Rosella Vidal composed a new list in her head as she let shadow swirl in their ‘usual’ meeting spot.
Fact: the coroners’ records, finally completed, were clear. Two other assassins had been working at the same tasks as Rosella over the last five years. One preferred poisons, the other, slender blades.
Fact: Lady Alissa had provided two names -- both former Whispers who’d been drummed out at an early age, just like Rosella. Both older than her, but perhaps they’d been vulnerable to the “Keeper’s” lies, just like Rosella had been. Severine Boudray. Dashiel Vaughn.
Fact: Just because Rosella had turned down the job to kill Alissa didn’t mean the other two had turned it down as well.
Fact: Torres, that old “Keeper,” had an ex-wife in Ebonhawke, which was where Vaughn had been recently seen. The ex-wife was one Bettina Gray, who had no job and a lot of coin. Names, an address, a potential motive -- they all lined up like soldiers in a row.
Shadow billowed up to cover the Grenth statue in a way only one man would recognize. Perhaps he’d be in the mood to go hunting with her. One could never tell.
“It’s an odd request, miss,” the Divinity’s Reach coroner said. “Death records for the past five years? You’re talking about a lot of people. These haven’t been peaceful years.”
“Yes,” said Rosella Vidal. “But my employer considers a large investment in a public health initiative, and of course he wants as much information as possible before committing.” She set her hand on the counter, and the coins she pushed toward the coroner gleamed in the candle-light. “It would be of great help to us.”
The coroner glanced toward where his subordinates sat at tiny desks with their ledgers and their reports. He slipped the coins quickly into a pocket and said, “This way, miss.” Soon she sat at her own tiny desk while an intern unloaded a dusty stack of ledgers for her from a creaky cart. “Here’s the start,” the intern said. “Tell me when you’re ready for more.”
*****
( @alissabryliss-fairfax , @iamkuryakin -- information after the cut! )
What Alissa would find in the Order of Whispers files:
Emilio Torres, born 64 Phoenix, 1284 in Beetletun. Brought into the Order as an initiate in 1309. Rose to his highest rank -- that of Keeper -- in 1325.
Censured for private use of Whispers resources in the eradication of a Lion’s Arch merchant operation in Colossus of 1327. Stripped of rank and expelled, along with two subordinates. During surveillance from 1327 through 1329, Torres remained in contact with the two subordinates, as well as his mother (since deceased) and ex-wife Bettina Gray, now residing in Ebonhawke. Other subordinates suspected, but never identified.
Subordinates: Severine Boudray, born 1301, specialty: archery and surveillance. Dashiel Vaughn, born 1294, specialty: infiltration and transport. Current whereabouts unknown.
Sketches exist of Torres, Boudray, and Vaughn.
A note is attached mentioning the recent discovery of Emilio Torres, dead in a Commons alleyway. No suspects in his death have been identified.
*****
What Ehan (the Shadow Master, as Rosella thinks of him, since she doesn’t know his name) might find:
Emilio Torres, elementalist, mostly attuned to earth. A money-obsessed man whose fortunes rose steeply in the month prior to Scarlet Briar’s attack on Lion’s Arch. Known to have two associates -- or thugs, depending on how you look at it. Severine Boudray, bodyguard and spy. Dashiel Vaughn, thief and smuggler.
Boudray was last seen in Lion’s Arch, keeping company with Priory folk, of all people. Vaughn was last seen in his native Ebonhawke, which is where Torres’s ex-wife, Bettina Gray, also resides. Gray lives in a luxurious style which would be expensive to maintain.
Torres is also said to have kept as one of his associates a deadly, secretive assassin, someone with no name or past, a shadow and a mystery. The whereabouts of this person -- if he or she exists -- is unknown.
Torres was killed by a dagger to his side, and his corpse was found in a Commons alleyway. No one knows who did it, though some think one of his two employees might have done the deed.
