Julia approached Vazreth's gate, her gait rigid with tension. Normally, the various merchants and citizens coming and going would pay little attention to others, their minds occupied by whatever circumstances had them entering or leaving the city that day. Today, the air was practically aflame with caustic glares—all directed at her party.

In the back of her mind, Julia was annoyed by whatever this current setback was. Today was supposed to mark her triumphant return! She had a written confession from a military commander about his contingent looting the spoils of ambushed caravans! The cover was about to be blown off this whole operation, she could feel it—so what situation would dare have the gall to stand in her way?

The elves behind her were as tense as she, being that most of the hateful glares were directed at them specifically. Julia had witnessed looks of derision in town before, but these were…different. They were overtly hateful—the kind of looks only the meanest people would've sent her back in Rockyknoll.

The hour was mid-morning, and it was a day after the Nashiin out in the plains were eliminated. Julia's party had given a brief overview of the situation to Davon's caravan, with instructions to spread the word on their travels: there was a nefarious force working within Vazreth, and it was highly placed.

Weisar had been grateful for the experience fighting the Nashiin, pledging his mercenaries would be prepared to face them should they encounter more on their travels. Julia was glad for it, though she thought it unlikely.

If the Nashiin intended not only to attack merchants, but also to recover their cargo, any farther from the city and the distance would likely be prohibitive. The cargo recovered would have to outvalue the cost in labor for the military to transport it.

Still, caution was advisable.

Julia's party had wandered a ways back toward the city and decided to camp for the night since it was already evening. That night around the fire, they'd discussed the situation and made guesses about what the Nashiin might be planning.

The best guess they could hazard was that the Nashiin leader held a high position within Vazreth's leadership and was vying for power. That was the only reason they could possibly imagine justifying the secret attacks on merchant caravans.

Those attacks would only hurt the city, and hurting the city would only be desirable for a party attempting to label the current leadership as incompetent, as far as they could reason.

Of course it could always be as simple as the Nashiin attempting to destroy Vazreth from within, but Julia thought that even less likely. The leader, from all the moves he'd made thus far, seemed cunning. It would likely know that the value a living city could provide to its cause far outweighed any threat it might pose.

The main piece of information they were missing—beyond the identity of the leader—was the goal. What did the Nashiin want? Was it something simple, like the domination or destruction of the living? Was it to build their numbers using the living as fuel?

They were clearly aiming sentiment in the city against the elves—that much was plainly evident. For what purpose, though, they could only guess.

What could someone with designs on a city like Vazreth possibly want from the marsh? The city had such ostentatious displays of wealth, and an unknown but enormous supply of Etherium.

What could the marsh hold that Vazreth didn't, and why would it be a better option to destroy the elves outright than simply trade for whatever they wanted? Vazreth had functionally unlimited wealth, just from the supply of Etherium, after all.

"This doesn't look good…" Talnîr whispered as they approached the line for the gate.

He motioned subtly with his head toward the guards, who—despite having five to ten people in front of Julia's party to check—were staring openly at them.

The line moved quickly now that they had joined it, the guards seeming to care less about each individual person as they approached Julia's party. There was tension building in the air, as though a string were being pulled tighter as their group approached the checkpoint.

"State your names and the purpose of your visit," the guard demanded as the party reached the checkpoint.

Julia handed her adventurer ID to the guard, and he inspected it closely—far closer than any other guard had. Most got wide eyed and non-confrontational when they saw the Adamantine identification.

"My party and I were on a job from the Guild," Julia said neutrally.

"What was the job?" the guard asked without looking up from inspecting her ID.

"Guarding a merchant caravan as it left the city," Julia answered with narrowed eyes.

Since when were the details of adventurer jobs the guards' business?

"Ha, 'guarding,' sure. 'Attacking,' more like," said a gruff voice from behind.

"The fuck did you say?" Julia snapped, whirling around.

The man was in line behind Julia's party, and he seemed in every way the average citizen. He had brown hair, cut short to be out of his face. He wore decent-but-worn clothing that was perfectly functional, and his hands had the gnarled surfaces of some kind of laborer.

"I said what I said. City just announced it—'s their kind what's been attackin' merchants outside the city, and what do ya know but the day after 's announced, ya come walkin' back from the road, armed to the teeth, claimin' to be 'guarding' a caravan," he spat, sneering toward the elves.

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Julia would likely have been more incensed by his tone, but his words had distracted her enough not to notice.

The city announced that elves had been ambushing caravans?

"The fuck does that even mean? Have you seen the elves in this city? They're beaten, battered, and bruised. They barely have the strength to walk home after their all-day shift, let alone attack merchants outside the city," Julia said, still heated but now more inclined to hear the man out.

"Bah, don't be tryin' to pull a fast one on me. I ain't talkin' 'bout them layabouts in the city. 'S the ones way out 'n the marsh what's doin' it," he said, nodding vaguely away from the city.

"Are you stupid?" Julia retorted impulsively.

"Fuck you say?" the man asked, stepping closer to her, his face growing red.

