July 20th, 1984

"I thought I was the one who was supposed to be suffering from a hang-over after a night out, not you," Roy commented, half in humor, but partially in sympathy as he stood in the doorway of their spacious guest bathroom. At least, he sounded sympathetic.

Trisha was already dressed for the wedding in a lovely summer-weight dress with short-sleeved jacket in a lovely aquamarine. Her hair was up, but the effect was spoiled by the fact she was leaning over the sink, looking pale, having just lost most of last night's dinner in the toilet. Nausea was not her desired feeling for the morning of her cousin's wedding. "Not funny, Mustang."

"Sorry." He crossed the room and ran a hand gently down her hair until it rested at the small of her back. "Anything I can do to help you feel better? Something to settle your stomach?"

Trisha wished she knew. Something at dinner last night had not agreed with her system. Not if this was the result. "Not right now. I'll be okay," she replied with conviction.

"We tried several exotic dishes yesterday. Something probably just didn't agree with me."

"Or maybe you're pregnant," Roy teased, his light chuckle and his smile reflecting in the mirror telling her he was joking… mostly.

"You've been back barely two months," Trisha pointed out, a touch of fear spiking in her head at the suggestion.

Roy caught her expression in the mirror, and his smile widened. "Yeah well, we've been having quite the reunion, haven't we?" He leaned in and kissed her neck. His hand rubbed her lower back.

Trisha swallowed, trying frantically to run math in her head. "You seem awfully sure of yourself." With a sinking feeling, she decided it was possible.

His hands slid around her from behind, gently hugging her against him. "It's not like we haven't done this before," he said more gently. "I've just been wondering for a few days. Call it a hunch."

"How can you have a hunch and me not?" Trisha griped. "It's my body."

"Call it male instinct?" Roy suggested, still smiling. "It's little things. Subtle changes to your curves, your scent…"

"What do you mean?" Even if she was, she couldn't be very far at all.

"You smell different," Roy replied, as if it were obvious. "Not bad, just… different, when you're pregnant. As for the rest, you're either very hormonal or you've been sneaking dessert out of the fridge."

Trisha almost smacked him. "Well I certainly haven't been doing that. I still think you're crazy. Being hormonal doesn't automatically make me pregnant."

"We can have Ren or Ethan confirm it."

"And if you're wrong?"

Roy shrugged. "Then I owe you a huge apology and I'll do all the laundry for a month when we get home."

"If I am pregnant, you'll be doing laundry for more than a month."

"Deal," Roy chuckled, loosening his hold on her. "We probably shouldn't wait, though."

Not with everything going on today. If she was, there were several things on the menu she should probably avoid. And if it was a reaction to some new dish well, she should know that too. "We should find Uncle Ethan," she decided. "Ren's got more than enough to do today." Her stomach lurched, and she pulled away from Roy, barely making it to the toilet in time.

"How do you feel?"

Minxia turned away from the mirror and smiled at her mother. "Nervous. Excited. I can't wait to get started but I'm almost afraid it will be over too fast." It was almost time to go over to the old palace and start getting ready. The ceremony would not be until that afternoon, with an evening reception, but there was lots to do before then.

Ren chuckled. "Everything is in order, I've been assured repeatedly. Formal set-up has been going on since dawn. By the time we get there, all you need to worry about today is enjoying yourself."

"And remember my vows," Minxia added, her stomach fluttering. It wasn't that she was all that worried about the lines, but she and Thrakos had decided to say their vows in all three of the languages of the family represented. Not just for translation purposes, but there were different cultural traditions for all three, and Minxia had enjoyed piecing them together into something new, unique, and special.

"You'll be fine." Her mother sounded absolutely certain. "When have you ever forgotten anything you planned to say? Hundreds of talks, lobbyist meetings, and lectures."

"None of them were this important." Or this permanent. Minxia could not imagine spending her life with anyone but Thrakos, but the fact that their life was about to become very different could not be ignored. She could only hope that, as Thrakos kept reassuring her, it would only make their life together better. They had even picked out and were finalizing paperwork on their own apartment, here in Pylos. It would be ready for them to move in by the time they finished their honeymoon, and they would have another week or so to settle it the way they wanted before leaping back into work.

