Clean up at Petunia's Flowerbed
"Chief Inspector, over here!"
Soot looked over toward the half-elf Peacekeeper calling to him and began to make his way over. "What's your name son?" Soot asked once he reached the man. "Hartmann Sir," the PK replied.
"Alright Hartmann, give me your report."
"Yes Sir," Hartmann replied excitedly as he pulls out a notebook and flips a few pages before finding his notes. "Five bodies, each burnt to a crisp, so identification is impossible, but witnesses claim that they were members of the Good Neighbors gang. Your Arcane Investigator says that the burns are from a fireball spell."
"And who is the AI on duty?" Soot asked, "That would be Detective Vivian Hawkes Sir." Hartmann answered, "although, given the parties involved, an AI seems redundant for this investigation." Soot nods, "Continue Keeper," he commands. "Sir." Hartmann looks down at this notebook again "The manager of the establishment admitted that the suspect killed all five victims but is claiming that it was self-defense. Witness corroborates this by stating that the five victims were brandishing weapons and threatening the suspect. A few weapons were recovered from the scene, and each victim had a sheath that would have fit said weapons. Some of the bodies were still holding weapons, but the rest were scattered from the blast."
"The suspect?" Soot asked. Hartmann bit his lip "Well Sir, she is upstairs, but the manager is refusing to let us question her. Said that she would only speak to you." Soot sighed and rubbed his temple. "Figures," he said "Excellent report Hartmann, now tell me. Do you believe that this was self-defense or murder?"
Hartmann frowns "Is this a test, Sir?" Soot shrugs watching him intently. "Well Sir, I don't think my opinion should be consulted in this due to me being biased" Hartmann answered. Soot raised an eyebrow "Explain" he commanded. The PK begins to turn red with embarrassment "Ummm, well... To be honest Sir, I was too young to fight during the raid on the city, but you and the rest of Rising Tower inspired me to enlist in the Watchers. So basically I look up to you guys."
Soot laughs, "Keeper Hartmann, while I thank you for being honest, I think you should ask yourself this question. If you think you have conflict of interest, what makes you think I don't?" Without waiting for an answer, Soot began to make his way into the inn.
Soot was grateful that the smell of burnt flesh was not as strong as it could have been. The illusory vines and flowers that covered the floor created an nature like smell that concealed most of it, with the lazily floating flowers creating a hint of sweet honey when you got too close to one. Petunia's Flowerbed always looked magnificent, with today being the exception due to the corpses laying on the ground. The manager looked to be still arguing with a couple of Peacekeepers, so Soot approached the bodies and the AI that was inspecting them. "Detective Hawkes" Soot greeted the halfling as he approached. "Chief," the Detective responds without looking up. Her eyes were glowing as she holds a small pearl to her temple and an owl feather behind her ear. "Is something the matter?" Soot asked. The Detective remained silent for a time before answering, "I'm not sure. I've seen bodies hit with fireball spells before, but something is odd about these." Soot frowns "Explain" he says. She gestures him closer, "It's their flesh; it's too cold." She says. "Too Cold?" Soot repeats before reaching and touching one of the corpses. Indeed the body did seem to have a chill to it, one that gave Soot a sense of unease. He pulled his hand back looking at his fingers, confused. Detective Hawkes looks up at him for the first time, "Sir, I know that she is your friend, but with your permission, I would like to keep looking into this phenomenon." Soot thinks for a moment before looking up, making eye contact with the manager. She immediately moves past the PKs she was arguing with and starts making her way towards Soot. "Do it," he says to the Detective, "but keep it off the books, and I want regular updates." She nods as Soot moves to intercept the Water Genasi manager. "Where have you been?" She demands as Soot approaches, "We have been waiting for over an hour! That's an hour without paying customers entering our establishment. Do you have any idea what kind of impact that will have on us?" Soot rolls his eyes, "Nice to see you too, Ophelia." He says, "Might I say you are looking lovely this morning as always" She snorts in annoyance "An hour Soot, an hour that we have corpses laying around in the open where anyone can see! When are you going to clean this up?" Soot sighs and looks past her towards the two PKs standing behind. "You heard the lady," he says, "bag these up and get them out of here. Take orders from Detective Hawkes on where she wants them." Both Keepers snap to attention, "Yes Sir," they say before moving out to follow their new orders. "Happy?" Soot asks Ophelia who scowls at him. "Can you please go get Petunia for me?" he asks her, Ophelia glares at him for a moment before turning and starts making her way upstairs. A few moments she returns with a female half-elf wearing a breastplate clutching a staff in one hand and the other hand shoved in a pocket. They make their way over to Soot who waits patiently for them. "Hello, Petunia," Soot says once they reach him, "Good to see you again. Shame it always has to include dead bodies" The Half-elf rolls her eyes before