IV

Yoreno and Cypia walked the halls. There were more guards stationed now, but even so, he glanced about nervously. After that horrifying incident with the killer, he was somewhat shaken.

It was not that monstrous acts frightened him. Yoreno was an adventurer. He was well accustomed to monsters and the horrifying things they did. Perhaps it was due to the fact that he had encountered the man so suddenly. He hadn’t been expected to see a man chewing on the neck of a corpse. The act was bizarre in itself.

“Yoreno,” Cypia said. “Are you all right? You seem distracted.”

He glanced at her. “I’m fine,” he said and kept his pace. “I’m just a little shaken from what happened. I’m still wondering if that thing was a man or some kind of monster.”

“If it is a monster, it has an exceptionally high mental capacity.”

He nodded. There were monsters and there were monsters. Most were brutes, hungry or lustful for blood and killing, as was their fell nature. But some monsters were higher beings, like Herokelus, the monster guardian he had killed on the Isle of Morr, only to be regenerated after dying.

This man—this monster—whatever he was, he was dangerous.

“Could it have been a vampire?” she asked.

“I don’t think so. He looked wrong to be a vampire. He was… disfigured, like he had been attacked with a corrosive spell.”

“Maybe a wounded vampire,” she offered. “They do drink blood to survive and heal, do they not?”

“Yes,” he said, giving her that much, “but the teeth were far too…?”

“Not vampire?”

“Yes,” he said. “They looked like a man’s teeth, but filed down to points.”

They passed two guards in the hall and entered a room where five servants had been told to meet them. There were other guards in the room as well. Always two guards at once, particularly, since the shape shifter had taken on the aspect of one of their number.

“It’s very odd,” she said.

“I know.”

“It’s very nice to see you again, by the way.”

He smiled. “Thank you.”

Yoreno wanted to ask her where she had been, but now was not a good time. They had servants to question, and more beside these. Looking at them in turn, he said, “Hello. My name is Yoreno Brendara, lord and knight. I am in charge of investigating the comings and goings or strange behaviors as seen by you lot. So, have you seen anything strange? Anything at all?”

They looked at him in turn. Two shrugged. A woman shook her head. And an older male servant said, “I haven’t seen anything, milord.”

“Nothing strange? Nothing out of the ordinary?”

“No,” he said. “Begging your pardons, milord.”

“I see.” One of the women was avoiding eye contact with him. He looked at her. “And you?”

She said nothing.

“Do not be afraid,” he said. “You have nothing to fear. But we have no know what happened. You know as well as us that a murder happened on this floor not two hours passed.”

“Yes, well,” she said. “I did see some things, but, my lord. I don’t know how to say this. It would damage the reputations of two individuals in particular.”

“You can tell us,” Cypia said. “We will hold nothing against you and we will keep anything unrelated to this investigation private.”

“It’s okay,” Yoreno added in reassurance.

“Well that turned out to be nothing,” Cypia said as they went to talk to another batch of servants. “Inner castle… frolicking. Quite scandalous, but I’m surprised none of the servants on that level heard anything.”

Yoreno nodded. “Had it not been for the breaking glass and complete silence following that, I wouldn’t have gone to investigate.”

“And I doubt you would have thought anything of it, much less weather it was strange.”

“Exactly.”

“We still have to try,” she said. “We might get lucky.”

“Certainly.”

They took the stairs toward the upper level. They were heading for the south turret where some guests had been staying. Yoreno doubted anything would come of it, but they had to be thorough. As Cypia said, they might get lucky.

She chuckled then.

“What is it?”

She glanced at him. “I was just thinking, if it wasn’t for this murder investigation, I would actually be quite captivated with that scandalous story of the maid’s.”

“Oh,” he said and then he nodded. “I suppose you’re right.”

They chuckled together.

“I haven’t seen you in a long time,” Yoreno added. “Have you been well?”

The marble stairs had a blue runner like much of the castle but the borders here were scattered with golden stars. As they descended the steps, light from the moon shone through the high windows casting diamond patterns across the carpet due to the storm bracers.

“I’ve been on a quest,” she said.

“That’s what Yorinius told me,” Yoreno said, not satisfied with the lack of information.

“It was all very complex,” Cypia said. “There was a lot of politics involved. At one point Yorinius was cast in prison.”

“What? Really?”

She nodded. “We got the matter straightened out,” she said. “But it seemed the local people had a monster problem that the nobles of Kesh didn’t agree with. There were legal proceedings. A lot of time and coin was wasted.”

“Did you end up killing these monsters that were harming people?”

“Most of them,” she said. “We think, anyway. There were so many catacombs—some of which we were unable to explore.”

“Did you lose out on that quest?”

