Brigitte Yrsdottir | Early Midday | 21st of Leaffall 248 A.T.C

An hour of meditation on the beach. Brigitte sits with the ocean in front of her and the weight of the night behind her, trying to piece together what she remembers — and failing. The fight comes back in flashes: the moment she gave in to The Beast Within, the smell of the flower, and then nothing. Not even what happened after. That absence is its own kind of wound.

Branded, following Gurak's earlier instructions, keeps quiet for once and actually manages it.

Gurak eventually opens his eyes and asks how she's feeling. She tells him she can't remember. He says, perhaps those memories will find their way back to her another way. He tells her to take some time off and focus on the finding Mayor Hartthorne — no jobs, no cage. He'll sort out another arrangement for an outlet. She doesn't argue.

She asks if she can bring Branded along to investigate the mayor's disappearance. Gurak glances between them and says that he has no objections. He has to deal with Vesper and her two escorts, and someone has to keep the investigation moving. He cracks his neck and reminds her that Rhazeth's instructions stand: she has the best instincts for this, and the family needs answers. Before he leaves, there's a silent exchange of eye contact between Gurak and Branded — nothing spoken, something understood.

Brigitte briefs Branded on the essentials: the mayor gone, a new one in his place with no explanation that holds together, and Katrien from the tailor's shop went missing in the same window of time. She mentions the new mayor made a display of authority that was clearly rehearsed, but doesn't mention Reinald's name. Branded takes it in without much comment. He suggests they start at the tailor, the only lead with a face attached to it.

Reinald Vulperian | Early Midday | 21st of Leaffall 248 A.T.C

Reinald heads back to the Ragnaisse warehouse, where he finds Douglas in the middle of some quiet woodwork, he asks after the waterworks and gets his answer: The Alluran Dam, outside the city, an hour by horse. A half-day on foot. Douglas also mentions, before Reinald leaves, that if he needs information, the largest warehouse in the Scaffold is a place to ask for help.

Back at the mansion, Reinald rounds the corner into the living room to find Aveline and Victoria mid-conversation. Victoria's tail is moving in the particular way of someone who has been frustrated for longer than this conversation. She explains to Reinald that she and Lewys held a meeting but gave her nothing useful. He arrived knowing something had happened, the timeline makes that clear, but he won't be drawn on it, and she can't push without breaching Council of Seven protocol. Whatever he's doing, she adds, it isn't going according to his wishes. The new regulations, the door-to-door inspections — he's searching for something.

Reinald mentions the waterworks; it's odd that he came across two shop owners getting sick since yesterday, both making heavy use of water. Something connects here, and it smells like the sewers. Victoria explains that The Alluran Dam is essential and protected infrastructure, it's not something you can simply walk into. She explains that it's currently overseen by the Meadowthorne family. Its safety and security by Duncan Meadowthorne, and its infrastructure and inner workings by Soren Meadowthorne. Meanwhile their father is currently the Commander of the Velvet Crusaders, which includes all of the guards in Allura's Haven.

Reinald argues that if they're involved with whatever's affecting the water supply, they must discover why, but Victoria doubts that the Meadowthorne's are involved directly, because that would be a nation-wide scandal. Victoria rules out mentioning it to Lewys directly — it would signal that she or someone on her behalf is already poking around.

Aveline says she'll see what she can find in the trade records; the Meadowthorne's have supply agreements with the De Ragnaisse. That might be somewhere to start.

Reinald & Brigitte | Midday | 21st of Leaffall 248 A.T.C

As he steps back out onto the street, Reinald spots Brigitte and Branded almost immediately — two unmistakable figures, backs turned, heading in the direction of Haven's Reach. Röka suggests that Reinald should follow them, as Röka's curious what they are up to. Reinald agrees to the favor and remains a good distance away to follow after them.

Brigitte and Branded pass through the checkpoint without much incident, just a crude remark by the guard regarding Branded's robes. Reinald follows shortly; he observes them heading toward Felix's clothing shop and peels off toward the flower shop across the way to maintain cover.

Inside, an elderly taufolk named Tauren runs a shop called "The Gentle Grasses". He shows Reinald a very special Lily of the Valley. Very rare, he says, and a new addition to Tauren's collection. When Reinald asks to know more, Tauren pulls down the curtains and in an instant it is pitch-black in the shop. The Lily glows iridescent, pulsing with faint blue light before returning to its ordinary color when the curtains come back up.

