The two Inspectors climbed a flight of stairs and walked down another poorly lit hallway in silence. Kint knocked at the crematorium door and was greeted by a slight man wearing a brown leather smock and dark leather gloves.
"Oh..." The balding man said, surprised to see them. "Are you here about the bodies?"
Kint pushed past the man, not wanting to get dragged into a conversation with the lonely coroner.
"Why else would we be here Alec?" Elsha questioned derisively, following Kint inside.
They entered into a windowless dank room. Kint could feel the noticeable difference in temperature between his left and right side. About ten paces down on the left, was a wall with two heavy square steel doors set halfway up it. The ashes of a hundred years of crimes would have gone through those doors and into the fires of cremation beyond.
He made a punctual turn to the right, where the room was much cooler. Another 15 paces in front of him was similar wall, this time with a grid of 12 cabinets with steel drawers behind them. Having spent much time in places like these, Kint knew that these cabinets would be about 8 feet deep and four feet wide. Able to contain a body of any size. He approached them, noticing that three of the cabinets on the second row, about the height of his hips, had black x's marked on them in charcoal.
"You'll be wanting the two on the left, I think." Alec chimed in as Kint paused.
The old Inpector reached out grabbed both handles at the same time and heaved them backward a few steps. The heavy cabinets rolled in their hidden tracks, a wave of cool air rushed past the three living occupants of the room. Kint took a deep breath, straightening to his full height to look down upon the two victims of their Black Sealed Missive.
"Pretty interesting isn't it." Alec began, moving around the table. Kint raised a hand sharply, stopping the man in his tracks. No doubt the bookish coroner wanted to discuss his findings, but Kint couldn't have the man tainting his own assumptions.
"No chit chat, Alec. This is important work." Elsha chided, her tone poking fun at both Kint and the Coroner. "You think we're here for a dissertation?"
The balding man backed away from Kint's side, shoulders slumped. "People come to chat sometimes." The man pouted.
Elsha gave him a pitying look, muttering "I doubt it."
Kint did not react to their conversation. He was deep into the Silent State. Staring down over the two bodies, he let his thoughts clear, raising himself up above a tarry pit of emotions and looking down upon the two victims trying to place a clear objective in mind.
As he'd awoken this morning, Kint had finally felt the storm that had gathered above his head while he'd been playing house. He knew at this point there was too much debris, too many variables to control, and the chaos was growing more violent. Like the crier had mentioned, there were forces acting around him that he did not understand. Pushing and pulling him toward unknown paths in darkness. He needed to grab hold of this momentum he was feeling and begin to steer, for he knew that if he idled he'd be wrecked again. He needed to catch his bearings.
So, in the cavernous solace of the Silent State, he searched. He saw what he needed. There would be no filter this time. He could not direct his eyes in any specific way, for he wanted it all. His questions reached too far and encompassed too much to be distilled into a single objective. He needed all the information he could gather.
With that in mind, Kint looked down upon the bodies and let the details wash over him. Confident that from those details would come insights, and from there... he could make a decision.
Inside his perch of objectivity the Inspector eyes gathered in the broad strokes of the scene. Both men were naked, which irritated Kint as their clothing would have been useful. The men were similar in many respects. Stout of build, dark of hair. Despite their similarities in features, Kint's eyes immediately jumped to the victim on the left. The body was so violently altered that it could hardly be called that anymore. The right side of the upper torso had been completely removed, from the left shoulder, all the way down to the right waist. It was essentially torn into two parts. One holding the head, half the torso and right arm. While the other carried what was left of the torso down to the legs.
The Inspectors lips curled into a slight smile as one of his theories from the crime scene was confirmed, but he pushed the emotion away to confirm another. Moving to the side of the table, Kint gently tilted the part of the body with a head to get a better look at the entry point of the wound.
Massive puncture wound... about the size of a large fist. He deduced, turning the section of body further to get a look at its back. Four deep compression points... looks like fingers... big ones... heavy bruising and four puncture wounds... from the tip of each finger? He questioned, having to crush another smirk as his second theory was confirmed. Sudden intense pressure... the hand pierced the body, grabbed around the back from the inside... and ripped the man in two... That sealed it in Kint's mind. It had to be a Life Mage using body enhancement. He didn't know any other way to achieve this kind of damage. It was hard to believe, but the Silent state reminded him of the experience he'd had with Lord Crecius. If a master wind mage could bring a whole room to stillness without any noticeable effort... he couldn't imagine what a life mage on that level could do.
