This time Fethryth's successful at dodging around the guard and bolting down the hall.
The only thing Gemma can do is try and dispense with the guard. She can only hope that her next attack is actually worth something.
FINALLY!!!
Jesselle looks to the guard who choose to stay, "Do not open that door, please."
She than moves off down the isle towards the stairs. As it opens up before the stairs she holds she listens to the action that is happening above. She than raises her bow and notches an arrow... and waits.
Fethryth's full-on charge down the upstairs balcony and slamming into Danisca is reckless, but proves to be what the constable needed it to be. With an unceremonious plop the gnomish apothecary is bounced into the wall by the stairwell landing and falls on her bottom right in front of both Fethryth and the charred Tobias, with her husband still invisible but motionless right next to her...
It’s clear to Gemma that the shop guard is clearly unnerved by the recent turn of events, compounded by the gunshot wound and vicious slice he took in the last several seconds even as Fethryth bounded by him towards the Wareyes. Perhaps it’s the blood-rush of combat or perhaps the shame of a street tough that he should simply surrender – whatever the reason he reaches back and slams his truncheon down with all the force he can muster against Gemma’s chest, hoping to knock her right out to the ground.
C-CLANG! The wooden club hits Gemma’s steel breastplate with an audible mighty blow, with strength and skill that would have sent a street tough reeling. But Gemma is no street tough and her armor is made of good Risuri military craftsmanship, and so the club bounces aside and into the wooden wall next to them both from the force of his blow.
It’s the best he can do, and he knows he can do no better against her. With that he looks down briefly at his now dented wooden truncheon and simply casts it to the floor with a clatter, dropping down to his knees in clear surrender to the female constable. ”PEACE! No more I beg ya mum! Is whats they ordered me t’do they did! I’m a Risuri man I am, honest!”
The House Elf & Wareye Apothecary - Ground Floor
The House Elf & Wareye Apothecary - Second Floor
Emerson takes advantage of the guard’s surrender and moves past him towards Fethryth. He can see Dansica on the ground and something tells him the Blander should be right behind him. He thinks he sees movement, more of a ripple in what would otherwise be a blank wall, and decides the House Elf must be standing next to his prone bride. Hill takes aim and fires. Amazingly it appears his shot is true.
Ignoring Annecas demand that he get back down stairs, Tobias mentally blocks the pain of the burns but does take a step back. He gives a quick look to Feth, hoping she can protect him if need be and begins preparing another of his mental spells.
"Lets see if I regret this." He says with a wry smile.
In her efforts to knock the violent little apothecary to the ground, Fethryth just now notices a small prick of blood from her hand as the gnomish woman nicked her with her knife. Fethryth feels the injuries to her leg from the magician’s badgers earlier, and with her blood up now the sting of the dagger does little to dissuade her.
”Oh YES you right bastard you’ll be a REGRETTIN’ IT YOU WILL!” Once again the alchemist-apothecary then breathes fire all over Tobias like some old Risuri story about Beran dragons and Risuri knights - this time she made no motions of putting concoctions or reagents together…she just breathes fire and Tobias finds himself standing there in the midst of his casting, taking the full brunt of it across his face and hands, causing him to gag and try to shield his face…
With a self-satisfied smirk, Danisca then trusts to her blurred magics to protect her as she stands herself up from her unceremonious place on the floor from Fethryth earlier…only to find that Fethryth’s hard jab to her chest both breaches her concocted armored skin as well as her blurry form. ”UGGGTHH! she shudders out as the jab hits her hard, though the gnomish alchemist is now at least standing to move.
”BLANDER! Blander the stairs are clear and we must go…BLANDER!”
