Four and Twenty: A Dragon Age Murder Mystery
A huge thank you to @slothquisitor for allowing me to use Camina. Please go check out her current modern teacher au, because it is fantastic!
Also available on AO3.
Chapter Ten
"Well, the good news is, nothing seems to be broken."
Claudia turned to face her, offering Camina a wry smile. When she and Neve had arrived at the Cantori Diamond rain soaked, bedraggled, and beaten, Camina had jumped into action to start mending wounds and assessing bodily harm in case they needed to go to a healer with more specialized knowledge. Neve had been cleared fairly quickly and had gone to track down Willow and Emmrich, leaving Claudia to be poked and prodded. "I know it's a hysterically low bar to clear, but that's the best news I've gotten in days."
Camina laughed, handing Claudia her shirt to gingerly pull back on over her torso. "I mean, you're going to have a very impressive bruise, and the skin is probably going to smart pretty bad for awhile, but your bones all seem to be intact and I'm not picking up any internal bleeding based on what my magic can reach. The strike seemed to have missed all of your major organs, and landed just hard enough to hurt like the void but not cause any lasting harm. All in all, it could have been a lot worse."
"Yeah… yeah, it could have," Claudia agreed, but her brow was furrowed and it almost sounded as though she were talking to herself more than to Camina.
"And that's… bad?" She asked, and Claudia blinked rapidly as she returned her attention to her.
"Maybe? Something about this doesn't feel right, and I don't just mean the fact we've got body number five down in our makeshift morgue. I haven't brought it up to Neve or Will yet because I don't really have anything to back it up other than a feeling, but I don't think we were meant to die in that tower."
Camina sat down on the chair opposite the bed, mulling over Claudia's theory. "So you think you were set up. Wish I could say that didn't make sense, but given everything else this lunatic has done so far I'd say we're looking at even money, to borrow some casino parlance."
"Exactly!" Claudia clapped her hands against her bed vigorously, then immediately winced when the pain in her back protested the sudden motion. "Look, Neve and I are good, really good, but whoever came at us in that tower had the drop on us. They were skilled enough to elude us until they had the advantage, but then somehow fumbled the attack badly enough that we were able to scare them off after they barely laid a scratch on us? Something doesn't add up."
"Yeah, you're right," Camina agreed. Granted, Claudia was a talented and highly trained Crow, and Neve was certainly no slouch when it came to magical combat, but Claudia herself had admitted their attacker had gotten the drop on them. Even assuming the Crow and the detective had been able to fight them off, by all accounts it should have been a much closer thing. Instead, Neve had been left completely unscathed and Claudia unharmed save for the smarting bruise across her back and some light singeing on her Crow leathers. "So why did they bother? Were they trying to prevent you from finding the body, maybe hoping you would chase after them rather than continuing your search?"
Claudia bit her lower lip as she considered, then shrugged. "Maybe? But given how much work they've put into setting up all the other corpses, I can't imagine they'd suddenly be shy about showing off their handiwork. Honestly, I think this may have just been part of the game for them. One more way to mess with us; throw us off the trail or at least force us to take a detour."
Camina sighed. "I wish I could argue against that theory, too, but I've seen too much over the past year to put it past anyone. The war with the evanuris brought out the best in a lot of people, but it also brought out the worst in a lot of them, too. There's a reason we have to maintain a constant presence in the Crossroads." Which was more true than she liked to think about. For every refugee or honest merchant that traversed those ethereal paths, there was a conman or cutpurse ready to take advantage of the new avenues of transport. Should it really surprise her that some homicidal lunatic was using the eluvian network to evade detection and commit these horrible murders?
Truthfully, Camina was already wondering if she would really be able to walk away from the Crossroads when her agreed upon term was over. She had no doubt that Strife and the Veil Jumpers would have matters well in hand, but how could she just leave when she had seen so much need? She couldn't solve all the world's problems, but didn't she have a responsibility to solve the ones she could?
