Lavi nodded agreement with Triel and Cassandra, stating to the man, "Having heard you say you desired a murder and care so little about the continued life of one of your own, precautions seem sensible... " she said, arrow still notched as Lavi gripped a bit tighter, expecting to pull back at any moment.
"Life? He has no life. He is animated by my power and my will. Once his purpose is served he can be disposed of." The masked figure waved a hand. "Then let us be clear. I am responsible for the man's death, and I suppose I took the life of his friend to achieve it. I have manipulated those he cared for as well, breaking there will with magic. And I will resist any attempts to arrest me. I have no intention of harming you. So. Which of you will try to strike first." His hand went to the hole in his clothing. "Again."
Vulpina smiles. ”So, you confess to the murders of two young men. But surely there are better ways of wresting footwear from aspiring cobblers,”
"You assume the boots were the only goal. That there wasn't another reason to take his life along with his work."
"Why don't you enlighten us to the pure genius of your plans? Apparently it is quite beyond us and our simple minds."
While this discussion is on-going, Lohn speedily flies through the house, minding the servants and other potential pitfalls while remaining unseen and largely unperceived except for the slight breeze of her passing along.
Taking care to not get TOO close to the person being questioned, she looks for a good position to have elevation and angle on the target.
"No. Why don't you tell me. If you can explain why I am doing this, I will come quietly. Otherwise...I walk away, and you must stop me if you can." If the figure noticed the Pixie, it gave no sign of it.
Triel's glare doesn't waver.
"You did all this for my attention. You thought it'd make a good book."
"A partial answer. I did this to see if you can solve it. Or perhaps...stop it, since you came sooner than I expected. But the death and the item acquired do have a purpose. It is merely that my methods were meant to draw your attention." The figure paused, almost statue-like in the stillness. "It did require some small effort to make sure this case came to you."
"You wanted to lure us here to make us your sexy vampire brides!" Cassandra says in sudden realization."Well I have some bad news for you...I only serve Mistresses.
"...or maybe it has something to do with Kadle's masterpiece." Triel speaks up after Cassandra makes her wild assertion, giving her a brief deadpan look before turning her attention back to the vampire.
"I understand his masterpiece involved darkleaf and mithral for use in a pair of boots--and the piece of leather I retrieved at the crime scene had a powerful aura of conjuration magic on it. I suspect it was a remnant of teleportation magic of some sort--perhaps as a component of the boots' construction, or as a lingering sign of how your spawn was able to get close enough to him to kill him."
"Am I on the right track?"
Lavi listened, carefully watching the man as Triel gave what seemed to Lavi to be pretty sound reasoning, but this was going on a bit long for the Magus. She slowly began moving around the ballroom, wide but circling and slowly moving towards the balcony. looking around. Never was a fan of ballrooms but the decor could have sometimes be of interest...
..."...and the tragic collection of young Kadle's blood, possibly a component for magic or ritual? Nothing I'd like, I imagine..." Lavi mused as her gaze went to the vampire, her hands moving out, dislodging the arrow from her large bow. "Maybe this conversation would go better in a drawing room of sort, isn't that where mystery novels often do these things? This seems more...twee Regency drama."
The masked figure considered. "Gender is largely irrelevant. At the moment, you do not interest me."
Nodding to Triel, it replied, "Yes. The boots had the unusual ability to allow someone to pass through a barrier for a brief time. The unusual part was that it would allow anything to pass anything that would be a barrier - that is, a vampire could pass through blessed ground or across running water."
Looking down at Lavi, it added, "Proximity will not help in this discussion. If you cannot finish the conclusion, then you will need to stop me - and distance suits me with that."
Lavi chuckled, tapping her nose with her arrow hand. "Are you certain about that?" her gaze moving to his wound before continuing to look around the room. While she had little interest in clarifying if she meant the proximity helping or that distance would suit him, she was attempting to be fairly clear that she smelled the blood from him, no matter how the man acted otherwise. She continued holding the arrow and bow apart, not that it would take her long if either dropped this act. Distance suited her just fine though smacking him with her bow did sound satisfying.