It is clear to all that Blander is still enshrouded in some magic of invisibility he used upon himself, but that he doesn’t seem to be responsive to his wife’s desperate pleas for action. Only drops of blood continue to soak into the wood in the corner of the stairwell landing where he must be, stunned by the work of Tobias Utegg’s timely spell…
The House Elf & Wareye Apothecary - Ground Floor
The House Elf & Wareye Apothecary - Second Floor
"What'd I tell you?" As Tobias starts to tumble down the stairs, Anneca leaves her post of the door and stands over him to protect him the best way she knows how - by taking the offense to the enemy. "I guess you've chosen the hard way, huh? Well, let me show you my skills!" She thrusts forward a hand full of fire, transmuting it into ice as it hits the air, and sends it in a cone up the stairway. It hits the gnomish woman head-on, scorching her skin with the terrible freezing cold. Ice crystals form on the entire staircase - but that is better than starting a fire that takes out the whole city block. She likely saves the male gnome by taking the brunt of it herself, but there's no way for her to know until he emerges from his invisibility.
Emerson steps forward to his left to get a better shot on the "House Elf". He looks at the small pool of blood forming on the floor and makes an educated guess before pulling the trigger. Another rapport is rewarded with fresh splatter of blood on the wall. Emerson wastes no time and begins to reload his spent barrel.
As Tobias goes down and she has a clear shot at the female gnome, or at least a good chance to hit her from her vantage at the bottom of the stairs, she lets her arrow fly. The shot though is not good enough and the arrow does go high to lodge itself into the wall well above the gnome.
As Annaca then dashed up the stairs to let loose her own magics she moves to Tobais' side...
Fethryth leans backwards as Anneca shoots ice up the steps, avoiding any stray shards, then twists forwards and tries to knock the gnome down again. The attack fails to connect but it does let her move to a protective position over Tobias.
As the fire hits him full in the face, Tobias frowns.
Figures.
He'd hoped Feth could interrupt any retaliatory spell casting by the small woman, but hadn't expected her to breath fire unassisted.
He doesn't have time to think on much else, except maybe to regret not using his shadow splinter to defend himself sooner.
As his body hits the stairs his mind quickly turns inward, trying to slow the bleeding and stop itself from dying.
Gemma looks at the surrendering guard then quickly at the situation at the end of the hall and back to the guard again.
She points her sabre squarely at his chest. "Do not move. If you move, I will find you."
She then moves down the hall to try and take out Danisca.
As soon as she gets within range, she levels her pepperbox at the female gnome, takes aim and shoots.
The shot is a good one and breaks through the gnome's defenses at last.
"Danisca and Blander Wareye! You are hereby formally under arrest! Lay down any weapons or magics and no further harm will come to you. Continue this fight and we will drop you both. Am I clear?"
The pitiful guard on the ground in front of Gemma nearly moans in complete compliance to her warning, with the smell of urine and spreading stain across his trousers making it clear the man has no fight at all left in him. He bows his head in shame and shakes visibly, not even thinking about trying to escape now that both constables are past him in the hallway.
It’s clear the fire-turned-frost blast from Anneca’s evocation magic took most of the fight out of Danisca, though even then with both Jesselle and Fethryh failing to breach her defenses, it might have gone on longer. Gemma’s pistol shot, however, has given her pause as to the deadly futility of her fight with the king’s agents. With a snarl Danisca breathes a final gout of fire straight up and out over the balcony railing (though close enough to Gemma for comfort), her alchemical spell finally giving out, a clear sign of surrender.
”FINE!” She seems more than defiant with her eyes looking dilated and her breathing heavy…almost as if she’s enraged like some Beran orcish berserker of old. She turns quickly though to pat around and touch where her husband must lie…and her anger turns to panicked concern. ”Blander? BLANDER! SAY SOMETHING MY LOVE!”
For his part, Blander says and does nothing but bleed for a terrible stretch of seconds, slowly becoming visible again after his wife screams his name over and over. Once finally visible it’s clear he’s nearly succumbed to the multiple gunshots of Emerson and the icy blast to his extremities from Anneca. Blander Wareye is alive and breathing, if barely so. The fact that Tobias is also near death upon the stairs is not lost upon the constables.
