A little girl poodle, wearing a pastel blue dress, her Temple best, paces back and forth on the manor steps. Her mother steps outside, and shakes her head. "Enough, Elise," she rebukes, her voice gentle but firm. "Come wait with us in the parlor."

"But he'll be here soon, won't he, Mother? He promised!" The little girl turns to watch the drive, and then her father is there, holding out a box to her while she throws her arms around his neck. "You came!"

"I promised, didn't I?" her father says. He wears a Temple dress uniform, medals gleaming along the breast like a colorful Procession in miniature. "And I brought you a present, too. Here."

The child Elise lifts the lid, and inside she finds a gleaming red ball on a satin cushion. She gives a delighted yelp, lifting out the ball. It shimmers in the sunlight on all sides. The red of it glints in her eyes, and she asks her father, "Is it special? Is it magic??"

He laughs, and her parents exchange amused glances, before he answers, "Yes, it is special. It changes appearance, now and again. If you watch it closely, you will see it change."

"Really?" She looks to her father, then back at her ball, and squeals happily. She gives him another hug, then runs back into the house, shouting, "Katherine! See what I got!"

But though she runs through the house shouting, she doesn't find her sister. She puts the ball down to use both hands to open the door to her sister's room. When she opens it, there's a tall Eeee with mottled brown fur and torn clothing, his hands bound in front of him. She's about to ask him, "Where's Katherine?" but he looks directly at her and says, "Godslayer."

She blinks, open-mouthed, and her father taps her on the shoulder, handing her a blue ball. "See, mes jeunes courageux? It changed."

The little girl holds the ball in her hands, blinking at it. "I did not see it change!"

"You weren't paying attention," he replies.

She's outside in the grass by the mausoleum, and a collection of adults are talking over the spread blanket of an informal picnic, laughing and smiling at each other. A group of Eeee stand opposite them, staring at Elise in her blue dress, whispering, each in a different voice, "Godslayer." The young poodle drops her ball, and she starts towards them, wanting to ask them what they mean, but when she gets there, they are gone.

She turns around, looking for them, and sees instead a mirrored silver ball lying in the grass. "You missed it again, Elise," her mother says.

Frustrated, she scoops the ball out of the grass. She polishes it against her sleeves, but its reflective surface doesn't show her own visage when she looks into it. Lord Alexander de Ayde peers out from it instead, bewildered and confused.

Dominic haut Glas takes the ball out of her hands as she looks at it, saying to her, "You don't need this, Lady de Bellefeuille." He sets it in the mouth of the stuffed Krozite monster in her study, out of her sight. The little girl watches him as he fold his hands together, continuing, "You must understand, a white poodle, like myself, would make a much better match for Katherine than a black one like Grant."

"But what if she wants to marry Grant?" the little poodle asks him.

She cannot hear his answer over the chorus of Eeee chanting, "Godslayer! Godslayer! Godslayer!"

Faith sits across from her in the Bellefeuille formal parlor, telling her, "Lord de Ayde owes Kilroy's Revenge nineteen thousand, two hundred and fifty-three shekels."

"You haven't shown Katherine your ball yet, Elise," her mother says, handing the orb to her.

It's not smooth now, and on its mottled surface she can feel the indentations of some new shape. The girl starts to turn it over in her hands. "It changed and I missed it again!" she whines plaintively, tail lashing in frustration.

"You have to pay attention, mes jeunes courageux," her father tells her, kneeling in front of her. "You are too easily distracted. You must concentrate. What are you really looking for?"

The little girl watches the ball carefully as her father speaks, still turning it, and when she rotates it face up she sees it's carved in the shape of a poodle, bound with her knees against her chest. Katherine's carved face looks at her with wild eyes and a gagged muzzle, desperate.

The lady poodle's eyes snap open, and as she attempts to orient herself she finds dark wood and a window set before her. The carriage. I fell asleep, and oh, what a dream … She reaches out and pushes herself from the carriage's inner wall to sit up properly before she tries brushing her sleep-matted hair into something akin to respectable. During this process she realizes the carriage has since stopped, and so she rises and proceeds to disembark.

