Intrigues of a Princess
XX: I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
As Alucier was discovering as he sifted through page after page of duly recorded eye witness accounts of Tellot's attempted assassination, some of the duties he had taken on in his quest to succeed Lord Ramkin were less than welcome. He could hope only that, in the end, they'd be worth it. To get to that distant end though, he'd have to start producing some results from these duties.
This was a task that was increasingly defining the word 'futile'.
He tossed the report he'd been reading onto one of the piles that sprawled across the entirety of the large table in Lord Ramkin's office. "Amazing how nobody saw enough to be able to stop it from happening yet the second you send a palace archivist out, every last man, woman and child in the vicinity has a whole novel's worth of crap to tell."
The man sitting in Lord Ramkin's chair wasn't surprised. "Everybody wants their moment of glory. If they have to get creative with some details, hey, a little imagination never hurt anybody."
"It's hurting my investigation. Half these people don't even describe Tellot right, let alone the assassin. I can't rely on anything they say."
"Good thing you already know what Tellot and that corpse Allen dragged back look like then."
That was meant to be a helpful attempt at cheering Alucier up but intentions weren't everything. Alucier grew even more peeved. 'You're not being that reliable yourself. And for God's sake, Revius, will you get out of Lord Ramkin's chair? He's letting me use his office. I'd rather not have it desecrated in the process."
"Desecrated," Revius snorted. "I could have been sitting in this chair for real one day if I hadn't withdrawn my name from consideration just so you could look better. You'd think you'd be a little more appreciative."
"Yeah, you'd think…But I'm not. Out. You. Chair. Now."
Revius obliged but that hardly meant he was going to behave. "Why don't you try it? It's nice and comfy. You can spin around in it too."
"Aren't you supposed to be watching over Princess Millerna and Dryden right now?"
"I fobbed Dryden off for the day on a guard who owes me for poker and Millerna's going to be spending the afternoon with her father and his pack of guards."
"Glad you're taking your duties seriously."
"It's just for today. Besides, Millerna told me I wasn't necessary. I think she was afraid I'd bring Dryden around."
Alucier had other theories as to why Princess Millerna would tell Revius to go away. It wasn't hard to come up with them; they were the same reasons he had. The only difference was Revius was neither obligated nor inclined to listen to any orders Alucier gave.
"And really," Revius rambled on, "doing my job by sticking those two together would only serve to make Meiden Fassa happy and nobody wants that."
"Uh, huh…"
"I'm really doing them a service."
"Sure…"
"Plus, with my time free, I get to help you out."
"Define help."
Revius didn't miss a beat. "I help you by getting you to unclench for a little bit. Come on, the chair's still here. Don't you want to see how it feels?"
"I'll see when or if I get named as Lord Ramkin's successor. Until then, I'm not going to jinx it."
"Fortanen would sit on it."
"I don't care what Fortanen would do. I care about this investigation. If I screw this up, I'll never get to sit in that chair ever."
"Yeah, true," Revius said. "So shouldn't that mean you should sit in it now just in case?"
After reading a report and finding it unusable, Alucier would set it aside in a special trash pile. He had lamented how large that pile had gotten. But in accordance to the Cosmic Law of everything having a purpose, he became at peace with the stack as he picked up chunks of it and heaved them at Revius until there was no stack left.
"Somebody's stressed out," Revius commented. "Exactly what I was warning you about." He let his 'I told you so' lie at that, not wanting to provoke his friend any further and set about being extra helpful by gathering up the papers.
"Sorry," Alucier said but let Revius carry on with the clean up on his own. "I've been at this all morning and nothing. Just when I think somebody actually saw something, the very next detail in their report is totally off."
"So? Just because they got one thing wrong doesn't mean everything's wrong." Revius grabbed at report at random and skimmed through the account. "Big guy in weird clothing staggering around…they got Tellot down…guy in dark clothes and some kind of hood so you couldn't see his face…sounds like our dead friend…stared at each other for a bit…Hoodie runs off, Tellot falls over…What are you complaining about, Alucier? This sounds like a great witness!"
"I remember that one. Keep reading."
Skimming further, Revius came to the end of the report. "Oh, so this person heroically came to Tellot's side and bandaged him up while you stood there twiddling your thumbs. Do they have a friend who caught the assassin instead of Allen?"