Downstairs, one shop guard asks calmly how he can help the constables at this point, while upstairs the other shop guard kneels by the balcony wall, surrendered, soiled and sobbing.
”Please, p-lease I have a healing potion in my pocket that I can feed him…I can keep him alive and bring him around! No tricks…just let me help him!”
Danisca’s face is no longer filled with fury and anger but fear and worry over her fallen husband. She points to the vial in her vest pocket just above her belt filled with swirling glass globes, but does not try to go for it lest she be attacked again by all the constables surrounding her.
"We'll handle it, once our own wounded is tended to." She starts to step forward to seize her, but thinks better of it. She maintains a protective stance in between Tobias and the gnome, hands at the ready to blast her again with another elemental flare. She spits out a command to Danisca. "Now up the stairs and on your knees, so we can get them both healed without worrying about what you're going to do."
Emerson deftly holsters his pistol and pulls out the RHC crafted wand of healing. He proceeds to heal himself, Tobias, and then Blander of their wounds. Once the "House Elf" is concious he asks "Anyone else need wounds attended to?"
"I could use a hit with that; damn badgers ripped my leg up. Gonna have to buy a new pair of f!@%ing pants" Fethryth grumbles. Once Tobias regains consciousness she helps him sit up. "You know Utegg, we need to look into fire proofing you. That's twice now somebody's tried burning your face off."
Even as Fethryth helps Tobias to his feet and carefully off the stairwell, the apothecary who put him there has complied with Anneca's orders, though is by no means silent. "Oh you're very generous in your use of healing magics aren't you...but it won't make a lick of difference in your guilt of lovely Nilasa's murder! What I fine bunch o' cuthroats with badges you all are!"
As Emerson heals one of the most dire pistol-shot wounds of Blander he breathes in deep and jolts back to consciousness, looking around in bewilderment at himself and the bloody hallway and stairwell. "Wha...where did we..." He then looks straightaway at Emerson and instead of thanking him he blurts out, "OH! How rude that YOU SHOT ME! Many many times! OH! Did you kill my precious crownies? I heard one scream and you...tell me you didn't kill my little poopsies!"
Meanwhile, the soiled, shot and sliced shop guard continues to moan pitifully farther down the upstairs hallway, even as he leans against the wall.
"There! are you happy now!? And no I didn't kill your badgers." Emerson all but slaps the hafling in the face with the healing wand. He then adminsters to Fethryth and heals her as well.
Rounding on Danisca, he stabs a finger in her direction. "First off. Get the wax out of your ears! We said we were investigating her murder! Whatever you three were caught up in lead directly to her demise."
He stands up straight and resumes a more mannerly poise. "Now, we want answers, and we know that you two have them. If you would like even the slightest possibility that your charges be anything less than the attempted murder of Constables in performance of their duties, I suggest you help instead of hinder."
Blander breathes a clear sigh of relief at the sparing of his pets, even as he murmurs a half-hearted thanks at another grazing wound being healed by Emerson...
...Danisca, however, seems to be the true firebrand of the couple.
"Let's see now," says Danisca with sarcasm dripping from her voice like honey as she ticks off her version of logical association with the victorious constables. "You're blaming us for how she died? That's rich! Try this on fer size you overgrown firedust smoker - you greycloaks are nothin' more than a bunch of lying dogs that get whipped to do the bidding of your murderous traitor-king. One, Nilasa was my friend, and a true aid to the cause, not just a talker and dreamer. Two, you all bow and scrape directly for Aodhan, your traitor-king! Three, your master surrendered Risur to the Danorans, especially all of us here in Flint. Four, the Danorans killed Nilasa. Five, you say you are "investigating her murder" but really you're just covering up Danor's mess at behest of your master. So lastly, that means you're part of her murder, just as if you pulled the trigger and threw her out the window yerselves!"
Seeing Emerson break out a wand of healing she seems satisfied that she would not have have to use her own arcane healings. She moves only partially up the stairs and looks to the two gnomes and shakes her head.
