Rodie enjoyed garden work, even though it clashed with her idea of being a maid. Growing up in the slums and grey places made the werrit appreciate the greenery of nature. The small blades of grass, the blooming flowers, the tall trees, hedges, and bushes perked her up, even if she didn’t outright show it on her face. Her personal favorites are the magnolias around the eastern walls. Doing garden work is one of the few times the werrit is not in her maid uniform, as she rather not have it dirty for when guests arrived. Instead, she tended to the gardens while wearing blue overalls and a shirt underneath them. 

As she finished the eastern wall, a buzzing sounded out. “Oh dear,” the werrit’s squicky said in a monotone voice. Rodie hated meeting guests when she was outside of her maid uniform, but she knew it would take too long to go inside to change. However, it was her job to meet guests when they arrive, with no exceptions. She picked herself off the ground, brushed off as much dirt as she could, and walked to the gate.

At the gate stood Hency, a Sparsee who works for the telegraph guild. Rodie preferred him over the other messengers, who seemed to try and make small talk instead of delivering messages. Hency was just a work focused as the werrit and tend to just drop the telegram and leave. 

Rodie walked over to the gate, her face still stoic, “Good afternoon Hency, what message have you brought to us today?”

“Afternoon, Rodie. I have a message for Mr. Taloon straight from Lakeside.” Hency handed over the telegram through the bars of the front gate.

“Thank you,” She said before taking the message and paying him. Still, it puzzled her who it could be from. Taloon shouldn’t have associates in Lakeside and Tox wasn’t in the habit of informing them when he arrived at cities while on the job.

Rodie went inside the manor. The second she was inside, the werrit changed into the maid uniform she had by the door, refusing to track dirt through the clean manor. She folded her gardening clothes and placed them on the side table.

The werrit walked through the manor, passing the trinkets and oddities that Taloon loved to have on display. She knocked on the door to talons home office. “Enter,” Taloon responded. When Rodie opened the door, she saw the office filled with projected screens, each one filled with the names of the people who worked for Taloon. The desk was littered with papers from his businesses. Taloon was once again in his robes, his clothing of choice for the house. His hair was a mess from him ruffling it while doing paperwork. Taloon didn’t even glance at Rodie when she entered, which was not odd when he was deep in work.

Rodie walked to the desk, moving around the screens to not disturb them, and held out the telegram, “This has arrived for you. It's from Lakeside.”

Taloon raised an eyebrow as he took the message, “Weird, why would Tox send a telegram?” Taloon opened the telegram and read the contents, his eyes frowning the more he read. “That damn boy,” he said, utterly exhausted by the message.

Rodie took the telegram and read over the contents, “I see. Tox has accepted a job from lord Burke personally after dealing with cultists that infiltrated the caravan. It seems that he will be away for a bit longer.”

Taloon let out a long sigh, “Yep, he's going all the way to Maan Heiton, the damn other side of the world at this point. Map,” A projection of the area appeared over the desk. Taloon picked up a pencil and touched the projection with the eraser, “Let's see, Lakeside should be here and Maan Heiton is…over here.” Taloon studied the two points on the map.

“Even in the best conditions, it would take at least two weeks to get there. Which means that Tox would be gone for over a month.”

Taloon tapped the end of his pencil to his mouth, “I guess I should be thankful that Tox was the one that ended up with the job.”

“Why is that, sir?”

“Tox is, in all honesty, a savage. To him, his place is outside the cities in nature. He can last months out there. If Lord Burke planned to go to Maan Heiton, Tox is the ideal worker to make the journey. Not only that, but Tox is a hell of a fighter. You saw in the report that cultists got involved in the caravan. You, Balsus, and Ranger had to team up to fight off Tox to a standstill. While the gaunts are an issue, Tox can pretty much take on anyone. A group of cultists are no match for him unless they bring an army.”

“So in other words, this job is the perfect match for Tox’s skill set.”

“Yep, seemed my luck is finally rubbing off on him.” Taloon gave a wide smile, stifling a chuckle.

“Though I wonder how the cultists infiltrated the caravan,” Rodie said, “I would assume, for a lord, the screening process would have stopped them from joining them.”

“That is the question. How did they get past the screening process?” Taloon thought about it. For a lord caravan to have cultists infiltrated would be a nightmare to any caravan runner. If it happened in one of Taloon’s caravans, there would be mass firing. So why was Lord Burke, a person of much higher status and more resources, unable to stop cultists from joining his?

Rodie also thought about it and said the first answer she thought of was, “What if it was possible that they actually failed the screening?”

Taloon turned to his maid, “how so?”

