Kiyoka, part 2

[Drannin]

Argus stared. Things had suddenly gotten away from him.

"Huh?" he asked, a vision of helpful commentary. However, something got through to his brain even in the midst of this suddenly chaotic environment. "Who the hell is Uncle Lukey?"

"The boy's Uncle, it would seem," Brother Lemuel put in helpfully.

"Oh. Right."

Brother Lemuel wasn't really helping.

[Graybeard]

Father Egbert stood motionless for a few seconds, apart from his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. Then he noticed something interesting: "Kriz Henshin" wasn't moving. The man's hand wasn't twitching around his micro-record-wand, his eyes weren't moving, he wasn't blinking, he didn't even seem to be breathing. For that matter, none of the other "investigative reporters" were moving any more either. This gave him an idea...

Putting on his best stage smile, he said, "Good morning. I'm Father Egbert from the Veracian Church. Good to meet you." He stepped forward to shake hands ...

... and his hand passed neatly through "Henshin"'s.

Aha.

[Drannin]

Argus blinked. "Illusions?"

Of course. How better to dissuade anyone from coming through the mission side of the secret passage than to set up... this? Most priests would be running in terror at this point. Fortunately Father Egbert was made of much sterner stuff. On the other hand...

Argus looked at the sight of an absolutely terrified young boy hiding under a desk. Judging from the scent, Argus was certain the young man had lost control of something out of stark terror.

"You can come out," he said gently, ignoring the 'reporting crew.' "Believe it or not, but we actually don't want to hurt you. We'd just like to know who owns this place." Argus spared a moment to regard the illusions. Not bad, he conceded, for a LIGHT illusion.

[Graybeard]

The film crew faded as Argus stepped into the office, to be replaced by a quaintly uniformed band of men claiming to be from the "Tsuiraku Bureau of Investigation" and threatening dire consequences for a renegade mage. Father Egbert ignored them and went to where the boy was cowering, detecting the same effluvium that Argus had smelled. Well, can't say I really blame the poor lad, Egbert thought. He gently said, "We're friendly, son; come on out and we'll get you cleaned up."

As the boy sheepishly, and still fearfully, extracted himself from under the desk, Egbert remembered something from his early training as a priest in the Veracian Church. In places where the smiting ceremony was practiced more ... vigorously ... than it was in Kiyoka (which is to say, most everywhere else), loss of control of certain bodily functions was a recurring problem among parishioners. Accordingly, every priest and nun learned a very basic Purification spell to help the smitees deal with ... embarrassments. Would that spell help this child out of his predicament? Egbert thought so, and mumbled the simple incantation.

It worked. The disagreeable smell receded, and the boy stood up. "Th-- thank you," he stammered.

Egbert smiled and said, "Now that it's established that we're not going to eat you, would you mind answering our question? Whose business is this?"

"It -- it's my Uncle Lukey's," the boy said. "I been keepin' an eye on it for him while he's gone."

"What is Uncle Lukey's last name?" Egbert probed gently.

"Ravanel."

The name didn't seem to mean anything to Argus, but it was now Egbert's turn to fill his pants, metaphorically if not physically.

[Drannin]

Argus glanced over at Egbert. Took in his expression. "Someone you know?"

Judging by the memorable expression on Egbert's face, the answer was 'yes.' The nod which followed a moment later was also a clear indicator.

"Who is he? And why do you look like you're about forget how to keep your food down?"

That, at least, was the polite, translated version of Argus' original thought.

[Graybeard]

Father Egbert swallowed hard and worked on choosing his words carefully. "The name Ravanel has a certain ... significance ... to members of my faith." That was all true, although he didn't say what significance. He also didn't say which faith.

"I'm not an expert on church history, and I don't know the whole story," he continued, again making sure that everything he said was true, at least technically. "However, the Ravanel in question was not exactly a ... heroic figure. He was purported to have certain dark skills that would not be well regarded by Our Lord Luminosita, to put it mildly. Again, I don't know all the details." But I'm bloody well going to find out, he thought to himself.

"It's not that uncommon a surname, though, and the most unsavory parts of the story happened a long time ago, if our histories are at all accurate," he said. "Let me try to calm myself and get back to the matter at hand. With luck this Ravanel will prove to be uninvolved in the errors of his many-times-great-grandfather, if applicable." That one was really a reach, yet still technically true.

The boy was starting to look uncomfortable too, so Egbert ignored Argus' dubious look and said to him, "Forgive me, my child. That name caused me certain discomfort, but there's no reason why you should be troubled by it. Is your name Ravanel too?"