"Not him." Alucier gestured to the other papers. "But apparently Allen stole credit from at least four other people. I still have more to go through so I expect that number to climb."
"Damn, must have been crowded out there on the street with all those heroes walking around."
"And yet none of us was able to stop it."
"If you're going to start sulking again," Revius warned, "I'll go hang out with Allen instead. Though really, that's not that much of a dig any more. He's been oddly happy lately."
Alucier knew his next line was supposed to be 'I wonder why that is?' but he refused to say it. He had enough problems and a pressing deadline to solve them without speculating Allen's sudden streak of contentment.
Revius' free time, on the other hand, was bountiful. "Aren't you the slightest bit curious as to why?"
"No."
"Don't even have a guess?"
"No."
"Don't you want to hear my guess?"
"No."
"Do you think I care that you don't want to hear my guess?"
"No."
"So is that a 'no' to letting me give it?"
"No…Wait…what the hell was that last question?"
It was a cheap victory, but Revius wasn't picky. Prideful, on the other hand… "See, you should have me interview people. I have a gift in getting people to say things they don't mean to say."
"I don't think annoying people to the point where they say 'no' to everything that comes out of your mouth either qualifies as a gift or will help in anyway."
"Sure it will. You can play the good Caeli who's in pursuit of truth, justice and all that other crap and I can play the bad Caeli who gets on their nerves so much, they talk to you just to make me shut up."
He wasn't going to get a better offer of help from anyone else. There might even be something to Revius' strategy too. He picked up the list of names and addresses of the witnesses and with a heavy sigh, gave in. "All right, let's go."
0-0-0-0
"I've seen that guy before," the woman said. She grabbed the drawing an artist had made of the assassin out of Alucier's hand. It was a remarkable likeness. But then, the subject had been lying incredibly still so it had been easy for the artist to get all the details right.
"Oh, I've definitely seen him. There's a tavern three streets down, makes the best soup you ever had. He was always hanging around the bar whenever me and my Darrick would go in for supper. Thought he worked there for a while but a barmaid was quick to set me straight when I asked what he did. I would have said something in my report, but I just didn't get a good enough look at him when that blond guy dragged his body over. Sorry about that."
"Nothing to be sorry for, madam. Nothing to be sorry for at all." Alucier instead thanked the woman profusely and wrote down the address of the tavern in question. After an hour of going door to door with no results, this woman had been a goldmine, providing his first lead to the assassin's origins. A good lead too, from the sounds of it.
"Rev, we gotta go," he shouted down the street.
Revius waved him away. He too had found an interesting witness – another female, who couldn't really recall any useful information but pursed her lips in the most adorable fashion while she tried so gosh darn hard to remember something helpful.
"Now, Revius," Alucier shouted again. He wasn't going to wait. He wanted to get to that tavern while the memory of the assassin's time there was still fresh in everybody's minds. Give people a little extra time and it was amazing how quickly selective amnesia could set in.
Revius did join him shortly after assuring his witness that if she did happen to remember anything, he would gladly come back to chat with her.
Alucier's witness watched the scene with a smile and the shake of her head. She was glad she and Darrick were beyond all that silly courting nonsense. They had a family now to take care of, a house to pay for. It was hard work, sure, but worth it at the end of the day to have someone to share her life with and a place to call her own.
It helped too that a nice Cesarian gentleman had come along and offered her more gold than either she or her husband had made last year just to be at a certain place at a certain time and to say certain things when a Caeli Knight came around.
She would have been a fool if she had turned him down.
0-0-0-0
'The best soup you ever had' not withstanding, the tavern Alucier and Revius found themselves in was not the sort of place they'd like to spend too much time in. There was hardly a person in the whole place whose face wouldn't look at home on a wanted poster. Actions spoke louder than appearances too. As soon as Alucier and Revius, resplendent in their Caeli uniforms, entered, there was a furor of people scrambling to get objects under tables, into coat pockets and any other places of concealment they could think of.
"Yeah, that's not conspicuous," Revius muttered.
Neither man was here to round up petty criminals so they let the activity go 'unnoticed'. They headed towards the bar instead, where Alucier introduced himself by shoving the sketch of the assassin under the bartender's nose and telling him any recollections he had of the man pictured would be highly beneficial.
