Investigator Day 2
The next day dawned bright and clear, but Lillet had an uneasy feeling in her stomach as she headed down to the private dining area in the Inn where she was staying. The inn's cook immediately came and asked her what she would like for breakfast. Lillet just wanted whatever the rest of the patrons were able to have, and told the man that. He bowed and left, but poked his head back into the room immediately.
"Oh, I almost forgot, my Lady," he said, bowing again. "The town has been locked down again; the Magistrate isn't letting anyone enter or leave the town." After bowing yet again, he took his leave.
Lillet sighed, and not just because of the bowing and scraping that tended to bother her on a regular basis. She certainly knew what she was going to do once she had breakfast. She finished quickly and headed out to the Magistrate's office.
The Magistrate had been waiting for her, it seemed. "So you've heard, Consul."
"Hard not to, Magistrate. What happened?"
"Found a local woman dead. She was in her quarters, which are above her shop. We're not sure as to the cause of death yet…"
"- but you'll be understanding that I will be accompanying you to the site?" Lillet asked pointedly. She even took a small step forward to make her stare that much more imposing. And it was imposing without being right next to the Magistrate's eyes. She certainly had enough experience making sure that the people around her knew that she was competent without resorting to actually using magic. A problem with being such a young Mage Consul.
"I don't think that would be proper for the investiga-"
"I just need to determine if there was magic involved," Lillet said sweetly. "I won't do anything until you're done with your collection, so I won't have tampered with anything you normally collect from such scenes… but I'm afraid I must insist on this -"
"I don't…"
"-with all of the power of my office."
The Magistrate sighed. He seemed to have figured out that there wasn't going to be any talking out of this one with her. "I will hold you to that."
While there were a few other things that he had to do at his office, it was only a short time after that when the two of them, along with probably the rest of his guard once allowing for the lack of those keeping the town locked down, headed to the crime site. Lillet noticed immediately that she had already been to the place before. "Who is it that was found, magistrate?"
"Astoria Waldorf."
Lillet rounded on him. "Even the most basic look into her history will tell you that my office is highly interested in the death of any member of the Royal House of Magic – retired or otherwise!"
"You are coming with me, are you not?" The Magistrate replied mildly.
Lillet's angry face faded into a look of stony fury. "You can be assured that your cooperation has been noted, Magistrate."
The Magistrate didn't have an answer for that, so Lillet tried to calm herself from her fury. She was the one with the power, here, after all. She couldn't let his posturing get under her skin. There would be a report to the Royal Steward of his actions once she got back to the capital, but that wasn't something that she had to think about right then.
They reached the small shop in short order and the guards spread out, looking for whatever these men looked for. The Magistrate stopped her just outside the gate, where some of the guards were erecting a perimeter. "You will wait here."
"I will do no such thing," Lillet said, proud that her voice was mild. "I am coming with you."
The Magistrate looked torn for a moment, before he relented. Probably was thinking that a treason charge from Lillet wasn't really something he wanted to deal with. As long as that remained something that frightened him, then Lillet would be able to function... somewhat... in the town.
She followed him into the shop, which was torn to ribbons. The plants that Lillet had seen meticulously laid out ready for purchase and even some in use that she recognized were on the floor in tatters. A guard came from the upstairs as the Magistrate and Consul walked in. "Sir." He saluted smartly.
"Did anybody hear anything?" the Magistrate asked him.
"No, sir. It doesn't seem that anyone who lives nearby heard anything at all." He glanced around the room. "From what I can tell, it happened in the dead of night, and most people I talked to reported sleeping soundly."
The Magistrate grunted. "And your progress here?"
The man blew out a gusty sigh. "Someone... or something... went on a rampage in here," he indicated the room around him, "before heading upstairs and goring Ms. Waldorf's stomach right out. It's... disgusting."
"Have you finished collecting evidence?"
The guard nodded. "I don't think there's anything else we'll be able to glean from here or the body. It can be disposed of."
"I'd like to see it before you do," Lillet said.
The guard looked at her. "Sir, who..." It was clear that he had been dying to ask this since he had spotted her.
