Arriving to the Council’s Palace in the city, Jeanne looked up at where Kveldulf and his ancestor, Baeron, fell during the latter’s attempt to overthrow the city. The remnants of the shattered glass now removed and a new one was in the midst of being installed. Instead of it being an image of the Council, it was a city of Koulberg under the light of the sun.

“Not a bad change of décor,” Jeanne said to Hypatia.

“No, not a bad one at all.” Hypatia said with a smile on her face.

Entering the building, they reached the fourth floor, with a sign saying, City Archives hanging over the door. Hypatia turned back to Jeanne. “If there’s anything about the Kolvilles that came this way, it would be in here.”

Jeanne nodded as they entered. Opening the door, the walls were lined with shelves stretching up to the ceiling. Candles were fastened to the walls and braziers hung from the top to provide light. All held away from the papers nearby. Every shelf filled with tomes, scrolls, single sheets of parchments. Long ladders rested against the wall to Jeanne’s left and in the distance, there was a desk with a person sitting at a lone candle flickering.

She well older than Jeanne or Hypatia, though Jeanne could not get a gauge by how much. The women hummed as she was scribbling something down on a piece of paper, stopping to gently dip her quill in the inkwell. She was swatting away at a miniscule gnat when she noticed the two women standing by the doorway. “Hypatia, so good to see you!”

Hypatia led Jeanne to the clerk and waved, “Hello, Aila, how have you been?”

“Oh, you know,” Aila said, looking at the rows of literature around her, “having wonderful one-way conversations with all these records and tidbits of information.”

“Can’t imagine that being too interesting after a while,” Jeanne replied, examining the size of the collection throughout the room.

“Oh, some of these are far more intriguing than you’d first think,” Aila said, pulling out a parchment from a pile. “Let’s see this one is from last month. One of the local judges reported on a woman who was convicted of concealing her pregnancy.”

“That’s an actual charge?” Jeanne asked bewildered.

“Sadly yes,” said Alia, “and then there’s this one we received from the Dual Imperium. This person was charged with murdering a home intruder in the middle of the day.”

“I hadn’t heard that one before,” Hypatia replied.

“Not sure if that is one of those holdover laws from ages ago, but I’m glad that’s not a thing we have here.” Alia paused for a moment to think. “At least, I don’t believe so. Going to need to visit the local laws and have a nice chat with those parchments,” she said looking up and shaking her head. She looked back to Hypatia and Jeanne and continued, “But I doubt you two came here simply to discuss the conversation skills of the written word.”

“No,” Hypatia said to Alia, “we were trying to find records that might’ve come this way on the Kolville Gang.”

Alia’s face wrinkled as she pondered the name and hummed. “Hmm, somewhat familiar. Where did they hail?”

“The Prydainlands,” Jeanne said, looking away from Alia.

“Oh right,” Alia replied, snapping her fingers. “We just got some writs from Legornesis, not too long ago.”

Alia rose from her seat and went over to a neat pile of writs on a nearby shelf. She grabbed the whole pile and handed it to Hypatia. “These came in not too long ago. Most are renewals of outlawry status or updated bounties and the like. Take a look, I’m certain the Kolvilles would be in here.”

“Thank you, Alia,” Hypatia said as she handed half the pile to Jeanne.

“Of course,” Alia replied, “And don’t hesitate if you need anything else.” Alia stopped, closing one eye, deep in thought as she looked back to Hypatia and Jeanne. “I said ‘don’t hesitate’ right?”

“Yeah,” Hypatia replied, nodding.

“Oh good,” Alia said, relieved. “Sometimes I think I forget the ‘don’t’ part.”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“I’ve had that happen before,” Hypatia said, “Never a fun time.”

“Well, hopefully that’ll put you on the right track, and let me know when you’re done,” Alia said to them before returning to her previous task.

Hypatia and Jeanne went over to a table, placing the writs down and going through them. Hypatia would pick on up, and a brief look later place it down and began reading the other. Jeanne looked at the first one on the pile, reading the multitude of words piled together, stating the name of all the offices one person held. Some seemed to be a repeat of the same line just before, as if the writer wanted to remind the reader the specific titles invested in the person by memory.

Half the writ didn’t even touch on the actual subject matter of the crime being discussed. “You want to know a trick to go through these quick?” Hypatia asked Jeanne.

“Absolutely!” Jeanne replied.

“Most of this stuff is just fluff, the part you want to look at is at the bottom. If it isn’t the people in question, you can move onto the next one.”

“Did you want them piled up in a certain way?”

“If you put them down in the order they’re in now, we should be fine.”

