The Tome of Exalted Ponies

The fivefold shadow hand stylist consumes soup. Maybe. You will never see or hear it, nor would you survive catching one in the act.

…

The next morning at breakfast, the circle and Ledaal Asina continued their talks. It seemed that Lady Asina had gotten a more personal retelling of the circle’s adventures in Thorns and how they had inadvertently done away with the Dowager in the Noss Fens the previous evening while snuggling, giving her a much more nuanced understanding of what the circle had pulled off.

“I would like to start off by giving my condolences for your loss of Lord Fire Orchid – she sounded like a good and brave soul” Lady Asina opened with, looking legitimately sad for the loss of a powerful fighter who stood against the undead.

Speaker nodded, but seemed hopeful: “She will reincarnate, given time”

“Indeed, but thank you Lady Asina” Sunrise added, giving Speaker a slightly disapproving look for not having actually accepted the lady’s condolences – as much as Shimmer might have claimed that Speaker’s abilities to talk properly had improved, then Sunrise certainly felt that there was room for improvement still.

Either ignoring or not catching Sunrise’s look at him, Speaker followed up: “I also learned several very interesting things from Lady Asina last night – if you would tell the others, please”

Gesturing for a servant to bring forth a large tome, which was brought in on a trolley, Lady Asina began to leaf through it. Sparks and other elemental effects – such as puffs of green vapor, or small gouts of flame, burst from the various pages as they were flicked through: “Last night Speaker tried to tell me how you won your victory in Thorns – but it was very difficult for him… he kept mentioning key allies that I simply kept forgetting”

The rest of the circle instantly realized that Asina was referring to the various sidereals that had aided them in Thorns.

Lady Asina finally got to the page she was looking for, appearing quite pleased: “Here… yes. Now, in order for him to tell his story right, Speaker announced that he was making me a formal aid to his work as an agent of heaven, to the convention of deathlords – whatever that is. Upon him saying that, I suddenly started remembering things… lots of things, and I’m seeing in my family history book that I am right in my recollection”

As the unicorn mare explained, then the history of house Ledaal – which began with the scarlet empresses fourth foal which lived to adulthood – had always had very good advisors, suspiciously good ones actually.

“You don’t think… sidereals?” Cash simply had to ask, finding this revelation far too juicy.

Lady Asina looked Cash straight in the eyes: “Oh without a doubt. Ledaal herself had a tutor according to the records here, and I am quite convinced that this ‘tutor’ was a sidereal – likely one that her mother, the empress, set her up with”

“So, the fortunes of House Ledaal are due to sidereal guidance?” Sullen Hoof wondered, suddenly worried that a house so influenced by what sounded like the bronze faction, would aggressive fight back against what the circle was doing in An Teng.

Lady Asina told of how house Ledaal, aside from basically owning all of the large port cities along the southern coast of the blessed isle as their holds and thus profited off the taxes and tariffs from trade goods coming in there, then the house itself was one of scholars and sorcerers specializing in first age lore – to the point that according to Lady Asina, house Ledaal was the only realm great house that had officially recognized the enormity of the threat of the undead from the instant Thorns fell, and had spent almost all of their resources since then researching the deathlords – much to the ridicule and scorn of the other houses, most of which considered such efforts a waste while the realm itself was in turmoil.

This pursuit of lore and combating the undead was mainly expressed in how quite a lot of house Ledaal sorcerers and scholars apparently worked outside of the blessed isle, seeking ancient texts and tomes, with most of them over the last many years operating in the scavenger lands, trying to understand the deathlords and their dark anathema.

“I get the impression that the convention of deathlords probably got a lot of their intelligence from Ledaal unicorns mapping out shadowlands and investigating early abyssal sightings” Speaker added.

