Logan turned towards Rena and gently cradled her face in his hands.

[Logan] “Listen, we are not abandoning anyone, okay? This is just a tactical retreat. Asha knows how this works. She knows we aren’t willfully abandoning her, okay?. She’ll try to get back to our previous meeting point just like we should be doing. I’m sure Rodrick knows to do this too. I bet no one’s even noticed that Rodrick is part of this. He’s fine,I promise. And you heard captain treason over there, Asha will be fine too.”

[Rena, small voice] “I don’t know, it doesn’t feel right.”

[Logan] “I know, but trust me, yeah? Your heart is in the right place, sweetheart, but you’ve never been in a situation like this. We’ll only endanger ourselves and the people we’re trying to rescue if we stay here for longer than necessary.”

He let go of her face and turned around to look at Finn.

[Logan] “Which is also why it would be a bad idea to wait for you to go get your fancy little notebook.”

[Finn] “Fine. In which inn are you staying?”

[Logan] “Don’t really feel like I should tell you that.”

[Rena] “Didn’t we decide to trust him?”

[Logan] “No. You decided to trust him, I still think he could backstab us at any moment.”

[Finn] “Whatever. Meet me at the edge of the forest outside the plains by nightfall. The road that leads out towards the east.”

[Logan] “You better not try to lure us into a trap, okay buddy? I’m really good at holding grudges for a very long time.”

[Finn] “Why would I try to lure you into a trap if I could just get you arrested right here?”

[Logan] “I don’t know, so you could catch us all at the same time? People have come up with stranger plans.”

[Finn] “Maybe if they’ve got your level of intelligence. I prefer my plans to be well-thought out and make some actual sense.”

[Rena] “Didn’t we determine that we’re running out of time?”

[Logan] “Yes, right, we need to leave. Finn, darling, would you be so kind as to escort us to a side entrance.”

[Finn] “I thought you didn’t trust me.”

[Logan] “Didn’t you hear, we don’t have any time left for quippy banter. The faster you get us safely to an entrance, the quicker you get rid of me.”

[Finn] “Right. There’s a hallway on the floor above us that leads through the cellar and the laundry room to the backside of the archives. It shouldn’t be too heavily guarded, and they won’t question my passage anyway. Once you’re outside these walls, however, you’re on your own. I trust you know how to blend into a crowd and not get caught right away.”

[Logan, smirk] “Of course.”

[Finn] “Good. Let’s go.”

It didn’t take them long to traverse through the cellar and the laundry room to reach the back door that led out of the archives.

[Finn] “You’ll have to continue on your own from here.”

[Rena] “Thank you. I really mean it. I truly hope we’ll manage to meet up this evening. I’m going to make sure we’re keeping our end of the bargain.”

[Finn] “It’s more your loss than mine if you don’t show up.”

[Logan] ”Yes, yes, you’re a big, independent traitor who doesn’t need anyone else to overthrow the government, we’ve got it.”

[Finn] “I definitely don’t need someone like you.”

[Rena] “We should leave. Before someone gets suspicious.”

[Logan] “Right. We’ll see you when the sun sets, sweetcheeks. Let’s go.”

Logan grabbed Rena’s wrist and headed out the door. They stepped out onto a stone pathway that was only wide enough for two carriages to pass before ending in the stone wall that surrounded the archives. To their right, a few workers were unloading wooden crates from a horse-drawn carriage and bringing them into the archives through tall, double doors.

[Logan] “Let’s go this way.”

Logan led her to the left, away from the people. 

[Logan] “We just need to get to the crowd and hurry outside. Blend in with the rest of the visitors. It would be too suspicious if we tried to sneak over the wall or something like that. Most of the guards don’t know what we look like, we should be fine. Just don’t look nervous.”

[Rena, mumble] “That’s easier said than done.”

[Logan] “As long as we don’t run we should be fine.”

[Rena, hissing] “Don’t you think we stick out just a little bit with our dirty clothes?”

[Logan] “Just pretend it’s meant to be like that. Haven’t you noticed how weird some of the people here look? No one cares. People are too self-involved to notice something like that. The worst thing that’ll happen is that someone will think your sense for fashion is horrible.”

[Rena] “Maybe all of this is easy for you after a lifetime of crime, but I’ve never even had to consider these things before this week. When I was back home, I didn’t have a habit of sneaking around and deceiving people, okay?”

[Logan] “You could have stayed home, you know. No one’s forcing you to be here.”

[Rena] “No, I couldn’t have stayed home because it’s gone!”

Rena stopped, her eyes fixed on the ground, her arms wrapped tight around her chest, trying her hardest not to start crying. She pressed her trembling lips together and took in deep, shaky breaths.

[Logan] “Shit, sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I wasn’t thinking. Sometimes I-I just say stuff. I’m really, really sorry.”

[Rena] “I’m sorry that I haven’t managed to adjust to this massive shift in my life yet, but none of this is easy for me.”

[Logan] “Yeah, no, I know, I know. I’m really sorry.”

[Rena] “I’m trying my best to keep up with you and trust you but I’ve never done anything like it and I just don’t have the confidence yet that everything will turn out ok. I’m sorry that I’m nervous and I’m sorry that I don’t have the instincts and I’d also rather be back home with my family than sneaking around in some stupid castle looking for some stupid letters and ruining one of the only dresses I have just so that maybe I can find out why everyone I ever loved is suddenly dead.”

[Logan] “Fuck, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like th..”

[Rena, starting to cry] “And I’m really trying hard to keep it together and to just think about what we have to do to find out what happened but it’s hard and I feel like I’m crumbling and I don’t know what to do and how to keep myself together and I miss them so much and I’m never ever going to see them again even if we find out what happened.”

[Logan, softly] “Shhh, it’s ok, it’s ok, come here, it’s ok. I’m really sorry I said that. I know what you’ve been going through. It should never have happened. It isn’t fair. Sometimes life is way too cruel and there’s no easy way to deal with it.”

[Rena, crying] “ I don’t know what to do.”

[Logan] “I know, I know. It’s ok, you don’t have to have all the answers right now. We’ll figure it out together, yeah? I know there’s nothing we can do that will get your family back. I really wish there was. You know, if this is too much for you, you can just stop, right? You don’t have to go through with this. It isn’t your responsibility to fix it. If you want to take a break to deal with your loss first, that’s fine. You don’t have to force yourself through this if it’s too much. I can get you to Rancor and set you up there if you have nowhere else to go. Kalani and Cas would understand. They’d probably welcome you with open arms. That’s what the camp’s for, after all.”

[Rena, mumble, calmed down] “Thank you.”

[Logan] “Yeah, no problem. Genuinely, if at any moment, you want to stop, just let me know and I’ll drive you straight to the camp. Or somewhere else if you’ve got someone to stay with or if you want to go to a specific place. No judgement at all, yeah? And Rodrick and Asha and I will keep investigating this thing. Well, I can’t guarantee that the others will keep going, but I’m pretty sure they would if you asked them nicely. Rodrick definitely, Asha’s a bit more stubborn. But I promise you that I’ll keep looking into it, yeah? This should have never happened and someone needs to be held responsible for it. And we’ve got a pretty new face joining the team now, so I’m sure we’ll uncover this mystery in no time.”

[Rena, giggle] “Not if it’s just the two of you. If I’m not there to stop you, you’ll probably end up stabbing each other.”

[Logan] “Nah, well, maybe, but I’ll make sure to stab him only after we’ve found out the truth.”

[Rena, giggle, sob] “You’re the worst.”

[Logan] “Our new friend would probably agree with you on that one.”

[Rena] [Shaky breaths] “We should keep going. I don’t want someone to find us here like this.”

[Logan] “We’ll just tell them we’re jilted lovers who’ve just had a nasty fight and needed some privacy.”

[Rena, laughing] “Gross, no, you’re like ten years older than me.”

[Logan] “Great, that can be the reason for our fight. You’ve finally come to your senses that you want to date an attractive, younger person that can actually relate to you on an emotional level.”

[Rena, chuckle] “Stop it. I thought you didn’t want to waste any time.”

[Logan, startled] “Right, our escape! This way!”

Logan took her by the hand and led her around the corner of the building. There was still a crowd in front of the archives, although most people were now heading out instead of in. They walked over to where all of the caravans and carriages were standing, drifting through the crowd until they reached Rodrick’s caravan. No one seemed to be paying much attention to them, but Rena also forced herself to only look forward and keep her eyes from treacherously wandering around, so there was always the chance that someone, somewhere had seen them emerge from behind the castle and found it suspicious.

[Logan] “Ok, do you have a piece of paper?”

[Rena] “No? Except the letters we stole, I guess?”

[Logan] “Hmm, not ideal, but we could just rip a small corner off. Ehm, a pen?”

[Rena] “No. Why would I have a pen with me?”

[Logan] “I don’t know. We need something to write the note with.”

[Rena] “This was your plan, I thought you had it figured out.”

[Logan] “Ah, shit, ok, ok, it’s fine. I’ll figure something out. Wait here for a second.”

He jogged over to a group of three middle-aged women in big, colourful, fluffy dresses who were standing next to two giant, white draft horses. As Logan came up to them the women turned around, wary at first, but they seemed to warm to him quickly. Rena couldn’t hear what he was saying to them, but she could hear the raucous laughter of the rightmost woman well enough.

She rolled her eyes and turned around, letting her fingers run over the wood of the caravan as she walked to the back of the wagon. She leaned in close to the door, pressing her forehead against the wood.

[Rena, murmur] “Hey Vincent, how are you holding on?”

            [SFX muffled dog noises]

[Rena, murmur] “I’m sure Rodrick will come back soon enough to let you out. I’m sorry we locked you in here for so long. I’ll give you a million pets when we’re back at the inn, ok? [sigh] It’s been a bit of a rough day. We’re technically on the run, but don’t tell anyone, please. I have to confess something. I’m not sure what I’ve gotten myself into here. Maybe all of this was a mistake. [long sigh] I don’t know. I guess we’re doing the right thing. Someone has to uncover this, might as well be us. But the way ahead seems a bit dangerous and I don’t know if I’m strong enough for it. I really wish I could just go home and hug my parents. I really, really miss them. …. I’ll just have to hug you real tight later.”

            [SFX footsteps approaching]

She pushed herself away from the caravan and turned to her left, expecting Logan to come up to her. As her eyes wandered across the other wagons and the crowd surrounding them, they landed on a spot of bright orange. Behind the wheel of a caravan, sitting in a beam of sunlight, sat a fox, looking at her. The white tip of its tail swayed lazily up and down, but otherwise it didn’t move, not even when people hurried past it. No one else seemed to be bothered by the animal, or they simply hadn’t seen it. Maybe foxes weren’t a rare sight in this city, maybe people had gotten used to seeing them a long time ago, but something felt different to Rena about this one. It might have just been the fact that the fox seemed to be staring at her, but on the other hand, it almost felt to her like she had seen it before, like it was the same one she had seen two nights ago when they had entered the plains. There surely were a hundred of these animals in this city and she knew she hadn’t gotten a good look at the fox two nights ago, so why did it feel so familiar? 

[Logan] “Alright, let’s go.”

Logan came to stand in front of her, blocking her view of the fox. 

[Rena] “Did you… see that?”

She stepped to the side so she could look past Logan but the spot of sunlight where the animal had stood before was now empty. She looked around, trying to glimpse its red fur in the crowd. She even bent down to look underneath the wagons, but it seemed to have vanished.

[Logan] “What?”

[Rena] “There was a fox.”

[Logan] “Yeah, they’re like plagues in bigger cities. I don’t think they fear humans anymore. And people keep throwing all their garbage onto the streets so it’s like a buffet for them.”

[Rena] “Hmm, I don’t know, something felt different about this one.”

[Logan] “Maybe city foxes look different than the forest foxes you’re used to.”

[Rena] “No, it wasn’t anything like that.”

[Logan] “Well, either way, let’s get out of here.”

[Rena] “Did you write the note?”

[Logan] “Yep, and put it near his seat so that he could find it but still hidden enough so that no one else will see it. Not like I put our entire plan on that note or anything, but you can never be too careful.”

[Rena] “Alright then. Bye Vincent.”

            [SFX muffled dog noises]

            [SFX footsteps]

[Rena] “I don’t like it that he’s been locked in there the whole day.”

[Logan] “Probably safer than leaving him at the inn all day. Someone could have just stolen him.”

[Rena] “Who steals someone else’s dog?”

[Logan] “You’d be surprised.”

They navigated their way through the crowd with no major incidents, but Rena only dared look away from the ground in front of her feet when they were already past the last lamp post leading up to the archives and the crowd was starting to disperse into the plains. She dared to glance back quickly, to make sure no one was following them, but they really had managed to escape, even if it didn’t feel right to her.

[Rena, whispering] “Shouldn’t they close the entire building down if they are looking for someone?”

[Logan] “Probably don’t want to inconvenience their esteemed guests.”

[Rena, whisper] “But none of the guards even looked alarmed.”

[Logan] “Yes, and usually the captain of the guard or whoever he is doesn’t help the thieves escape. They probably think they’ll be able to catch us inside the castle without anyone else noticing and I’m sure he told the guards to not mention the incident to anyone to save his reputation.”

[Rena] “It doesn’t seem very efficient.”

[Logan] “Yeah, well. With big institutions like that, appearance is often more important than efficiency.”