"So, for clarity, you wanted Kadle specifically dead, used his friend - who you turned and he did a rather sloppy job - and loved ones to do the deed and attempt to cover it along with the bureaucratic laziness Central is well known for. Other than his life, you also had Kadle's blood and his work taken - boots that could be very useful to you. Blood can be used for a number of things, especially for one such as yourself. And then ensured Triel would work the case, the rest of us probably not important. I guess there is still the question of why his blood particularly was needed when you already have so much here..." Lavi said, with a glance to the doors to the kitchen as she considered. "And what you plan to do with the boots. Another murder, perhaps, or just a trip you've fancied?"
"His blood wasn't important. His death simply prevented more of his work existing." The figure considered. "While I did not plan for all of you, you have your roles. But murder is rarely a goal worth pursuing, and I can go nearly where I please and have almost all I desire already."
Your knowledge of magic suggests that there is a specific place that the masked figure is unable to enter, and something in that place he wants. Vampires can't easily tread on holy ground or cross water, but there are ways around both. And the places a vampire cannot or will not go can usually be accessed by minions. That would suggest the boots allow entry to somewhere exceptionally difficult to enter.
Lohn continues to hover, waiting for some sort of signal or indication that attacking should happen. They're supposed to be an investigator, not a murderer, at least for this case, and killing people and using them like clockwork is just bad for everyone.
"His blood was kinda important to him and his..." Lavi said, as she continued her meandering path through the ballroom, looking around and moving cautiously.
"Nearly and almost... With so much available to you, this must be somewhere very interesting and challengingly out of reach... that your actions may mean you might be able to reach it, but others could not as well...well, it wouldn't be the only selfish part of this."
"You make it sound like I should have a care for others. If you die now, or in twenty years, or two hundred, what difference does it make? The grandfather of the oldest mortal alive would have been an infant when I...changed. In the blink of an eye you, too, shall be dust. Your only claim of immortality will be in my memories. You should thank me for this chance."
"I'm not so confident I should - I think it would be easy to prefer to be forgotten dust than to just be what another thinks of me. Such memories are at best a pale imitation, and more usually a twisted reflection that distort further as time goes on. Some things are sweeter and more powerful in part because they last only a few moments and can never be completely recaptured, just something new each time...caring about those moments and the others who give it to us is possibly the only way to have those moments... the magus philosophized as she moved closer as she enjoyed her distracted thoughts.
"But that is getting off the topic, as you so desired and I have indulged for both our amusements. The question remains, what is still out of reach to you that you do not wish any others to obtain? -- or is that what you want us to figure out? Is that the why? I've always found actions more interesting than the whys that change and fade..."
"What are the places no being can go?" The mask paused. "Not safely. Not with a hope of return."
"The afterlife? No I think those shoes would be a little beyond our cobbler...So I will go with the heart of a volcano."
Cassandra starts to meander on the other side that Lavi...
The figure stiffened at Cassandra's words. "The first. even the heart of a volcano can be entered with the right spells. You are correct in the idea that even his shoes could not gain access to the next world. But they can help with the exit."
The figure shook it's head. "I will go with you, if you so wish."
Cassandra blink,"Um...okay...". Cassandra looks to her Mistress with a look of What do we do now?
Lavi paused in her walking and glanced back over to the others, bow still in hand. "Shall we bring him to the guards, then? I'm not sure how well they'll keep him, but at least Ms. Kelmra and the rest of Kadle's loved ones may have their wishes to have what happened to him recorded properly...too bad whatever journey they wish to take to the afterlife with his work likely won't bring the young men and their futures back."
With the creature not resisting, it was simple enough to take him back to the guard. He readily admitted his crimes before them, calmly explaining how, and why, he did this. He refuses to say several things. The first is what he is. It soon becomes worryingly clear that he is not a vampire. Although he does drink blood, apparently, it is something different to the usual vampiric ability. The thrall he created from Lekoa was made via some kind of magical ability he'd created to do the job, which was partially why he was so unstable and self-destructive. The assumption was that he wanted whoever was investigating to prepare for a vampire.
