In a stunning and terrifying move the morning after the Masque, Mont Nuit awakes to a chilling warning. A cloak is hung from a rope on the gates leading into the Night Court, a rather significant cloak, a cloak of a particular color. A sangoire cloak. Upon Phedre’s cloak is pinned a note that reads “No prostitutes in the Palace” and it is signed with a Navigator’s star.
A group of new friends; Niklos Shahrizai, Sahar Bareket Auclair, Adiun Terresande of the Priesthood of Elua, and Constance de Mereliot, first comforted Odilia when she saw the warning, having returned from where she stood the rest of the Vigil with the Dauphin after leaving the Masque at Cereus. Then they proceed to the palace to assist Captain Remy LeBlanc of the Royal Guard with discovering the identity of the traitor. The clues they piece together – shoe polish in the wardrobe where the cloak is kept, witness from the guards about a young man dressed as a lion, the clues in the note itself, and the information they were given by a palace maid, Marian – led them to a young, ambitious noble named Cyran de Somerville. Cousin to the ruling Duc Jourdain de Trevalion, his lineage goes back to the famed Lioness, as it appears, so did his treachery.
The youth’s manservant admits to all and the party witnessed the young Cyran reveal his treason to a betrayed young Princess Livette de la Courcel, who takes this betrayal personally for she thought Cyran was a friend. He tries to explain, to assert that it was necessary to keep a courtesan from controlling the throne, but the princess orders he be taken away.
The Princess reeling, the City still afire with the gossip of the theft and the warning, it is clear that this Masque and the events of the day afterward will have an effect on the country moving forward. A bold move like this by young Cyran will certainly cause ripples…
