Camilla clasped her hands around the cup of strong tea like a drowning woman clinging to a lifeline. Ordinarily she liked her tea with sugar and either milk or lemon, a pleasant, relaxing taste, but that morning she took it straight, even a bit bitter. Nor was there ladylike sipping or savoring of the taste on the tongue; she gulped half the cup in one swig, winced as the heat nearly burnt her mouth, and tossed off the other half before holding the empty cup out to be refilled.
In short, she was trying very hard to make her morning tea into a substitute for her absent morning coffee.
Sister Sara gave her a worried look as she poured.
"Are you all right, Dr. Alucard?"
Camilla supposed that it was a fair question. There she was, still wearing her clothes from the day before. Her hair was mussed from running her fingers through it too many times and a brush not at all. Her eyes were doubtless bloodshot. And the pince-nez grip of her monocle was starting to bite into her skin from being left in place for too long.
In short, she looked like precisely what she was: a woman who had followed up an active day with an even more strenuous and active night and found herself at half-past seven the next morning without having had any sleep.
"This isn't the first all-nighter than I've pulled in my time," she said.
"I'm sorry that you had to put yourself through that for our village's sake."
Camilla shook her head, then drunk more tea, a smaller mouthful this time.
"No, that's all right. Victor Davenant's research notes are fascinating. Even if they weren't important to this investigation, I doubt I could have torn myself away without a real effort. He doesn't repeat all of Frankenstein's own research, but even what's referenced back to it here in Victor's own work tells me that some of the conclusions he reached were groundbreaking, far ahead in some areas of where the Curia is now despite being decades old."
She hadn't wanted to review the research records under Davenant's own roof, out of an abundance of caution (and to see how far he would trust her with them), but they couldn't go back to the inn since it would be locked up tight for the night against fiends. Instead, they'd gone to the church, where Camilla had spent nearly eight hours poring over Victor's documentation as well as where possible the Frankenstein records.
Her mouth was dry from sleeplessness, so she drank more tea before continuing to talk.
"He actually managed to isolate a four-factor test for compatibility between Blue Blood and living human tissue which goes a long way towards explaining why death makes it much more likely that a person will become a stable fiend when infected by the Blood instead of succumbing to a demon status that results ultimately in the body breaking down and dying as happens in the living. There are so many things that I want to test out, so many experiments that I want to run to explore these concepts! His own work isn't bad, but it's still amateurish; he's a novice in biological fields."
"But he's not our grave-robber."
She looked over at Muveil. The knight looked calm and composed, her back straight and her cup held just so. In short, that school-prefect manner of hers was back on full display.
Of course, she'd had the chance to curl up on the couch and sleep while Camilla worked, which had to help with that.
"No, he's not."
Camilla let go of the teacup with one hand and ran her palm over the cover of the experimental journal, feeling the cracks and pits in the leather left by spills and sparks.
"It's like I said last night—if these notes are even close to accurate, he not only hasn't been working with dead human tissue, but there's not a lot of reason why he would be, certainly not until a later stage and probably never at all. He's trying to cure the living of a fatal disease, not build a new Creature. Beyond that, he also doesn't strike me as an idiot."
"I assume that you mean something specific by that, on an 'even if he was up to no good' basis?"
Camilla smiled at her partner. It was nice when people got the point.
"Right. Based on these records, even if he did think there was something to gain from eventual tests on human samples, it wouldn't make any sense to rob graves well in advance and stow the bodies away. That would just draw the attention of the authorities that much faster, while his interest would be in keeping out of public notice until the last possible moment so as to give him the best chance to actually finish his work."
"Hmm. I can't argue with any of that."
Sister Sara let out a tiny squeak.
"You can't mean it! This is Dr. Frankenstein's great-grandson, and he's set up a scientific laboratory based on his ancestor's own research, carrying out experiments with the Blue Blood! How could he have nothing to do with the return of Frankenstein's crimes?"
"I agree," Muveil said. "I cannot shake the feeling that a connection exists."
