Infernal Investigations

An hour after I’d come to my accord with Tagashin, three things happened as noon struck.

First, a message arrived from Lady Karsin asking me to come as soon as possible for the testing of her son.

Second, a dead cow’s head had somehow made its way into my sheets, which I took as the upper bound of Tagashin’s truce stretching.

Third, Doctor Dawes entered the house from a hidden trapdoor in the main floor as I carefully put a pair of gloves on.

“Miss Harrow, you’re heading out? I think some bed rest would be best for you with your injuries.”

“I agree,” I told him as he walked up the stairs. “However, Lady Karsin wants me to test her son today, and in my opinion, the quicker I do, the better for all involved.”

“By yourself? And if her son turns out to be a shapechanger?”

“Then I use the element of surprise to disable him with ease,” I deadpanned. “Unless he immediately starts attacking me, I don’t give away that I know. I come back, and we figure it out from there.”

“And if he does immediately attack?”

“Well, if I come back, ask me about Tagashin and if I ask who she is, shoot me,” I answered.

Dawes shivered. “A bad joke.”

“Yes,” I admitted. “Do you want to come with?”

“I was hoping to spend the rest of the day off,” he said. “But I think I probably should.”

I smiled as I held out my hand. “It would be my pleasure, doctor.”

I shook Dr. Dawes’ hand, and a second later, he fell to the ground, motionless.

“I’m really sorry about this, doctor,” I told him as I grabbed his paralyzed form under the shoulders and started dragging him to the chair. “I just had to make sure you weren’t a changer. It is a little challenging to swallow that they just tied you and Tagashin up in a closet.”

I got him onto the chair while Tagashin came back from downstairs.

“I would like to point out,” she said while I did my best to make Dawes comfortable. “That whatever else I’ve done to you doctor, I’ve always stopped short of physical assault. Are you going to be greeting everyone like this, Hellkin?”

“It should wear off in about ten minutes,” I told Dawes. “It’s a very diluted dose. If it doesn’t, Tagashin, there will be a jar in my room that is tall and square. The liquid is orange and has a consistency of honey. Feed him a teaspoon.”

She rolled her eyes. “Our truce doesn’t mean I take orders from you.”

“Yes, but it does mean you’re the one refusing to make sure he recovers,” I replied. “I would stay to make sure myself, Doctor, but there are a few others I want to check, and it’s a very fleeting opportunity.”

Perhaps I should feel more guilty about leaving him to the tender mercies of Tagashin. Then again, how long had the tormenting of I at her hands had he let slide?

“Don’t follow me to Lady Karsin’s, Doctor. Enjoy the rest of your day!”

***

They still hadn’t fixed all the damage my escape had caused to Lady Karsin’s estate.

Someone had dug huge furrows through the gardens, removing the plants I’d manipulated with the Imp’s aid during my escape. They cut massive holes in the well-arranged gardens as I walked towards the tower, my noble hostess at my side.

Lady Karsin had met me at the gate and deliberately refused my handshake, which I took as a deliberate snub. Had she guessed my real identity? Now, we walked through her estate with six armed guards in tow. Only two had weapons, the rest conspicuous from their lack of weapons. She wasn’t even trying to hide that they were mages, and I didn’t mind. It was just good sense, and they probably wouldn’t have a reason to kill me.

“I did have some questions for you, if you wouldn’t mind mi’lady?” I asked as we walked through her estate.

“It depends on the questions Miss Harrow. I have some of my own, like how you faked being able to use Divine magic at the party?”

“Faked?” I assumed an affronted expression. “I’ll have you know Lady Karsin I am a dedicated student in the ways of Tarter.”

“Tarver,” she replied bemusedly. “Are you begging for someone to take notice of you and smite you?”

“Some days. It was an illusion, mostly using various other forms of magic mixed with a few practical tricks. Honestly, it mostly relies on the marks being so shocked at what should be impossible occurring right in front of their eyes they don’t consider that it is impossible and I did it via another method. Although I don’t think it’s impossible for Infernals to channel the divine, it probably just hurts.”

