The Shattered City: Chapter Five

[The Whistler]

“Are you? Ah sweet youth, to think yourselves so invulnerable. And when they come again? Do you think they’d just send a few killers every time, waiting for you to be together, and you’ll never have a run of bad luck? Yours must be a wonderful world to live in, where all things go so well.”

"Oh, forgive my presumption, dear Professor!" Celeste sidled in behind everyone else, trying her best to match the general tone of the conversation. "I did not mean that our band had succumbed to delusions of invincibility--prideful indeed would such an outlook be, and unwarranted! We merely wish to express our abiding gratitude that we have as yet remained free of harm, and that you continue to do the same. I may only second Professor Mourneswaithe's opinion on that matter: with our collective resources shared amongst us, we may yet bear further misadventure similarly unscathed!"

[NeoTiamat]

Le Retraite de Manoir, North of Port-a-Lucine, Midday of June 8th, 770
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"Now as to this" he shrugs withdrawing the box from his satchel and scattering quills, a cigarette case and a battered snuff box on the floor. "It is your property Monsieur, feel free to have it back, but perchance you wish to tell me what I have been carrying around these last few weeks?"

“About six gills of alkahest from Nova Vaasa, if I don’t miss my guess.” Bertram said, taking the box and promptly passing it to Felise. He had absolutely zero desire to actually hold onto the thing. “Universal solvent, isn’t it?”

“No such thing.” Felise sniffed, taking the box eagerly. She worked the catches and opened it, revealing six golden phials, each inscribed with a spidery text running along their sides. “Though the Vaasi alchemists come closer than anyone else. Useful substance, it dissolves all materials down to their constituent, elemental parts.”

“This includes people.” Bertram added ghoulishly. “So I heartily recommend against drinking it.”

“It’s useless as a poison, since it melts most containers that aren’t purest gold.” Felise said. “But it also breaks down mage-wards rather neatly. An exceedingly useful tool.”

**************************************************************

"Your aunt must write very interesting letters," she says. "May I ask what she had to say to set you off like this?

“That she had abandoned you, Remy, and everyone else to the tender mercies of the Fraternity of Shadows.”

“You remember the terms of our little truce with the Brotherhood? They keep their hands off our small clique and I don’t reveal all manner of information gathered about them over the course of the Expedition.” Marchand-Renier smiled a terrible smile. “The part which I neglected to mention is that this truce only held so long as my dear Aunt Jacqueline opted to protect me from the Fraternity. Without my family I could never disseminate our information widely enough to make a difference. Indeed, I probably would’ve been murdered before the year was out. But even the Brotherhood would think twice of defying the name Renier.”

“This is why de Casteele pere retired not so long after the Expedition.” Marchand-Renier noted clinically. “He was too compromised.”

“But now it doesn’t matter. They’ve made Jacqueline a better offer.” Sebastian said, leaning forward to look directly at Lia. When he spoke next, his voice was deadly soft. “And they could do so because the Fraternity of Shadows is finally moving, and their target is nothing less than the government of Dementlieu.”

“Even now they’re staging a quiet coup across the city. An occult conspiracy has many useful resources to achieve dominance in the shadows. And the rulers of Dementlieu could offer my dearest Aunt more than I ever could.” Marchand-Renier smiled faintly, a rather grim expression on his face. “I suspect that’s why we’ve all the luxury of continued breath at the moment. To the Fraternity, we’re a side-show, a tidying-up of loose ends as they seize the real prize.”

“I tried to warn Remy that something was going on.” The Richemuloise professor sighed. “But I didn’t know what to warn him until today. That the Fraternity is moving?”

“Where is he?”

I should like to invite you to come with us, wherever we end up going. There may not always be safety in numbers, but at least we would be able to watch one another's backs once again.

I may only second Professor Mourneswaithe's opinion on that matter: with our collective resources shared amongst us, we may yet bear further misadventure similarly unscathed!"

“Given the fact that my presence would accomplish nothing except give Jacqueline even more information on you, I rather doubt you would wish my company.” Marchand-Renier said, his expression now turned fey. “Not to mention that my beloved relatives have decided to lock me within these quarters for my own protection. No, I think I shall stay here, and toast my efforts.”

The academic reached into the back of his desk drawer and withdrew a small bottle of aged wine, a Borcan vintage, rather fine.

“A Vor Ziyden blend, from ’38.” Marchand-Renier said, still smiling. “Perhaps you shall share a drink with me? Just like old times on the Expedition.”

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Lia slams her hand down on Marchand-Renier's. The Professor can feel, through the tips of her glove, the tips of her nails dimpling his skin, threatening to draw blood. Lia's expression is not fey, it is not humorous, it is simply very intent. Her eyes burn as she looks Marchand-Renier right in the eye.