Her mother nodded as she picked up Minxia's dress bag. "Well, I can't argue with that. So what are we doing sitting around here? Let's get going!"

He was never going to be a morning person. No matter how many times he'd had to be at shoots by four in the morning or until midnight, Ian had never been a fan of crawling out of bed at what most people considered a decent hour.

Which was why he was still in bed when he got a shove in the side.

"What the hell?" Ian groaned, rolled over and blinked blearily as Urey's face came into focus above him. "What kind of a wake-up is that?"

"An inefficient one," Urey replied. "If you don't get up you're going to be late. Everyone's already down at breakfast."

"You're willingly late to breakfast just to get me out of bed? I'm touched." Ian rubbed grit out of his eyes and tried not to think about how his tongue tasted as he sat up and stretched.

Urey scowled. "That a weight crack?"

"Yeesh… only if you make it one," Ian retorted, peeking at his brother, who appeared to be in a fouler mood than usual. "What bit your ass this morning?"

"Just hurry up," Urey said before leaving.

Puzzled, Ian got up and pulled on pants and an undershirt. He'd worry about the rest of his outfit for the wedding after he had eaten. He was used to Urey being generally low key when they visited, and rarely cheerful, but rarely had he seen his older brother quite so sour. Maybe it was having to wear a suit, Ian thought. Urey's was definitely new. He had seen it in the closet of the room he was sharing with his brother for the trip. Just like old times. Ian didn't think he had personally done anything to upset Urey. His brother was just being his surly, sensitive self that he'd been for the past few years.

He pulled on socks and shoes and went into the bathroom to shave.

Ian missed when they had been closer, and when Urey had smiled and joked, and had ambitious life plans to move to Central and work as an alchemist helping create and manufacture medicines. Then Cayla had come into Urey's life… and everything had fallen apart.

He probably should feel guilty for feeling that way, but he just couldn't seem to summon anything other than a bitter disappointment when he thought about Urey's too-brief and passionate romance that had left his brother a widower with a child he hadn't been at all ready to take care of on his own.

Which was why his parents were doing all the work. Ian didn't like that either. It wasn't much longer until Callie was out of the house and off to college. His parents shouldn't have to be raising yet another child on top of the six they'd cared for already. Yurian was a very sweet, quiet boy. He liked everyone and he certainly didn't cause nearly as much trouble as Ian remembered himself and his brothers sometimes causing. Really it's amazing Dad let us live to adulthood. But Ian couldn't help feeling that, if Urey had really loved Cayla, than he should have taken care of his own son; Cayla's son.

Ian liked to think that when he had kids of his own someday, he'd be a better father. Of course, that vision in his head preferred he find a girl he loved, settle down, and have kids. If he was being completely honest, he wasn't sure how he'd react if one of his previous relationships sprung a child on him he hadn't known about. But then, that was why he had always been very, very careful.

Roy tried not to look smug as Ethan nodded.

"No doubt about it," Ethan straightened up from where he had been sitting next to Trisha, probing very gently with alchemy as well as a general physical to prove or disprove Roy's theory. "I'd say you've been pregnant since the week Roy here got home." He smiled. "So, right about eight weeks. I'm afraid there's not much I can do for the nausea, but if you reacted to anything you ate yesterday, that's why."

Trisha looked stunned, and Roy was glad the kids had been easily distracted by communal breakfast with the swarm of extended relatives around their age, so that they didn't know yet. "Thank you, Uncle Ethan," she said.

If Ethan thought her shock problematic, he didn't show it. In fact, he smiled understandingly, and patted her hand. "If you need me, I'm here. For now, I'll let you two be."

Roy nodded, and murmured his own thanks as Ethan left, but his focus was on his wife, and his amusement faded as he tightened the arm around her shoulders in a gentle squeeze. "Are you all right, Trish?"

"Are you ready to go back to late nights, dirty diapers, and juggling duty shifts?"

