Behind a concealed door beneath the noble inn, the basin rests in a chamber of black stone. Delfarius lifts it, and its dark surface fills with Cevalle’s hidden bargains.
Delfarius
Stay in your room until I have had my fill of fun.
Marrec Voss
As commanded. I will remain there, and I will not touch the hidden door or the basin.
Delfarius slips from the inn with the basin concealed beneath shadow, crosses Cevalle unseen, and enters the palace through a servants’ passage. The queen’s private library waits beyond.
A middle-aged human woman with bronze skin, dark braided hair, and a deep green gown, a tall, composed figure with a narrow, lined face and a small gold circlet, studies alone beneath candlelight. She is the queen, though the basin names her husband’s dealings more clearly than any herald could.
The basin’s surface darkens as a concealed panel opens. A lean young adult man in gray traveling clothes enters with a narrow blade and a veil over his lower face, his dark eyes and close-cropped black hair visible above the veil, unaware of the shadow waiting behind the shelves.
The water reveals the assassin’s employer: a chain of secret payments leading through the king’s private agents and back to the queen’s husband. Delfarius remains unseen in the darkness, grinning as the assassin advances toward the solitary ruler.
✓ Quest Accepted
Save the queen from assassination
✓ Quest Accepted
Expose the king’s treachery to the queen
+ New Item Acquired
Shadow Basin
“I wait for the moment that the assassin has been noticed by the queen and is ready to strike before I flash behind the assassin's shadow and plunge my hand through the assassin's chest with my obsidian gauntleted hand. I laugh darkly as the man's life fades slowly at my feet.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Strength, rolled -2)
The queen’s gaze catches the assassin’s reflection as his blade lifts. Her hand moves toward the concealed bell, and his attention fixes on her exposed back.
Queen Varessa
You there.
At the instant the assassin commits to the strike, Delfarius steps out of his shadow behind him. The obsidian gauntlet drives through his back and into his chest.
The impact forces Delfarius’s shoulder hard against the assassin’s spine, scraping his gauntlet and wrenching his footing across the stone. The cost bites, but the killing blow does not falter.
Delfarius laughs darkly as the assassin’s blade falls from nerveless fingers. The man’s life ebbs slowly at Delfarius’s feet before his knees give way beneath him.
Queen Varessa
You waited until I saw him.
The dead assassin settles across the library floor. The queen stands rigid beside her desk, staring past the fallen blade to the dark figure who turned her ambush into a demonstration.
“I raise an eyebrow at the queen and just lick the blood off of my obsidian gauntlet hand.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +0)
The queen’s gaze remains fixed on Delfarius as he raises one eyebrow. The assassin’s blood glistens across the black ridges of his obsidian gauntlet.
Delfarius slowly drags his tongue across the gauntlet’s bloodied hand, tasting the assassin’s death without breaking eye contact with the queen.
The gesture is quiet, almost casual, yet the library seems to contract around it. Blood darkens his tongue while the fallen assassin lies cooling between them.
Queen Varessa
You could have stopped him before he revealed himself.
The queen’s hand withdraws from the concealed bell. Her composure returns by degrees, but her eyes measure the gauntlet, the corpse, and the stranger who made both into a warning.
Queen Varessa
So tell me, shadowed guest. Was I the target, or merely the audience?
Beyond the shutters, Cevalle’s crooked streets murmur beneath the palace. Inside, the queen waits without summoning guards, recognizing that this conversation now belongs to the figure who chose to be seen.
“I gesture with my other hand to the fallen body of the assassin and draw his soul into me. I smirk as the Queen is now probably either very wary of me or guessing at whom I might be.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Magic, rolled +1)
Delfarius gestures toward the fallen assassin. A dark thread rises from the cooling body, carrying the last shape of his soul through the library’s candlelit air.
The soul pours into Delfarius’s waiting hand and vanishes beneath his skin. The corpse becomes wholly still, while stolen impressions settle into the Architect’s deeper reserves.
The queen watches without reaching for the bell. Her gaze shifts from the emptied body to Delfarius, weighing whether he is an envoy, an executioner, or the hidden power behind the attempt.
Queen Varessa
You take souls as easily as other men take letters from a desk. Should I assume that was meant to frighten me?
The assassin’s final memories sharpen inside Delfarius: the concealed panel, the payment route, and the order that led him here. None of it explains whether the queen already knew the hand behind the blade.
Queen Varessa
You are not one of my husband’s agents. That much is clear. The more important question is whether you came to expose his treachery or profit from it.
Beyond the shutters, Cevalle’s streets continue their crooked murmur. Inside, the queen holds her ground, wary now, but still refusing to surrender the shape of the conversation.
