Everyone is in attendance at the funeral dressed to the nines, Tekhetsio is not in his Chaos form but everyone else is. Tekhetsio is not being a pallbearer so it falls to Dantaylion to be the fourth. Because Yannick is on the privy council, everyone who's anyone is there, including the king, having it take place in the main Temple of the Serpent.

Eulogies are done in birth order. Rook and Lilja both have a lot of assorted memories that come to mind rather than specific things and have very poignant speeches that don’t go too long. Tekhetsio mainly thinks of a time Greer made him feel included and one where he was told he was not part of the family. He’s a total shit in his speech, to the surprise of none, along with saying it was a murder. Robin thinks of the way that Greer would get him to calm down when he was throwing tantrums, by basically making him play a hunt and find game, and while his speech is awkward it would be no matter what after having to follow Tekhetsio’s. Dantaylion has to be escorted out of the cathedral as this was the first time he's hearing that Greer was murdered, so he doesn’t have a chance to say his eulogy. Harlequin has great memories of playing chess with Greer, says a short eulogy, and has a poem in flames show up for everyone to read. With Dantaylion unable to be a pallbearer after all due to that shock he was given, Harlequin basically tells Tekhetsio that he has to do it now especially as he’s directly responsible for Dantaylon not being able to, and Tekhetsio does it. 

Because of the king, the reception is held in the royal palace. We get a procession of visitors explaining their condolences, with people’s individual friends making a point to speak to them in particular of course. Yannick is unhappy with Dara and her retinue of three people veiled in red, but when Dantaylion asks, all Yannick says is that some people choose the wrong time to be cheeky. Robin gets a sense of danger when the king comes to pass along his condolences, and is told by Grandcrab Ixaadhu that his artifact that warns him of danger was from the Triton side of the family, Greer’s family line.

At the party Harlequin speaks to both Rook and Robin about them getting extra security given they’re the heirs, which causes Robin to bluescreen, as before that moment he hadn’t realized he was now second in line to inherit. 

After the reception, Robin gets the danger sense again passing by a mirror, where his reflection does not show in the glass, but an owl does. He breaks it and moves on. Harlequin is appointed the head investogator in the Black Watch for Greer’s murder. Once returning home, Dantaylion gets a trump call from Valefor who asks if Tekhetsio is alive, as they found a dead dragon in the wastelands that looks like a larger version of Tekhetsio’s chaos form. Dantaylion brings Tekhetsio into the conversation and Tekhetsio goes through to take the body to study it. Lilja speaks to Snorri and is told that the Serpent Guard is looking into the Hesse family, and offers Lilja their personal protection. Knowing it would upset Black Watch and thus cause a hard time for Harlequin should she take the offer, Lilja thanks Snorri for the offer but politely declines. Rook is brought in with Yannick for a meeting of the privy council so that he knows what’s going on should he need to take over as Yannick is in poor health. There, there're three redheads in non chaos form, and they’re introduced as Bleys, Fiona, and Brand of Amber. WHOOP WHOOP. They’re seeking aid from the King Swayvil in overthrowing their corrupt dictator of a king. They were at the funeral as part of Dara’s retinue with the red veils. Rook does not make smalltalk and gets a personal trump from Dara in order to make contact should it be needed. Yannick later explains that the stance of House Hesse has been that we should not assist them, but the rest of the council isn’t in agreement. 

At home, Lilja asks Harlequin about the investigation and more or less implies they’d like to help. After that, Dantaylion flags down Harlequin to both ask their opinion on his painting of Greer (which gets agreed to be placed in the memorial along with Harlequin's poem). And also tells Harlequin everything that happened with Valefor and requests Harlequin check in on Tekhetsio. Unable to find his own way to contact the border watch, he borrows Dantaylion’s trump for Valefor and calls up to ask what happened with Tekhetsio, and to be kept posted on ANYTHING like that. 

Setting themself up in the wine cellar, Harlequin feigns being drunk to call Tekhetsio and see what information they can get. 