"You think that Dr. Victor is guilty?" Camilla couldn't keep her incredulity out of her voice and was too tired to be politic. She didn't even bother to try. Muveil cut off any sense of offense right away by shaking her head.
"No, I don't doubt you. If you tell me that the science doesn't match with grave-robbing, then I believe you. But Sister Sara is right. It makes no sense at all that Frankenstein's great-grandson has come here to Vaseria, taken up residence in the family manor, unearthed the original research on using the Blue Blood as a catalyst to animate the dead, actually begun experimentation albeit on a different path, and just by coincidence someone else, entirely different and unrelated, should begin to rifle graves for their own purposes."
She took a sip of tea, and Camilla sighed.
"When you put it like that, it is a little hard to swallow. What do you think, then, that the grave-robber deliberately started their crimes now because Dr. Victor makes for a perfect red herring to distract the authorities and public outrage?"
"I think so."
"But the body-snatcher doesn't have access to Frankenstein's equipment or his records, if that was the case. Dr. Victor found them here, guided by the diary, so we know that no one else got to them first."
Muveil nodded crisply.
"That's true, but I think that may also be part of the misdirection, whether intentionally or not."
"Maybe it's just because I've been up too long, but I'm not sure that I follow you." At least she wasn't alone in that; a glance at Sara showed her with a puzzled expression.
"Well, why do we associate the grave-robbing with Frankenstein's experiments at all?"
"What do you mean?" Sara asked. "What else could it be, but someone pursuing Frankenstein's creation?"
"No, no, I think I see what she means," Camilla said. "I hadn't thought of it like that before. The fact that we're in Vaseria, the story of Dr. Frankenstein's crimes and how his Creature was put together from stolen body parts, and Dr. Victor moving into Schloss Frankenstein together all created the association, but in reality there's no actual evidence connecting those together. Once we eliminate the historical context, we realize that we don't actually have any clue as to what the grave-robber wants with the bodies."
"That's right. We need to go back to the beginning and start the investigation fresh." She let out a sigh, and the stiff, even officious manner fell away, leaving only the truth of a tired girl. "Being a knight in battle is so much easier than this. All I need to know then is where my commander wants me to go and what fiends it's my task to kill. In this sort of investigation, I don't even know what it is that I'm supposed to be hunting, or if it's a fiend or human. No, wait, it must be a human—"
"Or a demon," Camilla put in. "The protections that keep out fiends wouldn't stop a true demon. Or a half-demon, going by the Curia's records of Arnice's work for us, and I would assume, to judge by the stories of the Creature helping to rob graves for parts for its master, that Frankenstein's half-fiends, too, are immune as well."
"I still can't believe it," Sara put in. "Apart from…from some kind of ghoul fiend, who would want to steal bodies—always relatively fresh ones—other than an insane scientist or doctor? It can't be theft; these were ordinary burials of ordinary people."
"But if not Victor Davenant, then who, and why?"
"At least I'm having better luck," Camilla said. This brought Muveil leaning forward eagerly.
"You have an idea, then?"
"No, I just meant with my other purpose for being here." She held up the journal. "Now that Dr. Victor has discovered Frankenstein's experimental documentation and records, I'll be able to take them in for the Curia."
A shudder ran through Sara. In the day-lit parlor with its homey furnishings, the idea of things like mad experiments and murderous fiends seemed very far away, and yet for the Vaserian they seemed very near indeed. Camilla supposed that she couldn't blame Sara; being assigned to a place like this, she could hardly help but pick up some of the local atmosphere. Especially with the grave robberies still going on and unexplained.
"I can't believe that you're going to allow this knowledge to get out!"
"That's the problem with knowledge. It exists regardless of whether we like it or not. When philosophers say that our belief creates truth, they really mean that it shapes human behavior—that we act in accordance with what we believe regardless of its accuracy. But believing that the Earth is in the center of the solar system will not change the movement of the heavenly bodies, believing in a superstitious ritual will not keep a fiend from attacking you, believing a lie about how a disease is spread won't keep you from catching it, and believing you can fly won't stop you from falling if you jump off the bell tower."
