by Billy Wong
Tania brought them upstairs and guided them through lushly carpeted rooms until they spotted a figure in green jacket with tasseled shoulder pads standing on a balcony which overlooked the city. It looked so tranquil under the mild sun, Celia found it hard to imagine it once being the dread of the whole coast. "Marquis Gomez, the former lord's fiance is here to see you, along with some friends."
He turned as they stepped out onto the terrace, a stout, dark man in his fifties with a curly mustache and oiled hair. "Katalina! God, how long has it been? Still you remain as youthful as ever."
"No need to flatter me, I'm sure I've aged some in half a decade. But I'm glad you're the one who took over here. Anyone else might not have been able to blunt the wrath of the other cities against our people."
Gomez exhaled. "It was not easy work, but with some economic concessions, we managed to avoid further bloodshed."
To Celia's surprise, Lina knelt. "As I apologized to Tania, I should to you as well. For me to abandon Dominique in its hour of need, I can call myself nothing but a coward at that time."
"Stand up. It is not difficult to understand the plight of a woman whose protector is killed, and then stands to have his enemies play the vultures. It's somewhat daring of you to come now. Who knows if you'll be safe even today."
"Don't worry," Edge said, "she has strong comrades to protect her." As much as she might have been inclined to admonish him for butting in, Celia found herself nodding in agreement instead.
The marquis smiled. "It's good you've found friends in your new life. I'm sure you two know Katalina to be a kind soul, but has she told you about how she saved the widows of the Pena family after the men were killed?" Lina did not look proud at all to hear it. "Sergio wanted to put them all to the noose, but in front of all she defied the terror of the coast and persuaded him to spare them so they could raise their little ones. As much as any deed on the battlefield, that was a feat worthy of a heroine."
Lina sounded choked up as she replied, "Don't... raise me on a pedestal. I just did... what any decent person would."
He patted her back. "I'm sorry, I did not realize you would be so hurt by talk of that. It must dredge up terrible memories—then, enough painful reminiscing. What did you come to ask me for?"
"I wish to question those who worked here while Sergio lived." She had gotten her voice under control admirably fast. "Do I have your permission to do so, and who is still around?"
"Permission is granted. As for your second question though, I cannot recall off the top of my head how long every person has been here, so you might as well look up the records yourself."
Following Marquis Gomez to his study, Edge said, "So we finally know something about our little healer's background. How does a lady used to luxury transition so smoothly into the rugged life of a wanderer, though?"
She shrugged. "Sometimes when one thing doesn't work out, you see the allure of the very opposite."
"I suppose I get what you mean. Assassin turned bodyguard here, after all. And Celia is a warrior merchant, so she pretty much lives opposites at once."
"There's nothing contradictory about being a warrior merchant!" Celia reiterated for what felt like the thousandth time. "When you question the employees, should we come with you or wait somewhere? I figure they might be more comfortable talking just to you without a couple strangers present."
"That's a good point, but I might need protection. We should probably stay together."
Gomez let her look over the employee records, and she jotted down a list of who was available to speak to. The questioning didn't take as long as one might've thought before they got a lead. The gardener Lina met second told them the mage Angelo now lived with his brother in the poor quarter of town. After asking a few more people, they narrowed down his location to a small area and headed off to find him. "You think he'll be there?" wondered Edge. "If he is, then he probably isn't our Necromancer."
"All this time spent traveling here," Celia muttered. Even if they'd learned some interesting facts about Lina's past, taking weeks to not progress their investigation would hardly be encouraging.
Lina waved dismissively. "Hey, don't be so pessimistic, already predicting failure when we haven't even come close to seeing the results. Maybe Angelo is the Necromancer, and we'll find that his sibling has been covering for him while he goes about his new work. And then you can corner him and have your final showdown."
"You don't mind, us killing somebody you know which is likely what it would come down to?"
"I didn't know him well. He made me uneasy the few times we met, and didn't seem any angel. If he is the Necromancer, definitely no angel." Celia realized she was making a pun about his name, and laughed awkwardly a few seconds too late.
They waited for evening to visit the slums, and asking around learned where Angelo and his brother stayed. Celia and Edge kept an eye out for trouble as they found their way to a shack made of mismatched boards, nearly indistinguishable from all the hundreds lined up with each other. Now these didn't look like they would hold up well in a storm. It certainly didn't seem like the dwelling of a famous and presumably well paid assassin, and would be cramped for one person let alone two... Reluctant to knock on the panel that served as a door perhaps for fear it would fall off, Lina said, "Angelo, are you in there?"
A male voice, raspy like it had been ravaged by illness, responded. "And who is the would-be visitor?"
"It's Katalina, Lord Sergio's former fiance. I just want to talk."
"Just a second." Celia heard some shuffling. "All right, you can come in."
Lina slowly pushed the door open. They spotted a emaciated man crouched over a pile of rags not unlike the ones he wore, back turned to them. Clumps of hair looked to have fallen out of his red scalp, and his skin was bumpy with countless insect bites. "Angelo, is that you?" Surely this wasn't the Necromancer—or was it somehow an act? "What ever happened-" The man spun, metal flashing in the moonlight. In his hands he held two loaded crossbows, the shiny bolts out of place in the filth. Before Celia or Edge could do anything, he had lined them up with Lina and pulled the triggers. The healer backpedaled with eyes huge, flinging her staff desperately upward.