turning to Ophelia saying, "you can get back to work. I've got it from here." Ophelia gives them both an annoyed look before leaving, angrily ordering the staff to get the place cleaned up. Petunia turns back to Soot saying "it was self-defense Soot, they were threatening the Flowerbed and me! They wanted to extort me, they said they were-" Soot raised his hand to interrupt, "Petunia, I believe you. However, there are better ways of dealing with people without blowing them up." She gives him a dirty look before replying "Sometimes you are to burn out the blight before it affects the rest of the crops." Soot blinks taken aback "Petunia, this is not a farm, these are people I-" A loud knock at the front door interrupts him as a well dressed human man with a bowler hat peeks in. "Excuse me," he says, "I don't mean to intrude but are you guys open?" Soot starts to step forward "Sir, there is an ongoing investi-" "Yes, of course, we are indeed open" Ophelia interrupts giving Soot a dirty look, "Come in, come in. What can get for you" The man steps in smiling, "well I was hoping for some coffee to start and what kind of sausage do you have here?" Ophelia steps forward to greet the patron with a well-practiced smile, "That would be lamb sir, however, if you are willing to wait we could provide boar instead" The man shakes his head, "No, lamb is fine. I would like some eggs with sausage links on the side. Also, I would prefer to sit in your quietest corner. I have some work I would like to accomplish while I eat." Ophelia smiles, "Of course, Sir. Right this way, may I take your coat?" directing the man to one of the back corners. Soot turns back to Petunia, "Look Petunia, do you even know who was trying to extort you?" Petunia nods, "Yep," she replied, "it was the Good Neighbors gang, openly announced it too. Thought I would be more reserved if they came at me during the breakfast rush." Soot rubbed his temple for a moment, thinking. "Well," he said, "this is probably going to piss off the rest of the gang, but I think I can keep them off you for at least the time being." Petunia looks at him with her eyebrow raised, "you think you can keep them off me?" she repeats. Soot nods, "Yeah, you said it yourself. They came at you during the day thinking the crowd of patrons would prevent you from doing anything rash. You proved them otherwise. I can use that to convince them that you're not worth it." Soot begins to leave before stopping and turning over his shoulder. "Do me a favor, though?" he says, "Don't blow anyone else up if they come at you again. I know you have other spells that you can use that can prevent carnage." Petunia scowls at him, "No promises." He shrugs and exits out the door. Today is going to be a really long day, Soot thinks to himself.
Petunia looks out the window for awhile watching Soot as he coordinates with the rest of the Peacekeepers. Once the bodies were loaded into a cart and taken away, he leaves from her sight on foot. She waits a few more minutes watching before making her way to the back corner of the Flowerbed. The human man who came in earlier was seated in a booth eating his meal and chatting with Ophelia who was refilling his coffee. His trench coat and hat was hanging off of a hook attached to the booth. "Again Sir, I do apologize for the mess." Ophelia was saying as Petunia approached. "It is unbecoming of the high standards we pride ourselves on. Please allow me to offer you a discount on your meal today." The man smiles and says, "no, no its quite alright. This is a fine establishment, and you are worth every coin." Ophelia finishes poring the coffee before replying "Well, I must offer you something. How about free refills on your coffee today?" The man thinks for a moment before nodding, "I find this to be an acceptable compromise, yes thank you" Ophelia smiles and turns to walk away before stopping once she saw Petunia. "Yes Petunia, how can I help you?" Ophelia asks still smiling. A smile that didn't fool Petunia. "No, its alright Ophelia," Petunia says, "I am just here to see our guest." Ophelia blinks in surprise and turns to look at the man who simply nods and gestures to a seat. "Very well," Ophelia says "I will be back later to check on your refill" and starts to walk away. "No." Petunia orders, "I will send you a message spell when he wants a refill, not a moment before." Ophelia's smile falters as her scowl returns to her face. "Of course Petunia, I will wait for your message." She replies before stomping away. Petunia watches her leave before taking a seat across from the man. "You're late!" Petunia hisses at the man in elvish. "Where have you been?" The man ignores her, finishing the last of his eggs and taking a long sip of his coffee. "I was busy" He finally replied in elvish, "arrived as soon as I could." Petunia's jaw drops "Busy? I was attacked! In my own tavern, in broad daylight!" The man sets his plate aside "Judging by the charred corpses I saw, it looked like you handled it very well. Violently but effective" She glares at the man who sighs and looks up her. "Petunia, I am glad you are alright." He says, "I genuinely am, but I am not going to pretend you are not a capable sorceress who needs protection from simple thugs." Petunia's glare at the man continues for a moment before her face softens. "Thank you," She says, "You look good by the way" The man looks down at his tie and an embroidered vest. "Ah yes, I got this from a tailor in the Seventh