Kiyoka, part 2

[Graybeard]

Hubbub ... hubbub ... hubbub. And then a surge of something ... alien. The force of it almost threw Argus back across the street, and would have if he hadn't been bracing himself.

What were golem minds doing inside the gate building? And rather than being barely perceptible as with most golems, why were they so powerful, and so many?

[Drannin]

Argus groaned and rubbed his forehead. Weave, but that had hurt! That was bizarre... his spell was mainly designed to pick up vibrations and translate them into a form he could understand. Golems, however fouled the works. Their inherently magical construction radiated into the surroundings. When reading objects for vibrations, the very presence of golems made things nearly impossible. For golems, their 'life-force' and their minds were one and the same, and tended to cloud other signatures.

But only cloud. Not overwhelm like that! Why was there a swarm of intensely magical golems inside that building?

Argus realized that Brother Miguel had said something. "Huh?" he replied, a bit blearily.

"I said, 'are you alright'?" Miguel repeated looking concerned. "You got a far-off look, and then you clutched your head in pain. What happened?"

Argus groaned. So much for not having a hangover today. "I opened my senses to the building, trying to pick out snippets of conversation. Instead, I got sledgehammered by the presence of a small horde of high-powered golems. I wasn't expecting it, and it whomped me hard." He shook his head to clear it. "Why are there so many golems inside?" he asked to no one in particular.

[Graybeard]

Brother Miguel groaned. "That was just what I was afraid of," he said. "Let's get moving; we have to tell Sister Margaret about this."

As they walked, Miguel explained his fears to Argus. "I'd bet five tsuis that those are war golems and that they got gated in some time overnight. They've probably brought them in to get ready to lock the city down while they search for the thing that killed Private Goto. That's bad enough, but what's even worse, there's going to be a concern in the Church that what they're really in town for is to destroy the mission. I don't think so; if there was any of that in the background when I was using the Truth spell, I think I'd have picked it up. Surely the Homeland Security people wouldn't do something like that without telling the master portalmage -- would they?" He looked at Argus for encouragement, but none was forthcoming... "But the Church is going to be scared of the possibility, whether it's realistic or not. So now what?"

Before Argus could answer, a novice came sprinting up to them at top speed from the direction of the mission. "From Sister Margaret, read it right away," he panted as he handed Miguel a sealed envelope, then reversed his field.

The two men paused as Miguel opened the envelope and read the note inside. Argus could see that a bad day was going to get worse, if the change in Miguel's nut-brown skin tone meant anything.

And it did. "Exitialis' twitching testicles," the priest swore unexpectedly. "Patriarch Jeramel is sending the Cardinal Inquisitor to investigate what's going on here."

[Drannin]

Argus let this settle in.

Church Inquisitor.

"Church Inquisitor?" he asked out loud. "As in, pointed interrogation with pointed, red-hot objects inquisitor? Or just a very high-powered detective inquisitor?"

Argus had an odd aversion to being poked with red-hot pointy objects. He was funny that way.

[Graybeard]

"Church Inquisitor? As in, pointed interrogation with pointed, red-hot objects inquisitor? Or just a very high-powered detective inquisitor?"

"High-powered detective inquisitor who is authorized to use any means at his disposal," Brother Miguel said. "He's theoretically authorized to use pointed, red-hot objects, but actually using them went out with the development of magical inquisition. No need; the nerve magic that the Cardinal Inquisitor can use is ... unpleasant. I knew a guy who went through it as part of his military training." Myself. "He said he'd prefer pointed, red-hot objects."

Argus cringed as Miguel continued, "There's good news and bad news. Quite understandably, the Church is forbidding travel via warp gate until Father Egbert's disappearance is sorted out. That means he'll have to travel overland from Emerylon to Saus, then take either an airship or a boat to get here. That should take at least three days, and maybe more, so we have time to prepare. The bad news is twofold. One, according to this message, he's supposed to examine 'all possible concerns' at the mission. That means that not only is Father Egbert a subject of interest, so is the damage to the mission, tension with the community, church finances, you name it. And that brings us to bad news part two: the Cardinal Inquisitor is a member of the, shall we say, traditionalist wing of the Church."

"Let me guess: the traditionalist wing is the part that takes the weekly smitings very seriously?" Argus asked.

"Uh-huh. They don't even want us to use Purification spells afterward. And it doesn't stop there. I'm quite certain that, for example, he won't approve of what Sister Marilyn has been up to -- never mind that she's both gaining converts and helping people. The Abbot and Father Egbert, you will notice, have taken a particularly enlightened approach to preaching the Word of Luminosita in this city. That approach is not universally valued."

That was delicately put, Argus thought, as Miguel continued, "But let's return to our problem at hand, because if we get it solved, it'll de-fang the investigation, and the Inquisitor may even cancel the trip. So I again ask you: what do you want to try next?"

