On the way back into the main part of town, my friends and I discussed the Mayor’s strange behavior.
“Why would he have even brought up the knife to his throat to us if he didn’t even bother to tell his guards? And if that were even true to begin with, he can’t expect us to believe it was taken care of,” I went on a rant, “Clearly he’s hiding something, possibly he’s hired the assassin and it was a meet-up, but then why even mention it to us? There’s also the possibility that he really did wake up with a knife at this throat, but couldn’t bring it up to his guards and was hoping we might have paid attention. It might have been his attempt to get help.”
The others watched quietly as I went back and forth between whether the Mayor was part of the assassination plot or in danger himself. When I stopped to take a breath, Iceborn took a moment to review and bring up the possibility that we could gain entrance to the evening’s festivities by means of escorting Corbin, the priest of Pelor, to the ball. Certainly an important event as this would welcome such a community figure. We would need to contact him as soon as possible to make arrangements in the event that the assassin made an attempt at the ball. To that effect, we still were not sure if the assassination was to happen someplace on the road to Fellhaven and if we might already be too late.
We arrived at the temple a bit later and Kriv and Iceborn went to speak with Corbin. Corbin was totally uninformed of the ball, which seemed very strange and before the purpose of our deceit was revealed, he was very much against the idea. Once he found out that the Empress’ daughter was in danger and that some secrecy was in order, he changed his tone completely, “Next time you need something like this, just tell me why from the beginning and don’t try to hide or avoid it.” He accepted the duty, to gain entrance to the ball and bring along his two new guards, who would try their best to sneak us in from a window once inside.
Before we could get ready for the ball, there was still the matter of the bandit in the jail. Now that we had a better view of the situation in town, we might be able to ask better questions. This time, we all went in, Cherry included, which served to give the bandit a more foul temperament. He explained that his friends had already been by checking on him and were not happy. Further questions just confirmed that this was a simple group of rogues from Woodwell, and it would seem they were old friends of Heddro. Wouldn’t they be surprised!
“Oh well, time to get ready for the party,” I shaved up, fixed my hair and put on my nice dress. The plan was to sneak in behind the Mayor’s house and wait for Kriv and Iceborn to open a window for Cherry and me to sneak in and check the office while everyone was distracted.
Evening was approaching and we all met up at the temple to travel with Corbin. The sun slipped beyond the horizon just before we arrived at the estate. A priest of Pelor, escorted by a tiefling and a dragonborn marched right up to the door confidently and Cherry and I slipped into the shadows and made our way around the side of the building. We got near the office window in time to see Corbin with a woman in heavy armor speaking with the Mayor. The woman happened to glance over to the window at just that moment and take notice of Cherry. I pressed myself to the side of the building as the window was opened and a call went out to guards.
“It’s just me! I’m sorry, I thought you were in danger! I thought I saw something in the shadows…” Cherry tried to get out of trouble.
“Yes, it’s ME,” I mouthed to Cherry from the shadows before sneaking around the side of the building. I found an open window to the ballroom and quickly crawled in, trying not to damage my dress. Soon the office door flew open. The Mayor and the woman came out followed by royal guards and Cherry. The Mayor gestured to us, with a very unpleasant expression on his face, to come into the office.
“My apologies, these are some of our local vigilantes of Fellhaven,” the Mayor said to the woman as he closed the door behind us.
The short haired woman introduced herself as Solstice, the youngest daughter of the Empress. We introduced ourselves and Corbin informed her that we were the ones responsible for reclaiming the fallen temple. On Solstice’s armor was the symbol of Bahamut and in her eyes you could see excitement to have this meeting with us. She explained her function on this visit was to gather some information on the state of Fellhaven and report back to Lakemists. The Mayor assured her that everything was under control. Everyone shook their heads. We each took turns spilling info about the town, the agriculture, the economy, the guards and criminals, the refugees and so on. The Mayor tried to explain that it isn’t easy to run a town and that he was really doing all he could.
“But what have you done?” she asked him, then turned to Iceborn. “What have you been doing since the rift was sealed?”
“I have been establishing a business to serve the public and trying to get more guards on duty to maintain the town,” he answered.
“What have you been doing?” she asked Kriv.
“I have been helping to restore the temple and also trying to get more guards on duty.”
“I see,” she turned to Cherry, “And you? What have you been doing?”
“I’ve been helping with the business and keeping bandits off the streets.”
“Oh I see,” Solstice looked at me, “What have you been doing?”
“I’ve been in communication with the university in Wurmhaven trying to gather useful books for the temple and helping where I can to restore it.”
“And you?” She turned around to face the Mayor again, “What have you been doing? You sent a letter a month ago requesting assistance, and now that I am here to evaluate the town, you’re trying to tell me that you have everything under control, when these people are telling me entirely the opposite. Seems I have a great deal to be concerned with here, so we will discuss this at length tomorrow. Now if you don’t mind, it’s been a long day of travel and this armor is getting heavy. I will retire to my room and get into something more appropriate for the ball.”
“Pardon, may we advise a guard,” I asked.
“A guard for me changing?”
“A precaution. There have been some criminals in the area. We brought one in just today, but we have reason to believe someone might try to attack you.”
“Very well, who would you have me take?”
I reached into my coat pocket and Lomweg popped out. Solstice’s eyes lit up and she reached out to touch Lomweg. “A silver dragon.”
“You can take him. He won’t try anything funny. I’ll just wait outside your door and he’ll let me know if anything happens. He can understand what you say, but I’m afraid he can only talk back to me.”
“You’re bonded. That’s incredible!”
Lom hopped up on her shoulder and she opened the office doors. People stopped and stared at her, murmuring to each other about the dragon. I followed a short distance behind her. We went up the stairs and just outside her room, she stopped me, “This is very special what you have here, but I think for now it is probably wise not to bring him out too much in front of people.”
“Yes, true…but it’s fun, isn’t it?” I smiled.
“Indeed,” she smiled back. “We’ll have quite a bit to talk about tomorrow.”
She then went into her room and I waited outside. Nothing happened for several minutes. I saw my friends leave the office and return to the party. Soon Solstice emerged from her room looking very lovely. Lomweg crawled into my pocket and curled up. “Shall we?”
“Absolutely,” I said, descending the stairs to the party.
