Jace, Kai, Draya, Gromphy, and Snowy followed the two Chi eunuchs through the dark streets of Barcelio. Only the goblin had any stealth ability, which came native to his race. The crafter hadn’t increased the skill beyond the starting bonus, yet he was still the sneakiest of the five. Snowy could move quietly, but her white fur stood out clearly in the low light. Jace’s footfalls created a slight tremor, while Kai’s armory produced a clatter of noise. Because of this, they didn’t even attempt to slink in the shadows and chose to blend in with the other foot traffic moving between homes, taverns, and entertainment venues.
Barcelio was a closed SIM at the moment, without another player in sight. None of the NPC villagers paid the eccentric group a second glance. Jace, Gromphy, and Snowy still wore illusions, while Draya changed from the slinky outfit Esther had given her to her no-longer-cursed mage dress. With Kai in their group, they didn’t stand out too much. The inquisitor had removed his helm, confident that in the evening’s low light, no one would recognize him. And, even if they did, as they moved away from the castle, fewer people would care.
They stayed at least a quarter mile behind their prey, and the best scout in the world would be hard-pressed to identify any type of pursuit. Snowy had caught the sent right away, and Jace felt confident the two eunuchs could pull a mile ahead, and his wolf would still be able to track them.
The afternoon had been dull for the most part. Jace had been able to skip ahead several times while Gracie kept an eye on Esther. The operator couldn’t rewind any simulated action that might take place, so she cautioned Jace not to abuse the time travel mechanic.
A few minutes ago, Gracie informed him that Esther had successfully been invited to spend the night with the king, and she was monitoring that. After Jace relayed that information to Kai, the paladin correctly guessed that whatever plan Vashti had to kill the king would have to be accelerated. If Azurous chose Esther, it wouldn’t be long until the queen and her entourage were kicked out of the king’s presence. Sure enough, by staking out the castle’s rear gate, they saw the two foreign men leaving secretly, and the pursuit had begun.
As they followed at a distance, Jace reached into the Armanacore and tugged at his new upgrades. Instead of activating any of his four new spells, he extended his senses into the cobblestone, testing his awareness. Even though the rocks were placed with digital precision, he felt he could pry any of them loose if he wanted, turning the busy street into an upsidedown hailstorm. He resisted the urge and focused instead on the unnatural feeling the union with the stone gave him.
It lacked the intimacy he had felt in his stronghold, and for that, he was grateful. Horses clopped metal shoes against the stone, pulling heavy wagons behind them. Dozens of people walked over the street, avoiding butchers, tanners, and other craftsman as they dumped buckets of who-knows-what into the gutters and down the sewer. Jace didn’t want to feel every interaction with the stones as he had back home, but he still got a general sense of the activity.
At first, the commotion felt like an indecipherable mix of sound and vibration, but he was able to withdraw far enough to muffle and accentuate different aspects. The percussive steps of the livestock were the easiest to pick out, and he soon shuffled that into the corner of his mind. Human footfalls were more challenging, but after focusing on the visual cues around him, he could soon link the sensations with the actual people. A steady tapping went with an old man walking with a cane. Light shuffling marked the passage of several small children. A quick clip-clop, similar to the horses but much lighter, matched the steps of a young maid in heeled boots rushing toward a tavern to start her shift.
Once Jace mastered the technique, his eyes sought out the eunuchs two blocks ahead. His mind focused on a narrow path of stone stretching out toward them along a zig-zagging route that avoided all other traffic. Soon, he felt their confident, heavy gait over the cobbled street. Like with all the other patterns, it had a unique sound and feel to it, and with repetition, Jace thought he could identify the two men in the same way that Snowy marked their scent.
But he could go further. The stone captured more than just the vibrations from their feet. He heard muffled voices as well. With the other traffic of the busy street exiled from his head, he turned up the sensitivity until their steps sounded like a booming bass drum. It hurt his head at first, but he could also hear their conversation clearer now. By focusing on the words, the pounding of their boots fell away, and he could effectively eavesdrop on their conversation.