"Wow... now if that is not the most rounded reasoning I have ever heard. Not that you care of my opinion of course. But yes, you have proof of your last claim right... oh wait, you don't you are just making some grandiose assumptions that you claim we do to your poor folk fighting for Risur. I do that everyday, doing what I do. You want to claim that you are some higher moral ground, as the saying goes, put up or shut up! Cause I am out here fighting those that threaten us all."
She considers her next words for what they are worth and decides not for the guilt but just ask, "Believe what we say, or don't. I am out here apparently risking my life to find out who really killed Nilasa, Danoroan or not. I get what the girl was into and kind of understand why she is doing it. But I am out here doing this so that there is "not" some cover up, because I know there is something more than a mere Danoran tossing some thief out the window. Now, I would like your help, even asked nicely, and I might... and truthfully it is a big might, overlook what happened here if you wish to help us... So continue to throw insults and insinuations or help us and maybe you will help find your friend's killer?"
As the healing magic takes hold Tobias opens his eyes and groans, before nodding a thank you to Emerson while Feth helps him up.
"We're the cut throats?" He asks with a small chuckle. "No one has died here. Need I remind you, that when I came upstairs, unarmed, I had fire breathed on me, twice, and I was even stabbed."
He frowns at Danisca while pointing to the closed wound.
"We've been investigating who killed Nalissa, for what seems like far too long. We followed a smuggling lead here that we thought might help shed some light on the subject, and when we approached, you started to flee. That seems awfully suspect, doesn't it? Whoever we bow to, whoever our master is, all of us sit on the side of law and justice. And given that you know a number of specifics on the murder, you're the best bet we have to make sure justice is done. What, if anything, can we do for you to prove that we're on Nalissa's side? If there isn't anything, it looks like we'll be forced to take you in for obstruction of justice."
"It's obvious you have details of her murder that only someone who was there would know. Why don't you start with what she was there to take and what she handed to you or your agent that day. It was also obvious that the Danorans were lying to our faces when we arrived, so any details of what you think they are doing here would be helpful. We don't like the Danorans any more than you do. If we can expose what it is they are up to, maybe we can get them kicked out of Risur before the King marrys."
"What? Details of her murder? That's preposterous poppycock!" Blander seems truly offended by Emerson's notion that he is somehow complicit in Nilasa Hume's murder, and shakes his head firmly in denial. "We only learned of her murder but yesterday afternoon from The Band and other Dockers spreading the news of what the Danorans did to her! That her con of that Danoran slopface and the brigaderos we helped her prepare was known by us does not mean that we are..."
"Blandershutupnow!" interrupts Danisca sternly to her husband, adding a glowering look to him that he reveals more than he should. Her mind now works furiously, and she looks to first Jesselle and then Tobias with a raised eyebrow, appraising them like fish at the market. "There's only one alive that knows what Nilasa was truly after with the Danorans...and the likes of you will never catch her anyways. As far as my lovely Blander and me in what we're involved in, well, seems to me we're not gonna say boo until we know exactly what you're puttin' us in for, and what can be worked out."
"It's true we were carrying on the cause on her behalf after we heard of her murder, 'cause the cause is more important than just one life, as much as it hurts my heart that she was taken to the Bleak well before her time." Danisca taps her chin thoughtfully but in an exaggerated manner. "But now you've come in blundering that all up...and there's no telling now that what's supposed to go down tonight will be what it ought to be. So here's the question kingsmen - how much is it worth to ya, bein' that the sands are running out of the 'glass as it were?"
"If by 'her' you mean Gale, you should know that Nevard's arranging a meeting for us with her. Where we're actually going to work with her to solve this mess instead of trying to take her in." Fethryth points to her ears then casts a Detect Magic spell; not for the spell's purpose but for the soft glow of magic that surrounds her. "I am an elf, a Skyseer, and my magic comes from The Dreaming. If you think I'm going to roll over and let Danor take over Risur because I'm a grey cloak you are out of your mind. You can take your preconceived notions of us and shove them where the sun doesn't shine."
