Stoatorian Guard Open The Trenches The Prodigal Son Returns

[Caden S. Freemont]

"Where to get a rotten egg on such short notice?" Caden mused as he continued towards the office in question. "Oh. That...that changes things."

There was no longer a door where he had remembered at the end of the hall. Instead there was an alcove bearing several pieces of artwork and a standing suit of armor. A large oil painting depicting a battle from a forgotten age dominated one of the walls. The artist had put a great deal of work into the blood and horrific expressions upon the faces of the dying. Caden pulled his gaze away and checked his surroundings. Was this even the right hallway? It had been some time, perhaps he had misremembered. Within the alcove, if one were to stand at just the right angle, they were lost to view from those in the hallway.

He stroked his whiskers, tail flicking. "I could have sworn--"

He paused and squinted harder at the painting, then at the ornate, gold-flecked frame. "I remember this painting. Used to be in the Captain of the Guard's office. Gates, can you imagine looking at that every day?"

 

[Eirene Liu]

Eirene approached the newfound dead end, her eyes scanning the alcove curiously. The art and armor was an interesting touch, presenting just enough to draw the eye to pull it away from... There. A seam, very carefully hidden behind some moulding.

"You know," she commented, "in Hanshiman we have a saying: wu ren feng men, kai men bi yao. It means 'no one seals a door: to open a door is very useful'." She hesitated before admitting, "It is more poetic in my tongue. De point is, de door is still here, we just have to open it somehow." She stepped forward and started examining the armor, looking for any wires or joints in the articulation that might indicate a lever.

 

[Caden S. Freemont]

"Good eye," Caden said. He tapped at his spectacles. "Even with these, I don't see as well as most. Probably wouldn't have spotted that without you."

Stepping back and surveying the entirety of the hidden door from a remove, he titled his head this way and that. "I'm trying to remember how it opened, though there's no telling if they changed the whole mechanism, I suppose."

In her detailed inspection of the armor, Eirene could see the supporting stand bolted to the wall behind the torso. The connection to the stone wall looked solid, perhaps overly so. There were what appeared to be five sturdy bolts driven into the stone to hold the stand in place at what would be rib height were a beast wearing the armor.

 

[Neame Grosvenor]

Back in the hallway, the two guards exchanged glances. They weren't really sure who Eirene or Caden were supposed to be, and were less sure of what they were here to do or, indeed, if they were supposed to be around at all.

Of course, there were tours every now and then, and beasts sometimes got lost or wandered off, but those were usually clueless members of the aristocracy, bored young beasts led around by old-timers who prattled on about a life of service despite never having raised a sword in anger, nor worked the halls of the Ministry of War building. They typically found some beast who actually knew what they were doing or where they were supposed to be were gently directed back on a proper path after much hot air and complaining about how things had been better organized back in their day.

These two didn't look the sort. One was an athletic beast with the look of a fighter, the other dressed well enough to have been a clerk or a contractor in the Ministry's service, but also built well enough to have carried a weapon herself. In any case, neither looked like they knew where they were going, or how to get there.

The first of the guards, a stoat with the tip of his right ear missing, finally beckoned to the other, a dark-furred ferret, as though to get a move on. With a shrug and a sigh, the beast moved on, rounding the corner to peek into the alcove before presenting herself with an

"Ahem."

Looking from Eirene to Caden and back again, the ferret frowned. She hadn't been particularly stealthy in her approach, giving ample opportunity for them to try and cover their investigation of the alcove, but she had a hunch they weren't just there to gawk at the art and artifacts.

"You beasts lost?