Cash instantly saw where this was going, which put, Sully’s worries to ease: “So a bunch of realm sorcerers and scholars researching the undead for means to combat them – in the east… advised by sidereals – so they’re basically minions of the gold faction”

“From how Speaker explained heavenly politics, probably – or at least partially. House Ledaals second greatest source of income is via the sale of the ancient manuscripts and artifacts we recover to places like the heptagram, or other buyers in the realm. One of the primary investigations has been looking into how first age sorcery could be a solution to the undead problem – we’ve found no small amounts of texts, murals and other records that said that solars could make shadowlands go away – and then you lot show up, actually able to do that according to Speaker” Ledaal Asina said, looking at Sunrise.

Speaker nodded: “The long and short of it: How does offering House Ledaal access to the book of three rings sound, in exchange for them throwing their support in for Roseblock as Empress – and of course all Ledaal operations fully cooperating with the change of power here in An Teng? And maybe even them allying with Sunhill for fighting undead in the east?”

“You’re willing to present such an offer to your house leaders? Conspiring with anathema can be quite a hard sell” Cash said, looking intently at Lady Asina.

Her face turning quite serious, Lady Asina briefly had elemental lighting fizzle around her horn and mane: “House Ledaal is a house of sorcerers and scholars – not immaculates. We have all read the texts, we know damn well that half the books in Heptagram talk about Solars very differently than how they’re talked about in immaculate scripture. If you can offer my house access to the heavenly glory that is the Book of Three Rings, then you will find yourselves with powerful allies willing to join you in both politics and battle”

“It’s not just that – Lady Asina told me that a lot of Ledaal sorcerers in the east never attended Heptagram, but were apprenticed and trained in-house, which is actually quite illegal in the realm. They’re used to breaking imperial rules in their quest for knowledge, especially when working so far from the realm” Speaker elaborated, Lady Asina having told him of this the previous night.

The discussion went back and forth a bit more, focusing on how the circle could provide evidence of what they had to offer – and what house Ledaal could give in return, but all that was absolutely and completely derailed when Sunrise finally heaved and pulled her copy of the book of three rings from elsewhere, having spent the twenty minutes needed to recall it from that extra-dimensional storage.

The book itself was big, a large tome that looked to have countless pages. Lady Asina, having never seen anyone pull anything from elsewhere – for the terrestrial exalted did not have such powers – was quite surprised.

“I am not willing to give this to you, but perhaps you could somehow document it?” Sunrise suggested.

Looking at the large tome on the vast breakfast table, now sitting between orange jams and what had originally been freshly baked spiced morning breads, Lady Asina perked an eyebrow: “What am I looking at?”

“My full and complete copy of the book of three rings” Sunrise stated plainly and directly, sounding quite proud.

Lady Asina drew in a sharp breath, lightning once more fizzling around her horn and mane: “That… that’s the book of three rings?”

Floating it over to her, Cash pulled out his recorder of everlasting glories: “If you have one of these, you could document what’s in it – at least leafing through it a bit… should be more than enough proof to your house elders”

The unicorn mare eagerly accepted the book and began to leaf through it, marvelling at the seemingly endless font of sorcerous knowledge held within – but after a bit her expression changed, ultimately turning into one of perplexed confusion: “Wait… these spells here – this is impossible for a unicorn to do”

Peeking at the page she was on, Speaker nodded: “You’re in the section for adamant circle sorcery – only solars can learn that. Lunars and Sidereals are limited to sapphire circle sorcery, while unicorns can only shape spells of the emerald circle”

Lady Asina’s head spun: “Fascinating… but still, there won’t be a unicorn of my house who wouldn’t pay a fortune to just sit with this book for a day, transcribing spells and information!”

Another servant was called to bring the big jewellery chest, from which Lady Asina retrieved her own recorder of everlasting glories – the hologlyphic scanner and projection artifact recording clear images of the pages she leafed through in the tome.

Once Lady Asina was done, Sunrise noted: “Oh I’m sure many would love to read my book here – but this one is mine… I don’t intend to share the footnotes I’ve been scribbling. They can get their own if they’re serious about this”

The lightning around lady Asina, an elemental expression of elated mood, seemed to instantly zap down her body and ground into the stone tiles as her glee was replaced by great annoyance: “You cannot be serious – you possess what might be the only known full copy of the greatest source of first age sorcerous lore in existence!”

