Liar's Gambit
Twenty-Sixth Day of the Tenth Month 293 AC
A
wave of distorted power ripples through the air at your command, to strip all wards and enchantments, yet what it tears is no blessing of Ymeri, no battle mage's ward, but yet another glamor. Where there had been a fire fey before, there now stood an even smaller sprite, one you had just met moments before,
Dewchaser, whom you had seen among the rafters of the shop as the false Hogart entered the shop.
At least that explained why there was so little blood, a small detached corner of your mind notes. You push aside the thousand other questions rising in its wake, emptying your mind of all but the requirements of sorcery spun forth half from the careful enchantments spun into your belt, half from sheer will. You will capture this being and you will have your answers from it.
Thought and deed are one in that painfully stretched moment, a shard of amber flying from your hand to
trap the liar in your grasp. The tiny fey raises a hand in a seemingly pointless gesture of defiance and wild magic roars in defiance all around, your spell undone, the amber clinking away uselessly into the dark.
"Stupid Dragon hoarding all the masks, playing all the parts," the fey spits, its light flashing in a thousand colors painful for the eye only to flicker away like a candle on the wind leaving only fading laughter behind.
"It didn't go far. It's still in the shop, I can hear its mind," Varys calls silently.
"By the window!"
You turn to see a buzzing dragon fly about to pass unnoticed into to the city. To every sense you have it looks sounds and feels like the insect it appears... but insects do not have thoughts that Varys can hear.
Without pausing to think, you again cast the spell of imprisonment, the flash of amber flying true. Again the winds of wild magic blow, but they are fickle things, this time the fey is caught... like a bug in amber.
Thoros rushes to recover the fey in its prison while Rina looks up towards the girders where the other Dewchaser had been...
the other Dewchaser. The answer comes to you in a flash, that had not been a being of flesh and blood at all, just a
shadow shaped into the seeming of one. As soon as Rina had cast the spell of true sight on you, the sprite had darted off beyond what distance that it would be revealed at. What you had taken to be nothing more than impatience to go on with its 'investigation' had been preserving its shell game.
If your foe had managed to escape without its second fire fey mask being revealed, then so long as it did not go far the figment of 'Dewchaser' would have still been in a perfect position to follow along, perhaps offer 'advice' on your investigation. "Rina..." you ask slowly. "Was this the sprite that almost got killed by the Hunter in the Dark before it
vanished without a trace?"
"Yes, but that couldn't have been an illusion. I had the deepest sight..." She trails off horrified. For the first time since you had met her, you hear Rina Cox swear, not with any particular skill, but certainly with passion. "My apologies Your Grace," she says once her anger was spent. "For the outburst and for being deceived. I failed..."
"I've heard worse, from my own sister no less." You shake your head and smile. "As for failing me, you will note that I almost failed to catch him. I would have failed in fact, but for Varys' timely warning." Ignoring the feeling of your familiar preening at the praise like a cat in a cream barrel, you continue firmly. "None of us can do everything alone, that is the reason trusted friends are so invaluable."
Her expression clears slightly, but she still gives the tomb of amber in Thoros' hand a sad look: "I thought Dewcaser was so cheerful, always eager to help out. I thought maybe he could swear to you, Your Grace, like Moonsong and Glyra. But it was all a lie, some twisted game for his own amusement..."
Perhaps for more than that, you think darkly. You could easily see yourself taking the schemer into your service for his supposed help in the investigation, to work who knows what plots in your realm. And therein lies the crux of the matter, you do not know what Dewcaser's ultimate plot was or what, if any, powers he may serve and given how far he came you must know.
What do you do?
[] Speak to the Orphne Lord at once and ask him for any notion of what the liar fey might be
[] Approach the Hooded King to settle matters betwen you before any further intrigues can moody the waters
-[] Write in
[] Try to interrogate the captive fey
-[] Write in precautions
[] Write in
OOC: I can't tell you guys Dewchaser's build yet since Viserys does not know enough IC, but I can say this much, that counter-spell was a supernatural ability. Not yet edited.