§ The couple entered the room behind Genette. I shook my head slightly and stood as they came in. Rod still wore what I saw him in last, his military uniform, as pressed and polished as always. His golden blond hair was, as always, neatly combed. My fiancé is never anything but a perfectly dapper clotheshorse, following in the footsteps …

§ Beretin’s warehouses held quite an assortment of goods. Much of it was disturbing contraband, but most items couldn’t be characterized as illegal, per se. At least, not before he actually attempted to ship them out of the country. For example, it was no surprise, since we already knew about the slave girls who were almost certainly breeding stock for …

§ When I returned to my office, I began reading Inda’s ‘cheat sheet’ notebook, quickly reviewing the government structure because I realized I barely knew anything about the ‘six ministries’ that Gyges mentioned earlier.  Tiana had certainly memorized as a child that the ducal government divides into Constabulary and Judicial Affairs, Academies and Examinations, Public Works and Commerce, Military and …

§ When I approached the woman, a fortyish powder-blue-haired Dorian wearing the castle’s standard eggplant-colored court lady dress, my ears had been picking up her heart. I’ve mentioned before how sensitive my hearing is, but I’ve probably not mentioned that when I draw very close to someone, their heart becomes audible to me. After all, most of the time, I’m …

§ Benedetta is a sensible woman. Although she remained apologetic, when I made it clear we needed to get on with business, she went right to work. By which I mean, she practically took over. In response to my request to move our discussion to a better location than a dusty store room in the basement (dungeon) of the castle, …

§ About an hour after our lunch ended, I went to the dungeon. Okay, let me make it clear, the old dungeon of Narses Castle ceased operating as a prison centuries ago, that function having been moved to the Aldat Citadel in Upper Town. The only thing in the Castle even vaguely resembling a jail is a small holding cell …

§ Thinking that Rod might have been getting sick of eating Dorian one meal after the next and wanting something familiar, I asked them to serve Atian cuisine for lunch. But Mother’s private dining room as master of this castle was in use as the Army’s war room, so the castle steward decided to have our lunch served on the …

§ Fan Li turned half the swallows back into a crow and returned control of it to me, and we split the two remaining locations between us. But by the time we arrived, the soldiers and fairy warriors were already securing the premises, impounding the goods and taking the remaining contraband slaves into protective custody. We ended up simply observing, …

§ The spirit craft [Far Presence] that Diurhimath had used to project power far from his main body has two stages. The first, an ‘outrider’, was a simple presence built up from captive low-level (sub-sentient) spirits, capable of observation and some limited active effects. The second, a ‘proxy’, is an actual physical body, albeit an illusion of sorts. It can …

§ With the Pendorian soldiers arriving, I switched my role to reconnaissance, casting Vampire Cloak on my Blood Effigy imitation crow and heading back inside. I think Falerè might have been saying something about Rod’s orders for me to stay in the castle, but I wasn’t paying any attention to her.  My real body was still on my balcony whether …