Previously: Jim's experiences as a Changeling and Darci's experiences as a trans girl have given them very different interpretations of The Ugly Duckling; the movie Trolls is, for Changelings, a horror movie; and Not Enrique decides to start going his old nickname, Riot.
Content warnings for this chapter: some gory science talk about bodily fluids and causes of death.
Otto was not surprised that his fellow Changelings were unwilling to openly commit to either side of an internal power struggle. Disappointed, yes. Surprised, never.
Stricklander had led the Janus Order since 1850, which was a long time for a Changeling to survive in a position of power. (At least, a position of power which could be usurped. Otto had survived longer, in a different position of power, because no one could take his abilities as a polymorph for themselves.)
In Otto's opinion, Stricklander had lasted as long as he did by virtue of making his own job harder. Nobody else wanted to manage to coordination paperwork of everyone's assignments worldwide. That was how Stricklander managed to leave Arcadia Oaks without anyone taking advantage of the power vacuum.
Oh, he'd locked down the Order before he left, "to avoid the Trollhunter's attention", so the rest might not realize their illustrious leader was out of town, but Otto had kept an eye on the school and Stricklander's apartment. He was gone. Possibly hiding out in Trollmarket, the traitor.
The aggravating thing was that it wasn't at all strange for a Changeling to go to ground in times of trouble, so when he'd tried pointing out – to Smith; to Jorgensen-Warner; he'd even tried Groe, that was how desperate he was – that Stricklander had abandoned them, they'd all had the audacity to shrug.
Half the agents in Arcadia knew Otto was planning to go after Stricklander, and none of them were willing to commit to a side until after they knew who won.
Just because this was absolutely typical of any Changeling powerplay did not make it any less aggravating.
He'd even hinted the truth of his motives a few times – that Stricklander might be working for the Trollhunter, and that was how Bular fell – and Smith had gone and suggested that Stricklander faked defection after Bular fell and was spying on the Trollhunter for them.
"He wouldn't trust another agent with information that sensitive."
At least a handful of them probably thought the whole plot was faked and that Otto was working for Stricklander to try and weed out dissenters. Which was why Otto couldn't be so blatant as to say, "Stricklander is a traitor and I want your support in overthrowing him."
Otto wasn't brave enough to face the Trollhunter directly, so Lake would be spared until Otto could recruit backup.
Otto was naturally displeased when Sturges, the closest thing he did have to a recruit, said ey had hit a roadblock on the autopsy.
"The autopsy is complete. Bular has no head. There is nothing at all that looks like a face or horns, and not enough gravel to suggest it was just damaged. The cause of death must have been decapitation, and the Trollhunter took the head as a trophy."
Otto nearly crushed his phone.
No, no, no, no, NO! Stricklander and Lake weren't large enough or strong enough, even in troll forms, even together, to cut Bular's head off! Otto was the only one who could shift into a form that would even stand a chance against Bular in combat! A missing head would just make it look like Otto was the traitor Changeling!
"I have some non-autopsy experiments lined up –"
"Nein! You will check again!"
Bernie growled internally, but did not let eir voice slip to do so out loud.
Basic survival skills involved not aggravating someone who outranked you, especially not when they were already in a bad mood.
For this reason, Bernie decided it was safer not to point out to Otto that data on the Heartstone could be of far more use to the Order than data on Bular's final fight.
Admitting ey knew there was Heartstone on the base in the first place risked exposing how Bernie had broken into Otto's office and borrowed the hidden Heartstone shard that Otto had been hoarding for himself, which would anger the polymorph even further. It would be wiser to save that conversation for a time Otto was inclined to be pleased by the alchemist's initiative.
"Test the remains for poison," Otto ordered. "He must have been weakened first! Our prince would not die so easily."
Otto hung up the phone.
So, how exactly was Bernie supposed to do this without destroying the remains? This was exactly why ey hadn't started any intrusive testing yet.
Bernie had tests for any number of toxins, divided into three categories: tests intended for living subjects, to find the right antidote; tests intended for dead meat, to check if it was poisonous or edible; and tests intended for inanimate objects that might have been used to administer a toxin.
Most of the tests, however, had one thing in common. They destroyed the sample tested.
A standard antidote test was the least destructive, but for the same reason, it wouldn't be reliable. Those tests were all based on the reactions of a living body – discolouration, fever, chills, tremors, rashes, shortness of breath, loss of mobility or dexterity, weakened or altered senses, nausea, pain, fatigue, change of appetite – or on samples of spit, sweat, blood, urine, feces, bile, and occasionally the discharge of a sore or pustule the toxin had induced. Bular didn't have any of those things anymore.
With different ways that stone-flesh and meat-flesh deteriorated after death, the results of the tests intended for dead meat would be distorted, so Bernie could shelve them as well.
A poisoned object was usually saturated with the toxin, so it could administer the needed dose with ease. A poisoned body wouldn't have nearly the same concentration, except right around a wound inflicted shortly before death. Or anytime after death.
So, Bernie was back to square one. Reassemble the body, find any recent-looking injuries, and risk Gunmar's fury by chipping off bits of Bular for science.
Not that Gunmar would be any less furious if Bernie didn't do it, and was therefore unable to find the cause of death. The Underlord would probably agree with Otto that Bular could not have simply been bested in combat.
Was this how computer hackers felt, when clients assumed they could get a result which had no correlation to how a network or operating system functioned? Bernie didn't know how to hack a computer, but had watched a few videos online on the topic of 'hacking in movies versus real life', and 'computers do not work that way' seemed to be a running theme.
Why was Otto so convinced Bular had been poisoned, anyway?
Bernie had been on the surface long enough to have met and fought non-Changeling trolls a few times. They looked down on the Changeling use of poison as 'weak' and 'dishonorable'. Even if the new Trollhunter had the sense to prioritize survival over honour, would they have been able to put survival over pride?
If there was a Changeling traitor, that would be different. But Otto would have said something if he was looking for evidence of treason, so Bernie would know who not to discuss eir findings with.
Unless he suspected Bernie was a traitor, but then he wouldn't have asked Bernie to be the one to do the autopsy and thus handed eir the opportunity to conceal evidence.
Unless Otto was the traitor and thought Bernie was one too, or Otto was the traitor and was pushing the poison hypothesis to try and push Bernie off-track while looking loyal and devoted.
Oh, or maybe Bular had eaten someone shortly before his death? And Otto didn't want to say that for morale reasons. Plenty of Changelings carried poison of some kind or another on their person. Even a troll's absurdly robust digestive system couldn't safely metabolize everything.
So Bernie needed to rebuild the body, figure out what stones had been the stomach contents, and start there for analysis. And look over the security tapes to see if Bular had been on-base in his final days, in case cannibalism, or even just a fight, had happened in view of the cameras.
Ey should probably ask Nomura, as well – she worked at the museum and Bular had taken to sleeping there during Killahead's reconstruction.
If this theory wasn't just a dead end, then hopefully Nomura hadn't been the one eaten.
No, she's been there when Stricklander brought in the remains, hadn't she? People had looked at her when Stricklander mentioned Draal might be the new Trollhunter.
Bernie snorted. Ey'd heard Nomura grumble and snarl and rant about Draal before. If Draal was the Trollhunter, Bular was definitely not poisoned by him.
Up next: Gatto's Keep!
And that chapter might go up next week so you can read it before the movie airs!