"No, it's not. But you do know him, then. Did he seem like a suspicious type to you? Anything strange about him?"
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"No, it's not. But you do know him, then. Did he seem like a suspicious type to you? Anything strange about him?"
Felix licked his lips again.
"Not particularly - well, I mean, not more than you'd expect. His wagon was full of strange things, but that was all part of the show, wasn't it? Props. Helping sell his nostrums." He paused. "I was only a customer. I didn't know him - at least, not well enough to spend much time chatting."
"Ah. But you'll have to find a new supplier, I'm afraid," said Pieter. "Were you aware of what happened to Pilserier recently?"
Felix hesitated.
"Got into a bit of trouble with the guards, didn't he? Or the Hounds - one or the other. I know they took the wagon away."
Ah. It was worth the try. Maybe he really doesn't know.
OOC:
SpoilerI'll pause here to think: I don't want to say too much, in case Lenkster is really lying. I'll let the other players come up with their own questions.
Illiiya Jaelrae
He's lying.
He's lying. Illiiya said with a deadpan, almost emotionless tone. I can smell it. Everything about him is a lie.
She looked at Lenkster and tilted her head to the side in the way one might look at a strange curio on the mantle or an odd sight on the roadside. She did not seem to blink.
He's lying... and he knows s-something. She turned to Raffy as she spoke, Please restrain him Raffy. I've h-heard that a lot of humans will kill themselves rather than let a witch hunter talk to them... and I d-don't want him dead before we can find out from him who else is involved in this cult.
Raffy just shakes his head.
"Ith was right. We're just the Hounds by a different name."
He looks at Illiya. "I'm not restraining him. He's just a scared junkie who lost his mandrake supplier. Just let him go, we have better leads."
Given how Illiiya has suddenly been acting, he keeps a steely look on his face, and a careful eye in her direction to gauge her reaction.
Lenkster gave a nervous laugh.
"Your friend there... quite the, ha, card, isn't she?"
He made as if to stand. "Are we done, then? I have... places to go, you know, people to see..."
Illiiya Jaelrae
Illiiya looked hurt, looking at Raffy with an expression of genuine shock and surprise.
He doesn't believe you. He doesn't trust you.
But... But I thought...
Why would they listen to a sniveling wretch like you? They're afraid of you. Look into his eyes and tell me I'm wrong.
I... b-but... but Raffy.... Illiiya stammered, reacting almost as if he'd yelled at her, I'm trying to help. I thought you wanted....
Go on. Cry. You're pathetic. I've told you before... you're not one of them! He cares more about the guilty wretch than you. And after we did so much to set up this meeting.
I j-just wanted... to scare him... so he'd talk. Or... or Vanya would talk if he... if he thought the other man was going to give him-
No you didn't. You can't lie to me. You don't care about the human. Not that one. Not ANY of them! You'd have let the hunter torture him to death without batting an eye. You're a monster.
What? I would-
You can't lie to me.
Illiiya dropped her head, her tone going dead.
I... I'm sorry... I sh-shouldn't... be here. She muttered to no one in particular, and made her way hurriedly for the door.
I'm not like them! I'm not!
Yes WE are. The things we've done... they would never forgive you for. Not in a hundred years.
Illiiya leaned her back against the closest wall she could find... sinking to the ground and wrapping her hands around her knees, as she began to cry.
Pieter wished he could soothe Illiiya, but Ithelus was probably better at it than him. Besides, there was work to do.
Can this meeting possibly get more awkward?
But now, after seeing Lenkster's reaction, Pieter was almost sure Illiiya was right about the man.
"We are not done," said Pieter flatly. "Herr Lenkster..." No more Felixing him. "Were you aware that Pilserier was murdered in his cell shortly after his arrest?"
((OOC: No one leaves now! And I mean it.))
Raffy, who already seemed conflicted and morose after Ithelus' earlier comment, looks almost heartbroken at Illiiya's reaction, but he says nothing. As she sinks to the floor he lurches ever so slightly. It looks as if he was about to take a step toward her, and stopped before he started.
It'll only make things worse if I try to hug her.
His head still hanging low, he turns toward the door and sits back on the edge of the desk again, his back mostly to the others in the room, and waits silently for Pieter to finish.
