(Continued from The Case of the Three Torches- Finding Elsa: Part 1)
The hour was late, but the three could hear that the tavern was lively; loud, drunken voices echoed throughout the halls along with the sounds of boisterous laughter and the faint, sweet melody of a lone lute. Addie stopped at the end of the hallway and peered around the corner to make sure that no one was near before leading the two up the stairs toward the room that Brunhilde had rented. Kraddock observed the ease with which she navigated the building and shook his head. "Funny to think of you as a barmaid…”
Addie glanced over her shoulder and a slight frown formed on her lips. "It was not an occupation of my choosing, but... I had no choice really."
“No choice? So...” There was a long pause before Kraddock continued his question. “… Like this Brunhilde?"
Ryn could tell by the hesitation in his voice that Kraddock was uncomfortable in asking what he did, and she knew what he was implying; but all of that seemed to go right over Addie’s head. The blonde stopped at the door and turned to look at him as she answered, "I do not know what situation caused her to seek employment here, but as for me, I needed a guise after leaving the Mark since I was a wanted woman."
The Captain’s face turned red and his gaze suddenly shifted to look at the door. "Yeah, well, no shame in it; I’ve known quite a few in my days… Nice girls by and large..."
Ryn chuckled softly at the exchange, but Addie’s brows furrowed in confusion. "What?"
Kraddock shifted uncomfortably in place and cleared his throat before her looked back to her. "The past is the past,” he said with a reassuring smile as he reached out to pat her on the shoulder. “We all do what we need to, right?” He then quickly turned and unlocked the door so that he could enter the room.
The pat on the shoulder seemed to puzzle her just as much as his words did and Addie looked to Ryn in hope of some clarification. The redhead leaned in and lowered her voice to quietly explain, "He thinks you were a whore..."
Addie's eyes widen and she gasped. "WHAT!?" Her head snapped toward the room and she called out to Kraddock while walking in after him. "You thought that... that I was... " She couldn’t bring herself to actually say the word, but she shook her head vigorously to deny it all the same. "I WOULD NEVER!"
By the time the realization had occurred, Kraddock’s mind had already moved on from the matter and he was looking around the room. "Would never what?”
Ryn stayed outside the room and covered her mouth so that Addie wouldn’t hear her laugh. The blonde’s face was beet red and she continued to stammer, her words losing all eloquence as she tried to defend her innocence. “I would never... do what.... that thing you thought that I ...."
Kraddock cut her off with a wave of his hand. “Never mind that now. We need to hurry.”
Addie was still flustered, but she nodded and started to look around the room. "Just so you know that I wasn't..."
The Captain glanced over at her with some pity in his eyes and his body language seemed awkward once more. “Of course....it's safe with me, child.”
Addie’s fists clinched. “Nay! There is nothing to keep safe in that regard! Ryn, tell him!!!”
The redhead finally entered the room after being called, but was still having a hard time concealing her laughter. “I don't think he'd believe us anyway Addie..." By the grin on her face, it was clear that she was enjoying both of their suffering.
Kraddock gently smiled at Addie. "Enough of that now… business at hand, soldier.”
Addie glared at Ryn and then lifted her hands to hide her blood-red face from both of them. "Right, soldier... not the other..." she muttered, having to have the last word on the subject.
Ryn shook her head and started to look around the room. "Hm... Any idea what we should be looking for?"
“No idea,” Kraddock replied as he lit the sconce on the wall. “I imagine we look for something that seems wrong.”
The room was musty and sparse with only a cot, a few empty bottles on the shelf, several partially burned candles, and a small table holding a pile of papers and dirty clothes. Spotting the papers, Ryn walked over to inspect them further; most of them appeared to be regular parchment, but there were some that were a lot thinner and looked to be more like tissue paper. She grimaced when she looked at the tissue and avoided touching any of those as she carefully gathered the other pieces to read.
While Ryn was inspecting the papers, Addie walked over to look at the vials; they each had a similar cheap-looking label that appeared to have been glued to the bottle in some way. "Auntie Mable's Motherhood Avoider," she read aloud. It took her a moment to realize what the concoction was, but when she did, her face scrunched up and she quickly put the bottle back down. “Nothing over here,” she chimed out to the others.
Kraddock hummed to himself as he looked around at the meager belongings. “Mans must have wanted to deal with her personally for a reason.”
"Well... She definitely needed money." Ryn replied. “These seem to be her accounts...and from the look of it, she was struggling.”
Kraddock nodded and then casually flipped the cot over. Underneath the mattress, a small book had been wedged in the frame. After pulling it from its hiding place, he studied it for a moment; the cover was embossed with pictures of horses and it had a leather strap that was held shut by a tiny lock. Kraddock shook his head as he noticed that the key had been slipped beneath the strap. “Looks like we’ve got a journal here,” he announced as he tossed the book toward Addie.
Hearing Kraddock, Addie turned to see that the diary was flying toward her and she managed to bring her hands up in time to catch it. She breathed out a sigh of relief and then took a moment to run her fingers over the pictures of the horses before unlocking it. She thumbed though a lot of typical entries that described the woman’s day, declared her love for this or that person, or spoke of how she now hated those people for cheating on her with someone else. Towards the end, the woman was complaining more and more about her money troubles. Addie paid some attention to those things, but she was mainly scanning through to see if Mans had been mentioned in some way. Finally, in the last few entries, the woman had written about a “sweet old lady” that she had met.
"Oh… Here…” Addie distractedly said as she continued to read. “She speaks of meeting Ynnabeth… apparently Mans is calling himself Beth in that form now.” Addie walked the book over to Kraddock so that he could read the final entry as well.
