Early Friday morning, Alton nurses a cup of tea while Cook presents the findings of the previous night to Captain Waesmaer and two lawyers from the city court. Alton blearily recognizes the prosecutor Aesma Vonner, but is surprised to also recognize Kelnora Romorith, the district attorney for all of the United Non-Evil Necromantic State.

This case has attracted greater attention than she had expected at its onset. Romorith is human, and alive, and while Alton’s first instinct is to assume that she couldn’t have accomplished so much in such a short time, this middle aged woman is a more powerful wizard than any other civil servant employee of the state that isn’t an elected official.

When Cook has finished explaining the results of their night of research, having detailed the prerequisites for the ritual magic, he places the thin white book and several other bound tomes they used as cross references on the captain’s desk.

“Having learned this, if you are correct, and this vampire has been creating Spawn, what are the risks to the population?” Romorith places one hand on the stack of books.

“Well, ma’am,” Alton tries to be polite, but is tired and still hasn’t managed to go on that date she was promised earlier in the week. “There’s the Spawn themselves. They’re victims of this man’s crimes. And there’s no evidence that he’ll just decide to stop creating them on his own. Plus there’s the people he’s taking as thralls, who are also victims and may be killed without a chance to return in any fashion.”

“Correct,” the district attorney agrees, “and what are the risks if we enforce the law through violence and destroy the vampire in his lair?”

“Research shows that just destroying the master vampire only gives the Spawn an animal’s freedom. They instead become slaves to instinct, and will immediately seek out victims to feed their Hunger. They’ll be mindless, insatiable, monsters in the truest sense.” Cook describes the results of their research and Karras’s vague descriptions. “They may in turn create more vampires or other contagious undead and we’ll have an outbreak on our hands.”

“Alternatively,” Alton butts in, “he could run and escape to continue his crimes elsewhere. If he does, I expect him to go deeper underground and be even harder to track a second time around. I also expect him to become even more antagonistic toward our government, and probably create Spawn or even willing vampires with anti-government tendencies just to spite it.”

“These are both dreadful risks,” Vonner says, “but they are known risks. These are the exact crimes that the law strives to protect.”

“Exactly true,” Romorith agrees, “which is why I wanted to hear that you acknowledge them before we take action.”

“District Attorney Romorith and I had discussed what to do with these eventualities.” Waesmaer acknowledges the difficulty of their situation. “Once the warrant to search the crypt arrives, you’ll need to act fast.

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“Cook, I need you to stay here to brief the Special Weapons and Tactics team on the location of the Bellemare Crypt. If we’re going to survive this, we going to have to hit the place hard and fast with everything we have. Thralls and Spawn should be treated as victims to the best of our ability. That means we hold them if possible, but if we can’t then we need to destroy them as fast as possible.

“Alton, that means you’re coming with me to hire independent contractors for the mission. We need to call in experts, and by now you should know exactly what to tell them.”

Vonner looks surprised at this news, but Romorith only nods. A curious look passes between Alton and Cook. They haven’t hired independent contractors in many years. The lawyers are definitely taking this case seriously.

“What is our budget, sir?” Alton asks, nervous.

“There isn’t one.” Romorith responds instead. “We’re looking at a worst case scenario here. When Spawn have been encountered before it’s always been in less populated areas as the at risk location, or they’ve been the mindless, released, variety. This is our first chance to set a precedent of being able to actually help Spawn rather than destroying them on sight.

“If we can bring this case to trial with Bellemare actually being punished for this crime while still animate, then we’ll have proof of concept for future cases of the like. This is what our entire nation was founded to do. We’ll build a methodology that the Union can promote elsewhere.”

Alton exhales slowly. Vonner purses her lips as if to whistle, but without breath there is no sound. That’s an incredible idea, and one that would bring fame to the lawyer who pulled it off in court across potentially the entire plane of existence.

“Okay, you do need to be reasonable. Don’t go hiring the Marauders or all of Red Hawk. Be good stewards of your city’s resources.”

“Since we have just enough circumstantial evidence to get a warrant to hold Adrien Bellemare for questioning and search his residence, you should probably get started on gathering your party,” Waesmaer insists. “There’s a lot of work to do before we can venture forth, so we’ll need to be ready the instant the warrant arrives.”

“This is probably a good time to discuss the risks involved in actually pulling off a raid to arrest a master vampire in his own lair.” Romorith gestures for patience. “Since you two have been there, what can you tell us about the location?”

“The building has a zone of desecration active.” Cook is quick to answer. “The living impaired within will be stronger in their home than elsewhere in the city.”

“This is good intel,” Vonner expresses her worry, “and it means we should take extra precautions.”

“Risks specific to vampires, particularly the kind of vampires who indulge in creating spawn,” Alton continues, “include the very real risk of mental domination. Even the Spawn could potentially dominate anyone we bring to the fight. This means we need to have a plan to counter or prevent that from happening. And that means we need to ask an expert on what to pack.”

“Then let’s get a move on.” Waesmaer locks the books in his filing cabinet. Alton downs the last of her tea in one highly ungraceful gulp. Cook heads to the armory to find the roster of who’s on shift for the next few days. The lawyers take their notes and head to wait at the court for the needed documents. Everyone has a task to do.