The Inspector gently lowered the upper half of the body back to the table. As he did so, another detail caught his attention. He shuffled father down the steel slab, now standing over the soulless face of the bisected man. Any pride in his work stilled in his heart as he got a closer look. The man had dark hair down to his ears, his face had a squarish look to it. There was nothing distinctive about him, except for three thin lines of blood drawn across his cheek. Kint's eyes widened and a bubble of anxiety rose in that tarry pit below.
He moved back down to the rest of the body, eyes locking in on the Acolyte's forearms. There were several other scratch marks there, crossing his arms like a malformed grid.
He made quick steps to the second body. It was easy to deduce how this one died, with a divot in the side of his head going all the way to his nose. No doubt from being smashed into the corner of the Factory desk. It was the arms again, that Kint was drawn to, he grabbed the one closest to him, turning it over.
More scratches on the forearms... There was a struggle. In his Silent State, Kint's mind pieced together the data, insights forming, collating into a conclusion.
Kint put a hand to his coat pocket and froze as they felt the object inside, eyes widening further. His Anxiety had bubbled over, the churning black waters of emotion were nipping at his feet. Answers were coming to him, but he did not like where they led.
"Alec..." Kint began. "Did another body come in here about an hour before these two?"
"Yesterday? Oh yes." He replied, eager to please. "It's right next to you, right in there." Kint could not see where the man was pointing, but his eyes went immediately to the black 'x' on the third cabinet drawer.
"And was it... A child's body?" Kint asked, voice slow and tight as a knot gathered in his stomach.
"A young boy, I think?" The coroner chirped.
Kint shot a glance to his partner. Her face had darkened, shadows crawling in over the sparkle in her eyes.
"How could you have known that?" The man pondered, just happy to be part of things. "Well I guess you're an Inspector so that makes sense. But yes, a boy came in yesterday about an hour before your two Acolytes. Such a sad thing, I really--"
"Alec." Kint cut in sharply. Drawing out the silence as the man paused. "I need you to leave this room."
"What?" He questioned. "But I work he--"
"Get. Out. Now!" Kint snapped, not turning to look as the man scurried out the door, slamming it shut behind him. The turmoil of Kint's emotions were gripping at him now. He worked desperately to hold on to the clarity of the Silent State but it was like trying to control a kite in a hurricane. It felt like he was standing on the very edge of an infinite cliff and if he looked down he would fall... Into what, he did not know...
But he refused to continue in ignorance, he had to see.
He moved with purpose, coming around from the second victim and striding toward the cabinet with the third x.
"Alright Kint." Elsha started any levity having left her voice. "What's going on here? What are you doing?"
He ignored her, pausing only a moment as his hand rested on the cabinet handle before pulling out another steel slab.
As the drawer rolled back, a slender body covered in a white sheet was revealed.
His hand shook as he held to his composure like a fraying thread. He could tell it was an urchin before even lifting the sheet, the sharp features of starvation in the boys face showing clearly through the soft cloth. But still he had to see.
He pulled back the cloth to reveal the shaven head of a boy in his early teenage years. The image of his daughters smiling face came unbidden through the Silence. They must be about the same age. He grimaced. Gritting his teeth, pushing back the emotions.
Years of abuse were evident on the boys face. Broken nose, scars on the right eyebrow and left cheek. But there were more recent injuries as well. Significant bruising around both eyes. Left one's darker, more swollen, fresher. Right one has a yellow tinge, fading. Kint loosened his grip on the cabinets edge as he felt the table shaking. He could feel himself slipping back into that churning pool of wrenched anger, but he held fast to his clarity. There was more to see.
He rolled the sheet back further and froze. The bright ripples of a fresh scar were etched into the center of the boys chest. Again he was shaken as an image of Nessa crawled through his mind, except this time with a knife in her chest, as she'd been in his dreams. He closed his eyes, shaking his head once to clear it before continuing.
