The Secrets of Tyrrus

Dragocrest Plaza
Royal Guard
The guardsman pondered Ulrich's questions "Uh... no actually. It wasn't warded against magic, I don't think. We don't usually have to worry about that kind of thing. Most of the time a couple of guards could take down any mage" He stated "Do you have permission from the Lord-Marshall of the Constabulary? That's what you need if you want to search the Ministry"

Constabulary HQ
Lord-Marshall Harvey Hogfeld was an overweight man with a moustache, a fact that Iris would notice as he strode into the Constabulary HQ in some disarray. He was flanked by two policeman, one of whom ran forward to the reception and began speaking in hushed tones to Penelope. The Lord-Marshall had a cut in his sleeve, and the arm had been bandaged up beneath it. There were small splatters of blood on his uniform, and his expression was one of anger. The policeman at the desk was explaining that their carriage had been attacked by random thugs on the way back from a meeting with Lord Mortimer Gallahowe earlier today.

 

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"Do you like what you see?" Kara smirked at the question, though she withheld her reply. Miribelle's clockwork fingers brushed against her own, and she winked at the other girl before withdrawing to Zephyr. "Must be something in the water, am I right?" She quipped, twiddling her own clockwork fingers at Miri.. Grinning as Zephyr's face turned a bright red, her fingers tangling in the soft blonde locks. Unwinding them as Zephyr moved to do as she asked, she turned back to Miribelle, giving up on trying to hear the conversations through the walls and doors. "Ah, the righteous path of the heroic. A fine tale to be sure, but 'tis too straight a road for one such as I." Tilting her head, her purple hair swaying with her movement, she wondered what was taking Stardust so long. If he was going to ravish strangers on their doorstep, she couldn't be bothered to follow his rule about "no flirting".

"Little old me? Well..." She let the carefree demeanor drop for a few moments, revealing her core of steel. "I would have to agree with you about the stagnant state of the constabulary. Better to do some good here than try to wade through the greed and corruption." Pressing her forefinger to her lips, she spun in place to face away from Miribelle, wondering if the boys at the door would need her help after all. It had better be the most beautiful prostitute this side of the land. Turning back to Miribelle, she skipped back to the groceries. "Well, miss Miribelle, until I come up with a proper name for you, we can do one of three things. We can eat through some of this food, we can go see what the boys have gotten up to, or we can slip out of here and go find out wha's going on in the town center." She smiled mischievously, watching the other girl out of the corner of her eye. It was so much more fun leaving the decisions up to someone else. Sometimes, anyway.

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Rigel glared at Lucian, remaining in place until his captain came to collect him. Even then, she was a disappointment, telling him to stay out of it and let her handle it. Perhaps a stranger would not have had to get involved if you had been handling it. Walking away without a word, Rigel paused by the Royal Guard that had been harassed. "Thank you for your service." He said before turning quickly, and walking away from the commotion. So it was true, what he heard of the corruption. A disappointing thing. To allow one of your own to bully someone else in the name of information, and to discipline someone who attempted to stop it. The Constabulary would not be the place to go to follow Aldin's light. No, he needed to find another path, something more righeous.

Walking by a newspaper boy, Rigel paused to survey the area, the black and white print catching his attention. Just below it was an ad....Haytham's. Rigel turned and headed off in what he thought was the right direction, a new path opening before his eyes, Even if they were not the righteous ones he sought, perhaps they would be more forthcoming about where he could go to find such a thing.

