Mitch is tidying his house as later that evening Kat will celebrate her birthday at his place. While sweeping the hallway, sunlight reveals a hidden trapdoor under the stairs. Before he can discover what this is Dagar shows up with left-over dinner from the inn. After dinner and some conversation Dagar goes off to sleep because he is very tired. When everything is quiet in the room where and Dagar sleeps, Kat arrives. She tells Mitch that they can have a uninterrupted night together. If Mitch asks why she tells him that her parents will not go looking for her tonight. That this will be her best birthday ever.

Dagar is having a strange dream and wakes up not knowing where he is. When the cobwebs of sleep have dissipated Dagar remembers he was thrown out of the house and that he had to sleep at Mitch for the night. Then he hears someone walking down the stairs and leaving the house. He quickly dresses so he can see the chamberlain, only to find out at the inn that he is taking a bath and that Masheth is with him. Storming up the stairs he finds Julian and Noklin, the town guards at the chamberlains door.

Deciding to wait for a while at the inn, the villagers react fearful towards Dagar. People whisper about magic and witchcraft and refuse to sit with him at the table.

After a strange dream and a short sleep, Ashera goes to see Holand at the bakers house. She notices that Julian is following her. Inside the house she has a short conversation with Holand and Alius before someone bangs at the door. It is Julian who pushes the bakers wife aside and marches upstairs. Before he can enter Ashera is out of the door and reprimands him for disturbing the sick. Julian tells Ashera that she is needed at the millers house and that she needs to hurry.

At the millershouse Ashera sees Cyra hiding out. When she enters the house Kat is an emotional wreck. She can only produce sobs and point towards the bed where here parents lay in. Both are very sick and unresponsive. If Ashera checks for symptoms she finds out that the millers are poisoned with the same poison that the mayor ingested. Angry she faces Kat demanding to know what happened. Kat explains between sobs that she wanted to have a night with Mitch and that she gave her parents something that made them sleep, or so she believed. Asked where she got it from Kat tells Ashera she got it from Cyra, who stole it from Masheth’s closet. Ashera runs out of the house to find Cyra and to tell Mitch she needs a cart and a fast horse in a hurry.

She tries to enter the mayors house where Julian is standing in front of the door and who doesn’t allow Ashera entrance. Ashera gets more frustrated by the minute, but before a fight erupts Dagar gets Ashera away from Julian who is joined by Noklin. She tells Dagar of the poison. Dagar, who is supposed to get the barrels of beer for the festival, decides to drop this chore and instead help Ashera get the millers to the monastery.

At the monastery Brother healer takes care of the millers. Dagar visit his father who is very weak. He explains what has happened and what dangers still exist for the country. His father, expecting that he can no longer do his work, gives his ring of office to Dagar. Mitch visits Brother cook and gets a new recipe. With all the information they have, the abbot send them all back to confront Masheth.

In the village it comes to a confrontation with Masheth on the steps of the mayors house. All villagers are present when Masheth, who feels threatened, casts a spell. Julian and Noklin defend her from harm when she cast a spell that surrounds all in a cloud of fog. In the confusion Masheth gets away but Julian and Noklin die when Timor and Mitch attack them. The villagers, seeing that not Dagar but Masheth is the magic user and noticing the ring of office on his hand, accept Dagar as their new mayor.

Dagar demands an explanation from Cyra, who repents and offers to help Dagar with his new office. Reluctantly he accepts her offer. In the following days he sees a whole different side of Cyra than the little stepsister brat he took her for. Cyra confides to Dagar that Masheth told her that morning in a fit of anger about the potion, that Cyra was not even her daugher, but some brat she needed to take care off.

Now that Masheth is gone and Julian and Noklin dead, Holand comes out of hiding. He still can’t walk very well but he is willing to take care of the dead bodies. Chamberlain Pascale makes a lot of demands to the chagrin of Dagar, who tries to provide for him  and in the meantime keep the villagers happy. In this case Basraskur who must give up his inn for a few days to the Grand Duke and his entourage.

Now that everybody is busy and Kat is at Cyra’s house, Mitch has some time to find out how to open the trapdoor under his stairs. Having found some oddities at the fire mantel he tries to use his necklace key and opens the trapdoor. Underneath he finds a passage that starts to glow when he sets a foot on the floor. The end of the passage is marked by two pillars. The room has a stone portal carved in the wall. On the other walls are murals. One looks like a map of the countryside he knows but the villages have different names. And one of a war, portraying on one sides elfs, orcs, and short folk and on the other side goblins, trolls, dragon spawn and other hellish creatures. At the end of this evil army lies a gigantic beast that seems bigger than the mural. Finding it all kind of magic-like, Mitch decides to get Ashera and Dagar and not dabble in it any further.

When he arrives back at his house with Ashera and Dagar he takes them down into the passage and the room. Discovering the same setup Mitch opens the stone portal. They step into a passage that enters into a room where lights starts to glow.

When they enter the room they see a mural in the dim light:

 

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