"Well, not yet," Roy conceded. "But that's what all those months of preparation are for, isn't it?" They had already navigated infancy twice. Rosa and Gabriel were great, clever, precocious children. Still, their semi-independence and ability to sleep through the night, go to the bathroom by themselves, and communicate in complete sentences did make things much more pleasant than some of those first months when they'd been trying to figure out the basics of parenthood. "We can do this again. In fact, I think we're pretty damned good at it."

Trisha tilted her head and gave him a wry look. "Then how about you take the pregnant part this time? You can be nauseous, and swollen, and fat, and have to give up weeks at work."

However she might feel about children –and he knew Trisha loved their children- Roy was smart enough to catch the warning alarms going off in his head. Trisha loved her job too. "If I could, you know I would, but even alchemy hasn't worked that out," he replied reasonably. "All I can promise is that I'll do everything I can to make sure you're comfortable, and safe, and spoiled rotten." He kissed her cheek. "And take as many night baby shifts as I can."

Trisha sighed. "I'm sorry, I'm being a bitch already, aren't I? It's just that everything works so well right now. With you home, our life is so much more ordered. The kids are happy. How are we going to manage another baby on top of everything else?"

"We'll find a way," Roy assured her. "My parents did it, didn't they? And we were all nearly grown when they had Mireia. Besides, I'm sure Grandma Riza would help us out with babysitting. She's not as busy these days. It's not like our families won't have plenty of advice on how to juggle life with three kids."

"You're right." Trisha turned around and hugged him, gathering herself. "We have time, and we'll work it out. We should get back to everyone or they'll wonder why we're not ready. I'd rather not steal anything from Minx's day."

Roy smiled. That was his girl. "Think you can make it through today without throwing up any more of this amazing cuisine?"

Trisha raised an eyebrow. "That a challenge, Mustang?"

"No." He let go of her shoulders and offered his arm. "I know better than to challenge you. I always lose."

There were so many people staying in the Argyros home that breakfast turned out to be a multi-shift affair, which was fine with Edward, who hadn't felt like getting up early. He had enjoyed the luxury of sleeping in, cuddled up with Winry in their sumptuous guest room, while those involved in the chaos of the wedding ate first.

By the time Edward and Winry made it to breakfast, most of Al's family, and Thrakos' most immediate relatives, had eaten and gone, though Gia was still there, playing hostess until breakfast was over so that her older sister and her mother could go over to the palace.

That hardly meant the large dining room was empty. Franz, Trisha, Roy, their kids, and almost all of Aldon's get were still eating, and the room was chaos with all the children. Coran and Gale were just leaving with their sons. Ian and Urey seemed to be eating their way through an entire loaf of hot Cretan breakfast bread between them. Reichart and Deanna didn't look like they'd had much to eat yet, with six kids to get fed first. Ethan and Lia were sipping coffee with Aldon while Cassie made sure Yurian finished his breakfast. The older kids seemed inclined to do the same, lingering over tea or coffee if they weren't in the wedding. Gloria seemed to be the only one of Al's family left, chatting animatedly with Callie, Lily, and Gia.

"Shouldn't you girls be going?" Ed asked, chuckling as he took a mug and poured himself a cup of the steaming black liquid. "Won't Minx want you there too?" He knew Gia was in the wedding.

"We're going soon, Grandpa," Lily assured him. "Kami and her mom are with Minxia. They actually asked us to show up a little later. They can't do everyone's hair at once you know."

"I guess not everyone can have hair as easy to maintain as mine," Ed snickered.

He felt Winry tug at his hair, which he had pulled back but left unbraided. "Like you've ever done anything complicated with your hair," she teased.

Ed grinned back at her. "Why mess with perfection?"

Lia chuckled. "Don't worry, Winry, I can't talk Ethan into doing anything else with it either."

A muffled shout came from somewhere in the hallway, followed by thumping footsteps much louder than the general patter that had been going all morning.

Heads whipped around. "What was that?" Winry asked.

More doors slammed, and there was further shouting.

"I'm going to find out." Ed didn't like the frantic nature of the noises in the hall. Something was definitely wrong.

