Chapter 4: "Shall Reign in Terror"~
"Your host?" John gasped, suddenly ready to chase after the man, on hands and knees if he had to, and beat him to a pulp.
Mycroft swallowed, " The details are dark on that mission, Sherlock...What did you not tell us?"
"I can only give you a result when I have pieced together evidence. I was able to piece together no significant evidence for this man, it was part of the torment of the evening, I was given a sample of some sort of drug, such as the ones Yeats describes being used on himself and his sister. Were it not for the burn scars on my wrists, and the fact that I did manage to recover a stolen key and take it to Stockholm, I would have thought the whole affair no more than a Baskervillian fabrication..."
There was silence for a long moment, but then Sherlock said: "I may have had nothing to tell you then, but I have gathered plenty of information to tell you now."
The others listened up. John was vaguely aware of Yeats and the Major rejoining them, the boy dizzy and leaning on the Major, confused, and almost sick nervous.
"At first glance, he is appearing to wear a long, dark fabriced coat like mine, except with lace trimmings. But if one is to examine it more closely, they are actually two great lace fans, like a ladies personal fan, made into the shape of two golden gilded wings, able to be opened and closed much like wings or fans, and resemble very much a ballerina's costume. Beneath that , if you were paying attention, he is wearing a leotard like a male ballerina would wear, except it is made of a light grade of chain mail, also gilded with around 3 carat gold. The leggings are, again like one would wear for a ballet, save they are made of some higher grade spandex material, almost like what field agents might wear. He has an officer's sword affixed to his belt, and he is wearing slippers, made of snake skin. He wore dark eye liner too, and lipstick of the darkest shade only a brazen woman would be seen in public with, and he was even wearing an alarming shade of rouge. Hair was chin length, and braided off to the side, and clipped back with a pin that was obviously self designed, and was in the shape of Thor's hammer. Now, if I didn't recognize his face from a previous encounter , I would be able to link him back to Loki's Gauntlet with several pieces of this information, one being the hair accessory, another being that the leaders of Loki's Gauntlet are mostly comprised of stage performers, such as a dancer often is. Why the sword? He is an officer of the Gauntlet, which is an occultic order, practicing varying forms of the ancient Norse religion, as well as Wicca, and so they furnished him with a hand-me-down, no doubt belonging to someone in their company's military grandfather. He did not appear in this attire to me at their "business meeting" and I rather doubt that young Mr. Yeats would have forgotten it, had he appeared to him in this guise, either. So, I can conclude, that he was dressed for a performance this second time we've seen him, because he intended to give a stunning performance, and murder being his forte, that was how I was able to piece together the bombing we just diverted from being a civic disaster. His performance thus ruined, he has withdrawn for ,no doubt, a reschedule. And it may be a while, yet not a long while; now that we have seen the Blood Eagle, now that we recognize him in his full regalia, he will not stop trying to make a dramatic entrance into this affair. Why would he want to enter this scene at all? Obviously the mistress has secrets he doesn't want us to know. So ,it isn't so much that he hates her, or that he's trying to get to me, as it is a bit of both perhaps: she is his bargaining chip."
"Yes...but for what bargain?" wondered Mycroft.
"That ,it appears, is the unknown we are solving for."
"Blood Eagle?"John asked.
Sherlock nodded gravely, "Every high ranking member of the Gauntlet has a "stage name", if you will. His name is "Blood Eagle" because the peak performance he is studying for , is to perform the "blood eagle" (an ancient Viking torment practice. I shall spare you the details...) on a victim of his choice. He had elected to practice on me, but I managed to escape before he could, locating my missing key ,in the Gauntlet Keep, during their meeting."
John felt his breath turn to liquid lead in his airways. Knowing Sherlock was alive the time he thought he was not, knowing he had been tortured, and knowing it vaguely, was one thing. To hear fragments of the account, however,...John knew that sooner or later he and Sherlock were going to have that conversation...and how was as good a question,as why their current maniac was putting on such a dramatic show at all.
It would not be now, though, no matter how many questions John may have. For the Detective had spotted something else, falling like mana of heaven into his crime scene, perhaps the solving piece to the whole jigsaw puzzle.
He took a few steps forward, and kicked at a piece of Miata fender.
Rolling it over with his foot, he read aloud, carved brightly in Norse runes:
"Shall Reign in Terror".