"Now, as for your knowledge of tonight; we would like it, it would be helpful, but you did nearly kill one of our own. Your husband though, well he didn't do too much damage. We could be quite lenient. Perhaps take him with us when we do meet Gale? Who, I think, might actually be on board with you helping us find Nilassa's murderer."
"What? You mean the old Skyseer Nevard Sechim?" Danisca snorts derisively. "Yeah, that will be the day, Risuri elf or no, that Gale will entreat with the likes of you and your lot."
"But buttercup, she says she's a Skyseer and maybe...well the Venerable Elder Sechim is up in the mountains I've heard, and maybe there's more to this than we assumed." Blander still absently cradles his arm across his chest where the greatest wounds were inflicted upon him, looking first at Fethryth and then eagerly to his wife with mollifying words, then back to Fethryth. "But I don't go anywhere without my lady love, so whatever her fate is...well mine must be too."
"Phah!" Danisca almost spits the word on the wooden floor. "Honeyed and high-minded words these lords n' ladies speakabout, but it changes nothing. What matters now is how much the meet tonight is worth to you, since you're a lookin' to spoil smugglers and get your names all front-and-center in the dailies I bet! Well, you'll never find it on your own here in Pine Island...and the sun is soon to be setting. Try to ask around, but you'll never get anyone here to rat out the smugglers or their Family patrons. So you're not throwing the book at us if you want the place of the meet with The Family's men and where they'll be a' shovin' off from to make the trade."
"And you can just forget about all that treasure from Gale," chimes in Blander matter-of-factly, "for we already made delivery on behalf of Nilasa to The Family just this morning, so it's all done-and-done now, except for tonight's meeting..."
"Blander!" Danisca interrupts him again, her eyes rolling as his glib tongue. "Let me handle this, dearie." Danisca seems calmer and shrewder now, as if letting go of some raging anger that gripped her before. "You see, we can be good little Risuri citizens, but after this our reputations are going to be ruined...and neither The Family nor Gale will take kindly to us spoiling the mincemeat pie. So what's it gonna be?"
Jesselle looks from the gnomes to her companions and back again before saying rather sternly, "My apologies, Ma'am, but I believe you are mistaking this conversation as a negotiation of sorts. You lost that chance when you both choose not simply help when asked.."
The woman gives a dramatic pause to let what she just said resonate a moment before she continues, "Not only could you and your husband be up on multiple charges of assault, attempted murder, and I am sure all sorts of conspiracy and a host of other things it would take a quick look around the premises to find, but cooperate or not you have already burned yourselves with the Family, Gale, and whatever other groups you may wish to help in the future. So you not have the choice, help or not... and we will take what you have to say into consideration on what we decide we wish to do with you."
And before Dansisca can retort Jesselle holds up a hand, and raises her voice, "Just stop! I am being polite now where I really do not have to be, be a dear and consider for one damn moment. Your friend is dead. We could have swallowed the Danoran explanation of what happened to her and went on our merry way and been done with it. But no, we choose to look deeper and see something was not right. And knowing that was not the expedite way to be done with some thief in the Danoaran Consulate, we are following that trail, and like it or not it has led to you. Now, are you going to help or be like those Danorians who consider it best to wipe their hands of Nilsaa?"
Anneca paces silently in the background, checking the windows and doors for a sudden appearance of new enemies, called to bail the gnomes out of a bad situation. She nods approvingly when Jesselle lists the crimes the pair is on the hook for. "No one cares about you two idiots. If putting you in jail for the rest of your days is what is takes to get us the information we need, that's fine - if letting you go is what it takes, that's fine too. But we had damn sure better be given some guarantees about your information. Lies will make us care, real quick, about what happens to you both. You're facing decades apart. Lie to us and we'll make it centuries - tell us the truth and you're likely to go your merry way soon."