Speaker put a calming hoof on Lady Asina’s shoulder: “No, what she means is that we can make more”

“Make… more?” Lady Asina slowly and calmly stated through gritted teeth, appearing quite unsure of whether she should be upset or confused – or both – from such an impossible statement.

Nodding to Sunrise, Speaker said: “In order for Sunrise to learn the spell that let her clear shadowlands – like at Thorns – we had to first gain access to the book of three rings. We did so at the source: We found and liberated Spirimin, the ancient first age university, from its mad lunar queen and her army of half-caste apes. I am the new Chief Librarian of Sperimin, and Sunrise is the head of the college of Sorcery”

Again, the lightning of joy returned to Lady Asina – but this time far more intensely: Her anima flux erupted fully, small dragons of lightning circling around her playfully. The servants in attendance fled the room, knowing how lethal this flux was, while Speaker just put on his elemental immunity charm as Lady Asina’s chair was incinerated to dust from the lightning, letting her effortless turn and approach him: “You are the what!?!”

It was the late afternoon before the final negotiations had concluded. Lady Asina’s head spun, but she was certain that once she left An Teng for the blessed Isle, to the family stronghold in Arjuf, then she would be able to sell on them the idea that secretly cooperating with Sunhill for access to Sperimin, to THE book of three rings, and to all the lore still left in the colleges there would not be a difficult sell – even if it meant forging a secret alliance with Sunhill.

The only thing Lady Asina had to do first was basically sell off all the Ledaal holdings and operations in An Teng – this would take a while, though she was quite pleased when Cash offered to let Sunhill buy most of the operations – all under a shell company he would set up so it wouldn’t be too obvious what was happening at first, him retrieving a chest full of silver and gem from elsewhere which more than paid for most of it up front, much of that being what he had earned in Salt-Founded Glory. There would still be a question of drafting up the paperwork, having it notarized, but Cash equally helped create the sales documents in no time at all via his charms of lightning fast calligraphy.

All of this took a few more days, Cash, Speaker and Sunrise remaining in the city of the steel lotus for the duration, while Sullen Hoof left to continue their plans, going to spy on the midlands prince in the city of Prosperous Garden, which was but a few hundred miles upriver from the city of the steel lotus.

By the time Sullen Hoof returned, Cash and Lady Asina had finished their paperwork, it had been notarized, and messengers had been sent to the plantation, paper and lumber mill managers across An Teng to notify them that they had new owners – and would likely soon get new instructions on how to proceed, but that they should other keep on doing business as usual for the foreseeable future.

Sullen Hoof’s report from Prosperous Garden was also a good one: “We don’t have to implant dreams here – Prince Kiotaran there is a nationalist already, who will leap at the chance to support a free An-Teng”

This meant that the circle’s next stop would be either Adorned with Wisdom as a Saphire, the college city set on an island in the river of queens, or Jade Plum Citadel where the highland prince had his palace.

“I also discovered something interesting – which matches with what I found at the royal palace at Salt-Founded Glory: While the princes don’t have much in the form of ponies at arms, mainly just a few hundred bodyguards, then they have magical masks” Sullen Hoof added, sounding quite intrigued.

Sully’s own curiosity quickly infected the rest of the circle, Sully explaining that the few records, murals and other things he’d seen indicated that the princes each had a collection of magical artifact masks – masks that would let even mortals take commands of all the nearby animals that the mask represented, such as tigers and elephants.

“Interesting – that’ll make organizing a rebellion much easier, if we can draft jungle animals to fight for us” Sunrise mused.

Bidding farewell to Lady Asina, and hoping that her attempt to sell the house Ledaal leaders on what Sunhill had to offer would work out, the circle left on a ship up the river of queens.

“What about General Ledaal Shuri? If Asina leaves, what will we do about her?” Sullen Hoof asked, as the circle beheld the endless farmlands and plantations along the river.