Lenkster blinked.
"No. No, I wasn't."
"They're still looking for his killer," Pieter went on. "I think he was involved in something too big for him."
The initiate paused to study Lenkster's face. He was almost sure the man was lying, but could not tell what he was lying about. Perhaps he really had nothing to do with the murders. Pieter did not wish to reveal too much... but he was fairly sure he already had.
"Oh, one more thing." His tone softened. "I advise you to stay away from this." Again, he showed Lenkster the mandrake root. "It's destroying you and you know it. It's hard to break free, but it's possible. I've seen men do it. Just think of your future."
((OOC: Anyone has other things to ask? I'm really not sure what to say now, but I think Lenkster knows something we should know.))
Lenkster smiled weakly.
"If I want a sermon I'll go to a priest, mister... I'm sorry, I don't think I caught your name." He coughed. "What liberties I choose to pursue in private are my concern - no-one else's."
There was something ever-so-slightly disconcerting about the way he said the words - although there was no trace of ill-will in his expression.
"Who told you that?" Raffy asks adroitly. he is still facing more or less away from everyone, so his facial expression can't be read.
Lenkster looked round at Raffy, Vanya raising his eyebrows.
"Lady Samtzunge, as a matter of fact," Felix said, after a long pause. "She's rather particular on the subject of liberty. I happen to agree with her."
Standing straighter, Dmitri peered round at the door - looking back at the party, he glanced from face to face with an uncertain expression.
"Um - is your friend alright?" he asked, hesitantly. "She seems a little... distressed."
Raffy gets up off the edge of the desk and walks in front of Illiiya, his back to her, now facing the room again as if to block them from approaching her. Crossing his arms he lifts his head up for the first time in a few minutes and says:
"Don't worry about our friend. She can feel the murderer, and hear him in her dreams. Every time an innocent person is killed she feels their anguish in her heart. Every time a sin is committed, it flashes in her mind like a falling star. It pains her. The only way she can find quiet is to end the sins - or the sinner. That's why she stalks the murderer like a rat stalks a cat. Quiet, disheveled, seemingly weak... but she sees into mens' hearts, and her judgment is final."
He holds Vanya's eyes till the man disappears around the doorway and then says to Lenkster, "What you do in private effects every person in Delberz. Lady Samtzunge is a great philosoph.... I don't disagree with her. But your dealings are with criminals, and liberty has its natural limits."
Where the boy may have picked up such a speech is not apparent from his peasant upbringing.
Illiiya Jaelrae
She looked up as Raffy approached her, spinning some story about her... trying to cover for her weakness. She wasn't certain if she should feel grateful or worse. She DID hear lady Maria's name dropped, however... and it gave her something to distract herself from her depression.
That arrogant whore again. How much more obvious can she make it that she's controlling everything? She has every man you've met wrapped around her finger.
I... I hate her.
Finally... something we can agree on. The whore is guilty. She has to die.
D-die? I... I couldn't do that!
Stay a sniveling wreck then... and wait for her to take them away from you into her little cult. She'll turn them all against you.
NO!
Then you know what we have to do.
....... all right.
Illiiya looked up slowly, her eyes still wet from crying. She looked beaten and defeated... and she no longer seemed to care about Lenkster and Vanya. No... all that was on her mind was something she was anticipating with cruel glee and dread at the same time. As soon as the men tired of talking in circles here, she would be seeing Maria. Part of her was even looking forward to it.
"A rather poetic touch you have there," said Lenkster, with a hint of a giggle. "She tell you that? I do hope you're not being practiced upon - elves do love to cultivate an air of mystery." He squinted at Raffy. "Or are you saying something else?"
"If it's Pilserier you're talking about, then there are hundreds of people in this town who'll have frequented that old wagon. It was an apothecary's shop. There's nothing criminal about being a customer, even if it turns out he was doing... whatever it was he was doing on the side." He paused, moistening his lips. "I've done nothing wrong."
Lothar raised a hand to scratch his beard, and rubbed along the side of his face. Those who'd known him for the past week could probably detect a hint of dejection in his lack of fur.
"Sounds like you're trying to convince yourself. Someone blackmailin' ya? Holdin' the promise of more root out in front of you?"
