Session 30: Lawyers, This Tylvim Bitch, People Who Resist Fast Friends, Swords From Nowhere, Bleeding, Cowardice, Using All My Magic on Something Other Than Murder, Jail, Interrogation, Telling Fucking Truth, Wasted Fucking Effort

General Summary

There is knock at door.
We are back in apartments at Lightkeepers. Ingoria spent last couple of hours sitting outside Tylvim’s house, watching for her to do the suspicious things, but mostly Tylvim is just sitting around. She goes to Lightkeeper dining room for dinner, then goes right back home. People who speak to her do not seem to be friends, just acquaintances who are wanting to give her the condolences for Syllar’s death.
Now Ingoria is back with us, and Skreek is just waking up from little nap he had to take because he was being too exhausted after sitting on butt all day watching Kisha’s base. So now we are all just sitting here going in circles over what to do next, when comes this knock I was mentioning.
It is Zippy, GG’s lawyer. He has come to tell us that he spoke with investigators and they are telling him they have already done spell to remove curses, and one to remove other bad magics that could have been done to him, and checked him out for any other enchantments which they can be thinking of. They did all this as soon as they arrested him, and they found nothing. At least this is what Zippy says that guy Bartley told him. I am pretty sure he is telling truth, but I am not so sure I trust Bartley when he says they have done these things. He does not seem so interested in finding out truth when he has convenient scapegoat already in jail.
Fuck, this is being shitty news. Really we were counting on chance that GG would snap out of his weirdness and be able to tell us more of what has happened. But now we are back at the square one. Square one is bullshit.
Zippy clears his throat. “I must say, I am pleased not to have received any reports about you guys causing trouble today.”
I look at him, count seven different ways I could make him dead before even he knows what is happening, then say “Fuck you. Good night” and slam door in his stupid face.
We stay up late making plans and decide only thing left to do is search Tylvim’s house and see if she has left for us important clue – maybe like convenient paycheck stub signed by Kisha, or journal entry describing how murder was achieved. Maybe she actually took Syllar’s heart with her, and it is now in shoebox under bed. What?! It is possible. One of girls at Academy liked to collect…
You know what, maybe I will not be finishing that story. It is little bit too gross, even for me.
When we get up in morning, we go right to her house. Well, most of us do. Baermek decides he is going off to library to research what other kind of magic might have been used on GG that would not have shown up in investigator’s exam. I ask him to pick up next book for me in series I am reading while he is there. It is about gnome who is pirate, but really secretly was born to noble family, and girl she loves, who is pretty much too dumb to live, but has plucky attitude and amazing tits. Baermek gives me look, which I choose to interpret as interest, so I start telling him more of plot, until finally he just turns back on me and leaves.
Obviously, he is not fan of fine literature.
Ingoria is scouting to see if Tylvim is home, and Skreek is up high overhead to keep eye on situation. Grandfather and I wait nearby and pretend to have argument (this is not difficult; trick is to not be pretending) and wait for Ingoria to give us all clear. It is only quick minute, then she waves us over and jumps in window. We hear little scuffle inside, and quickly we climb in after her. Inside, we see Igoria is holding up terrified looking mouse and looking all around for box to put mouse in, I guess for maybe little light snack later? I don’t know. She finds jewelry box, stuffs mouse inside, and we get to the searching.
I start tossing place, but Grandfather, he tells me, maybe we should be little more subtle here, not advertise that we have been looking through her stuff. I sigh at chickenshit suggestion, but put books back neatly on shelf. Out of order.
Grandfather is in bedroom searching, when I hear him give little grunt. He is many things, but one thing he is not, is big grunter. 99% of times when he grunts it is because he is getting ass kicked again. But this is more of surprise and recognition kind of grunt.
He walks back into room, carrying picture. It shows dwarf guy who looks familiar, but it is not until Grandfather reminds me, that I can see he is dwarf that was with Kisha when they jumped us at frog chasm so very long ago, right after we met other assholes we are stuck now with babysitting all of time.
Quickly we are looking around, but there is only one other picture in house that shows person – it is gnome, looks like maybe relative of Tylvim. All other pictures are just nature scenes, and animals, and nature scenes with animals. So Tylvim not only knows this dwarf, but probably he is being important to her. It is not enough evidence for Lightkeepers maybe, but it is more than enough for Grandfather and me.
