Day 54

The Tale of C'nin

Having found out that the prince had been poisoned, C'nin rushed into the great hall where Enaerixer, Froadaelo and Roo were being tried. Bursting through the door, and knocking down the two guards positioned on the other side, he yelled for the King to hear his discovery.

Restrained by two of the watchmen, one holding each arm and not allowing C'nin to move, the King allowed him to speak. And how intrigued the King was to find out that the three defendants couldn't be responsible for his son's death!

Seeing an opportunity to be freed, Froadaelo now spoke up with the suggestion that he and his party might be given leave to serve the King and find the true assassins. As one, the nine stepped forward as a sign that they would be happy to take on this assignment. The king, too, arose from his throne.

"You may go," he began, addressing the whole room, "to find the true villains who killed my heirs, on these two conditions. First; you do not return before me until you have found those that killed each one of my three children. To find the murderers of merely one of them shall not be enough. Nor shall it be enough to find the murderers of only two. And second; Froadaelo, Enaerixer and Roo - the three accused of the heinous act of murder and treason - are not to accompany you. Instead they will stay as slaves in my household where they will be treated with cruelty and abused by any who wish to abuse them. If you are loyal to your companions, then you will make haste in finding who would have my Kingdom overturned.


Six of the party of nine left the courtroom after their conversation with the King to begin their investigation and track down the true murderers. As they gathered supplies for their search they did not feel like the case had resulted in victory, but at least they would not be attending a funeral at any time soon to come. The lives of Enaerixer, Froadaelo and Roo had been spared, and that was better than nothing.

Instead of collecting supplies C'nin was studying the blood he had extracted from the prince. He was using all his knowledge of potion-craft to find an antidote to the poison, should any of the group have a run in with an assassin and require healing quickly. At the same time he was researching how to brew a shield of sorts, such that any contact with the poison would be made trivial. It would take him a fortnight, long after the slaves had been taken out of the city to the King's castle in another part of his lands, for C'nin to come up with anything substantial. And when he did he was forced to test his antidote and his shield, and in respect to Enaerixer who might, by then, have been bruised and beaten, he did not test on mice or other animals as would be expected from anyone in his field; rather he tested both draughts on none other but himself.

It was clear that his potions worked as he had not been taken ill despite the risks he had heroically taken, and then he, as the acting leader of the group, said only now was it time for them to begin their search outside the town's walls...