Taking the guard with me, I follow the detector until it leads me to the private room of someone. However, the guard refuses to open the room without getting the emperor’s permission. So, he calls another guard to wait with me while he heads to find the emperor and ask.

  I am pretty sure that he is not going to find the emperor awake, but Atesh should be able to authorize a search. When the guard returns, not only is Atesh with him, but so is a nervous looking man. There are also more guards with them, but that isn’t too surprising since the empress is here.

  The original guard opens the room and the detector leads me straight to where the man has his drugs hidden. As soon as the drugs are found, a couple of guards drag the nervous man off as he pleads his innocence. Not only does this prove that the detector works as intended, but it helped remove a potential problem from the palace.

  Empress Atesh says “I can’t believe that someone brought drugs into my palace! I want the entire palace checked immediately!”

  “Based on how far we are from the guest suite, I would say it has a range of a couple of hundred feet. If you give me a few minutes I can make a few more.”

  Empress Atesh says “Alright. You two, take the first detector and start in the west wing. The rest of you, follow us and you will go out as detectors are made.”

  Atesh looks to be in a bad mood because of this, so I keep my mouth shut and head back to the suite. The empress walks beside me while the rest of the imperial guards follow behind us. When we reach the suite I immediately start crafting more detectors while Atesh joins Lin and Bella.

  Having already made the first one, making the additional ones is quick and easy. Each time one is finished, Atesh takes it and gives it to a pair of guards to use in searching the palace. Once I finish the fifth detector, Atesh tells me that is enough and to stop and eat some lunch.

  I am not about to argue with her, so I join them just as a second serving is brought in by the servants. By the time we are done eating, the guards have completely searched the palace. They did find one other person who had smuggled drugs in and they arrested him.

  Atesh then orders them to use the detectors and sweep the city, quarter by quarter. I am glad to see that the orders are to arrest anyone in possession of the drug, not execute them. The fact that even when angry she still intends for them to stand trial makes me think highly of her.

  Although, I do feel a little sorry for the imperial guardsmen who now have to walk all over the city. Luckily for them, the scanner's range should cover most buildings in a scan or two. I can’t help but wonder how Amn is going to react to all of this when he finally wakes up.

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  He will probably be just as upset as Atesh when he finds out that the drug made it inside the palace. I doubt that he will argue with Atesh’s measures, but he will be upset that he slept through everything. I imagine that when he hears about everything he is going to launch an anti-drug campaign.

  Then again, he was probably going to do that anyway once he got the detectors. This is just going to increase the speed and probably the ferocity of the campaign. Of course, the users aren’t the ones they are really after, it is those selling it and making it that they really want.

  I kind of doubt that they will be able to find the maker, he probably isn’t inside the empire. I think that if he was, the drug problem here would be much worse than it is. If they can manage to catch those that are smuggling it into the country, they should be able to mostly end the problem.

  At least for the empire, the other countries would still have the same problem. I will have to talk to Amn once he wakes up and see if he wants to give detectors to them. Just in case he does, I will make some more detectors once I am done eating lunch.

  Atesh only eats a little before giving her apologies and leaving to deal with the drug search. As soon as she is gone and I know I am not going to get yelled at I go back to making detectors. However, I do keep eating while I am making them and the food is delicious.

  Lin and Bella finish eating before I do and they head into the bedroom to have a little fun. Lin invites me to watch, but I am not sure if she is serious or testing me so I say no. Besides, I don’t think that Bella would be comfortable with that and I don’t want things to get weird.

  Now if it was Lin and Myria, I would absolutely be following them to have some fun. I am sure they would be fine with it, but it will have to wait until Myria is back from the land bridge. The way things are going, that should be after I am finished with my hunting trip.

  That’s assuming that I can get all this other stuff finished and actually go on my hunting trip. The delay in the second spell is a little concerning, but it just means I will focus on the city. By the time Lin and Bella return I have made another thirty detectors and there is no food left on the table.

  Bella is blushing and won’t look me in the eye, but Lin just gives me a smile and kisses me. She chats with me for a few minutes and then leaves to return to the mage’s library. Once she is gone, Bella and I take the detectors to Atesh and say our goodbyes.

  Before we leave, I stop by the kitchens to see how Aaron is doing and if he is ready to leave. He is not, but he tells me that he is having an amazing time and asks me to let Sarah know. I doubt that she is going to be surprised, after all she should know her husband fairly well.

  After speaking with Aaron I gate us back to the trade city and Bella runs off immediately. I don’t know what Lin said to her, but she is definitely avoiding being around me. I try not to think about it, but my curiosity won’t let me, so I use my medallion to contact Lin and ask.

  Lin says “She asked about the kinds of things we do together, so I told her.”

  “No wonder she won’t look me in the eye! How much did you tell her?!”

  Lin says “I didn’t tell her too much, just a few things. Although, she did react rather strongly when I told her about the things you had me dress up in.”

  “You didn’t?! I explained the origin of those things to you, she must have recognized them as well. Now I’m not sure if I can look her in the eye!”