Before heading off to dinner with Renauld, we let him stop by a local bathhouse in order to freshen up. Hard days of battle and marching had left the Gnoll looking and smelling a bit…rank, to be honest. He was thankful for the chance, and after a quick wash, Sylvia and I led him to a local bistro that the two of us had taken a liking to. The owner of the bistro, one of the rare examples of a dwarf in Elderwyck by the name of Gaston, led us to the private booth we had been using lately.

Renauld nearly fell upon the ordered food with all the grace of a wild animal.

Nearly.

He retained just enough composure to not make a fool of himself. When we were all done, he sat back with a sigh, nodding at me. “Thanks for the meal, ‘Hans’,” Renauld said, satisfied and patting his furry belly. “I’ve had nothing but travel rations for days now.”

As Sylvia sedately spooned her soup to her lips with attentive eyes, I sat down my own knife and fork. I shook my head at Renauld. “No problem. And you don’t have to bother with fake names in here. Sylvia and I come here often enough that I set up a minor silencing ward. See?” I lifted the edge of the tablecloth just enough that Renauld could crane his snout under it. Set in the center of the table was a dense runic array, scribed tiny enough that it was hard to even make out among the whorls and rings of the wood.

Renauld raised his head and blinked at me. “Huh. Never seen anything like that before.”

I shrugged at him. “My own invention, inspired by an artifact I saw my boss use once. It’s only active for as long as the Aether I pumped into it lasts. But enough about that. How’ve you been? Last I saw, you were fleeing the Horde with the other Order soldiers.”

Renauld took a slow, deep breath. “It was…hard,” He admitted. “I don’t know about you guys, but the direction we went meant we had to brave the outskirts of the Horde. Those days before we reached the city might have been some of the tensest I’ve ever had. Slowly creeping forward so you don’t alert any monster groups ahead of us, all the while knowing way more were advancing just behind you…” He went blank for a moment, staring off into space. He eventually broke out of it, blinking slowly and shaking his head. The Gnoll Healer gave us a pained smile. “We didn’t always dodge them.”

Sylvia stopped eating at his words, reaching out to lay one disguised hand on top of Renaulds in comfort. He grit his sharp teeth for a moment, squeezing her hand back. It…almost looked like he was blinking back tears. Sylvia didn’t flinch at how hard it looked like he was clutching at her.

I…had noticed that the group of soldiers he had been traveling with looked smaller. They must have lost a few people to the Horde.

I didn’t ask. It wasn’t my place.

“I’m glad you’re alright,” I said quietly, reaching out to grab his other free hand and squeeze. The Gnoll shuddered for a moment, before nodding jerkily and withdrawing his hands to rest on his lap. I took the hint, and changed the subject. “So, what were you out doing with the others?”

Renauld grabbed the verbal lifeline almost desperately. “Oh, nothing too bad,” He said with forced cheerfulness. “I looked worse than it actually was. We were contracted by some noble on a scouting mission for the Duke. They have all kinds of teams out there right now, keeping an eye on the fringes of the Horde to see if it’s moving in this direction. It’s not, by the way,” He told us, which was honestly relieving to a degree. “Most of the monsters our group ended up fighting seemed like normal spawns for the area. From what we could tell, nearly everything created from the Breaks is moving north. It’s almost like they’re being drawn somewhere like a moth to a flame.”

Sylvia and I exchanged a look at that but stayed quiet. As much as I liked Renauld, he wasn’t actually a formal member of the Order, only being an attache to the Uprising Healing Corp. The Order had only accepted his presence on this mission because you never turned down willing Healers. He wasn't exactly trained in espionage.

Actually, now that I think about it, he was kind of a mercenary. The group that he had formed from the Order members might not be as much of a cover for him as I had thought it was.

The point was, I’m not sure if Hook would be fine with us telling him that the Order was deliberately drawing the attention of the Horde and culling them up at Helstein. Since Hook had set up the portable messaging station for us to use in our safehouses, we’d been getting nearly daily updates on the situation from Headquarters. According to them, Grey, Honoka, The Order, and the overall Army of the Uprising were making good time on thinning out the Horde as they trickled in. They had told us that they’d done enough now that there were even discussions among the leadership about resuming the campaign against Elderwyck, sometime in the next few weeks.

Our look didn’t escape Renaulds's notice, but thankfully he didn’t take any offense. “Oooh, I get it,” He said with a knowing wink and a grin. He mimed zipping his lips. “Order stuff, huh. Well…other than that, we didn’t encounter much out there. I can say that it wasn’t fun getting stuck out in the first snow of the year, though. Brrrr.” He shivered dramatically, his earlier distress seemingly having vanished.

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That was something I had noticed about Renauld. He was the kind of guy that seemed to bounce back quickly.

That, or he was hiding his pain.

I made an understanding noise. “Is that all, then?” I asked him idly, picking my fork back up and cutting into my venison steak. “I think we might have been in the city longer than you at this point. You haven’t heard about anything else going on in the city, or about the Loyalists?”

Renauld shrugged, idly toying with his fork. “No, not really. Although I have noticed that the guards and soldiers are more on edge since last time we were here. You guys wouldn’t happen to know anything about that…would you?” He asked semi-teasingly, as if he hadn’t been there when Hook had announced our plans back in that forest clearing.

