While the immediate threats appeared to subside, and his reason for being in the city gone, Zelpuz felt compelled to stay. His the sense of duty to the Order of Ashes, and no small measure of curiosity concerning the role of the local Chapter of the Order in the calamitous events of Ossylia forcing his decision. For the first two weeks after the meeting at Yuu's household he kept a low profile, renting a small room near Vanyra's and meditating on the problem and the encounters with Lasrane.

After thoroughly contemplating the reason why anyone from the Order would be involved in a political feud in Ossylia and coming up with little of substance, Zelpuz called on Vanyra to assist him in some surveillance of the Chapter House. As compensation he provided some instruction in mental fortitude, which he advised after their earlier encounter with Lasrane. Curious as to the extent of her telepathic abilities he instructed her on how the Mespah perceive their abilities as a single entity, like a tree or wave, that can branch out and fluctuate to meet one's needs. With a few psychic pushes, intense focus and practice she was able to remarkably expand on her abilities. While her powers were similar to Mespah in many aspects they certainly deviated in a somewhat... Freyan direction, he thought.

During the surveillance of the Chapter House the comings and goings of all visitors were noted. This was not nearly as difficult as one would have expect as the Order received only a dozen visitors and half a dozen supply deliveries over the course of 5 weeks. The supplies appeared to be the usual mail drops and various sundries. The visitors were never the same, save one Midian man every 9 or 10 days. This man always arrived with a different partner, always a couple of hours after High Hour, and always bearing a package of bottles, likely wine by the shape. Judging by the greeting received at the main door this man was a regular.

After the second visit by the man Zelpuz and Vanyra were determined to uncover who he was and what his business with the Order entailed. Zelpuz cautioned against mental intrusions in case they were discovered, since the man regularly dealt with Mespah he may be trained to detect or counter psychic probes. Rather they would revert to old-fashioned streetwork, with Zelpuz infiltrating the Chapter House and Vanyra tailing the gift-bearing man.

Vanyra had little trouble keeping up with the leisurely pace the man and his female companion kept. Both were well-dressed after a practical fashion, suggesting to her that they were not nobles, but moneyed through other means. The two stopped at a restaurant and ordered a late lunch of oysters and a seafood chowder with bread, and completing with a bottle light honey wine. Vanyra originally suspected they were romantically involved, but their interactions and a few subtle empathic probes determined otherwise. Their feelings were limited to those of friends, work colleagues or associates of some sort. Following the meal they continued on for a short while and then separated. Vanyra stayed on the man who eventually returned to a six-story building on the corner of the street with a well-crafted though subdued sign designating it as "Cor Suun Trading." After waiting for a couple more hours without the man appearing Vanyra returned to her apartment.

In the meantime Zelpuz devised a plan to infiltrate the Chapter House in the evening, once the majority of staff had either gone to bed or left. Using his phasing ability he entered through a second story window and proceeded to check the log book at the front for the day's visitors. A quick search revealed the names of the man and woman that visited today, Shin Shormyl and Kyun Li-sun. Not recognizing either Zelpuz made a mental note of them and continued up to the Chapter Master's office, whom the pair were slated to visit according to the log book. The door to the office was no problem, for with a little luck Zelpuz was able to phase through the few meters into the room. As per a typical Mespah office there were no notes or books, the benefits of perfect memory, instead he looked for items that would appear out-of-place in the office of such an astute member of the Order, such as the fancy wine fridge in the corner. Given the last few weeks of observance Zelpuz quickly rearranges the bottles and grabs one bottle from the back, then rearranges the rest to conceal the theft. With that he makes a quick exit and returns home.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:07, Thu 10 Jan 2019.

Reconvening the following day Zelpuz and Vanyra review what they discovered. It should be a simple enough matter to look into what Cor Suun Trading actually does and who they are affiliated with. Furthermore, with a name they may be able to dig into the man himself. The bottle of wine is a bit of a mystery though, it appears like an ordinary red wine, imported from Lu'Zan. Quite a pricey bottle to be sure, but nothing out of the ordinary on the surface. Zelpuz assures Vanyra that all the bottle in the fridge were from the same winery, or at least all had the same bottles and labels. Zelpuz decides to take their discoveries to Yuu later in the week.

