In a room adjacent to the larger dining/living room, Raed sat in a leather armchair behind a fancy oakwood desk.
Red for the rubies, silver for the base.
Raed colored in the enhanced drawing Tara made of the sketch that Kaiti left behind.
A silver triangle, with its corners inhabited by red diamonds.
Where had he seen it before? Something about the way those three red diamonds were placed inside the triangle looked like they were a pattern of sort.
Like a constellation?
Raed searched his shelves for any atlases of the night sky or any star charts.
He pulled out a medium hardcover book with the title 'La Fontaine's Map of the Celestial Forces' and opened to the index.
'Red'?
He scanned through for any mention of red stars.
There was an entry about a red spot in the sky that could be seen in the late summer months, which the astronomer and author of the book, Jacques La Fontaine, later would determine to be the planet Melgez.
By that was only one red "star". Raed was looking for any mention of a cluster of three or a constellation arranged in a triangle.
Constellations…
He was looking in the wrong place. As good of an astronomy text that the current book was, La Fontaine was a very unimaginative scientist who did not put any attention to constellations.
For that, Raed would need a different text.
Back to the shelf he went, shuffling around the books he stored away and never thought he would read.
Eventually he found a promising book, a larger tome both in the length and width of its cover, and the quantity of its pages.
'Myths and Folktales of the Modern Night Sky'.
He opened to the index and began searching for 'red' and 'three' and 'triplet'.
Nothing seemed to match.
"Are you searching for something, Master?" Tara asked.
Raed almost jumped out of his chair.
"Tara!" He exclaimed. "I forgot you were still here."
Tara nodded.
"I have not left," she stated.
"Yes, I realize that now," Raed confirmed.
She looked at him. He looked at her.
"Are you searching for something, Master?" Tara asked once again.
"Well, yes," Raed said. "That picture you drew for me, first of all where did you learn to even draw like that?"
"My mother was a painter," she said.
"Oh really? What was her name? Would I have seen any of her works?"
"Mara Trent."
Raed shook his head as he admitted, "Never heard of her."
"Mara Samuel?" Tara said.
"Nope."
Tara gave no hint of any emotion.
"She was not a very popular artist," she said.
"Still, she must have passed on her talent since this is an impressive drawing," Raed said.
"Thank you, Master. Second?"
"Second? Huh, oh yeah," Raed got up and walked to the wall on his right where another leather armchair rested against it.
He pulled it next to his desk. Taking a seat in his original chair, he motioned for Tara to sit in the new one.
"The three red diamonds in this triangular formation reminds me of a constellation," Raed said.
He slid the large book that was opened to a random page over so that it was equally between him and Tara.
"I've been looking for anything that talks about three stars in triplet, but I haven't been able to pinpoint the right words."
Tara peered over to look at the silver triangle enclosing three red diamonds.
"The Three Sisters," she said.
"The what?"
Raed was not well-versed in astronomy, so he did not know what that was.
"The Three Sisters, the constellation consisting of the stars Amarilys," Tara pointed at the top star in the triangular formation.
"Konorus," she pointed to the bottom left star.
"And Herforzen." She pointed at the bottom right star.
"The Three Sisters always stay the same distance from each other that's why they are good to use for positioning," Tara explained.
"Ok, how do you know that?" Raed asked, thoroughly impressed.
"My father was an explorer who mapped part of the eastern coastline of the Western Continent," Tara said.
There was more emotion in her voice than usual (which was very little).
"He was? What was his name?"
"Leager Samuel."
Raed shook his head while he admitted, "Never heard of him."
Tara's voice returned to its natural emotionless state.
"He got lost on the return trip and the first mate took all the credit," she said.
"I'm sorry to hear that," Raed said.
"It's ok. I eliminated that traitor."
"Traitor? What did he betray?"
Tara looked Raed cold in the eye and said with a serious face, "His honor to my father, his captain."
Raed looked with some concern at the soft-spoken expressionless young woman sitting next to him.
"I'll remember how dedicated you are to honor," he said. "Let's get back to the Three Sisters, yeah?"
Tara nodded, all while never breaking her solemn stare.
Three Sisters, that would be under "T".
Raed flipped to that part of the index and scanned the entries.
Found it.
He turned through the many pages until he reached the passage about the Three Sisters.
It was an illustrated page with a picture of three circles arranged in a triangle. Under it, in large fancy bold letters, was the name, 'The Three Sisters of Fate'.
"The Three Sisters of Fate are named after an ancient Gallean myth about three goddesses who ruled over the three domains of the mortal world," Raed read.
"The eldest sister, Aglaea, watched over the domain of memories. She ensured that the lessons of older generations would not be lost through the passage of temporary lives.
