The two travelers dressed in dark hooded cloaks stood next to their horses at the gates of Brandt castle, the seat of what little power lay in the county of Nordfell. Around them was the town of Neustadt1, the only town in the county. In some ways, the town was a microcosm of the county that it belonged to: isolated, cold, and dirt poor. In Nordfell winters were long and brutal, while harvests were lackluster at best. It was not a place where anyone would choose to live, which made sense as most of its inhabitants were the descendants of people who were forcibly relocated there. The only purpose the county truly served was to provide its rulers, the Ostermanians2, with a bulwark against a group of invaders that had gone into decline centuries ago and a waste bin to dump their undesirables. The first wave of settlers had been the riff-raff of the empire’s many nations: petty criminals, prositutes, the financially desitute, and anyone stupid enough to volunteer for resettlement. These unfortunate souls would be joined over the decades by those deemed by the emperor to be participants in the occasional separatist revolt, but migration to Nordfell was still not something that happened often.
While the various peoples who had been forced to call Nordfell home tended to self-segregate into different villages, usually along ethnic and linguistic lines, Neustadt was a place where all of these peoples lived together. As the travelers stood at the gate to the castle they could hear a strange cacophony of dozens of voices speaking the many languages of the empire. There were people conducting business, gossiping about their neighbors, and telling jokes. It was a vibrant mess that only polyglots, such as the two travelers could appreciate.
“He seems to be taking his time...” One of the travelers said as he removed his hood, revealing the face of a young man in his late teens with blonde hair and a boyishly handsome face. A large sword hung in a scabbard from the man’s back. His companion, who was shorter than him and remained hooded, didn’t respond. As they stood there, a soldier wearing a set of cheap and beat-up armor watched them. The man’s face was tired and beaten-down and a long horizontal scar ran below his eyes. He kept his hands on his hips, from which hung a chipped and dented sword, a spatha3. The sword was much older than the man who wielded it and its design had gone out of favor centuries ago, but it still held an edge better than a sharpened stick.
Suddenly the castle gates opened and three people emerged: three men and a boy. The travelers recognized one of the men as a guard that he had spoken to earlier.
“These are the men that wanted to speak to the count?” A tall bald man with a graying brown beard asked the guard that accompanied him. The man wore a short blue cloak with the image of a white edelweiss flower embroidered on the back of it.
“Yes, sir,” The guard answered. The bald man then turned to the travelers.
“Hello. Who are you and what brings you to Neustadt?” He asked. The blonde-haired man answered.
“I am Sir Ekkehardt4 Lowe. My partner and I are investigators from the Imperial Gendarmerie5,” Lowe then raised the back of his left hand to the bald man to show him his signet ring. The ring was made of silver and its bezel displayed an engraving of a double-headed eagle. The bald man took a closer look at the ring. He stared at it for a short period before slowly nodding with approval and backing away. During this entire time a slender and dark-haired man beside him stared at Ekkehardt and his companion; watching them like a hawk and never allowing his right hand to move more than a finger’s length away from the hilt of his sword. After examining Ekkehardt’s ring the bald man turned to Ekkehardt’s companion, an individual who was shorter and more slender than Ekkehardt. Unlike Ekkehardt, this person had not lifted their hood and their face remained obscured.
“And you are?” He asked. Before anyone else could do anything Ekkehardt spoke up.
“That is my partner, Sir Alf Neuman,” Ekkehardt answered, “He isn’t much of a talker,”
“I see,” The bald man responded, “I am Sir Adrian Ebner and this is my associate, Mr. Erik Schwartzbaum6.” He said pointing to himself and the dark-haired man. Ekkehardt looked Schwartzbaum in the eye and nodded his head while saying ‘hello’ very casually. Schwartzbaum did not react.
“Well, now that that is out of the way, can you tell us what you are doing here? I hope there isn’t an issue with the taxes,” Adrian inquired.
“No, I’m afraid that we need to speak with the Count about another matter entirely,” He replied. Adrian exhaled audibly and relaxed a little while the composure of his companion Schwartzbaum remained unchanged; standing as though a fight was imminent; keeping his eyes glued on the travelers.
“Well, if that is what you would like, then I have no reason to not oblige you. I should be able to arrange an audience with you and the Count. He’s currently out attending a ceremony in Černý Kopec7, a village to the north of here, but he should return to the castle this evening,” Adrian explained.
“That will work just fine,” Ekkehardt responded.
“Good. Now, if you don’t mind me asking, could you tell me more about your mission? I’m sure that Mr. Schwartzbaum and I could be of assistance to you,” Adrian asked. Ekkehardt shook his head.
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“We are here to deliver justice to a criminal that we believe is hiding in your lands. I’m afraid that we are not at liberty to share any further information with you,” Ekkehardt answered. Adrian frowned.
“Well, all I have to say to that is that you better have a more elaborate explanation to tell the count. He doesn’t like being left in the dark, especially by people from the capital,” Adrian responded. Ekkehardt simply nodded. There was a brief and awkward silence.
“Alright,” Adrian said, “Allow us to escort you to the banquet hall. You may rest there until the count is ready to speak with you,” Ekkehardt nodded. Adrian then looked at the boy who had accompanied him.
