A half-hour's search of the grounds only serves to entrench further the Lady de Bellefeuille's suspicion that her sister has been abducted. She sends word to the Temple through a Korv servant, and disperses her guards, on foot and by rakhtor, to search the countryside. She personally takes her chaise and a small escort of guards along the road, to inquire of her neighbors and passersby about any suspicious vehicles they may have seen.
The eldest de Bellefeuille and sister of the kidnapped Katherine directs her personal search southward. Both suspicious vehicles had been related to be heading towards the market and towards town – their destination hardly surprising when the officer and noblewoman considers it, though the addition of a second vehicle certainly strikes her as odd. As she herself cannot ride due to injuries, she has told her driver to take her in to town as well as to send a dispatch to see that the aerial search is focused more on the market and Bazaar areas. The road to town leaves the elder sister much time to think and worry, and she is kept from utter fretting only by the interrogation of persons along the way.
Passersby vary in their reports on traffic to her as she draws closer to the Bazaar. Some add more wagons – from the sound of it, someone is bringing a wagon full of bugs for sale, and another carries fresh produce. Several don't recall either the covered wagon or the carriage, but one person mentions them without being prompted, suggesting that she is still on the correct track. Once they enter the Bazaar, the search becomes more frustrating – so much traffic passes through that few recall individual carriages or wagons.
Still on the correct track, was it? The mention by the stranger worries Elise. She quite expected people to have no idea, and for the search to grow more difficult the farther they proceeded in to the city, but the unexpected mention without prompting makes the woman consider if she is being led somewhere – perhaps to a place a ransom might be demanded, or worse. Regardless, the older sister is not about to be kept from her search by ransoms or potential traps. Katherine is her dear sister and only close family, and her loss would devastate Elise. So the eldest de Bellefeuille continues on searching as she goes, inquiring, and praying to the First Ones that her sister is unharmed.
As her carriage makes her way down an east-west road that Elise only hopes is the path her targets took, she is painfully conscious of the passing of time, at every pause to ask another vendor or beggar for information. Finally, a couple running a small booth selling cloth recognizes the description of the carriage. "Came through in a daghish hurry," the female raccoon says, adjusting the folds of one of her zolks. "Turned at the corner, there, headed north."
"Don't be foolish now, Merry," her husband chides. "I'm sure it was going south."
Elise, who speaks from her carriage window, listens attentively. "It is imperative that you remember correctly, citizen. This is a very important matter, one I take quite personally. If your assistance proves useful than you will be entitled a handsome sum," she says.
"Harry, I know what I saw, it was definitely going … " The woman pauses in her retort on hearing the noble's words, and she strokes her chin. "Well, mayhaps I just assumed it was going north. They usually do. You say south, Harry?"
The husband nods emphatically.
Merry turns back to the noble. "South, my lady. My husband, he's a better head for recent things. Don't be asking him about last week, though!" She chuckles.
"Driver," begins Elise as she looks forward towards the driver, "prepare to depart southward. Let us hope the words of these citizens proves right and truthful. Surely they would not think to lie to a Templar." The words are spoken loudly enough so the merchants may hear the lady, and then the woman in the carriage turns back to them. "Thank you for your help. Should your words prove useful I shall see you are rewarded. May They bless you."
The two Rath'ani exchange glances, the bow meekly. As the carriage rumbles off, Elise thinks she catches the woman's voice, saying something to her mate, but the noise of the Drokars' hooves and her own wheels drown out whatever it might have been.
"Stop the carriage as we round that corner." Elise points to one of her guards. "You, depart and make your way back to those two. I do not fully trust them. Be silent, walk with utmost stealth, and see what they are up to."
"Report to the search parties if you discover anything. They will find me," the woman adds.
The guard nods his compliance with her directive, saluting before he departs. As the remainder of the party drives south, they find another a few blocks down who attests that he saw the same white and gold coach rumbling down the road. A little further still in the same direction, and the bustle of the Bazaar gives way to the silent streets of Darkside. Her three remaining guards look nervous as the carriage continues past seemingly empty buildings, with shuttered windows and closed doors. Some appear to be warehouses, or abandoned carriage houses from better days. If there are people on the street, they scatter at the approach of an armed noble's coach in daylight.
"Arm your crossbows," whispers the noblewoman to her guards. "Be prepared for an attack. This is the Darkside, and I am sure you have heard the rumors of the bounty offered here. Do not presume to present a threat to them, however. We need not provoke the people here any more than we do by our very presence."
