An Unorthodox Investigation

[Lorraine]

49th Ymiden, Arc 719

Company: Her thoughts| Theme: Danse Macabre | Thoughts: A slow morning | Mood: Relaxed

Lorraine woke up just as normally as she did any other trial. Sitting up in her bed slowly after laying there for a good few trills. Then she swung her feet over the side of the bed, removing her covers in the process, and standing up. She got herself dressed in a simple dress that wasn't the nicest of those she owned. Simple black color with a simple design, and not much else. She had no plans for her trial. No shows to play at, no corpses to collect and dispose of, and most unusually no rehearsals.

Moving into her small kitchen area Lorraine collected herself a drink of water. After she got her drink she figured she'd do a few stretching exercises just to help wake her up some. She had slept absolutely terribly during the night thanks to a nightmare she only had a vague recollection about. Something about being chases through the streets and hunted by an angry familiar man. Though she couldn't remember who or why. Doing some stretches got her blood flowing a little bit which helped her to feel awake, and loosened her muscles well enough. A nice change from the usually high amount of tension she carries.

She then moved into her workspace area, one of the larger rooms of the house, which held a few corpses. One which served her as her thrall, a small sack with ten dead mice in it, and one on her actual worktable which was the unique corpse. It wasn't one that she had found, or intended to use for her magic. It was beaten up just a bit too much for her liking and was far too obviously a corpse. Lorraine had a distaste for using such corpses and they were harder to be passed off as a silent living companion.

After entering into the room Lorraine would cast a small glance at the covered corpse on the table wondering what had happened to it. She was quite unaware as she had a certain no questions asked policy, and the people who wouldn't her picking up the body weren't very talkative. Afterward, she would grab the large cloth curtain hooked to one wall in the room, and drag it to the other side connecting it to the other wall. While this did little more than setting up a thin wall of cloth between her and the corpses it would be enough.

Then Lorraine retrieved her instrument from its case which sat on the floor in the room. She figured that since she had no plans she might as well practice her playing a bit. She took in a deep breath, scented slightly with the smell of death, and did her best to clear her mind. This took her quite a few trills, but she eventually managed to do so. After that Lorraine would lay her bow gently atop the strings of her fiddle. Letting her mind float freely she began to play a strange tune. Though strange it still came together to sound relatively well. She then decided to try out a new technique she had read about in Grant's notes. First, she gently bounced the bow on the top strings of the fiddle, and then she drew them down. It took her a few tries to do it successfully, but eventually, she was able to bounce it initially and keep the bounce going gently all the way through her downward motion. This ended up creating a strangely wonderful sound which caused Lorraine to smile upon hearing it. It wasn't perfect but she had already taught herself something new.

Though with that done a new problem arose that would shadow out her feeling of accomplishment. She had nothing else to do at all. Nothing non-work-related to take care of, and nothing work-related either. Plus she didn't exactly have any pastimes other than playing her instruments. So Lorraine decided that it might possibly be a good trial to venture out into the Savannah just for something to do. As long as the weather permitted that is. She went back to her room to get herself more properly dressed to leave and would do so soon unless something else stopped her.

[Balthazar Black]

49 Ymiden 719

Fate worked in mysterious ways. Ways that often aggravated and annoyed Balthazar because fate seemed to always try to screw him over. But not to-trial. Balthazar found himself the subject of someone's ire in the last dozen trials and he'd let little trips around the land that was considered Yaralon distract him from confronting that issue head on. But as trials passed Balthazar began to wonder and eventually worry where the next strike would come from. Reuniting with Cervantez and his friend had reminded Balthazar that there was a larger world out there. There was more to see beyond Yaralon's walls and that meant there were more places his enemies could have come from.