 

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Jebediah never broke eye contact with Dylan as they both analysed one another, Dylan seemingly doing a much better job then him as Jebediah failed to get a single emotion from the investigator. Didn't take long before a young man walked in behind Dylan to join in the conversation “Usually random people don’t come up and ask about those kinds of things and even then it’s still pretty personal.” The boy enquired, for a moment Jebediah looked at the boy, raised his eyebrow, looked down at his badge then back to Dylan "But this is not just a random stranger, Zephyr. This is a policeman" Dylan confirmed... "Policeman"... The nerve! Well atleast he had a name for the other one, Jebediah bit his tongue and allowed Dylan to continue "Kara does work here, but I don't think she's in right now. Enjoy your walk" As he began to close the door, In a moment Jebediah ran through the conversation that just took place in his head, Dylan just withheld information from him, implied she wasn't in despite revealing his hand and had the audacity to talk down to him about his rank and there was absolutely no way that wasn't an intentional dig into his pride, sparing a final thought to what happened to the last person who withheld information from his literally 15 minutes ago, Jebediah out let a sigh on content and put his foot forward to block the closing of the door letting out a loud metal twang "Mr Haythem, Please." Jebediah said with remorse "I'm not going to beat down your door I'm just trying to help somebody get closure, you have no reason not too let me see her beyond your own bias, so please, be the bigger man here and let me in" Jebediah slowly took his foot away and composed himself before looking back at Dylan and Zephyr "I'm here to help, honestly." He said sternly as he made it clear from his face he was genuine and he waited to respect if the door would open or be closed.

 

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Just as Iris requested to meet another administrator, a large man with a moustache came in flanked by two officers. Iris recognised him as Lord-Marshall Harvey Hogfeld, they'd briefly met at a few city dinners, but had no more interaction than a handshake and introduction. He looked particularly flustered and the state of his uniform suggested he'd recently been in a fight. One of the officers went to the receptionist and although he spoke quietly, Iris overheard him mention that their carriage had been attacked on their way back from a meeting with Lord Mortimer Gallahowe.

Of course Gallahowe was involved Iris thought, although she never publicly admitted it, she never liked the man. His perfect smile, the way he pranced around like he owned the place, Iris couldn't stand it and she knew he couldn't stand her either. They kept up an appearance of civility for the public image, but it wouldn't take an eagle eyed reporter to see through their fake compliments and forced grins when around one another. Their distaste for one another went back years and had many reasons, but as much as Iris wouldn't accept it, it was in some part due to her jealousy.

As much as she would have liked to instigate Gallahowe in this, Iris couldn't go throwing around allegations, especially to the Lord-Marshall. These police officers had just been attacked in broad daylight, it was shocking how confident the criminals in this city had become and Iris could offer at least a partial solution. But business could wait, first she needed to check if they were alright.

Iris turned to the Lord Marshall and said in her soft voice "Oh my! are you quite alright? I overheard what happened, the audacity of those..." she paused thinking how best to describe the assailants "...those brutes"

 

So, behind the bubbly exterior Kara had a will of steel. Truthfully, she was pleased. She hated shallowness, and was glad not to be disappointed in this new woman. The Agency had promise then. Someone with ideals and goals, and someone that she could enjoy time with as well. Kara's attitude to things reminded her of years of being bored at parties and resorting to various means of entertaining herself. It seemed that those days were not entirely done. There was still fun to be had in the world while they got to work on doing the Constabulary's job for it. However, there were more immediate problems. She had picked up more of the conversation going on at the door from here and it seemed that Dylan was trying very hard to stop someone from getting in, and it had something to do with Miss Webb.
"I would not recommend seeing what those two are up to." Mira answered. "It seems rather boring. I would suggest that we go out, although consulting Dylan first is advisable. Given that I have only just got here, it would reflect poorly if I were to gallivant off with nary a word while he was being distracted by a rather dull conversation at the door." This was half true. She really did not want to give her new employer a bad impression of her, but equally she needed to delay until this police officer disappeared and was a ways down the street. Then they could get clearance to leave. She had no intention of remaining strictly by the book forever, Dylan was hardly such a man himself, but for now it paid to be a good employee.




