The grand cathedral of the Lawmaker’s Assembly loomed overhead. It towered over the surrounding buildings, which were already quite tall. Sunlight reflected off its golden facade, drowning everything in a bright yellow light. Valna shielded her eyes as she climbed the steps to the front door.

  Made out of iron, the door depicted famous legends used as teachings by the church. Heroes of justice, such as Cri the Broken and Lunah of Backriver, were memorialized for all time. Valna froze at the top step, taking in the full grandeur in front of her. A few people gave her strange looks as they passed, but none dared to question the Adherent. She stood above all, except for the goddess.

  A sign posted on a pillar near the door advertised a funeral service for Advocate Despoina. The date on the sign had already passed. Valna placed her hand on the sign and whispered a silent prayer to Charisse, the goddess of the Lawmaker’s Assembly. Another soul taken far too soon. All because of Trafford.

  Taking a deep breath, Valna stepped away from the sign and pushed open the great metal door. If the outside was considered breathtaking, then the inside was otherworldly. Stained glass windows covered the walls, bathing the pews in a rainbow colored light. At the back of the long hall was a statue depicting Charisse. In many ways, she looked similar to Valna.

  Valna would have loved to stay and explore the great hall, but she had her own business to attend to. Looking around to make sure that she wasn’t being followed, she walked up to the giant statue. She smiled as she spotted a small wooden door, hidden from the rest of the church. It creaked on its hinges as Valna pulled it open.

  Beyond the door were steps leading down into the darkness. These were the bowels of the grand cathedral. Before the church rose to full power, they carved out those tunnels to use as hiding spaces. Now they were used to hold the many offices of the clergy.

  Even though Valna was the highest ranking member of her church, she had no office. Any business she had was taken care of at her mansion, or by borrowing a room in one of the many courthouses of Adelbern. According to church doctrine, the role of the adherent is to provide guidance. Or in more important cases, final judgment. As such, she didn’t need a personal office.

  The tunnels beneath the cathedral were lit by lanterns floating near the stone walls. Valna shivered as memories of crawling through similar tunnels flashed through her mind. She only passed a few people as she made her way through the tunnels. They bowed politely or gave a short greeting. She didn’t do more than give them a passing nod.

  Valna had one thing on her mind: get to Advocate Richard’s office. Advocate was the second highest ranking in the church. There were supposed to be ten advocates in the Lawmaker’s Assembly. Now, after Despoina’s passing, there were nine. Any court case that the Lawmaker’s Assembly took on was presided over by those advocates. Richard was second-in-command to Valna, though he had as much power as any other advocate.

  Unlike the other advocates, his office wasn’t that deep into the tunnels. Since he had been with the church for many years, he chose the location of his office early on. Valna couldn’t help but laugh as she imagined him in those days. If it were her, she would have picked an easy to access office as well.

  Each of the doors were marked with the symbol of the Lawmaker’s Assembly and a name. There were no ranks listed on the doors. Church ranks were considered outside the church, or in official proceedings. When it came to internal affairs, they were ignored. Save for the rank of Adherent. After stumbling through the dim light for a bit, Valna found Richard’s office. The door leading into it looked as plain as the rest, yet she felt terrified to head inside.

  She knocked and waited for a response.

  “Who is it?” asked Richard from inside.

  Valna swore under her breath. It would have been easier if he wasn’t there. “Uh, it’s me, Valna.”

  She could hear someone quickly shuffling papers inside. “Ah, Adherent Valna, please come in.”

  With shaking hands, Valna grabbed the door handle and pushed open the door. Richard sat at his desk, a plain piece of furniture made out of oak wood. Various papers and official documents lay scattered on top. The only light in the room came from four lanterns hanging near the wall. Like the other lanterns in the tunnels, they hung in the air.

  Richard rubbed his eyes, his normally perfectly combed hair disheveled. Even his beard looked like it was in need of a trim. “I’m surprised to see you, Valna. I thought you were hosting Trafford’s banquet.”

  Valna closed the door behind her. “He asked me to find you. I think he expected to see you there.”

  Richard groaned, running his hands through his hair. “I would have gone if I could, but since Despoina died, all her work has been given to me.”

  “Is that what you’re working on now?” asked Valna, stepping closer to his desk.

  He shook his head. “These are financial reports. Tax season is coming up and I wanted to get a head-start.”

  “Maybe you should take a break. If you’d like, I could handle that for you.”

  Richard narrowed his eyes at Valna. “Do you even know how?”

  Valna glared at him. “I was an advocate once.”

  Sighing, Richard nodded his head. “Maybe you’re right. Perhaps I should visit the banquet. All this paperwork can’t be good for me.”

  Valna smiled. “Yes, why don’t you get ready and I’ll meet you there.”

  “I thought you were going to do this for me?” asked Richard, gesturing to the papers in front of him.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  “Well, not all of them,” replied Valna, fidgeting with her dress. “But I can at least organize them for you.”

  Richard stood up from his desk. “I suppose that would be enough. Thank you, Valna. This church wouldn’t exist without you.”

  “You flatter me, Richard,” replied Valna, staring at her feet with a dopey smile on her face.

  After stretching, Richard collected some of his belongings and headed toward the door. As he did, he placed his hand on Valna’s shoulder. She stiffened, but he didn’t notice. He was far too tired to notice such a small movement. His eyes were focused on the door, his mind already preparing itself for Trafford’s Banquet.

  “Try not to take too long,” said Richard.

  Valna didn’t reply. She watched as Richard stepped out into the hallway and closed the door behind him. It was a practiced movement, one that didn’t require him to look back. If he had, he might have noticed that his colleague was gone. In her place stood a very nervous bard. Sweat dripped from his brow as he waited for Richard’s footsteps to disappear down the hall.

