Gwinch had planned to go to the House of Jourdain for the "special event," but he had not recovered from his wounds and hoped to find a healer before venturing into another potentially dangerous situation. He had once before explored the House of Jourdain a pair of "foreign barbarians" Myrrha, a priestess, and Cair, a seeming jack-of-all-trades and decided to seek them out at their palatial minimum-security prison inside the Forbidden City. Not only might Myrrha heal him, but if he could help them slip out of the Forbidden City for the night, they might accompany him on his planned outing.
This plan, was subject to detour. H couldn't remember which house they lived in, and following one lead and another, got the opportunity to meet a different, local, priest (who by chance had been part of Beatriss's first expedition to the House of Jourdain.) The priest, Afu, asked Gwinch some questions about what he'd learned in Zhou Dang, specifically "what he'd learned of good and what he'd learned of evil." Somewhat impatiently, Afu asked Gwinch about his boots, "Those are very unsual boots, where did you get them?"
Gwinch candidly expalined that he'd been attacked by a man wearing them, killed his assailant, and appropriated the boots.
Somewhat predictably, Afu revealed that he thought he knew the man. This prompted a discussion of what exactly the Two-Fold Path was doing in Khanbali-- at the Temple, at Gwinch's Mediation Hall-- and what did Gwinch think about it.
Gwinch confessed his on-going confusion. Of course there seemed something seedy about it, but it seemed like the women were enjoying themselves. Afu suggested that Gwinch would do well the follow the example of his dead friends, and try to look beneath the surface. As a condition of "forgiving" Gwinch, he asked him to take an oath, that he would investigate more particularly what was going on. And then Afu blessed and healed him.
Gwinch did find Myrrha and Cair, and he told them about his meeting with Afu. Soon, they had agreed that they would make a visit to Gwinch's old place, and rob Sheevani. Not only was there a better balance of risk and reward, but this would more directly satisfy Gwinch's oath.
Gwinch's reconnaisance of a few nights before paid off beautifully. They entered, silently and invisibly, and quickly found there way into Sheevani's room. They found a locked box and took it into their possession. They killed Sheevani, and the three samurai guards, and then fled into the night, arriving at the ruined monastery near dawn.
The box contained a large sum of money, and some interesting documents. While it would take some time to decipher them thoroughly, they seemed to provide details about how people from the rural and mountainous border regions were brought to Khanbaliq and then sold as slaves-- prostitution, forced labor, doemstic service, etc. It suggested that not only were there dungeons in the Temple outside the city, but also a larger compund somewhere in the mountains to the south.
Cair propsed that with the money, they might secure a ship and leave Zhou Dang once and for all, but Gwinch replied that he saw enough reasons to linger a little longer.
He invested his share of the money in more provisions, weapons and armor for his men as well as some furnishings for their hideout.
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