The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 656: Many Minds

Gordie began to map everything by date, making notes on the map that was set under the glass of the desktop.

"Alright, we have the first incidents here and here. These are nearly six weeks ago, and the most likely to be legitimate. They’re from Dukes in West Keria and Skiple, neither of which are close enough to have gotten more than one shipment of goods from Wistover by then.

They also wouldn’t have known about our new airship program and plans, I think, as it hadn’t started the route when they started asking.

Then, we had the requests in the south. Rill, when did you first send a shipment there?"

"Two days before the requests. However, one of the men who came to ask worked at a Manor which had received one of the fireplaces as a gift from the Guild. There was a letter of origin on it for the customer, so that they knew where we had gotten it, and how valuable our shipping was.

A subtle flex to remind them that their money wasn’t enough to sway us in negotiations."

"So, if he was who he appeared to be, he should have already known.

Next we have some closer to home in Mitfield and Axbridge. In fact, there are far more of them in the week long period to start last month. That aligns with the increase in shipping, and the new airship making its first round of deliveries.

Do you have any notes on inquiries about the airship? I would have thought that was more popular, but these are all about the generic products, the magitech we’ve been mass producing."

Rill frowned as he searched the pages again.

"No, there are requests about the airships here and here. But you’re right. There were suspiciously few inquiries about them, given how revolutionary the design has proven to be.

Everyone seemed to be more interested in the other goods.

We didn’t include the requests from our own people, of course. If they were members of the Guild, or even contractors with a reputation, we didn’t include them in these reports. All of the internal requests are documented separately."

"That makes sense, and it saves us a lot of time sorting through reports that are legitimate customers. Now, we’re going to need extra minds in here to make sense of this. It’s a shame that I don’t still have Advisor Trionne here.

That old woman seems to know everything." Dominic replied.

Rill smiled. "Indeed she does. At first, she was on the list of suspected masterminds, but that was before the Guild knew that she was here as well. Her information gathering network is simply that strong."

Gordie looked up from his notes. "Should I get the others? Jack and Jenna for sure would have some insights. Alistair and Lord Blackwell are a bit more mysterious, but they might know something as well."

Dominic nodded. "Send for them, we can apologize for dragging them away from the event later. Just make sure that someone notifies use before the semifinals. I need to be there for the last few matches at the very least, no matter how urgent this matter is."

"Consider it done. They will be back here soon." Gordie insisted.

Very soon, as it turned out. Alistair had simply opened a portal for them to return to the gates, and then they had only needed two minutes to walk back to the office.

"What’s the emergency?" Lord Blackwell asked as he entered and saw that the Merchant was still in the room.

"Someone has been faking identities to look into us and our products. We don’t know the intention yet, but it was obvious enough and widespread enough that it alerted the entire Merchant’s Guild." Dominic explained.

"Well, that’s a bit of a mess. Alright, is this map information what you’ve got so far?"

Dominic shook his head. "There is much more. It’s just the start of what we had in the files. The numbers on the tokens are the order that they were flagged in, by date."

Jenna split up the reports between them, and within minutes they all had information to add to the pile.

"This one is a mage. It’s probably not well known, but he’s the City Lord’s private mage, I’ve met him in the past. That could explain his questions, as he appeared more interested in the lanterns, where the magitech orb is visible to be inspected.

He’s gotten one now, and hasn’t returned, so we can flag him, but it was most likely for research." Alistair noted.

"Alright, that’s one down."

Lord Blackwell took two names from the files, then sorted through the rest and took out three more.

"These ones are all part of the Assassins’ Guild. The names that they gave are all code names. I don’t know how long they’ve been embedded with the Noble that they’re supposed to be representing, but they’re all Guild members." Lord Blackwell explained.

Rill frowned. "Assassins in that many Noble houses? Is someone planning a coup?"

The Advisor shook his head. "Nothing so nefarious. They’re likely all on different missions anyhow, and some of them are full time intelligence officers. I will inquire around and see if someone has been looking to put a price on the Duke, or if it might have been about someone else who was here.

There is a possibility that they think someone other than the Duke is behind the goods.

If they think that one of the Kings, or perhaps the Merchant Guild themselves, is fronting the production capacity and the work force, it would greatly concern many of the Nobles."

Keeping the Kings from getting so wealthy and powerful that they could run roughshod over the whole nation was one of the many things that the senior Nobles of every nation did, mostly by fudging the numbers come tax time, and inflating operational expenses to keep the Royal Coffers from overflowing.

The power games of the Royal Families never ended.

"These ones are soldiers, or retired officers anyhow. They’re all names that I know. I suspect that they are actually representing their Lords. However, these ones are most likely not who they claim to be.

The questions that they asked don’t line up with the knowledge they should have.

For one, this Castellan who was asking about runic arrangements in the fireplaces. The man was kicked in the head by a warhorse twenty years ago. He’s only Castellan in name, out of respect for his lineage. The man’s a simpleton.

Whoever is pretending to be him is not doing a good job of it." Jack added.

"I knew the King had done me right by sending you all here. We’ve knocked half the names off the list, and pushed others to the top, and it’s only been half an hour. Now, if we can dig into the details we have on the rest of these, we might learn something that everyone has missed so far."

Alistair traced the pattern of the suspicious questions on the map.

"I think I know what it is, though not who or why.

This pattern, the order that they appear in. It’s where the mana peaked at Ley Line intersections. Most cities are built on one, though the common residents wouldn’t ever know. I think that the person sending the suspicious questioners is either a powerful mage, or a Noble wealthy enough to hire them to do his searching for him."