I sent the badge by canister through the Pneumatic Post Line to Chapter Leader Fehn. This morning, a canister came back with a letter from addressed to both me and Pheleston, inviting the both of us to return to Kindol and meet with him.

"So you did steal the badge then?" Pheleston said to me snidely. "How about I tell the whole world of that?"

"On the pretense of what evidence exactly that you had it in the first place?" I said.

Pheleston sighed. "Fine. I rest my case. I'm sure things with Fehn won't be as bad as you fear..."

I was not sure at the moment what he meant regarding Fehn. I was never nervous before, but now Pheleston's remark had me feeling otherwise. I dared not show it in front of Pheleston, though. I thought about the last time I had seen Fehn, and began to fear atop the dread already there that perhaps he might not even recognize me.

***

Before long, we disembarked at Kindol Station and made it to 100 Cordray Lane, where stood the headquarters of our Pageturner Guild Chapter. The house here was built in the late 1000s, I believe, and was catered to those of the upper middle social class. The atmosphere here was relaxing or would have been had I not had a foreboding feeling over the meeting to soon take place. Unfortunately, Pheleston could read my emotions here and chuckled a bit. Again, I wanted to smack this Chapter Curator.

Chapter Leader Fehn met us in the Atrium and had us follow him up to his Office. There, he promoted me to the role of Observer, effective immediately, and furthermore chided Pheleston to do better in his role.

"I also have an assignment for you," Fehn said to me.

Apparently, there had been concern over our counterparts in the Guild Headquarters located in Northmoor, in the Remikran Province of Combria. Combria had gained independence from the Retunian Republic a few years back; in fact, there was some sort of intense political revolution. And in that chaos, a Guildmember named Kara Martins had been accusing the Guildmaster, Estavahn Henry, of being incompetent in his role.

This was during the year 1321, during which their Curator, Brandon Marsk, was set to retire. Fehn resolved to have the Master Chapter appoint our colleague, Findor Quotus for the Master Curator role with the caveat that Quotus would keep a secret line of communication with us on happenings in Northmoor. Quotus left for Combria in September of that year.

Not long after, Quotus began sending messages about the troublesome Kara Martins.

She apparently joined the Pageturner Guild back in 1316 with the Northmoor Master Chapter, and was promptly assigned as a Recruiter, though she did advance through the ranks. Regardless, she began talking about how the predictions in the Stevenson Letter had come to pass, that the 1319 Neurovirus Pandemic was the Anomaly, and that Peter Quora was the prodigy. Guildmaster Henry stood with her on this. And Quotus called them both insane, making a call to the membership body to vote them out. This call took place in March 1320, and failed to reach the 2/3 majority threshold needed. So Martins and Henry remained members. Quotus, in response, vowed to run for the Guildmaster position at the next opportunity and have both members purged at the stroke of his pen.

This, of course, triggered tension between the factions behind Quotus and those behind Martins and Henry. And thus a stalemate carried on into the year 1324, when Guildmaster Henry announced his retirement. Aware of Quotus' resentment, he had an ally named Howard North run for the Guildmaster position. North, in turn, promised, should he be voted Guildmaster, to elevate Kara Martins to the Master Curator role, replacing Quotus.

The Guildmaster elections happened on October 21st of last year, and Quotus surprisingly won, although by a thin margin. Henry left the organization, however. And Quotus, instead of banishing Martins, had her moved to a Custodian role on the Clerical side.

Fehn put his hands in his face when he mentioned that last part. "That was absolutely the worst thing Quotus could have done. He underestimated her treachery after that."

"What happened?" I asked.

"Well," he continued. "Next thing I know, I get a message from Northmoor, and this came last month, that Kara Martins was now in charge. I asked Quotus to explain how that was possible."

"And his reasoning?"

"I know nothing about that. I've been trying and trying to get hold of him. All he's been saying is that he's 'busy.'"

"Busy with...?"

"He's not even specifying," Fehn said, throwing his arms up in the air. "And then the assassination attempt on you and Pheleston...there never was a turn-cloak to meet you after all, was there?"

Pheleston spoke for the first time. "Are you suggesting this was all a ploy by Quotus himself?"

"Perhaps there was coercion involved," Fehn said looking at both of us. "I believe we may never know. Perhaps he has gone silent over fears of retaliation. After all, Combria has been showing signs of being a totalitarian regime since their revolution five years ago." Then he turned to me, "In any case...Jax, this is where you come in..."

"And I see that I'm no longer needed," Pheleston said a bit snidely.

Fehn paused and bit his lip before looking at him. "You may go," he said calmly.

After Pheleston left, Fehn turned back to me and pulled out the charred badge. "I need you to travel to Combria and show this to Quotus in person. Ask him what happened if you can, although you must abort the assignment if it turns out Quotus is the perpetrator.

"Also," Fehn continued. "Use your best judgement in that regard. You will be acting alone."