“It seems a risky illusion to try,” she observed.

“It is, hence using what my teachers taught me,” I told her. “Keep the con running for only enough time to fool the mark and not a second longer. I left as soon as I’d demonstrated it had worked, then left that floor entirely. Fade away. No disguise or mask can stand up to sufficient scrutiny. They only function in the lack of scrutiny.”

Lady Karsin thought on that for a few more feet before speaking up again.

“Why even prepare it in the first place? Did you know I’d ask if you could?”

Was she trying to stall my questions? She hadn’t even heard them yet.

“Someone would ask,” I said. “I’d been made notable enough by my race, who invited me, and other factors that I was reasonably sure someone would ask for something to prove it. For you specifically? You’ve had difficulties recently with biosculpted Infernals. An Infernal walking on the arm of one of the people involved in that? I expected you to be suspicious. And all eyes were on you, so it seemed the perfect time to put that suspicion to rest as much as possible.”

“Drawing a lot of eyes on yourself. A lot of attention on your con.”

“And I left and went somewhere else, and things happened to draw the attention away.”

“Away from that, but I don’t think away from you,” she teased.

Were my cheeks flushed? No, it's best not to think about that.

“Perhaps not,” I admitted. “Still, it worked. I wanted to ask you what occurred on the third floor? You went there with Lord Montague after the Infernal attack, one of the few allowed up there while Shapechangers were on the loose. Only one of them made it out.”

“Ah,” she said, tone guarded. “You want to know what occurred?”

“Within reason,” I replied. “I imagine Lord Montague allowed you in places he wouldn’t allow me. Still, any hints would be appreciated if you could provide them?”

We were in the tower now, ascending up it. The stairs ran along the outer circumference, climbing higher and higher with a doorway on each floor to enter.

“There are things I definitely shouldn’t state,” Lady Karsin replied, keeping a step ahead of me. “Many things. Perhaps after you’ve done the test on my son?”

Well, that would depend on her reaction to it, but I stayed quiet till we reached about two-thirds the way up the tower.

Desmond Karsin smiled hesitantly from where he sat at a table, drinking tea. Alas, I wouldn’t be having any of that unless things went well.

“Hello,” he said, shakily getting up from the chair and offering me his hand. “Mother said you’d come to examine me? Make sure my recovery is going well?”

Too easy. “In a manner of speaking.”

I shook hands with the young teen, and he suddenly stiffened. He tried to say something, his throat refusing to cooperate with him as he fell to the ground.

Huh. That wasn’t what I had expected.

I watched, the picture of calm even as guns were pulled out and leveled, hammers pulled back. Lady Karsin immediately went to her son’s side with a cry.

She cradled his head while I waited, asking him to please give her a sign he was alive before finally thinking to check his pulse.

I waited, having not moved even the slightest bit. Doing that would probably result in half a dozen bullets being pumped into me. Probably not survivable even if I hadn’t been beaten to shit and back a few nights ago.

Lady Karsin straightened up, the expression on her face carefully controlled. Not controlled enough I couldn’t tell she was furious. I’d need to handle this carefully.

“It won’t last long,” I began, and then she was a blur.

She suddenly was in front of me, expression furious, holding the point of a knife under my chin.

The dagger’s point tickled my throat as I breathed in slowly.

“My son is alive,” Lady Karsin said, the tip of the dagger poking my skin. “That’s the only reason you aren’t dead, Harrow. What did you do to him?”

“I gave him a contact paralytic,” I said. “On my glove’s surface. My apologies for not mentioning it beforehand, but any hint to your son if he was a changer could have let them fake the effects. I’ve tried it on a changer before and it had no effect on them. And while it is entirely possible a changer impersonating him may have found out and be faking the effects, I have a test for that as well. Involuntary nerve reflex.”

