Luckily, Astrid and Blue are often on the same page about a lot of things. That is mostly due to their adventuring and living together, though sometimes their moral compasses don’t cross because, to be frank, Blue didn’t exactly have one or know what morals were before meeting Astrid. Sometimes Blue’s lack of a compass is them making a decision for themselves because they simply don’t know all of society’s many, many rules.

So, Astrid ponders Anslem’s questions and answers them as best she can. “Well, the guild don’t exactly consider this a problem of theirs since we’re the ones that made the mess a’ thin’s, but more than that… Erm…” She falters, unsure of how to explain what she does know of the situation. She decides to be cautious but truthful. “Well, Wolfe’s old armor set used ta belong ta some knight, so when we showed up ta recover stolen stuff, the mob thought Wolfe was that knight. Guess they had some beef with ‘em, so we kinda absorbed that beef by happenstance.

“An’ then the lady harassin’ us, she came after us a few times. Mostly after me, I think, ‘cause she’s real mad me an’ someone else beat her in The Pits a while ago. We hadn’t recovered stolen stuff from the mob before she came after us the first time, so… guess I’m thinkin’ they started workin’ together after that.”

She takes a deep breath after speaking so much, and Blue says simply the big problem. “Aye, she’s slippery. An’ real tough. Always seems ta have new tools ta try ta take us down with. An’ I think she’s more bold ‘cause she attacked us in broad daylight in Thorock not that long ago, so she’s either real desperate an’ crazy, or she’s got someone that’ll get her outta a sticky situation. Given a buncha weak guys from the Frosty mob or whatever they’re called came after us a few times, makes sense they’d hire someone with a better chance.”

Clearly, Astrid’s put a lot of thought into this and simply doesn’t know what to do. Blue’s solution is… Well, it’s simpler to say the least, and it causes a grimace to grace Astrid’s face. “I… I don’t even know if that’ll work,” she admits. “An’ I don’t particularly like it, even if she rightly deserves it. It’d be… easier. It'd get her outta our hair. But that won’t stop the mob from comin’ after us, an’ we can’t just find all their hideouts an’ kill a bunch a’ people just ‘cause they’re botherin’ us.”

She looks at Anslem. “I wanna take ‘em down, but I want ‘em ta pay fer what they’ve done ta us an’ other folks. Keep ‘em from doin’ anythin’ else. So like… somehow get ‘em in jail or somethin’ that’ll make it impossible fer them ta operate.”

Anselm narrows his eyes at Wolfe before his gaze drifts back over to Astrid as she speaks more rationally. He's not surprised that Astrid would rather solve the situation without unnecessary violence, but he's impressed that her reasoning considers the kind of backlash possible from such actions. He sees her as someone who has been forced to grow up quickly. A shame, but it has likely contributed to her survival as an adventurer up until this point.

"That is true. From what you have told me, it does not sound like you know much about this woman's connections. If she turns out to have more powerful friends, removing her may draw unwanted attention towards you unless we can deflect their attention." 

Though he's certain any poor sap would find themselves dead if they tried to enact retribution against the adventuring pair. Even if the two don't bloody their hands, others may take it upon themselves to take an eye for an eye endlessly. 

Astrid's suggestion of somehow getting these criminals jailed is certainly an interesting one. It wouldn't be the first time a rival crime group was taken down by the authorities after said authorities conveniently found incriminating evidence and a few bags of solars were slipped under the table.

"Hmm," Anselm hums. "I suppose if you have substantial evidence of this group committing crimes, I might be able to pull some strings in Charon's courts. Of course, if it turns out they are better connected, we may have a hard time getting them put away." 

There's always a risk when criminal gangs try to take one another out. It rarely ends quietly with no loose ends left swaying from the gallows. Anselm isn't too keen on taking unnecessary risks that would endanger his own operation and family. That said, he has plenty of reasons not to turn his back on Astrid and Wolfe's call for help too. Some of those reasons are more personal than others. 

"You are adventurers though, and you both have noble titles." Anselm rubs his chin as he considers the best way to handle this delicate situation. "If I can connect with anyone you know who is higher up in the political sphere of Charon, we may have a better chance of bringing in the leaders."

Blue crossed their arms in front of them and looked down, pouting. Of course, killing Ceena had to be some complicated thing they couldn't do for reasons the ooze couldn't comprehend that would cause them trouble they didn't want. Nothing could be nice and simple when you were dealing with fancy nobles and mobs and stuff. Who knew what else was going on behind the scenes that Blue and Astrid weren't even aware of? What they already were aware of was already too much for them. It was a frustrating situation for them to be in and it was at least partially Blue's fault they were in it. They'd had no idea eating some dead guy in a sewer would lead to this in the long run. It had seemed like a great idea at the time. Though, to be fair, eating always seemed like a good idea to the ooze, especially back then.