The carriage rolls on as the guards crank back their crossbows. In another two blocks, the street ends in a "T" intersection. The coachman halts, glancing through the window to the compartment as he looks to his mistress for guidance. To the east, a Skreek child looks up from some game with pebbles, and on sighting them, darts for the shelter of a nearby building.
The driver's mistress finds that she is looking out the window towards the direction the child vanished off to. "Bring the carriage to the building and keep vigil. One of you will depart with me. I mean to have words with that child and I fear the entire coach might be more frightening than I would prefer," she orders quietly.
"My lady," one of her lieutenants says, looking even more anxious. "May I speak freely?"
"Yes, what is it?" inquires the noblewoman.
"Lady de Bellefeuille, allow me to caution you against this. We are in Darkside now, and there's no reason to suspect this child of any more knowledge than the dozens of others who've fled our arrival." The older canine licks his lips, nervous. "Forgive me for saying so, my lady, but I fear you are taking a needless risk. Perhaps we should return to the house and see if any of the other searchers have news."
Elise eyes her lieutenant for a moment, then inclines her head to the point. "You are right," she tells him. The noblewoman leans back some and turns her gaze to her folded hands. "I fear my sister's disappearance has shaken my judgment. Very well, we will return to the mansion."
Back at the mansion, there is little in the way of good news. At Elise's offer, Lord Pink attempted to ride Mystery, for greater speed in looking for the missing Katherine. However good-intentioned the effort, the mount proved a poor choice, giving her rider a nasty tumble and, according to the report of one guard, forcing Lord Pink to spend the better part of an hour on the back of a rakhtor, with two groomsmen for assistance, just retrieving the wayward winged Drokar. Mystery is safely returned to the stable, at least, and the poodle lord is still out, looking, on a loaned rakhtor.
A Temple Inquisitor has come and left, responding to Elise's summons to the Temple. She questioned the servants, and left her calling card, with a note stating that she would return in two hours, after further inquiries. The Lord haut Glas has also made an appearance, leaving a note expressing his concern.
As Elise sits in her parlor she so often uses to meet with guests, she turns to regard the note left upon her table. It is from Lord haut Glas, an ex-interest of her sister if she remembers correctly from the time before Grant. With little else to do but worry and wait the elder sister and officer of the Temple plucks the note from in front of her to read.
The letter is short, written in a rushed style that confirms, as the servant who delivered it told her, that it was composed at the de Bellefeuille manor, when the writer was informed of Elise's absence. I am most distressed to learn of the Lady Katherine's disappearance, and came at once to offer my services. I will exert what influence I may with the Temple to bring their resources to bear upon the mystery. My men are at your disposal for the search. Please contact me should you have any news or use for me. Yrs., Lord Dominic haut Glas
The noblewoman looks up from the letter and turns to regard the door and the servants she know to await beyond it. "Armond, see that Lord haut Glass is informed that I would appreciate his assistance in this matter, though … I do not believe he will need use his position within the Temple to levy further support," she calls out to the butler.
"Yes, m'lady," comes the prompt reply.
With her order given, Elise is left to the silence of the empty parlor. As the minutes pass and the lady poodle glances from door to window and back again she finds she cannot bear the quiet. She cannot stand to think her sister may be in the hands of those who might do her harm. The lady begins to grow increasingly unable to simply wait where she is, and at last moves to ease herself up and out of her chair. If only she had not sustained this injury, she considers that she might be in the condition to search far and wide herself, not stuck to merely wait here in her mansion.
A little over an hour later, and the guard she left with the two raccoons has returned, too, reporting that the shopkeepers seemed perfectly ordinary, and engaged in no suspicious activities. Shortly thereafter, the Temple Inquisitrix returns, requesting to see the lady of the manor.
Elise, who had been pacing as best she could around her parlor when not tending to her servants or other concerns, readily welcomes the Inquisitrix in to her home and bids she join her in the very parlor she had been waiting in. As she awaits the Inquisitrix's entrance she waits standing by her usual chair, leaning some of her weight upon her cane.
A gray tiger-striped feline in Templar robes, the woman gives the officer and noblewoman a formal salute, after being introduced by Armand as "Inquisitrix Faith of the Temple". "Greetings, Lady de Bellefeuille," she says, her voice curiously devoid of inflection. "Thank you for seeing me. I would like to ask some questions, if I may."
