Chapter Seventeen

Technically Tilera was still waiting for her but she had been waiting for ten years now and would spend the rest of her life waiting. She also didn't seem to actually think that Fayne could help her. As such, Fayne felt very little guilt when she ended up near Rathir and decided that – since she'd already stopped by twice – she might as well explore the city in a little more detail.

She had barely stepped foot in it when an alfar woman ambushed her.

"Hello, my name is Rhiad Guth. I'm a recruiter with the alfar army," Rhiad introduced herself.

"Not interested, sorry," Fayne said, not sounding particularly sorry at all. "And no point trying to conscript me as I wouldn't go anyway."

"That wasn't what I was going to say though you really should obey such summons," Rhiad replied. "You look very proud and regal. How would you like to go deliver conscription notices to a bunch of people around Rathir? It's for the war effort."

Fayne glared at her. "Do I look like a freaking messenger?"

Rhiad nodded. "I think you do, yes."

Offended, Fayne stormed off.

"Wait, you didn't take the notices you need to deliver!" Rhiad called after her.

She went to the tavern and was nearly jumped by a drunk alfar.

"You have to help me!"

"Do I?" Fayne asked rhetorically. "Do I really?"

"My name is Walen Forstid and yesterday I was a drunken idiot. I don't know what happened since I blacked out by now apparently I'm fighting a duel with one of the most respected war heroes in Rathir," Walen informed her.

"Well that certainly does suck for you," Fayne noted.

"I need you to be my second. And to go down to the lower tunnels and buy a mild poison and then sneak into the well-guarded armory of my opponent and coat his blade with it so I can get hit and look convincingly dead in the duel tomorrow," Walen elaborated. "If I don't die I'll have to go to war and I don't want to so I'll also need you to tell my men what ship to put me on so I can escape Rathir and in the process destroy the reputation of an honorable war hero who I've in some way wronged by making everyone, including him, think that I killed him. What do you say?"

Fayne stared at him for a long moment. "Pass."

Where did he even get off trying to ruin a good man's life because he was a coward?

She did find some tunnels in the inn and decided she might as well explore them.

She ran into a group of people huddled together.

"Forgive our suspicion," the leader said. "It has not been safe for us Sparrows of late."

"What the hell is a sparrow?" Fayne asked. "Assuming you don't mean a literal bird. Because if you do…I hate to break it to you but you're no sparrow."

The woman shook her head. "I am Selni Peliad. We are a group of scavengers and we are randomly being hunted and killed. Could you maybe ask the city watch to look into it? If no one asks personally then they won't get off their asses and do anything and we can't go ourselves as we'd surely be killed before we made it there. The Captain of the Watch is literally the only person we trust and is absolutely above suspicion."

"Knowing how these things tend to resolve themselves, I'd say he's the one having you all killed," Fayne said shrewdly. "So you probably shouldn't trust him."

"Oh, he would never!" Selni protested. "He's a really good man."

Fayne sighed. "I'll go talk to him, I guess. But since if I'm right everyone will be far too depressed for gloating, I'm going to gloat now even though technically I haven't been proven right yet. I told you so."

"And if you aren't proven right?" Selni asked.

Fayne shrugged. "You can 'I told you so' me twice, once to make up for the false one I just made and once because you did in fact tell me so. But you won't because I'm totally right."

She went to the headquarters of the city watch and had an unreasonably difficult time finding the captain even though the building really wasn't all that big. He was hiding in some out-of-the-way stairwell.

"Hello, I am Captain Eriad Talibor. I am definitely not hiding from having to do things. What can I help you with?" Eriad asked pleasantly.

"I know you're killing all the Sparrows," Fayne said. "I…don't actually know why I'm involved in this but since I apparently am I'd like to ask you to please stop."

"Me?" Eriad asked, looking genuinely surprised. "I think you must have me confused with their old enemy Orwin Dunn. He's back in Rathir. I know all about their situation."