"Higher up in the political sphere...." Blue mumbled to themself, trying to think of someone. The highest up person they knew... What did that have to do with spheres? How are spheres political? Wait, did it have something to do with balls? Was that why the party with all the nobles was called a ball? Balls are spheres, aren't they? BUT WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH BEING HIGH?

Fuck it, they'd just try to think of names of important people that might be able to help them. Forget all the high political ball stuff.

"Count Thadda?" Blue suggested with a shrug. Thadda lives on a mountain, right? That's pretty high up. They should ask Thadda next time they see him if he likes balls.

To be fair to Blue, eating a dead guy in the sewer isn’t the only reason this mob is after them. It’s the whole robbing their black market operation to recover bodies for the Mage’s Guild that were stolen out of a crypt. And Ceena is a whole ‘nother problem who seems to have just allied with their other problem. The mob wasn’t that much of a pain point for Astrid and Blue until Ceena opened her big mouth and revealed information that will probably help take her or her potential employers down, and having a mob off the streets would be good for plenty of people.

Things really are overly complicated.

Anslem mentioning having substantial evidence gets Astrid thinking. When they initially broke into the hideout, they found a ledger and took down (read: accidentally killed) a couple of the goons hired. They also got a decent look at the lady in charge. Astrid wonders if Blue ate any of the evidence and if they still have it, but how the heck does she ask that? Her eyes dart over to Blue and then she pulls her hood over her head^[1] and motions for Blue to do the same. Then, she telepathically asks, I don’t s’pose ya have anythin’ floatin’ around inside a’ ya from when we broke in? Like crates or ledgers or even…did ya eat anyone?

On one hand, she hopes they didn’t eat anyone. On the other hand, she feels like they might have. And so Astrid wonders if she could repurpose the magic that she uses to call on Melodia to call on one of the dead mobsters. Maybe they could even use Melodia as a false witness. How would anyone know if a ghost is lying?

After the exchange, she nods in agreement about Thadda. “We’ve got a good enough relationship with Count Thadda, an’ he represents Dragon’s Cradle in Sol City, so he could probably help us get in ta make a case against these bozos botherin’ us. But fer evidence…” She hesitates while the writer waits to find out Blue’s answer.

---

1. Red Rogue’s Hood

Anselm tilts his head at the mention of Count Thadda. "That is a very good contact to have in your pocket," he remarks as if impressed. 

Count Thadda certainly does hold a prestigious and powerful seat in the current political hierarchy in Charon. Hells, they could get lucky enough to not even need solid evidence if they can convince Count Thadda to support them in getting these mobsters imprisoned. It wouldn't be the first time someone in a seat of power in Charon made unsupported claims that landed someone in jail, innocent or otherwise. A flawed and easily corruptable judicial system had its perks from time to time.

However, such a plan would only work if Wolfe and Astrid's relationship with Count Thadda is strong enough to sway the leader's sense of justice and morality. It is far more likely to be easier said than done. Having some incriminating evidence would make things a lot less messy in general.

His eyes narrow slightly as Astrid pulls up her hood and presumably Wolfe does the same. While he doesn't interrupt, he does watch the pair closely for any shift in their body language as they converse in secret.

He doesn't pick up much except for Astrid's hesitation. Taking that as not a great sign for raising a case against the mob in the first place, he considers what other options they have at their disposal. 

After a moment of thought, he proposes another solution. "If real evidence is hard to come by, we can always fabricate our own. A few conveniently placed letters, a paper trail of illicit trade, and some well-bribed witnesses to testify in a court of law in your favor can go a long way. I believe my son knows of someone within Sol City's legal system who may be able to provide some assistance given the proper incentive to do so."

He glances between the two. "Of course, we will only use tactics such as these if you are comfortable with the idea."

Blue pulled their hood up over their helmet, staring at Astrid as she mentally communicated with them through the magic of the hoods. They were not subtle at all, blatantly having a silent conversation right in front of Anselm. Even if they tried to hide it, sitting there silently for a few minutes probably would have tipped him off that they were up to something anyways.

"Uhhhh... Let me look..." Blue communicated back through the hoods.

The ooze had an impeccable memory of everything they'd eaten and could mentally catalogue everything currently in their infinite stomach. It was like all their memory went to that instead of remembering anything they saw or heard. Their memory of anything other than meals was iffy at best.

