[IC] When the Flames Die

[DrowsyPangolin]

Eva smiled. "My apologies." The lady-in-waiting smiled an gave a nod as she spoke. Sophia grinned at Noah's excitement. "Yes, I am the youngest daughter of Empress Angelica Octavia of Lyok." She was still surprised to stumble upon royalty in such a way. She smiled at the young man. "And it's a pleasure to meet you, Prince Noah." The princess picked up a small loaf of bread and began nibbling at it. She looked around. For the moment things seemed almost peaceful. It reminded her of her a bit of when they arrived at the capital. She had expected things to go well then. It was a shame things rarely went the way one planned. "So tell me, Noah, what is Cressen like?" She was curious about the nation.

Jezin stood in disbelief for a moment. They were just letting them leave. Jorun and Alia left shortly after hearing the news, but Jezin stayed behind for a moment. He wasn't sure what to say. He appreciated the gesture, but he had also seen what Thomas was capable of. The man was an enigma. The bodyguard looked Thomas in the eyes questioningly. "I appreciate that. But tell me, why arrest us at all?" They hadn't been questioned. It was as if Thomas had locked them away specifically so he could speak with Sophia alone. Jezin didn't comment on the four Order knights that would be guarding Sophia. He wasn't particularly fond of the fact, but there was nothing inherently wrong with it.

[Sightles]

Thomas smirked at Jezin's question, "I already told you why I was arresting you, Jezin." Thomas replied, as he shook his head. Even now, in his new freedom, Jezin had to question Thomas' motives as if Thomas was constantly manipulating his surroundings, "Princess Sophia proved to me the innocence of your involvement. I didn't need to question you. It would of been redundant, and with you leaving the capital tomorrow, there would be no reason to attempt to investigate further." Thomas explained, as he pushed the metal door to the halls wide open, "Go back to Sophia, I'm sure she's missing you." Thomas stated, as he went out into the hall, waiting for Jezin to exit as well.

[DrowsyPangolin]

Jezin smirked. It seemed Sophia had known exactly what to say. Maybe all that court training had paid off. "Right, then. I expect my weapons will be returned before we leave. Goodbye, Thomas." He turned and walked out the door, waving back to Thomas. He quietly hoped it'd be the last time he'd see the man. They'd leave tomorrow, return to Lyok, and forget any of this had ever happened. He smiled to himself. He'd had enough of Keilaudrin already. He rounded the corner, heading towards the Great Hall. He was unsure of where Alia and Jorun had gone, though he expected they had retired to the room. He lightly massaged his wrist. A red line circled it where the manacles had been attached. Free again.

[Sightles]

Thomas smiled as Jezin made his exit, and allowed the man to get out of eyesight, before stepping back into the long dark hallway, and locked the door behind himself. He then walked the length of the hall, before arriving at Feril's cell. Thomas produced the key, and unlocked the door, and stepped into the cell, shutting the door behind himself. He looked at Feril, and took a good once over of the entire cell, "These cells are never the funnest things. I had to spend a whole night in one. Dark and damning things." Thomas said, making conversation with Feril. He deplored the cells perhaps more than any other man in the Order of the Thistle, perhaps because he was the only one to have suffered them.

[Epsir]

The slumbering courier awoke with a start as the heavy door swung open, falling backwards and scrambling to catch herself with both hands. It left her looking up at the man who had just entered. Slowly her, eyes focused and the nonsensical blur of gray came together to form the semi-familiar visage of Thomas. She smiled weakly as he shared his little anecdote, "Y-yeah," she replied, equal parts groggy and unsure how to reply to the man. Pushing off of her hands, she sat back up and continued to watch Thomas with a guarded, distrusting squint. She waited for the questioning to begin. There was no other reason for the man to be back. The questioning itself wasn't what bothered her, she knew all the answers and could figure the questions they'd have for a messenger. The problem was what followed the questioning, because few were looking out for the rights of a foreign messenger and badge of honor or not she still very much relished the thought of leaving the country in a timely manner.

