Chapter 98: 101.

Thankfully, the dark lull caused by my quick exposé on genetics and hereditary disorders is dispelled by an annoyance of an entirely different kind. Marquis de Brege in person, namely. He is ushered in by the majordomo, and for once, does not fail to notice the king, mainly so because he makes a beeline towards Abe as soon as he is in the room. Does not seem to notice anyone else here, though.

"Your highness, many thanks for heeding my distress so quickly!" - he huffs - "I have been deeply wronged! Lady Gillespie had invaded my manor, mistreated my son and abducted his alchemy tutor!"

Abe quirks his brow, tilting his head in my direction. "Really. And when did this happen, pray tell?" - he drawls sarcastically.

"This morning, your highness! Barely a few hours ago. I implore of you to send the knights to apprehend the ruffian most urgently, lest she flees Parsee! I have no doubt she is already racing towards the city gates." - de Brege continues to astound with his lack of observational skills.

Abraham huffs with suppressed laughter. "Hear this, lady Gillespie?" - he quips to me sardonically - "Apparently, you're racing towards city gates right now. With alchemy tutor in tow, no less."

De Brege whirls around, staring at the other people present. "Iii... Ah! What?... How?" - he stammers.

"Well now, this is very interesting." - I retort thoughtfully - "Apparently, I also somehow managed to assault marquises' household while having an audience with you, your highness. Truly, I must be the most devious villainess to ever darken the city to manage this astounding feat of being in two places at once."

Me and Abe exchange knowing glances. He, unlike de Brege, is quite aware I actually CAN do that, but seems to find the assertion that I would openly attack marquis and his household to obtain an alchemist to be most amusing.

"Out of morbid curiosity, marquis." - I continue - "Would you kindly explain what could I possibly need an alchemist for, considering that I am fairly well known as an apt alchemist myself? Between inventing the cure for cold and writing a textbook on mineral alchemy just recently, I would presume my credentials as an alchemist are fairly convincing."

He flabs his mouth wordlessly, purpling and shaking as he tries to force something coherent out.

Abe finally takes mercy on him. "I believe it is amply evident lady Gillespie is not involved in any kind of attack on your household this fine morning, marquis." - he proffers ominously - "However, given your unfounded accusations just now, I would not be surprised if she elects to call a blood feud on de Breges... and I am seriously contemplating the merits of giving her permission to do so. Your conduct lately has been most aggravating, I must note."

Well, his self-preservation seems to be working, at least. De Brege promptly drops on his knees and pleads - "Mercy, your highness! I beg for mercy! I am at my wits' end! I have seen lady Gillespie leaving my manor with my own eyes, with some oijan thugs in tow! I do not understand how that might have happened if she was with you this morning!"

O-ho. That's... curious.

"And those thugs were dragging your alchemy tutor, I take it?" - Abraham drawls slowly. This is... getting pretty interesting.

"...Ah. No? Not that I could see, your highness." - marquis bleats in confusion.

"Then why do you think he was kidnapped by this mysterious impostor?" - Abe nails him to the floor with a simple observation.

"He's missing, your highness!" - de Brege responds promptly - "I have been paying the man handsomely, I can hardly see why he would leave if not taken by force. Furthermore, my son's precious project had been stolen!"

"And what kind of alchemy was your son dabbling with?" - I quip.

"OOh, he is brilliant, he is, my darling Julien." - marquis crows, promptly forgetting his regrettable situation - "Why, I challenge you to find another scion to concoct an invisibility potion at such a tender age! You won't, mark my words. My Julien is an alchemical prodigy!"

"Really? And how long was he studying alchemy?" - Abe eggs him on - "I daresay this is the first time I hear of Julien having an interest in the alchemy of all crafts." Left unsaid is the notion that de Breges in general have not been heard of being apt at any craft whatsoever for generations by now.

"Why, he had just taken up the tutelage, your highness, just the last week." - marquis continues to dig himself deeper - "Herr Nokhmakhn had just discovered his astounding aptitude, to be honest."

Krauts. And... My yiddish is very rudimentary, but if I'm not mistaken, it should correspond to german 'nachmashen'... Herr Fake? Good grief. So it's Klaus. Put the "alchemy tutor" in, discover "prodigy", produce potions just in time for hashishins to nab those for the cloaks. Probably leaked the information to them too, crafty bastard. Of course, with the tutor long gone, there is no proving it... and de Brege is left holding the bag as the guy who provided the hashishins with invisibility cloaks. Inspired nasty.

Abe is clearly thinking along the same lines, if not suspecting Klaus, I would imagine, giving his rapidly darkening face.

"Well, marquis, I believe I know where the invisibility potions went, at least." - he begins ominously - "They were used by hashishins to sneak into my palace in their attempt to murder lady Gillespie."

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"But... but... but!" - de Brege stammers - "Why would she want to murder herself! Ooh, I knew there was something off about her this morning! Your highness, lady Gillespie must be in the grip of lunacy, there is no other explanation!"

Everyone, including the servants, facepalms. There is simply no other way to respond to that. Abe turns to me. "Do you have better ideas, lady Gillespie?" - he inquires, barely holding himself from a bout of snide laughter.

"Well... Let me begin by stating I have no need for invisibility potions." - I begin, and toss an invisibility spell over myself, eliciting a number of gasps as I simply vanish from sight - "I believe that marquis de Brege was thoroughly duped. One of the hashishins had posed as an alchemist in order to, ahem..."

