Chapter 119: Chapter 117: An Artificier meets with a reporter.

 

Walking up to the mission guild, Falaen took a look at it. While not the tallest building in Keston, it was certainly one of the widest. It stood at five stories tall, and was at least two thousand feet wide. Apparently it rented out some of it's space to shops. It also had a practice arena inside of it.

Entering the building, with Veronica following behind her, Falaen found the place was packed with people. In the mission reception area was the mission board which took up an entire wall. Dozens of missions graded on difficulty where still on the board despite the large crowd of guild members nearby. Making her way through the crowd to the receptionist, she said "Hello, we are checking to see if the Mission Guild has any updated information on the killings recently?"

The receptionist was a young foxkin woman who smiled at Falane and said "I'm sorry, but the mission guild has not gotten anymore information. As of yet no guild members have provided any verifiable evidence." She looked around and leaned forward and said "To be honest, the mission has sparked up competition between our members. I would not expect any of them to give up information that might help others find the killer before them."

Falaen nodded and said "I understand that. Thank you for the tip." 

Turning away from the counter, she made her way back to Veronica who was chatting with some people sitting at a table nearby. While she was waiting for Veronica to finish her chat, she took a look around the place. Several party's of people were in heated discussions. Some of them were eyeing other party's and a few seemed to be having words with another.

Veronica finished her chat and came back and Falaen asked "What were you talking about?"

"I spoke with a leader of a party. He was actually recruiting people to help their party. I managed to get some information out of him. Apparently most of the parties here are on the hunt for the killer as well. One of them got a little too enhusiastic last night and attacked a person they thought was the killer only to find out it was in fact the captain of the guard. They were thrown into jail for the moment."

Falane frowned and said "With the reward being so high, it's attracted a bunch of sharks into the area. They are going to bite at anything they think will lead them to the reward."

"Then we better be careful to not let out any blood." Veronica replied.

A second later, A message came from Riley informing her that someone was looking for her to give thanks. Taking a look at the information provided, she realized that the person looking for her was close to the mission guild. "I just got word from Riley that someone placed a notice in the guard station, that someone is looking to speak with me. The place where they want to meet is close by here."

"Do you want to go check it out right now?"

"Yeah, this looks to be a dead end anyway." Falaen responded and then made her way out of the mission guild. Then they walked the few blocks to a small mansion that was nestled beside a tall building that had Herald painted across it's top. While they were walking, Falaen ducked discretely behind a wall and changed into her battle uniform. 

"Why did you change?"

"Apparently the person who put up the notice saw me in my battle outfit. I don't want them to know my real face."

Veronica shrugged and said "Don't see many blue haired people in the city, so I don't know how well it does disguise you. Though I have to say, Despite covering so little of your body, I have to say it makes you look like an entirely different person. With the same hair of course."

Nodding Falaen walked up to the mansion door, and used the door knocker. A few minutes later an old butler with white hair greeted the pair of them. "Yes, who might I ask is calling?"

Falaen thought for a moment and coughed and said "I'm Soul Princess, I received a notification that someone in this building is looking for me." When she said that, she heard Veronica stifle a gigle.

The Butler nodded and said "I have heard of you from the young Lady. Please follow me to the reception room." Leading them to a room that was painted a light yellow, along with pastel flowers, He then said "I will inform Lady Herald that you are here." With that the butler left them.

Taking a seat on the surprisingly comfy couch, Falaen leaned back. Veronica looked at her and said "Soul Princess really?"

"It's something JP came up with. Well it was his second suggestion, the first one was nonsense, he wanted me to take the name of a seafarer. Which makes no sense, my power are not water based, nor am I on a boat."

A few minutes later a middle aged woman entered the room followed by a younger woman that Falaen recognized as Juliet. Juliet was the woman Falaen had saved last night. The older woman said "Hello, I greet you Soul Princess. I am Lady Margaret Herald, and this is my daughter Juliet Herald. I was the one who placed out that notice. I wished to thank you for saving my daughter from those ruffians last night."

"There is no need for thanks Lady Herald. I was just doing my duty as the guardian of love and vengeance." Falaen said. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Veronica struggling to keep a straight face.

Lady Margaret took a seat across from in the opposite couch and said "The world needs more people like you. Despite that, the Heralds owe you a great debt, and we always repay those debts." She snapped her fingers and the butler from before came in carrying a small chest. He placed it on the table in front of Falaen.

"Within that chest are several artifacts that have been discovered in the course of the Heralds Investigations. Each are priceless, like the worth of my Daughter to me. I wish you to have them."

Seeing that it would be rude to refuse the gift, Falaen took the chest, and said "While this gift is not necessary, I appreciate your thoughtfulness." Falaen placed it into her inventory, planning to take a look at the artifacts later. 