[Rena] “That’s just backwards.”

They arrived at the inn and Logan went to get the keys to their rooms from the innkeeper before they headed up to the room Rena and Asha had stayed in the night before.

            [SFX Footsteps & creaking door]

[Logan] “Ok, wait here, I’ll go get us some new clothes.”

[Rena] “Ok.”

            [SFX creaking door]

Rena stood in the room, alone for the first time in what felt like forever, her eyes slowly wandering over the pictures and statues of marbled ducks spread throughout the room. The silence was encroaching on her again even though she could hear the cacophony of human activity from the tavern. She shut her eyes and shook her head, trying to snap herself out of it. She looked around the room to find something she could do and noticed with relief that there was a wash basin with a fresh pitcher of water in the corner of the room. 

She went over to the basin, filled it with water, and washed her hands. She then tried to rub her face clean, but the grime and dust that had caked itself onto her skin refused to separate from her. She would need a bath to get everything off, especially out of her hair, but she wasn’t sure when she would actually be able to take one next. She went over to the bed and sat down on it with a sigh, closing her eyes and dreaming of letting her body sink into the warm water. Maybe the bath water had even been infused with some herbs, maybe she would even have access to a bar of the really fancy soap made with olive oil that she had seen in Maggie’s soap shop in her home town once. Either way, she knew that the steam coming from the bath would smell heavenly.

            [SFX door opens]

Her eyes flew open and she jumped up, dreading to see who would enter the room.

[Rena] “Asha!”

[Asha] “Good, you’re here.”

[Rena] “How are you? Y-your temple. You’re bleeding! Are you alright?”

[Asha] “It’s nothing.”

            [SFX water splash, face rubbing]

[Rena] “I’m so glad to see that you got out. I was so worried. I wanted to come look for you but Logan said it was best if we got out as quickly as possible.”

[Asha] “He was right.”

[Rena] “I’m really sorry we left you alone. Logan just started running and drag me with him and I tried to get back to you when I saw that you were fighting the guards but he wouldn’t let go of my hand and then we crawled through some shafts in the walls to a different room and, and there we ran into the captain guy who was waiting there all alone for us and he just wanted to talk and he said he was also looking into some stuff and wasn’t happy with the administrator and the Royal Council and he said he’d help us out to find out what happened to Oceansthrow and the other villages and then he helped us escape but honestly we just walked out of the building with absolutely no problems, which I think is a great oversight on their part, and I don’t really trust it, but of course I’m happy that we did get out, and now the captain is going to wait for us near the forest tonight and then he’ll accompany us and hopefully together we can figure out what is going on.”

[Asha] “Why would we work with someone who’s related to nobility?” 

[Rena] “What? How do you know that?”

[Asha] “His face, his clothes, his attitude. Besides, you don’t get a job like that without being related to someone in power.”

[Rena] “Well, I don’t think it really matters. I’ve trusted the rest of you so far, so I don’t see why I shouldn’t trust him.”

[Asha] “It’s your quest, you can do what you want. I’m going back to Rancor in the morning anyhow.”

[Rena] “Oh … ok. … No, of course, I mean, you got what you came for, of course you’re not obligated to stay with us. I’m sure you have other important things to do.”

[Asha] “Yes …. [SFX bed creak] … What exactly did the captain say?”

[Rena] “Ehm, he said he had noticed some weird things going on between the administrator and the Royal Council.”

[Asha] “What weird things?”

[Rena] “I’m not sure, he didn’t mention anything specific. I think he called them irregularities. But he’s got a ledger where he wrote them all down apparently. That’s why he didn’t come back with us right away, cause he wanted to go get that first.” 

[Asha] “Irregularities.”

[Rena] “Yes.”

            [SFX door opens]

[Logan] “Here, catch, brand new dress. Should fit you, probably. Asha! Good to see you got out alive.”

[Asha] “Tragedy that you got out alive.”

[Logan] “Can’t get rid of me that easily.”

[Rena] “I was just telling Asha about Finn.”

[Asha] “Finn?”

[Logan] “Yeah, the hot guy with the sword, that’s his name.”

[Asha] “Hot?”

            [SFX bed creak]

[Logan] “Our lovely leader here has decided that he’s part of the team now, apparently.”

[Rena] “Ehm, Asha just mentioned that she’s going to go back to the city of Rancor tomorrow.”

[Logan] “Oh come on, you’re abandoning us already? I thought we were building a bond here. Like brothers in arms, fighting together to overthrow the government. Isn’t that what we all want?”

[Rena] “That seems a bit extreme.”

[Logan] “Ok, ok, fighting together to find out what happened to the countless lives that were lost to tragedies that should have never happened and that the Royal Council and the rest of the nobility might be potentially trying to cover up.”

[Asha] “I’ll come to the meeting point with you. See what that guy is all about. I can’t guarantee anything beyond that.”

[Logan] “The curiosity is winning, isn’t it? You’ll stay with us, you’ll see.”

            [SFX door creaks]

[Rena] “Rodrick!” 

            [SFX quick footsteps, dog noises]

[Rena] “Hi, Vincent! Oh, I’m so glad to see you. What happened? How did you get out?”

[Rodrick] “Good, good, good. You’re all here. How wonderful. Well, I just walked out, didn’t I? I was just talking with the charming young woman and suddenly the door bursts open and some guards barged into the room and tell us to leave, so of course I complied with the order and followed the young woman outside, and then we heard shouting and banging from the other side of the door. I didn’t know what was going on and I have to say I was quite worried, especially since I didn’t know for certain that you were all in the room or if some of you were still wandering through the archives. Of course I had already glimpsed Asha enter earlier, and I was certain Logan had found his way in somehow, but I hadn’t seen him so I couldn’t be a hundred percent certain. But what a surprise it was when I saw the unconscious guards outside the room!”

[Logan] “Wait, Asha, did you just beat them up.”

[Asha] “Had to get into the room somehow, and I was tired of arguing with people to get what I wanted.”

[Rena] “Sounds a bit drastic, don’t you think?”

[Asha] “I’m sure the rest of you found noble and earnest ways to get access to the letters.”

[Rodrick] “Well, never mind that. We all had our tricks to enter that room. So I was standing outside the door with the young clerk and I was wondering if I should get back inside and try to help out, but I am not the youngest anymore and I didn’t have any of my equipment with me, so I had to accept the fact that I would not be of great help to anyone. I deeply apologise for that, I hope none of you are mad at me for it. The young clerk told me it was protocol for her to get back to her desk and escort any visitors to the entrance hall if something like this happened, but I managed to convince her to let me stay there so I could wait for Rena to come out of the room. Officially, she had never been assigned to our case anyway. And then after a while Asha burst out and we had our little adventure to find a way out of the archives for her, didn’t we?”

[Asha] “It sure was an adventure.”

[Logan] “Did you find the note? The one on the caravan?”

[Rodrick] “Yes, yes, I found the note, although whoever wrote it needs to learn how our lovely script actually works. It was barely legible.”

[Rena, under breath] “Logan wrote it.”

[Logan] “But you did manage to read it, that’s literally all that matters.”

[Rodrick] “Did you all manage to get what you were looking for?”

[Rena] “I think so.”

[Logan] “We even managed to get a new ally.”

[Rodrick] “Oh, how so?”

[Asha] “They are fraternising with the enemy now.”

[Rodrick] “The enemy?”

[Rena] “We don’t know if he’s an enemy to us or not. You shouldn’t be this quick to judge people.”

[Rodrick] “Who are we talking about?”

[Logan] “You probably saw him storm in with the guards. Blond, kinda short, blue coat blue eyes, perpetually looks like he wants to strangle you for how stupid you are.”

[Rodrick] “And who is he?”

[Rena] “His name’s Finn. I’m pretty sure he works with the guards at the archives and he mentioned that he found some irregularities in some information about the administrator and the Royal Council.”

[Rodrick] “But who is he exactly?”

[Rena] “Ehm, I don’t know. But I don’t exactly know who the rest of you are either.”

[Rodrick] “You’ve got a point there. And he wants to help us?”

[Rena] “Yes.”

[Rodrick] “Well, I say the more the merrier.”

[Asha] “The more, the higher the chance of being betrayed.”

[Logan] “You’re always so gloomy. Lighten up. Look at it this way, if he tries to betray us you are legally allowed to strangle him.”

[Rena] “Legally?”

[Asha] “Hmm, yeah, if I look at it that way, maybe this isn’t a complete clusterfuck.”

[Logan] “So it’s settled then! We’re all joining forces to uncover this mystery and kick the Royal Council’s ass!”

---

With 60% of the votes, the story continues on the second path. Rena and Logan escape the archives and regroup with Asha and Rodrick to tell them about their new ally. 

By the end of the episode, three choices will be presented to you. vote on twitter or down below for whichever path you want the story to continue on.

Intro music: Lonely Dusty Trail by Jon Presstone

Logo Design: Mars Lauderbaugh

Rena felt Logan shift behind her so that their backs were now flush against each other. She kept her eyes on the approaching guards. One was already halfway down the passageway while the other was just rounding the corner of the bookshelf near the back wall. Next to her, Asha pushed herself away from the bookshelf she had crashed into earlier and came to stand in front of her.

[Logan] “Listen, we don’t want any trouble. We’re simply here to read up on some documents. This is a public archive after all, right? Everyone’s allowed in here with the correct paperwork. You just spooked us, ok? No harm done, we can all go back to what we were doing beforehand. We won’t even complain to anyone about the way you’ve been treating us.”

[Captain] “Yeah, I don’t think so.”

The captain stepped closer, keeping his blade at Logan’s throat.

Logan’s hand came to grab Rena’s arm at their side, his finger wrapping tightly around her wrist. Asha shifted closer to Rena and blocked her view of the approaching guards. Her hand slipped underneath the fabric of her tunic at her waist and slid towards her back, clenching around something without taking it out.

[Captain] “You can drop this foolish act. I don’t know who you are, and I don’t think I actually really care to find out, but I don’t believe that you’re just some innocent researchers. Not if you’re in this room. Not if you’re in this section.”

He got closer to Logan until they were face to face, only the blade separating them.

[Logan] “As much as I am weirdly enjoying this, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

[Captain] “Sure you don’t. You know, you’re not as good at sneaking around as you think you are. Sure, the surveillance in this place is quite frankly abysmal, but I notice. I always notice.”

[Logan, chuckle] “Well, good for you. You seem to be a very valuable member of this establishment. Like a well-behaved, loyal guard dog.”

[Captain] “You think you’re so clever, but look at where you are now.”

[Logan] “Being threatened by a kinda attractive asshole with delusions of grandeur who thinks he’s just uncovered a great conspiracy in his basement?”

[Asha] “Logan, shut your mouth or I swear I will shut it for you once I’m done with the rest of these fools.”

The first guard was almost upon them and Asha finally pulled out what she had been holding on to behind her back. At first it looked like a thin, black handle until she flicked her wrist and it expanded into a rod the length of her forearm.

Rena didn’t know what to do, didn’t know what she could add to the conversation that would help them out. She knew she wouldn’t be able to fight them. Asha and Logan probably, but definitely not her. She would certainly just end up being an obstruction for the other two. But being the eldest daughter had taught her how to calm an argument down before it escalated into a full fight and maybe there was the sliver of a chance that the captain would listen to her instead of Logan.

She turned around and opened her mouth to say something but the second the captain’s eyes shifted to look at her, Logan lifted his free hand and pushed the captain’s blade up and away from his throat, making the man stumble back a few steps. Logan ran forward, his grip tightening on Rena’s wrist as he dragged her behind him.

            [SFX footsteps, running]

Rena almost fell, not expecting the sudden shift in movement, but managed to somehow keep her balance. Her dress wasn’t made for running. Her legs kept getting tangled in the fabric and even though she tried bunching the skirt up with her free hand she barely managed to hold on to it.

She looked back and realised Asha wasn’t behind them. She was still standing between the bookshelves, the captain at her feet while she was holding on to his jacket, his blade on the ground next to him. With her other hand she was swinging the rod towards the first guard, hitting him on the side of the head before he had finished lifting his sword. He slumped to the side and crashed into the bookcase. The captain tried pushing himself up to his feet again but before he could fully regain his footing she swung him around by his jacket and threw him towards the second guard.

[Rena] “Wait!”

[Logan] “There’s no time!”

[Rena] “But Asha!”

[Logan] “She can manage on her own!”

Rena tried to pull her wrist out of Logan’s grip, but his hand clamped shut, blocking the blood flow to her hand.

[Rena] “No. Wait!”

She almost lost her footing trying to get him to stop but he just kept going, kept running down the endless hallway between bookshelves. She turned around one more time, glancing back at Asha while Logan led them to the other end of the room. Asha had picked up the captain’s rapier and was swinging it with the same form and force like you would a regular sword.

Before Rena could see any more of the fight Logan was pulling them to the right down the passage between bookshelves that lounged the left-most wall of the room.

[Rena] “Wait! Where are we going?”

[Logan] “Out of here.”

[Rena] “But the door is the other way.”

He didn’t reply, just ran to the end of the passage. He stopped abruptly and turned towards her, dropping down to one knee in the same motion. He held his hands out to her, interlinking them palms up at knee height and looked up at her expectantly.

[Rena, confused] “What?”

[Logan, brash] “Climb up.”

[Rena] “Where?”

