Snippet #1391510

Amon considered the possibilities intently. He was immediately able to rule out those which would leave notable blemishes; in the brief time he had been there, they’d been carting off Goldwater’s body, and no such things had been present. He had not had the time to check for pupil dilation or similar symptoms, however, and he would have to wait for the physician’s report on that. He briefly considered trying to get Etzel access to the corpse himself, but that seemed like much effort for what would ultimately be little yield.

No, the most likely suspects were the last two. Which brought up the question of why someone would wish to make a poison smell like fruit. It was not to ensure ingestion; in Goldwater’s case at least, the toxin had been injected directly. There was no way to tell if the bruising about the neck and chest was pre- or post-expiration, which meant that whether or not there would have been enough time was not going to help him determine what it had been.

It was possible that the scent had been introduced simply to disguise another odor, or perhaps simply as a misdirection. If so, it was a juvenile attempt in either direction, which led him to believe that at least when it came to the poison itself, he was not looking inward to his Guild. Still, he could not discount the possibility that more than one hand was at work here, and one of those could very well be closer to him than he liked to imagine.

Still, Etzel said something that caught Amon by surprise. “This other patient… under what circumstances did you treat him? I take it from your tone that he survived, and if that is the case, I would very much like to speak with him.” Any information about a possible test case (for he was almost certain that was what this other incident must be) would be most useful to him, especially since it was explicitly against everything any of his instructors taught their students. No, testing a poison on a person only to let him out of one’s sight was far too irresponsible for an assassin. It sounded more like something a scientist would do, if by accident. An assassin would have restrained the man if he was using a poison that might not work.

-=-
The Royal Palace

Loki only raised a shoulder in a gesture of compliance when Taylor refused to answer the indirect question. It might have been a bit unfair of her, to clothe it in the terms she had, but then what about the business of nobility was fair? His play on her words did produce a genuine smile though, however small. It was rare that she actually found reason to enjoy being in the company of a member of Parliament, but then it was also not so frequent that such people truly tested her wits.

She was barred from saying anything further, though, by the reappearance of Carlisle, who looked slightly troubled. “Milady… the guards have brought in a suspect in Marquis Goldwater’s… death. Gilgamesh has had him sent to the dungeons, but it will take some time for Parliament to gather itself enough to begin the official questioning, and he is being held without sustenance.”

Loki steepled her fingers and tapped them against her chin, all trace of amusement vanished as quickly as it would appear. Interesting… To her knowledge, the current public opinion of the cause of Goldwater’s death and the actual one were significantly different; as of right now, only she and Amon (as well as any of his Guild that he might have trusted with the information) had any reason to doubt that he had been killed with the bare hands of another, yet this was most certainly not the case. Therefore, any suspect brought in under charges of killing him was likely not in the least responsible. Still… to have been caught already… Someone has made a rather obvious target of themselves. The relative odds of this person’s innocence did not make the matter unworthy of being looked into, however, and she was going to have to rectify the no-sustenance situation besides.

Casting a glance at her most recent ally, Loki raised a brow. “I am sorry to have kept you for so long, Lord Taylor. ‘Tis a rather unfortunate tendency of mine, in the right circumstances. Pease do not feel obligated to stay any longer; I am sure there is much business for someone of your stature to attend to.” She stood, then seemed to pause, as though contemplating something. “Though, if you wish to join me in questioning this prisoner, you are more than welcome to do so.” She did not often waste time doubting her own capabilities, but Taylor was a clever man, and she had a feeling that he would pick up on some things that she did not, which might be useful. Still, his level of involvement with this side of things was something for he alone to decide, and she would not force the issue.

“Very well, Carlisle, lead the way if you would.”

-=-
The Facility- Dungeon

The prison was dank, lit only dimply, and smelled of thing perhaps better left unidentified. That said, however, it was not perhaps as bad as one would imagine. For one thing, it was surprisingly free of rodent life and unsavory insects, courtesy of a few mangy-looking cats that seemed to prowl the hallways outside the cells. The animals knew better than to enter the dwelling-places of those housed on the other side of the bars, and so their patrols were limited, much as those of the guards, to the hallways. At night, it was a bit of an eerie sensation; the feline eyes would catch even the smallest hints of light and become luminous themselves, bored, predatory stares drifting back and forth past the occupants.

Most of the people within were quiet, though every once in a while, someone would be hauled either in or out kicking and screaming. It was always a bit worse when they were going out; so few left the prison to be set free that it was a small wonder why. The cell in which the prisoner in question had been placed was at the far end of such a hallway, deep in the belly of the floating city, below a rather large, imposing building in Alpha. If one knew their history, one might shiver at the implications, that the penitentiary was kept below the Facility.

A separate entrance now directed those whose business entailed seeing the imprisoned from the mage-children who utilized the upper levels of the Facility for classes, but tat didn’t stop Loki from thinking it was all rather distasteful. Her grandfather might have ended the permanent imprisonment of magi here, but that did not mean keeping children so close to the high-profile criminals was a good idea. There was, of course, a secondary prison in Gamma, which was much more accessible to the assassins, but this was the place where those who would be judged in front of Parliament itself were kept.

The princess followed Carlisle down several flights of stone stairs, resisting the urge to wrinkle her nose at the odor. It was dark enough down here that between her clothes and hair, she quite nearly blended in to the surroundings, save for the fact that her starkly-pale complexion was almost luminescent down here. “Is this the one?” she asked her bodyguard neutrally upon arriving at the last cell. The man simply nodded, and Loki approached the bars, though not so close as to be within arms’ reach of the man behind them, thank you very much.

“Eos,” she stated simply, having been provided with the name on the way here. “Lord Gilgamesh believes you are responsible for the death of one Marquis Adam Goldwater. I would hear your reply. And please-” she amended before he had a chance to speak, “I assure you that you are better off with the truth than an attempt to be coy.” Though Carlisle’s tale of his hearing had been rather amusing in a way, Loki herself was not one to waste time with the frivolous bickering of egos. He would tell her what she asked for, or he would not, end of story.