Octant. A young tiefling girl made it for me, rather excitable thing, but very talented." He says before looking back up at her. "You still can't sleep, can you?" He asks. She shakes her head. "Same dream?" He asks. She nods, "Always the same; it never changes." said Petunia. The man looks at her for a moment before taking a notebook from his bag and begins to write. "Dreams like this are often a sign of trauma or a message from a planar being." He says, "Seeing how this dream has nothing to do with the raid on the city, added with the thing on your hand makes me doubt that its the former." Petunia pulls her bandaged hand from her pocket and scratches at her palm. She could still feel the medallion embedded into her flesh, even underneath all the bandages. "Brilliant deduction Mr. Detective. Glad you are on the case" She says sarcastically. Ignoring her the man continues to take notes, "The symbol on the medallion is infernal" the man says after a moment "that much I know is certain. Though, anything more, I am not sure and would still need to look into. However, if you would just let me-" "You are not getting inside my head!" Petunia interrupts. The man looked up at her annoyed before saying, "Visions and dreams like this are symbolic and interpretative; the message itself is hidden and requires context to understand most of the time. Without actually experiencing the dream, I can't find that message." Petunia stands up to tower over him. "I said no!" She hisses at him eyes narrowing. The man meets her eyes glaring back before finally saying "fine, but there is a lot of other work I need to accomplish. So without further clues to go off of I am at a standstill." She blinks, "What do you mean other work?" Petunia asks, "What work do you have that is so important?" The man looks up glaring "I dislike the tone you have asking that, but believe it or not I am a busy man with a lot of responsibilities. My days are not spent trying to fix your problems as I have much bigger fish to fry, and that often takes up most of my time." His face softens "I do want to help Petunia, but unless you give me something more to go off of I cannot find the answers you seek. Now is there anything else? Anything at all that might help?" Petunia stares back silently for a moment thinking. "No," she lied, "nothing else." The man nods and starts to put his notebook away before pausing. He looks up at her and tilts his head. "Did you just lie to me?" He asked with surprise. "No," she says again, unblinking. The man continued staring, doing his best to read her, but her face hid all emotions from his piercing gaze. "Petunia," he finally says, "you may be an exceptional liar, but I lived with politicians for a long time. Long enough to make me very good at what I do. Now you don't have to tell me if you don't want, but as I said earlier, I need more to go off of to find out what's going on with you." She stares back at him, maintaining her steely resolve before her face falls, unable to meet his gaze. The man pulls his notebook back out, ink pen ready to write. "Tell me," he says. She looks around, "Can you make things more private?" she asks nervously. The man stares for a moment before pulling out a bit of fleece from his bag. He twirls it between his fingers muttering an incantation. The air shimmers next to them as an illusory wall springs up just next to the booth. Petunia listens for a moment and hears the man's voice and her own voice, both speaking in elvish repeating an incredibly short conversation about the weather. She looks towards him and says, "You know, elvish is a pretty common language." The man rolls his eyes before staring at the illusion concentrating. A second later, the voices stop, and a different sound starts. Petunia listens for a moment and looks at the man, "Is that...?" she begins, "Yes," he interrupts "It is an illusion of us making out." Petunia leans back with a disgusted look on her face "Ew" she says. "First of all," the man says "that's hurtful. I may be a monster, but I do have feelings you know." Petunia shakes her head "it's not that, it's just you're a friend and-" He holds up a hand to interrupt her "Second of all, people often feel uncomfortable when couples publicly display their affection. People will do their best to avoid sitting near us." Petunia frowns "Still though, it's weird..." The man starts to taps his foot impatiently. "Fine, fine," she says, "do me a favor though, and don't freak out." He looks at her suspiciously but nods. "Okay," she says, "well best get this over with. Crumpet?" "TA-DAAAA" the small creature announces as it suddenly appeared on the table with jazz hands. The man jumps with a surprised gasp before regaining his composer, "Petunia" he says, breathing quickly "what, in the fuck, is that?" The creature steps forward answering before her "Didn't you hear? I'm Crumpet! I thought you were supposed to be smart or something." The creature was nude, but any possible genitalia was covered by its protruding belly that sagged. The skin was a mix of a pinkish-gray color and fat rolls that contained items such as gold coins and bits of food. Its head was mostly bald with a few strains of translucent hair sticking out. It's hideous face, and dirty teeth drew more attention than the folded bat-like wings that grew out from its back. The man looked up the creature with disgust, but Petunia could tell that he was also analyzing what he saw and putting the pieces together in his head. "An