✓ Quest Accepted
Earn the queen’s cooperation
“"I could care less if it frightened you or not. And not I am not one of your husband's agents. Your husband's agent is the dead one in this room." I say walking up to her calmly. I give a quick glance at what she was reading before this happened and remark on it since I am very very well read.”
SUCCESS (Great Lore, rolled +0)
Delfarius
I could care less whether it frightened you. And no, I am not one of your husband’s agents. Your husband’s agent is the dead one in this room.
Delfarius walks calmly toward the queen, stepping around the corpse. His glance drops to the open book on her desk, a treatise on Cevalle’s founding oaths and the disputed succession of its crown.
Delfarius
You were reading the fourth recension, not the original oath. The copyist corrected the succession clause three generations later, which means your husband’s claim rests on an emendation, not the founding text.
He stops near the desk, close enough to inspect the marginal notes without touching them. The queen’s fingers tighten against the book’s leather cover as his observation strips the text of its political usefulness.
Queen Varessa
You identify the recension correctly. Most scholars miss the alteration because the later hand preserved the older phrasing everywhere else. You are very well read, then, and not merely very dangerous.
Queen Varessa
If my husband’s agent is dead, and you did not come to serve him, then you came because his treachery crossed your path. What do you want from me?
Quest Complete
Expose the king’s treachery to the queen
Skill Upgrade: Lore Great→Superb
“I sigh shortly and laugh softly as the obsidian gauntlets revert back into my seeming harmless looking hands. "I find that being well read is more dangerous than any muscle or skill would be." I smirk broadly at the queen. "Though I do however have that in equal measure as well."”
SUCCESS (Legendary Magic, rolled +0)
Delfarius sighs shortly and laughs softly. The obsidian gauntlets fold inward like smoke, dissolving across his wrists until his hands appear harmless once more beneath the candlelight.
Delfarius
I find that being well read is more dangerous than any muscle or skill would be.
Delfarius
Though I do, however, have that in equal measure as well.
He smirks broadly at the queen, his ordinary-looking hands resting openly at his sides. The display is effortless, but the memory of the gauntlets remains vivid between them.
Queen Varessa
I believe you. A scholar may dismantle a kingdom before a swordsman reaches its gate, and you have just demonstrated both kinds of danger.
Queen Varessa
Now I wonder whether your learning brought you here, or whether you intend to make my husband’s treachery useful to yourself.
“I lift my finger and the obscure hidden tome of old laws floats to us from her library and opens to the clause I am presenting to her. It is a law that says that any ruler that was the intended target of an assassin attempt is allowed to execute the one whom hired the assassin with no repercussions.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Magic, rolled +2)
Delfarius lifts one finger. Behind the queen, dust shivers from a concealed shelf as an obscure tome of old laws glides free and crosses the library.
The book settles open before them without a hand touching it. Its brittle pages turn through forgotten statutes until black-gold lettering fixes upon a sharply worded clause.
The law states that any ruler who was the intended target of an assassin attempt may execute the person who hired the assassin, without legal or political repercussions.
The queen leans over the open tome, reading the archaic phrasing twice. Candlelight catches the tightening of her mouth as the statute turns suspicion into lawful authority.
Queen Varessa
That clause is genuine. I have never seen it cited because every ruler who knew it preferred the protection of ambiguity.
Queen Varessa
You brought me the means to punish my husband without a trial, and you expect me to believe this is scholarship rather than an invitation.
The tome remains open between them, its ancient clause undeniable. The queen does not reach for the bell or summon guards; instead, she studies Delfarius as though weighing whether lawful vengeance would save Cevalle or consume it.
“"I merely present the queen with options." I say with a smirk as the shadows in the room we are in grow darker and the candle on the desk darkens and starts to glow with violet void flame. My smirk turns to a grin that is getting broader if the Queen realizes whom she is truly talking to.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Intimidation, rolled +0)
Delfarius
I merely present the queen with options.
The room darkens around Delfarius. The candle gutters, then burns with violet Void flame, casting his widening grin and icy eyes across the queen’s face.
The ancient law remains open between them: she may invoke it against the king’s hired assassin, confront the treachery herself, or leave the matter untouched and preserve its danger.
Queen Varessa
You are not a scholar offering counsel. You are the power that made this choice possible, and you expect me to understand the difference.
Her composure holds, but her hand withdraws from the law book. The violet flame reflects in her eyes as she measures lawful vengeance against the fracture it would open in Cevalle.
Queen Varessa
I will not thank you, and I will not mistake this for mercy. But I understand the options now. The decision remains mine.
The queen meets Delfarius’s grin without summoning guards. Fear has entered the room, not as panic, but as a precise recognition of whom she has been addressing.
“I turn from her and look out of her window at her gardens below with a calm measured gait. "Clause 41.35.789 Act II, in cases of enacting justice a representative could be named to enact the justice in the stead of the named affronted."”
