Bisha looked around the chamber the Kangarasa, or High council, met in. Directly in front of him was an elevated throne. The council was seated on each side of the long room with the golden throne as the focal point of the room. Along the long walls alternated highly polished statues of what Bisha assumed were previous rulers and armored guards, each carrying a poleaxe Bisha had not seen before. Each of the counselors was seated on an elevated bench that looked rather like a smaller version of the golden throne that they bracketed. Behind each counselors seat their secretaries sat on low benches. On the back of each counselors seat was a symbol that told everyone what part of the government they spoke for. All of the seats were filled by the counselors but the golden throne at the end of the large room was still empty.
The room was illuminated by large ornate glass lanterns on the walls. Behind each lantern was a large highly polished silver mirror that focused the light into the room, larger and fancier than the ones mounted in the hallways. To increase the ambiance of the room there were several hanging lanterns that used a complex cutout pattern that spread spots of light everywhere. Behind the throne were three colorful huge stained glass windows, the central one taller and wider than the outer two and featuring a complex floral pattern that was commonly seen on the larger official buildings in Alkhadharam. The smaller stained glass windows had an interesting repeating geometric pattern. They provided diffused multicolored light that added to the feel of the room. The overall effect was a throne room from some sort of fairy tale.
As soon as everyone was present a very thin person in the most ornate robes that Bisha had ever seen walked over from in front of a door that he hadn't noticed at first. The person stopped in front of the raised golden throne and rapped his staff on the ground three times. At the first rap everyone stopped talking. By the second rap everyone was standing, silently waiting. Bisha and the rest of the party scrambled to their feet to also stand in front of their benches. On the third rap the door that the thin ornately dressed man had come from opened again and a very beautiful female in exquisite robes stepped out. Bisha was stunned by the presence of the three foot tall woman. She moved like a hunting cat and commanded the attention of the room with ease. This was obviously the Mahapratanidhi, the ruler of Kishnagar.
Bisha and his party took their seats after the councilors had on the regular benches placed against the same wall the main door was in. Bisha noted earlier that even the benches were highly decorated with silver and mother of pearl inlay, was there nothing Kishnagar wouldn't decorate. They were waiting for the Mahapratanidhi to sit so the council meeting could start. Bisha had spent the majority of the two days that they had been waiting to speak to the council talking to the teachers and staff at the Alkhadharam Yunavarasiti. He'd hoped that they could shed some light on what had happened when he'd tried to start a fire right after what had happened at the Adikha Yunavarasiti. Unfortunately they'd been as much in the dark as he was. Bisha had, thankfully, learned to control how enthusiastically his fires started during their journey back to Alkhadharam.
When Bisha was called upon to testify he nervously walked to the inlaid circle in the center of the room. As he began fear gripped the pit of his stomach, this was the Mahapratanidhi he was talking too, the rest of the council didn't help either. As he began to describe what had happened his nervousness lessened, trying to describe the events of what was a highly complex subject to inexperienced lay people distracted him. By the end of his description of the events he was barely nervous at all. No sooner had Bisha finished his description when he was suddenly interrupted by the sound of hand bells and shouting. Everyone in the room looked back and forth at each other then at the doors behind Bisha when the sound of shouting got louder then stopped. The sounds of metal on stone rang out and was followed by a resounding knock on the door. The guard stationed next to the door looked to the Mahapratanidhi and at her nod, opened the door.
The door opened on a large group of guards. Bisha decided to hurriedly return to his companions, his earlier confidence forgotten. There was no way he wanted to be in the middle of that. The guards were surrounding what looked like a secretary to one of the counselors. He was chained hand and foot and was being held up by the guards that were escorting him in. The secretary looked as if he was confused about why he was there, or at least confused about how what he was trying to do had failed. The prisoner's clothes were more than a little disarrayed, it was clear that the guards needed to hold him up. There was a lot of bruising on his face and it was obvious he was going to have trouble standing even without the chains, escape was not going to be possible. He no longer looked like the polished secretary he'd been earlier today.