And isn't it that same sense of responsibility that's landed me in this mess?
"You ok there, Cam?"
Camina shook her head, dislodging the pearl of guilt that was growing ever larger in the sands of her anxieties. "Yeah, I'm good, just thinking about what we should do next. You sure we shouldn't mention this to the others?"
"Nah, no point in worrying them anymore than we have to," Claudia said, hopping up to her feet and making her way towards the door. "I just appreciate you letting me bounce the idea off you. Like I said: I just can't help but think if they wanted us dead, they could have done a much better job of at least trying. I mean, Neve and I would have still kicked their ass from here to Vyrantium, but they'd definitely have gotten more than one good smack in."
Camina grinned, following Claudia back into the hallway and making their way towards the stairs. "Well, happy to oblige. Though if we do end up needing asses kicked, I hope I at least get to be there to watch. I bet you and Neve make a fearsome display."
"True enough," the Crow laughed, though the sound faded as they descended deeper into the depths of the Cantori Diamond to the macabre task being undertaken just below the feet of increasingly inebriated gamblers and revelers. Camina couldn't help but wonder if they would have much cared even if they had known about the collection of deceased corpses amassing in the casino's former food storage, or if it would be just another day, another murder, in the city where the upper echelons of the infamous Crows came to roost. Perhaps she was naïve, but she just still could not wrap her head around the casualness towards murder that was the norm in this otherwise beautiful city.
When she pushed open the door to the cold runed room, she was not terribly surprised to find Willow and Emmrich already there, an examination of their newest guest already underway. Actually, Camina wondered if her best friend or their husband had gotten much rest at all since this had started, given that they both obviously had hoped to be somewhere else. Will would never admit that, of course: she and Camina had been best friends since they were children, and in all the many long years Cam had known her, Will had never once missed an opportunity to jump from a frying pan into a fire for someone else. It was one of the Guardian's best virtues and worst flaws.
"Do you two ever take a break?" She teased, entering the room and instinctively looking around for bones they may have saved out for her.
Willow must have known what she was looking for, because she offered a tired grin before shaking her head. "Sorry Cam, we haven't gotten that far yet. It took the Crows a moment to retrieve the body from up in the rafters of the tower, and they only just brought it in. We are still making assessments on the initial disposition."
Camina grabbed a spare pair of thin, lambskin gloves and approached the table where the victim lay in their final repose. "Anything particularly weird or interesting about this one?"
"You could say that," Willow nodded grimly, pulling the sheet back down to reveal the victim's face. "Young female presenting, late twenties to early thirties. Based on the minor callouses on the tips of her fingers and the modest quality of her clothes I would guess she was working as a lady's maid in a noble household. So, no scrubbing or cooking, but likely needlepoint and other tasks 'appropriate' to assisting a woman of status."
Willow peered closer at the victim's face. "Cause of death was almost certainly suffocation of some sort, given the burst blood vessels in the eyes, but I do not believe they were strangled given the lack of pre-mortem ligature marks or a broken hyoid bone. I strongly suspect, based on the existing evidence and the fact the neck has not been broken, that the victim was strung up long after they were dead. It is still technically a possibility they were strangled, especially given how skilled our killer seems to be, but I think it was more likely a pillow or something similar used to cover the mouth and nose to block the airways."
Neve slipped into the room behind them, followed closely by Lucanis. "Any thoughts on the cosmetic surgery?" The detective asked with her standard cynicism. Or perhaps it was just exhaustion at this point; Camina couldn't be certain. She wasn't even sure how she felt these days.
Willow seemed to consider for a moment, then shrugged. "I was just warning these two," she gestured to Camina and Claudia, "That this one was… odd. No more so than any of the others, but still odd in its own way. The victim appears to have had her nose very carefully and, I would argue expertly, removed. Then… well, then it seems to have been reattached."
"'The maid was in the garden, hanging out the clothes, when down came a blackbird and pecked off her nose.' Well, at least they are keeping on theme," Neve noted. "They even managed to find one who was working as a maid."
