To Find A Missing Man

[Evalia Bloom]

Evalia yelped aloud as a hot sheet pan, full of cookies clattered onto the wooden floor. Somehow, distracted by thoughts, she had tried to take the pan out of the oven with her bare hands, which never ended well.
As she turned around to reach for a broom, she yelped again upon noticing a stern female figure, clad in a royal blue silk dress, standing in the shaded area of the messy kitchen, regarding her with a calm gaze.

"Carry on, don't mind me; I am just waiting to see at what point you would start burning the place down." The woman spoke in a neutral tone.

"Marguerite! Wh.. when did you get here? I didn't hear you coming at all," Evalia stammered.

"Oh, right around the time when you pour some salt into the batter of what seemed to be your second batch of cookies." The lady's grey eyes lingered for a moment at an abandoned bowl of cookie batter sitting on the counter behind Evalia. "I was about to get ready for the night when I heard suspicious noise coming from the kitchen, and decided to check if I needed to smite a burglar or two. Thankfully, it was only you." Marguerite stepped into the light carefully avoiding smatterings of flour and sticky substances on the floor. "Had I not seen you, Evalia, I would have thought that some flour fairies stopped by and had a wild orgy here," She added cooly.

Evalia gasped, her eyes wide open as she seemed to just now realize the shameful disarray around her. There were several pans of cookies sitting precariously among washed beakers and empty vials, their state ranging from somewhat raw to well done, to burnt beyond recognition. Dirty bowls and mixing spoons sat sadly in the sink, and she had no idea how the rolling pin got to the floor, its knobby handle peeking from underneath a shelf.

"I tell you what" Marguerite's clear voice pulls her away from her observation. "I shall make us some tea, you plate whatever salvageable morsels from your science project, we will go sit outside on the terrace; you will tell me what bothered you, I shall listen; you will feel better, and I shall have a good night sleep, in quiet."

Then, before Evalia had the chance to reflect or inquire about the existence of flour fairies, Lady Marguerite sauntered out of the room.

Outside, surrounded by flowering bushes, Evalia saw the slim figure of Lady Marguerite sitting at the table on the terrace, her back ramrod straight, her profile softly illuminated by the garden lanterns. The younger woman paused in her track, admiring how even under the sweltering Yew's summer night, the lady managed to not perspire in her high-necked, long-sleeved gown. Marguerite looked up, noticed Evalia's presence, and beckoned her towards the chair across from her.

"Sit." She said crisply, as she poured a cup of tea and pushed it towards Evalia.

Evalia complied, placing down the plate of edible-looking cookies between them.

"Today, you told me that you'd take the evening off to go to a dubious establishment in Skara Brae." Marguerite started.

"It's called The Shattered Skull. It is a tavern, not a dubious establishment. Xuri, the governor of Skara Brae was hosting a social gathering there"

"The purpose of such places is for people to go, have a cheap drink of questionable quality, and be merry? no? You seem to have failed to achieve that effect," observed Marguerite, smiling benignly at Evalia.
"Tell me what happened." She added, raising the teacup to her lips.

"On my way to the tavern, I saw Dagda looking rather distraught. She was looking for Roberto," Evalia begun.

Marguerite stared blankly, her shapely eyebrows slightly raised in question. "Who?"

Evalia drew a deep breath, and begin again, "Do you remember when I told you about a client who was plagued by demonic aura and needed a cleanse?"

"Oh, yes," she smiled faintly. "I was delighted that you took my advice and had him sign a waiver. One can never be too careful, in case the unfortunate happened."

"That was Roberto. Dagda is his lady friend," explained Evalia. "And my potion was completely safe. It was approved by the Britain Food and Drug Administration," she added somewhat heatedly.

"Of course, it is," Marguerite placed her cup down on the saucer without making a sound. "But one can never be too careful, people will sue for anything these days."

"They are a good sort, and would never do anything like that. Besides, the side effect Roberto was experiencing seems mild enough. He just spouted random nonsense that seem to be meaningful only to him. Anyway, the tavern was busy; I asked several people if they have seen Roberto, but none of them claim to have seen him lately, "Evalia frowned. "A kindly warrior, I think his name was Silivren - even took off immediately in search of Roberto."

"A warrior named Silivren?" Marguerite inquired.