The coachman opens the door for her, and Elise steps into the night, walking to the opened door of her manor, where Armand waits. "There is a message for you, my lady, from Lord haut Glas. There has also been trouble with the Eeee whom you captured earlier – he nearly escaped, but we have him again."

The woman sighs quietly at the news, sounding worn. "Very well. I will receive it on my way to the basement. Have Tremaine join me, and two of the household guards," orders the lady poodle. With but a respectful nod she continues forward in to her mansion. Her mood has run foul, and she has no desire to do anything other than what needs be done now – including small talk with the servants.

"It seems the door was not locked, the first time he was put in here, m'lady," one of her guards tells her as she opens the door. "But we caught him as he tried to get out through the kitchen."

"We put a guard on the door after that, just in case he'd managed to pick the lock somehow – though it doesn't seem like he could; there's no lock on the inside. Oh, and we tied him up again. Leroy doesn't seem to be any good with knots," the guard adds, mild disapproval in his voice. Elise notes that Leroy, whom she recalls, vaguely, as the name of the guard who caught her prisoner, isn't one of the three down by the cellar with her.

"Not locked?" repeats the noblewoman incredulously. "How ever could one think to not lock the door? Who was guarding him during the time I was away?" She glances to her guard, then back to the Eeee. Her eyes narrow, as if in consideration, and she shifts to lean against her sword, which while sheathed has served as a makeshift cane of sorts.

The dog's ears flatten back apologetically. He glances to his companion, who mews, "My lady, I believe Leroy put him in. He's the one who brought him here. He said you only wanted him locked in the cellar."

A servant dashes down the stairs and towards them, holding a sealed envelope. She drops a curtsey to the Lady de Bellefeuille, and waits to be addressed.

"I … see, yes." The lady's ear flicks, and her muzzle quirks as she frowns, giving her an expression of annoyed disapproval. "I need speak with Leroy when I have the chance. But not now." Her eyes glance back to her guard one more time before returning to the bound Eeee, and she addresses him directly now. "Well, we meet again, as I promised we would. I heard you have been most … troublesome."

The bat keeps his head down, not answering the poodle. He's been bound hand, foot and wing now, with not much flexibility left to move as he's seated on a wooden three-legged stool. The feline and canine guards move quietly to stand to either side of him, while the third, a Rhian, remains beside his mistress.

Elise watches the bat for a moment more before she seems to register the servant girl next to her. She holds a hand out to take the sealed envelope, never quite moving her eyes from upon the bound bat. "Thank you. You are dismissed," she tells the woman as she opens the letter and begins to read.

The girl bows and hurries off. The unsealed note, written in a steady, masculine hand, reads: Dear Lady Bellefeuille, I have reason to believe that your lady sister is being held in Darkside, in an abandoned tower at the corner of Wolf and Danz. I have sent word to the Temple, as well, but fear to chance waiting for further support, lest the kidnappers suspect my discovery and move her. Accordingly, I am going after her with the men that I have. Yrs, Lord haut Glas.

The poodle's eyes widen, then narrow more deeply for a moment. Her hand clenches, and the letter within is crumpled between the fingers of her gauntlet. "I have little time for talk, Eeee. You have been troublesome, and you have fought me. Your life or death depends on your words now. Tell me: this poodle you saw speaking with your boss, what color was he?" the lady demands.

The bat doesn't meet her gaze, and takes a long time to answer. "Black," he whispers at last.

I do not have time for this. I cannot afford a lie, not now … The woman's right hand slides from the pommel of her sword, and her fingers wrap around the grip. "His voice, did you hear it? Was there anything odd about his fur coloring?"

"And did you see his eyes?" adds the Gallee noble.

"No," he says. His wings shift against the ropes, and he keeps his eyes averted. "I don't know. He was an old guy. He looked sad. I don't know! I don't want to know!"