[Sightles]

Thomas smiled as Feril was practically exuding nervousness, "I'm going to go ahead and get the questioning out of the way, so that you can be on your way, Feril." Thomas said, as he leaned up against the closed door, "It's okay if I call you Feril, right?" Thomas asked, looking over the girl. He had no searched her for weapons, but he doubted she carried anything above a dagger, or the such, "I need to know who gave you your package, when they gave it to you, where you came from, and who you are working with." Thomas said, simply, all politeness now gone, replaced by a blanked face, and cold voiced Thomas. He knew the questioning would likely go easier with Feril than it had with Lexine. Lexine had obviously received some sort of military training, whereas Feril had not. Although, Thomas had had civilians put up formidable resistance before.

[Epsir]

"The package was unmarked and only the secretary at the recipient office would be able to identify the sender. Uh..." Her mind blanked, the answers had been so easy to call up before she was actually being questioned. Feril twisted in her seat for a moment, nervously attempting to recall what she knew. "It was a proxy to us, the recipient office was in Lachne. It came out of the country a few days ago to the office I work at it in Tona... that's in Kastovetia," she recollected, unsure how far the knight expected her to go. "I'm from North Suveia, though," She added quickly, turning her head a bit it in acknowledgement of the light red shade of her hair. "And, I work with Sharpe and Millsworth's Courier Company, they try not to let the field hands like me know too much about what we're sending. It's respectful, I guess," She didn't sound so convinced herself, but she felt the need to defend her company's practices, as if that would help her in her current predicament.

[Sightles]

"I suppose there is a receipt of sorts that you carried along with you, correct?" Thomas asked, as he leaned forward from his rest on the wall, "One that identifies the recipient office in Lachne, and how much was paid to your bosses company?" Thomas added. If a receipt was present on Feril, this would make Thomas' job easier by quite a bit, The receipt would also possess the name of the person who wished the package to travel to Mullen, "I'm also going to need to ask you empty all your pockets, take off your shoes, empty your jacket, and any other places you might be able to hide an item." Thomas ordered, as he waited for Feril to begin. He was not about to make a woman strip to her undergarments, because he was too forgetful to search her, but he was prepared to take it that way if he thought she was trying to hide any item on her person.

[Epsir]

"No, the incoming parcels ledger is in Tona. The letter didn't even have a name on it, I wanted to see if the postmaster here had received any notice on it. There was a stipend handed in with the letter for swift delivery, and the only instructions on record, which is the part that I'm given, were to make sure the package made it to Mullen in time for the coronation." She hated to give that answer, but it was the only truth. No doubt, without a receipt they'd be a little frustrated but that was where she had been trying to deliver a cryptic letter. Her only hope had been the postmaster how simply seemed to not exist at this point. She sighed as Thomas issued his next order, and stood up to comply. She emptied the pockets on her lightly colored pants, two horse biscuits and a handful of coins that she left on the floor in exchange for her jacket, which she ran through the pockets one at a time. Nothing but gritty traces of black-red powder in one pocket. The jacket returned to the ground, and she pulled off her boots one at a time, wobbling as she kept balance. Both were empty. Feril stood by frowning and waiting to hear where exactly this new line of thought was going.

---

Things were slowing to a simmer, finally. A quick walk back to his study had left him some time to ponder, even more, what was next. Most of all, he needed to find Thomas at some point and get a handle on what exactly the Order was doing in all of this mess. It would have looked out of character to anyone who knew him but he even indulged himself in some petulance. This was supposed to be his work, and then everything simply went wrong. Perhaps... the best course of action was to simply keep going as if nothing had happened. He returned to the great hall, finding that lunch had began for the day. The Lyoki congregation had found the new arrival and Gareth had returned. With a smile, he strode forward towards the youth, figuring he'd meet with the loner first. "Mister Harker," the regent called out, wondering if he'd even be remembered from the brief meeting they had. Holding the reins on the guard meant hearing and knowing far too much and even he sometimes got his information lines crossed. "Might I bother you a moment?"