  Yes, I disguised myself as Adherent Valna. It took me the entirety of breakfast to convince Nia and Greenspring to let me go ahead with my plan, but it was worth it. Now I had full access to all of Richard’s office.

  “You’re lucky he didn’t turn around.”

  Beth leaned against the wall, a sour expression on her face. Like me, she had snuck into Richard’s office. Unlike me, she hadn’t used a disguise to gain access. Instead, I used an illusion spell to make her invisible. Why didn’t I make myself invisible as well? Because it would look weird if all the doors opened by themselves, and I wasn’t going to wait for other people to open them.

  Had anyone bumped into us on our journey to Richard’s office, the illusion would have been dispelled. Only for them, of course. Since we touched each other before leaving the house, we saw each other’s true forms the entire time. I smiled at Beth, who only rolled her eyes. She’d been upset since we left the house.

  “Are you really still mad at me?” I asked, only to receive no reply. “It worked didn’t it?”

  “I could have been Valna,” she said, pulling open one of the drawers in Richard’s desk.

  “Maybe, but let’s not worry about that right now.”

  Beth glared at me. “Fine, but we are having a conversation about Valna later.”

  I shuffled through a few of the papers on Richard’s desk. “What? Why?”

  “You’ve been spending far too much time around her. I’ve seen the way she looks at you.”

  I shrugged. “She’s a fan.”

  Beth scoffed. “Oh yeah, I’m sure she’s a big fan.”

  I abandoned all pretense of looking for blackmail on Trafford. If Beth was going to imply something about my friendship with Valna, then two could play at that game. “You think I haven’t noticed the way you look at her?”

  Beth paused. “What do you mean?”

  “You tend to stare when you daydream, dear.”

  A light blush spread across Beth’s face. “I- I do?”

  I nodded. “Nia does too.”

  Beth laughed. “Well yeah, I’ve seen that. You should see her when she’s around Tamara. Feels like talking to a wall.”

  As we laughed together, I spotted something interesting about Richard’s desk. Even though it had four drawers, two on each side, the drawers were not evenly made. The drawers on the right side were slightly smaller than the drawers on the left. It could have been a manufacturing error, but it was too orderly to be an error. Whoever had made the desk, had designed it like that on purpose.

  “You have to admit, she is quite beautiful,” said Beth, skimming through the papers on top of the desk.

  “Uh huh,” I replied, barely paying attention.

  I leaned down to examine the drawers closely. It didn’t look like there was enough space to put a hidden drawer. Maybe about half an inch of extra space in total. That was enough to hide a couple of important documents. It was certainly where I would hide mine. At home, I kept our farming expense reports behind a loose board in the attic.

  “And she smells so good! I asked if I could borrow her perfume, and she said she doesn’t use any. Then I asked what kind of soap she uses, she said she doesn’t use soap either! Can you believe that?”

  “Who’re you talking about?” I asked, raising an eyebrow as I glanced up at Beth.

  “Valna,” replied Beth. “Were you even listening?”

  I shook my head. “Not really.” As I reached under the desk to feel around, I grimaced. “She doesn’t use soap?”

  Before Beth could reply, I felt the underside of the desk recess as I pressed against it. Most of the desk was made out of solid wood except for one small section. Instead of using the same thick oak as the rest of the desk, they stuck a thin sheet of wood over a rectangular hole.

  It wasn’t held by any kind of glue, so I was very easily able to peel it back. Inside the hole was a small box about the size of my hand. I pulled the box out and set it onto the desk. Like the desk, the box was made out of similar type of wood. Besides the box, there was a scroll of thick parchment that I pulled out as well.

  Beth picked up the box, bringing it closer to the hanging lantern so she could see it properly. I focused on the parchment. It looked ancient and nearly fell apart as I carefully unrolled it. Runes and sigils that I could make no sense of covered the entire length of it. They might have been related to magic in some way. If only I knew how to read them.

  “Do you have something to unlock this?” asked Beth, setting the box onto the desk.

  I handed her the scroll, which she took over to the lantern to examine. The box was plain, with only a small keyhole as any sign that it could be opened. There was no hinge, no lines that showed where the lid was, only a keyhole. It was too dark inside to see anything, which left me only one option.

  Glancing toward the door to make sure we had no visitors, I picked up the box and dropped it on the floor. Other than a loud noise, nothing happened. Beth glared at me, but didn’t dare speak. We waited to make sure that no one heard. Once I was sure it was safe, I picked the box off the floor.

  “Why did you do that?” hissed Beth.

  I shrugged. “Might as well try the easiest solution first. Any clues as to what that scroll means?”

  She shook her head. “No. I can’t make any sense of it. Should we take it with us?”

  Valna might be able to read the scroll, but there was no guarantee that Richard wouldn’t notice it missing. He had hidden it quite well, after all. Then there was the problem of the box. I didn’t have any way to open it. The key was most likely with Richard. Taking one item might be fine, taking both would only lead to trouble. Especially since Richard would suspect Valna first.

  I only hoped that she would forgive us. “Let’s take them both. Find anything else interesting?”

  “Apparently they’re promoting a new advocate.”

  I rubbed my neck. “Alright, we should get going then.”

  As I took one last look at the empty office, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed. Trafford seemed unstoppable. Like a giant weed in the middle of a cornfield, his roots were hidden and deep. He had to have a weakness, but where? Who would betray him? Sighing, I gave Beth the small box and fixed my posture.

  Members of the Lawmaker’s Assembly saw Adherent Valna leave no more than an hour after she had arrived.