"Never seen him," was the bartender's predictable answer.
"Are we doing the routine?" Revius asked with a sigh.
"No," Alucier said, "I don't have time for it."
The bartender went back to clean out a mug, albeit a bit uneasily. They were supposed to ask him if he was sure and tell him to take another look.
Alucier put the sketch away instead. "I talked to one of your regulars who recognized him almost immediately. Now, some people might consider it strange that you aren't able to do the same. I, however, have different considerations."
"Look, I'm telling you, I don't know him. We get lots of people in here. I can't remember all of 'em."
Alucier rolled his eyes. He had just said he wasn't going to do the routine! "I know what you're telling me and it's not the truth. And I don't care that you need to protect your clientele by playing cute with the authorities. If you don't tell me who this man is and who you've seen him with, you will have no clientele. I will look under every table and search every person in here. I will have guards crawling all over this establishment. Judging from the angry looks I can see reflected in that nice mirror you have hanging behind the bar that would not be a good thing."
Without turning, he added, "Revius, the guy by the window who thinks he's being subtle with the knife under the table–"
As if from nowhere, a small throwing knife suddenly became wedged into the top of said table exactly above where the man was keeping his knife.
"You mean that guy?" Revius said.
The man sheathed his knife. He wasn't subtle at all this time, placing the knife on top of the table beside Revius' throwing knife for all to see. He wanted the Caeli to be very aware that he was unarmed.
"Er, maybe I do know that guy in the sketch," the bartender mumbled. ""Let me take another look."
Alucier produced the sketch again and this time it miraculously sparked the bartender's memory. "Yeah, I think I have seen him. It took me awhile because I usually work days and this guy came in at night."
"He doesn't come in anymore?" Alucier feigned innocence.
"Er, no…" the bartender stammered. He wondered if there was any use in keeping up the pretense that he didn't know the man in the sketch was dead. The Caeli's bemusement didn't sound genuine and even if it was, it would only be a matter of time until that fact came out into the open. He figured the Caeli would be happier if that openness occurred sooner rather than later. "Word on the street is that he's dead."
"Uh, huh. Any other words on the street?"
"Not that I know…"
"Any words in this bar?"
"Well, I, uh…" The bartender debated on how much information to give. On one hand, the Caeli would be very angry if he did not receive the information he wanted. On the other, there were a whole lot of people who would be even angrier if he did. These people greatly outnumbered the Caeli and his partner. The only advantage the Caeli had was the fact that he was standing less than a sword's length away from the bartender whereas the opposition was hiding in the shadows during the day as they were often wont to do. There was nothing stopping them from coming out at night though.
Saviors can come from unlikely places to unlikely people however. Before the bartender could decide whose bad side he'd rather be on, a volunteer stepped up to shoulder the burden. He looked a little cleaner than most of the other patrons and while they had trouble looking at anything but the floor, this man strode right up to Alucier, looking him in the eye the entire time.
He gave a nod then leaned in to whisper, "If I could speak to you privately, I might be able to help you out."
"All right," Alucier agreed. He informed the bartender that he might be back (you never could know these things after all) then he and Revius escorted the informant outside.
They walked clear to the end of the street then turned down a small path that barely qualified as an alley. That was fine with them; it meant no one was going to bother them. Revius lingered at the entrance while Alucier and the informant went further back just in case.
"Guess I won't be going back there," the man sighed. He didn't seem terribly upset with the prospect though he did lament how much he'd miss the cheap price of a drink there. It would surely cost him more to find a new place to spend time.
Alucier held out a piece of gold he had on him, but he wasn't ready for it to change hands. "Tell me what you know then you can collect your reward."
"Fine, fine," said the informant. "I think I can trust two men of your station to keep your word. You're not like the cutthroats back there. Speaking of cut throats…"
Alucier held the sketch out. "You know what happened to this man."
"I know the line of work he was in and I know what happened to that foreigner outside of Tuvello's. It's not hard to put the two together."
"I know all about what happened outside of Tuvello's, so I need you to tell me all about this man. What was his name?"
"Don't know. You don't ask those kind of questions about those kind of men."
This could lead nowhere fast. Figuring it wouldn't serve any purpose to drag it out with more questions, Alucier told the informant he better start informing.