"Yes, he carries a big shield - so I assumed he is one. He was present during Roberto's cleanse and helped with the potion." Marguerite motioned her to continue.

"After a good while, he returned. Alas, he could not find Roberto anywhere," Evalia said. "Not long after, a leper came in."

Marguerite casually laid down a half-eaten cookie and gave Evalia a look of distaste.

"Dagda found out from him, that Roberto had been seen running towards a moongate while cursing at someone, then while I was talking to a lady named Latifa, a small scale hell broke loose."

Marguerite stared incredulously at the younger woman.

"A great red creature that could have been perfectly at home in the Abyss, materialized by the bar, provoking some nearby patrons into action. I heard some people called it a Mad Piper.
From what I could gather, those within striking distance probably attacked it and then it vanished."

Noticing her former mentor's wide-eyed stare, Evalia continued. "You know how sosarians, in general, are quite desensitized to things such as this? We may sooner be shocked by the discovery of a three-headed monkey than by a sudden appearance of a demi-god hell bent upon destroying the realm." She poured herself another cup of tea, "Anyway, people were suitably roused by the demon's appearance, and there was talk abuzz about dead bodies being found in an inn room. The ensuing chaos sort of overshadowed the plight of Dagda and Roberto, and I was getting discouraged about the prospect of acquiring some help for them."

"One moment, Evalia," Marguerite raised a hand, "Why are you so invested in this? Frankly, this is none of your business."

Evalia fell silent, she turned her head away, looking at the lily plants at the edge of the garden, swaying their trumpet-shaped heads gently in the night breeze. "Dagda said that Roberto's disappearance may have something to do with the side effect from the cleanse."

"Is that the sound of guilt I hear just now? You feel guilty don't you?" Marguerite clicked her tongue impatiently. "You will not go far if this is the way you do business, Eva, but pray, continue with your story."

Evalia sighed, "So, as a last-ditch effort, I asked a ranger, Tserim, if he had seen Roberto."

"Wait, this ranger had been there the entire time, and you went to him last? You do realize that this sort of thing is included in the list of their expertise?" Marguerite didn't even bother to conceal the disgust in her eyes as she looked down at Evalia.

"He was preoccupied." Evalia protested.

"Right, now I know why it took you hours whenever I sent you to fetch supplies from the store." She sniffed condescendingly while rolling her eyes and shaking her head at the same time. An impressive feat that Evalia would love to replicate one day.

"To my surprise, he also knew Roberto well, and he readily agreed to lend his aid. He suggested we - Dagda, some knight called Fingolfin, himself, and I - went to Ter Mur moongate, where we found the very same leper who came to the tavern, begging by the moongate. After some exchanges, Fingolfin suggested that we checked Roberto's house in the area." Evalia paused for a sip of tea. "In his house, we found a stack of notes, random and disorganized.

Something about a shipment from Trinsic to Skara Brae; payments made; a harrowing, demon-related task list, his dealing with a church, and so forth." Evalia paused again observing Marguerite, her mentor's mood seems to have de-escalated somewhat from disgust to a mild disdain at her incompetence.

"The ranger took a while perusing the papers, then upon his suggestion, we went to a church to speak to the reverend there, and after that, we visited the area by the shrine of Compassion in Ilshenar which was mentioned in one of the notes left by Roberto."

"Oh look, you found someone competent, congratulations." Marguerite said tersely.

"We did not find any trace of Roberto there, and the day was getting very late. It was decided that we shall regroup next Monday to search the dock area. Jhelom, if I am not mistaken."

Evalia slouched in her chair, "That's all that happened tonight," she said tiredly.

"So you have yourself, a knight of dubious origin, an emotionally unstable lady, and a smelly forest man. You're off to a good start I can tell." Marguerite remarked casually.

"They are all capable warriors, and good people, Marguerite. You should not be so disdainful of those whom you have not even met.
Besides, Tserim mentioned that he may be able to gather more help should we venture into dangerous places" Evalia's dusky cheeks took on a slightly deeper color in her annoyance.

"Really? I see." Marguerite said, looking oddly pleased as she rose elegantly to her feet and strolled past her towards the house, at the door, she turned to face Evalia, smiling her first genuine smile of the day
"I sincerely hope you will be successful in your endeavor. Good night, Evalia." She said levelly and disappeared inside.