Aspire remained behind Lynda as she performed the necessary intervention into the situation. This Constable Thistle was a troublesome sort. From an objective perspective, the man seemed to believe that he was doing his job and was acting in accordance with it. Subjectively, he was doing it in an inefficient and unproductive manner. Conflict with superior officers and colleagues did not encourage co-operation. When investigating an event as serious as an attempted assassination and murder in the centre of government itself, Aspire's experience led him to believe that it was more important to co-operate. Furthermore, Aspire believed that he had been far more useful than Constable Thistle in this situation.
"Constable Thistle, by speaking to me Officer Rochester was able to succinctly determine some basic facts about the situation, which enables specific investigation. Currently, Constable Ulrich appears to be acting on this information and performing specific investigation. Therefore, the purpose of the Constabulary is being fulfilled." Aspire pointed out in a deep monotone. Technically, Lynda had stated it was her job to deal with unruly constables. However, the matter directly concerned him and he felt the need to point out that he was helping. Nothing he had said was biased or untrue. His intervention was not strictly necessary, however he felt it was important to expedite the fulfilment of the Constabulary's purpose on site. If this conflict could be resolved through reason and logic, then they would soon be able to act. ​

 

It being a police offer that was asking about this didn't change his point, well it didn't change it by much. Now with this information Zephyr was now curious about the reasons that the officer was here and asking about that kind of thing. As curious as he was, which admittedly wasn't all that much, asking about it would be asking about personal matters. "What do you think we should do?" The final say all this did was better decided by Dylan, least the way he saw it.

 

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Dylan paused and listened. He was sure the man was being sincere but... he was getting in the way. Besides, Kara had given so few details about her past that he was certain she wouldn't want to be questioned about it for no good reason. He really couldn't be bothered to deal with the police. Closing the door further, but not completely, he turned his head back to the others "Can anyone give me a reason to take us away from this building for a while?" he asked his accomplices.

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Lynda stared at Lucian expressionlessly for a few seconds. "I don't understand why you're so worked up about doing this quickly, but that is no way to speak to a superior officer" She stepped backwards, and took from her bag the bottle of beer that had been confiscated from his desk. Without a word, she chucked the bottle into the canal, and turned back to Lucian. "If you want to keep your job you will calm down, and accompany me as we question the Grand Minister. This time, try a little bit of tact"

Constabulary HQ
The Lord-Marshall turned as Iris spoke up "Ah Miss Hyden, apologies I didn't notice you there" he said, nodding his head respectfully, then grimaced as she mentioned the brutes "Yes, but I suppose that's to be expected in the Eastern districts. We've tried to enforce some sort of order there, but evidently we've been mostly unsucessful. We visited the Steiner Institute on our way back, so I have been patched up and am feeling much better now, thank you"

 

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Kara sighed, skipping her way over to Miribelle with a wicked gleam in her eye. "You can't have it both ways; either we have to go talk to them, which will throw us into the context of seeing what is taking so long, or we leave with nary a word." She winked, twirling a finger around Miribelle's blonde hair. It was longer than Zephyr's, and smelled sweet. If she truly wanted to make an impression, she could try to taste it and see what the flavour was. But Kara wasn't so sure this band of merry men was up for that much entertainment. She heard Stardust yell back into the house, asking for a distraction. Probably not a prostitute at the door then, he didn't seem like the type of man to turn such a thing down. Kara stepped closer to Miribelle, who was inconveniently and yet so opportune. Letting go of the strand of blonde hair, she rested her mechanical arm across Miribelle's shoulder, the other braced against the doorway as her eyes rested first on Stardust, and then on the man he was keeping outside. A tremor went through her as she recognized the constable who had attempted to capture her early, and yet Kara gave nothing away. A smile on her face, she let her cheek brushed against Miribelle's as she leaned forward.

"I do believe I can be of service, Master Dylan. My new friend here asked that we come to you for supplication and permission before wandering on our lovely way. Perhaps the gods have deemed that this is a task fit for all of us." She winked, though she watched the constable out of the corner of her eye. Should he decide to intrude upon her home, or hurt her companions, she would make sure he would regret it before she went down.