"Now hear me," she whispers, her voice almost a hiss. "We have been through too much together, and I think of you not just as a trusted teacher, but a valued friend. I will not let you die. Not if I have a choice. You will come with me, Jacqueline or no. If your relatives think to get in our way and they can not be turned to our side, I will see them broken or dead.

If the Renier family is no longer available as leverage, then we use other resources. And I have other resources, a network just waiting to be tapped. All it will take is one message, maybe two, and we can illuminate the Fraternity so no shadow can cloak them from their enemies anymore.

Now. Are you going to let go of the wine and come with me, my good, brave and trusted friend Sebastian, or do I have to break your fingers first?"

[Kaitou Kage]

“No such thing.” Felise sniffed, taking the box eagerly. She worked the catches and opened it, revealing six golden phials, each inscribed with a spidery text running along their sides. “Though the Vaasi alchemists come closer than anyone else. Useful substance, it dissolves all materials down to their constituent, elemental parts.”

"I would very much like to learn how to make this," Rex mused, "I know a number of customers that would pay for such a thing."

The pharmacist flashed Bertram a brief, quizzical look, and then gazed longingly at Felise's phials. "Did you make these or were they procured?"

[The Whistler]

Now. Are you going to let go of the wine and come with me, my good, brave and trusted friend Sebastian, or do I have to break your fingers first?"

"Hear, hear!" Celeste offered, enthusiastically. Then edited. "Though you may consider me unwilling to cause you physical injury should you decline, Sir: only that emotional lack which may follow from my irreparable disappointment. Oh, do say that you shall accompany us! I assure you, while the name of Renier may possess nigh-unparalleled influence when uttered in the proper quarters, the Viardot family escutcheon remains nearly as sturdy a defense!"

[Nathan of the FoS]

Mercator notes that Professor Mourneswaith certainly does have a way with her--something combining the best of good will with borderline homicidal urges. "Surely the Fraternity will be opposed in their ambitions?" he says quietly. "Are they so truly entrenched as to make their triumph inevitable, or can common cause be made with some more savory organization?"

[lostboy]

“So I heartily recommend against drinking it.”

"I'm sure I have drunk worse" Nicolas adds mildly whilst looking at the box and its contents with vague interest.

"And pray tell, if I do not overstep the bounds of politeness, what do you intend with this substance, and more importantly why did you feel the need to give it to me? Not that I mind too much as I have not yet, I believe been rendered to my constituent elements."

[Nerit]

Nerit raised her eyebrows at Lia's outburst.

"We should decide soon--and move soon," she added quietly. "We have missing colleagues."

[NeoTiamat]

Le Retraite de Manoir, North of Port-a-Lucine, Midday of June 8th, 770
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"And pray tell, if I do not overstep the bounds of politeness, what do you intend with this substance, and more importantly why did you feel the need to give it to me? Not that I mind too much as I have not yet, I believe been rendered to my constituent elements."

“I needed some excuse for going hail-and-well-met to you in the middle of the street.” Bertram said, his face a picture of perfect innocence, painted by a professional forger. “And afterwards it was a good place to store it.”

"I would very much like to learn how to make this," Rex mused, "I know a number of customers that would pay for such a thing."

“You and much of the civilized world.” Bertriz Renier now spoke. “The Black Alchemists of Kantora keep it a rather proprietary secret, and they tend to become unhappy when one tries to break their monopoly.”

“And you don’t want to make someone who can make your lungs sort of ooze out of your nose unhappy.” Bertram finished with ghoulish pleasure.

The pharmacist flashed Bertram a brief, quizzical look, and then gazed longingly at Felise's phials. "Did you make these or were they procured?"

“Procured.” Felise said. That was all that Felise said. Contacts could be proprietary secrets as well.

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Now. Are you going to let go of the wine and come with me, my good, brave and trusted friend Sebastian, or do I have to break your fingers first?"

“As ever Lia, you are persuasive.” Marchand-Renier smiled wanly. “But you misunderstand. I’m probably the safest man in Port-a-Lucine just now. I’m certainly willing to help, but if you expect me to accompany you anywhere, you will have to deal with Felise. We haven’t been attacked as of yet, and she’s rather determined to keep it that way.”

“I should likely warn you that she bites.” Sebastian said. The prospect of watching his niece and Lia go at it seemed to instill some vague desire for life once again.

"Surely the Fraternity will be opposed in their ambitions?" he says quietly. "Are they so truly entrenched as to make their triumph inevitable, or can common cause be made with some more savory organization?"

