Finn decides his next step has got to be the Nandas' compound. He might even be feeling the need to "pound some heads," but we'll see if he can restrain himself. He's definitely jumping to the conclusion that some or all of the family are traitors to the village and are trying to sell them all out to the warlord. He's not impressed.

The family compound is a cluster of three or four large, single-story houses, all built wall-to-wall with a small courtyard in their center. By city standards, it's not much to look at, but this family has historically been smart with trading and is the wealthiest in the village.

Finn goes to the courtyard and shouts his arrival. "Hello!" he hollers. "It's Finn! I have questions!"

No one comes out at his shout, but someone shouts back from one of the windows. "The family's all gone for the day!" says a woman's voice. "Come back tomorrow!"

The whole family is out for the day? The whole family?

Finn goes to the house where the voice came from and pounds on the door. "Well, then," he says, "I'll talk to you!"

"If you break my door," growls the voice, "you'll leave here short an arm." She sounds completely unafraid, whoever she is.

Fine. Finn's not one for honeyed words, but he can tell force won't win any points here. "Okay, you win. I'm sorry. I won't break down your door. Now, will you please let me ask you some questions?"

"Go away, Finn!" the woman says. "I don't have time for you."

Whatever, then. Finn snorts and looks around. He'll take some time and just look around the exterior of the compound and the courtyard, to see if he notices anything.

Finn sees a lot of footprints in the dust of the courtyard, seeming to mill around the area before abruptly scattering in all directions.

Finn turns back to the house with the woman's voice, a thought starting to grow in his mind. "Why are you so afraid?" he asks.

A middle-aged woman appears at the window, bow drawn and arrow aimed directly at Finn. "You will leave now, Finn, and the next time I see you here I will put this arrow through you before you take two steps."

He raises his hands and nods, then (walking backward) exits the courtyard.

Well, this interlude will probably be short! We only found the one clue.

• 2.1: The Nanda courtyard shows many footprints that abruptly scattered in all directions.

Which Story Questions does this clue apply to? I think I can make an argument that it tells us something about the first one: "Who was the note's intended recipient?" I'll make the following deduction:

• 2.1 - The Nandas were together in the courtyard, and then scattered.

Note that its basically the clue, restated a bit. That happens sometimes. Sometimes the thing you discover is the information you can deduce from it.

Let's update our hunch. We originally said that it was one or more of the Nandas that was the intended recipient. Our new deduction lets us erase that and replace it with the following:

• Hunch: The note was intended for the Nandas as a family (because they all scattered when news reached them that the note was misdelivered).

The clue doesn't really feel relevant to our other Story Questions, so we leave it there. Time for scene 3.