“Sven, take their horses and have them set up in the stable,” Adrian ordered. The boy nodded his head. The boy took a moment to grab the reins of the two horses as the rest of the group walked into the castle bailey, leaving him behind. As the boy began to catch up to everyone else, Ekkehardt’s companion started to lag behind. He then broke out into a dry, hacking cough. Without thinking Sven handed him a white handkerchief, which he accepted and proceeded to cough into. Eventually he returned the handkerchief to the boy before retrieving a small vial of clear liquid from his pocket and downing it in one go. Halfway through this process the rest of the group stopped to look back at them.
“Is he alright?” Adrian asked.
“Oh, he just has a little cold; he’ll be fine,” Ekkehardt answered. A few moments later Ekkehardt’s companion regained his composure and rejoined the rest of the group.
“Alright then…” Adrian said to himself. As the rest of the group continued walking through the bailey and towards the keep Adrian noticed that the boy, Sven, was standing still and staring at his handkerchief. It was too far away for Adrian to see, but the boy was transfixed by a small red spot on the handkerchief.
“Sven!” Adrian barked. Immediately the boy’s head snapped back up and pocketed the handkerchief. He then resumed his task as everyone else disappeared into the castle’s keep.
Inside Brandt Castle there was a small meeting room. Like the rest of Count Claudius8 von Brandt’s castle, it was spartan by the standards of the travelers. The furniture was wooden and crude; consisting of one long table that dominated the room and several simple chairs. The stone walls were adorned with only one ratty blue banner that displayed an edelweiss flower. As Ekkehardt entered the room he took note of the fact that the only means he had of exiting the room was through the door he entered it with. The only other aperture within the room’s walls was a small window placed high up on the wall across from the door. Ekkehardt quickly dismissed it as a possible exit point as it was too high to reach, too small to fit through, and partially obstructed by a nest occupied by an owl. Sitting far from the travelers and those who greeted them was Count Claudius. He was a pale and sickly man with a very wrinkled head that was topped with the silver remnants of what once was a head of hair. He was a far cry from the fat and decadent nobles the travelers were accustomed to, his thin body resembling that of a peasant more than that of a member of the nobility. He looked at his guests with blue eyes that shone like a pair of sapphires.
“Greetings.” He said in a weak voice. Sitting to the left of Claudius was a young man roughly the same age as Ekkehardt, though his face and body were the opposite of those of a knight. No, he had appeared to be a scribe more than anything else. Ekkehardt could see a fearful look on the delicate face that was behind his bobbed brown hair. He kept a small collection of books and scrolls within an arm’s reach of him on the table in front of him.
Ekkehardt moved closer to a chair, but not before counting a total of eight guards standing around the edges of the rooms. He then detached his sheath from his back and placed it (along with the sword within it) on his lap as he sat down. His companion took a seat next to him.
“Greeting, Count Claudius,” Ekkehardt replied as he sat down. His partner sat down next to him. “I am Sir Ekkehardt Lowe and this is my partner,” He said as he gestured to the individual who sat next to him, “I trust that Sir Adrian has informed you of us.”
“He has, but only briefly,” The count replied, “I understand that you wanted to apprehend a criminal who had entered our lands?”
“That is correct, sir,” Ekkehardt replied.
“Well then, who is this individual? We have enough trouble as it is so I will do my best to help you bring this criminal to justice.”
“We are looking for the perpetrator of the Weisshart9 murders,” Ekkehardt explained. Claudius winced and rested his head in one of his hands. Claudius then gave a brief look at Adrian. The young man that sat beside Claudius swallowed his saliva in apprehension. He wasn’t the best judge of character, but he understood that this was a sign of major disapproval.
“If this is the gendamerie’s idea of a joke then I am not impressed,” Claudius said as he sighed.
“We are very serious. It is of vital importance that we kill this man and deliver his body back to the capital,” Ekkehardt answered.
“So you’re telling me that there is someone in the capital who wants to see justice brought to someone who killed people in a small village in a distant corner of the empire twenty-nine years ago?”
“Yes,” Ekkehardt answered.
“And what purpose does this investigation serve? I know that I am owed no favors in the imperial court and if I was, I would have asked for a thousand different things before requesting for some children to swagger about my lands while investigating decades old murders and salting old wounds,” The count asked. Upon hearing this, Ekkehardt began to tense up with small beads of sweat forming on his forehead while his hand formed a fist under the table.
“I am afraid that, in the interest of the security of the empire, I can not share that information with you,” Ekkehardt answered.
“Then I am afraid that, in the interest of the security of my county, I cannot permit you to conduct your investigation,” Count Claudius replied “I will have my men provide you with a place to sleep for the night and some food, but after that I want you gone,”
Suddenly Ekkehardt’s companion whispered something into his ear. Ekkehardt swallowed his saliva and inhaled a deep breath.
“We know about the dome in the Frauenwald10. We plan to break it open and kill the creature hiding within it,” Ekkehardt announced. A look of surprise and dread appeared on the faces of Count Claudius and Adrian. The young man sitting next to Claudius appeared to be confused. His eyes quickly darted around the room as he attempted to figure out what was going on. As all of this was going on Erik Schwartzbaum’s expression remained completely blank. Within a few moments Claudius regained his composure.
“Well then, in that case the only place you two will be sleeping tonight is the dungeon,” Claudius announced.