Of all the things that the Guild Master could be doing, Koenig was doing paperwork. He looked ridiculous with his massive frame hunched over some forms, even if his desk was appropriately sized. I’d snuck into his office three times today and he had barely moved.

  The excessive sneaking had been required to get all my pieces in one place. Koenig’s intimidating physique and level meant that I needed to be prepared if he turned out to have turned against me. I’d gone in once to scout out my route, and then twice more to bring in the two priestesses via a combination of [Shadow Step] and invisible sneaking.

  This has been a lot harder than it will look, I grumbled to myself. But presentation is everything and I needed to make an impression.

  My job was made easier by the fact that Koenig kept his door open. Either he was the kind of boss who insisted his door was always open, or he preferred it open so he could yell demands at his deputy, Nadine.

  The first thing I checked for was mental domination. Just because the Countess didn’t use it often, didn’t mean she refrained entirely. Control spells left a conduit for the magic and instructions to flow through. A quick check with [Sense Mana] found nothing.

  That was fine, but it was only the first step. I didn’t think the Countess could conceal her spells, but it was worth checking. [Dispel Image] did reveal a pair of conduits, but these were the same ones I’d seen before belonging to the geas that all Guild officials had to take.

  I looked at the angles carefully. I’d found the lines for these spells before, revealed them in these very rooms, and the angles looked the same, headed back to Dorsay. If the Countess was here, controlling them, then the conduits would be pointing towards her.

  I signalled for the priestesses to proceed. Nadine was the first to notice something.

  “I see magic,” she hissed urgently. “On you.”

  It was quite a sight. [Greater Invisibility] concealed Therris, but her spell was clearly visible. A column of light engulfed Koenig, and the memory alterations were burning off him in a green flame.

  “I see it too, on you,” Koenig said. “Is it mind magic?”

  “Mind magic doesn’t look like this,” Nadine said. She looked down at herself. “It doesn’t look like anything.”

  “It’s the cure for mind magic,” I stated, appearing between them. In the flesh, not as an Emissary. I needed my full suite of social skills here.

  It took them a second to react. I’d thought they’d be more startled by my sudden appearance, but they dealt with adventurers regularly. They must be used to that.

  Koenig was the first to react.

  “Adventurer Hammond,” he said, sinking back down into his chair. “I thought you’d abandoned us.”

  “Why would you think that?” I asked. “Why wouldn’t you imagine that everything you’d been told was a lie when the person who has been fucking with everyone’s memories moves onto the council?

  He had the grace to look embarrassed. “I— you tell her.”

  “Our last communication from you came before the Countess showed up,” Nadine told me. “He told us that the elves were able to keep you in a more salubrious lifestyle and that you were staying with them. He disappeared shortly afterwards.”

  I snorted. “That’s a third-hand report at best, before you factor in the possibility of memory alteration.”

  “True,” Nadine allowed, “But it wasn’t like we could do anything about it. We couldn’t send an expedition to the elves to see if it was true. All we could do was wait and see if you came back.”

  “Wait and see doesn’t mean you give up on protecting the town.”

  “We didn’t! We stopped seeing any new amulets. But when the funds went missing from your bank…”

  I grimaced. Cloridan, with the invisibility amulet, was investigating the situation at my bank. I didn’t dare go near it yet, it screamed of a trap.

  “…and the Council laid charges against you, that wasn’t something that we could get involved in.”

  “True,” I admitted grudgingly. The Guild couldn’t get involved in local governance.

  “It was only then that the Countess showed up in person,” Nadine continued. “She must have been here incognito before. When she appeared, we…”

  She paused, confused. “We… did send a message to Dorsay… didn’t we?”

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  Koenig frowned. “I remember wondering why the message hadn’t resulted in action…” he said.

  “There’s the memory alteration,” I said. “She uses a light touch when she can get away with it.”

  Koenig cursed. “So she kept word from getting out. That explains a few things, but… it can’t last for long. Word must be already spreading.”

  “There’s no way she can keep a lid on it forever,” I agreed. “It’s definitely been a priority for her, though. You say that Anas disappeared?”

  Anas had still been sending regular reports, but Tinidan had grown suspicious of them. He’d been unable to explain exactly what had tipped him off, but that was the first sign I’d had that something was wrong back home.

  Home. Talnier really was my home now, wasn’t it? I couldn’t claim any place in the other universe as mine, now.

  I shook off the bout of existential grief. I had a town to win back.

  “Disappeared, yes,” Nadine replied. “We thought it odd at the time, but he is a Tribal…”

  I raised an eyebrow. “What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked. “You think that because he’s from the Wild he’s going to abandon his responsibilities and leave you all to twist in the wind?”

  “Well… yes,” Nadine admitted.

  “Because the way I see it, he must have gotten captured by the Countess, and because you thought he was unreliable, you left him to twist in whatever dungeon she’s got him locked up in.”

  “What? But that’s—”

  “Fair,” Koenig interrupted. “If he had been a member, we would not have taken his disappearance at face value. We failed you, in that respect.”

  “In more than a few respects,” I grumbled. “But you’re back on board, now?”

  “There are limits to what we can do,” Koenig said glumly. “You are still a wanted woman; if you show your face we can’t stop the guards from arresting you. Not without going against our own rules.”

  “But we’ll help where we can,” Nadine said eagerly. “If you’ve got a cure for mind alteration, those charges won’t last for long.”

  “A few things first,” I said. “Number one, what happened to Janie? She was a member of the Guild, so don’t tell me you didn’t keep track.”