"And you haven't done anything about it or even warned them?" Fayne demanded.

He shrugged. "I've been busy."

"I see right through you," Fayne declared. She decided to set out to find Orwin anyway just in case. There was no need to be negligent just because this was probably a waste of time.

On her way to go find him, she bumped into a certain Carasta Arawyn who offered to give her money if she got some merchant named Gwalchmai drunk and got him to sign a contract. He had an unspoken monopoly or something. She was nearly positive that if it were proven that the contract was signed while intoxicated then it wouldn't hold up in court but that was hardly her problem. She was just getting paid for him to sign a contract. Apparently she got him to sign a really favorable one but she did get him really drunk. He didn't trust Carasta as she was far too clever and competent but Fayne apparently looked vaguely incompetent or something and so when she randomly showed up with alcohol he was happy to join her. Well, Carasta had gotten the good stuff.

Outside the customs house, she ran into Gwalchmai's idiot assistant who was supposed to retrieve a red ledger from the customs house. He was given the keys and everything but he lost them somewhere and didn't know what chest it was in. She made him buy her fifty lock picks and eventually, despite her truly abysmal lockpicking skills, managed to take everything in there and get the ledger back. And apparently the assistant was getting a raise goody for him.

She could tell that she found Orwin because she got close and he said, "Sparrows send a hound out to the piers...and of course, now we're right where he wants the both of us, you and I."

Fayne winced. "Okay, a couple of things. First of all, if you said the both of us you don't need to further clarify that you mean me and you. And how did you know that I was approaching you on the behalf of the Sparrows? And you do mean the Captain of the Watch, don't you? I knew he was evil. It's always the one the victim trusts."

"Unless the victims aren't lousy judges of characters," Orwin said. "I knew because I'm magic like that and obviously it's him. He even lured me back here even though I was well aware of what a lousy idea this was! Now we're going to have to fight and whichever of us dies will have the murders of the Sparrows pinned on him. So let's try to kill each other."

"Yeah we could do that," Fayne agreed. "Except that's really stupid so how about you just go to a place with lots of witnesses and I try to save the Sparrows? If I succeed there's no need to pin anything on anyone. If I don't then you'll have plenty of alibi witnesses. And, word to the wise, next time you leave a place for a good reason don't let anybody lure you back so easily!"

Orwin paused. "Huh. That's actually a better plan than mine. Later then, I'll be in the tavern. I'd wish you luck with the Sparrows except I really do kind of want them all dead."

She quickly hurried back to the Sparrows, hoping the three times she took the wrong way wouldn't spell the difference between life and death for them.

Eriad and his men were surrounding the still-living Sparrows when she stumbled upon the scene.

"You," Eriad said accusingly, breathing heavily, "you're the one. Do you have any idea what you've done?"

"Is this the part where you accuse me of the murders you haven't actually even committed yet?" Fayne asked, annoyed.

"Hey, I didn't ask for you to be involved in this!" Eriad said defensively. "All I wanted was to blame Dunn in peace. I guess you've killed him, then. So despite the fact he was meant to be the scapegoat and is nice and dead, I'll have to blame it on you. I had to do it, you see. I can't have them telling everyone what they know!"

"But we don't actually know anything," Selni protested.

Eriad drew back, surprised. "What? You mean you don't know all about the fact I'm actually an evil slaver? But you found my shipwreck!"

"Yeah we had no idea," Selni told him. "And we probably would have kept quiet about it when we did actually find out about it because, slaver or not, you're the only one who didn't persecute us."

"Well…this is awkward," Eriad admitted. "Since I've told you what I didn't want you to know now and I've destroyed any trust by trying to kill you I'm going to have to kill you anyway. But I want you to know that this is really uncomfortable for me."

Fayne rolled her eyes and attacked. "Oh whatever."

Once he and his men were dead, Selni turned to her. "So I don't actually know who you are or why you helped us when the one person we actually trusted turned out to be the murderer but…thanks. That was really good of you to randomly show up and save us all."