Balthazar's working theory had been that he had aggravated an unfit Yari and that Yari had sent the various plagues to Balthazar. but over a few trials that theory fell apart. One Yari would not have been enough to organize the hunters even if one man could have sent Valeria after him. There was something bigger at work and Balthazar wanted to get to the bottom of it before it caught him unprepared. He had decided the best way to do that would be to retrace his steps. He began where his troubles did, in the hallway. He was surprised to find the tavern relatively intact after what he'd done and more surprised to find it as busy as it had been the day he was taken. Whatever happened was swept under the rug.

So Balthazar began asking around to find out where the bodies had gone. He hadn't searched them in the heat of the moment and so there may have been something revealing on the guards. For the most part nobody knew. Balthazar didn't have names he only knew where the men had been killed. But eventually someone gave him a bit of a lead. Lorraine. He recalled that she was the woman who'd been with Cervantez in the abandoned city. A familiar face at least. Finding her address after was a matter of asking the right contacts in the right places and fortunately Balthazar had some. Before long he found himself standing outside Lorraine's door, knocking softly.

[Lorraine]

49th Ymiden, Arc 719

Company: Balthazar| Theme: Danse Macabre | Thoughts: How did you find my house? | Mood: Surprised

Lorraine was in her room halfway done with changing her clothing by the time Balthazar knocked upon her door. She failed to hear his light knocking from her bedroom, but within another bit or two she finished getting dressed. Then she was back in the her front room to gather up her items. Though upon hearing knocking on her front door Lorraine moved to open it. Naturally of course as a Yari, this wasn't before she retrived her dagger just in case it wasn't a friendly visitor. Lorraine opened the door open just the slightest bit to peer out and who was on the other side. Much to her surprise it was the man she had met just a short few trials before to-trial. She remembered his name as being Balthazar, and though she didn't know him well, she knew he likely meant no harm.

Opening the door all the way Lorraine stood in the doorway with her typical polite smile on her face. Having just changed her outfit she was no longer wearing her black dress, but now was wearing the same outfit she had worn when she first met Balthazar. A white shirt-dress going down to ankle length with her leather vambraces, and chest piece on over it. She also wore a pair of trousers underneath her dress which served as a layer between her and her two hidden shin guards. On her side was her dagger holster in which her dagger, the same one she had just been holding, was now resting after put it up.

"Ah Mr. Black how interesting to be seeing you at my front door. Would you like to come inside?" Lorraine said stepping to the side and motioning for him to come inside if he so pleased. After waiting for him to respond to that Lorraine spoke again. "I presume your here because you need help with something. How may I be of service?" She said to him speaking politely.

[Balthazar Black]

49 Ymiden 719

Balthazar was surprised when Lorraine finally opened the door and he wasn't entirely sure why. He'd known it was her house when he knocked. He'd known that the entire walk to her house, and yet he found himself at a loss for words when Lorraine finally opened the door. He hadn't expected her to be wearing the same outfit she'd been wearing the first time because the leather armor seemed like a poor fashion choice for down time around the house. Then again he was in a very similar white shirt and black trousers. Though he was wearing better boots this time because his old ones had worn to thin and he'd been forced to buy a new pair the trial prior. Lorraine recognized him, or at least seemed to, and a wave of relief washed over Balthazar. Sometimes it was hard to move around the city when you had no rapport to rely on.

When Lorraine asked Balthazar if he'd like to come inside he gave a soft nod, his mind still dancing around why Lorraine was in her armor. Perhaps this was another trap and his contact had deceived him. Perhaps Lorraine meant to drive that dagger through his back when he was not paying her mind... then again perhaps he'd interrupted whatever day plan the woman had. Balthazar chose to believe the less suspicious of those possibilities and stepped into her home only to be quickly questioned about why he'd come. It was a fair question but one Balthazar almost always posed before inviting someone into his home. He thought for only a moment and then explained,

"You are correct, I do require your assistance." Balthazar began "The other trial I was kidnapped by a group of mage hunters. Long story short things did not go well for the mage hunters. I thought that would be the end of it but have found myself continuously attacked by individuals connected to the hunters in my home and on the streets." Balthazar paused and thought for a bit then continued "I was thinking that if I retraced my steps I could find out why or perhaps who is behind it. Which brings me here, one of my little birds told me you had recently acquired a horribly burnt body? I thought it might be one of mine and was wondering if I could give it a look?"