 

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In a moment; Jebediah was for the first time today baffled and yet not at all surprised, Dylan turned his back on him and didn't even have the decency to close the door behind him, as it slowly slid shut he turned to Zephyr to read his opinion, it seemed to be loyalty to Dylan. Jebediah let out a sigh of contentment as he turned his back to walk away glancing over his shoulder in some vein hope someone would invite him in, no such luck it seemed, yet he felt his eye twitch, was that... purple hair? He turned back to get a better look through the crack, It was her, the woman from before at the Market! And suddenly it all fell into place! He quickly pulled out the file and read Kara's description "Purple hair... Injured arm..." He thought "Purple hair, Clockwork arm... Works at Haythems." he couldn't feel more stupid, how small was this City!? He knew he wasn't welcome, his time would come later but for now he made a note to nod towards her with his arms held half up, maybe she'd notice? Hopefully then figure out she's off the hook for now? He turned on his heels and began to walk back the ally way he came before he was disturbed by a small figure landing in-front of him "TA DA!" It exclaimed before standing upright revealing it to be Edward from this morning; Jebediah eased his hand from his pistol and relaxed his stance "Edward-" He began to spoke before the adrenaline fueled boy rabbled on "Did you see that?! Was that good? I think it was pretty good-"
"EDWARD!" Jebediah exclaimed before breathing out "Yes it was very good actually, but you know you're not supposed to come during the day"
"I know that sarge." Edward said composing himself "It's just... The Plaza! The royal guards are still there and Miss Lynda has arrived with constables and it wasn't going well last I was there so I came to find you!"
"Great... Who were the constables if you know?" Asked Jebediah as he began to loosen the gears on his knees, Edward grinned knowing what this meant "I think one of them had some Axes and looked pretty cool while the other one had Red Hair and swords, seemed to cause some trouble."
"Oh..." Jebediah scoffed As he got into a running position "Good to know Lucian still has his Job." Jebediah waved his hand at a trash can left in the ally for Edward to move out the way, as he did so Edward rushed back to stand by Jebediah "Are you gonna do the thing?"
Jebediah Grinned as he lifted his heels and bolted forwards leaving a trail of dust in his wake as he bolted towards the Plaza.

 

Mira kept her cool as Kara approached, trying to place her in a situation where she had to make a decision. That was not going to work. What Kara did not realise was the point of what she was doing. All she had to do was delay long enough for Dylan to get rid of the policemen and then they could go. Thus, she allowed the other woman to toy with her hair, watching her with a small smile.
"Not necessarily. I do not give in so easily." Mira spoke evenly, inspecting the girl next to her. She allowed the clockwork arm to be placed on her shoulder and ran a couple of fingers along the metal. It could hardly be called poorly made, but it showed the mechanisms of the prosthetic which she found a little old fashioned. Mira's arm was sleek, the mechanisms fully covered by a sleeve. The transition was almost seamless from flesh to clockwork on her. This was not the case with Kara. Curiously, Mira touched a cog, her fingers retreating quickly as it whirred as Kara's position changed. She was broken out of her examination as a soft cheek brushed against her own. She did not expect this level of proximity and was promptly dragged back to reality by her calling to Dylan. Not that she minded her being so close of course, and so returned the smile she was given. She peered out into the corridor. The officer was gone, and that was that. She rolled her eyes at Kara's unnecessarily complex way of explaining her plan of action.
"What she means, Dylan, is that we should all go somewhere together. She mentioned something about the town square." Mira placed a hand on Kara's side and manoeuvred herself from underneath the other woman and out of the doorframe, stepping into the hallway proper. "So, is there a reason that you are suggesting we go to Dragoncrest Plaza?"




