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| The Knights of the Rose and Cross - concerned about [[Aleksei]]'s tendency to get into trouble - send a Poor Knight to babysit him, the ex-slave [[Marie-Celeste Minuit]]. She joins the heroes in their regular habit of rotating homes to drink and talk and quarrel, and hears Aleksei inform his friends that a relative of his has been abducted by a one-handed man. Discussion of how to find this one-handed man is cut short, however, by the arrival of [[Sebastien]], who has come from the house of Lady Christine with news that a friend of hers is in trouble.
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| ==The Affair of the Handkerchief==
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| Sebastien had gone to see his paramour and heard sobbing inside; convincing Christine's maid to allow him entry, he discovers Lady Christine with a friend, Madame du Vere. Mme. du Vere - the wife of the Chevalier du Vere, a hero in army at El Morro - has been intemperate, and allowed a handkerchief with her initials to fall into the custody of Monsieur du Trois, a well-connected nobleman with a villainous reputation towards women. Indeed, Aleksei has heard stories of the Comte du Trois inviting impressionable women to salons and - so go the rumors - drugging them and stealing their virtue.
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| Now, M. du Trois is threatening Mme. du Vere: he says he will send her hot-headed husband the Chevalier the handkerchief, potentially ruining her, if she does not submit to him. Sebastien promises help and goes to join his friends at Aleksei's apartment, where they all agree that this situation is intolerable. After some discussion, the heroes decide that they will stop him: not just by returning the handkerchief to Mme. du Vere, but also ruining M. du Trois so that he cannot perpetrate such villainies again.
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| ==Marie-Celeste and the Comte du Trois==
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| The newest of these four friends is the first agent in achieving their plan. At a party at Le Labyrinthe, Marie-Celeste - an exotic beauty, to be sure - gains the confidence of M. du Trois, who invites her back to his hôtel. Sebastien trails her to the Hôtel du Trois to make sure of her safety, but she goes inside with the Comte.
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| Retiring to a salon, M. du Trois asks his manservant Desean to fetch two glasses of the Bordeaux '57. Fearing drugged wine, Marie-Celeste demurs, saying she likes rum, and so Desean brings those glasses instead. The glance that goes between master and servant makes plain to the Knight that these glasses, too, are drugged. An intricate dance follows: Marie-Celeste asks du Trois to play the harpsichord, and then distracts the comte as she swaps the glasses. She drinks and so does he, and as the drug takes hold she guides him to his room and drops him there senseless.
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| She searches the room and finds a handkerchief with a kiss and the initials "A.V." - Amelie du Vere - and proceeds to make her escape. She leaves, however, just as Sebastien sees a coach with L'Empereur's arms clatter up to the hôtel: it is Rémy du Montaigne, L'Empereur's cousin and Captain of the Lightning Guards, arrived for some unknown purpose. A pistol shot in the air distracts Remy from seeing Marie-Celeste, who escapes notice.
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| Meanwhile, Aleksei and [[Julien]] - the latter in a ridiculous costume as a Vodacce physician - have been at the party spreading word that M. du Trois will be holding a masquerade two days hence: after all, the easiest way to make a man hold a party is to invite people to it. In this, they are quite successful.
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| ==Interlude: Julien is Summoned by a Princess==
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| Before dawn the next morning, Julien is rousted from his bed by two men sent by Nicolette du Montaigne. They bring him to her - she is already dressed in pants and riding clothes, preparing to go out. A "friend" of hers - a smuggler named Isabel - has been captured by ''gabelous'', the special police who enforce the hated ''gabelle'', or salt tax. Isabel has been taken to ''Les Chaines'', an island prison north of the city on the Sineuse River, where she is to be executed. Nicolette needs to rescue her before that night, and needs Julien and his friends' help.
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| Julien, of course, complies: this is L'Empereur's daughter, and crossing her is dangerous. He sends to Aleksei, Marie-Celeste and Sebastien, all of whom take horses and go to meet Nicolette on the Rue Gauche north of the city. All five ride north, though the four friends are suspicious about the mission - who is this 'Isabel', and why is she so important? Julien has a private conversation with Nicolette where he perhaps learns the answer, but if he does he does not tell his companions.
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| All four companions adopt noms de plume: Aleksei is Le Bellete, the Weasel; Sebastien, Le Renard, the Fox; Marie-Celeste, simple "Marie", and Julien yet another of his many disguises. Nicolette, for her part, calls herself "Nicole."
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| ==Interlude: Fitful Sleep At A Surlign Farmhouse==
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| Escaping back to the river, the heroes recover their horses and - excepting Remy to begin searching for them - go to ground in the barn of a nearby farmhouse. There, they make a fitful rest, only for Aleksei and Julien to awaken the party. Aleksei - through some unknown means - has received word that a relative of his is in mortal danger one league north-northeast of the farmhouse, and if he is not rescued swiftly he will die.
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| Brief debate occurs over whether Nicolette and Isabel can be left behind; Isabel volunteers that with a sword, she can see her sister home. Aleksei offers the now-escaped smuggler his blade, and the fellowship of six becomes one of four and one of two as the four friends ride north-northeast, unsure of what they will find.
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| ==One League North-Northeast==
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| A league north-northeast is a country villa belonging to some unknown nobleman; settled outside is a large body of horses, and while there are few lights on upstairs Julien is able to see men patrolling through a basement window and hear the distant sound of screams. The heroes resolve swift entry: they find a back bedroom window, break it, and then subdue the sleeping old man within the chamber before sneaking out into the main hall. There, they set upon and subdue a party of rough-looking armed men and proceed into the basement.
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| More skilled swordsmen lie between them and their eventual destination, a large two-story wine cellar. The entry is on the second gallery level, and as the companions burst into the room they see a bearded Ussuran-looking man strapped to some sort of operating table in the room's center. A man in a butcher's apron is turning away from him with a phial of blood in his hands, and nearby is a one-handed swordsman: the same man, perhaps, that Aleksei has been seeking.
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| The one-handed man's lackeys rush the heroes; Marie-Celeste and Julien engage the lackeys while Sebastien responds to the one-handed man's challenge, leaping down and beginning to fight. Meanwhile, Aleksei pursues the surgeon, now fleeing with more men.
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| The one-handed man - crippled from his injury - is still a frightening opponent, his single blade flashing like a striking snake. Sebastien is overmatched, falling back, as Marie-Celeste and Julien finally dispatch the men in the galleries. Aleksei - realizing he cannot catch the surgeon - takes squinting aim with his pistol, shattering the phial in the surgeon's hands.
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| As Sebastien falls senseless, Marie-Celeste and Julien join the fight against the swordsman, felling him. The surgeon makes his escape through a secret passage, but as Aleksei returns to check on the bearded Ussuran on the table the swordsman staggers to his feet and stumbles towards Aleksei. The slight nobleman draws his other pistol and fires, killing the one-handed man.
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| With their enemies vanquished, the heroes return to the Ussuran and discover that he has passed beyond. Moving quickly, they recover several strange texts from the wine cellar and discover the swordsman's identity: he is a member of L'Empereur's Lightning Guard, complete with filigreed sword and a tabard stashed in his things upstairs. Armed with that sobering discovery, the companions take horse again and make for Paix.
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