[LordofNightmares]

Leading Kureji to the baths, Tsubasa showed Kureji around.
The Training Hall, the meditation room, the armory, then the baths.
Entering the baths Kureji looked in awe, it was only slightly larger than the one she used at her family's main house.
(The baths look like a large hot spring baths you find in Japan)
"I know I just love this bath" Tsubasa said undressing " and I made up my mind I am turning my self in, I know that my Kay would want me to do what is right."
"And I need to warn them of Aluzard's hatred of your government." she said rinsing her body "My people dont know why but the legends say that he came from the floating city."

[Drannin]

Argus was silent for a moment. "I am honestly starting to run out of ideas," he said grimly. "There just isn't a whole lot of information to go on. Right now, I'd like to head back to the mission and... well, I would like permission to search Father Egbert's quarters." There. He had said it. "Something scared him enough to go to Saus and speak with his higher-ups." Or flat out run, period. "Maybe he left behind some indication of what was going on. A message. A journal. Even an old book, something."

The two men walked in silence for a time. "Also I want to double-check something in the library. It's weird, but I don't think I saw so much as a mention of this Ravanel in the town register, and that thing was pretty thorough. You'd think, if he was in town for any length of time..." Argus shook his head. "Anyway, maybe the others have dug something up by now."

[Graybeard]

"Searching Father Egbert's quarters seems like a good idea," Brother Miguel agreed. "It may be hard to get Sister Margaret to agree to it, but I think she will; the threat of the Cardinal Inquisitor can't be lost on her. As for the Ravanel name, I'd really like to find that kid that everyone is talking about, or maybe better than that, his parents. You said he called this Ravanel 'Uncle Lukey,' right?" Argus nodded. "So either one of his parents is related to Uncle Lukey, or Ravanel has a wife out there somewhere that they're related to -- but I don't think the wife explanation fits. If he was married, his wife would be looking after the travel agency, and probably screaming bloody murder at all the stuff that's been going on."

Sister Margaret, Sister Rose and Brother Farley met them at the mission, and what might reasonably be termed a "council of war" began. Miguel and Argus briefed the others on developments at the mission, getting grim nods all around, expressions of concern about the golems, but no real insights about Egbert and the gate. Margaret confirmed the Inquisitor visit, expected in four days, and described the steps she'd taken to "prepare" the mission -- Miguel was going to have his work cut out for him getting all the naughty pictures out of the novices' quarters. Margaret was already showing the strain of her unexpected promotion, and it wasn't going to get better any time soon; the Abbot was being retained in Emerylon for "consultations" -- shorthand for "a good reaming-out," everyone agreed -- and wouldn't be returning before the Inquisitor's visit. "He's basically a figurehead anyway," Farley grumped. "He's always spent his time mostly on visiting dignitaries or on his own trips, and has pretty well left the running of the place to Father Egbert. Now we're paying the price for that." Everyone nodded and cast sympathetic looks at Margaret.

Farley's report, at least, was more positive. "Kristi has some news. She says they found some stuff at Heer Thar Be Draagons that makes it look like this Lucas Ravanel has only been in town for a year or so." (That might explain why his name wasn't in the city rolls, Argus thought -- or it might not.) "She says the business records appear completely legit. Apparently he specializes in what they call 'adventure travel' -- outings to weird, out-of-the-way places. As best they can tell, he took some band of adventurous travelers to Farrel a few days back. She says the records are indistinct about how he got there, what they're doing in Farrel, where they go from there, and so on, but at least it's a start."

"Have we made any contacts with the missions in Farrel to see whether any of them have sighted him?" Sister Rose asked.

"Not yet, but we'll set that in motion," Margaret said. "Dr. Cleiviein, Brother Miguel, I don't suppose you happened to ask, at the warp gate, whether anyone named Ravanel had gated off to Port Lorrel or Isabel in the last few days?" Both men, looking abashed, shook their heads, and Margaret continued, "Not to worry; I'm pretty sure that if he had, the Tsuirakuans would have homed in on him and done some things differently in response to the killing and the breaking-and-entering -- that we had nothing to do with, of course." The resulting chuckles broke the tension slightly, and Margaret concluded, "So Brother Farley, kiss Corporal Yugawa for us tonight --" Farley blushed, grinned, nodded -- "thank her for her help, and tell her we're at her side if she needs us to help her deal with her own loss. Anything else?"

[Drannin]

"Not that I can think of," said Argus. "I'd like to check Father Egbert's room right away; the fresher the clues, the better. Other than that..." he paused for a moment, "... would it be better if I faded into the background during the Inquisitor's visit? A Tsuirakushitian exile might draw the wrong sort of scrutiny your way."

Argus grimaced. "Especially if he's heard some of the worse rumors about me."

[Graybeard]

"I'd been wondering about that," Sister Rose piped up, after having been silent for most of the discussion. "You're right that having you around for purposes other than repairing the mission might be ... misinterpreted. But we have a few days to sort that out before the Inquisitor shows up. Let's make the most of them."

Sister Margaret nodded. "As it happens, I've had an idea that might allow both goals to be met at once: continue to get Dr. Cleiviein's help and counsel on the one hand, and help him make himself scarce on the other. However, first, I need to ask you a question that you're going to find painful. I apologize for the pain, but there is a reason for it, and I beg your forgiveness in advance for causing it.

"Dr. Cleiviein, could you tell us more about your family?"