[ravenDivinity]

Hearing his name called, Gareth swallowed the last bits of food down his throat, and he turned his attention in the direction of the voice, his eyes spotting a tall brunet approaching the table. "Oh, yes, hello!" Harker rushed a greeting, and immediately he began to try and fetch the name of the man from the top of his head. Thank goodness he hadn't forgotten yet. "Yes, you may. What say you, Mister Canti?" Out of the corner of his eye he caught a glance of Sophia and a new arrival talking, but quickly he looked up again to Wallace's face which appeared as though important business was afoot.

[MicahTheRogue]

"Wow, an Empress." Noah remarked at Sophia mention of her mother. Noah's father had told him stories of faraway empires, and wondered if Lyok one of the empires his father had talked about. Noah was brought out of his excitement by Sophia's next question, which brought another smile to Noah. "It's in the far North of Estovet. We cover most of the frozen lands." Noah replied, realizing that there wasn't a lot about Cressen to describe to people. "There's always at least 2 feet of snow year-round, and during the summer the sun stays up for 3 months in a row." Noah figured that at least this information would be enough to impress the youngest daughter of an Empress, at least he hoped. "All we have is snow, and huge fortresses. What about you, Sophia? What is it like in Lyok?" Noah was eager to hear about the place. If the empires of faraway were anything like his dad told him, they had magnificent buildings, huge armies, and harvests that feed the entire nation for a year.

[Epsir]

"I say that my hours as a regent are few, and before the veil of obscurity is thrown over this whole sordid affair by the Thistle Knights, I want to give the people the truth behind what happened here." Wallace said, stopping to smirk at the melodrama of it all before taking a seat at the table. His demeanor relaxed as he was seated, and as he moved to the actual topic at hand the man rested folded hands on the table. "I hear a lot of things about people, but more often than not rumors are just that. As I said last night, for what little any of us have, you likely know the most about what they were up to. I mean, of course, being one of the few in proximity to Karl Leid." That wasn't entirely what he was concerned with, Gareth had also seen both him and Leid speak to Lexine. "I will warn you right now to be cautious of people and groups suddenly taking interest in you, and with that said," He chuckled, "I have taken interest in you. I fear I won't be questioning you about Karl as I said, instead I would like to ask your help. With the guard mobilized to keep the city in standstill, among other things, I'm short of hands with the minds to find answers."

[ravenDivinity]

Gareth felt the heat rising to his face again as a new proposition dawned on him. First Walden, and second Wallace, and nay, the half-elf was not mad, for the requests flattered him—they would earn him a degree of influence and trust within the castle, and on top of that they outright complimented his character with pleas of honesty and observance. Surely Wallace, too, sought to take advantage of the innocence and nonalignment of Gareth. He relaxed his shoulders as his mood calmed the furthest it could given recent occurrences, and his mid-tone, smooth voice attempted to enunciate a clear response, however incapable he was of avoiding speech particles. "Ah, well," he gave a small chortle as he came to the realization that Wallace sought out Gareth's eagle eyes to collect information. "By all means, please proceed, and do, um, indulge me with whatever request you have, sir."

[Sightles]

Thomas smiled as Feril revealed she was hiding nothing, "Very well, Feril. Thank you for your cooperation." Thomas said, as he turned and opened the door to the prison hallway. Thomas looked back at Feril before he exited, "We'll have to hold you here for a bit longer, before releasing you." Thomas said, now stepping into the hallway, locking the door behind him. It wasn't that he didn't believe Feril, but Thomas wanted to see who would miss Feril if she spent a few days locked up. She might not be willingly working with anyone, for now, but there would no doubt be someone attempting to use her. And if Thomas was wrong, she was just a courier.