[Lorraine]

49th Ymiden, Arc 719

Company: Balthazar | Theme: Danse Macabre | Thoughts: Lets see what we can do | Mood: Glad to help

Lorraine listened closely as Balthazar told Lorraine his short story of what had recently happened to him. It was certainly quite a horrible story. Being kidnapped and then continuously attacked all by the same group of people. Something definitely needed to be done about the situation and quickly. Balthazar seemed to be quite capable of handling himself from what Lorraine knew, but that didn't mean it was good for him to constantly be being attacked by people. She was quite sure that even though the two didn't necessarily know each other that much, that she wanted to help him handle the issue in whatever way she could.

So then after the short recounting of the story came the reason that Balthazar had actually come to see Lorraine. He needed to see one of her recently acquired bodies. One that as he stated was horribly burnt. Without even needing to think about it at all Lorraine knew instantly which corpse he was talking about. It was the same corpse she had been wondering about earlier which was sitting on her small work table under a covering cloth. Thinking back to what Lorraine remembered of its appearance she didn't think there would be all too much to learn from inspecting the body. Even so, Lorraine was glad that she could in some way offer him some assistance in dealing with the issue he was facing.

"Ah I know just the one. If you'll give me a trill." Lorraine said to Balthazar clasping her hands together in front of her. She turned around to face the large curtain that was hiding away the bodies in the room and moved towards the closer of the two ends. She undid the hook attaching the cloth to the wall and rolled the cloth up neatly revealing the two corpses currently in the room. One corpse was sitting in the corner of the room with its legs crossed and a small sack in its lap. If Balthazar could recall it was the very same corpse she had with her on the trial they had first met. The other corpse was the covered corpse on the small table which happened to be the corpse he wanted to see.

"We'll be wanting to look at this one here." She had gently pinching the top of the cloth and pulling it off the head of the corpse, and then all the way off the corpse letting it fall to the ground. "You see one of the greatest things about corpses is that, contrary to popular belief, dead men tell a great many tales. You just have to know what you're looking for." She said motioning to the corpses as if revealing something important. "So the question now is what do you want to know?"

[Balthazar Black]

49 Ymiden 719

Balthazar was relieved to hear that Lorraine knew the body he was looking for but with a little more time that fact would come to disturb him. He'd done something so horrible to a person it was recognizable with little description. When she moved to the cloth dividing the room in half Balthazar began to piece together why the house smelled like dead people... then again it was a necromancer's house so what exactly should he have expected it to smell like? Roses? He recognized the first body as her thrall from the abandoned village and disregarded it as a result to focus his attention on the body he'd left behind.

Lorraine slowly pulled back the cloth revealing the burn victim and Balthazar tried to examine him as objectively as he could. He needed markings like tattoos, brands, or anything mystical to give him some link to the other attackers but he'd burned the body so thoroughly that they wouldn't get any information that was that useful out of it. But when a door closed, a window opened. A new question came to Balthazar's mind that he mulled over for a few trills while answering Lorraine's question.

"I was hoping to find some tattoo or other marking to indicate he was a member of a larger group. I don't imagine it would have survived the burns though... maybe his teeth? No I don't think that would help." Lorraine's more experienced eye might have noticed that down near the man's ankle, where the burns were not quite as bad, there was a faint outline of something but whatever it was seemed to have faded. It wouldn't provide them with any answer but maybe more pointed questions.

"Out of curiosity who gave you the body? I left a lot of men in that hallway so it just seems strange someone would hand one off to you." Balthazar asked the question that had been bothering him. He didn't suspect Lorraine, at least not yet, but something didn't add up. Why would she have the body? And why only this one when he'd left some less damaged?

