NoleMoodyAuthor
Mister Needles was expecting breakfast.
Instead, she found an empty bowl, a missing wizard, blood on the river steps, and the Department of Arcane Licensing trying to classify her as a dangerous domestic adjunct.
This was rude.
Marius Vellum has vanished after uncovering something buried beneath Belltallow's official history. The Department says it is a private licensing matter. The stones under the city disagree. So do the rats, the crows, the old foundation marks, and one extremely inconvenient cat with a white paw and no respect for paperwork.
With the reluctant help of Elspeth Crumb, an apprentice clerk who knows too much to stay sensible, and Cody, a Watch dog whose honesty is almost as distressing as his optimism, Mister Needles follows Marius's trail through sealed archives, old drains, forgotten bargains, and the lies humans write when they want power to go unwitnessed.
Because Marius is not dead.
Probably.
And if the Department thinks it can erase a familiar, bury an old Bell, and steal a wizard before breakfast, Mister Needles intends to correct the record with claws.