”Care to explain am I being questioned?” Strawberry asked and rubbed his temples in frustration. “And why is she here?” He continued and pointed at the servant girl Stel, who was sobbing next to Anastacia in the adventurer’s room, where she had decided to question the ‘suspects’ one by one.
“Well, I remember there being this part in the contract where the full authority was transferred over to someone, could you run by me again who that was?” The necromancer smirked.
The guild official sighed. “You.” He admitted.
“Right! And were you mentioned anywhere in that?” Anastacia nodded.
“No…” Strawberry said reluctantly.
“Exactly! You’re being interrogated because you’re a gargantuan wanker, and she’s here as my assistant, since my previous assistant turned out to be a gargantuan wanker – and I think Lumira might try kill her if she’s left alone. But in all honesty, do I really know you didn’t do anything? You yourself explained to me that you had a motive.” The adventurer pointed out and forced the guild official to admit that she did in fact have a point, even if it was farfetched.
“That doesn’t explain why the one who poisoned our host is here instead of being held somewhere she’s not a danger to anyone.” Strawberry retorted and pointed towards Stel, who broke into tears once more for getting accused.
Anastacia awkwardly patted the servant’s head to make her calm down, which as surprisingly effective. “I don’t think she knew about it. Someone else must have poisoned the cup or something.” She explained.
“I’ve spent the last thirty-four seconds reviewing the reports from your previous quests, and I’m fairly certain that a child could fool you with the simplest of lies lie. Please tell me that at the very least you aren’t just going by her word on this?” Strawberry sighed, accepting his position as not a part of the investigation.
The adventurer grabbed a piece of paper form the coffee table between her and the guild official and crumbled it into a ball. “You can ask Teal about this, since he would have noticed it as well, but the only way she could be the one behind all of this is if she was a highly-trained assassin.” She explained and tossed the ball at Stel, who barely had the reflexes to cower before it bounced off her face. “Which she obviously isn’t…”
The servant’s heart began jumping out of control from something as simple as getting hit with a paper ball, also more or less confirming Anastacia’s theory about the girl not being a part of whatever plot was going on.
“… Very well… But do take this seriously, our standing with Vassund may be at stake.” The guild official reminded her and prepared to be questioned.
“Someone has died and that’s what you worry about?” Anastacia frowned and stood up. She started to pace around the seats while trying to come up with something to ask that didn’t sound completely idiotic and would ignite even just the slightest of sparks of trust in the official. “Well, for starters, I know you had the entire night to roam around the lodge and even visit the kitchen while I was asleep – care to tell me how you spent the night?” Was the first thing she could come up with that made any sense.
“I was doing paperwork the entire time, because someone keeps messing with the forms. If you need further detail, I spent most of it rewriting the form 443-3-b, which of course means I needed to redo everything attached to it, such as 1-667-c and the whole moral character evaluation process for quests that are considered in the political risk class three. Then there is also the report for the previous day that needed to get finalized and-“ Strawberry listed off things that Anastacia had probably gotten briefed about during the long trip to the lodge, but couldn’t remember in the slightest.
“Okay! I get it.” The necromancer stopped him. “How about this: You didn’t have anything to drink, almost like you knew there was something wrong with the drinks and didn’t want to risk it. And before you say anything, yes, this is important for the quest. Don’t even try doing that bullshit again, or I’ll feed you to the ghost snake.”
The guild official stared at the table for a few seconds and seemed to come to a decision. “Very well. I have been authorized to answer you, but the guild wishes that what I’m about to say does not leave the room. Not because it is sensitive in nature, but because the less the world knows about us, the safer Valor is.” He explained with a slightly hushed tone and leaned towards Anastacia. “Our need for sustenance, hydration and sleep are roughly on par with your average human, but we are able to meet these requirements as a collective. This means that a single guild official sleeping for an entire day allows two to three others to remain perfectly alert without so much as a nap. This is true for both eating and drinking as well, as long as the total needs of all officials are met, some of us may go without either of these. It is only sensible that an official that has been dispatched to conduct operations elsewhere forgoes as many of these needs as possible, as to minimize risks. Sleeping is an obvious safety concern, and potable water or safe food may not be readily available. So me refraining from all of these is merely a matter of following official guild conduct, not a sign of foul play.”
“That’s both neat and gross, but okay, let’s say that I believe you – how would you go about this whole investigation thing?” The adventurer asked, hoping to get at least something to go with, as she still had no idea what to do next.