"It gets weirder," Willow warned, pointing to a series of small, oddly precise round wounds peppering the mottled skin of the deceased. "These look like she was pecked repeatedly by birds, but certainly nothing so large as a crow or a raven."
"Right, but wasn't there another bird in the rhyme?" Camina pointed out, pulling her well-folded copy out of her pocket. "Yeah, right here in the second to last stanza, after the one about the blackbirds removing the maid's nose: 'there was such a commotion, that little Jenny wren, flew down into the garden, and put it back again' Any chance those marks could have been made by a wren?"
"They are common enough up here," Lucanis noted. "Not particularly known for eating dead things, but they're also not terribly picky when it comes to their source of food. If someone just scattered some seed over the corpse, I don't doubt the birds would have not looked too closely at what lay beneath their feast."
"That's… disgusting," Camina said, trying to ignore the roiling nausea growing in her stomach. It was not as if this were the first, or even the hundredth, body she had seen, but somehow it felt different. Most of the corpses she was accustomed to working with had died of natural causes, or an unfortunate accident. This… this just felt wrong. It had started out wrong, and just gotten progressively worse as far as she was concerned, and despite the increasing boldness of their killer, they still did not seem to be any closer to answers. "Please, please tell me the whole nose thing was done post-mortem?"
Emmrich nodded, offering her a sympathetic smile. "Indeed, it was. To be honest, I am not certain such precise stitching could have been performed on a patient that was still amongst the living. Even if they were fully unconscious, the act of breathing alone would have caused disruption. In addition, it appears we have another victim that was exsanguinated before they were… er… displayed."
"That is looking more and more like a choice of convenience," Neve spoke up, tapping her cheek thoughtfully with her index finger. "Bet it was a void of a lot easier to haul that corpse up to the top of the tower and get them hoisted up to the rafters without the added weight of blood. Magic would have helped, of course, but why not make things more efficient, right?" She turned to her partner. "Don't suppose you recognize this one now that we're in a well-lit room?"
Claudia's eyelids fluttered shut and she inhaled deeply, briefly wincing against the pain in her back. "Yeah, I do. Another half-sibling, which I'm sure is a shock to everyone here. Maker… what was her name… Bianca… Bettina… no. Beatrice!" Claudia's eyes shot back open. "Her name was Beatrice. Can't remember her surname, but half of us didn't have one in the first place so not sure she would have either. Her mother was yet another maid in Fulgeno's service, though… no, actually, she was a lady in waiting to the queen. I remember my mother was technically in line to replace her when the queen… well, when the queen was in need of a replacement, but she fled before then. My mother may have not had much choice when it came to spreading her legs for the king, but even she could read the writing on the wall."
"Any chance you know where Beatrice ended up?" Camina asked. "After her mother was… well, I assume her mother didn't know when to run like yours did."
"You assume correctly. Beatrice's mother was executed, publicly, as a warning to those who dared to poach what the queen considered hers. It was a waste, really. Fulgeno was going to take what he wanted, and damn how many lives it cost," Claudia replied bitterly. "Beatrice would have still been young at that point, maybe five years old? She wasn't too much older than I was. No idea where she would have gotten shuffled off to at that point. Most of us royal bastards were more or less allowed to live in peace until we turned thirteen, at which point we were given our choice of exile or the Crows. I just joined up earlier because I didn't have many options after my own mother died."
Camina stared down at the unseeing face of the young woman on the autopsy table. "This is the fifth victim," she observed quietly. "If this person is really hung up on their nursery rhyme, are they truly intending to kill twenty-four people just to prove a point?"
"Oh, I think they will go much farther than that if they have to," Lucanis gave a harsh bark of laughter. "It is, after all, what we do here, isn't it? Murder for hire. I wonder, would everyone be so up in arms if the contract had been sent through proper channels? Would anyone blink an eye if anyone other than the Fifth Talon had been threatened?"
