Kaiji sat in silence across from her mistress and looked her up and down over and over again. By all appearances, everything was normal about her, she sat with the same elegance she always did. She picked up the notes Freyjin left behind, and the only distinction the demon-elf could find was that she blinked longer and more often while she read and sifted through the notes of the dead.
And yet… Kaiji's hairs stood on end. Like she was trapped in a cage with a wolf that had been freshly fed and might be hungry again at any moment. She could 'sense' a tension just below the surface of her lady. 'If only I could find some way to ease it… or at least… no. Supplication makes me feel better, but I must not be a distraction.'
'What did my slaves do when they sensed I was angry and couldn't avoid being around me…? Flattered me… but that never worked as well as they hoped. Think, Kaiji, think… Diana used to bring me tea, but we're in a carriage. Offer to help, perhaps?' Kaiji pondered, and ventured to do just that.
"My lady… can I… be of some help?" The demon-elf asked, keeping herself as still as possible while trying to ignore the lingering scent of the dead man's skin coming off her owner's body.
Nua raised her eyes from the paper and after a moment's thought, nodded. "Yes, actually. You're more familiar with the politics of this region. Freyjin was a truly impressive investigator. She identified a number of these bodies." She held out a list of names, which Kaiji took while hoping she didn't shudder.
"I recognize some of them, my lady." Kaiji answered with growing confidence as she read through it. "Merchants, mostly, but a few men and women of… well, every Prince needs someone with dirty hands. Some of these I hired myself from time to time. Two of these were disgraced nobles."
"What do you see next to their names, Kaiji?" Nua asked rhetorically.
"The time frame of their vanishing. To within a few days or a few weeks." Kaiji replied.
"Right, now tell me, around the time they disappeared, to within a few months, do you know what interests they may have been representing?" Nua asked the question with her eyes fixed piercingly on Kaiji as if she was accusing her servant.
"I… mistress I swear… I…" Kaiji shuddered, "Mistress, no, if I had done anything with the man in question, I suppose I wouldn't remember it, would I?"
"Diana's family, someone sold them out, sold them out to you slave." Nua's voice was absent of condemnation, but it was sharp and decisive, "I think you know something, something you're not telling me."
"Mistress…" Kaiji withered under the stare and hung her head. "My life is yours, I swear, I would never lie to you… I love you far more than I fear you, regardless of how it looks… I'm telling the truth. My loyalty to you is first in my heart."
The soft touch on her knee came as a surprise, so much so that she didn't flinch, the steel like hand applied no painful pressure, only a gentle caress. "That isn't what I mean, Kaiji. I mean you know something without realizing you know it. Tell me, do you know who was backing the coup by Diana's family?"
"Not directly." Kaiji answered, "We suspected it was one of the great cities."
"And you in particular?" Nua pressed, then opened the slat, "Hurry to the Palace of the prince!" She snapped, and closed the slat again.
"I always suspected it was backed by Kai'sen. That is after all, where Diana's parents fled." Kaiji acknowledged her suspicions, and Nua nodded along.
"Were any of the names on this list ever acting in ways opposed to the interests of Kai'sen?" Nua pressed harder, and Kaiji reluctantly nodded.
"Yes' mistress. But… I don't know how things are where you're from, but the shifting alliances of city-states is a constant thing, wars are fought almost every year, today's ally is tomorrow's enemy, and the day after that, allies again. The great cities stayed great because the closest thing to unity was that they didn't want 'another' great city to rise." Kaiji pursed her lips tight.
Nua latched onto the tension like a hungry dog on a bone with flesh still on it. "Speak."
"Mistress, may I do so freely?" Kaiji asked, glancing from the lists, to her lady's face, and back again.
"Yes." Nua ordered, her hand coming away from Kaiji's knee and tensing on the dark cushion beside herself.
"Freyjin was truly onto something here… the ones who disappeared, whose bodies have turned up, were almost all in some way connected to something that hurt Kai'sen interests." She pointed to a name, "This one I wanted gone because he was only taking Pas'en coins after Komestra devalued its currency about twenty years ago, it turned out to be moot because Pas'en did the same thing. But his one currency only policy was going to be especially harmful to Kai'sen, since Pas'en was refusing to do business with Kai'sen that year. It was going to seriously hurt their trade. I wondered why he disappeared… everyone assumed it was on the road somewhere since his things were gone from the hotel and so were his goods."
She pointed to another, "This one, twenty-five years ago, he was a minor noble, not even on the council. But Rasgen's father and he were close friends. I met him a few times, he had a grudge against the city of Kai'sen after one of their merchants was accused of assaulting his son. He would end every discussion by saying, 'We should also attack Kai'sen.' If he'd made it into the council one day and Rasgen's father had lived? It is safe to say there would have been many more wars against Kai'sen than there have been."
"Disappeared?" Nua asked rhetorically. "A witness maybe said he was going hunting, or it was left looking like he'd gone out somewhere?"
"I don't know, my lady, you would have to ask the Prince. But… probably." Kaiji felt the tension drain away from her body and the hairs on her skin start to fall as her dread eased.
