27 - Victoria - Speculation:

The tower was as silent as ever as I stood there, drained by the nights efforts. Everything had gone to plan, and that was now my lasting regret – my plan had killed Rufio, and with it, the answers I now sought.

My mind on other things, I nevertheless automatically attended to the practical, turning and walking towards the tower gate with the knife in hand; it was bloody, and I would clean it in the snow without. It was only as I unsealed the door that I became aware of the blizzard shrieking outside; flakes rushed through the arch, and within seconds a thin layer of frost was building up on the floor below.

I stepped forward and plunged the Brotherhood dagger into the nearest snow drift, twisting it before pulling it back; the dagger blade now coated by snow crystals stained pink with blood. Clasping the blade lightly, I focused a minor spell of fire upon it, melting the ice, and leaving the weapon glinting golden in the darkness.

I entered again, shivering slightly, the dagger now warming my hands. I doubted the Brotherhood Speaker would contact me here, if he even knew the location. Isolation precluded easy travel, and the weather only compounded this. The main question I had for him was simple; who had sponsored the assassination? Even now however, I was not optimistic about the chances of him simply volunteering the information outright – myself a novice, and the backer doubtless desiring privacy. It would also be short sighted to jeopardise my status in the guild this early in my ‘career’; I would not be able to press the point.

The more I thought about it, the more it seemed to me that the only way I could retain the initiative would be to leave the incident unmentioned. There was the possibility that my target had been chosen for this very eventuality to occur, and I didn’t want to simply play into anyones hands. Not like this… blindly, I would have to investigate surreptitiously.

I wondered what state the survivor at the Inn of Ill Omen was in. Perhaps I should have taken the blade from the ‘crazed’ soldier and stabbed Rufio’s corpse with it, so as to mask the injuries from the true weapon. Despite the confusion the killing would have thrown up, there was yet a chance that the identity of the blade type might be established by a conscientious investigator. Being enchanted, the weapon would surely leave detectable traces in the wound, and further, I doubted blades of this type were typical murder weapons. If the identity of Rufio was who I suspected, and the blade wound was indeed identified, then two and two might be put together. The only person immediately obvious to me who might be able to link this to me was Raminus Polus – however I was more worried about those who undoubtedly stood behind him.

Still, my situation could be worse, I am safe, my mission is accomplished, and the majority of my worries are merely speculation - and with that in mind I have decided to simply rest here for the remainder of the night.