Tobias clicks his teeth as any chance of diplomacy dies.
"Let's put this plainly you two. You either believe that we are the murdering hands that killed Nalissa, in which case you'd be better off not pissing any of us off. Or, we've proven that we are not the bloodthirsty greycloaks you assume we are and are willing to help, in which case you need to spell more plainly what you need. Because you can keep speaking in circles, but it's not doing you any favors."
Blander seems almost ashamed at Jesselle's words and ready to tell them the truth of anything they demand, but Danisca still holds out for a time as both Anneca and Tobias have their say. The couple seems almost emotionally linked somehow - as if the pair are having their own internal struggle with looks and facial appeals to each other, even as the constables press their demands to them both.
Danisca seems to finally wilt under the pressure, looking to her husband and saying sternly, "Fine, we'll give them all and just leave to chance on the rest of it...if they're not what they claim then you'll have to live your feelings for setting the both of us to rot."
"Yes dear, of course of course..." answers Blander solemnly to her, then looking to the constables arrayed before them. "Constables...I...well that is to say we are very sorry for all the damage caused. I was afraid you see of what you came to do to me - with us finding Nilasa was murdered and all just yesterday mind you - and my fear fed my wife's distrust and paranoia...and well once she took her mutagen extract to defend us both there wasn't going to be much in the way of talking...ahem...yes well I suppose we can leave off that for the time being and get to your questions now. We'll answer truthfully, and give you all you want to know, including the meeting place for Captain Feldman and his Family minders tonight and all the whats and whys and wheres of it."
"Good... good." the woman said aloud. Within though she is thanking the Gods that the couple saw some reason and came around. After all they had little left to do except arrest them.
She looks from her group and nods and then turns to the gnomes, "Let us start with, please when and where is this meeting tonight? Who are the parties involved, numbers, and any other relevant information that you know of or could consider of."
Gemma's been quietly pacing in the background, trying to recall all the information they've already gathered in order to try and formulate any questions. Really though, Jesselle has just asked most of the important ones...with the exception of one that Gemma is curious about. She's trying to let go of the ill-will she feels towards the gnomish couple, lest it cloud her judgement, but she's finding it difficult.
And after you're done with those answers, please tack on what ’The Cause’ is exactly that Miss Hume was so willing to give her life for. I'm fairly certain I already know the answer, but I'd like to hear it from you."
Her tone is certainly more measured and less cutting than Anneca's but she's not ready to be entirely nice just yet.
"We are...were...supposed to meet Captain Deorn Feldman and his crew just an hour after sunset, close to eight o' clock, for dinner. A smuggler's wharf on the western fringes of Pine Island closer to the bayou ways, owned and run by The Family. Feldman's ship is a small rundown cutter called the Silvo, which was to make the run tonight on the lowtide around eleven or so."
"The Family, you see, observe a rather Crisillyiri custom of allies coming together over dinner, no doubt in our case to 'size us up' and come to terms on the night's smuggling run and our part to play in it. Captain Feldman, his crew of seven and a handful of Family bravuras to run the deal, say around four or less. I don't think Deorn Feldman is Family in the proper sense, but like a lot of smugglers around Pine Island now, he works for them. We're not part of The Family you see...and neither was Nilasa...but The Family was willing and ready to obtain the magical weapons for Gale and our cause, provided they got a share of the weapons themselves, which was agreed upon. Nilasa was going to go with to represent Gale's interests, and we were doing so in her place. We don't know where Feldman and the Silvo was supposed to meet the other ship to trade for the weapons...but we do know it was to be around midnight and that the ship is Crisillyiri, as are the weapons."
