White Sand: 8 Hours Past

The men sprinted through the first floor of the mansion, and pushed their way along the servant's stone corridor until they entered into a wine cellar. A foul stench of blood and magnolia permeated the air. The stench was definitely not from the stacked barrels.

“Magnolia.” 669 frowned.

They crept through the room and stopped before a door that was swelling with dark energies. And stood before it when they felt certain no one else was about to discover them.

“What is this atrocious energy?” 669 gasped.

777 grunted, “Forbidden magic.”

“Aargh!” A man shouted with a leaping attack, which threw them off guard with organism magic that had the dust turning into clouds of toxic fumes. Similar to the poison of the untreated water barrels.

They danced and twisted around the toxic cloud balls that were eating at the objects they landed on.

“Parasite Magia: Neutralize Level!” 669 shouted as he twirled his staff around his body to cast out a wave of smoky black energy that dispelled the oncoming toxic clouds.

Fortunately, the man didn’t retaliate with more magic. He rushed for 777 with a lead pipe and the intention to knock him out. But 777 was a far more skilled fighter who easily countered the man’s blows and knocked him with an elbow jab to the back of the head.

The henchmen panted for breath as they stared down on the withdrawn looking man. It was clear he had used every bit of his virya and magic to try and chase them away from the cellar.

“Let’s wake him up and get him talking.”

The man stirred awake and cursed at the sight of the henchmen looming over him.

“Get off me!” He snapped and cowered beneath the flicker of the magic flame ball light 777 activated in his hand.

“Wait. I know you. You’re that Tank guy.” 669 blurted when he got a decent look at Harper Tank.

Harper frowned as he peered at 669, trying to recall where he had seen him: snippets of seeing 669 sprinting after him through the streets entered his mind.

“You! You sent a tornado after me!” Harper growled.

669 huffed and whipped out his hand fan to cool his cheeks. “It wasn’t me, it was the pixie member of our team.”

“What’d you want?! I’ll say nuthin to you!”

777 stepped in with a stern and somewhat scary expression that even made 669 gulp.

“You’ll talk, or we’ll string you up on a rafter and force it out of you.”

Harper frowned, but he was convinced enough by the threat to let his guard down a bit.

“What are you doing here?” 669 calmly asked Harper.

Harper stared at the men silently before sighing and deciding to speak.

“Came to get some stuff for my friend. But I didn’t expect all the Enfos here.”

“Enfo?”

Harper scoffed. “Enfo? Yanno, enforcers? Royal Guards? Sheeze, get with the lingo.”

His expression eased into one of concern. “This mansion changed the moment that Simon lord and his uncle returned from Estonia.”

The men prompted for more details and learned that three months ago Simon and his uncle, Reece Miller, had delivered vats of crystal blue water from a remote settlement in Dry Well Sands called Estonia.

“Estonia is some outta-way town with fat-load of details on it. Some say it even practices forbidden magic.” Harper glanced around the cellar. “After seeing the state of this mansion, I’ll believe it.”

669 prompted for Harper to continue on. He learned that Harper and Alder were workmates for the Miller Waters business, being resellers for local lords and businesses. Everything was normal until Simon had returned to the mansion.

“I mean, that Tristan was an arrogant asshole, but he was a fair boss. He paid us well to keep us and his parents off his back.”

“How was it like working for the Millers?”

Harper scoffed then grimaced. “To be honest. It was fair yet cold. The mother had no time for her boys. She left the house to live in their second mansion at the Skeleton Palace district. So only men and servants were at this mansion.”

The henchmen listened as Harper explained on Tristan and Simon’s strict upbringing. They weren’t raised with love and care, but rather with stern reminders of their place in the world as masters of their water merchant business. Especially having this drilled into Simon.

“Why Simon?”

Harper leaned in close and whispered with conspiring tones, “Rumor has it that his Majestic Will was altered with a Blood Gem.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

669 and 777 shared a glance and shrug.

“But isn’t that what lineage Blood Gems are for? To ensure the Majestic Will is passed down to descendants?”

“All good and well if the kid is of your blood. Rumors have it that Simon was a love child the master had with a woman who ended up being a nobody. So he had to have the blood gem lineage forced on him. That’s how the rumors go.”

777 frowned. Blood Gem lineages were the only way to circumvent the Majestic Will without consequence, but there were rules the gems were bound. One of the rules was where a gem should only be cast upon the person who carries the gem’s blood lineage. To do otherwise cast a horrible fate outcome for the recipient. As the original intention for blood gems was to ensure longevity for the same royal family. But like all good things, nobles got their hands on the gems to forge their own blood gem lineages and keep businesses in their generations. The High Magistrate deities allowed this slip to continue, seeing it as a benefit to the continual balance. But this didn’t stop others from finding a workaround. Rivals would steal family blood gems and inject their lowly servants blood into it to corrupt the gem’s lineage pattern: this would alter the Majestic Will set within the gem. So the next generation would end up with a will completely different and usually unpleasant. The rival would see their competition eliminated.