Now the only thing they needed to worry about was actually remembering what they'd eaten during their rampage through that underground auction hall. They could perfectly recall everything in their stomach, but recalling exactly when it had been eaten was another story. It was fortunate that a few items stood out though. There were a few books in their stomach, which was something they wouldn't normally be very interested in since they couldn't read. It must have been on someone that they'd... Well, it was a bit late to try and spit them back out.

Blue leaned forward and reached a hand beneath their cloak behind their back and pulled out a black leather book. On the cover was a silver embossed image of what looked like a five-pointed snowflake and pentagram combined. They handed it to Astrid.

"I think this is from there. What's it say?" Blue asked through the hood.

Looking through it, Astrid would find it to be a ledger of what had been for sale at the auction that night. Among the various items, the corpses of the mages stolen from the Mage's Guild was included as well as a number of magical items and materials, many of which were still inside Blue's stomach. Whether these items were all stolen or if some were created by the mob wasn't certain, though it was much more likely they were stolen.

Astrid is completely aware of how obvious and possibly awkward it is to just have a silent conversation in front of Anslem. Neither of them do a very good job of hiding it, but she can’t just ask certain things of a certain ooze aloud. That would be very not good to reveal in front of Zarius’ father.

She silently thanks the gods, dead or not, that Blue doesn’t just pull out a dead or dissolved body. Instead, they pull out a ledger. Astrid’s eyes light up, and she tosses the hood off her head and takes the ledger, flipping through. “Ah, this is perfect! This is exactly what we got outta there! I knew ya would have somethin' tucked away.”

With her quick glance Astrid does not realize that the ledger is full of lines of things that seem perfectly reasonable and not illegal whatsoever. The mob knows better than to be caught so easily. Lines of shipments that might have actually been mummified bodies stolen from the Academy are written off as simple medical supplies. Fenced artifacts traded for gold and silver are penciled in as manufactured goods. As much as Astrid hopes this ledger is good to use, it might only prove innocence…

At least, in its current form.

Then, she steps over to Anslem and presents to him the ledger. “I ain’t sure how much a’ the stuff in here is legal or not, but it might give us a good start.” She considers for a moment, Anselm’s solution. Bribery and invented evidence? “Well… They’re bad folks, so seein’ ‘em put in jail fer what they’ve done is exactly what they deserve.”

Yeah. These two are not subtle. But Anselm patiently waits regardless, seemingly unfazed by just how blatant they are speaking in secret in front of him. 

He takes the ledger and flips through its pages. There's a moment where he makes a bit of a face and rubs his fingers together as if noticing some odd residue or texture to the book that isn't normal. His eyes flit to Wolfe for a moment before he goes back to reading the entries on the page.

To the untrained eye, the ledger doesn't seem particularly suspect or incriminating. However, seeing as Anselm is beyond familiar with hiding his own paper trails from the likes of the Stablemen, he quickly picks up on a few things of note, including discrepancies with handling instructions, weights, and values of different items. The problem is that it is well crafted enough to fool most people unless they have a criminal background, and it's not like he could take this to authorities and explain how he knows what he knows. Still, the ledger does have some value to their situation. 

"We can work with this." 

He already has a pretty good idea of how to use the samples of handwriting to their advantage. They could also look into these business partners to see if there are any other ties to the criminal underbelly. It'd be a good use for the contacts Caedes and Zarius worked so hard to secure the previous year.

"Give us a few days. With some luck, we will see results sooner rather than later."

Blue was glad the book actually seemed like a good piece of evidence. They had plenty of other stuff from the auction hidden away, but they didn't know what would be useful. Useful, and not alarming for Anselm to see them pull out of nowhere. Some of the items they'd eaten were bigger than they were at the moment, since they'd gone on a rampage in the auction house while they were in a much larger form. They couldn't eat things bigger than them, but they were able to temporarily grow larger to solve that problem. It was a good thing they could do that, or lugging those dead mages' coffins out of there would have been a lot harder, and getting out of there alive had already been difficult enough.

Some other items they'd considered pulling out:
A huge sack of gold coins they were pretty sure they'd eaten at the auction house, but they weren't a hundred percent certain, so they decided against it.
Some demonic sigils carved into stones. Too bad they couldn't read and just assumed the sigils were normal letters.
Some vials of some kind of pink, opaque liquid. They just didn't know how those would be evidence of anything illegal going on. They also didn't know these were incredibly illegal drugs.
A curly horn. Blue couldn't identify the horn for what it was, a woolful horn. Which, while not technically illegal to own, just showed these guys were bad enough to hurt innocent woolfuls. Just real assholes.