"Not a problem," Fayne replied. "It didn't even take up too much time or anything. Chances are, you were all fated to die anyway."

Selni was puzzled. "But if we were fated to die then how-"

Fayne held up a hand. "Yeah, don't worry about it. You'll sleep better."

On the upper levels of Rathir, Fayne was staring admiringly at the grand houses when an alfar woman standing in front of one of them noticed her interest.

"My Lady Coriana won't eat, she won't sleep...All on account of her poor, sick, Mallion. Woe on House Anwon!" she said dramatically.

Fayne paused, uncertain. "Are you looking for some sympathy or do you actually want me to do something here?"

"The healers said that it's bad blood," the woman said, "but my lady insists that it's poison. All he ever does is sleep but he never wakes up!"

"I think the word you're looking for is 'coma'," Fayne said helpfully.

"I don't know if you can help; you'll have to ask Lard Coriana about it," the woman said. "It's right through there."

Fayne stared at her. "You're going to let me in just like that?"

The woman shrugged. "You look trustworthy."

"Is this common policy? Because if it is I think I understand how what's-his-name got poisoned a little bit better," Fayne remarked.

She went in anyway and went up to the woman who looked the fanciest. She had a really weird glowing neck contraption that Fayne could only assume passed for fashion up here.

"Since you're here I'm going to assume you want to help my son," Coriana announced. "I'm too old to do it personally so please go get me a Lapidus flower from the Acathan wetlands. It's blue. It should cure this poison."

Fayne shrugged. "That was nice and straightforward. Alright, I'll see what I can do."

She left Rathir and found her way to Moon Camp which was where she was supposed to report for her next Travelers missions anyway.

Her eye was immediately caught by a very theatrical-looking man with deep red hair having over half of his face. He looked quite upset and surprisingly attractive. She made a bee-line for him.

"Hello," he greeted her, sounding weary. "I am Irion and I am in charge here in Moon Camp. I suppose you're the one that the Hierophant said to expect? I was told about you weeks ago but it doesn't really matter does it? My Maire has left me forever and now all of Moon Camp is in ruins."

Fayne glanced around her. Admittedly she didn't know what Moon Camp looked like before but it didn't seem like it was in ruins.

"Forgive me, you've done so much for the Travelers already. You don't care about some poor broken-hearted alfar," Irion said tragically.

"I can't believe I'm saying this but I actually care a great deal about your problems," Fayne said. "So much so I'm weirding myself out a little. Who is Maire? What happened?"

"Maire is – was – who even knows? She's my lovely wife and the true brains behind this little operation. She feels I do not appreciate her and so I have driven her from the life she loves so much!"

"That's awful!" Fayne exclaimed sympathetically.

"We had such a romantic story, too," Irion continued sadly. "She was from a noble family and I was her jester. People didn't understand so we joined the Travelers and couldn't be happier. But now she's gone. She told me she was going to the Temple of Lyria and I was absolutely not, under any circumstances, to follow her and try to win her back."

"Yeah she might have said that but I think that if she actually told you where she was going there's a decent chance she really does want you to do just that," Fayne said. "Obviously you don't want to harass her if she really does want nothing more to do with her but you should at least give it a shot and see if she's receptive. If not then do leave her alone."

Irion shook his head. "Alas, I cannot. I couldn't bear it if it didn't work and I'm too devastated to try and find the right words. I will stay here and pray to the Hierophant for guidance."

"I can only hope she'll tell you to do what I told you to do," Fayne replied. Since she was there, she went over to the Hierophant statue but it galled her to have to bend knee to that thing and the awful person who controlled it.

"Is that a petitioner I see before me?" the Hierophant asked coyly.

Fayne narrowed her eyes. "Yeah, don't be cute."

"It's just hard to tell if you're there or not," the Hierophant said defensively. "I see you are eager to serve your guide."

