Jackal Among Snakes

When Durran returned on wyvernback, bearing seven papers that he gave to Elenore with a casual gesture, she was beset by so many emotions they were uncountable. She wanted to hit something very hard, preferably Dario, and perhaps cry a little while doing so. She didn't do that, but it took so much effort to restrain that instinct all she could do was stand in shocked silence while Durran sat on a chair in her office.

"Really don't know what it is with that guy. He'd rather bleed from his eyes than kill me. Can't say I'd make the same decision if I was in his shoes." Durran removed his pauldron, which had been partially wrecked by something. “But he did. So I’m alive. If only the rest of the world worked like he does…”

Elenore walked up to him with steady steps. The panic she'd felt had been so overwhelming. She had resisted the urge to muster an army to stop Dario only just. Now it ended all like this. She reached out a hand and rested it on his head, gently stroking his hair as the others held the papers she’d received.

"Dario... he escaped?" Her voice was quiet.

"He got in undetected. Got out the same way. I had a harder time of things. A little difficult to explain why some of their automatons came to life in my brief little visit. Fortunately for me, his exit did catch some eyes, so I had a decent enough alibi. It was a lot of trouble… but in the end, all worth it." He smiled at her, golden eyes shining in the dark. "Go on. Read the papers."

Elenore felt that was rather the last thing she cared about at present. But seeing his cat-like eyes proud of the prey that he’d caught made it impossible to say no. She continued to stroke his hair as she lifted them up with one hand and read the first of the documents.

“This is about Sandelabara,” Elenore said after a while, looking at Durran intently. She expected him to have already read it all.

“I would say that we got lucky, but the entirety of the documents seemed to be about the place,” Durran nodded proudly. “Whatever entity is standing behind Dario, I think we can safely say two things. One—it wants us to stop Gerechtigkeit. Two—it wants us to keep the cycle going rather than end it, the key to which lies in Sandelabara.” He rose to his feet, setting his pauldron down on a nearby table. “We’re close, Elenore. Closer than I ever thought we’d get.”

He started to walk away, but Elenore grabbed his forearm and kept him there. She didn’t want him to leave—not yet. He’d need to endure a few hours by her side, at the very least. Not for him—for her. And Durran, ever adroit at understanding the emotions she herself did not grasp, smiled quietly and remained at her side.

“There’s two other names in that paper,” Durran told her after a long time. “Mozzahr’s name. Traugott’s name. They’re listed in the same breath as Argrave. Mozzahr for his independent research… and Traugott for his theft of it. These documents keep track of everything that we’ve been doing. They’re almost… omniscient. He’s somehow been monitoring people that are nearing Sandelabara.”

you mean to tell me that Dario—or whoever is behind him—considers Mozzahr

is being heard by something.” He waved his hand around. “Given the fact Dario seemed to know that we were speaking through a connection,

mentioned possessing golems, but there seemed to be more important matters of contention. “What are we dealing with? There’s no way

what I needed to know,” Durran sighed drearily. “They were just tracking our progress. ‘Our’ meaning everyone who’s nearing the truth of the

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life to get, he was

deeply. It held merit—they knew that Gerechtigkeit came from another realm entirely, and they knew he returned after dying. If he was something created and sent out for that purpose, it fit splendidly. Still, Argrave didn’t understand how it all might tie together. He needed to see those documents.

find Sandelabara. Apparently the documents that Durran seized were not exceptionally recent—they didn’t detail what Traugott or Mozzahr had been doing recently to discover

to secure the territory itself. He directed Elenore to monitor Vysenn closely, and perhaps even move in to seize the place. He’d never

a meeting area for them while in Mundi. It was the only place where the Alchemist might speak without drawing the attention of all. The man didn’t speak, though—he stood in the background eerily, watching

and Dario vies to reach Sandelabara before us…” Anneliese said, half a question and half a statement. When Argrave nodded, she continued. “…then we must take some risk. We do not have the luxury of courting the journeymen slowly and in secrecy, perhaps with Melanie’s aid, to pressure the senate into

you see,” Melanie ground her black blade against the marble, leaving scuffs. Argrave scowled at her, and

head. “I said we must take some risks. Rather than handling

one of the railings overlooking a garden plot.

up to him as he sat. “We can persuade him once more.

is a net benefit for all parties. And hell—the alliance part of this hasn’t even been established yet. This time… how can I possibly make him see things our way? This project to

you use the excuse that Gerechtigkeit was planning to use magma to his own ends?” Melanie pointed out prudently.

the whole continent. That is real. What I said to the dwarves was just a white lie, some non-existent issue to force the proposal to pass. But Therapont didn’t rally around that—he