"As far as the 'cause' goes, it's what it always has been, kingswoman. To be Risuri through-and-through, true to our roots and the Pact and all that came before which made Risur the birthplace of free folk...which means valuing our traditions and the magic that ties us to both the Waking and the Dreaming. Not this perversion of the Danorans and their Cursed ones, blighting the world with their technology and ruining our lands with filth and spoil. The Duchess understood that part at least, unlike her brother who has sold out Risur to these same Malice-Born Danorans that we've been tryin' to beat back for two centuries now! Gale understands it, which is why she's still fighting what needs to be fought, and preparing for what may come still. A few Skyseers that are left know it, even if their failing magic and lack of visions have left Risur blind to this plague upon our land! That's the cause, and we won't let Danor take it all away from us without at least a few of us fighting back for Risur."
"Before you go any further, I would like to know what was so important to steal from the Danoran consulate as well as what interests you think they might have as it pertains to ownership of transport barges in Flint."
"Barges? Huh?" The married couple looks at each other in genuine confusion, with Blander cocking his head slightly and Danisca just shaking her head and shrugging. "Kingsman, I don't rightly know what Nilasa arranged that entire ruse for to steal - she didn't tell me and I didn't ask - so I only know my part in helping her do her deed with those dirty Danorans and making good for Gale. She gave me a heap of money to craft the invisibility potions she'd need to run the ruse at the consulate, and a much smaller sum to get the ingredients for a fine batch o' fey pepper-infused brigaderos to occupy those rubes while she did the deed."
Blander nods and adds, "Whatever she was looking for was at the behest of Gale Soliogn, and Gale directly. I'm afraid you'll have to seek those answers with her if you must have them."
"Fat chance of that!" says Danisca with a haughty huff, completely unconvinced of the constables' abilities to pull anything like that off.
"Speaking of the pepper and other concoctions these Wareyes were into," pipes up the now-helpful shop guard who even now stands over his wounded and soiled counterpart, ready to keep him down if need be, "you'd best be careful if you're lookin' around her alchemy lab, as she's got caches of dreaming dust rigged above the doors in the ceiling, just in case she had to put a bugger to rest if we weren't around and she was working. Wipes and addles the mind completely it does...I'm surprised she didn't try to lure you to it..."
"Shuttup Gill!" snaps Danisca to the guard. "Oh yes, by the way, you're fired!"
"And your outta the trade by the looks of it." retorts the guard smoothly.
"Thank you Gill. After all of this is over, come see me. I'll try to help you find gainful employment that may be less dangerous than working for these two."
Emerson takes a copy of the alchemical receipt they found earlier and hands it to Blander. "I'm assuming this list has something to do with your shop. Would you be able to clarify what it means?
"Yessir," answers Gill with a knuckled salute to Emerson, clearly pleased that he picked the winning side when he still had a choice to.
As Blander takes the paper from Emerson and scans it briefly, he shakes his head and gives a clear and earnest nod to his wife. "Not me, Constable Hill, as my talents lie in the performance of professional prestidigitation. Danisca is the apothecary, and that is her script."
"Let me see that?" chimes in Danisca in an urgent tone. Once offered the same alchemical receipt to peruse, her hand starts to shake as she tries to hide flickers of emotion across her face. "It's mine...I gave this to Nilasa at the end of Spring for services rendered, as even she had to account for the expenditure of Gale's recovered treasure. It's like I told you, the ingredients for vanishing potions and the laced brigaderos..." An unconscious shedding of a tear stops Danisca Wareye short, perhaps coming to terms that her aiding of Nilasa in the ploy against the Danorans had some direct cause to her death, even if they were clearly not her murderers.
"Thank you Danisca. It just seemed like quite a bit of money for the ingredients listed, but it makes sense now." He puts the receipt back in his pocket evidently satisfied with the answer.
He furrows his brow and turns back to the two diminutive figures. 'Oh well why not? They probably have no idea but I might as well ask'
"You wouldn't know anything about a man masquereding as a policeman named Roger Porter, would you?"
The Wareyes both turn to each other inquiringly, and seem to shrug their shoulders at nearly the same time.
"No." answers Danisca glumly but without evasion.
