As Stratya cleaned up the scene behind the stables, she considered whom she could trust. She supposed she only had to trust them with as much information as she gave, so that made things a little easier. She just wouldn't tell them more than she had to.
Ehck. It felt a little deceitful. Then again, if she didn't trust whoever to secrecy, they could not believe blamed for keeping a secret. There was much to consider. Things were simpler when she was a soldier.
Aaah, but she's paid so much more, now! She even has a bit of freedom. If she wanted, she could go out to the countryside “on inquisition” and have a holiday half the time. She had to be careful, though, she could only imagine being too much a slacker would end with her receiving more frequent direct orders. Could she maybe transition into being a.. knight-baker?
Stratya knew what to do with the sword, but for the boy’s head, she had to think. She wanted to keep this quiet, at least for now. If she did that, however, she would have to produce results. It was the kind of pressure she could do without, but pressure usually brought out the best in her, too. What was a knight to do? Best she could figure was to take it to the morgue, wrapped in heavy cloth. The thing stank too much to do anything besides get rid of it. It felt fundamentally wrong to destroy it without ceremony, though. The poor boy would get a funeral with just his head.
She kept a lock of Darryn’s hair in a vial bundled into a cloth, and stowed the executioner's sword (similarly wrapped up) along with the hair under her bed in the knights’ barracks. She picked up the chest of gooped remains she'd left in her room while on the way to the castle previously, before returning to the castle grounds once more. She had to find someone she could trust to analyze the remains. Asking here and there about apothecary or chemical skills with servants in the castle brought her the name Riona, and from there, it was just a matter of tracking her down.
It didn’t take long to find the maid.
Riona was coordinating Lordling Smithwood’s guest room redecoration with the other servants when someone came asking for her. Puzzled, she glanced over her shoulder to find none other than the Knight-Inquisitor herself at the end of the corridor, an imposing figure in her polished armor. Riona’s stomach clenched. What did a woman of Stratya Durmand’s standing possibly want from her? Was she in trouble? Riona crossed the hall to where the knight stood waiting. She dipped into a curtsy,
“Knight-Captain, how may I be of service?”The Captain smiled calmly, recognizing Riona from a discription from another servant, “
aah, ‘ere y’are. Riona, aye? Good, good. I’ve a favah ta ask o’ ya.” Her eyes cast briefly over the bustle behind the maid, “
nut’in’ I expect done immediately, mind ye.” She carried a rather small, locked chest in her arm, cradled against her body. It was just slightly too big to fit in her palm. “
I ‘ear yer somet’in’ of an apot’ecary? I ‘ave, in this chest ‘ere, a series of samples I need analyzed. I realize ‘at’s no’ usual apot’ecary business, but I though’ I’d ask if ‘at’s sometin’ you’d feel comfortable handlin’.”
Riona’s ears strained to parse the thick accent that coated Stratya’s words. It was similar to Quack’s so she was able to make out a phrase here and there, but it took a little longer for her mind to stitch together their meaning.
After an awkward delay, she replied.
“Yes, I do have some knowledge in herbalism, but I am no master.” Her gaze darted to the chest.
“There must be someone who is more qualified to handle… this?” There was even that group of physickers from Varian too. So why ask help from her of all people?
“
Aye, a fair questi’n.” The armored detective nodded, understanding the young woman's hesitance. Additionally, if Riona’s skills were primarily in herbalism, “
perhaps I am barking up the wrong tree. T’is connected tae a sensitive matter, ye ken. I'd rather keep this within the Castle, if I can. Now knowing tha’, if’n you ‘ad anyone you could introduce me to instead, I'd be obliged. Know any chemists in the castle? I should probably be more familiar with the castle staff..”
“A chemist?” Riona shook her head,
“None within the castle. The University would be your best hope of finding one.” Still, the need for secrecy piqued her curiosity. She glanced around, checking for eavesdroppers, before leaning in to whisper,
“Knight-Captain, what exactly do you hope to discover from analyzing these samples, and why must it be handled with such discretion? I cannot assist you in a meaningful way without knowing the true nature of this request. From what I understand, even chemistry has many fields and specialties.” She ventured a guess.
