The Inventor and the Detective.
The inventor had first met the detective on his own turf, which would end up being pretty much the whole problem.
Ramius Raske had been returning to Long Climb Trading Company, where he was employed as the company's Quartermaster and the Chief Engineer for their airship, the Lady Victoria, in a sulky reverie.
It had been like this for moons, now, and routinely did he perceive the concerned expressions upon the faces of his comrades... saw them and ignored them. How could they understand? The love of his life had broken off their engagement, and followed that up by taking up with a married man. Later on, they’d reconciled and she’d promised to return to him, only to go back to the same man and into hiding from him. The life they’d planned together, that had become his own beloved future, was twice dashed to pieces by the only woman who'd ever broken through his protective barriers and known him as he truly was. It had crushed him utterly; broken his confidence. Little in his life had elicited even the barest trace of a genuine smile since.
Immediately upon pushing open the door was when he first heard the detective’s voice: she was making soft, breezy conversation with the burly Roegadyn receptionist behind the counter. As Ramius greeted her, she'd flashed her Maelstrom badge and beamed broadly at him.
"My name is Olivia. I wondered if I could ask you a few questions. Are you in charge here?"
She was young and heart-stoppingly pretty, with sharp, crystalline blue eyes and long wisps of blonde escaping from their nest beneath her tall uniform hat. There was something about the practiced carefreedom of her friendliness that gave him the impression that she was used to employing that smile in the line of duty. It was a performative smile, but unlike those he gave, it was one made to loosen lips rather than to get friends to stop giving worried frowns... and he’d lay down a hefty bet that hers were more successful in their purpose than his.
In spite of her looks and his unrelenting loneliness, what primarily lingered in his mind was the question of why a detective from the Maelstrom was poking around. Had they caught wind of Emmette's involvement in Admiral Faulkner's escape from prison, or the Admiral's presence there?
However, after their introductions were out of the way and he'd offered her a seat in the waiting area and a refreshment, which she politely declined, her initial question for him seemed to dispel any cause for immediate concern.
"So, Ramius, were you aware there was a building burned down just a few moons ago? Just a few houses above this one, here in Mist."
"Oh, yeah," he replied, not allowing even a twitch of relief to paint his expression. "One could hardly have missed it, the air is usually so clear here. Smoke came billowing right down the hill. I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the neighbors who lived there, though."
"Did you notice anything strange, the days before or after?"
"Hmm, I'm afraid you'd have to be more specific," he mused wryly. "We see a fair amount of strange stuff around Long Climb."
"That's interesting," the detective replied, charting notes mentally. "Like what? Long Climb is the name of this company, is it not? Two airships, a Mist residential headquarters listed under Lady Lucrece de Vaurtefort?"
Oops. Even that mild jest was clearly too much to share with her.
"You studied up," he observed with a steady grin. "Yes, those are all accurate statements. We're traders, and so we do a lot of traveling. See a lot of fascinating, unprecedented wonders. We encounter beasts and other enemies of all different natures regularly in the course of procuring the goods we sell. Ah, but it's all worth it: we were able to make quite a few good spice sales just last night at the Starlight Mall." He made the effort to convince even himself that he was earnestly enthused by all this dangerous spice trading. "As for around when the fire happened... I can't say that there was anything out of the ordinary going on. Not that I saw, at any rate."
Olivia had removed her hat and folded it in her lap, freeing her hair to fall to her shoulders, seeming genuinely interested in listening to him speak about the company's dealings. But as quickly as the interview began, it was over.
"Ah well, as lovely as your talk of trading adventures is... I believe you might have answered all my questions for me then." She stood from her seat to further the point, her attitude casual, betraying not a hint of what, if anything, she'd gleaned from him.
The detective offered him a business card and an exchange of smiles and airy parting pleasantries, where she meant to leave things. However, Ramius' curiosity got the better of his wits.
"Ah, Detective? Just one thing."
"Yes?"
"You said that you are Detective Olivia Seldrin, right?"
"Yes."
"You wouldn't happen to be related to a Garvik Seldrin, would you?"
She considered this for the briefest moment, her lips pursed in thoughtful silence.
"No... no, I've never heard of him."
"How curious," Ramius reflected aloud, studying her a moment longer while tapping his chin with a fingertip. "I'd thought I'd seen a resemblance. Ah well. My mistake, no doubt."
As he conducted her out the front doors, he glided over to a window and watched her recede down the walkway. Her resemblance to the Lady Victoria's former First Mate, who'd perished during a Long Climb mission in the midst of betraying them all to the Laughing Wyverns, really was uncanny. And why the smattering of questions about an incident seemingly unrelated to Long Climb, which seemed to lead nowhere?
Presently he was overwhelmed by the conviction that it was of critical importance for him to keep a close eye on this woman.
