Chapter 09- Investigation
The night swallowed up the camp, and even with every torch lit. The warmth of the campfires and torches were eerie things casting shadows that danced only a few feet around before the thick gloom of the cold damp mist devoured their ghostly glow, and with it the gloom sapped away any joy to be found among those sheltering within their light.
The fog swirled as an invisible presence moved silently through the camp. Sinaan had his orders; find Rweble, Grunngrul, and Hayden's tent and search it for clues to the identity of the Necromancer or demon and uncover evidence that House Faline was involved in the attack against Aalyn. Pulling his knew cloak a little tighter around his shoulders, he grimaced at the thought of a beautiful svartalf girl's dead eyes and plump kissable mouth as her face flashed in his mind. Her name was Elwin Drovenne. Thurdain had informed him of as much when he asked earlier in the day, and now he was wrapped up in her cloak. It made him feel sick. Illglan had been kind enough to mend all the punctures from his stabbing Elwin, and had even had an Initiate wash the blood out of it for him, but it didn't quell his nausea in the least. However, with the gloomy weather most of his fellow svartalf had reverted to using their infrared vision, something his stealth couldn't defeat, but the cloak could.
Earlier in the day Aalyn and Thurdain investigated Elwin's corpse, stripping her of her clothing, what little there was, while Thurdain insisted that the enchanted under-wire and diaphanous waist-chain dress was to be returned to the temple. As rewards for surviving the assassination attempt Aalyn kept the girl's jewelry, and gave the cloak and daggers to him. When he donned the cloak he discovered that it was imbued with a very powerful Invisibility spell that completely wiped out his heat signature. The only thing it didn't do was eliminate sound with a Cone of Silence which was what allowed Aalyn to hear Elwin's attack and survive. When he reached into the interior pockets, he found that they were all dimensional spaces allowing for one item to be hidden inside. This had allowed Elwin, and now him, to carry and all of his daggers without any additional weight or encumbrance.
As he moved through the mist he used Stealth in tandem with the Invisibility of the cloak allowing him to move unseen and unheard through the camp as he followed Rweble. The lieutenant colonel finished his inspection circuit, and Sinaan followed him back to his tent. Along the way he noticed that Hayden and Grunngrul were nowhere to be seen, and after another half-hour trek, Rweble walked up to a larger tent than the regulars. It was roughly the same size as Aalyn's tent, but the three brothers shared it unlike their Brigadier General who slept alone, or with him. Sinaan watched the entry flap close, and then surveilled from outside as Rweble's heat signature moved about inside the tent before he picked something up from their desk, held it to his mouth, and started whispering.
A bolt of alarm ran down his spine, and he quickly moved to the side of the tent to eavesdrop.
"..Met dit contract van levenskracht beveel ik je Sojourner om me naar Beatrix te brengen," Rweble commanded, and then set the device back on the desk and placed his fingers on top of it.
Sinaan retreated quickly and crouched behind a tree and when he turned back around Rweble's heat signature had disappeared.
"What the hell," He whispered softly to himself.
There were no other heat signatures inside the Faline brothers tent, and now Rweble was gone. Curious, Sinaan snuck up and carefully inspected the entry for hidden traps and devices both magical and physical. He disarmed three spells and one very nasty physical trap before entering to find a completely nondescript tent with three cots, a small travelers desk with a foldable chair, and a small lamp. There was nothing else. No personal possessions. No gear, tac, clothing, not even a chest of drawers. The only thing out of place, and the only evidence at all that the tent was occupied was a small silver mirror sitting on the desk.
Picking up the mirror, Sinaan turned it over in his hands and inspected it carefully. The back felt like it was etched, so letting his eyes shift into the normal light spectrum he whispered, "Lk maak dit contract van levenskracht voor een kleine bol van licht in mijn handpalm."
