Having named our team did not change anything, yet somehow it put a smile on my face. The next two days passed quickly, then I was called to the headmaster's office, again.

I had plenty of surprises there so far, but this time I already expected the topic: The poisoning at the party. Inside the office were Erik, Irene and Duncan. The presence of the royal investigator confirmed my suspicions.

“Koyuki, you remember Duncan, right?” Erik asked.

“Yes, sir.” I confirmed.

“Good. He is looking into the poisoning.” Erik nodded towards Duncan.

“Indeed. Nyx did well spotting it.” Duncan said. “And I must commend your friend for identifying how it worked. Our alchemists have confirmed her theory, the poison was only triggered by death mana. Not a cheap thing to manufacture and unsurprisingly something that is produced in Ilestria.”

I nodded. It did not sound too surprising. But I wondered why my friends had not been invited to the meeting. Maybe because they were not the target?

Duncan continued: “We assume you were the primary target, although Duke Harold will likely consider it an attack on his family. Something that complicates matters. There will be a special meeting between the king and the dukes to discuss this situation.”

I frowned. This was interesting, I suppose, but nothing that really concerned me.

“You have a question?” Duncan inquired.

“Yes, sir. What does this have to do with me? Besides the attack, I suppose.” I asked.

“There is a chance that you will be called to speak before the court. Mind you, it will take at least a month until there is a meeting. Such things take time. Ideally we will have more evidence by then. One of the servants might have been responsible but the suspect died during questioning.” He said.

“Died? How?” I asked.

“Poison.” He replied. “We still do not know how it was ingested. Sadly, we do not even know if the servant was guilty. He could have been an agent taking his own life, because he was captured, or an innocent who was poisoned to create a false trail. I assume you are not capable of raising the servant as a tier three and force him to answer?”

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“I do not think I am ready for that.” I replied. It was an interesting idea though.

Duncan nodded. “Your necromancy teacher said the same. Sadly, even if you manage to use the soul of the victim, and do not create a new one, there is never a guarantee that they remember everything.”

“Koyuki, what do you think about the poisoning?” Erik asked, suddenly.

“Uh. I am not sure. Why did they only poison the fish? Why did they not try harder to serve me one? And what would have happened if the poison had hit Leo first? Also, you gave me an antidote, would that have worked?” I wondered.

“Not against this specific poison, no.” Duncan answered. “Which makes me wonder if they knew about the antidote.”

“Also, I was not planning on attending the party at first. It was a last minute decision.” I added.

“Curious. What made you change your mind?” Irene asked.

“We were trying to buy some corpses but they were all sold out. Leo tried to bribe me with corpses lately, so we decided a bit of mingling might not hurt. There were a lot of people with connections at the party.” I explained.

Erik raised an eyebrow. “There is a corpse shortage? You think someone is stopping you from raising more undead?”

“It seems plausible…” I said. Was it wrong to assume it was because of me?

“It does stink of normal politics, yes.” Irene said.

Erik stroked his beard. “So nobody really knew you would go to the party. You even went on foot, right? You did not call a carriage?”

“Yes.” I confirmed.

Duncan pondered that. “Even if someone bought the corpses to pressure you into a deal, they could not have known you would show up at the party. Unless Leo was the target, it must have been organised quickly. They thought they had an opportunity and acted without proper preparation.”

“So the servant was either a plant all along, replaced at the last minute, or framed.” Irene concluded.

“If it was not the servant, it would have to be a guest.” I mused.

“It could have been one of the guards, or someone could have broken in. A highly trained operative could infiltrate a party like that. There were no mages on guard duty to stop illusions.” Duncan pointed out. “The most troubling theory is a guest though. All of them are important people.”

“So, is there a way to defend myself against this poison?” I wondered. “If someone here at the academy used it, they could do it again.”

“The academy has a lot of wards and specialists. Poisoning you here would be difficult and we would have the staff to treat you. The poison they used would linger in your blood for a few hours, depending on the amount consumed. It would also take somewhere between half an hour to an hour to kill you, once activated.” Duncan explained.

“The poison could be countered by blood magic. So your best defence will be Skadi, once she learns more. There is no true antidote in potion form but healing can help you stay alive until you reach a specialist. You need a blood mage.” Irene said.

“I would recommend you test for this particular poison with your vampiric armadillo.” Erik pointed out.

“Investigating nobles is complicated, especially if they are related to a duke.” Duncan said. “Keep your eyes open. If you find anything that could be helpful, let us know.”

I nodded. Then I was dismissed.

I thought about Duncan’s words on my way to my room. Did his words mean they had a suspicion? Could Archibald have tried to poison me? Could he be working with Ilestria? Was Ilestria even involved? I had a lot of questions and no answers. At least I did not get more homework, this time. The thought made me giggle.