You sign the contracts as you ask the Lord for more information. Dusting the parchment, you blow off the excess dust and slide the scroll into a tube at your waist.

"The last group out was nearly forty strong," Lord Rhiner says. "Protected by a Free Company and a King's Knight. All that came back was the Knight's squire, a boy named Jonas, and a one-handed woman, a cur called Keet. The boy was… terrified. He could tell me nothing, so I sent him off. Keet, as curs do, simply vanished."

You express that you need to talk to these witnesses and Lord Rhiner looks slightly embarrassed.

"This city is a big place but I expect finding a woman with a wooden hand should not be so hard for you. I don't know about the boy. You are to set out tomorrow at daybreak from the King's Gate. Do not be late."