"You are so obviously a Fateweaver that it's painful," Fayne muttered. "And I'm not 'eager' or anything of the sort. I legitimately hate you."

"I have seen the items that you must steal," the Hierophant declared dramatically.

"Let's call it what it is," Fayne said tetchily. "Even if you've 'seen' them, you're the one who decided that I must steal them. It's hardly fate that I do so."

The Hierophant ignored that. "You must steal the Chalice of Forced Vintage from the lower city of Rathir and the signet ring of Wyvyrn Gilfre from the Upper City."

"I'll consider it," Fayne said.

She ran into a man who wanted her to bring him peasant clothes. Not any clothes simply peasant ones. He was a tailor or something and apparently could only use peasant clothes to make costumes. If she ever found herself in Moon Camp again and in possession of peasant clothes, which she doubted would ever happen, she made a note to look him up.

She left Moon Camp to search for the flower she was supposed to get to save that noble alfar guy and ended up finding a makeshift settlement being attacked by Tuatha. She fought her way to the basement of one of the buildings and found man cowering and repeating, "They found me" to himself.

"Hello," Fayne greeted him. "I'm not a Tuatha. What's going on here?"

"This is where we were trying to rebuild Culn," the man said. "I thought I was going to die out here alone, the last of Culn's settlers."

"The last?" Fayne asked, alarmed. "Does that mean…that one person I was looking for is dead, too?"

The man shrugged helplessly. "I don't know. Anela – I'm assuming you mean her – and the others were out when the Tuatha attacked and they haven't returned. Oh, I so hope those assholes in Emaire don't find out about this. They'll just start ranting on more about how Lyria protected them and is clearly still judging us."

"They probably would," Fayne agreed. "So don't worry; they won't find out what happened from me. Where were Anela and the others going?"

"They were investigating the Tuatha at Virki. You should probably hurry since if they aren't dead already they likely will be soon," the man informed her. "Me, I'll be hiding in the basement until I'm killed or someone comes back to save me."

"Um, good luck with that then," Fayne said uncomfortably.

She tracked down Anela in Virki and arrived just in time to save her from some Tuatha.

"It's not like I don't appreciate the life-save, stranger," Anela told her. "But I'm not leaving until I stop the Tuatha."

Fayne stared blankly at her. "Like…in general or…?"

Anela let out a startled laugh. "What? Oh, no. I just need to stop them from being able to get into Culn. You can help me if you'd like or, more probably, just leave me to my fate."

"Well I never leave people to Fate if I can help it," Fayne replied. "Plus your dad asked me to make sure you're okay and I've come a long way not to even make sure you get out of here alive."

"That is unexpected but we just might make it with you!" Anela cheered.

Fayne smiled at that, pleased to be properly appreciated for once.

She escorted Anela past the Tuatha, shut the water valve, and then Anela thanked her and ran off.

It occurred to her that she had left Tilera some time ago and really should get back to that, especially since she had actually activated all the wind stones like she was supposed to.

Tilera wasn't pleased to see her. "There you are! We thought you were dead! What happened to 'give me an hour'? It's been two weeks!"

Fayne coughed. "Yes, well, when I told you I'd be back in an hour I did really and sincerely mean that. It's just that since then I've…well…I shouldn't give people timelines. I never meet them. I get distracted all of the time."

Tilera winced. "And this is the aid that Alyn Shir sent."

"Hey, I got your stupid Fate barrier or whatever to open, didn't I?" Fayne asked, annoyed.

"That is true," Tilera allowed. "Now I'll have to ask for you to come with me immediately or I fear I shall never see you again and I can't do this alone."

"What happened to your other allies?" Fayne asked.

"In the two weeks you've been gone they all died," Tilera explained.

"Does that kind of thing happen frequently?" Fayne asked nervously.

Tilera sighed heavily. "Yes."

"So what are we even looking for anyway?" Fayne wondered.