Cash had a good answer ready: “Asina fixed that for us – sort of. Her official job was to oversee and manage all house Ledaal business here in An Teng, because they aren’t exactly known for uncovering ancient ruins or manuscripts here all that often… Shuri, aside from being the legion commander, was tasked with basically using the garrison as a way to prevent other houses from gaining undue power here in An Teng, but that’s going to be a non-issue now… so Asina left Shuri the Ledaal Compound, and wrote to her that Shuri should retire her commission and just live there in luxury instead”

Speaker found that to be a reasonable-sounding solution, except the general might not be all that reasonable: “But remember what we talked about yesterday – what if the general’s pride prevents her from cooperating?”

“Asina clued me in on that too. Shuri was forced in military service by her family due to her… carnal appetites. She is a horny unicorn, so all we’ll have to tempt her with is telling her how well the local brothels are stocked in the city, and tell her that she’s not needed to protect her family’s interests anymore for the time being” Cash said, sounding as if he had it all planned out.

Sunrise chuckled: “Oh really? And what will happen if Shuri does that, and then An Teng revolts?”

“Then Shuri will have to start actually paying to use those brothels – or return to the blessed isle and use house Cynis brothels instead – Asina already wrote and sent a letter saying all of this to Shuri, I just helped write it and added a few spicy charms to it, to ensure that she’ll do it” Cash explained, enjoying the feeling of a good plan coming together.

Not sensing anything worth objecting to, Speaker only had to ask: “Ok, So Shuri will retire or take leave – fine – what about the half a legion at Dragon’s Jaw?”

“I could show up, as Shuri, to mess with them – worked fine in Port Calin” Sullen Hoof suggested.

Speaker liked that plan.

A few days later the circle arrived at Adorned with Wisdom as a Saphire – which turned out to have the most first age architecture the circle had so far seen in all of An Teng. There they found more than a dozen schools, teaching all manner of subjects. This certainly fit the description of what Bitter Copal had talked about, it being a place of learning, where new ideas were discussed eagerly by young tengese – tengese who were far from their controlling families, allowing them to express their own opinions for the first time.

It wasn’t difficult for the circle to see how such a place was a breeding ground for trains of thought the realm might not want to see flourish – it was far from the realm garrison and the satrap, and there weren’t really any dragonblooded attended the place, only a few realm scholars perusing the old libraries there, but since they weren’t trying to dominate the place, then they were on very good terms with the local students and faculty, staying well out of any politics being discussed.

Inquiring into Bitter Copal revealed little: What he had said about his own academic record was verified, and the circle was told that he had gotten along well with the few unicorns he had met – which also helped explain why he had become so bitter following the absolute betrayal and ill treatment he had gotten during his job as a ship surgeon’s assistant.

Traveling further up river, which took a good week and a half by ship, the circle arrived at Thousand Dragons Lake – at the foothills to the fire mountains. A tributary river going south led to Jade Plum Citadel, a large city by eastern standards, though by tengese norms it was just a town – Cash estimated the population to be around three quarters of that of Great Forks, while Sunrise quickly remarked that it seemed that the highlands appeared to have as many hashish plantations as Greatforks did, if not more. A few cursory inhalations of the local air confirmed a latent sweet scent, the smell of smoked hashish – and Cash wasn’t slow to note that the locals seemed quite mellow compared to the midlands and the lowlands.

Sullen Hoof’s investigation into the local prince in his palace of darkly gleaming onyx, returning to inform the circle of a unique opportunity with Prince Josei of Notable Genius.

“Please tell me that’s just another silly title, like the one from the first prince?” Sunrise groaned, wondering if all of the tengese nobles had silly self-styled titles.

With a calming gesture, Sullen Hoof was about to explain, when Cash cut in: “I read the records back at Saphire – every tengese noble who can afford it sends their children there to study, but in the case of Josei then his monicker is not a self-styled one like the lowland prince: Josei is some kind of savant, a life-long scholar”

“True, and his latest pursuit is crime scene investigation and forensics – because a year ago Josei’s now late wife Dawning Snow fell down some stairs and died. No witnesses, but Josei suspects foul play. I got a good read on him: If we can conclusively prove to him what happened, murder or not, we’ll have his ear, his gratitude and his cooperation” Sullen Hoof quickly stated.

