18 — Epilogue Sheam and Johnathan’s murder investigation would be cut brutality short.

  The assassination of Daelus was considered not worthy of official attention by the delegation. Johnathan was forbidden from using any resources connected to his role as a delegate for any sort of personal investigation. He persisted in spite of that, but progress was stifled.

  Daelus' estate was seized by Phaeros–in his capacity as Mayor, so he cimed–and no one was allowed inside. It stood abandoned. The museum was quickly delegated to a new arrival, and the pns the Benefactors had for it marched on.

  It was beginning to look like it was the delegation itself behind the killing, not a rogue element at all.

  Sheam was let go, repced by an entourage. She lost the apartment. Johnathan pulled together some leads and found her a new job assisting a merchant with his shop. It wasn't enjoyable work but Sheam was good at it. This afforded her a new home in the city's outskirts, on the far side from Daelus' estate.

  The artifact was considered lost. A search of the museum was made the night Sheam successfully recovered it, but when it was not discovered by their enemy, the vilins’ interest in the thing seemed to evaporate.

  This told Sheam two things. First, the delegation had no idea how Daelus was using the entourage ability, so that wasn't a factor. Jaeger may still be connected somehow, so that was still worth following up on, but a direct connection was unlikely.

  The second was that they did not actually care about the artifact. They did object very much to Daelus having it.

  Sheam, the secret of her nature kept as a coveted secret, slipped through the cracks, with the artifact that the delegation seemed to no longer care about safely in hand. She finished cleaning it and transcribed the story–though its significance remained unclear–making the journal now just as, if not more, valuable.

  Johnathan, the only delegate who knew Sheam's secret, remained steadfast and loyal, just as his trust in the delegation and the Will of the Benefactors crumbled. He considered Sheam now to be every bit the friend Daelus was, though without the intimate affections.

  As for Daelus' other partners; Grégoire seemed unfazed by the entire matter. Delegates assassinated one another all the time, he said. He fell into his new colboration with Daelus' repcement without a hitch. Jossimer was livid in comparison (which could have been an act, but performed for who?) and got on with the new curator even worse than he had with Daelus. Delphiné simply vanished. No one knew where she had gone. Had she been assassinated as well? If so it had been done much more quietly.

  Time marched on with a new normal ossifying. As leads went cold Sheam and Johnathan began to lose hope of ever gaining answers.

  Then finally, one day, something new happened, as they tend to eventually do.

  — end of part 1