50

Your first thought, as you survey the scene in horror, is that you've been robbed. But that doesn't seem quite right. Both your front door and the door to the treasure room were locked, and completely untouched. And despite the damage, you realize as you sort through your possessions that nothing is actually missing.

Well. Not quite nothing. Your dread deepens as you count out your gemstones. One of those has vanished. Probably the least distinctive or valuable of the lot, unless you know what it does.

Someone broke into your home without disturbing a thing except the contents of this room, and the only thing they took was the Demonsight Stone.

Next Chapter



As it turns out, there's little time for packing or other preparations. You spend most of the day checking through your possessions again, just to confirm it: everything else is still there, even if it's in pieces. You can put together bits of your other shattered treasures like assembling a puzzle, but the Demonsight Stone is nowhere to be found.

None of the doors inside or outside your house were unlocked or disturbed. The windows are untouched. You venture out to ask some of your neighbors if anyone entered or exited, but no one's seen anything or anyone—except Min, and Min only arrived a few minutes before you did and made no attempt to go inside.

It's not possible that the Stone vanished of its own will and your treasure room tore itself apart, but you can't find any evidence of anything else.

In the end, you throw a few things into your traveling parcel, rush through a few practice drills, and fall into bed for the night. Despite the mystery, you sleep long and deeply. You didn't get much rest in the dungeons, after all.

Next

You take a quick look around your treasure room in the morning, just to make sure you've checked behind all the bookshelves, and then set out for the palace. The guards at the courtyard have been told to grant you admittance, which doesn't surprise you, though you wonder where their orders came from.

As you enter the courtyard, you can just glimpse Evander over by the palace doors, in conversation with one of the guards. Just as you quicken your pace to meet him, you notice Letha standing off to the side by one of the hedges. She lifts a hand and beckons you over. She looks more solemn than angry.

Looking back toward the palace doors, you're fairly certain Evander has caught sight of you as well. He'll notice if you go speak with Letha like she's asking, though you don't know much about what he thinks of her personally.