"Settle down, I said I had something to tell you and I do. I don't know the man's name but I do know other places he used to go and the people he spoke to there."
"And how do you know that?"
The informant smirked. "Let's just say I'm familiar with the business and the major players in it."
That explained why the informant was so eager to talk: he wasn't doing his civic duty; he was hoping to eliminate some of the competition by ratting out the assassin's associates.
Dealing with a criminal wasn't his first choice but it wasn't as if he had the luxury of a second. "All right," Alucier said, "I don't need any details about you. Just go back to him."
"I can't say much for certain, but I do know he was spending a lot of time at the docks – ocean, not leviship. They're not as busy these days. Anyway, there's only one reason to go down there…"
It was easy to guess what that reason would be. The informant, unfortunately, was not in the mood to confirm or deny any guesses. His spirits needed to be raised. When Alucier prodded him to go on, the informant shrugged. "What I'm about to tell you…if word got out I was the one who led you to the docks, it would cause me some…financial…hardships."
Alucier dug into the pocket in the lining of his overskirt and found a second coin. "Will this help?"
"Somewhat…not for long…"
Greedy little bastard, Alucier groused to himself. What choice did he have though? His hand went into the pocket again and procured a third and final coin. This one was larger than the others and contained a healthier percentage of precious metal.
It met the informant's satisfaction. He proceeded to give Alucier everything he needed: the place to go, the time to be there and a thorough description of the man to look for. "A lot of contracts go through him," the informant said. "I can almost guarantee you he either hired your guy or knows who did. You might have a problem convincing him to tell you who hired him and whatnot, but, well, that wouldn't be my problem."
No, Alucier thought, it's my problem and if I don't solve it and solve it quick...
He didn't need to finish that thought. He'd been over the consequences of failure again and again from the second he first saw Tellot lying in the street.
He'd do what he must to stave failure off. He would storm the docks, sword at the ready, and force the truth out. Or he would swing by the palace treasury first, empty pocket and an expense request at the ready and go down there to beg and cajole it out. Whatever the situation called for. He couldn't afford to try heroics when bribery would work. With this break he had caught, he was so close to having everything he needed so much sooner than he could have dreamed.
"Ahem, you still have my coins," the informant coughed.
But that didn't mean he'd enjoy doing any of it.
0-0-0-0
The man they were looking for wasn't supposed to be at the docks until after dusk, giving Alucier and Revius plenty of time to check in at the palace (and make a few side trips, including one to the treasury). After that, they'd head home for a change into less conspicuous clothing and then it would be off to the docks.
Revius went to check on his substitute guards for Dryden and Millerna. Alucier conferred with Allen and also, by default Eries. There was no way she was going to miss out on this, regardless of attempted assassinations being out of her purview.
"You're sure you can get this man to tell you who hired him?" she asked.
"It's amazing the things people will admit to when they're faced with spending the rest of their life in a cell…or with a really pointy piece of metal."
Allen took the cautionary approach. "That's assuming this person either is the one who contracted the assassin or knows who did."
The dangers of assuming weren't unknown to Alucier and truthfully, he knew he was placing a lot of faith in this, perhaps too much. But it was all he had to go on and if it panned out, he'd have the mystery solved by morning.
He shouldn't set his hopes so high. The informant might have been motivated to talk but that was no proof against that talk being mistaken or an outright lie. Reluctantly, Alucier agreed with Allen. "True, this might go nowhere but hey, if this isn't the guy we want, at least it'll mean there's one less name on the list of guys it could be."
That might have sounded more optimistic if there actually was a list of suspects other than the man he and Revius were going to track down.
Allen offered to go with them but Alucier wouldn't have it. Two strangers showing up at the docks would draw more attention than was desired anyway. Adding a third wouldn't improve things.
As he left to meet with Revius, Alucier did toss Allen a small bone. "If this is our guy, we'll have to do a thorough search of where he was doing his business. At the docks, you know there's bound to be tons of storerooms for you to check out."
He didn't even have to look at them to know the embarrassment Eries and Allen were feeling. Whatever happened later, Alucier would have the consolation that stopping by Marqesita's quarters before coming to Eries' had certainly paid off.