"Naw, it ain't," the boy said. "My name's Willy."

"And what is your first name?"

"That is my first name," the boy said, obtusely.

"And your last name?"

"Sucriel."

Egbert couldn't suppress a sigh of relief. The name meant absolutely nothing to him ... and under the circumstances, that was the best he could hope for.

[OOC: If you know who's referenced by the name "Willy Sucriel," drop me a note.]

[Drannin]

Argus stared at Father Egbert for a moment. There was something else going on here that the good Father was not telling him, but the man was apparently not willing to share. Ah well, Argus was keeping his own secrets as well, and he was, in the end, a sort of glorified employee.

"Can you tell me where your Uncle Lukey is, Willy?" Argus asked kindly. The boy made him think of when Addon was little...

"He is apparently not on the premises," said Brother Lemuel, ever the vision of helpfulness.

"Thank you, brother Lemuel, but I was wondering if Willy knew," Argus replied with strained politeness. Golems...

"No, no, the, uh... BIG GUY," Willy finally decided on a term of reference for Lemuel, "Is right. Uncle Lukey left a coupla days ago."

The exact same time that all of the chaos had taken place. Argus caught Father Egbert's eye and saw that the man had gotten it as well. He turned back to Willy. "Would you please tell us where your Uncle Lukey has gone? We'd very much like to talk with him."

Willy hesitated, looking uncertain. Argus was again struck by old memories of his dead son.

[Graybeard]

"Would you please tell us where your Uncle Lukey has gone? We'd very much like to talk with him."

"I wanna talk to him too," Willy said. "'Cause I'm still scared. And I dunno where he went. He said he was takin' a bunch of -- whaddya call 'em -- guys who paid him to go on a tour with them and keep 'em out of trouble..."

"Clients?" Argus prompted, echoed moments later by Brother Lemuel.

"Yeah, that's the word," Willy said. "He din't tell me where he's takin' 'em, though. It was somewheres overseas, 'cause he said he was gonna be gone a long time. That's why I's watchin' his store."

The men looked at each other, then at the map on the wall. It fit; this guy obviously got around. They were trying to formulate the next question when Willy asked one of his own.

"Hey, do you old guys know if he took Gropey with 'im? I ain't seen Gropey for a few days and I miss him."

Puzzlement flashed across Argus' and Father Egbert's faces, and even Lemuel's stony visage may have shown a brief flicker of ... something. "Who is Gropey?" Egbert asked.

"A troll."

The look on the men's faces wasn't puzzlement any more, particularly Argus', so Willy thought it necessary to amplify his answer:

"A nice troll."

[LordofNightmares]

Tsubasa was doing her research on the Kiyokan Battlemage compound, "hmmm that could where he is at but I need to be sure; I just got the S&M room up and running" she thought to her self "now all I need is a way in, I could do the get arrested but then I would have to wipe out that installation." she stood up "Or I could use the girl as a way in, but how to get the Brother to go another date with her." She finished her planing after a long training session.
Heading to the baths a thought crossed her mind "I hope she (Kueji) does not use the front entrance, all those traps and mazes and the guard dog Mikie."

After a nice long bath, she geared up for her next mission a challenge at long last "Time to meet with the Father Egbert again in person." she said walking out to the door way "this should be fun."

[Drannin]

"A 'Nice Troll?' So what, does he kill you in a polite fashion?" Argus' voice dripped with... well, something negative and hostile, anyway.

"Gropey wouldn't kill anybody!" Willy shouted back, angrily. Then he hesitated. "Well, nobody BAD."

Argus grunted, resisting the urge to spout profanities. 'Nice' and 'troll' did not go together in his book. But this child seemed to know the troll. And was still alive. Extraordinary. So this Ravanel person has a secret room connected to his business, wherein was stored the golem from the other night. An 'Ayiee,' whatever that is. Meanwhile, there was a troll on the roof of the mission that night as well. And this boy knows them both...

Argus slowly turned to stare at the boy. A connection. There had to be. But how? Somehow he didn't see this boy as being involved in the mass destruction of a mission, a gang war, and all of the other madness that had been going on here. But htere was a connection, just the same. He could feel it.

Willy started to wilt under his gaze, and Argus realized that he had just gone into 'imperious old bastard' mode accidentally. "Uh, so how long have you known... Gropey?" he asked blindly, trying to avoid scaring the child. Distantly the thought came: What the hell kind of name is Gropey?

Brother Lemuel would have said it was a troll's name. Argus was very glad that golems weren't telepathic.