The household staff was looking for something. That much was evident from the moment Ed stepped back out into the hallway. Ed snagged one by the arm as he hurried out of a nearby room. ::Hey, what's going on?::

The young man, clearly new to the staff, looked harassed. ::A priceless vase has gone missing,:: he blurted out.

A theft, with so many people in the house? It sounded absurd, unless it was someone staying there, but everyone Ed had met in the house had been a member of the extended Argyros family, or his own. Who would steal a vase? Unless it was one of the staff, perhaps. ::Where was the vase before?::

::In the back sitting room,:: he answered. ::Please, Sir, I need to get back to searching. If the family finds out… on such an important day…::

::Of course:: Ed let go of the man's arm. ::We'll help you look for it.::

::Which vase is missing, Heo?:: Gia Argyros had followed him into the hall. Gloria and Cassie were right behind her.

Heo swallowed. ::Miss Giada! It's…the rainbow vase, Miss.::

Gia's expression dropped as if she'd shattered a vase herself. ::Oh no! When did it go missing?::

::Last night, we think,:: Heo replied despondently. ::It was found to be missing this morning.::

::By whom?:: Ed asked curiously. He'd had a tour of the building, and he couldn't imagine the little back room had needed much attention today, of all days. It wasn't big enough to be used as a large gathering area.

::That would be I.::

Ed turned to see Aunt Maritza coming deliberately down the hallway, her walk as stiff as the collar of her dress. Her cane tapped menacingly on the marble floor. He'd been warned by Arius and Ziro both to avoid her bad side. He had also been told that it was nearly impossible to do so, and she already didn't like his family because they were Amestrian. ::What were you doing in there?::

Maritza gave him a withering look that said how little she cared for him butting in. ::I take my morning tea in that room when I visit. Are you doubting my word?::

Ed refrained from scowling. It took a lot of willpower. ::Call it an investigative habit. How do you know it wasn't moved for cleaning?::

::In the middle of the night?:: she sniffed incredulously.

::They do it in the royal palace in Xing.:: Ed shrugged. ::Why not here?::

Maritza didn't seem to be entirely sure how to respond to that statement, since it implied the family household here might be on equal standing with Xing, or less if they did things differently.

::We've found it!:: a shout came from down the hallway, and another member of the house staff –another one of the younger men- hurried down the hall, the vase in question cradled carefully in his arms nestled in a thick protective cloth.

Thank goodness. Now maybe the old bat would calm down and they could all finish up breakfast and get to the wedding.

Heo also looked relieved. ::Where did you find it, Malo?::

Malo came to a stop, looking slightly uneasy. ::Their room,:: he pointed past Ed, who turned around to see who he was pointing at. It wasn't easy given how crowded the

hallway had become. ::The brothers,:: Malo clarified.

Ian and Urey both looked dumbfounded.

::Aha!:: Maritza declared, looking oddly triumphant. ::Thieves in my niece's house. I won't have it!::

::Now hold on a minute,:: Ed scowled, holding up both hands. ::Let's not jump to conclusions!:: Let's not blame my grandsons for criminal actions without hearing out their story at least. He turned around. "Boys? Please tell me you have an explanation."

"I've never seen it before," Urey replied flatly, scowling.

Ian looked mildly horrified. "I have, but it was in the sitting room on its pedestal. Gia showed it to me the other day." He stared at Malo. "Where did he find it?"

::Where in the room was it?:: Ed asked.

::In a drawer in a dresser,:: Malo replied. ::Rolled in a shirt.::

::You went through people's clothes? What kind of hosts are you? Who gave you permission?:: Ed didn't like being distrusted, though he was used to it. Still, treating guests like criminals- he wasn't going to put up with it.