"The Piercing Light," Tilera explained. "It's guarded by Niskaru."

Fayne pointed at herself. "Niskaru-killing expert. We'll be fine."

They made their way through the Niskaru-infested tunnels until they reached the Piercing Light. Unfortunately, merely approaching it summoned a couple of very powerful Niskaru for them to fight but it became a lot easier once Fayne was able to see the lines of Fate and rip theirs apart to kill them.

"We…we did it," Tilera said, coming up to her. She had a spear in her hand. Maybe that was what they were looking for? She hadn't really been all that clear. It was certainly glowing strangely and in her experience spears didn't normally do that. The Piercing Light was a rather stupid name, though.

"Yes we did," Fayne said, satisfied.

"I don't even know what to feel," Tilera confessed.

"Feel whatever you like but I'd advise something positive," Fayne suggested. "This is a great day."

Tilera laughed. "Yes, I'll try. But you have no idea!"

"Oh, please tell me you're not going to start with the insults," Fayne said, groaning.

Tilera stared at her. "Insults? Why would I insult you when you've just saved me?"

"I don't know. Ask the worst gnome ever in the worst town ever," Fayne said cryptically.

"What I meant was that I have more than just the sphere. I can break the siege at Mel Senshir, kill the Balor, and redeem myself," Tilera said elatedly.

"I…it's a nice spear and all but…aren't you getting a little ahead of yourself?" Fayne asked hesitantly.

"I've spent ten years seeking this spear and never truly thought I'd find it," Tilera revealed. "I 'wasn't fated to' or some such nonsense. We're going to kick so much ass with this."

"If you never thought you'd find it, why did you keep trying?" Fayne asked.

Tilera shrugged. "Well if I just gave up then I certainly wouldn't have found it!"

"That is true," Fayne conceded.

"So come with me to Rathir and then we'll go break the siege together."

Fayne's eyes widened and she drew back. "What? I don't recall signing up for this!"

"I can hardly do this without the one person immune from Fate, now can I?" Tilera asked rhetorically. "Please. We need you. I don't think we're fated to win this one. And if we lose everyone's going to die."

"But I don't want to," Fayne complained.

"Do you want the Tuatha to win?"

"I hate the fact that that's actually a legitimate question and if I don't they probably will," Fayne complained, sulking.

"There's no 'probably' about it," Tilera told her.

Tilera evidently got a bit of a head start to Rathir because the moment Fayne arrived (and she did pretty much go straight there this time) she was waiting to greet her with some less-than-favorable news.

"We have a problem," Tilera said seriously. "Apparently Elund Carth doesn't believe in mythical weapons of prophecy and doesn't think a spear is going to be able to slay the Niskaru monsters at Mel Senshir and so won't send ships out to attack it for the millionth time and hope something new happens this time and not just the senseless death of everybody who goes. Can you believe him?"

"No, he sounds quite unreasonable," Fayne said dryly. "And I suppose the reason you're complaining to me about it instead of trying to change his mind is that you've passed the buck and decided it's my problem?"

"If it wouldn't be too much trouble," Tilera said gratefully.

"It would be incredibly troubling," Fayne corrected. "But I suppose I can't help it if I'm less willing to play chicken with the fate of the world than you are."

Before she took care of that, she stole the signet ring of House Wyvyrn-Gifre and the Chalice of Forced Vintage. In her defense, she had asked to purchase both of them before stealing them. She could sort of understand why a noble wouldn't want to part with the signet ring of his house (what would be the point of having a signet ring to prove yourself a noble if you just let anyone buy it from you?) or a cup that could supposedly turn any liquid into wine. But still, they had their chance.

Fayne's stealing skills left a lot to be desired so she basically just walked up to them, forcibly took the ring and then the chalice, and ran off. She was caught by the guards as she didn't want to make everyone hostile to her by killing her way out and so she bribed them to let her go. She didn't even have to give back what she'd taken and so she'd chalk that one up to a win.

