Simon is the steward on the lower council who is responsible for all lesser holdings in north Cses. He had never encountered a problem from the Harrigniad Institute, so he read and re read their report, to make sure he was seeing the error correctly: They used 12 jars of pure spirits this quarter, all for various experiments. They started the quarter with 3 jars, and bought 10 jars. They now report that they have no jars left. Someone had stolen or smashed a jar, and this was serious.
Less than twenty minutes later, the Grand Steward, Elas Uonba, is holding this report in his wizened hands. His eyes darken when he learns that an entire jar went missing. "This could be serious. No doubt they've merely dropped the jar. Thank you, Simon, for bringing this to my attention.", Elas looks across the cluttered desk to Simon, who nods his head. Elas then continues, "We must know they'll never do this again. Find an Adjudicator and discuss an appropriate punishment.".

---

About two weeks after a punishment was agreed upon, three riders show up at the gates of Stonefall. Two guards, and one member of The Department of Justice. They rest for a few hours, then are seen by the Lady of House Komos, Countess Sylla. The Adjudicator explains the situation with the Harrigniad Institute to her, finishing with "... and of course, we contacted you because we want no trouble with the Institute in question, and we doubt Head Scholar Carn could withhold important information from the likes of you. You will have no crown assistance, but you are under the protection of the Department of Justice. You are also granted permission to go anywhere on the grounds of the Institute regardless of regular restrictions. Oh, and Director Carn does not know you are coming. Present him with this when you get there.". The Adjudicator smiles as they hand over a sealed letter, which Sylla would recognise as a rite of investigation. This would require that Carn provides hospitality and welcome to Sylla while she performs her investigation.

"Do you accept this task?"

Stonefall was a rather bleak looking castle, with no decorations, save a few large flags with the sigil of House Komos to remind the people of Stonetown of who their ruling lords were. As the riders were welcomed within the walls of the castle, they could see quite a few soldiers present both on the walls of the castle and inside of it, training with their various weaponry. This would be suspicious for most other houses, however, as a Marcher Lord meant to guard the kingdom from foreign incursions, Sylla needed to always have soldiers ready.

Lady Sylla was present there as well, currently overseeing the training of a few archers, with her husband and two of her personal guards at her side. She greeted the three riders with a polite smile, recognizing the insignia of the Department of Justice. She kept her smile and listened to the proposition that they had for her. Her smile grew slightly as she heard that she basically had to intimidate a Head Scholar suspected for stealing a jar of very precious spirit.

"I understand and accept the mission, sir." she said to the fellow from the Department of Justice, accepting the letter which he had handed to her. "I will head there as soon as possible with a few riders, you, however, please, rest here for the night, I'm sure you are tired from your travels all the way from the capital." With a wave of her hand, one of her guards nodded to her and began leading the three men inside the keep and to a few unused rooms within the keep itself.

Sylla waited until after the three men were no longer within earshot that she turned towards her husband. "My dear, organize twenty riders for me, this is an indirect order from the king himself and I'm afraid I cannot refuse it." She said, and her husband raised a brow as if wishing to ask what her plan was, before nodding and moving onwards towards the stables. Sylla now turned to her remaining guard with the same smile on her face. "You, my friend, will go back inside the keep and have a message sent to this Carn via raven that I wish to come and visit his institute in search for some knowledge!"

The guard nodded and headed inside the keep to have the message sent, while Sylla's smile grew to fariy large grin as she thought of the various situations this incident could go.

The morning sun rose on the Harrigniad Institute Administratum, a large light brown building with rectangular stained glass windows and a large blue dome sitting at the very top. Hanging from the sides of the building were several blue banners bearing the golden insignia of the Institute - a candle and the halo of its light.

On one of the building's open rooftops, a raven landed bearing a letter. Immediately, a staff member stationed there ran over, grabbed the letter and replaced it with a pre-prepared response, "Received. A raven may follow with further correspondence." Back inside, the staff member handed it over to another staff member, who handed it to a secretary deeper in the halls, who entered the office of the man he served - the tall, thin, onyx-haired man who currently stood at the large rectangular window facing the rest of the Institute.

"Director, a letter has arrived for you." He said as he placed the letter on a nearby table, next to a pitcher of cold water.

"Read it to me." The man, Carnith Harrigniad said. "I doubt this is anything you need not know. Otherwise, I'd have known long before this letter came."

Carn listened to the secretary as he read the message aloud, nodding all the while. When the letter finished he stood for a short moment before finally replying,

"Hoh. A visitor from the south wanting knowledge..." He walked to his desk and tapped his finger on the wood. "Alright, prepare the dorm guest rooms and prepare the best meals for our visitors, they'll be exhausted."

"Shall I have the archives prepared for their selection?" The secretary asked.

"If you deem it proper. But I doubt it." He picked up another paper from his desk and began reading. "If they were searching for knowledge, why go this far north? Hm?" He grabbed a pair of spectacles from the table and straightened the paper out. "They could go half the distance to the capital instead. They have compiled stores of all our knowledge. Even everything we hide or are tasked with keeping hidden, they have copies of in one of their secret archives. They aren't here for knowledge...they're here for something else..."