a nod. Verlate looked around the room more. She was busy, busier than she was in the past few days. There was paper strewn around the room, on the drawers, and her bed, and even her desk. Verlate moved some of the papers off of the bed and handed them to Alarotha. She grabbed them and put them into a drawer on her desk.

“Thanks, Been busy recently looking into things,” Alarotha said. “What did you need, Verlate?”

Verlate sat down on the bed. “Sisyphus should be in here, shortly.” She said.

Alarotha nodded back at her. There was another knock at the door, and shortly afterward, Sisyphus neutered the room. He nodded at Alarotha. “Hello, again Alarotha.” He said. Alarotha gave them a small smile.

“Sisyphus, it’s good to see you again.” She said. “I’m sorry for sending one of my agents instead of contacting you directly, I would have come if -”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said, “I figured you were dealing with your own problems.” He smiled at her.

Verlate stood up. “We wanted to take a look at the registry of the members.” She said. Alarotha looked up at Verlate. She pulled a large stack of paper, bound together by leather straps, and handed it to Verlate. “Rank first, and alphabetical second.”

Verlate nodded back at Alarotha. “We should get going before anybody grows suspicious.” She said. Verlate started walking towards the door and grabbed the handle.

“Do you have any of the previous year’s files here?” He asked. Alarotha got up out of her seat.

“For anything older than the past five years, it’s kept in the archives, but you’ll need special permission to look at them, and you’ll only be able to look at them under supervision.” She said and looked back at Sisyphus. “Not much I can do about that, council’s regulations.” She hauled out of the closet four huge bound tomes and handed them over to Sisyphus. He let out a loud grunt He didn’t have a very muscular frame, actually he was, quite skinny, skinnier than she remembered. Verlate walked over and took some of the books from Sisyphus, the books weren’t that heavy. She carried four of the books, while Sisyphus carried one of them. She shot an accusing glance at Sisyphus, he gave her a small, but embarrassed grin.

They made it back to Verlate’s room. Sisyphus was popping his back. “Sorry, I’m not as strong as I used to be.” He said. Verlate was already scanning through the most recent publishing of the book. What had she missed? And why did we grab some of the older copies? What could be in them? She didn’t exactly know, but she trusted Sisyphus’ intentions. He grabbed a small glass of water on the table next to her bed. She grabbed it for him not too long ago. He gulped it down quickly.

‘What are we looking for exactly?” Verlate asked.

“Not exactly sure.’ he said. Verlate shot a glance at him.

“What?”

“Well, we're just looking for anything that you might have missed, and every lead that you’ve looked at so far has been a dead end, probably meaning that’s exactly what they were wanting you to think.” He said

“What are you saying?” She asked.

“Maybe they wanted you to think that they were killing somebody, or that somebody was missing a pin, but perhaps they had just gone into the books and changed their ranks.” He said

Verlate flipped through more pages of the book. Somebody might have changed their ranks. Who, and how?

“Who do you think had changed their ranks?” she asked.

‘That’s where you come in,” he said, looking back at Verlate, “You know everybody here, what their ranks are, and where they’re supposed to be, if anybody can find a discrepancy in the files, it’s gonna be you.” He stood back up. “Give me some names, and I can look into what you need me to.” He said.

“There are a few names that I can think of that you could look into,” she said, “Bosrunner, Dukh, Compassiun.”

“Anybody else we should look at?” He asked.

Verlate thought about it for a moment. There were a few possibilities that they could look into, nobody was above suspicion she supposed. “There are a few others that I could possibly think of. You could look into Broer or Sedulur’s files, and see if there’s anything there.” She said, she turned her gaze back towards the ground. Tears started welling in her eyes. She fought them back. “There’s also Tyrannus, Alarotha had some suspicion about him, yet we let go of the suspicion recently when he helped me with my investigations.” She said.

Sisyphus rubbed his chin. “Well, it’s worth looking into some of them.” He sat down on a nearby chair, and looked through the most recent registry, flipping through the pages where some of the members could be found. She decided to start doing the same thing, looking at the previous year’s registry. Perhaps she should look at the one from five years ago, maybe there’s something there.

Broer and Sedulur’s files were much of the same. Their ranks didn’t change, and it was put on their files, deceased. That all checks out, as much as she didn’t want it to.

“Hmh.” Sisyphus grunted. He flipped back and forth between two separate books on the table in front of him.

“Find anything?” Verlate asked.

“Well,” he said, trailing off. Verlate walked over to where he was sitting. It was last year’s registry, she gave it to him when she was done looking over it. “When did Tyrannus get demoted?” He asked.

Verlate cocked an eyebrow. “Never, as far as I know.” She said.

She motioned for Sisyphus to move from his seat. He quickly obliged. She looked over at both of the pages. Yet was surprised by what she saw. She looked at the registry from four years ago. His rank was Disciple, the rank just below her. She looked over at the registry from last year. The rank there also read Disciple. What? They both read the same rank? What was Sisyphus talking about? She looked back at Sisyphus. “What are you talking about?” She asked.

“They are the same rank, right?” He asked. Verlate nodded back at them. “Right, that’s what’s bothering me, look at the promotions near the back of the registry.”

She flipped to the back of the tome, to where the members that get promotions are given reasons as to why they were given promotions. There were many members then, even she was promoted at that time. Yet she flipped over to where Tyrannus’ name was. There it was. “Tyrannus promoted from Disciple to Apostle. Reason: Excellent behavior and drive to serve, Application Accepted.” yet what did that mean? She knew him always as a Disciple, and every Disciple has to specifically put in an application to become an Apostle. She never knew that he wanted to be in that position. She hastily grabbed the older registry. No reason for a demotion.

‘Look back through the previous years too.” She said.

‘Already did, nothing at all about a demotion.” He said. She kept looking though the pages, there had to be something that they were missing. Was Tyrannus who they were really looking for? Why would he even want to stay as a Disciple, the higher the rank, the less likely you were to be harassed by the Followers of Faith, or perhaps there was something else. Maybe they kept more tabs on people within her rank, perhaps he wanted to have fewer eyes on him at all times, at the cost of him being harassed more by the Followers. She grabbed the pin in her pocket. It was the same pin that she had. An Apostle of the Wilted Rose. She shook her head. Was Tyrannus really behind all of this? No. He couldn’t be. There had to be another reason.

She looked at Sisyphus. “Speak nothing of this to anybody, not even Alarotha.” He looked skeptical at her. “Somebody is watching her, we need to look into this now, and we need to look into this fast.”