Adventure of Dagg Nabbitt

Sera wakes beneath the barred shed door, wrists and ankles bound. Dagg sits nearby in lantern-shadow, the lockbox and two brass tokens within reach, his face half-lit and his stare hard.

From the farmhouse, your border collie gives one weak bark, followed by the scrape of claws against the floor. Sera flinches toward the sound, then keeps her bound hands still.

Dagg can compare her account against the folded address, the matching marks, and the three dates. Sera watches his hands, knowing the evidence now rests closer to him than to her.

Your border collie walks slowly into the shed, paws dragging over the boards. He reaches Dagg, sways once, and collapses beside him, his breathing fading into stillness.

Dagg drops beside the dog and checks his chest, muzzle, and pulse. Nothing answers his hands. Your border collie is dead, and the empty shed seems to close around that certainty.

Animal Lover tears through Dagg’s restraint, turning grief into a force that leaves no room for Sera’s explanation. Steady Under Watch fixes his attention on the single act he has chosen.

Dagg rises and turns. His restored sword fills with ghastly purple smoke, then ignites into violet flame as he crosses the short space between them.

The sword strikes once. Sera Voss dies immediately, and the bound woman’s body goes still beneath the barred shed door. No further answer comes from her.

The violet flame gutters down to purple smoke. Your border collie lies motionless beside the scattered ropes, while the lockbox, tokens, and folded address remain untouched on the floor.

Dagg's violet flame channels into the spell he cast, including a spell that makes a rain cloud.

Dagg lifts your border collie from the shed and carries him across the snow toward Mara Vell’s grave. The work feels heavier than the distance, and his relaxed nature makes each necessary step slow.

Beside the grave, Dagg sets your border collie down and takes up a spade. Animal Lover guides his hands with patient care, choosing a place close enough for the two faithful presences to share the same quiet ground.

The first cuts into the frozen earth are slow. Dagg pauses often, shoulders aching, but returns to the task each time the spade slips from the hard soil.

Purple smoke still clings faintly to the restored sword. It gathers overhead into a small rain cloud, and soft rain settles over the graveyard, loosening the earth without disturbing the fresh mound.

With the ground softened, Dagg finishes the grave and lowers your border collie into it. He covers the body carefully, then presses the soil flat beside Mara Vell’s stone.

Rain darkens the paired ground while Dagg remains beside it, spade planted upright. The farm lies quiet beyond the trees, and Bramble’s grave now stands under the same oak as Mara’s.

Dagg spreads the folded address, both brass tokens, the lockbox, and the payment-dates list across the graveyard stone, keeping the rain-damp papers flat beneath his palm.

Reads Official Accounts makes him compare each mark as if it were a civic filing. The notched token matches the reserve box, while the second account token matches the south-quay account named in Sera’s statement.

Tracks Official Procedures places the transaction in order: money collected on the listed dates, transferred through the quay account, then stored in the reserve box before the school contracts became public.

Reads Hidden Signs catches a faint repeated notch beside one payment date and a copied quay symbol beneath the address fold. The marks point to a counting room, not a private residence.

His superstition makes him test the conclusion against darker possibilities, wondering whether the secrecy hides the Lich Queen’s reach. Nothing in the ink supports that fear, and the mundane trail remains stronger.

Dagg gathers the evidence and secures it for the journey. He now has a definite destination and timing: the south quay, before the next payment can be collected or the trail altered.