"Lucanis, you know this is different," Claudia countered, but even Camina could tell the other Crow's words lacked conviction. "Someone is making this personal, and they are making it a spectacle. Even if we did just lean back and let the murderer run through the backlog of illegitimate royal children, which just to be clear is not a tactic I'm going to endorse for obvious reasons, I don't think the murders would stop there. Not until we get whatever twisted fucking message this lunatic is trying to send."
"And what if there is no message?" Lucanis snapped. Camina had not seen him this angry since he had learned of Illario's betrayal, but she knew there was little to be gained by stepping in. He needed space to air his thoughts as well. "What if this is simply the work of a mad person, and there is no deeper meaning to be gleaned beyond the fact they enjoy killing?"
The room fell quiet save for the faint hum of the ice runes in the walls and floor, everyone staring at Lucanis. Camina took a step closer to him, maintaining a professional distance but reminding him that she was still there; that he was not alone. Not this time. "Lucanis," she spoke up softly, "Isn't that kind of all the more reason we should be trying to get them off the streets? Regardless of whether this is about the Crows, or the king, or the delusions of a nutjob, shouldn't we still be trying to protect people?"
"We cannot protect everyone, Camina."
With that, Lucanis swept out of the room, leaving the rest of them in stunned silence. Camina shifted uncomfortably on her feet, debating how much space she should give him before following. After what felt like an eternity, she gave a small cough and an apologetic smile. "I, uh… I think I'm just going to go check on him quick."
"Thank you, Cam," Willow exhaled, obviously a bit relieved she would not have to be the one to try and navigate Lucanis's sudden change in mood. "We'll save you the usual bones, yes?"
"That'd be great, thanks Will." She turned and followed Lucanis's path out of the temporary morgue and then, making her best guess, ascended the stairs past the guest rooms and the casino proper, up to where the Crows of House Cantori held court. Lucanis was not there, but from where he stood by his varied wares, Fletcher gave her a subtle nod towards a nearby window that was still slightly cracked despite the inclement weather outside.
Of course he went to the rooftops, she groaned internally. Camina's deep, abiding fear of heights was definitely getting better the more time she spent with her Crow, and just from the constant awareness that came from living in the Crossroads on a series of inexplicably floating islands, but Maker she still hated heights. Taking one ginger step, then another, she made her way out onto the series of balconies, ziplines, and trellises that made up the colloquially named Crow's Road.
It was not hard to track his footsteps in the rain-smeared detritus of the rooftops, which told Camina he wanted her to find him even if he had not been able to say so in front of the others. Had he not wanted to be found, she doubted even she would have been able to pick up his trail. Muttering to herself about insane Crows and their aversion to proper stairs, she maneuvered her way up a trellis before ducking into a covered alcove set high above the Grande Markets.
"Apologies, Camina. I know how you feel about the rooftops."
She gave what she hoped was a nonchalant shrug, or at least the best she could manage in her rain-soaked attire. "Practice makes perfect, right?" She said, stepping closer and leaning up against the wall beside him. They were utterly alone in that space, far above the bustling streets and away from the prying eyes of Crow or civilian gossip. She reached out and gently twined her fingers with his, exhaling when she felt his posture relax at the gesture.
Neither of them spoke for a long time. She knew nothing would come of trying to press too hard too soon, but she also knew that sometimes, even now, he still needed permission to open up. Even to her. "So," she said gently, "I'm gonna take a wild guess this isn't about the murders."
"Well, I suppose that depends on how you look at it," he replied. "They have certainly… given me perspective, I suppose." He stared up at the inscrutable murk of the cloud-obscured sky. "Caterina sent word. She wants to meet with me."
Shit.
That was perhaps the most measured response Camina could come up with in that instant. She took a deep breath, then another, then one more for good measure. She was grateful Lucanis knew her as well as he did; knew to give her the space to process the news he had just dropped on her. "I see," she finally managed. "Did she deign to say why?"