There was a ping as one shot miraculously hit the metal staff, deflecting off it to the side; the other crossbow didn't even loose, jammed as one kept in such conditions was wont to. Edge ran forward and kicked the man in his sunken chest, knocking him down. His axe came up. Lina raised a palm. "Wait, don't kill him!"
Edge stopped his stroke just before the blade touched the shooter's neck. "Don't move, or I won't be able to obey her anymore."
"Well?" Celia asked.
"That's not Angelo," Lina said.
Assuming it to be his brother, Celia leaned down towards his dirty face and scowled. "Where is he, then? Tell us and maybe we'll let you live."
"Y-you witch, finally come back to finish what you started? Fuck you! It's too late."
Lina started. "Wait, what do you mean?"
Drool sprayed freely from his mouth as he spoke, making Celia lean away in disgust. Admittedly, he looked more pitiable by the instant. "Angelo is dead. Has been almost for a year."
"But people said he lived here with you," Celia said.
"He did. What, do you think their words would be up to date? Nobody cares enough about us to keep up with whether we're alive or dead. Guess you won't have the pleasure of finishing the job."
Lina sounded baffled. "Finish the job? We didn't come to ki—I mean, why would you think we were here to do that?"
"Don't play dumb. You think I'd believe you didn't know that when my brother refused to animate one of his victims to terrorize his kin, your lord had him beaten within an inch of his life and his tendons cut? After all this time, you decided that wasn't enough, but guess what? The joke's on you! Death took him before you could, and anyway killing him would have been mercy." He laughed crazily and spread his arms. "Go ahead, kill me in his stead. My soul's already dead. There's not
hing you can take from us now, nothing!"
Her jaw dropped. "I-I'm... I'm sorry! I didn't know what Sergio did to your brother. Is that why you're in the slums, because you couldn't afford to live decently feeding the both of you? We're not going to kill you. Here, let me help you up—I'll help you."
"I don't know that that's a good idea," Edge warned. "If I let him go, he might attack you again."
"Hahahaha, are you trying to trick me? I won't buy into your games. You nasty witch, lover of the lord of suffering. If you really won't kill me, tell Sergio his time will come soon. Once I master aiming these crossbows, I'll find him in the night and end him for good."
"He thinks Sergio is still alive," Celia whispered, shaking her head. "He's completely gone. Lina, what should we..?"
She looked away. "Knock him out for now." Celia did with a kick to the jaw. "I'll leave him a small bag of money, along with a note imploring him to get help. If it doesn't convince him in one of his more lucid moments, there's nothing else to do."
Minutes later, they left the crazed man behind them. "That was a waste of time," Edge said. "And I reckon Lina wasn't happy to learn about more of her man's crimes either."
Celia exhaled. "Let's not talk about it, and give her some time."
"No, it's perfectly all right to talk. And criticizing me for wasted time is fair play."
"Lina, it's fine. You thought you had a lead, and it was worth it to try."
She balled a shaking fist. "I hate Sergio..."
"Relax. He's dead."
"I hate myself for loving him. I should have cut his throat in his sleep or something—even if I try to tell myself he wasn't pure evil with his traces of compassion, such as how he spared children, it would have been justified to remove a cancer on the land."
"But then you probably would've died," Edge said, "and then we wouldn't have the blessed healer who saved my life."
He probably meant for her to laugh, but she just rolled her eyes. They walked on, immutable history heavy on their backs.
After leaving the slums, he asked hesitantly, "Where to now?"
Lina replied in a glum voice, "We should probably just go back and see if Celia's dad has come up with anything. With any luck he'll have done better than us."
"Yeah, I guess. But after coming all this way..."
"Wait," Celia said. "Are we absolutely sure he wasn't lying?"
"His insanity seemed pretty convincing. And he tried to shoot Lina—if he was just covering up for his brother, would he risk getting killed for that? He even asked us to kill him, and what if he had hit Lina? Then we probably would have. Plus look at his condition. He'd be taking it really far for it to be an act."
"That's true, and I believed it when I saw it too. Still, thinking about it it seems a bit I don't know, over the top. As for trying to kill her, maybe he purposely aimed for her staff? Lina, you were a known benevolent spirit back then, right?"
"I don't know if I'd call myself that..."
Celia patted her shoulder. "I know you feel guilty about not stopping him. But I said 'known.' Did people generally see you as a gentle soul, or would they have reason to think you would come to see someone dead yourself?"
"I suppose not."
"That makes it suspicious then. He claimed he thought you were there to finish Angelo, yet also supposedly believed Sergio still lived. If Sergio was alive though, why would he expect you to be the death dealer? It wouldn't make sense."
"Insane people hold strange views," Edge said.
Celia wasn't ready to give up this line of thought yet. "I know how important family is, but it's still a tad odd he would be driven that mad over a brother. Maybe he counted on Lina to not kill him due to her merciful nature, and leave him and Angelo alone after. As for shooting at her, could he have aimed to miss on purpose?"