Finally she went to the temple of Lyria to get the Cowl of the Maiden.

It was a little bit awkward when she walked in there to steal something and was immediately set upon by one of the temple people. Whatever they were called. Priestesses?

"Hello? What brings you here?" she asked. "Would you like to follow Lyria? I can give you three tasks to perform that will give you the Orison which will permanently decrease your mana cost by five percent."

"Hm. That does sound good but on the other hand, I don't want to sign up for anything that would take up too much of my time," Fayne said.

"Oh, this will hardly take up any time at all!" the priestess insisted. "First you have to carry the temple amphora to the three sacred springs all over the world."

"That sounds awful and I'm probably going to pass. But do go on. Let's see just how far you expect people to go for such a minor thing."

"Then you'd need to go down to the lower tunnels and convince the blasphemers who have nothing and are actually pretty clearly hated by Lyria to stop telling everybody that Lyria does, in fact, hate them and is punishing them and they're not chosen because if they were their lives wouldn't be so awful," the priestess continued. "It really makes us look bad. Especially since they're actually completely right. But maybe Lyria wouldn't hate them so much if they weren't so negative all the time."

"Is it just me or does that one priestess from Emaire suddenly seeming a lot less out there and a lot more like Lyria herself is just completely fucked up?" Fayne asked rhetorically.

"And finally you would be required to give up an epic gem or a shitton of gold or ninety percent of the experience that you have working towards the next level," the priestess concluded.

Fayne blinked in surprise. "That's a little meta, don't you think? But there's seriously no way in hell. Why would anyone agree to that?"

"Most people come by for their sacrifice after they just level up," the priestess confided. "It's not very in keeping with the spirit of sacrifice but it's technically allowed."

"I can see how a donation or a gem might be useful but, setting aside how it's even possible to rob someone of their experience like that-"

"Hey, don't look at me. The jails do it, too," the priestess interrupted.

"How does taking my experience help Lyria or the temple?"

"It doesn't," the priestess said. "It just shows you are committed."

"I am so not committed. Goodbye."

She snuck into a back room where she suspected the cowl was located and found an alfar woman instead.

"Hello," Fayne said. "I know that I really have no reason for thinking this and you're probably just some random Lyria person but I'm going to ask if you're Maire the Queen of Cups anyway."

"I'm not the Queen of Cups! Of course I…okay, fine. I totally am. How did you know?" Maire demanded.

"I literally have no idea. I just got the strange feeling. It's not like there's a sign over your head announcing your identity or anything."

Maire shook her head. "Well if you've heard of me at all then you're probably a Traveler and so you're probably here for the cowl but you can't have it. It's mine. I stole it first."

"Why are you fighting the Travelers for stolen things?" Fayne asked. "Aren't you one of them? You're one of the top people in charge, aren't you? The Queen of Cups."

Maire crossed her arms. "Well maybe I don't want to be a Traveler anymore. Maybe I'd rather strike out on my own."

"Irion mentioned that you were a noble. You could go back to that life without him," Fayne said knowingly. "And yet you keep stealing things. Why is that? If you're sick of the Travelers…"

"Maybe it's not the Travelers themselves I'm sick of," Maire admitted. "Maybe I'm burning with resentment over Irion taking them from me. But how can I stay with them and colead with my husband when I'm leaving him? I know he'll never leave. He didn't want me to leave. So I had to leave instead."

"I suppose I might as well ask why you left."

"He doesn't appreciate me," Maire explained. "I spend all day working to make Moon Camp something almost respectable and all he ever wants to do is have fun and jump around being a jester. And that wouldn't be so maddening if it weren't for the fact that he doesn't appreciate me."

"I just saw him the other day," Fayne said. Well, it had been awhile before that but chances were not much had changed. "And any lack of appreciation on his part is gone now. He's a mess without you. And stay or go, it's your choice, but I think that you've put the fear of God into him now. If you went back it would be different, at least at first. After that it's up to both of you to stop yourselves from falling into old patterns."