::I did,:: Maritza met his gaze coldly. ::In my niece's absence, it seemed prudent.::

Ed liked the woman less and less by the moment. She wasn't the first manipulative Cretan woman of noble descent he had dealt with, just one of the most unpleasant. ::Did you have your own family's rooms searched, or just ours?::

The woman's back stiffened. ::The entire house was searched,:: she answered. ::Don't try to change the subject, Mr. Elric. I will not stand for theft in this house.::

::I have no intention of letting whoever did this off the hook,:: Ed had to keep himself from looming over the woman. ::But that means that everyone has to be investigated, and assumptions should not be made without evidence.::

::What more evidence do you need?:: Maritza sniffed

::A motive for starters.:: Ed didn't think either Ian or Urey would have taken the vase. ::And proof. When did it go missing? Who was in the house at the time? When would anyone have had the opportunity? There are a lot of unanswered questions here and only circumstantial evidence.:: Years of investigations work hadn't abandoned him yet. There was something decidedly fishy about the whole thing. But why would someone try to frame Ian and Urey either? Too much didn't make sense. ::The word of one man is not enough.:: He didn't apologize to Malo, but while he believed the man had, indeed, brought the vase from where he said he found it, he couldn't be entirely sure he hadn't put it there himself either. Not that there was a motive for that either, unless it was to hide his own deception. ::We'll start in the room where it was supposed to be.:: If he could solve this without anyone having to call the family and interrupt wedding plans, or getting the police involved, than no one but those in the house had to worry about it. At least, not yet. There was always the possibility it was someone who was already now at the wedding site helping Minxia and Thrakos get ready. ::You stay in the dining room,:: he looked at Ian and Urey in particular, though he meant most of the family. If nothing else, having them all in one place meant no one could blame anyone of attempting to tamper with the scene.

Without waiting for Maritza to object, Ed turned and strode down the hallway. As he walked, he felt a two familiar presences step up on either side of him, Winry and Trisha.

"What do you need us to do, Ed?" Winry asked in a very soft whisper.

"Keep everyone calm, and don't let anyone, especially the hag, near a telephone." A tall order, he knew, but essential to not turning today into an absolute disaster. "Don't raise a fuss. The last thing we need is to start an incident."

"We'll handle it," Winry replied before she and Trisha fell back a few paces. Ed led the way to the room, with Aldon beside him, fuming. He didn't try to tell his son not to come. Two of Aldon's sons were the ones accused of the theft. If anyone was more incensed about this than Ed, it would be Aldon.

Gloria had no intention of going back to the dining room and sitting around waiting to see what happened next. Instead, in the press of people in the hallway, she ducked sideways into one of the little rooms off the hall that was actually a very large closet. She grabbed Lily's sleeve as she went in, and tried to catch Gia's eye. It worked. Before the hall was empty the three young women were secreted away in the closet. "It's up to us."

"Gloria, you're crazy," Lily shook her head. "How are we going to prove it wasn't Ian or Urey who took that vase? Ian even admitted he's seen it before."

"I showed it to him," Gia admitted, clearly upset. "It's one of my favorite pieces."

"Do you think he took it?" Gloria asked pointedly.

"No!" Gia shook her head vehemently. "I don't. At least, I don't want to. He's been very nice to me and he doesn't seem like that type of person."

That was enough for Gloria. "All right. Then we need to figure out who would have framed Ian or Urey, and why."

"Someone who doesn't like your family," Gia suggested. "I want to suspect Aunt Maritza, but she doesn't like anyone. I might just be too suspicious."

"Still, it's worth looking into her," Gloria nodded. "But we should look for clues first."

"I'm sure they've combed all over the room already," Lily commented. "Grandpa just went there. Would there be anything left to see?"

"Probably not." Gloria didn't think getting caught would do them any good either. Someone might decide the three of them were involved in the theft.

Gia frowned for a moment, then her face lit up. "The security cameras!"

"You have security cameras?" Gloria looked at her friend, startled. "I haven't seen any."

"Papa had them put in several years ago," Gia explained. "They're very well hidden."

"Where are they controlled from?"

"Papa's study. Come on." Gia turned and poked her head out the door. "Maybe we can see something. The hall is empty now."

The three girls quietly slipped down the hallway, up another, and up a small staircase, then back around and down until Gloria was beginning to feel a little lost, even though she had thought she knew the layout of the house.

Gia led them through another door and then closed it behind them. "This is it."

