The grate didn’t take long to melt. After that had been the wards, a pair of them laid perpendicular to each other, ready to trigger the moment they were crossed. I hurriedly chipped away at the sides of the chimney, cutting a hole above where an anchor had been set for each, and poured more acid, letting it each through mortar till it reached the emitters.

Both disappeared from sight, and I continued downwards.

A host of minor spirits shot ahead of me, the spells keeping them out anchored to those alarms. They’d alert the guards in due time, but I still had a window.

I emerged filthy and spreading ash everywhere in the room as I crawled out of the chimney.

I was in an office, an ornate wooden desk and chair, along with several small bookshelves on top of a red and green carpet. There was only a single door, currently closed.

I closed my eyes, trying to ignore the noises from outside and focus on the ones on this floor. Two, maybe three people were up here? They were the only one’s active enough for my ears to pick up, so there may be more motionless or asleep.

Three distinct noises, two walking, one turning pages. I followed the sound of the turning pages, keeping away from those walking. Logically, I doubted the son would be allowed to wander if the father was keeping him out of public sight.

This might be difficult. Personality shifts could be drastic, tended to be drastic. The mind wasn’t meant to play host to battles between draconic and demonic forces. It might mean someone I could easily convince to leave this place with me.

It could also mean a fight that would need me to dose the noble scion to sleep quickly before it drew any attention. That double set of patrolling footsteps was trouble. I’d hoped the dramatics of the drakes would draw everyone away, but some had stayed on duty.

A problem as I crept from room to room. The diabolic energy I’d used to hold my leg together had finally faded, but I hadn’t had the time to sculpt it like I should. Potions had been off the table till I’d made sure everything was set into place. It was nothing more than an annoyance now, but even annoyances could be lethal.

The two on patrol were nowhere near me for now as I neared the sound of the book. Not just paper being leafed through now, but also breathing, which was choppy, shallow, and pained. The kind of breathing where you know you need to fill your lungs, but every time fills you with pain.

I reached the door and, making sure neither of the other people on this floor were near, opened it and stepped inside swiftly.

It was a simple room, a table and a bed with a single occupant, who strained to look at me as I entered.

Edward Montague looked far different from he had a few weeks ago. Scales had swallowed half his face, hard and deep, lines cut into his face. Pale flesh filled in the gaps in between, looking stretched where they met the scales. A normal human eye of blue and a firefly slit of red both stared at me as he slowly put the book down with a hand sporting two fingers, a thumb, and two talons that had been filed down.

“Well,” I said as I jammed the chair firmly underneath the door handle. “This is not what I expected.”

“Not what I expected either,” Edward Montague said with difficulty, skin stretching as scales moved, putting his book aside. “You are the Infernal my brother was talking with in my room. I assume you aren’t supposed to be in here?”

“Correct,” I said, heading for the other door and opening it. Just a simple restroom and a look on the arcane mostly confirmed that. I knew which wall to use, but there was a slight hitch now. My timetable wasn’t too tight, however.

“I could call for guards,” Edward said bluntly, half his face refusing to move.

“But you won’t,” I replied. “If you do, I doubt you ever get to see outside this prison cell again.”

He bristled at that, but a second later his shoulders slumped, the fight draining out of him. He’d must have thought the same quite several times before now, but having me say it had brought it out of the worries inside his head.

“What did you do to me?” he asked sullenly.

“I did nothing,” I replied. “The cure I gave your father worked. Clearly, it’s just the side effects took a route I was not expecting.”

I didn’t know what had happened to Edward, but I could make a few guesses. Clearly, the draconic elements of the cure had reacted to his body rather strangely. There would need to be an examination to see how deep they went as well.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“There must be a way to cure this,” Edward said pleadingly. “I’ll be disinherited if not.”

A snappy line about that being all he cared about waited on the tip of my tongue, but I let it rest. No reason to turn who might be a willing prisoner into an unwilling one.

“Perhaps, but I doubt your father is the one to find it,” I said. “Currently he’s busy trying to use the people who poisoned you before they backstab him, while they try to wheedle what he promised out of him before plunging the knife in.”

The human parts of Edward’s face paled. “He’s working with the shape-changers?”

“More like coercing them,” I admitted. “So you are safe. From them. From your father if he decides a flaying is needed to get these scales off you? Less so.”

I was only exaggerating a little. I doubted an actual flaying would occur, but more invasive methods to try to ‘cure’ his son of this would likely be on the table. At least when his first attempts failed to free his son of scales.