0-0-0-0
"Nice neighborhood," Revius quipped.
It wasn't funny because it wasn't true. With the rise in prominence of leviships, good old fashioned ocean bound vessels were being used less and less for transportation of cargo. The decrease in business had hit the docks hard as nearly all the legitimate shipping businesses had moved onto higher, more stable ground.
This did suite the illegitimate businesses just fine though. They seemed to be thriving in fact, if one went by all the lights that seemed to be on in the back of the empty, boarded up building that lined the docks.
Could be squatters, Alucier thought to himself. These building had been pretty grand in their heyday. With some new paint and a hell of a lot of scrubbing, they might be able to reclaim some of that glory. A case in point was the old hotel set back from the docks. A model of classical Asturian architecture – tall, straight white walls capped by arches, built to withstand the worst the sea (or dereliction) could throw at it – it loomed over the lesser buildings both in size and retaining its respectability. In appearance, at any rate. Given that the hotel was the home base of the man they were coming to meet, the business conducted inside wasn't likely to be on the right side of legality.
They walked right in to the old lobby. Looking like standard riff-raff off the street (a feat accomplished by Alucier borrowing some of Revius' tattier clothes and Revius just dressing as he always did when he wasn't on duty), they didn't attract much attention from the other men scattered around the lobby.
Or they didn't attract much attention while they kept their mouths closed. The second they opened them to mention the name, every set of eyes turned to them.
Only one person spoke up though. He did not rise from his seat by the counter to greet them. He did not move his hand from its place out of view to wave hello. He just barked at them, "What the hell you want with him?"
Alucier shrugged as if bored with the question. "That's not your business. I was told to ask for him so I'm asking for him." It wasn't the politest response but it got him a lot farther than the truth ever would. The only place the truth would lead was a fight.
The man at the counter seemed satisfied as he left without another word to go find the requested man. Alucier and Revius drifted over to an old couch in a secluded nook to wait.
Revius looked at the furniture wistfully. "Hey, we could put this in the apartment instead of those chairs I took from my parent's guest house."
Though this 'new' old couch, still in possession of all of its springs and most of its cushions, was in considerably better shape than the other couch had been before he'd forced Revius to get rid of it, Alucier was not going to indulge in this bit of apartment furnishing. "Do you even know why we're here?" he snapped.
"Jeez, no need to yell. I'm just killing time." The hopeful glance he gave the couch out of the corner of his eyes bespoke otherwise. "Besides, you'll want me here if something goes wrong."
"We're in the most dangerous area of Palas trying to track down the person responsible for hiring an assassin to kill a foreign dignitary. What could possibly go wrong?"
Gallows humor was apropos and Revius appreciated the effort. Still, he was, couch aside, serious about this. "How do you know this guy is even going to bring out the guy we're looking for?"
"The informant was very specific. Did everything short of drawing a sketch himself when he described him."
"How helpful."
"Yeah," Alucier admitted and felt a moment of doubt over whether the informant had been a little too helpful.
He had been highly accurate. The first man reappeared at the other end of the lobby with a second following behind him. As soon as Alucier glimpsed the second man, he knew he was the one he was looking for.
He was not alone in his recognition. Revius muttered a quick, "What the…?" and looked at Alucier in confusion.
"What's wrong?" Alucier asked him.
As an answer, Revius jerked Alucier back further into the nook. "We gotta go," he insisted. "Now."
"But…"
Revius wasn't listening. He'd jerked Alucier back out of the nook and was practically dragging him towards the closest exit. "Just follow me," he whispered, "and don't let that other guy see us."
Weird as he acting and as weird as he could be in general, Alucier knew Revius well enough to know he would not bail on this meeting without a good reason. You didn't stay captain of the palace guard by being bad at your job.
They headed silently for a cluster of men by the back exit, mingled briefly so as not to be too obvious and then, with a quick look back at the man they'd come here to see, bolted through the door and were gone.
They lingered near the exit to see if anyone was going to follow them. After several minutes passed without any activity at the door, they deemed it safe to move on.
As they wound their way through the back alleys, Alucier asked for an explanation. Yes, he trusted Revius but that didn't mean he didn't want to know what was going on.
"We didn't need to meet with that guy to find out who he works for,'" Revius said.
"You sure?"
