As soon as the group of clerics starts to disperse for the day, he gets a Message from Woljif.

Hey chief, this morning I found a severed head in my bag???? Kinda freaking out a little!

Do you want company in reporting this to Ser Tirabade?

Fuck, does he think Woljif put it there? Why would he even have a severed head? It's not like you can get a good price for them on the black market! 

It wasn't me, I swear!

I don't think it was you and if Ser Tirabade disagrees we can go to Fiducia Rathimus about it!

He guesses that if the Chief wants to sell him out he can do that either way. 

...I guess company would be good, I don't think Irabeth trusts me.

Blai doesn't trust him, Blai just doesn't specifically suspect him of murder and knows him to have roomed with Camellia, but they can go over that in person. I'll meet you there. To Irabeth's desk.

Here's Irabeth! She's currently briefing a patrol, but breaks off when she sees him. "Good morning, Select. Any word on the Count?"

(A few feet away, Woljif hovers nervously.)

"Haven't spoken to him yet but Mr. Jefto has informed me that he found a severed head in his bag, so I would like to know both whether anyone recognizes it and what our options are for confronting Camellia today."

Irabeth calls Anevia over. "The head, Mister Jefto?"

Woljif retrieves a severed head from his bag. It's the head of a human man, mid-thirties, plausibly Mendevian. It's been separated very cleanly from his neck, to a degree that would be nearly impossible even for an expert.

"Aschwin of Krega. His cousin said he was missing after the attack, but I think this must've been more recent." She inspects the head more closely. "A rapier couldn't do that. So she's hiding another weapon, or she's got a spell for it, or there's a second murderer around. Was she ever apart from the party yesterday for long enough to kill someone?"

"In terms of confronting her, our options depend on whether she's in fact a noblewoman like she's been suggesting, and if so whether the Count is willing to cooperate. I expect that we can carry out an arrest without casualties, she may be a spellcaster but she's still first-circle—"

"Might be second by now, I could hang seconds this morning."

"—that's fair, and I'm less certain what her sort of caster can do at second-circle. Presumably if she deliberately placed a head in your bag she was prepared for the possibility that we might discover it and arrest her." She pauses to think for a moment. "If she isn't a noblewoman, or if she is but the Count permits it, we have the authority to arrest her. I think it is worth securing the Count's permission beforehand, even though it might be unnecessary, both because he might refuse and because it would be very costly to need to delay in the middle of the arrest. Otherwise, we have the authority to prohibit her from the premises of the Defender's Heart, though that seems unlikely to actually prevent murders as opposed to... moving them. If she's a noblewoman and the Count won't permit us to go after her, it would still be legally permissible to kill her in self-defense, or the direct defense of another, but I think it would be very suspect to intentionally arrange for that to occur, though I would arrange for her to be supervised at all times in the hopes that this will prevent her from killing people.

If we're able to arrest her, it's straightforwardly permissible under the law and the Watch's charter to execute her immediately after a very pro forma trial, which I expect is unfortunately the correct tradeoff for a spellcaster of unknown capabilities who is continuing to commit murders — I would still give her the opportunity to testify under an Abadar's Truthtelling."

"Of course." Sigh. "I'll go speak to the Count?" He doesn't wanna but guess what doesn't matter.

"Please do, thank you." She'll see about arranging to purchase a Truthtelling from Fiducia Rathimus.

Blai goes looking for Arendae.

Now, in which order to do the two things, "we need to arrest Camellia, do you permit it" followed by "do you wanna keep adventuring with us" or the other way round? ...Blai is not Splendid enough to know which of these approaches gets him better results on basically any metric and will go with the more urgent first. Is the guy having breakfast or something? ...with Camellia?

The Count has apparently decided to outbid everyone else interested in the Fiducia's third-circle spell slots in order to request his own personally-tailored set of meals. He is at least sharing his apple pastries with others (currently Camellia and several of his courtesans); Nenio is attempting to interview one of the courtesans about his magic, seemingly oblivious to the way he's glaring at her. 

Abadar rejoices, Blai supposes? "Count Arendae, might I have a word?"

"I suppose I would be willing to part from these lovely ladies for a moment."

"Thank you."

Once they are in what passes for a secluded corner, "Do you have any light to shed on Camellia's claim of nobility? My understanding is that in order to investigate her for possible criminal behavior we'd need your approval if she is noble."

He arches his left eyebrow. "I take it this is more than mere hypothetical, Select?"

(There's still a note of contempt in the way he says Blai's title.)

"When I met her she was standing over a corpse covered in blood that she admitted was not her own claiming to have tried to administer healing. And this morning a severed head was discovered in a place she'd have had access to."

"Ah, I suppose that would be a rather more serious matter than simple blasphemy."

Is it more likely that they'll stop looking into the head if he covers for her or if he scapegoats her — the latter, he thinks, at least if it is willing to cooperate. If she remains alive, it's too easy for her to happen to prove her innocence, or for someone to start getting ideas about digging up dirt on him to get at her. If she dies here and now, and it can restrain itself, it ought to be easy to ensure that no one suspects the truth to be anything but the obvious.

(Even now, the thing is in his head, whispering that this was a present for him, that he ought to be grateful that it eliminated one of his enemies, as though it is some sort of phantom cat delivering a mouse to its caretaker's slippers.)

And it should be possible to frame her, if she can be moved to desperation; it sounds like she plausibly is a murderer, and she's certainly been trying very hard to imply that she's some sort of nobility while having absolutely no idea how an actual Mendevian woman would go about courting him.

"I'm afraid our dear Miss Camellia may have deceived you. As beautiful as she is, she is not a noblewoman of Mendev. I cannot say for certain whether she is merely a wealthy adventurer with pretenses of grandeur, or whether she is some hapless fellow's bastard, but in either case her birth need not impede your investigation. Though, of course, that will not necessarily prevent any patrons she might have from becoming angry with you, if you do expose her crimes."