4. Silvershield Estate

Aiwë is a professional and does not stop her playing, but at the names Stella speaks she almost misses a beat.

"I haven't heard them before, but... Sarevok is an Orcish name." She looks around the room generally, but keeps watch over Koveras in her periphery. "It means... 'Son of Sara.'"

Stella flips through her tattered tomes, hoping something in them will stir her memories, or perhaps simply stimulate her mind enough to learn the answer as an extension of the divination.

"Mmm!" Stella's eye-stars shine with remembrance. "Sfena. I think that's the leader of the entire Iron Throne in Sembia," she says after thinking for a moment. "So the top of the hierarchy, I imagine. But Sarevok..."
"Oh, that's right! That suffix...it's" she snaps her fingers a few times, as if trying to conjure the meaning.
"Son of Sara," she says in sync with Aiwë. "Would that mean...Koveras' has a brother, then?" She wants to continue, but senses there's more weight to the revelation than she, personally, felt.

Is he simply part of the hierarchy, or do he and Sfena each have their own sets of goals and orders?

Koveras goes very still. "Sara... Sarevok." He seems, for the umpteenth time today, to be staring at nothing. "Stella, your spell is wrong. There are no other Anchevs." His voice is wooden. "I have no brother."

Aldous stops scraping the drum. "Maybe... maybe it means you, Koveras? Maybe you are going to give Rieltar an order. You know, like "Die!" or something?"

Aiwë stops playing as well. "Koveras... that's your name. Koveras backwards, it's Sarevok."

Koveras closes his eyes. "No. No, that can't be right. You're wrong, Aiwe."

His fists clench tightly. "I am Koveras. My mother gave me this name. My mother. Sara."

His eyes flicker open and he looks at the group, at Aiwe, pleadingly. "What is happening?"

Aiwë searches Koveras' face. She has suspected from the beginning that their group was intended to find him when they rescued Aldous. But why? And does Koveras himself know?

She can't tell. He is a good actor, she knows that. He had to be, to survive in Rieltar's household. Could he have been playing them this whole time? Or has magic been used to control him?

Dieters eyes shift between Koveras, Aiwë, Stella, then Aldous and back all the way to Saverok.

Normally he would wait for Aiwë to develop a more conventional plan but this was different.

Dieter melts into a cloud of mist and reappears behind Saverok in the same instant with rope in hand.

Dieter moves lightning fast to wrap the rope around Koveras, expertly tying the half-orc up as he has so many others.

Koveras breaks the rope.

A moment later, he's behind Dieter, a length of the rope wrapped tightly around the young man's throat.

Koveras suddenly shakes his head. "What... No!"

He lets the rope fall, revealing angry red welts where it was just moments against Dieter's neck.

His eyes go to Aiwë, and she sees confusion.

And fear.

"I'm sorry...!"

With sudden, supernatural speed, Koveras flees the room.

"Koveras, stop!" Aiwë's voice reverberates with magic.

Aiwë casts Hold Person on Koveras. DC 15 wis save.

Aiwë feels her spell easily overwhelm Koveras' mind - and then it melts away like oil from water.And then, moving so fast he's a blur, the half-orc is out of sight.

Aiwë curses. She turns to the party. Rapid-fire, she delivers orders. "Stella, Dieter, tell the the Dukes that we need to halt our plans immediately. Aldous, we need to catch Koveras."

She darts out the door without waiting for a response. "Koveras!" Her battlefield-trained voice echoes loudly through the halls. "We can't help you if you run!"

"There!" she urges the tiger. "Are you kidding me, Blood?" Aiwë shouts out to Koveras. "A window?"

The tiger whips into the room with the broken window and leaps outside, Aiwe barely ducking enough to keep from hitting the window's frame.

She finds Koveras facing her from across a large section of garden. He looks ready to take off again if she comes any closer. "What am I supposed to do? I need to get away. Lay low. Think things over."

Aiwë pats the tiger, telling it to stop. "Get away from what?" She hops off the tiger but stays next to it, her hands spread nonthreateningly. "What you're supposed to do is take a deep breath, and then talk to me. Aren't we courting, or something?"

Koveras points at the manor. "Dieter attacked me, and you cast a spell at me. It doesn't sound like you're interested in talking."

Aiwë fixes him with a stare. "Dieter died in part due to your actions. He doesn't trust you, but he trusts me to handle this, now." She hopes. "I was worried that if you ran off I'd never catch up." She gestures to the throwing mallets on her belt and the tiger at her side. "Look, I'm sorry about the spell, but if I wanted to make this a fight I would have already."

Koveras takes a breath. "So, what? You want me to come back inside, into a place with people who don't trust me?"

He shakes his head. "Do you even trust me?"