It was about thirty five miles from Rinne to the capital. Finn and Liza made it to the capital in just over an hour. They had sprinted the whole way. They came to a stop about a half mile out and walked in at normal speed. Neither looked like they had even broken a sweat.
“Finn, how long has it been since you’ve been back?”
“You know how long.”
“I figured, but was not sure. Are you going to keep it together?”
“Not like I have a choice. I will hit the guild up and see what they know. I am guessing you have your contacts to reach out to.”
“I have a few that I think may know something. It may take most of the day to get in touch with them all.”
“Sounds like a plan. Meet at the guild when you are done.”
The pair separated. Finn found himself just inside the gate of a city he never wanted to return to. He walked down the streets toward the low-end merchant corridor. He browsed the stalls listening to the chatter of those that worked at the stalls trying to pick up on gossip. Nothing that seemed relevant came up.
Finn moved toward the adventurer’s guild. He came to the large two-story building but continued past, moving into the noble’s district. The guards are checking people as they enter. Finn had a confident stride as he approached the gate and was stopped.
“What business do you have?” the guard blocked his path while posing the question.
“Going to see a man about a job.” Finn pulled his adventure’s tag out from under his clothes showing the guard he was a gold rank.
The guard looked it over and nodded Finn through.
Finn seemed to be aimlessly wandering the streets. He went around whole blocks before turning back to others. He would occasionally stop at different buildings and look them over. He finally came to a large manor. Finn stood at the gate looking over the building. A somber look on his face.
A young noblewoman walked up to Finn and hesitantly spoke up.
“Can I help you?”
Finn glanced at the woman she was leading a young girl by the hand.
“No, I was just admiring this beautiful home.”
“Thank you.” The woman said, smiling.
“Oh, is this your home?”
“Yes, I live here with my husband and brother.” She made a special point to emphasize the last two as Finn did not exactly look like he belonged in the noble quarter. “Did you have business with one of them? I did not think they had a need for an adventurer, especially a gold rank.”
Finn's badge was hard to miss on the outside of his clothes.
“No, I do not. Like I said. I just found the home to be beautiful and could not help but take a look.”
“I see well if you don’t mind, I would like to get past, so I can get this one her lunch.”
“I was not thinking. I am sorry for blocking your entrance.”
Finn stepped out of the way to allow the woman and her daughter to pass.
As the woman got to the other side of the gate and pulled it close, she turned back to Fin.
“You seem like a nice man so please be careful. Most others around here would not like it if you did not use at least a sir or lady to address them.” The woman’s face was warm, and a smile spread across it.
Finn did not say anything, he just nodded to her.
Finn watched them enter the home and then turned to leave before being confronted by another woman.
“This is not a great place to be standing for a man like you.”
“I can stand where I want.” Finn said and turned to walk away. The woman did not react in any way a normal noble woman would react. Instead, she followed him.
“I see it is going to be that kind of reunion.”
Finn looked toward the woman again, his eyes scanning her up and down. She was dressed as a low class noble or a high-class merchant. Her chestnut hair was made into a thick braid she had pulled over one shoulder. She was maybe late twenties early thirties. Her skin was smooth like she never had to work a day in the sun. Her hands were folded before her with a covered basket hanging from her forearm. Finn turned his head back and continued walking away.
“I think I am hurt. You don’t remember me. Though it has been Fifteen years.” The woman said with a mocking tone.
Finn spun around quickly with his hand on his blade. But the woman was gone.
“Why so hostile. I came to talk to an old friend.” The woman was standing in the tree next to the gate of the house Finn had been looking at.
“I have no friends left in this city.”
“That is untrue you have at least one, my mistress.”
“Fuck!”
The woman giggled. “You have to buy me dinner first.” She jumped down and landed next to Finn. He had relaxed his stance and removed his hand from his sword.
“Come on, I know a great place.”
“I don’t want to go anywhere with you.”
“That may be true, but you need to… if you want to protect her.”
Finn closed his eyes and sighed heavily
“Lead the way.”
Finn followed the woman, and the pair made their way back to the merchant quarter in silence. She led Finn to a rather popular tavern. Finn stopped outside.
“Seems like a very crowded place for a spy.” Finn said, raising his voice louder than it needed to be.
The woman seemed unfazed by Finn’s comment and came back over to him wrapping herself around his arm and started laughing.
“You are a troublesome one so far.”
The woman pulled Finn into the tavern. Finn saw her palm a gold coin before shaking hands with the barkeep. She then pulled Finn with her to one of the deeper corners of the tavern. She leaned against the wall and wrapped her arms around his neck, giggling and smiling the whole time.
“I feel like I should at least know your name first.”
“What do you want it to be?”
“Very funny, just tell me your name.”
“You can call me Lilly.”
