• Closed • Sounds Like Burning

Aelius and Tristan stumble upon a rumor that leads them on an adventure to Venora.

The capital city of the of Rynmere, here is seated the only King in Idalos.
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Aelius Callistus
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Sounds Like Burning

One of Aelius’ dark brows rose at the mention of Elisa. He wondered who she was, how and why Tristan managed to make such an acquaintance. Perhaps, he assumed, it was one of Tristan’s old friend, someone he may have known in passing. This was the young noble’s hometown after all, such was very much a possibility. He didn’t dwell on Elisa though, focusing his attention on Tristan’s words instead; it seemed Tristan’s contact noticed the same thing Aelius’ many had. He ignored the little irrelevant bit about Elisa being single and on the market. If anything, it told the half-blood Tristan maybe didn’t know the girl beforehand after all, that he was looking for entertainment while pursuing knowledge for their investigation. Aelius didn’t seem rhyme or reason to chastise the young noble; he managed to bundle business and pleasure without getting in the way of the former.
The white eyes followed Tristan’s hand down into his pant pocket, where a piece of crumbled paper was produced, the directions to the burned down farmhouse. Taking the paper, he looked over it carefully, taking in the directions and attempting to place them in his memory, match them what he had already seen of the city, which was very little to begin with. He looked up at Tristan’s suggestion, nodding in agreement.
“Coming,” Aelius said softly, trailing after Tristan as they headed towards the entrance of the city.
In time they came upon the farmlands. The twin suns were beginning to wane slowly. Dusk would last for quite some time, the twin suns not willing to part with their reign over the skies in order to make way for nightfall and eventually the moon and its stars. Aelius saw this as an advantage, knowing the light of day would aid in their search and would make them appear less threatening to any farm-folk they may encounter. Though, it wasn’t as if they were intimidating to begin with. One of them was a fairly kind-looking and charming noble while the other was a tall yet thin half-Eidisi who looked more human than Eidisi. His purely alabaster eyes may have been a deterrent but he was sure Tristan would counter act that with his charm.
The farmhouse came up in the distance as they tread on the edge of one of the farm roads. To their flanks were fields filled with crops approaching harvest. In the time following Saun, harvest would come and the fields would be reaped.
“There,” Aelius said, pointing ahead towards the charred husk of what was a farmhouse. The ruin was large, denoting its importance to the region. The silos near the house were untouched, however the barn was blackened as well.
As the two detectives pushed forwards towards the farmhouse they could see the wooden gate boundary separating the fields from the plot of land the house, barn, and silos were on. The land was mostly barren of grass at this point, the great flame that embroiled the house and barn giving off too much heat for grass to survive. The points directly around the burned down buildings were also smoldered. The once greenish-yellow grass was black, the wooden barn’s roasted walls nothing but ashes on the ground. The barn towards the back of the plot has collapsed and the animals inside, husks of burnt meat on the ground.
The smell was reminiscent of burning wood and metal. There was a subtle pungent aroma of burned flesh, too. These smells were emanating from the dead cattle, chickens, and pigs. With a cursory glance Aelius couldn’t see any human remains amongst the ruins. Though, he didn’t hear of any human casualties from his sources interviewed earlier.
“I think we should start our investigation here,” he said to Tristan as they came upon the fence at the start of the property. “Maybe we can see if anything here and then go talk to that neighbor who scared off the theif.” He looked at Tristan, stopping before the fence’s gate. “How’s that sound?”
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Tristan Venora
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Sounds Like Burning

The noble who had been so very cowardly before and acted as if he didn’t really want to investigate the crime, walked in front of Aelius confidently now, with his head held high. In fact, he was a little too confident as he strode down the street as if nothing could cause him harm. His only weapons were a sword cane that was decorated with a silver dragon head, a fashion accessory more than anything else and a very plain dagger. He had never used the former, and the dagger training that his father had forced on him had been a while ago.

Once the farm house – or rather what remained of it, which wasn’t all that much - came into view, he slowed down though and even made an effort to move especially silently so that people wouldn’t hear that he was coming from a mile away. He suddenly remembered what Elisa had told him again, that there might still be a few Aukari in the area.

“You know how to fight, right?“ Tristan asked Aelius softly, sincerely hoping that the answer would be a resounding ‘yes‘. It would be good if at least one of them could defend himself properly if a bunch of crazy red haired people that were intent on setting things on fire showed up. “I forgot to ask. Please tell me that you have more experience with such things than I do!“ As he said that, he slowly inched closer to their destination.

He noticed that the grass around the charred remains of the house had turned black, and there was a most peculiar smell in the air. It took him a few moments to realize just what it was. His eyes widened, and for a moment it seemed as if he were going to lose the contents of his stomach. Tristan Venora was a spoiled young noble man, and it had never been as obvious as in that moment. He had never seen a dead body, let alone a burnt dead body.

“I think they …“ he began and scanned the area. In front of the farm house lay what had once been chicken. He breathed a sigh of relief because he had expected to find the dead bodies of the family that had lived there. “… they killed all the animals. Why would they do that? Killing people I understand, to some extent, but they could just have eaten the animals instead …“ He broke off, realizing that he had begun to ramble as he always did when he was nervous, and that it was better not to speak too much if there were still Aukari nearby.