SUCCESS (Superb Lore, rolled -2)
Delfarius
Clause 41.35.789, Act II: in cases of enacting justice, a representative may be named to enact that justice in the stead of the affronted party.
Delfarius turns from the queen and crosses to the window with a calm, measured gait. Below, clipped gardens descend through terraces of cypress, fountains, and winter roses.
The clause settles into his memory with the exact force of old law. Its wording is genuine, but the surviving recension omits which authority must witness the appointment, leaving one procedural detail uncertain.
Queen Varessa
You are offering to act in my stead. Not as my agent, and not as my husband’s rival, but as the representative named under the founding law.
The queen approaches the window but stops several paces behind him. Her gaze drops to the gardens, then returns to his reflection in the dark glass.
Queen Varessa
I will examine the clause and the succession records before I name you. If the authority holds, I will decide whether justice requires your hand.
Her answer accepts the legal path without surrendering the decision. The queen’s investigation now has a defined statute to test, while the missing witness requirement remains the price of Delfarius’s certainty.
“"Options. Before your husband tires of you evading his assassins and sends the next one." I say turning back to the Queen with a smirk.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Intimidation, rolled +0)
Delfarius
Options. Before your husband tires of you evading his assassins and sends the next one.
Delfarius turns from the window with a smirk. The queen sees the threat beneath his humor: another blade may arrive before her legal inquiry becomes protection.
Queen Varessa
You offer urgency as though it were courtesy. Very well. I will not wait for my husband to choose the next assassin.
She crosses to the ancient law book, places her hand upon the founding clause, and raises her chin. Fear yields to a decision made in full view of danger.
Queen Varessa
I am Queen Varessa, and under Clause 41.35.789, Act II, I name you my representative. Act in my stead, and bring my husband’s treachery into judgment.
The founding law answers with a low golden resonance. A narrow mark appears beside Varessa’s seal, recognizing Delfarius as her appointed hand and granting the authority she has chosen to give.
Quest Complete
Earn the queen’s cooperation
“"Do you want to watch or?" I say half amused and half serious.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled -3)
Delfarius
Do you want to watch, or?
Delfarius says it half amused and half serious, leaving the appointed authority between them rather than dressing the offer as another command.
Queen Varessa
Yes. I want to watch what you do in my name, and I want to hear the truth before my husband’s treachery is judged.
Varessa’s answer turns the private appointment into witnessed accountability. She does not summon guards, but she opens the library’s inner doors toward the royal passage, making her choice visible to anyone who comes.
Queen Varessa
But understand the cost. If you act as my representative, every consequence will stain my crown, and every survivor will know I permitted your hand to move.
The golden mark beside Varessa’s seal brightens, binding her reputation to the authority she granted. Her trust does not deepen; it becomes a public risk, and Delfarius inherits the scrutiny that follows it.
Queen Varessa
Now show me whether your judgment deserves the law I placed in your hands.
Beyond the inner doors, hurried footsteps approach through the palace passage. Varessa remains beside the founding law, ready to witness the first consequence of her appointment.
✓ Quest Accepted
Have Queen Varessa witness Delfarius act in her name
“"Oh noe..." I say sarcastically as I lift my hand and summon the king before us. He is half dressed having been summoned from his private bedchambers with his newest mistress he was trying to get to be the new queen after the current one was murdered. "Please don't let the little mortals know how horrible I am." I look at the startled king as he tries to demand an answer from me then notices the Queen is alive behind me.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Magic, rolled -1)
Delfarius
Oh no... Please don't let the little mortals know how horrible I am.
Delfarius lifts his marked hand, and a dark portal folds open. King Othmar arrives barefoot and half-dressed, a broad middle-aged man with thinning fair hair, flushed cheeks, and a jeweled robe hanging open over his nightclothes. A startled young adult woman, of slim build, with copper-brown skin, loose black curls, and a crimson sleeping shift is caught against his arm.
King Othmar
What is the meaning of this? Who dares drag me from my chambers without leave?
His outrage falters as he notices the living queen behind Delfarius. The mistress clutches his loose robe, staring from Varessa to the summoned portal, while the king's face drains of its bedroom warmth.
Queen Varessa
Othmar. Look carefully. I am alive, and your chosen replacement is standing beside you.
King Othmar
Varessa... this is a misunderstanding. You were attacked. I was told you were dead.
The ancient law glows beside Varessa's seal. Delfarius's appointment shines with it, and Othmar's gaze drops to that golden mark before returning to the queen's uninjured face.
Quest Complete
Have Queen Varessa witness Delfarius act in her name
“I look to the girl beside the king. "Step aside dear." I say as I calmly walk up to the king. My eyes are turning inky black and I am letting my true power loose.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Intimidation, rolled +0)
Delfarius
Step aside, dear.