"It matters little what you want. You will answer me … " snaps Elise. Her grip tightens and she continues. "Was he a heavy man? And surely, with your ears, you heard nothing?"

"Yeah, he was a chubby guy," the bat twists his arms inside the bonds, as if testing them.

Tremaine slithers through the doorway, looking cold and hastily dressed. "My lady?" he asks. "Is there news of Lady Katherine?"

"This grows tiresome. You are hiding something, and I will have it." The woman steps forward to stand but several further steps away from the bat and draws her sword, using the sheath as a cane to be held in her left hand. "You reacted to the de Ayde name. You know who I was referring to." The blade move to tap under his chin, urging him to lift his head and meet her gaze. She does not answer Tremaine just yet.

The bat lifts his head high at the tap, but closes his eyes rather than look at her. "Yeah," he says again, swallowing. His voice trembles. "That was the name I heard the boss say, once."

"And your boss, what does he look like? Surely you have his name?" inquires the poodle.

"We call 'im the Hand," the Eeee says. He slides his head to one side, leaning back against the wall in an effort to escape the sword point. "He's an Eeee. Like me."

A nod. She glances back towards the Rhian guard just enough where she can still observe the bat out of the corner of her eye. "See that Leroy is brought nowhere near the prisoner, given his trouble with knots. Also see that my mount is made ready for flight," she instructs. With her orders given, she returns her attentions to the Eeee and resumes her questions, "Does the name 'haut Glas' mean anything to you?" Her brow raises questioningly.

"No," the Eeee says, a little too quickly.

The poodle's brow narrows, as do her eyes again. "A rather hasty answer. Care to reconsider?"

"My lady," Tremaine interrupts, after keeping silent for so long, "What does this man know? What are you looking for?" The question reminds her of her father's voice in the dream. What are you really looking for?

The bat's head is pressed hard against the wall. "I've never heard the name," he says, emphatic.

The lady's sword dips suddenly. Her expression wanes, fading from careful and most assuredly hostile to something more akin to tired and worried. "You … I, I am … searching for … I … " The truth may come now, or later but … my sister may not have so long … "I needed to know the truth of it … but … no, I am going. Tremaine, question him. Find the truth – I must find my sister." And with that the woman spins around, and walks as quickly as her injured leg will allow to her winged Drokar. "See my pistols are loaded, both of them, and deliver them to me before I depart. Go. I do not care who of you does it, just go."

The Eeee sags in his bonds as the woman turns from him, breathing raggedly from deep inside his chest. The guards scatter like mice at her command, while the Naga's head turns this way and that, trying to piece together a story from what little he has heard.

When Elise flies to the scene, her winged mount winded and almost stumbling with exhaustion as she lands, she sees a carriage, marked with haut Glas's shield, pulled by a team of Drokars. A pair of nervous-looking haut Glas guards stand outside, and they watch in awe and surprise at the newest arrival to the scene. Inside the tower, she can hear sounds of people crashing around.

The lady poodle directs her mount to bend, allowing her to dismount with added ease, and slips over the saddle before lowering herself to the ground. Once down, she unlatches the chain that keeps the sheath of her blade hanging from her waist and uses the entirety of the weapon as a crutch as she hobbles with utmost haste towards the inside of the tower.

The guards glance at her, but seem to think better of getting in her way. Inside, she finds what few fixtures remain, overturned and broken. Recent signs of people going both upstairs and down are apparent, and from beneath the floor, she can hear an angry poodle voice barking, "Where is she?"

The poodle woman has little changed her outfit, and has only modified it by the addition of a concealing black hooded cloak – the hood of which has been left down during the flight and remains down now. At her waist hangs her two pistols, loaded and made ready, as well as her dagger. Her armor is her standard uniform chitin minus much of the protection on her injured leg, to facilitate the cast. She continues on inside, and tries to locate the stairs down to where she believes the Lord haut Glas is interrogating someone.

