Matteo. Meet me at the Brass Orchid tonight. Tavel
Matteo. Meet me at the Brass Orchid tonight. Tavel
Tavel÷
I don't know why you wished to see me, but I do not appreciate having my time wasted. If it was important you may come up to the apartment and speak with me there.
Matteo
To the Eminate Matteo Harpwright:
I was informed last night that a former student of mine, Tavel Romein, was pulled out of the bay yesterday when one of the Watermen snagged a line on his corpse. Romein had apparently been dead for quite some time, possibly several weeks, judging from the damage to the body. The guards inform me that he was murdered and the body was thrown in the bay; it had been weighed down with anchor chain wrapped around the legs. The body showed no signs of struggle against its bonds, relatively litle silt in the lungs, and the throat was mutilated in the style called a Jackscrag Cravat.
I gave my deposition to the guards, informing them that I knew litle of Romein's activities, but that he has fought a number of duels that may have motivated the murder, and that he had been investigating his friend Yossef Kormallis' death. You may or may not wish to pursue this matter÷the body is being held in the Dockside Guardhouse for the duration of vigil. I have no more interest in the matter, myself.
Cordially,
Imminus Phane
Eyvan:
I don't know if it's important, but DuBaton told me last night that somebody backstabbed Sandor Kormallis in Dockside. A guard found him in time to save his life, but the wound was poisoned and he's still in critical condition.
I guess the reason the crime makes me uneasy is that DuBaton said there were two odd clues left behind in Sandor's hand÷a dead black widow spider and a black feather, like a raven's. He thinks they were deliberately planted, not simply dropped. He says a black widow spider is the "calling card" of the Venom of Lloth, a group of drow assassins. DuBaton doesn't know what a raven feather signifies, but he's looking into it, and I know him÷he gets obsessive about these things.
I've got a bad feeling about this. Keep your eyes open, okay?
Thax
Thaxö
Sandor Kormallis' stabbing should make you nervous. It isn't the first such incident connected with Yossef's death that's been the bearer of such ugly cues.
I suppose I should start at the beginning, only I don't really know where that is. Several weeks ago I received some÷no, this goes deeper than that.
Shortly after The Black Rose Company got together (directly after the Dusk incident, I believe, though I don't remember for certain), I received a note from Tavel Romein asking me to meet him at the Brass Orchid that evening. Now, I have never particularly cared for this young man, but he was a friend of Yossef's (he was, in fact, the only one of Yos' duelist companions to show at the interment of his ashes÷I don't know if you saw the young man who put the lily in the door of the tomb...) and I thought he might have had something to tell me about the circumstances of Yossef's death.
I'm probaby right, but I may never find out. You see, he never showed at the tavern. His body was found several weeks later, throat slit in the manner known as a "Jackscrag Cravat" (f you don't know please ask someone else to explain. As Damion commented, it is a method used to discourage people from asking questions). The last word I have on his approximate time of death corresponds with the night he asked me to meet him.
What do you suppose he was into?
I'm usually the first to admit I was wrong about something, Thax, but it is only now that I am beginning to see how wrong I was about Yos. I should have guessed when I stopped visiting other people, when I found myself fairly isolated ... I feel as though I owe you an apology for the way I treated you when I was seeing him. He was very good at making me forget about anyone but him, though that's no excuse for why I let myself get so wrapped up in him. The more I find out about him, however, the less I find I knew him.
I wonder how I could have ever believed he loved me.
In any event. Please let me know what DuBaton finds out about this feather÷I may pay him a visit myself, but I find him rather intimidating. I am frightened by this whole situation, Thax, but I can't let these scare tactics work. I can't let them keep me from finding out what happened. It begins to look more and more like Yossef was murdered, as Tavel claimed. I have to know why.
And Thax ... please take care of yourself. I don't know if whoever Yossef disturbed considers me a target or not, but they may ... and you are without a doubt the best friend I have ever had. Our having landed you with a rather tedious Guard Duty aside, I do not wish you to get hurt because of something I have stirred up, however unwittingly. I would rather not see you hurt at all.