He opened the gate, as slowly as carefully as he could in case it creaked and gestured for Aelius to follow him again. Despite the fact that his heart had begun to beat just a little faster now, he would not hide behind the half-blood. “There!“ he whispered to Aelius as they came closer to the house. “There’s something on one of the walls!“ If Aelius dared to approach, he would see that a large circle had been painted on one of the blackened walls, with a cross through it. “Do you think that’s their symbol?“ he asked.

It was just then that he saw something, a shadow moving near one of the silos. He froze for a moment. “Did you see that as well?“ he whispered. “Maybe one of the animals managed to escape“, he said hopefully because he wasn’t particularly keen on the other possibility.
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Aelius Callistus
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Sounds Like Burning

Tristan’s behavior would’ve been worrisome to someone who wasn’t starting to expect it. Aelius simply nodded at the noble’s question. He knew how to fight in the unconventional way, with his magic more so than with a blade or his fists. He was no barbarian, he thought. Swords and spears and staves were unwieldy, they were clumsy in the hands whom he witnessed wield them. Magic was more practiced, he thought. It was elegant and graceful, all while being powerful at the same time. What was so sweet about it was the fact he didn’t have to get dangerously close with the wielder of a martial weapon, he could simply blast them away.
The half-blood walked towards the farmhouse with the questioning-Tristan nearby. The smell was ripe in the air the closer they tread towards the charred house and Aelius’ sense of smell was taking a punishing. He scrunched his nose up at the invasion of his senses, attempting to keep his eyes alert and his mind sharp to what Tristan was saying. One of his dark brows rose in question to one of the young noble’s statements, and he replied: “So, you can understand the killing of humans to ‘an extent,’ but the killing of animals isn’t understandable? Wouldn’t most be relieved the animals were dead and not the humans?” He didn’t cease his advance to ask the question, simply speaking as he walked with open eyes.
The gate was opened and Tristan funneled through it first, Aelius following. A sharp and quickly fading fright was instilled in the half-blood as Tristan pointed out one of the blackened walls startlingly; a symbol was painted into it. If any stragglers remained they would surely know they weren’t alone anymore, he thought. Tristan’s nervous energy was beginning to unnerve the otherwise cool half-blood. He was thankful for his feline, Flavia’s, attendance, otherwise Aelius was sure to be more than annoyed with Tristan in that moment.
He dared to approach the blackened wall, his alabaster eyes flicking in examination of the mark. His eyes traced the circle, breaking away from the outline to view the cross and then the symbol as a whole. During his examination, Flavia snuck away from them, going to examine the interior of the house. The fluttering of her tail was what caught Aelius’ attention initially, then Tristan hurried whispers.
“See what?” he questioned, turning to look at the noble and then in the direction of the silos. “I suppose it’s possible a few of the animals managed to get away into the fields.” He figured he would entertain Tristan’s hopeful idea.
Aelius wasn’t one to humor the notion of a human sixth sense. He believed in logic, reason, and evidence. Though his more feral instinct to be more on guard was pressuring his senses, he tried to reason with it. Flavia was nowhere to be seen and neither could any of the rumored Aukari. At this point, Aelius was beginning to feel as if any sense of a threat was waning. With Flavia inside the burned house he felt safe enough to continue investigating the property without venturing inside.
“Come on,” he beckoned Tristan with a nod of his head in the direction of the silos and mysterious shadow. “Have you heard or seen any symbol like that? I haven’t.”
The symbol should have probably unnerved the half-blood, and it did to a point. He did not know what to expect from the creators though, and any sign of them currently being there had yet to present itself. He kept his wits about him though, fighting between the state of senseless fear and flight and one of controlled fight.
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Tristan Venora
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Sounds Like Burning

“Well, yes”, Tristan answered quite readily. He was only very slightly bothered by the half-blood's criticism. “Humans don’t always get along. They lie and cheat and have evil thoughts, but animals don’t. At least I don't think so. So I can kind of understand killing humans, but slaughtering animals and then just leaving them here to rot rather than feeding a few hungry mouths with them just doesn’t make any sense to me.”

“I don’t condone the killing of innocent people though. That is of course completely wrong”,
he added in case Aelius thought him a disturbed mass-murderer in the making after his somewhat questionable statements and even more questionable behaviour.

---

“I’ve never seen anything like it”, he admitted. “I wonder if it simply means that Aukari have been here or if it is meant to tell people why this farm was targeted”, he murmured, extended a hand and let his fingers run across the symbol. The paint had of course dried a long time ago. “Was there anything special about this house that they felt the need to mark it?” he wondered and looked at Aelius questioningly although it was doubtful that the half-blood would be able to answer that question.

As Aelius beckoned him in the direction of the silos, he hesitated for a moment, but then he told himself that the shadow he had seen had just been an animal. This time he was following his companion though, figuring that, if he had been wrong and there was something dangerous hiding near the silo, the half-blood and his cat would be targeted first.

Come to think of it, where was his cat? He looked around, but couldn’t see Flavia anywhere. He hoped that nothing had happened to her. He still needed to introduce her to Mistral.

It was just than that he saw it again – or rather him. A red haired man briefly looked at them from behind the silo before he disappeared again. Wait – a red haired man? “Aukari”, he whispered to Aelius, gripped his blade more tightly and looked around to see if there were any objects he could hide behind in case a whole group of them showed up.

“At least one. Do you think we can take him on?”
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