She was in place. it had not been easy, for the cabal had apparently split up. The stratagem was deep. Which group was going to do the real damage? Or was it that there were two weapons being weilded to supplement each other or perhaps to act as backup? High time to find some answers.

The apparently more powerful group led by the Trappist had headed into the heart of the city. They would be followed by the monkish beggar and kept under close external observation. Unbeknown to them the Cardinal had their friend Paulchen by the short hairs for something in his past.

But the Old Man was still here and the Cardinal suspected him the most. The Trappist was dangerous, but during his brief, enforced leave the Cabal had continued their deliberations without a stumble, or even a pause.

The Westerner was the writer, the craftsman, of their secret pamphlet, but he was not ultimately the author. The driving force, he who played with simulacra on many levels, was actually here and she was at his side, or more acurately at his feet!

The real apprentice had been neatly sidetracked as she disembarked from her Train. Now I would, hmmm, no, was, the postgraduate student from the Sorbonne. He, the Old One, would not deign to share his secrets with a lowly student, but then, she had her own ways of finding out, for wasn’t she the proverbial Cat?

Live to serve : Serve to live