The king’s newest mistress releases Othmar’s robe and steps aside at once, her face pale as Delfarius walks calmly toward the king. The queen watches in silence.
Delfarius’s eyes turn inky black. His true power spills through the chamber without flame or thunder, bending the portal’s edges and pressing the ancient law into a golden, trembling glow.
King Othmar
What are you? Varessa, what have you summoned into my palace?
Othmar’s bluster collapses beneath the unveiled presence. He backs against the library table, leaving the mistress clear of him, while Varessa remains beside the marked law and does not retreat.
Queen Varessa
I summoned nothing, Othmar. I named Delfarius my representative, and you are now standing before the judgment you arranged for me.
“"Nice to meet you," I say in a choir of all the lifetimes I have lived with a long deliberate pause as I lean into the kings face my grin growing more malicious and dark edged. In the same eldritch choir I laugh at him trembling and wetting himself and say. "Food."”
SUCCESS (Legendary Intimidation, rolled -1)
Delfarius
Nice to meet you.
Delfarius leans into the king’s face, his grin widening into something dark-edged. The pause stretches beneath the golden law-mark, and Othmar’s breath catches.
Delfarius
Food.
The word emerges in a choir of every lifetime Delfarius has lived. His eldritch laughter follows, low and layered, while Othmar trembles and wets himself before the queen’s watching eyes.
King Othmar
No. You are not taking me anywhere. Varessa, command this thing to stop.
Queen Varessa
I command nothing here, Othmar. You arranged my death, and now you stand before the representative I appointed.
The king’s newest mistress presses herself against the library wall, pale and silent. Othmar’s gaze darts between her, Varessa, and the impossible presence towering over his ruined authority.
“I turn towards the queen and ask. "Quickly or slowly?"”
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled +3)
Delfarius
Quickly or slowly, Queen Varessa?
Queen Varessa
Quickly. If he has already sent one assassin, delay only gives him time to send another. Judge him before his agents can alter the evidence.
Varessa steps beside Delfarius, placing herself within the golden law-mark’s reach. Her choice turns the library into a formal place of judgment, while Othmar remains trapped beneath the gaze of his living queen.
King Othmar
You cannot condemn me on the word of a monster and a dead assassin. I am the king of Cevalle.
The queen’s newest mistress edges away from Othmar, but does not flee. At Varessa’s command, the library wards open the royal records alcove, revealing payment ledgers and sealed orders bearing the king’s private cipher.
Queen Varessa
Then let the records speak before the crown. Delfarius, begin with the orders bearing his cipher. I will hear every answer, and Cevalle will hear mine.
“"I am just the justice. And since you requested quickly." I form my obsidian gauntlets again on my hands and plunge it into the kings heart and take it out to show him before he falls forward dead bleeding on the ground. I laugh darkly as his heart is still beating in my palm. My eyes are still Inky dark and my shadows and void are swelling behind me enjoying the spectacle of the death.”
Critical hit for 7 damage — King Othmar struck back but missed
Delfarius
I am just the justice. And since you requested quickly.
Obsidian gauntlets form over Delfarius’s hands. His eyes remain inky black as shadows and swelling Void gather behind him, and Queen Varessa watches without retreating.
Delfarius plunges one gauntleted hand into King Othmar’s chest and tears free his beating heart. The king folds forward, mortally wounded, blood spreading across the library floor.
Delfarius holds the heart aloft as it pulses in his palm. Othmar’s body lies still beneath the golden law-mark, while Lysandra Vale presses herself against the wall, white-faced and silent.
Dark laughter rolls through the library. The Void swells behind Delfarius, enjoying the spectacle, while the heart’s final beats echo against the candlelit shelves.
Queen Varessa
Then justice has been enacted in my name. Put down his heart, Delfarius, and let the records determine what Cevalle does with the corpse.
+ New Item Acquired
King Othmar's heart
“I kick the heavy body to the side so I can see the kings stunned face. He is still barely alive. I kneel down to him and laugh as his life's blood is gushing out of him. "I hope it was worth it."”
SUCCESS (Legendary Strength, rolled +0)
Delfarius kicks King Othmar’s heavy body aside. The corpse rolls across the blood-slick floor, clearing the golden law-mark and revealing the king’s stunned, vacant face.
He kneels beside Othmar and leans close as the last warmth drains from the dead king’s wound. The king's newest mistress remains pressed against the wall, watching in horrified silence.
Delfarius
I hope it was worth it.
Delfarius laughs over the corpse, the sound echoing between the shelves. Othmar offers no answer, his stunned face fixed beneath the fading authority of Varessa’s law.
Queen Varessa
He cannot answer you. The judgment is complete, and the records must now establish how far his treachery reached.
Varessa steps toward the scattered ledgers without looking away from Delfarius. The king's newest mistress lowers her gaze, while the library wards preserve the corpse, the blood, and every incriminating seal.