Alcingeria Volume Three

Chapter Ten: Lucky Break

Chapter Ten Lucky Break:

Monday June 18th 1724

A knock came on Patrick's door.

"Come in."

Elzabit strode in, delicate yet sure in her step, the next day's paper in her hand.

"Good evening, Mr. MacGuire. I've got the paper, like last week."

"Evening, Miss Gray," he gave a small grin, mostly hidden by the movement of his lips. "My father should be in his office, if you wanted to drop the paper off."

"I know," she said quietly, glancing off to the side then back to him. "I just thought I'd give it to you like I did last time, is all."

"I see. You're very kind delivering this yourself, my father and I appreciate you coming down to the legation every week."

"It's no trouble," she said evenly. "Really, I actually like it."

He read a slight change in her posture when she said that, as though she tensed ever so slightly. He ignored it, holding up the previous week's paper.

"Do you know anything about the Taq R'lal story?"

"I suppose. I know the journalist we sent there, he seems to think Packo, the explosion, and the bodies are connected."

"Really? Why's that?"

"It's mostly circumstantial evidence and a hunch, but he seems convinced it can't be a coincidence."

"That one piqued my interest, I won't lie. It's not every day any paper publishes a story like that."

"Normally we wouldn't have published that piece until we had more information, but the whole investigation seems to lead nowhere. Dead ends no matter where we look, if you know what I mean."

"Yes. It's even more strange that one of the bodies was human. Humans don't usually venture that far out if they don't have business there. Why a human and an elf would commit suicide together is beyond me. Was he Suli?"

"He was, a priest named Giovanni Callahan."

"Did he have a reason to be all the way out there?"

"None that we found."

"How about the human?"

"We did find the appropriate paperwork identifying him as a Marquess of Yuka, so we sent a transmission back to Valgate. The queen was audibly saddened by the noble's death."

"Are the two linked at all?"

"No, not that we can find. All accounts say Giovanni was something of a hermit after leaving his official village post as a priest. He didn't have too many friends to speak of."

"And what about this Packo character?" He asked, scratching his neck.

"We've confirmed him to have disappeared, or at least to have gone on the run somewhere. We have our feelers out in the surrounding villages. If he turns up there, we'll know."

"Still no evidence of an explosion?"

"Nothing."

"I see," Patrick said, standing to look out into the harbor. "Personally, I'd write the two men off as simple suicides, but I'm more curious about Packo and the explosion. A shady character like that doesn't just up and disappear. It's like the organized criminal groups in Vulrock that worship the way that Ignacio ran his organization before the war. When something happens, they just lie low."