Dear Diary,
Grandma Beth, I call her grandmother now because she’s made me feel as though I am one of her own grandchildren, she’s really been helping me turn my life around. I am so lucky to have met her. She gave me advice on how to get revenge against that dog in heat at the tavern that keeps stealing all of my men from me, it’s quite a devious plan and I can’t wait to see that dog’s face. I am sure that all the other lasses in town will thank me for it as well- she drapes herself over every man that enters the place, whether he’s taken or not. I still can’t believe that R left me for someone that wasn’t even half as good-looking as I am, but that’s no matter now. Grandma Beth went with me to the alley- I’m still terrified to go there alone after my unfortunate meeting with the silver-haired lady. Fell down the steps? I’m not that clumsy, but I couldn’t speak out against it or far worse would have happened. Anyways, Grandma Beth bought me some more of Auntie Mable’s potion so that I won’t have to worry over having R’s kid. She also helped me sell some of my things, not that I had much of value, so that I can settle my debt with Narelin.Between the money I’ll have left over and the amount Grandma Beth loaned me, I can finally do it. A whole new start! Maybe I’ll go to Stangard. Grandma Beth even arranged with a friend of hers to give me a ride on a lumber wagon at least part of the way. I’m off to meet her in Combe to say goodbye. I will miss her, but finally things are looking up.
“That little monster said good bye alright,” Kraddock huffed angrily. “Poor child…”
Ryn blinked a little "Well... Did it mention the locket?"
Addie shook her head toward Ryn, "Nay, it does not, nor does it mention any possible reason why Mans would want her dead. He must have just known that she was a spy."
Ryn sighed quietly. "It'll be a happy day when that creature is finally put to its end. Sadly though, this doesn't help us much in terms of find the camp..." She then held up a receipt that she found in the stack of papers. "She was so desperate for money that she sold a dagger to a pawnbroker for thirty silver. It was silver... fancy… red trim... Does that mean mean anything to you?"
Pairing the dairy entry with what Ryn had found on the receipt, Addie grimaced. "It sounds like she sold her issued dagger, the one that would have identified her as a Dove agent... If that is the case, and she was with Mans when she did that, he definitely knew who she was working for."
While the two were talking, Kraddock walked around the room again. As he made it to the table, his head tilted and he studied it for a moment before sweeping all the clothing to the floor.
Ryn raised a brow at the action and Addie’s eyes widened as she questioned the scene, “If she was leaving for good, why would she leave her things behind?”
Kraddock continued to evaluate the table as he responded. “The way she talked, it’s likely she was saying goodbye before departing; that or she figured all this was best left behind. New life and all... But who the heck has a glass table?”
Ryn and Addie glanced at each other, both with brows raised in question, and then moved toward at the table for a closer look. The table was cracked in a few places and didn’t appear to be in very good condition; it also had several perfect black rings that looked to be overlapping, but didn’t seem to be in any type of pattern.
Ryn blinked several times "She sold the dagger, but not the table?"
Addie pursed her lips in thought as she assessed the circles and rubbed her finger over them on top of the table. “Even though it’s damaged, it would have gained her a pretty penny."
Ryn nodded and reached under the table to rub her hand along the underside; as she did, some of the black came off on her finger. She pulled her hand back and looked at the substance, completely confused. "What the... Soot?"
Addie’s keen eye noticed spots of candle wax on the floor underneath the table and she glanced over to the candles. “She was illuminating the table… likely to see a hidden message, much as one would do by holding something up to the light of a fireplace.”
Ryn’s brow raised and she remembered the tissue-looking paper. She pushed herself up and started to collect the ten pieces, despite her concerns. While she did that, Addie collected the candles, placed them under the table and lit them. The papers appears to be blank, but when they set them on top of the illuminated table, the light revealed all types of random lines and curves along with several X's.
Ryn looked through the pieces and thought for a long moment "A... puzzle?"
Addie nodded and pointed out the pictures in the upper right hand corner of the papers- each of the papers had a different part of a horse drawn in the same corner. “If we match these together, we should be able to solve it.” Kraddock folded his arms and watched as they both aligned the pieces. The lines and curves soon came together to form a map of Breeland with 'X's marking various points- each X having a number near it between two and five; and on the northern side of the Hillshire Ruins, there was a large X along with the symbols of a yellow crown and a coin.
Ryn blinked and looked at the coin "Hah! Now this might be useful."
Kraddock pounded his right fist into his other hand. “Once Nethrida gets here, that's where we need to go.” A wicked smile started to curl on his lips. “Poor Garon… Since I don’t have Mans, Garon is going to get what that little bastard should be getting.”
Ryn raised a brow and looked at Kraddock "Dealing with Mans isn't that simple, but I appreciate your enthusiasm."
Kraddock cracked his knuckles. "Deal with him, maybe; but that don’t mean I can’t hit him a few times.”
Addie scowled as she took out her journal from her satchel to sketch the ‘invisible’ map. “If Mans saw fit to silence this one, he might be waiting.”
Kraddock grinned even more. “Don’t get my hopes up, girl.”
Ryn rolled her eyes. “Just don't become his next host, hm? Hopefully Neth will only be a few more days and we can get Elsa back.”
They both nodded, and after Addie had finished the sketch, she stuffed the tissue pieces into her satchel along with the diary and her notebook. Now that they were done here, Kraddock motioned them toward the door. “Come on; let’s get going before anyone sees us.” And with that, they quietly slipped back down the stairs.
(Continued in Finding Elsa: Part 3)
