Tor shrugged.
“Well, I provided part of it, Dorgal did the rest. Definitely a combined effort. Though I have to say, his leaving a mysterious chest like that makes a much better story than what I intended, which would have just been passing it along to you. All's well on that front? With Dorgal I mean?” Tor hadn't seen the man in months after all.
Some friend he was.
“Oh, yes! Business is good and his mother is planning to send a go-between for him. Lyn Cooper? I don't know if you know the name?” She smiled when she said it, but it was hard to read.
Tor winked.
“Yes. Her mother lives here in the city, the cooper by the south wall. Collette knows more I believe.” He looked back at her.
“Oh, yes, I can take you there if you want, so you know where to send his mother. How exciting! I do love a good wedding.” Collette smiled at him with a twinkle in her eye.
“So if she says yes, I take it your paying for it, as her sponsor?”
“Seems reasonable. We'll have to set some gold aside for it. Speaking of marriages, anyone know where my wife’s gotten too? I want to check in with her. I should have already.” It was a good excuse to get out of the room at least, so that people could plot in private. As long as it wasn't against him or the crown, it wasn't really his business. Hopefully it wasn't about him. That was possible, since Collette's father, the Baron, might not be happy with how poorly he'd been doing finding his daughters murderer.
Tor took a deep breath. Crud.
He moved in front of the man, who'd stood to hug Maria, and oddly Sandra too, and bowed low. Not going to his knees, because he couldn't and float like he was, could he? Hopefully the man would understand.
“I apologize for not doing a better job on the case sir. I allowed myself to become sidetracked, it felt needed at the time, but that's no excuse. Please know that the full might of the kingdom is on it however, and that the failing was with me alone. I promise to do better in the future.”
The man bowed back.
“Thank you Lord Baker. It's good to know that it isn't forgotten. It's frustrating not knowing what's going on, but I can't exactly tell Smythe of Westend to just send over a report bi-weekly, can I? I don't suppose you know if anything has broken on the case or not, do you?” The man didn't seem hopeful.
Ah, well, no one had told him anything had they. Tor straightened.
“Excuse me for a few moments, please? Collette, is there a private room near?” She showed him to a door, hidden well in the fake wood work at the back of the room. It took a bit to get in touch with Smythe, and a while longer to run everything by him. Finally, some forty minutes later, really feeling drained, Tor walked out and bowed to the Baron again.
“Alright, both Smythe and the King have cleared me telling you what we know so far, which isn't much. I have to extract oaths from you first and kick Meredith from the room. Sorry. If I had more energy right now I'd clear you with a truth amulet. I just don't. It's incredibly rude of me, but-”
She waved a hand at him and smiled again, “don't let it worry you. You can tell me some other time.” She glanced around, “Um, Collette, where should I retire too?”
They, it turned out, had a second sitting room. Tor was impressed. The idea of rooms just to sit in wasn't totally new to him, but having not just one, but two of them was a real step up for someone like him.
After that he ran down the whole thing, ending with the attack on Lairdgren, which they knew about and that the Austran agent had been using Ginger's name and station to work her way into the school. Which of course, they didn’t know at all, being privileged information.
“Why, we don't know. That's why I brought this man. Here. Denno?” He gestured and the small dark man who looked a lot like a younger, smaller version of Count Ward, but even more perfect, moved forward.
“Yes, little brother?” He said softly, voice calm.
Tor didn't have a plan at all, so just shrugged.
“Well, you’re the Ancient of Austra, so, what can you tell us about all this? Who likely ordered it, what else should be expected and anything else you can come up with that might be right. We can't force you to help us, but, well, if your plan doesn't involve an army taking out Austra next week, I suggest you at least trying to help us out here. I get that you have some secret… whatever it is, going on. If that involves killing girls, well, it better not. But be honest about it, please. You're best chance is to engage me in a fight right now, if you have to. I'd love to avoid that, but I can't stop you. Not at the moment.” His voice was flat, tired and so worn even Denno winced, implied threat or not.
“Ah, I… OK. I have no plans that involve anyone from this kingdom at all, except you, Purple and Green. Possibly Laurali Gray as well. Laurali Baker? Also Mr. Dan Green. At any rate, my best guess given the nature of the attack and the kind of agent used is that this was the work of the protection agency. Kind of like… I'd guess the closest thing you have here is the Royal Guard. They guard the Premier and his family, which means Daria, who, most likely, is behind this in some fashion. It reeks of her cruelty and ham fisted ideas about how to run an operation.” Denno looked at each person in the room in turn.
“As too what will come next? That's too hard to accurately forecast. Given her unstable personality type, I'd expect more attacks. Probably towards young women, though not, of course, coming from her personally. The Serge line, no matter how unstable, is marvelous at keeping themselves safe. Truly gifted at it, in point of fact. That means agents brought in for the task. That or ones recruited on site. She was here in the city, I believe? For several years? It wouldn't be impossible at all for her to have co-opted a few people. Austra has a few methods that could allow for that to happen very quickly, if the correct type of person can be found. In this case, my guess would be a killer that has been co-opted, turned if you will, rather than a spy turned killer.”
He was smooth and just a little warm, considering the subject matter, which could have been due to thousands of years of practice, but felt more like an attempts to placate them all than anything else. Tor watched what he was doing carefully, no obviously coded messages to Burks, which didn't preclude very hidden ones at all. But, if Tor had to make a raw guess himself, it would be that the man in front of him was trying to buy his good will. That didn't really make a lot of sense though. Not based on what Tor knew.
Why would he need Tor for anything? He could barely walk at the moment and Denno didn't even believe in magic at all, so his building skills were kind of moot there too. Other than those things though, what use was he to the man?
He was helpful anyway. His words, even if Brown just didn't care about them, added reams of possible data to the mix, and it was probably a lot more correct than the nothing they had before. Even if he was hiding facts or even lying, it probably had mainly truth to it. Good lies did. Tor started probing about the time that Denno wound down a little.
“How likely is it really, that Daria Serge is behind this and not her father?” He kept his voice quiet, soft and tried to sound manly instead of like he was about to collapse. It wasn't nearly as easy as it should have been.
Instead of being intimidating or even coming across as strong, Tor was afraid that Denno was starting to respond to him because he just looked and sounded so pitiful. The man winced and started speaking more softly as they went on. The kind of voice you used with an invalid or dying person. Tor raised his eyebrows.
“Stop that. Acting like I'm about to fall down. Just answer the questions. I know that you've probably seen all this a hundred times before, but finding the… killer and making them pay, stopping these attacks, it actually means something to these people. It means something to me. Don't let age make you forget your humanity Brown.” Tor grimaced, hard and floated closer to the man. “I don't know what all you have going on inside that Ancient skull of yours, probably more than I'll ever understand, but I know this, no matter what this really is, Austra is your responsibility. If you don't stop this, help us stop this, some of these people are probably going to fly over there and end your entire continent.”
Lairdgren looked down, but didn't speak for a time. A long time. Finally he looked at his brother and nodded.
“And some of them can actually do it Den. I wasn't joking about that when we spoke on it. I don't want there to be threats between us and these people don't mean harm to innocents, but in their grief…”
The Ancient of Austra looked at his brothers and finally the room, “I… may be able to get in touch with some people back home and see if I can trace the roots of this for you. It will take some time and I may not come up with anything useful. I don't exactly have the needed gear to hand and while powerful, your technology isn't compatible with Austra's, so-”
