From alt.pub.dragons-inn Mon Jan 10 22:10:43 1994 Path: netcom.com!csus.edu!decwrl!nic.hookup.net!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!math.ohio-state.edu!cyber2.cyberstore.ca!nntp.cs.ubc.ca!alberta!amisk.cs.ualberta.ca!aaron From: aaron@amisk.cs.ualberta.ca (Aaron V. Humphrey) Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: [MI][Fire] Fieldwork Date: 10 Jan 94 17:25:30 GMT Organization: The Anna Amabiaca Fan Club Lines: 302 Message-ID: Reply-To: aaron@amisk.cs.ualberta.ca NNTP-Posting-Host: cab011.cs.ualberta.ca Originator: aaron@cab011.cs.ualberta.ca ADMIN: This post was written jointly by myself and Marc Seebass. Toshima, Sister Ristania and Fire/Mariko are property of Marc Seebass; Queriche and Moriarty are mine. All others are general property. (Bret, remind me to send you a copy of the description for the Hostel...) "Gotta brush up on my fieldwork; Gotta get my fingers dirty..." ---Thomas Dolby & Ryuichi Sakamoto, "Fieldwork" "So where do we begin?" Toshima asked as he and Queriche emerged onto the Arcade of Unforgotten Heroes. "Ilmater's Hostel," Queriche said. "I used to know where that was, but it was moved after the Storm, so we'll have to check at the temple." A helpful priest at the Temple of Ilmater told them how to get to the Hostel, which was on the edge of Low City. "Do you know if a Sister Ristania works there?" Queriche asked. "Oh, dear me, no," the priest said, chuckling. "No, she was hurt badly a few years ago when the Chaos Creating Crew broke in and vandalized it. I'm not sure where she is now, but if you talk to Sister Ararita at the Hostel, she may know." "I guess we have to visit the Hostel after all," Toshima said as they left. "I was afraid we were going to come to a stop right there. And this Sister Ararita might not even know." Queriche shrugged. "It can't hurt to check it out. It's the only real lead we have, at the moment." *** The Hostel wasn't in one of the new post-Storm buildings, but rather in one of the few buildings sturdy enough to have withstood it in the first place. The woman who answered the door looked at them suspiciously. "What do you want?" she asked. "My name is Queriche, and I am working for Moriarty Investigations. This man here is Toshima, who is aiding me on this investigation." "We're looking for a woman named Ristania," Toshima broke in after a small bow. "Is she here?" "No..." the woman began. "We were also asked to talk to a Sister Ararita," Queriche interposed. "She's awfully busy," the woman said. "I'm sure that Toshima here would be glad to make a contribution to the Hostelry fund," Queriche said smoothly. Toshima looked shocked for an instant, but then his face cleared into a smile, and he nodded. As soon as Queriche turned away, his face turned sour. "Won't you come in?" the woman said, satisfied. She led them into a noisy, dimly-lit room filled with yelling, screaming, and crying children. One or two Sisters seemed to be trying ineffectually to keep order. "They're not always this bad," the woman said, apparently somewhat embarrassed. They entered a small room with a few chairs and a table. "Wait here, I'll get Sister Ararita," the woman said. "What a slum," Toshima said. "This is where Mariko grew up?" "The Hostel might have been better back then," Queriche said, not really believing it. He thought briefly about another child that he himself had placed in the Hostel years ago. He would be grown up by now. Would he wonder someday who his father was? But the Hostel had never been much more than a place for children to sleep when they had no family or gang. "Sorry to keep you waiting," Sister Ararita said as she entered. She was a tall woman with silver hair and a take-charge manner. "Belatha tells me you were asking after Sister Ristania." "That's right," Queriche said. "We're looking for her parents," Toshima broke in. Her brow furrowed. "Sister Ristania's? No doubt they are dead." "No, Fire's," Toshima said helpfully. "Ah, Fire. I believe I remember her." Her mouth compressed into a hard line. "You realize that one of our policies is to say nothing to children fostered here about their parents, especially if they specifically wish anonymity. Otherwise there could be...problems." "Agreed," Queriche