“Has someone been poisoned?”Stratya kept an eye casually over Riona's shoulder, “
poisoned? No.” The knight sighed softly, hesitant, “
you'll ‘ave to forgive my caution, but t’whole ma’er gives me a terrible dread. Like I must watch my step carefully.” She took a moment to convince herself to share, “
not poisoned, but dead. I suspect it must’ve been las’ night. If that were all, I wouldnae need t’help, o’ course. The body was.. well.. t’was like it ‘ad been melted. I need to figure out ‘ow.”
“Melted!? Just the flesh or… everything?” Riona couldn’t hide her shock.
“If everything melted overnight, that sounds more like…” Magic. She bit off the word before it came out and fell silent in thought. No need to jump to conclusions, especially in front of the Knight-Commander. Focus on the facts.
Squaring her shoulders, she met Stratya’s eyes.
“I will help with the analysis, Knight-Captain. I may not be able to determine the exact cause, but I can help narrow the possibilities.” This was so much more important than some room redecoration. Someone had come to her, Riona, seeking her help. She had to at least try.
“Hmmn.” Stratya nodded subtly when Riona trailed off. She wasn't the only one to suspect as much, then. She decided not to be concerned that her new helper sounded like she was thinking it was magic, too. It was easy to write something off as magic when that something eluded conventional explanation. When the servant straightened herself, the knight met her gaze. Perhaps this wasn’t a misstep, after all.
“Excellent. Let’s away to.. eh..” Stratya paused briefly, “yerrr.. ‘lab’?” Somehow, she had the feeling Riona had no such dedicated room. “I’d like to ask you some questions in private before I give you more information, and furnish you with the samples. T’would nae do to colour yer answers with the information I’d provide, ye ken. If I’m to do any colouring of the sort, it’ll be ahfter I ask you the firs’time. If I c’n ‘elp it. I may have already spoiled the pooch a bi’, honestly, but we’ll deal with i’.”
“If you would be so kind as to wait a moment, Knight-Captain?” The knight nodded and motioned with her hand in response. Riona hurried back to the cluster of servants, their faces a mix of curiosity and concern. She kept her instructions brief—finish moving the furniture, then carry on with their duties regardless if she returned or not. No, she’s not in trouble. And no, the Knight-Captain isn’t here because she’s interested in courting Lord Smithwood. … Steve, seriously? Gods, go tell her that yourself.
That taken care of, she returned to Stratya and gestured down the hall.
“If you will follow me, we can do this in my room.” The gardener’s hut would have been better—more private, and most of her equipment was there—but if she could, she’d rather avoid taking the Knight-Captain there.
As they walked to the castle, questions about the mysterious death burned on her tongue. But prying would have to wait.
“Do you ever get time to yourself, ser?” Riona asked to fill the silence.
Stratya was vaguely surprised by the question, but only just so. “Aah?” The knight considered the question for a brief moment, “I s’ppose I do. When I was only in the army, ‘fore I was knighted, consider’bly less so, but with the shift in expectations and respect tha’ comes with knigh’in’, so too come cer’ain liber’ies. O’course, if I were to faff about too much, it prob’ly wouldn' go well f’r me. Liberties and responsibility, simultaneously. If tha’ even makes sense.”
Riona smiled at that.
“Well said, ser. It is all too easy to get caught up in the perks of knighthood and neglect their duties. I admire your commitment to upholding the values of your station. The realm is better off with knights of such integrity.”The Captain grinned and chuckled, “
oye hoy, ye flat’erer.”
The two entered the castle through the service entrance. They wound their way through the bustling servant halls, dodging laundresses with armfuls of linens, kitchen boys balancing trays, and a young page dashing past, message in hand. Riona nodded greetings to the familiar faces as she led the way.
“Does this mean you are taking part in the courting season between breaks, Knight-Captain?”The Knight-Captain in question stammered but once and faltered in her stride for only half a step, catching back up to the pace they'd set between them before her next footfall, “
courting season? ‘ow.. bureaucratic.” If she considered how the upper crust led their lives, it made more sense, but it still seemed so stiff and strange to her. She groaned softly, disinterested, “
nae, no’ if I c’n avoid i’. Seems a strange thing for a lass from the plains, and wha’ would any of those upper crus’ blokes wan’ with me, anyway, with just me pret’y face to offer?” As far as she was aware, upper crust courting was always about power or land or money.
