Fire and Rain

[Bjorn]

Bjorn stands again, surveying the room.  Shaking his head, he turns back to Lammermore.  "A nice little puzzle," he says, drily.

A thought occurs to him, and he racks his other-self's memories of the Upper Kingdoms to find out what he can about the Blackguard.

[Brian]

Bjorn is unable to recall anything about the Blackguard.  Most likely, his former self was only peripherally aware of them, if at all.

[Bjorn]

While waiting for the Blackguard or Robert to return, Bjorn makes his way to Durant's former cell, to examine its condition carefully.

[Brian]

The cell is pretty clean, for the most part.  On the left side, in the corner (the cell is what looks to be a two meter wide by four meter long rectangle, with the door on one of the short sides) is a kind of lumpy looking matress, with bits of straw poking through holes in the seams.

There's a clean, but ragged blanket there, along with a plate, a bowl, and a spoon.  The handle of the spoon is flat, with what were probably squared corners, but they've been worn rounded by being scratched against the walls.

Durant apparently marked something off, but probably not time.  Whatever it was, there's a nice set of tally marks adding up to 'nineteen' over the bowl.  And another group of nineteen further to the left.  And the right.  And the one on the cieling is particularly impressive ... but is kind of confusing as to what it all means.

[Bjorn]

Bjorn glances back and forth between the various sets of tally marks, trying to see if they are in the same geometric pattern, or if there's anything in particular about their placement (with respect to each other, or anything else in the cell).

[Brian]

They would all be visible from someone who were to lie down on the bed, and there are exactly nineteen groups of ninteen tallies.  Other than that, they don't appear (at a glance) to be related.

[Bjorn]

Bjorn frowns at this.  What the... Why would Paul do anything like this?

He steps out the cell, still puzzling this over, to see if the guards have returned.

[Brian]

The guards, in fact, return just as Bjorn exits the cell, looking a bit winded.

[Bjorn]

Bjorn watches them as he waits for them to give Kevin their report.

[Brian]

Robert and two of the Blackguard return at the same time.  Robert eyes the Blackguard uncomfortably.  They pretty much ignore him.

After a moment, Kevin coughs pointedly, and Robert flinches, walking towards Kevin without looking away from the Blackguard until the last minute.  Oddly, as soon as Robert looks away, the Blackguard seem to flicker and blend into the shadows, relaxing (somewhat) as they do so.

"Sir," he says, saluting smartly.  "No convicts have hidden between here and the Interer's domain."

"Nor within," one of the Blackguard says.

Kevin nods thoughtfully, and turns to look at Bjorn questioningly.

[Bjorn]

"Unless they were Gatekeepers," Bjorn points out, a bit drily, "we must be missing something."  He frowns thoughtfully, staring at nothing.  "It seems unlikely that they managed to take advantage of the confusion to sneak unnoticed by the guards.  That leaves us with two options.  Either they took advantage of another way out of the dungeons -- one which we don't know -- or they managed to hide themselves very well."  He shrugs.  "Perhaps they were taken out of here by our invisible assassin?  But then the question is: why?"  He looks at Lammermore.

[Brian]

Lammermore shakes his head.  "A possibility, but the reasons of the assasin are beyond me," he says grimly, running one hand across his chin, and through his trimmed beard.

"Well," Kevin says thoughtfully, looking between the grate and the cell.  "Reasons are simple enough.  Most likely the convicts would simply be released as a smoke-screen, or to cause confusion."  He frowns at this.  "But if this were the case, our assasin wouldn't have smuggled the others out.  He would leave them to run free and draw attention to themselves ... and away from him.

"I can only assume that either the convicts are dead for inconveniencing our assasin, or now working for him, which is why he went through the trouble of releasing them."  He pauses, and surveys the corpses, not flinching away from the sight.  "So.  Our assasin killed all of the guards easily.  They weren't overpowered by the prisoners and then killed.  There is no blood on the guard's weapons.  No witnesses remain alive ... or at least, here.  If they got past the watch, then we may be in trouble indeed...."

Kevin sighs, and shakes his head.  "This is hopeless.  Lammermore, we'll need to find someone to take care of this ... I'm going to go ask Radagast if he can help us find someone invisible."  He turns to survey his aides one last time, giving Lammermore and Bjorn a chance to speak before leaving.

[Bjorn]

"With your permission, I think I'll speak to Lord Ekim, as well," Bjorn offers.  "More prosaic means might have played a part, too.  If he doesn't himself know of the Keep's construction, he might know where to find details."

[Brian]

Lammermore grunts, and shifts his shoulders slightly.  At that, half of the dozen guards in the room move to follow Lord Kevin.

Kevin himself doesn't seem to notice, and nods at Bjorn.  "Good thinking.  We'll discuss this later and share what we've gleaned, then.  Good luck."  And with that, he turns away, escorted by dozens of guards.

The Blackguard watch him leave, and then move towards the exit, vanishing from sight before they reach it.

[Bjorn]

Bjorn watches the Blackguard leave, rubbing his jaw thoughtfully, and then looks over at Lammermore with an inqusitive expression, as if to ask, "So, what do you think?"