kapuchu
DnafeinRen, Aleksandra, and Lily made their way back to the House without further incident, alerting Deveric of the situation as Adam had requested and leaving the cleanup in his capable hands. Doctors whisked Lily away to the privacy of her chambers and Aleksandra vanished to her own leaving Ren to wait and worry. After making sure Lily and Aleksandra had everything they needed, and Lucie and Adam's rooms were ready for their return, he decided to look through some of the missives that had piled up on Adam's desk. He was only away one day and already there were 5 different messages that had piled up for Adam to handle.
****
Deveric and the few members of House Ianus that he had handpicked surveyed the clearing in the light of their lanterns. It was a disaster, and would take some serious work to straighten out. His talent was as an empath; he could sense strong emotions in people if he tried. It meant he studied psychology because though he could often sense emotions the why of these emotions often puzzled him. Adam had asked him to lead the clean up crew because he had an instinctual grasp for what people were likely to think when confronted with certain sights. It wasn't completely accurate but it was a heap sight better than just guessing at random.
He picked out the things they should remove, what they should cover up, what should be burnt, and what could be scattered under the debris and forgotten. Once he had compiled the list in his head he and the others set to work with a vengeance. The hardest part was getting the monster “corpse” back to the lab but Deveric couldn't think of anything else safe to do with it. Eventually he and the others disassembled it into quarters, wrapped them in burlap so it wasn't such a gory sight, and loaded them onto horses for the return to the House Ianus labs.
****
Adam was shivering despite warmth of the cloak he acquired from Isabeau's manor. He was badly hurt, more so than he let on, and badly stressed. On top of that recovering from whatever Isabeau had done to his Talent had taken a psychical toll on him. Things felt sort of itchy in his brain, something he knew would go away with rest but the trick was lasting until then. The site of House Ianus was a welcome relief and as they rode up to the main entrance House servants were waiting as was Ren.
Servants quickly helped Adam and Lucie down and a hostler whisked the horse off to the stables. Adam pondered asking someone to return it but really what good would that do. There was no one there to tend it. He wondered if the ones still remaining in Isabeau's stables would survive till someone found them. Belatedly he wished he had take the time to fill water and hay troughs.
Ren waited until the other servants had disappeared about their duties and then drew close to Adam and Lucie.
“The site has been cleaned up. Nothing remains except an old mostly rotten mill. Miss Lily has been tended and left to sleep until she is done sleeping; I've made sure no one will bother her unless she requests it. Aleksandra has also been provided with everything she felt she needed to help her recover and the servants have orders to leave her alone unless she requests assistance. All that we acquired from the woods has been carefully stored in some of the older tunnels until further determinations can be made. Miss Lucie, breakfast and a hot bath stand waiting in your quarters, should you require anything else at this moment please let me know.”
“Master Adam I have your quarters ready; coffee and croissants await you there. Along with several new issues requiring your immediate attention.”
Adam was walking into the House only half listening. He came to a slow halt at his words. He was exhausted, he didn't want to deal with anything petty or the slightest bit unimportant right now.
“How immediate?”
Ren looked apologetic, even winced when he answered. “Two of them are very immediate.”
Adam grimly nodded. “Send a doctor, a large basin of the hottest water you can, whiskey, and bandages up to my office. I'll try and tackle those issues immediately then. Please make sure all that we brought with us from Isabeau's is stored with the rest of the remains of our adventure. It can be dealt with later.”
He handed his bundle of notes and records to Ren, excused himself to Lucie, and headed to his office. Ren had a knack for knowing what was truly an emergency, if he said some things needed to be dealt with then some things needed to be dealt with. But he was coming to realize he couldn't tackle all this alone. Perhaps it was time to find a new manservant and put Ren to work handling some of the lesser problems. It was something to think on anyway.
Adam had soaked his feet for over an hour to get them cleaned out so they could be bandaged. Ren had been right. The issues had needed immediate attention. One was simple enough, one of the societies members was going about murdering members of the local clergy. That couldn't be tolerated; it violated everything the society stood for and put it in danger to boot. He could find someone to handle that issue easily enough. But the other was another damn mystery and one that threatened the safety of the House itself. He would have to look into that more directly. He didn't believe in coincidences and this had three doozies of a coincidence. First though he had to get some rest.
****
Adam awoke pre-dawn two days later feeling reinvigorated and refreshed. His body still hurt and his wounds were still healing but his mind had cleared and he had energy flowing once more. He summoned Ren immediately.
The manservant answered quickly and Adam told him his plan, both for Ren to find him a suitable valet so Ren could handle lesser issues within the society and his plan to, hopefully, establish an exclusive group of the society members as discrete, paid, private inquiry agents to handle issues of psychical trouble in the future.
He would call Lily, Aleksandra, and Lucie to a breakfast meeting this morning and see if they would be interested; he would prefer to begin this endeavor with people trusted and he knew could face down even ungodly horrors and still manage to accomplish the goal.