imp? You have an imp as a familiar?" He asked after a moment. "Hey," Crumpet said accusatory, "this imp has a name!" The man turned his attention to Crumpet saying "well then Crumpet, tell me. Who sent you to Petunia?" Crumpet shrugs "Don't know," he says, "we have a sort of middle management kind of thing where devils put in requests for our services. Its kept rather secretive, so I have no clue who requested that I assist Petunia here. But, even if I did know I probably wouldn't be able to tell you anyways" He puts his hands on his hips looking smug for unknown reasons. Petunia rolls her eyes, but the man seemed to take an interest. "Tell me," the man says, "is it just imps that are requested or are other fiends available for hire as well? And is it just other devils that can hire you or can mortals hire you as well?" Crumpet shrugs again "I don't know about the mortal thing, but yeah there is more than imps there. A couple of Ice or Chain devils in case someone needs to be fucked up or even a succubus for the ones who are fucked up, then there is-" he pauses realizing what he was saying. "Look it's none of your business, alright!!" He snarls. The man smiles as Crumpet glares at him. "It's alright Crumpet. You gave me more than enough to go off of." With that, the man excitedly puts his stuff away, placing a few coins on the table. "Wait, really?" Petunia asked incredulously, The man puts on his coat and grabs his hat "Yes, but I will need some time to work on it." He says, "I will have to get back to you once I know more," and he starts to walk away before Petunia grabs his arm. "Wait, how do I get ahold of you if I need you?" Petunia asked. The man pauses and grabs a scroll case out from his bag and hands it to her. "Here, there are two scrolls of Sending in there. Use that if you need me but don't expect a response right away." Petunia grabs the case "But what about an emergency" she asked. The man shrugs "If its an emergency use it to call Soot, he's pretty fast." he turns toward Crumpet "you make yourself scarce, I'm about to drop this illusion" The imp smirks and turns himself invisible to all except Petunia. The shimmering wall vanishes, and the man walks away towards the door with an excited look on his face. "Wait" Petunia calls after him trying to catch up, but once she reached the main door after him, he was nowhere in sight. "That fucking asshole" Petunia swore walking back to the booth where she saw Crumpet starting to shove the coins on the table into his fat folds. She growled as the medallion in her hand grew hot, and magical energy began to channel in the palm of her hand. Petunia raised her arm with her palm facing Crumpet as a beam of red energy blasts out, striking the invisible imp knocking him into the wall. Immediately Crumpet flies up toward the rafters while making obscene gestures with his hand at Petunia. She returns to the table and scoops up the coins the man left only to turn around and noticed that everyone in the tavern was staring at her. "What are you all looking at?" demanded Petunia, "I'm crazy, remember?" The patrons silently looked at one another before returning to their meals and drinks. Making her way to bar, Petunia placed the coins into Ophelia's hand. "Are we going to talk about this?" Ophelia asked. "Nope!" Petunia said shortly making her way to the stairs, stopping only to snatch a fork out of the hands of a patron who was too shocked to protest. She made her way downstairs and turned down the hallway once she reached the bottom. As Petunia was passing the now unoccupied rooms of Rising Tower, her friends, she felt a hint of sadness and grief but then squashed those feelings. As she approached one of the doors, an audible click sounded, and the door swung open, allowing her access. Inside was the ramshackle shrine that she had been working on. The mess was chaotic and each item was random; ball bearings, several daggers, even an entire bar stool was in this shrine. Nearby was a box of reject forks. Their essence wasn't strong enough, but maybe this one was. With the fork from upstairs in her hand, she began to circle the shrine looking for the right spot. Eventually, she connected the fork to the side of a metal pauldron, when she let go the fork fell to the ground. Frowning, Petunia picked the fork back up and began to circle the shrine again. Some time passed before Petunia stops again noticing a dagger sticking out point first. She reached out, dragging her finger across the edge, testing the sharpness, she was rewarded with a deep cut on her finger, but no blood came from the wound. She takes the fork and connects the middle prong to the tip of the dagger, holding it in place for several seconds. When she let go, the fork remained in place. Reaching out with her cut finger, she pushed on the fork which shifted in its place. She kept pushing until the fork stopped and started resisting her push, she then grabbed onto the handle of the fork and yanked with all her strength, but it refused to budge. Petunia took a step back, admiring her work. Picking up the box of forks nearby, she made her way to the door and threw the box into the trash. She is not sure what it is that she is doing, but she knows that she must do it. She was ignoring the small voice in the back of her mind warning her not to complete the shrine. Whether that was her own voice or someone else's, she wasn't sure, but she didn't care either way. After all, she was insane... Wasn't she?
