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I OPENED THE PAPER and showed it first to Adallia and then the rest of the group. There was a small, surprised gasp from Farrah, and Rhyss stiffened in shock. They both turned wary eyes on Adallia and subtly shifted their weight, ready to take action.
The noblewoman didn’t notice. Upon seeing her daughter’s likeness, Adallia burst into tears. “Yes. And no! I don’t know. It can hardly be called a murder. It was self defense. We think. We’re not sure. It happened the day I went to meet your father to ask him to take this commission.”
“What happened? What are you talking about?”
Adallia was crying uncontrollably. Farrah and Rhyss exchanged glances, and Farrah shifted her hand from her weapon to her pocket, where she fished out a handkerchief and handed it over to Adallia. Adallia took the small cloth square, ineffectually mopping at the tears streaming down her face.
“While I was meeting with you and your family, my daughter was meeting with her magic tutor, Lord Olivera. He was a good friend of my late husband’s, but I never liked him much. He was always a little too ... interested in our family’s affairs, more so than seemed polite. But my husband trusted him, so I tried to give him a chance.
“My daughter has recently come into magical powers, something very unexpected. I thought of sending her away to Calia to perhaps enroll in the new magical college there, but I was reluctant to let her go. She’s my only child, you know. I convinced myself that she would need some sort of rudimentary foundation in magic before she could attend. There aren’t many magicians in Orchwell, as you know. Lord Olivera offered to teach her, and, although I tried, I could think of no good reason to turn down his offer. Especially since he was wiling to teach her for free, and after my husband’s death, we’ve had to be careful with our family’s finances. We’ve already had to sell off a few family heirlooms, and most of the household servants are gone, as we couldn’t afford to keep paying them.
“It wasn’t so bad, at first. Delphine was learning quickly, and I was hopeful she would be able to leave for Calia within a few months. I was always home for her lessons, so Lord Olivera was always on his best behavior. Indeed, everything seemed to be going just fine.
“But on the day I went to see Lord Asthore about my commission, Lord Olivera came over unannounced to meet with Delphine. He claimed he was leaving for an extended trip and wanted to get an impromptu magic lesson in with Delphine before he left. In actuality, he tried to force himself upon my daughter.”
Adallia twisted the damp handkerchief in her hands, agitated at reliving the memory. Farrah, Rhyss, and I were a captive audience, our initial wariness forgotten, replaced by an intense sympathy.
Adallia continued, “When I came home, my daughter was sitting on the floor disoriented, having just regained consciousness. Lord Olivera was also on the floor, not moving. When she came to, Delphine wasn’t sure what had happened. All she knew, after she told me what had happened between them, was that she was frightened, and wanted to protect herself ... then she blacked out, and when she woke up, Lord Olivera was unconscious.”
“Was he ... dead?” I breathed, unwilling to interrupt Adallia’s story, but desperately wanting to know.
“No,” she said, “but he was barely alive. I called for the doctor right away, who determined that Lord Olivera must have had a heart attack. My daughter and I didn’t see it necessary to correct his diagnosis. The doctor didn’t think he would live through the night ... nor wake up. Lord Olivera’s servants came to take their master back to his estate. My daughter and I made plans to leave Orchwell, with this trip providing a terrific excuse to flee.
“On the morning that we left Orchwell, Lord Olivera was still alive, but still unconscious. He must have died later that day for this poster to go out so fast. I can only guess that, before he died, he woke up long enough to name Delphine as his attacker.”
A thick silence fell over our group. None of us bothered to ask Adallia why she and Delphine hadn’t spoken up about what had really happened with Lord Olivera. Without the protection Adallia’s late husband, Lord Pahame, could have provided, the two women were vulnerable in Orchwellian society. Their status as nobles protected them to a certain extent, but not necessarily against other nobles. And not against one as powerful as Lord Olivera had been.
Rhyss broke the silence. Carefully avoiding looking Adallia’s way, he said to me, “What do you think happened to Delphine, then?”
I shared everything I had learned from the innkeeper Ravon, concluding with my thought that Delphine’s picture had already been widely shared in the kingdom of Rothschan.
“We’re not too far away from Rothschan now,” I said. “I’ve heard that bounty hunters abound in the area, because they know that Rothschan justice will turn a blind eye to any, ah, unorthodox methods they may employ.”
Adallia began crying again. “Who knows what evil things could be done to her in the name of ‘justice’ — we need to find my daughter immediately!”
“I agree, but running headlong into Rothschan won’t help us find your daughter any faster,” I cautioned. “And who knows? Whoever took her may have decided to head straight back to Orchwell. But we’ve wasted enough time here; let’s break camp and discuss what to do as we travel.”
Suiting my actions to my words, I stood up and quickly began packing my bed roll. The others followed suit, shaking off the last of the magically induced grogginess. Rhyss handed out some travel rations for a quick breakfast as Adallia, having finished her own packing, started to clean up Delphine’s part of the camp. I stopped her, reaching out to touch Delphine’s things. A moment later, I came out of my Seeker trance and addressed the group.
“We need to keep heading west. I have no doubt that Delphine has indeed been taken to Rothschan.”