I reappear and do the air quotes with fingers as I continue - "To 'discover' Julien's 'prodigious alchemy skills', so that marquis would purchase the rare and expensive ingredients for the invisibility potion. Once they were prepared, no doubt under the guise of alchemist showing Julien how to do it, hashishins had staged the 'assault' and simply walked out with potions, alchemist shedding the illusion of Kraut gentleman in favor of donning my own image as a guise. Then they put the potions on the cloaks and carried out their infiltration. The outcome you already know."

Abraham nods thoughtfully - "That sounds plausible. And leaves us with the unfortunate fact that marquis de Brege had, however unwittingly, supplied our enemy with the means of entering my palace unnoticed. Roland, there is no way for me not to address your part in this."

He pauses, and sighs. "Baron de Brege, you may leave. Documents for your new title will be delivered this evening." - he then proclaims - "I do hope that you will take this rebuke as an inspiration for improvement on your diligence as a noble of Champagne kingdom. I also recommend you retire to your domain for now and devote some time and effort towards managing it. I find you as a courtier to be severely lacking and would enjoy a respite from your haphazard blundering."

De Brege swallows. Pales. Purples. Chokes on air. Falls over in a dead faint, much to the alarm of everyone present.

___

"One thing bothers me." - Abraham muttered as me, him, father, Jerome the lieutenant and sir Malachi trooped down to the dungeons to have a look at the hashishin - "Why would the fake alchemist don your image?"

"To avoid making you think that de Breges were knowingly conspiring, most likely." - I retort - "I suspect, though I have no good proof for it, that alchemist was not actually a hashishin himself but rather someone who orchestrated the availability of invisibility potion to hashishins for their own agenda. If not for that, former marquis would have probably been executed for this, or stripped of his noble status altogether, and being part to such a loud crime would cause a lot of scrutiny to be placed on his acquaintances. I hardly think de Brege would allow a random alchemist from the street to tutor his precious offspring. Someone sufficiently noble had to introduce them in order for de Brege to actually hire the man."

"You suspect some of our own nobles aided hashishins covertly?" - Malachi mused - "I wouldn't be surprised, if so. Your achievements make you a thorn in the side to many of our esteemed highborn. As it is, even if we find out who made the introduction, they have a ready excuse that they had no idea the alchemist they recommended turned out to be an assassin in disguise."

"Unfortunately believable." - Abe grouses - "What are the chances our guest here would know anything about this scheme that we already don't know?"

Malachi snorts. "Two, your highness. Slim and fat." - he jests - "Jokes aside, I would presume someone who was there to be the bait knows as little as possible about the case. Still, there is no harm in asking."

Come to think of it, this is the first time I'm getting to see the palace dungeons. Extensive is one word for it, but it does seem that most of the area is used as storage, rather than jail. The actual holding area is pretty modest by the kingdom standards - only six cells. I guess this place is not really used as a jail much. Further credence is lent by the fact that only one cell is occupied... and it is one closest to the entrance.

Actual interrogation kinda... does not happen. The guy in question is manacled to the wall, his knee is definitely not up to the task of being used for anything, and the only thing he does is mutter something quietly in oijan, ignoring our questions entirely. Well, right until the part when I enter the cell, because the moment I'm in, the guy lunges for me. I'm not sure what he expected to do, the manacle chain is far too short to reach, and he is not exactly in shape to stand. The huge hematoma covering most of his face shows where he caught my backhand. I guess he was under body reinforcement magic in time, I'd have outright snapped his neck otherwise with that much force applied.

Stepping back, I shake my head. "I... find it dubious there is actually any point in asking anything." - I suggest - "This man already considers himself dead, as far as I can tell." Then I step to the side to dodge the well-aimed loogie. Irritating.

Abraham considers the situation critically. Looks at Malachi. "What do you think?" - he asks shortly.

"She's right." - Malachi admits gruffly - "We might get more spit for our troubles, that's pretty much it."

Abraham considers the prisoner carefully, dodges his own portion of spit, and waves his hand abruptly. "Damnation. Jerome, give him what he desires." - he grouses. Lieutenant bows, pulls out the sword and steps up to the hashishin, thrusting the blade through his solar plexus without much ado. The effects are... interesting, as the assassin immediately begins to scream and thrash about. Jerome clearly did not expect this much, because he yanks the sword out with a curse and jumps back. We all stare as the man in front of us dies in very odd manner, blood foaming out of all his orifices, both natural and freshly made.

"...Oh gods, what just happened?" - Jerome finally manages after a lengthy pause, as we all stare at the body that apparently expired with most of his blood boiling out. He stares at the pristinely clean sword, then turns to me with a crooked smile - "...Cleaning enchantment, lady Gillespie?"

"...Contagion effect, I surmise." - I offer after a bit of consideration - "Pain is a sort of sacrifice, and blood definitely qualifies as something to clean off... Well, you can't dispute the fact it did clean the sword off rather promptly."

"That it did." - he agrees with a sage nod, and cautiously returns the sword into the sheath - "I believe I will be exercising extra caution, lady Gillespie, you seem to have produced a fearsome weapon."

"Quite." - Malachi rasps - "Any chances I might get the formulae, lady Gillespie? That enchantment does seem to have quite an effect. I wonder what this kind of blade would do to a ghoul."

"I'll write it down once we reach the place with writing utensils, sir Malachi." - I agree. Curious. I didn't really expect that much. It should've just boiled the blood off the blade, not off the body entirely... On the other hand, Malachi is right. This should be quite a nasty surprise to any of the creatures Inquisition normally deals with.

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