“You are right, Kai,” Jace said after a minute. When he didn’t get an immediate response, he looked around to see his friends much farther ahead. His efforts with his new ability had caused him to fall behind. Keeping a mental finger on the two men far ahead, he returned his other senses to the group and quickened his pace to rejoin them.
The inquisitor turned to him. “What is that?”
“I said you were right,” Jace repeated once he pulled alongside the paladin. “They are moving up their plans. They are headed to a bakery to meet with one of their associates who has the poison. The plan is to kill the king tomorrow.”
Kai quickened his pace, and Jace reached to slow him. “Hold on,” he said. “We need a plan. Confronting the eunuchs before they get the poison will be no good. We need to catch them in the act.”
“Nonsense, Senior,” Kai said, wrestling free from Jace’s grasp and continuing with increased speed. “There is no point in letting them get their hands on the poison. Any delay on our part increases the chance they will escape and be successful. Now that we know their intent, we must act.”
“Just like you did before?” Jace asked. He chose not to slow him physically, matching his pace and hitting him with questions.
“What do you mean?” the inquisitor asked.
Jace checked on Draya, Gromphy, and Snowy to make sure they kept up. The goblin disguised as a gnome struggled with his short legs but managed. He turned back to Kai. “In the past, you knew that people were lying, and you interrogated or arrested them without evidence. How did that work out for you?”
This question slowed the paladin more effectively. “Not well,” he admitted. “Still,” he continued after a short pause, quickening his steps again. “This time, the king’s life is on the line. I don’t care how people interpret my actions. I know the truth; that is all that matters.”
“Who is organizing the assignation attempt?” Jace asked. The two eunuchs were only a block ahead now.
Kai started to motion toward them but stopped. Jace knew he didn’t know and pressed the point. “I don’t think it is two men trapped all day in the castle. They are going to meet with someone. He will know more. And if we find out what poison they are using, that will tell us even more. The longer we let their plot play out, the more they will reveal. If we kill our only leads, we learn nothing.”
Ahead, the eunuchs turned off the main road and disappeared onto a side street. Kai stopped and turned to his companion. “There is a bakery just ahead,” he said. “That street houses shops that only do business in the morning hours. Everything is closed. If we continue to follow, we will reveal our pursuit.” He paused. “If we plan to do something other than kill them, we should proceed with caution.”
Jace nodded, and Kai looked at him expectantly. “Well, senior? What is it? You are the great Jace Thorne. The man with all the plans. What are we doing?”
Jace winced as, once again, all the responsibility fell to him. He thought for a moment. “Right, well, we need to intercept their associate. We need to catch him before he meets with the eunuchs. Any idea what he might look like?”
Kai shrugged his shoulders. “How should I know? Didn’t he meet with you before all this?”
The look of confusion on Jace’s face lasted just long enough for Kai to notice. Jace remembered what he had said back at the Gilded Swan and braced for an explosion. “You lied to me!” Kai nearly shouted in a strained whisper. “You never met with the assassins about crafting a poison!”
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Jace felt the game flex around him, hanging on the edge of impending code. Any time a player lied to Kai regarding the assassination attempt, the knight was programmed to instantly accuse the player and his party of the murderous plot and throw them in prison. The problem was that this module had already progressed past the point that usually occurred, and Esther and Psycho were intricately tied into the module. Even though they stood on the open street, Jace felt imaginary walls closing in on him, ending his mental link through the stone and focusing him only on the inquisitor’s enraged face.
“I did not lie,” Jace replied as confidently and precisely as possible. Coming from an Honest player, it relieved some of the pressure. “I spoke only truths to you. You chose to imply more than I said.”
The pressure was quickly escaping Kai’s rage balloon, but he hung on to it as long as he could. “You let me believe a lie. You willfully deceived me!”