Rena looked up at the bookshelf in front of them and then looked around, trying to figure out what he wanted from her, but the shelves looked exactly the same like any other in this room.

[Logan] “On top of the bookshelf. There’s some tunnels in the wall that connect the rooms together. Now climb, we don’t have all day.”

[Rena] “Ventilation shafts?”

[Logan] “Yes! Maybe, I don’t know, it doesn’t matter, just get up there already.”

[Rena] “Ok, ok.”

She grabbed onto the boards on the bookshelf with her left hand, testing whether they would hold in place or not, and placed her other hand on Logan’s shoulder. She stepped on his intertwined hands and he hoisted her up with such force that she almost hit her head on the ceiling. She somehow managed to hold on to the bookshelf and slide on top of it. She had to lie flat on her stomach since there was barely enough space between the bookshelf and the ceiling for her to turn around. Like Logan had mentioned, there was a rectangular opening in the wall that was covered with an ornate, cast-iron grate. While Logan was climbing up the bookshelf in front of her, Rena tugged at the grate with all of her force, which wasn’t exactly much of it considering the awkward position she was in.

[SFX Metalic Thud]

[Logan] “Go in first, I’ll close the gate behind us.”

Rena slid forward, contorting her body to fit into the opening. The cast-iron grate dug into her hip on one side while the ceiling dug into the other. Somehow, after a lot of back and forth and almost falling off the bookshelf, she managed to squeeze her body into the opening. She crawled forward, realising that the stone underneath her was covered in dust. She could smell it in the air, feel it tickle her nose as she breathed it in. She tried to cover her face with the back of her hand but it didn’t help much. The tunnel in front of her was dark, only slightly illuminated by the dim light from the room. It didn’t seem to go very far, there was maybe enough space for two people before there was a wall, but she supposed there had to be a bend to either side that she couldn’t see.

The space was thankfully big enough for her to move around and look back at the entrance but not big enough to really turn around in it. She crawled forward a bit to make enough space for Logan to get in. She reached the back wall where the tunnel bent to both sides, hoping it could tell her where to go next, but both tunnels were completely dark.

She looked back at Logan who was climbing in with his feet first. He pulled the grate over the opening again before fishing something out of his pocket and bringing it up in front of him.

[Rena] “What are you doing? We have to leave. What if they catch up to us?”

[Logan, groaning] “I’m just glueing it shut. Won’t keep them away forever but maybe long enough for us to lose them. Just keep going already and I’ll catch up.”

Rena turned around and looked down both tunnels again, hoping her eyes had gotten used to the dark enough to see something more, anything that could indicate to her where they were supposed to go, but the paths in front of her were still pitch black.

[Rena] “Where do I go?”

[Logan] “Doesn’t matter, both lead to other rooms, we just need to get out of this one.”

[Rena] “What if we get stuck? I can’t see anything, I won’t know whether we’re going in circles or not. What if this is the only grate that opens and we never find our way back?” 

[Logan] “Just go forward until you see some light and then head towards that light. Like I said, it doesn’t matter where we end up, and they didn’t consider that people would be crawling around inside these shafts, so the grates aren’t welded to the walls. Well, except the ones leading to the outer walls probably, but we’re not going there anyway, would probably take us a whole day to find the correct shafts that lead outside, and then who knows where we’ll land. Maybe if we had scouted the area beforehand so we’d know where these shafts lead but …”

[SFX clothes rustle]

[Rena] “Ok, I’m just going to go towards the left.”

[Logan] “Yeah, sure.”

Thankfully the tunnels were big enough for her to take the turn, even though she had to shuffle around and squeeze herself past the corner. She could feel the dust caking onto her dress and arms and hands, especially after she had taken the turn, but at least her disgust was strong enough to override the fear and anxiety that came with crawling through a dark, enclosed space with no end in sight. 

[SFX clothes rustle stops] 

[Rena] “Aaah!”

[Logan] “What?!”

[Rena] “I touched something.”

[Logan] “Something moving? There’s probably rats and cockroaches in here.”

[Rena, shocked, hesitant] “What?! No, no, it wasn’t moving, i-it was, I don’t know, kind of fuzzy I guess?”

[Logan] “Dead rat, then. Nothing to worry about, it can’t hurt you if it’s dead, let’s keep going.”

[SFX clothes rustle continues]

[Rena, mumbling] “Just a dead rat, because those don’t carry any diseases at all.”

[Logan] “Less mumbling, more shuffling forward.”

[Rena] “We should have just let the guards take us to the holding cells.”

[Logan] “You definitely wouldn’t say that if you’d ever been in one of those before. They don’t clean up the dead rats there either.”

Rena didn’t know how long it took them to navigate through the ventilation shafts before they found another grate that led them to a different dimly lit room. More than five minutes and less than half an hour, if she had to guess. As Logan had mentioned before, she had no problem pushing the grate forward and carefully lowering it onto the bookshelf underneath the exit. She poked her head out to see if any people were around who could see them climb out, but the room seemed empty enough. The layout was almost the same as the room they had just come from, with tall, wooden bookshelves that almost reached the ceiling, although it looked like the middle of the room had either shorter shelves or no shelves at all. She scooted forward and managed to shuffle to the side so that she lay on her belly on top of the bookshelf. She looked down at the ground, wondering how she was supposed to get down without falling or taking the whole bookshelf with her. 

            [SFX clothes rustle; thump]

Apparently Logan didn’t have the same concerns, because he managed to roll himself off the edge, turn in mid air, and land on his feet without any major problems.

[Logan, whisper] “Here, take my hand.”

            [SFX clothes rustle]

[Logan] “Careful.”

            [SFX clothes rustle, soft thump]

[Rena, whisper] “Thank you.”

[Logan] “No problem. [breath] Ok. Let’s figure out where we are. [pause] We might be alone in the room, that’s good.”

            [SFX box move, paper rustle]

[Logan] “Ok, no idea what any of this is. Just a bunch of numbers and words that don’t make sense.”

[Rena] “Receipts for the military spending on food.”

[Logan] “Damn, how do you know that?”

[Rena] “It’s written on the crate.”

[Logan] “Ah, yeah, that makes sense. What would I do without you.” 

[Rena] “That crate over there reads military carpentry receipts.”

            [SFX paper rustle, box move]

[Logan] “Ok, so, bookkeeping then. Fascinating. No wonder no one’s here. We’ll just need a good excuse to walk past the guards standing outside.”

[Rena, shocked] “You want to just walk out?”

[Logan] “Well, if we wait here for too long they’ll have enough time to raise the alarm and lock the entire place down and look through all the rooms on this floor. So our best bet is to get upstairs as fast as possible to blend in with the rest of the crowd.”

[Rena] “But what if we run into them in the hallway?”

[Logan] “We’ll hear them coming from far away, won’t we?”

[Rena] “I guess so. But what about Asha?”

[Logan] “She’s stubborn, she’ll find her own way out of here. Now come on.”

[SFX clothes rustle, steps]

[Rena] “And Rodrick?”

[Logan] He’s definitely smart enough to pretend he doesn’t belong with the rest of us.”

[Rena] “But some of the clerks saw us together. Especially the one who entered the room with us.”

[Logan] “Well, he’ll just have to charm her into lying for him. I’m sure he’ll figure something out.”

They walked up to the end of the passage. Logan held a hand up for Rena to stop and then leaned forward to peer into the room.

[Logan, whisper] “Ok, I think we’re good.”

[Rena] “Wait, what are we going to do about our clothes? We’re covered in grime and dust.”

[Logan] “It’s gonna be fine, we just have to walk out of that door like we’re supposed to be here and talk about the price of flour or whatever. The guards outside will only see our backs anyway, and with how badly lit this whole place is I’m sure they won’t notice anything anyway.”

            [SFX footsteps]

[Rena] “I don’t know. I’m sure they’ll remember whether we entered the room earlier or not.”

[Logan, dismissive] “We can just pretend like we’ve been here the whole day.”

[Rena] “Logan, I’m really not sure about …”

[Logan] “Shh.”

He held up another hand to silence Rena and slowed down his pace. They hadn’t yet run into anyone else on their way to the entrance but that didn’t mean they had to be careless, even if Rena hadn’t seen anyone in the branching passages between the bookshelves either. She hadn’t even heard any indications that someone might be at the other end of the room. 

She wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or not. On the one hand, no one was there to bother them and notice them sneak in through the shafts, but on the other hand, if this was a room where no one ever visits, the guards outside the door would definitely not just let them walk away. They would probably end up having to flee or fight the guards, so what had been the point of crawling through the ventilation shafts in the first place? At least in the other room they had had Asha with them who knew how to fight, and clean clothes. They did have the element of surprise in this room however, if she really tried to find a positive side to their situation. Maybe they could exploit that if they stopped long enough to come up with a decent plan.

They carefully stepped closer and Rena could finally see the area at the centre of the room that held long wooden desks instead of bookshelves, but even that area looked abandoned. The chairs were all placed neatly beneath the middle of the desks, as if no one had ever touched them since the day they had first been set there. 

Before they could reach the passage that led to the door, Logan turned around to face her and stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.

[Logan] “There’s probably gonna be a clerk sitting at the desk in front of the door. We’ll just walk past them as if we’ve been here the whole day, ok? Just nod to them but don’t say anything more. If they try to talk to us, just let me deal with it.”

Rena nodded and stood up straight, taking in a deep breath to centre herself.

[Rena] “Okay.”

Logan patted her face twice, smearing the grime from the shaft on her cheeks, and turned around, striding confidently around the corner.

He instantly stopped again, and Rena ran headfirst into his back.

[Logan] “What the fuck are you doing here?”

Rena stepped back and around Logan and immediately her body froze. On the desk, where the clerk should have been, lounged the captain that tried to arrest them earlier. Rena didn’t know if she should run away again, if they should get back into the shafts, but Logan wasn’t moving and the captain wasn’t moving either. He just sat on the table, leaning against the wall, one leg outstretched, the other angled up, and looked at them.

[Logan] “How the hell did you find us?”

[Captain] “Logic and deduction. I know the layout of this place and I know where the shafts lead to. A bit of chance and guessing to find the exact room you’d end up in, but it seems like fortune is smiling down upon me.”

            [SFX wood creek, footsteps]

[Captain] “So, tell me, what were you doing looking at the administrator’s letters?”

[Logan] “Why would we tell you anything? Just cause you found us a second time doesn’t mean we’re suddenly gonna give in to your requests.”

[Captain] “Don’t pretend you’ve got any power in this situation.”

[Logan] “Hmm, well, you didn’t exactly give me any incentives to tell you the truth. Is this how you city folks conduct your interrogations? Where’s the torture? Or maybe a bribe? Getting my way in gold is always nice. Or I could also come up with some other ideas.”

[Captain] “You know, you’re quickly becoming the most annoying person I’ve ever met.”

[Rena] “H-hi, I’m Rena, uhm, I’m really sorry we ran away from you earlier. It was just a bit of a frightening situation. We didn’t mean any harm by reading those letters, we’re just trying to figure some stuff out. We’re not colluding or rioting or planning a coup. I promise, we’re not going to cause any trouble for the archives, a-and I’m sorry we took some of the letters with us, we’ll give them back as soon as we’ve had an opportunity to read them. It’s really just because we’re trying to piece together what happened to my hometown, because we think something strange is going on.”

[Logan, hissing] “Stop talking, why are you telling him any of this?”

[Rena, hissing] “Maybe he can help.”

[Logan, hissing] “Why would someone like him ever help us?”

[Captain] “Because we might have the same concerns.”

[Logan, Rena, unison] “What?”

The captain crossed his arms and leaned back against the desk, eyeing them wearily, his jaw clenching and unclenching as if he was mulling something over in his head.

[Captain] “I don’t know what exactly you people are looking for or what you’re even talking about, really, but I’ve done some digging of my own and I’m not thrilled with the things I’ve found.”

[Rena, excited] “Do you know anything about Oceansthrow? O-or maybe Miller’s Knee? The town’s that burned down?”

[Captain, cautious] “I’ve heard of them.”

[Rena] “There’s something weird going on, right? That the fires weren’t just accidents? Something to do with those crow effigies, right? And that’s why the events had to be kept a secret?”

[Logan] “How do you want to survive as an adventurer if you just tell the enemy everything we know?”

[Rena] “He caught us twice. He can just take the letters off of us when he throws us into jail, what does it matter if I tell him now or not?”

[Logan] “We could have bargained.”

[Rena] “It didn’t look like your bargaining was working very well earlier.”

[Logan] “Well, you didn’t exactly let me finish the negotiations, did you?”

[Captain] “Maybe I should just have both of you thrown into jail if this is how you behave.”

[Rena] “I’m sorry, sir. O-or maybe my lord? Prince? … Duke?”

[Captain] [SIGH] “None of that. My name’s Finn.”

[Logan] “Hi, Logan, nice to meet you.”

Logan held a hand out towards the captain while smirking, waiting for him to shake it. Finn looked down at the hand in confusion, his eyes slowly knitting together before he finally took the hand and shook it once.

[Rena, mock whisper] “Didn’t you just call him the enemy?”

[Logan] “I still have manners.”

[Finn] “Can we finally get back to the initial subject? I don’t know much about these fires or what purpose those effigies have, but I’ve heard about the Crow before and I know that the Royal Council works with them somehow but doesn’t want it known.”

[Rena, eager] “So the figurines represent an organisation? What kind? What do they do?”