All that stuff was listed in the ledger anyways, though in code. The demonic sigils were ironically listed under the guise of artisan hand soap.

Blue gave Astrid a thumbs up. Looked like this had been a worthwhile trip and their mob problems would soon be dealt with!

There’s palpable relief on Astrid’s face when Anselm says that the ledger is something they can work with. She smiles brightly and returns Blue’s thumbs up before looking at Anselm again. “Thanks, Mister Anselm. We ran into this group in the sewers a’ Sol City, so that’s probably where we should take ‘em down. We’ll talk ta Count Thadda an’ go through anythin’ else we snatched from the hideout so we can have it fer when we’re ready ta take these guys ta court. Then maybe we can take ‘em down an’ get ‘em outta our hair!”

With that, she gets up and offers Anselm a handshake. “I really mean it, thanks fer helpin’ us. I know it won’t be without owin’ ya a favor sometime, but havin’ folks ta rely on is what’s important, ain’t it? We’ll meet ya in Sol City next week! Also, tell Mister Zarius we say hi next time ya see him. I know he’s real busy, so we ain’t heard from him in a while!”

Having no idea the implication of what she’s said, Astrid heads out with Blue, though they needn’t go very far since she can simply stick her house key in a lock and open up the door to their home. They go directly from the sitting room of Zarius’ house to the foyer of their own home. She offers Anselm another wave goodbye before closing the door and turning to Blue.

“Alright, buddy, let’s get everythin’ ya ate from their hideout collected so we can bring it with us when we take ‘em ta court. Erm… though ya ate some folks that we knocked out, so… maybe don’t regurgitate them, okay? Don’t need da panickin’ about some skeletons in the livin’ room when he comes home.”

"Ah, sewers, the creativity of this group is astounding." The comment is probably sarcastic, but Anselm's dry tone doesn't really convey it well. 

The older fellblood takes Astrids hand and shakes it firmly. If she wasn't wearing gauntlets she would feel how rough and calloused his hands are from years of martial weapons training and the crookedness of one of his fingers from an old injury that healed a little funny. Even with the gauntlets, she can feel how strong his grip is. 

"Next week it is. Do try to not get in more trouble until then." 

He gives a curt nod in response to the request to pass on the message to Zarius, but makes no further comment on that.

He looks at Wolfe and gives him a nod as well. "Take care, Mister Wolfe." 

Anselm watches the pair leave through a magical portal connecting the sitting room to a place he does not recognize. Despite the surprise, he barely emotes and just waits until they vanish from sight. He makes a mental note to speak to his wife about improving the mansion's defensive wards against such magics before taking the ledger to his office to start making forgeries to incriminate this rival mob group.

Blue nodded in agreement to Anselm. Sewers really did make a good hiding place. The ooze knew from experience, having hidden there themself before they found their armor disguise and made their way to the surface.

"I will." Blue replied as they returned Anselm's handshake. The gauntlet did a good job to keep his strong grip from squeezing their gelatinous hand directly and feeling as if they were shaking a hand made of slime, but it couldn't prevent their hand entirely from feeling slightly less solid than it should have. Something most people wouldn't even realize as Blue didn't shake hands often or for long. They gave Anselm's hand a quick grip of their own that showed they were more powerful a knight than they looked and then separated.

Blue walked through the door behind Astrid, wondering just what Anselm was telling them to take care of. He probably meant Astrid. Well, he didn't need to tell Blue to do that. The two of them always took care of each other already.

"Haha, don't worry. I won't spit out any skeletons. I already digested them!" Blue said proudly, giving Astrid a thumbs up with one hand and patting their stomach with the other.

In the privacy of their home, Blue didn't have to worry about keeping up their disguise. They reabsorbed their armor and reverted back to a humanoid-shaped blob of blue ooze. That made it much easier to spit out all the stuff they ate in the mob's hideout.

One at a time, object after object was pulled out and placed on the floor, the table, and the sofa, separated into piles depending on what category the object might fall under. There was a lot to sort through. Those mobsters were probably really angry about just how much profit they'd lost out on from losing so much merchandise. It really wasn't surprising that they'd send assassins after the two.

"Hmm, does this count as a weapon or a body part?" Blue asked, looking back and forth between the weapon pile and the body parts pile as they held a whip that looked like it was made of a suspiciously humanoid-looking spine.