Soot was grateful that the smell of burnt flesh was not as strong as it could have been. The illusory vines and flowers that covered the floor created an nature like smell that concealed most of it, with the lazily floating flowers creating a hint of sweet honey when you got too close to one. Petunia's Flowerbed always looked magnificent, with today being the exception due to the corpses laying on the ground. The manager looked to be still arguing with a couple of Peacekeepers, so Soot approached the bodies and the AI that was inspecting them. "Detective Hawkes" Soot greeted the halfling as he approached. "Chief," the Detective responds without looking up. Her eyes were glowing as she holds a small pearl to her temple and an owl feather behind her ear. "Is something the matter?" Soot asked. The Detective remained silent for a time before answering, "I'm not sure. I've seen bodies hit with fireball spells before, but something is odd about these." Soot frowns "Explain" he says. She gestures him closer, "It's their flesh; it's too cold." She says. "Too Cold?" Soot repeats before reaching and touching one of the corpses. Indeed the body did seem to have a chill to it, one that gave Soot a sense of unease. He pulled his hand back looking at his fingers, confused. Detective Hawkes looks up at him for the first time, "Sir, I know that she is your friend, but with your permission, I would like to keep looking into this phenomenon." Soot thinks for a moment before looking up, making eye contact with the manager. She immediately moves past the PKs she was arguing with and starts making her way towards Soot. "Do it," he says to the Detective, "but keep it off the books, and I want regular updates." She nods as Soot moves to intercept the Water Genasi manager. "Where have you been?" She demands as Soot approaches, "We have been waiting for over an hour! That's an hour without paying customers entering our establishment. Do you have any idea what kind of impact that will have on us?" Soot rolls his eyes, "Nice to see you too, Ophelia." He says, "Might I say you are looking lovely this morning as always" She snorts in annoyance "An hour Soot, an hour that we have corpses laying around in the open where anyone can see! When are you going to clean this up?" Soot sighs and looks past her towards the two PKs standing behind. "You heard the lady," he says, "bag these up and get them out of here. Take orders from Detective Hawkes on where she wants them." Both Keepers snap to attention, "Yes Sir," they say before moving out to follow their new orders. "Happy?" Soot asks Ophelia who scowls at him. "Can you please go get Petunia for me?" he asks her, Ophelia glares at him for a moment before turning and starts making her way upstairs. A few moments she returns with a female half-elf wearing a breastplate clutching a staff in one hand and the other hand shoved in a pocket. They make their way over to Soot who waits patiently for them. "Hello, Petunia," Soot says once they reach him, "Good to see you again. Shame it always has to include dead bodies" The Half-elf rolls her eyes before turning to Ophelia saying, "you can get back to work. I've got it from here." Ophelia gives them both an annoyed look before leaving, angrily ordering the staff to get the place cleaned up. Petunia turns back to Soot saying "it was self-defense Soot, they were threatening the Flowerbed and me! They wanted to extort me, they said they were-" Soot raised his hand to interrupt, "Petunia, I believe you. However, there are better ways of dealing with people without blowing them up." She gives him a dirty look before replying "Sometimes you are to burn out the blight before it affects the rest of the crops." Soot blinks taken aback "Petunia, this is not a farm, these are people I-" A loud knock at the front door interrupts him as a well dressed human man with a bowler hat peeks in. "Excuse me," he says, "I don't mean to intrude but are you guys open?" Soot starts to step forward "Sir, there is an ongoing investi-" "Yes, of course, we are indeed open" Ophelia interrupts giving Soot a dirty look, "Come in, come in. What can get for you" The man steps in smiling, "well I was hoping for some coffee to start and what kind of sausage do you have here?" Ophelia steps forward to greet the patron with a well-practiced smile, "That would be lamb sir, however, if you are willing to wait we could provide boar instead" The man shakes his head, "No, lamb is fine. I would like some eggs with sausage links on the side. Also, I would prefer to sit in your quietest corner. I have some work I would like to accomplish while I eat." Ophelia smiles, "Of course, Sir. Right this way, may I take your coat?" directing the man to one of the back corners. Soot turns back to Petunia, "Look Petunia, do you even know who was trying to extort you?" Petunia nods, "Yep," she replied, "it was the Good