[Finn] “I don’t know, I haven’t figured that out yet. I’ve got some suspicions but nothing concrete.”

[Logan] “Anything you’d like to share with the rest of us.”

[Finn] “You see, I don’t know how much I can trust you yet, so I’m going to keep my hard earned information to myself until I’ve figured out who the fuck you guys are.”

[Logan] “Oh, come on.”

[Rena, same time] “I’m from Oceansthrow, m-my family died in the fire. I just want to figure out what happened to them.”

[Finn] “Hmmm. That might be true, but maybe it isn’t. And it also doesn’t tell me who he is or who your other companion is. But that doesn’t really matter right now. We need to get out of here before one of the guards decides to go behind my back and tell the administrator about you.”

[Logan] “We? Since when are we all working together? A second ago you were trying to get us arrested.”

[Finn] “I know I can’t investigate this thing on my own. I at least need someone to stand guard during the night when I’m asleep, and I don’t exactly trust anyone around here, not for this sort of mission. So I suppose you lot will do, no matter how irritating some of you are.”

[Logan] “You wait, I’ll grow on you in no time.”

[Finn] “I highly doubt that.”

[Logan] “But also, why should we trust you? Like I said, you tried to get us arrested. You might very well be a spy for the Royal Council.”

[Finn] “Don’t flatter yourself. You aren’t so important that the Royal Council would send a spy after you. If they didn’t like you, they’d just throw you in jail and let you rot there. You don’t have to trust me, we just need to come to an understanding that for the next few days or weeks, we’re going to work together. We are both looking into the same thing, and I doubt you know as much about the administrator and the Royal Council as I do.”

[Logan] “Well, still, somehow I don’t tend to work with people who just held a blade to my throat.”

[Rena] “I think it’s going to be fine.”

[Logan] “Why?”

[Rena] “A week ago I didn’t know you or any of the others, but you still grabbed my hand before running away and Asha still fought the guards off to help us escape and Rodrick drove us all the way here even though he has no personal stake in the whole matter. So I don’t see why I shouldn’t let him into this group too, especially if he already knows more than we do about this whole situation.”

[Logan] [SIGH] “Fine.” 

[Finn] “I’ll need to gather some of my things from my chamber before leaving. A ledger with all the irregularities I’ve noticed while at the archives. You can wait in here until I’m back, you should be safe hiding in this room if I tell them know I didn’t see you.”

[Logan] “I definitely don’t think we should linger here. I’m sure you can remember all that important information in that beautiful head of yours. Our best bet is to get out of here as fast as possible and get out of town before anyone else starts being suspicious.”

[Rena, appalled] “What about Asha and Rodrick? We can’t just leave them here? We don’t even know where they are!”

[Logan] “I’m sure they’ll find a way out on their own. We can just wait for them at the inn. Maybe put a little note on Rodrick’s caravan so that he knows not to wait for us.”

[Rena] “But we don’t know if they’ll be able to get out. Asha was fighting three people so that we could get away. She could be in the holding cells!”

[Finn] “She isn’t. She got away from us before we could catch her. I only sent one of the guards after her, she should be fine.”

[Rena] “It still feels like we are abandoning her.”

---

With 50% of the votes, the story continues on the first path. After having found the clues they were looking for, the group now has to find a way out of the archives without being caught.

By the end of the episode, three choices will be presented to you. vote on twitter or down below for whichever path you want the story to continue on.

Intro music: Lonely Dusty Trail by Jon Presstone

Logo Design: Mars Lauderbaugh

Letters concerning the destruction of Miller’s Knee

Letters concerning the transfer of power in the Grey Isles

Intro music: Lonely Dusty Trail by Jon Presstone

Logo Design: Mars Lauderbaugh

Letters concerning the destruction of Miller’s Knee

To their Royal Eminence, High Lord Armanic Harkid, red Duke of Fae’Hosh, Admiral of the amaranth armada, Warden of the people.

I hope to find you in good health and fortune. Please extend my best well wishes to the High Lady Taluhid and the royal offspring.

I am writing this letter to you with my deepest and most revered respect to inform you of an incident that happened in Velashta a fortnight ago. I would not trouble you with this event if I did not deem it to be of great concern for the entire kingdom. 

About ten days ago, a small town named Miller’s Knee in the North of our province bordering Nappahrit was destroyed by fire. It was not a town of great importance as it only had thirty-seven residents, however, tragically each resident perished in the fire. I ordered an investigation into this incident to determine what the cause of the fire could have been, and my examiner informed me that an accident can be excluded as the fire’s origin. Furthermore, I have been informed that replicas of the crow effigy have been found on site. As per protocol, the complete elimination of the town’s memory has commenced and the clearing of the debris has already been completed. 

What concerns me in this affair is that I was informed by your honored cousin, High Lady Ciprianid Marnic, that the Royal Council had struck an agreement with the Lynx about the Crow’s activities over the last decade and that such incidents would not occur anymore. As it appears, however, this agreement seems not to have been honored by either the Crow or the Lynx. I do not wish to imply that the Royal Council’s esteemed allies would willingly break a royal accord, which leads me to believe that either the Crow itself might be working against its superior, or that a group has split off from the Crow and is now acting on its own.

As I know you are a great opponent of the Crow’s activities, I am addressing this letter to you to ensure that swift and strict measures will be enacted following this misadventure. I trust in your judgment to deal with this situation in the best interest of the kingdom and its people. I eagerly await your response and am prepared to enact any further measure you deem necessary to combat this plague on our lands.

With my deepest respect and admiration, 

Your loyal servant,

Lailad Parobac, administrator of records

---

 

To Lailad Parobac, administrator of records,

I am saddened by the events chronicled in your letter. What a tragedy.

The news you heard from my cousin was correct. A deal had been ratified between the Royal Council and the Lynx, who had assured us they would be able to reign the Crow back in after its previous misconduct. It is a great worry that this might not have been accomplished. I will send a group of my own examiners to your province to help you in your investigation. Please show them the artifacts that have been found and explain the results of your examination to them in great detail so that we can determine if this incident was perpetuated by an independently acting group of dissenters or if the Crow in itself has decided to disregard the Lynx’s authority and the accord with the Royal Council. 

In the meantime, I will convene with the rest of the Royal Council to discuss this incident and any further steps that could be taken. I will champion my cohorts to arrange a new audience with the Lynx to determine whether they are aware of this situation and what their plan of action will be. I am in good faith that this situation can swiftly be dealt with and that no further abhorrent actions such as this one will be taken by the Crow. I am of the opinion that we cannot let such a pest run rampant in our kingdom. Accords which have been agreed upon by both sides need to be upheld at all costs! Otherwise there is no sense in this entire system.

May fortune cast its eyes upon you.

Armanic Harkid, red Duke of Fae’Hosh, Admiral of the amaranth armada, Warden of the people

---

 

To their Royal Eminence, High Lord Armanic Harkid, red Duke of Fae’Hosh, Admiral of the amaranth armada, Warden of the people,

As always, I hope to find you in good health and fortune. 

I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of your royal examiners. I have instructed my own investigative team to prepare all the information we have managed to gather for their visit.

I profoundly agree with you that accords, especially those agreed upon with the Royal Council, need to be upheld and respected. Such is the basis of our kingdom. I hope it does not step out of line if I say that the Crow needs to be held accountable for their role in breaking this agreement and that an investigation into the Lynx’ potential involvement in the affair should be opened. Of course, I am not implying that the Lynx knew about the Crow’s transgression, and I am certainly not implying that they had anything to do with it, however, if we wish to bring respect to our system of justice, every and all possibilities need to be explored.

With my deepest respect and admiration, 

Your loyal servant,

Lailad Parobac, administrator of records

---

 

To Lailad Parobac, administrator of records,

The other members of the Royal Council have been informed of the situation and a meeting with the Lynx has been arranged. My cohorts were displeased to hear that our accord might have been disrespected although they have pointed out that it is of utmost importance to find out who the perpetrators of these attacks on our kingdom are. It does not do us well to put the blame on the Crow without knowing for certain that they are involved in the situation. Furthermore, please refrain from throwing accusations towards the Lynx without being able to prove they even knew about these incidents. The Royal Council has worked with the Lynx for longer than any of us have been in power and they are one of the kingdom’s most trust-worthy and well-respected allies.

Please inform my examiners that they should primarily focus on finding out who is responsible for this tragedy when they arrive.

May fortune cast its eyes upon you.

Armanic Harkid, red Duke of Fae’Hosh, Admiral of the amaranth armada, Warden of the people

---

 

To their Royal Eminence, High Lord Armanic Harkid, red Duke of Fae’Hosh, Admiral of the amaranth armada, Warden of the people,

I must apologize for my commentary in my previous letter. I certainly did not mean to imply that the Lynx knew of the incidents or might have been involved.

The royal examiners departed from Velashta this afternoon. As they will be able to tell you in greater detail, we have determined that the circumstances revolving around the incident extensively point towards the Crow’s involvement in this tragedy. Of course, it is impossible to know the exact identity of the people who perpetrated these events, as it could very well have been a sub-fraction of the Crow who decided to act on their own. 

However, as I have not heard from you since your last letter and your royal examiners were not able to give me any further information about the Royal Council’s decision on how to proceed, I humbly ask of you to inform me of any further plans the Royal Council intends to enact to deal with this situation.

With my deepest respect and admiration, 

Your loyal servant,

Lailad Parobac, administrator of records

---

To Lailad Parobac, administrator of records,

The Royal Council has convened with the Lynx and the situation is being dealt with, you do not have to concern yourself with the further evolution of this matter.

I would advise you to keep news of the incident from spreading as best as possible. It would not do any good if the wider population were to hear about it. Your main responsibility in this situation is to assure the well-being and serenity of your subjects and all people living in our kingdom.

You do not need to contact his Royal Eminence, High Lord Armanic Harkid, about this incident any further. The royal examiners have been able to report any necessary details for the further continuation of this investigation to his Eminence. 

May fortune cast its eyes upon you.

Javac Barred, Magistrate to the Royal Councils

---

Letters concerning the transfer of power in the Grey Isles

Dear Mari,

I hope you’re doing alright and I hope that one of these days I will have some time to come visit you again. Life has been quite busy for me since I’ve been appointed to this position, but we all knew that was going to happen. How has your research been going? If I remember correctly you were working on the Grey Isles case last time we spoke. Are you still working on that? I hope Dardec isn’t causing you too much trouble, I know he can be pedantic over these kinds of things. 

I’ve got a favor to ask you. I wrote to your cousin last week about the destruction of one of our towns. I doubt he’s had time to tell you about it, but the gist of it is that a small town was burned to the ground and we think the Crow might be involved in it. Nothing is proven yet so please don’t discuss this with anyone until we have more information, but I’ll need your services to keep this from spreading through the kingdom. I wish I could come to the academy myself to talk with you about it, but, as I’ve mentioned, I simply don’t have the time for such a long visit. Especially since I’m awaiting further information from your cousin. I will send over one of my counselors with more information so that you can arrange the appropriate archival adjustments for this case. I’ll tell her exactly what needs to be done but of course I trust your judgment to adapt these directives as you best see fit.

I look forward to seeing you at Rishi’s wedding this summer, even if it is still a few months away.

In good health and fortune, now and always,

Your friend,

Lailad

---

Dear Lai,

How wonderful to hear from you again. It has been too long since the last time we had the opportunity. I miss you dearly, the academy just isn’t the same without you. Yours surely isn’t the only life that has been busy lately. Since Levac (finally!) fully stepped down from his position, I’ve had the privilege of reorganizing the mess he left behind. You wouldn’t believe how much chaos one man can cause! When I took over as dean, I didn’t realize how much time I would spend working like a common clerk. Absolutely none of his documents are organized like they are supposed to. They aren’t even really organized by date or subject or any other logical system. I think he had his own strange way of organizing stuff and forgot to tell me about it. Or maybe he deliberately kept me in the dark to spite me. Wouldn’t put it past that old man.

All that to tell you that, yes, I am still working on the Grey Isles. Dardec hasn’t even been that difficult to work with. In the beginning of the transfer maybe a bit, but I think he’s been quite reasonable with his demands. Horec Oluvad, on the other hand, has been a pain to work with. I had always heard that he was such a friendly and polite man, so I didn’t expect this at all, but I think he didn’t take it very well that Dardec took over his position. He’s trying to demand more inclusion of his name in the official records and I’ve been trying to accommodate him on this, but I’ve got my instructions from the Council and I can’t just do whatever I want. He’s also been complaining that the transfer has been reported as something voluntary and desired on his part and he wants us to at least mention that he stepped down with a heavy heart. Can you believe that?! What kind of image would that send! And I don’t even understand what he’s so upset about. He’s gotten an equally sized province out of this deal. I think High-Foshe might even be bigger than the Grey Isles if you look at the usable land. And anyway, I don’t know why he’s being so difficult with me, I’m not even remotely responsible for the transfer. If he’s upset he should try complaining to the Council about it, see how far he’ll get with that.

About your second point, I haven’t seen or spoken to my cousin in quite a few weeks so I hadn’t heard about this yet. It would definitely be quite concerning if the Crow was back. I’m pretty sure the Council has struck some accord to avoid this situation, so it really shouldn’t be happening. Let’s hope it’s just a copycat or some overzealous dissenters. Do you remember how much work it was last time to deal with all of that? All the sleepless nights we spent at the academy figuring out how to spin this into something believable. My head hurts just remembering it, I don’t even want to imagine what it’ll be like now that I’m dean. But duty is duty, so I eagerly await the arrival of your counselor.