“I told you the truth in an effort to help you save the king. Your insistence that everything must be a conspiracy and that everyone is out to get you led you to believe what you did. I could not quickly convince you otherwise, so I used your shortcomings to help you. Do not blame me for this. By now, you must know my earnest endeavor to solve your dilemma. Could I have said anything else back in the brothel that could have brought us to this point more expeditiously?” Jace paused for a reply, but there wasn’t one.
“I thought not,” he continued. “Now drop your feigned anger, and let us get on with this quest before the eunuchs escape.”
Around him, the game relented and relaxed. Jace’s connection through the stone was reestablished, and he searched for the two men. They were gone, or at least, they were no longer walking on the street. Now, Jace scowled at the knight. “They’ve disappeared,” he said. “You made me lose them.”
“You?” Kai said. “I thought the wolf . . .”
Jace turned to Snowy. “Do you have them?”
The wolf tested the air.
Jace nodded. They were in the bakery, likely standing on a wood floor where Jace could not feel or hear them. He kept his focus on Snowy. “Another person is coming,” he explained. “Likely, it is a man of the same nationality. He will be carrying a strong poison. You must intercept him and bring him to us before he enters the building filled with bread. Do you understand?”
Snowy nodded her head. Gromphy moved beside the wolf and offered the familiar a drink of black liquid. The wolf instinctively trusted all of Jace’s companions and drank it without hesitation. Already carrying an illusion that disguised her as a large white dog, now her fur turned black, and whisps of shadow surrounded her, making her hard to see in the failing light even from five feet away. Snowy didn’t wait for any other instructions and bounded off into the night.
Jace continued down the sidewalk, approaching the turn ahead until he could see the bakery and the faint glow of light in a back room. “We can wait here,” he said. “Snowy should be back soon, and we can . . .”
His voice trailed off as he met Kai’s glare. His anger had not fully dissipated. “I want the truth,” he said. “How do you know of this quest? Where did you get the information?”
Jace sighed. They had a few minutes. “The gods of your realm often align fate to mimic legends from mine. All those who came before me assumed the solution to your problem lay in the fact that you are an inquisitor working for the king. I knew it depended more on your relationship with Esther.”
“I have no relationship with that woman,” Kai insisted. “I remember she used to work at the Swan, but I did not associate with her.”
Jace frowned. Now was not the time to tell Kai he was a fallen angel of the god Dignatio. The paladin had already told Jace that he couldn’t remember the name of his god. The player also knew that saying his name and his god together would unlock Kai’s memories. If he told him Esther’s full name along with her god, Decus Gemma, he would remember her. Presumably, if Jace found the names and deities of the other fallen angels, telling them to Esther or Kai would unlock their complete history. Now wasn’t the time for any of that.
“Perhaps you don’t remember an association with Esther,” Jace said, “but the fact that she worked as an escort and can easily infiltrate the king’s harem is the key to keeping Azurous safe. A legend from my realm is similar.”
“Do you know what will happen?” Kai asked.
“In my realm, the king is saved, and your honor is restored. I am working hard to replicate those results here.”
This explanation satisfied Kai for now, and he returned his gaze around the corner toward the bakery.
{Jace,} Gracie said in his ear. {I have news from Esther. Seems things are more complicated than we assumed.} She proceeded to inform him of the king’s plan to kill the queen and how it would also happen tomorrow. Jace had seen banners around town advertising a dragon festival. He didn’t know the local dating scheme, so he didn’t understand it would happen tomorrow. He informed Kai.
“He must have a good reason for it,” the knight said, obvious pain evident in his face.
“Yes,” Jace said, “he wants a new queen.”
Kai scowled at him but had no immediate comeback. The idea that his king was also a murderer didn’t sit well.
“What do you know of this dragon festival tomorrow?” Jace asked, already working on a plan.
“It is a celebration for the Chi people,” Kai said. “They worship the dragon . . .”
“Smart people,” Draya chimed in.
