To War 110.

Summer. The City Of Calinar.

On the top floor of the main building of the Palace of the King. A few house maids are tidying up a suite, even though it doesn't really look like it needs to be. And the fact it's quite late at night,
Nodding her head, Narladene the ground pixie murmurs to herself "This is the place alright".
As she's certain she's in the suite of the dowager queen, who isn't in residence at the moment.
It's in the part of the palace know as the royal family's quarters. Though it's as far from the king's suites as possible.
The rooms where the king lives with his family, are on the otherside of this part of the main building of the palace.
There's guest suites, where visiting family members stay, between those rooms and this suite.
Infact, some royal cousins who are visiting the capital city, are in suites closer to the king's rooms, than the dowager queen's suite.
The ground pixie who is originally from the Sunreach Mountains, gets the distinct impression that it's both the current queen, and the dowager queen's dislike of one another.
Which has the old queen staying in this suite, that's as far from the king's living quarters as possible.
The tiny winged creature, who is invisible to the servants doing their late night work.
Is sitting upon a tall cabinet in one of the rooms of the dowager queen's suite.
The naturally magical creature watches one of the house maids walk by after coming out of the bedroom.
Then Narladene looks towards the open door of the bedroom, and slightly frowns.
The ground pixie gets up, and hops off the tall cabinet, and wings her way through the open doorway, into the bedroom.
The lamps in here have been blown out, but the naturally magical creature can see perfectly well in here.
Even though it's relatively dark, with the only light coming in from the antechamber just outside the bedroom.
Narladene, who has sensed a number of magical items throughout the Palace of the King.
None of which are powerful, or for that matter, all that interesting.
Apart from a magical sword in the king's suite, which is similar to the one that the young field commander Tamric Drubine has.
In that it has a protection spell, to defend the one wielding it in battle.
Has sensed a magical item here in the bedroom of the dowager queen. She sensed it earlier in the day, and didn't bother to check it out. As the power emanating from it is pretty miniscule.
So much so, she wouldn't be surprised if most spellcasters if they did a broad sense of this part of the main building of the Palace of the King, they'd probably miss it.
Narladene, like all of her kind, pixies and sprites. Can sense anything and everything magical.
Lands upon one of the drawers in the bedroom of the dowager queen of Melaurn.
The invisible, tiny winged creature, who is attached to Helbe the elven thief.
Walks along the top of the drawer, going around, and in some cases, going through the knick knacks and items on top of the drawer.
The ground pixie who is from the Sunreach Mountains, who met Helbe the elven thief over fifteen years ago, in the city of Leeabra, the capital of the kingdom of Druvic.
Walks around a couple of bottles, of what smells like a body fragrance.
Then she stops infront of a small leather covered box, that's behind most of the other items on top of the drawer.
Looking at the small box, Narladene narrows her eyelids as she studies it for a moment or two.
Then the naturally magical creature, flips the hidden latch. And with a bit of effort, a grunt or two, and quite a lot of swearing to go along with that.
The ground pixie originally from the Sunreach Mountains, opens the leather covered box.
"Well, would look at that" Narladene murmurs to herself as she looks at what's inside the small box at the rear of the dresser.
That tiny winged creature looks at it for a few more moments, before she closes the leather covered box.
She launches into the air, then heads out of the bedroom of the dowager queen.
And she goes in search of Helbe the elven thief, who is also in the main building of the Palace of the King, this fairly cool night, well cool for summer that is.
Walking out onto a ceiling on the second storey of the main building of the palace.
And looking in both directions of the lamp lit hallway he's now finds himself in.
Helbe the elven thief watches a guard on his rounds through the palace.
The young elven noble from the island principality of Laerel, who is upside down on the ceiling.
Walks along the ceiling, in the direction the palace guard has gone.
The blurred and shielded elven magic user, has been checking on those loyal to the dowager queen.
And though there's a small number of them that actual live on the palace grounds.
Some of them are quite influential, like the undersecretary to the chancellor of the exchequer.
Who the elven masterthief just paid a visit to, as the man worked late into the night.
The elven master assassin thought about killing the undersecretary. But he already killed sir Jurshwin during the day.
Two fatal heart attacks so close to one another might seem a little suspicious.
So the member of the royal family that rules the island principality of Laerel did something else.
He made the undersecretary commit a crime, stealing from the treasury. And leaving evidence for the chancellor of the exchequer to find.
Clearing showing the guilt of the undersecretary, who Helbe made it look like, he'd been stealing from the treasury for the last year and a half.
The elven master archer is just about to drop off the ceiling, somersault in midair, then float to the floor.
But he turns his hooded head slightly as Narladene the ground pixie appears next to him in midair, and quietly says to him "You should probably come and see this".
"See what?" murmurs Helbe the elven thief.