Nua continued to go through Freyjin's notes and other gathered information, before finally speaking again. "Reveal what I am about to say… to anyone, and I promise you severe punishment."
Kaiji sat up straight and rigid, her wide red eyes looking deeply into the piercing steel blue. "I would remove my tongue first, my lady."
"I am an assassin by trade. I have warrior skills, but the bulk of my killing knowledge comes from assassination. And this was all the work of one of the single finest assassins I have ever seen. He might even give Teacher a run for her money… since he never seems to do these things himself. Even Teacher, Raymond, and I… we made our own kills almost every time." Nua frowned a little.
"It's disturbing in a way, on a professional level. Freyjin gathered some of the documents, and there was almost always a 'witness' who then mysteriously disappeared and couldn't be remembered, who pointed people to the guilty party. Or in other cases, mentioned the person leaving to go somewhere. Or in your case and a few others, just handed you the information needed to provoke action."
"So… he gets involved only in the final stages, if at all…" Kaiji added, and savored the radiant smile of her owner.
"Yes… exactly. He is truly a master of his craft, his hands are never dirty, he's never there for the kill, but his targets, other than Priceless, have always died or disappeared… which are probably the same thing. This provides a clue as to how we can catch him. But if Rasgen tells me what I think he will, then we know where he came from, or at least who he works for." Nua's wolfish smile was mirrored by her servant, and stayed that way all the way to the palace.
When the carriage of the House of Aiwenor reached the gate, she was not challenged. When she exited the carriage, ascended the short set of steps, and approached the door, she was not challenged. The guards bowed their heads and let her pass without question.
Nua looked over her shoulder to where Kaiji followed her, "Are you going to be alright? I know you've been here several times now, but this can't be easy for you. Having your former peers see you this way."
Her anxiety fled like the wind, and Kaiji proudly raised her chin to show off her bronze collar and purple tag. Her red eyes could not express themselves without pupils, but the way they tightened and relaxed was expression enough. "My lady, when I first came here alone, I won't deny it. I was nervous, even… ashamed of my fall. Now?"
"Now I know where I want to spend my days. In part, precisely because you ask that kind of question. If you enslave the whole of Mict'aratz, we will still be better off than we were before." Kaiji said it with passionate fervor.
"You can't mean that." Nua said, half hushed as they walked the long empty hall leading to the throne room.
"I do. And if that is what it takes, I will put your collar on every man, woman, and child of every race, with my own hands, even if I have to walk to the steppes and chase down the centaurs on foot!" Kaiji retorted with a fierce stare and a sharp nod. "Beautiful and terrible is the goddess I kneel to."
Kaiji's reverential praise was met with a brief silence before Nua stopped in her tracks and without looking back, she replied. "Kaiji, if I were a goddess… I wouldn't have had to come to Mict'aratz to fulfill my wishes. I'm a mere priestess, and as my kind goes, not a good one." Her left hand came up with fingers open and out, exposing the deadly gem. "Praise like that, I don't deserve. Faith like that, I can be worthy of having only a shadow of it. One day, you will meet the god I bend to, as I have. And if I am a mountain to you now, I will be an insect when you see His Majesty. Still… if that is what it takes… then that is what we will do. But I'll give you the finest horse to chase down anyone who runs."
Nua laughed like a victor over a fallen and bitter rival, and without giving her servant time to respond, she resumed her trip to the throne room.
Tir heard and felt the servant grunt as he lost all control in the midst of the pleasure she gave to him. As men went, he wasn't the finest of specimens. A man of middle years setting him twenty years beyond herself, he was at least younger than her late husband. He had a bit of extra weight and was past his physical prime. His hair had flecks of gray beginning to show, but… he wasn't the worst off she'd seen since her sale. 'Well fed at least, and decent enough.' The latter was no surprise, their common mistress expected the best behavior possible out of those who she permitted to serve and reside directly in her home.
His face was flushed, and his arm went over her back as she relaxed on top of him, her soft breasts resting on his chest, she let him linger. "You were wonderful." He said through huffs and puffs.
"So were you." Tir lied politely, even comparing him to the last six of the male servants whose beds she'd visited since Rasgen abandoned her, he wasn't especially skilled. If anything, as with the rest, she felt mostly 'numb' and even with the most considerate partner, she'd found herself simply urging them forward… and now that it was done and over… whatever impulse and hope for pleasure she felt or sought, was gone.
She looked away from him and toward the door, and the bell by it. It was to her great relief that it rang, the faint tinkling sound could have come from only one person now that Kaiji was out and Freyjin was dead. Priceless needed something. A rush of gratitude for the purple tagged servant ran through Tir's body and she moved off the latest of the swath she'd begun to make through the servants of the house.
"I'd like to do that again sometime." He said in the sort of uncertain voice of someone without any certainty of whether that would happen.
"Me too." Tir replied when she sat up and reached for her outfit. Whether she meant it or not, even she didn't truly know, but it 'felt' like she was probably lying to him.
