| [another attempt has been made on ser aymeric's life, and the city of ishgard is in flames.
the lord commander — newly crowned lord speaker — will live, but his leadership over ishgard will not, if the current situation persists. the problem, first and foremost, is that the man has no shortage of enemies, and while it may be in the scions' best interest to keep aymeric in power, identifying the myriad parties that want to keep him out of power is a challenge in and of itself.
fortunately, gathering information is thancred's strong suit, and that is the task with which he has been entrusted. a few trips to the forgotten knight — plus a few nights spent eavesdropping on high house guardsmen, temple knights, and the commoners in the brume — suggest that one of the following parties may be responsible:
first: the vault itself. the priests, as always, make for the most likely culprits. the senior clergymen in the synod must be bristling over the fact that their archbishop's own bastard son has ousted him at last, and while they may want vengeance for archbishop thordan vii, they stand the most to gain if aymeric is removed from power. in particular, a group of halonic friars known as the true brotherhood of the faith has spoken with open rancor towards ser aymeric's actions, though nothing suggests their involvement in either the stabbing or the fires...
second: the high houses. once upon a time, the nobility and the church were on equal footing in terms of power within ishgard; now, that power is much diminished, and it is possible that members of the aristocratic class see ser aymeric's shaky coup as an opportunity to take back the privileges they once held. but the count de fortemps is known to support the warrior of light, and his sons and servants seem of like mind; ruling them out, that leaves houses haillenarte, dzemael, and durendaire. house dzemael is known to employ a team of assassins and is widely considered the most cruel and ruthless of the houses, but the guardsmen under its banner seem to know nothing of the arson incidents. still, some whisper, an alliance between the families sworn to houses durendaire and dzemael could be easily forged, particularly given their sons now missing from the ranks of the heavens' ward...
and third: the house haillenarte thorns.
even mentioning the house haillenarte thorns is enough to win raised eyebrows in some places.] |
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