Skreek, who is keeping watch up above, sends message to Ingoria through sending stone – Shit! Tylvim is right outside! We have barely any time at all to prepare for her arrival. When she comes in, I am sitting on couch and Grandfather is back in bedroom. Ingoria hides behind door, and steps between Tylvim and door as soon as gnome enters.
“Good run?” I ask her.
“Hello?” She says, looking so surprised. She backs up toward door, but runs into Ingoria who has stepped out from behind door to block her way.
Grandfather steps out from bedroom, holding picture. “I think discussion is in order, young lady,” he says.
“Look,” she says. “You’ve got until the count of three before I start screaming…”
I try to cast on her spell which is called Fast Friends. Usually this is very effective, as you have seen, but this time she shakes it off. She drops expression of confused innocence and now she looks like kind of conniving asshole who would pal around with Kisha.
“Good,” I say with smile. “I did not want to be your friend anyway.”
“I don't know what you assholes think you’re doing, but you need to leave right now, before someone gets hurt real bad,” she sneers.
Ingoria is still trying to keep things from getting bloody. “Please don’t yell, we are just trying to understand what is going on!” But it is clear that already it is too late for that; Tylvim ignores her completely.
Grandfather tries to cast spell on her to hold her in place, but she is shaking that off also. Reaching down to touch pouch which is hanging from her belt, she says some word I do not understand, and now it is Ingoria who is frozen into place. Then she gives out loud whistle which is obviously signal to someone who is outside.
Fuck this bitch!
I cast Silence on front of house, so maybe she will not be casting anything more or whistling again. It works, yeah, but just pisses her off so much she comes running at me like crazy person, reaching up to pull some kind of nasty weapon straight out of air, and chanting some kind of invocation. Before I even know it, I am knocked on my ass, and pain is too much for me to hold onto Silence spell I have just cast.
I did not even notice Skreek come in, but there he is now, and he shoots Tylvim in her side. She grunts then snarls at him in some kind of growly words that gives me the goosebumps (which is not easy thing to do, you know?). Out from wound comes shooting this black shininess, which smacks Skreek in chest, causing him to stagger for moment. His eyes meet mine – we both of us recognize this kind of attack – it is definitely kind of bullshit fucking Shadow Knights like to fling around.
This would be interesting fact I would like to explore further, if I were not laying on ground at her feet, bleeding.
“Look, bitch,” I say. “We just wanted to talk, but…” I grab her ankle and give her death touch. From way she screams, it was very good one! Thanks Boggie! She backs up step or two, making choking, gagging sound, and I get ass up from ground, ready to do it again.
But before I do, there is snarling from behind Tylvim. Ingoria has broken out of hold and run up behind her to claw her in back! Ha! Asshole is really fucked up now! She looks around her, reads writing on wall, and snarls, “You guys are so fucked!” Then she casts spell and disappears like fucking chickenshit shadow knight asshole that she is.
No time to worry about that. Trouble is definitely on way. I run over to chest we saw in bedroom, hoping to find something before go. Grandfather is right behind me. I try to unlock it but fail. Fuck, there is not the time for this!
“We’ve got to get to Bartley,” I tell Grandfather. “Tell him our side of things before we’re in even deeper shit.” As soon as he nods, I jump out of window on opposite side of house from where we came in, and run.
It was not too long ago that I was fast, that I could outrun horses and slip through shadows. Now I am weak, and weighted down with armor, and barely I can go faster than walk. But still I am not completely without shadow power. Tattoos lets me move through cracks in walls of houses – passing through several in direct line toward where is Bartley’s office. I am hoping that others have also got away, but for right now all I can think is Tylvim was right – we are completely fucked. One of few things we have going for us here is relationship with Lightkeepers, and already we were on the ground that is shaky, and now we have attacked their little, helpless gnome secretary…
Speaking of which, I step through wall into alley between houses, and there, leaning against wall, panting, surrounded by empty vials that once held healing potions, is Tylvim. I startle for moment, before realizing she cannot see me – I am still shadowy. She chugs one more potion, then moves off around corner, back toward her house. I start to follow – she was so fucking close to dead and I very much want to finish job – but then I am realizing how stupid I have been. Here I am running like crazy person, but I can talk to Bartley in my head! You know, having magic is still new thing to me; sometimes I forget badass things which I can do now (even if I cannot seem to forget things which no longer I can do).