Speaker found that to be a worthwhile pursuit – certainly kinder than just messing with the prince’s head to ensure his cooperation in the uprising.

Cash managed to arrange an audience via the prince’s daughter Midnight Pearl, presenting the circle under their cover of him being an eastern gem merchant, with the rest of the circle being his various aids and retainers – Speaker specifically being introduced as Cash’s doctor and assayer.

“What exactly is an assayer?” Speaker had to quickly whisper to Cash, as they stood outside the office of Midnight Pearl, while the princess – who was the apparent manager of the royal administration – was processing Cash’s request.

Cash briefly considered his answer, so he could word it in a way that would make the most sense to Speaker: “An evaluator – someone who checks and verifies the quality of the goods I buy and sell”

A servant came out of the office, calling the circle just as Speaker nodded in understanding.

Midnight Pearl was a beautiful young mare, appearing to be roughly the same age as Sunrise – but her eyes were wise and her appearance stately: She wore jewellery befit of a kingdom where plenty of gems and precious metals were mined, and her office was replete with shelves full of scrolls and ledgers: “Cash Charmer, your request states that you wish to speak with my father regarding a bulk purchase of uncut gems, particularly large sapphires – why is that?”

The voice of the princess was beautiful and soft, but her words carried authority and demanded respect – this was clearly a young woman who knew how to wield power. Cash responded in kind, his charms lending a harmless air to him: “I have clients back home that will pay me a king’s ransom for good sapphires, and I employ a skilled cadre of gem-cutters for the same purpose. The order I’m trying to satisfy here is big enough to warrant traveling all the way here – originally, I had planned to seek out Gem, but when we arrived at the Lap and heard of the terrible events there, we detoured here instead, seeking safer lands to trade in”

Speaker found himself nodding, knowing full well that Cash was buying the gems for the gem-cutters in Sunhill, so they could supply cut stones for the enchanted links atop the rail pillars – but he also knew what Cash was selling the rail pillars for to the various kingdoms that desired access to the network at quite a markup, so Cash wasn’t wrong regarding the potential profits.

The princess appeared satisfied with Cash’s story, but just before she was about to say that him, her expression took on the subtlest hint of sorrow – something Cash didn’t just pick up on, but had hoped to see: “Very well – but my father the prince is quite busy these days. I can oversee the gem presentations and trade negotiations with you, if you can wait a few days until I have time”

With a face that didn’t just radiate concern, but had charms piling it on, Cash replied: “Is something wrong princess? I was under the impression that purchases of the scale I’m asking for had to be overseen by the prince himself”

“It’s just… Last year my mother died – my father is convinced she was murdered. He has had little time for the affairs of state or trade since then” the princess said, Cash’s charms having subtly rendered her at ease with saying such things to strangers for the time being. She didn’t even catch herself in doing so, nor wonder why she had said all that.

Looking briefly to Speaker, Cash gave the princess a forthright expression: “Perhaps we can help? My assayer is a skilled and trained doctor to boot, quite the expert in the arts of investigation – he has helped solve more than one murder investigation both before and during my employ”

The princess appeared quite happy to hear that, clearly wanting her father to get closure to his sorrow, that he might find peace. She said that if Cash and his group could help with the investigation that would be most welcome.

A subsequent meeting with the prince got the circle a retelling of the known events regarding the death of the queen: She had been found at the bottom of a long staircase, quite dead – there were no witnesses, and the heavy stone structure of the palace meant that nobody had heard anything either – at least nobody willing to step forward.

Speaker did a cursory investigation around the staircase – of course, since it was a year since the accident then there was little left… but despite that, thanks to Speaker’s charms, he was able to detect several smears and scrapes along the walls by the stairs and its banisters that matched the queen’s makeup and hoof-paint on the day of the event.

The prince was quite impressed at this, especially at the speed that Cash was able to observe such trace details.