"The Jadhariin just fought a fucking war. They won, but it was a pyrrhic victory. They were completely decimated by the undead. Over half of their entire population died at the hands of the Nashiin. They don't have the strength or numbers to wage war on Vazreth, nor do they have any desire to.

"They are rebuilding their homes—laying their deceased to rest. They have no glut for whatever you possess. You know nothing of their struggles, yet you speak with such confidence.

"Well, since you seem to believe everything you hear without any additional critical thought, I have some facts for you," Julia said, pulling out several sheets of paper.

"The caravan we were guarding was attacked by those same undead—the Nashiin—the very ones the Jadhariin fought. When we tracked them to their base of operations, we found Vazreth military forces waiting there to collect—no, steal—the cargo.

"It's not the elves attacking caravans, you bug-eyed dipshit. It's the fucking city," Julia said, her face very close to the man's as she waved the papers in front of him. "I have a written fucking confession from the captain of the military outfit that was waiting to loot the caravan's cargo."

The man seemed unsure, but Julia's insults had prevented him from doing anything but escalating. His face was bright red as he opened his mouth—likely to yell—but he was interrupted by a calmer voice from the direction of the gate.

"Those are weighty accusations, Miss Julia," Margreth said.

Julia spun back around to find Margreth, a line of guards behind her, standing between the checkpoint and the gate. Julia's brain felt like it was spasming for a moment, unable to comprehend so many changes in the situation all at once, and she stood staring at Margreth lamely.

"You claim that the city is attacking caravans…even if we were to believe this claim—ignoring why the city would want to stab itself in the leg by damaging its relations with traveling merchants—do you really expect anyone to believe that the perpetrators just…what, wrote down a confession and handed it to you? Who would believe such tripe?" she asked with ostensible exasperation.

Her patronizing tone jolted Julia back to the present. She withdrew Margreth's letter and waved it around so the seal was clearly visible.

"The captain confessed because—" she started.

"Ah, yes. My letter. Word has reached me that you have been rather…liberal with your use of it. I gave you that with the intention of you working with us—with the city—yet you have been using it to push authority you do not possess.

"I am afraid I must ask you to return the letter, and I will need you to come with us. I do understand how authority can go to one's head, so I will attempt to be lenient, but I simply cannot allow you to run around making chaos in my name any longer," she said sadly, as though her disappointment in Julia's conduct was painful.

Julia's thoughts churned, fragmented and contradictory.

They're trying to frame the attacks on the Jadhariin? Why? They were a secret until now, and all of a sudden they're both admitting the attacks happened and trying to cast blame? Did they somehow know that Julia's party was closing in on the truth? How was that possible?

Did the captain she'd intimidated leak? He'd seemed frightened enough; Julia was certain he'd done as she asked. And he certainly wouldn't have spoken up so soon—it'd been less than a day since the attack!

Hell, had the captain and his men even made it back to the city yet? Julia had flown her party quite a ways back that very morning, so they should have traveled much faster than the military.

"Is it you?" Ithshar suddenly asked, stepping forward.

"Pardon? Is what me?" Margreth asked, shifting her attention to the elves for the first time.

"Are you the leader of the Nashiin that we have been looking for? Was it you that sent that scourge against my people? If you are not the leader, you are certainly at least involved, yes? The timeline does not match otherwise.

"The captain, whose written admission we have, would not have even made it back to the city yet, so he certainly did not inform you that the Nashiin were defeated.

"It was the Barrowlord.

"The more powerful a servant, the more prominent it is in its master's mind. The Barrowlord's defeat informed its master that the jig was up—word was going to spread that the city was ambushing merchants.

"The Nashiin's master—which is either you or someone close to you—then pivoted to get ahead of the issue by blaming my people," Ithshar finished, her normally neutral face a thundercloud.

"Haa…I am trying to be cordial here, but I simply do not have all day to listen to your wild conspiracies. I will have to drop civility in favor of time. You are all under arrest. Please come with me willingly, and we can—" she said, sighing.

Julia's domain suddenly picked up five tiny projectiles shooting toward them. Instead of intercepting, she relaxed—the matter was already handled.

A golden glow surrounded the party, originating from Ithshar. The projectiles froze in the air, as though they'd been physically grabbed, and Julia saw that they were tiny darts.

"Poisoned—likely with a tranquilizing agent," Ithshar declared, completely unbothered by the attempted ambush.

Margreth's eyes widened noticeably, as did the guards around her.

"What, did you think we didn't take care of the Shroud on our very first day here?" Julia asked with a smile, as Talnîr fiddled with a small lump on his chest beneath his robe.

The small trinket hung from a chain around his and the other elves' necks, and it mitigated the Shroud's interference around the wearer. Julia had worked the enchantment out first thing after entering the city, as she didn't like her party's combat prowess being handicapped in a place she'd never visited.

"Stand strong, men! Capture them!" Margreth shouted, her cordial veneer slipping away for a moment.

As the guards rushed forward, Julia's smile grew.

"Tell your leader that I haven't forgotten them—I'll see them soon," Julia said with a wide grin.

She reached her hands out to both sides, and with a crunchy vrump, she and the elves disappeared.

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