Comic for June 22, 2025: Finding Adira

[Thomas Rot]

Didn't Adira have a lost sister on the other side of the Riftwall? I'll bet this is her.

Amelia has white hair, not black, and a different spot pattern.

But if this is an impostor, then where would she be?

The brown patch under the bar is Adira's corset, either with or without an Adira inside it. I'm not an expert on corset storage but it seems to be filled out, so probably the latter.

[Neutral Smith]

I suspect that this "Adira" is an impostor...

I don't think an imposter would say the one thing that was guaranteed to have the tavern swarming with guards and templar ASAP.

The hair, coat patterns and eye colour match up with what we've previously seen of Adira.
I suspect her being naked has something to do with why Clovis' goons didn't just kill her though.

I don't think that Twokinds would involve things like aggressive cuddling. It's far too 'sweet' for that these days. Tom even seems to have abandoned depicting senseless bloody violence.

Painting the walls with [beloved character] would chase away the audience.

[S'aaruuk]

What has me thinking this is an impostor is one thing -- The real Adira's first words would be, "Where have you taken my daughter?"

THIS....ABSOLUTELY!!!!!

[Titanium Dragon]

This is almost certainly not Adira, given the "distract him" from a few pages back, and also the fact that we *saw* her getting drug off by the guard (or "guard").

[Dreamfox]

The impostor was addressed three pages ago when told to "distract him" and they know that Kei is on his own, so there's minimal risk in telling him this.

The portal being covered up can serve two purposes. If it's still active, it won't attract Kei's attention as he comes in; regardless of if it's active or not, now that "Adira" has directed his attention to it he will have to go over to the portal and get the cloth off to investigate, which offers a good few seconds of his back turned towards the impostor.

(I lean towards the portal being still open – getting Adira out of the way in the first place implies they want to keep it open longer than when they first came through in chapter 18, back when they were in the fields around Edinmire almost immediately afterward. This time they're in possession of one cow and probably a lot of extra wolves, and have likely been instructed to keep it open for Clovis whenever he completes his job at the manor; they would then be expecting Clovis, Rom, Rem, possibly Roan, and Zen – assuming Clovis didn't tell them about the Brutus component of his mission. So: keep the portal open for the boss and his men slash prisoner(s), no matter what, because he can't afford to stand around and wait for it to reactivate. Perhaps throwing that cloth over the portal is the exact reason the impostor apparently didn't have enough time to finish dressing up as Adira…)

Don't forget, they have all the wolves they freed from the pen to get out. A lot of them are probably civilians and getting them back to wolf territory undetected overland is near impossible. My guess is that they use the Gate to get them out. The swarm of cloaked figures? I'd say they move them in small groups. All of them at once is probably too obvious, so it's one group after the other.

As for 'Adira'? We have seen she was captured after the trouble in town happened, so the wolves weren't going in and out of the city through the gate. Just out, which is why it's likely that this 'Adira' is probably.
And it has been mentioned the real Adira should have recognised the captain of the guard by voice.
That said, she might attack as a last resort and is playing for time right now, hoping that reinforcements arrive.

[Tornir]

I suspect the reinforcements are all waiting behind that sheet, if the riftwall's open.
That would be an excellent reason to draw Kei's attention to it.

How things go from here may depend on how much plot armour Kei and Adira have.

[MithrilCoyote]

Didn't Adira have a lost sister on the other side of the Riftwall? I'll bet this is her.

Amelia has white hair, not black, and a different spot pattern.

But if this is an impostor, then where would she be?

The brown patch under the bar is Adira's corset, either with or without an Adira inside it. I'm not an expert on corset storage but it seems to be filled out, so probably the latter.

yep, it's the same outfit she's been wearing since her introduction. including the whitish bit under the corset.

you can also see a bit of blue fabric around 'adira's' lower legs. which matches the color of the cloaks of the 'guards' seen earlier who took over the tavern. which i suspect are some in league with said wolves who just wanted to secure the portal, since that's how the wolves probably got into the town.

so combined with the way she's acting; not being concerned about her daughter and definitely leaning in more towards the sex-appeal to throw kei off, i'm going to say it's someone who's used transformation magic to take on adira's appearance. which might actually explain why the real one is stuffed under the bar (hopefully just asleep and/or tied up).. to use transformation magic to imitate someone, you have to know what they look like.

[Titanium Dragon]

I suspect that this "Adira" is an impostor...

I don't think an imposter would say the one thing that was guaranteed to have the tavern swarming with guards and templar ASAP.

We don't know that this is a wolf; it could be a templar.

Remember, the Templar coordinated this attack with the wolves. What the wolves don't realize is that this is not because the Templar are secretly on their side, but because the Templar are exploiting them to start a war.

A disguised Templar pointing him at the portal, after the wolves have attacked, has no drawbacks from the Templar POV - they want the wolves to be blamed for this and there's no reason to conceal it after the fact, as they hardly want the wolves to attack again.

