Chapter Twenty-Nine

Fortunately, Devona found some time to sleep on the trip to Fort Ranik (although not nearly enough), as did Coran, for the moment they stepped off the carriage, they were greeted by a fairly large contingent of people who were desperately seeking answers, or parlaying information.

Devona felt a little overwhelmed by the surge of question, queries, and statements, but her betrothed seemed unperturbed, likely his experience working with the Lord's Conclave helping him to sort through the morass of speech. He contritely nodded or gave passing words of encouragement, a pattern Devona tried to follow as they both followed their Shade bodyguards as the black clothed detail forced their way through the mob.

Once daylight was found, the group picked up the pace towards the lord's manor, located near the center of the large fortification. They were finally able to completely shed the "welcoming committee" once inside, and two of the Shades remained back to assist the fort guards in securing the entry.

Inside was a trio of familiar faces. "The High Priest sent me to perform the final rites for the soul, but considering the suspicious nature of the death, I figured your knowledge could be used to investigate the scene."

Coran nodded, "I appreciate it… I'll see what I can do."

Devona's eyebrow perked when she noticed Cynn's presence, and the elementalist immediately turned defensive. "I was… visiting the monk when we got the news, and he decided he needed someone intimidating to guard the scene in case some idiot tried to mess around with things."

That was entirely feasible, Devona supposed, as anyone with any degree of knowledge would be a little wary of the slight blonde woman and her volatile temper. If circumstances had been different, she might have decided to playfully tease the girl, but between Darrin's death, and the attack yesterday that Coran was certain was meant to kill her (an opinion that Devona was coming to agree with considering the circumstances of said attack), the mood wasn't ripe for any real taunting.

The third member of the group nodded in welcome, and wasted no time getting to the point. "It appears that Lord Darrin was poisoned, quite likely with his last drink still sitting on the end-table next to his bed." Aidan said. "It smells heavily laced with Plague Devourer poison. Such a poison would be odorless at first, but becomes quite pungent after a few hours."

"So I assume you examined the scene rather quickly?" Coran noted. "I can't imagine the poison still carries the odor at this point."

"Correct. I had been scouting the King's Watch area due to rumors of Charr Patrols still floating about. When I had returned to report to Lord Darrin of my findings that night, I had learned of his demise."

With that preliminary report, the door to Darrin's chambers was opened, and Coran began to come in. Devona prepared to follow, but Yuu cut her short with an arm across the doorway. "Too many people have probably messed around in here as it is." The assassin said. "Coran doesn't need more inadvertently tampering with what might be left."

"Oh." Devona said. To be honest, that provided the excuse not to go in she was looking for. Despite her warrior training, it was one thing to witness death… and entirely another to examine and try to understand it.

"Excuse me." A vaguely familiar voice said from behind them. Devona turned about to recognize the necromancer Eve. "Aidan had sent for me when he suspected Darrin had been poisoned."

"Yes, do let her in." Coran called from inside the chamber, "It certainly wouldn't hurt to get a second opinion."

Reluctantly, Yuu allowed the pale faced, darkly gowned woman to slide into the chamber, and take her place to the pair examining the body of Lord Darrin. The blankets that had been pulled up to his chin had been cast aside, revealing the corpse in an almost disrespectful fashion to prying eyes.

"Aidan, you suggested it was Devourer poison that brought about this end?" Eve asked skeptically.

"Ah, so you noticed it too?" Coran queried. "That's good to know… my distaste for death lent me to not be quite as studious in my anatomical and physiological studies, and I was afraid that I was misdiagnosing the problem."

"I assumed it was, considering the smell in the drink." Aiden said, no longer as certain in his assessment as he had been moments before. "You believe it was something else?"

"Quite." Eve noted. "The state of the corpse is not consistent with such a poison."

"If I recall correctly, Devourer poison attacks the central nervous system." Coran said. "It replaces the potassium that allows for transfer of signals between nerve endings, and with a large enough dosage, can spread to the brain and terminate the functions of the lower brain stem."

"While I am not fully certain as to what our highness is talking about… I am in agreement that Devourer poison would not cause such a shriveling of the body so quickly after death. This tells me that it was something that affected the blood… as the skin and texture is consistent with being bled to death."