"You think he would be that skilled? Hitting a moving staff isn't easy."
"If I recall right, I think the bolt bounced off the wider top of her staff. It's possible he thought to miss by even more originally, but saw a chance to be more convincing."
Edge wore a dubious look. "I still don't know... and continuing to bother her lover's victim might not make Lina the most comfortable."
"It's Celia's call," the healer said none too enthusiastically, "considering we're investigating attacks on her family."
She didn't wish to hurt Lina more, but the desire not to walk away from a possible breakthrough won out. "We'll watch Angelo's brother for a few days, and see if anything suspicious happens. You can stay with the Marquis or something until then if you don't want to be involved, and I promise we'll do our best not to harm him unless circumstances are different from what they appear."
Chapter 8
The next morning Celia and Edge observed the slum shack from a store rooftop they had paid some coin to use, while Lina caught up with people she knew around town. They had brought along wraps from the vendor, which they knew now not to eat all at once in hopes of avoiding digestive issues. Angelo's brother Hector left his house shortly before noon, and to her surprise Edge suggested, "Think we should go down there and follow him?"
"That quickly? I thought you weren't too thrilled about doing this."
"I wasn't, but now that we're here I might as well go all in." He winked. "Might be the old assassin in me speaking. Besides, he could be going to deliver a message to Angelo."
They went downstairs and tailed him from a distance for a while until they saw him join a group of raggedly dressed men gathered in front of a construction site. "Laborers?" Celia said. "It seems like he's going to work."
"Maybe we should go take a look in his house and see we find anything suspicious there."
She considered it. "We don't know if he'll actually work or is just trying to get work. Wouldn't be better to see how much time it takes for him to come back, and if it's long enough try going in tomorrow?"
"That's not a bad plan either. I just like living on the edge."
"Lame joke."
He shrugged. "I also figured if we wrap this up quickly, it'll give Lina less time to be worried. It's not like if we get caught, he'll likely report us or be too much of a threat."
"But if he becomes aware of us and manages to flee, that could make catching his brother—in the event he's alive and our Necromancer—more difficult. What evidence do you think we might find in his house, by the way?"
"I was picturing ingredients for necromancy, which would indicate his brother visits now and then. But if we found a relatively new urn of ashes or something, that could be proof of the opposite."
"Ashes wouldn't necessarily be Angelo's. I see what you're getting at, though." She began to eat the second half of her wrap, her stomach feeling settled enough. It wasn't exactly hot anymore, but the warm air outside hadn't been too hard on it. "I say we should still wait and just watch at least for today. Better to err on the side of caution than rush into things."
The pair returned to the roof. They found that Hector returned to his house about an hour after sundown, which gave them plenty of leeway assuming he would behave similarly tomorrow. They didn't know if he had regular employment though, which made his schedule uncertain. When they met Lina in the inn—she hadn't asked to stay with the marquis, whether not to disturb him or because she wanted to avoid stirring up old memories at the manor—she told them she'd had a great day meeting old friends. Celia hoped she was being honest, and not trying to put on a happy face for them.
The next day they waited until Hector left, a little earlier than last time, and headed down to the slums. When they reached his shack, Celia looked around to make sure nobody was watching, then tried the door. "It's locked." A bit surprising it could be, given how bare bones the construction seemed.
"I'll get it," Edge said. He produced a thin dirk from his sleeve and used its tip to work open the lock. "Assassin skills more useful than merchant skills, I guess."
"In this one specific situation."
They beheld the inside of Hecto
r's dwelling once more. A putrid smelling space the size of a big closet, with clothes strewn on the floor over a rotting bedroll. At the back stood a makeshift cabinet, upon which jars and boxes rested. Celia felt doubt anyone could put up with this for the sake of an act. Still, since they were already here... She locked the door. "I guess we should start with those shelves."
Edge raised a hand for her to stay back. "This isn't the type of place for a well-bred lady like you. You keep watch and make sure nobody's coming, and I'll check."
The proud side of her wanted to argue, but imagining a swarm of bugs which hid among Hector's possessions she said, "Thanks."
She gazed out the window in the direction Hector had gone while Edge looked through his things, the old shelves creaking sometimes when he took items off them. Periodically she switched her attention to the other window, in case the homeowner returned from an unexpected angle. "Find anything?" she asked after a while, growing anxious though he might not come back for a long time yet.
"A couple things of interest, although I don't think either is definite proof. On one hand, there is an urn with ashes in it. On the other, I also found some vials of strange powder."
"Is it possible they're drugs, and not for any necromantic rituals?"
"It's certainly possible, and I even lean towards them being that. But unless we get it checked out, we can't be sure, and I don't dare try them."
Celia chewed her lip in thought. "Do you have anything that could hold a sample of the powder? If he's an addict, I'm afraid he'd notice a whole missing vial."
"Of course, I could just sprinkle a bit in a pou-"
"Oh, shit."
"What?" he asked.
She had turned back from the other window, to see Hector approaching from the direction he'd left in. "He's coming! Where should we hide?"
He looked helplessly around the tiny shack. "I don't see anywhere to hide. Can't we just go out the windows?"