On another day, Gloria would have taken more time than just the glancing look to appreciate the classic décor of the President of Creta's private home study. Maybe she would have a chance later, she thought, as she and Lily followed Gia over to a closet door that, when opened, revealed several small television monitors that showed rooms she recognized from elsewhere in the house. None of them were bedrooms, but they seemed to cover all the rooms with particularly valuable furniture or works of art, or areas that saw a large number of guests.

"So no one sits in here and watches the house all the time?" Lily asked curiously.

Gia shook her head. "Papa can, but it's all recorded, which is what's useful." She gestured to a large machine that took up almost a full wall. Gloria blinked. She knew how filming worked. She had asked Ian about it several times, and many of her dance performances had been recorded. This appeared to have several different spools of film. There were others stacked up high on shelves above their heads, in little boxes labelled with dates. "Does he keep them all?"

"Only for a while, I think. I'm not sure." Gia shrugged. "I think the rolls run out of time every couple of days and have to be restocked. I think he said something about the fact that they can be used more than once if you don't want to keep what's on them. I'm not sure about that either." She sounded frustrated. "But if it was between last night and this morning, it should be on… here." She tapped one of the spools that was still running. "But we'll have to stop recording to rewind it."

"Do you know how?" Gloria found the entire set-up fascinating.

Now Gia looked unsure. "I think so?" She looked at the small board of buttons in front of her. Then she reached out and pressed one. Immediately the screen in front of them changed to an image of the dining room, where the family was gathered. Gia hit another button, and Gloria could see Great-Uncle Edward, two of the household employees, Aldon, and Maritza in the room where the vase was clearly missing since the focus of the camera was that pedestal. Edward and Maritza seemed to be continuing their earlier disagreement.

To her disappointment, there was no sound. "I wish we could hear what they're saying," Gloria commented.

"Well what we need to see isn't right now, but last night," Lily reminded her. "So we need to wind back the film, right?"

Gia nodded. "I'm working on it." She flipped a couple of switches, and the film stopped recording and started to wind backwards. The screen went fuzzy as things started moving backwards.

It took several minutes to go back far enough. The room darkened in reverse, and they watched until the vase reappeared on the stand where it belonged. Then Gia stopped and let it run forward at normal pace.

"I can't wait to see who it was." Gloria leaned eagerly sideways, getting in close to Gia for a better view of the small screen, her heart pumping with the excited rush she always got on the lead for a good article.

"I just want to clear Ian and Urey," Lily replied firmly, as if to remind her cousin that they weren't here as investigative reporters. "I don't like this at all."

"I don't either," Gloria pushed a curl out of her face as she stared at the monitor. "We've got to- wait, what was that?"

The screen had just… jumped. The vase was there, and then it was gone. No one walked in. No one picked it up. It just vanished.

Gia backed it up again, but the same thing happened. "It just disappears."

Gloria mentally cursed several words she had learned from her father, but would never stoop to saying out loud, or admit to overhearing. "That's not possible. There's got to be something wrong with the tape."

But it wasn't cut. There appeared to be nothing wrong with it, except a length of missing time.

"Someone must have come in here," Lily suggested. "They could have turned off the equipment just long enough for them, or someone else, to move the vase."

"Who knows about this room?" Gloria looked at Gia.

"Just immediate family, and a handful of the staff," Gia replied. "And even the ones who know that we have the system don't all know where it is monitored from, or who is watching the cameras."

Gloria knew only a little about security camera systems. She had overheard her father and mother talking about the new ones installed at Central Command, and going in to most of the regional military facilities to help heighten safety for all concerned, especially after all of the attacks in the past few years. "So that should narrow it down. Your parents wouldn't have stolen the vase. Neither would Thrakos or Lori. There's no reason for anyone in our family to take it, and while I don't know your relatives very well, I think you'd know them well enough to know if any of the extended family are anything less than trustworthy."

"Well, cousin Palas had two girlfriends at once last year," Gia shrugged. "They found out about each other and both dumped him. But he's not a thief. It almost has to be someone who works for the family to get in here. Papa doesn't bring anyone in here so most people wouldn't even know what this room is without coming in."
It was a serious problem. Gloria wracked her brain. There wasn't a lot of time to solve this! "Let's assume for a minute that this isn't a theft."

