Kaldalis knew one person off the top of his head who had used poisons. Not only had she been behind their use in combat, but she had planned to use them to affect the behavior of an entire town.

Onirioago.

He was pretty sure that she wasn’t behind the attempt, but she had been eager to play Hannibal Lecter to his Agent Starling. She might have information about what kind of toxin could turn the most peaceful horse on the planet into a panicking mess. He was also still nervous that she might still be trying to plot an escape, and setting eyes on her in a cell was going to put his mind at ease.

Getting into the prison to talk to Onirioago was easier than expected. Garyung seemed to have adapted to the Baimer bureaucracy far better than Kaldalis had, and seemed unnaturally skilled at cutting through the walls of red tape between them and a visit with their nemesis. He just had all the tools in hand and knew exactly how and when to use them. He had the right words to get past some obstacles, and a few dozen crescents greased the right palms, and when the time was right he threw his weight around as the leader of a foriegn nation.

The prison itself was a bit more like a dungeon than Kaldalis expected. The guards led them underground, into an area that was a storm of nearly-identical doors and featureless stone corridors. The guards moved with a bored efficiency, wielding keyrings of nearly-identical keys as they worked their way through the underground maze. Even after the first minute, Kaldalis’s internal sense of direction was entirely lost. Even if he’d had the keys, it would take him hours to backtrack through trial and error, between the unmarked keys and unmarked doors. He felt a lot better about the security keeping Onirioago from exacting revenge against him now.

Eventually, one of the doors opened into a larger chamber instead of a corridor or a small room of doors. The chamber was bisected by a wall of bars, behind which were spartan - but livable - accommodations, including a bed, a shelf of books, and a table with a single chair. At the back of the room was an open doorway that appeared to lead into a proper bathroom. There were a handful of chairs on the near side of the room as well, presumably for visitors.

Inside the cell, the familiar figure of Onirioago was seated.

Outside the cell, the familiar figure of Demriv was seated across from her.

There was a guard already in the room, presumably as Demriv’s guide back out once she was done.

“What is the meaning of this?” Demriv snapped, before she even turned around. “I went through a lot of headache to get this visit, and I asked not to have it interrupted.”

“More visitors?” the guard already in the room asked with a grimace. “Busy day for this one, then?”

“Don’t look at me,” the other guard said. “I just follow orders.”

“We don’t need long,” Garyung said as he stepped around the guard, “my friend just has a couple of questions for her and we can scoot on out of here.”

At the sound of Garyung’s voice, Demriv’s head whipped around so fast Kaldalis thought her neck would snap. Her eyes narrowed in irritation at Garyung, but her expression turned to a mask of obvious rage at the sight of Kaldalis. Behind her, Onirioago was instead wearing a calm and confident smirk, but there was still a little sign of surprise in her eyes.

“You dare,” Demriv snarled, lips peeling back in a sneer. “What are you here for? To gloat before you’ve won? I should have known. Your type always assumes victory well before it’s earned.”

“There’s been an incident,” Garyung said carefully. “We just have a couple of questions-”

“Ah, of course,” Demriv interrupted. She stood from her chair, throwing her hands up and storming across the room towards them. “Perhaps you see the truth then, that you can’t make your accusation stick. You want to heap another crime onto her, then?”

Garyung hesitated. Kaldalis guessed that he hadn’t discounted the idea that Onirioago was behind this, and wasn’t sure how to approach the subject with Demriv. His anxiety was probably spiking off the charts.

“Not at all,” Kaldalis said quickly, stepping in front of Garyung. Demriv’s anger visibly redoubled, but Kaldalis just had to keep talking. “We’re not here to accuse her of anything. We’re here to ask for her help.”

Demriv sputtered for a moment, and Kaldalis wasn’t sure if she was struggling to come up with an insult, expressing disbelief, or was so utterly enraged that she literally couldn't form words. Fortunately, Kaldalis didn’t need to find out.

“You want my help?” Onirioago asked from behind Demriv. “And you’ve come here to ask for it yourself, in person.” She smirked, standing up and leaning against the bars of her cell. “Do I truly have you so well-trained?”

“I thought that would be all it took,” Kaldalis said. He stepped past Demriv towards Onirioago. “You’d be so happy to hear that I thought of you and came running that you might answer a few questions.”

One of her eyebrows arched coyly at that, but before she could say anything, Demriv found her tongue.

“I went through a lot of trouble for this visit,” Demriv snapped. Instead of yelling at Kaldalis, though, her ire was directed at the guards now. “Do you expect me to be happy with this interruption? I will be speaking to your superior officer about this. Remove them immediately. They can talk to her after I’m finished!”

“Lady,” one of the guards drawled, “none of this was our decision. We just work here.”

“I said I’ll be speaking with your superiors about this,” Demriv said, enunciating carefully. “Do you understand? Your job is in danger here. Do you know who I am?”

“Oh, oh. OH!” The other guard held up a hand to stop the other and dropped into a deep bow. “I understand, ma’am. Please, right this way!” He made an expansive gesture towards the door. “I’ll take you to the captain right this second, don’t worry.”

“Uh,” Demriv paused, confusion joining the rage and frustration on her face. “What do you mean?”

“You want to talk to the captain, right?” the guard said. A hand landed on Demriv’s shoulder and started to steer her towards the door. “It would be foolish of me to try and stop you, right? I know who you are, after all, so I would only be digging my grave that much deeper because of how terribly important you are. Right away then, ma’am. Right this way.”