I shall, indeed, be keeping my eyes open.
Let me know what DuBaton finds out.
Eyvan
Lord Eyvan/Matteo,
You probably know that Kormallis shipping interests include a variety of sensitive cargoes, which we move circumspectly for customers who value their privacy. The rash of kidnappings over the last year has caused investigators like your Lord Finster to examine shipping manifests more closely, and sometimes even inspect the payloads themselves, looking for lost children. Since all these inspections are imperiling the Kormallis' promise of privacy to our customers, Father asked Yossef to investigate the kidnappings himself. I don't know if Yossef ever told you what he was doing, but I figure he probably didn't, since it was family business and we've always kept that pretty quiet.
I think Yossef discovered something important, and that's why Valance was hired to kill him. At first Tavel and I thought the Canter's Guild or some Maze smugglers might be responsible for hiring Valance, but Tavel couldn't dig anything up, and then he was murdered. I went over to look at his body after it was dredged up. It looked like a Canter's assassination, but when I asked around, the Canters told me they didn't know anything about it, and had never hired Valance. They said whoever's taking the kids is doing it without their permission, and they'd like to see it stopped for pretty much the same reasons as Father.
I got Valance's old address from Tavel's room before the Watch cleared it out and found out from the people living in Valance's boarding house that the swordsman was killed about three days after he'd killed Yossef (that's a guess÷they didn't remember the exact day). Seems they were all woken up one night by a loud crash, almost like thunder, and the sound of wood splintering. Valance's room was scorched, the wall over his head punctured with a huge splintered hole, and Valance himself slain, all crisped and burned. No sign of an intruder, even though the neighbors had gotten there in just a few seconds.
I found out Valance had met several times with someone called Nikolai Helfast, but Nikolai was murdered in his inn room about a month or so ago÷beaten up, throat cut. I don't know if they were working for the same person, or if Helfast hired Valance, but it was while I was looking into Helfast's ties that somebody jumped me.
You're probably wondering why I'm writing all this to you. Three reasons. One, I think they'll try to kill me again, and I want someone else to know what I've discovered in case they succeed. Two, you're a member of the Black Rose Company, and I know these kidnappings are getting official attention. And three, one night a couple of years ago, when we were both drinking together, Yossef told me that he loved you. I don't know if you felt the same way about him÷everyone says you're seeing the Thongolir heir now, so maybe not÷but I'm hoping that if nothing else you were fond enough of my brother to look into his death. Father's taken me off the case and hired Karig the Stalker to look into who attacked me, and for the moment I'm stuck here recovering, so there isn't anything more I can do.
Whatever you decide to do, don't tell Lord Finster about this, or show the letter to anyone else. Tell the rest of your Company, if you have to, but Father and my brothers would be furious if they knew I was revealing family business to anyone else÷especially to Finster (wasn't he injured looking into the kidnappings, too?)÷and I don't want that kind of trouble right now. Everything I've seen and heard about you indicates that you can be trusted, so I'm trusting you now.
Signed,
Sandor Kormallis
Sunwane 32
Exalt Sandor,
No, Yossef did not confide in me what he was looking into÷he rarely told me anything at all, and I must confess I only rarely asked.
I believe Nikolai Helfast was murdered by a member of the Big Fish gang÷I shall try to verify that before sending this.
May I come and speak to you in regards to these matters? It will be simplest, I suspect, if you suggest some time and I rearrange my schedule (if I can), to meet with you.
Signed,
Eyvan Majarra
Post scriptum: Damien appears to be wound up in Lady Nora's trial (and I do not blame him), so I cannot verify the responsible party in N.H.'s death at this time.
My Lord Sandor:
I hesitate to interrupt your rest, but I find I have a question I must ask you in regards to the matter we have a common interest in.
Do you know anything of a group who has a name that sounds like "redemption"?
Eyvan
Thax-
Hypothetical question: How dangerous would a group of child-kidnapping mages be?
-E