A small white globe of light appeared between his fingers, and he held it beneath his cloak to preserve the darkness within the tent as he read the inscription on the back of the mirror; 'To my beloved Sojourner, So that no matter how far you travel, you may return to me quickly. Your beloved wife, Beatrix'
'Interesting,' Sinaan thought as he mulled over the passage and he turned the mirror over in his hand. Releasing the Globe of Light spell, he set the mirror back down on the desk, and with a deep inhale placed his fingers on the smooth reflective surface and recited the spell he heard Rweble chant earlier, "Met dit contract van levenskracht beveel ik je Sojourner om me naar Beatrix te brengen."
A warm light surrounded him and the tent evaporated as he was transferred somewhere else as darkness enveloped his senses and the air smelled like ozone and rain, and just as the tent had evaporated, a large lamp lit room materialized in front of him. It was a bedroom with a large four poster bed on the far side opposite of him and the vanity that he stood by with a hand resting on an identical mirror to the one in the tent leagues away from where he was now. Falling into a crouch, he immediately surveyed every inch of the room for enemies. Rweble who had transferred moments before was nowhere to be seen, and there was no other furniture save the bed and vanity. Above the bed was a large anchor and from it hung a chain, and as he began to move toward the bed, a lump beneath the covers shifted. Pulling a dagger from his cloak, he started looking for traps as he moved to his target on the bed.
"I can see you assassin," Came a soft feminine voice from beneath the covers, "Don't worry, there are no traps in here. Those idiots wouldn't want to accidentally kill themselves by their own devices when coming and going and having their way with me," Sinaan took the opportunity to close the distance between himself and the girl on the bed and thrust a dagger tip against her neck. All the while she smiled a small sad smile and continued, "I promised I will not scream or raise an alarm. Please, I beg you, thrust a little deeper, and end my agony!"
There was something strange about this girl. She was so calm, and her voice was so tired and hollow. She sounded young, very close to his age, and yet, she was ready to die.
"Who are you? Why do they have you shackled like this." He asked in a harsh rasp meant to intimidate.
The girl sat up when he didn't thrust his knife into her throat, and he had to pull back lest she impaled herself upon his dagger. As she sat up the covers fell away revealing extremely voluptuous ebony breasts, and shocking curly flame red hair that fell about her shoulders and down her back to the bed. She tried to lean into his daggers, but a collar connected to the chain that was anchored to the wall above the bed, and two chains anchored to each side that he hadn't seen earlier held her head and wrists back as she thrust her chest out. Her breasts bounced and shook pendulously, and she hissed and cried when he refused to end her life.
"Please!" She begged, "Please!" She hissed, her mouth now a crazed grin as she panted hysterically, "My life is hell! Please kill me! Kill me now!"
She tossed her hair and laughed maniacally when Sinaan refused, and for the first time he saw that her eyes were closed, and as she laughed raunchily he could see that they were sewn shut.
"What happened to you?" He gasped as he reached out and grabbed her chin and tilted her head so he could clearly see her beautiful features.
She was beautiful beyond any svartalf woman he had ever met. It was almost as if she were blessed with divine beauty, and yet, from her sewn eyelids were thick flame red lashes that seemed to ooze a thick bloody ichor that streaked down her cheeks.
"Kill me," She hissed as she tried to bite his hand.
Instead he released her, and grabbing the coverlet, he pulled it down to the bottom of the bed. She laid out before him completely naked, and he saw that for a svartalf she was remarkably curvy and robust, very unlike the lithe frames of most svartalf society.
"Oh so you are like them! Like my brothers," The girl bewailed pitifully, "You've come to bed me just as they do! For fucking sake please take pity on me and end my miserable life when you're done, so I that I may resurrect with a better character, or, at least die in peace!"
"Fucking? Character? Resurrection? Do you think this is a game," Sinaan gasped as he lurched forward and took the girl's face in both his hands again, "Who are you? Did you come from earth as well? I used to be Jamie! Jamie Duvall! Do you know me?"
"J-Jamie?" The girl asked in a stunned whisper, "Jamie Duvall?"