As soon as the whole group had reached the center of the room, the guards dropped their bound prisoner unceremoniously on the floor and took their positions surrounding him. The councilors all looked surprised and angry at the same time. The councilor that the prisoner had been working for started to stand to speak, but clearly decided to see what was going on first.
The Mahapratanidhi spoke, "Why is this person in chains. I want you to unchain him now. If he is guilty of a crime your presence here should be enough to detour any further danger."
The guards looked more than a little uncomfortable with the order, but they complied, after all she was the Mahapratanidhi. If she said to unchain someone, then you unchained them. So with great reluctance the guards did as they were bid. Leaving the drooping secretary barely able to stand, alone in a circle of guards. The guards looked ready to finish off the disheveled male at the slightest wrong move, or possibly any move at all. They were clearly not going to take any chances with the lives of the council or the Mahapratanidhi's, no matter what she said.
A Sergeant of the Guard, the highest ranking guard there, took a step forward towards the raised throne that the Mahapratanidhi sat upon. Once he was clear of the jumble of guards and the dejected looking secretary he bowed rigidly, his right hand placed on the left side of his chest. "My lady," he said holding his bow. At the Mahapratanidhi's signal the guard rose from his bow going to attention to give his report. "We caught this miscreant trying to leave the palace during working hours. He was recognized as a secretary to one of the Pratanidhis so the door guard asked where he was heading and if he needed an escort. The guard who first questioned his leaving had expected to be told of some mission or other for the council. Instead of accepting the escort, as was standard, he was stabbed. He did however managed to give the alarm as well as mark his attacker."
At this statement the Mahapratanidhi gasped audibly before asking after the injured guards health. When told that he would recover she signaled that the Sergeant should continue his story. The guard continued to tell how the rest of the guards had come upon their injured companion and once they heard his tale they split up with a couple staying behind to help the injured guard to the medics while the rest followed hot on the trail of the criminal. The guards had been quick on his trail and had caught him very quickly. He had resisted and they had then chained him and brought him to the council for judgement.
The Mahapratanidhi and her council looked at each other for a brief time before the Mahapratanidhi spoke directly to the disheveled former secretary. "Why did you attack the guard and attempt to flee? Was there a personal animus that required that severe of a response? Please tell us so that we may know all of the events that led up to the attack, so that we may fairly judge your actions. If there is anything that mitigates what happened we need to know so that judgement is fair."
For a long moment the secretary just stared at the Mahapratanidhi and her council before looking at his former comrades in the service of the council. He said nothing just looking at the people he had work with for so many years. People who had thought him a friend but now saw him in a new light. People who had just now realized that they had never known him at all. Then he got a sly look on his face and from a hidden place in his clothing he pulled a small dagger of the type that rich women often keep in their bodice for protection.
"For Mrtis!" He screamed out and before anyone could move he slit his own throat. He had moved so quickly that for a moment no one had known what he'd been about to do and then it was to late. The slice was clean and deep and the former secretary was dead almost before his body hit the ground, a large pool of blood formed almost immediately.
The council chamber erupted into pandemonium, people were screaming, others were shouting, and a couple of the more timid were cowering behind their seats. Even the guards were surprised at what had transpired. The only people not reacting were the Mahapratanidhi and Bisha. The former had a slight frown and a furrowed brow and the later looked as though he was trying to remember something from long ago and wasn't sure what it was. Neither of them seemed to notice anything that was happening around them, both being far to deep into their own thoughts. It took a while before calm was restored to the council. When everyone was finally back in their places, drinks had been served for everyone's nerves and the guards had finally taken away the body.
"Now I remember that name. Mrtis was the dark god of destruction. She was defeated during the last great war, the one that caused Kishnagar to be founded," Bisha blurted out loudly.
