Stein left to attend to Kendra’s wishes, but returned only a few moments later. “I’m sorry to bother you, but your presence is requested in the library,” the butler said.
Kendra strapped Santino’s sword across her back. “That’s fine,” she said. “I’ll be down momentarily.” He nodded as he left. She reached down and scratched the dog resting on the ground behind the ear. “Just rest,” she said. “Until you’re better.”
Natalya was waiting for her at the top of the stairs. “How is he?” she asked.
“Still resting,” Kendra answered. “I’m sure he’ll have just as many questions as we do when he wakes up. Assuming he can still talk.” She laughed bitterly. “Even if he can’t, he’ll probably tell us when he’s awake.”
They headed down and greeted Embreth in her library. “Please, join me,” the older woman said, indicating the chairs around the small table in front of the fireplace.
“Thank you,” Kendra said.
No sooner had they sat than the door opened and Stein appeared, holding a tray. On it were cups of tea, each prepared perfectly to the liking of each person, with the right amount of sugar and cream. “Thank you,” Natalya said as she took her cup last, as well as a small cookie filled with jelly in the center.
“Of course,” Stein said, bowing slightly.
Embreth took a sip. “I’ll get to the point,” she said. “There is a situation here in town that could use a bit of a, shall we say, outside touch.”
“Does this have to do with the Punishing Man?” Kendra asked.
“Yes. It is related.”
“How long will it take to rebuild that?” Natalya asked.
“Not long,” Embreth said. “You’d be surprised what a mob can do when it sets its mind to something. Especially with ‘festivities’ of this kind.”
“So what’s the problem?” Kendra asked, refocusing the conversation.
“There have been a number of crimes, and a suspect has been accused.”
“The Beast of Lepidstadt?” Natalya asked.
“The very same. It’s a poor, pitiful creature, and was caught at the scene of a crime at the University. It was a break in. An artifact was taken. But that wasn’t the only thing it’s accused of. It’s also being accused of the Hergstag murders, swamper killings in the Morast and the burning of Doctor Brada’s hospice.”
“Have you spoken to the accused?” Kendra asked.
“I am one of the three judges presiding over the case,” Embreth responded, sipping her tea.
“I see.” She considered it. “It’s strange that this Beast has already been convicted in the opinion of the public. Have the other judges made their positions known?”
“Not exactly,” Embreth said. “However, Ambrose Khard, the second judge, is harsh, to be kind. He hangs people for crimes big and small, having on numerous occasions hung people for contempt of the court.”
“Yes, that seems like someone who will not give the accused a fair shake. What of the remaining judge?”
“Kasp Aldaar is merciless, even by the standards of Ambrose. Kasp was once a general, and is infamous for the times he impaled deserters, even without a trial.”
“I see,” Kendra said. “What of you?”
“I don’t care about mercy. I only wish to see that the accused is given a proper and fair trial. If the beast is guilty, then it shall get what is coming. But I wish to be sure of guilt before I pass judgment.”
Natalya listened mostly in silence as they continued talking, contemplating everything that had happened that night while sipping her tea. She still couldn’t wrap her mind around what had happened with Santino.
She had just thought his name for the first time in context of the events of the night when she heard a noise from upstairs. The tiefling looked at the other two women, but neither of them had heard the noise.
“So,” Kendra said, segueing into another topic, “what can you tell me about the people who attacked my brother?”
Embreth raised an eyebrow. “Your brother?” she asked.
“My brother. Santino. Or maybe it’s more appropriate to call him Jiminy now.” She gasped. “Wait, you were the one who sent my father those notes! Was my father experimenting on people?”
Embreth shook her head. “No, not people. Things, yes. Animals, most definitely. But never people.” She sipped her tea. “If you see one of those things as your brother, then you are most peculiar, child, and I feel bad for you.”
Kendra brushed off the woman’s pitying tone. “What was your relationship with my father?” she asked.
“We are colleagues. There was potential that it might have been something more, once, but nothing ever came of it.”
“Tell me. What is meant by ‘Our daughter is of the flesh’? Did that have something to do with me? Am I… am I like Santino?”
“No. Your father and mother created you in the traditional manner.”
“Then… does that mean I have a sister?”