“And what does that entail?” Lady Karsin said, not easing up on the dagger.

Not a friendly face here as some of the guards moved so they had clearer shots at me without putting their mistress at risk.

“Nothing dangerous,” I said. “I lightly tap a few spots with a hammer where nerves are located. If they’re truly inhibited, he won’t move. If it’s a changer faking it, it hopefully moves.”

“Hopefully?” The knife moved back a little. Enough I could breath a bit easier.

“It’s entirely possible that they can remove or suppress nerve signals,” I said. “I can’t know for certain because there’s only one in captivity, and the Watch aren’t very likely to let outsiders experiment. The most I can get is an interview.”

The knife slowly withdrew. She turned away, going back to her son and kneeling down, brushing his hair.

“It’s confusing,” I said. “They did your son first, yet he hasn’t been replaced.”

Lady Karsin paused while brushing his hair.

“Perhaps they didn’t get the opportunity with him like they did with Lord Montague’s son last night,” she said. “I’d like to think I can keep a more well-guarded house than him.”

“Maybe,” I said. “I figured they’d want at least one successful test run to make sure their methodology was sound. It seems strange they’d only test a few steps on your son. Just seeing if they could poison him and that it would work. Not testing their ability to replace successfully seems strange.”

“You’re leaving. Now.”

I didn’t protest, merely following her as she spun on her heels, heading down the stairs.

“Apologies for the deception,” I said as I made it down to the base of the tower. “Hopefully, things will be friendlier when we meet next?”

I offered my gloved hand, the one I hadn’t shaken her son’s hand with. Her lips pursed as she stared down at it.

“Please leave,” she told me. “I am not in the mood for games and tricks.”

I shrugged, then limped towards the gate. Guards kept a careful watch on me till I’d left the estate. I stripped the gloves off, carefully turning them inside out before putting them in a pocket of my dress. It wouldn’t do to paralyze myself.

A mixed result today. I’d tested Desmond Karsin to satisfaction, but the one person I’d wanted to test had evaded me at every turn. Had Lady Karsin known this entire time, and let me test her son because she knew he wasn’t one of them?

My theory still had too many holes that needed to be filled, especially in regards to her son. But looking at how this web had been weaved, it struck me that there was one person serving as the link between the involved parties. It might all be pointless conjecture leading to a pawn instead of the schemer who’d woven this web together, but something didn’t add up about the elven noblewoman.

I’d need to talk with the Montagues, and ask them about Desmond Karsin’s pre-Angel’s Sorrow personality because I had never met him awake before the poisoning. He’d definitely had the symptoms when Lady Karsin had first started contacting me, but something didn’t add up about all of this. Of course, I doubted I’d be spending much time around Desmond Karsin in the future. Lady Karsin would be unlikely to have me over again.

Of course, something else was strange regarding Lady Karsin. Her being a shapechanger was currently high on the list of possibilities, less so since she’d oh so carefully avoided shaking my hand. There were still a lot of questions if she turned out to be one, but some got answered. She was the connective tissue to a lot of this, from my initial involvement in this to the Montague’s having someone suffering from Angel’s Sorrow poisoning to turn to.

Tssk, I should have figured out a way to bring the paralytic in contact with her before testing her son. I’d debated a few methods, decided against it on the chance she was affected and I suddenly found myself surrounded by guards whose noble employer I’d seemingly killed.

Still, this was another open question that would need to be answered on top of the others.

Her movements had been practiced and trained. Gregory had mentioned her being around during the time of Her Most Profane Majesty and taking part in the final battle. Not a large part, or I’m sure the stories would have mentioned it by now, but I was suddenly curious if the Lady Karsin who’d vanished during those times was known for her martial abilities.

It was much like I’d told her earlier. The way to preserve a mask against scrutiny was to avoid scrutiny altogether. Otherwise it wouldn’t stand. When I broke into the archives this week, perhaps it would be time to take a chisel to that mask.