This time it was Riona whose steps slowed. The maid turned to face the knight with a mix of surprise and amusement in her eyes.
“Begging your pardon, Knight-Captain, but you do realize that the moment you were knighted, you became part of the nobility yourself?” She tried to gauge Stratya’s reaction to what she hoped wasn’t a revelation.
“You are not just a plain lass with a pretty face anymore,” Riona continued.
“You are one of the upper crust.” She turned her head forward and resumed their earlier pace.
“And as such, you are not only eligible for the courting season but encouraged to take part in it.”“
Haaah,” Stratya swayed in her stride, “
aye, I forge’ tha’, sometimes. I don' feel like nobili’y. Maybe ‘at's more t’do with the way I conduct myself.” She wasn’t interested in all the stuffy mannerisms, but she couldn't well get away without knowing them. “
’Encouraged to take part,’ is it? Gluess I be’er play ball.”
“I wish you the very best of luck, ser.” Deep in the castle’s bowels, they walked past rows of identical doors in the servants’ warren. At last, Riona stopped at one. She pushed it open, then stepped aside, motioning for Stratya to enter.
“Here we are, Knight-Captain.”Starkly simple, her room held little more than a neatly made bed tucked in one corner and a sturdy table flanked by two chairs in another. There was also a weathered armoire; an easel and a stack of large sketchbooks leaned against its side. But it was the apothecary station that drew the eye, crowded with an array of equipment both scavenged and repurposed.
As she entered, the simplicity of the room reminded Stratya of the army. She never had her own room then, though. Her sergeant would have had her head for cobbling together a whole apothecary kit like this, too. She certainly wasn't about to throw a fuss, herself.
The knight set her chest of melted lad samples down near the apothecary’s station and waited for the door to close, “
righ’, then. Some questions, ‘fore I say more. Hmm,” she rubbed her chin, considering how to approach her inquiry. “
Hmn. ‘ave there been any.. ooh, I've already told you enough. It's,” she sighed, “
Darryn. The stable boy. Had there been any incidents that might ‘ave put ‘im in hot water?”
Darryn.
Something hard lodged itself in her heart and a cold sense of dread spread slowly across her chest. Riona closed her eyes.
“Princess Anastasia…” she began, then took a breath and started again.
“After the annual ball, Princess Anastasia and Prince Callum took a few guests to an invitation only afterparty.” She paused, realizing the Knight-Captain likely knew about this already.
“But you were aware of that. Forgive me.” Riona rubbed her eyes.
“Darryn was punished for obeying orders. Beaten. Tortured.” What she really wanted to say was that he was used as a scapegoat so that the Crown didn’t have to discipline their children in front of their esteemed guests.
“When I last saw him…”“I was wrong… Wrong.” Darryn muttered, switching his tune suddenly. His irises dilated and unstable as his gaze cast down toward the floor. He clenched his fists. “But then she asked me to take them there. Her and Callum always have me sneak them out… Maybe they just didn’t know… But then again I knew… I knew where we were going. I have to know because…” A strange, unsettling smile pulled at his lips.
Riona grabbed his face and tried to snap him out of it. Asked him what “they” had done to him. Darryn grabbed her wrist tightly. “What do you think you’re doing.” He said lowly and angrily. This sounded nothing like the stable boy she knew.
She swallowed. “Darryn, you’re acting weird and I think it’s getting worse. Focus. Please. What do you remember?”
Darryn stared at her as his expression fell, and his face took on some semblance of normality. “... Sorry. I’m sorry, Riona. You’re right… I’ve been weird.” He dropped his hand from her wrist with shame. “I…It’s not what they did to me here. It was what I had to do for…” He bit his lip, holding back. “I have been going through some other… things. Sorry.”
Before he left the infirmary, Darryn warned her: “The Danroses aren’t the only ones you need to worry about.”“Darryn was not himself. I thought the torture caused it, but he said he had been ‘going through some other things’… he might have been involved in something dangerous.”“I knew where we were going. I have to know because…” … You were ordered to spy on them? By the ones, other than the Danroses, she needed to worry about?
Riona braced herself before voicing the question she dreaded to ask.
