Chapter 23: The Witness

Investigations really would be easier if one wasn’t constantly being watched.

So long as Silent Serpent pretends that she’s buying the Ivy’s story, they remain quite docile, since any hostile action against the guard captain would give Canterlot all the justification it needs to strike. But that also means she has to keep up the act at all times, given the hooful of agents the Ivy’s have watching her every moment of every day. She’d even sent false reports to Canterlot claiming that there was no sign of foul play, confident that the letters would be intercepted by the Ivy’s agents.

Even now, laying in her chambers pretending to sleep, she can hear an agent breathing shallowly, though she had not been able to determine precisely where he is located. Still, she does have options, options that hopefully an ordinary intelligencer would be unaware of. Bit by bit, she’d been shifting around like a sleeping pony naturally tossing and turning, taking advantage of those movements to bunch the blankets up behind her until it had cut off the view of her body.

It had been quite some time since Silent Serpent had needed to use her particular magical talents, but as she focuses deep down inside of herself she feels the memory returning to her. Slowly, her physical form melts away, leaving in its place an only vaguely ponish form of shadow-smoke.

The world around becomes difficult to perceive, all sense of feeling and hearing vanishing into the blurry greyish monochrome seen through shadowform. Thankfully, though, she doesn’t need to move far like this, simply slinking from the covers down into a corner of the room where she can access her saddlebags and reforming into her normal flesh-and-blood self.

Now she just needs to find a route of escape; the bathroom window seems like the obvious option. Slinking into the chamber, Silent Serpent quickly cracks open the window and squeezes through, making sure to nearly fully shut it behind her; she only needs a small crack for her return so that she can seep through in shadow-form. With only a quick glance around to try and be sure nopony is watching, Silent Serpent takes off into the woods, flying below the tree-line so as to evade detection.

Only once the estate behind is completely out of sight does Silent Serpent alight on the ground. Quickly digging through her saddlebags, she removes a small, circular disk of polished silver. A talented wizard could probably have detected the faint magic inside, but to anypony else it looks like little more than a hoof mirror, an odd accessory for a guard captain but not beyond the realm of reason.

Silent Serpent rests against a tree and waves her hoof over the surface of the mirror, and then waits. The difficulty of telling if the artifact was working it’s magic or if she’d done something wrong is a recurring frustration with the item.

Still, in due time the surface of the mirror ripples as Silent Serpent’s own ashen face disappears, to be replaced with one every pony in equestria knows; the regal visage of Princess Celestia. Silent Serpent immediately dips her head in a show of respect. “Your majesty.”

“Do not stand on ceremony now, Serpent. It has been a taxing day.” Celestia states from the other side of the mirror. The chiropteran frowns slightly; the princesses disdain for formality when it isn’t absolutely necessary is certainly nothing new, but there is definitively something deeper wrong here. The white coat of the alicorn is somehow looking even paler than usual, dark circles in her orbits and the slightest twitch in her right eye breaking her usually-flawless poker face.

“Of course. The investigation has been proceeding apace, the Ivy’s have been exceptionally compliant regarding tax law and seem almost eager to pay the full sum. However, they have also been watching me at all times. It was difficult to evade their detection in order to have this meeting, in fact.” Silent Serpent reports. “They are most certainly hiding something, but as of yet I am uncertain as to what. They had debased the currency in their own treasury, but not the tax money owed to Canterlot; I can only assume they are trying to cover up some expense even at the consequence of having to pay more. Further, I observed some geometric inconsistencies with the estate grounds. The floor plans don’t quite add up, most of the rooms are slightly smaller than suggested. I will need more time to determine where, but I have a suspicion that there is a hidden chamber somewhere inside the castle.”