The scar was made up of two intersecting perpendicular lines, having a distinct thickness where the lines met. It's almost surgical. Kint postulated. He dropped the cloth he'd been holding over the boys midriff leaning over to get a better look. Except... There was something odd about it. His hand reached down to his belt pulling out his Stalwart Knife. Without thinking he put the razor sharp edge of the curved blade over the scar.
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"What are yo--" Elsha began.
The knife pierced flesh before his partner could object, splitting the mended seam of the scar. As the gleaming blade moved, Kint felt what he thought he might. There was some kind of object buried in the center of the scar. He continued his cut, ending where the first surgeon had.
"Wait Kint." She began moving toward him.
His hand delved into the wound, fingers searching through slick crimson blood for what his knife had felt. And finding.
"Kint what the fuck-- Is that?" She trailed off as Kint pulled a smooth dark crystal, like a tiny coffin, from the boys chest.
He held the crystal in front of his eyes, mesmerized as dark droplets of blood slid down the stones smooth surface. Its edges were lined with gold ridges, and even without tapping into his dowsing energy Kint could feel there was power within this stone.
"Obsidian... Forbidden" He heard his partner whisper, his eyes unfocusing from the stone to see that she was standing across from him observing the dark gem as he was. A look of astonishment on her face.
"You know what this is?" Kint asked, drawing Elsha's focus away from the object. He could see her eyes clear from their daze and a look that Kint couldn't understand replaced it.
"No..." She muttered, face firming into a sterner look. "No. I don't know what that is. I don't want to." She said, backing away. "And if you're smart, you'll take the stone and the body and throw them through that door over there before Alec get's back." She finished, pointing toward the two ashen doors to the cremation chambers.
"He died in that factory Elsha." Kint grumbled, running his thumb across the glistening surface of stone. He looked up at his partner, nodding his head toward the three bodies beside him. "I don't know who killed these man, probably some assassin like you said...but I do know, with all the salt in my blood, that those men murdered this boy." Kint said, steel sharpening his voice. "and I bet it had something to do with this stone."
"You can't know that Kint." Elsha replied, shaking her head in dismissal. An uncommon sterness in her dark eyes. "That body came in an hour before the others, and chances are it came from this district. Not some factory two squares over."
The Old inspector raised an eyebrow at her, but instead of arguing, Kint reached into his coat pocket, depositing the black stone while pulling out his tobacco tin. He opened the silver lid, and pulled the tiny fingernail from behind its cover.
"I found this in the back of a cabinet in the Factory office." Kint said, putting the tin back in his pocket. He moved over to the body pulling the boys arm free of the white curtain that covered him. "I'm guessing they shoved him in there to hide the body. From who, I don't know." Kint raised the hand so his partner could see that the nail on the smallest finger was missing. "He put up a hell of a fight..." The inspector reached down, placing the nail back where it was grown... "but ultimately, there was nothing he could do." He punctuated, throwing a discerning look at Elsha.
There was a long pause after Kint's demonstration, but ultimately Elsha broke the silence. "So what?" She responded, unmoved. "So they killed him... so what?"
Kint could feel his teeth grinding at her callous tone.
"So what?" Kint said, indignation tinging his voice. "It's a human life Elsha? A child's life... There should be consequences for taking it."
"Well they're dead. So... consequences." She quipped back, driving Kint's heat up further.
"You know what I mean." He growled.
"No, I don't think I do Kint." She shot back, eyes folding to predatory slits as her head cocked to one side. "Just the other day I killed a boy not a year older than this one... burned him alive. Sent his whole family with him." It cut at Kint's heart how little remorse was in her voice as she continued. "Should I be punished?"
"That's different..." He trailed off, some of the passion leaving his voice. "That's the Fifth."
"Really? Because I don't see it that way." She questioned, in an aggressively earnest tone. "To me, the Apostles have just as much right to Kill Civilians as we do to enforce the Fifth."
"They don't have that right." Kint growled, "No one has that right. The Fifth is different. It's necessary." Kint was sure he knew where Elsha was going with this, since it was essential an argument on religious grounds, but it still boiled his blood to hear it.
