A week after the Coaltongue sabotage, A.C.I. Delft summoned the squad to his office, where they were introduced to a tiefling: Lya Jierre, the Danoran government’s Minister of Outsiders.
Without explanation, Minister Jierre engaged the constables in a puzzle game involving some rings, strings, and toy towers. In a minute they solved the puzzle by holding the rings in the air one above another. Jierre seemed pleased at their imaginative solution and said that they would be suitable for the mission.
Which brought them finally to the point of the meeting. Having failed in her attempt to assassinate the King, Duchess Ethelyn had led her allies to seize Axis Island in the Yerasol Archipelago, which had been occupied by Danor since the last war. King Aodhan and Minister Jierre wanted to resolve the situation peacefully, but there were parties in both nations that would prefer to start Yet Another Yerasol War.
The proposed solution was that the Danoran military would stay out of it, while Risur would send a naval force to re-take Axis Island from their own Duchess. Then they would immediately hand control of the island back to Danor – within 3 days, or else war was likely.
An infiltration squad was to sneak onto Axis Island, sneak into its fortress, and open the harbour’s sea gates to allow the Risuri armada to attack. Our heroes were chosen to accompany the infiltration squad. Their job would be to investigate what the Duchess’s forces were up to and to arrest and interrogate the Duchess herself.
Uraesco expressed skepticism that a group of junior constables were not the right ones for such a difficult and dangerous mission, but his objections were ignored by Delft and Jierre.
The constables were issued a stipend and hurried to requisition equipment from the RHC quartermaster. Then they boarded the R.N.S. Impossible and set off for Axis Island.
It took two days for the Impossible to sail to Axis Island. On the way, Mireya spent time learning spells from scrolls and Malachai joined Captain Smith and his officers as they discussed philosophy.