Abner was leaning over the headboard, craning his neck to read the notes in the gray-eyed woman's hand. He had barely made out the words "elves" and "temple" when Olavi's governor, Aston Rieveldt, pushed the door open.
The gray-eyed woman slipped the notes between the pages of a book, closed it, and set it on the bed.
Abner could hardly open it without permission. Even under Psychological Invisibility, he would certainly give himself away.
Aston climbed into bed as soon as he returned and began kissing the woman. A moment later, when he tried to take off her nightgown, she stopped him.
"Latitia, let's go again... Amelius spoiled the mood earlier, but I've found a lead on what you asked me to investigate." Aston smiled. Thinking she was upset that he had left earlier, he leaned close to her ear and spoke suggestively.
Latitia? That name sounds familiar... Gray eyes, skin weathered by sun and wind... And that name...
Could she be Leticia Dorella, the adventurer and Archaeologist who dug up the Book of Calamity in the ruins of Symeem Island's primeval forest, was corrupted by it, and met a gruesome end in the original story?
She's having an affair with Olavi's governor...
Wait. An adventurer and Archaeologist, and if I remember right, a Beyonder from the Moses Ascetic Order... So she's the Investigator the Governor's Mansion brought in!
As Abner considered the gray-eyed woman's background and identity, Latitia did not play coy and let Aston undress her as he had expected. She slapped his wandering hand away and asked, "You found my nephew already?"
Then her expression turned serious. "After you left, I compared the information your people gathered with some records from my organization. I found something about those ruins."
Abner, who had been about to retreat to