Hans returns from downstairs, behind him limps a man leaning on a finely crafted cane, one leg replaced by an ornate golden prosthetic. Trailing at his side is a girl in dungarees, blonde pigtails bouncing, her overalls covered in pins bearing the sigil of the Council of Ardgan.
Rae recognises her instantly. Petunia. The girl who vanished from the market that morning.
The tumbler in Rae's hand shatters before she's even aware she's gripping it. Damthus recovers smoothly, loudly launching into an unsolicited lesson on how best to crush an opponent's grip - anything to explain the sudden violence at their table.
Mr Strauss approaches unhurried, offering his compliments on how well "Galmar Stramm" appears to be recovering.
Damthus asks to be introduced to the child. Strauss obliges, and Petunia skips forward with a wide grin, disappearing her small hand into Galmar's enormous one. She doesn't flinch. She doesn't stop smiling.
Damthus starts fishing for details, casually noting that "they need more children." Strauss, visibly unsettled by Galmar suddenly issuing him instructions, steps forward and edges Petunia back behind his coat.
Damthus doesn't back down. He squares up, informing Strauss that the orders are his to give now.
Strauss studies him. A long, considering look. Then something in his expression shifts - a small, knowing smirk creeps across his face.
Strauss turns towards the bar. "Mr Hans," he calls out, loud enough for all to hear, "it appears you have let Jade-Eyes into your establishment."
The name ripples through the room. Heads turn. Conversations stop.
Damthus doesn't wait for the accusation to settle - his dagger finds Strauss's thigh first. Strauss slams his cane against the floorboards and points, confirming it for the whole tavern: "There he is. Jade-Eyes."
The crowd of the Crested Clockmaker starts to turn hostile.
Hans lunges for Damthus and is met by an arcane shield. Rae rages into the crowd, landing blows meant for Strauss on a charmed patron he redirects into her path instead, sending the man crashing to the floor. Strauss slips free in the confusion, untouched, weaving deeper into the mob.
He orders Hans to protect him. Hans plants himself between Damthus and his target.
Damthus ducks beneath Hans' arm and swings for Strauss - and misses. Tankards fly. A chair connects hard with his back. Hans lands two solid punches on Rae, who barely twists free of a follow-up headlock. Rae presses through the bodies and finally connects, her axe slicing into Strauss before he disengages and flees down towards the basement, converting more patrons as he goes.
Damthus chases him down. A booming blade meant for Strauss gets redirected into another charmed patron instead, the magic tearing through her as Damthus positions himself squarely between Strauss and the basement door.
The mob closes in from both sides.
Channelling the fury of her Genasi blood, Rae tears the tavern floor open beneath them - Erupting Earthsends furniture, patrons, and floorboards fountaining upward, punching a hole clean through to the floor above. Most of the mob doesn't get back up.
Cornered by the wreckage, Strauss barks a single command at Damthus: "STAY."
Rooted in place, all he can manage is a dagger thrown into Strauss's retreating shoulder as Hans grabs Rae bodily and hurls her down through the hole in the floor - then rushes to block Damthus's path himself.
Rae hauls herself out of the debris below and lands a brutal hit on Strauss's torso. He answers with his cane, a strike that detonates in pure psychic agony in her mind.
Damthus, still held by the compulsion, shifts his own shape into a copy of Strauss - two identical men now standing in the wreckage, and a room full of charmed patrons with no idea which one to listen to. He teleports to retrieve his dagger and offers Petunia his hand.
Hans, thrown by the doubling, swings wildly for Rae instead, trying to stun her into submission. She shakes it off.
Strauss slams his cane down a final time, and something in the air changes - a wave of calm settling over both Rae and Damthus, the sudden, unshakeable conviction that violence has run its course.
Strauss starts negotiating. Petunia, he offers, they can keep.
Rae isn't interested in the girl. She wants to know where Sophia is. The name means nothing to Strauss - until Rae produces a photograph, and recognition flickers across his face. "She's with the others."
Rae demands to be taken there. Given the state of the tavern, and the axe still in her hand, Strauss agrees.
Damthus has one condition of his own: Petunia goes free, and whatever spell has her smiling through all of this gets lifted. Strauss obliges with a flick of his cane. The grin vanishes from Petunia's face all at once, replaced by a scream as the she processes the sight before her. She bolts for the street.
Through the shattered doorway, Damthus spots guards approaching. Still wearing Strauss's face, he seizes the moment and bellows into the chaos: "LUCIUS, QUICK, OUR CHILD SMUGGLING RING HAS BEEN FOUND!"
Strauss leads them down into the basement, retrieving a small device from his coat - gold, elongated, gem-studded at both ends, shaped like a long butternut squash. He fits it into the waiting recess in the wall.
The brickwork twists open into an arcane portal.
Strauss steps through first. Rae follows. Then Hans.
Damthus lingers just long enough to snatch the device from the wall with a well-timed Mage Hand before stepping through himself.