Neighbors gang, openly announced it too. Thought I would be more reserved if they came at me during the breakfast rush." Soot rubbed his temple for a moment, thinking. "Well," he said, "this is probably going to piss off the rest of the gang, but I think I can keep them off you for at least the time being." Petunia looks at him with her eyebrow raised, "you think you can keep them off me?" she repeats. Soot nods, "Yeah, you said it yourself. They came at you during the day thinking the crowd of patrons would prevent you from doing anything rash. You proved them otherwise. I can use that to convince them that you're not worth it." Soot begins to leave before stopping and turning over his shoulder. "Do me a favor, though?" he says, "Don't blow anyone else up if they come at you again. I know you have other spells that you can use that can prevent carnage." Petunia scowls at him, "No promises." He shrugs and exits out the door. Today is going to be a really long day, Soot thinks to himself.
Petunia looks out the window for awhile watching Soot as he coordinates with the rest of the Peacekeepers. Once the bodies were loaded into a cart and taken away, he leaves from her sight on foot. She waits a few more minutes watching before making her way to the back corner of the Flowerbed. The human man who came in earlier was seated in a booth eating his meal and chatting with Ophelia who was refilling his coffee. His trench coat and hat was hanging off of a hook attached to the booth. "Again Sir, I do apologize for the mess." Ophelia was saying as Petunia approached. "It is unbecoming of the high standards we pride ourselves on. Please allow me to offer you a discount on your meal today." The man smiles and says, "no, no its quite alright. This is a fine establishment, and you are worth every coin." Ophelia finishes poring the coffee before replying "Well, I must offer you something. How about free refills on your coffee today?" The man thinks for a moment before nodding, "I find this to be an acceptable compromise, yes thank you" Ophelia smiles and turns to walk away before stopping once she saw Petunia. "Yes Petunia, how can I help you?" Ophelia asks still smiling. A smile that didn't fool Petunia. "No, its alright Ophelia," Petunia says, "I am just here to see our guest." Ophelia blinks in surprise and turns to look at the man who simply nods and gestures to a seat. "Very well," Ophelia says "I will be back later to check on your refill" and starts to walk away. "No." Petunia orders, "I will send you a message spell when he wants a refill, not a moment before." Ophelia's smile falters as her scowl returns to her face. "Of course Petunia, I will wait for your message." She replies before stomping away. Petunia watches her leave before taking a seat across from the man. "You're late!" Petunia hisses at the man in elvish. "Where have you been?" The man ignores her, finishing the last of his eggs and taking a long sip of his coffee. "I was busy" He finally replied in elvish, "arrived as soon as I could." Petunia's jaw drops "Busy? I was attacked! In my own tavern, in broad daylight!" The man sets his plate aside "Judging by the charred corpses I saw, it looked like you handled it very well. Violently but effective" She glares at the man who sighs and looks up her. "Petunia, I am glad you are alright." He says, "I genuinely am, but I am not going to pretend you are not a capable sorceress who needs protection from simple thugs." Petunia's glare at the man continues for a moment before her face softens. "Thank you," She says, "You look good by the way" The man looks down at his tie and an embroidered vest. "Ah yes, I got this from a tailor in the Seventh Octant. A young tiefling girl made it for me, rather excitable thing, but very talented." He says before looking back up at her. "You still can't sleep, can you?" He asks. She shakes her head. "Same dream?" He asks. She nods, "Always the same; it never changes." said Petunia. The man looks at her for a moment before taking a notebook from his bag and begins to write. "Dreams like this are often a sign of trauma or a message from a planar being." He says, "Seeing how this dream has nothing to do with the raid on the city, added with the thing on your hand makes me doubt that its the former." Petunia pulls her bandaged hand from her pocket and scratches at her palm. She could still feel the medallion embedded into her flesh, even underneath all the bandages. "Brilliant deduction Mr. Detective. Glad you are on the case" She says sarcastically. Ignoring her the man continues to take notes, "The symbol on the medallion is infernal" the man says after a moment "that much I know is certain. Though, anything more, I am not sure and would still need to look into. However, if you would just let me-" "You are not getting inside my head!" Petunia interrupts. The man looked up at her annoyed before