"Oh yes, instructions...." the other male behind his desk mumbled loudly enough for both of his visitors to pick it up easily, but still more to himself than towards anybody else. The piece of furniture he sat in front of appeared to have a nearly limitless supply of yet undiscovered drawers and storage containers given the fact that the officer spent more than a minute digging through them in order to find something. That something, in the end, turned out to be a rather thin stack of parchments with letters written all the more neatly.

"Here, your instructions. I haven't read through them myself to their fullest extent, but I will give you a brief summary of what I've understood. As a general advance warning however, I am not the one ultimately in command of you, and have been provided with somewhat limited knowledge about this matter myself. Some higher ups are running this, some... [i]very[/i] higher ups I ought to mention!" The officer nodded slowly several times to underline his own words. "So, see me more of a proxy. I will happily forward any complaints you might have, as long as they affect those in charge of this mission."

So, in other words: No, the screwjob with the missing guide had actually been a rather local affair...

Valentin reached for the parchment, but only took a glance at the top cover before handing it over to Amara. He obviously was not in the mood to read that thing right now, but all the more willing to just listen. If Amara would dare to dig into the document however, she would find a quite detailed, foldable map of the entire kingdom along with a rather generic greeting, the details concerning their contract and the potential reward, and a rather long list of things they were supposed [i]not[/i] to do while on the this job (primarily to handle things on a strict need-to-know basis and not to involve any unncessary individuals) and, of course, a motivational description of why what they were doing was so important and what the scholars thought what they might find or not find.

"So..." the male continued, taking in another volume of air before starting his speech:

"This is a very delicate thing. You are not supposed to talk to anybody about this unless strictly instructed to do so [i]or[/i] if you happen to have a damn good reason. No need to mention that your employers will ensure to check this reason's validity afterwards...

Strange events have taken place and you are to investigate, to cut it short. You have a map that not only contains the direction you have to go, but should also have a vew special markings spread along your route. These are designated locations where certain arrangements have been made for you so to avoid any uncalculatable trouble. I think the individual letters next to the crosses designate the type of arrangement you can expect to find there: rooms already rented for you, supply caches, people checking in on you."

The officer rolled his eyes.

"Do I need to state explicitly what I think what the latter's real purpose is ? Supervising you, of course. Whatever help those 'people' might be is probabyl more a facade than anything else. I don't know, but these are not my or anybody else's soldiers. So... don't expect high standards, okay ? Wouldn't be surprised if these individuals will turn out to be more scoundrel than anything else. I and you will just have to trust your employers which, as already mentioned, are very high up the command chain."

"So please read through this now and check whether the markings are there and if you have any questions."