“Well, the first thing you should recognize is that almost everyone here does have a reason to hope that these talks end in a disaster. If you listened to their speeches yesterday, you should be able to roughly guess why. Vul, Toumarill and Ou would very much like to tear into each other to secure their positions, Astra and Mon Quasai don’t have much to lose in the end, only preferences on who they’d like to work with and either could fold from their alliances if unfavorable circumstances arise, but both do have something to gain if the resulting war goes their way. As for Mournvalley… who knows?” Strawberry reasoned. “You are probably the only one that can get an answer from the inquisitor.”
Anastacia frowned, she wasn’t too excited about having to deal with Teal again, even if he seemed somewhat levelheaded for someone from Mournvalley. “So I should start with him then? I suppose it makes sense. Ilyu, Magnon and Lumira could probably use some time before I get to them.” She agreed in the end. “Could you tell Teal to come over on your way out? After that you can just go fill a 444-2-c or whatever in some dusty corner you find.”
Surprisingly the guild official smiled hearing that – in fact he almost laughed on his way to the door. “A 444-2-c she says…” He snickered at something the necromancer couldn’t understand and left the room.
Before allowing the inquisitor into her room, Anastacia hastily moved all the weapons that had bone components in the into the corner furthest away from the coffee table and where she could see them at all times. She also gathered most of the luggage she had thrown about during the night into a pile behind her bed and made some attempt to fix her uniform to appear at least a bit more formal than usual.
With the room and her outfit at a passing state, she sat back down and asked Stel to go and open the door for Teal. Not quite understanding why, the servant girl wiped her tears in her sleeve and hurried over to the door.
“Ah! Inquisitor Teal, take a seat. I’m going to need you to answer some questions for me.” Anastacia said and tried to look as imposing as possible when the inquisitor stepped in.
Teal nodded to thank the maid for letting him in and did as he was asked. “You know I could feel you running around before, right? You could have just let me in.” He commented.
“Yeah, but my castle doesn’t really get all that many visitors, so I don’t often get to just summon people to me like this. I don’t even have a proper servant there, so can you blame me for indulging?” The adventurer shrugged.
Teal sighed. “No no, it’s nice to get reminded that our guardian is a complete moron.” He scoffed and rolled his eyes. By chance, his gaze happened upon Stel, who was still standing by the door, clearly being wary of the inquisitor. “I take it that she didn’t do it? I’ve seen my fair share of assassins, she’s most definitely not the type.”
“Nah, I don’t think she did.” Anastacia said and shook her head. While she was confident in her gut feeling about Stel, it was good to know that someone who was actually trained to deal with assassins agreed. “But that’s why I’ve summoned you here. How do I know you didn’t do it? And just saying that you wouldn’t have bothered won’t cut it this time.”
“I would have poisoned you.” Teal stated bluntly. “For an inquisitor, this lodge is full of defenseless sheep. If I were a wolf after them, what good would getting rid of an old and feeble ram do me, when there’s a shepherd dog to worry about? If I poisoned you, I could just do whatever I want with the rest of these people.”
The absolute loathing and lack of surprise on Anastacia’s face over the inquisitor having a plan ready just in case he needed to kill people was so apparent that it amused even Teal himself.
“But what if you intentionally did it the dumb way just because that’s not what’s expected of you, then you’d just get off scot-free after ruining the meeting and whatever small hopes there were for peace.” Insisted the adventurer, still unable to admit there was even a hint of anything but cruel intentions in anyone from her home country.
Teal took a deep breath, as if he was revealing a huge secret. “I wouldn’t do it because Nikolai was the closest thing I have… had to a friend, outside of the inquisition. I’ve been the one handling our relations with Vassund ever since Amaranth died, and I’ve spent weeks with the old guy. You can ask the vice commander about that if you want.” He admitted with a bit of genuine anger in his voice.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“Even if Coquelicot commanded you to do so?” Anastacia inquired further.
“That’s different!” The inquisitor yelled and hit the coffee table with his fist.
The adventurer scoffed at the outburst. “So you admit that you would have done it if Coquelicot thought it’d benefit Mournvalley to ruin the negotiations?”
Teal took another deep breath to calm his nerves to keep his powers in check, while internally whipping himself for letting Anastacia push his buttons again. “Yes… Of course, I would have.” He revealed and lowered his voice. “But I haven’t received a single order from her in a couple of months, no one has. What I’m about to tell you absolutely can not leave this room… The inquisition has been just winging it without leadership for a while now. We’ve done our best to stick true to the original vision, and I think we’ve done a good job at that, but we simply don’t have the same authority as Coquelicot and need all hands on deck to just keep things from falling apart. Simply put, Mournvalley can not get into a war right now.”
“Oh. Sucks to be you, I guess.” The adventurer said coldly. “So this thing about her being under the weather is true then?”
