Blood Ties, Part 21


"That's all I need to know about the old man," you tell Meska. "Going forward, I'd like you to switch over any available resources to looking for more information about Ceriss. I've read the general information about her that you sent back to Iskro, but there are a few... particulars... related to this situation with the hunt for the killer that may merit closer examination."

Meska cocks her head quizzically. "Particulars?"

You nod. "When I talked to the Madame of the brothel Ceriss helps, she sounded worried about Ceriss' assistance. Worried about history repeating itself. Can your agents look into what she might have meant by that?"

"Of course, master incubus," is the ratfolk's immediate reply. "We will investigate without delay."

"Thank you." With that you part ways. Meska vanishes back into the shadows, and you continue your morning stroll, soon looping back to where Janessa is waiting with a hearty breakfast.

"So..." she says, as the two of you eat companionably. "Today is your meeting with Lord Kovar."

"I'm a little nervous," you admit. "But I hope it goes well."

Which is closer to the truth than you'd like, since this will require a far more detailed level of bullshitting than the cursory display you made while talking with the noble at the soiree. You once again run through all the information that Iskro tried to cram into your skull about your "home country" of Aspar. More than any previous conversation, this meeting will put that cobbled-together knowledge to the test.

"I'll be waiting for when you're done," says Janessa. "We can celebrate your success together."

"If you're going to hang around the noble quarter, then maybe you could see if Ceriss needs any help?" you offer innocently. "If nothing else, I'm sure she'd appreciate a friendly face, with all the strain she's still holding up under."

Janessa flushes, remembering last night. You spent so much time carefully—subtly—inflaming that spark of desire. And now, even in the light of day, the allure still holds its grip. You reach across the table, placing your hand atop hers, and giving her another tiny taste of your arousing touch. Just enough to nudge that desire along a little bit further. Just enough to make those pesky "inhibitions" seem like even less of a concern.

"W-we'll see..." she says, adorably flustered. "I'll... I'll think about it."

Having made your suggestion, you give Janessa a long goodbye kiss. Then you set out across the noble quarter, toward the manor of Lord Kovar. You arrive well in time for your appointment, and the portly noble welcomes you in with warm ebullience, ushering you into his study. As you walk through the manor, you note it as a large, homey place, with even the bustling servants seeming happy.

There is an air of... loneliness, though. As you walk through the hallways, you see several portraits of a much younger Lord Kovar, happily posing with a brown-haired woman. In terms of "raw allure" she's plain at best—and in perfect honesty, even "plain" is probably a bit generous—but it's still clear from their expressions how completely enamored they are with each other.

You do discern a slight progression in age as the various portraits progress. And, in the latest portrait you see, the woman is visibly pregnant, both her hand and the young Lord Kovar's resting tenderly over the swell in her stomach.

There are no further paintings.

Upon reaching Lord Kovar's study, he sits you down and begins to drill into the details of how Aspar's food aid to the war effort will work. You present a more detailed version of the plan you and Iskro worked out, along with various forged documents that should hopefully hold up to initial scrutiny.

Some of it is more touch-and-go than you'd like... but your immense skill in manipulating the conversation carries you through without issue. Lord Kovar is helpful enough in temperament that it's easy to get him to provide the answers he expects to many of his own questions—and then confirm them yourself—even when the conversation veers into areas where your hastily-assembled knowledge starts to wear thin. As the hours go by, you're confident that the noble doesn't suspect anything is amiss, not even in the slightest.

It's only as the morning wears into afternoon that your deliberations are interrupted, by a knocking on the study door. Lord Kovar opens it, to reveal one of the maids. "Sir! Sir, I... I thought you might want to know," she says. "There's... something strange going on outside. Some kind of... commotion down the street. A crowd forming at the Kagan manor."

Your head snaps up, multiple connections suddenly falling into place. A cold suspicion begins to form in your stomach. Lady Kagan. The adulterous wife who you briefly considered as one of your entry points into noble society.

And who you saw publicly snub Lord Hastrik—one of her former lovers—at that soiree Janessa helped you attend.

Making a quick excuse to Lord Kovar, you burst into motion, racing back through the hallways and out the manor door onto the street. The Kagan mansion, while still in the same general area of the noble quarter, is several blocks down, but even from here you can make out the growing, murmuring crowd forming. Most of it seems to be concentrated around the small garden on the manor grounds, obscured from direct sight by tall hedge rows and other verdant growth.

You can also hear people raising hue and cry, pleading to find anyone with medical training. You cover the distance at a dead sprint. Upon reaching the crowd, you use your slender form to its best advantage, twisting through the growing press of people with all your demonic agility. As you slip past, you hear people whispering countless different versions of what they've heard, speaking in the hushed mixture of horror and lurid fascination of an onlooker.

The actual servants of the manor are trying to maintain some semblance of order, and keep the crowd out. But they're painfully disorganized, many of they openly weeping or sobbing, some of them outright frantic. They're in no shape to stop someone as deft as you, and you supplement that with a quick excuse of "I'm with the investigation!" that you deliver in as authoritative a tone as you can project.