She finds the staircase easily enough, but one of haut Glas's guards shakes his head. "She's not here," he says to her, voice low and sorrowful. "The bat must've lied. There's no one here."

As Elise listens, her expression fades further, moving to a tight and unreadable. She nods, curtly, and turns to return to her mount. She decides to return to the de Ayde residence and question him further – and tries to think of what other elderly black Gallee could possibly be involved.

The night has worn on to a false dawn by the time she returns to the mansion. Tremaine meets her outside the cellar. "My lady, he's stuck to the same story: he says Lord de Ayde hired his gang to kidnap your sister. There's something … agitated about him. As if he were worried about something … but not my questions." He sighs deeply. "I am sorry, my lady. I am certain he is holding something back but it is not in me to get it out of him."

"The tower proved empty, and I cannot say I was unsurprised. I had expected Lord haut Glas might be behind this somehow and would use this assault to win our favor by recovering my sister from a scheme of his own devising, but I am little sure of that now. I … am not sure who is behind this," Elise tells Tremaine on her way back down to the cellar. "The man was agitated by my presence. Have you heard the name he calls me? I had thought his agitation due to me, but … now I am uncertain. I too think he is hiding something, and if he does not divulge it or I am unable to find the right question … I will force it from him, if I can."

Tremaine shakes his head at her question. "No, I have not heard him refer to you at all, my lady." He pauses at the cellar door, moving to unlock it. The guards watch them from formal postures.

Elise proceeds inside and resumes her all too usual position of leaning on her sword for support, a motion almost as symbolic as it is necessary, she considers. "I have learned some rather interesting information while I was gone, Eeee. I fear you are rather more aware than I suspected … and that is very sad indeed. To think, you were holding back on me. And I have offered you much that you did not deserve." She tsks, and draws her sword again.

The Eeee has a few fresh bruises on his face. His eyes glance to Elise, then he looks away again quickly, but not before she can see a flicker of fear in his green eyes.

She steps forward again and once more lifts his head with the point of her sword. In Eeee she asks, "Who do you fear more than I? That would have you dare torture and death? Who offers you so much more than what I have to give you? If you will not answer all of what you know, and you are keeping something from me, this can only end badly for you. What do they offer?"

The bat lifts his head to look at the ceiling, then he closes his eyes. He says something, softly. At first Elise doesn't understand his response – then she realizes he's not answering her. He's singing the Creation Song of the Seven Sisters.

The Gallee shifts her weight to one leg, then swiftly swings her left hand, gauntlet and all, to backhand the man. "Your false gods will help you not. You should be well aware of my opinion of THEM by now," she snarls. "You said that de Ayde has met your boss, but de Ayde claims innocence. Your word against that of the noble father of the man my sister would marry. You are lying."

The bat stiffens his shoulders, and lifts his head higher. He sings louder, trying to drown out her words. One of the guards clenches his fist, looking ready to strike the Eeee.

The poodle's hand snaps out, grabbing the man by the neck and pulling him to face her head on. "Who do you sing to? What mercy will they give you, your false gods who offer you nothing but expect everything? You may seek solace in them, but look in the eyes of one who has met them. They are pitiful and evil, and I was pleased to have murdered that one when I did," the woman squeaks in Eeee, the tone sharp and hostile.

The Eeee's voice cracks, and at last he turns to look into her eyes, filled with hatred. "You took what I cared about most, Godslayer," and he spits out the word with contempt. "Now, by Rephath's grace, I have returned the favor. And there is nothing you can do about it. So who is pitiful now?"

Elise's knuckles whiten around the hilt of her sword, and the man's confession causes her to shout at him in rage before she can stop herself. "If my sister dies, I will pledge my life to destroying your gods and all like them. And I would thank you and those who helped you whenever I succeed." All she can do is glare at him for an uncomfortable moment, tension so heavy on the air as to be almost palpable. Then the woman laughs, a strained and angry thing. "Here is some truth for you, Eeee. Those gods you saw were but magical projections, a plot that the entire people of the Eeee were but puppets in. Yes, your grand Royal Mages created them for the sole purpose of making Saraizadze a god … and, more importantly, leaving her as a puppet for them to play with. Gods I slew, of a sort."