[Epsir]

Wallace nodded slowly, acknowledging the need to cut to the chase. "I'd like you to act as an investigator, of sorts. There's been plenty of talk about this investigation and I'm sure you've heard plenty of speculation about what really happened last night, but there's been painfully little done by both the order and the government proper to search for any sort of tangible fact. It's no secret to anyone trying to do us harm, these aristocrats do things... the old way." He could only imagine the expressions the rest of the council would be wearing when this particular news got back to them. He sat back a little, crossing his arms and looking slowly around the room. Uncertainty dashed him, he didn't know if he should be feeling worried or relieved and the sensation was utterly nostalgic. The trenches, the sort where it was more dangerous to get lost on the trail than climb out and get away from the fighting. Whether he enjoyed it or not, it was unavoidable, some of his most valuable staff had been lost. "But I'm not sending anyone on a snipe hunt through Mullen... yet, maybe we will need to start in the streets at some point, but for now my concern is the palace. Lexine's death meant nothing, because even after she was dead, someone had Redwyne Cole assassinated, and in no simple way. The ideological gap between dropping a random guest off of the roof, and getting a serpent through palace mail is suspicious to me. What do you make of that?"

---

"Wait, what?" Feril said, voice rising with surprise and the very beginnings of despair. She said it to the door, however, because before she could act Thomas was gone. The courier took a step towards the door, hand outstretched in a desperate bid that came far too late to prevent its closing. Even long after Thomas had departed she could still hear the metallic clank of its locking mechanism turning closed, repeating and repeating. Now, it was nothing but gray walls for however long, not even a promise of the length of her detainment had been given. She'd been right the entire time to suspect them, because they'd gone and done it. Before the grief could set in, she was angry. Feril kicked one of her boots across the room, it was the only outlet she had inside her new little box of a home. Unsatisfied and powerless to change that, she retired back to sitting on her jacket with only an exasperated sigh. Hating them for doing their job would be wrong, that was the same logic that she and all messengers rode through life under the shelter of, but she was close.

[ravenDivinity]

Harker nodded as if he accepted the job. An investigation was in order; he'd be a detective and a spy of sorts, and a squire, all at once. His face went gaunt at the mentioned killings of people whom he met personally, people who died within a short time of his meeting them. "The first was..." He recalled that night, when the corpse of Karl Leid fell from the roof of the Tower and when the castle broke into chaos for a good few hours and then died into utter nothingness and Sophia's drunken musings and jolly Walden's mood that took weights off their shoulders. "Um, it seems the first was a scare tactic." No doubt in his mind, he knew that was true. Karl Leid had nothing to do with the inner workings of Keilaudrin's court by then, and it seems there was no motivation to kill him other than to strike fear in the people due to the publicity of his death. Sir Redwyne died in private, in front of Gareth, who spent Redwyne's last moments trying to keep him alive, who still did so even afterwards. He stared at the table. "The second... was truly purposeful." Harker rubbed his eyes as if he expected himself to cry, but the time for tears already passed and while he harbored a deep sadness, no longer could it manifest physically. "But who would do such a thing?" He avoided Thomas, who'd be first suspect due to his being named successor. After Thomas, it could be any nameless face. He scolded himself for putting Thomas at the top of the list. He didn't like his acting commander, but for the investigation he had to set aside his personal feelings. Anyone who wanted Keilaudrin to be weak would do such a thing given the opportunity. But it was nobody from Lyok, no, Gareth ruled that out as a red herring. Who else? "Maybe someone who gave Sir Walden the package, or whoever else had anything to do with it..."