"Should we?" says Blander inquiringly. "Why masquerade as a policeman when there's much more interesting and lucrative professions to masquerade as?"
The questioning and negotiating goes on for another quarter-hour or so with the Wareyes, until an tense agreement is reached: Blander Wareye will willingly escort the constables to the Family Wharf of the Silvo near the western bayou fringes of the district, at the appointed hour of eight o’ clock in the evening, an hour or so after sunset. As collateral to this agreement, Danisca Wareye will be a prisoner onboard the Audacious, with the constables fully deciding the extent of the Wareye’s “trouble” after the raid on Deorn Feldman and the Family associates has been concluded and evaluated. The pitiful shop guard taken down and intimidated by Gemma – named Aris Bailey – is also taken into custody, as is technically the helpful guard named Gill Gamble who continues to demonstrate compliance to the constables.
”Beggin’ yer pardon constables,” says Gill as they look to extricate themselves from the Wareye’s abode with still-wounded suspects in tow, a good hour’s walk from the Upper Bay official docks where the Audacious is currently moored, ”but if yer goin’ to make for the southern stretches of the Pine without raising a whole muss n’ fuss, I know a couple of the teamster lads a street over that run cargo to some of the main warehouses, and can get one that will hold his tongue for a time if you pay him proper. Want me to go fetch him?”
The decision is somewhat risky, given the need to raid the smuggler’s wharf without being tipped off, but what choice do they really have? So they take the chance to rely on Gill Gamble to provide them a means of egress back down to the southern main docks. Fortunately for them, the converted shop guard seemingly proves steadfast, with a covered supply wagon by a lanky teamster named Ollie Webb coming to the alleyway between the two shops, providing the means for their surreptitious exit.
”Got quite a collection now, don’t we constables?” Lieutenant Ian Smithe of the Risuri Navy, chief engineer to Captain Rutger Smith and current skipper of the Audacious, stands in the single aft below-decks section of their excise cutter, his arms crossed with a pistol now armed and holstered at his side, shaking his head back-and-forth at their group of “prisoners” to watch over: Travis Starter and Ford Sorghum from Goodson’s Estuarial Reformatory, Aris Bailey and Danisca Wareye from the shops…not to mention a seemingly compliant Gill Gamble as well as the coerced guide Blander Wareye who are not manacled and chained to the ship’s aft hold. All told, the cutter’s top crew compliment is gaged at ten, so the current group of a baker’s dozen makes for tight quarters…and makes the ship ungainly slow with all of them onboard.
Ian shakes his head again and proclaims, ”Look, if you want me to nursemaid this lot at anchor while you go out tonight I can do that, but you want me to bring the Audacious along to block off escape from the seaside while you all hit from land? I can’t man the ship and watch them at the same time…and friendly or no I’m not puttin’ my life in the hands of…him.” Ian points over at Gill, who shrugs and mutters something under his breath as the engineer continues. ”So at least get me someone who can keep an eye on the prisoners while I make sail tonight…or better yet a gaggle of soldiers that can actually fire back from the Audacious if I get fired upon.”
”Whatever you need to do here, constables, I want assurances that my Dandan will be safe and sound…and I’ll know if she isn’t!” The now-healed Blander Wareye almost seems bold in his words to the constables, until a stern look from Anneca and the others shrinks him back. "We weren't expected until after sundown, around eight o' clock or so, to have dinner and sort out our roles for the ship-to-ship exchange around midnight."
”Take me along or keep me here constables, it don’t burn my skin either way,” says Gill Gamble earnestly. ”But you’ll need a similar ruse to get up to the bayou shoals like what we did to get down here, or else any local urchin or snitch friendly to the Family will tip ‘em off long before you get there, as you don’t look like yer out for a simple stroll!”
Diplomacy is not Anneca's natural talent, by any stretch of anyone's imagination. In fact, her efforts to politely ask for help usually come off as condescending. For once, however, she manages to call in a few minor favors without pissing anyone off - a real coup for her.