Tauren mentions he's expecting a delivery from the Greenlaw Trading Company taufolk; the delivery is set to include special herbs and medicinals. Reinald realizes that it must be Angus' trading company! Reinald thanks him, uses a little white lie to leave the shop. Unfortunately, it seems that he's lost them. Reinald decides to head to the Scaffold District; perhaps there's more to learn there.

Brigitte Yrsdottir | Midday | 21st of Leaffall 248 A.T.C

At Felix's, the attempted interrogation goes poorly. Felix tells his story about Katrien — a couture trip to Costa del Rigido, the whole thing delivered with the smooth confidence of someone who has practiced it. Brigitte presses. She asks about other disappearances. She mentions Mayor Hartthorne. Felix shifts slightly but holds true to his story. The mayor is presumably also away, and if Mayor Hershkowitz has taken over, he must know about it.

She pushes further and overextends. Felix asks if she's interrogating him. She says she's just asking questions, but her intimidation fails and Felix tells her to leave his shop. As the tension rises, it is interrupted by a deerfolk customer emerging from the changing booth, delighted with her new evening gown. Nobody comments on the tonal contrast.

Back on the street, Branded tells her quietly that Felix is a former Voidbreaker, one of the most accomplished. Brigitte doesn't respond, but Branded adds that she shouldn't mess with him. She still says nothing. Brigitte and Branded decide to return back to the city.

Brigitte Yrsdottir & Branded | Afternoon | 21st of Leaffall 248 A.T.C

On the way through the Scaffold district to visit Sonya, Brigitte stops outside the small Temple of Allura beside The Drunken Phoenix. A strong fragrant smell had hit her at exactly the wrong pitch, close enough to the flower that triggered the previous night to make her chest tighten for a moment, but she steadies herself. The smell wasn't the same at all, it was just the intensity.

A group of guards is loading some of the temple's inventory onto a cart. Scented candles, medicinal vials, instruments, some of Sonya's potions — all of it confiscated on the new mayor's orders. The temple's cleric, Lissa Juniperthorne, an older deerfolk woman, watches and tries to plead with the guards not to take it. Most of what's being taken was donated from the district to the temple.

Brigitte walks up to one of the guards and asks, with pointed directness, exactly how they're determining what is and isn't illegal. The guard tells her to step away. She presses. He raises his spear. She makes a donation of five gold directly in front of him, handed to the cleric in full view, says nothing further, and watches the guards finish loading the cart. Branded takes several visible steps backward during this exchange.

The cleric thanks her quietly, and then asks if there's something she can do in return. Brigitte says no, she doesn't need any guidance, that's not really her thing. The cleric says it doesn't have to be a thing. She mentions, without pressure, that the temple offers many services, one of them being confessionals — if there's something that needs to come off someone's chest, without judgment, without it going anywhere. Off the records. Between whoever walks in, the cleric, and whatever Idol they prefer. It doesn't have to be Allura. It doesn't have to be any Idol in particular.

There's a beat. Brigitte looks at her. The cleric looks back with the patience of someone who has had this exact conversation before and is in no hurry. Would she like a cup of tea?

Inside, Branded sits down in the main hall and looks at the statue of Allura. He's taken off his hood — the first time Brigitte has seen him without it — and without the blindfold, glasses appear on his face, emerging as if from nowhere the moment the cloth comes away.

The cleric sets up a small floating tray with tea cups from the Spellwhisk Consortium. Raspberry flavored for Brigitte, something quieter for Branded. She asks if there's something troubling them; Brigitte says she might take the confession. Just to try it.

Brigitte then asks — and this is clearly the question she has been building toward since the street — whether what she says in there actually is confidential. Whether it's like a guard in disguise who's going to drag her out by the collar if she says something that lands wrong. She phrases it more bluntly than that.

The cleric looks through the window outside, where the guards are still loading her inventory onto their cart, and then looks back at Brigitte. The look says everything it needs to say. She tells Brigitte that what passes between them is between them and whatever idol Brigitte prefers — Harmonia, Estelle, or maybe none at all. She cannot judge, only listen.

