After having left the school we started walking towards high-town. The imperial school was located outside of the capital because it needed so much space for training areas. Luckily for us we didn’t need to walk through down-town to reach our destination. I always hated walking in those parts of town, it reminded me of what the Southern capital looked like right after invasion. The district was filled with poor people and reeked of sickness. Narval swiftly interrupted my gloomy thoughts.

-“Elusse lives on the street of conquerors, so once we reach the gates of high-town we won’t be far.”

-“Is she part of the richest of rich of something?” I jokingly answered.

The street of conquerors was one of the few streets of high-town I knew despite not going there very often. It was known to hold the residencies of some of the most powerful people in the Empire.

Narval deemed fit to stop walking and took a serious voice.

-“Her father was Aldur Dexcillas, a great soldier of the empire who served as general during the war in your country Jaxcx. He died there.”

I could have felt attacked by his words, but I knew Narval didn’t mean those words to hurt me. He just considered them to be a plain truth. A few months ago I might have taken those words personally but so many students told me stories going in the same lines that it didn’t really matter to me anymore. I knew I didn’t kill a general during the war, so I knew I didn’t have to feel guilty about the death of Elusse’s father. And, yet I could somehow feel my good mood slowly drying up.

Narval continued. “She now lives with her mother’s brother, who happens to be a minister of the court.”

I started walking again.

-“so her mother is the sister of a minister and her father used to be general. Will we even be allowed to get close to her?”

Narval swiftly started walking again too.

-“Well, I hope the guards will at least tell her we are there, and there’s no doubt she’ll let us enter if she knows I’m there.”

While discussing we had reached the gates of high town. They weren’t really gates, more like two huge stone pillars covered with runic writings. At the moment the district wasn’t shielded, but during times of siege a mage would activate the wall which would create a dome of energy above the capital. The writings would then turn blue, or red if the barrier was attacked. We crossed the gates and entered high-town. Just as Narval said, we rapidly reached the street of conquerors.

Narval pointed at a house with white walls and a green roof.

-“That’s her house if I remember correctly.”

The word “house” didn’t remotely bring justice to the huge mansion standing in front of us. The rectangular windows were several meters high while the main door could fit four horses standing side by side. From the looks of it, there were three floors, and I could smell green gardens behind the house.

I casually approached the wooden doors.

-“I’m assuming this is where we knock ?”

Narval smiled. “We do not knock here.”

I silently looked at him waiting for him to continue.

“We do not knock here because the people inside already know they have visitors as soon as someone stands in front of their door”.

I looked at the house, looking for a trace of someone watching us. “So we’re being judged right now?”

Narval nodded. “They know who I am, so they are probably looking at you right now”

I straightened my back, lifted my shin and arranged my hair. “I wonder what’s taking them so long.”

At the moment the words left my mouth, the doors opened and a man with a tall figure walked out.

-“ Apologies for the wait gentlemen, may I enquire as to your business here ?”

Narval walked up and started talking in his most noble voice possible.

-“Hello Noster. Lady Dexcillas was absent from school today, we were tasked to give her our notes so she could catch up and to make sure she was doing all right.”

Considering the official etiquette Narval was using I decided to do the same.

-“I am named Jacx Silvereye, nice to make your acquaintance.”

Narval gave me a weird look. Noster smiled and looked at me right in the eyes.

-“You’re from the ancient southern Kingdom are you not ?”

I didn’t know what to answer. How did Noster immediately guess that ? Narval saved me the trouble of answering. “Yes he is, you must forgive him Noster, over time he’ll learn the etiquette of our Empire.”

I realized my mistake. I was told this long ago, but the nobility in the empire did not present themselves by name when on official business. You either knew the name of the person in front of you, or you were not worthy to speak to him. This ensured the circles of nobility remained very closed to outsiders.

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Noster walked to us and took the leather binder Narval was presenting to him.

-“Well, on behalf of lady Decxillas, thank you for your notes and your attention, I am sure she will be very thankful.” He looked behind him. “Unfortunately at the moment she is not available to speak, I am sure you will be the first one to hear from her once she is better.”

Narval didn’t want the meeting to end so swiftly.

-“So she is sick? Is she all right ?”

Noster tried to hide his discomfort as best as he could. Sadly for him, lying was not a quality required to be butler.

-“Well, … “ He marked a pause “I’m afraid I cannot tell you more about her condition at the moment, she will surely explain it all to you once you meet again.”

I didn’t really know Narval, so I couldn’t tell what was going trough his head, but I figured we would have troubles getting past the butler. For all we knew Elusse wasn’t even in her home to begin with. While I was trying to find some scheme to get Noster to reveal more information, another figure appeared in the door opening.

-“Well well well, wouldn’t it be two of my students from the tracking class ?”

Coming out of the Decxillas house stood Mr. Mawpach, seemingly less surprised than we were. He was still dressed in long red teacher’s robe from school, indicating that he was here as a teacher and not a mere invitee. I couldn’t help but ask.

-“Mr. Mawpach, what are you doing here ?” realizing my rudeness, I quickly added. “If I may ask? ”

The tracking teacher ignored my question and rather addressed himself directly towards the butler.

-“Noster, I believe we might have an answer to our issue at hand.”

