Summary: Storm researches.

Contains talking about torture.

Spoilers for the end of the first novel, and who the Death Knight is.

Set in between V1C9 and V1C10.

For the prompt, 'Roland & Storm, "Let's Face the Music and Dance"' for No True Pair.

Research and Evidence

By Dark Ice Dragon

Storm sighed as he closed the door, wanting to just flop onto his bed and close his eyes. But there was paperwork on his desk that needed to be done, and the task Sun had just ordered him to do. 'Jump out of the torture chamber in the middle of my plan to expose it'? Sun, couldn't you have given more specifics? What torture chamber? What plan? When was this happening?

Well, he could guess what torture chamber; finding out the rest would be easy enough.

After making sure none of the papers would fly away while he was away, Storm left his room.

xOx

There were only a few places that Storm didn't know about in the palace, only because it was harder for him to casually talk with the royals. Harder, but not impossible. And then, even if only the royal family were supposed to know of certain things, that was never true – there was always servants who had to clean up or make sure that the individual was not disturbed.

He had known about the secret passages for some time, but after wandering for over an hour with no results, his clothes getting grimy, Storm had to admit defeat.

Hmm. Time for a different tactic then. He picked at his clothing, frowning. He needed to change; he wouldn't be able to charm anyone while looking dirty.

xOx

Storm picked out Amanda as soon as he saw her – she didn't seem busy, walking slowly, and wasn't carrying anything. She was one of Storm's favourite people to gossip with: she didn't try to take things further when he talked with her, and being a maid, she did hear a lot of things, even in passing.

"Hello," he greeted her with a wink as he approached her.

Amanda's face lit up when she saw him, and she curtsied. "Storm Knight, how are you this afternoon?"

Extremely tired, but he didn't let that show, smiling at her. "Very well - you're wearing a new hairclip?"

She flushed, tentatively smiling back. "Yes, I saw it yesterday and…"

"It matches your eyes," he noted.

Her smile grew. Shaking her head, she asked, "What gossip do you want to know?"

What to ask her about? He couldn't ask about any recent disappearances; the Death Knight may have died recently, but if he was tortured to death, that could have lasted months. Then again, it was about asking the right questions and in the right way.

"Has there been anything of interest recently?"

She chuckled at that, brushing her hair away from her face. "Only that the king is wearing red leopard print underwear today, I'm afraid," she said lowly. "It's been a slow day."

He hummed, seeing the opening, the connection. "Have you had to clean any rooms?" he enquired.

Amanda paled, knowing what he was asking immediately. She furtively glanced left and right, and when she saw they were alone, she stepped towards him. "Yes, I did," she whispered, "but – I can't tell you whose!" Her eyes were desperate. "The last knight who had been told this-!" She stopped herself, stepping away.

"It's all right," Storm assured her. She had already given him some clues. "I won't keep you from your job any longer."

Curtsying again, she hurried away.

Hm. The Death Knight had been a knight; that wasn't world-shattering news -not with how he battled against Ice- but it was a knight who had access to the palace, and the servants were willing to talk to him about their woes.

So, he had to talk to the royal knights.

xOx

He found Elijah by the apple tree in the courtyard, practicing his swordwork. Elijah always seemed a little wary of his presence, but Storm supposed it was because whenever they talked, it was to gossip – still, it fit in with his 'slacker' image, so Storm didn't worry that much.

He waited for Elijah to take a break before he started talking. "I've been hearing rumours that the Death Knight had been tortured to death…"

Elijah nodded while he wiped the sweat away from his forehead with a hand.

"Do you know of any knights that have disappeared recently?"

Elijah frowned for a few seconds, and then stiffened, staring at him, his eyes wide. "You think-" He shook his head angrily. "No, he wouldn't do that!"

"Who?" Storm asked. He knew who the Death Knight could be?

"Roland, a royal knight captain!" His lips a thin line, Elijah continued. "He died three months ago, when he went on a mission; he's the only knight that has left the ranks recently. But…" Elijah took a deep breath. "Roland wouldn't turn into a Death Knight, the only thing he was obsessed with was training…" He trailed off, shock written over his face.

