Ensconced in a small back room of the Association Jack had been introduced to everyone from Wolven Freedom. They were an extraordinarily friendly bunch who had invited Jack to join them for their meal upon hearing that he wanted to ask them some questions. The introduction itself was a purposefully humorous bit that was a carryover from when they were younger, as they did a whole set with poses and everything to go along with their names and specialties. The large muscled mountain of a man was Clarence Willford, he specialized in mental magics and ward formations.
The lanky fellow was Vander Daven, he was an internal magic specialist who enhanced his strength and sturdiness along with the ability to draw attention to himself. It was a strange effect when he showed it off, making it seem like his words and movements carried more importance and weight than they had before. As far as Jack could tell it seemed that Vander resonated his magic through his body in what was almost opposite of what Jack had done to himself back in the alleyway the other day.
The lithe woman introduced herself as Lalinda Sarlux. She was an external magic user who had come up with a workaround for her troubles with conceptualization. Where she couldn't for the life of her visualize spells flying off on their own power, she instead adapted to making spells into arrows that she could fire from a bow. This allowed her to get range on her spells. It was a marvelous idea instead of letting herself get bogged down by the standardized spellcasting modules that they taught in the schools.
Evelyn also participated in the introduction skit. It turned out that as she hadn't been good at combat like the others she had instead gone into enchanting and more sedentary role magics. While she seemed a bit sad and embarrassed at her lack of combat talent, the pride that the others in the group had for her was clear on their faces.
After all of them had finished their introductions, Vander spoke up. "We actually have one more member of Wolven Freedom. She headed out a few days ago on some personal business and was planning on getting back in contact with us here once she was done."
Jack paused his body halting mid-movement, he had been planning on broaching the topic of Dilacy to see what exactly their relationship with her was. Obviously, they had gotten along well enough to work together for a significant period, but Vander's words indicated that it was more than just a temporary partnership and that Dilacy had been planning on joining them full-time. "By any chance is the final member of your group Dilacy Fawler?"
Lalinda piped up in a cheerful voice. "Yep! That's her! She has the cutest fucking ears as well you know! One is white and the other black! It is literally so damn adorable!"
"Indeed! Her close-quarter combat skills have proven to be a fantastic addition to our fighting strategies, and she has a great head for much of the fieldwork." Boomed out Clarence as well. Jack noticed Evelyn's face flush slightly before quickly being schooled as the praise for Dilacy was loudly exclaimed. Clarence continued, "She has proven to be an excellent companion and we are going to be working together going forward here!"
Evelyn blinked in surprise at what the others had just said. "She was going to be joining you permanently? This is the first time I heard about that. I thought she had said something about joining you guys just until the upcoming showcase?"
Vander looked confused for a moment as he responded, "I could have sworn you knew. We had discussed it during the team meal that we had right after we returned from our last mission."
Evelyn shook her head in denial. "No, no we hadn't. At least not as far as I can recall."
Clarence scratched his beard pondering as Vander and Evelyn bickered back and forth a bit on if they had mentioned it or not. After a minute he interrupted their childish argument. "Sorry Eve, I'm afraid I will have to side with Vander on this one. From what I can remember we did indeed mention it. You may have been distracted at the time as it was not long after we let you examine a couple of the artifact fragments that we had brought back with us."
Lalinda nodded along with what Clarence said and added. "Murph. Uck hhd bn orforfo asord ookin ah oof ings."
Vander side-eyed Lalinda as he reprimanded her, "Lala you really gotta swallow your food before you try to say something. No matter how long we've known you, we still can't understand you when you talk like that."
Lalinda blushed and ducked her head, her eyes on Jack as she swallowed the food in a huge gulp. In a small voice she mumbled "Sorry," before perking up and continuing in her normal tone, "I said, "Yeah. You had been totally absorbed looking at those things." Ya know… after we let you get your hands on 'em and all."
Evelyn pouted as everyone spoke out against her claim. "Well, you know how I get when checking out something interesting. I'm surprised you haven't mentioned it since."
Clarence laughed a deep-bellied laugh "Aye, well it's not like we would be doing any jobs for a bit here. As Vander mentioned earlier, she was going to be taking care of some personal matters."
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Jack sighed internally, with how nice this group was it was easy to see why Dilacy had kept working with them. He hated to do it but it seemed like he would be destroying their overall cheer here today. "I don't suppose you could tell me when the last time you saw her was, could you?"
Evelyn started at this and turned back towards Jack, "That's right, you were specifically looking up her mission records with the guild. I had thought that you may have been doing so as part of a background check, but if she was planning on staying with Wolven Freedom she probably wouldn't have put in for a corporate job."
As Evelyn responded to Jack everyone in the room turned toward him eyes narrowing slightly in suspicion. Jack grimaced slightly and opened his mouth to start, closing it and opening it again to break the bad news to the group. "I'm a private detective and I was hired by Dilacy's parents. She was supposed to be visiting them this last weekend and she never showed up. So here I am checking out information on what she had been doing leading up to the weekend. If she had gotten into any arguments or fights. Unhealthy work relationships. Really at this point, I'm looking into anything and everything."
As Jack spoke the warmth fled from the room, the stillness that replaced it fragile like thin ice just about to shatter. Lalinda stared hard at Jack, her voice harsh and grating, "What do you mean she never fucking showed up?"
Jack looked back at her. "Just what I said. Her parents came to me because she never showed up, and the more traditional methods to find out what has happened were not giving any response back. From what I saw in the reports and the fact that you have invited her to join your party tells me you lot had a good relationship with her. So, I'll just ask again when was the last time any of you saw Dilacy?"
