They survived the night.
But in Bögenhafen, survival always leaves a mark.

While the city licked its wounds,
Desmi slipped into the alleys.

The Thieves’ Guild took her in quietly.
Not as prey.
As potential.

Under Ranald’s crooked smile,
she learned how locks listen,
how floors betray careless steps,
and how faith often hides behind quick hands
and quicker exits.

Scarlett chose another path.

Into marble.
Into law.
Into the Temple of Verena.

There, she uncovered what the city refused to say aloud:

Franz Steinhäger’s rise was no accident.
Not slow.
Not subtle.

Five years of quiet accumulation.
Since his return.
Since Gideon returned with him.

Power grows fastest when no one is watching.

Together, they went to the Town Hall.

Judge Heissman spoke with Gideon —
polite, measured, sealed tight.

No answers.
Only advice:

“Make an appointment.”

The secretary proved more honest —
for a price.

An ox roast.
A beer.
From The Golden Swan.

They paid with disbelief.

In the kitchens, they saw the truth of Bögenhafen:
faces too sharp, too cautious, too connected
to belong to simple cooks.

The cost of the meal
was the cost of a family’s survival for two weeks.

But Ranald rewards attention.

The secretary talked.

Steinhäger’s office.
Its schedule.
Its weak points.

And so, that night,
they broke in.

The dog was bribed.
Sausages bought loyalty faster than steel.

They moved like breath through corridors —
nearly caught twice by the city watch,
saved only by timing, shadows, and luck
already wearing thin.

In the wine cellar,
behind a false wall,
they found the truth.

A hidden room.
A summoning circle.

And when they stepped inside,
it stepped out.

A horror of Tzeentch —
shifting, laughing, wrong.

They fought.

It split.

Once.
Then again.

Smaller. Faster.
Too fluid to strike.
Too clever to corner.

They ran.

Steel ringing.
Breath burning.
The circle still active behind them.

🜍 Now…

Desmi knows what hunts the clever.
Scarlett knows what truth costs when written in blood.
And whatever waits in Steinhäger’s cellar
has not finished dividing itself.

❓ When the enemy learns faster than you can fight…
do you return better prepared —
or burn the house down before it follows you home?