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The Golden Aerie
Almas, Andoran
Neth 25
4734 AR
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Knight-Marshal Aldrin Delecroix slouches into his office just after mid-day, some seventeen hours after his unplanned shift began. Settling into the leather chair behind his desk, he groans as much as the leather does. For a moment, there is peace and silence. Enough to let the static rush of thoughts in his head clear. But only just for a moment.
When someone knocks on Delecroix's door they don't wait to enter. But seeing that it's Reginald Cormoth, Delecroix's protest doesn't leave his clenched jaw. The elderly general of the Eagle Knights steps into Delecroix's office, fixating on a tapestry hanging beside the door.
"Is this one new?" Cormoth questions, lifting a tassle on the corner of the tapestry in one weathered hand.
Delacroix sits forward in his chair and says "No" with a sigh. "It's, ah..." He tries to remember where it came from through the static in his head. "Gwynn picked it up for me when she was stationed in Rahadoum a couple years back."
"Ah," Cormoth murmurs, turning from the tapestry. "Well, good eye on her."
"That she has," Delecroix agrees half-heartedly. "What, ah, brings you by, Ser?"
Cormoth ambles over to Delecroix's desk and slowly sits in the chair on the opposite side with a grunt of effort. Delecroix waits patiently, though the furrow in his brow keeps getting deeper.
"This shipwreck is ugly business." Cormoth finally says, all cordial humor drained from his voice. This is business and his stern stare punctuates his words. Delecroix sits back in his seat, nodding in tired agreement.
"We haven't been able to get any confessions from the deck-hands, the Cypher Mage is in triage right now with an amputated leg, and the other one we picked up doesn't seem inclined to tell us much beyond surface-level topics." Delecroix lays out the situation, both to make sure Cormoth truly is caught up to speed, and to solicit the elder knight for help.
Cormoth nods, idly smoothing out a wrinkle in the sleeve of his uniform. "We almost had him here," Cormoth laments. "Izah was foolish enough to seek port in Almas, and we almost had him. If his ship hadn't gone down we would've had him dead to rights in the port."
Delecroix nods slowly, then runs a hand through his hair. He can't remember the last time he took a proper shower.
"I can't press Avignone any harder without a real threat to hang over him, and I can't imagine he won't hide behind the Consortium's walls, either." Delecroix explains, voicing his frustration. "It doesn't leave us with a lot of avenues to explore until the cyphermage is awake."
"I wouldn't count on Avignone hiding with the Consortium," Cormoth suggests, his stare becoming distant as he focuses on a far-off point in space. "You know Salvuriel and Izah were never close. He'll want to use this opportunity to wash his hands of Izah entirely, sell him out to the Patrons and solidify his control over southern Avistan."
Delecroix is silent for a moment, rubbing a hand over his stubbled chin as he considers the machinations of serpents. "You think they'll burn his crew?"
"I would be surprised if they didn't, Aldrin." Cormoth says with a shake of his head. "We would have had Izah and Salvuriel's heads on platters if the Infernus docked in Almas with slaves on board, now we can barely prove that happened at all. Salvuriel will capitalize on this opening. He'll act fast and decisively."
Sighing again, Delecroix rubs his hands down his face. "And if we sweep either of them up it shows our hand."
Cormoth smiles. "Now you're getting it, m'boy."
"So we, what, wait and see which of them winds up face down in the river first?"
"No," Cormoth says with a shake of his head. "We find them something to do that keeps them under our eye, and we wait for Salvuriel to slip up or lose interest. He has the ball now, we have to play defensively."
"I was always bad at Ruk." Delecroix admits with a smile.
"Truly. You're god-awful at it." Cormoth agrees with a laugh. "But time's nothing if not a good teacher."
"I'll put an escort with Avignone when he pops his head up again," Delecroix says with a shift back to the immediate topic. "There's something I've been meaning to look into anyway..." he says, starting to sift through sole files on his desk.
He sets the knight-candidacy report for Jared Westin on top.
"...and just the person to handle it."
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