“Help!” I tell him through Sending spell. “Tried to talk to Tylvim about murder. She didn’t like us pointing out her connection to the Unseen. Attacked us! I’ll answer your questions!”
I turn away from direction where I saw Tylvim go, and continue on path to toward Bartley’s office.
His voice comes back, surprised. “What? Attacked you? Unseen? What the hell? Where are you? Get to the station.”
Thank you so much for helpful advice, guy. I keep running, but it is most important to get him on our side before he hears other stories, so I send him another message. “I’m trying, but they’re chasing! My companions may be injured or dead. She had allies waiting for us! She is more than she seems.” I try to make voice sound small and afraid, and not even little bit like pissed off assassin with bad attitude.
When he answers, he sounds little bit impatient, “Where should I send help?” he asks and I realize I did not tell him important little detail, in rush to muddy waters.
I only have enough magic to cast sending one more time, but I do not think keeping magic in reserve will do me much good, if Lightkeepers decide to come after us. I must hope that this will work. “Sorry. Sorry. En route to station from Tylvim’s house. Separated from companions. Very hurt. Be careful! These are professionals!”
“Got it, sending help. Keep running.”
I am not trying anymore to be sneaky – I head to main road and try to be conspicuous as possible. I am down to slow shuffle at this point, gasping with pain. It is not really act – goddamn gnome fucked me up pretty goddamn good.
Busybody asshole stops and asks me if I need help. I want to give him look like he is stupid, but instead I practically fall into his arms, whispering, “Help, they’re after me” in best damsel-in-distress voice. He helps me sit on side of road, and runs off to get guards.
Not even moment later, from nowhere at all, I hear sarcastic clapping. Grandfather’s voice says, “Nice performance,” before he appears from where he had been standing next to me, invisible. I make face at him, then say loudly, so that others can hear, “Oh Grandfather! Oh thank god you escaped! I thought you were dead!” From look on Grandfather face, maybe I am overdoing this little bit. What can I say? I am supposed to be always lurking in shadows, unseen until it is too late, not standing in middle of busy street pretending I give shit about his well-being!
Guards come running behind busybody, and it is very soon after that that Bartley shows up with even more guards.
“We went to ask Tylvim questions about murder,” I tell him, while one of guards is patching me up. “She invited us inside and when we were there, we saw picture of guy from Unseen. We are drow from Novo, of course we know all about Unseen. It is impossible not to! When we asked her how she knew this guy, she attacked us!”
He looks me up and down, “She attacked you first?”
“We were just there to ask questions!” I tell him, but he is looking skeptical.
“Go back to the station,” he says, nodding to some of guards to accompany me back. Rest of them, he gathers together for investigating Tylvim’s house. Grandfather follows them.
It is long, slow, painful walk back to station, and by time I arrive, Grandfather has caught up to me. Ingoria has already been there for little while. Grandfather tells us that when they got to Tylvim’s house she was lying on floor, nearly dead, and next to here, written in her own blood is “Aly…”
For fuck’s sake. They are having even more contempt for law enforcement than I do, and this is real accomplishment on their part. Surely not even cops would fall for this plan!
Anyhow, Tylvim’s house is trashed and picture is gone, and when she “wakes up” she acts like she is all terrified of Grandfather. Bitch has no idea. But apparently little act is enough to fool Bartley and he sends Grandfather back to station, too.
We are just arguing over what is strategy for talking to Bartley, when guards come in and separate us into different cells. Why they did not do this at first, I do not know. Anyhow, they do not actually have enough cells for all three of us, so me they are putting into Bartley’s office with stern warning “Do not touch anything!”
I do not. Am I being tempted? This is stupid question. But if I am going to try to convince this asshole that we are good guys here (hey! Why are you laughing at this?) I cannot act like sneaky person. So I sit slumped over in chair, quietly bleeding on rug that, from all evidence, is very used to the being bled on.
It is long boring time before Bartley comes bursting into office. I think he is hoping to catch me going through things (see! I am right again!) I look up at him, startled and wide-eyed. Drip drip drip goes my blood.