Elise returns the salute with but a nod, her obvious injuries explaining her lack of salute perhaps better than her words could address. "You will forgive me, Inquisitrix Faith if I do not salute. Would that I were able, I fear I would not be here to see you presently, for I would be searching myself. Please, take a seat and ask your questions," says the noblewoman. She remains standing, likely waiting for her guest to be seated first.
The Inquisitrix seats herself in the chair opposite Elise's own, nodding slightly. "Of course. Lady de Bellefeuille, do you have any particular suspicions regarding what happened to your sister this afternoon?"
"There are … ," the noblewoman starts, glancing towards the window, "… many possibilities, I fear. Many suspicions, most of them quite dark. My sister does not follow my pursuit of military and political obligations quite as I do, and I do not know quite so much about the intricate details of her life that I could suggest any reason for her disappearance save the obvious: a jealous lover, or simple ransom. I cannot fathom that my sister might have developed enemies… No, I fear if revenge is the case beyond the reason I have stated, it would be against me. I am an active servant of the Temple and my sister is so much my world, my only family. If aught should befall her it would … wound me severely."
As the poodle speaks, her visitor jots down notes in a neat tablet, unfolded in her lap. "I see. I understand the Lady Katherine is … recently engaged? Did she break off any attachments prior to forming this engagement to … Grant de Ayde?"
"That is correct, Inquisitrix," answers Elise dutifully, and quite with the air of someone who is used to reporting. Perhaps it is this familiarity with the career that has brought her so much, for good and ill, that brings her some manner of comfort derived from this echo of her daily duties. "Lord Dominic haut Glas has offered his assistance and it has been accepted. I am not truly suspicious of him, but even the most tenuous links to my sister are suspect, and his link is greater than most. I should also mention that two carriages were spotted leaving the scene – the white and gold personal conveyance of the father of the man who would marry my sister, the elder de Ayde, besides a wagon with its back area covered. Both were last seen proceeding to the merchant areas – most notably the Bazaar."
"So, Lord Dominic haut Glas would have reason to be jealous? Did your sister ever speak to you of other personal dislikes? Or people she may have given cause to dislike her?" Faith notes down the name, and the description of the vehicles.
"Beyond him, I can only think of two. A … fund raiser of sort is one – for that wayward Rhian captain who so foolishly tried to take the law in to his own hands and sentenced so many innocents to death. I believe she was speaking to me about them, though I had directed her to remain neutral for investigative reasons. Surely you can understand," answers the poodle. She pauses, brow narrowing in consideration, then adds hesitantly, "There is also the Eeee in general. My sister loathes them for the attack on Rephidim during the Battle of the Plaguebringers. Our parents died then and she has never forgiven them. I do not harbor that same loathing, though many Eeee and the government of Babel itself might have reason to seek revenge on me."
The feline writes dutifully, until the noblewoman speaks of the Eeee. She stops, and blinks once, then flips back through her notes. "You have two Eeee houseguests at the moment, do you not? A Mrs. Krodos and her son."
"That is also correct. They are guests of mine and relations of a friend of this family. He has entrusted their care to me while Babel suffers in its unusually severe state of chaos," Elise responds.
"Ah. So you invited them." Faith notes this down. "I gather you do not share your sister's view on their kind?"
After a moment of consideration the noblewoman responds. "It is true I have much the same reason to hate them as my sister does, but I cannot bring myself to do so. I greatly dislike some of them most certainly, but I do not regard their entire race with loathing. I have seen and heard too much to regard them so," the lady poodle answers.
The Inquisitrix merely nods again. "Are there any people you would describe as enemies of yourself?" she asks, after a short pause.
At the question the poodle officer frowns, and inclines her head. "Indeed, unfortunately. It is a side effect of my duties and obligations." The woman folds her hands neatly in front of herself, glancing to her sword. "Where to begin? There is a report on the matter of my dealing with a revenant on the grounds of the Officers' Academy and there were two noble houses who gained shame then for my revelations regarding the nature and history of the disturbance. The golden dragon who once was a cancer to our city would have reason to seek revenge. There are the families of those who I have slain in battle and in duty, and the Babelite people might well seek revenge for my military actions there – both recorded and secret."
The Inquisitrix questions the noblewoman further about the revenant, and takes down a shortened account along with the relevant names, maintaining her flat, professional tone throughout. "How well are you acquainted with Mrs. Krodos?"
"We have met in the past, in a manner of speaking, the details of which are difficult to relate. It is sufficient to say that our encounter was a troubled one, and that the child of Mrs. Krodos was aided by my efforts during that meeting," the poodle explains.
