NOVEL WEB Chapter 15: Investigation 2
It was evening by the time we reached the mansion that held Meisler. The guards escorted us to his suite. Despite being a prisoner he had a sitting room, a bedroom and a bathroom for himself. The guards stayed outside of the room. Meisler looked angry when we entered.
“Hello Frederick.” I saw no reason to be formal with a prisoner.
“That is Sir Meiser for you, you will show me respect!”, he insisted.
“No, I don’t think I will. You will tell us about your little plot here or I will cast a privacy spell on this room and let Lucy have some fun.”, I answered.
Meisler looked at Lucy and paled. “You would not dare. The Empire would not let this slide!”
“You truly think the Empire will care for you? After you failed?”
Meisler seemed uncertain now. I started to cast a privacy spell. It stopped any sound from leaving a certain radius. I wanted to be prepared if he started screaming for the guards. I had no idea how far we were actually allowed to go.
“Lucy, he is all yours.” I took a step back and gestured towards Meisler.
“Finally.”, Lucy said. Electricity sparkled on her fingertips.
“What? Lucy doesn’t know magic. Who are you? Get away from me!”
Lucy started zapping him and he screamed. “AHHHHH. STOP! HELP! HELP!”
Of course nobody was coming. My privacy spell was in place. I watched the scene with mixed feelings. Hurting a prisoner was wrong. But he likely did worse to Lucy in the past. She was wearing a shock collar when I first met her.
“I WILL TALK! I WILL TALK!”, Meisler shouted.
Lucy stopped her magic and stepped back. I approached Meiser and used my healing spell. I even handed him a mug of water.
He started talking: “I am not a noble, nor am I strong. That limits how far I can go in the Empire. But… I was promised a title. All I needed to do was kill the duke and lay some political groundwork. There are people in the city that would love to join the Empire.”
“Like George Spencer?”, I asked.
“Yes. Like Spencer. He is the leader of their faction. I promised him he would keep his noble title. And he would get more influence in the city.
The Empire has been shipping in weapons and drugs for the crimson lotus gang. I never had any direct contact with them. I just file fake paperwork for shipments to the embassy. Oliver, my secretary, is the one pulling the strings. He works for imperial intelligence. He told me that you captured the soldiers attacking the caravan and decided to accelerate the timetable.”
“And what would you have done after killing the duke?”
“I don’t know all the details. There was supposed to be a big event. Something to let us take control. I don’t know any details, I swear!”, he pleaded.
“What about other soldiers operating in the city? We heard you have multiple groups.”
“I don’t know any details, Oliver refused to tell me. He said it’s all on a need to know basis.” Meisler was sweating.
I was wondering if he was lying. But we could always come back for more questions. He did give us some important information. We would have to question Oliver next.
“That should be enough for now. If you were lying or holding back Lucy will have another conversation with you.”
I stopped my privacy spell and we left. I still had a room at the Weary Traveller so we went there. It only had one bed but Lucy said she did not mind. After a meal we relaxed in the bath. We were the only ones there. I pulled a bottle of elven wine and 2 glasses from my storage. I always enjoyed a drink in a hot bath. I handed Lucy a glass.
“What can you tell me about Oliver?”, I asked her.
“He seemed like a quiet person and a hard worker. I never saw anything suspicious.”
“I doubt he is going to give us the truth. We probably need some more evidence. Do you think we should just break into the embassy?”, I wondered.
“They have wards. Could you bypass them?”
“I have no idea. It might be worth a look.” I was thinking about wards when someone else entered the bath. A dwarven woman with short red hair. She was rather muscular but well proportioned. She took a quick shower and joined us in the bath.
“Good evening, my name is Hilda.”
“Hi, I am Lucy”
“I am Amaya, pleased to meet you.”
I pulled another glass out of my storage. “Would you like some wine?”, I asked.
“Oh yes, I would love to! You two are women after my own heart. A good bath needs a good drink!” She accepted the glass. “What brings you ladies to Iron Rock?”
“We are adventurers, we like to travel. What about you?”
“I am a caravan guard. I came here protecting a shipment of dwarven light stones. If you ever buy a house, get yourself some dwarven lights! It’s worth the money I tell you. But now I have some vacation time.” She emptied her glass. “That is some good wine you got there!”
I poured her some more. “I have heard good things about dwarven whisky. Is there anything you can recommend?”
“Oh yes. I need to take you shopping! There should be a great store here near the market square.”, she replied enthusiastically.
Hilda seemed like a nice person. We kept drinking in the bath for a while. She wanted us to tell her stories of our adventures, unfortunately we did not have any. In the end I just described some fights from a video game and pretended they were real. An hour and 5 bottles of wine later we said our goodbyes and went to our room. Thanks to our high constitution we were only slightly tipsy. It had been a long day. I went to bed and quickly fell asleep.