“Potent, but they are mortal.” The Richemuloise academic said. He tapped his fingers on the desk, now that he was somewhat confident that Lia wouldn’t break them. “They’re enemies would stay in the shadows as well, but there are those who would oppose a coup of the government on patriotic principle. Or perhaps because they would rather be the agents of destruction themselves.”

If Marchand-Renier did not look back at Benoit now, it was because there was no need. The intimation was clear enough.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

"And then there are those who would oppose them taking over this part of the world for fear that it would advance their ambitions of divinity, regardless whether those are attainable or not," Lia adds. "Not to mention those bright souls who do fight to make this world a better place.

As for your safety here, Sebastian -- how safe can you be after having kept pressure on those bastards for all these years? Certainly, your doughty nieces and nephews are here to protect you, tooth and nail, but how long would they hold out against a determined siege if the Fraternity manages to claim the state and gains control of the armed forces? It is far safer to be on the move than holed up in a location the enemy knows."

[yalenusveler]

"Isn't a coup kind of..petty?" Kerrian finally asked, speaking up after a long period of silence. Although he knew the professor through his housemates, it wasn't a close enough familiarity that he felt there was anything he could say with any more eloquence than they could muster.

"They're an occult conspiracy with access to extremely potent magical power. Ruling a nation even from the shadows...isn't that kind of beneath them? Aren't there bigger prizes? Immortality and all that? Never mind what do they have to do with the thing that went after Professor Theroux? Are they somehow working together? What would they have to offer it? I refuse to believe it was a coincidence..."

[NeoTiamat]

Le Retraite de Manoir, North of Port-a-Lucine, Midday of June 8th, 770
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"As for your safety here, Sebastian -- how safe can you be after having kept pressure on those bastards for all these years? Certainly, your doughty nieces and nephews are here to protect you, tooth and nail, but how long would they hold out against a determined siege if the Fraternity manages to claim the state and gains control of the armed forces? It is far safer to be on the move than holed up in a location the enemy knows."

Marchand-Renier raised a hand to forestall Lia. “You’re debating with the wrong person, Lia. Felise?”

The woman came as her name was called, looking at Lia with a calm, level gaze. She must have been of an age with Lia, or near to it. She also, it seemed, had the characteristically good hearing of the Reniers. “I designed the defenses of this apartment myself, Ms. Mournswaithe.” She smiled, showing teeth. “We’re not meant to hold out a siege. But it will bloody anyone who comes, and there are means of escape. We’ll move. But at a time and to a place of our own choosing.”

"They're an occult conspiracy with access to extremely potent magical power. Ruling a nation even from the shadows...isn't that kind of beneath them? Aren't there bigger prizes? Immortality and all that?”

“You ascribe far too enlightened motives to them.” Marchand-Renier said with a cynical little smile. “From what I understand, their motives have always been to rule reality, albeit by magical means. Perhaps now they’ve finally decided to act on those ambitions. Or something has pushed them into making this seem like an opportune time.”

”Never mind what do they have to do with the thing that went after Professor Theroux? Are they somehow working together? What would they have to offer it? I refuse to believe it was a coincidence..."

“What thing?” Marchand-Renier said sharply, looking at Kerrian now very intently. You had neglected to mention the scene at Theroux’s earlier.

[The Whistler]

“What thing?” Marchand-Renier said sharply, looking at Kerrian now very intently. You had neglected to mention the scene at Theroux’s earlier.

"Oh!" Celeste knew how to be helpful in this context, or at least thought she did. "Professor Marchand-Renier, it was a most distressing scene, I need not tell you...oh, I shudder even to recall the tableau! Dear Professor Theroux - vanished! His home - ransacked! And at the behest - or so the more academically inclined of our party hazard to guess - of a certain Greater Dreamspawn, one Lord Ennui. Sanguinary, good Professor: oh, most abominably sanguinary! Why, it is all that we can do simply to muster our collective strength, that we may discover Professor Theroux's present whereabouts before further misadventure befalls him!"

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Lia looks Felise up and down, then looks her in the eye. "I do not know you," she says, "but it seems you have Sebastian's trust. And I trust him. But if I find out you failed him or sold him out, I will find you."

With the pleasantries over, she turns back to Marchand-Renier. "We found ennui claw marks in the ceiling of his ground floor," she says. "The whole room was soaked in blood. I failed to bring a sample to analyze... Foolish of me. But of Andre, there was no sign anywhere. You can understand why I suspected the involvement of Lord Night Terror, however."

[Nathan of the FoS]

"There are many things that become easier if one has the resources of a nation at one's disposal," Mercator mutters, almost to himself. "They would not be the first wizard-kings, and Azalin Rex and the Autark Hazlik certainly seems to find uses for their political power."