Hohenfels

Arne tried to get a read on the newcomer’s aura, which turned out to be rather difficult. Despite the short distance of barely eight paces, it seemed a little fuzzy to Arne’s senses. ‘Feels like a particularly powerful warding amulet.’

“Good evening. I’m afraid this niche is occupied.” Arne made no effort to be accommodating, realizing that the bloodstained table and the barely visible half-dried puddle on the floor might put Katharina and him in a rather precarious situation if the young man noticed them. He was glad that the saber was mostly obscured by the fallen shelf, since the blank blade would have been obvious even in the dark.

The young noble straightened out the sleeves of his antiquated, but elegant doublet. “I see. My apologies for the interruption. Have a good evening.” With that, he bowed and left.

Arne waited until he could no longer feel his presence before he allowed himself a breath of relief. Katharina, who had remained silent during the brief exchange, relaxed as well and looked around.

“We should probably deal with this sooner rather than later,” she said, gesturing around.

“Right. But how? It would be quite difficult to explain. Dragging cleaning supplies in here ourselves would look even more suspicious, and staying quiet about it might cause a major uproar should it be discovered by accident.”

She considered that for a moment. “It would be best to stay close to the truth. We could say that you were inspecting your saber when I arrived. My sudden appearance startled you and caused a bloody, but superficial cut.”

“Sounds like a plan. Should we go fetch a servant?”

“Not yet,” she replied. “There should still be quite a few people out and about, and the two of us coming out of the library together at this hour… Well.”