This let Speaker figure out how the queen had tumbled down the stairs, revealing a spinning pattern – unfortunately the stairs themselves were cleaned regularly, so any scrapes and smears on them had been lost, making it impossible to see if there were any signs of the queen having slipped, or having been pushed.

“Curses. Your aid is the best news I had heard since Dawning Snow’s death… is there anything else you can do?” the prince bemoaned, not acting terribly dramatic, just understandably disappointed.

Cash had a ponder, then looked to Sunrise: “Sunrise Glow, the priestess in my employ can pray to the golden lord. You seek justice, you seek truth, and you being left in the dark is an injustice of its own – we can try to get the gods to show us what had happened”

The prince agreed to this, but sounded resigned enough that the circle knew the prince didn’t expect much from it.

Of course, Cash had no intention of Sunrise praying to the Golden Lord – she was to send a sorcerous message to a sidereal and have them do a reading of the tapestry of fate.

“Why didn’t we just open with that? The sidereals can pull that information easily” Speaker wondered.

Cash looked around the guest quarters they were staying the night in, the nice mix of wood carvings and inlaid stone being quite pretty: “If we walked up to the prince and said that we asked heaven what had happened, and then pointed out some random guilty party, do you think he would have believed us? Right now, we’ve established that we can discover things his investigations had not – now he’ll believe what our ‘prayer’ will reveal”

Sunrise frowned ever slightly: “And what sidereal should we message? Heath Rose is likely in the east”

“Message May Flower, tell her she can get some free tickets for my restaurant if-“ Sullen Hoof began, when a scroll tied to a raiton come out of nowhere and smacked him in the face, making for a lot of noise, feathers and bird shit.

Holding back her laughter, Sunrise finished up her messenger spell – so that May Flowers pre-emptive answer would fit the request.

The scroll contained the information the circle had just requested, along with information on where to drop off the tickets for the restaurant for May Flower. The information itself was rather simple, Cash looking down right disappointed: “Says that one of the older maids pushed her – doesn’t say why”

“I didn’t ask for a motive – I’m sure we can extract that when we apprehend her” Cash said, sounding almost bored.

Asking around for the maid in question, the circle was directed to the palace larder, where the old mare was busy doing an inventory.

“Is that her?” Speaker wondered, looking at the old mare in question. She had the usual tengese appearance: The flat mane, the extra fold at the eyes, and nice clothing as befit a senior royal servant.

The circle had deliberated a bit on how to extract a confession, Sully saying that he had just the charm – so he led their inquiry: “Are you Polished Amethyst?”

The old mare turned around, putting down the stylus she had in her mouth and the clay tablet she had been writing on: “Yes? And who might you be?”

“We are investigators working for the prince – did you kill the late queen Dawning Snow?” Sullen Hoof inquired, using a charm that would force all but the most wilful to answer truthfully.

Putting the stylus and clay tablet into her well-made saddlebags – bags embroidered with the crest of the royal household – the mare almost casually replied: “Of course I did”

…it was only a few seconds later that she seemed to register what she had said – looking quite shocked that she had blurted out such an incriminating statement.

The prince, having stayed out of sight but in ear-shot, looked even more surprised: “Amethyst, you… how could you?”

Through some very quick and careful wording, Cash had the impromptu interrogation and trial of Polished Amethyst moved to the prince’s study – mainly to make sure that only those who needed to heard anything, since the motives or names of possible co-conspirators had not been aired yet.

“Amethyst I trusted you! You’ve wet-nursed my children! How could you!” Prince Josei of Notable Genius asked, sounding understandably upset.

Polished Amethyst, standing proudly before her accusers, had only sneers for the circle – but to the prince she bowed her head: “I only labour for the honor of your house”

“Don’t you dare give me the stranger’s run-around!” Prince Josei shouted, appearing to sense what the old mare was about to do.

