Chapter 38
As night came and the rest of my group retired to go to sleep, I chose not to enter the Crucible, and instead went for a moonlit stroll. Even if I didn’t have anything to do, it was far too cramped in that house, it was suffocating.
As it were, my had revealed something of interest that Kipper stumbled upon. So I made my way back to the docks. There were still some sailors hanging around, mostly gambling and drinking their earnings away, some stiffened at my passing, but I had no interest in reprimanding their activities.
My silver mask caught the reflection of the water as the starlight bounced off the surface of the ocean, and Kipper once again came to meet me. In his mouth was a writhing black eel with white eyes, this was what I wanted to look into.
“Good work, Kipper, keep an eye on things down there.”
He retreated back into the depths. I held the eel by the tail and cracked its head against the wooden support of the pier beneath my feet. Its movements ceased immediately. As expected, this thing was not the same as the soulless fish, but it certainly did not belong here.
Kipper’s senses had shown me that he found a whole nest of these not too far from here. It looked like they had made their home out of a sunken ship, but Kipper could not safely investigate further. Instead, he opted to bring what he could to me.
I smacked my lips as I recalled the sense of taste Kipper shared as he bit into this creature. Overly sweet with the texture of rubber, the bones were exceedingly brittle as well, turning to dust beneath Kipper’s jaws.
I wrapped the dead eel around my arm and made my way to my next objective, ‘The Ocean View’. Finding it turned out to be fairly simple, as it was visible from the docks. It stood atop a raised portion overlooking my position and shone like a multicoloured beacon in the night.
It brought to mind the neon signage I used to see often, though of course such technology was not present here. It was a simple alchemical trick: you take a mana crystal corresponding to the colour you want, e.g. water for blue, grind it up, and then drop it into an open flame. The Ocean View employed this to brighten up the braziers and torches outside their establishment.
To reach the place, I had to go back to the middle section of town and walk in a loop to reach it. There was no direct path from the docks to the building, probably so the upper-class guests could enjoy the sense of separation from the lower-class workers.
Standing at the door, it was obvious I did not belong, and the doorman wordlessly stared at me until he got sick of my loitering.
“Hey. Are you coming in or not, soldier?”
“I am. Can you tell me what this place is first?”
He frowned, but answered my question anyway.
“It’s a gentleman’s club. We supply drinks, leisure, and entertainment. Accommodation too for the VIP clientele.”
“Glorified whorehouse, got it.”
I opened the door and walked in, ignoring the flustered look of the doorman.
The interior was just as glamorous as the outside, and the former muffled noise came to life in an explosion of laughter, cheering, and music. The soundproofing was rather well done to avoid disrupting the neighbourhood.
There were the usual sights one would expect from such an establishment: stages with poles, private booths, and dancing women who probably had a poor relationship with their father figures. I never went to such a place personally in my former life, I never really saw the point, truth be told. As my wife put it ‘if you can’t charm a woman to do these things for you out of love, frequenting these places will guarantee that never changes.’
I never told her that our son had confided to me in going to such a place for his 18th birthday.
My feet stopped moving as my thoughts wandered. I closed my eyes and dragged my fingers across my mask.
With renewed vigour, I moved straight to the bar.
“What can I get you…sir?”
The barkeeper eyed my mask, but maintained her professionalism.
“I’m looking for a knight. Marcus Connor.”
“Sir Connor should be in his room. He likely won’t be down again until the morning. You are welcome to come back then.”
“I’d rather speak to him sooner than later. Can you send a message asking him to meet me down here?”
“Sir Connor is a VIP guest and has specifically requested not to be disturbed. I’m afraid we must consider his wishes first and foremost.”
She wasn’t going to budge on this matter, it seemed. This wasn’t ideal, but luckily, I had a card to play.
“This is not a request. Tell Sir Connor a soldier of the empire has arrived at the behest of Delilah to speak to him. I can order this establishment to be closed for the night to preserve his privacy if that is preferable?”
Her customer service smile faltered for the first time, and she took note of my uniform. She knew I really could order such a thing if I wanted.
“...Please wait here, valued customer, I shall confer with my manager.”
“No need to take it higher. Just go to Sir Connor’s door, pass him my message, and you can return to your work.”
Her facade had broken now, and she openly narrowed her eyes at me with gritted teeth. Likely, she would have conferred with her superior, who would then confer with their superior, who would claim to be busy but assure me they would assist as soon as possible. This would drag on and on, and they would delay all night long, until my demands were no longer relevant, as it would already be daytime.
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People were predictable, whether it be in this world or my last. The nice thing about having authority was that I could cut through their bullshit with a few well-placed words.
The barkeeper didn’t respond, but she walked away with a sour look. If she didn’t return within 30 minutes, I would start kicking people out.
It never came to that, though, as a dishevelled man in a bathrobe came out from upstairs and approached me. It seemed I had interrupted him, but he didn’t look tired. It didn’t take much detective work to figure out what he was doing in his room, especially when I caught sight of a scantily dressed woman entering from the same upstairs hallway Sir Connor came from.
“Masked soldier in a white hood, you’re the kid asking for me? How do you know my Delilah?”
He sat at the bar, and a drink was placed in front of him without a word from the man himself. The bartender ignored me completely as she turned away to clean a glass.
“We go to the IMA together, she assured me you would be of assistance in my investigation here.”
He downed his drink in one go and rubbed his forehead.
“Come on, let’s enjoy the night’s breeze.”
I followed him out of the establishment, and we wandered along the quiet streets.
“My girl wouldn’t tell just anyone to seek my help, why should I believe anything you say?”
I held my hand to my chest, and Tiara quickly emerged to drop an envelope from her mouth into my hand.
He immediately took note of the seal on the wax and snatched it from my hand, then tore it open and read it carefully.
