CSI DC #2- This time it's personal (?)

Subject: Re: CSI DC #2- This time it's personal (?) Tue May 07, 2019 3:06 pm

Soneya permitted herself a grin at Lutis’ demeanour, knowing there was far more to this whole relationship than he let on and she was sure there were quite a few stories there as well. Maybe she’ll get to hear one or the other. Or maybe not. In the end, it didn’t really matter either. The important part was that she knew where she was supposed to go and Lutis knew exactly where the place was.

The day was beginning to heat up more and more, and Soneya was desperate to take off her cloak, but just as she was seriously considering it, Lutis’ voice jolted her fingers away from unfastening it. “Were you like this when you were still young and less experienced?” she asked Lutis with a raised eyebrow, clearly disapproving of the way the brat whined about being caught in the act.

The city itself, she realised more and more, was really not at all what she had expected. As Anol had already mentioned, there was colour to be expected, but the man had also most definitely been correct in his statement that Ray Sylvan’s office was a bit of a sore thumb. The colour combination hurt the eyes and the crack looked like it might make the entire building break open any second now.

“So this is the place,” she stated as they headed steadily toward the building. “Is this going to be as much fun as meeting Anol?” she inquired, putting a healthy note of sarcasm into her voice, though she had to admit that the man may be eccentric but he wasn’t all too terrible. There were definitely worse personalities out there in the world.

Just as they walked up to the door and Soneya lifted her hand to knock, it was abruptly opened from the other side and a harassed looking man of some thirty years stormed out, halting mid-step and mouth half-way open to say something when he perceived them on the doorstep.

Subject: Re: CSI DC #2- This time it's personal (?) Sat May 11, 2019 11:18 am

"I was worse as a kid. So much worse." Memories of Lutis being caught in a similar red-handed grip by a Kaionarian resident surfaced- not far from where they were now, in actual fact. "The louder you shriek, the less likely y'are to have your fingers chopped off. Or worse, disappear for good." He grimaced. By thieving standards, the child hand't squawked nearly loudly enough to merit attention from anyone but the pair of them, and that was dangerous for the little rat. He'd get himself killed in short order if he wasn't careful.

Lutis voiced his thought that Ray Sylvan definitely wasn't going to be as fun as Anol, and with a lot less good wine on the side, as he joined Soneya on the doorstep of the ghastly house. Honestly, no wonder the demon had taken a dislike so heavily to the man. Perhaps it wasn't him that had chosen the colour scheme, but that crack... it looked like the front of the building was about to fall off at any moment.

He was staring up at the facade and wondering which chunk would fall off first when the door opened, and he narrowly avoided being ploughed into by... was this the building's owner? It was difficult to tell at first glance. His presence made the doorstep rather crowded and Lutis retreated down a step for a little more space all round.

"Ray Sylvan?" he questioned as the man haughtily looked the pair of them up and down, the door slowly swinging back towards them and hiding the dark interior from view.

Subject: Re: CSI DC #2- This time it's personal (?) Sat May 11, 2019 12:38 pm

The man looked Lutis up and down, briefly glanced at her and obviously dismissed them both. Yet Lutis had asked him a question and it seemed as though he felt compelled to answer it. “Who wants to know?”

The voice that came out of the snooty looking face was surprisingly sophisticated and melodious. Soneya almost raised an eyebrow at the sound, wondering how those two combinations could possibly go hand in hand together, before she replied: “You asked for a water mage. I am her. My name is Soneya.”

The man looked at her more closely now, the harrassed look still firmly pasted on his face but it seemed to gradually ease a little bit when it dawned on him what she had said, and there was an infinitesimal tilt to the corners of his lips. “I didn’t expect you for another couple of days, but you have no idea how glad I am you’re here. I have a little bit of an emergency to take care of but please,” he said, opening the front door again in invitation. “Last door on the right. You’ll find comfortable seating in my study. There are drinks in a cabinet to the left of the door and the folder with everything you need to know is on the small table in the seating area. Have a look through. I’ll be right back!”

And with that he hurried off without a backward glance.

Soneya looked at Lutis, her eyebrows raised to the high heavens. “Awfully trustworthy for a business man. In Kaionar no less. Can we trust him?”