[Lorraine]

49th Ymiden, Arc 719

Company: Balthazar | Theme: Danse Macabre | Thoughts: Lets see here... | Mood: Thoughtful

Lorraine began to inspect the body alongside Balthazar as she listened to him speak. It was certainly a challenge to find something of importance on a body that was burned so badly. Likely anything that they did find would be quite a bit unhelpful. There was little Lorraine could really do for inspecting the body as her skill in dealing with corpses was nowhere near her old mentor's skill. Though with some careful inspection Lorraine would find some sort of small mark on the ankle of the man.

"I've found something. Though I don't think we'll really be able to get anything out of it. Let me get a closer look just in case." Lorraine said as she squatted a bit to get a closer look at the marking. It was quite terrible being so close to the corpse. Though her necromancy's preserve managed to cease a large amount of the decay, the corpse had already started to decay when she received it. Not to mention that it was burnt quite badly which only served to add to the wretched stench. Sadly though even after getting a closer, more disgusting, look at the mark it still served to offer no information. It was likely to be just a tattoo that had been burnt beyond any noticeable recognition.

"Hmm no. We definitely can't get anything from that its far to disrupted to make any sense of what it could be." She said to Balthazar after she brought her head back up and away from the corpse. Then Balthazar asked her another question which served to be quite a smart way of thinking. If they couldn't get anything useful off the body itself maybe they could try to retrace its origins. Lorraine gave the question some thought as she prepared her answer. The corpse had been delivered quite some time ago, but she remembered it relatively well thanks to its strange nature. Though she still cleared her mind first so she could gather her thoughts and memories.

"My it was certainly quite a strange thing how I was given this body. Firstly people usually ask me to come and retrieve the corpses. This corpse was brought here to me in the late afternoon by a group of people... four I believe. The people themselves were quite strange. Two of them were carrying the corpse all wrapped up in cloth. A third man with an intense voice is the one who talked to me about taking the corpse. He wore dark clothing and a hood that cast a pretty dark shadow on his face, but I did notice he had a scar on his left cheek. However, the fourth person was the strangest of them all." Lorraine said recounting the details.

"The fourth person stood quite far away leaning on one of the buildings across the street. They wore clothing which served to obscure my view of them well. The strange thing is that they never interacted with other people at all. Whoever they were, they just stood there watching like they had to oversee the conversation. For a time I figured it was just a strange person looking for trouble, but just after the body was placed inside the person started walking and the other three promptly followed suit." Lorraine said finishing with her short recounting of the details of the group. She'd take a deep breath before she would continue on.

"The man I talked to didn't say much about what had happened. So being as I have a no-questions-asked policy I had no idea as to what burned this corpse until you told me. The only thing of any value I can remember of that conversation was that he told me not to bury the body. He specifically instructed me that I was only to keep it preserved and that they would come back to retrieve it after making preparations. He didn't give me any sort of time frame of when that would happen, but this corpse has been plaguing my home with its stench for quite some time now. That's all I can really remember being important about the encounter. Does that sound like anything helpful?" She'd say finishing up all the details that she figured would be of any importance in the current situation.

[Balthazar Black]

49 Ymiden 719

"Unfortunately no. There is no shortage of scarred cheeks in this city and clothing can easily be changed to blend in." Balthazar replied sadly after Lorraine had answered his questions. The information was not totally useless, in fact it did a lot to further Balthazar's suspicions. Four people had delivered the body which meant there were at least four more conspirators seeking to kill Balthazar... at least that was what he believed their goal was. Balthazar crossed his arms and furrowed his brow in thought. Then, remembering Lorraine was standing there, Balthazar spoke his mind.

"This is unusual. I wasn't expecting four more enemies but it happens. It seems odd that they'd bring you the body and expect you to preserve for a time but I suppose that is the trade. But why be so vague? Why not give you a return time?" Balthazar fell silent and looked at the ground. "Do you remember what direction they went? I suppose I could start by trying to follow their footsteps." Balthazar said, the obvious answer just barely escaping him. They didn't give her a time frame because they did not know how long she would have to hold the body.