"How is it Different Kint? How?" She questioned, face a mask of disappointment and confusion. "We get our charge from the Prophet, and so do they. The only difference is, the Apostles have God's backing them up for good measure."
She was right. Kint knew she would be. And he hated her for using this argument against him. 'Divine Providence' Was a way of thinking that many Theocrats used to justify the actions of the Apostles. An argument he'd used himself many times as an Overseer.
A ringing sounded in his ears as his blood pressure rose. He stood still and took her words like hard fisted blows.
"They may not have that right explicitly Kint, but we both know that if he wanted, Crecius could kill every person in that square who heard a word of this mornings sermon." She continued, pointing up to Kelseen square above. "He probably would too, if not for the Vice Apostles visit. And who's to say he won't do it after that?" She pondered, "What's stopping him? The Prophet? The Sixth Apostle? I think not."
Her words grated at him... they mocked him... they mocked every Kadenite. They mocked the Prophet himself. Their truth was like splinters against his skin. He could feel his teeth grinding in his ears.
"I don't understand you." Kint growled, "You speak like you're not one of them. Like your father isn't one of the most powerful men in the Vorvan Territories."
"My father's power is his own... It does not extend as far as me." She replied, her own voice coming back hot as well.
"Really? because dropping his name seemed to work pretty well with those tart's on the Tube?" Kint accused.
Elsha's chin jutted out in frustration. "It's just a name, Kint... Nothing more." She said, voice growing quiet. Eyes filled with an emotion he couldn't read.
"Oh come on." Kint scoffed. "I'm still wondering why you didn't do the same to Lord Crecius. The man insulted you to your face and you couldn't even muster a response."
Elsha's lip twitched in anger, but he could see her pushing it down. "I've had my fights with Lord's, Kint... I've learned my lessons." She said, with a quiet intensity. Eyes warning him not to continue in this direction.
"Oh please." Kint spat back, ignoring her cautionary look. "You haven't even started to fight."
"Haven't started..." She breathed, exasperated. She turned away from him, shaking her head. "I'm finished Kint! I'm done." She yelled, eyes shooting back to his own with a white hot rage. "Can't you see that? I live in the servant's quarters of my fathers own house, I work in the lowliest Vorvan District there is, I serve at the behest of Kadenites!"
"You serve yourself." Kint said, derisively.
"Of course I do!" She shouted, her face full of hurt. "Because i have things to protect. And so do you!"
"That's what I'm trying to do!" He shouted back, words spilling out of him without a thought.
"How?" She asked, looking genuinely confused. "How does digging into all this stuff help?"
"They came to my house Elsha." Kint ground out, words coming as if from a furnace. "They sat by my hearth and threatened my daughter as she slept in the other room..." Kint stared fire into his partners eyes until he saw her own passion split. "I can't allow it..." He said, pausing to keep a tremble from his voice. "They have no right."
A silence settled over the two Inspectors. Kint tried to analyze the expressions of his partner, tried to understand how his words had effected her. He watched the breath unfurl from her lips as it condensed in the cold of the room. Slowly... she began to nod.
I have her...
"I was grateful to you yesterday." She began, eyes peaking up at him. "You checked me up when I almost lost myself to my own impotence, my frustration. You reminded me of what I had to lose. Now it's time for me to return the favor."
It was Kint's turn to cast his eyes down, this was not where he wanted things to go.
"You can't fight them Kint..." She entreated, eyes filled with all the dejected vulnerability of a victim. "Those threats they made... they're very real. They will follow through, they enjoy following through... There is nothing you can do. If you push forward with whatever you're planning, you'll end up just like that boy." She said, with an apologetic look. "Face it Kint, They hold all the cards..."
She was right... He knew it.
He'd known it yesterday when that terrifying Black Seal had been delivered into his hands... He'd known it last night when Sh'Gile came and had his drink. He'd even known it after the threat had come, when he'd hesitated in his commitment to protect his own daughter as he lay her to bed. So what had changed...
Blood on the floor... His wife soulless gray eyes... His daughter... Dead... by his knife...
He looked up at Elsha... They're just men... The thought came to him like a memory, heat roiling through his blood. They're all just men... Sulak... Elsha... Lord Crecious... The more time he spent around these people the harder it was to see the divinity in such twisted, vile creatures. They were all just men... sick... pitiable men. They deserved punishment like any other... more even.