The Eeee starts chanting again, his voice loud and rough at the edges.

He will not believe. Easier to think them real than to believe your gods were but projections … But to believe that, he must believe I killed them as well. Curse him and his damnable gods, so be it! Elise steps back and straightens, her sword tight in her hand. "Tremaine, I will need you to fetch several items for me. I need … " She lists a number of objects, most with unpleasant applications at best. "See to it. I am done making offers and threats."

A faint glow, of true dawn, shades through the window slit. The bat's eyes flicker with fear again as Elise speaks, and his chant falters. Then he looks to the light, and a grim smile takes hold on his face, a mixture of triumph and despair. He begins the chant anew.
"Rephath guides my hand, I shall not waver
The scales will balance, Her will shall be done
Vengeance rides with me, my cause knows her favor
Crimes will be answered, the blood of the damned run."

After some time of chant-filled waiting a guard returns with the things Elise asked for, most placed in a bag except for a metal bowl filled with coal and a poker. She directs the man to place these down beside her, and light the coal. The woman's face has since shifted from anger to almost neutral disregard as she sets about checking her supplies. "Heat the poke, if you would. If any of you find yourself squeamish speak now, and I will have you replaced by a man with more nerve."

None of the guards speak, but Tremaine looks … unsettled. "My lady … if you'll excuse me?"

The woman inclines her head. "Go," she tells the old Naga – her tutor and mentor, and the man who saw her grow up longer than her father ever was able. Better he is gone, she thinks. The idea that he might watch is something she herself finds unsettling. While the man departs she holds out her hand to take the poker when it is sufficiently heated.

The iron tip glows, fiery hot. The bat's green eyes are open, watching it. He has a strangely calm, fatalistic expression on his face.

The lady sheathes her sword and hands it to a guard to free her hands. She digs through the bag again, removing a container of salt, and places that down near her as she picks up the poker in her left hand and draws her knife with the right. "Did you know Diphath is the mother of Rephath? I had not thought of it until she spoke of it before me. Diphath was apparently quite fond of torture," the lady informs the Eeee in a voice devoid of inflection. She gestures with the poker to the Eeee, and addresses her guards. "Hold him still."

"You know nothing, Godslayer," The Eeee speaks in his native tongue, which he hasn't broken out of since she returned to him, and his squeaks grate on her ears, as the large Rhian guard places his hands on the Eeee's shoulders. Given how tightly he's trussed, not much more is needed to hold him still. "Nothing at all. Least of all – where your precious sister is." He smiles, grim and beautiful and angry. "And you'll do anything to find out, even become what she hates. Even become what you swear you're not. Godslayer!"

"But I WILL find out. And my sister will live because of it, regardless of what it makes me," answers the poodle, her voice still strangely removed from her usual tone. She leans forward, regards her knife for a moment, and then makes a quick testing cut across the Eeee's shoulder. "Speak all you wish. If what you say is not an answer than it will avail you naught."

The Eeee grunts in pain, then straightens. He laughs, and his laugh is a high-pitched, raking squeal, the Rhian's fingers digging into his shoulders. "You know nothing, Godslayer! Ask Barada where your sister is! Ask Rephath if she will live! Oh wait, you cannot, for you slew them, eh, Godslayer?" He breathes, heavily, staring at her cold blue eyes. "Then ask Sunala instead, girl. Because she knows where your sister is, now."

The dagger shakes in the Gallee's hand, and she considers placing it elsewhere – but no. She reminds herself killing him would kill what he knows as well. She just shakes her head, as if sad. "Not an answer … " The woman makes a shallow and lengthy cut, places the dagger at her side, and reaches for the salt. If she is dead, I … I will … , and she can think of nothing sufficient that would be enough.