“Hmm… oh? Oh-ho…”
He continued audibly reacting to whatever he was reading and threw glances at me with varying emotions clear on his face.
“Well, you were certainly telling the truth. How can I be of assistance?”
His tone had dramatically shifted to one of polite respect. He adjusted his posture and tightened the robe as we continued walking.
“What was written in that letter?”
“Never mind that, it’s just an update on her school life.”
There was obviously more than that, but I decided my curiosity did not need to be satisfied immediately and stuck to business.
“I am currently serving Sir Falk, silver class imperial knight from the Order of the Watchdog. We have been tasked with investigating the recent decline in exports originating from Farrowgate. Delilah told me to expect issues with the government officials here. Sir Falk has confirmed the mayor indeed has no intention of cooperating.”
“So you want some insider info, huh?”
Sir Connor chuckled.
“I do know a little of what goes on around here. And as fortune would have it, I have also witnessed the letters both from the empire and the ones sent out by Mayor Varley.”
“So, do you know why the mayor has been refusing to provide any explanation? Surely he could have simply been forthcoming about the corruption spoiling the fish from the start?”
“Reeks of a cover-up, does it not? That is, if these letters were real.”
He again chuckled knowingly.
“I’m sure if pressed on the matter, Mayor Varley would return your accusations with similar claims of his own. And he couldn’t be blamed for it either, for the letters your empire sent were naught but veiled threats and personal attacks on the heritage of the governing officials of Farrowgate.”
“What? No, I have a record of the letters in my report. They were devoid of any personality, entirely to the point and related only to business. As is the imperial way.”
“Yes, and I have seen Mayor Varley’s responses. He politely disregarded the tone and responded with pleas for aid. The problems facing Farrowgate were reported weeks ago when they were first realised, yet no aid has been offered. In fact, the response was to accuse them of lying and poisoning the fish themselves due to incompetence.”
“I see…”
There were a few possibilities that came to mind immediately. But Sir Connor’s tone suggested he had already suspected something for a while.
“What are your thoughts, Sir Connor?”
“I knew from the first letter something was wrong, but now that you have confirmed that Mayor Varley’s correspondence has also been altered somewhere along the way, I finally have a solid theory.”
He brought me down a dark alley, somewhere our voices would not carry in the wind.
“A third party has been intercepting news from Farrowgate and Borderton, and swapping out the letters with forgeries. That seems the most probable in my eyes.”
“True, but can you rule out the possibility that there are people on the inside of both sides interfering?”
“That was my first thought. That's why I made it a point to retrieve Mayor Varley’s letters myself and take them to a different courier each time. Unless the entire postal service is involved, this seems an impossible setup to me.”
“Have you questioned these couriers?”
“Subtly, yes. None of them reported being waylaid on the road or temporarily losing any possessions. No reports of strange people on the road either.”
In short, we knew no interference was occurring within Farrowgate, and if it were occurring on the road, then there was no evidence left behind.
“So, what will you do now?”
Sir Connor folded his arms, displaying his biceps and scars befitting his station.
“I’ll report all this in the morning. We currently plan to deal with your bandit problem to the south, maybe we will find something that pieces things together for us. Ah, one last thing…”
I unfurled the eel on my arm and held it up. Sir Connor flinched as I did so.
“Damn, kid, that scared me. I thought that was just a fashion piece or something.”
“Haha, no, this came from the waters around here. Know anything about it?”
He looked at it carefully, then squished its body between his fingers.
“Never seen anything like it… around here at least. I seen land snakes similar to this before, though…”
He furrowed his brow as he tried to recall how he knew this creature. Then his eyes snapped open with urgency.
“The Black Dael Banshee.”
“What’s that?”
“A Solean criminal. One who has been wanted for over a decade now. She was a necromancer who brought about a great tragedy in a small farming village. Since then, her influence has been found in numerous crimes. These…were used by her once before that I know of, it was nine years ago in Thornwick that I saw them.”
Could she be the veiled figure Delilah mentioned? Perhaps Meztili would know something about her and how to combat another necromancer.
“Where did you find this again?”
“In the ocean, there’s an old shipwreck.”
“I know the one, it’s older than Farrowgate and was picked clean ages ago… why would she hide her creations there?”
“I was planning on checking it out soon. I’ll keep you updated on what's down there.”
“How— ah, right, Delilah mentioned you were a Druid. Well, even so, if you run into the Banshee, just flee. She’ll turn you into something not even your mother would recognise. Your silver knight friend might have a chance, though.”
“You think this person would involve themselves in all this?”
“No. She only cares about furthering her research. I have no idea why she would come here, or if she is even relevant.”
I had come across more than I expected to this night, but most of what Sir Connor gave me only led to even more questions.
“Hey kid, if you find the Banshee, come find me again. I’ve got a score to settle with that ancient bag of bones.”
“Sure, I’ll see what I can do.”
“Great, looks like I might get to tie up loose ends before retirement after all.”
Sir Connor made ready to return to The Ocean View, but suddenly remembered something important he had to check with me.
“Hey, how close are you to Delilah anyway?”
“She’s more a friend of my sister. Truth be told I only met her the once.”
“Is that so? Then you wouldn’t need to mention too much about our meeting, right?”
I thought about what he was concerned about me bringing up, then remembered the first thing I saw, before he ever said a word to me.
“Are you and Delilah’s mother still together?”
“No, we divorced some years ago.”
“Then there is no need to be embarrassed. It’s not illegal anyway.”
“Y-yeah, but… Delilah doesn’t to know, right?”
I looked at him blankly. The shadows in that alley hid my eyes, leaving nothing for Sir Connor to read.
I returned to the others and prepared to fill them in on my activities. I also made a mental note to hold onto this blackmail material in case I needed a favour from a Solean knight later.