"The Mage Consul Lillet Blan," Lillet said, deciding that letting the Magistrate answer was probably not the best idea. The guard's eyebrows skyrocketed.
"I apologize for being so informal, my Lady," he said, bowing.
"You must do your job," Lillet pointed out. "And I must do mine. I need to take a look at Astoria before you release her remains to her next of kin."
The Magistrate looked at her for a moment before shrugging. "As long as my detective thinks he's done collecting evidence..."
"I am, Sir."
"Then she's all yours. Tell a guard when you're finished." The guard and Magistrate left Lillet in the building alone. Lillet wondered a moment about the Magistrate's method... but then shook her head. It was going to be a long report that she filed at the end of all of this.
She headed up the stairs in the back, finding that there was no part of the building that had escaped the carnage of whatever it was. Even the stairway had clearly been torn apart. Lillet was careful, making sure that any step she took was not going to send her tumbling. It seemed amazing that the building was still standing, but maybe whatever had done this was smart enough to not hit building supports?
Arriving on the upper floor, it was easy to tell that Astoria had been in bed when she was killed. Her body was laid out on the bed, and bits and pieces of flesh laid in a tight clump around the main body. Lillet brought her hand to her mouth and nose, trying not to breathe in too much of the smell that was coming from the body.
Dropping her pack, she reached in and pulled out a small vial of red dust. A gift from the Alchemy professor Dr. Chartreuse, the dust would turn purple if spread on something that had been touched by a summon recently. Walking carefully up to the corpse, Lillet spread a little bit of the dust on the wound.
It turned lavender instantly, and slowly darkened further to a deep purple.
So that confirmed that a summon had touched Astoria recently, though given that she was a magician herself, it was not all that much proof of anything. However, since Lillet knew that Astoria was only a Glamourist and didn't use any Sorcery at all... She set up a Chaos Sensor once she was able to get the two required runes down onto the ground. This time, there was the orange glow that indicated that a Sorcerous familiar had been on that exact spot within the last twenty-four hours.
Now she was getting somewhere. Sorcery was involved, and Lillet was sure that Astoria did not use Sorcery. A quick check of any grimoires she had could confirm that analysis, but a glance at the bookshelf told Lillet that that line of thinking was foolish. Papers were scattered everywhere around the room; there was no way that she would be able to determine which Grimoires had been on the bookshelf back when it was whole. Even if that was only yesterday.
But this was enough evidence that there was magic involved. Lillet went back downstairs and told one of the guards that she was finished and the body could be released to next of kin. They told her, when she asked, that the Magistrate had returned to his office. Lillet headed straight there.
"I need to see your prisoners."
The Magistrate looked up as Lillet came into the room and opened with the demand. "I still think that this is a bad idea..."
"You don't have a choice in the matter," Lillet said, eyes narrowing.
The Magistrate sighed heavily. "Alright. Sergeant, take her down to cells three and four." The Sergeant nodded, and motioned for Lillet to follow him as he left the room. A quick jaunt through most of the rooms in the building brought the two of them to a long thin staircase downward. It quickly became apparent that moisture was very much trapped in the prison area. The dankness was permeating up from below, and it was quite a long way down the stairs. The bottom was floored in deep blue stone, and Lillet could hear dripping throughout the area, and the torches hissed even as they brought some red light to help counter the dankness... though it wasn't nearly enough to make the place comfortable.
The uniformed man led her down past the first pair of cells and to the second, where he rapped sharply on the bars with his sword hilt. "You have a visitor."
"Who's going to visit us?" came the cultured male voice from the back of the cell. Lillet recognized it instantly.
"Oh, I think the Magistrate's in more trouble than he knows, now."
The Sergeant looked at her in askance. "What do you mean?"
"Imprisoning a Prince? I didn't know he had it in him, even if he has been blocking me at every turn. Maybe this is why...?"
The Sergeant's eyes were bulging to the point that Lillet felt a little sorry for dropping this bomb on him rather than dropping it on the Magistrate himself. "A... prince...?"
"Open the cell door," Lillet instructed, before turning to Hiram. "Is Ms. Opalneria in the other cell, Highness?"