“Well, technically – that’s the story we’ve been spreading. In reality, she began constantly speaking to someone no one else could see or hear and began to get more and more pissed off all the time and eventually drove everyone out of the castle. No one but Cyan and Duke have even seen her since then, and even they haven’t gotten inside in a while.” The inquisitor whispered wistfully.
Anastacia groaned in agony. “Can’t wait to inevitably get tangled up in that shit.”
“Trust me, you’re the last person we’ll come to look help from.” Teal reassured her, but definitely didn’t sound nearly as confident in his words as he probably wanted to.
Stel had been listening to the necromancers by the door for the whole time, and the somewhat hostile yet familiar way they conversed struck her as weird. “Do you two know each other?” she asked, interrupting the two and reminding them she existed.
“NO!” Anastacia and Teal answered in unison.
“Oh shit. You’re getting in on all kinds of secrets today, aren’t you?” Anastacia suddenly realized. “It’s probably a good idea to keep your mouth shut about them, and whatever you do, don’t tell him your name or where you live.”
Teal chuckled. “Come on now, we don’t need to know those to find her if she makes the mistake of telling someone about this.” He said, suddenly changing back to a completely serious tone.
“Aaaanyway, Teal, want to come along to poke the body?” The adventurer redirected the subject to spare Stel’s nerves, since that was probably not going to be the last death threat she would be getting before the day was done. “You’re not above suspicion yet, but I didn’t exactly excel in autopsies back in the day….” Anastacia shivered at the memory of the vomit filled carcasses from what little training she had gotten in Mournvalley.
The inquisitor nodded. “I would like that, yes. As much as I want to make sure this doesn’t end in a war, I do want to know who is responsible for killing my friend.”
“You’re not going to be allowed to kill whoever that is.” Anastacia pointed out.
“I will though.” shrugged Teal while getting up.
“Agree to disagree then.” Anastacia dismissed the threat. “Besides, from where I’m looking, you seemed to be making some pretty massive leaps towards peace last night. You pull that one off, get Ou to calm their tits about culling the necromancers and then Mournvalley can marry you off to strengthen the alliance. You are the closest thing to a princess they have after all – or is Periwinkle still around? I figured Coquelicot would have eaten him by now.”
The necromancers continued bantering on their way down to the cellar Anastacia had asked Lumira to move the body to. Anastacia also decided to leave Stel to her room, as there wasn’t much she could offer when it came to opening up recently deceased people.
The cellar could be accessed though a large hatch in the corner of the kitchen, normally it was used to store the various meats and other easily spoiled foods for the grand banquets held in the lodge, which quickly made Anastacia rethink her idea of moving Nikolai’s body there as well. While not technically a problem, as the cellar was just as oversized as the lodge itself, the thought of eating something that had been stored with a corpse gave her stomach a bit of a twist – though Teal was quick to remark that it was simply another carcass among the others.
It took no more than a single glance at the linen-wrapped body after they had opened up the hatch for the adventurer to decide that she would be better off staying at the top end of the ladders while the inquisitor performed what procedures he could to see if there was anything odd about Nikolai’s death.
“Do you want the mead-knife or a regular one?” Anastacia asked and offered both her own enchanted knife as well as one of the three that came with her uniform to Teal.
“Just- just give me the regular one.” The inquisitor answered, unsure about what a ‘mead-knife’ even was.
He then descended into the cellar and started unravelling the sheets. The Vassundian commander’s wrinkled face had been frozen in a perpetual state of agony, that appeared off putting even to the inquisitor himself, who had no shortages of atrocities listed among his accomplishments; and it was either that or the respect he held for the man, that made Teal forcefully relax the muscles on Nikolai’s face and give him a more peaceful appearance.
“You know, Alice would have been great at this, if only someone hadn’t killed her.” Teal commented while rolling up his sleeves.
“You can go ahead and tell that to your boss. Just shut up and do whatever crimes against nature you think will help us.” Anastacia rebutted and laid down on the floor to stare at the ceiling.
Pushing aside Nikolai’s magnificent beard to open up the topmost button of his shirt, Teal noticed something odd peeking out from under his collar: an impossibly dark blue, almost black vein, that appeared to continue down to his back.
Curiosity got the better of the inquisitor, as he abandoned the idea of dealing with the commander’s uniform’s buttons that were maybe just a bit too tight, and simply rolled the body over and cut open the back of the shirt with the knife.
“So, Anastacia, do you know what ‘divenum’ is?” He asked and stared at the black web of veins that covered Nikolai’s back. Seemingly stemming from a single point on the back of his shoulder, the darkened pattern faded and turned blue the further away it got. Luckily, it was something Teal was familiar with.
“Is it a drink?” The adventurer guessed.