Slowly he crosses room, sitting down at desk across from me, studying me for whole time. I do best to look intimidated.
“So,” he asks. “She invited you in, you said?”
“No,” I give little sigh. “No, she did not.”
He quirks his eyebrow at me, saying nothing. I have had much time to think before this questioning has begun, and thing I am thinking is that we must play this as close to straight as we can. We must tell mostly truth – but truth which has been carved and shaped into story that sends cops in right direction, meaning not our direction. We did not have time to come up with story before we were separated, and it will be too easy for him to catch us in lies. Already I will have to dig myself out of lie I told him when first we spoke.
“I am sorry, but maybe it is that I lied to you.” This is me being so, so contrite.
“Uh-huh”
“Look, nobody is ever believing Drow, and already you were so suspicious of us.” I throw up hands so exasperated. “I did not want you to ignore things which happened after, just because already we were waiting in her house when she arrived.” I lift eyes to his, seeing how he is taking this, but only thing I get back is flat cop stare.
I sigh again, and this is not pretend. I was hoping I would not have to take it this far, but I think only way I can sway him to our side is…
“Look, I know how this is sounding to you. How can you trust what it is I am telling you? So, there is spell, I know you have it, it is called Zone of Truth. You put Zone of Truth on me, then you will see that I am being straight with you here.”
Now he is looking surprised. Good. It is good to have him little bit off-balance. I just need to keep my own balance as I answer questions. Honesty is maybe not my strong suit, but right now it is best weapon I have, if I am wielding it with skill.
Before I can change mind, he sends for cop mage and has me sign release forms. I sign with flourish. I mean, either this is working or it does not, right?
Mage casts spell and it feels like there are cobwebs that settle over my brain, light enough to be displaced by smallest breeze of falsehood. Bartley settles back into chair, and studies me for long moment before asking, “What were you doing in her house?”
Ok, Belov, you can do this. You have looked Devil in his face and lied – you can tell truth to stupid cop.
“We thought she might know something about murder of your boss. She has not been with Lightkeepers for very long time, and we had heard that she was very sneaky and underhanded in getting job with Syllar. She even spent nights at his house. Maybe she knew of ways to gain access that were not the common knowledge.”
He leans forward and scribbles some notes, then looks back up at me.”I see. So, where does the Unseen come into all of this?”
“Well, there is… thing… I must tell you, I… I was member of Unseen.” I look down like I am ashamed. “I was sent to Unseen school when I was very young, but things there were bad. They were doing things which were very wrong. I was scared. I needed to get out. I managed to get to Grandfather’s house, and he helped me run away. We have been on run ever since.”
“And this is relevant, because…?”
“Because of picture we found in her house! On her wall was picture of dwarf who is part of Unseen. It could not be coincidence that she had access to Syllar and also connection to Unseen! I do not know what is their plans, but she must have been involved!”
“And when she caught you in her house?”
“We tried to confront her about picture. She attacked us!”
“She attacked you?”
“Yes, yes! I am telling you this. When she came in and was so angry, I cast on her fast friends. We did not come to hurt her, only to find out what she knew. If we hurt her, and she was involved, we could not find out what we need to know to clear GG’s name.”
“You know that casting that spell could be considered an assault, right?”
“No, assault is assault. This was just greasing of wheels. We were not looking for fight, just answers. We have good relationship with Lightkeepers, we do not want to be endangering this.”
“Mm-hm. So you cast this spell, and then what happened?”
“Well, spell did not work on her, but it did make her even more angry. She cast spell on Ingoria to hold her in place then made loud whistle for her associates. Again, I was just trying to keep situation under control, so I cast silence on front of house so she would not cast any more spells on us. This made her even angrier. She came toward me, and she reached up and pulled some kind of sword out of air. Just boom, sword. She starts chanting some kind of crazy invocation and takes swing at me. Maybe sword alone would not have been so bad, but with magics she is using I am knocked down and there is no more Silence. Skreek sees I am injured, so he shoots her. She turns toward him and makes this horrible sound, not like she is hurt but, I do not know how to describe it. It does not sound like it belongs in this world. And then dark shadows come out of her wound and go into him, knocking him back. I am worried that she will use this dark magic to kill us all, so this is when I give up trying to get answers from her and have to defend myself.”
