Ghost Rage, Episode 1 – Vote now!

They call you the Ghost Countess.

According to the stories, you are the Emperor’s cunning left hand, his blade in the darkness. Such is your guile, they say, that you can deduce a man’s secrets simply by looking at him, that you have tricked potent master magi to their deaths, and outwitted many a foe. And they also say that every night you lure a different enemy of the Emperor to your bed, and cut his throat as he lies exhausted from your embrace.

That rumor annoys you to no end.

You are Caina Amalas, and you were once a Ghost nightfighter, one of the Emperor’s elite spies and agents. Or you were, until you saved the Emperor from an assassin in front of a thousand witnesses. In gratitude, the Emperor made you a Countess of the Imperial Court. In practice, you became the Ghost circlemaster of Malarae, the Imperial capital, with the city’s Ghosts reporting to you. And soon very little transpired in the Imperial capital that you do not know about.

Which is why you heard about the strange murder at the Rose Inn first.

The letter came from Cenorix, a centurion in the Civic Militia, and a Ghost informant. You know Cenorix; he is a reliable, steady sort, not prone to panic or hysteria, yet the letter looks as if he wrote it in a state of considerable agitation. In it, he states that a most foul and distressing murder took place at the Rose Inn last night, and suspects that the murder is beyond the capabilities of the Civic Militia to handle. He begs for any assistance that you might send.

You think for a moment, fiddling with a throwing knife as you do. A million men and women live in Malarae, and thousands of travelers at any one time, and people are murdered every day. But the Rose Inn is located off the Grand Market, not far from the Praetorian Basilica and the Imperial Citadel itself. Wealthy merchants stay there, along with minor nobility, and the Rose Inn maintains a discreet staff of guards.

Which means a murder there is unlikely.

Which also means a murder brutal enough to shock a veteran militiaman like Cenorix is even more unlikely.

You make up your mind to have a look. But Malarae is choked with spies, and not just the Ghosts, and quite a few people have an interest in the movements of the Ghost Countess.

And most of them aren’t friendly.

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