At that moment everyone turned their attention to Bisha but before anyone could chastise him the Mahapratanidhi raised her hand for silence. "Do you mean to say you know something about this Mrtis?"
Bisha looked embarrassed at his outburst but answered truthfully. "Yes my lady. I do. Or at least I think I do."
But before he could expound on his information the Mahapratanidhi waved him to silence before telling the whole group that her and her council needed to speak among themselves and that the party was to hold themselves ready, in case the council needed any information that they had. She also informed the party that they would be moving into the palace so they could be reached at any hour. She then sent guards to go gather their gear and animals from their inn and to bring everything back here. They were sent to their new rooms to wait.
Preparations
Over the next week Bisha felt both overwhelmed and ecstatic. Overwhelmed because he'd never thought that he would be advising the mightiest in their deliberations and ecstatic because there was nothing that he loved more than research, and as far as he was concerned Alkadharam had the greatest library in the world. Not that he'd seen all or even most of the libraries in the world. In fact he'd only seen the libraries in his various schools and the main library in his home city of Khunduz up to this point. But the library in the the Mahapratanidhi's palace was definitely the best he'd ever seen, in fact if he hadn't been required to report to the Mahapratanidhi and her council he would have been a very happy Bisha.
Bisha really loved the library, never in his life had he thought there was so much information on so many topics. While he was searching for information about Mrtis and the first war, he was also finding all sorts of information about majic in general. Bisha was trying to find out if anyone else in history used majic the way he seemed to. So far though he hadn't found anything, but he continued to look, hopeful that someone had. Bisha remained positive, after all there were a lot of books to look through and he'd only skimmed the books while he searched for more knowledge about Mrtis.
This library was the largest that he'd ever seen. There were more books here than he'd thought existed up to this point. And not all of them were serious. No there were even story books and mythologies from many of the various cultures of Ardu. Bisha had started to look through those as well after finding mention of Mrtis in one of the fairy tales that he'd taken to read for his own pleasure. Not that he believed the tale, but he'd learned at yunavarasiti that many fairy tales contained a kernel of truth. So he'd added fairy tales to his perusal of serious histories. Putting the two together Bisha thought he might be beginning to see the shape of what he searched for if not his actual goal itself. He was starting to think that he might have to combine facts gleaned from many different sources to get his answer. Both about Mrtis and about the changes to majic. Bisha could see a future of searching every library he could find on their journey ahead of himself. Not something that upset him in the slightest.
Although Bisha knew that the others weren't idle, he had only the vaguest idea of what they were doing. Truthfully the only one whose activities he had even the remotest idea of was Nahla. Nahla, with Ryah at her side like a silent ghost would meet with him every evening. Filling him in on what was going on with herself and the rest of the party to the best of her abilities. Every time she came to see him she brought a small plate of food and tea. Nahla had apparently decided that Bisha was her responsibility. Nahla made sure that he ate and slept regularly. She often said that he couldn't learn what they needed if his brain was foggy from hunger or lack of sleep.
Bisha had noticed that like him, Nahla seemed more than a little uncomfortable with everything that was going on. But also like him, she was doing everything that was asked of her. When things got especially stressful Nahla would take Bisha to where Usha was. Bisha really enjoyed visiting Usha because the stables were peaceful, if a tad smelly. While Usha would go outside to do her business generally speaking, the rest of the animals quartered there did not. Even with a number of stable hands quickly dealing with any messes, the aroma still hung around.
By the end of the very busy week Nahla was taking Bisha to the stables to visit Usha every evening. It was a nice way to end the day. They would sit together outside, with Nahla resting against the bulk of Usha. And himself sitting on a bale of hay petting Ryah's head. Their quiet conversation, mainly Nahla telling Bisha what everyone else was up to, was a great way to rest his mind. This must be what having a sister was like. The breaks at the end of the day allowed Bisha to tell Nahla what, if anything, that he'd discovered that day. Which helped Bisha to put his discoveries and thoughts into a cohesive order.