 

[Evalia Bloom]

The greenhouse, bathed in the gentle morning light was a sight to behold. hanging vines bearing exotic flowers adorned the wall; fragrant herbs and rare plants growing on raised beds; A few non-native fruit trees dotted the space.
In a corner, Marguerite sat on a wireframed garden chair like a queen presiding over her green kingdom; A cup of coffee in a white bone porcelain cup next to her on a matching wireframed table; She was dressed in a ruby red lace gown with a fitted bodice and open whitework bell sleeves; her dark hair gathered in a braided bun at the nape of her neck showing off her its slender line; the hem of its sweeping skirt almost touching a large brown dog sitting on its haunches close to her.
She was in the middle of perusing the content of a publication, taking an occasional sip of coffee every once in a while, when Evalia walked in with a tray of breakfast.

"Good morning," Marguerite said without deigning to look her way, although her canine companion did give Evalia a baleful stare, stood up slowly as if making a show of it, and turn his back against her.

"Good morning," greeted Evalia, setting her hefty tray on the table. "What are you reading?" she asked as she pulled another chair to sit.

"Oh, this?" Marguerite murmured, still not looking at her. "Some news bulletin you must have brought in last night. It was on the mantel."

"Listen to this, 'Governor Frey announced that most governors believe that the king should take a hike.' Finally, people have come to their senses." She gave a short feminine laugh, she never did forgive King Blackthorn for allowing the most garish parade of annoying floats that lasted far too long in her opinion a few years ago. "Who is this 'Dear Addy', I ought to meet this person one day."

"I am not sure. It was Jaden Rain, the governor of Britain who gave me that paper - she may know."

Evalia removed her heavy plate of eggs and sausages from the tray onto the table, preparing to eat, when Marguerite suddenly asked. "So, how was your excursion yesterday? Did the man of the forest deliver?" Said Marguerite in an unconcerned tone, just as Evalia was about to put a spoonful of scrambled egg into her mouth.

She lowered her spoon, "When I arrived at Roberto's house last night, there was already a crowd of people. It looked like he managed to convince the Emerald Fist to help with the investigation."

"What, the whole gaggle of them?" Asked Marguerite, turning another page of the paper.

"Yes, the whole ga-" Evalia stopped herself, giving Marguerite a reproachful look which was ignored, "It's more like the whole army of them, they are a formidable looking set, Not just them, there were the same set from the other night, and the governor of Skara Brae, Xuri with her guard, and James, I think, there were also some other arriving later."

"Look at you, mentioning names and remembering people. Tell me, who from the Emerald Fist were there?" Marguerite put away her reading, looking suddenly interested.

Evalia put her spoon down again, a crease forming between her eyebrows as she concentrate, not noticing the beginning of a small, sadistic smile on Marguerite's lips, "Well, there was Chanticleer, their leader -He had on dark colored dragon armor and carries a staff; Latifa, a lady in green - she wears this impressive sparkling green earrings; Lady Piper - she wears silvery plate armor and purple kilt, and...and... ."

"Oh enough already," Marguerite waved dismissively. "Although for your sake, I hope these people will never have to change their wardrobe!" She said with a ladylike chuckle.

Evalia shot her mentor an injured look, finally catching on to what she was doing - poking fun at her 'disadvantage'. "You know eventually if I see more of them, I will also remember their voices," Evalia said defensively, looking back down at her food, she cut the sausage into pieces with slightly more force than necessary.

"Then I also hope they will never catch a cold; But really, tell me what happened yesterday." Demanded Marguerite, right as Evalia was about to eat a piece of sausage; Funny how she timed that.

Obligingly, she puts her fork down, "The newly arrived investigators looked through Roberto's notes - just in case they may find some new insights. Some seemed concerned regarding the whereabouts of missing pages on the notes, others started mentioning the possibility of the Green Knight's involvement in his disappearance; After some discussion, it was decided that we should proceed as we had planned the other day, and we headed to Jhelom dock in search of Roberto's herald."

"Did you find him?" Marguerite took a sip of coffee, somehow without leaving any stain from her brightly painted lips on the rim of the cup.