They did not know how long it would take him to find it.

It was a trap.

Balthazar turned to Lorraine's door, expecting she would point down the direction they went but when he did his Rupture spark warned him of movement beyond the door. Three masses closed in quickly and the leading one kicked in the door. Balthazar readied his hands as the three moved into the room. He leading man was large and bore the scar that Lorraine had mentioned (and a big hammer) and the other two were smaller, one with a bow and one with a shortsword. The bowman took aim at Balthazar and the mage brought his forearm up to defend himself, summoning a pillar of earth from the floor that the bowman's arrow sailed into. Then Balthazar quickly flipped to the offensive.

He left his block and punched towards the bowman. As he did, the top section of the pillar he'd summoned broke off and sailed through the air like a canon ball into the bowman's chest. The man with the hammer came for Lorraine swinging violently downward at her when the swordsman came for Balthazar.

[Lorraine]

49th Ymiden, Arc 719

Company: Balthazar and enemies | Theme: Danse Macabre | Thoughts: My door! | Mood: Mad

It was quite unfortunate that Lorraine's description of the group she encountered had not served to really answer any of Balthazar's questions. Though at the very least it was more information to add to what was already known, and Lorraine was going to do her best to answer any other questions Balthazar had to ask of her. So when he asked her another question this time about where they had gone she gave it some good thought. Placing her right index finger on her chin she'd think before pointing towards the door and taking a step towards it.

"Well if I remember correctly..." She started but was quickly interrupted by her front door being bashed in. She took a couple of startled steps backward as the three men came into the room. Though she didn't have a handy-dandy rupturing spark to alert her of the danger preemptively, she was still moderately prepared. She had her dagger at her hip and had her armor equipped thanks to her earlier plans. She quite confidently thought to herself that she could probably do well in a fight with the smaller man equipped with a shortsword. Though just like usual with her calamitous luck the one who decided to target her was the larger man with a hammer. A man who she immediately recognized as the one who had delivered the corpse to her. As a matter of fact, she figured the other two men were probably the two who had been carrying the corpse. Of course, she hadn't gotten as good a look at them both then and now so she couldn't be sure. Though all of that was of little matter to the current situation.

Lorraine scrambled backward grabbing her dagger from its hilt as the man with the large hammer and scar approached her. He began to swing his hammer up in what Lorraine figured was preparation for slamming it down on her head. She needs to move evasively and get out of that area fast. She took a deep breath focusing on the options she had. To her left was the table with the burnt body on it which meant she couldn't go that way. To her right was an open space but going that way would mean putting herself right in the line of sight of the archer. Behind her, there was a good distance to the nearest wall, likely enough for what she needed. Not to mention her freshly acquired sack of mice was sitting in that direction as well. Though her case and the fiddle within it were too far away to serve her any good magically. She knew she couldn't animate the mice without musical assistance as she was still struggling slightly with the consequences of overstepping the trial before. Possibly though there was something she could try to do in order to animate a mouse or two.

As the man began to bring his hammer down towards Lorraine, she would crouch down while simultaneously jumping backward. While doing this she effectively threw herself towards the wall, but she did manage to avoid getting hit by the large hammer. With a loud thud, the hammer would crash against the floor hard. Not letting this distract her Lorraine would reach into the sack that was luckily about an arm's length away, and grab a dead mouse from the inside. She'd pull it out of the bag clutching it securely, but relatively gently in her hands. Then she did something rather strange. In her best and calmest voice that she could muster she would begin to sing.

Animation Song

Rise dear thrall,
heed my call.
Come to me as you were,
before your fall.

A renewed life,
heart full of strife.
Filled with anger,
from your death by a knife.

Stand again for a second time.
The death bell does not chime.
The only price you have to pay?
You become mine as I finish this rhyme.