Through it all Khomal was his constant companion. Feeling Khomal's small nose touch just under his chin was more comforting to Bisha than even he consciously knew. Bisha did know however that he never would have succeeded in his current search without him. Bisha was glad that libraries weren't frightening to the small animal. At least one of them was starting to feel comfortable in the environment they found themselves in. Of course Khomal didn't have to give daily reports to the council on what ever he had found since his last one.
Truthfully, he was starting to be concerned that he hadn't really found much so far, but the councilors and the Mahapratanidhi seemed pleased with the dribbles of information he'd been able to glean from the library so far. Added to what Bisha had remembered from some ancient history classes he'd taken back in Khunduz, it just didn't seem to be enough. Nahla, Ryah, Usha and of course Khomal managed to keep him mostly grounded.
But oh it was hard to believe in himself. He'd always been the odd ball that didn't want to learn how to invent and/or construct majical devices, nor did he enjoy sports or any of the other activities that his fellow students deemed so important. Bisha had been the one that had loved studying itself and especially had wanted to research majic itself. Of course that same desire was why he'd been invited to learn and work at the Adikha Yunavarasiti, something that Nahla had to remind him of almost every day. It was hard to think well of yourself when you'd always been the outsider, the odd man out. Bisha was trying not to, but he often felt overwhelmed. After all, what if the reason everything in the experiment had gone wrong because of something he'd done, instead of the chief investigator falling into their device.
Bisha chuckled to himself at that thought, even he had a hard time really believing that the accident was caused by anything other than a body with a majical knife in it falling into the device's majical field. Time to go back to searching for more details about Mrtis, it wasn't like Khomal was going to find the information for him. Just then Bisha noticed Khomal being cute on one of the many bookshelves. Obviously Khomal had noticed that his person was unhappy and decided to play the fool to improve his mood. It wasn't the first time that Bisha had noticed Khomal acting in that fashion, although it had gotten more common of late. Of course his mood had been gloomy a lot more recently too, so that made sense. It was so cute watching Khomal mimicking him, looking around at the books as if he was reading. Bisha knew he wasn't of course but the behavior did make him laugh. And at this point Bisha would take anything that made him smile, much less laugh. Still he couldn't wait to tell Nahla about Khomal's funny mimicry.
Final Meeting
It had been two full weeks since the last time the whole group had met with the Mahapratanidhi and the full council. At least one, but up to three members of the party had met every day with various council members. Or more rarely with the Mahapratanidhi as well as individual members of the council. But this was the first time, since the party had brought the information about the disaster at the Adikha Yunavarasiti, that they had all met. Devshi was more than a little intimidated, after all it had been mainly Bisha, Irene and Ten Rabbit that had been called to speak to the councilors. Nahla and herself had only been summoned twice, including the first meeting. As far as Devshi could tell Nahla hadn't really noticed, she was far more interested in spending her days with Ryah and Usha. Nor did she seem overly impressed with anything or anyone here in Alkhadharam.
As soon as the Mahapratanidhi entered to start the meeting Devshi quit worrying about anyone else and gave her full attention to what the Mahapratanidhi was saying. The council was very concerned about the Mrtis cult rearing Its head. They considered the cult to be a danger to every peaceable nation on Ardu. As a result they needed to send envoys to the other nations to ask them if they would help to keep Mrtis cultists from bringing Mrtis back. Something that only the Gizban and possibly the Ljosafari would want.
Apparently the council had also decided that since Bisha was already at least somewhat aware of Mrtis and the associated cult not to mention very skilled at research, as he had proved over the last two weeks by finding as much information in the Grand Library as he had. He was the best person to go look for more information in the major libraries of most of the nations on Ardu. Bisha had already searched every library, secular and religious that he could in Alkhadharam.