"She is, though you need not call me that, Lillet." Lillet could see Hiram smiling, though his face was filthy.
"Open both cells, then," Lillet said, as the Sergeant fumbled with his keys trying to find the one that would free the prisoners. She turned and went to the other cell, but upon seeing the occupant, she raised her eyebrows. "Mr. Advocat wasn't kidding, then."
"I assume you refer to my apparent age?" Opalneria Rain replied mildly.
Lillet heard the loud clank of the lock turning and then the creak of the door opening behind her. "It's hard to rationalize that you're the same person I met at the Silver Star Tower, Ms. Opalneria."
"You need not call me that, Lillet," she said, echoing Hiram's words. This made Lillet giggle. The Sergeant came to unlock the cell door on Opalneria's side, so Lillet returned to Hiram, who was walking out of his own cell looking (other than the grime) quite the suave young man.
"That isn't to say that I can't ask you the questions I was going to ask you anyway," Lillet said, smiling at Hiram who smiled back, "but I'd prefer if the two of you were comfortable while I did it. I'll also be wanting your opinions on things, which I didn't before I knew who you were."
"You didn't know who we were when you came down here?" Hiram asked.
Lillet nodded. "I'll leave the story until you're all set." The other door was swinging open, and Opalneria slinked out of her cell. Lillet had to hide her giggle with her hand. Opalneria certainly was playing up the sexual factor of her new age.
The Sergeant had fled up the stairs as fast as his legs could carry him, while Lillet made sure that Hiram and Opalneria went up before her so that she could catch them if they fell, since they were so weak. By the time they reached the top, The Sergeant was returning to the opening with the Magistrate in tow. He was fuming. Lillet neatly stepped past Opalneria to stand just a hint behind Hiram and to his left.
"How dare you!" the Magistrate spat at Lillet. "Making up some lies to get my prisoners out just because you believe that they're innocent of this crime-!"
"Magistrate, may I present Hiram Courvoisier, the third prince of this grand kingdom."
"Bullshit!"
"You're willing to commit treason over this, Magistrate? You've been dangerously walking the line this whole time we've been 'working together'." Lillet drew quotes in the air with her fingers. "Preventing the Mage Consul from her duties is treasonous, but you've walked that line well. If you're willing to insist here, then I will bring the full might of Her Majesty's army on this town. And I know you don't want that."
His eyes drew back to Hiram. "Why didn't you claim you were the Prince when we arrested you?"
"I did," Hiram said mildly.
The Magistrate grunted and crossed his arms. "It doesn't change the fact that he killed a fine upstanding citizen of this town in a magical battle. Many witnesses. They won't be happy with you."
"I told you before, it was self-defense-" Opalneria began, jumping to Hiram's defense, but Lillet cut her off.
"How about we let these two get cleaned up, and then I have a few questions for them before they head back to the Silver Star Tower."
The Magistrate was shaking in his anger, but he let the three of them leave and go to the Inn where Lillet ordered the staff to have a hot bath drawn up for the two of them, but after a moment asked for a third so that she could wash off the dank from her own skin as well.
Once all clean and sweet-smelling, the three met again in the parlor. Both of the former prisoners definitely looked much better once they had washed off the grime that had quickly collected on their faces. "You had questions for us, Lillet?"
"Yes. There have been many mysterious happenings around here lately, and I was wondering if you knew anything about them."
"We don't know much," Hiram said slowly. "On the day before yesterday we were accosted by a young lady who immediately attacked us with Sorcerous familiars and was drawing runes right in the middle of the street. I don't think she took a good stock of us, though once we started casting our powerful Necromancy, she switched to a primarily Glamour attack. She was good, but there was no way that she was a match for the two of us working together. Unfortunately, she would not yield, and we had to kill her in order to make sure that neither we, nor any bystanders, were hurt."
Lillet nodded. "And you told the Magistrate this?"
Hiram smiled wryly. "He doesn't seem the type to believe people readily."
Lillet rolled her eyes. "No. I will be writing a long and involved report when I return; you don't have to worry about doing anything about it. He'll be removed from power soon enough, I would think. Your mother wouldn't ignore even the stuff that he pulled before now, but this!"