He gave a small snort. "Yes. I think she knew I would not come at all if I thought it was a trap, which is precisely what I would have assumed had she not given anymore information. No, she was surprisingly honest in her request: she wants recommendations for fledglings to recruit for House Dellamorte."
"Oh!" That was not exactly what Camina had been expecting, and she wasn't entirely sure if it was better or worse.
"I am sure she has consulted with Teia and Viago as well," he continued. "They are the only other Talons she has any measure of trust in, and they are more involved with the latest batch of fledglings than I am, obviously. And with Illario banished and myself… well, functionally banished, if House Dellamorte is to survive, they must take in new recruits rather than relying on the traditional bloodlines. In truth, I suspect her request was a matter of formality than anything else, and her way of letting me know that she knows I am back in town."
"Because Maker forbid she just ask directly," Camina muttered, and Lucanis simply sighed.
"Why start now?" He asked, but there was no bitterness in his words. Only a sense of resignation. "I have not responded. Not yet. I only received the message this afternoon, while you were patching up Claudia."
Camina felt a familiar spike of tension in her back. "Are you going to?"
"What would I even say?" He threw up his hands helplessly, walking to the edge of the alcove and leaning against a pillar, staring out over his city, painted as it was in the forgiving watercolor greys of rain and mist, the lights of the streets and buildings warm orbs amidst the damp. "This place, this city… I do not think I belong here anymore, Camina. And that does not trouble so much as the knowledge of what I may be leaving behind unfinished."
"You're worried about sending more fledglings to House Dellamorte. You are not sure you want the line to continue."
"Endless sacrifice. Endless death. Point?"
Camina shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine, Spite." The spirit of determination muttered something incomprehensible before ceding control back to Lucanis.
"What he said. I guess we are all experiencing a bit of a letdown, aren't we? I suppose some part of me had foolishly hoped that… if I was gone, and Illario was disowned, perhaps Caterina would simply let the House die with her, someday. But that will not solve the underlying problem, will it?"
"No," Camina replied, not bothering to soften the blow. They both knew better. "So long as the Crows rule Antiva with the blade of a knife at the country's collective throat. Whether their method is any better than any other nation's?" She gave a short, bitter laugh. "I don't even know anymore, Lucanis. These murders? I feel like they are just shining a spotlight on the problems inherent in Antiva's current system, but I'm also learning those problems are not something that are going to leave just because you and I walked away. And maybe that's the point. Maybe that's why the murderer is sending a clear message to you, me, Viago, Will… maybe they see us as having the power to do something, and they think we're just choosing not to."
"It is not that simple."
Camina laughed again, but this time it was more sad then cynical. "Nope, I am getting that vibe. But we are operating under the assumption this person isn't not entirely well from a mental standpoint. Do they know we have done all we can do? For that matter, have we?"
Lucanis did not reply for a long moment, but Camina could see the brief flashes of violet in his eyes that meant Spite had plenty to say. Finally, he turned to her. "I do not know, amore. Was I right to walk away, rather than staying and trying to make things better? I never chose this life. It was simply all I ever knew."
"Only you can answer that, Lucanis," Camina pointed out, "But I think you know the answer. And hey, if you don't want to reply to Caterina? Don't. Or do, but don't refer any more kids to her super questionable 'training' methods. I know Antivan society is built on murder for hire, but maybe it shouldn't be the default career path?"
Lucanis snorted, but Camina could see a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips. "I'll let you inform Caterina."
She grinned, tucking an arm around his as they stared out over the city far below them. "Nah, we'll send Will. She seems to like her better than most. In the meantime," she carefully extricated her arm, reverting back to business, "What would you like to do in this moment? Do we keep investigating, or…" She let the thought trail off, leaving options open for whatever Lucanis needed in that moment.
To her surprise, his expression turned thoughtful. "Speaking of the children… thinking about referring them into House Dellamorte, it actually brought up a memory. It may be nothing, but at this point, what have we got to lose?"