"But there are no discernable wounds." Aidan argued.

At that point, Coran was examining the mug that was believed to be the carrier of the poison that had killed Darrin. He was rubbing some sort of cotton tipped swabs along the inside of the ceramic mug, then wiping the swabs individually on a series of glass strips. From there, he dripped droplets of different colored liquids onto the glass, and studiously observed the results.

"Well, we can safely rule out Devourer poison." Coran finally said. "In fact, this mug wasn't poisoned at all."

"Are you certain? I could definitely smell…"

"Plague Devourer poison is occasionally, even by the most well trained noses, confused with decaying flesh." Coran said, at the same time raising one of the sides to show off a dull brown splotch staining the glass. "What you had smelled was thickened blood oxidizing… or should I say… drying and decaying with exposure to air."

"Which means Darrin had been poisoned before taking his last drink." Eve concluded. "Perhaps he fell victim to a slow acting poison that attacked his blood, thickening it and making it impossible for his heart to bear the load."

"That would be my assumption as well… fortunately, I don't know of many poisons that act so slowly yet so fatally. Do you?"

Eve shook her head. "I personally can only think of one... and it is a difficult concoction that can take weeks to ferment properly. It requires several ingredients that would be hard to find here in Ascalon, as much of the greenery that is it is based on has been largely wiped out due to the Searing."

"All things considered, I know of three… and two of them are quite foreign, one originated by the druids of the Maguuma Jungle, and the other by the Kurzick faction of Cantha. I'm inclined to suspect the one we both share knowledge of to be the culprit, but I don't want to rule out the Canthan angle just yet."

"You think Cantha might be responsible?" Aidan asked.

"No… but considering that last night Devona was the focus of an attack by Canthan mercenary assassins, I don't want to outright dismiss the possibility that Canthan knowledge had a hand in this murder as well."

"Devona was attacked?" Aidan asked in alarm, a surprise that Cynn echoed outside of the chambers.

"It was nothing that Yuu and I couldn't handle." Devona said, flipping one hand dismissively as her other rubbed her eyes. She was suddenly feeling tired, perhaps the memory of the attack amplifying the fact that she hadn't been able to get much sleep on the carriage trip to Fort Ranik.

Truth being, she really didn't want to think about what had happened. Granted, in her travels, she had encountered innumerable foes, both beastly and sentient, that had sought to do her harm and even kill her. But there was something unnerving about being the focus of a planned attack, to have someone intentionally and foreknowingly seek your specific demise.

"Well, nonetheless, whoever is responsible for this might try again." Cynn stated with uncharacteristic forethought and logic. "Until this matter is settled, I think I'll add my name to your list of shadows."

"That's hardly necessary, Cynn." The warrior replied.

"Perhaps not… but it certainly can't hurt to have more bodyguards both overt and covert." Mhenlo added. "For once, I'm in agreement with Cynn. I think I might just decide to have business to attend to that will keep me in relatively close proximity as well."

"We're not trying to protect you because we think you're weak, Devona." Aidan said, surprising her by no longer being in the chambers of the deceased nobleman. "We're your friends, and we don't want to think there was more we could do to help you."

"It's not that…" Devona admitted. "I guess this attack has reminded me of the reasons that I was scared to become queen… that someone would hate me so to send… someone to kill me…" Her words cracked slightly, and her friends mistook them as nervousness. The warrior's vision had abruptly started to blur, and a pain started to flash just under her stomach. Fatigue combined with a sense of queasiness building in her abdomen and the stinging pain to push her just on the edge of passing out.

Perhaps someone would have noticed her anguished cringe had Coran not entered the hall and drawn everyone's attention. The king rubbed his forehead and said, "I need to interview all the hired help of the manor, as well as get a list of all of Darrin's visitors. Hopefully by the evening meal, I'll have established a process of events to the crime and investigate suspects."

"Then am I free to…" Mhenlo began.

"Yes, you may perform your rites now, Mhenlo. Let's pray it's the last ones you have to perform today…"

Unfortunately, such rituals were forgotten as Devona suddenly buckled at the knees, and collapsed to the ground, falling lifeless into the swiftly forming web of arms that surged to catch her as she crumpled…