After failing to convince the guards that Onirioago saying “be careful” could constitute a threat, Kaldalis and Garyung were back at square one.

“Unfortunately,” Garyung began, “I think we have to take her off the list. She’s right. If she were behind it, she would be a lot more competent about it.”

“If she weren’t behind bars, I’d agree,” Kaldalis said, holding the door as the two of them left the prison and got back out onto the street. “But she might not be in full control of the operation. Maybe she took all her competent pawns with her to Cotanaku, and the only people left here in Baimer are the losers. And she can’t do it with her own two hands. Her cell was livable, but there wasn’t exactly an alchemy station there, and I doubt the guards would let her hand over a vial of her perfect poison.”

“But why?” Garyung said. As they got back out onto the street, he stopped, clearly unsure of their next step. “What does she stand to gain by killing me?”

“This comes back to what I was saying earlier,” Kaldalis said. “This might not be about killing you. This might be about the other effects of the attempt. Intimidation, fear, even just making you and I look irrational as we chase an investigation that seems imaginary.” He gestured to the left with a nod of his head, and the pair of them started moving that way. He didn’t know where they were going, but he did his best thinking while walking, so he planned to make it up as they went.

“So what do you want me to do?” Garyung snapped, though he followed Kaldalis’s lead without complaint. “Just pretend that I wasn’t nearly killed?”

“Yeah. Kind of?” Kaldalis sighed. He tried to figure out how to put this in a way that wasn’t going to make him into the bad guy in this conversation. “Obviously I don’t want you to pretend it didn’t happen. There’s a very real chance that they might take another shot at you, and so you’ll need to be ready for it. But what we need is to stay calm and collected.”

“Yeah,” Garyung snorted. “Someone is just trying to murder me. Nothing to be alarmed about.”

“Think critically, man,” Kaldalis said. “There’s a good chance that before the end of the day, you’re going to be face to face with whoever put the hit on you. Probably when we meet with the War Council this afternoon. Would you rather they think they got under your skin and freaked you out, or would you rather look them in the eye without a hint of fear?”

Garying blew out a long, slow sigh. “You’re right. I just want them to stop, and the best way of doing that is making them think it’s not working. I just… This feels really weird, man. I’ve been spawn camped before, right? I think everyone who’s played an MMO has been. But it feels so much different when the attacks actually hurt. When it feels like it’s my actual physical body.”

“I get it,” Kaldalis said with a shudder. Trying not to think about being pinned under the very real-feeling weight of a giant eight-armed snake woman. “I really do. But we don’t have a lot of options here. We lack the tools to trivialize this problem. We can’t trust the town guards here, we can’t control the narrative if you have a public freakout, and we still have shit to do, so we can’t just hide you under a rock.”

“Yeah, so the only thing we can control is ourselves,” Garying said with a grimace. “So what is our next move?”

“I’m not sure,” Kaldalis admitted. “I was going to say we troll the apothecaries in town to see if anybody could tell us anything, but if Onirioago is to be believed, a real professional would have had a better option than what was used here. Whoever attacked you probably mixed it themselves, and didn’t have an expert opinion on hand for the matter.”

“We can still check,” Garyung said, scratching the underside of his ratlike muzzle. “Onirioago could be wrong. Or she could be lying to us. We don’t actually know how proficient she is with poisons in general. Let alone horse biology.”

“Alright,” Kaldalis said with a nod. “You’re right. We pick at this clue until we know there’s nothing left to find.” He realized he’d more or less taken Onirioago at her word. Her strange behavior had thrown him off, and Garyung was making the right call to get a second opinion. It was possible - and frightening - that Onirioago had been perfectly honest with them. But without another obvious lead to follow, they had no reason not to double-check.

Of course, that was when the next clue dropped into their lap.

Off a nearby roof.

There was a sickening wailing sound from above them. They looked up just in time for Garyung to catch the first strike right across his snout, sending him reeling with a bloody nose. Before Kaldalis could react with intent, he dove in front of Garyung, putting himself bodily in the way of any further harm.

A shadowy figure landed on the street like a lump of cloth, and for a moment, Kaldalis didn’t realize they were under attack. It seemed possible that someone had just thrown a laundry basket out their window. But when the lump stood, brandishing its weapon, he realized what this was.

They looked every bit an assassin.

Every inch of visible skin was covered by leather armor or gloves. They wore a cloak that seemed to be cut in the perfect way to keep their face in perpetual shadow. It was obvious they were a Vathon; their horns poked through holes in the hood. But the horns were coated in soot or paint, meaning Kaldalis wouldn’t have been able to identify them by skin color.

As a Vathon, there was no way to tell anything else about them from their body shape or height. Vathon in general seemed to have a uniform hourglass build, and the cloak this person wore would have even obscured Kaldalis’s barrel chest.