The next thing he would not reveal is his true name. It wasn't clear why he refused to do this, but the only assumption was that there was something even worse that could be linked to his true name. Something he considered serious enough to hide. Given his indifferent attitude about both the murder and his likely decades of magically enforced servitude to the city...
And finally, he refuses to explain where he hid the boots. They aren't on him, and a search of his home failed to turn up anything. Clearly whatever exactly he has planned for them will be just as achievable at some point in the job.
His assets are seized and part is used to make an initial payment to the Kelmra family, and his labour will pay them as long as they live as is the law. This means your fee is paid easily, and as many of you suspected the 'borrowed' jewellery is returned without any problems.
The case is declared officially solved and resolved as such in the city files.
Once the whole affair is resolved, Triel can't help but feel a bitter taste in her mouth.
...he'll easily outlive any punishment they give him. He'll probably be back.
And he apparently wanted me to record all of this.
She looks at the case notes in her hand as she walks into her office.
Well...
Then she sits down in her chair, opens a desk drawer, and stuffs the notes underneath a stack of folders.
...oh dear, where did they go?
She slams the drawer shut and snorts. "It wouldn't make for a good story anyway."
Lady Vulpina looks somewhat irritated as the Prismatic Investigators make their way out of the district, the case closed with an ill-fitting lid.
”One cannot help but feel that we should have ended it there instead. I do wonder what will become of his service staff—if they can indeed recover at all.”
Once the affairs of the day are concluded, she (and Cassandra, likely) make their way back to her residence. Walking into the door the vishkanya opens for her, she ponders.
”Tea in the study in fifteen minutes, please, Cassandra? I’ve a book I have been meaning to give another read about potential improvements to the black powder mixture.”
Cassandra enters the study in about 20 minutes with the tea...she dressed in sexy lingerie and high heel boots. She works seductively across the room to the desk and ask in a very sultry voice...
"Is there anything else Mistress?"
Vulpina, lounging cross-legged in a good armchair with a book propped up in her lap, reaches for her cup without looking up. "Thank you, Cassandra."
She takes a few sips, offering a small, pleased smile. "Excellent as always. Marius Verne posits that a pinch of ground arcstone in the powder would have interesting effects. Just the sort of ingenuity I'd expect from a gnome, though the associated costs and potential risk if it's poorly used could result in some adverse effects I'm not entirely ready to subject myself to..." mutters Vulpina, clearly rather intent on her book.
Cassandra briefly thinks...I wonder if there is magical club you can beat someone about the head with to give them a clue...
She clear her thoughts and says"Mistress I think we need to have a talk about our relationship.
Vulpina's eyebrows raise, and she offers a single finger in a universal gesture to give her one moment. Finishing the paragraph she's on, she marks the page and closes the book.
"If you feel we need to talk, then we certainly do. Please feel free to put the tray on the table," she instructs, setting the book upon the small table beside her.
She folds her hands and rests them on her knee, affixing Cassandra with an obliging expression.
"I think there has been a misunderstanding here. Probably my fault...I kinda heard rumors about you from other servants back I and my former Mistress visited your home city." She clears her throat anyway...
"Anyway I thought our relationship...the relationship I need...would be more intimate. I kinda need to be subservient to someone including...um sexually in nature. Why do you think I am dressed this way?"
The lady considers for a moment as wheels turn. There is a silence for a few moments, then:
"Ah."
She considers a moment, then; "I of course have no objection to the way you choose to dress; how you present yourself is, after all, a matter of personal choice. However, I do not wish to mislead you; the relationship you are looking for is not possible with me."
"I do not wish to keep you from following your desires, of course. If you would prefer to terminate our contract, you may; that said, I have no wish for you to leave my service, either, and it is of course more efficient for me to keep you than to go through the process of finding a new maid-- unless I were to borrow Miss Wulfdottir, which would be fortuitously timed but of course (as you know) buying out another person's help is frowned upon."
"Your thoughts, then?"
Once Triel has stowed her case notes away, a thought occurs to her. When was the last time I had dinner? For that matter, when has the rest of the crew?
We ought to have a nice dinner.
...and now I wish I knew the Sending spell.