“I am not sure what game you are playing at Lilly, but can we get to the point please.”
Just then a crack in the walk appeared. Finn eyes noticed the movement and he reached for his sword, but Lilly leaned in close
“Wait for it.”
Just then a loud smash could be heard followed by the breaking of glass. Every head snapped to the sound at the opposite side of the tavern as Lilly opened the crack in the wall further and pulled Finn inside before closing it tightly.
“UGH I fucking hate spies.”
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“Come on, you didn’t have fun? You got to have a beautiful woman in your arms for part of it.”
“I am already bored with this.” Finn sat down with a grumpy look on his face.
Lilly sighed “Fine, so impatient.” Lilly then slapped Finn across the face. Finn grabbed her hand to prevent any further assaults.
“Why the fuck did you not come back like you were supposed to.” Lilly’s face had drastically changed compared to her very cool almost smug look from early. She was visibly shaken and angry.
“I never wanted to see this shit hole again. I don’t particularly want to be back now.”
“It devastated the mistress when you did not return. How could you be so selfish.” Lilly snatched her hand back and sat down across from Finn. The anger she felt was not personal but sympathy for her mistress.
“Don’t give me that shit. They all threw me away. They don’t get to pretend to be hurt by what happened.”
Lilly was taken back by Finn’s reaction. “Did you not read the letter?”
“Fuck that letter. I burnt it. What do I care what that bitch wrote to me.”
Lilly huffed. “Still acting like a child I see refusing to face reality.”
“You do not know anything about me. So don’t act like you do because your mistress told you some story about me. She works for that bitch her perspective is skewed.”
“It is not a story I was told. I was there that day. I was one of the ones that escorted you.”
Finn’s face twisted with anger “Then what the hell are you talking about. You know full well why I feel the way I do. You should be on my side. That bitch does not give a flying fuck about you. She will cast you off as soon as you are no use to her.”
“See you are still being selfish. Worrying about how you were cast out.”
“You know NOTHING! That bitch took the most important person in the world from me!” Finn was now inches from Lilly’s face. His own face blood red in anger.
Lilly took a softer tone “I am sorry about you father. He was a good man.”
“See like I said you know nothing.” Finn sat back in the chair folding his arms over his chest.
“I see. So at least that brings us back to why you came. Is she in the capital?”
“Like I would tell you. I cannot even be sure that bitch is not the one that tried to have her killed.”
“THAT IS IT! Do not call the Queen that word one more time.” Lilly rose from her chair, her hands moving behind her back to where she concealed her daggers.
“Wow five times I am surprised you kept a lid on it that long.”
Lilly untensed her body and closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “You were testing me.”
“Ya I normally only get about two maybe three before one of you lot freak out. You must really be a high rank to be able to suppress your emotions that much.”
“Asshole. So, you did read the letter.” Lilly sat back down seeming to relax.
“No, I burned it. I don’t care what she wrote. I hate that bitch.”
Lily shot out of her chair again this time drawing her dagger and leveling it at Finn. He did not even move in response. Getting no reaction Lilly moved the conversation forward.
“Whatever, we do not have time for your games. Where is she?”
“She is safe, and I will keep her that way.”
Lilly sheathed her dagger and sat back down “So, why come back to the capital alone?”
“Who said I was alone.”
“I did not count Liza, she is always with you.” A smirk spreads over Lilly’s lips.
“Fucking Spies...” Finn clenched his fists in frustration before answering her original question. “I needed to get a lay of the land. See if it is even safe for her to come back.”
Lilly ran her hand over her chin.
“You are not wrong that it may not be safe here. Can I assume that it was your group that killed Robert?”
“That sounds like something we would do.”
“Did you question him at all before you did that?”
Finn shrugged. “Due to extenuating circumstances outside of my control… we were not able to appropriate the time needed to question him.”
Lilly rolled her eyes “Fucking mercenaries… So now we do not know what this has to do with his brother Victor.”
“So, you think Victor is part of this. The princess was not sure he would be capable of such acts.”
“Oh, he is very capable.” A worried look spread over Lilly’s face. “Look, my mistress said I should trust you completely, but I am not so sure.”
“You know what that is a very good point. She should have come and not you. This would have been much easier that way.” Finn could not help grumbling at having to deal with Lilly
“She is unable to.” Lilly's eyes shot to the ground as she clenched her jaw.
“WAIT! What happened, is she ok?” Finn leaned over and grabbed Lilly by the shoulders.
“Hmm at least you still care about her.”
Finn shoved Lilly back against her chair and returned to his. “Just tell me what is going on with her.”
“It is Victor. He has come up with slave collars that can steal the freewill completely of those that wear them.”
“Bullshit. How would he even get that on someone like your boss.” Finn shook his head, his face one of disbelief.