I’m so excited for Rishi’s wedding! Did you hear that they are building a new chapel just for the event? I still don’t understand why she wants to adhere to the old traditions, I haven’t heard of anyone getting married in a chapel in ages! But she’s always been fascinated by the old times, hasn’t she? I’m sure it’s going to be lovely no matter what!

May fortune guide your way my dear friend,

With love,

Marizad

---

My dearest Mari,

And here we thought old man Levac had it all figured out. But I can imagine that in the last few years in which he’s held the position he’s gotten too old and forgetful to be well organized. Can’t you appoint someone else to do the work for you? I thought Nellad assisted you with this sort of thing? I don’t think it would be a risk to involve her in the planning.

Dardec might be pedantic and exigent in his demands but at least he knows how to communicate them well, I’ve always appreciated that about him. I can understand Horec Oluvad though. He’s been the warden of the Grey Isles for nearly thirty years, usually these appointments don’t last that long. If Dardec hadn’t gotten the province, one of Horec’s children or someone else from his family would have gotten it soon enough. I’ve heard more than once that he’s quite attached to the Isles and its inhabitants, and I think the affection was mutual. You only have to look at all the problems the transfer brought with it. It’s almost been a year and people are still fighting the new administration. They don’t seem to realize that they are doing more damage than good. Dardec was appointed by the Council itself, they aren’t going to get rid of him that easily. And honestly, it isn’t Dardec’s fault that Horec mismanaged the Isles this badly. The population has become too used to the freedom he gave them, they can’t expect it to continue. Every one of the provinces has to contribute to the well-being of the kingdom in its own way, the Grey Isles can’t be an exception to this. 

Don’t remind me of all that work we had to do because of the Crow last time. I almost went out to look for them myself so it would finally stop! It remains a mystery why the Council didn’t demand the Lynx take care of them more thoroughly. I wouldn’t have accepted for them to keep roaming the lands. You never know when they’ll decide to attack bigger cities. I don’t want to imagine the work you’ll have then. 

I think I’ve heard of someone else having a wedding in a chapel too. Looks like people are getting back to the old ways, at least aesthetically. Do you think Rishi will have a preacher officiate the wedding? I think that might go too far for my tastes. I’d be fine with some of the old chants though, I always liked the sound of those. 

In good health and fortune, now and always,

Your friend,

Lailad

---

My dearest, dearest Lai

I’m truly sorry for how long it’s taken me to reply. I’d written the first version of this letter three weeks ago and then I just never got around to sending it. Everything is so busy right now, I’m absolutely exhausted. 

Nellad is already helping me plenty, I wouldn’t want to put even more work and responsibilities on her shoulders. I want at least her to have the illusion of a life outside of this academy, there’s truly no need for the both of us to never leave this building. 

Some good news, I’m done with my part in this whole Grey Isles mess. It’s not my problem anymore if the two lords decide to continue their petty feud. It’s honestly not any of my concern if Dardec can’t manage to get a grip on his new subjects and still hasn’t been able to quell the rebellions. I don’t understand why Horec Oluvad is trying to drag me into that debate.

And can you believe Horec even tried to argue with me that he should keep his old title?! That’s not how it works at all! The title is tied to the province and High-Foshe has a margrave, so of course he’s going to be a margrave from now on! Who does he think he is? He’s not above the rules of this kingdom just because he got attached to his previous province. I’m glad I don’t have to deal with this man anymore. I told Nellad that I don’t want to read a single one of his letters anymore, I’m way too busy to deal with this whole spectacle. Anyways, I need to deal with the transfer of Red Hill next, hopefully that one will be less of a headache. At least that one’s staying in the same family, but you never know if a distant cousin isn’t gonna suddenly appear and try to claim the province for themselves.

Your counselor arrived about two weeks ago and we’ve come up with a plan and schedule of everything that has to be done. I’ve tried to find all of the documents from the last time they were active but I doubt I found all of it in the mess Levac left me. It’s going to take a while to get everything sorted out but I think the most critical parts aren’t going to take too much effort. At least not as much as that tiny coastal village in Nappahrit ten years ago. That was an absolute nightmare. Why did they have to strike so close to the military academy? Don’t they realize how many people live there? Of course they’ll notice when there’s a giant fire on the coast right across from them! At least barely anyone got hurt back then, now we’ll also have to track down the family of the deceased and make sure they aren’t spreading rumors across the land. I’ll let you know once I have decided who’ll deal with this case and how we’ll proceed. 

I really need to get back to work now. There’s so much more I want to talk to you about. I’m counting the days until we can see each other again.

With lots of love and my most fortunate wishes,

Your dearest friend, Marizad

---

Rena grabbed Rodrick’s upper arm and led him back to the stairs, away from the alcove with the guards until she felt confident enough that no one would be able to hear them talk.

[Rena] “I doubt that we could fight our way past the guards. Do you think there’s another entrance?”

[Rodrick] “It’s highly unlikely that they have a secondary entrance for these rooms, and even if there was one, they certainly wouldn’t let it be unguarded. There are no windows as we’ve already seen, well, also because we are underground. What they might have, if the building is structured in the same manner as the archives in Mak-Hemma and other archives and libraries I’ve been to, is ventilation shafts.”

[Rena] “Ventilation shafts?”

[Rodrick] “They are a kind of small tunnel between rooms and the outside that lets air circulate between them and helps regulate the temperature and humidity in a building.”

[Rena] “Okay, so are they big enough for a person to crawl through?”

[Rodrick] “Well, for someone of your stature probably, but not for me. Even if I would fit, I’m much too old for that kind of adventure.”

[Rena, sigh] “Alright, so that’s not an option either then. Hmmm, we could maybe try to get a clerk to give us one of these special decrees, or pretend we lost ours, but they would probably just tell us to come back tomorrow with a new one.”

[Rodrick] “We could steal someone else’s.”

[Rena, reluctant] “We could try, I suppose.”

Rena frowned down at the ground, crossing her arms tightly in front of her. They had lied and snuck around and gotten false documents to get to this point, but stealing? Taking something from a random, innocent person that they owned and might need? That felt completely different to her.

[Rena, hesitant whisper] “I don’t know if I’m entirely comfortable stealing someone else’s decree.”

[Rodrick] “I think it is the safest option we have. You’re right that we won’t be able to battle the guards, and I don’t see how we could distract all of them at once, so sneaking past them isn’t an option. Our only options are convincing one of the clerks to accompany us without a decree, or stealing a decree, and out of those two options the fastest and surest option is stealing.”

[Rena] “But what if they need still it?”

[Rodrick, chuckle] “Don’t worry about that. They can just get a new decree from wherever they got the first one from. You don’t get those types of decrees without a good reason or good connections, so it will be easy for them to get the new one reissued. You would be astonished how often scholars lose important documents, or they don’t remember where they put it. Even I have managed to lose the occasional essential file here and there. It never turns out to be as much of a calamity as you think it will be.”

[Rena] “Still … You never know.”

[Rodrick] “You are right. Of course, of course. Stealing is certainly not an honourable response, and I don’t fault you for being opposed to it, I certainly have my qualms about it too, but I think it is imperative for us to access these communications, as I believe we could uncover some immensely important information about secrets the royal council and other noble families are trying to hide from us all.”

[Rena] “I know, I know.”

[Rodrick] “So I have a proposition for you. The scholar that just passed us was obviously done with her research, and she didn’t seem in any hurry, so even if she were to still need her decree at a later date, she certainly has enough time to get herself a new one. She might not have left the building yet, so if we hurry we could catch up with her.”

Rena still didn’t like the idea, didn’t like just taking something away from someone, but she supposed that if that woman had just been inside the room with the records then she probably had gotten the information she needed, so it did seem quite likely that she didn’t need her decree anymore. She pressed her lips together and hesitantly nodded.

[Rodrick] “Let’s go back to the entrance hall.”

When they reached their destination, the room was more packed than when they had first arrived, almost as if all the people who had been standing around in the hallways earlier had shifted to standing around in the hall instead. They stepped aside from the entryway and craned their necks to look over the crowd, hoping to recognise the scholar that had just passed them moments before. Rena hadn’t exactly gotten a good look at the woman, but as luck would have it, her dress was instantly recognisable even from across the room and the way she carried her hair convinced Rena that she had found the right person. 

[Rena] “Over there!”

She leaned closer to Rodrick so that he could hear her and nodded towards their target.

The scholar was still standing next to the clerk who had been talking to her earlier, or more accurately who had been talking at her, which he seemingly hadn’t stopped doing. The scholar, on the other hand, kept looking away, glancing around and behind herself, and scanning the room as if searching for someone or something.

 [Rena] “Do we approach her here? What do we say? What should we do? Or do we follow her outside?”

[Rodrick] “We don’t know where she’ll go next. I want to avoid her going somewhere where we can’t follow. I know her dress, that’s the uniform of the historical academy in Dam’Vala. I think I could distract her with some questions but you will need to figure out where she’s keeping her decree and get it off of her.”

[Rena, hesitant] “Ok, I’m not exactly sure how I’m supposed to do that.”

[Rodrick] “She doesn’t have a backpack or other bag with her, so she has to have the decree on her person. In a pocket or inside her shirt sleeve. You will have to circle around her and find out where it is.”

[Rena, nervous] “I don’t know if I can do that. I’ve never pickpocketed something. She will definitely notice something is up. I don’t even know how deep her pockets go, and if she’s got it in her shirt sleeve, how am I supposed to get it out of there? I certainly can´t just walk up to her and sneak my hand in there, she would notice instantly.”

[Rodrick] “You’re right. I suppose if I can get her to show me her decree you could try bumping into her and exchanging it for another document. Here, I’ll give you one of our decrees. Try to fold it the way she has so she won’t notice it isn’t the same.”

He rummaged around in the inside pockets of his coat until he pulled out a folded piece of paper and handed it to her. She took it with both hands, staring down at it with wide eyes. 

[Rodrick] “It’s going to be alright.”

Rodrick put a hand on her upper arm, slowly rubbing it up and down to comfort her, smiling at her softly. 

[Rodrick] “If it doesn’t work out we’ll figure out another way.”

[Rena] [BIG BREATH] “It’s gonna be alright. We need the information in those secret documents, so we need this decree. We can manage it.”

Rodrick’s smile grew wider as he nodded at her, once, to confirm her feigned confidence.

[Rodrick] “We can manage it.”

[Rena, murmur] “Ok.”

[Rodrick, murmur] “Ok.”

Before leaving, Rodrick patted her lightly on the shoulder and then turned around. He clasped his hands behind his back and leisurely strolled through the crowd, looking around as if he was admiring the architecture. 

Rena took in a big breath and then slid the decree into the front pocket of her dress before wiping the sweat off of her palms. She looked back up, determined to keep track of where Rodrick was going, and took a few careful steps forward. She slid from behind one group of people to the next, her eyes constantly darting between the floor, the people around her and Rodrick’s back. He had slowly approached the other side of the room but had somehow decided to walk past their target and go chat with one of the clerks behind the desks. Rena wished he had told her what his plan was, but she wasn’t even exactly sure he had a plan. At least not a carefully constructed one. She hid behind a group of older women all wearing almost the same kind of clothing as if it were a uniform they were allowed to personalise. The scholar and her companion stood only a few meters away from her. Rena tried to figure out where she could be hiding the decree, but every time the scholar turned her head to look around Rena instantly looked down to the ground, too afraid that their eyes might meet. Rodrick still wasn’t moving from his position, seemingly in deep conversation with the clerk. Rena’s stomach tightened at the thought that their target might turn around and leave before Rodrick decided to start his approach. She slowly became aware that just standing around behind a group of people and nervously looking up and down at someone only a few meters away looked extremely suspicious, evident by two of the older women glancing back at her and frowning, still too polite to say anything to her. She needed a new approach, an approach that didn’t consist of standing around in the middle of the room and looking like she was planning to rob someone. If only she knew what Rodrick’s plan was, where he would approach the scholar from, where Rena had to stand to get the best view of her robe without being seen by anyone. Considering where Rodrick stood, however, he would in all likelihood approach the scholar from behind, meaning that if Rena wanted to be in position behind her later, she would have to pass in front of her now. 

She took a few steps back and snuck past the group of women she was standing behind so she could put a greater distance between her and the scholar. She would have to approach the desks from behind other visitors and hope that wasn’t the moment Rodrick decided to walk towards their target. She approached the desks at a spot between two clerks, hoping neither of them would notice her, and turned her back to them, looking over the crowd as if she was simply searching for someone. Her eyes lingered a second longer on Rodrick and the scholar before wandering over the rest of the room. When she was sure no one was looking in her direction she slowly slid closer to her target. The scholar seemed to be looking away more and more frequently, barely regarding the man in front of her who was apparently still complaining about something or other. If Rodrick didn’t approach the woman soon they clearly ran the risk of her leaving out of boredom or annoyance.