"I could…go back," Maire said consideringly. "It had never occurred to me and yet you're right. I could go back." She paused and something like wonderment crossed her face. "I will go back. Thank you. I don't know who you are or why you're offering impromptu marriage counseling but thank you."

"My name is Fayne," Fayne introduced. "I only met your husband briefly but I liked him and he's suffering and you look like you're not happy either. Besides, it's not like you're asking me to go on an epic quest to try and help you guys."

Maire smiled. "Well thank you, Fayne, then. Here, you might as well take the cowl back yourself. I'm sure the hierophant sent you."

"Yeah, as long as it ended up in Traveler hands you wouldn't think she'd care but…from what I've seen of her…she'd care. A lot. And never let me hear the end of it."

Maire left then but Fayne decided to go deal with that poisoned nobleman before heading back to Moon Camp. With poison, it really wasn't a good idea to let that alone for too long or the poisoned party might actually die.

Fayne was let right in and raced up to Mallion's bedside, hoping that the fact she got distracted doing stupid things that weren't all that urgent (and helping Tilera but, well, Mel Senshir had stood for ten years and probably could manage a few days more) didn't mean that Mallion was dead.

Fortunately, he was not though he seemed to be having some difficulty breathing. She wasn't really sure how she was supposed to administer the plant to him and so she kind of just put it in his mouth and hoped for the best. Fortunately, he didn't choke and within a minute was awake and standing up.

"Ow, my head hurts. I feel like I've been asleep for days! How long has it been?" he asked.

"Never mind about that!" Fayne said quickly. "You seem to have recovered very quickly. That's some miracle plant right there."

"I must have been poisoned by that suspicious bottle of wine I got right before I lost consciousness," Mallion deduced. "See, I knew I shouldn't have drunk something with a label that said 'drink me' that just showed up outside my door! But it was really good wine. Tasty, too, from what I recall even with the poison. What a shame I shan't be able to drink the rest of it. I see it fell under the bed and nobody noticed it in all the confusion."

Fayne stared at him. "How can you possibly see it fell under the bed from here? You didn't even move and I refuse to believe you can see under the bed from here."

Mallion crossed his arms. "Well just check and see if I'm right."

Fayne did check and the bottle of wine was under the bed. "Well then."

"See? Now please fetch my mother and try to take the wine off to see if it was poisoned and who poisoned me and whatnot. This whole thing is rather vexing."

" 'Vexing' might be putting it mildly. You did nearly die," Fayne said before heading off to see his mother.

"You ran in here so quickly!" Coriana said. "Did anything happen?"

"Yeah, it was a miracle. He woke up practically the moment he swallowed the plant," Fayne said.

"Then you deserve this gold and I'll give you more gold if you can solve the mystery of who tried to poison my son and why," Coriana said. "You said the poison came in a gift of wine? Take it to the apothecary then and see what they can figure out from it."

"Actually I didn't say that," Fayne said. "Your son did. How did you know that? Were you listening at the door? Then why did you pretend that you didn't know he was awake?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Coriana said innocently.

Shaking her head in annoyance, Fayne left for the apothecary.

"Hey," she said to the first person she saw once she had entered, "this has poison in it. Can you tell me what kind?"

The woman started. "Now that's not a question you want to hear!" She took the bottle and examined it. "Yep, I can tell exactly what kind of poison this is."

"Just by staring at it?" Fayne asked blankly.

"And also by smelling it," the woman said. "I can understand how you wouldn't notice that I was doing that, though, since I didn't insist on sticking my nose in the wine in case that had any negative effects on me. I'm very good at my job, you know. That's presumably why you came to me. Now, I sold a vial of this very poison to the servant of old Elnar Abergast."

"Selling poison? That doesn't sound like a great move."