"That last one sounds remarkably specific."
"I was six and my grasp of aerodynamics was weak," Camilla said with a grin. "Thankfully my bedsheet glider made a viable parachute and there were bushes below, so I survived with a broken leg and a lecture from my grandfather about properly testing ideas before beginning human trials."
Muveil unbent enough to return the smile.
"I'm not sure that's exactly the lesson a child should take away from that experience, but I suppose that it works."
It actually was an interesting thought. To a soldier, the lesson might be one about obedience. To a noble it might be about dignity, or perhaps about honor. Someone else might have thought it was about keeping one's word (if the child had said they wouldn't go up the tower without permission). And to an eccentric researcher like Professor Alucard, it was about good scientific practice. Four different ways of evaluating the situation, even with the identical facts and the identical goal of keeping a child from harm.
"Leaving aside my childhood misadventures, the point is that what Frankenstein discovered are facts, and it's better to face those facts in the proper intellectual and ethical context than to try and hide from them. And who knows? Perhaps some day this knowledge might help the Curia do some good and save lives from the fiends?"
"Perhaps," Sara echoed, "but I can't imagine it. Not after all the pain, all the suffering this research has brought to Vaseria ever since Dr. Frankenstein began his cursed experiments."
"You could be right," Camilla admitted, and not easily. "It might be that the only thing to do with this knowledge is to mark it down with a large Do Not Do This sign. But even then, a complete understanding of the principles is the best way to establish that. Dr. Victor is looking at this research to adapt it to cure his sister's tuberculosis. Knowing that it doesn't—if that's the case—is a better way to prevent that than just forbidding it."
"And what would be the cost of establishing that knowledge? How many more lives lost before the Curia is satisfied that it's proper to stop?"
Camilla opened her mouth to answer, but found that she couldn't give voice to the words. She couldn't give false reassurances when she had the lesson of Eurulm before her. Muveil glanced at her in surprise, clearly having expected a defense of the Curia's science.
"Well," she said a moment later, breaking the uncomfortable silence before it became too oppressive, "at least there is one thing that is uncomfortably good about this discovery."
"There is?" Sara asked. Camilla, too, was curious about what her partner meant.
Muveil took a sip of her tea.
"The open and public discovery of the Frankenstein research materials, together with the Curia taking those materials into custody, will mean that no one will ever have a reason to pursue them in Vaseria again. The people here will no longer be troubled by seekers after forbidden knowledge."
"That is good to hear, Agent. Vaseria has been plagued for too long by Frankenstein's curse. Bad enough that the man himself escaped punishment for his crimes, but the Vaserians have been paying and paying ever since, for nearly a hundred years."
Sara had started out with a wide smile, but it had drained away almost by the word, her voice growing bitter and more strident. Camilla thought of the others she'd met since coming to the village, of Toller and Krogh and Chief Nadia, of the vivid impressions they'd left, and could not find it in her to deny the priestess's words.
Muveil was right. Even if Frankenstein's discoveries ultimately proved useless in the greater scope, there would at least be freedom for the Vaserians from the shadows of the past.
Part of her even thought it might be better if the Frankenstein papers did prove useless. A legacy of irresponsible decisions, of criminal behavior and obsessed madness which gave rise to a fiendish monster and a trail of murder should not lead to something that ended up saving lives and justifying its existence. That wasn't how it was supposed to work. Evil was supposed to beget only evil.
But…if even one life can be saved in the future because of this work, isn't that better than some sense of poetic justice over something that happened eighty-five years ago?
It was, after all, the future that mattered. The past was only history lessons to be learned from for good or for ill. It couldn't be changed, and regrets were only a collection of tears to shed.
"Then I'd better get back to work, since I've got two jobs to do now." She picked up her teacup and looked down into it. "I have a feeling I'm not going to be getting a lot of sleep until we leave town."