Cash found the display endlessly amusing, seeing the tengese method of handling foreigners by feigning ignorance and deference used on one of their own – but that’s when Speaker whispered to him: “She’s not lying – she really meant that”

Speaker’s lie-detector charm was well known to the circle – and mortals had no way of veiling their lies to it, so Cash’s mind instantly tried to discern a motive based on the statement and the fact that it seemed true to the killer: “Your highness – I believe she means that. Tell me Polished Amethyst, why did the prince’s house need its honor protected from the erstwhile queen?”

Unlike Sullen Hoof, Cash didn’t know a charm to compel answers – but he had a host of other charms that made it impossible to deny, reject or ignore anything he said, to which end Polished Amethyst appeared unhappy, but ultimately compelled to answer: “Your highness would not have known – but she was a great source of shame to your house”

Speaker confirmed again that the old mare truly believed this, which of course prompted a series of follow-up questions, revealing that the late queen had been an absolute terror to the servant staff and other suppliers to the royal court. According to Polished Amethyst, who was able to produce quite a few letters written and signed by the late queen to suppliers due to her current position as royal quartermare, then the queen had a well-known and ugly habit of being very rude and downright vicious to servants and suppliers that displeased her.

“If these letters of reprimand to the local seamstresses and bakers you have here are any indication, then her rudeness appears well proven – but tell me, what would provoke her to such extreme actions?” Cash eloquently inquired, sensing that a proper understanding of the queen’s behaviour was needed for a fair verdict.

The old mare sighed deeply, her expression to the prince pained – it appearing quite clear that she wasn’t comfortable telling such things to him… but she didn’t have much choice at that point: “She had dreams of being treated as finely as visiting unicorns – she hated the deference they had to be shown, and the demands for anything they asked of. Thus, she thought that her and you my lord, had to get even better treatment”

Speaker shared a knowing looking with Sunrise, the revelation that this bad behaviour had been borne of a dislike of foreign nobles being treated as well – if not better – than herself, certainly fit what the circle had witnessed so far.

Polished Amethyst added that in the last few weeks of the queen’s life she had even started plotting to poison the next unicorns scheduled to visit – something that would undoubtably have provoked a very negative reaction from the satrap and the realm garrison.

“Not to mention that you, in the position of quartermare, would have been a prime suspect in such a poisoning” Sullen Hoof added, having spotted the more personal angle in the old mare’s scheme.

The quartermare didn’t deny that she knew well enough that such a poisoning attempt would likely have been put on her, as master of the royal stores, or some other innocent – perhaps someone working in the kitchens. Regardless, she had found this utterly unacceptable and dishonourable, which was why she ultimately pushed the queen down the staircase when she had spotted an opportunity.

The prince of course found the idea that his wife had plotted to poison visiting unicorns quite hard to believe – but Polished Amethyst, being the royal quartermare, was able to reveal where the queen had stockpiled arsenic. Speaker verified the poison, and Cash pointed out that according to the princess’s calendar, then the first realm nobles to visit after the queen’s death were a group of Ragara scions, including one unicorn: “…and that unicorn might have been able to survive the poison – but the mortal scions? They would have been stone dead”

Prince Josei reeled at the implications of such a murder plot: “That would have been the end of my house!”

“Exactly. I did what I had to, for the honor of your house” Polished Amethyst reiterated, sounding quite certain and firm in her beliefs.

Speaker felt very happy that he wasn’t the one who had to pass judgement then and there, for the prince looked horribly conflicted.

More questioning revealed that Polished Amethyst had not told a soul of neither the poison plot, or her murder – arguing adamantly that she had not committed murder in order to be rewarded or glorified. Indeed, she seemed quite resigned to the fact that she would die for her actions… except at that point the prince didn’t really seem all that interested in ordering that – mainly because doing so would likely leave others asking why Polished Amethyst had murdered the queen, and if the queen had been as vile as the evidence indicated, then the highlands might well rise up in discontent against the prince’s verdict.

It wasn’t a comfortable conclusion – but it was a conclusion none the less. Polished Amethyst was sworn to secrecy and ordered into retirement, with a small but serviceable royal retirement-stipend to keep her mouth shut.