Because Bisha already felt safe with the people he'd traveled with so far, the same group of them should continue to accompany him. Thanks to their connections to the other nations and their varied skills they were better than any possible group of guards. There was one surprise though, the party was told that the council was adding a senior diplomat to the group. This diplomat was to be in charge of smoothing the way to the other heads of state. The party would actually give what information that they had to the various government heads, not to mention getting permission to research in any libraries that Bisha thought might help. The party was then informed that they would meet the diplomat tomorrow and that they should get ready to depart the day after.
Devshi was a little surprised at how quickly the decision had been made. In her experience with Kishnagari administration it usually took much longer to get anything decided much less done. Clearly the Mahapratanidhi and her council thought this was incredibly important. Devshi looked at her country's leaders stunned for a moment at how quickly they were moving, but managed to snap her mind back into focus. The speed was a good thing and she knew it, now all she needed to do was decide what she would need to request from the temple. Definitely healing supplies, but she was sure there was more. Just then her mind was snapped back to events around her rather than drifting to future needs. She had heard her name. In fact her name was being spoken by the Mahapratanidhi herself, Devshi blinked as she shook her head.
" Pardon, my lady? What did you say?" Devshi couldn't believe that her thoughts had wondered so badly in the council chamber of all places. It wasn't like she was just riding down the road or working in her temple. She was in the council chamber itself, in front of the most important people in the world, or at least the most important in her world.
"I said," the Mahapratanidhi replied. Her placid voice tinged with humor. "That we cannot allow you to go unprotected Devshi."
For a long moment Devshi could only look at her leader in incomprehension. Her brain not really following what the Mahapratanidhi was saying. "But I am protected," Devshi finally managed to squeak out, gesturing to her group. She was more than a little embarrassed by the sound of rising panic in her voice. Devshi really couldn't figure out what the supreme leader of Kishnagar was getting to.
The Mahapratanidhi let a small chuckle out along with the small smile that crossed her face before it returned to its accustomed clam placidity. "You aren't the only Kishnagari going on this mission my dear," The Mahapratanidhi's voice took on a gentleness that Devshi hadn't known she had. "As such it behooves us to make sure you are properly armed and armored. Since this is quite possibly the most important mission that any Kishnagari has undertaken since its founding. We have decided to arm you with this magic hammer and the sacred armor from your order, the ancient armor of the warrior clerics of Parvai." Two attendants brought them forward to for Devshi.
At first all Devshi could do was stare at the Mahapratanidhi blankly. Her brain completely shut down by the revelations of her leader. Then for another long moment all she could do was sputter the word "but" over and over again. Finally she bowed accepting the word of the Mahapratanidhi, knowing that the temple must also be in on this decision. How else could the armor be here for her? Devshi knew that at her temple there was one set of sacred armor for each of the member races that had gone into the making of Kishnagar. All of them dedicated to her Goddess, Parvai. So the armor would fit, kind of at least. Finally all that Devshi could do was bow to the Mahapratanidhi's will and accept the armor and weapon.
The armor was made in a very old style consisting of single pieces rather than the scales of modern armor. It was decorated with small golden tigers on each shoulder and on top of the helmet. Devshi knew that it was ancient, but was so well taken care of that it looked new. It had a slightly polished look to the steel. The hammer on the other hand was made in a style she had never seen before. It was covered in what she thought were magical symbols and it looked like it had been made yesterday, the metal having a polished finish she could almost see herself in.
As soon as Devshi acquiesced the Mahapratanidhi rose, signaling the end of the meeting. But much to Devshi's embarrassment Nahla either didn't understand that when the Mahapratanidhi rose the meeting was over or she didn't care. Because she started moving towards the Mahapratanidhi as soon as she left the platform her throne was on. Nahla caught up to the most important person in Kishnagar before she had reached the side door to her private chambers, the Mahapratanidhi's personal guard prepared to kill her on the spot. At first the Mahapratanidhi looked startled but as Devshi watched her leaders face went from startled to amused. She raised her hand and the guard relaxed. Then to Devshi's stunned amazement and chagrin she saw her serene leader start to laugh and nod her head as Nahla talked. Poor Devshi had no clue what had happened but apparently Nahla and the Mahapratanidhi had become friends? It was too much, Devshi decided to just go to her room and take a nap. Otherwise, the world was just to weird.