As she sung the man raised his hammer up from the ground again this time bringing it around his side. Though as he moved forward preparing to strike Lorraine, the mouse in her hands began to squirm. Lorraine reeled her hand back and threw the mouse straight towards the man's chest. It crashed against his chest and grabbed on tight with its sharp nails. Then Lorraine began to hum using her voice to control the mouse after animating it. It would move towards the man's face climbing up his shirt and even his neck. Once there it bit his nose gripping onto it with its teeth as it used its feet to claw at his face.

Needing a free hand to deal with the vicious wolfmouse thrall he took his right hand from the hammer stopping his attack. This was Lorraine's chance to strike him herself. She'd quickly get herself into a position to move forward quickly, and then she'd move. As she was making the very short, but quick, dash to the man Lorraine switched her dagger from her dominant right hand to her left. She got close enough to the man to grab the hammer just above where he was gripping it himself. Then, gripping her dagger tightly in her left hand, she brought it forward slamming the blade into his wrist, effectively stabbing him with it. Unable to hold the heavy hammer with one, very injured, hand the man released his grip. With this Lorraine let go of her dagger, which still lie inside the man's wrist, and used both of her hands to catch the hammer. It was incredibly heavy. Her original plan had been to hit him in the face with it but she doubted she could raise it high enough to effectively hit him. In the head at least.

Using as much strength as she could muster Lorraine swung the hammer back and then brought it forward in a low arc slamming it straight into the man's groin. It was by far a clean or perfect hit and with her lack of strength to back her up it wasn't all to forcefull, but it hit its target in a rather sensitive area. This pain coupled with the pain of Lorraine's early dagger strike, and the constant pain of the dead mouse eating his face caused the man to fall backward onto the floor. Given everything Lorraine was quite surprised that the man was, one, not screaming, and two, still actively using his right hand to attempt to remove the mouse from his face. In response to this fact, Lorraine lifted the hammer up again this time keeping its head facing straight towards the ground. She'd walk forward around the side of the man and lift the hammer straight up with both hands. Then she'd the top of the hammer's head straight onto the man's right shoulder. This gave way to a loud groaning noise of pain and made him stop fighting the rat.

Lorraine was in the simplest sense incredibly angry at the group of men. Especially the one who had broken down her door with a giant hammer. Now that he was lying on the floor alive, but very much in pain, at her feet, she felt only the slightest bit better. She knelt down next to his face to angry to pay mind to the other two men that Balthazar was dealing with, and began to speak.

"You busted down my door and tried to kill me, but maybe if you lay there quietly I won't let my little friend chew your eyes out. So do yourself and don't do anything stupid." Lorraine said to the man almost her words seething with anger. Then she hummed a sharp little tune and the wolfmouse on his face stopped try to eat him and just sat kindly on his mouth. Lorraine then got up and looked at the other two and Balthazar ready to help fight if it was necessary. If her help wasn't needed though she had decided she would let Balthazar finish up with the two.

[Balthazar Black]

49 Ymiden 719

The swordsman came and fell in one swift move. He swung his sword in a high arc and Balthazar caught his wrist before the blade could descend enough. Balthazar punched the inside of the man's elbow, buckling his arm, then drove the sword upwards through the man's rib cage. He tossed the swordsman aside in time to see the archer preparing another arrow and Balthazar sent a strong blast of wind his way. The wind knocked the archer into the wall and threw his shot off course then Balthazar sent a sharper chunk of rock from the pillar he'd summoned through the man's forehead with another punch in the air.

By the time Lorraine had dealt with her large man she would discover Balthazar leaning against the wall watching her. The swordsman lay on the floor, impaled in the chest with his own blade and the bowman pinned to the wall by a stone spike sticking out of his forehead. Balthazar had resolved his fight just a mite quicker than Lorraine because he'd been in many fights over the last few days and the duo he fought were grossly unprepared for him. Lame assassins. He applauded Lorraine's fighting and then looked at the large man whom she had spared. He was glad she did because he had been overzealous in the fighting of his foes.

"Are you alright?" Balthazar asked Lorraine as he softened the earth beneath the man who'd fought her enough for his legs to sink in before solidifying it an trapping him in place.