Meanwhile Vanyra takes some time to visit the Freelancer guild and pick up some actual paying work. The number of bounties present has fallen off dramatically, a result of the recent turmoil and then sudden reestablishment of order according to the clerk. There are a number of seemingly easy and lucrative escort and protection jobs that suited Vanyra's needs and skills. Two of the three assignments she accepted were uneventful, a show of force all that was necessary to dissuade would-be attackers or thieves. The third though involved a borderline criminal element as far as she could discern, slick merchants in the dock area attending a birthday party for an associate. Later in the evening a group of thugs rushed into the room, and almost as if they were expecting it, the gathered parties erupted into a brawl with the interlopers. A job is a job and so Vanyra worked to protect her charge, she took a few solid hits from a Gnarm and an Atherian, but was able to outmaneuver both through a combination of close-quarters acrobatics and precise hits made with almost preternatural intuition. Still the event was a reminder that she had been remiss on her combat regimens of late.

Yuu at bides his time at home, refamiliarizing himself with everything and discretely ensuring there are no surveillance devices or other odd nether devices hidden about. When the time comes for the audience with his royal cousin he is more than happy for the excuse to head out. After spending a good hour and a half clearing various security checks and enjoying a few cups of exquisite tea in waiting rooms his cousin is free to meet.

Yuu is escorted to small room with sparse but refined decor with a trio of plush, curved benches in the center forming a conversation circle. His cousin Fanren is already seated, but stands and welcomes Yuu upon his entry. After exchanging pleasantries, while uncustomarily avoiding any barbed questions about the health of ones family, the tone of the conversation turns slightly to more serious matters. Using the tactfully obtuse eloquence of court language Yuu inquires after the state of the court and the senate. Fanren expresses relief over the cessation of the recent troubles but also some doubt as to whether they are truly over. While many accuse the Royal Family of being aloof and too far removed from the troubles of regular governance, and often for good reason, it does provide some of its more astute members a less biased view of the system as a whole. As a result of this Fanren has concerns over the intensity and spontaneity of the recent troubles, suggesting that they may not be the result of the regular machinations of the political factions within the Kingdom. Ossylia has enough neighbours that would benefit from destabilization, with the Dalony Baronies to the north coming first to mind.

The conversation continues a debate of the merits of various paths by a variety of actors, with the gamut of Ossylian factions and some larger foreign powers explored. The relative ease and speed with which peace was restored to the capital does suggest the level of native friction was not so great as to precipitate a violent action. Unfortunately there is little concrete evidence to suggest any foreign actor(s) were behind it either. Just over an hour later Fanren apologizes and excuses himself, asking Yuu to send his best wishes to his family on behalf of the Royal court.

A couple days later word arrives that Qwe is on her way home with Yuu's cousin Zhu-Li accompanying her on the ship. The Jin family is eager to reunite, though Yuu's mother confides in him that it may be safest for them to spend some more time away come autumn. She is certain that Qwe will be accepted as an exchange student at the Daedalum Academy of Sciences and Technology for the next semester. It would be an excellent opportunity for her. For her son she also stresses the need to experience more of the world outside of Ossylia, but in a much less academic fashion, stressing his participation in the Freelancers. Just in time to head off another lecture on his future word arrives that Zelpuz and Vanyra have arrived and wish to speak with him.

After Yuu excuses himself from his mother's office he grabs a few random items from his room and heads to the tea house they have so often used to discuss matters. Within minutes the three are gathered with some refreshing iced jasmine tea. Yuu informs them that his sister is on his way back home with his cousin, and that things around the household have returned to normal. He also provides a brief summary of his meeting with his royal cousin and the mood coming out of the palace. That prompts Zelpuz then relates what he and Vanyra uncovered in the last couple of weeks regarding the Order and a company called Cor-Suun Trading. Yuu is not familiar with the name, though judging from his studies of the Novians it does sound like the type of business that could be associated with them.