Later that morning as he waited for them in his private study, he wanted no interruptions, he wondered if they would accept. This business of running and protecting the Society was only growing more difficult with time. He needed reliable help.
****
Deveric and the few members of House Ianus that he had handpicked surveyed the clearing in the light of their lanterns. It was a disaster, and would take some serious work to straighten out. His talent was as an empath; he could sense strong emotions in people if he tried. It meant he studied psychology because though he could often sense emotions the why of these emotions often puzzled him. Adam had asked him to lead the clean up crew because he had an instinctual grasp for what people were likely to think when confronted with certain sights. It wasn't completely accurate but it was a heap sight better than just guessing at random.
He picked out the things they should remove, what they should cover up, what should be burnt, and what could be scattered under the debris and forgotten. Once he had compiled the list in his head he and the others set to work with a vengeance. The hardest part was getting the monster “corpse” back to the lab but Deveric couldn't think of anything else safe to do with it. Eventually he and the others disassembled it into quarters, wrapped them in burlap so it wasn't such a gory sight, and loaded them onto horses for the return to the House Ianus labs.
****
Adam was shivering despite warmth of the cloak he acquired from Isabeau's manor. He was badly hurt, more so than he let on, and badly stressed. On top of that recovering from whatever Isabeau had done to his Talent had taken a psychical toll on him. Things felt sort of itchy in his brain, something he knew would go away with rest but the trick was lasting until then. The site of House Ianus was a welcome relief and as they rode up to the main entrance House servants were waiting as was Ren.
Servants quickly helped Adam and Lucie down and a hostler whisked the horse off to the stables. Adam pondered asking someone to return it but really what good would that do. There was no one there to tend it. He wondered if the ones still remaining in Isabeau's stables would survive till someone found them. Belatedly he wished he had take the time to fill water and hay troughs.
Ren waited until the other servants had disappeared about their duties and then drew close to Adam and Lucie.
“The site has been cleaned up. Nothing remains except an old mostly rotten mill. Miss Lily has been tended and left to sleep until she is done sleeping; I've made sure no one will bother her unless she requests it. Aleksandra has also been provided with everything she felt she needed to help her recover and the servants have orders to leave her alone unless she requests assistance. All that we acquired from the woods has been carefully stored in some of the older tunnels until further determinations can be made. Miss Lucie, breakfast and a hot bath stand waiting in your quarters, should you require anything else at this moment please let me know.”
“Master Adam I have your quarters ready; coffee and croissants await you there. Along with several new issues requiring your immediate attention.”
Adam was walking into the House only half listening. He came to a slow halt at his words. He was exhausted, he didn't want to deal with anything petty or the slightest bit unimportant right now.
“How immediate?”
Ren looked apologetic, even winced when he answered. “Two of them are very immediate.”
Adam grimly nodded. “Send a doctor, a large basin of the hottest water you can, whiskey, and bandages up to my office. I'll try and tackle those issues immediately then. Please make sure all that we brought with us from Isabeau's is stored with the rest of the remains of our adventure. It can be dealt with later.”
He handed his bundle of notes and records to Ren, excused himself to Lucie, and headed to his office. Ren had a knack for knowing what was truly an emergency, if he said some things needed to be dealt with then some things needed to be dealt with. But he was coming to realize he couldn't tackle all this alone. Perhaps it was time to find a new manservant and put Ren to work handling some of the lesser problems. It was something to think on anyway.
Adam had soaked his feet for over an hour to get them cleaned out so they could be bandaged. Ren had been right. The issues had needed immediate attention. One was simple enough, one of the societies members was going about murdering members of the local clergy. That couldn't be tolerated; it violated everything the society stood for and put it in danger to boot. He could find someone to handle that issue easily enough. But the other was another damn mystery and one that threatened the safety of the House itself. He would have to look into that more directly. He didn't believe in coincidences and this had three doozies of a coincidence. First though he had to get some rest.
****
Adam awoke pre-dawn two days later feeling reinvigorated and refreshed. His body still hurt and his wounds were still healing but his mind had cleared and he had energy flowing once more. He summoned Ren immediately.
The manservant answered quickly and Adam told him his plan, both for Ren to find him a suitable valet so Ren could handle lesser issues within the society and his plan to, hopefully, establish an exclusive group of the society members as discrete, paid, private inquiry agents to handle issues of psychical trouble in the future.
He would call Lily, Aleksandra, and Lucie to a breakfast meeting this morning and see if they would be interested; he would prefer to begin this endeavor with people trusted and he knew could face down even ungodly horrors and still manage to accomplish the goal.
Later that morning as he waited for them in his private study, he wanted no interruptions, he wondered if they would accept. This business of running and protecting the Society was only growing more difficult with time. He needed reliable help.