As she did so, Veronica spoke up and asked "What are the Heralds investigations?" 

Lady Margaret looked at Veronica and asked "I don't believe I got your name young lady?"

"I'm Veronica, the Enternal Paladin of Jack." Veronica said, and this time it was Falaen who cracked a smile at that.

"Well Veronica, I am the owner of the Keston Herald, the sole newspaper in the city. In fact we are one of the few newspapers in the entire kingdom. We send out reporters to all corners of the kingdom and conduct multiple investigations every week." 

Juilet nodded and said "I work in the Keston Herald as a reporter. I was conducting my own investigation last night, when things went wrong."

Lady Margaret looked at her daughter and said "You were taking unecessary risks. I don't want to lose you like I lost Theresa." Margaret patter her daughters hand. "My daughter was looking into the murders of the woman that have been plaguing this city for the last month."

"You've told me of the risks you used to take as a reporter yourself. Didn't you enter the cursed tomb of Reakas and fight off a horde of undead? Plus, I know you have been hurting because Theresa's killer is still out there."

Catching Falaen's attention, she asked "Theresa was one of the woman killed?"

Lady Margaret nodded and said "Yes, my lover was the last woman to be killed."

"We have taken the mission of finding the killer from the Mission guild. Do you mind if we ask you some questions?" Veronica asked.

"If it helps you to find her killer, than I have no problems doing so. In fact, I was the one who put up the reward money to find the killer."

"How did you and Theresa meet?" Veronica asked.

"We had just published an important story on the contamination of the water in the slums. In celebration, my friends took me to a local bar to celebrate. It was renowned for the cocktails they would make, it was also a lesbian bar. To be honest, I have never thought of being with a woman. I've only ever had one lover, Juliets father. My husband who passed away several years ago. Still when I saw Theresa, my breath was taken. She was so beautiful, and we soon found ourselves in a whirlwind romance."

Falaen nodded, seeing that Lady Margaret looked to be in pain from her loss. "We think the killer must be observing the victim's for some time before attacking them. Did you ever notice someone watching you and Theresa, or acting strangely around her?"

Margeret thought for a long moment and then shook her head. "Not that I can recall. Though now that I think of it, there was one night a few weeks ago when Theresa came to me and said she felt like she was being followed. For her safety I had her take a carriage after that. Unfortunately the carriage I had hired to transport her, broke down. She opted to walk home, and...." She trailed off and then said "Well you know what happened."

"Looking at the report, it said Theresa was working at a nearby restaurant."

"That is correct. Theresa loved working in that restaurant. It was owned by her Uncle, he is absolutely devastated that his niece was killed."

Magaret frowned and then said "I have had my reporters working hard looking into these murders carefully. Despite that, they have struggled to come up with anything. By all reports someone should have seen something or heard something, but no one has seen anything definite."

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Juliet spoke up and said "Actually, I was looking into a letter I received."

"A letter?"

"Yes, someone sent me a letter saying that they had witnessed the murders. I was on the way to meet with them, when I was accosted. Unfortunately it took several hours with the guards, so by the time I reached the meeting location it was long past the meeting time."

"So you don't know who the witness is?"

Juliet shook her head "They only left some initials on the letter, I don't even know if that's their name though. Hopefully they send another letter."

"If they do, you need to bring a guard with you dear for your protection. Something seems fishy about that letter. I can't place my finger on it."

"Do you have the letter on you?" Falaen asked.

"I do." Juliet said and pulled took out  piece of paper from her purse and handed it to Falaen. 

Taking it, she took a careful look at it. The paper was written on some elegant stationary. The quality indicated it was quite expensive. The paper had a short paragraph written in a dark brown ink. The paragraph started off greeting Juliet.

'Dear Juliet, I am impressed with your bountiful gifts as a reporter. I hear the guards are close to catching the killer, but they won't knick them just yet. I can see the truth of it, the killer is not done withe the woman of Keston, not by far. I was witness to a murder of one of the woman, the killer gave her no time to squeal. If you come to the location on the back of the letter, I will tell you of the games this killer plays. Yours truly JTR'

Using Examination she took a closer look at the letter for any clues about the writer. The first thing she noticed was that the letter had been written in blood. Some sort of anticoagulant had been added to the to blood to allow the writer to write easily with it. "Are you aware this letter was written in blood?"

"What?" Juliet said startled. "No, I wasn't aware. That is disgusting." 

Margaret frowned and asked "Do you think it's the work of the killer?"

"I cannot dismiss the possibility. Though it could be another person just wanting to get at your daughter and they are using the killer as an excuse. Either way, if you recieve a note, I would advise against going at all. In fact if they do contact you, please send me a message to this inn." Falaen wrote down the inn she was staying at. "Ask to send it to the room under the name Jack."