"Positive. I never bothered to get his name but I did not forget his face. I was stuck on a leviship with the jerk when I went to fetch Dryden at Plesta after all."
0-0-0-0
Alucier again returned to Lord Ramkin's office alone. He'd told Revius to take the rest of the night off. One of them should get a chance to rest tonight.
The evidence he had was circumstantial. An assassin had apparently been hired by a man who had worked for Meiden Fassa. Or a man who had worked for Meiden Fassa just so happened to know who did hire an assassin. There were too many variables in the equation to reach any certain conclusions, but the direction they kept pointing in couldn't be clearer.
Alucier wished he'd been able to speak to the man, but Revius' instincts had been dead on. The man would have recognized Revius as quickly as Revius had recognized him and then he would have been the one beating a hasty retreat. Meaning: A) he wouldn't have been able to speak with him anyway and B) the man would have been armed with the knowledge that two Caeli were looking for him. At least this way, the man didn't know who had wanted to see him. Suspicions might have been raised by standing him up, but the man wouldn't have proof positive confirmation.
Confirmation – that was something Alucier desperately needed now. Accusations, no matter how plausible, simply could not be leveled at someone possessing the kind of power Meiden Fassa had without more to back them up. He'd have to build a case, piece by irrefutable piece, before Meiden's name could even be mentioned in passing.
How in the hell could he build that case? Men like Meiden didn't leave many trails. If Alucier hadn't spoken to that one witness and if the informant hadn't been at the tavern and if Meiden had gotten somebody other than Revius to go with his thug after Dryden…there'd be no trail at all.
This, however, brought him back to assuming. What if there was no trail at all and he was just piecing together a couple of clear patches to make one? So what if this man (assuming, again, he was the right guy) worked for Meiden? People moonlighted. Alucier doubted that men who had 'assassination coordinator' on their resumes made for the most loyal of employees.
He was actually defending Meiden. That was how screwed up this whole mess was.
He remembered a lesson from his swordmaster, a lesson passed down from master to pupil since the concept of teaching had existed: listen to your instincts. A natural born smart-aleck, Alucier had asked his teacher 'what if your instincts are always wrong?' The man, not in the least nonplussed by the question, had answered, 'Listen to 'em anyway. Figure out why they're wrong, then you can figure out how to make 'em right.'
It was easier said than done. His instincts now were jabbering in a conflicted mess.
It's Meiden Fassa. Of course he's up to something.
Yeah, but who isn't up to something?
Yeah, but who else practically bragged about his intentions to Eries?
He never told her anything about assassinating anybody. His methods are more subtle.
That's exactly why he wouldn't tell Eries he was going to kill somebody. Duh.
No, that's exactly why he wouldn't resort to something as brazen as an assassination in the middle of the street.
And that's all it came down to: while Alucier fully believed Meiden possessed the means to organize an assassination attempt and was the kind of man who could readily go through with one if he had a motive for doing so, he had zero proof backing him up, little means of acquiring said proof and a kernel of a doubt there was proof to be found period.
It wasn't helping that the more he thought about it, the more that kernel kept trying to sprout, sending out tendrils of more doubt that had a good chance of taking root.
There was one instinct Alucier knew he could listen to and trust completely: Eries would be just brimming with opinions on this.
0-0-0-0
He tracked Eries down to Marqesita's quarters. He caught her just as she was leaving to retire for the night. He was grateful for the timing. Marqesita could fill him in on any bits of Egzardian politics that he might be missing that might influence the case one way or the other.
And it gave him an excuse to see her too.
Allen was there as well per his duty. He listened to the retelling of Alucier and Revius' adventure with hints of misgivings making themselves known through nods of his head and long intakes of breath.
Eries, much as his shady acts of the past colored her opinion of Meiden, was likewise determined to get all the facts straight before condemning him for any act in the present. "So the informant came to you…He happened to be there. He overheard your conversation with the bartender and then gave you everything you could possibly need for a trifling amount of gold?"
Phrased like that, it seemed obvious there was more going on than met the eye. But there were different ways an eye could see things. Alucier tossed a few of them out to see how probable they seemed. "Those kind of people are known for skulking around, listening in and waiting for opportunities to come up. And if this guy really is the one we want, catching him would put him out of business. That could be worth more than a trifle of gold."
