It was late, and Captain Anton Markov was in his tent, the rough fabric of the military issue cloth flapping in the night wind. But he was not asleep, not now.
The Sage had Sung to him again. She had not done that... since the dream.
How many times had he died for her? How many times had she welcomed him back with the Salute to the Silver Queen, and the Salute to the Morning?
Thousands...
He pulled off his tunic, and stood in front of the crude mirror in his tent, little more than polished metal used to shave with.
Over his navel was his Fourth Mark, dark black ink with a white center that seemed to glow to his eyes, although he knew it didn’t.
Constitution. A Champion is strong, but you’re not a Champion, you’re a Soldier. A soldier’s job is to be tough, to endure. Endurance is from the gut. If you have the guts, nothing is impossible.
He could hear her voice as she had Marked him in Dream, as memories that faded from dream to dream now began to return in a rush.
People called him a prodigy, a commander of rare ability, a master of the Spear.
He was a novice and a fool who had followed the commands of his lady, and died a thousand times and more to learn the uncaring rules of the battlefield.
He was the Great Captain of the Ironblood, and he had a Fourth Mark to prove it.
He held up the Amulet around his neck. He’d had it made on a whim, the symbol for Iron on the silver side, of Blood on the other. A minor magical Trinket giving him a small amount of resistance to fire and cold, enough for him to ignore any and all natural extremes of temperature without a problem.
An Ironblood Amulet. She had placed the one she wrought in Dream around his neck with her own hands. No matter where they fought, the hottest deserts to the highest icy plains, the Ironblood endured.
He had married, he had children, had a successful military career that could only climb higher... and had always felt he was missing something.
Sage Sama was up North, fighting an Evil that could end the world.
She had Sung to them all once again.
And she, she had returned to him his Dreams. Looking upon his picture in The Book had shaken him down to his soul.
He would speak to his wife tomorrow. He had fought evil unending for years, underneath the greatest battlefield commander he could possibly imagine. He was going to resign his commission and head north.
The Ironblood would be coming to their Sage, and he, their Great Captain, was going to be there to greet them!
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-Sage Sama?- There was a pause from the /speaker. -Is it true that Mera is a doppelganger?!-
The half of my mind running what was this world’s only chatroom server turned to the one speaking.
If Mera existed, that meant that Corporal Meers and the others actually came from That Place, the mansion in Nightmare. They had likely seen her image when I focused on Meers’ image in The Book, as he was the giant who I always encountered first after killing the dop maid.
In very short order, I could likely find out exactly who my intended family was supposed to be, who Tremble had been. That could be quite important.
-Is there a maid called Mera at your place of residence, Sergeant Ombler?- I /asked calmly. I felt him swallow through the link as he abruptly had a very significant chunk of my attention.
-Yes, ma’am.- He /pictured the middle-aged woman, with dark curly hair and a stern expression in a senior maid’s outfit perfectly.
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-Is this a noble’s residence?- I /inquired.
-I am a guard captain for the city estate of Duke Hartover, in the Duchy of Espenflow, ma’am,- he /relayed promptly.
I looked down at The Map, as his awareness of it permeated through and I automatically installed it into the greater image. Focusing on it, I could see the place where he was inside the mansion right now, on the second floor in his personal quarters in the guardsmen’s wing, laying the residence out for all of us.
Rosencrux Empire, the westernmost area of the Kingdom of Ogredown, the Northmarch, northernmost of the Five Realms. Almost due south of where I’d woken up.
There it was. The mansion. The yard. The back yard. The stables. The gate to the cavalry barracks. The pond, the statues, the great drive, the iron gates. I stared at it all for an eternity of three seconds, and then I moved on to the business at hand.
-Did you lose a handsome, lady-killing member of the house guard or extended Ducal family approximately ten or so years ago?-
The /question seemed to floor him for a moment. -Ten-odd years ago? The Duke’s younger brother, a bit of a wastrel, vanished down in the bordellos down by the river back then. Divinations revealed he’d been murdered badly, but no one found any trace of his body or the killer.-
-Name?- So that was my father, making me still a member of the family, probably to throw off any real bloodline detection.
-Rupert Hartover.- I could /hear his concern, and naturally he would be looking for connections between all this.
-Was Mera hired within six months of that incident?-
There was a notable pause. -Yes.-
-Were her primary duties looking after the children, especially a newborn?-
His /reply was much grimmer. -Yes...-
-Is the child she had primary responsibility for at that time now missing?-
I could almost feel his heart thump to the roof of his mouth. -Yes!...-
-Does this Mera wear a pendant, amulet, bracelet, ring, earring, or other item containing an orange or yellow stone with a dark red center?- I /went on.
-An amulet. She never removes it.- His agitation was growing, I crushed it with icy focus.
-Can you get your hands on a chain or clasp made of Energized telstung?-
-I am not sure, my lady. What does it do?-
-It is a metal that, when in contact with your skin, neutralizes all transmutative magicks upon you, good or ill. This naturally includes the magic shapechangers use. Unless you draw blood and test her by force, it is the easiest way to force her back to her base form.
-However, this is dangerous. True doppelgangers eat the brains of their victims, subsuming their memories and wearing their personas like masks for their minds. Likely, this Mera was hired, then killed, and her brain eaten and she was replaced.
-That pendant is a tchazty stone. When Energized, it obfuscates divination spells in the area about it through natural means. If infused with negative energy, it can be dipped in the blood of a person, and will broadcast the data for that person about it. So, it will show her as a human female named Mera if a spell looks for it, but will not show her as a Shapechanger, as it obfuscates what it does not broadcast. As this is a natural effect once Energized, it will radiate no magic and is undetectable.-
My /voice dropped lower. -More to the point, Sergeant, are there any other members of the household or guards who wear similar stones?-
Alarm was rising in his mind. -Mithar...- he /trailed off. -At least five... including one of the children...-
-The child started wearing it after the disappearance of their sibling?-
-... yes...-
-A faster way to identify a shape-shifter is simply to ask the family pets, but I trust most of them have died recently, too?-
I could hear him choke. -Yes, a batch of bad food...-
-Dress up immediately and head to the Church of Harse. Inform them that there is an Inquisitorial Matter at the Ducal Estate that cannot wait. Have funds on hand to pay for a Commune, even if it means you must offer up your Sword.
-The questions they need to ask are: Is the human woman Mera (last name?) dead? When did she die? Is the Ducal child (name) dead? When did they die?
-When those questions are answered, inform the Inquisitors of your findings. There will be action taken immediately. They will take great care not to alert the known shapeshifters and trigger chaos in the household. But you must be in place to guard the other children, and see to it the masters of the house are on alert. Advise the Duchess to have her protective spells cast for a possible threat, and a proposal that the Duke spar with the men so he can wear his blade.
-Do not presume that the temple has not been infiltrated as well. The clergy will be safe, but not the lay folk.-
Sergeant Ombler got to his feet, reaching for his uniform and his weapon, his thoughts cold and grim.
-That will not do, Sergeant. Dops are mind readers. Have you a lady friend outside the estate?-
A sudden flash of embarrassment. -Aye, my Lady?-
-Splash some whiskey and then some cologne on your cloak as you leave. Leave it on your horse when you reach the temple. I shall sing you something to get you in the mood.-
Then, to his utter astonishment, I began to flutter along a Nuavan litany that helplessly began to shift his thoughts to things that had nothing to do with shapechanging infiltrators, and his mission to save the Duke and his family began literally on that note.
There were twelve other Marked who were members of the household, and I’d had listening silently to all of this, and fully forty-nine more in the city of Espen who were also still awake. They all snapped to attention when I addressed them.