Embreth drank the last of her tea and set the cup down. Stein was immediately on hand to take the cup to be refilled. She then turned back to Kendra, her eyebrow raised in thought. “If you consider ‘Santino’ your brother, then I guess that it wouldn’t be inaccurate to consider the other your sister.”
Natalya was having trouble wrapping her mind around the whole thing. But Stein appeared next to her with a plate filled with finger sandwiches that gave her something to take her mind off of everything. She picked up one and took a bite. It was soft, white bread with a creamy cheese of some kind and sliced fruit. She grabbed a couple more at Stein’s insistence.
As she chewed, she began to wonder about Heimish. Where had the preacher gone? Perhaps after she ate, she’d ask Kendra if it would be okay for her to go searching for him. He didn’t move quickly, so he couldn’t have gotten too far.
Heimish was closer than Natalya suspected. “And that’s when I paid the woman to relieve the horse of his pent up frustration,” the preacher said.
“Fascinating!” Professor Crowl said. “And did it work?”
“Of course,” Heimish said. “After that, he was the gentlest horse. Never kicked another farmhand again.” He then changed the subject. “Anyway, back to the Black Butterfly.”
“Ah, yes! It is an interesting coincidence that the Black Butterfly is associated with the Dark Tapestry. You see, the Sea Sage Effigy also seems to be tied to the Tapestry.”
Heimish frowned. “I worry that this artifact could be dangerous. Tell me, where did you find it?”
“I am unsure. It was at the university when I joined the faculty. It has always fascinated me, but I must admit that I have been unable to find much more about it in my years there.”
“You must be careful. Fascination with objects tied to the Tapestry can warp your mind. It is subtle, often manifesting as strange dreams long before you notice other changes.”
The professor nodded gravely. “I had heard of such things as well, so I have been taking herbs to avoid dreaming at all. I can get you some, if you want?” He produced a couple vials.
“Thank you,” Heimish said, thinking that they looked like what Stein had given him before.
At that moment, they had arrived at their destination. “Hello, good man,” Professor Crowl said to the doorman. “I have come to speak with the good Justice, and deliver this man who was supposed to meet with her as well, on behalf of a man named Lorrimor.”
The doorman nodded and opened the door. “While you were not expected, your arrival was not unprepared for. Please, come in.”
The door opened and Heimish saw a pitiful looking dog dragging itself down the stairs. It looked horribly malnourished. He hobbled over to the dog, whose head perked at his presence. “Poor thing,” Heimish said. “You look half starved. Here, let me help you down the stairs and I’ll see about getting you something to eat.”
The dog made strange sounds, as if it was trying to speak but couldn’t form the words. Heimish pitied the poor thing all the more, sure it couldn’t even bark.
Behind him, Crowl’s eyes lit up. He tented his fingers and couldn’t hide his excited grin. “Fascinating! Is this what I think it is? I did not believe I would see it. Come here, hound, and let me get a better look at you.”
The dog warily kept Heimish between himself and the professor, and barked weakly, mustering all the strength it had. In the next room, Kendra heard the sound and rushed from her seat. She spotted the dog and ran to him. “Santino!” she scolded. “What are you doing out of bed? You should be resting.”
The dog whined at the scolding.
“We have more guests,” Embreth said, with Natalya and Stein behind her.
Crowl smiled. “Fascinating! You must be my good friend Heimish’s companions! It must be fate that you happened to be where we were going already.”
Kendra ignored him and turned to Heimish. “Where were you?” she accused. Deep down, part of her wondered if Heimish could have prevented what happened to Santino.
“I had a vision,” Heimish said.
“From the Black Butterfly?” Kendra asked.
“Yes!” Heimish said, excited. “Does that mean that you’ve come to believe?! Shall I prepare a sermon?”
Stein barked a laugh. “You walked right into that one.”
Kendra ignored the butler. “I’m not in the mood for a sermon,” she said. “My brother got turned into a dog.”
Crowl regarded the dog. “Fascinating! But I don’t detect any signs of lycanthropy.”
“Focus, Montagnie,” Embreth said. “I’ve asked these people to help you look into what happened at the university.”
“I see! Fascinating! I think good Heimish was tasked to do so by his goddess, so we’re in luck! So, are you going to introduce them to the Beast?”