"Two jobs?" Sara was surprised. "But I thought—aren't you going to take the Frankenstein papers back to the Curia?"
Camilla raised the eyebrow over her monocle.
"Finding these documents and whatever secrets they may contain was a happy accident, Sister Sara. Agent Muveil and I were sent here to solve the mystery of the grave robberies, and as we've just been over, Victor Davenant isn't the culprit there. Accidentally solving a completely different mystery doesn't change that.
"As for the other job, that should be self-evident."
It wasn't to the priestess; she looked at Camilla in complete confusion. Muveil, on the other hand, figured it out after a couple of seconds' thought. Her mouth dropped open in the middle of taking a bite out of a cookie, the comedic image only redoubled when she snagged the falling half-macaroon out of the air without ever taking her eyes off Camilla's face.
An agent's reflexes aren't to be scorned, Camilla thought wryly, actually a little impressed.
"You're not serious."
"Why not? I can't leave town until your mission's finished; Bishop Loralia would consider that dereliction of duty. And I can't think of a better way to evaluate the principles of Dr. Frankenstein's research than to put them to a series of practical experiments. After all, the only time it was actually used in practice, Frankenstein created the murderous Creature, and I would prefer to find out sooner rather than later if that outcome was because of his general irresponsibility and flawed process, because of errors in the application, or because of something fundamentally wrong with the underlying principles themselves that he just didn't understand."
"So you're going to help Dr. Victor try to cure his sister?"
Camilla nodded.
"I don't know if it's possible. I suspect that it might not be, that the Blue Blood can't be so easily controlled as he wants it to be, particularly if introduced into the body of a living person. But I might be wrong, and the chance to save an innocent life is worth trying even if it wasn't for the valuable scientific knowledge that could be gained."
Sara was staring at her now, too, with a mix of repulsion and disbelief.
"You can't mean it! To subject that poor girl to such monstrous treatment! She'd be—" She snapped her mouth shut, aghast at what she'd been about to say, Camilla thought, as much as she was at Camilla's own suggestion.
She'd be better off dead was never something that a priestess ought to find herself saying, after all.
Not even if it was true.
"Ultimately, that's her choice, not mine or yours or her brother's. She hasn't apparently objected to coming here to Vaseria in search of a miracle cure. Then again, maybe she's only been playing along for the sake of Dr. Victor's mental health. He can't be in the most stable frame of mind, after all. You can't be, if you're driven by personal reasons to do something like this. Medicine and fiend research aren't even his primary fields of study, but he's trying anyway, because it's that important to him." She shrugged. "Maybe Laura sees that and is just willing to stay quiet and let him work for his sake, even if it's likely to come to nothing in the end."
"Or maybe she wants to live more than she worries about the possible consequences and is willing to take any risk," Muveil said.
"So, before I do anything, I need to shoo Victor out of the room and talk to her woman-to-woman."
"And if she says that she wants to go through with it?" Sara pressed.
"Then when the time comes, I'll explain to her what we intend to do, what the risks might be to the best of my knowledge, and if she gives her consent, I'll go through with the experiment."
"It's monstrous," Sara said, shuddering once more. "After all the horror that Frankenstein brought to Vaseria, his notes and journals should be cleansed by fire, or at least taken off to the Curia and locked away unless it was for humanity's most urgent need. But at least…"
"Yes?" Camilla prompted.
"At least what Dr. Davenant is trying to do is for the good of his sister. He's trying to save a life, not repeat Dr. Frankenstein's attempts to create an all-new race. Ever since they leased Schloss Frankenstein and shipped in all that scientific equipment, all of us in Vaseria have been terrified of what's going to happen next. When the grave robberies began—"
She broke off again, and once more it wasn't hard for Camilla to tell why. They'd circled right back around to where they'd started, after the momentary distraction of whether or not Frankenstein's discoveries could or should be put to medical uses. Namely, that entirely apart from what Victor Davenant was doing, there was still a body-snatcher at work in Vaseria, stealing fresh corpses from their graves.
And none of them had any idea why.