That doesn't mean it isn't a wolf who is planning on attacking/kidnapping the good captain while he's distracted with the Riftwall, though.

[Tornir]

We don't know that this is a wolf; it could be a templar.

Remember, the Templar coordinated this attack with the wolves. What the wolves don't realize is that this is not because the Templar are secretly on their side, but because the Templar are exploiting them to start a war.

A disguised Templar pointing him at the portal, after the wolves have attacked, has no drawbacks from the Templar POV - they want the wolves to be blamed for this and there's no reason to conceal it after the fact, as they hardly want the wolves to attack again.

That doesn't mean it isn't a wolf who is planning on attacking/kidnapping the good captain while he's distracted with the Riftwall, though.

It's not a Templar.
It's also not a conspiracy between the Templar and the Wolves.
It was a conspiracy between Brahn and Clovis, no one else knew anything.

Brahn foresaw Clovis would use the dragon zapper he got as a reward for attacking Edinmere to attack the manor, and by extension Trace.
Brahn also got the tigers to come into the war on the side of the humans, which the wolf government/military would absolutely not have wanted, but Clovis couldn't give a shit about.
Finally, Brahn was careful to clean up after everything finally came together, because while what he achieved benefited humans, his methods were treasonous, and that tends to carry a death penalty during wartime. Unless someone like a Mask or Nora get involved, no one will ever know Brahn had anything to do with this.

On that basis, anyone in the tavern, or through the riftwall, is one of Clovis's goons, not wolf military, so Kei will have some advantage even if they have the numbers.

[MithrilCoyote]

Brahn is a templar though, and leads one faction within the templar. so it could still be a templar posing as Adira, much like there was one stationed at the door.

they just wouldn't be representing the order as a whole, but rather Brahn's following.

[Tornir]

The higher up the Templar heirachy you get, the more ambitious and self-serving the individuals become.
Brahn just committed treason in his campaign to permanently remove Trace as an obstacle to his bid to become undisputed Grand Templar. You don't involve minions when doing so would give them information like that to (potentially) use against you.

The guy outside wasn't a Templar either.
Look at frame 5; that was either Sam or Roan.
These wolves can easily pass as human, or snep.

[tony1695]

As for why the planted explosives, obviously Clovis's agents want to make sure they can't be followed. Destroying the tavern might be overkill, but I imagine the knowledge on how to permanently disable the Riftwall itself is unknown. At best they can hold it shut, and someone with enough magical juice on the other side could likely force the way open.
Another reason for disabling the Riftwall is to prevent any human forces from gaining a foothold into wolf territory. This might be where Clovis was working in some capacity with the wolf military, they might believe they can't reliably defend their side, so by making it near-impossible for the humans to access their side it effectively shuts off all travel. Could even be an explanation for where the explosives even came from, can't imagine even someone with Clovis's connections could easily source that amount.

The explanation for what is likely Adira's clothing (and likely Adira herself) under the bar... Well, leave no witnesses. Being that close to the epicenter might just be destructive enough to leave no body at all.

[SnowTiger2005]

As for why the planted explosives, obviously Clovis's agents want to make sure they can't be followed. Destroying the tavern might be overkill, but I imagine the knowledge on how to permanently disable the Riftwall itself is unknown. At best they can hold it shut, and someone with enough magical juice on the other side could likely force the way open.
Another reason for disabling the Riftwall is to prevent any human forces from gaining a foothold into wolf territory. This might be where Clovis was working in some capacity with the wolf military, they might believe they can't reliably defend their side, so by making it near-impossible for the humans to access their side it effectively shuts off all travel. Could even be an explanation for where the explosives even came from, can't imagine even someone with Clovis's connections could easily source that amount.

The explanation for what is likely Adira's clothing (and likely Adira herself) under the bar... Well, leave no witnesses. Being that close to the epicenter might just be destructive enough to leave no body at all.

How are we so Certain those are explosives? it does make sense but could they be barrels of wine or some drink?

[Tornir]

How are we so Certain those are explosives? it does make sense but could they be barrels of wine or some drink?

The barrels have what appear to be stylised wolf skulls painted on them; that's generally a time-honoured method of labelling things dangerous to life, such as poisons or explosives.

Judging by the tech level of Mekkan, pure explosives are likely to be something akin to a low pressure propellant like gun powder, but I haven't seen any evidence of cannons or firearms being used anywhere; fireball spells seem to be more powerful, portable, and reliable.
I suppose it could be something magically enhanced; what I'm seeing under the bar is unlikely do destroy the tavern (never mind the Riftwall) from that location if it's just gunpowder.

...maybe it's poison intended for the ale barrels?

[Bellhead]

snip

...maybe it's poison intended for the ale barrels?

It is often seen in cartoons that alcohol would have a skull on it, to indicate what was in it. She might just be stuffed behind the tavern's strongest wolf territory whiskey, being aged on-site.