Tekhetsio is cagey but not incredibly so, and they have a improv wine party when Tekhetsio returns with Tekhetsio saying he wants to look in on the investigation as well. Heading out to return the trump to Dantaylion, soon Robin heads to the wine cellar as well and he and Tekhetsio have a talk, and soon enough Lilja is there as well. Robin gets a trump call, so he steps out to take it only for it to be Miriam, covered in blood, reaching out to Robin. Robin pulls her through and there's a lot of commotion while medics are called. Rook calls an unknown friend to get some information, and the rest of the family goes into a flurry to make sure that Miriam is stabilized and put somewhere safe. It comes out through the grapevine that there was quite a bit of blood found in a hall of the royal palace and it’s already mostly known that Miriam went to Hesse Ways to escape, so Harlequin makes a full report.

Dantaylion brings Robin some bourbon laced tea and offers to set up a spare bed in his personal Ways tonight if having company nearby would make Robin feel better, which he says he might take him up on, and in general. The siblings have a good time sitting in the wine cellar together after that, Rook and Dantaylion not drinking but still having fun with the company, mostly teasing Robin about his ladyfriend. It’s ultimately decided to go snoop in Greer’s room as a group, though, respectfully. Robin’s danger sense keeps pointing at Harlequin. When looking through leather books of trumps that Greer had, Dantaylion finds a card hidden behind another - this one just looking like a blank cement wall. Ultimately Dantaylion, Rook, and Harlequin decide to check out where that trump leads to, while the others hold the fort down and keep the connection open. 

In the room, one of the mirrors breaks without anyone touching it, after Robin looks into it. Lilja quickly covers the remaining mirrors in the room. 

Through the Trump, Rook sees that one of the walls of the celement room is a door of some kind, and manages to unlock it after about twenty minutes. During that time a trap is triggered, with water beginning to pour through the ceiling. Harlequin makes a shield with sorcery to block off the water from getting down into the room and drowning them. In the vault itself there’s very little in spite of its size. The only things inside are a pack of old letters and a pack of trumps that have assorted artists. 

Returning to Greer’s rooms, Robin is feeling exhausted for the day so Dantaylion and him retire for the night while the others choose to look more into what they've recovered from the vault. The letters are addressed to "My beloved" and are signed "Your Lion". None of the trumps are recognizable, but some of the heraldry on the back appears to be house Triton or house Bariman (lion imagery), and they appear to be old enough that they predate the current king of Chaos, but that's about all they can get before they have Dantaylion take a look. One of them looks like Tekhetsio’s chaos form, so he takes it from the deck to keep for further research for himself. One by one the kids break off to go to bed, except for Rook who is still awake all night. 

Dantaylion has dreams of owls. He wakes up to find Robin half collapsed between bed and the door and helps Robin down to get breakfast. Once everyone is set up to eat, by which time Tekhetsio joins them, Dantaylion goes through the trumps. He's able to sort them into work by five different artists, confirming that all of Greer's were of House Triton. In trying to see which trumps were viable, most were either dead or viable but extremely distant. Only one seemed connected, and when Dantaylion tried to see if it was viable he got the sense that he was noticed in return. Quickly putting it down on the table face down, he tells Rook that one may have noticed him. It's of a man with bushy facial hair, with the crest of Bariman on the back. A short time later, Dantaylion feels himself being watched so he excuses himself to go see if he could speak to the Watcher. It was indeed the man from the Bariman card, who confirms he used to be of Bariman many years ago. When he asks who Dantaylion is, Dantaylion does tell him Dantaylion of House Hesse, with the man ultimately asking if he was one of Idaggeh’s get, which after some thought Dantaylion confirmed. Expressing annoyance that somebody couldn't keep things under wraps, he asked how Dantaylion got the trump, which Dantaylion more or less explained, and when asked what he was going to do with it Dantaylion said he didn't know. He recommended Dantaylion leave it and forget about it, before hanging up the connection. Unsure of what to do, Dantaylion returns to the kitchen to tell Rook he was contacted by "that card", and when they get to Rook's personal Ways he then tells Rook everything that happened in the conversation. Rook suggests that they keep the trump cards for now and the both of them keep that conversation to themselves until they have more information. Dantaylion also hugs Rook, which causes Rook to briefly shut down.

Once that’s settled, Rook takes what they know to Yannick, showing him the deck and trying to explain what we think might be going on - namely that Greer’s maternal grandmother might actually not have been legitimate to Triton and instead sired by House Bariman, and thus might have some distant connection to Amber, and with Greer being murdered and three scions of Amber suddenly showing up in Chaos this seems like too many coincidences. While all these secrets were news to Yannick, he agrees to keep an ear out for things.