"Or he could have just made you suspect his competition was the man you were seeking," Marqesita offered, "thus eliminating competition that would be otherwise harder to get rid of."
Alucier sighed. "Great, another scenario to make everything that much more confusing."
"That makes how many?" Allen asked. "One: This man was the one who hired the assassin and he did it on Meiden Fassa's orders. Two: He did the hiring but not for Meiden. Three: He didn't do the hiring at all but knows who did and that could be anybody. Lastly: Your informant has very creative ways of beating his competitors."
Eries noted to herself that a few of those scenarios didn't really prove Meiden innocent of anything. Of course, they didn't have anything that proved Meiden guilty either. Personal distaste wasn't grounds for a conviction.
Without a clear path before them they had little choice but to go down multiple paths to find the right way. Somebody, without Revius in tow to scare their target off, would have to go down to the docks. Somebody else would have to go to the bar to have another chat with the informant.
"Wonderful, a field trip!" Marqesita said excitedly.
Allen's look of mortification was eclipsed only by the horror on Alucier's face as both men came to the conclusion she might actually be serious about going out on this investigation.
"Absolutely not," Alucier declared. "You are staying here at the palace."
"Without a guard apparently if Allen is to help you."
"I'll find someone else to do it, or have Revius ditch Millerna and Dryden again. You are not going anywhere regardless."
"Why should I?" she mumbled. "It's not as if it was my brother who was stabbed."
"Sita…"
Seeing that she really was serious about being involved, Eries offered an alternative – a new path that was the shortest yet contained the most twist and turns. "Why don't we have a talk with Meiden? He and I do have summit business to review so it would only be natural for us to speak. If I happened to bring along my good friend, that would make sense as well. And naturally, since Tellot was the victim, the assassination attempt would be a topic of much interest to her."
That wasn't the only thing that interested Marqesita. "I like this plan. I like it a lot. If the weasel is behind this, the chance to catch him myself…"
"No!" Alucier was regretting his decision to include the two women in this more and more. Talking was one thing, but to actually place themselves in danger… "You are not going to give Meiden a reason to pick a new target."
"Assuming he is guilty," Marqesita said. "If he isn't, no harm done. If he is, we have a chance to get to the source."
"Are you crazy?" Alucier asked. "The two scenarios you just presented are either you'll be wasting your time or you'll be making a very dangerous man aware of the fact that you're suspicious of him."
"Oh, please, Alucier," Eries jumped in. "Sita and I are fluent in political double speak. We know how to phrase a question so it doesn't look like a question."
"As I recall," Allen said, joining Alucier's side, "Meiden's fluent as well. He'll know what you're up to."
Eries flashed him a look that said he wouldn't be getting locked in any storage rooms with her for a while. "Then we'll disguise ourselves better. I could invite Dryden along. He agrees with our plans. He'll probably be able to offer more insight into our suspicions."
"Or he might get freaked out because you're accusing his father of attempted murder," Alucier replied.
But even Allen wasn't on board with this. "I don't think Dryden thinks too highly of his father or would put too much past him. And we're not accusing Meiden of anything just yet anyway. We're merely trying to see if there's a foundation for an accusation."
That seemed like a pretty slim splitting of hairs to Alucier, but he couldn't argue with it. He'd gone from having no lead, to having the perfect lead, to making a key discovery and then finally to doubting everything he'd done today.
A skein this tangled wasn't going to unravel itself. Eries and Marqesita were giving him an opportunity to cut through to the core without chasing after every last loose thread. That they were potentially placing themselves in harm's way to do so was the only caveat he had.
It was a big caveat.
And he was sure he wasn't the only one with reservations. "You may be able to tell the difference, Allen, but how will Meiden take it? If they slip up at all and he thinks they think he's up to something-"
"I accuse Meiden of a crime practically on a daily basis," Eries interrupted. "I've never gone so far as to mention murder, but he'd be suspicious if I didn't act suspicious of him over something."
"That's settled then," Marqesita said, as if that odd bending of logic was sufficient.
To the women, it was. The men had a different opinion. Allen was as vocal as Alucier had predicted and hoped. "There's a very large difference between accusing someone of minor crimes and implicating him in an assassination attempt."