Evalia nodded, "Under Roberto's order, he had been in Jhelom for three weeks, moving back and forth between the bank and the dock to watch for 'shady dealings by a group having ties with the socialists' as he put it. There were apparently, according to Roberto, some exchanges being made, although the herald himself had yet to see suspicious activity. Interestingly, after being at the island for a stretch of time, the herald seems to be oblivious to the fact that there is more than one dock in Jhelom."

"What a fool! With that degree of dullness, a heist could have happened before his eyes and I bet he would not have noticed" Marguerite sounded amused, "Perhaps that's why he is a herald in the first place, how hard is it to announce someone's arrival or convey messages? I question Roberto's wisdom in sending someone so obviously unsuitable for a spying duty."

"Good help is hard to find." Evalia shrugged.

"Yes, the smarter ones became adventurers and self-appointed sleuths." Marguerite gestured dramatically. "Continue."

"Some of the investigators broke away to investigate the other docks that the herald had missed, but they found nothing. We were at a loss as to what to do next when the herald finally mentioned in passing that he found a suspicious piece of paper with the word 'Skara' that he found, so naturally, we headed off to Skara Brae next."

"Desperate, aren't the lot of you? That piece of paper could have fallen off some random unrelated shipment crate or who knows what other possibilities there are." Marguerite scoffed.

"We saw a man who introduced himself as 'Tin Man' at the Skara dock, luckily he seemed to be just the one we had hoped to encounter. Someone who also worked for Roberto. He was in the middle of loading a ship. It seems like our friend has been shipping weapons and ammunitions to Zento"

"Let me guess, you went to Zento dock next, to see the receiver on the other end?" Marguerite interrupted.

"Yes, leaving the herald in Skara Brae to watch for any development, we made our way to Zento and found the contact person as you may have guessed, waiting at the dock. He disclosed to us that Roberto has contracts in many cities to supply their armories. So far as I could understand the exchanges between the investigators and the dock hand, Roberto's interest was purely pecuniary in nature. He is quite an astute businessman if not somewhat shady. I believe many are quite surprised to learn of his dealings." After her observation, Evalia paused, attempting a quick stab at putting food in her mouth when Marguerite interrupted again, "How's his lady friend reacting to all this?"

With a long-suffering sigh, Evalia finally gave up all attempts to eat and put down her cutleries. "She was extremely worried and angry - much agitated. After a few years of being together, she just now learned of his business interest other than slaying demons."

"Judging from how readily those in his employ spilled all sort of information to a flock of self-important strangers, it doesn't seem to me that Roberto meant to keep his dealings a secret, unless of course, like that herald of marginal value, all his other employees are equally inept." Marguerite offered, flicking an invisible speck of dust off the table with her red painted nails, "The lady should not have to worry her little head like that."

"Yes, I tried telling Dagda that she should focus on finding Roberto first, but she was inconsolable." Evalia shrugged helplessly. "Anyway, we found out another interesting bit. A certain 'Black Adder' Roberto frequently came in contact with, was to show up sometime on the first day of next week at the Salty Dog." She added,"

"Like a good mob, you plan on descending upon this poor character and scaring him witless? That might be a good way to intimidate someone to pour out all of his or her innermost secrets. I approve." Marguerite smiled brilliantly.

"These are Roberto's concerned friends, Marguerite, not some random uncouth mob as you would like to believe. there's strength in numbers, and with their help, I hope Dagda will soon recover her partner." Evalia corrected her patiently. "Unfortunately, at the wrap of our investigation yesterday, Tserim said something to the effect that he thought there's a possibility that Roberto and The Green Knight - this specter that haunts him, are perhaps one and the same. Opinion amongst the investigators was divided, but the speculation sent Dagda to the point of hysteria, she was insistent that all this madness was caused by the cleanse."

Marguerite perked up like a recently watered plant, "That wood stalker is a gem, maybe next week, he'd have another revelation that would qualify her for the madhouse. You all should crown him king." she said enthusiastically.

"I don't think it was meant to have that effect, Marguerite." Evalia frowned.

"Anyway, I have to go for a few days. I have a business to attend to in Nujel'm." Marguerite rose abruptly (and gracefully) her crimson skirt spilled behind her like a lowered tail of a peacock.

"Don't forget to eat your breakfast, I think it is cold."