Subject: Re: CSI DC #2- This time it's personal (?) Mon May 27, 2019 5:30 pm

Dismissed as he was by the man, Lutis took the hint and ignored him as well. Sonia was the one who was wanted here anyway- he was more of a guide to the city than anything else in this situation. Away across the courtyard, a couple of tiny ponies were being led around with even tiner children on their backs.
He zoned back in again as Soneya was invited inside, catching only the last few bits of his invitation.
"Well..." Lutis looked at Soneya as she looked at him, shrugging. "I wouldn't as far as I can swing a cat. But you're the one getting into business with him." He gestured inside. "So after you, I guess. Wouldn't touch anything other than that folder he mentioned though."

The hallway was dingy, but quickly opened up into a main room stuffed with papers. There wasn't a surface clear, reams of books, sheets bound together with thread or rolled into piles that looked like they'd fall within a moment's notice, inky pens jammed into jars so full they wouldn't take another even if you tried. Lutis whistled at the sight of it- madness- then peered behind the door for the so-called drinks cabinet.
Not badly stocked, either. Anol must really have gotten off on the wrong foot with this man. Or he was stingy. Lutis assumed the latter and backed away, perching himself on the arm of a chair where the seat was already taken by rolls of paper.

"Good luck finding your folder," he laughed. With any luck Soneya would know what she was looking for already.

Subject: Re: CSI DC #2- This time it's personal (?) Wed May 29, 2019 2:24 pm

Soneya whispered a few choice words when she saw the state of her new employer’s office. She had agreed with Lutis’ statement of not touching anything but the folder that concerned her but now that she was slowly letting her gaze drift over the chaos that was supposed to be an office or living room, or… something, she knew that Lutis had had it more right than even he had initially thought.

“How on earth is anyone capable of finding anything in this dump?” she hissed, glaring at Lutis when he laughed. “Not helping!” She barely restrained herself from pointing an angry finger at him.

She left him perched on the arm of a chair, which looked like the only place that would actually allow anyone to sit, and wandered over to the table in the seating area Ray Silvan had indicated. Had he actually mentioned his name? Had he….?

Soneya looked at Lutis again with a frown on her face, unable to recall the encounter that had only happened a few minutes ago. Shaking her head, she turned back to the surface of the table and the myriad papers and folders without opening her mouth. There was no use voicing her doubts to Lutis. He either had the same ones or he wouldn’t be able to help out, since he probably would have done so already, had he noticed anything amiss.

His warning clearly in mind, she didn’t touch a single piece of paper as she crouched in front of the table, instead craning her neck to get a decent look at titles, drawings, notes… Sighing, she straightened. “Ridiculous,” she stated, and just as the word left her lips, she had an idea.

The mage concentrated in silence for a while, her fingers lightly stretched out over the mess in front of her until she felt a tug. “He’s definitely not an idiot,” she told Lutis as she reached for the folder that had responded to her magic. “And certainly not as trustworthy as he made himself appear. He doused the folder in water.”

As she pulled the folder from the table, there was a loud snapping sound and the entire mess of papers and books disappeared from the seating area and neatly piled themselves on top of the desk.

“I do confirm, Miss Soneya. I am neither an idiot nor am I particularly trustworthy.” Ray Silvan entered the room from behind a wall hanging. “Took you longer than I expected,” he told her before his gaze swept over to Lutis. “And I’m surprised you haven’t touched anything you weren’t supposed to. Your reputation precedes you, Lutis Passal.”

Subject: Re: CSI DC #2- This time it's personal (?) Mon Jun 17, 2019 11:14 am

What an explosion of things. With further looking, it wasn't just papers that seemed to spill throughout the room, but trinkets and oddities as well- the edge of a canvas there, an empty picture frame here, empty pots and full pots of pens, inks, tiny sculptures with broken limbs and huge sweeping feathers from a lifeblood's tail a riot of confusion. There was no way Sylvan could ever keep track of it all. And it'd be quite the interesting challenge to remove anything without disturbing the rest...

It seemed Soneya didn't have a clue how to find what she needed in it all either. Lutis' attention became distracted as she peered at this stack and another, careful to not disrupt anything with her investigations. There was a rather impressive playing board with the pieces seemingly scattered across half the room over time- a silver lightning storm figurine here, a tiny elf with a staff there, and more which caught his eye glinting from the darkness between chair and stack of papers to his side.

"Hmm?" He straighted up to look at Soneya again as she reached for a folder, having decided that she'd found the correct one. Ack, perhaps Anol had underestimated Ray Sylvan in his judgement. He almost lost his seat as the papers and books around him suddenly flew up into the air, assuming neat piles on the table in a manner completely the opposite to the chaos that had been present only moments before.
He shoved his hands deep into his pockets, rising to his feet again before the chair decided to take off as well.