He began pacing a steady, controlled path across the narrow breadth of the alcove, but it was not the nervous sort of pacing Camina had once associated with his internal battles with Spite: this seemed to be purposeful. "When I was very young, I remember coming to the market with Caterina. It was shortly after my parents had been murdered, and she was keeping me under particularly strict supervision. There was a puppet show in the Grande Markets. Not unusual in and of itself, of course: there are usually dozens of small stages set up throughout the city, and elaborate puppetry productions put on at the opera, but this one… this one I distinctly remember."
"Oh?" Camina's curiosity was piqued now. "What made it so special?"
"Truthfully, I remember very little of the plot," he admitted, "But I am not certain that matters. It was about a figure known as The Raven Queen. She was supposed to be some great assassin from the time when the Crows were first establishing themselves, but not without growing pains. Some, like this alleged Raven Queen, fractured off and attempted to wrest control of Antiva from the Crows, but ultimately failed and were either killed themselves or faded into obscurity. So the story goes, anyways."
"And the truth?" Camina pressed.
Lucanis seemed to be choosing his words carefully. "The truth is, I do not believe the Raven Queen's ideas ever truly died: ideas for what she considered to be a more just and equitable Antiva not beholden to the merchant princes or to the Crows, or maybe even to the crown. Caterina did not let me stay to watch the show, even though I begged her to. She hurried me away and forbade me from ever speaking of the Raven Queen ever again, so that was it, and I suspect she might have been behind the fact those puppeteers never performed that story again. I have not even thought about that silly puppet show until today."
"Someone could be using the legend of the Raven Queen to make a statement about all of it," Camina said slowly, almost to herself. "The commercial violence of the Crows, the greed of the merchant princes, and ineffectiveness of the King. What better figurehead than one that already exists in history or myth? A name to hide behind that already promotes those ideals?"
"It is certainly a possibility," Lucanis agreed. "And the only lead we have at the moment that I can actually do anything about. We need to go find Pietra, see if she can tell us anything more."
Camina hesitated, in part because she was not terribly eager to clamber back down the trellis to the rain-slicked rooftops, but also because something was nagging at the back of her mind that felt like it ought to be an alarm bell; a warning. "Do you think we should go find Claudia, first? She's already got a rapport with Pietra, so she might be more likely to open up that way."
Lucanis was already halfway down the trellis. "Let's just try it my way, first," he called back up, a soft thud indicating he had hopped onto the roof and was heading in the direction of the café. "I have spoken with her before, once or twice, and she may be willing to talk in exchange for coin."
Ignoring the growing sense of unease in her stomach, Camina gingerly traced Lucanis's path along the Crow's Road, her sigh of relief at reaching solid ground muted by the steady veil of rain draped over the city. Lucanis wove his way expertly through the crowd, and it took every ounce of her concentration to keep up with him until they reached the corner outside Café Pietra where the beggar usually set up her post.
"She's not here," Lucanis huffed, disappointed. "She's always here during the day, or near enough."
"Lucanis, look," Camina murmured, trying not to draw any more attention to themselves than was absolutely unavoidable. Caterina already knew they were in the city; no point making it even more egregiously obvious. "Her offering bowl is still there…"
"Mierda," he swore under his breath. "You don't think… why would anyone take-?"
"Because she talked," Camina interrupted, her heart thumping against her chest like a rabbit fleeing a wolf. "Damn it. We have to get back to the Diamond, get some back up, and find her before the killer…" She couldn't bring herself to finish the thought. This was bad, this was very, very bad, and she was not entirely sure they could do anything about it.
High above them, perched on the sign for the café, a great black bird croaked out what Camina swore was a laugh. As she looked up, its beady black eyes met hers, and there was an intelligence there that frightened her. It spread its wings wide, posing briefly against the mist-draped lamplight of the city before leaping into the sky above and soaring beyond their sight.
If she did not know any better… Camina would have sworn it was a raven.