Demriv was out of the room before she could object. The heavy door locked as soon as it was closed. The remaining guard in the room gave a stifled snort of a laugh.

“Um,” Kaldalis said, looking between the guard and the door. “Is that… Normal?”

The guard just shrugged. “Visit’s on,” he said, gesturing towards Onirioago. “Ask your questions. Or don’t. Just try not to get mouthy with me or you can go talk to the captain, too.”

Kaldalis turned back to Onirioago. “So, uh, I suspect you suspect we have questions?”

“You told me you have questions,” Onirioago said. She returned to her chair, and seated herself with an uncharacteristically demure posture. “Are you going to ask them, or are you satisfied with flustering my sister so badly she had to be escorted out?”

Kaldalis found himself unexpectedly unnerved. Her smirk and coy eyebrow when he walked in was expected. But now? She was sitting with her hands neatly folded in her lap, her legs together, leaning back with perfect posture. Her chest wasn’t puffed out. She wasn’t openly eyebanging him. She wasn’t even trying to negotiate for Garyung and the guard to leave the room so that she could have him all alone to torment.

The only thing he could think of was that she had something planned. Something so big, that she thought she was going to have him securely under her thumb after it went down. She didn’t need to torment him now. Not when it might jeopardize whatever she was doing that would put him at her mercy later.

“Uh,” Kaldalis tried not to panic. “There was an incident. Um.” He gestured for Garyung to step forward. “An attempt was made on Garyung’s life.”

“How awful,” Onirioago said with strange sincerity. “I hope you don’t think I have anything to do with it.”

“We’re not sure,” Garyung said. The Bhogad seemed to sense Kaldalis’s discomfort, but wasn’t sure of its source. “But we figured if you were unhelpful, it would be a good sign that you were hiding something, so I hope you’ll tell us what we need to know so we can find the actual culprit.”

“Well?” she asked, looking between them. “I hope I can help, especially if it means you might be more inclined to visit in the future. I’m looking at a very long stay here, and I get lonely sometimes.”

“It was a horse,” Kaldalis said, trying to search Onirioago’s expression for any hint of her usual lecherous intent. “It panicked and nearly trampled him.”

“Always a risk, when keeping herd animals for pets or mounts,” Onirioago said calmly. “Why do you think there was someone behind it, and not just a freak accident?”

“There’s evidence of foul play,” Garyung said, holding out a hand to Kaldalis. “The stable door was tampered with. A cloaked figure was seen fleeing the scene.” Kaldalis handed him the broken syringe, and Garyung held it out towards Onirioago. “And we found this in the stall. The horse in question is normally very calm. We think some kind of poison was used to induce her panic.”

The guard moved quickly to see what was being exchanged, but Onirioago didn’t stand up or reach for the item. She simply looked it over and nodded in understanding.

“So why come to me, then?” she asked. She was addressing Garyung, and not Kaldalis. Her behavior was setting him more and more on edge as she was behaving farther and farther outside of his expectations. “What is your question?”

“You’re the only person we know with any… practical knowledge of poisons,” Kaldalis said. “Do you know what kind of poison could be used to make a horse go crazy? Any rare ingredients? Uncommon alchemical methods?”

“Ah, I see,” Onirioago said, glancing at the guard. “And you want me to believe this isn’t an attempt to incriminate me? Provide evidence at the trial of my knowledge of poisons?”

“No, no, no,” Kaldalis said quickly. “Not at all. We just-”

“A little bit,” Garyung corrected, holding up a hand to stop Kaldalis. “As I said, if you’re hesitant to help, I’m going to put you near the top of the suspect list, especially if your sister might be involved. But we’re not here to get anything new for your existing trial. My concern right now is for my life, not yours.”

Onirioago’s eyebrow quirked at that, and she looked at Garyung with an expression of surprised respect. Kaldalis wondered if she’d ever talked to Garyung directly before, besides as a pawn to try and get at him.

“I wish I could help, then,” Onirioago said. “A horse is a panicky animal by nature. There are hundreds of poisons that could cause one to go wild, no matter how calm. Some are painful, some inflict terror, anger… Pretty much any strong emotion could make a horse bolt. Even benign concoctions can have side effects that could trigger a panic.” She shrugged. “If it were another animal, one less prone to such a reaction to literally any strong stimulus, perhaps I could help. But there’s not near enough information to draw any kind of conclusion here.”

Garyung grimaced, and Kaldalis found himself making the same expression. He believed himself familiar enough with her and her mannerisms that he would have been able to tell if she was lying, and what she was saying made perfect sense.

“I suppose you go to the top of my list, then,” Garyung said carefully.

“I wish you wouldn’t, for the sake of my pride,” Onirioago said with a smirk. “If I were to make such an attempt, I would employ a poison that would take effect after several minutes, so that my agent could slip away well before the commotion.” Her eyes glittered in a way that was far more familiar to Kaldalis. “And without seeing them, you might never have reason to believe it wasn’t an accident at all.”

“I don’t believe I’ve ever said this before,” Kaldalis said, “but I think I trust her.”

“Me, too,” Garyung said with a heavy sigh. “I don’t like it, though. I need something to hold onto here.”

“Investigations have to find dead ends,” Onirioago offered with a smile. “They only mean you have to go back and fight the right way, not that you have no way forward remaining.”

“Thanks,” Kaldalis said, trying not to be too unsettled. “We should go, then. And see if we can find a better clue.”

Garyung and Kaldalis let the guard lead them to the door. Just before it closed behind them, Onirioago got the last word in.

“Be careful out there…”