  “Ah, yes,” Koenig said sadly. “Unfortunately, she was lost when your dungeon turned against her.”

  * * *

  I tapped my foot impatiently, waiting for Cloridan to show up.

  “He’s not late,” Felicia said from under her hood. I wouldn’t have been able to maintain [Disguise] once we were separated, so they had been using the standard Adventure gambit for not being recognised—hooded cloaks— and had been listening in to the conversations in taverns. They hadn’t picked up anything so far, but you never knew.

  I’d left the two priestesses with Koenig. He would be vetting and cleansing selected adventurers, building up a fighting force for when we went overt. That just left the regular gang with me. Or it would, when Cloridan showed up.

  “I know,” I said. “I’m just… the story is that Janie was murdered by Rhis, which I know is false, but I can’t check it, because the storefront is definitely a trap.”

  “I’m sure she’s all right,” Felicia said.

  “She’s an adventurer,” Kyle added. “She knows how to take care of herself.”

  “Sure, but—” I stopped, as Cloridan sidled out of a dark corner. He was visible, so he was hiding his face. That meant I was the only one with my face showing. It wasn’t my face, of course, but one that I’d co-ordinated with Cloridan before we separated.

  “Well?” I asked.

  “I’m still convinced it’s a trap,” Cloridan said. “I’m not sure how it’s a trap, though.”

  I grunted at his entirely unsatisfying answer.

  “The shopfront is all boarded up,” he elaborated. “Back and front, no entrance. But there are no guards, either on the street or in houses with a view.”

  “Could they be inside?”

  “No one enters, no one leaves,” Cloridan said. “You can’t just lock guards in a house. They need food, and to go out occasionally.”

  “I bet she would if she could,” I groused. “Could she be teleporting them in occasionally?”

  “Maybe? That would only be possible with dungeon enchantments, but she has access to them.” Cloridan paused for thought. “No, I don't think so. People talk about that building, and about you, when they go past it. No one’s said anything about noises or lights at night… I think it’s empty.”

  “So how is it a trap?”

  Cloridan spread his hands expressively. “I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe… you’ve often spoken of how doors are your nemesis.”

  “Not so much any more,” I said smugly, “Now that I have [Shadow Magic].”

  “Does she know that you do?” Cloridan asked thoughtfully.

  “I’m not sure. I haven’t been keeping it as secret as I’d like,” I admitted.

  “Well, if a door is your nemesis, surely a nailed-shut door is even more so,” Cloridan mused. “Perhaps she’s just trying to keep you from what’s inside.”

  “That’s… that wouldn’t keep you out.”

  “It might… for a little while at least. I remember how secure you made that building and she boarded up even the upper windows. Prying the boards off would make noise, and even at night someone would hear it.”

  “You said she wasn’t keeping watch on the place.”

  “She doesn’t have a pack of guards waiting to pounce on anyone who approaches,” he clarified. “But I can’t tell a single watcher from an ordinary citizen unless they’re behaving oddly.”

  “So she could have someone listening out for boards being broken,” I said. “Giving her a chance to respond… but how quickly?”

  “There would still need to be some sort of trap inside,” Cloridan muttered. “To capture you or at least delay you. If she’s taken over the dungeon…”

  “I’ll know as soon as I step inside,” I said. “That might be too late, but Dungeons can’t do much on the first level.”

  “What if she moved or destroyed the portal?” Kyle asked.

  “That would be annoying, but it wouldn’t qualify as a trap,” I said. “If she did that I could still access Rhis the hard way. And she wouldn’t have access to him at all.”

  “I know what the trap is,” Felicia said. “It’s alchemy.”

  “Hmm,” Cloridan said. “You might have a point.”

  “Care to explain?”

  “If you can’t keep people in place to guard it, and you don’t have magic, like in a dungeon, you want alchemy to do something to whoever gets inside. Or enchantments, but you can get by them, and I bet the Countess has noticed. She’s got the money for it, she can just buy something.”

  “But what?” I asked.

  Felicia shrugged. “Poison dust won’t stay in the air that long, but she could be relying on it getting kicked up by anyone who enters. Sticky traps on the floor or walls, or even some kind of mechanical trap that dumps poison on anyone who enters.”

  “That’s plausible,” I said. “But what do we do about it?”

  “Well,” Felicia said. “I’m going to need some time to prepare, and you’re going to have to take me inside with you.”

  Anas: Wolf-kin apprentice of Tinidan, staying in Talnier to provide a communication link with his master

  Tinidan: Owl-kin elder, currently still in the Great Wild

  Martin Koenig: Guild Master of the Talnier’s Adventurers Guild. Prejudiced against polearms.

  Nadine Lagacé: Deputy Guild Master. Does most of the talking, but appreciates her boss being around to growl when needed.

  Lady Rankin: Countess, not an Earless. Has a regular number of ears and an irregular number of mind-controlled minions. No, you’re thinking of irrational. It’s a natural number, just highly irregular. Wait, is that a thing? Huh… OK, I’m happy with saying it’s not a regular number. And two is a regular number, so the whole thing checks out. We’re good.

  Jainie: Fire Mage and Kandis’s friend. Probably responsible for the weather where I am right now.

  Maislin: Janie’s apprentice, thanks to Kandis. Was blessed by Ashmor, which is… less important now.

  Rhis: The magical construct that runs Kandis’s dungeon. Despite what Kandis thinks, he would totally shiv Janie for a dollar and a stick of gum. And he doesn’t even like gum!

  Aelira Windtail and Therris Boulderpaw: Priestesses of Naldyna. They are there and they do stuff, but they do not actually appear in this chapter. Weird.