Zelpuz then produces the bottle of wine he swiped from the Order Chapter Master's office, and hands it to Yuu with concise censored version of how he came by it and who he suspects is providing the wine. As far as Zelpuz and Vanyra have been able to ascertain it is a particularly rare wine, bottled by a winery in Lu'Zan and rarely exported according to local wine merchants. On account of that it is worth a fair bit here in Ossylia, but the taste in general does not warrant any special attention and isn't very popular with the local palates. Yuu readily admits he doesn't know much about wine, so he'll take their word for it, and asks if there is anything he could help with.

Zelpuz would like the wine examined, to see if there is anything special about it that would warrant the Chapter Master risking his position for. Perhaps there is something hidden in the bottles, like a drug or something, that is worth more than just red wine. Given the quantities in the office they had been collecting for some time. Yuu agrees to take to the lab at the Academy and have a look, though he does admit that it may be like looking for a needle in a haystack without more specific information. The trio decide to reconvene in a four days to review the results of the examination.

The examination of the wine begins the next day at the Royal Academy; after a series of precautionary magical tests on the bottle and a magnified visual examination Yuu determines that there is nothing special about the bottle, the label, the cork or seal. Not wishing to disturb the contents any more than necessary he manages to extract 100ml from the bottle using a fine syringe inserted through the cork and a great deal of caution and patience, then for good measure placing a wax seal over the insertion point. The wine is then separated into ten 10ml sample vials.

Yuu runs through a battery of tests on one vial to determine the presence of biological agents, toxins or latent nether energies, all of which return a negative result. A little more reassured that he's not playing with poison he brings another sample to the chemistry lab and asks for a breakdown of the composition, the result of which is more complicated than he expected or really understood (chemistry was not his major), but in conversing with the lab tech and consulting some books determine that it is wine, with various trace elements and molecules that would likely identify the region the grapes were from and presenting another avenue of investigation.

Searching the Academy library for books on the chemical composition of wine or grapes from around Kah'lyun proved to be more difficult than he imagined; apparently that is not a popular field of research here. Taking a different approach Yuu returns home and asks the house steward about reputable sommelier in the area, and makes appointments to visit with them. Collectively they reaffirm the rarity of that particular wine and can only attest to a few molecules they would expect to find based on the region and flavor. Armed with that list Yuu returns to the books, cross referencing the expected features of the wine provided by the sommeliers, likely chemical initiators of those, and then the actual composition of the wine. Almost everything lines up as expected, with a small number of trace elements being outliers; a result of contamination, bottling process, or something else?

Yuu decides the next step is to take a look and see if he can identify where these outliers are coming from, but realizing there could be all sorts of bacteria in the wine he calls up his doctor-friend Marcus to assist. Together they examine what's actually in a sample, with Marcus pointing out a number of interesting things on account that he's also never bothered to look at wine through a microscope before. Turns out there's quite a bit to look at, but after a couple of days they identify a relatively small number of what appear to be dead cells that Marcus cannot identify. These are both small in size and quantity and are inactive, but do not resemble the bacteria or other cellular matter one would expect to find. Unfortunately the microscopes at the Academy are not powerful to delve further into the mystery; only places like Daedalum or the Spacers stations have that type of equipment. It's a small lead that could very well lead nowhere, but these dead cells in the wine are the only thing Yuu has to go on.

At the follow-up meeting with Zelpuz and Vanyra Yuu explains his findings. In all respects the wine is just regular red wine from an exotic location. Further analysis would involve getting a sample to the Spacers, an extreme long shot, but Daedulum is at least a possibility, especially if Qwe is going there next semester. It's decided that Yuu will look into how they would get a sample examined in Daedulum, while Vanyra and Zelpuz dig into how the Cor-Suun Trading company come to acquire, or at least how they're importing the wine, in hopes it may reveal more of it's contents.