But maybe that was his plan after all? To intercept her when she was about to flee her predicament? But how could he know that she would stop to talk to him then, that she wasn’t so annoyed by the clerk that she didn’t want to be roped into yet another conversation? Rena hated this waiting game, the uncertainty of not knowing how she was supposed to act when an error on her part could mean the plan failed, or worse. What would happen if the scholar noticed she was trying to steal her decree? Would she signal it to the guards? Would they be thrown out, or arrested? She didn’t even really know what happened to thieves in cities like this. In her village, they tended to deal with thieves simply by kicking them out, or by giving them a stern lecture if they were younglings, but she knew city folks were more serious about these things, that if the crime was severe enough, bad things could happen to the perpetrators. 

Her fingers started to feel cold and she wanted to rub them together to warm them back up but she didn’t know if that would look suspicious, if people could see the nervousness and fear on her if she moved too much. She tried to ground herself, to think about something else, about what her actual objective was at that moment. Figuring out where the scholar kept her decree. She let her eyes slowly creep over the floor until they landed on the woman’s shoes, as if she would be able to feel Rena’s eyes on her if they moved too quickly. Her gaze wandered up the woman’s body from the worn black boots to the hem of her dark-blue robe, drifting along the golden inscriptions of phrases in a language she did not speak, until her midsection where the inscriptions had faded into the midnight blue of the fabric. Rena kept her eyes unfocused, as if she was simply zoning out instead of investigating the scholar, trying to figure things out from the corners of her vision. She noticed that the robe did have deep pockets at hip-height and by the way the fabric bulged it looked like something was inside both pockets. She also noticed that although the sleeves of the robe were wide and billowy, that there was a tighter band around the wrists to keep them in place, so it was rather unlikely that the scholar kept the decree there. Rena kept looking around bit by bit until she noticed her eyes stinging too much and she had to shut them tightly and blink the pain away. 

Finally, in the corner of her eye, she caught Rodrick move away from the desk, turn around and walk towards their target. She tried to stay calm, to not look up at him in excitement. Her whole body was tense as she forced her gaze to look over at the entrance door to her left, keeping track of Rodrick’s movement in her peripheral vision. He looked down at a piece of paper in his hands, slowly drifting away from the desk and towards the scholar until he almost ran into her. His head whipped up as if he was shocked to see anyone in front of him but immediately his face lit up, hurrying to fold his document and sliding it into his jacket before shaking the woman’s hand enthusiastically with both of his. He didn’t let go of her hand as he talked to her, although Rena couldn’t hear what they were saying, just more murmuring that was drowned out by the general cacophony of the room. She could, however, see how the woman turned away from her previous companion and engaged fully in Rodrick’s conversation. The clerk, who stood perplexed and somewhat annoyed next to them, pressed his lips together tightly, waiting impatiently for the conversation to shift back to him. 

Rena pretended to look through the room and scooted closer to them, making sure no one was observing her when she took the steps to her left. After a few minutes she was close enough to hear their voices, and if she concentrated hard enough she could even vaguely understand what they were saying. 

She had positioned herself in such a manner that the scholar wouldn’t be able to see Rena in her peripheral vision and although Rena was now closer to the woman, she still couldn’t figure out in which of her pockets she kept her decree. She certainly wouldn’t be able to get closer and sneak around behind the scholar to get a better glance at her pockets, because even if the clerk would leave Rodrick and the scholar alone, there were still too many people around them for such a risky approach. But bumping into her without knowing where the decree was would either be futile or would reveal their plan, so that definitely wasn’t an option either. All that was left for her was hope that Rodrick managed to make the scholar take her decree out of wherever she was hiding it. Rena clasped her trembling hands in front of her, squeezing one hand with the other so tightly that the pain would force the rest of her body to not move, that it wouldn’t betray her nervousness. She wanted to scream, she wanted to run, she wanted to do something, anything, and not just stand around waiting for a moment she didn’t even know would come. 

They kept talking and talking, the woman’s face lighting up with interest, leaning in closer towards Rodrick while her previous companion grew visibly impatient, his arms crossed, his foot tapping up and down incessantly. 

But then, suddenly, out of the corner of her eyes, Rena saw how the woman reached down, fumbling around in her right pocket until she pulled a piece of paper out and handed it over to Rodrick. Rena’s body froze, her breath stopped, her eyes fixed on one of the swirls on the wall at the other end of the room, unable to move. Rodrick took the document and turned it around in one hand, inspecting the back of it before opening it up. 

Should she go now? Should she wait an instant longer? Should she try to take it from Rodrick or wait for him to give it back to the scholar? What if the clerk stopped her before she could reach them? She would have to run towards them, make it seem like she was in a hurry, like she couldn’t waste even a second to apologise to them. She suddenly remembered that she had to match the folding pattern of their own decree to the scholar’s decree first, but she couldn’t just take it out here in the open or they would notice. 

She turned around, her hands trembling, her fingers ice cold. She pulled their decree out of her pocket, almost dropping it. It was folded in four, once horizontally and once vertically, but the scholar’s decree looked to have been folded in three, with three equally long horizontal parts. She tried to smooth out the old folds on the desk with her palm but it was impossible to make them disappear. She refolded the document carefully, slowly, so that she wouldn’t have to redo it and add even more creases to the paper. She laid it down on the counter, stretching out her fingers and closing them up a few times to get the heat and blood back into them. She looked up, suddenly aware that what she was doing must look extremely suspicious. She didn’t dare turn her head too much, didn’t dare scan all the people around her, but from what she could tell no one was observing her. She took a few deep breaths, picked the decree up in both hands and slowly turned around. Rodrick was still reading the document the scholar had handed to him, nodding slightly with the tip of his tongue sticking out between his lips. The woman was leaning in close to him, pointing at the document and explaining something to Rodrick. Rena stared at the wall behind them, her whole body tense, waiting desperately for the right moment. She didn’t know if the clerk was still observing the other two, couldn’t tell if he was now observing her, if he had noticed her odd behaviour. She hoped not. She hoped no one was paying attention to her, but it started to feel like everyone in the room was looking at her, was acutely aware of her.

The scholar leaned back, interlocking her hands in front of her again. Rodrick nodded more enthusiastically and looked up at her with a wide smile, folding the decree back together. This was the moment. Without thinking Rena rushed forward, her eyes still focused on the back of the room, straight towards the empty space between Rodrick and the scholar. She didn’t plan her movement, didn’t plan how she would exchange the two documents, she simply dashed towards Rodrick and ran into him. 

            [CLOTHES RUSTLE]

[Rodrick] “Oh!”

[Rena] “I’m sorry! Oh no, I’m so sorry!”

[Rodrick]” Are you alright? Wait, wait!”

[Scholar] “Hey!”

[Rena] “I’m sorry! I have to … Sorry! I’m late, I have to go. I’m so sorry, sir!”

[Rodrick] “It’s fine, it’s fine. Nothing happened. Are you alright?”

[Rena] “I’m fine, I have to leave. I’m so sorry.”

[Scholar, fading] “Look where you’re going! This isn’t a playground. Can you believe that? The youth of today, no respect at all. Are you alright?”

[Rodrick, fading] “Yes, yes, I’m fine. Just a bit shaken up. She must have been in a real hurry. But I’m fine, don’t worry too much about me.”

She ran through them, clutching the new document tightly to her chest, not looking back, not waiting for them to say anything else, she simply weaved her way through the crowd, apologising to the people she bumped into, until she had reached the other end of the room. 

[Rena, in background] “Sorry. Excuse me. I’m sorry, just coming through, excuse me.”

She rushed towards the entrance that led inside the archives, slowing down but not stopping until she had reached the stairs to the basement and was already a floor down.

She turned around, looking up the staircase to make sure no one was following her, then looked back behind herself to see if anyone was observing her in the hallway. When she had made sure no one was following her she leaned back against the wall and looked down at the piece of paper she was clutching in her hands. It was crumpled from her tight grip so she tried to smooth it out on the stone wall behind her, too afraid to open it. It didn’t seem to have the crease marks from the other folding pattern, meaning that they had successfully managed to exchange documents, but what if this wasn’t what they were looking for? What if it couldn’t actually help them and all of this had been for nothing?

She had to reassure herself that Rodrick would have probably said something, or at least motioned to her, if this wasn’t the decree they were looking for. She closed her eyes, stood up straight and took in a few deep breaths. As she opened her eyes again she delicately unfolded the document, as if it would crumble in her hands if she wasn’t careful enough. She had to scoot closer to one of the lamps to be able to read the document, but there it was, their access to what they were looking for. Issued by the magistrate at the military academy near Lomen, full access to the rooms in the R4C6 category for the delegation of the historical academy of Dam’Vala without mentioning any exact names, dated only three days ago. She clutched the document to her chest and let her head rest against the cold stone wall. 

It was going to be fine. They would just have to sell the lie that they were from the historical academy to one of the clerks, even if they weren’t wearing the appropriate uniforms. Rodrick clearly knew enough about that place to make something up, so if they picked one of the younger clerks it would be fine. They just had to be quick about it, before the scholar realised that the decrees had been switched. Hopefully this was their last stop in the archives, that they would actually find out the truth in that room and wouldn’t be sent to yet another location. 

From far away she could hear footsteps coming closer, one pair, unhurried, heading down the stairs. Her body tensed and she leaned back, eyes fixed on the bottom of the stairs, waiting for whoever was coming down to emerge. She tried to evaluate whether she had to run away or not. She didn’t know where she should run away to, where she could hide, but if whoever was approaching was the scholar or a guard she didn’t have the luxury of just staying there.

The footsteps came closer, but they were slow, sluggish, not like a person who was looking for someone. She stepped away from the wall, sliding the decree into the front pocket of her dress without taking her eyes from the stairs.

[FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING AND STOPPING]

[Rena, huff] “Oh thank the stars.”

[FOOTSTEPS RUNNING A SHORT DISTANCE]

[Rena] “I’m sorry I ran into you like that, I didn’t think before rushing forward.”

[Rodrick] “No, no, you did well. You did very well.”

[PAPER RUSTLING]

[Rena] “Look, I got it!”

[Rodrick] “Good, good, very good. We shouldn’t dawdle here too long. I managed to distract her long enough that she just put the decree into her pocket without looking at it but I can’t guarantee that she won’t look at it soon. I don’t know how long we’ll have.”

[Rena] “Do we have to go back up? I don’t know if that would be a good idea, what if she’s still standing there?”

[Rodrick] “I saw her walk away, it should be fine. Don’t worry about it.”

[FOOTSTEPS AND VOICES COMING CLOSER]

[Rena] “Wait, someone’s coming.”

She pushed him away from the stairs and towards the wall, choosing the middle point between two lamps so they could stay in the shadows, at least as much as that was possible.

Two people came up the stairs, one man in tight black pants and a floor length brown coat, and a young woman in the same uniform the other clerks were wearing. She was plump with rosy cheeks and light brown hair braided into two long braids running down her chest and before Rena even realised what she was doing she was rushing forward towards the clerk.

[Rena] “Hi, excuse me, I hope I’m not interrupting you. We are searching for someone to accompany us to room R4C6E1, would you be free to come with us? I’m truly sorry, we’re in a bit of a hurry or we would have gone upstairs again.”

[Clerk] “Oh, ehm, I- I think I’m available? If that would be ok with you, sir?”

[Companion] “Yeah, I’m good, I know the way out of here.”

[Rena] “Thank you so much!”

[Companion, chuckle] “Sure.”

[FOOTSTEPS]

[Clerk] “G- Goodbye, sir.”

[Rena] “Thank you so much for your help. We’re with the delegation from the historical academy in Dam’Vala. I’ve got our decree right here.”

[PAPER RUSTLE]

[Rodrick] “Hello, it’s very nice to meet you.”

[Clerk] “Oh, yes, I’m honoured to meet you too, sir.”

[Rena] “Here you go. It’s for any of the rooms in R4C6, but we only need to go to the E1 room.”

Rena handed the decree to the clerk but barely gave her enough time to open it and glance at it before she looped her arm around the clerk’s elbow and headed down the stairs.

[Rena] “I’m sorry to rush you like this but we really are in a bit of a hurry.”

[Clerk] “No problem at all, I understand that you are busy people, especially after coming from so far away.”

They walked down the stairs and down the hallway, Rodrick following both girls close behind. The clerk didn’t ask to see their decree again before opening the door to their room, nor did she acknowledge the guards. It all seemed too simple to Rena, like someone would come rushing down the stairs calling out to arrest them at any moment. 

They entered into another deep, dimly lit room filled from floor to ceiling with bookshelves that were packed with what looked like the same type of bound book over and over again. 

[Rodrick, whispering] “Go find the documents. Look for ARC.”

Rodrick had leaned in to whisper into Rena’s ear before turning to the clerk.

[Rodrick] “I have a question. A member of our delegation is currently looking into a rather confidential subject at the moment, and she has mentioned that she has already inspected all documents she has access to without finding exactly what she’s looking for. How would one go about getting access to the more restricted areas? I understand that not everyone is allowed in those rooms but can exceptions be made for reputable institutions?”

Rena stepped forward a few steps, feigning curiosity at the bookshelves until she was out of sight of the clerk. She slipped between two bookcases and hurried down the passage, making sure her feet barely left the ground so her footsteps wouldn’t resonate through the entire room. She only stopped shortly to look at the signs hanging on the side of the bookcases to figure out where the documents they were looking for could be, but since she wasn’t sure how to interpret the abbreviations it took her several minutes to find out where she was supposed to go. She had to find row A first, which happened to be the last three rows of the room. She then had to find the bookcases labelled RC, but since the letters related to abbreviations and were not simply just organised alphabetically she had to run from one sign to the next to figure out where the correct one stood. She was lucky enough that she didn’t run into anyone, or even hear anyone else in the room. She was far enough away now that she couldn’t hear Rodrick’s conversation anymore, which also meant that she didn’t know if he was still successfully distracting the clerk or if she was now looking for Rena.