“ . . . and they hold this festival every year in Barcelio to expose us to their culture. Mages walk around in dragon costumes, throwing fireballs, and acrobats use spells to fling each other through the air while wearing wings. As a people who are wary of magic, it does little to endear them to us. However, it is also a chance for street vendors to sell food and toys. We like spicy food here and usually challenge the Chi to try roasted peppers and chilies. For people who worship fire-breathing animals, their tolerance for heat leaves something to be desired. The city appreciates the holiday as a day off to have fun, but we don’t hold it as sacred as the Chi do. If King Azurous truly plans to kill Vashti at this celebration, it might start a war.”
“We can’t let that happen,” Jace said. Kai only nodded.
“Snowy is coming back,” Draya said, looking down an alley in the opposite direction from where the wolf initially ran. They had walked to a less busy section of the town, and night had truly set in. Few people moved about the street. “And she’s dragging something,” Draya added.
Jace saw her too, a shadowy haze moving through the darkness, looking out for other pedestrians before racing across the main street and stopping before her master. She dropped a roughly human-shaped bundle on the ground. Jace feared the worst. {I found him,} she said happily as if she had just retrieved a large stick Jace had thrown.
Gromphy walked over to the man and rolled him to his back as Jace and Kai shifted their bigger bodies to block the rest of the street from their activities. “Thou ate his face off!” the goblin cried once he had flipped the very dead man over.
{He fought back,} Snowy said.
“I didn’t want you to kill him,” Jace sighed as Gromphy looted the body. “I wanted to question him.”
The goblin lifted a green potion bottle from the victim’s inner cloak to show that at least Snowy had caught the right person. “Here is the poison.” After another few seconds, he produced a much smaller vial, which he sniffed cautiously. “And the antidote.”
Jace shrugged his shoulders and turned to Draya. “Change of plans. I need you to disguise me as him,” Jace motioned to the corpse. “I’ll go into the bakery and try to figure out their plan.”
“You want to look like him?” Draya asked skeptically, barely able to look at the dead man. “His face looks like one of Esther’s half-eaten waffles with cherry sauce.”
Jace realized the problem and turned to Gromphy. “Can you fix him up?”
“Would thee have me fetch his nose from out of thy familiar’s gullet?”
“No,” Jace shook his head. “I mean, the crafter class is a type of priest, right? Can’t you heal him?”
“He’s dead,” Gromphy said. “I dabble not in necromancy.”
“Just try anything,” Jace said. “You’ve got more supplies in that chest of yours than most priests ever have access to. Certainly, something will work.”
The crafter grumbled again but obeyed and went to work.
“I should be the one to talk with them,” Kai said, pulling Jace away from the goblin and motioning back toward the bakery.
Jace shook his head. “No, you just want to kill them.”
Kai steeled his eyes. “I understand your logic, and I agree with you. I will do as you tell me.”
“Or I can just do as I already know,” Jace said. “Why should I send you?”
“Because you can’t lie.”
{He’s right,} Gracie said. {You basically want someone to go in there and interrogate those two Eunuchs. Even at level 10, Kai is way better at it than you are.}
Jace knew she was right. Since Kai had joined his party, Jace could see his character sheet. While he hated liars, his alignment wasn’t Honest. He was Pragmatic, Ordered, and Traditional. At times, to get a confession, he would need to stretch the truth – make threats he had no intention of carrying out. Anything to get a confession. Plus, his ability to detect lies in others was something Jace couldn’t match.
Still, at level 10, Jace worried the eunuchs would be able to see through his lies. “I know you are mostly impervious to magic, but do you have anything to boost the difficulty of your own abilities?”
Kai nodded and reached into his inventory. He produced a headband with a pulsing blue diamond resting just above his brow once he put it on. “It enhances my abilities and prevents anyone from knowing whether I speak truth or fiction. Any attempt to do so will strike them with fear.”
“Clever item,” Jace nodded.
“A gift from Vithium,” Kai said. “The monk may trade in flesh, but he treated me well.”
That’s because he wanted you to join his party, Jace thought but didn’t say. “Well,” he continued aloud, “let’s talk about the plan then.” As Gromphy and Draya worked over the body, Jace told the knight what to do.