Their weapon was obviously another war weapon. It was a quarterstaff that seemed to radiate a sinister aura, just as Onirioago’s spear had. It was a thick shaft of dark wood that had a vague reddish shine to it, as if it had been dyed dark by blood. It had a row of holes running down the side, and appeared to be hollow, like a giant flute.

Despite the hollow appearance, it seemed solid enough to break Garyung’s nose without taking any damage to itself.

“Who are you?” Kaldalis demanded. He knew weapons would be useless, but he called his shield to his arm, hoping that the Block ability might still be effective. “Who sent you?”

The assassin said nothing, lashing out at him with their staff instead. Holes in the weapon made it shriek and wail as it swept through the air.

Kaldalis winced as he raised his shield. The staff landed a ringing blow against it, sending Kaldalis stumbling back, but it only rattled his elbow and shoulder, and didn’t seriously injure him. It wasn’t a huge advantage, but it was better than getting his arm broken.

Knowing a weapon would be useless, Kaldalis shoved towards his foe with the shield. His target swatted aside the staff before it could be raised defensively, and Kaldalis lashed out with his bare fist. It was unwieldy to attack unarmed with a shield on, and the would-be assassin was able to duck back, but he was rewarded with a hissed curse of surprise. The low tone of voice identified the attacker as a man, but also revealed that they couldn’t be anyone he’d ever met. If Onirioago had set this person on them, she’d have warned him to expect Kaldalis to put up a fight.

She also would have warned him to expect Kaldalis to bring to bear the War Weapon he’d taken from her, and this guy was visibly fearless. If he knew Kaldalis had a weapon that could strike back, he sure wasn’t acting like it.

“Who was it?” Kaldalis demanded. Before the assassin could react, Kaldalis lunged, swinging his fist again. The assassin wasn’t fast enough this time, and the attack slammed into the shadow-obscured features. He felt a cheekbone grinding against his knuckle as the man staggered, nearly to the ground. “Who sent you?”

“Guards!” Garyung barked. The Bhogad managed to keep the fear out of his voice, his call sounding more like an authoritative command. “Murderer! Assassin! Guards!”

The street hadn’t been empty when the attack came, but it was suddenly empty now. The few people nearby had scattered at the beginning of the attack, but now a cry was going up from those who hadn’t fully noticed what was going on. Garyung had drawn everyone’s eyes, and they could clearly see the assassin’s war weapon, which likely represented a real threat in the heart of a busy city. Not everyone bolted, but those who stayed put a healthy amount of distance, not wanting to be drawn into the fight.

Kaldalis didn’t know why there wasn’t a guard near at hand already. It had seemed so far that there was always one in view while he was in the city. But as the street cleared, it looked like Kaldalis and Garyung were going to have to deal with this themselves.

The wailing whistle of the staff sounded again, and Kaldalis hurled himself to the ground. The weapon sang through the air right above his head. Before he could fully reach prone position, he shoved off of the ground and rolled to the left. His instincts were good, and the whistling above him stopped with the sharp crack of impact right beside him. His attacker had brought the weapon around in a downward strike after the first miss. The prediction gave Kaldalis the opening he needed, and he lunged.

It wasn’t easy to get a grip on the staff with the shield on his arm, but bodily hurling himself on it let him use his body weight to contest the assassin’s control of the weapon. He wasn’t able to tear it from his hands, but he was able to stop him from rearing back for another swing.

“Tell me!” Kaldalis demanded. “Who sent you?”

The man only grunted as Garyung grabbed him from behind, the Bhogad’s big arms enveloped the assassin, and without being able to bring the staff to bear, the bear hug was nearly inescapable.

“What are you hoping?” Garyung grunted, as the man started to thrash and kick. “That he has to answer you if you ask three times?”

“Where is Dr. Evil’s secret volcano lair?” Kaldalis demanded.

“The fuck-” the assassin began, but Garyung struck the man from behind with his knee. The difference in height landed the blow in his kidney, interrupting him.

Kaldalis tried to use the opening to get to his feet. If he could rip the weapon out of the man’s hands, they could bring the struggle to an end and get to proper questioning. As long as the assassin had a grip on the giant sinister flute, both Kaldalis and Garyung were facing a very real threat of death.

No sooner had the thought crossed his mind that the Assassin twisted in Garyung’s grip. The staff jumped from Kaldalis’s hands, and whipped up, cracking into Kaldalis’s chin. Stars filled his vision, and he wasn’t sure if he made it to his feet, or if he was back on the ground for a moment. It felt like a full minute before his vision came back.

When it did, the reversal had already completed. Garyung was reeling from a blow Kaldalis had missed, and the assassin’s staff was whirling, emitting a horrible wailing noise. With a sharp shout of triumph, the assassin lunged, the staff coming around with skull-shattering force as he closed in on the stunned Garyung.