By this point your impossibly-acute senses have long since pinpointed the true source of all this dismay. You race into the heart of the garden itself, and soon the source of it all comes into direct view.

There is blood everywhere.

Lady Kagan lies in the center of the garden, her naked, gagged body covered with all manner of horrific lacerations and stabs. Even at a glance, you can tell that the wounds were designed to torture and mutilate, not merely kill. Whoever did this was trying to draw it out for as long as he could.

She's also clearly been raped multiple times... but without even the remotest semblance of the euphoric pleasure that you would both provide and feed on. Indeed, the sheer degree of suffering inflicted through those sexual means creates a raw, physiological revulsion in your innermost nature.

As though someone were cramming shit down your throat, just by you standing there.

Her husband is kneeling over Lady Kagan, trying to stop the bleeding with what he has on hand... but it doesn't look good. She's already lost so much blood, and some of those stabs look to be in very bad places. You don't know how much longer she has left. Still, Lord Kagan tries his frantic best, tears running down his face.

It seems that, despite everything that had estranged them... a part of him still really did care for her.

At the far end of the garden, two servants are holding Lord Hastrik pinned down, one of the servants screaming invective at him. Lord Hastrik's hands and clothes are also bloody... but the expression on his face is one of complete, terrified bewilderment. "No..." you hear him whisper. "No, no, it's... I just... I just came here because of the letter! It's... I... She was already... I was just trying to help her!"

Even as you take in the scene, you hear more footsteps running up the garden path behind you. Turning, you see Ceriss and Janessa panting for breath, led by another servant of the house. No doubt that servant was one of the ones sent out to plead for any help they could, and he managed to find the sorceress.

Ceriss immediately kneels on the other side of Lady Kagan from the woman's husband, her face grim. She pulls out her wand, using it to trace a spell in the air, while also casting a different spell with her left hand. Soon, mystical green light begins to filter down onto Lady Kagan's prone body.

But Ceriss' grim expression only deepens. "This... won't be enough," she says, her eyes never leaving her patient as she continues to cast her spells. "Healing magic is far from my area of specialty. With wounds as deep as these... and this much blood already lost... she needs a cleric if she's to have any chance of pulling through. And not just any cleric. High Priestess Talini is probably the only one in this city with enough divine investiture to heal wounds like these."

"W-we've already told a servant to run to the nearest chapel," her husband says, distraught. "But... but High Priestess Talini... she'll be at the main cathedral, in the center of the city! The time it would take for someone to get there and back..." From her expression, you can tell that Ceriss has done the same calculations that Lord Kagan has. And that she doesn't think Lady Kagan probably won't last that long, not even with her help.

But even so, the heroine refuses to give up. "The only thing we can do is try," she says. She steels herself, devoting all her strength and concentration to increasing the potency of her healing magic.

It's obvious how hard Ceriss is pushing herself. Fighting back the weariness from her long struggle against this monstrous killer, as she tries with everything she has to save just one of his victims. Even knowing how impossibly long the odds are.

Or perhaps... the odds might not be quite so long as Ceriss fears.

There is one way to enormously cut down on the time it would take the High Priestess to arrive. If you volunteered to run to the cathedral, but then took to the skies once you were out of sight, you could cross the city in far less time. It might even be enough that Ceriss could keep her alive that long.

Of course, there are risks as well. Even gaining elevation as fast as you can, there's the chance that some random person might catch a passing glimpse of your demon form flying. They wouldn't be able to connect it to Niko just from that... but the rumor that there's demonic activity afoot would certainly be more exposure than you faced before.

Also, while it probably wouldn't be apparent at first in all the chaos, if someone clever—like, for example, Ceriss—were to sit down later on, and really work out the timeframes, it would quickly become apparent that the times simply didn't add up with the running speed of an ordinary human.

Though... you could disguise that more, if you were willing to burn a little extra lust. You could tell the High Priestess about Lady Kagan, not as Niko but as someone unremarkable, like a city guard. Then you could arrive again later, this time as Niko, around the "too late" time when a normal running speed would have you arrive.

Having an unknown figure bring the help would draw less direct attention to your "Niko" identity. Though a disappearing guard (who still arrived far faster than anyone who knew about the attack should have been able to) would make it much more immediately obvious that something strange was going on.

Or... you could let someone else run, and concentrate on searching the scene of the crime. That would doubtless be a blow to Ceriss' emotional state. To lose another victim right in front of her, even after fighting so hard to save her.

Still... you have no guarantee that you'd be able to save Lady Kagan even if you did go. And staying is the choice that would keep your cover the safest. Not to mention that what you learn by staying here could help in tracking down the killer who is the root of all this.

In the end, there are no guarantees. You don't for sure how worthwhile anything you might learn would be, and you don't know how much of a chance the extra time might give Lady Kagan.

All you can do is make your decision.