“Yes and no. It’s a very specialized poison that’s made from two components. The first one is called ‘chiroptera’, it’s actually a medicine that can be mixed to a drink to alleviate high blood pressure, but if injected, it’ll cause a mild poisoning that results in a bit of nausea and cold sweats – along with blackening of veins around the injection point. The second component is called ‘thropcillin’ and just like the first one, it has some medicinal uses in that it does wonders to alleviate hangovers when mixed in a drink. However, it’s a bit troublesome because it needs to be stored in ice or it will decay within a day.” Teal explained and felt around for a small wound in the spot the pattern had started from.
“Cool, but why are you telling me this?” Anastacia asked.
“Well, you see, there’s a curious effect that you get when a person gets injected with chiroptera and drinks thropcillin afterwards. Even in the smallest of quantities, when the two mix in one’s body, it causes all of their blood to coagulate within seconds. This mix is called divenum and results in an instant death for obvious reasons.” The inquisitor continued.
Anastacia rolled over and peeked down the hatch. “Are you saying that Nikolai was- Oh, that’s gross!” She interrupted herself upon seeing the black veins and rolled back away from the hatch.
“Yes, I think that’s the case. It’s a bit unusual but not unheard of to use divenum to kill diplomats. Because the initial chiroptera injection can be done anywhere from two weeks to a couple of hours before the poisoning, and because the people who haven’t been injected won’t be affected in any way even if you lace everything with thropcillin, it can be a nightmare to find out who did it.” Teal confirmed and rolled Nikolai’s body over again and began wrapping it up.
“Fantastic. Where does that leave us? Does any of this actually help?” Anastacia asked, trying to piece any of the clues together in her head. “I suppose it works with our reasoning about the servant. If the coffee itself was laced without any of us being affected, it could have been anyone that was able to visit the kitchen and it was just chance that she happened to be the one serving.”
“That doesn’t really help, I remember pretty much all of us coming here to request one thing or another at one point. The injection point is just as useless, the wound is so small that anyone who tapped his shoulder last night could have done it without Nikolai noticing.” The inquisitor pointed out and started climbing the ladder back to the kitchen.
Anastacia looked around the kitchen for anything that might have been useful, but the equipment for preparing coffee was are located near the door, so anyone visiting the kitchen could indeed have very easily slipped something into the sack of beans and even the kitchen staff would have been none the wiser.
Curious about the high-quality coffee she had been accused of wasting, she got up from the floor and inspected the bag. ‘100% authentic Cabian umber beans’ was written over a crest Anastacia couldn’t recognize but which had the crest of Mon Quasai as a part of it. Presumably it belonged to some Mon Quasian trading company that handled the shipments.
She opened the hefty sack to have a better look at the supposedly so special beans, but then was slightly appalled by the greenish appearance and the not at all familiar scent of the bag’s contents. “What’s this nonsense? Coffee is supposed to be brown!” She exclaimed and grabbed a handful to show them to Teal.
“How should I know? I haven’t exactly had the time to study outside world cuisine. Maybe they need to be boiled or something?” He suggested.
“Good to know someone else was just as confused with all the different foods last night.” Anastacia shrugged and put the beans in her pocket for some reason.
“You have no idea. That was the fourth one I’ve been to and I’ve only been living off peas and carrots in them.” Teal nodded. “Outside world food is a complete mess. There are sauces for everything, and every meal is insanely spicy, salty or sweet. And the spices! There are more rules about which spice goes with what than there are ways to kill a person!”
On their way back upstairs through the staircase near the kitchen, the necromancers shared their personal gripes about the complicated things they had ran into in the world outside of Mournvalley.
While Anastacia was mostly for the luxuries and plentiful distractions she had come across as an adventurer, the inquisitor viewed them as extravagant madness that was no better than the horribly unjust and lacking cast system their home country previously had.
Though he admitted that he benefitted from the affluent nature of his job as a diplomat and was often served only the best and the finest there was, it still struck the inquisitor as poor management of resources and sometimes even straight up waste. Something which was unheard of in the post-revolution Mournvalley, simply because they could not afford such misuse of materials and food.
As they were passing the other guest rooms, Anastacia suddenly stopped in her tracks and stared at the wall of carvings Stel had told her about. Engraved over each of the five scenes was a different symbol or a glyph that the adventurer didn’t even remotely recognize and most definitely hadn’t been there before.
The cuts appeared to be made with an axe or something just as hefty, but something like that would have surely caused quite a ruckus and wouldn’t have gone unnoticed by the necromancers, or the guests waiting in their rooms only a few meters away, or probably even the guild official sorting his paperwork in the third floor library.
“Stel is going to be so upset…” Anastacia muttered and ran her finger along one of the freshly made grooves.