A few moments later we were sitting in the living room of the Decxillas manor. The inside of the building was just as impressive as the outside. The walls were covered with paintings, the curtains were made of silk and there were magic crystals lighting most of the rooms. Noster joined us while bringing a silver plate with tree cups of tea standing on it. I was a bit uneasy seeing him still standing while the teacher, Narval, and I were sitting in red and golden sofas. Noster put the tea plate on the low table in the center of the room.

-“Here is some tea. It is directly imported from the eastern islands”

Mr. Mawpach took a cup. “Thank you Noster.”

I didn’t like tea, and more importantly I had still no clue what was going on. I tried to ask.

-“I’m sorry I don’t really like tea, but I’d love to know what exactly is going on here.”

Mr. Mawpach looked amused. “Take a guess.” He added. “We’ll see if you’re worthy of receiving an explanation.”

Narval took his cup of tea and just held it with his two hands as if the tea was sucking his stress away.

-“Is Elusse dead ?”

Noster sighed. “That would have been quite troublesome too, but we wouldn’t need your help for that.”

I noted that he spoke about needing our help.

Mr. Mawpach looked at me. “Jacx Silvereye right ?”

I nodded. He continued. “I heard speaking of you. Your previous math teacher told me you weren’t the profile to study much, but you had quite the imagination.” He paused. “How about you use that imagination and make an educated guess on why we are sipping tea right here and right now ?”

I started saying what came to my mind. “Well, Elusse isn’t dead”

From the corner of my eye I could see Noster nodding confirming what I had just said. I just kept going. “She isn’t here either, and she probably isn’t sick at all.”

Mr Mawpach smiled. I could feel the puzzle slowly getting together. “If she isn’t sick, but you had to lie saying that she was, then either you have to hide her current state of affairs, either you do not know about her current state of affairs.”

Narval was staring at me. I took a breath before continuing. “But considering you need our help, I would guess for the latter.”

Mr.Mawpach slowly clapped his hands twice. “Not so bad.”

Narval interrupted. “Wait, so she’s gone ?”

This is the moment Noster chose to speak. “Lady Dexcillas has been missing since two weeks. We know neither where she is, neither why she left.”

Mr. Mawpach took over. “Last time she was seen was two days after her departure, she was going to the South.”

I was still missing out on something very important. “But why would you need us ? The dexcillas family is known to be more than powerful in the capital. Why not just summon a regiment of the imperial army to go look for her ?”

Mr Mawpach seemingly ignored the question and took out some maps from his leather case. “When we saw her going to the south, she was already close to the southern border.” He rolled out a map on the coffee table. “Sending the official army there right now would ruin all the efforts the empire put in creating good relationships with the southern province. But that’s not all.” He looked at Noster. “The Dexcillas family cannot afford to look weak during these times. The Emperor is soon going to choose his next close council, having his niece disappear would nullify Elusse’s uncle’s chances of being on that council.”

I blurted out “But didn’t she already disappear ?” Narval corrected me. “Yes, but the public doesn’t know that yet, if she comes back before anyone notices it’ll be as if she never disappeared.”

Mr. Mawpach seemed satisfied. “I see you understand where we are.” He continued. “Before you arrived I was discussing with Noster the possibility of sending out students to search for her. And Actually I was very specifically thinking of you, Narval.”

-“Because I’m in tracking class and I know her ?”

The teacher nodded. “Yes indeed, would you be interested in helping her ?”

Narval didn’t need much to be convinced. “Of course, I’ll gladly bring her back !” He hesitated a bit before continuing. “But it might be rough going alone”.

Mr. Mawpach smiled. “Luckily, for some reason, destiny seems to favor us today. For some obscure reason, you came with the perfect student to accompany you.” He looked at me. “How would you feel about helping us out Jacx ? Don’t you miss the south ?”

I faked a smile. The south was still my home, but there wasn’t much left there for me. Despite feeling like an intruder in the capital for the past months, it started to feel like a new home. I sighed.

“I guess I’ll help, especially since I probably know the south better than anyone here.”

Narval smiled. “Oh that’s great. I’m a bit sorry for dragging you into this though…”

The teacher interrupted him. “No worries, if you successfully bring her back, the school will obviously consider it a free pass to skip the final examinations. I’m also certain the Dexcillas will be more tha grateful.”

Noster nodded. “Indeed, my Masters will certainly reward you for bringing back the third heir of the family.”

I realized that since the Dexcillas family had a big influence in the capital, helping them out would certainly help smoothen the relationship between the southern province and the empire, which was the exact reason I had to come to the imperial school in the first place. It was getting late, and since I had to walk all the way back to the school to get to my place, after exchanging polite greetings, we left the Dexcillas manor and went home on our separate ways.

While going back to my place I started thinking about more practical details. Narval and I were pretty exited at the idea of going on a duo mission but we were so focused on trying to hide our excitement that we didn’t ask any additional questions. Mr. Mawpach told us that he would give us all the available information at his next course, but he also insisted that he didn’t have much.

I figured our main issue was knowing where to search. It would take us years to search every city, town, and farm of the southern province. In order to find her as quickly as possible, we had to know where to look. When entering the school I chose to not go to my room immediately. I had an idea.