After she passed the note to Juliet, there was a distant boom sound, and the windows in the room shook. Margaret quicky stood and went to the window and pulled aside the curtain. Looking out, Falaen could see that in the distance was a large cloud of smoke rising up into the air. Frowning she wondered what had happened.

Margaret looked back at Falaen and said "I am afraid we must cut this meeting short. It appears something big has happened in the city. I must get to my office in the Herald. I thank you again for saving my daughter. I hope to speak with you again later." With that Margaret left the room.

"Thank you for saving my life. This looks serious, so I need to get the scoop on what just happened." Juliet said and practically dashed out.

Not having any reason to stick around, they left the mansion, and Veronica asked "What do you want to do now?"

"We should take a look at the location the letter mentions. We might be able to find something there." Hailing a carriage down, they began to travel to the location. As they went, they passed numerous carriages that Falaen recognized as belonging to the guards. They seemed to be rushing to the place where the cloud of dust was still rising in the air.

Eventually they had to get off the carriage to get closer to the place where the building where the killer wanted to meet. It was in a strange location, each street that approached it was only open to foot traffic. It was right in the middle of this location. Standing at two stories, it was a relatively small building. It looked to have been a storage place at one time, though it was now up for sale.

Opening the front door, Falaen found it was unlocked. Taking a look at the look, she could tell it had been sliced off. The edge of it was strangely smoothed out. Going into the first floor of the place, the first thing that Falaen noticed that it was strangely clean despite looking abandoned. The walls almost looked to have a fresh coat of paint on them, and the wood floor was polished to a sheen that she could almost see her reflection in.

As the first floor was empty, except a few wooden boxes that had nothing in them, they moved up to the second floor which was just as clean. Walking around the empty space, Falaen stepped on a squeaky board. Looking down, she noticed that there was something strange about the floor.

Falaen got to her knees and ran her hand along the floor and found a razor thin line that was almost impossible to see. Tracing it out with her hand, it looked like it was some sort of hidden trapdoor. Trying her knife to pry it open, it failed as the gap was just too thin. 

"Move aside." Veronica pulled out her sword and brought it down hard on it, and it broke. Then she grabbed the broken board and moved aside. revealing a ladder that descended into darkness. Veronica looked down and said "We are on the second floor right?"

"Yeah." Falaen said.

"So where does this go?"

"I don't know." Falaen said and pulled out a Manalight stick and dropped down the saft. It fell nearly fifty feet before it hit the ground. Falaen lowered herself onto the metal ladder that looked like it had been built recently. The bricks that surrounded the shaft looked ancient on the other hand.

Climbing down the ladder, Falaen noticed the air grew warmer as they headed down. They finally reached the bottom where they found themselves standing in a tunnel that was only six feet tall and four feet wide. Veronica looked around and said "This does not look like it's part of a sewer."

"No it doesn't." Falaen agreed. The ground was bone dry, and it looked like water had never passed down this tunnel. In addition to the growing heat, there was also a strange smell down here as well. It was similar to the smell after a thunderstorm passed through the area. 

Veronica attached the manalight to her armor, and Falaen pulled out her wand and they began to walk down the tunnel. As they walked it seemed to grow even hotter, making Falean sweat. She had to be careful not to touch the walls, as they felt scorching hot. Walking for about three minutes they came two a split path. One direction went to the right in a straight path. The left path curved around.

Deciding to try the right path first, they walked another minute or so before they came to the end of the passage. At the end was a door, that under the light of the manalight, Falaen instantly recognized it as a copy of the same door that was under the brothel.

Veronica said after studying the door, "Well that explains that trapdoor. Do you think this is the same base as the one under the brothel, or it's a different one?"

"I'm not sure, and I'm not going to open this door." There was a strange pull about this door. It was tempting her to open it for some reason. If not for the hing of maliciousness about it, she might have tried it. Stepping back, she said to Veronica "We need to talk to the others about this. I need to talk to JP as well."

"Do you think whoever sent the letter knows about this?"

"No doubt. It makes me wonder if there are more places like this. We should go back and check that other passage."

Heading back they took the other path. As they went, it began to feel cooler this way, though Falaen felt like the surroundings were changing in some form. Reaching the end of the tunnel, they saw a wall. There was something on it, going closer to take a look at it, the space around them suddenly shifted and they found themselves standing in an empty shack with a dirt floor.

Veronica looked around and said "This is the shack we believe the killer was using. Looks like they use that tunnel to arrive here."

"Is there a way back to the tunnel from here?"

They looked around and didn't find a way back. "Maybe they need a key of some sort to open the passage." 

Falaen sent a message to Jack informing him that they were at the shack and to discount the alarms they set off. "Well we managed to find out something about the killer."

"I guess the next thing we should do is explore that base more in depth. But we need to figure out a safe method of doing so.”

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