Despite being emotionally drained, Ean couldn't help grinning from ear to ear when he walked into his office.

"I didn't expect you to return smiling," Aria said. "Why so cheerful?"

Excited, he proclaimed, "The king officially appointed me the Spymaster of Argonia."

"Congratulations," Samuel said as he patted Ean on the back. "I hope you still hold the title of game warden because that's who the pile of packages were addressed to. They should be our next priority. You don't want the recipients to become suspicious when they fail to arrive on time."

Ean asked Aria, "Where'd you say they come from?"

Her hands now properly bandaged, she held out the open letter. "According to this letter, hunters in Argonia West stumbled on a smuggling ring in the Untamed Forest. The smugglers fled, leaving behind contraband items and these packages addressed to people all over the kingdom."

Samuel held up a package so Ean could see the address. "This one is addressed to the castle."

"Why would smugglers have a package for a member of the king's council?"

Ingar, his wounded spy, shrugged. "Maybe it's something innocent they all ordered from overseas and the smugglers robbed a postal delivery agent?"

Samuel tore open the package. "We won't know until we open them."

The packages were of a uniform size and weight, slightly larger than a clay brick and as heavy. Ean, Aria, and Ingar all grabbed a package. They carefully opened them to ensure they could be resealed.

Each package contained a stack of gold billets and an encrypted letter.

Ean examined the letters. The ciphertext consisted of strings of three numbers. The smallest number he saw was 032 and none of the numbers exceeded 122.

Samuel looked at his message wide-eyed. "I've only ever seen this code once before. No one uses it because it's rumored to originate from overseas. There's a myth among cryptographers about a shipwreck survivor named H. Tiem-el. He claimed to be from an advanced civilization with machines that spoke this Ask-ee Code."

"The spymasters of Argonia and Brindle are dead. Samuel, who else would know this obscure code?"

"I suspect the shadowy figure you've been chasing after."

"If he exists, then use of this code implies he's a foreigner. This must be how he's been coordinating activities in both countries without drawing attention." Ean glanced at Aria and Ingar. "Ok, Samuel. You have a room with three other people skilled in spycraft and a dozen letters to decrypt. Teach us the code."

Samuel painstakingly recreated a table from memory, meticulously aligning the uppercase and lowercase alphabets with their corresponding three-digit codes. He posted the table on the back wall where they could all see it.

When they finished decrypting each message, it was clear the messages were instructions to the members of the network run by the Man In The Purple Hat. Each recipient was given a task to accomplish by the end of the week. Ean, Samuel, and Ingar wrote new letters with a different set of instructions. Aria, whose penmanship was too neat to pass for a man's, helped with the encryption.

SKILL UNLOCKED: ASCII Code

LOG ENTRY UPDATED: Spycraft - Ciphers

SKILL UPGRADED: Spymaster +2

QFK: Use the Activity Page found at www.neuralsplyce.com/freestuff to encode 'Hello world' in ASCII.

Ean stared at the inconceivable wealth on display. "Can we at least agree to only send half the gold billets? I'm concerned what kind of favors so much gold could purchase."

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Samuel replied, "Doing so might tip our hand, making our modified letters useless."

"There must be a way to track who receives the packages and who they give the gold to."

Aria turned to Ean. "I have an idea. Where can I find the herbalism and alchemy offices?"

He gave her directions. When she returned twenty minutes later, she held a bowl filled with a fine, multicolored powder. "This is a gift from 'Argonia South'," she said, a sly smile playing on her lips. "Crushed Abalone shells."

Ean explained to Ingar that the first king of Argonia had ambitions of ruling the southern ocean with a vast navy. He even renamed the ocean Argonia South as if it were already sovereign territory.

They watched as Aria carefully sprinkled the powder over the letters and billets. Paying special attention to detail, everyone set to sealing up the packages. The work was tedious and lasted into the evening.

Ingar's hand trembled as he worked on a package, and suddenly, he collapsed, his face pale and sweaty. Aria and Ean rushed to his side, helping him onto the bed.

"I'm ok," Ingar rasped, his voice barely above a whisper. "Just need to catch my breath. The last few days have taken a lot out of me."

"You've been standing when you should have been sitting. When's the last time you ate?" Aria asked.