"The middle sister, Colette, ruled over the physical domain. She maintained the everyday conscious experiences of mortal beings.
"The youngest sister, Ember, presided over the imaginary realm. She guided the dreams of mortals beyond their limited scopes.
"Interesting," Raed said after he finished reading the introductions to the goddesses the stars represented.
"But who would use it as an insignia? A religious cult?" Raed wondered aloud.
At that moment, a knock at the door broke his thought.
"Come in," he said.
The door opened smoothly, and Leif entered.
"Leif! Did you and Yui work out a backstory yet?" Raed asked.
Leif nodded.
"We did. She will be Yui Wollan, my brother's widow."
"You have a brother?"
"No, I do not. He was my twin brother. We looked the same, we had the same interests growing up, we even fell in love with the same woman."
"Right I get it," Raed interrupted Leif. "Your dead twin brother is just you."
"That's right. I'm no good at imagining fake people, so I thought this would be an easy solution."
"If you and Yui think it'll work and you can keep it up as we go around completing quests for the guild, then go for it."
Leif nodded. He stepped over to the desk where Raed and Tara were poring over a large book with stars and constellations.
"Are you working on something?" Leif asked.
"We are," Raed replied.
He pointed at the page about the Three Sisters constellation and then to the colored triangular symbol with the three red diamonds.
"I wondered where I saw this, and I believe this is a reference to the Three Sisters constellation. I'm not sure exactly how this relates, but when Kaiti probed the mind of that demon bandit she said she saw this as an insignia on the rings of their collaborators."
Leif looked over the symbol. A similar recognition, however fleeting, crossed his face.
"The Fates," he said.
"You know about this too?" Raed asked.
"Yes," Leif said. "It's one of the few constellations that can be seen year-round in Volkundia and other Northlund territories. Even as far north as the Netherfringes, it's possible to see it. They also represent our three mortal world guardians in the poetic epics of Formation and Fragmentation."
"Tell me more about this," Raed said.
Tara also looked more attentive as Leif began telling a summarized version of the tale.
"Asta, Kachina, and Halina," Leif said, "were the three goddesses of the mortal realm, who were born after the world formed and then split apart."
"And they represent a different aspect of mortal life?" Raed asked.
"I'm not so sure," Leif said. "I never thought too much about the stories, just that those were the names we gave to the stars. Asta was the oldest and so she was always first to be seen on top of the night sky. Kachina and Halina were twins so they would fight over who would be seen second."
"And are there any groups that worship those goddesses?" Raed asked.
"Not that I know of," Leif replied. "Most religions like that disappeared even before the Netherworld invasion. At least I never knew anyone who practiced the old faith."
"And the ancient Gallean tradition is almost unknown to the majority of Galesia's people," Raed said.
"Some people say that Galesia's old myths borrowed stories from the Northlund," Leif said.
"It could be the case," Raed agreed, "but I'm curious where this symbol originated."
Leif studied the image of the three red diamonds in the silver triangle.
"Raed, does this have something to do with the underground bandit hideout?" Leif asked.
"As much as I'd like to move on and ignore it, I get a feeling that it might come back to haunt me if I do," Raed said. "You noticed how well-crafted that dungeon was, and in the middle of the woods too."
Leif nodded.
"I did not go down the dark hole with you. I too would like to know what you saw." Tara said.
Leif jumped up from where he stood across from Raed and Tara.
"Ah I didn't notice you were there. Ta...ra?"
"I was here since you entered," Tara said.
"Remember how the door was made from iron and the floor around it was marble?" Raed asked Tara.
Tara nodded.
"When Leif and I went down there, we found that the walls and floor were made with rather good materials and craftsmanship. A little too good for bandits in the woods."
"It would have required a group of maybe five, with at least one master builder," Leif added.
"How much would you estimate that to have cost?"
"At least one hundred auruns for each worker a day. I know if Master Goran had a project like this he would ask for at least two thousand upfront, and a half additional hazard pay."
"And something to that scale, it would have taken weeks?"
"More likely months. The area is remote and the clearing was too small to store equipment and materials on site. But that also makes no sense, Raed."
"Why?"
"If the builders had to move everything to and from that clearing, they would need to pass through thick forest. The trees are too close together to fit carts or trucks, and it would be very inefficient for them to carry everything by hand."
"And there were no cleared out trees leading up to the area, not unless they grew back quicker than any tree I've seen," Raed said.
"Do you think there was a hidden path?" Leif asked.
"It's possible, but then they'd have to carry everything for some time. You saw how thick the trees were even past the first few."
A voice snuck between Leif and Raed.
"How about a magic array?" Tara asked.
The two men turned to her. Then back to each other.
"That would be quite concerning," Raed said.