Journey Begins
Two days later and the party was on it's way. Yesterday had been interesting for Ten Rabbit to say the least. When he'd heard the Mahapratanidhi tell everyone that they were going to be joined by a diplomat to help smooth the way with the other governments, he hadn't expected the diplomat to be the head of the assassins guild. Not that the head of any successful guild wouldn't be good at politicking, but really? One of the most dangerous men alive as your chosen diplomat? Okay. Sure having a known killer as your diplomat might work out well in some of the countries, but definitely not in Michocan and he strongly doubted that the Oristani would like it any more than his own people did.
Also that subtle threat only worked if the assassin was known to be one. The gentleman that rode beside him was definitely not known to be an assassin. The Mahapratanidhi had introduced him as Fulha, no last name given. He was a long, lanky older gentleman with paler skin than the usual human on Ardu. Fulha was a very distinguished looking gentleman with neatly trimmed grey hair and finely built frame. His handsome features were stereotypically human and went nicely with his tailored riding attire. Ten Rabbit didn't know if it was common for diplomats to only go by their first name or if for some reason it just wasn't given. Nor did he know if Fulha was actually the assassins name. Truthfully Ten Rabbit didn't really care, all he wanted was to keep the long and lanky head assassin under his eye. He didn't think he was here to kill any of the party. There would have been ample opportunity while they stayed in the palace. The Mahapratanidhi was the absolute ruler in Kishnagar, she wouldn't need to wait to kill someone she saw as a threat. She'd just order it and they'd be dead.
They had left Alkhadharam bright and early this morning, so early that they were outside the main city walls before the sun had truly risen. They had left through the south eastern gate, passing through the Pani District. The buildings here were certainly in better shape than those in the Rata District they had passed through on their way in to see the Mahapratanidhi, but they nowhere near as grand as those inside the walls. The exterior decoration was kept to a minimum and there wasn't as much color as the central city.
While Ten Rabbit didn't mind being up in the morning, he wasn't a huge fan of rising before the birds for goodness sake. Add to that the fact that he was once again on the back of a large stinky animal. He hated riding it, like an invalid or elderly person. This was the perfect recipe for a very grumpy Ten Rabbit. The only reason he hadn't just headed for home once they had reached Alkadharam weeks ago, was that he knew Camatz wanted him to continue with the party. Ten Rabbit wasn't completely sure how he knew this fact, but he knew it.
Next to Ten Rabbit, Fulha rode a horse like he'd been born on one and that just added to the Michocano's foul mood. He knew he was a rank amateur as a rider because clearly he was, but did the far too elegantly dressed assassin have to make it so obvious? Couldn't the old male fumble, ride stiffly or something so Ten Rabbit didn't look so bad? It was more than a little infuriating to be honest. The horse that Ten Rabbit rode was a placid beast most of the time and would rather just walk if it had its way. Ten Rabbit however didn't enjoy being perched on its back so far from the ground. At least he wasn't as sore at the end of the day as he had been when he'd first started. He still wasn't a fan of riding anything that kept his feet off of the ground. Why couldn't he just walk was his constant silent query.
The party had decided to follow the Siska Sea south towards its end. Then they would head eastwards through the most northerly tip of Tengla and into Oristan. The main reason that they had decided to take this route rather than just travel across the Siska Sea from Alkadharam into Oristan then head south to Khaliun, is that absolutely no one wanted to see a seasick Temee. Especially not Nahla who also got very seasick, according to her at least. While Irene still had more of the root that helped her so much with seasickness. She had said that she was unsure if it would work for the Temee, Irene wasn't even sure if it would be safe for Usha to eat at all. Not being willing to take a chance of hurting her constant companion, Nahla had asked if there was another way to get to the Oristani capitol of Khaliun. So here they were taking a longer route than required once again, one that meant Ten Rabbit was perched precariously on the back of this blasted horse that seemed to live to torture him.