I just rolled my eyes at him, while Sylvia smiled as if butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth.

Wait.

Would it? Nevermind.

I focused on Renauld while my middle ring was uselessly contemplating my girlfriend's lack of significant body temperature.

“But you’re right, none of us in the Band of the Eagle have heard much,” Renauld continued. “We’ve pretty much just been dealing with the guards, and accepting contracts from them on behalf of a bunch of noble houses. We haven’t turned this one in, yet. Our leader said we’ll meet back up tomorrow to collect the pay for this job. I think our latest one came from some guys called…House Steinham or something?”

I dropped my work onto my plate with a tinkling sound in shock, while Sylvia blinked rapidly at the increasingly confused-looking Gnoll.

“Is something wrong?” Renauld asked hesitantly, looking between Sylvia and I.

Sylvia briefly ignored him, instead looking at me. “Nathan, isn’t that…?” She trailed off. My partner was more than caught up on the entire Rhiannon thing at this point. I’d told her everything about the odd encounter with the equally bizarre Calonawr noble.

Including the noble House that she was supposed to be part of.

I nodded wordlessly at her question, focusing on Renauld and leaning forward. “When you were given this job, was a noblewoman there?” I asked him sharply.

The Healer was visibly taken aback by my tone, but did his best to answer. “Uh…no. It was just the same guard Captain that my group has been dealing with,” He said, audibly confused. “Why? Is she one of the bad guys? Because I can get my group to stop dealing with them if they are.”

I frowned, not at Renauld, but at the world in general. “No…maybe,” I amended. “We don’t know. What we do know is that the sole remaining member of House Steinham has information we want, and she’s being catty about it after approaching me. None of us have found a viable way to contact the woman, and I’ve been stuck waiting for her to contact me again. Hell, we don’t even know where she lives. She apparently sold the Steinham estate some years ago. Our best guess is that she just lives in the palace at the pleasure of the Duke.”

“Pleasure?” Renauld blinked. “Is…she one of his mistresses? Cause I’ve heard that guy nearly has a harem.”

I scowled, frustrated, but it was Sylvia who answered for me. “We don’t know,” She said, raising her hands helplessly. “The answer to that is a maybe. Lady Marjory Oslen was known to be harshly critical of her husband's philandering ways, but she hasn’t been seen in some time now.”

“It’s entirely possible that the woman is dead, and Olsen has been living it up in his palace, surrounded by a pack of gold diggers,” I said, drumming my fingers on the table. “Excuse me. The proper term is apparently ‘Ladies of the Court’, which this woman introduced herself as.”

“Spicy,” Renauld said appreciatively. He held up his hands in surrender, though, when Sylvia sent him a sharp look. “But seriously. What do you want from me about it, Nate? I don’t know how much I can help. We’re just one small group of contractors. We never really deal with any of the nobs.”

I paused my drumming when an idea occurred to me. I leaned in close to Sylvia to whisper my off-the-cuff plan into her ear. When I was done, she cupped her chin for a moment before nodding slowly. “Yes…it could work,” She said thoughtfully, before smiling at me. “Go for it, I say. I doubt Hook will have a problem.”

Turning back to Renauld, I leaned back in and gestured him forward. As he joined me in the middle of the table, I grinned at him mischievously. “How do you feel about doing me a favor?”

Renauld’s confusion melted away, causing him to meet my grin with one of his own. “Hells, I’m down. What do you need?”

………………………………………

It was around noon the next day, and I was just finishing up another batch of potions for Jason. After detailing my plan to Renauld, Sylvia and I had left to go inform Hook of the unexpected boon in our efforts to understand ‘Rhiannon of House Steinham’, as she was known to Elderwyck.

Sylvia had been right, and he’d greenlit the spontaneous plan almost absentmindedly. I’m barely sure the dwarf had even noticed me dropping by after dinner last night. More and more, he was starting to get obsessed with his own operations. While he seemed to be juggling both leading the Division efforts in Elderwyck and whatever he was doing well, it was clearly taking a mental toll on him.

I could only trust that he hadn’t bitten off more than he could chew.

Not like I could do anything about it.

I pushed those thoughts aside since it was time for me to hang up my apron for the day. I exited my little brewing station, waving goodbye to a morose-looking Jason on my way out. The shopkeep had been a bit down ever since the raid yesterday and had been jumping at shadows as if a saboteur was going to pop out of them.

I could assure you, Jason. We weren’t.

Eh, he’d get over it.

Outside, I found a pleasant, but semi-expected surprise waiting for me. I’d told Renauld where he could find me during the daytime, and here he was, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. The Gnoll was looking better after a good night's rest, and was dressed in a much cleaner set of Healer’s robes. The staff that he had picked up all the way back in Sacnthaven was resting on the wall next to him.

At the sight of me, Renauld brightened and shoved off the wall. He spoke before I could get a word in. “It worked,” He said abruptly, smiling at me. “I passed your message along through the Captain. The man was really surprised we knew about this ‘Rhiannon’ lady, but after a brief wait, we got a message back from her. Here.” He handed me a small folded piece of parchment.

I sighed in relief that the gambit had worked. I hadn’t been sure this guard Captain had a line of communication with Rhiannon, but it was a better bet than just waiting around on her. Unfolding the parchment, I beheld a time and location.

She wanted to meet.