"Up on the top floor" is the quiet reply of the naturally magical creature who is attached to the highly talented elven magic user.
The grandson of the ruling prince of Laerel lifts a questioning eyebrow, and he asks the ground pixie "What is it?".
"You'll see" says the tiny winged creature from the Sunreach Mountains.
"Come along" adds Narladene, who follows that with "Up on the third floor, in the royal family's quarters, the south end".
The naturally magical creature pauses for a moment, before she says "The dowager queen's suite".
Both eyebrows of the elven masterthief shoot up when he hears that, then he nods his hooded head.
The ground pixie disappears, and the young elven noble from the island principality of Laerel, which lies across the Kuyriers Straits from the kingdom of Melaurn.
Looks down the hallway he's in, then shifts away as he heads to the third floor of the main building of the Palace of the King.
A short time later, and the elven master assassin is walking through the quarters of the royal family.
The blurred and shielded elven spellcaster briefly stops at a closed door, and listens to a conversation of the people in a suite who are up late this night.
It's a royal cousin visiting the capital city Calinar, who is talking with his wife.
Who by the sounds of it, is glad the dowager queen isn't is residence.
They're deciding if they should leave early tomorrow morning, as the old queen is expected back sometime tomorrow.
Or if they should leave the following day, as they originally planned.
The elven master archer walks away, knowing that the dowager queen isn't particularly liked by the wider royal family.
After going by a number of unused rooms and suites, the elven princeling from Laerel finds himself at the southern end of the royal living quarters, here on the top floor of the main building of the Palace of the King.
He spots Narladene infront of a closed door, the elven practitioner of magic sees the ground pixie go through the closed door. He follows her a moment later.
The house maids have gone, and the suite of the dowager queen of Melaurn is dark as the lamps are all out.
Which is fine for the elven masterthief, as he has his race's natural nightvision to see in the dark.
"In the bedroom" quietly says Narladene the ground pixie who is standing on the right shoulder of the elven masterthief she's attached to.
Prince Helbenthril Raendril, who is a member of the personal council to lord Farque, heads to where the naturally magical creature points.
He goes through the entrance room, then the main living room, off which to one side is a study, come library, and on the otherside a small dining room.
He continues forward into an antechamber, then to the bedroom. The only room in the suite to have it's door closed.
Nodding his hooded head when Narladene quietly tells him "There's no spells here".
The elven master assassin opens the door, and enters the bedroom of the dowager queen.
After he stands there for a few moments, looking at what's in the bedroom, Helbe the elven thief asks "So what is it exactly am i looking at?".
"Do you sense anything?" asks the tiny winged creature who hails from the Sunreach Mountains.
The member of lord Farque's personal council frowns, as he's already sensed, and hasn't found anything magical in here.
"No i don't" says the elven princeling, who pauses as he senses again, then he looks at one of the drawers and says "Is there something there?" followed by "I can barely sense it".
Narladene nods, and the highly talented elven magic user walks over to the drawer, and looks at everything on top of it.
"Hell" says the elven masterthief, who continues with "Most people would miss that". Referring to other practitioners of magic.
The naturally magical creature nods her head in agreement.
While the grandson of Prince Raendril of Laerel reaches over, and takes the small, leather bound box from the back of the drawer, where it's behind a couple of fragrance bottles.
"Now how do you open this?" murmurs Helbe the elven thief, who finds the hidden latch, and opens the small box quicker than Narladene did.
Councilor Reinholt is silent for a moment as he looks at what's in the small, leather covered box, then he says "Huh".
The elven master assassin takes out the small glass ball, about the size of a small apricot or peach.
And he looks at it closely as he studies it. Identifying magical items is even harder than sensing them sometimes.
Especially if they're miniscule in power, such as this one.
But the elven princeling is a highly talented spellcaster, and after a moment, he quietly says "Is it a influence stone of some kind?".
"It is" says Narladene, with a grin upon her tiny face.
A grin that gets wider, when the elven master archer, slightly frowns then says "Is it linked to something?" followed by "It feels like it is".
"It is" says the ground pixie, who continues with "With another, it's a pair". 
The elven masterthief who is a member of the royal family that rules the island principality of Laerel, nods his hooded head.
Then the tiny winged creature says "She's definitely got the other one on her".
Narladene pauses for a moment, then continues with "It's what she uses to get people to be loyal to her cause".
"Now isn't that interesting" quietly says Helbe the elven thief, who thinks about something for a moment, before he puts the glass ball back in the small, leather covered box, then puts it back on the drawer where he found it.
"I think I won't kill her straight away when she finally gets back" quietly says the elven princeling, who pauses for a moment, before he adds "There's some things we need to find out".
Narladene the ground pixie nods in agreement with the young elven noble she's attached to . . . . . .