With Reynard and Marien’s help, things moved faster. Guards ca from outside the hall, and Reynard ordered so of them to go out into the city and bring dics.
He had covered the mayor with a tarp and did his best to limit the number of people looking for him until the head of the mayor’s guard and his personal physician appeared at the scene.
By then, Reynard and Marien could finally step back and let soone else organize the ss. At so point, even a squad of city watch and an investigator had arrived to bring the perpetrators of the attack to justice.
Or, at least, to find out whose head the city should post a bounty for.
There were over a hundred injured by the first estimate, and a couple of dozen dead, both nobles and servants. So of them were frozen, so bled to death from glass and ice shards, and so were simply crushed in the stampede.
***
Two hours later, the mayor was lying in his four-posted bed, still frozen.
An old physician and his two younger assistants were standing nearby, after having examined his wound as much as the mayor’s frozen state allowed, and prepared for everything.
Reynard was on the other side of the bed. He had stayed close to the mayor the entire ti, fearing that the invaders might return, or (even worse!) that his Ring of Permafrost might be stolen.
There was also the captain of the mayor’s guard and the city watch’s investigator, ready to make notes.
Marien was outside, where Reynard felt an aura of so other magi. As expected, soone from the Orders of Snow and Winter has heard about the incident and sent people to check it out. Reynard hoped that a new fight wouldn’t start.
"We are ready, Mister Faust," the physician said, nervously holding a bandage doused in a potion. "Please, remove your spell."
"And for your sake, it better work as you promised it would, magus!" the guard captain growled.
Reynard huffed, hiding his own nervousness, and went to take off the ring from the mayor’s finger. As soon as it slid off, there was a final flash of the spell, and the diamond on the ring cracked.
The frost on the mayor’s body dissipated in an instant, and blood began to seep out of the wounds. Reynard stepped away.
"I hope you will be more polite when the mayor opens his eyes, captain..."
A physician’s assistant imdiately reached for the mayor’s neck to asure his pulse, while the physician himself and his other helper began to press on the wounds.
"There’s a rhythm!" the assistant exclaid in delight. "He’s alive!"
Reynard sighed in relief and threw a smug look at the guard captain. In his corner, the investigator was making notes.
Half an hour later, the mayor’s wounds were bandaged, and the man himself was put into a recovering sleep with a tincture. Washing his hands from blood with a wet towel, the physician turned to Reynard and the guard captain.
"Mayor Matiliy will live, all thanks to Mister Faust here. His wounds were severe, and he would’ve surely bled to death without professional help like mine, or without the spell that Mister Faust used." The physician bowed slightly to Reynard. "I will stay here and keep monitoring his state, but I am confident that the mayor will fully recover in due ti."
"When do you think he will be able to give an audience, sir?" asked the investigator.
The guard captain gave him a nasty look.
"When he decides to, and not a minute earlier. Go, hound soone else! You found that he’s alive. Now, this is my master’s place, and I will handle the rest of the investigation... And tell you what you need to know, and nothing else."
The investigator’s face grew sour, but he bowed his head. To Reynard, this was all quite amusing. No matter the world, the police could do nothing to investigate people who were paying their salaries. Although he wondered why the guard captain was so defensive in the first place.
"As you say, captain... Then I bid my goodbye. But, Mister Faust, may I ask you so questions first, if this isn’t a bother? Since you witnessed the attack firsthand, and even attacked the invaders," the investigator said, turning to Reynard.
"I can tell you already, they could have been almost anyone. Unless I knew a magus for a long ti, I wouldn’t be able to recognize soone from their aura alone, and their faces were covered well. But sure, fine. I will answer so questions, as long as they aren’t a bother."
Reynard gestured for the man to follow and went toward the door.
"Not a bother at all, sir!" the investigator said with so cheer, following Reynard.
"Please, when the mayor wakes up, tell him that I would like an audience as well," Reynard said to the guard captain on his way out.
However, before Reynard left, the guard captain suddenly called him out.
"Mister Faust! Please, don’t leave the place yet. I apologize for my skepticism earlier—but you must understand how things looked for ... Either way, the attack shows that soone wants my master dead. He will need reliable protectors, and you and your female friend have already protected the mayor once. I hope you will be anable to a bodyguard job. On behalf of my master, I will pay generously for it!"
"We... will think about that. But sure, see you later, captain."
***
After answering (most briefly) the investigator’s questions, Reynard t with the small delegations of both Orders of Snow and Order of Winter that had been arguing outside the mansion.
Both orders only sent so Nigredo magi, and clearly only to sniff around. The guards refused to let them in, although the magi insisted that they wanted to help in the investigation.
Maybe they could have pushed through with their authority, if they weren’t so busy arguing with each other.
Reynard would have expected Marien to be in the middle of this argunt, possibly starting a fight, but she was just watching from a distance with a haughty and impatient expression on her face. She only cheered up at the sight of Reynard.
"My prince! Oh, finally. Are you done? I just want to finally be free of this place!"
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