Astrid is really not sure how to feel about Blue’s giddy explanation of why they can’t spit out the bones. Her face kind of twists slightly in quiet contemplation of how she feels before she decides that there isn’t anything to be done about it besides moving on. When they produce the spine-whip-thing, however, Astrid’s face scrunches up again. She doesn’t have any idea what to do with that. “Erm… I…” Does she want to test it? No. No, she does not. “I don’t know. Maybe just eat that one again.”

Together, the two of them go through everything Blue has to offer from their deepest bowels. The amount of other damning evidence Blue managed to swallow up during their break-in certainly feels like enough to help them with their case, so Astrid makes a list of everything and then makes a copy of the list which she neatly folds into a letter for Anselm to deliver by post. Maybe he can make some connection between the items in the ledger and what the two of them found!

With Blue’s help, Astrid stores everything neatly in a wooden case separated by dividers, which she asks Blue to keep inside of them until they go to Sol City. Once the day arrives, they can safely pull it out and carry it to the court.

There are other things they need to do first, so the next day, Astrid and Blue go to Thadda for some advice for what to do at the court in Sol City and how to proceed with this lawsuit – which he doesn’t exactly condone but can’t fault them for trying, though he is a little suspicious that their choice of representation isn’t any of the prosecutors from Dragon’s Cradle. Still, they get a short crash course on behavior, and he writes them a letter of recommendation stamped with his personal seal as one of the leaders of Dragon’s Cradle.

As prepared as they can be, Astrid and Blue dress in their best, assisted by Cantio, and head to Sol City to meet Anselm and file their suit properly with the courts.

Between their meetings, Anselm works within his networks and the connections his son has created over the past few months to carefully set in place all the pieces they need to get the crown to look more closely at this rival mob group. A few very convincing letters conveniently slipped into the hands of Stablemen agents eventually get word around to the proper authorities and it isn't long before the amount of evidence is hard for them to ignore. 

With the help of their contacts in the black markets, as well as some pulled strings-- and blackmail-- behind the scenes, all the pieces fell into place nicely. The only issue was getting someone within Sol City's court system on board to coordinate with nobility from Darkveil.

Sol City's prosecutors tend to have a bias against working for those from Darkveil given the high risk of them being investigated for corrupt under-the-table deals. They would much rather be the ones pointing fingers at Darkveil's nobles instead of arguing in favor of them. It's hard to ignore or deny that any client from Darkveil with deep enough pockets to hire a Sol City lawyer are far from innocent and a single slip of the tongue or error during cross-examination could spell disaster in even a mundane case.

Luckily for them, Zarius had laid the foundation for the perfect person to represent them in court. Someone with a respected reputation, silver tongue, and hatred for Sol City's government and noble class above all others. 

When the group reconvenes in Sol City, Astrid and Wolfe arrive to see Anselm dressed in a formal suit with an intricately embroidered long coat and standing with a few others accompanying him. Eirynor is one familiar face, as is the older sun elf woman from the underground warehouse. Both stand at attention and are on high alert for any signs of trouble.

Standing just to Eirynor's left is another familiar face, though maybe one Wolfe and Astrid have not seen in quite some time. A tall, red-haired satyr in a suit.

Anselm gives Astrid and Wolfe a nod in greeting as they approach. "Good day, Miss Astrid, Mister Wolfe. I would like you to meet the man who will be aiding us in court." He gestures towards Vakker to allow him to introduce himself. 

Vakker took a step forward and gave a curt bow, one hand behind his back and one hand in front of his chest. While his plain black suit and tie were a far humbler outfit than Anselm's embroidered coat, it was still obviously of high quality. A pair of silver caps on the tips of his horn and a silver band around his wrist looked to be the most flashy pieces he wore. He looked to Astrid with a warm smile and coldly analytical eyes.

"Vakker. A pleasure to meet you again Miss Astrid, or should I say Lady Stromstone now?" He introduced himself simply and greeted Astrid with a polite but knowing voice before looking to Blue. "And it's a pleasure to meet you, Lord Wolfe."

"Hi." Blue greeted him back with a small wave.

Vakker looked the armored knight up and down, but couldn't get any kind of read on the man. His face was hidden and he had basically no body language to speak of. Quite the enigma. An adventurer that had appeared out of nowhere with no history beyond their heroic deeds to find no matter how much he dug. It was easier to find information on the secret underground mob they were about to face in court. And now that mysterious adventurer had become a noble, along with the child Vakker had met at the Black Harvest Ball and still sometimes regretted not wiping her memory of seeing him sing to Zarius because of that awful dare. If she said a single thing about that to anyone, let alone Zarius's family, gods, he'd throw this case out of spite.

Vakker looked back to Astrid, still smiling, but now with a slightly threatening glint in his eye.