"You haven't been listening to Bennor and me fighting, have you?" Marqesita countered. "We've been flinging accusations around like confetti."
"But you're family," Alucier said. When everyone paused to ponder what really went on in the Maerzen family, he hastened to explain himself. "I just mean your dealings with each other are bound to be more emotional. It's expected you'd say things you don't mean, things that can be forgiven and forgotten. Eries' relationship with Meiden is purely political. She needs to watch what she says and how she says it. If she doesn't-"
"But I will. Don't you trust me to be able to take care of myself?"
Alucier had been Eries' guard for so long, it had become instinct to protect her. Perhaps the instinct also included the urge to overprotect her. Objectively, he believed Eries capable of pulling this off. Subjectively, he didn't want her to even try.
"I know you can," he said softly, "but we just don't know enough about what's going on for you to risk it. At best, somebody's going out of their way to make Meiden look guilty. Meiden Fassa – the most powerful merchant in Asturia and possibly the world. Meiden Fassa – a vicious schemer in his own right. If they're not afraid of him, do you think they're afraid of you? And do I need to go into the worst case scenario in which Meiden is guilty? He's already told you outright what he plans. Do you think he's afraid of you?"
"No," Eries admitted, "he's not. But neither am I afraid of him. We're talking about a dinner party, Alucier. He won't try anything with Dryden sitting right there and if he tries anything after, that is why Allen is by my side."
It was a cheap ploy, banking on her faith in him to get him to put more faith in her. Effectiveness however doesn't always rely on the quality of the effort. Allen relented, albeit with some qualifications.
"You have to make sure Dryden will be there. He'll keep Meiden in line."
Eries nodded. Recruiting Dryden would be the first step.
"And you have to promise me you'll keep your words vague. You're just trying to get a sense of what Meiden is up to, not a confession."
She nodded again while suppressing an urge to roll her eyes. She knew how to handle this. Allen's protectiveness was sweet, but unnecessary.
Alucier, on the other end of the spectrum, couldn't believe Allen was agreeing to this. Where was the guy who half-joked about keeping a girl in a birdcage so he could better look after her? The guy in front of him was flinging the cage door wide open and handing out flight plans to the rough neighborhoods. "Allen…" he started.
But Marqesita wasn't going to let him go any further. "You're dead set against this, I know. But you have to trust us. We know what we're doing. We know who we're dealing with. Allen understands. I can tell he doesn't like it, but he understands. Why can't you?"
"I do understand," Alucier answered. "But if anything goes wrong, if you inadvertently tip off the wrong people…I already screwed up with Tellot. Like hell I want to make the same mistake with either of you."
"This again," Marqesita sighed. "Let me spell this out for the final time. You didn't screw up with Tellot. We, as in us Egzardians, screwed up. You were only responsible for him while he was on palace grounds. Our guards were to take over after that and they didn't. Their fault, not yours. And if Eries and I step over the line, that will be our fault. We're big girls. We know the risks. We'll take the responsibility."
Alucier made a last, desperate plea to Allen for backup, but didn't get any. "If Eries says she can do this, I believe she can do this."
The two princesses were done with the discussion after that. They had a dinner party to plan, after all. They weren't even listening as Alucier vented his frustrations on his fellow Caeli.
"I can't believe you're letting her do this."
"It's Eries, Alucier. I'm not sure I can 'let' her do anything. Believe me, I'm as anxious as you, but if I put my foot down-"
"She'd just kick you in the shin."
Allen smiled. "Definitely." There was more than a bit of admiration in his voice.
A thought occurred to Alucier then, a thought that opened up a whole other set of problems he couldn't deal with right now. You are so whipped.
Revius had been hinting around it this morning. Marqesita had all but spelled it out when relaying the tale of the storeroom. But Alucier wasn't going to say a thing. There were only so many crises he could deal with in a day.
So he simply smiled along and prayed Allen's faith would be rewarded. He needed, desperately wanted, this mystery to be solved and no longer for the sake of his career. He had a black feeling that more important fates were hanging in the balance.
Next up: Can't put anything past our gal, can you? (The answer: yes, you can).
Acrobat. Eries carefully dances around Meiden to get what she thinks is the truth. Conspirators spin and twirl the evidence. And I juggle way too many story lines in one chapter.