saying, "Visions and dreams like this are symbolic and interpretative; the message itself is hidden and requires context to understand most of the time. Without actually experiencing the dream, I can't find that message." Petunia stands up to tower over him. "I said no!" She hisses at him eyes narrowing. The man meets her eyes glaring back before finally saying "fine, but there is a lot of other work I need to accomplish. So without further clues to go off of I am at a standstill." She blinks, "What do you mean other work?" Petunia asks, "What work do you have that is so important?" The man looks up glaring "I dislike the tone you have asking that, but believe it or not I am a busy man with a lot of responsibilities. My days are not spent trying to fix your problems as I have much bigger fish to fry, and that often takes up most of my time." His face softens "I do want to help Petunia, but unless you give me something more to go off of I cannot find the answers you seek. Now is there anything else? Anything at all that might help?" Petunia stares back silently for a moment thinking. "No," she lied, "nothing else." The man nods and starts to put his notebook away before pausing. He looks up at her and tilts his head. "Did you just lie to me?" He asked with surprise. "No," she says again, unblinking. The man continued staring, doing his best to read her, but her face hid all emotions from his piercing gaze. "Petunia," he finally says, "you may be an exceptional liar, but I lived with politicians for a long time. Long enough to make me very good at what I do. Now you don't have to tell me if you don't want, but as I said earlier, I need more to go off of to find out what's going on with you." She stares back at him, maintaining her steely resolve before her face falls, unable to meet his gaze. The man pulls his notebook back out, ink pen ready to write. "Tell me," he says. She looks around, "Can you make things more private?" she asks nervously. The man stares for a moment before pulling out a bit of fleece from his bag. He twirls it between his fingers muttering an incantation. The air shimmers next to them as an illusory wall springs up just next to the booth. Petunia listens for a moment and hears the man's voice and her own voice, both speaking in elvish repeating an incredibly short conversation about the weather. She looks towards him and says, "You know, elvish is a pretty common language." The man rolls his eyes before staring at the illusion concentrating. A second later, the voices stop, and a different sound starts. Petunia listens for a moment and looks at the man, "Is that...?" she begins, "Yes," he interrupts "It is an illusion of us making out." Petunia leans back with a disgusted look on her face "Ew" she says. "First of all," the man says "that's hurtful. I may be a monster, but I do have feelings you know." Petunia shakes her head "it's not that, it's just you're a friend and-" He holds up a hand to interrupt her "Second of all, people often feel uncomfortable when couples publicly display their affection. People will do their best to avoid sitting near us." Petunia frowns "Still though, it's weird..." The man starts to taps his foot impatiently. "Fine, fine," she says, "do me a favor though, and don't freak out." He looks at her suspiciously but nods. "Okay," she says, "well best get this over with. Crumpet?" "TA-DAAAA" the small creature announces as it suddenly appeared on the table with jazz hands. The man jumps with a surprised gasp before regaining his composer, "Petunia" he says, breathing quickly "what, in the fuck, is that?" The creature steps forward answering before her "Didn't you hear? I'm Crumpet! I thought you were supposed to be smart or something." The creature was nude, but any possible genitalia was covered by its protruding belly that sagged. The skin was a mix of a pinkish-gray color and fat rolls that contained items such as gold coins and bits of food. Its head was mostly bald with a few strains of translucent hair sticking out. It's hideous face, and dirty teeth drew more attention than the folded bat-like wings that grew out from its back. The man looked up the creature with disgust, but Petunia could tell that he was also analyzing what he saw and putting the pieces together in his head. "An imp? You have an imp as a familiar?" He asked after a moment. "Hey," Crumpet said accusatory, "this imp has a name!" The man turned his attention to Crumpet saying "well then Crumpet, tell me. Who sent you to Petunia?" Crumpet shrugs "Don't know," he says, "we have a sort of middle management kind of thing where devils put in requests for our services. Its kept rather secretive, so I have no clue who requested that I assist Petunia here. But, even if I did know I probably wouldn't be able to tell you anyways" He puts his hands on his hips looking smug for unknown reasons. Petunia rolls her