"There's a well earned respect between Kaionarians, and business associates," said Lutis, plastering his most charming smile across his face. "There's no respect in biting the hand that proffers the gold."

Subject: Re: CSI DC #2- This time it's personal (?) Mon Jun 24, 2019 7:45 am

Ignoring the underlying tension between the two men, Soneya set down in the nearest, not very comfortable, chair and opened the folder. It is what Ray Sylvan had wanted her to do anyway, so she saw no need to ask for permission to do so.

There was a rather large report which seemed to deal specifically with the water resources in and around Kaionar, trade related to anything liquid. Interestingly enough, there was a surprisingly large annex that dealt explicitly with springs littered underneath the desert. While in and of itself this notion of water underneath the sand wasn’t completely ludicrous, she would have thought that with Kaionar being a rather large settlement, all those resources would have been found already way in the beginning when the city was being built. Why else would anything have been built in this particular place?

Yet, when she looked at the included drawings a little more closely, it did seem as though Sylvan was on to something.

Looking up from the file, she found the man observing her, while handing a drink to Lutis. “So?” he asked, seating himself across from her with his own drink in hand. (A glass of water had appeared in front of her as well while she had been flying over papers.)

“What exactly is it that you think you have discovered, Mr Sylvan?” she countered.

A sly grin crossed his face and he briefly inclined his head to her, making sure she understood that he was in no way fooled by her diversion. He knew she had seen what he had seen, but he was willing to play the game properly.

“I think the facts speak for themselves, but very well. Recently, some of my men have been digging in the sand a little for a new endeavour of mine for which I wanted to build something new, preferably something with a sort of cellar, though my men are still squabbling over the fact that we’re in the desert and such a thing shouldn’t be possible. Wine needs to remain cool, and for that I need a cellar to circumvent the hot upper layers of the sand.” He took a small sip before continuing. “Once they were deep enough underground, they found the sand to be wet, and less eager to slide back down the slopes they were trying to dig. Believe me, the way they’re working has frustrated me immensely. Though the discovery of a possible water resource on my own property makes all their drama and delays rather worthwhile. Seeing as the area is rather vast, and digging it all up would be a tremendous amount of work, I asked for a water mage to be sent to inspect the findings, and locate a spring or hidden well, should there be one.”

It made sense, it really did make sense, especially with the paperwork in front of her nose. Yet, she couldn’t help but wonder if that was really the only reason why he had asked for a mage in particular. So she followed her hunch: “And? What is the other reason you wanted a mage down here?”

Subject: Re: CSI DC #2- This time it's personal (?) Mon Jul 01, 2019 8:11 pm

Lutis decided he was once again revising his opinion of Sylvan with the tense silence that followed, Soneya doing nothing to help with that by sitting to read her file. Oh good. Perhaps Anol had been right all along about the hospitality they'd find in this house- it certainly was a front from the affronted looking man. As if he'd already made a slight against him just with his presence.
Well, it probably was to be expected, if Sylvan knew of Lutis' reputation. He took the proffered drink with reluctance, knowing it probably was getting him into either a bargaining loop, debt, or eventually, Sylvan's bad books. At least there were surfaces he could set it down on now without drinking the damn stuff and really indebting himself.

Soneya's questions probably were for Lutis' benefit, and he made sure to pay close attention. Although he knew the city pretty well, he couldn't think of any places under construction off the top of his head- or certainly any that hadn't been built on many times before. A couple of spots were ruled out by the mention of sand- he was sure there was rock under some of the city, as there was a short network of underground tunnels that he'd become familiar with over the years- but that still left a lot of ground to cover. Particularly ground that could hold water.

Somewhere 'vast' as well... it couldn't have been within the city walls. Who decided to just go out into the desert and start building things? More to the point, who had the money to fund something like that? Perhaps it was time to reassess how much money this man had stashed away.

"This water source appears to be very deep underground. My men have been digging for a month, you understand? And they still have not discovered the true source. This is of no use to me; I want a source, not sinking foundations. I need your assistance in locating where this water really originates from."

Subject: Re: CSI DC #2- This time it's personal (?) Wed Jul 10, 2019 9:37 am

Soneya was almost certain that there was something Ray Sylvan wasn’t tell her, or them, but she decided to let it go for now. Sooner or later, whatever secret he was keeping, was going to surface and she would deal with it then. She just hoped it wasn’t something she couldn’t handle. Knowing the reputation of Kaionar however, her chances were rather slim of it not turning out to be something nasty – one way or another.