"They don't hold all the cards." Kint muttered, eyes still staring at the gray stone floor.
"What?" Elsha asked, confused.
"They don't hold all the cards, Elsha..." Kint repeated, raising his head to meet her quizzical eyes. "In fact, They gave us one of theirs." Kint reached into his inside coat pocket, and pulled out the golden Sigil of house Vorva... The Black Seal.
"What is this Kint? Where is this going?" She asked, rubbing an exasperated hand against her eye. "Are you planning to kill a Lord?"
"Not Kill. I'm not an idiot." Kint snapped back.
"Then what?" She asked, growing annoyed.
"I just... I want him to feel... Uncomfortable..." He uttered, struggling to find the words to express his goal. "I want him to feel... Like I felt... Like everything he loves, all that he's worked for... is threatened."
"Kint... He'll just kill--"
"Listen..." He cut in, "Just listen." He paused waiting for her to comply.
She gave a gesture for him to continue.
"Lord Crecius already has a lot to worry about, with the Vice Apostles arrival, the Sentinel, and all that's going on in the streets up there." He started, pointing toward the Square as his partner had before. "He's already feeling uncomfortable in his position, so it wouldn't take much to make him feel truly threatened." Elsha made a facial expression that made it clear she accepted his point. He continued, "So... all I'm asking is that we draw this investigation out a little longer. Turn over a few more stones... chase a few more leads... all in the name of doing things 'The Right Way'. Just to push him that little bit farther."
Elsha squinted at him again, with those predatory eyes. He could see the gears turning in her mind as she mulled over his words.
"I know this man Kint..." She began, with a calculated look. "He'd kill us just for the hastle... He probably picked us for that very reason."
Kint nodded slowly, "Agreed." He replied confidently, drawing a quizzical cock of the head from his partner. "He picked us because we're disposable, we're unknowns on most political ladders and we both have an interest in keeping it that way. That gives him cover to kill us if he chooses, while also having a very low risk that we'd do anything too ambitious and draw attention to whatever this is." Kint pulled the small obsidian coffin from his pocket.
"It seems like he's picked the perfect pair." Elsha joked, not following where he was going.
"He has... but he's left us an opening." Kint said, raising an enticing eyebrow. "There's a needle we can thread here... A way to drag out the investigation, continue doing things 'the right way', while also making us well known enough in political circles that it'll be too embarrassing for him to get rid of us, at least in the short term."
Elsha tilted her head up, the blonde curls that framed her face bobbing, as she began to catch on to the cleverness of his plan.
"And how would we create a situation like that?" She asked, teasing out his next words.
"I'd use this." He said, shaking the golden Sigil in his hand.
"The Black Seal?" She drew out the words in confusion.
"The ability to go most anywhere, and meet with most anyone on the Lord's business." He clarified, voice taking on a prophetic tone.
"And where would you go...?" She asked, drawn in by his confident words.
"To the Arena." He answered. His passion growing as he watched his partner begin to nod, a feline smile blooming on her beautiful face, understanding overtaking her.
However, Just when he thought he'd won her over, his partners brows furrowed.
"But, Nessa?" She asked, concern in her eyes. "What's to stop him from punishing her for our actions?"
"She'll be in the Ignatium, remember?" Kint soothed, "There's no safer place for a child, right?"
Kint Arcadis watched as the puzzle pieces of his plans clicked into place. He saw her eyes widen as she realized that this was not some spur of the moment decision, but there was some method to the madness. Those beautiful dark eyes squinted at him again, but they threw a look that he could not fully grasp... concern maybe... and something else.
"You're a dangerous man, aren't you Kint?" She asked, her tone similarly ambiguous.
"Come on." He said, turning smoothly to make his way to the door. "The matches have already started. We'll have to move quickly or we might miss him."
Initially he did not hear her following, but as he reached the door, the click of her boots began trailing behind him.
He could feel his momentum building, his mind churning. He was starting to get a sense of the way things were turning around him. A secret smile split his lips as made his way into the hall.
It was time he started moving some pieces on the board.