They caught one of them two days after the fire.
A guard patrol found him skulking near the outer wall past midnight, a man dressed in plain traveler's clothes that did nothing to disguise the same foreign weave Petra had found caught on the archive room's broken lock. My father had him brought directly to the lower chambers rather than the public holding cells, away from courtiers and rumor alike, and summoned me before the questioning began.
"You don't need to be present for this," he said, studying my face carefully as I entered the chamber. "It won't be pleasant."
"I was in that building when the fire started," I said. "I'd like to understand exactly what we're facing."
He didn't argue further, though something in his expression suggested he'd have preferred otherwise. General Dora