His black and white servant uniform was on in a jiffy, and Tir reached and took a soft white cloth from off the wall, dipped it into the basin of water by the bedside, and extended it to him. "Wipe your face at least."
The fading flush on his face briefly returned, and he managed an amiable laugh, obeying her suggestion, the sound of water droplets from the cloth falling back into the basin was briefly the only one in the room until Tir took the first step toward the door.
He left behind her and they parted ways. 'Things to do, always things to do, it's better with things to do… things that matter. That's all I can do anymore is things that matter… if I just stay with her, I can keep doing things that matter… and things that hurt Anton. Things that hurt his children… his house… and everyone else that deserves it. Damn them all!' These thoughts ran on a loop in Tir's mind as she made her way to Priceless's office.
Since her elevation and her work establishing the Starlings, Diana had been given her own workspace and her work with Tir had become more or less routine.
This one was no different. Tir went into the office without knocking, but she immediately went to her knees in deference to the woman behind the desk. Diana gave a clipped nod and waved her forward without really looking at her. Tir however, looked the former slave over in detail every time.
Diana wore her dark hair in a braid that was done with such expert precision that it had to have had assistance. The braid hung forward over her shoulder, luxuriant as any jewelry, particularly over the bright red and gold dress she wore. Her ruby lips were pursed without her commonly present smile. Tir knew just what that meant. 'Concentrating. Something important.'
Tir entered and sat by the desk, and Diana slid a paper over to her. "Priceless has finished the last of her meetings with the trio of executives who formerly ran the Lur'gin company. Do you know what that means?"
"She's safe? They've lost their chance to take her or retaliate using her?" Tir guessed.
Diana shook her head. "No, Tir. It means the time that their guilt would be suspected is passing away. This is even more true now that the Prince has passed new banking laws. Your owner's method of weaponizing debt is no longer going to be effective here. That means they can strike back. Priceless and Solution have done a lot to curb the nasty rumors they tried to spread, but not all of them."
"I heard the one about death worship… but that's true, so…" Tir opened her hands in resignation.
"It doesn't matter that it's true, it matters that it is dangerous." Diana turned to face the former noble, "You of all women, should know that. Or did you actually have your husband and his family killed so you could marry the Prince?"
Tir hung her head and tears stung her eyes, her slender fingers clenched into fists. "I didn't do it…" She gritted out.
"Did that even matter to your own father? Or anyone else?" Diana mercilessly pushed.
"You know it didn't. It didn't even matter to the Prince… and he loves… loved me…" Tir shook with impotent rage in her chair.
Tir had not been looking at the former slave, and so she was caught unawares when the soft palms found her cheeks and forced her gaze away. Compelled to meet the deep green eyes of the Nest Mother of the Starlings, she could only listen when the woman instructed her with a sharp tongue.
"Then you know that what people believe, matters far, far more. I've destroyed countless fools who crossed my former mistress and the Prince, they were rarely undone by what was true. Far more often they were undone by what they believed. Death worship is frowned on here, we had Questioners visit this estate… at least twice that I know of. If they keep pushing rumors and start adding spice to it, what do you think happens?"
Tir thought that over. "Maybe a formal inquisition. Maybe a riot. Maybe the priests of the other cities call for a second war on Komestra. I'll be working here, maybe rioters will attack this place… Rasgen won't protect me… I can't fight… I'll die one way or the other most likely… even if I don't, if the mistress is overthrown, I'll be sold off again, who knows where, or to what end? I'll never get my revenge."
Diana's hold on Tir's cheeks tightened. "Exactly. Lies have the greatest power in the world over the ignorant, the ones who can't or won't or don't care to check to see if they're true. The construction projects are keeping goodwill high, so nobody listens much. But that can't last. And if the rumors get worse… then, this will fall on you, Tir. You are responsible for this part of protecting your mistress. This matters, do you understand me?"
Tir wiped her eyes and gave a tiny nod of acknowledgement despite the hold on her head. "Yes, I hadn't… you're right, I hadn't thought about that. And they may get bold… they have to go."
"How will you do that?" Diana asked like a teacher administering an exam.
"P-Poison is the easiest thing, they all have wives. A Starling could easily lure one to a tryst somewhere and poison their wine. It would look like the horny old goat just lost himself in his pleasure. But there are three of them, and all three dying the same way would be suspicious. I suppose we could frame one of their wives, find out which one has their life insured, they're all in debt. Or maybe not even frame them, get one of them to do it. The threat of loss of comfort might be enough to prompt a rash murder. And then… well, then the last can just disappear. With the discovery of all those murdered bodies, even if people think he's dead, he'll just be thought to be one more victim of the ones who did all that." Tir answered and waited for Diana's answer.
What she got was ruby lips forming into a broad grin, "Very good… that's excellent work. Your lady will be very proud of you, if you pull this off. Why… she might even love you, like Sobella did." Diana brought the woman in close, her proud smile became smaller and cunning when she stroked Tir's back and held her in an affectionate embrace.
'And that… is how you motivate someone.' Diana thought with a sense of self satisfaction as Tir's body shivered with desperation and allowed the embrace to go on.