Vander swallowed woodenly, set down the food in his hands, and wiped them on a napkin. "The last time that any of us saw her as far as I am aware, was the night we got back from our last mission. We went out to have a celebratory meal together. All four of us here as well as Dilacy. We ate over at Dovers Tasty Treats. It was the same meal and discussion that we had been talking about earlier where we had given Evelyn the new items to look over and we were celebrating both our first four-star job as well as gaining a new permanent member."
Jack pulled out his notebook and jotted down where they had eaten that night. He would check around the area for any signs of struggle or other potential leads. Looking up he asked, "Did you notice anything unusual in Dilacy's behavior or anyone paying an abnormal amount of attention to her that evening?"
Lalinda shrugged her shoulders, "I didn't really notice anything too unusual. We had a damn good meal. Sure, there were a lot of assholes whispering around us and starin' a bit. But that ain't all that strange when you are doing somethin' with a Beastfolk. We all left together and walked a few blocks before splittin' apart. Least, best I can remember. I had drank a shit-ton."
Clarence broke in at this point. "Yeah, that sounds about right. We had left together just in case anyone had any bright ideas, and ended up having a big group hug before Dilacy went her own way. She didn't act any differently than she had been over the last few months that we had gotten to know her. Holds her booze better than this one at least." He put his hand on top of Lalinda's head.
Jack nodded. "Is there anything that you can remember about earlier in the day after you had returned to town? Anything unusual or different than normal?"
Vander frowned "I can't think of anything too much. We got into town fairly exhausted and headed over to the Telipar Industries branch headquarters as our first thing. They had been the ones to commission the request after all. There we turned in the cats and sold pretty much all the artifact fragments that we had found."
"Can't forget that we all got to see the Branch Manager come and chew out Carlos for having joined Days Watch in the field for the job. They got into a whole argument in the middle of the floor about wanting to prove that he could do more than just be a decorative face and how he should know better than to take jobs involving such a level of risk." Clarence added with a short laugh. "Man he was a nice enough kid, got some confidence issues though."
Lalinda let out a strained chuckle, "Yeah, no fucking kidding. Though I gotta say didn't their argument about the danger of the job have an odd amount of making sure that Carlos hadn't touched the cats or picked up any of the fragments?"
Vander got a thoughtful look on his face as he slowly replied "… yeah, yeah it did. I wonder why. Eve, you've checked out numerous fragments from the ruins, can you think of anything?"
"Not really. I mean the worst have ever gotten was a couple of the fragments that have been brought back gave me a fierce headache. And numerous strange magical readings from them but I haven't been hurt or anything by the pieces I have experimented with." Eve replied after a bit of thinking.
Jack nodded along, "How about before you returned from the last mission was there anything that you may have noticed in terms of arguments or anything out of the ordinary with her behavior?"
Clarence drummed his fingers along the table, thinking for a bit before replying. "Not that I can think of. She worked hard as always, harder even, on our last job. Really wanted to prove herself as a valuable member of the team, I think. Didn't have any arguments with any of Days Watch that I remember. Seemed to know them all, other than Carlos, beforehand. But considering he was new to the adventuring scene not too much of a surprise there."
"Same here, other than her amazing work ethic in terms of finding artifacts to help us all get a better payout this last mission was right on the same level as the others. A joy to work with." Vander agreed.
Lalinda slowly pushed around some of the food in front of her. "There was one small fight that happened on the trip. It got solved quick enough, but Carlos and Dilacy got into some kind of argument about some fucking chick called Jane. It was something about Dilacy claiming that he wasn't good enough for her or some shit like that. I don't remember exactly but Totis and I got it settled. It was right after we set up our camp at the ruins."
"Just want to check he didn't swear eternal vengeance or anything right?" Jack pressed in a joking tone.
"Nah, they got it figured out pretty fucking well. They made up and were on good terms for the rest of the mission. Just figured I would mention it as it was the only real argument I can remember happening." Lalinda shrugged nervously.
Jack smiled gently at her. "Thanks. It's funny, but sometimes it is the small things that turn out to be the reason behind something massive, even if it doesn't always look like it right away. Always have to check every angle and possibility."
At this point, the conversation lulled and everyone just poked at the food. Appetites were mostly lost due to the bad news and the nature of the conversation that followed. Jack sighed and stood up. "I'm sorry to have ruined your day. Thank you so much for the meal and information. I do appreciate it. I will head out here to let you deal with this in your own way. Oh, but before I go do any of you know the best way to get in touch with the members of Days Watch?"
Clarence his voice soft and eyes downcast started "Yeah, yeah" before he cleared his throat and looked up at Jack. In a louder tone, he continued, "You should be able to find them hanging out downtown in their favorite bar if they are not out on a mission. From what Totis told me they are there most nights. What was it called again… The Money Rider? No, no. it was m something… monkey… mop… monster, that was it! The Monster Rider. Down on about 17th and Filow, I think."
"Thanks. I'll go head out there now. Better to go sooner than later so that I don't miss them." Jack pushed his chair in and headed out the door to the lobby. Right before he stepped out into the street, he felt a hand on his shoulder. As he began to turn, he heard a soft voice in his ear. "Hey I know this is a bit awkward, but if you would be interested in a fucking tumble come swing by my place." With that, he felt a small piece of paper get shoved into his hand and he was pushed out through the door. "Good luck and I hope you have better news the next time you visit!"