• Solo • A Fool's Errand

The capital city of the of Rynmere, here is seated the only King in Idalos.
Malcolm
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A Fool's Errand

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87 Ashan 716
The housing office was quiet and the woman at the front desk had been able to see Malcolm quickly. He sat down in the cold leather chair on one side of the desk and looked across at the elderly woman who was tall and thin with white hair and tired skin. She was wearing a pair of reading glasses with narrow gold frames and thick lenses, shuffling through the papers on her desk. "Blackwood did you say?"
"I believe that's the name, yes."
"You will have to excuse me for a moment, Ser, we have many persons under that name in our records."
"I'm looking for something on a woman and child, husband reported as deceased within the last few arcs, ship sunk out at sea."
The old woman turned a few more pages into the book and ran her finger down the list of names and dates. "Now that you mention it there is one woman here with her husband reported as deceased, our records show that her last address was..."
Malcolm opened his notebook and pushed it across the table. "Would you mind writing it down?"

The house was a small two bedroom place in mid-town, tucked away at the end of a long street nestled amongst a few other houses, each with flower boxes mounted below the windowsills and their doors painted bright, vivid shades of red, blue, and green. The house Malcolm was after had a black front door with the face of a iron lion on the front. The captain knocked on door and stepped back to wait and see if anyone would answer. He listened for any noises coming from within the house but it was a movement in the second story window that caught his attention. With no reply in the moments that followed, Malcolm knocked again and called out, "Mail!"
A woman answered the door with a young boy in her arms and glared at the man. "You don't look like the usual postman that comes through here of an afternoon."
"I apologise for deceiving you, my lady, but I am looking for someone who I know used to live at this address, the Blackwood residence?"
"That's us," she nodded, "who may I ask are you?"
Malcolm's heart sunk, perhaps Marcus had been wrong. "A friend of your husbands, we used to sail together," he lied.
The woman laughed. "Oh, you must be talking about my sister in law, it's my brother you used to sail with then?"
Malcolm stood stunned, maybe he was onto something after all? "Y-yes," he stuttered, "do you have an address for his wife?"
"Hold on, let me find the letter she sent last season."

The captain waited outside and noticed someone upstairs lift the curtains again. He narrowed his eyes, trying to get a better look at the person inside but before he had the chance, the door opened again. Blackwood's sister came out holding an empty envelope with a return address on the back. Malcolm took the envelope and thanked the woman before taking a better look at the address. The text would lead him in the direction of low-town, strange, the man thought, why not just tell him the new address if she was so close, and why would she have to send a letter if she hadn't moved out of the city? Malcolm pressed his thumb to the ink to find that it was still wet... He stopped and looked back at the house, why would she lie?
word count: 599
Malcolm
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A Fool's Errand

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The search for answers took Malcolm to the city library where the librarian pointed him in the right direction for Andaris marriages, births, and deaths. It wasn't long before he found a record of Blackwood's death in arc 713 during the season of Zi'da and wrote down the date before turning to the book on marriages. It took Malcolm two or three breaks to find the record of his marriage to a woman formally known as Amelia Miller. The captain stared at the name for a long time, the details showing that Miller had been quite a few arcs younger than Blackwood, but she wasn't nobility as he had first suspected, in fact, delving back into her family records showed no sign of wealth or land holdings.
Reading on, Malcolm discovered in the book on recorded births for Blackwood's arc, the names of both the man's parents, it seemed he too was not of noble blood, but much more humble beginnings. Even more interesting than that, was the fact that Malcolm couldn't find any record about Blackwood having a sister, though there were two younger brothers, and indeed Amelia had given birth to a son. She's hiding something, he thought, time to go find out what that is.
The captain made a few more notes in his journal before putting the books away and heading out towards the address scratched onto the back of the envelope, but not without stopping by at the marketplace first where he knew Benjamin was on duty. At the edge of the busy marketplace stood next to a stall with an old woman trying to sell goat skins, Malcolm found Benjamin scolding a young boy for running into the back of him. "You could have cut yourself on my sword or anything!" The tall male said sternly. "Watch where you're going next time!"
"Speaking of swords," the captain smiled, "I could use a second, mind following me down to low-town?"
"Captain!" Benjamin smiled. "Of course, anything you need, Ser."