“I am just going on what Tox has sent in the telegram, but I am curious how Lord Burke knew the cultists have joined the caravan. It wouldn’t have been possible to learn about it on the road, so he had to have known before leaving. I remember when we met with Lord Burke, he mentioned personally inviting all the people in the caravan himself. He allowed the cultist to join the caravan willingly just so that he would end up arresting them before they arrived at Lakeside. The cultists didn’t have a chance.”

Taloon nodded along. The werrit was good at figuring out motives. It's one of the reasons the human takes her along with him when meeting clients. A few questions from her can quickly show the client's true colors without fail. The cityfolk valued the werrit’s insight just as much as his own skills and even more than his luck. “Alright, then riddle me this, why inform Tox about it after they hit the road if they already know who the cultists were?”

Rodie closed her eyes and ran the thought through her head. She thought of the situation, the ways it could go right and the ways it could go wrong. She thought about how everything went and what she would gain from it. When she opened her eyes, she answered, “A test of Tox’s skills and of those he added to the caravan. He placed the cultists in the caravan with the exact purpose of having someone find out. Should Tox and the others find the cultists, Lord Burke would give them the offer to go to Maan Helton. Should they fail, he would still arrest the cultists and would not have offered them the job. The plan itself worked perfectly and he got what he wanted, a group of people skilled enough to handle going to Maan Helton.”

Taloon let out a whistle, “That's my Roe, greatest mind in Maan Ellis as far as I see. You’re the greatest maid a man like me can ever ask for.”

The werrit felt ecstatic from the compliments, even if her face and body language did not show it. “You give me too much credit, sir. However, I do not understand why the cultist infiltrated the caravan or why Lord Burke want Tox to go to Maan Helton. I am sorry for my shortcomings.”

“Do not fear, Roe, as my luck would have it, I might actually know.”

“You do, sir?”

“Yes. it was a rumor I heard about Lord Burke. I had put little faith in it, what man wouldn’t have a rumor or two flying around, but if it's true, it definitely would explain everything.” Taloon stood up and moved around his desk, “a client told the rumor just before I met Lord Burke. The rumor was that Burke had recently gotten his hand on an artifact. One that belonged to the lord of darkness, Lord Malkormus.”

The werrit shuddered when she heard his name. All knew who Malkormus was, a man who plunged the world into a dark age of chaos and war. Fear gripped the hearts of any who heard his name. The cult he left behind works tirelessly to bring back the dark lord, and many fear that they might one day succeed. His name was the only thing that broke the werrit’s stoic face to reveal a more vulnerable side to her. She gripped her maid dress tightly, trying to avoid falling into the hole she goes into at the mention of the Darklords name. “Then why go to Lakeside instead of Maan Helton directly? Wouldn’t the artifact be immediately handed over to the Aegis Segun the second he got it?”

“You said it yourself, the trip to Lakeside was a test. If he went directly to Maan Helton, I doubt the cultists would have just let them. No, my guts tell me that if the event when in that direction, not even Tox would not be able to fight them off. The trip to Lakeside was a ruse, to find people who can take the artifact to Maan Helton in secret while Lord Burke returns to Mann Ellis. By the time he returns, the artifact would be a good distance away from the city. He planned this all from the very beginning. It's impressive how it all worked out for him.” 

“Indeed. But sir, can I ask something?”

“Yes?”

“Why did you not tell me you had a brother?”

Taloon turned away from the maid, “in truth, I didn’t think he was still alive. We…fell out of touch 15 years ago. We went our separate ways and haven’t spoken since.” Taloon felt like he was in pain. He had seen Deckland’s name on the sheet detailing who would be in the caravan. When he saw it, he wanted to cry in relief, knowing his younger brother was alive. Just knowing his brother was alive made Taloon feel lucky.

“Mr. Taloon?” Rodie spoke, showing concern for her Master.

“Huh? Sorry, I spaced out for a minute.”

“I will go make you your coffee, sir. Wait one moment”

“No wait. I need something else. I need you to get Rager and Balsus to me.”

The werrit turned to her Master, “What for?”

“I need them to look into something. I want Balsus to go to Lakeside and look into the cultists that were in the caravan. I need Ranger to stay here and look into the soldiers that Tox and the others replaced.”

“I will get things ready then.” the werrit turned to leave the office.

“Wait,” Tallon said, “Tell Balsus that while in Lakeside, he is to not get in contact with anyone in the caravan. Not Tox, Lord Burke, or even Deckland.”

“Right away sir,” Rodie left the office.

Taloon looked back at all the projections that filled the office. Despite working, his mind quickly returned to Deckland. “15 years and he still hates me.” Taloon understood his brother's hate for him, he understood it too well. Deckland has every right to hate him until the day he died. Still, Palara loved his younger brother and thought the world at him.

Maybe, Palara could get his feelings across, before his luck collect its toll for his empire.