“Right,” Jeanne said, skipping to the bottom and seeing an unfamiliar name. “I can see why this is a thing few dare take on.”

“It’s a dangerous life, archiving. The cataloging, the alphabetizing, and, of course, the dreaded paper cuts.”

Jeanne quickly grimaced as she read another writ. “I hate those,” she said, looking at the name at the bottom and placing it on the pile. “Almost prefer fighting that … big thing we ran into at Stonehammer.”

“Oh, the Bukavac?”

Jeanne gave Hypatia an annoyed glare. “You would know the name.”

“I mean you’re the one who blew it into two chunky bloody pieces. That would only be the courteous thing to do.”

“Only you would say that,” Jeanne said, trying to stifle a giggle.

“I mean, I not the kind of girl who explodes and tell,” Hypatia replied, turning red and closing her eyes tightly as she tried to compose herself in vain.

Jeanne felt tears roll down her cheeks as her sides began to hurt. “Damn it, Hypatia,” she said in a strained voice.

“I can’t help it, I’m sorry,” Hypatia said, covering her mouth.

Both women took a moment to regain their composure, Jeanne even cracking her neck as she fanned herself with her hand. “That … that was a badly needed laugh.”

“I am happy to provide the service,” Hypatia replied, her hand on her chest as she steadied her breathing.

Jeanne picked up another writ and examined the name of the person in question. Her eyes widened, looked up at Hypatia and shot up from her seat. “What is it?” Hypatia asked.

Jeanne went over to Hypatia. “That name, it’s one of them!”

“Mind if I see it?” Hypatia asked, holding her hand out.

Jeanne gave her the writ and she read closely.

“Hmm, that’s interesting.”

“What?”

“This is a full term of outlaw.”

“I don’t get it?”

“Some kingdoms have varying statutes when it comes to much a person be living outside the law. In some cases, it can be enough to where if someone wants to be compensated for an unpaid debt, they can be quartered-outlawed. Others if your half-outlawed you can be beaten to a pulp and hauled in front of the justices of the peace, and no one will bat an eye so long as you draw their breath.”

“Isn’t that allowed anyway?”

“There’s usually a fine if the person is in a sorry state. Which is usually why that’s not a common status used.”

“And full outlawry?”

“That means anything can happen and no one can do or say anything.”

“Well that’s a comforting thought.”

“You didn’t know that?”

“Hy, when I learned there was a bounty on my head, I didn’t stay long to get the details.”

“Sorry, that was … a bad question.”

“No,” Jeanne said, waving her hand, “I knew you didn’t mean it that way.”

“Well, for what it’s worth, the designations are usually reserved for the nobility. Keeps them from becoming a full bandit like their lesser peers.”

“How lovely for them,” Jeanne said apathetically.

“Can’t expect them to be held to the same standards as the rest of us.”

“Surprised they weren’t buddying up to the last council.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if that was happening in some capacity.”

“Well, does this mean the whole gang is outlawed at the same level?”

“More than likely. Not often you have a group of bandits with varying degrees of outlaws.”

“I’m starting to see why the pirates began forming a guild.”

“I know. Gets confusing after a while.”

“Does it say what are the charges involved?”

“Nothing specific. Robbing, murder, kidnapping, can’t say there’s anything too extreme here written.”

“That doesn’t make sense. They were doing that for years, and not even the local sheriff would lift a hand to quell them.”

“Could be they aimed higher than their protection could hold back.”

“Maybe, we should get this back to Cid, see how he wants to proceed with this.”

“Right,” said Hypatia, stuffing the writ into her small satchel. “Let me check this out of the archives and we’ll be on our way.”

Reaching the outer plaza, Jeanne looked out to the courtyard. People moving about, chattering amongst themselves, paying little heed to her or Hypatia. She turned to Hypatia, who was straightening her things in her satchel and adjusting her song-blades. When she was finished, she turned to Jeanne. “Ready to go?”

Jeanne nodded. “Yeah,” Jeanne said, looking around the plaza.

Entering one of the empty streets Jeanne looked up at the rooftops around them.

“Everything all right?” Hypatia asked her.

“Just got an odd feeling,” Jeanne replied, keeping her gaze upwards.

“Uh … Jeanne,” Hypatia said, lightly tapping Jeanne shoulder.

Jeanne saw several armed men facing them, all of them facing. All of them had their weapons out and ready to be applied in their deadly application. Jeanne turned around and found several more behind them, equally armed.

Jeanne grimaced, turned to Hypatia, who was looking back at her and turned back to the armed men. “Well shit.”