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“We did, but we were able to recoup some of the losses. Why I find it all worth it is because one of the monsters had taken a child into his cave. We rescued her. I can still imagine how tightly she held on to me, shaking.”

“Wow,” Yoreno said.

“That was near the beginning of the quests,” she said. “I cried when we said goodbye.”

“That makes it all worth it,” he said. “You’re right. It’s not just about the money—or the fame.”

As they climbed the stairs some moments passed. Then Yoreno ventured, “I wonder if any of the nobles of Kesh have come for the Age of Readventure festival?”

“Not likely,” she said, a clear note of disdain in her voice. “Too greedy. The monsters breed and supply them with valuable loot drops. That’s one of their main economies in Kesh.”

“I see.”

They reached the top where the apartments were. The walls were decorated with paintings and lit by high quality glow rocks. At the end of the thoroughfare a crackling hearth burned, providing heat.

Yoreno craned his neck as he regarded the thick rafters above. This area was quiet. Very quiet. But there was a servant in the hall. Yoreno approached him and introduced himself. “I am told you’ve been waiting for me?”

“Yes,” the servant said.

“We need to question every servant on this level of the castle. Can you assemble them?”

“Of course,” he said. “Let me bring this matter to the head servant and he will arrange everything shortly.”

Yoreno nodded.

Despite being lower rank than Cypia, Yoreno was heading the questioning of the servants aspect of the investigation. Was it because Dantera wanted him to acquire experience, or did Cypia see him in a different light because he was Dantera’s protégé?

Yoreno was just a mid-tier adventurer while Cypia was an upper-tier, just shy of top-tier like Yorinius and Dantera and some few other members of the Roaming Lions.

A short time passed and the servants were assembled into one of the vacant rooms. Cypia began the questions this time.

“Excuse me?” the head servant asked. His name was Jek. “But what is this really about?”

“We can’t say,” Yoreno said. “Only that there is an active investigation and you are meant to keep the matter silent. “Do you understand?”

“Of course,” Jek said with a nod. He was tall and stout for a servant.

Perhaps he was in the army at some point and gave it up for easier work, Yoreno thought. “So can any of you say that you saw or heard anything strange or out of place,” he asked again. “Anything at all, no matter how small?”

They all shook their heads and shrugged, but there was one servant that glanced about as if he wanted to speak but wasn’t sure.

“You, sir,” Yoreno said. “Is there anything you would like to tell us?”

He nodded. “Yes,” he said. “It’s probably nothing—the peculiarities of a visitor, no doubt.”

“Tell us,” Yoreno said. When the man hesitated again, he added, “I swear that nothing you say will come back on you.”

Nodding, he swallowed and said, “It was yesterday evening. In the high chamber. I went in to deliver food and drink from the kitchens.”

“Did this man in the high chamber ask for these things?”

She servant was in his middle years, short and slightly balding. He nodded. “Yes he did. When I came into the chamber I got a very eerie feeling, my lord.”

“An eerie feeling?” Jek asked dubiously. “Let us not waste the time of our lord and lady by recounting tails of ‘eerie feelings.’”

“No, no,” Cypia said. “We want to hear.”

“Please continue,” Yoreno said. As he glanced toward Jek, he thought the saw the minute movement of rolling eyes, stopped in mid gesture. He obviously thought the answers they were getting were useless.

“Well, I brought the food and drink into the chamber,” he said. “It was dark. There wasn’t a single lit candle and the glow rocks were covered. The only thin’ alight was the fire.”

“That is odd,” Cypia said. “Who would want to cover all the light sources in the chamber?”

Yoreno shrugged. “What time of day was it?”

“Evening, my lord,” the servant said. “Though there was still some subtle light on the horizon.”

“Enough to see by?”

“Only just.”

“So it was early enough to not be sleeping, but dark enough that you would want to have light in the chamber?”

He nodded.

“Was the occupant in bed?”

“No, my lord.”

“Can you take us to the chamber?” Cypia asked.

“Of course,” he said. “Please, this way.”

Leading them down the silent halls, the servants whispered among themselves, several of which broke off at the behest of the head servant to go about their chores. They were cleaning the area after all the visitors had been relocated.

Hopefully the excuse for why was a good one or this “secret investigation” would get out of hand quickly and ruin king Branlin’s Age of Readventure festival.

Yoreno would have more words with all of the servants about that after they were done here, while simultaneously not giving away too much information.

They entered the chamber in question with the servant in the lead and the head man behind. “So this is it?” Yoreno asked.

“Yes, my lord.”

Glancing about, he realized that this chamber was indeed a beautiful one. At the top of the stairs, high in the castle with tall windows about the concave wall, it provided spectacular views of Aevalin and the bay area.