“Are you saying that Simon wasn’t born to the Millers, and their blood gem had been altered?”

Harper nodded. “Not just Simon. Tristan too I reckon. It explains why their estate is cursed. All staff here are dead or undead.”

“What were you trying to get?”

Harper glanced about with caution as he said. “A potion for my friend.”

“Alder Finch?”

He nodded. “Listen. If you hadn’t been taken care of Miki, I wouldn’t tell you this. Still had to be cautious.”

He explained that he had been following and watching them while they were handling the case, and at first was concerned to see Miki taken into the Cannon Fodders headquarters.

“Then I saw her singing and looking happy while she was playing with the harse. I figure you guys alright.”

A thought crossed 669’s mind. “Is Lucy Tank of Solace Tailors your sister?”

Harper gasped and paused before he nodded. “Aye. She was lucky to get a good will. It was all because of the education my folks were able to pay for her.”

“Education?” 777 frowned. “Are you talking about those finishing schools that could guarantee a better Majestic Will pick?”

“Aye. I told Alder about them. The man was looking for a better life for Miki than be some water seller or, Zallayl forbid, a prostitute. We all know that a parents’ will has a big say in getting a decent Majestic Will.”

“True, but there’s still no guarantee.”

“But what decent parent wouldn’t want their kid to have a good start to life? So Alder wanted to know more about these schools. I put him in contact with one of those Saint Mara educators.”

669 nodded as he started to see a picture forming. “So Alder asks Tristan for a pay advance to put Miki into one of those schools?”

Harper nodded. “I reckon so. Lucy said that Harper was worried about Miki’s adult years. Man never said it, but think his woman had been a hooker. Not that I’d judge, but being a hooker is dangerous work.”

“It would make sense about his debt to Tristan.” 669 asked another question to change the flow of the subject. “How did Alder meet Fairy Blossom?”

“That bitch.” Harper snapped. “I always told Lucy to stay away from that slut. Nothing good come from her.”

“Well not any more now that she’s dead.”

“Good riddance. Woman was nothing but trouble, always complaining about who didn’t sleep with her.”

Harper explained that Alder met Fairy Blossom through Lucy, and was suckered in by her charms. Almost like he had been enchanted. The man become drunk on his sex with her.

“What did she think of Miki?”

He huffed. “I was at my sister’s shop one day, and she was there with Miki. The girl was quiet and looked scared. Then I saw Fairy Blossom’s eyes that looked nothing but nasty at the young thing. I knew there and then Alder’s kid was in trouble.”

“Did you tell him?”

“Of course I told him! But he didn’t want to hear it. He kept telling me that he had found a sponsor for Miki, and she’d be soon gone from his life to care. He just had to do one thing as his payment.”

“Who was this sponsor? Was it Tristan? You don’t know what this thing was he had to do?”

Harper threw up his hands. “Dunno. The man never told me, but he did say it was someone they didn’t know. The thing was something he would only know when he was told. It seems he got introduced by his cousin, Boris.”

“Boris Finch. The man works at the Poirot Mansion as a groundskeeper.”

Harper sighed. “Seems Alder is way over his head. He came back to get Miki when he found out that bitch had sold her to our boss. Ever since Simon’s return, those brothers had been locking themselves away in their rooms. The mansion began to reek of a foul stench and grow quieter and emptier.”

“Where’s their father?”

“With their mother at Skeleton Palace mansion. The men have been left on their own to run business here.”

669 snapped his hand fan closed and sternly faced Harper. “One final question. Did you kill Marcus Poirot?”

Harper gasped with exasperation and genuine shock. At least, it looked genuine to 669. But he activated his inner vision to check the man’s emotional reaction throughout his body. Every emotion triggered certain heat and virya responses in the body, which translated to his vision as levels of orange, blue and red. Red stood for the color of a stress, tension and a lie. The man’s body was blue with a shade of orange, which indicated his genuine shock level.

“If you didn’t kill Marcus, what were you doing on the night of his murder?”

The man laughed. “What else does a man do after work, get drunk. I stayed back a bit to down a few with some friends before I headed home. Listen. I’ll tell you this ‘cause you ain’t the enfos. I figured you’re probably here to help Miki.”

Harper explained that he had visited the Poirot on the day of Marcus’s murder and had a fair bit of ale with Alder’s uncle and cousin. “Alder’s like a brother to me, so I know his family well enough. His uncle and cousin are good people.”

777 frowned. “What’s this Boris like?”

“Boris? Smart kid for young brat. Likely the same age is you.” Harper pointed to 669. “Can be a bit quiet, but he’s never rude and good to the elderly. Those old granny maids love him at that place! He likes to read lots; some smut books I caught him reading. So he’s alright.”

Whirring and sounds of explosion outside, drew their attention back to the matter at hand.

“Let’s get out of here.”

“Don’t have to tell me. I go my way you go yours. There’s a secret passage that leads to a tunnel. Alder and I used to take this way all the time when we wanted to sneak out for drinks.”

The men followed Harper out of the secret way behind one of the wine barrel racks.