[Fillip]

Fillip heard the shouting. They were after him!!

Panic blinded him as he fled down the mercifully clear, short, hall.
Until....

He ran into the wet, sucking surface of the flesh wall....

Fillip's screams echoed through the broken corridors.

[Cari/Lawrince/Yals/Lucc]

::He's circled back,:: Cari sent, turning on her heel and running back the
way they had come. Yals was directly behind her.

Leaving Lucc to guide the envoy.

Cari's warding held as a wild bolt of lightening flew towards them. And
her torchlight shown on a greasy-haired young man, with wild, hunted eyes,
crouching at the base of the flesh wall. Whatever desperation had given
him the strength to fire the lightening in the magic-wild dungeon seemed
to have deserted him, and all he could do was point his hands at that them
and howl.

[Lovvorn]

Lovvorn pointed at the pitiful man and laughed.

"That's IT!  We've come all this way and all we find is YOU!  We'll I
sincerely HOPE that you at least have a few pints of ale hidden somewhere
on your person!  Because if not, I will REFUSE to save you from these
people.. Well.. go on and GET HIM!""

[Eric Hood]

While the mage distracted their quarry, Hood stepped out of the shadows
and slid in behind him.  He had left his own torch behind, and now his
knife glinted in the light from the group.  He reached around and started
to bring the blade to the man's throat...

[Lawrince/Cari/Lucc]

"Wait!" Lawrince called out, hastily moving forward, "If you kill him I
won't know what his involvment with Netit is!"

"And it would be a third murder," Lucc said, under his breath, to Yals and
Alexandrin.

"Though I wonder if saving him would mean an innocent life later," Yals
said, studying Eric Hood's calm expression.

::What are the drawbacks,:: Cari sent to Lovvorn, ::If we asked Mr. Hood
to leave this one alive? It would be useful for the Guard and the new
Council to have a living murderer to try and hang... so they can prove
that law and order is alive and well in Montfort. Particularly with one of
the victims being an envoy's secretary, and, of course, there is the
charge of assault against a royal representative.::

[Eric/Lovvorn]

"Oh, all right... ERIC, you can stop being creepy now!"

With a sigh of exasperation, Eric grasped the cowering quarry by
the neck and hauled him out of the shadows.    He drug him
towards the others.

"Now you didn't honestly think these people were going to let
you kill him, did you?"  said Lovvorn.

"I knew where they stood... just wanted to see how firmly
they held that opinion."  said Eric.  "Some people insist
on long, drawn-out affairs when the flick of a blade will
serve the same purpose."

He forced the man to his knees at the envoy's feet.

"Okay...  Tell us your story while you've still got a tongue."

[Fillip/Lawrince/Cari]

Fillip opened and closed his mouth several times; his expression one of
shock as he looked up at the envoy. All he could do was shake his head.

Lawrence looked down at the murderer. Fatigue was written on the envoy's
face, but his brown eyes were hard in the flickering light. And his tone
was severe as he said, "You just as well tell us about Netit, and that
poor young woman we found tonight. I can't promise you any mercy in the
court, but I think you'd prefer the Guards' to Mr. Hood's handling of the
matter."

The greasy-haired young man kept shaking his head, and said, "You couldn't
have found her. You couldn't have!!"

"We did," Lucc said, with clear anger in his voice, "She was born in
Montfort and the spirits don't forget their own."

"My spells were too good for you to find her," Fillip answered, with both
anger and pride in his voice. "You couldn't have!!" he shouted, the words
echoing through the black corridors. He stared up defiantly, but as he
saw the set looks on Lawrince's and Lucc's faces he screamed out,
"Denlira!!! How could you betray me!!!?"

::Mr. Hood,:: Cari sent, so all could "hear,"::Would you mind getting the
gentleman's attention - he seems to be having trouble focusing? But please
leave his tongue and enough to be hanged. A blade or a rope may have the
same result, but this one needs to be public::

She glanced over at Yals and Alexandrin, to see if any protest would be
raised, but both were simply watching. And even in the flickering
torchlight the gleam of phantom armour, and a Legentor's sword, could be
seen on Alexandrin.

For all the world they looked to her like otherworldly judges.

[Eric Hood]

Eric pulled the man to his feet and held him steady with one arm.
He placed the very tip of his blade into the man's right nostril, and
without a word of warning, slit it open with a flick of his wrist.  He
did the same for the left nostril, and then he positioned his blade
just beneath the man's right eye.