[Epsir]

"Few would seek Redwyne's death. He was an honorable, predictable man." Even Wallace himself hadn't bothered to consider the man. He was well respected, enough to make the man nearly untouchable, and bar his devotion to protecting the king utterly uninvolved in the political quagmire of the court. The court itself was suspect, half of them had opposed the naming of the new king and only been silenced, perhaps not converted. The difference between him and them, however, was knowing the truth and wanting rid of it. "By the time the news broke of Lexine's death, Redwyne was already dead, which rules out the possibility of it being a retaliation. The discreteness of Redwyne's assassination also separates it from the publicity stunt that was Karl Leid's death." He stopped a moment to gather his words, and discern what to divulge. "I hesitate to call them unrelated, but I see two distinct plans at work here, one of them most certainly internal to this palace." As he spoke, the scanning of his eyes stopped and instead his eyes snapped over to and settled upon Gareth. "More than any Arcarti plot, or what have you, the people here are what make me worry. There are only a few people with enough power in this capital to simply snap their fingers and make Redwyne Cole die. You've probably met half the list in your time at the palace. You're correct, however. After Sir Thomas' outburst the only real evidence we have left is the lethal parcel itself. The postmaster of the Order would have handled it, which is precisely why I know nothing about the affair other than that Cole is dead."

[ravenDivinity]

Gareth hearkened to Wallace's words without interruption, and critically he considered Wallace's insight. It wasn't true—Gareth hadn't met many people at all during his time at the castle; however, still he did make note of the court. No questions presented themselves in the way of the court's innocence in Redwyne's death, a death which proved particularly crippling and threatening to the king. Someone wanted to overthrow the king, and Redwyne's absence lost the Order some important brainpower and honorable character that would've made solving these issues much easier. The nature of many members of the court was abhorrent, and Harker tried to avoid trusting too many of them fully. He'd keep his eye on them. The postmaster. No other person could give such an item clearance—he received all packages coming through, and he was likely whom Walden obtained the snake from. "Then where is he? Has he been, um, looked at?" asked Gareth with a quizzical, pouting look on his face pointed at Wallace.

[Epsir]

Wallace shrugged at Gareth's question, but knew better than to leave his explanation at that. "No, the Order tends to keep their distance from people like me. As the lauded heroes and thwarters of many assassination plots, they are afforded certain respect and I'm sure their integrity is part of their success. I'm sure you've been made familiar with how they handle investigations of the Order themselves. That said, to my memory one Sir Jason Hoyt is the current postmaster. Finding him would be a start." The look he'd been reminded him of a man best identified by a pout face. The red headed blue tie was still out there somewhere, probably doing what he'd been told to do. It was ironic that the Order was proving more of a worry than any of the usual suspects. There would still be the public response once the news of the Billfold spread, he himself had partially seen to that by bringing it up as evidence. He was getting distracted again. "Shall we?" He asked, standing away from the table. Secrecy or no they chose to make their home the Tower of the Thistle, with any luck it was as simple as a visit from the regent. Whether or not the man had handled the parcel would make much more clear about the nature of their killer.

[DrowsyPangolin]

Sophia listened intently as Noah described his home. A look of curiosity crossed her face when Noah mentioned how deep the snow could get. With Lyok's mostly warm climate, she had never really gotten a chance to see snow herself. Even when she visited other countries, the Lyoki had a tendency to make their travels during the summer. They were unaccustomed to the cold. She smile and nodded her head, still nibbling at the loaf of bread. "That sounds beautiful. I'm afraid I've never seen the snow myself." She turned her attention to Noah's question. "Lyok is quite large. I am from the capital, Veranthium, which is surrounded mostly by desert, but the landscape can get quite different depending on where you go. There are rocky hills and mountains to the North, and dense rainforests to the South. It's quite diverse." She smiled. The princess had always been proud of her home. "We trade spices, metals, and gemstones around the world, that's where most of the Empire's money comes from." She tried to think of other things to say without sounding scatterbrained. "Lots of people also visit for the architecture. The Palace in Veranthium is beautiful, and the Ivory Tower is a marvel. They say it's one of the tallest towers in the world. If you ever visit, the Temple of the Snake is also quite a sight." She smiled. "But I digress. What brings you to Mullen, Prince Noah?"