And the rumours were that he had been tortured to death. Storm's stomach rolled as Elijah's information sank in. Roland had disappeared three months ago.

"Thank y-"

"Hey, Elijah!"

Storm turned to see a pair of royal knights, making their way over and waving. If he recalled correctly, they were Dalern and Carse.

"Huh, what's wrong?" Dalern asked, frowning when he saw Elijah.

"We were talking about Roland," Storm supplied, when Elijah stayed quiet.

"Oh," Carse said, a sad grin quirking his lips. "He was the most serious person I'd ever met, but, why are you talking about him?"

"I want to know about him," Storm answered honestly. Why would he be tortured to death? What had he done to anger a person that much?

"There wasn't much to know about him," Dalern said, shrugging. "All he did was swordwork – he had no vices and trained every day."

"Unless it was to help someone," Carse added thoughtfully, rubbing his chin. "But," he continued, shaking his head, "I still can't believe he could have been the current Sun Knight."

What?

Seeing his stunned expression, Carse proceeded to elaborate. "Roland had been training to be the current Sun Knight, but he didn't get the position, obviously."

"I think his face would have broken if he smiled." Dalern snickered.

Ice spread across Storm's body, and he fought to not show any emotion. He thanked them before swiftly leaving.

Roland had been a candidate for the Sun Knight position? That meant he had trained together with Sun, and if his memory served him correctly, Sun had always been with a brown-haired boy before being chosen. Had that other boy been Roland?

Dammit, what exactly had happened?

xOx

While Storm furiously put the pieces together, his thoughts were interrupted by a shout.

"Yo, Storm!"

He looked up to see Fire striding towards him. "You part of this plan Sun's cooked up?"

He nodded.

"All right then – see ya after nightfall," Fire said as he walked past, waving a hand in goodbye.

Ah, good. Now he had the place and the time. Storm glanced out the closest window – it would be soon.

xOx

It wasn't hard to sneak into the king's bedroom, and it wasn't hard to find the torture chamber either.

Storm stood beside the mirror, staring at the sheet in front of him, already wanting to throw up. The scent of blood was so strong it nearly made him gag, but he wasn't going to shy away from this. Not only because Sun had ordered him to do this, but this involved one of Sun's acquaintances, and while Storm had difficulties in understanding Sun a lot of the time, he knew Sun was protective over the people he knew.

This could have been Sun who had died here.

Gritting his teeth, Storm pulled the sheet away and was assaulted by the blood growing impossibly stronger. The air was strong with death, of decay, of despair.

'Help me!'

'Stop! Please!'

'Why?'

'Can't anyone hear me?'

'I only clean the rooms!'

'WHY?'

'Just let me die!'

Closing his eyes, muttering a brief prayer, Storm started to take a closer look around the room. It certainly appeared clean, but it had been cleaned by human hands, so there were hints of what had happened to the occupants hidden away.

With every piece of evidence Storm found, his anger grew and grew. How could-

Storm cut off his thinking before it could continue. He needed to keep a clear head, to not spoil Sun's plan.

Right, he needed to check when it would start.

He left the room and leaned on the wall beside the entrance, his legs feeling weak under him. The moon had started to rise in the sky, so he didn't have that long.

Taking a deep breath of the clean air, Storm went back into the torture chamber, pulling the mirror after him.

He could only wait now, wait for Sun's plan to go into action, and hope that Roland would get the justice he deserved.

*sneeeeerk* I cannot write 'flirty' whatsoever. *fail* No, wait! It's Storm that can't do flirty! Yeah! *nod nod*

Muahaha. Looove dramatic irony. X3 Is Elijah in character? D: Haven't seen enough of him!

Originally had it that Elijah had heard Roland had gone home to stay with his family, but canon defeated me. :P

I do not have a chance of ever being able to emulate Fire's voice, so I didn't bother. XD;;

DDDDDDDD: Oh my gooood, how long was Storm standing in the torture chamber for?

This is the edited version of this fic - the original was a little more graphic and I wasn't sure if it would go over the M rating here, so I took out a paragraph. If you want to read that version it's up on my writing journal on livejournal and dreamwidth. The links to those are on my profile. :)