The sun had almost reached its zenith when the group decided to stop for lunch, at least they had a nice view of the water in the distance, the party picketed the majority of the mounts. Usha didn't need to be picketed so she and Ryah helped keep them calm down and made sure no predators bothered them while they ate their own lunches. The rest of the party was taking out their lunches, which the palace kitchen staff had packed for them, and getting comfortable when trouble found them. Out of nowhere Ten Rabbit heard Usha scream a threat warning while at the same time Ryah growled loud enough to wake the dead. All of the mounts started to rear and jerk at the tether holding them in place. Less than a second later he heard the high pitched cry of a dying man.
Before Ten Rabbit could say anything the whole party was up and armed, facing the mounts. They had automatically taken their usual positions. Nahla and Irene in the front with himself and Devshi on each side of the centrally placed Bisha. For a moment Ten Rabbit was surprised to see Fulha crouched behind Bisha while Ten Rabbit quickly strung his bow. The last thing Ten Rabbit noticed before battle began was Bisha and Devshi stepping behind him before he was fully engaged in the fight that was about to start. As Ten Rabbit watched, ten people ran from where the mounts were. Two of them were already injured and Ten Rabbit was pretty sure at least that and possibly more were laying dead next to the mounts. But he was more concerned with the living attackers in front of him. Then he was only paying attention to targeting the foes in front of them and not hitting his allies by accident.
As he watched, waiting for his first clear shot, Ten Rabbit saw Nahla take out the attacker closest to her with a powerful blow of her decorated spear to the side of her first target. She then spun on one foot and dropped the target next to her with a swipe through his neck, almost severing his head. That gave Ten rabbit a clear shot at another of the intruders. He skewered the smallish man he was aiming at through the throat. His target dropped right in the way of the foe right behind him, causing him to fall right in front of Irene. This gave the Zwergin a perfect target for her own attack. Ten Rabbit heard Irene telling Nahla that it wasn't fair that her height made it easier to get more hits in. He also heard Nahla's reply that she couldn't help it, but if Irene wanted Nahla was ready and willing to throw her at them so she could kill more of them. The banter made Ten Rabbit grin while he targeted yet another one of the attackers.
By the end of the battle Ten Rabbit had killed a total of two and wounded another two. He was pleased with how well the party had worked together. There was only one of the attackers left and he was trying to flee. But before anyone else could attack, a dagger came flying from behind Ten Rabbit to lodge itself into the last mans back with a sickening thud, dropping him immediately. All of them turned to look behind themselves in case of more attackers only to see Fulha smiling faintly, completely unruffled at the battle. The usual questions followed, making sure that everyone was okay.
It was while searching the bodies that Ten Rabbit found some disturbing news. It was a small piece of parchment small enough to have been carried by bird. The note told the recipient exactly where and when the party was likely to stop for the noon meal. As bad as that was, the worst part happened when he gave the note to Devshi as the resident Kishnagari. Even though he could read Kishnagari, as could most people because it was the most common tongue, both written and spoken on Ardu, Ten Rabbit knew there were intricacies that only a native speaker would understand. When Devshi read the note she was visibly shaken. She dropped the note from nerveless hands her whole body shrinking into itself. It was clear that at first Devshi didn't believe whatever it was that she read, but when asked what had upset her so much all Devshi said was that she had recognized the writing. She would have known who had written the note even if it wasn't signed. At first Devshi hadn't wanted to tell them who it was that written the note, but finally she informed the party that her mentor and closest friend had written it. But that wasn't possible, that would make her mentor a traitor to not only Ardu but to her god Parvai. Something that was almost as unimaginable to her as betraying Kishnagar itself. It was obvious to everyone that Devshi was dealt a crushing blow..