Brigitte considers this. It seems fair enough. She follows the cleric to the confessional. Unfortunately, it wasn't built with Brigitte in mind, but she stuffs into it anyway.

Brigitte doesn't tell the whole story — she tells the shape of it. A rule broken without knowing she was breaking it. A friend who wants her gone, and every reason to. The part that's hardest to say: she agrees with that friend. She understands the vote. She just doesn't know how to fix it, or whether trying will make it worse, and she's not the kind of person who is good at talking about it in the first place.

The cleric doesn't fill the silence. She asks whether Brigitte knows why her friend reacted so strongly — not accusingly, but genuinely, the kind of question that doesn't have an easy answer and isn't expecting one. She says that sometimes the walls people build for themselves get projected onto others. That if these people are truly her friends, the walls have to come down on both sides. She attributes this, almost in passing, to the Idol Allura's original approach to bringing the Theran Races and Humanity together to establish peace. Brigitte says that's actually quite smart. She was going to try a gift basket, she says somewhat sarcastically.

Stepping out of the confessional booth, the cleric reaches for Brigitte's hands, and for a moment there's a warmth — something faintly magical, steadying, pressing against whatever is still raw underneath the surface. She tells Brigitte she can come back whenever she needs to. Brigitte says she might. She asks if she needs to pay, but the cleric says no. Brigitte asks if she needs to stop swearing. Yet the cleric says there are theories that people who swear are more honest than those who 'pretty' their words.

Back in the main hall, Branded has moved seats. Not far, but noticeably — slightly to the left of where he sat down. Brigitte clocks it but says nothing. He has sweat running down the sides of his face — not from heat. His heartbeat is audible to her from a step away, fast and uneven in a way that has nothing to do with the temperature. She suggests some air. Outside, he doesn't explain and she doesn't ask.

Reinald Vulperian | Afternoon | 21st of Leaffall 248 A.T.C

At the Drunken Phoenix in the Scaffold District, Reinald finds Reggie occupying his usual corner with a late lunch. Reinald spots a job board, something he'd missed entirely on his first visit — and finds a note from Sonya of the Bubbling Cauldron, asking for help sourcing herbs. He's still reading when a young man named Pascal appears beside him. Human, late twenties, wearing Free Roadsmen clothes and waiting on a new assignment. He has unusually vivid orange eyes.

Pascal mentions picking up another job: helping with cattle near the dam. He introduces himself trying to make small talk as two adventurers would, but Reinald launches into an unusual ramble about hyenakin population growth patterns and biological overlap with Theran species.

He watches Pascal's face throughout. For most of it, Pascal looks politely baffled. But at one specific moment — when the ramble gets close enough to something to matter — his eye twitches. He doesn't miss a word. He was listening to all of it.

Pascal wraps up the conversation, says he noticed Reinald was also looking at the Bubbling Cauldron notice, and leaves with the smooth departure of someone who decided it was time to go. Reinald watches him go and notes the sour expression that crossed Pascal's face at certain points in the conversation — not bafflement, but something more considered. They part and Reinald heads for the Bubbling Cauldron to meet with Sonya.

Reinald Vulperian | Afternoon | 21st of Leaffall 248 A.T.C

At the Bubbling Cauldron, Sonya is already at her workbench when the bell rings. She looks up, recognizes Reinald, and asks what brings him in. He mentions the note from the board, saying that he's heading out of the city anyway and can look for them on the way.

The mushrooms she needs grow in wet sea caves near saltwater; she specifies that the cave she used to go to, near the Ambassador's pier, has partially caved in, so the better bet is probably towards the Crow's Pier's beach side. She warns Reinald that they must not be touched with bare skin or fur. Direct contact causes skin irritation and nausea, not dangerous, she says, but profoundly unpleasant. The mushrooms could also attract other sea creatures who are territorial about them. She hands him collecting bags and tells him to mind the wildlife.

In exchange she could provide him a potion of Arcane Breath, which she'll prepare when he returns. If he brings extra mushrooms, the compensation scales accordingly.

She also recommends Laundro Mattie's for the Ooze stains still visible in his coat — next to At Clay's and Rink's Trinkets, can't miss it. Apparently if you visit ten times you earn a stamp card and eventually a free wash. She mentions this with the enthusiasm of a loyal regular. Reinald says he'll keep it in mind. Reinald thanks her and leaves to find the herbs.