“Is Darryn dead?”After asking Riona for her help like this, withholding information felt rather wrong. Considering what it was she’d asked of Riona, the knowledge might make things more difficult, though. The knight nodded slowly at the question, her mind clearly turning on something, “
aye. That's.. him, in the chest. Some of ‘im.” If things didn't seem foreboding before, they certainly did now. That he’d taken the blame for the Prince and Princess’ behavior was outrageous, but she got the feeling that hadn't directly led to his death. Someone did this quietly, in such a place it seemed like the intention was for someone from the castle to find it; simultaneously, using the incident involving Princess Anastasia and Prince Callum as a cover for the real motive and a mask for the real meaning of the murder, except to those that knew the truth of Darryn's execution. So, that would mean…
“
Did ‘e say anythin’ else abou’ what ‘e was involved in?” There wasn’t anything she could do about how he’d been treated by the Royal Family, besides quietly object to someone that would hear her. Quietly might be a strong word. If his
killer, at least, was someone from with
out the Royal Family, she could act, and direct all the fury building up in the back of her mind into something constructive. Surely, if not for Darryn's death, then for whatever he was involved in.
Perhaps the killer was trying to use Darryn’s misfortune of being caught up in the Younger Siblings’ mischief as a cover for the execution. Blame it on the Royal Family, say they did it as discipline. She needed more. She had many pieces of this puzzle, but not quite enough to start making moves. If she could get a location to poke around in, maybe she could procure a connection with some of the things she'd squirreled away. “
Do you know if he frequen’ly went anywhere off castle grounds?”
Riona’s breath caught in her throat and she just stood there as the news of Darryn’s death sank in. Despite her best efforts to keep it steady in front of Stratya, her voice wavered.
“I… no, he never spoke of what sort of trouble he was tangled up in. As for where he spent his time, I can only guess the usual haunts of the common folk.” After a pause she added,
“I think… Darryn wanted to keep me clear of it all.”“Apologies, ser, I wish I had more to tell you.” Her dark brown gaze traveled to the bottle of gloop on the table. Gods, poor Darryn. To go through all that, only to end up dead and melted down to sludge. She failed to help in life, but maybe she could do right by him now.
“The analysis may yet yield some insight.” Riona crossed to the station and began preparations.
“Knight-Captain, please tell me everything you can recall about the scene of the crime, and the condition of Darryn’s remains when you discovered him. Leave out no detail, however gruesome or trivial it may seem.”Where Stratya had expected dismay to lead to a weakening of spirit, the servant in question instead became more willful and bold. Interesting. Riona also reminded the Knight-Captain of the conversation she had with Wulfric last night, specifically the part where he corrected her lack of decorum at the masquerade. She still thought it wasn’t any fun to spoil the mystery, especially considering they had
new foreign guests, not just from the neighboring kingdom.
But that hardly had anything to do with this conversation.
“
I s’ppose you know to be careful when being so direct? I’d hate for the wrong ears to hear that.. er.. tone isn’t the right word, but I think you know what I mean. I’m no’ fussed, jus’.. y’know.” She’d asked the Prince for information, before, only to be met with a haughty denial, saying that he’d give information when he saw fit. And then she’d persisted despite and been rewarded.. Riona, however, was a servant. Stratya misstepping and Riona misstepping were different, as things went.
The maid fixed the Knight-Captain with a stare that could have cut through steel. Was this woman serious? All this talk about “not feeling like nobility,” and
the very first thing out of her mouth is about how Riona should speak to one?
“With all due respect, Knight-Captain, you asked me to conduct an analysis immediately. I am not prying into the details of the murder out of idle curiosity. The more information I have, the more accurate my findings will be. Different chemicals react in different ways under various conditions, leaving behind distinct clues.” Riona did her best not to sigh out of frustration.
“Smells, temperature, where the body was found, whether the melting process was still underway when the body was discovered, so on so forth—any factor can provide vital insights.”“
I-”
She turned to face the Knight-Captain fully, reassessing her initial impression of the woman.
“If my ‘tone’ is not of your liking and is of greater importance to you than solving a murder, then I can spend more time groveling for every scrap of information, Dame Knight-Captain Durmand.” If that was all it took for the woman to do her job, then she’ll do it. For Darryn.
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