[Rena, whisper] “There it is. Finally! What do I have to look for? Oh, why do they all have to look the same? Hmm, I should probably look for the year when the fire happened, am I even in the correct decade? Why is it organised like this? How do these people find anything in here?”

[Logan, whisper] “Hey!”

[Rena, hiss] “What are you doing here?”

She had reached the end of the bookshelf when Logan had slid out of the shadows between rows and was now standing next to her.

[Rena] “How did you even get in here?”

[Logan] “I have my ways. What are you looking for?”

[Rena] “Well, ehm, I need to find the books with the year of the fire on them, or anything more recent than that.”

[Logan] “Ok, ok, ok, so what? Two, three years ago? Yeah, we can find that. Over here!”

He ripped three books out of the bookshelf near the end of the row and spread them out on the ground, kneeling down in front of them.

[Logan] “What are we looking for?”

[Rena] “I don’t know. Any mentions of the fire I guess, or any mentions of the town name or even just orders to change the road signs, anything like that I suppose. I’m honestly not sure myself. We just found a mention of this place in another report that had been cut up to hide information, so I don’t even know what we’re looking for.” 

[PAPER RUSTLE]

[Logan] “Yeah I had that too. It was like going down a spiral of clues. Not sure I got anything useful out of it either. Wait, here, I think this is what you’re looking for. Yeah, yeah, that looks relevant.”

[Rena] “Can I see it?”

Rena sat down on the ground next to Logan and took the thick book he handed her, placing it in her lap. The pages of the book were letters between the administrator and various members of the Royal Council that had been sewn together into a tome. Logan leaned over the book and pointed to a section in one of the letters that mentioned Miller’s Knee. Rena’s eyes grew wide, turning immediately into a frown as she skimmed the letter. 

[Rena] “How dare she say the town had no great importance and then mention right after that thirty-seven people died?”

[Logan] “Yeah, these people are assholes, don’t expect compassion from them.”

[Rena] “Wait, she mentions the crow effigy, I found one of those too! In my hometown, next to the church. They had been planted in the ground, like, like a ritual or something. I-I don’t know, it was kind of strange. But I picked one up and it had an inscription on it, in some old script. Rodrick didn’t know what it was either but I think he knows someone who could read it.”

[Logan] “Okay, weird. Like, someone placed them there? Never heard about that before. You think the people responsible for it left them there? As a threat?”

[Rena] “I-I don’t know. The-the letter doesn’t state much either. It, ehm, oh, wha- ‘as per protocol, the complete elimination of the town’s memory has commenced’? What does that mean? How can they eliminate a town’s memory?”

[Logan] “What? Show me! What the- They just admit to that? They genuinely keep evidence of the fact that they actively suppress the truth just lying around here? Where everyone can see it?”

[Rena] “But what does it mean?”

[Logan] “I don’t know, probably that they try to pretend the town never existed. You know, like, if they never talk about it then the town’s destruction never happened, and everyone who says otherwise is called a liar or silenced by them. But the fact that they just keep this lying aro-

[APPROACHING FOOTSTEPS]

[Logan, murmur] “Wait, wait, wait.”

He held out a hand in front of her as if he wanted to stop her from moving. He looked up, his eyes wandering around slowly as if he was scanning the room. Rena froze up, eyes wide, hearing nothing but the slowly approaching footsteps. She didn’t know if it was best to stay quiet and hope the person didn’t see them or if they were supposed to run away, but where could they run away to? The room only had one door and there were guards outside of that door, so if they were to run out the guards would know right away that they had to be arrested? Could they hide from the person by sneaking between rows? But Logan wasn’t moving and the footsteps were getting closer and panic was starting to rise in her.

[Logan, whisper] “I can’t be one of the guards. Must be just another visitor, just pretend we’re allowed to be here.”

[Rena] “How do you know?”

[Logan] “The guards wear heavier armour and a sword, you hear that immediately when they’re walking. It’s gonna be fine, let’s just keep reading.”

[FOOTSTEPS GETTING LOUDER]

Rena stared down at the page in front of her, the letters melting together in front of her eyes. Her breathing slowed down until it stopped completely and she was only aware of the beating of her heart and the approaching footsteps.

[Logan] “Thank the stars, it’s only you.”

He got up, ripping Rena out of her trance. She looked back at the figure that was closing in and realised with relief that it was only Asha.

[Asha] “Where’s the old man?”

[Rena] “You didn’t see him near the entrance?”

[Asha] “No, there was no one there.”

[Rena] “Strange, he should have been there. Do you think he left?”

[Logan] “Nah, he doesn’t seem like someone who’d do that. He’s probably just looking around in another part of the room.”

[Rena] “I guess. Asha, how did you get in?”

Asha stood a few metres away from them, facing the same bookshelf Logan had taken the books out of. She didn’t respond and Rena wasn’t sure if she didn’t want to answer the question or if she was simply too engrossed in finding what she was seeking. She reached out and pulled one of the books out, leafed through it till the very end before stopping at a certain passage and ripping out the page.

[Rena] “What are you doing?”

Rena shot up, the book sliding off of her lap. She rushed over to where Asha was standing while Asha slid the book back into place and folded the ripped out pages in four before sliding them into the inside pocket of her tunic.

[Logan] “You know what, you’re right.”

[PAPER RIPPING]

[Rena] “No we can’t just steal these things, they’ll notice.”

[Logan] “I kinda already did it earlier with my stuff.”

[Rena] “But they’ll notice!”

[Asha] “They won’t notice anything, they’re too blind and stupid for that.”

[Logan] “Yep, definitely agree with that.”

[Rena] “It just, isn’t right to destroy someone’s property and then steal it.”

[BOOK SLIDING; FOOTSTEPS]

[Logan] “Look, we don’t have the time to read all of it here anyway, and we’ll probably need it as evidence later. Let’s just take everything we need and get out of here and then read it outside. I promise, they won’t notice it’s gone.”

[Rena] “How do you know?!”

[Logan] “Wait, shut up.”

[FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING]

[Rena] “Wha-”

[Logan] “Shit, we need to leave!”

[Rena] “What?”

[Asha] “Over here.”

Asha rushed past and before Rena had really grasped what was going on Logan had grabbed her by the wrist and was pulling her towards the back of the room until they had reached the wall. They turned left but just as they emerged from behind the bookshelf they almost ran into someone. Someone who suspiciously looked like one of the guards that had previously guarded the other side of the door. Immediately Logan swivelled around and pulled her back so they could run in the opposite direction. In front of them another guard emerged from between two bookcases, blocking their path and forcing them to turn right, back towards the centre of the room. As they reached the end of the row Logan stopped abruptly, letting go of Rena’s wrist as his arm shot up in front of her. Asha had to pivot to the left so she wouldn’t crash into him, her back instead hitting the bookshelf. Rena lost her balance and fell backwards, and only after she had hit the ground did she see the rapier blade held out in front of Logan’s throat and the man the sword belonged to. He didn’t look like one of the guards. He instead wore a long, blue coat with gold details that told Rena that in all likelihood he was the one giving orders, even if he barely looked to be Logan’s age. 

She scrambled backwards and got up, trying to run back to where they had come from, but one of the guards had caught up with them and was now coming down the passage. Rena stepped backwards until she hit Logan’s back, keeping her eyes fixed on the approaching guard.

[Captain] “Who are you?”

[Logan] “Hey man, I could ask you the same? This all seems a bit abrupt. Why all this aggression? Look, we weren’t doing anything wrong, just looking at some documents like we’re allowed to. You’re coming on a bit strong here.”

[Captain] “Then why did you run away, smartass?”

---

With 30% of the votes, the story continues on the second path. Rena and Rodrick find a way to access the files they were looking for and finally uncover a sliver of the truth.

By the end of the episode, three choices will be presented to you. vote on twitter or down below for whichever path you want the story to continue on.

Intro music: Lonely Dusty Trail by Jon Presstone

Logo Design: Mars Lauderbaugh

By the next afternoon, they had hatched out a plan, gotten their decrees and were on their way to the archives. Sayaf’s contact had lived up to their hopes and, with the appropriate payment, given them what they needed. Logan had insisted that they come up with a backstory for the people they were pretending to be and why they were visiting the archives, saying that if they didn’t get used to their new identities in advance they would stumble and falter if they were to be questioned on their mission. They had all gathered in Rena and Asha’s room, spending the evening designing the characters they were going to inhabit, what they were looking for and what their connections to each other were. As Logan and Rena came up with more and more extravagant and unlikely details, Asha had to reign them back in, reminding them that they couldn’t both be disenfranchised royals from far away lands who were on the path of revenge against their evil sibling who had stolen the throne away from them, but by the end of the night even Asha had a faint smile on her lips from Logan and Rena’s antics. And so, over night, they had become a scribe and his assistant examining the accuracy of historical maps, a merchant trying to get the upper hand on his competition, and an envoy from the Paelidian island to their East trying to corroborate some rumours they had heard about the grey isles. They raided Rodrick’s caravan for clothing and accessories that best fit their new background, making it a game to see who could find the best disguise. To no one’s surprise, Logan won their competition. He had managed to not only make Rodrick’s old, baggy clothes look good and natural on him, he had also managed to give off a completely different aura through a change in body language and speech pattern. Rena had never seen anything like it before, as if an entirely different person was standing in front of her, someone she had never met before, even though she still recognised Logan’s face. It fascinated her to see this change, to see how one person could become someone completely new with so little effort.

A few hours later, they were travelling up the main road that led through the plains towards the archives, past the houses that became bigger, sturdier and more opulent as they approached the fortress. They had decided to drive the caravan up to the archives and leave it in their stables, partly because Rodrick trusted it to be safer there than out in the open next to the inn, and partly because Logan said it would help their illusion of being reputable members of society if they arrived at the archives with a strange contraption no crook could afford instead of just walking up to the fortress. Rena thought that maybe it would seem disrespectful or unprofessional if they didn’t arrive by carriage, but as they approached the giant building she saw more people walking up the road from the village to the fortress than those sitting in wagons. But of course, there was also the fact that Vincent would have to stay somewhere, and he would be safest in the caravan as close to them as possible, where, if they had to leave in a hurry, they could get to him quickly.

The road to the archive’s entrance was divided into two lanes, one for carriages to the left and one for those on foot to the right. To each side of the road four tall poles with milky white bulbs containing lamps at the top guided the way. The lights inside the bulbs were still on, colouring the milky glass in a dim orange hue, even though it was the middle of the day and the sun was out. Rodrick slowed the caravan down, trying to leave enough room between them and the carriage in front of them. They were coming up to the entrance of the fortress, the giant metal gates having been opened towards the outside so that Rena could see their inside faces and the tableau of scholars and record keepers that was depicted on them. Rena craned her neck to look at what was going on in front of them but all she could see was that there were three carriages ahead of them and the first one was stopped at the gate. The lane next to theirs also seemed to slow down the closer it got to the gate, although it never quite seemed to stop like theirs did.

[Rena] “Do they already check the papers here? I thought you could get to the entrance hall without any decree?”

[Rodrick] “When we arrived by foot yesterday they asked us what we were here for and then instructed us on which direction to go to. I think they are trying to keep everyone from going to the entrance hall at the same time. There might be other entrances for those who already have a decree or for those who have an audience with the administrator. They might ask to see inside the caravan too, I know they ask for that in other institutions like this one. To make sure no one is bringing anything in that could harm the records.”

Rena turned to look at Rodrick and frowned.

[Rena] “Will we be ok? Should we have cleaned up inside your wagon before coming here?”

Rodrick dismissed her with a wave.

[Rodrick] “Mostly they are looking for large weapons or explosives, I don’t have either of those in the caravan. They don’t care much for the oddities I collect. They don’t even care much if people bring in swords and daggers since there are guards everywhere throughout the building. They will probably still ask us to leave all of our weapons in the caravan anyway and lock it up, just to minimize the risk of harm. As long as Logan and Asha didn’t bring anything more frightful than a blade with them we should be fine.”

True to his word, they were granted access without major problems. It took some convincing to get Asha to leave all of her blades in the caravan but, by the end, all of their weapons were safely locked up and the caravan was in turn safely stowed away between a smaller, elegant, black and red open wagon and a much larger, worn out, closed carriage on which the yellow paint had mostly flaked off, revealing the original light brown colour of the wood underneath.

They didn’t enter the archives through the large doors opposite the gates through which most people disappeared, but were instead led to a side entrance to the left, although these doors were just as ornate and delicately decorated as the ones that, without a doubt, led to the entrance hall. The room they entered into had a high, domed ceiling, white, blue and green patterned tiles covering the floors and the bottom parts of the walls, and delicate swirls had been carved into the white stone of the upper walls. To their right was a row of desks where clerks, wearing long, yellow and green robes, talked to visitors, while two hallways to their left and at the far end of the room lead inside the fortress. Next to each hallway a large sign had been attached to the wall that listed which departments they lead to.

[Logan] “Guess this is where we split up.”