The woman shrugged. "Hey, I run an apothecary and it's all perfectly legal and this sort of thing just isn't my problem. I'll go send an antidote to House Anwon at once and you go alert the city watch."

Fayne thought about telling her that Mallion was already cured but decided against it. Maybe that plant hadn't completely cured him, after all. "I don't trust the city watch. The last guy in charge was a slaver murdering and framing people to cover up his own crimes."

"Well that was the last guy," the woman said reasonably.

"And why should I even bother telling them? Judging by the fact you somehow knew I was sent by House Anwon, they probably already know and have the servant in custody," Fayne said.

"I wouldn't risk it," the woman said.

Fayne decided to risk it, however, and just went straight to the Abergast house.

She just sort of barged right in because, under the circumstances, knocking and waiting to be invited in would seem a bit coy. She found a dead body in the corner of the room and hurried over to it.

"That was my servant," a man greeted her.

"So you're Eldas Abergast then?" Fayne asked.

The man twitched. "Elnar Abergast, actually. I killed him because he asked me, too."

Fayne rolled her eyes. "Oh, yes, a noble angel of mercy. Quite. Was it to escape persecution for his poisoning or you getting rid of an incriminating accomplice?"

"Neither, if you can believe that," Abergast said.

"I can't."

"He was a disciple of Belen, same as I was," Abergast said. "He wanted me to kill him. And I wanted to kill Coriana's whole family because she broke my heart decades ago."

"Oh, don't tell me this is what this was!" Fayne protested.

Abergast stopped, confused. "What do you mean?"

"Once upon a time you fell in love but she rejected you. It doesn't matter why she did it, only that she did and she was perfectly within her rights to do so. You freaked out and moped about it and eventually fell in with a death cult and made it your mission to make her life a living hell. Some love. How very cliché and how utterly pathetic," Fayne said disgustedly.

"Belen's Testament isn't pathetic!" he snapped angrily.

"Agree to disagree on that but I wasn't talking about them. I was talking about you."

"I…you know what? I don't have to listen to this," Abergast said furiously. He raised his staff and Fayne braced herself but she might as well not have bothered as he pointed it at himself and then fell to the floor in a crumpled heap.

"Death cultists," Fayne said, shaking her head. She only barely managed to resist the temptation to kick his body on her way out.

Right as she stepped outside, two members of the city watch ran up to her.

"So what's all this about a poisoning accusation?" one asked.

"How did I know?" Fayne asked rhetorically. "Look, you can sort the mess of the two corpses inside out on your own. It appears to be a murder suicide and I had nothing to do with it aside from insulting the guy who later committed suicide."

"Do you feel your insults drove him to suicide?" the same guard asked.

Fayne considered the question. "It's hard to say. That might be why he killed himself just then but he was guilty of poisoning Mallion Anwon and didn't want to go to jail. Besides, he was a death cultists."

The other guard spit on the ground. "Death cultists."

"I know!" Fayne exclaimed, feeling rather more charitable towards the pair now.

She quickly took her leave of them and went back to Coriana.

"I, uh, I have a confession to make," Coriana said after handing over the gold. She was wringing her hands. "I almost married Elnar when I was younger but my parents didn't approve and I just…I didn't. I knew that he deserved better than to be rejected like that but I never dreamed he'd be driven to a death cult!"

"Stop it," Fayne said firmly.

"Stop what?" Coriana asked.

"Stop blaming yourself," Fayne said firmly. "This isn't your fault. You didn't 'drive' him to do anything. Maybe he deserved to be treated better by you once upon a time a long time ago but those days are long gone. He's no longer the victim here. You are. He tried to kill your son. And the fact that you've lost the rest of your family…well, who can really say that wasn't his doing as well? Don't blame the victim. Don't blame yourself. If this is what he's like after having been rejected, is he really who you would have wanted to marry and father your children?"

Coriana let the words wash over her for a moment before abruptly straightening. "No. No it is most certainly not."