Lynga grunted. “I see. What about that woman?”

“You mean Liz? She’s with him.”

“What?! That’s not good! Where did they go?”

“They’re walking around the ruins. Why?”

Lynga tried to leave in a hurry, but a large shadow blocked the door. “Is Zenos here?”

“Loewe too?” Lily said. “Wait, did you lose weight?”

The orc woman laughed. “How do I look? Dainty?”

“Um, I don’t know about that...”

“You don’t, huh...” Loewe replied despondently. “Anyway, where’s Zenos?”

“He’s out with Liz,” Lily replied.

“What?! That’s terrible!”

“Um, it is?”

Lynga and Loewe were both about to rush out when a third visitor burst in. “Doc!”

“Zophia?” Lily said. “What’s going on with everyone?”

“It doesn’t matter!” Lynga protested.

“Move, Zophia!” Loewe demanded. “I’m in a hurry here!”

“Lynga and Loewe?” Zophia asked. “Why are you both here? I have business with the doc.”

Carmilla laughed heartily at the sudden commotion. “Perfect timing. It seems I need not bother after all. Now, now, all of you. Calm down,” she said, floating up lightly and gazing down at everyone. “Now all of the players have gathered.”

***

At Carmilla’s suggestion, the women decided to sort out the situation and all gathered around the clinic’s dinner table.

“This has all seemed odd to me,” Zophia began to explain quickly. “First the Black Guild attacks our night festival, despite our long-standing, implicit nonaggression pact.”

“The fact they broke it means something’s going on in the guild,” Lynga chimed in. “I was worried, so I sent my guys out on patrol, and there was a minor incident where one of them got knocked out while alone.”

“And right after that, suddenly Zenos’s childhood friend showed up, claiming to have amnesia,” Loewe added.

“The festival attack, our men being knocked unconscious, this mysterious woman,” Zophia continued. “When strange things start happening one after another, that means someone could be pulling the strings from somewhere.” She nodded. “So I had Zonde secretly look into that woman and the Black Guild.”

“I had my men do the same,” Lynga said.

“So you two did too,” Loewe remarked. The three demi-humans looked at each other, their expressions grave.

Carmilla, with her arms crossed and her lips curled into a smile, said, “I see. So the Black Guild is not the only entity working behind the scenes. You three have been quiet this week because you were waiting for the results of your respective investigations.”

A damp wind blew through the street outside, rattling the windows of the clinic. Zophia nodded slowly. “Acting rashly could’ve painted a target on our backs.”

“That’s why I just sat in my headquarters, twiddling my thumbs,” Lynga said.

“It was the perfect opportunity to go on a diet,” Loewe pointed out.

“So, what did you uncover?” Carmilla asked.

“Well, it’s not possible to turn every stone there is on the Black Guild within a week, but we did find out that a certain faction that’s been seeing a lot of activity lately counts a woman with purple hair among their members,” Zophia said.

“We heard she’s strangely good at manipulating men,” Lynga chimed in.

“Rumor has it she has some sort of special power,” Loewe added.

Carmilla chuckled. “I see, I see. She sounds difficult to deal with, indeed.”

Lynga scoffed. “I suspected something was off because that woman said Sir Zenos didn’t like me anymore. I was shocked at the time, but then thinking about it, I concluded it had to be a lie. There’s no way Sir Zenos would grow to dislike me.”

“Confident, aren’t we?” Zophia asked.

Loewe nodded. “Yes, that woman also told me that Zenos likes wimpy, dainty women. But if you think about it, that has to be a lie too.”

“I mean, that could be true,” Zophia pointed out.

“Impossible. Zenos and I share a mutual affection. Therefore, he can’t have a preference for skinny women.”

“So why did you go on a diet, then?” the lizardwoman probed.

Loewe groaned. “I might’ve been a little self-conscious.”

Carmilla chuckled again. “How maidenly.”

Lynga and Loewe turned to Zophia. “And what did she tell you?”

After a brief silence, Zophia gave a small shrug. “Nothing all that impressive. Wouldn’t take a genius to figure out it was a lie.”

The wraith smirked at this, and next to her, Lily—who had been completely out of the loop—tilted her head. “Um, so, what does this all mean?”

“What it means,” Zophia replied, “is that this childhood friend is the woman from the Black Guild, with some ulterior motive for getting close to the doc.”

“What, really?” the elf asked.

“Considering their attack on the night festival, I think their faction within the guild wants to stick their noses into slums business, and that woman is part of their vanguard,” Lynga ventured.

“Indeed. Since Zenos is at the core of our peoples’ unity, taking him down would essentially leave the slums within their grasp,” Loewe agreed.