Supreme Magus

"Don't worry about what happened yesterday. The important is that you are here now." Jirni said.

"I'm sorry for not visiting you earlier, Mom." Quylla gave her a deep bow. "Dad kept me confined inside the army headquarters until Phloria broke me out. The silver lining is that at least now I know what's happening.

"Maybe if you can help Dad with his mission he will-"

"Shush, child!" Jirni put her hand on Quylla's mouth while glaring at her. "You spend too much time in your magical lab and too little in the real world. Think before you speak."

Phisa was still in the room, exactly like planned.

"I'm sorry, Lady Ernas." The maid gave them a bow for outstaying her welcome. "I'll take my leave now. Call me if you need anything."

"We'll take some tea but no pastries to not ruin our appetite." Jirni said, going off script and making her daughters almost flinch in surprise.

"It will be done." The maid gave them one last bow and left the room.

"Phisa is a good maid." The moment they were "alone" Jirni took a piece of writing paper from the desk of her room, playing with it with her nimble fingers. "She is kind and discreet, but she needs a bit more training."

Jirni folded the paper quickly, turning it into a frog.

"The rest of the staff is better, they come when you call them and leave the moment they are done." Jirni then turned the frog into a swan just to undo everything again and make a dog.

According to the script, in case of emergency the rule was to ignore everything Jirni said and only look at her hands, yet Quylla could see that wasn't the case anymore. Jirni kept dragging the conversation about her accommodation, keeping her hands still until she mentioned the house staff.

Then, she would start unfolding the origami, giving it a new shape by the time she was done talking.

'Do you have any idea what's happening?' Phloria asked via a mind link. 'Mom has always been good with her hands, but she isn't the type to fiddle for no reason. You know what she always says.

'A restless body is the symptom of a restless mind. Mom would never screw up her own plan for no reason and if she's panicking then I'm a Dragon.'

Quylla was glad that Phloria had thought about pooling their resources. Quylla had understood everything but she couldn't use Spirit Magic without her wand and had no way to share her findings.

'She's not screwing it up, she's saving it. We are surrounded by shapeshifters.' Quylla thought.

'What?' Phloria was flabbergasted, but nothing transpired from her face.

'Then she must be telling us who we have to watch out for. On top of that, catching the shapeshifter that will go to put the weapons back into place will be pointless if those here escape and kill the Marquis.

'We must change the plan so that Beilin and Metra get arrested the moment the trap is triggered, otherwise the mastermind will have the time to tie up the loose ends before disappearing.'

"Can you shape it like a dog again, Mom? It's my favorite because it reminds me of Lucky. Gods if I miss that furball." Phloria tapped on the origami, to let Jirni know that she had gotten the message.

Phisa returned right after Jirni was done with the paper, bringing a silver tea cart and leaving the moment she was done serving the guests.

"I'm sorry for bothering you with my blabbering, but I couldn't risk Phisa overhearing our conversation on her return and then eavesdropping on the rest. I may be out of shape but I'm still a Constable." Jirni said.

"Don't worry, Mom." Phloria chanted the spells necessary to find out surveillance devices, showing the proper caution that anyone would expect from an officer before speaking of delicate matters.

She even checked outside the door, finding no one.

"What were you saying, darling?" Jirni went back to the convened script after Phloria gave them the all-clear.

"That Dad's mission turned out to be more complicated than that." Quylla said, following her lead. "It seems that someone is embezzling funds and to make matters worse, there is trace of activities of the Night court."

'What?' Marquis Belin had been following the conversation from the beginning. 'How could something like this happen right under my nose without me noticing? The Crown will deem me incompetent and have me removed.

'Still, it's better than being found out. As long as I bring the plan to completion, my reward will make the position of a City Lord no better than a doghouse.'

"It makes sense." Jirni said. "After the disappearance of Dawn and Dusk, the war has taken a bad turn for the undead. They need money to rebuild their army and buy new weapons to make up for those they lost on the battlefield.

"But why is Manohar still here and why call Orion as well?"

"Manohar is actually done with his mission, he's just taking his time experimenting on the prisoners." Phloria said. "The story about the death threats is only a pretext for Dad to come here and do some finer work."

"What do you mean?" Jirni took the words out of Beilin's mind.

"You see, after what happened in the Nestrar region and now in Ruham, the Royal Court has decided to perform a surprise inspection of all the City Halls to make sure that nothing else goes missing unnoticed." Quylla said.

"Dad is here to inventory the Royal weapons stored in the city armory and install trackers into them."

"I guess he's already started by now." Jirni said with a sigh while Beilin's illusion of safety shattered. "Also, I don't see how can I help him. I'm no mage."

"No, Dad has yet to start the inventory because that's just a secondary mission. The Crown tasked him with double-checking Manohar's work. It wouldn't be the first time that he does a half-assed job just to go back to his lab.

"That's how you can help Dad. You are the best at keeping Manohar in check and the best Constable in the Kingdom. You can make him spill out every detail of the case and use that knowledge to get close to Dad again.

"On top of that, if the inventory proves that something is missing, he will need your expertise and will be forced to work with you. Dad is great at forensics, but he's no detective. That's your job." Phloria said.

"How much time do I have?" Jirni asked.

"It's a big case, but Dad's working on it restlessly from yesterday. Even if Manohar messed something up, it will not take him more than two days." Phloria said.

"Two days? But today is almost over, which leaves me just one day and one night to get up to speed and find something useful. I'll change into something more comfortable and then you have to bring me to Manohar, there's not one second to lose!"

Marquis Beilin thanked the gods for the opportunity that they had dropped in his lap. The situation was dire, but far from desperate.

'I bet that Commander Ernas has already reinforced the security of the City Hall during the night, but that's not a problem.'