It was late afternoon when the towering spires of Valleros finally came into view. Terri and Aggy had never seen them before and were awed by the sheer number of grandiose towers that dotted the city. Flem explained that they were the result of wealthy and egotistical merchants competing to build the tallest and most splendid residence to live in. Valleros' status as the key trading hub in the region meant that its merchants had become extremely rich over the past century, and they had searched for ever more gratuitous ways to display their wealth.

Deveros Tuckburough was credited as the first merchant to build himself a tower in Valleros. It was considered very lofty at the time but had since been overshadowed by both his competitors and his successors. Regardless of the reasons behind their creation, the towers looked magnificent with the late afternoon sun glinting off their many windows. As the trio trundled along the last mile of road towards their destination they reviewed their plan of attack for when they reached the city.

"Right, so our first priority is lodgings, closely followed by food," Aggy said while looking at Flem. "So we go to this 'Sleeping Dog' place that you've recommended and hopefully get both."

"It would be unusual if they didn't have at least one room available," Flem answered, "and it fits with your criteria of 'the cheapest place available where we can still feel confident we're not going to be robbed, stabbed or poisoned'."

"Excellent," replied Aggy, "and then tomorrow morning we try to make contact with whoever is representing the rogues’ guild up here."

Terri sat up from where she'd been laying down in the back of the wagon, still trying to get over the effects of her hangover. "I think we should wait to be contacted by Scarlett Rose before we start nosing around too much. His warning about doppelgangers shows that we don't know what we're getting ourselves into, and we could use his help."

"Oh aye," Aggy said derisively, "and what happens when he decides to 'help' us by shooting you with another magic missile, or something worse? The best case scenario is that we'd all magically end up back at Gravenhall looking like idiots, and in the worst case he'd find a way to actually kill us without activating our amulets."

Terri threw up her hands and collapsed back onto the bulging sacks that filled the wagon. "Fine, we'll do it your way," was the most polite response she could manage.

---------------------------

The Sleeping Dog Inn lived up to Flem's recommendation. It was one of those places that should have cost more to stay in than it actually did, and the trio were able to secure two rooms on an ongoing basis. Aggy said it wasn't so much the extra privacy she wanted as much as a break from the constant snoring, and as she was the one paying for the rooms Terri and Flem saw no reason to object. Acquiring lodgings, however, turned out to be much easier than contacting the rogues' guild in Valleros. Due to their small presence in the town the guild had no headquarters to visit and Flem had to fall back on some of the communication methods he had been taught during his training at Gravenhall. The young rogue told his two friends that he was prohibited from sharing the details of the communication method with them, but that it involved leaving coded messages at various places around the city. These spots were checked irregularly by all of the rogues who were present in the city and eventually one of them would seek out Flem and his party and make contact.

It wasn’t until three days later that the rogues’ guild finally made contact and it came as a great relief to the trio who had so far made very little progress in their investigation. They had visited the site of Flem's former tailor shop and found that construction had started on a replacement building of a similar sort to the old one. Flem's father had only been renting the property and it seemed that the owner had now raised sufficient funds to rebuild. After finding out this largely irrelevant piece of information the trio companions were out of ideas and divided their daytime hours between arguing about what to do next and wandering around aimlessly 'looking for clues'. It was on one of these 'clue finding' expeditions that they were approached by someone who appeared to be a fat, middle aged shopkeeper.

"Greetings travellers," the man's voice was thin and wheezy, "I was hoping I might have a moment of your time."

"Of course," Aggy responded, "however I must warn you that we are but simple travellers with little money to spend on anything other than the bare necessities."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"That is true of many who live in Valleros in these trying times," the man answered, "but fortunately what I require is not of a financial nature but simply the answer to a question. Do you perhaps know the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?"

Aggy and Terri gaped at the lunacy of the question but Flem quickly stepped in and answered, "That depends, do you mean a Vallerosian swallow or a Providencian swallow?"

The fat man smiled in response. "Welcome to Valleros brother, my name is Templeton Brandyfoot and I am at your service."

Flem smiled in return. "Do you know of anywhere that we can talk privately, Templeton? I fear that a city like Valleros has many eyes prying and ears pricking, and what I have to say must not be overheard."

"Of course," Templeton replied, his face growing serious. "I can take you to a safe place that is no more than ten minutes walk from here."

They gratefully accepted his offer and were soon approaching a bakery with 'Templeton's Tasty Treats' emblazoned on a sign above the door. The baker led them inside and waved cheerily at a plump woman who was serving customers before walking into another room at the back of the shop and beckoning them to follow. Once they were all inside Templeton closed the extremely thick wooden door and motioned for them to sit down at an ancient oak table which, apart from a large filing cabinet, was the only piece of furniture in the room.

Templeton wasted no time in beginning the conversation. "This room is protected from both mundane and magical forms of eavesdropping, and the doorway you passed through would have detected any magical listening devices you had inadvertently picked up. Now, what can I do to help out a fellow member of the rogues' guild?”

Flem was the first of the trio to respond and his voice broke a little as he spoke, "I'm here to investigate the death of my father, a tailor called Davoro DeLyse. He died a little over a year ago when his shop burned down with him inside."

"Ah, I remember," Templeton responded sadly. "My colleagues looked into it because we suspected that there was a new group trying to establish a protection racket in town and we wanted to know who they were. The trouble was that we could never find out anything about them, they seemed to have completely vanished so we eventually stopped looking."

"We've been led to believe that there was more to it than a simple protection racket," Flem answered, "and we've been tasked with finding my father's killers."

"Well I'll help out in any way I can," Templeton replied, "but I'm not exactly sure what we will be able to do. The killers disappeared so thoroughly that it was as if they had never existed at all."

Flem seemed at a loss about how to proceed so Aggy broke into the conversation. "It's a conundrum no doubt. Perhaps you could start by telling us everything that you can remember from the investigation, however trivial, and then we can try to come up with a plan after that."

"There's not much more than what I've already told you unfortunately,” Templeton said, "but I can at least provide you with the list of people we talked to during the investigation." He went to the filing cabinet and after a short search brought out a sheet of paper with a list of names on it as well as another sheet that appeared to contain Flem's description of his father's assailants.

Flem studied the list, noticing his own name as well as those of his former neighbours and others who’d lived close by. There was one name on the list that stood out however, and his eyebrows raised in surprise when he came across it.

"Templeton, why is Lord Dennyson on the list?” Flem asked curiously. “He and my father were old friends but they had a falling out and hadn’t seen each other for several months before the fire.”

"That’s interesting," Templeton replied. "Unfortunately, I can’t tell you why he’s on the list. There are no further notes and the rogue that actually conducted the interviews has......moved on. My best guess would be that one of your neighbours noticed Lord Dennyson frequenting the area near your home in the lead up to the fire. People are apt to forget most passers by but a lord of the city tends to leave an impression."

Flem looked thoughtfully at the list again before replying, “My father and Lord Dennyson used to be as thick as thieves and Dad was really upset when the relationship broke down but he wouldn’t tell me what happened. All he would say was that Lord Dennyson had cancelled all of his orders and insisted that we destroy any half finished items. Dad couldn’t bring himself to do it though, and we had a half finished formal suit hanging around the shop for months, on the off chance that the lord changed his mind.”

"It looks like we have our first port of call then," Aggy growled, "although the lord may not be willing to talk in front of me and Terri. How well did you know him Flem?"

"Fairly well before his falling out with my father. As I said, for a long time they were very close friends and Lord Dennyson was even kind enough to tutor me in economics and politics for a year, as a favour to Dad."

"Excellent," answered Aggy. "In that case I think it's high time you two had a catch up."