AA: High Treason

Now also updated for Kiv's class change!

UPDATE: So it turned out that Kiv actually got the Cloaked Rider in canon! //happy tears I'm coordinating with axelro4191 who stopped the sabotage in Bratkowice (since Kiv only got the saboteur), so even though when I planned this out, I had it in mind that this was really close to the date of sabotage, I'm changing that so it fits that Kiv's the figure in the last panel of this, which takes place on 19th Arrival. Because of that, a line of the dialogue I put in the comic doesn't make quite as concrete logical sense as I initially planned, so I've changed it slightly.



Event 2: High Treason || Cloaked Rider || Bratkowice

Kiv’s knife may be aimed at the dark elf’s torso, but his eyes are locked onto where the other’s face will be once he’s turned completely around. No matter how good this guy is, he’s only mortal, and his first expression, an instinctive reaction to someone sneaking up on him and the cloak he probably never expected to see again, will give him away. If he shows total confusion, he’s probably innocent. If not, well, it won’t matter if he’s a Ranger, Druid, or Mage-- Kiv’s hand is ready to throw, and this is point-blank range.

---

If it’s the Cloaked Rider for real, Kiv doesn’t intend to kill him when he throws, just hinder him enough to capture him.

I actually received an Iadlish cloak belonging to the Cloaked Rider during the Easter egg hunt event.

“An Iadlish cloak
The inside is decorated with blue silk-and-bead gladiolus flowers. How pretty!”

“The blue gladiolus cloak is in fact the one that belongs to the Cloaked Rider. So some more information just for you - it was picked up at a pawn shop in Bratkowice and the owner claims to have found it lining an eagriff nest in the mountains between the Molvahain forest and Reluir."

If it turns out that my guess was wrong, then I would still consider this whole comic would to be canon; it would just happen that the rider in the end is not the Cloaked Rider (probably due to some problem with the tracking alchemy), and if someone else gets the Cloaked Rider in the right location, I’ll just say this cloak was one of his spares~ ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

For some context, Kiv was assigned to Bratkowice once again since he’d been there for investigating the potato festival. He’s staying at the house of Lentia’s father, Theo, and pretending he’s just a normal guest, not a Peacekeeper since Lentia doesn’t want her father caught up in whatever trouble might happen. (He hasn’t been staying there for the entire investigation, though, since he’s been trekking all over Bratkowice since early Arrival.) Kiv ended up at the pawnshop because he was checking out all the places a foreigner might have passed through. (Before the pawnshop, he hit inns, bars, markets, etc. I wanted to draw this all out but no time lol OTL)

If you’re curious about the faded text in that one panel, this is what it says: “Is this pawnbroker in league with the Cloaked Rider, maybe? He said his relatives were from Reluir, but a lot of dark elves also congregate in Iadlain. He could easily be from there and possibly be one of the Cloaked Rider’s lackeys. Maybe he was ordered to use the cloak here as a red herring. but then again, it wasn’t exactly out in the open and someone could have easily missed it... unless that was on purpose so that only detectives that could spot it would be misled, and anyone who couldn’t wouldn’t be able to track down the cloaked rider anyway.”

Speaking of which, I know the comic is already quite text-heavy cuz of all Kiv’s thoughts but there’s actually a lot more going on in his head besides what I showed-- decided not to inundate the comic with them, though, so I guess I’ll just mention some of them down here. He considered that the pawnbroker might secretly be the Cloaked Rider, then dismissed the notion since it’s not like he’d leave the cloak lying around where someone could spot it (and then Kiv considered that it might be reverse psychology but determined that was still way too risky of a maneuver). He also considered that the story that the cloak was found in an eagriff nest might be bullshit except that 1) that’s too ridiculous of a story to come up with if you want to be easily believed (again, could be reverse psychology, but he decided not to over-complicate things by going down that route) and 2) the cloak really does smell of eagriff.
While I’m at it, I may as well explain some of the subtleties in Kiv’s conversation that I don’t think I managed to convey in the comic. When he asks, “Who brought this in?”, he’s implying his surprise at an Iadlish cloak being found in xenophobic Bratkowice, not that it’s the Cloaked Rider’s cloak since clearly the pawnbroker didn’t recognize it for what it is (and to tell him would raise up a fuss of one sort or another, not something Kiv wants during an investigation). Also, when he mentions that the cloak still smells like eagriff, he’s only pretending to complain so that he can ask the question of how long ago the guy found it without sounding weirdly nosy (since, as I mentioned before, he’s keeping the fact that he’s a Peacekeeper quiet).

I guess just to tie up what might appear as a loose end, I should say that although the pawnbroker said he was thinking about giving the cloak to someone in his family, he wasn’t strongly attached to the idea, and plus money is money, so that’s why he was willing to sell it to Kiv. At some point between the purchase and the alchemy, Kiv sent off a bird with a message to the other Peacekeepers that he’d found the Cloaked Rider’s cloak, but it was too close to the date of the sabotage for any of them to come as back-up in time from another city. (revoked this part from canon since I'm coordinating with Axel so that Kiv actually found the Rider in the month of Arrival)

Kiv’s wearing plain clothes in this so he doesn’t stand out as much... but he’s clearly not trying hard since he hasn’t even taken out his earrings LOL-- he figures that he’s already a Songluan among Bratkovans, so he’s going to stand out anyway, so might as well keep the earrings in and just make minimal effort with his outfit

Oh, and if you’re wondering about the alchemy, I guess the general concept is that Kiv drew the ‘essence’ of the ‘spirit’ of the owner of the cloak out of it and put it into the compass to fix it as its ‘north’ point. //in other words, Kiyo BS’d hard The runes on the alchemical circle are utter nonsense scribbles I made up with the exception of the four triangles in the smaller outer circles, which represent the elements. The symbol that’s supposed to be in the top outer circle the one that represents ‘spirit’ but since it’s empty it’s like a hole and that’s where Kiv draws the essence through the magic circle from. //or something like that ahaha The formulas, if you’re curious, are the distance formula between two points, a displacement formula, the average energy in a distribution of gas molecules, and the most probable distribution. As for the compass, the main needle points to the direction, as usual, and the other two smaller needles indicate distance and elevation.

I really, really wanted to color this, but I just didn’t have the time OTL //slammed with HW and midterms, etc... It’s honestly a miracle I even finished the lines on time Had to rush it all (though somehow I ended up drawing the gladioluses in a more detailed way toward the end cuz I’m an idiot), so sorry for the wonky anatomy and stuff O|-< One day, I will learn how to draw Kiv’s hair and face consistently...  _{Just realized I drew this like a left-hander even though I’m right-handed-- only two of Kiv’s faces are turned toward my left and they barely count cuz one’s a back view and the other’s the chibi LOL-- Oh and those things under the corners of Kiv’s eyes are birthmarks, not like weird long eyelashes or something ahaha}

Thank you to the lovely number11train for letting me use her pretty map and providing me with a nice outline version since I had to go B&W!

Kiv & art (c) me (KiyokoAmaya)