Constable Thistle's accusation fell on mostly deaf ears. Aspire considered whether there was any tin at all in his form, and while he concluded there was, there was not a significant enough percentage to make him eligible to be a 'tin can'. That would be like calling a human a 'lump of iron' because they contained trace amounts in their blood composition. Thus, he concluded that it was what humans called an 'insult'. This seemed extraordinarily petty. Considering the man's present behaviour, he must simply be a very petty man. The addressing of Lynda as 'Your Majesty' was not appropriate either. She was an Officer of the Constabulary, not a member of the Royal Family to his knowledge. This must be an 'insult' as well, however it was equating her with an individual of superior status. There would be a more opportune time to ask than now. There were more immediate questions. For instance, if Officer Rochester and her team were going to question the Grand Minister, then where did that leave him?
"Officer Rochester, if you are going to question the Grand Minister then I lack the jurisdiction to accompany you." He pointed out. "If I may provide assistance in any capacity I am willing to do so. If not, I shall locate a good mechanic in the city for the duration of my stay here. I will also search for lodgings." If he could not follow along, then he would reconvene at a later date. He knew the Constabulary had a headquarters. Officer Rochester had an office there. He performed some logical exercises, simulating the process of investigation. She would have to return to file a report during the afternoon, before she was finished for the day. Jobs as he understood, had starting and finishing times. If he went to the headquarters near the finishing time then she would not be in the middle of an investigation, and he could find out more about the events of the day. ​

 

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Lynda narrowed her eyes at Lucian as he insulted Aspire, but remained silent. Discrimination against clockwork golems was alive and well in the city, as much as she hated it. "Tin Can" wasn't the worst of the derogatory names that they were given. She'd heard them referred to as "pocket watches", "gearboxes", and even "washing machines". People with clockwork augments often received similar treatment, but many of them looked to threatening to warrant being publically insulted. She wondered what Ulrich would do if someone called him a "screwhead". Turning her attention back to Lucian she simply rolled her eyes "One of these days, Constable Thistle, my patience will snap, and we'll get to see how much you enjoy prison food" She warned, before turning back to Aspire quickly "Oh, of course Aspire. I assume you aren't particularly wealthy, so I recommend one of the mechanic's shops in the south-east district. I wouldn't trust the lodgings there though, so you'll probably want to acquire those in the North-Middle district. I hope to see you soon" she said with a smile, before turning and pacing towards where the Grand Minister was being attended to by several royal guards and servants. The guards looked at her nervously, but let her pass.
The Grand Minister was a tall woman, middle aged, with brown hair that showed a few streaks of grey. In all her pictures she looked regal and authoritative, but right now her composure was shattered. She looked terrified, but was trying to cope with it with anger. "Greetings Mrs Draycaster" Lynda said with a respectful nod "We'd like to ask a few questions about what happened" The Grand Minister looked at her with frustration
"Fine. Go ahead. But you're just delaying the inevitable conclusion that Lilian is insane"

 

The situation with the police officer had come to an end once the door had been closed, allowing for the idea of them to get away from the office to be brought up. Zephyr, not surprisingly, didn't have any ideas himself as to where could be a good place for them to go. He knew of places that he would prefer to go and that was about it.

The specific mentioning of the Dragoncrest Plaza didn't sound like a bad idea for their presumed intents and purposes. Therefore, why not just head there. "Dragoncrest Plaza, sounds fine to me."

 

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Dylan slowly turned to face Kara, who was standing in a rather awkward position with Mirabelle. He raised a single eyebrow and his mouth opened slightly as she spoke. The sudden eloquence was a shock, and Dylan had to run the sentence through his mind before fully understanding it. Master Dylan? Supplication? What did supplication even mean? Fortunately Mira was there to explain the anomalous sentence as she wrangled herself free of Kara. Dylan nodded "Perfect. Town square. Great place" Dylan grabbed his hat from the hat-stand and, after a brief moment of thought, also picked up a whiskey flask and a pack of cigarettes. Without another word, he stepped out of the drooping building and placed his hat on his head, at a slightly jaunty angle. He paused for a moment to light a cigarette, and inhaled deeply on it. The policeman had disappeared, which was wonderful. Clearly they weren't too devoted to the task, and hopefully they wouldn't be back. "Everyone ready for our little day trip? I can show you all the shittiest places in Eredan" He called back. He briefly wondered why Kara wanted to go to Dragoncrest Plaza. Hadn't she just been? She must have noticed something going on there and decided that it would be better to deal with as a group. Or maybe she was just tired of carrying around her stolen goods so wanted to drop them off first. he still didn't entirely understand Kara, but she too decided to ignore most social norms, and she already proved difficult to control in the week or so she'd been working with him. He liked that. It wouldn't do any good to be surrounded by yes-men. Besides, she was more sociable than him, and knew words like "supplication".