On the way down to low-town Malcolm explained what he was investigating to Benjamin and as they approached the location of the house that he had been provided with, both Knights stopped a few houses away and looked at each other. "This is the one," Malcolm was sure.
"Not the nicest part of town," Benjamin admitted. "In fact I would go as far to say that it is the very worst part of town, perhaps we should go away and get back up?"
"Nonsense, you are backup," the captain grinned and walked forwards to knock on the door.
A man of average height and with shockingly blue eyes and dark hair answered the door, pulling it open just a crack. "Can I help you?" He asked and peered around to see that there were two officers outside his door, only one of which was dressed in uniform.
"I hope so," Malcolm replied, "I was told this is Amelia Miller's new address?"
Malcolm noticed the man's brow crease as he thought about the name. "Never heard of her," he scoffed.
"She was married to a man named Yorath Blackwood, I believe you know of him?"
The man opened his door and put his hands into the pockets of his pants. "My brother," he agreed with a nod."
Malcolm had only been guessing and stood surprised to find that his hunch had been correct. "Can you tell us whether or not Amelia is still living in the city?"
"Of course, come in!" The man waved after sizing both men up.

Malcolm couldn't help but feel he was the fly stumbling into the spider's den. Now this man suddenly remembered who Amelia was? He looked back at Benjamin and pointed his gaze at his comrade's sword before stepping into the house.
word count: 648
Malcolm
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The house smelt damp even with the open fire burning, and rather bad, as if the man were hiding a dead cat in one of the piled up cooking pots in the kitchen. Benjamin touched his nose, tempted to pinch it shut between finger and thumb, but seemingly thought better of it, and not wanting to appear rude, pressed his hand to the iron plate of his chest piece, his other hand closed around the hilt of his weapon. Malcolm felt ill at ease and stood with his hands behind his back, knuckles brushed against the grips of his throwing blades.
"It's been almost three arcs since my brother's death, were you friends of his?"
"Comrades," Ben interjected before Malcolm could get a word in.
"That's right, we sailed together," Malcolm then agreed, "he was the captain of our ship."
Benjamin gave Malcolm a sidelong glance. "Terrible what happened to him."
"Amelia," the man sighed, "I hardly knew her, Yorath was a very private man."
Malcolm stitched his fingers together and thought about what Elyna had told him, how she hadn't known about the other woman until the day Yorath had gone missing, perhaps everyone had been in the dark including the man's family? "He didn't often speak about his personal life," Malcolm offered. "We were hoping to get in touch with his wife in order to return some of her belongings to her."
"After all this time?"
Ben cleared his throat before speaking up. "Yes, they had been under lock and key while an investigation into the sinking of his ship took place and have only just been released now with the official closing of the report."
Yorath's brother seemed to visibly relax. "It's good to hear that it is all done and dusted," he nodded and paced across the living room floor. "You can leave his things with me, I don't mind posting them."

Posting, Malcolm thought, perhaps the woman at the old address had not been Amelia after all? Nothing was making much sense.
"We only have authority to hand them over to Amelia herself."
"Well you will have to go a long way if you plan to do that," he admitted, "She lives in Western Idalos now."
"Ne'haer?" Malcolm asked.
"That's right."
"We sail that way all the time," Benjamin lied, "do you happen to have a recent address?"
"I would have to find it."
"We don't mind waiting," Malcolm smiled.
"Just a moment," the man replied and turned to rummage through one of the drawers in his writing desk.

Yorath's brother turned all of the sudden and threw the small booklet into the open fire. Benjamin lunged at the man with sword drawn and pinned him against the desk while Malcolm threw his hand into the fire to collect the book.
"You have no right!" The man growled, knife drawn.
"Take him to the jailer," Malcolm ordered, "we don't want him warning the others before we can get to them."
word count: 509
Malcolm
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Malcolm returned to the first address with Benjamin after they had seen to it that Yorath’s brother had been put behind bars for the night. The captain knocked on the front door and waited. Soon Benjamin grew impatient and stepped forward to drum his fist against the black door and called out. “City guard, open up!”

When no reply came, Benjamin moved back ready to shove the door, but Malcolm stopped him by stepping forward to test the handle. He turned the knob and the door opened. “How did you?” Benjamin looked shocked.
“I had a strange feeling they might not be in,” Malcolm sighed and stepped into the house.

Beyond the front room it looked as if whoever had been living in the small two bedroom place had left in a hurry, packing only what they could carry. The floor was littered with clothes and cutlery, and one of the book shelves had been knocked down in the hallway. Malcolm climbed the stair cautiously, weapon drawn. He opened the second bedroom door slowly to find that this room too had been ransacked and the bed left unmade. The windows were all closed up and locked tightly, so it seemed strange for them to leave the front door unlocked.
Malcolm checked the counter tops and the dresser to find that the jewellery boxes had been emptied out and most of the clothes were missing from the drawers. “Looks like they got out of here in a hurry,” he turned to find Benjamin standing in the doorway.
“Where would they have gone?”
“Not to the brother’s house.”
“Not if they sent you there,” Benjamin agreed.
“The docks?”
“I’ll get the horses.”

