Conundrum

While searching Gregovich's bedroom, Fate opened every drawer and cabinet in the room in search of materials. It was because of this that he found something truly strange.

In his investigation, he found a large, locked cabinet. He used his Divine Energy to fiddle the lock open with ease. When the opened a cabinet that had doors as tall as he was, and twice as wide, he discovered a strange, swirling nebula of white, black, and red.

Curious, he stepped inside. After a lurch not dissimilar to those caused by teleportation, Fate found himself in a large room filled with maps, corkboards with strings connecting various pictures, and dozens of diagrams of creatures, objects, and people.

In the center of the room was a single swivel chair, and under the corkboards and maps and diagrams were tables stacked with books and scrolls. One table was suspiciously clean, sporting only a single object. Moving closer, Fate found it to be a black, leatherbound book as thick as Fate's head.

He opened the book, the leather cover being surprisingly heavy, and found the first page to be an intelligible scrawl, with numbers separated with slashes at the top of the page. A date, certainly. Too bad Fate didn't know what the calendar looked like on this planet.

He spied a brown satchel out of the corner of his eye on an adjacent table, and grabbed it, opening the flap with his thumb. Inside was yet another swirling abyss. He wondered how one would get the contents out for a second before a hologram flickered to life above the opening.

It was arrayed similarly to a video game's inventory system, with fifty slots available. Twenty of these were taken up, the hologram showing pictures of books, a sword, a cylinder, two different cubes, and a couple of scrolls. He hummed in thought, then grabbed the thick leather book from the table and stuffed it in the bag, the hologram flickering once more to show that a new book was in the twenty-first slot.

Fate slung the satchel's strap over his shoulder, grabbed a spool of string from one of the tables, and left the room that looked like it belonged to some conspiracy theorist, locking the cabinet back behind him. His curiosity sated, he went to work on the trap.

Gregovich made his way to his bedroom, confident that the assassin, whoever they may be, had given up. He had had no other attempts on his life for the past five hours, obviously because the murdering scoundrel had recognized the futility of attempting to harm him. He slipped off his clothes, donned his sleeping robe, and slid under his blankets, a content smile on his face.

Then he saw the knives.

Dangling above him, attached to flimsy red strings tied in a latticework between the bedposts, were dozens of his own knives and daggers from his personal collection. He followed the string across the front left post, along the ceiling, and down to find the end wrapped securely around the knob of his sock drawer. He blinked in shock, then waited.

After a full minute of nothing happening, he laughed loud and hard. "This assassin is truly an incompetent buffoon," he said. "No one may harm me, even indirectly! Your own Guilt gnaws at your psyche, forcing you to fumble in whatever ill-conceived plans you hatch!"

Fate thought he felt a vein pop in his forehead. This was easily the most tedious assassination he had ever been hired for. He shoved his anger out of his mind quickly, however, deciding to put his mental energy to good use.

'How does one kill when one can't kill?' Fate thought, rubbing his chin and looking at the chortling Gregovich.

It was a serious conundrum.

Deciding he needed some fresh perspective, Fate left the castle behind and roamed the streets of the city for a few hours. At some point, without him noticing, Robna had once again appeared next to him, pouting.

"How could you leave a pretty girl like me all alone like that?" she demanded. "And how did you slip away like that? It's like I completely forgot you existed!"

Fate spared the woman no more than a glance. He was still wearing his handy new contact lenses, so his eyes appeared "normal" for now. She frowned at this response, stepping in front of him and stamping her foot. She looked up at him, a necessary action considering she was two heads shorter than Fate.

She opened her mouth to say something, her admittedly adorable face stuck with her mouth dangling open as the glimmer in her eyes changed from one of anger… to a knowing grin.

"Ahhh, you're mad! But not at me. At the guy in the castle." She looked between Fate and the castle and back again, her grin growing wider. "Well, I'm nothing if not kind. C'mon, follow Big Sis Robna and tell me all about it! I'll treat you to the finest beer in the city!"

Fate gave her a mild look. Shrugging, he gestured for her to lead the way.

She led Fate through dozens of alleyways and streets before they arrived at a steel door with a peephole set at eye level, covered by a strip of metal. Robna knocked on the door rhythmically and the strip of metal slid to the side, revealing glowing red eyes surrounded by darkness.

"What's the crow doing up at dawn?" a gruff voice asked from behind the door.

"Eating worms and mocking the robins," replied Robna.

The eyes went from Robna to Fate. "Whose yer friend, Robna?"

"Someone that can help clip the eagle's wings," Robna said quietly.

The eyes squinted at her, then the strip of metal was slammed back into place. From the other side, Fate heard the sound of several locks of all kinds being unlocked.

The door swung open, revealing a muscly man with the same red eyes they saw through the door, his chest sporting a thick breastplate and his arms and legs likewise armored. Behind him was a poorly lit bar filled with sour-faced customers.

"Anything he does is on you," the man said in the same gruff voice.

"Don't worry too much, Rolan. How could he ever betray someone as gorgeous as me?"

Rolan met Fate's gaze, then the two of them shared an eye roll. Rolan laughed at Robna's pout. "Boss is in the back," he said.