"Yeah, right. Any sane man wouldn't want to stay with a woman who can't keep any of his confidences for herself while those willing to accept it would probably ask Faluel to join us." Friya snarled.
"Gods, we are both screwed." Phloria chuckled. "What are you going to do, then?"
"I'm tired of waiting for Prince Charming to come." Friya clenched her fist with determination. "From now on, I'm going to live my last one hundred years of freedom to their fullest and you should do the same.
"Stop focusing on Lith and Solus and think only on making a life for yourself. Maybe we'll never find the right person, but we won't know it unless we try." Friya extended her fist which Phloria bumped.
"Okay. Two questions. How do we get a job without it meddling with our Awakened apprenticeship and where can we find some dating material?" She asked.
Friya was about to answer when the array tapping into the Marquis' amulet finally brought something interesting.
"Wyma, please tell me you got the weapons back."
"Yes, Hassar, I do. Why?" They recognized the voice of Countess Metra, the other suspect.
"I got reliable information that Commander Ernas is here to perform a surprise inspection of the armory. If we don't return them soon, we are going to end up as the primary suspects along with all those with the access codes." The Marquis replied.
"What's the plan?" Metra's voice tensed up.
"We just move ahead of schedule. Return them tomorrow night during the party and everything will be fine." He replied.
"It's risky. The last time I almost got caught by a guard. Why don't we just dump them somewhere?"
"If we do that, the Constables will start asking questions and the Knight's Guard would trace their energy signature straight to us. If we return the weapons, instead, there will be no investigation at all.
"Also, don't you dare go in person. We need to be both at the party and do something that proves our identity, like using any enchanted item that's not a communication amulet. We don't want people to mistake a call for a coded message.
"At that point, even if something goes wrong and the Doppelganger gets caught, it only has to shapeshift a couple of times before self-destructing to clear us from any suspicion." The Marquis said.
"One of mine or one of yours?" She asked.
"One of yours. It must be capable of playing your part well. This way, even in the case the guard recognizes you, you can just claim that it wasn't you and that one of your enemies is trying to frame you for the crime.
"No one will ever believe that you are stupid enough to send someone with your own face to commit a crime." The Marquis said with a sneer.
"How many times do I have to tell you that I'm sorry? I got unexpectedly stuck at the Royal Court during the day and had to come to pick the weapons myself at night to not miss the delivery.
"Doppelgangers can't reproduce our magical imprint and without someone leaving a way in open for them, they can't get past the City Hall's defenses without triggering the alarms." The Countess replied.
"That's why it is vital that tomorrow we leave the City Hall for last, after the final security sweep. Make no mistakes this time or you'll pay the consequences alone." The Marquis hung up the call.
"Why is it important that they leave last?" Friya asked.
"Because this way they can lock the doors, have them checked, and then open them again unnoticed." Phloria replied. "Due to the arrays protecting each room, the guards can patrol the corridors, not get in."
"Then how do the Doppelgangers enter the City Hall in the first place if they don't have the imprint?" Friya asked.
"My best guess is that they can mimic the guards and they enter after a colleague opens the door for them with an excuse during the shift change." Phloria said. "The real guard reaches their position while the fake goes straight for the City Lord's office and then leaves during the next shift."
"What an ingenious bastard!" Friya said.
"Yeah. You update the others while I keep monitoring the array. This is going to be a long night."
***
The following night, Orion and Jirni attended the Marquis' party while the others staked out the City Hall.
He would have rather stayed with his daughters, but he was the only one with a decent cover. The Marquis had kept his word and tried to mediate a reconciliation on Jirni's behalf.
Orion had no trouble offering a fair amount of resistance until he had pretended to give in to Beilin's insistence and had accepted the invitation to his party.
Not only had Manohar refused to not miss the opportunity to face whatever a Doppelganger ( or Manohar 34 as he called it) was, but his presence to any party would have been received with the same joy as the sudden appearance of a rampaging Dragon.
His habit of spiking food and drinks with the compound of the week was well known. To make matters worse, the last time he had attended a banquet in Othre, many people had turned into flesh monstrosities that had killed dozens of nobles before the army managed to put them down.
The Crown had explained that it wasn't Manohar's fault and that the Carpenters were part of the ploy of an enemy of the Kingdom, but people considered such an explanation to be just a cover-up for a failed super-soldier program.
The "Mad Professor" nickname and the fact that Manohar publicly confessed to being responsible for those events in order to avoid future social gatherings were just the icing on the cake.
"I'm sorry for being a dumb oaf, but explain to me again why we can't just arrest the Marquis and the Countess. The call has been recorded and it sounded like a confession to me." Orion wore a white tie suit.
It consisted of a black dress coat with tails over a white shirt, a piqué waistcoat, and a white bow tie worn around a standing wingtip collar.
He tried to act natural, but between the embarrassment for his outburst of the previous night and the mess that his feelings were, the atmosphere around the couple was so awkward that the other guests kept their distance to not be dragged in a conjugal mess.
On the one hand, Orion needed time to ponder his own words and Jirni's. Both had taken him by surprise, shocking him. On the other hand, he didn't want to leave her alone in such a dangerous situation.
No matter how angry he was with her, Jirni was still the mother of his children and the woman he had loved for almost thirty years.
"You are not a dumb oaf." Jirni straightened his coat's lapel and adjusted the handkerchief in his pocket while standing on her tiptoes. "It's just that without someone confirming that their personal amulets have been used for the call, they can just claim that it's the work of the shapeshifters.
"All we know is that someone made a call from that house using their voice which normally would be enough, but this case is special."