Brigitte Yrsdottir & Branded | Afternoon | 21st of Leaffall 248 A.T.C

At the Bubbling Cauldron, Sonya is mid-mortar-and-pestle when they arrive. She's in good spirits — she processed everything she managed to collect from the sewers and has enough material for a solid batch of potions. She looked out her window earlier and watched the guards strip the temple, which she finds both predictable and infuriating. She'll keep making her preparations regardless. People in the district need them and she feels that responsibility plainly.

Brigitte asks, with more firmness than the tone suggests, that Sonya not go out collecting on her own for the next few days. Sonya agrees. She then mentions, with perfect casualness, that the foxfolk named Reinald came in a little while ago and asked about herbs; she sent him to look for mushrooms near the beach caves.

Branded looks at Brigitte. Brigitte looks at Branded. Neither of them says anything for a moment that is slightly too long to be nothing. Brigitte asks Sonya which beach. Sonya says she told him either side could work.

Brigitte and Branded realize that one of those beaches has a body on it. Or near it. Or in the water beside it. The details of exactly where and how are not something Brigitte nor Branded were present for. What both of them do know is that Gurak and Rhazeth handled it.

But now someone is going looking. Someone who has already demonstrated a talent for noticing things others don't notice, who arrived in this city merely two days ago and already knew about Katrien and the mayor. What if he finds Fen'ryk's body?

They leave Sonya mid-sentence and hit the street at a pace that isn't quite running. They don't know which one Reinald is heading to. They need to split. Brigitte goes toward the Ambassador's pier. Branded goes toward the crow's beach.

Brigitte Yrsdottir | Afternoon | 21st of Leaffall 248 A.T.C

At the ambassador's pier, Brigitte pushes through a crowd that has gathered around some kind of disturbance near the waterline. Guards with spears raised. A creature at the center, soaked through, bleeding from multiple wounds and unable to communicate in common language.

It's Pepper! He's barely composed even less than regular... And when he sees Brigitte's face in the crowd, something in him steadies. She gets through the guard line on blunt force of presence.

She walks Pepper further down the beach, away from the crowd and the spears, and pours a healing potion into him. He grips her briefly in something that reads as gratitude, then says, as plainly as he can manage: something's happened to Salt. He points toward the other beach where Branded went.

The Velvet Crusader's Commander Osian watched all of this. He has the energy of someone whose day was already complicated and has now become considerably more so.

He commandeers a nearby dockworker's small boat — the dockworker, a young man of about twenty, does not particularly consent to this but does not get a say. Osian tells Brigitte she will meet him at the assessor's office at dusk. Brigitte says that she'll consider it, but Osian reminds her that it was not a suggestion. She nods and starts rowing.

Reinald Vulperian & Branded | Afternoon | 21st of Leaffall 248 A.T.C

The cave on the crow's beach takes him a little longer to find than expected. Past the point where casual visitors stop, a stream trickles down the rock face and marks the entrance — low-ceilinged, damp, the air carrying old seawater and something faintly fungal underneath. Reinald goes in.

The cave splits further back. Some of the mushrooms have already been trampled, which is irritating. He rounds a corner, finds two intact ones, harvests them carefully with his gloved hands and packs them into Sonya's bags. There's room for more.

Then the scraping starts. Something on stone, further in. He moves toward it, pressing close to the rock face, and finds nothing around the next corner — just the sound getting louder, and a light source ahead that isn't his.

From the other entrance, Branded arrives with a small flame — unlike Reinald, he can't see in the dark. He spots a purple glow ahead. Faint, pulsing. It unsettles him in a way that has nothing to do with the darkness. He dims his flame and moves toward it, past the point where sand gives way to solid rock.

Reinald presses against the rock wall and watches a hooded figure move through the chamber. The scraping isn't coming from them. Something else is making that sound, something larger, moving in the dark between them. The purple glow pulses from the figure's throat.

Branded approaches slowly. It's something big. Claws on stone. The sound pulls at something familiar... like Salt or Pepper dragging themselves across the cage floor after a bad fight.

But they're not here. Right?