The chestnut gelding pranced across the drawbridge leading out of the south gate, head raised and the white of his eyes showing. It had been a day or two since the animal had been taken out of the stables and as he was so restless, any chance to stretch his legs got him fired up. Malcolm pointed the horse towards the docks, shortening the reins in order to try and bring him back under control. A short, sharp kick to the gelding’s sides saw him lunge forward and race towards the dock at a gallop. Benjamin’s horse saw this as a challenge and powered forwards in an attempt it keep up, if not surpass his rival.
On the way to the docks, Malcolm and Benjamin stopped two wagons that they came across, both carrying goods with little room for stowaways. They passed no one else on the road and slowed their horses well before they got to the shore, dismounting alongside one of the animal yards where they were able to store their horses until their business at the docks was finished. Looking out into the harbour, the captain noticed a large tall ship heading out to sea and waved to the guard at the end of the docs. “Where is that ship bound for?”
“Headed west,” the guard called in reply.
“Were there many passengers? Benjamin asked.
“At least thirty, lord.”
Malcolm groaned and scratched his fingers through his hair; it looked like they would never find out. “Many women and children?” He asked.
“A couple, Ser, one about seven arcs, the other just a babe.”
“The child’s mother, was she traveling with anyone?”
“I’m not sure, Ser, a tall figure in a cape, the pair seemed quite desperate to get on this ship rather than the one they were booked to take next tide. Had to pay a few extra gold, can’t have been kind on the purse.”

Malcolm folded his arms and looked at Benjamin. The two didn’t say a word but they were both smiling. Booking Office.
word count: 630
Malcolm
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A Fool's Errand

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Problems with smuggling and criminals sneaking into the country over the last few decades had seen security tightened, especially around the docks, it was no longer possible to come and go as one pleased, instead, everyone was issued with official papers, signed and stamped by a city transport representative. This meant that a record was kept at the booking office of all those who brought tickets and sailed between the ports of Idalos.
Malcolm went to see the guard on duty at the office and asked to see the books for the last passenger ship that had set sail and pointed to it on the horizon.
"Ah, the one heading for Ne'haer," the bookie smiled, "I need to see proof of title," he stated plainly .
Malcolm pulled his leather takers off over his head and on his shirt, the gold swords that marked him as a captain of the Moseke Knights sat on display, pinned to the breast pocket of his top. "Will that do?"
"Of course, Ser," the man agreed and pushed the books forward.

Malcolm turned through the last few pages and scanned each and every name carefully, making sure he didn't miss anything. Next to the names were ages, and a brief note describing how long the person intended to stay or travel for, and what address they would be staying at during that time. When he spotted one of the names he was after, Malcolm was surprised to find Amelia had opted to use her real name, as identification wasn't impossibly to forge for those who had the coin. He showed the record to Benjamin and then scratched it down into his journal, marking how long Amelia intended to stay in Ne'haer and what address she had put down along with her details.
"Rookie," Benjamin laughed, "we got her."
"That we do," Malcolm agreed, "but we are after Blackwood."
"Dock guard says she was traveling with a tall male in a hooded cloak."
"Could be anyone," the captain scoffed.
"Then we put a man on the job to find out."
"Like an investigator?"
"Exactly," Benjamin nodded, "we put him on the next boat to Ne'haer and wait to hear from him by post."
"Wouldn't it be easier to drag Elyna's brother in and question him?" Malcolm asked.
"Without any proof? You can't go questioning and accusing a noble of such things unless you have some solid evidence to back your claims," Benjamin stated.
"And I suppose dragging his name through the mud won't win me any points with Elyna."
"Look who's smitten," Benjamin laughed.
"Watch it you!" Malcolm hissed, "get one of the guys up to speed and send him on his way, as soon as he knows something, I want to know something!"
"Yes, Ser."
word count: 470
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Griffin
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A Fool's Errand

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Malcolm

Skills
Observation: 3
Investigation: 6
Persuasion: 2
Interrogation: 2
Leadership: 3
Mount: 1
Intimidation: 1

Basic Knowledge
Location: The last known address of Amelia Blackwood, nee Miller
Location: Address of Blackwoords’ brother
Amelia Blackwood: Not to be trusted
Blackwood: Married in 713
Blackwood: Not a noble
Benjamin: Soft-hearted towards children
Blackwood’s Brother: Not to be trusted
Deception: Keep it simple

Specialised Knowledge
Blackwood: Probably alive
Blackwood’s Brother: Wants the book destroyed
Blackwood’s Brother: Lives in the worst part of town
Amelia Blackwood: Left Andaris in a hurry for Ne’Hear
Mount: Restless after two days in the stables
Interrogation: Truth is a matter of perspective
Law: Everyone goes via the booking office
Nobility: Don’t accuse without evidence

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