I used a healing spell on the bartender. Meanwhile Lucy checked all the hounds to make sure they were dead. The two surviving patrons finally gathered their wits and ran away.

“Should I stop them?”, Lucy asked.

“No. Considering their reaction they had no idea about those runes. There is a good chance that they will spread the word of what happened here. In the best case that leads to a bunch of panicked gang members begging us for help. The bartender should be enough for questioning.”, I reasoned.

“Amaya, those runes… who would do something like this?”

“Let’s find out.” I grabbed a chair and went behind the bar. I offered it to the shaking man and poured him a drink. “What is your name?”

“I… I am Jack.” He took the shot I offered and downed it in one go.

“So Jack, what can you tell us? Any idea who put that spell on you?”

He looked around. He stared at the dead hounds, at the ash that used to be his comrades. “There is someone who we regularly do business with. He supplies us mostly with drugs. He came to us with an offer. Rob a warehouse.” He paused, and took another shot. “The deal was simple, we could keep everything but needed to replace some crates in the back. No idea why. Those crates only contained low grade iron ore. The replacements we used were light. They did not tell us what was inside. I figured they might want to frame someone for smuggling or something. The crates we did not replace had a lot of expensive wine. It was a good haul for us.” He paused again. Steeling himself he continued: “Our employer sent three mages to help us. They were responsible for making sure nobody detected us, keeping the noise down and eyes away. They said they would put a strengthening spell on us to help move the crates. The magic, it hurt, it burned. A normal side effect, they said. It did make us stronger though, for a bit. So we did not question it.”

“How many of you were there?”, I asked.

“Nine. The others… are they all dead now?”

“Not necessarily. The two who were not here could still be alive. We don’t know what triggered the magic. If you can lead us to them we might be able to save them.”

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“Yes. Yes, I can do that.”

“What should we do with the demon hound corpses?”, Lucy asked.

“Hm. I will store them for now.” I put the corpses in my necklace. Certain demon parts could be useful ingredients for alchemy and enchanting.

Jack led us outside of the taverns to a sewer entrance nearby. The sewer tunnels were rather big and had a walkway on the side. While that allowed us to stay clean it did not help with the stench. After about 15 minutes of walking he stopped next to a wall. He pressed a brick that looked noticeably darker than the others. A door slid open in the wall. I was really impressed that a gang would have such a sophisticated hideout. How would you even build something like that into a sewer tunnel without anyone noticing?

We entered a large room filled with tables and chairs, most of them smashed. There was a bar counter on the left side. The floor was filled with bodies. Some of them were burned, others torn apart by claws and teeth. While I was still taking in the scene I heard growling. It came from a corridor on the right. Two hounds emerged. One was slightly limping, the other seemed covered in minor cuts. The gang went down fighting it seemed.

I drew my sword and charged, Lucy was right next to me. A hound pounced, I sidestepped and beheaded it in one strike. Meanwhile Lucy finished off the limping one.

“I am sorry Jack, it looks like we are too late.” Those people were criminals. I had no idea what evil they had committed. But they probably did not deserve to be torn apart by a demonic hound.

“Lucy, stay with Jack. I will look around.” I made my way deeper into the corridor. There were multiple rooms with bunk beds. There was a common bathroom. I also found a storage area. At the end of the corridor was a more luxurious apartment. It had a large bedroom, a sitting room, a small office and a private bathroom. This was definitely the leader's place. Said leader was dead. Judging by the bloodied dagger he might have been the one who wounded the hound. I did not find anything useful on his body so I searched the office. There were a lot of documents. It would take a while to go through all of them. I stored them for now. What I did find was the name of the gang, crimson lotus.

I went back to the entrance. “This seems to be the gang Frederick told us about. The one he said was supplied by the Empire. I hope the documents I found will give us something.” I informed Lucy.

“So those marks were meant to get rid of witnesses? Jack, did you even know that you were working with the Empire?”, Lucy asked.

Jack looked at us. “Those bastards. I am not sure what the boss knew. For us it was simply someone who supplied the drugs we sold. We have been working with them for five years now. The drugs came from the Empire but I assumed it was just one of their criminal syndicates.”

“Hm.” I thought about the whole situation. I stepped away from Jack, so he could not hear us, and signalled Lucy to follow me. “Let’s assume the Empire had killed the duke. Then the inquisition shows up, offering help. They could even say that they are tracking a cult. Suddenly demons burst from a warehouse. The Empire helps in fighting them, then tracks them to a gang. The runes trigger and it looks like the gang summoned demons as defence. It would look like a demonic cult was operating in the city. Now they would just need to frame any opponent as a cult member. They could make sure a regent is appointed who works with them. Then marry the duke's daughter to an imperial noble.”, I theorised.

“But why did the runes trigger now? And why is the inquisition here? With the duke alive the plan does not work. Or do you think they have another way of assassinating him? Or are they just here to clean up their mess?”, Lusy asked.

“All good questions. We could still be missing something. I think we should report to the duke what we have found so far. And bring Jack directly to him, we should not hand him over to Jessica. We can also discuss the inquisition with him.”

“Sounds good.”, Lucy said.