Yoreno could even see the Brendara estate from here, though only just, as it was somewhat far to the eye. “And where was the occupant when you came with the food and drink?” he asked.

The servant took two steps and pointed to a large chair of red fabric and polished wood. “He was sitting here.”

“Tell me,” Cypia said, “When you relocated everyone on this level, was this man still in his rooms here?”

The servant looked to his superior. The other man nodded. Does he need permission to speak? Yoreno wondered.

With a shrug he said, “I really do not know. To my reckonin’ this chamber was empty by then.”

“Do you have a ledger?”

“No,” Jek said. “There are only twelve rooms on this level and usually the guests are easy for everyone to distinguish. This is not an inn, my lord. The doors do not have numbers. We have the four west side rooms, the four east side rooms, the three mid tower rooms and the high chamber.”

Yoreno nodded.

“But I can tell you,” he continued. “The man staying in this room was identified as a Lord Brailar.”

“Lord Brailar,” Yoreno said. “There should be—“

“An invitation for him.” Cypia finished.

“Indeed,” Yoreno said. “We can track him that way. We need to find out everything we can about this Lord Brailar.”

Cypia nodded.

“But first,” Yoreno said, turning to the servant who had led them to the room. “You were telling us of your experience in this chamber. You said the lights were doused and covered except for the fire?”

“That’s right.”

“What happened next?”

“I sat the food and the wine on the table here,” he said.

“What happened next?”

“Nothing of note,” he said. “I asked the lord if he wanted a blanket, as I thought it was quite cold in the chamber. He told me to get out. So I left.”

“Hmm,” Yoreno noised. “Was that your last interaction with the man?”

“Yes it was, though when I came into the chamber earlier, I thought I found remnants of the meat pie in the fire.”

“In the fire?”

Cypia turned from the windows she was inspecting. “Who burns a meat pie?”

“I also found shards from the wine battle in the fire and a mess of the meat pie scattered across the end table here.” He pointed to the areas in question.

“How big was the mess?”

“I can’t rightly say,” the servant said as he scratched his head. “But if I had to remember, I would say it looked like a dog had a go at the thing.”

Yoreno nodded. “Thank you for everything,” he said. To Jek he added, “Be sure to keep all of this on the hush.”

Jek nodded. “I’ve already been instructed to do so by the captain of the palace guard.”

Before leaving, Cypia said, “If anything else comes to mind, be sure to find us.”

The servant nodded and they left the chamber.

“It’s a lead,” Yoreno said.

“Indeed.”

They were walking fast, both of them aware of the evident possibility that this was the man Yoreno had seen earlier in the day. The high chamber in the westernmost turret wasn’t a far walk where the murder had happened.

On the way back, Yoreno and Cypia questioned the guards, asking if they were the ones stationed throughout the halls during the incident, and indeed they were, and yet none of them saw a man in billowing red robes traverse the corridors.

“Perhaps he climbed?” Cypia ventured.

“It seems unlikely,” Yoreno said.

“Yes, but did he not jump out a window when you discovered him?”

“He did. But that was one jump. Wouldn’t climbing from the southernmost turret from the high chamber all the way to the scene of the crime be incredibly difficult?”

“Yes,” she said, “but we shouldn’t underestimate this man. We don’t know what he’s capable of.”

“You’re right,” he said. “I wonder if we should bring Sorika up here.”

“Isn’t she your rogue member?”

He nodded. “Yes. I’ve used some of her potions before, Owl Eye in fact.”

“I don’t know it,” she said, smiling. “Mage, remember?”

He laughed. “Of course.”

They walked on. After a time, Cypia turned to Yoreno and said, “You’ve grown a lot, Yoreno. I remember when you first came to the Roaming Lions.”

‘You do?”

“Yes,” she said, smiling.

“And… what did you think of me at that time?”

She shrugged. “To be completely honest, I was jealous of you.”

“What?”

She nodded. “Yes. Here was this soft noble, not even an adventurer, brought into the Roaming Lions and given the coveted position to become Dantera’s first and only protégé. Of course I was jealous.”

“Did you want to be her protégé?”

She nodded. “I did.”

“So that’s why you were so dismissive of me those first few months…”

She laughed.

“I started to respect you somewhat before your trials on the Isle of Morr.”

He nodded. “I hope I’ve earned your respect.”

“You have,” she said. “It’s not many adventurers who gain fame and a moniker for their party. The Emblazoned Party. It’s impressive.”

“Thank you.”

Suddenly a man down the corridor yelled, “THERE’S BEEN ANOTHER MURDER!” He ran out into the hall, his sword in hand. “ANOTIHER MURDER!”

Yoreno and Cypia glanced toward one another, their eyes wide as they rushed toward the castle guardsman.