“He’d have to repeat it often,” Edward said in resignation. “It spreads. Slowly, but it spreads.”

I cocked my head to the side. Strange, the cure should have long ago left his system, so what could even sustain the changes?

“Another reason to get you out,” I offered. “I know some people who might have insight into that.”

‘Know’ might be stretching my relationship with the trio of drakes, but they did likely have more insight than me into this.

“Where is everyone?” Edward asked. “The statue should have smashed through the ceiling the moment it detected a stranger on the floor.”

“Dealing with one of those people,” I replied. “Which does get me to an important point. You are coming out of here, Edward Montague. I’d prefer that be willingly, but if not, I will drag you out, and time is ticking.”

Montague visibly struggled. The shifting of expressions made both more apparent and more painful to watch from the static nature of half of his face.

“It pains me to admit it,” he said. “Loyalty to father ending because of something entirely out of my control. He sees less of me, I think, with every piece the scales claim, despite me not having changed at all.”

‘Welcome to the club’ dangled on the end of my tongue, but I didn’t say it. No need to antagonize my target while they were willing to go along. Honestly, he might be one wrong prodding away from a breakdown.

“There’s a rope being lowered down a chimney. I just need you to drink a potion and we can get you out of here.”

***

It had taken a little more effort than expected to get Edward Montague stuffed up the chimney. The scales spreading across him had been on all of his limbs as well, and his ability to move had suffered.

Still, as we’d both been lifted out of the chimney, it looked like the Watch had arrived in enough force to force an end to the argument between Lord Montague and Valicent. Not Malstein, no need to make Lord Montague more suspicious than he likely already was, instead another Watch Officer to assure Lord Montague he had done nothing wrong. Maybe entice him to stay outside a little longer while discussion what legal options he might have against Valicent and how Watch witnesses would agree the drake had started the fight.

The entire time, the Watch balloon departed in the background, carrying me and his heir.

We were deposited several rooftops away, on top of the Halman Meat-packing plant. It was supposed to be a place where we could easily slip into the busy factory downstairs, mingle, and depart. That was before Edward Montague’s draconic metamorphosis, so instead we’d have to wait for it to close down. Camouflage potions would only do so much.

Besides, Edward Montague had many questions. Mostly about the safety of his family, which I told him about, but also everything that had happened during and since the party. I fed him most of it, keeping things secret he didn’t need to know.

I kept my conjecture to myself as well. It was likely true, but trying to include things I could not definitively prove was likely to poison the well.

I didn’t necessarily need Edward Montague on my side, but it would make getting information out of him easier. We didn’t need to just use him as bait.

“Your father has not talked to you much?” I asked him as he finally ran out of questions.

“Outside of trying to convince me he will reverse this and until then it’s best I stay hidden for the family's reputation?” Edward replied. “No. No, he has not.”

“You didn’t overhear anything? See anything, perhaps?” I pressed. Something had to shake loose.

“Nothing,” Edward irritably replied. “He’s not some idiot. Any discussions he’s had on that floor have been far away from me.”

I sighed in frustration. No concrete tie with Lady Karsin. Her at least, if I was right, would be easy to catch. Use one of the methods I was thinking on for detecting shape-changer, prove she was one, and then once she was in Watch custody turn her and Hawkins on one another. Lord Montague’s involvement would be trickier to prove. The written instructions to the pair of Shapechangers were the key, but on its own would it be enough?

He could always argue coercion. That a Shapechanger had been hidden in his house and threatened him, Edward, or others of his family if he didn’t cooperate.

“Did you have to pick a meat-packing plant?” Edward whined, staring down at the floor.

That shook me out of my thoughts and I turned my attention back to the noble scion. His jaw was partially deformed, one that was longer trying to form out of one much shorter. The result was one in the middle, one side jutting further out in front of him than the other.

He was drooling. Quite a bit, actually, as he stared down at the source of the scent of pork being put into packages. Along with who knows what else had ended up in the meat.

Another thing to add to the list of mysteries, but at least this one wouldn’t be mine. Hopefully someone could figure out how this had started and could be stopped.

Not my immediate concern. That would be the bishop we were planning on ferreting out tomorrow. I’d be helping with that, even if just from a distance. It beat trying to step foot on Halpsus’ holy ground and being obliterated immediately. Still, irritating I would be testing the method myself. It was my idea.

“Infernal?”

“Yes?”

“You were thief, right?”

“Among other things.”

“Could you sneak down there and steal me some meat?”