eyes, but the man seemed to take an interest. "Tell me," the man says, "is it just imps that are requested or are other fiends available for hire as well? And is it just other devils that can hire you or can mortals hire you as well?" Crumpet shrugs again "I don't know about the mortal thing, but yeah there is more than imps there. A couple of Ice or Chain devils in case someone needs to be fucked up or even a succubus for the ones who are fucked up, then there is-" he pauses realizing what he was saying. "Look it's none of your business, alright!!" He snarls. The man smiles as Crumpet glares at him. "It's alright Crumpet. You gave me more than enough to go off of." With that, the man excitedly puts his stuff away, placing a few coins on the table. "Wait, really?" Petunia asked incredulously, The man puts on his coat and grabs his hat "Yes, but I will need some time to work on it." He says, "I will have to get back to you once I know more," and he starts to walk away before Petunia grabs his arm. "Wait, how do I get ahold of you if I need you?" Petunia asked. The man pauses and grabs a scroll case out from his bag and hands it to her. "Here, there are two scrolls of Sending in there. Use that if you need me but don't expect a response right away." Petunia grabs the case "But what about an emergency" she asked. The man shrugs "If its an emergency use it to call Soot, he's pretty fast." he turns toward Crumpet "you make yourself scarce, I'm about to drop this illusion" The imp smirks and turns himself invisible to all except Petunia. The shimmering wall vanishes, and the man walks away towards the door with an excited look on his face. "Wait" Petunia calls after him trying to catch up, but once she reached the main door after him, he was nowhere in sight. "That fucking asshole" Petunia swore walking back to the booth where she saw Crumpet starting to shove the coins on the table into his fat folds. She growled as the medallion in her hand grew hot, and magical energy began to channel in the palm of her hand. Petunia raised her arm with her palm facing Crumpet as a beam of red energy blasts out, striking the invisible imp knocking him into the wall. Immediately Crumpet flies up toward the rafters while making obscene gestures with his hand at Petunia. She returns to the table and scoops up the coins the man left only to turn around and noticed that everyone in the tavern was staring at her. "What are you all looking at?" demanded Petunia, "I'm crazy, remember?" The patrons silently looked at one another before returning to their meals and drinks. Making her way to bar, Petunia placed the coins into Ophelia's hand. "Are we going to talk about this?" Ophelia asked. "Nope!" Petunia said shortly making her way to the stairs, stopping only to snatch a fork out of the hands of a patron who was too shocked to protest. She made her way downstairs and turned down the hallway once she reached the bottom. As Petunia was passing the now unoccupied rooms of Rising Tower, her friends, she felt a hint of sadness and grief but then squashed those feelings. As she approached one of the doors, an audible click sounded, and the door swung open, allowing her access. Inside was the ramshackle shrine that she had been working on. The mess was chaotic and each item was random; ball bearings, several daggers, even an entire bar stool was in this shrine. Nearby was a box of reject forks. Their essence wasn't strong enough, but maybe this one was. With the fork from upstairs in her hand, she began to circle the shrine looking for the right spot. Eventually, she connected the fork to the side of a metal pauldron, when she let go the fork fell to the ground. Frowning, Petunia picked the fork back up and began to circle the shrine again. Some time passed before Petunia stops again noticing a dagger sticking out point first. She reached out, dragging her finger across the edge, testing the sharpness, she was rewarded with a deep cut on her finger, but no blood came from the wound. She takes the fork and connects the middle prong to the tip of the dagger, holding it in place for several seconds. When she let go, the fork remained in place. Reaching out with her cut finger, she pushed on the fork which shifted in its place. She kept pushing until the fork stopped and started resisting her push, she then grabbed onto the handle of the fork and yanked with all her strength, but it refused to budge. Petunia took a step back, admiring her work. Picking up the box of forks nearby, she made her way to the door and threw the box into the trash. She is not sure what it is that she is doing, but she knows that she must do it. She was ignoring the small voice in the back of her mind warning her not to complete the shrine. Whether that was her own voice or someone else's, she wasn't sure, but she didn't care either way. After all, she was insane... Wasn't she?
Comments