"What do you mean?" Gia looked puzzled.

"It's a set up." Gloria looked at the other girls. "No one in their right mind would find a vase they were trying to steal and blame it on someone else. Not if they had already successfully stolen it."

"Which means someone is trying to frame Urey and Ian," Lily nodded, catching on to Gloria's thread of an idea. "Why them?"

"Convenience?" Gloria shrugged. "Believability?"

"Why would anyone think either one of them would be believable thieves?" Her cousin's expression turned skeptical.

"People who didn't know them well might," Gia pointed out, still staring hard at the tape, as if it might hold the answer they needed. "I mean, celebrities are known to do all sorts of crazy things with motives that might seem odd to other people, right?"

Gloria nodded. "Exactly. So whoever it is, has to be Cretan –sorry Gia— or they would know Ian and Urey better than that. Maybe it's someone who doesn't want the wedding to happen." She turned to Thrakos's sister. "Would Maritza be bold enough to do something like this?"

Gia stared at her. "I… I don't know," she admitted. "She's hateful, and opinionated, but…"

"She doesn't like Ian." Lily leaned her back against the wall of the cramped space. "She doesn't like Minxia or this whole wedding."

"It's too obvious." Gloria sighed. Of course the old lady made sense. Wouldn't she have been more subtle? Or maybe she was counting on a lack of evidence or people willing to speak up against her to hide her trail. "She couldn't have done it all herself either," she admitted. "So whether it was her or not, we're dealing with multiple people who know the house well."

"So it has to be staff and family. We have evidence that they knew about this room," Gia added. "As long as we have the video."

"Too bad we can't dust for fingerprints." Gloria nodded thoughtfully. She felt an itch in her brain, like they were close to figuring it all out before anyone could get the police involved. "But maybe we can get a confession out of whoever helped. What about the guy who said he found it in their room?"

"It's a place to start," Lily agreed, "If we find him in time."

"Gia should go," Gloria said at once. "She's a member of the family. They'll be more likely to talk to her."

Gia nodded. "But shouldn't someone stay here?"

"I will," Lily offered. "That way no one else can come in and mess with the tape."

"Good thinking." Gloria smiled. "I'll go with Gia." Maybe two of them could put the pressure on enough to get this done quickly. "Maybe we can solve this before Minxia and Thrakos ever have to find out!"

If it wouldn't have gotten him arrested, Ed had already seriously considered punching this woman in the face. He was glad he had send Aldon ahead back to the dining room to give them a report, or he probably would have punched her.

::Oh, I mean it very much, Elric,:: Maritza said. ::I have no intention of letting a young man of our line marry into a family of common mongrels.::

Bite your tongue, Edward. The voice in his head was Winry's, but Ed was doing his best to follow its advice. Martiza was behind this, he was certain of it. Ever since he suggested investigating the woman had done everything she could to delay and divert. Ed just didn't have enough evidence to prove it, and antagonizing her further would only make the situation worse. ::Last I checked, Thrakos is an Argyros,:: Ed commented as they walked at Maritza's maddeningly slow pace down the hall away from the room the vase had previously occupied towards Ian and Urey's shared guest room. Ed wanted a look at where they had "found" the vase as well. ::Cretan society doesn't put much store in the matriarchal line, not in the old families.::

Maritza's scowl could get deeper, who knew?

::I am still the head of my family, and my grand-nephew and grand-nieces' futures matter very much to me. I will not have them throw away their lives, their futures, or their fortunes, on gold-diggers and trash.::

Maybe he could yank out just a few hairs from that too-neat bun. ::If the royal lineage of Xing isn't good enough for your family, lady, than you've got a very backwards set of standards.::

Click. Click. Her cane tapped sharply on the marble floor. ::I would have no objection to a true princess of Xing, Elric,:: Maritza pointed out. ::But as you've said, the matriarchal line doesn't count for everything, does it? Miss Elric is not a Xian, and her paternal line is as common as they come.::

Ed smirked. ::Didn't anyone ever tell you?::

::Tell me what?::

::We're the last remaining line of Xerxes.::