 

So the room wasn't warded against magic, maybe the magician in question took control over a long distance. He didn't doubt the guardsman's claim that a simple mage would be no match for a few Royal guardsmen.
There was something really weird going on, the fact that she screamed she didn't have control made him think it was magic related. And it wasn't to be ruled out since the room hadn't been warded. If she was speaking the truth that was.
"And I do not believe we have permission, I would have to ask my superior, but if we do not we will return with permission, thank you for your cooperation and good day to you, sir." Ulrich said.

It would be time to go back to Lynda see if there was anything else that he could help with. He walked over to his superior officer and he caught the begining of the investigation, with Lucian apparantly atleast trying to act like a profesional constable, though he couldn't help but feel like there was some negative undertone to what the constable said. It probably had to do with the phrasing. Ulrich joined Lynda and Lucian. "Ma'am, apologies for the interruption, but the royal guard provided me with a rundown of the incident and there seems to be merit to the claims of the Grand Minister. According to the guard, there was screaming from within the meeting room, when the guard arrived, they found the minister holding the gun of a guardsmen, with two of them dead and three ministers. The gun presumably came from one of these guards, though without examining the scene that can't be said with certainty." Ulrich explained "Grand Minister, could you please tell us where you were when the incident took place and if you were present what took place within this meeting room." Ulrich said, remaining respectful and professional throughout his entire explanation.​

 

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Kara felt her lips twitch into a smile at Miribelle's reaction to the proximity of their skin, but she let it slide. Rolling her eyes at Dylan's reaction, completely missing how similar Miribelle's own had been, she let the other girl disentangle herself before staring at the green haired man, and then the blonde at his side with all of the disdain she could muster. "Well I guess it's a good idea to keep her around. She can translate for you plebians." She said, somewhat thrown off balance by the reaction of the police man. Honestly, why couldn't people behave the way she expected them to? The way she predicated they would. That man should have never found out where she lived, and she wanted to know how. She wanted to know why. Tossing her hair over her shoulder, she stuffed those worries down and out of sight, prancing past the others to be the first to walk out onto the street.

With her back to them, she could let the smile slide off her face and turn into a frown, considering the implications of the day's events. "Well since the lady asked..." Kara sighed and turned, walking backwards as her fingers, both clockwork and human, inevitably found their way to the magenta colored strands and began to braid them. "Some commotion with the nicely dressed soldiers, the ones that are more highly paid than the Constabulary? Something to do with the Ministry building." She shrugged. "I was going to tell you earlier, but you had other things in mind." She winked at Dylan before turning back around, her fingers remaining enthralled with her hair even as her mind went elsewhere.

 

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Not many things made Jebediah smile with genuine Joy, the main times he would was often to keep someone calm however bolting down the streets of Eredan still brought him joy even if he was adamant to hide the smile. His Augments didn't enhance his ability to run by much, mostly just allowing him to loosen his joints but the main point was to nullify the pain of pushing himself to the limits of his stamina, allowing him to sprint when the settings were calibrated almost as fast as a speeding automobile. Ah he bolted the streets seemed mostly void compared to before the closer he got to the Plaza, confirming his prior suspicion that whatever the Royal Guard were up too was still in effect, as he crossed the bridge finding himself between the House of Ink and the House of Music he lept, turning 90 degrees to face the bridge to the Plaza however as his body hit the floor he felt it jerk against him, the amount of force he was running at made turning hard when at top speeds, luckily he wasn't too fast! A brief swerve in the courtyard had him back on track heading into the Plaza and he could at last see Lynda and the constables in the distance; he slowed himself down gradually and by the time he was about 6 meters away from Lynda he had gotten back to walking pace he tightened his gears as he walked up to her.