“If I can convince the other justices to agree to let me, and if there is time, I will arrange it.”
Suddenly, the dog, now standing by the front door, whined once more and began to urinate on the ground. Kendra frowned. “Oh, Santino. I’m sorry. You were trying to get outside to pee.” She opened the door. “Go ahead,” she said, in case he needed to do more than that.
“I will attend to the mess,” Stein said. “Please, everyone, do not wait here on my account. I will meet you all back in the library.” The others did as he suggested, but Kendra waited behind, watching Santino out in the yard.
“What do you make of all of this?” she asked the butler.
“I must admit, the notes make more sense now that I’ve seen him like that.”
“Did you ever know Jiminy?” she asked.
“No, he disappeared before my time.”
She sighed. “I don’t know if I trust Embreth and Crowl,” she said. “They’re hiding something.”
“Everyone associated with your father has something to hide.”
“Fair enough,” Kendra said. “I’ll see you back in the library.”
He nodded. When she was gone, he called over one of the guards. “Don’t let him out of the yard,” he instructed the man, who nodded his understanding.
It wasn’t too much of a worry, since Santino was too tired to do much more than walk around for a moment and flop down on the ground by the gate.
Inside, Embreth was continuing to explain the situation with the beast. “Unfortunately, the Beast has been given the representation of Barrister Gustav Kaple. He’s a good man, but… to put it bluntly, he’s inept. If the Beast is to have a chance at fairness in his trial, you all will need to determine the facts for us.”
“I’m more worried about the missing Sea Sage Effigy,” Heimish said. “The Black Butterfly wants me to look into it, so I suspect that this artifact cannot be good. If this Beast wasn’t the one who took it, then whoever has it may be up to no good.”
“Investigating the Beast and searching for this sausage thing he supposedly stole aren’t mutually exclusive goals,” Natalya said. “If we find it, we’ll know more about whether he took it or not. And if we look into the crime, it should yield clues about both the artifact and whether the Beast took it.”
“Just so,” Crowl said. “Though it is called the Sea Sage Effigy, not ‘sausage thing’.”
“You will want to begin first thing tomorrow,” Embreth said. “The actions of ‘Santino’ have likely enflamed the public’s ire. We will likely have to accelerate the pace of the trial.”
Natalya nodded. “I’m going to bed, then.”
“I have one more thing,” Kendra said. She pulled out the journal and showed it to Crowl. “Professor, what do you make of this?”
“Are these your father’s notes? They’re fascinating! This… could work. But it’s not quite right. It needs something. YES! A self sustaining energy core! But what would one use? And then you need a vessel, or no. Not a vessel. A host! Yes!”
“Um, what happens to the host?” Kendra asked.
“If the process were perfected, then the host would be overwritten entirely. But the process is imperfect. Parts of the host would remain, in conflict with the entity.”
“Entity? Like a ghost? Would my father have put a ghost into the body of my dog?”
“No. Not a ghost. You need something more powerful. Like a djinn, or maybe a psychopomp.”
“I see. Thank you, professor.”
After bidding the others goodnight, Kendra went outside to keep an eye on the creature she couldn’t decide whether to call Santino or Jiminy. She was sitting on a chair on the patio for almost an hour before Heimish came outside as well. He sat in another seat and looked the the wretched creature lying in the dirt.
“What have you gotten yourself into, lad?” he asked. Santino responded to his voice and slowly made his way over, nudging the preacher. Heimish patted the dog’s neck. “Alright, lad, let’s go get some food in you.”
“There’s no need,” Stein said from the door. He was holding a bowl of food and more tea. He set the bowl down in front of the dog.
As Santino ate, Heimish studied him for lingering traces of magic. “Did you find anything?” Kendra asked.
“No,” Heimish said.
“I could get my tools and we could do a more thorough examination,” Stein said.
“No,” Kendra said.
Stein shrugged. “If you say so,” he answered. “Heimish, would you join me for a drink? Embreth has offered us some of her fine whisky.”
“A nightcap before bed is just what is called for,” Heimish agreed.
“And you?” Stein asked Kendra.
“I’m gonna sit out here with him a bit longer. You two go ahead.”