Felix shook his head.
"I'm not trying to convince anyone. Except your good selves." A thin, forced smile flashed across his face, gone as quickly as it appeared. "Are we done with the questions now?" he asked, a faint whine of impatience in his voice.
Pieter winced inwardly at Raffy's little speech.
Oh gods, can he possibly get any more overdramatic? Vanya should hire him on the spot for his play.
"We're almost done, I think," he told Felix. "Listen... I'm no priest, I love liberty too, and I don't want to sound self-righteous. But that root, legal or not, has led many men to desperate acts, even murder. Guard yourself from the temptations of the Dark Prince," he said with the Sigmarite hand gesture to ward off evil.
His tone was off-handed and friendly, but his green eyes never left the mandrake man's face.
"There are plenty of things that can lead a man to 'desperate acts'," replied Lenkster, almost lazily. "Wine, women, money. Do you go around moralising about them?"
He sat back in his chair. "I can make my own decisions, sir. I don't deny that I indulge, but I fail to see how that is any of your business." He looked round at the door. "If this is all you have left to ask of me, could we skip to the end?"
"Yeah, I'll skip to the end," Raffy says, his voice grim and angry again after being mocked by this junky. "Captain said we have to follow every possible lead. Win, women and money didn't take us toward the murderer. You and your root did. I'm not sure the captain would suffer us leavoing you free."
He looks at Ithelus. "Mr. Vanya here is obviously innocent. Mr. Lenkster is a different sort. I'm not sure that we can get any charges to stick to him in a court, but the Court might think different. If we lock him up, they're sure to send an assassin to kill him, just like his dealer. And then maybe we could catch that assassin."
He pauses. "So Ith, what do you say? Should we arrest him?"
"Forget it," Pieter told Raffy. "We have other things to do."
He still thought Lenkster was lying about something, but he doubted arresting him would do much good. Perhaps it was better to let him think he had weaseled his way out.
Raffy ignores Pieter, and waits expectantly for the counsel of Ith or Lothar to move things along.
At Raffy's words, Lenkster went a little paler than he already was. Shifting back a little, he glanced between the faces of the others for support, nodding vigorously at Pieter's words.
"Hey - um, let's not be hasty now? I mean - I mean, there's no evidence." His nervous laugh sounded again, swiftly stifled. The man pressed on, his tongue possibly running a little ahead of his brain. "You've got these - these notes, which for all you know were written by, by the murderer himself, trying to frame whatever innocent sap he could find... I mean they're hardly specific, are they?"
Sensing that his reasoning powers might not be impressing his questioners, he changed tack.
"Listen, I'm sorry if I was short with you - no excuse, terrible manners..." - the false smile came again, this time lingering far longer than it was comfortable on Lenkster's pallid, sweaty face. "But I really couldn't - I mean, I really wouldn't want to - I don't want to be locked up." He patted his pockets. "Got to be out in the open air, that's me." He didn't seem to have found what he was looking for. "I - I'm a little short of coin at present, but the old man back in Nuln ought to be sending me some more soon... I mean, if you wanted to come to some sort of arrangement, I'd be more than happy to, um, contribute to your investigations..."
Raffy the Sparrowhawk
"Not for all the money in Altdorf."
Lenkster stuttered, taken aback.
"I think my friend... misjudged you," said Vanya, smoothly stepping into the conversation. "I'm sure he will apologise."
"Y - yes," stuttered Lenkster, "yes. Dreadfully - terribly sorry. I didn't think - well, it's just indelicate, isn't it." He bit his lip. "Listen, old boy, it's not that I don't want to help - I mean I have helped, haven't I, to the best of my ability, told you everything I know - it's just that I have a bit of a horror of being locked up. You wouldn't do that to a fellow, would you?"
He's getting nervous. We're about to break him.
"That won't be necessary if you cooperate. There's something I have to show you. Herr Vanya, could I borrow a quill, please?"
(Assuming he gets a quill:)
To the best of his memory, Pieter drew on one of the anonymous notes the strange mark Jagrun had showed him.
"This is what they were looking for in Pilserier's wagon. I've never seen it before. Any idea what it is?"