"I hope he rots in Hell," Opalneria said with a bit of heat.
"Had you heard about the deaths that had something to do with Sorcery?" Lillet asked.
Hiram and Opalneria shook their heads. "We only stayed the night once, and when they wouldn't let us leave the town in the morning, people weren't quite willing to share with a couple of outsiders what was going on," Hiram said. "Then we were attacked, then arrested... we didn't really have the opportunity to learn anything about it, nor did we want to at the beginning."
"Okay. Do you think you'll leave soon, or wait until morning?" Lillet asked.
"I think we'll be gone as soon as we can get our stuff together," Hiram said. Lillet nodded, then rose. Hiram and Opalneria rose with her. "I'm sorry that we couldn't be more help for you, Lillet."
"I'm glad you're out of there now, Hiram. Opalneria."
"Don't be a stranger, Lillet. Most of the people at the Tower are fond of you, you know," Opalneria said.
Lillet bowed, then left them. It was clear that they weren't who the Magistrate had been looking for in the murders; and it couldn't have been the young woman who had attacked them working alone, as she had been dead by the time that Astoria had been murdered. And if Lillet had her facts straight, it was Amy, Astoria's apprentice, who had been using the Sorcery against Hiram and Opalneria in the first place, so even were she alive, she wouldn't kill a master who was so obviously fond of her...
So that left an obvious Sorcerer at large. With the sun still high in the sky, Lillet probably had the time to go and search for any recent use of Sorcery throughout the town with her Advents and materials. After deciding that this was her best course of action, Lillet swung by her room to get all of her supplies and slung her large pack on her back.
Searching through the town this way was painstaking and draining, mana-wise. Occasionally, she came upon a small amount, which she had a few imps collect from while another was making an advent so that she could keep going. Her winding way took her a long way from the Inn, but none of the Chaos Sensors gave her any readings that she wasn't expecting. As she swung back toward the Inn along a different route, the imp that she had walking in front of her suddenly was struck by a magic shot and dissipated into ash. Immediately Lillet brought her other three Imps to a halt and started drawing a Hell Gate where she stood. As she was finishing, she noticed a pair of Golems coming around the bend of the hill that was to her right. She finished and poured mana into the Hell Gate until a Demon, and then another, came out. The two Demons charged, largely unaffected by the Gargoyle, though still taking some damage between that and the Golems.
Using the time that the Demons were buying her, Lillet had the Imps go collect some mana from a source that was nearby and drew a Hades Gate. Once she had poured mana into the Rune, out popped three Phantoms. Lillet was now depending on the Imps, though they weren't giving her mana at the rate that she would like it. She sent the Phantoms to take out the Gargoyle while she poured what mana she had left in her stores to make more imps to collect her mana faster.
The Demons, though somewhat the worse for wear, had managed to take out the Golems, but were now faced with Phantoms. Lillet's own made quick work of the Gargoyle, but met themselves with a Skullmage. Lillet grimaced as one of the Phantoms fell instantly to the Skullmage's attack. The Demons, however, still proved more than enough for the Phantoms they faced, though now they were in bad condition. Lillet brought them around to help the Phantoms with the Skullmage, which had managed to kill two of the Phantoms and severely weaken the third before falling.
A Homunculus appeared at that point and took out all of the units that Lillet had sent out. Lillet had enough mana stored from the Imps' efforts at this point, however, that she had her own Golems out and they took out the Homunculus while they were standing next to Lillet. After the sound of broken glass, the night became silent, other than the whirrs and groans from Lillet's Golems and the chattering of her Imps. Lillet was breathing hard; it was difficult to exercise her casting this much in one day. She had the Imps finish off the mana source before sending them out in a spread pattern to determine if there were any more threats, but none of her familiars found anything.
Unable to summon much more strength, Lillet decided it was best if she headed back to the Inn as the sun dipped below the horizon. She didn't dismiss her familiars until she had gotten safely inside. The worst part about the attack that had tired her, was that the enemy, whoever or whatever it was, hadn't used any Sorcery.
She was no closer to knowing what was going on, even with all that had happened that day.
...And she definitely needed another bath.
