School Supplies.

[Calloway Sharr]

Calloway's eyes widened, ears perking straight up. "She's alive?" he gasped. His face lit up with a smile as he stood once more, shaking the water from his mostly-clean paw. "That's excellent! She will surely be able to clear me of all of this."

He hesitated, eyes narrowing at Falk. "And if you spoke to her just minutes ago, she did clear me, right?"

[Caethras Maur]

"She says she never saw her attacker," Falk replied. "Says he came at her from behind while her dress was over her eyes. She felt claws grabbing her arm, and then her throat was torn." He folded his arms and glowered at the Khajiit. "She welcomed you, gave you an audience, gave you business out of the kindness of her heart. Do you even care that her life was in danger?"

"How is your hand, by the way?" Caethras interjected. "The one that was poisoned. Steward Firebeard got some on his hand, and he had to be tended by the court mage. I do hope you didn't suffer any permanent damage."

[Calloway Sharr]

"Of course I care!" Calloway snapped back, his ears flattening back against his head as his tail puffed up and lashed behind him. It seemed there was no hiding this Khajiit's emotions. "I'm the one who caught her as she fell! I helped to staunch the blood flow! I'm the one who called for help! In those few seconds, what more do you think I could have done?!"

His furious outburst was tempered only by Caethras's question, and thinking upon it brought Calloway down from the rage high he had let course through his veins. Tail still lashing, he straightened his posture, and his ears as he took a deep breath, using it to calm his nerves.

"It still aches a bit and my claws are stiff in coming out, but I'll be fine," the tailor answered. He then glared at Falk, speaking through his teeth. "I would have been better if I'd been given the soap and water I asked for, though. My means of dealing with the problem - while effective enough - were less than desirable, and a proper clean with lye soap afterward would have likely done me even better. But I'm fine, no thanks to the representative of the court, who apparently knew exactly what I was going through. I'll be lucky if I can do more than darn socks by tomorrow night, at the rate my dexterity is returning."

[Clark]

The young mage sat thinking about all he had seen and heard. Falk and Caethras continued questioning Calloway about his paw, causing the Breton to check out. Something was bothering him. Something he couldn't quite put his finger on. None of what was going on made sense. Clark finally stood.

"Master Firebeard, Officer Maur, I still don't think Calloway did this. His 'plan' if you can call it that, makes no sense! You won't stop teasing him for being so concerned for his clothes, which he won't even allow to get dirty, even in this place! Yet, you choose to ignore that when it comes to the dress Lady Elisif was wearing when the attempt on her life took place. Secondly, look at his injured paw. Why would a poisoner poison himself? Calloway is a tailor! If he were in fact an assassin, why use his claws to deliver the poison? After all the trouble he went through to get Lady Elisif to try on his clothes, why not just poison a needle instead and prick her when he was adjusting the clothes she liked to be taken in? He could pack his things and go, and then when he was gone, the Lady Jarl would just pass away? That way he wouldn't be affected by his own poison!"

Clark took a moment to give an aside to Calloway, "It was good thinking on your part, by the way."

The mage returned his attention to the officials. "The Blue Palace is still locked down, right? Sealed tight by the guards and the Thalmor? Gather everyone in the foyer and when everyone is accounted for, keep them there while we look for the poison, a weapon, and Calloway's circlet. I think it's a good bet that if it didn't get kicked under a table or nightstand, it's likely in the possession of someone who knows something about what happened."

Clark looked Falk right in the eye. "No one wants to hear that Skyrim justice is sloppy and haphazard." He looked at Maur. "And are you really going to allow people to say that Thalmor are lazy investigators?"

[Caethras Maur]

"Steward Firebeard, I think we've heard quite enough, haven't we?" Caethras said.

The red-haired Nord sighed heavily and laid a meaty hand on the mage's shoulder. "Clark. Could I have a word with you, please?"

Falk guided Clark toward the back of the dungeon, where the flagstones were rougher and slimier still and the darkness seemed to sop up the torchlight like a sponge. For all its sparseness, Calloway had inherited one of the best cells in the place, if only because the guards preferred to avoid the worse ones. "Listen, son, I know you're trying to help," the steward said. "But do you honestly think we haven't thought of these things already? Of course there are things that don't add up, but that doesn't make him innocent, any more than it makes him guilty. Bolgeir is already questioning everyone in the Blue Palace, but until he finds something, Mr. Sharr is the closest thing we have to a witness to the crime, and it's plain to everyone that he's hiding something. We're not going to find out what that is by letting him off the hook."

---

Lord Maur elevated his chin as he stared down the indignant tailor in the cell. "Well, that's one thing we can rectify," he said. "Guards, fetch more water, and some soap. Whatever you happen to use, if you use any at all. Perhaps some shoots of yellow mountain flower as well."

The two guards shot incredulous looks at the elf, then trundled off up the stairs, leaving Caethras alone with the accused. The Thalmor general stepped closer to the iron bars, towering over the Khajiit.

"That was an impressive collection you had arrayed before the Jarl," he said. "Especially considering you entered the palace with nothing more than a carpet bag. I'm curious - how on Nirn did you manage to bring in so much clothing without anyone in the palace noticing?"

[Calloway Sharr]

The pleasant smile which had begun to work its way up Calloway's muzzle at the thought of getting actual soap and water was dashed as the elf proved he had not forgotten about Calloway's bag. Ears flattening, the tailor sat back down on his little pile of clean straw, and let his tail wrap around his ankles to keep as much of it off of the floor as possible. Caethras was no fool, he knew Calloway was more than he appeared, but he did not know how much more, and that knowledge kept the tailor at the advantage for the time being.

Flexing and unflexing his right paw, the Khajiit shrugged. "I thought it was rather obvious, really," he answered. "I explained it to your liutenant, last night, rather surprised she didn't come report it to you, right off. It's enchanted. Cost a right fortune, but it beats having to hire someone to haul my wares for me. I can fit a great deal of my wares into my bag, providing they are packed correctly, but it is far from limitless. If you want such an enchantment, go see the mages in the Imperial City. They're the ones who did it up for me. Bring me the bag and I can even show you how it works, if you want. Not like I'm doing much of anything else, here." Calloway waved his left paw around the emptiness of his cell. "At the very least, someone could bring me a book to read, or something. It's dreadfully dull, down here. No wonder prisoners wind up rioting so much, or beating or raping each other, if they have cellmates. Nothing else to do."

[Clark]

Clark understood what Falk was trying to say. Maybe it was Clark who didn't understand what he was trying to tell Falk. The young mage scratched an itch under his novice's hood and took a deep breath.

"But there's something..." Clark trailed off. "Wrong." Why did this eat at him so?

"I'm sorry, Falk," he said at last. "I promised I'd watch for him. Vouch for him. I need to see it all with my own eyes. He was allowed into Solidtude on my honor. If he did attempt to assassinate Elisif, then this is just as much on me as it is on him. And something about all this does not add up for me. I'm going back to the Blue Palace and make absolutely sure there's nothing wrong or missing from this picture."

Clark turned, walked directly past Caethras and Calloway and their hushed conversation, then up the stairs and out of Castle Dour. Clark fidgeted on the way, shaking out his hands and manifesting one spell after the other.