It was late afternoon and nearing evening by the time Noarwin returned home. He sighed, pushed back his short sweep of hair and eased his front door open. He stepped in, peering over the back of his tired sofa at the space he’d opened up for his house guests. They sat in a circle, the center of them a scribble of notes and discarded pages. They’d pushed the blankets and pillows into a ring around them. Asinis sat hunched and cross-legged as he wrote down some ideas with a piece of charcoal he’d supplied.

Silas looked up when Noarwin entered.

“And what are you lot up to?” Noarwin asked as he slipped off his coat. His tucked in shirt loosened, lowering the untied neckline to reveal a handsome chest painted in undiscernible art.

“Planning,” Feri said, focused on the pages she shuffled through.

“Oh? Any success?” Noarwin removed the belt holding his weapons and set them by the sofa when he sat on it, one ankle rested on the opposite knee. He didn't expect actual help from any of them and only asked in a half-hearted attempt at interest.

“Silas has a spell,” Asinis began, causing Noarwin to perk up. “It can locate people, but he has to be familiar with his target.” Asinis scratched his head. “I’m trying to recall what I know about Gunilla to help him.”

“Why do you want to find this woman so bad?” Silas asked. “Is there more than what you’ve told me?”

Asinis frowned, his eyes searching the ground. “I can’t think of anyone else to ask for help—or who might know who did this.”

“I’m curious, do you consider yourself a great spell caster, Mr. Asinis?” Noarwin asked, not inclined to reveal his interest in Silas's ability similar to the one he'd recently supplied himself. Noarwin wondered—did it have a range, could it compel people to him? Or had Noarwin wasted his money?

He waited for an answer. Asinis had described Gunilla as lacking in ability. Did Asinis feel superior? Noarwin thought Asinis must know something considering the spell he used to help him and Feri put off the guards chasing them, but perhaps that was all and Noarwin pinning him as a war mage candidate off. Noarwin had a good sense for people, but he wasn't audacious enough to think himself always right.

“I’m still a student,” Asinis mumbled. “I—started late.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll get you back,” Feri said, her hand finding his arm. He forced a smile, but it didn’t last.

“And you, Miss Feri?” Noarwin pressed.

She looked at him and then away. “I—don’t know much about magic. Nor am I familiar with spells.” That stilted reply was a lie, but Noarwin wouldn't press for now as her lack of forthrightness seemed to stem out of an old wound she wouldn't trust a stranger with.

“So, you were at Isenvel to learn,” Noarwin said to Asinis. “How did you get mixed up in the tower’s accident, Feri?”

“I...” Feri glanced at Asinis who shrugged. She sighed until Silas stroked her hair.

“It’s alright, Feri,” he said, though Noarwin doubted he knew the answer or understood her hesitation. His trust in her was charming but also naive.

Feri offered him the same struggled smile Asinis gave her and nodded. “I am a warden of the god, Lunis.”

"Who?" Noarwin's face twisted. He'd not heard of such a deity. At least, he wasn't popular enough to come immediately to mind. Not that Noarwin familiarized himself with the gods. The only ones who might find interest in him were ones he did not care for.

“God of the dark side of the moons," Silas said.

"The so-called assassin god?” Noarwin asked, his tone taking a thoughtful edge. He had heard of the title, but only ever spoken offhandedly in children tales to frighten kiddies into coming home early at night.

“Feri isn't like that. You don't serve a cult like that Feri—” Asinis interjected.

"It's not a cult!" Feri shouted. "Contrary to misconceptions, Lunis is real and my friends aren’t evil.”

“Or the ones destroying moon wells?” Noarwin asked. He remembered the rhyme now.

Behind the lady Celume's face

lies the assassin, her brother, poised to chase.

Scurry home under her light and fast—

before the assassin's shadow

swallows you where splat! You'll breathe your last.

There was more to the song, but Noarwin didn't know it all, and neither seemed the children who sang it in the city square to frighten one another.

“Lunis would not allow one of his own to destroy the vessel of his twin’s power. He loves Celume,” Silas said. “Assassins are what destroyed the wells, but they did not have Lunis’s blessing.”

“That’s right! Lunis is a vigilante assassin, not one who seeks destruction. As one of his wardens, I am charged to find those abusing his favor. The group that we encountered in Waywin did not evoke his but some other creature’s will,” Feri barked.

Noarwin massaged his temples. This was becoming more than he originally anticipated. “Are you telling me there is another piece to this already infuriating puzzle?”

“Oh!” Feri and Asinis exchanged glances.

“I don’t think we considered connecting Isenvel and the moon wells,” Asinis said.

Of course, they hadn’t. They were too desperate to clear their names of Isenvel that all other leaves lay discarded in a pile surrounding them. “Miss Feri, as a follower of—Lunis. Has the sabotage of the moon wells affected your connection to this god?” Noarwin asked. Silas seemed to believe in the dark side of the moon, but Noarwin remained skeptical as did Asinis by the conflicted look on his face.

“Yes.” Feri's gaze lowered. “The moon wells don’t only carry Celume’s magic but that of Lunis’s. They share the wells, each pouring more of themselves into it depending on the waxing and waning of their face.”

“Then we can deduce that it may be the servants of Lunis who were targeted, rather than Celume’s more protective magic. After all, if Lunis betrayers or similar assassin-like devils are carrying out the attacks on Isenvel and other magic towers, the most equipped to stop them are their—vigilante counterparts,” Noarwin reasoned.

“I guess you’re right, ”Feri said.

“That leads me back to my original question. How did you, Miss Feri, end up implicated in the Isenvel Tower’s destruction?” Noarwin pressed.

Asinis looked thoughtful. “The researchers at Isenvel, where I started my training, discovered curiosities concerning the flow of moon magic. They delegated the research of it between their sister towers. Priests of Celume were split among them. Feri came with one to Isenvel where we met. She and I thought we had… made a discovery. The researchers told us to hold on the experiment but—”

“I was stubborn," Feri said to the ground. "Through a connection we made between some magic crystals, I could see through Lunis’s eyes. I thought I could discover who was abusing the moon magic, but as soon as I made the connection, when I was on the cusp of seeing a face—I went blind. My ears rung as white arcane bolts streamed from the joined crystals." She shut her eyes. "When I got my vision back, I couldn't move and watched the priest and Asinis pull the stones apart. The priest absorbed most of the magic and died. It burnt Asinis's hands, singed his clothes, and nearly destroyed him too. One of the bolts had hit a table of combustive chemicals, which tore through the west side of the tower. People started shouting. Asinis and I...”

“They brought us in for questioning. We told them everything we knew but—”

“They didn’t believe us. So, we ran.”

“Interesting.” Noarwin stroked his chin as the narrative he had started creating grew clearer. Then he sighed and spread out his arms. “Enough of that!” He stood and, picking a different coat he left lying in a corner, covered himself. The patchwork of colors assembled into a beautiful, dancing griffin. “Everyone out!” He threw open the door and waved his arm into the sunlight not yet giving way to the approaching evening. It was time to take their minds off the problem.

“Are you kicking us out?” Feri asked, face stretched in worry.

“Not at all, my dear. All we’ve done for the last two days is concern ourselves with the mystery of the Isenvel Tower. As a veteran investigator, I know when it’s time to take a step back. Follow me.”

Asinis and Feri, though hesitant, activated their rings. Then, with Silas, they hurried after Noarwin. Smiling, he marched them through the slums into the city square. With about three hours of unwavering sunlight left, he suspected now a good time to recoup some of his master’s coin.