Faith lifts a single eyebrow, but she does not press the point, at least at the moment. Instead, she glances at her notes. "You mention the vehicle of the Lord de Ayde as 'suspicious' in leaving the scene. I understand he was a guest at a party you were holding. What was unusual about his departure?"
Elise nods, and with her hand she gestures her point. "My own investigations found that the vehicle of the elder de Ayde traveled southward, when his home is to be found in the opposite direction. This information was related to me by a maid of the do Varr family – a family I have had minor troubles with in the past, but none previously." She continues on and relates the minor problem with Eustace during her years at the academy.
"I will look into the matter," the Inquisitrix states. "Had all your guests left before the apparent abduction took place?"
"It would seem so," answers the elder de Bellefeuille. "I was not present during the entirety of their departures, for I had left to give Lord Pink a tour of the stables and my flying Drokars Secrets and Mystery."
"My sister had been present at the departures however, and when I noticed that she was missing all guests had departed," adds the poodle.
"Except Lord Pink," Faith notes, "who was a guest, I assume?"
With a nod Elise answers, "Correct, Inquisitrix. Lord Pink was with me at the time over by the fields."
"Why did you consider the wagon noteworthy?" She asks, returning to her tablet.
"It had been seen recently after the abduction, and the rear of it was covered – as if perhaps to hide something," answers the officer.
"I see." The striped feline notes this, as well. After turning a few pages through her book, she looks back to the poodle. "Is there anything else you feel it could be helpful for me to know, Lady de Bellefeuille?"
After a brief and troubled sigh, Elise nods. "You may wish to speak with the Arch Inquisitor in charge of your department and inquire of my special assignments. Should our investigations not prove productive and my sister does not return to me soon there is information you that would be useful, but only then," responds Elise quietly.
Confusion flickers briefly on the Khatta's normally expressionless face, then she says, "If you have information which pertains to this case, Lady de Bellefeuille, it is best that I find out now. Waiting will only increase your sister's jeopardy."
"You … put to me a difficult consideration, Inquisitrix, in my time of anxiety," utters Elise, the woman looking increasingly tired as time passes. The effects of her sister's kidnapping are clear in her frown and in those normally stern, and now troubled, blue eyes of hers. "But … I will relate what I can. You see, I too was involved in what ended in the sacrifice of the High Princess, the dream-spun sleeping reality of false goddesses. Yes, I was there, and there I met Mrs. Krodos and her son. And there I assisted her in ridding her son of a dream created, though quite real, milady. Within those dreams I did much that many might hold me accountable for – to hate me for, possibly. For I know those of Babel were often privy to our movements within the dreams when they too slept."
"I see. But you do not believe Mrs. Krodos, or her son, would be one of those to wish you harm, since you specifically aided them? Or to harm your sister, even given her stated distaste for their kind?" Faith watches the poodle, her own gaze steady and unblinking.
"No, they have no reason to harm me. I have done everything to aid them and their relation, Mage Cyprian of Mind. If they are to blame for this abduction, I cannot fathom their motives," answers Elise with conviction, eyes shifting to regard the Inquisitrix with a similar steady gaze.
Elise pauses, then suggests, "Unless there are those that hold me as responsible for the chaos that now moves within Babel. Within the dream I killed the fallen princess Saraizadze … and before that, I slew a false Gorphat. The former I am aware was witnessed by a vast number of the Babelite population that night. That latter I am unsure of."
"I see… " A momentary frown creases her brow. "Please let me know when Mrs. Krodos and her son return. I would like to speak with them." The Khatta shifts her tablet, then continues. "Does the Lord de Ayde approve of his son's match?"
"I shall, Inquisitrix. As for the match yes, Lord de Ayde appears pleased. After all, his family has everything to gain from the marriage," answers Elise.
The Inquisitrix looks at her tablet. "Do they, indeed?" She closes the tablet, nodding to her hostess. "Thank you for your time, Lady de Bellefeuille. If you will excuse me, I will continue my investigation elsewhere."
Lady Elise de Bellefeuille eases herself to rise as she bids her guest do the same. The process is necessarily more complicated for the poodle however as it requires careful balancing on her cane for support until she rises fully. "Very well, Inquisitor. I pray They guide you in this matter, and I will be continuing my own investigation in the meantime. Perform well and you can expect my written approval sent to your superior," says the head of the household as she maneuvers to ride.