“He came to the castle one day with three young noble girls. Each had a collar on. They seemed fine for the most part and acted normal. When he gave them commands, things changed. They would do anything he said. They would act as if it was the most normal thing in the world, no matter what he told them to do.”
Lilly grimaced and shook her head. “He then claimed he had over two dozen girls under his control, and he would start killing them one by one. Unless one of the queen’s attendants put a collar on, he said it would be to keep an eye on the queen.”
“Holy shit and she made your boss put it on. That is harsh even for her.”
“No! The queen refused Victor's demands. Victor was not expecting this and threw a bit of a tantrum, it ended with him activating the collars on the three girls.” Lilly’s voice became somber.
“Then why not just kill him right then and there and remove the collars.”
“The queen did order that, but Victor countered saying if he died everyone with a collar on would also die. In addition, the collars were unlike anything we had seen. We were not even sure they could be removed. At that point my mistress could not take seeing the girls suffer anymore and took the collar Victor had brought and put it on herself.”
Finn’s face was clearly in shock from the story he was being told. “So, it took her freewill?”
Lilly shot back in an optimistic, almost surprised voice. “That is the thing, it did not. She did not follow his command like the noble girls. It still functions like a normal slave collar, he demonstrated that much at the time, but that seems to be it. My mistress did say she feels whispers when he gives her commands, but she can simply ignore them.”
Finn seemed to be contemplating the implications of what he just heard. “How long ago was that?”
“Two months ago.”
“Then why was the princess not aware of any of this? She seems to think Victor was a good man.”
“The queen hid it from her. She needed to get a handle on what Victor wanted. The queen made a condition of working with Victor to leave the princesses out of it.”
Finn’s face contorted in disgust. “Of course, she would work with scum like that. She should have killed him and been done with it.”
Lilly raised her voice almost as if she felt personally attacked “The queen does not work with him by choice. She is doing what she can to save those girls, but she refuses to make deals that trade lives. That is why she refused to place a collar on one of us to save nobles.”
“Fine, let’s assume that the queen does really want to help. What is the plan? What have you learned about these collars in the last two months?”
Lilly hung her head “Sadly not much. The only collar we had access to is the one on my mistress. Victor watches her like a hawk and prevents any magical researchers from getting close to her. This is also the reason she could not come today”
“So, what has Victor been doing this whole time? He has powerful leverage over the queen. How has he used it?”
“That is the strange part. He has done nothing really. The most he does is antagonize the queen with it. We do know he is collaring more noble women.” Lilly’s face darkens with this last comment.
“Well, it sounds like the princess is better off running away from this place, then joining whatever sick games Victor has planned.” Finn got up to leave.
Lilly grabbed his arm. “Please you must hear the last part before you go.”
“Fine, make it quick. I need to meet with someone.” Finn sat back down.
“Our best magical researcher willingly put a collar on herself this morning so she could gain access to one. She already thinks she has a plan to remove the collars but will need more time to confirm if she is correct.”
“So, what does that have to do with the princess.”
“She says the princess is the only one with the mana capacity to cast the spell.”
Finn shook his head and got up. “No dice. I am not bringing the princess into this mess the queen created. You all get yourselves out of it.”
As Finn approached the secret door Lilly shouted after him “The researcher is Princess Tashanna.”
Finn turned toward Lilly, eyes narrowed in judgment. “Great work you all are doing.”
“Say what you will, but Princess Anastasia deserves to know what is happening. All of it! After that if she chooses not to come, so be it, but you cannot make that call for her.”
Finn took a deep breath. “How can I contact you?”
“You mean if I don’t track you the second you enter the city. Then just come here and tell the bartender you want to speak to Lilly.”
“IF the princess agrees to come back then we will be here tomorrow night.”
“Really that close you say.” Lilly’s mouth curls upward slightly
“Fucking spies!” Finn leaves the secret room in a huff.
Finn made his way to the guild and did what he originally told Liza he was going to do and asked around about odd happenings. Nothing stood out. None of it made sense. A high-ranking Noble died, his body left in the street for all to see. On top of that the princess convoy had been attacked and the princess was basically missing. There should at least be some whispers of something. Someone powerful had to be controlling the info somehow.
Finn pulled a well-worn envelope from his left inside pocket. He looked it over rubbing the paper between his fingers. He flipped it over looking at the queen’s seal still intact.
Liza approached Finn as he was sitting at the bar. He quickly returned the letter to his pocket. Liza pretended to let him do it without her noticing.
“I am sorry captain, my contacts had nothing.”
“Holy shit! I found out more info than you… no way.”
“It is not nice to lie, just admit you came up with nothing as well.” Liza said as she called for a drink from the bartender.
“No, I got something big. I will tell you on the way.” Finn got up and headed for the exit.
“But I just ordered my drink.” Liza said under her breath in protest