Gallipsiwhoop climbs back out of the handy haversack. He takes Felandriel's hand.

Plane shift.

They fall through the secret entry demiplane into the dead-magic demiplane. A sea of twinkling stars surrounds them in the void. All of their spells and magic items cease functioning.

Gallipsiwhoop flies up to the trapdoor. He unlocks it and throws the rope down.

Felandriel climbs up into her primary demiplane.

The moonlit glade surrounds them.

She sits down and sighs. "Another evil monarch for my statue collection. You'd think they would learn at some point..."

He chuckles. "What do you think all that was?"

"I have no idea. It's too risky to go back now. I can time my rest so as to have a fresh set of spells before morning in Korvosa. We can wrap up the rest of this mess then."

"We're not going to get Togomor."

"It is very unlikely. He did not reveal himself. I'm not even sure he was there."

Felandriel walks to her house and ceases possessing the volunteer. She makes sure to thank them.

Ileosa Arabasti is added to Felandriel's statue garden in a dead-magic plane. The Crown of Fangs is placed inside a bag of holding for safekeeping.

Felandriel will put Ileosa under half a dozen curses and unpetrify her, when she next has free time and spells. She noticed that Ileosa had some very fancy magic items she would like to use. Or sell. Either way she came out of this richer than before. Theft really is the best way to get rich. Only losers complain when you steal from evil monarchs about to sacrifice their own citizens for power.

When Tencednil wakes up in the morning, there's an unmarked letter on her desk.

Oh dear. Someone knows who she is. Is she dead?

...There is exactly one person who would do this this way rather than just not giving her the warning. This must be Morgethai. She is not dead, she is just of interest to an archmage. Right. She expected this, this is entirely her own fault, and it was probably worth the cost.

Also, whoever left this here could have killed her easily. No need to be particularly careful reading it.

She still calls up Lhín to look through the letter first, before reading it herself. This should be safe. That doesn't mean there's a benefit to assuming it is.

Lhín opens and reads the letter. Nothing seems to happen.

Oh good. Her turn, then.

I've taken care of the problem. If you discover something of similar magnitude or urgency again, feel free to let me know.

Good luck,
F

Convenient. She will trust the archmage to know how to handle things, and hopefully never need to do something this terrifying again.

...wait, 'the problem' was confirmed to involve both the Queen and the current steward. That seems...

What does today's newspaper say?

KORVOSAN CARRIER
TOILDAY, SARENITH 16th, 4708

HER MAJESTY, QUEEN ILEOSA ARABASTI, VANISHED FROM CASTLE KORVOSA

The Queen and her seneschal are gone. None know what befell them. There was no warning or announcement. A commune from Abadar confirms the Queen is alive, but attempts to locate her with magic have failed. Terror strikes the city again. What will happen to Old Korvosa without Togomor's cure? Few doubt the rumors of a terrible curse on Korvosa's leadership now. The Crimson Throne lies empty.

Ah. That sort of solution. Well, it's better than a ritual sacrifice of even ten percent of Korvosans.

And the cure. Of course. Togomor was the one 'working on' that, nobody else has any of the relevant information. If she lets it spread until someone else manages containment, if it takes another week, everyone infected right now will be dead. That would be... deeply pointless and wasteful.

If an archmage says the conspiracy is gone she's probably at least mostly correct. Is she correct enough for it to be safe to use the (now shared with Morgethai) blackmail account? ...possibly. Is it worth the risk.

On the one side... no, individuals are not more important just because she knows them. If you prioritize a single person because you've learned their name, you will make poor trades and your plans will fail. Mika is no more important than the other ten thousand residents of Old Korvosa, and just do the math, she is not willing to pay this for one ten thousandth of them. Not Mika. He cannot be part of this weighing.

So. What does she gain, what does it cost her.

Morgethai will know, knows who the other person attached to that account is, and did this to avoid no more than fourfold that many deaths. ...unless there was another reason, and a blood ascension ritual is likely to threaten her. Especially from Togomor, who she said was probably eighth circle and may well have become ninth. How much of this was to prevent competition?

On the other hand, say it was. If she is spotted by whatever the conspiracy left behind, they probably need that wizardry to find her. If Togomor is dealt with somehow, that's not a risk, and she is fine. If he isn't but he willingly exposes himself like that, he gives himself away to Morgethai. If Morgethai's goal was to prevent a competition, Togomor showing his hand is to her benefit, so she will care. If her goal was the deaths, again she cares for the plague, at least one quarter of a queen toppling.

So. On the one side, Morgethai's favor. On the other, the risk of a conspiracy member. Can the conspiracy capture a letter quickly enough? If they ever will be unable to, directly in the aftermath of an archmage would be when. Some channels will be broken, some will take the chance to hide, and things fall apart. A web respins itself, but only with time. They have had one chance to prepare spells, but only just.

The conspiracy found her when she contacted the Bank for protection. She was obvious, not many would buy a fifth circle cleric's time. They cannot have every clerk in every branch, and she only needs to get one message through. Call it half a chance a message will fail or be delayed, with the center taken out. The Abadarans would know if more than half the clerks were in thrall. No more than a quarter chance she is caught, then. On a success, at least a quarter of a queen in the kind Morgethai's eyes. On a failure, Togomor ignores it or does not. If he ignores it... in that case she has an eighth circle wizard out for her blood, but again some payment from a kind Morgethai, and either possibility would know to check. If he strikes, a prideful Morgethai can see her chance, net gain. A kind Morgethai... may still check on her? She left the letter. Some chance.

Call it an eighth of unassisted capture, for a quarter of an archmage favor. A deal worth making.

She composes her letter, careful to ensure the alchemical information is not lost. She dons her humanish disguise, such as it is. An hour, but it came out decent. She picks a branch at random — avoiding Old Korvosa, of course, as the quarantine will be all the worse now. Any runner will do. And now... in this city, terrified by the lack of a Queen but with no further information on why, who can she find to take a message?

She can find most of the usual runners available. The city being terrified doesn't mean people stop needing money. The atmosphere on the streets is distressing. A cultist of Groetus preaches openly down an alley.

Oh good. Paper, Lhín writes out the memorized encoding, and a runner brings the message to the bank, to be copied as standard.

When the letter is eventually decrypted, it will hopefully get attention quickly.

For the Bank of Abadar in Korvosa.

The interruption of the current efforts to produce a cure to blood veil has come to my attention. This seems to me in need of immediate resolution. The plague can be cured with a remedy based upon the following alchemical procedure.

The same description she provided to the conspiracy follows.

This will allow the recipient to count for relevant purposes as being in a bloodline. All descendants of the attempted lich Vorel Foxglove are immune to blood veil. Identifying the relevant trait in the blood of those currently immune should allow the production of a cure which convinces the disease its recipients are in that bloodline. Alternatively, the corpses of Vorel Foxglove and his family could be found in Sandpoint, some ways northeast of Magnimar. If they have not been entirely utilized in prior experiments, they may provide relevant information.

If this is worthwhile, the Bank is welcome to fund it. Alternatively, up to ten thousand sails from this account may be used to fund a cure effort, so long as the Bank will repay to the same account its honest estimation of the value of a cure if and when that effort succeeds. Such a repayment would be welcome but not necessary should the Bank fund the cure, divided as the Bank believes appropriate to the contribution.