[Rodrick] “You all have your copy of the department list, right? Rena and I will be in the department of topographical works, if you run into any troubles or can’t find where you have to go, you can come and find us there. At least for the beginning, I don’t know how long we’ll stay there yet.”

[Asha] “We’ll be fine.”

Asha side eyed him with a mix of confusion and aversion. Logan leaned forward and patted Rodrick on the arm twice, flashing him a grin.

[Logan] “Don’t worry old man, we know how to get out of tricky situations on our own.”

He leaned over to ruffle Rena’s hair and winked at her.

[Logan] “Let’s go.”

He turned around before Rena could protest his actions, her hands frantically trying to smooth her hair out again. Asha followed him without any further comments and they weaved their way through the crowd to the hallway at the end of the room. Rodrick shook his head at their retreating figures before turning to Rena and smiling at her.

[Rodrick] “Shall we?”

It took them some time to find their way to the correct room. Even though all the rooms were neatly numbered, the hallways branched out in such weird and unexpected ways that they had to backtrack a few times before finding where they were actually meant to go. Rena had expected guards to stand in front of each room to make sure people couldn’t just enter wherever they wanted, but they only saw a handful of them leisurely strolling through the hallways in groups of two, talking to each other and barely regarding the people hurrying from one place to the other. When they had first entered the archives there had been so many people in the hallways, some standing to the sides in deep conversation, some rushing past them, and they all looked different from each other. Some were wearing long, embroidered robes in a multitude of colours, some were wearing tight fitting leather pants that had to be laced at the sides, some had wide brimmed hats, some had veils covering their faces, and some even wore the clothes Rena was used to seeing in her small village. She tried not to stare at them, to look like she belonged there, but some of the clothing looked so unusual to her, so fascinating, that she had to hold on to Rodrick’s sleeve to not lose him and their way. 

But now, as they came closer to their destination, they barely met anyone. They reached their target, a room labeled “R1TG3” in big letters with a barely legible subtitle reading “topographical works”, and Rodrick pushed open the simple, dark brown door. The room they entered into was dimmer than the hallways, illuminated only by the same milky white bulbs they had seen outside, fixed high on the ceiling. The floor tiles in front of them were a continuation of the intricate, symmetrical blue, white and green star pattern that had stretched out throughout the entire building. In front of them stood rows of dark brown bookcases, made of the same wood as the door and the rest of the furniture in the building. They were filled not just with books, but also with stacks of parchment rolls and boxes. 

“Permit, please,” a boy not much older than her said from next to them, sitting behind a table to their right. He looked at them with the greatest disinterest, as if sitting there was the last thing he wanted to do but he had somehow still been forced into being there.

When Rodrick handed him the appropriate decree he barely looked at it before giving it back, not asking them for any verification or explanation on what they were looking for. Rodrick simply turned around and walked away as if he hadn’t expected to be questioned, but as Rena followed him she couldn’t stop herself from glancing back at the boy, making sure that he hadn’t changed his mind and was calling them back. The boy, however, had slumped back into his chair, his shoulders drooping, and was staring off into the distance in front of him.

Rena turned back to Rodrick, leaning in so that no one else would hear her.

 [Rena, whispering] “Doesn’t he want to know why we’re here?”

Rodrick had stopped in front of one of the bookcases, reading the sign that was hanging on its side. He frowned at it, before looking from side to side, looking back at the sign, and only then looking over at Rena.

[Rodrick] “Hmm? Ah, eh, I don’t think these records are that important so they probably don’t care too much about who gets access to them, and I don’t think that boy cares enough about it either way.”

[Rena] “Then why not just make them completely public if they barely look at the decrees anyway?”

[Rodrick, chuckle] “Well they can’t just let anyone look at their records, now, can they? There needs to be some weeding out or who knows where we’d get. Ah, this way I believe.”

He turned to the right and went past a dozen bookshelves, keeping track of the signs labeling the contents of the row, before abruptly turning left and hurrying down one of the rows. Rena finally realized how deep the room was. One of these bookshelves would not have fit into any of the rooms in her parents’ house, and if she counted correctly there were five of those in one row, with space for a passageway between each bookshelf. Rodrick only lead them to the second bookshelf though, to a part that seemed quite empty in comparison to the first bookshelf they had just passed. No books were present in this section, only rolls of parchment at the top and wooden boxes at the bottom. Each shelf was labeled with letters and numbers, abbreviations that Rena couldn’t decipher, and in turn each box had a longer label that seemed even a greater mystery to her. But not to Rodrick, who after only a few seconds of careful consideration reached down and pulled one of the boxes out, crouching down to put it on the ground. Without hesitation he opened the lid, revealing a stack of rolls of paper, bound shut by differently coloured ribbons.

[Rena] “How do you know it’s that one?”

Rena stared at the boxes in front of her in confusion before crouching down next to Rodrick. He turned the label towards her and pointed at its inscription.

[Rodrick] “TP means topographical, as we already saw on the door, the number is just to not have every sub-category in one place, the RW means roadworks, the S means signage or simply just signs, and then you have the abbreviation for the specific region of the province and the year the documents belong to.”

[Rena] “How do you know all that?”

[Rodrick] “The archives in Mak-Hemma use the same system so I know how to read it, the specifics I kind of had to guess at because I have never had to look up anything relating to roadbuilding before.”

He pulled out one of the rolls and turned it around in his hand before undoing the bow.

[Rodrick] “This part we’ll just have to guess at however.”

He unrolled the paper and held it out in front of them. The top of the page had specific, little boxes that had to be filled out with the location of the works, the date, who had given the orders and who was responsible for the project, making it easy for them to discard any of the reports that weren’t useful for them.

Rodrick rolled out a fifth bundle of papers and instantly the text looked different than the rolls they had looked at before. At the bottom of the first page a line had been cut out and a note had been scribbled in the margins next to it. The further they got in the report, the more pieces of the pages were missing, or had simply been crossed out to make the text impossible to read.

[Rena] “What do the margins says?”

Rena leaned in closer, trying to read the tiny font, but it looked like more of the abbreviations that didn’t make much sense to her.

Rodrick brought the paper closer to his face before reading.

[Rodrick] “R4C6E1 dash C6E1ARC”

He frowned down at the paper, pulling it away from his face again.

[Rena] “What does that mean?”

[Rodrick] “I’m not sure actually.”

He pulled out the list of departments he had stashed away in one of the front pockets of his coat and unfolded it, smoothing it out against the tiles of the floor.

[Rodrick] “The number after the first R indicates the level of restriction, meaning this section is highly restricted, the C probably refers to communications, meaning that the E refers to external. If I read this correctly, the cut out paragraph can be found in the external communications department with a high restriction, which would be … in the second basement. Or at least a mention of what was cut out can be found in the document this points to.”

He rummaged around in his coat before pulling out a little tin box, opening it and picking up a piece of charcoal. He drew a cross next to the department of external communications before picking the rapport back up and deciphering the next margin. For every annotation he made a cross next to the relevant department. By the end of it, they had quite a few crosses next to departments relating to roadworks or town management with an R2 or even R3 restriction, and next to communications departments over all types of restrictions.

They silently pondered their list for a few moments. The longer Rena stared at it, the deeper her frown got, unable to puzzle together what it all meant. She knew that the fact these reports had been cut up and the information scattered across multiple departments probably meant that something was off, that their intuition had been right, but she couldn’t figure out what it actually meant.

[Rena] “I suppose we should go to one of these other departments, right? Which one do you think we should go to? Town management appears a lot in the report. I don’t really know what there is to manage about a town but it does sound relevant to what we’re looking for. Maybe we’ll find more information there.”

[Rodrick] “Hmm, no I think we would just find more breadcrumbs there. More of these rapports where everything that’s important is mysteriously missing. No, in my opinion there’s a quicker way to get to the source, and that is going directly to the restricted communications. I think anything above R5 is only accessible to the staff of the archives, so our best bet would be the R4 one, even if I don’t think it will be easy for us to get in. The decrees we have don’t give us access to anything that restricted.”

 [Rena] “But they don’t care about the decrees anyway. If we just act confident enough they probably won’t question our presence there too much.”

[Rodrick] “No, I think for those departments they are more careful about who gets access to them. Even if we had a decree for those sections, they probably would examine it very carefully.”

[Rena] “Ok, so what do we do?”

[Rodrick, sigh] “I think we should still find out where it is and see if there might be another way in. It might not be the most prudent decision but I don’t want us to waste our time with trivialities that would barely give us any information we could work with.”

[Rena] “Hmm… What do you think they’re trying to hide?”

[Rodrick] “Well, they really aren’t giving us much information in this report. It doesn’t mention who gave the orders, why the signs were replaced or even really what exactly was replaced.”

[Rena] “Couldn’t they have just lied on the report instead of cutting it up like this? This just looks extremely suspicious.”

[Rodrick] “I think they do want to keep actual records of what happened and why it happened, and at this point these kinds of reports have just become a routine. There’s a format to them and there are habits on how to deal with confidential information and that’s just how things are done. No need to change it up if it works.”

[Rena, mumble] “Doesn’t seem very safe to me if people like us can just stumble their way onto really important information.”

[Rodrick, chuckle] “We don’t have the information yet, don’t get too hasty.”

He rolled the papers back up and tied them up with the blue ribbon before placing all of the rolls back into the box and sliding everything back onto the shelf. With a groan and a hand on his back he stood up.

[Rodrick] “Let’s go find our next clue, shall we?”

The sound of their footsteps echoed around them as they went down the spiral staircase, the smell of humidity heavy in the air. No one else was around this deep in the archives and it was quite enough that she heard the light hiss emitted from the lamps. It didn’t sound like fire, even though the light danced around like a flame. They weren’t nearly as bright as the lamps that had illuminated the hallways above them, as if it didn’t matter as much if the people down here could see where they were going. Or maybe people were supposed to bring their own lamps with them, Rena thought. Maybe outsiders didn’t come this far down usually and the people who worked here knew to bring their own lights. She nervously looked around, hoping to see if she could spot anyone else, to see how other people behaved down here, but the hallway they were in was long and empty and she only just then noticed that there weren’t even any doors or signs around them.

[Rena, whisper] “Are we going in the right direction?”

[Rodrick, whisper] “We should be. At least that’s what the signs upstairs were saying.”

They suddenly stopped when a door creaked shut and they could hear faint whispers in the distance, slowly coming closer from a bent in the hallway in front of them.

[Rena] “Quick, show me your list.”

She motioned to Rodrick to hurry up, turning him around to face the wall and huddling close to him so they could both look down at the list.

[Clerk, getting louder] “I could arrange for one of the records keepers to accompany you next time if you have more specific questions. I’m sorry I couldn’t be of much service to you, that area isn’t my expertise. I do know a lot about the inner workings of the military academy, if that is another area you would be interested in.”

[Researcher] “Not really, no.”

[Clerk] “Tragic. I find it quite fascinating. Maybe for a later book of yours. Oh, but I have heard that Aminah Burhan was appointed chief court historian in Dam’vala. Is that right?”

[Researcher] “Sadly, yes.”

[Clerk] “What a dreadful woman. The last time she was here she insisted on staying in one of the rooms for hours, completely disregarding that I still had other work to get to that day. I’ve decided that the next time I hear she’s about to arrive I’ll assign one of the younger clerks to her. I’ve earned at least that from all my years working here. You know we’ve been asking for a raise in our pay for years. All these nobles keep moving to the plains or just buying up the big houses for their summer residence and it keeps driving up the prices of everything, and yet we’re supposed to keep living here on the same amount of money we made twenty years ago? I feel like it’s time we workers set up our own city away from the plains so that we can live in peace and aren’t bothered by any of the newcomers and snakes trying to wriggle their way into the good graces of the administrator.”

When the two had past them, Rena finally dared to glance back at them. One of them was an older man who wore the same uniform the clerks had worn in the entrance hall. The other was a middle-aged woman, wearing a wide, dark-blue robe with golden inscriptions rising up from the bottom. She had braided her long, black hair into one thick braid and had slung it over her shoulders like a scarf.

Rodrick folded his list back up and slid it into his jacket.

[Rodrick, whisper] “Let’s be careful.”

The two strangers had barely noticed them and were well on their way to the staircase. Rena took her eyes off of them and turned around to face the way they had come from.

[Rena, whisper] “Wait here.”

She pulled the skirt of her dress up so it wouldn’t rustle too much and inched closer to the corner of the hallway. She dared to glance past it, keeping herself close to the wall. What she saw could barely be called a hallway, more like an alcove. Two doors stood facing each other, each flanked by two guards. They were facing ahead, unmoving, a curved sword hanging from their belts. Rena pulled back again and walked back to Rodrick.

[Rena, whisper] “We’ve finally found the rooms, but there are guards in front of each of them. What should we do? I don’t think we can just walk up to them and ask how we can access the rooms, right? That would be pretty suspicious.”

[Rodrick, whisper] “No, you’re right. We’ll need a different tactic for this, something a bit more savvy.”

[Rena, whisper] “I wish Logan was here.”

---

With 60% of the votes, the story continues on the second path. The group has finally reached the archives, hoping they can find out the truth behind the mysterious fires.

By the end of the episode, three choices will be presented to you. vote on twitter or down below for whichever path you want the story to continue on.

Intro music: Lonely Dusty Trail by Jon Presstone

Logo Design: Mars Lauderbaugh