She goes around the office first, looking for Lavi and Lohn.
"You know, it's been a month or two since I went out for a nice dinner. Would either of you like to come along? There should be a nice place off the Markets... what was it called? The Safest Clutch?"
Cassandra pauses a moment to consider,"I don't think so...between the working at the detective agency and seeking a Mistress...I would not have time. Besides without the extra you would not be able to afford me."
"No hard feeling...as I said it is my fault. I will go and pack my things."
Feeling rather disappointed that neither of them had replied to her (they must both be in bed--well, it WAS a rather harrowing day), Triel opts to walk by Lady Vulpina's manor.
I've got time. And maybe they'll be more interested in an evening out anyway.
When she reaches the manor's doors, she knocks and waits for someone to answer.
...as Triel gets ready to knock on the door, a red slip of paper falls out of the sky in front of her, with some tiny writing on it.
Triel reads the note that flutters down into her hand and smiles.
Good to hear.
She knocks on the door again.
Vulpina would sigh, if that were not improper. Truth is, she appreciates Cassandra, and having her closeby and loyal is essential, given her knowledge of Vulpina’s identity.
Still, she finds herself having little interest in the... baudier things in life. Faking it for Cassandra’s sake would be...
Well, it would be one more thing to fake, but Cassandra does not deserve to be lied to.
”Very well. I would be happy to put in a good word for you, of course, if you would like me to write a letter. You are welcome to stay here, until you—“
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.
”A visitor? Miss Cassandra, if you would do me the honor of answering one last door for me?”
"Of course Lady Vulpina." she gets up,"If you want I can find a girl than can replace me. I still have some contacts at the Academy."
Cassandra will than answer the door, "Greetings Ms. Triel...is there another mystery?"
”Miss Cassandra.” Triel nods. ”Is Lady Vulpina in? I was hoping that the two of you would join Lohn and I for dinner. There was that establishment off the Markets called the Safest Clutch—I thought it would be a nice place to visit.”
"That sounds o8ke a lovely idea...let's go ask her. She pauses,"Though I did just leave the Lady Vulpona's employ...So it might be a little awkward,"
"Oh. That's, well..." Triel starts as she steps through the doorway. "...not something I expected to hear."
"Your employment was terminated on good terms, I hope?"
"Yes...it was a misunderstanding of what we both wanted out of the relationship. It happens." Cassandra says as she gracefully leads you the Study.,,not showing in care that she is half naked.
...hmm. Interesting. I wondered what the skimpy uniform was for. Triel gives Cassandra's uniform a brief once-over as she's led into the study.
Nice legs.
"Lady Vulpina? I was just speaking with Miss Cassandra, and I wanted to know if you'd like to join us for dinner at the Safest Clutch." The drow says as she's led into the study.
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Vulpina looks up from her book with a smile. ”Ah, Miss Triel!” she exclaims, setting her book aside. ”Miss Cassandra had just made tea, if you’re here to visit.”
"Lady Vulpina? I was just speaking with Miss Cassandra, and I wanted to know if you'd like to join us for dinner at the Safest Clutch."
”Ah, dinner? Well, I suppose it’s simpler than trying to acquaint myself with the kitchen tonight. ...Miss Cassandra has informed you of the news, yes?” For a brief moment, she ponders offering Triel a job.
No, no, then her writing would slow down, and I’d have to settle for Hutherford’s predictable plotlines.
"Tea would be lovely, thank you." Triel settles into a chair and takes a cup for herself.
”Ah, dinner? Well, I suppose it’s simpler than trying to acquaint myself with the kitchen tonight. ...Miss Cassandra has informed you of the news, yes?”
"That she is no longer in your employ? Yes, she has informed me of such." Triel takes a sip of her tea, politely declining any offers to add sugar or cream to it.
"She did mention that there was a bit of a misunderstanding between you two."
"If you two don't mind I am thinking I am going to change into something else." She turns to go but stops and asks,"You meant going to dinner tonight correct?"
"Yes, Miss Cassandra." Triel nods.
Vulpina smiles. ”Of course.” She takes a sip of tea, then sighs. She seems to consider saying something, then settles against it.