Prologue III: “I would very much like to have a drink.”
The captain of the Mauretania is a man built like a barrel, dressed all in white as befits his rank. A great black bushy beard adorns his face, which he scratches as he sees you enter through the door, with your unwanted companion in tow. Rising from his very cushy looking chair, he greets you jovially. You would not have thought that someone just died onboard his ship. “Ah, Herr von Falkenhayn. I had hoped that you would come, and so you have!”
“Captain.” You give him a curt nod, your gaze drawn inexorably towards the polished green bottle atop his desk. Chateau Lafite… the label is unmistakeable.
“Ordinarily, I would not think to bother my guests with a terrible matter such as this, but given the identity of the deceased as well as your own extraordinary reputation, not to mention the current political needs of you and your family’s, I thought this might lead to a desirable outcome for us all.”
“Mm hmm.” You nod again, looking at the bottle. That richness, sharp yet sweet. How would it feel to have such pleasurable liquid slide down your throat? Your mouth feels extremely dry all of a sudden, and you gulp.
“As such, Herr von Falkenhayn, if you would do me the pleasure of assisting investigations in this matter I would be grateful enough to send word to your family, indeed, to everyone I know, of the services you have rendered.”
“Right.” You had only had the fortune to encounter a wine such as this once, some years before the War, and it had sadly been back when you had yet to learn of the sweet bliss that alcohol could offer. Yet even then you knew that you had drunk of something special.
“Should I take that as agreement then? Excellent, most excellent. What would you like to do first?”
“I would very much like to have a drink.”
The captain arches his thick eyebrows as the Hunter behind you snorts in laughter.
***
After much deliberation on the captain’s part, you were offered something – sadly, not the Chateau Lafite – which sated your thirst for a while.
“Are you sure? Shouldn’t you be keeping your wits sharp for an investigation?” asks the Hunter, as the both of you make your way to the scene of the crime.
“Fool, I need those senses of mine dulled by just a bit for this.” Your senses had always been sharper than most, but after that incident, it has become a bit too sharp… and dangerous, like a naked blade that was just as liable to cut you as it was the enemy. This was the case even more so when dealing with the dead. You absolutely refuse to be anywhere near a corpse without having at least a bit of alcohol in you, lest you start hearing and seeing things that aren’t really there. “Why are you following me again?” you ask.
“It’s my job, and I have nothing better to do. Besides, if the captain has that much glowing praise for your skills I’d certainly like to witness it up close!”
“Suit yourself.” You grumble under your breath, deciding not to waste your time arguing with her. You quickly go over the details of the case in your head.
The deceased was a business magnate by the name of Franklin Rockefeller. You had heard of him, or rather, his family in passing – they were one of the linchpins of the world economy, with interests that spanned the Aztecan continent, Europe, and of course the Tower itself. The Rockefeller Institute for Astra Research had driven numerous advances in the past twenty years, including several breakthroughs in using Astra-based technology for power generation. It comes as a mild surprise to you that one of their heirs was aboard the Mauretania. It might be a very luxurious ship, but the Rockefellers were rich enough to afford their own airships.
The body was found at 9 AM in the morning, when the deceased’s maids tried to wake him up. The door had apparently been locked from the inside, necessitating the use of the crew’s skeleton key. Upon discovery of the body, the captain was immediately informed. He ordered the lockdown of the decks and had conducted his own questioning of the crew, though not the passengers. According to the crew, no one besides Mr. Rockefeller himself had passed through the stairs to the topmost passenger deck – where his cabin was located – between midnight and 9 AM.
You reach the Rockefeller room. It is massive, at least twice the size of your own. The suite has a dedicated dining area and an attached bathroom. In the bedroom, on the bed, lies the deceased. He is facing upwards, his eyes shut as if sleeping. In sharp contrast to the bloom of red staining his chest, his hands are folded and placed over his belly, and his legs are neatly closed. This might be one of the neatest deaths you have ever seen.
The Hunter takes out a battered pair of glasses and puts it on. She would look like a picture-perfect, beautiful schoolmistress… her choice of attire aside. “What’s with those glasses?” you ask, unable to restrain your curiosity.
As if she read your mind, she replies, “If I hadn’t become a Hunter, I’d probably have become a teacher.” She looks around the room, squinting. “No secret passages here as far as I can see. I suppose the room was perfectly locked before the body was found.”
Those glasses must be an Astra of some sort. You get back to your own business. Confirming the cause of death, confirming the time of death… these were important questions to answer, and had you access to all the resources you once had, it would have been resolved swiftly. But in your fall from grace, your family and country had stripped you almost entirely of the weapons you once wielded. You were only allowed to keep a single Astra in this exile to the Tower, as a small sign of sympathy, the smallest, most benign of tools which they deemed impossible to inflict harm with.
You would have to make do with what you have.
***
A. You use the Orb of Plato. It is used to project shadows that almost seem to be alive. In your hands, it allows you to recreate and visualize scenes and incidents as they might have happened, among other uses that shadows could have. You had used it frequently when reviewing war games during strategy training, as the shadows had a physical realism to what they could or could not do despite being entirely intangible.
B. You use Paracelsus’s Quill. By dipping it into a sample of a biological liquid (e.g. blood), it can tell those trained in its use certain things about the source of the sample (e.g. its health). It could also synthesize simple medication. You had used this to ensure your company was in tip top shape during their monthly check-ups, though it seems that its potential for creating poison was overlooked by the court...
C. You use the Lesser Eye of Horus. While uncontrolled sobriety can be a very bad thing for your sanity, the Lesser Eye allows you limited control over your inhibited senses, granting you improved insight while also giving you a way to turn it off before things get out of hand. This you picked up from the corpse of an allied Ottoman officer who had once been a trusted friend.
