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[Thrax]

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Mauric could hear the jingle of keys and the turning of his chamber's door lock from inside. A sudden wave of nausea swept over him; a fear that at last his master had arrived to chastise him, or worse.

He was not mistaken. Frowning and sullen, Lord Thrax stepped into the room minus his weapons and armor which he had handed over to the guards outside. He stood near the door, hands on his hips. "How degrading! I have not been this humiliated in years. All because of you!" he accused, looking at Mauric.

Mauric took a few steps toward him and bowed. "My lord, I do not know quite what to say except I am deeply sorry for having brought this upon you, and myself," he apologized, his tone meek and humble.

"Do not offer apologies. I am not yet ready to accept any! You must tell me everything you know about this incident. If it rings of truth, the better for you. If you lie, the worse. Speak... now!" he commanded.

"A piece of the fruit, a banana, I think, that I brought from Papua was poisoned. The Empress ate it and is now very ill. I collected the fruit from our stores at the warehouse. I thought it would be a good way to impress upon them the quality of our produce."

"Oh, it impressed them all right! Go on."

"I can only add that the crate I placed them in was out of my sight at the warehouse for no longer than five minutes, but it was locked even then. From there to Zento, the crate was in plain view."

"Describe the journey."

"I gated to Yew, bought the bowls, made up the fruit bowls and placed them in a bag at the bank."

"Why did you go to Yew from Papua?"

"To visit my family. I thought a brief stop wouldn't hurt."

"Continue."

"Before I left Yew, I got the bag and proceeded to Poet's Garden to the meeting. But I had forgotten the meeting was to be in Nujel'm. The Empress came and escorted me to it. I gave out the fruit bowls and, well, you know the rest."

"Was anyone else poisoned?"

"No, only her."

"Do you know why she was and nobody else?"

Mauric thought for a moment. "Well, I had marked one of them for her. I thought it would be a nice touch to the gift to give her the very best."

Thrax rolled his eyes. "And your insipid sentimentality has cost us dearly! Did it not occur to you that the Empress might have as many enemies as we do?! So you go and make it so very easy for one of them, or one of ours, to implicate us in a crime of this magnitude!"

Mauric lowered his head and nodded. "My naivete' is inexcusable, my lord."

"What else did you tell them, during the interrogation? Your letter said they immediately took you into custody."

"I told them what I told you. They were very accusatory. They were convinced I did this on my own. I suppose they had to rule out all possibilities."

"Did you say anything to implicate me?"

Mauric hesitated, remembering the point of his taking the job in the first place, and lied. "I... no, I did not say anything about you specifically. I told them plainly that I could not say for sure who did it."

Thrax nodded. He turned and walked to a window, looking out. "Well, you are on your own in this. The idea to give gifts was entirely your own. I hereby relieve you of your duties until this is cleared up. I will continue to support your family with some compensation, however." He turned again to face Mauric. "Is there anything else I should know?"

Mauric thought for a moment and shook his head. "I can think of nothing at the moment, sire. I only beg your forgiveness."

"It is not my forgiveness you should seek, mage. You have offended people who take insults and dishonor very seriously, that much I know. You had best pray that the Empress recovers. Beg for *her* forgiveness and you might just get through this with your head intact!" With that, he turned and left the room.