“Defend yourself?” He is looking skeptical again. 
I give him look, and maybe it is little bit harder than it should be. “Yes, defend myself. I am there, laying at her feet – you saw yourself how injured I was. If she hit me again, I would not be getting back up. So I defended myself.”
“And then?” he asks, quill moving quickly across parchment as he listens.
“And then she sees there are more of us then her, so she magics herself out of there!”
He looks up at his writing for moment, eyes flitting back and forth over my face, searching, searching. Then he tuns back to his notes, “Uh-huh. And what did you do then?”
“I want to try to find more clues about murder, but situation is too dangerous. We run, but outside are waiting her associates. They are definitely Unseen; I would know – way they dress, way they move, it is… distinctive. Unseen agents try to kill us, but we run and somehow we manage to get away.”
“And that was the last you saw of Tylvim?”
“No.”
“No?”
“No. I saw her one more time when I was running away. She was standing in alleyway, drinking health potions. She did not see me, just turned and ran back toward her house as soon as she was healed up enough.”
“She was alive? Conscious?”
“Yes, yes, this is what I am saying. Last time I saw her she was healed up and running back toward her house!”
He sits back surprised and looks at mage with eyebrows raised. Mage nods, yes, spell is still working.
“You know when we found her she was terribly injured, near death, and she had written your name in blood next to her?”
“This is what I have heard, but it is bullshit. C’mon, you are cop, right? Does this seem like realistic thing she would do?”
He purses lips little bit. Yeah buddy, it is not something people do when they are dying, this writing out accusation in blood – they are too busy gurgling and thrashing around. You do not seem like dumb guy; you are knowing this.
“So, if you were not the one who left her near dead, why do you think she tried to frame you like that? Why you and not one of your companions?”
I look at him and corner of my mouth goes up little bit in unhappy smile. I do not want to tell him anything more about any of this, but really, how can I not? If I want Lightkeepers to fuck up Kisha, then I will have to be pointing them in right direction. It cannot be avoided.
“When I left Unseen, there were people there who did not like me, people who were very angry with me. One of these is woman who is called Kisha Kuznetsovya. In last few days, I have seen her agents here in Freehold. I do not know how it is in business interests of Unseen to kill Syllar, but I can see Kisha framing GG just because he is my friend. And, now that she knows I am on to her, she will want to frame me too, right? This is why Tylvim has done stupid writing in blood bullshit – because Kisha has told her to.”
“I see.” His voice takes on hard edge. “So you’re telling me that this is all about you, then? Syllar’s death? All of it? Just some Unseen grudge bullshit?”
Asshole. “No, no. Of course it is not. If Kisha was here for me, she would just kill me and not bother fucking around with all this other shit. No. Kisha is loyal attack dog of Unseen. For some reason they wanted Syllar dead, and she made it happen. It is just lucky bonus for her that she could also hurt me and my friends while she did job.”
He finishes with writing, puts down quill and nods to mage. I feel spell drop and hear sound of mage leaving room. Bartley continues to study me. I look at him straight in eyes.
We sit like that for minute, then he looks down at desk, blots ink from parchment and slips it into folder.
“Thank you Ms. Belov. If you would please wait in your cell, while I interview your associates?”

*****

After I am back in cell, they take Grandfather to talk to Bartley. Then, Ingoria. There is guard posted in hallway outside cells now, so we cannot talk as we wait. Grandfather gives me concerned look as he is walked past my cell door, and I shrug shoulders. If we cannot talk our way out, we will have to fight our way out. We live or we die. There is nothing more to worry about now; die is cast.
I look down at where I am still wearing pouch with spell components. Dumbasses took my staff and left me these. They have not figured out that I am not same Alyona as before! Still, I do not want to use them. We do not have so many bridges left to us, that we can be affording to burn them.
When we are all returned to cells, there is nothing to do but wait. I try to tell them about books I am reading, but Grandfather is very rude about this. But it is only short while later that we are suddenly hearing terrible scream and sound of something large thrashing around from direction of offices. Guards start yelling and running. From same direction we hear yell, “Bloody hell! Bartley is dead! They…they took his heart!”
That fucking amazing performance, and it was all for nothing.
Fuck my life.

Report Date

11 Jan 2024