“Alright,” she said, closing the file with finality. “I assume you’d like to show us the digging grounds now?”

Sylvan’s eyebrow crept up a little as he glanced over at Lutis before looking back at Soneya. She just kept her gaze level on him. Something gave her the impression that he was not to be trifled with and that if you gave him an inch of freedom, he would do whatever he wanted with you. It was hard for her to remain this tough, but it was necessary, so she would do it. It was also one of the reasons why she tried not to look over at Lutis too much. She didn’t want to give the impression that she was looking to him for guidance but that his presence here was absolutely normal. Even though it really wasn’t but things had just happened this way, and if Soneya was honest with herself, she was glad she wasn’t on her own with Ray Sylvan.

“Very well, if you are certain that Mr Passal can keep from spilling any of this information on the outside, I will meet you both back here tomorrow morning before dawn. I will take you to the site.” Setting down his glass, Sylvan rose from his chair. “You can take the file with you. I had the copies made especially for your benefit. Maybe you’ll find something else once you have more time to look everything over. An idea on where to start might prove useful, as the site is, as I’ve said, rather vast.”

Soneya clasped the file to her chest, looked at Lutis with a quick smile and rose, too. Inclining her head briefly to Sylvan, she said: “Thank you. I very much appreciate you taking us there yourself.”

Subject: Re: CSI DC #2- This time it's personal (?) Fri Jul 19, 2019 8:48 pm

For all the animosity of the room, Lutis was sure to keep his own demeanor as poised as he could, despite the anger that had started to slowly churn away below his skin. Thief he was, but stupid he wasn't, and if Sylvan thought he'd miss even one of the filthy looks that he'd been giving the thief... he definitely thought wrong. Ooh, Anol would get an earful of his opinions next time he was round the demon's house. And so would Soneya, the minute they were out of earshot.

"I'm not interested in secrets," growled Lutis, altogether rubbed up the wrong way by this insolent man. Too bad he was paying Soneya's wages, otherwise he would have been back to ransack anything he could find. He set his glass against the desk rather firmly as Sylvan made his closing statements, this wine barely touched. With Sylvan so rude, he didn't care to rise above it himself, keeping his hands in his pockets as they were shown out the front door and into the boiling afternoon heat. It was like stepping into an oven, the air thick with dust from the stables hardly metres away across the street, the sun a heavy presence from directly overhead.

"What I am interested in is lunch." A moment of fuming and Lutis decided to put his irritation aside, the door firmly shut behind them again. Even if it had hardly been a couple of hours since breakfast, his stomach didn't seem to know that. "Come on. I know a place that does Kaionarian cuisine all afternoon. Rice and bread and goat meat piled high as your head. They won't even steal those documents, not that I'd mind it."

Subject: Re: CSI DC #2- This time it's personal (?) Mon Jul 22, 2019 10:50 am

Back out in the streets, Soneya was absolutely certain she was going to get an ear full. Lutis didn’t exactly look happy and he hadn’t become fast friends with Sylvan (not that she had expected that anyway) but the meeting had been a little… odd, to say the least.

But then, he just switched tracks and talked about lunch. Huh. The mage was a little confused but she was definitely not going to argue. The dish however… “Goat meat?” she asked, sounding a little outraged and a little uncertain, with maybe a pinch of curiosity thrown in. “But, yeah, I can eat!”

As they walked along, Soneya pulled a handkerchief out of her dress sleeve and wiped her forehead. “How do you deal with this heat? Seriously! Isn’t it enough that the sand gets everywhere, but does it have to be so boiling hot? Eurgh,” she shuddered as she remembered the uncomfortable sand particles through her own doing. She had almost forgotten about the annoying friction until she had pointed it out to herself. It was a terrible nuisance. At least she could do something about the heat, a little anyway.
Magic lifted off her skin, cooling the beads on her skin down to a bearable temperature that was actually doing wonders for her comfort. It made her feel a little less like she was overheating.

The place Lutis lead them to seemed like nothing special from the outside, and she would never have known that there was food to be had behind the unwelcoming façade. But on the inside? It looked surprisingly comfortable. Lots of cushions lined the chairs, the benches and the walls, making for a lot of seating room for smaller and larger groups of people. The lighting was dim but nevertheless, there were no shadowy corners for darker dealings. It was probably done in a backroom rather than under the sneaky eyes of other customers. Or maybe Soneya was just assuming things she shouldn’t be.

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