"Most men would want to look the judge in the eye when their
day comes.   If you don't start flappin' your lips with some answers
to the gentleman's questions, then that won't be an option for you."

[Fillip/Lawrince/Cari]

After screaming out his pain and surprise Fillip gasped for breath, and
his gaze was locked on the point of the blade before him. Twin channels of
blood ran down his face, making him look like he wore some bizarre mask.

The envoy moved forward; though he had to fight down the queasiness before
he could speak. "Tell me about your association with Netit and why you
killed him," Lawrince ordered.

The murderer whimpered, but finally said, "I did it for Denlira!! He used
to court her....came after her when he got into town...And she bashed him
over the head......I had to finish him off and clean things up..."

"And why did you kill her?" Lucc broke in.

"She didn't believe in me...!! I would have protected her, but she
betrayed me!! All this is _her_ fault and she didn't believe I could
protect her.....!!"

::He's almost not worth hanging,:: Cari commented, ::From what I'm now
reading - hes telling his version of the truth.::

"Then I still don't know what Netit was up to," Lawrince said, with a deep
sigh.

::Neatly done,:: Cari commented to Eric Hood. She had to give credit for
the fact that he had made sure the wounds wouldn't cause alot of early
blood lose, but the location had adequate shock value. It had made reading
Fillip that much easier - instead of having to bother with prying through
what few shields the mage had.

She turned to Lawrence and sent, ::Once we get you to the Council, then we
can check with the Guard and see what they have learned in their
investigation. Maybe something will have turned up to give a clue about
your secretary's other activities.::

[Eric/Lovvorn]

"So that's what this is about?   "A woman?"  Eric shook his head in
disgust.  "Let's get this guy outta here before this knife accidentally
slips into the base of his skull."

"Now wait a moment..."  said Lovvorn.  "I seem to remember
his envoyness mentioning something about a mage and a cat.
This lump here doesn't seem like the cat-keeping sort..."

"S'there somethin' else you're not tellin' us?"   Eric pricked the skin
just under the man's eye.  "An accomplice, maybe?  It'd be in
your best interest to keep those lips moving..."

[Fillip/Lawrince/Cari/Lucc]

"Nonono....," Fillip cried; tears of fright joining with the blood that
washed his cheeks. "I don't know ...anything about a cat...."

"With everything else I'd forgotten about that meeting," Lawrince said,
"So there is more....somewhere..."

Cari's expression didn't change as her thoughts leapt immediately to
Amberghylles and his very intelligent cat, Azriel. ::It sounds like Mr.
Vanit put too much store in personal interests and got killed for
it..::

She looked over at the envoy and sent, though all could "hear," ::You
should be able to learn if the Guard tried to contact Mr. Vanit's
spirit.::

Lucc looked over at Yals, and said, "I know they took the body to Bryce
Amberghylles, and though Brion hasn't said anything - he seemed pretty
unhappy with the necromancer's handling of the investigation."

[Eric/Lovvorn]

"Either way, looks like Lovvorn and I are done here.   For now.
I trust there will be no... royal intervention... now that we've caught
our killer."

[Lawrince/Cari]

"No, none," Lawrince said, rallying a tired smile.

::And I'll be happy to make good on that offer of ale...,:: Cari started.

"Allow me to do the honors," Lawrince said, "I owe you all at least an ale
and a meal...." He studied Lovvorn and Eric and added, "Though I do
realize that you would prefer not to be mentioned to the local authorities
- so I'll offer a meal tomorrow night at the Golden Griffin. By then we
should have dug through some of the paperwork, and if Miss Dyer would help
me on this - I'm sure I can't get away for a little while from official
obligations."

::I'll be happy to arrange something,:: Cari sent.

The envoy turned to Lucc, Yals, and Alexandrin, and said, "And believe me,
that also includes you."

"Thank you," Lucc said, as he helped secure Fillip, "But I don't get into
town much."

[Eric/Lovvorn]

"Ahhh!    Food and ale and the company of a fine woman!   For Free!
I will most certainly be in attendance.   You see, Eric...
these royal types aren't the crooked, tight-fisted, hypocritical bastards
that we said they...uhhh... heh, heh... Shall we be going, now?"

"Anybody got anything we can use to tie our killer up for the trip to the
surface?  I'm gonna need both my hands to throttle this fat idiot here."

[Yals/Lawrince]

"This might work," Yals said, handing over some rawhide cord.

Lawrince just shook his head and chuckled, "On occasion we pry our fingers
loose from the coins. I'll arrange a private dining room for tomorrow
night."