"Lunch."

Ean helped Ingar up. "Let's break here and get you some dinner."

Samuel, who was still struggling with a package said, "The three of you go ahead. I'm not hungry and I can finish the last of the packages."

Ean led Aria and Ingar to the kitchen where he roused a staff member to fix them a quick meal. When they returned, Samuel had finished and was cleaning the office.

It was now past midnight, so Ean told Samuel and Ingar to go to the bookstore and get some well-deserved sleep. He slept on the floor of his office while Aria used a cot stored in the closet. Tomorrow was certain to be busy.

* * *

Ingar arrived at dawn without Samuel, saying, "The old man insisted on waiting for the butcher shop to open to buy bacon. He promises to be here after he eats breakfast."

Ean, Ingar, and Aria ate breakfast in the royal dining hall. The normally vacant room was full of castle staff with dark rings under their half-closed eyes. If his plans succeeded, everyone would sleep soundly tonight.

After breakfast, Ean tasked Aria and Ingar with transforming his office into an Intelligence hub for all ministries. He then used his stable tokens for two horses and raced the rising sun to Argonia West.

His first stop was the trading post to see Garland Everstone, the overseer of his wildlife surveyors. He handed Garland a stack of survey forms and a large bottle of clear liquid.

"The hunters that ran off the smugglers uncovered a massive criminal organization led by a man known to wear a purple hat. He and his associates are wanted for questioning in several murders. We believe some of them may be hiding here. Do not approach or confront him or his gang."

Ean held up the bottle. "Tell everyone to fill out a survey every day for the rest of the week. The numbers aren't important. On the back, I want you to use this invisible ink to write the time and location of any suspicious activity. I'm leaving a horse with you. At midday, ride to the castle with any surveys you have. Do the same in the evening."

"I can do that. How do I get a horse in the afternoon?" Garland asked.

"Good catch," Ean said, handing over six tokens. "Return the horse, trade a token for a fresh one. And if you find any indecipherable letters addressed to me, deliver those to the castle as well."

"So, the rumors are true? Riverside was invaded. Are we going to war?"

"Riverside was a… misunderstanding. The criminal gang has killed people on both sides and blamed the other side. If we stop them, we can prevent a war." Ean placed a hand on Garland's shoulder. "Good luck."

Ean mounted his horse and rode into the park. In the dead drop, he left an encrypted message with instructions to covertly assist the surveyors and to drop messages at the trading post until instructed otherwise.

It was now mid-morning, and he had miles to cover and hours of work ahead of him. He pushed the horse hard for a speedy return to the stables. With two more stable tokens, Ean journeyed to Argonia East to repeat the task.

He didn't make it far.

* * *

Six royal guards manned the boundary checkpoint, their expressions stern beneath the gleam of their polished helmets. Agitated citizens lined both sides of the barrier, but the guard allowed no one to pass through.

Ean sat high in his saddle and shouted, "Who's in charge here?"

"I am," replied a Guard Corporal.

"Why is this checkpoint closed? It should be open to allow refugees into Argonia East."

"Direct orders last night from the Minister of The Interior. No one passes through without authorization from him." He paused, his gaze sweeping over the restless crowd. "We were told it's to prevent Brindle spies and traitors from approaching the capital."

The checkpoint in Argonia North is the only one that should be closed, and only for inbound travelers. This is not what was agreed upon in the council meeting.

He shoved his travel pass and Badge of Station in the man's face. "I'm the Spymaster of Argonia," he said, his voice ringing with quiet authority. "I need to get into Argonia East to catch the spies and traitors you're guarding against."

"Sorry, sir, but my orders—"

Ean pulled hard on the reins, causing his horse to prance and paw at the ground near the guard's feet. "My orders come from the king who, last time I checked, was a higher authority than the minister."

The corporal hesitated before commanding his men. "Hold everyone back and open the barrier just enough to let the horses through."

Ean thanked the guards and guided the horses through the checkpoint before pushing them to make up for lost time. He stopped at the tavern and gave the owner the same instructions for using invisible ink, and left him the second horse. Then he went to the dead drop and left similar instructions to his spy. Finally, he went to the military camp to complete a side quest he'd given himself.