Catching the tinker turns out to be fairly easy - he's still at camp, fixing his boots. They try to get him to go back to the fort willingly to sell more pots, but something in Ivar's delivery tips him off and he trys to perforate the barbarian with a poisoned throwing knife. Luckily Ivar expects trouble and dodges. Then Lucia and Gaius attack, and it's more than he can do to both avoid them and Ivar, so he is tackled and tied up. Interrogation by Aria doesn't break him immediately, but he's trussed up and taken back to the city with everyone else.
Also before they leave their training mission, the orc chieftain has his elf-scout (a non-feral orc who is chained up) check them out and pronounce them non-elfy. They also find a cache left in the tinker's camp, with some encrypted papers in Elvish. They fail to break to code on the trip back, but perhaps someone will eventually.
They get a few days to rest after getting back to the capital. Gaius uses the time to sell some of the stag-horn to his noble friends, gaining enough money for some fashionable clothes. Ivar gets into a giant bar fight. Everyone seems happy enough with these results. They are debriefed on their performance and it is determined that they are patient and pretty resolved... but need more breaking and entering skill, which is just as well because politics has dropped a young noblewoman with these talents on the Group.
They meet her at their next briefing, given by D. It seems a prominent arcanologist (Ianus Ian Temer) of the House of the Gold Lion (the biggest guild in the Empire) has been murdered, and at least some of his notes stolen. The secretive nature and political power of the guilds make it hard for the Imperial Eye to investigate effectively, and the man was such a genius that D is worried about losing his notes to any foreign power. They are to determine what happened and make sure that this arcanology is not lost. It's fine, however, if it is recovered by the Gold Lion or another one of the Imperial guilds, though if the murder was inter-guild feuding they will probably be discreetly chastised for it.
Since the Guilds are politically powerful, there will be a lot of forces impeding their investigation. Baba is issued with a very fancy Imperial warrant with which to hew through resistance, and they are also given a more subtle letter for use in dealing with the Eye, which goes into Gaius's keeping.
Section Unicorn asks a bunch of questions to determine the facts of the case, and quickly goes to talk to the Imperial Eye inspector in charge, one Jen Talia Jen, and her assistant. Though armed with a letter compelling eye cooperation, they are very polite to her, throwing her a bit off balance, and she is in turn cooperative.
The information they get from these two sources:
They also ask Jen T. Jen's opinion, and she believes that Mirella was manipulating him to get his research, either hired by another guild, or a freelance. If she had the resources and were politically able, she would search for Mirella, and try to buy back the information from wherever it had gone as a way to track it. She's very sure that the Gold Lion, while trying not to show weakness to the other guilds, will also be investigating and trying to buy back its secrets.
Jen's assistant, Koreel, tells them his opinion when he is instructed to show them the body and effects - he believes that Mirella was in league with her real lover, and let him in to do the murder. Koreel spends much of his time flirting with Sasha. They don't determine much else interesting from examining the body or the clothes (a sort of smoking-jacket, trousers, and little hat).
The Section decides that finding Mirella is important, and a gopher is dispatched to copy slate the painting. The Imperial Eye is then set to asking around after her, trying to determine if she took transport out of the city. Next up: examining the scene, and talking to the House of the Gold Lion.