said, throwing a black look at Toshima. "Fire also wished us to give a message to Sister Ristania, were she still living. Surely there is nothing wrong with that?" "No," she admitted. "Leave it with me, and I will see she gets it." "Sister Ararita," Queriche said. "You are busy running this Hostel, which I imagine is no easy task, and made no easier by our visit. The longer this visit is prolonged, the more you will fall behind in your work. The sooner we find where we may give our message to Sister Ristania, the sooner we will leave. I am eager to cause you as little inconvenience as possible." She looked hard at Queriche for a moment, then sighed, seeming to suddenly deflate. "Very well. Sister Ristania was grievously injured a few years ago--had you heard that? Yes. Well, she no longer felt she could handle working in the Hostel, and in fact has retired from active service to the Temple as well. I believe she is living with a niece on Pulcherrima Alley. Do you know where that is?" Queriche nodded. "Thank you, Sister. We will now allow you to return to your busy schedule." They made to leave, but Sister Ararita cleared her throat. "Something was said about a donation?" she asked pleasantly. Toshima hid a scowl and counted out a few coins for her. "Use them in good health," he said brightly. *** Pulcherrima Alley was only a few minutes' walk away from Moriarty's headquarters. "Would've saved us a lot of time if we'd known this earlier," Toshima noted. Queriche grinned. "There's a reason they call it legwork, mon." "Mon? I don't have a mon... What do you mean?" At Queriche's look of mild confusion, he clarified, "In Etarus'ia, a mon is a symbol used by a lord and his followers to identify them. Sometimes they wear so much armour that you couldn't tell who was who without one," "Something like a badge of coat of arms," Queriche said, nodding. "I guess in my case it's just something from old speech patterns I don't use much anymore." Toshima shrugged and they walked on. An old woman they asked said, "Ristania? Oh, yes. She lives up with Drisana. That's her niece, you know. Her sister--Ristania's, not Drisana's--died of consumption last year. Drisana wouldn't take her to the temple, said it was just gas, but I knew what it was. I'd be surprised it Ristania stayed around much longer. 'Course, at the temple they tell me what I've got's just gas, but I tell 'em to check for consumption anyway. My son, he tells me not to worry about it, but I think he just doesn't like to pay the priests all the time." "Thank you, mother," Queriche said as she paused to take a breath. "Where does Drisana live?" "Over there, in that rickety old house, on the top floor. I swear, one of these days it'll fall down just like old Browder's did. I told them, I did, I said, you look, that beam's just rotting away, but they never did anything. I was just glad I didn't go over for tea that day, I can tell you." Several minutes later, the woman said she was late for tea and let them go. Toshima shuddered. "My grandmother is exactly like that. My grandfather just never says a word anymore." "My grandfather died fishing," Queriche said. "Eaten by a shark." They entered the house, Toshima carefully checking for rotting beams, and ascended the stairs. The steps all creaked unmercifully, but they all held. "Who's there?" a quavering voice said. "Mrs. Gabatro?" "My name is Queriche, ma'am. Sister Ararita said I could find you here." "Ararita? I haven't heard from her in a long while. How's she doing?" The voice came from behind a door on their right. They could hear the creaking of the boards, and thumping of a heavy wooden object. Then the door opened and they saw a middle-age woman covered with scars, leaning on two canes. "Come in, come in," she said. "Would you like some tea? Oh no, wait, Drisana went out to get some more. I think there's still some wine around here, though..." She hobbled over to a cupboard. "Don't trouble yourself, mother," Queriche said. "Please sit down, I have a few questions for you." "Mercy, questions for me? What about?" "A child named Fire." "Called might be more appropriate," interjected Toshima, "Mariko, ahhh Fire once told me she never knew her real name." Ristania paused, then made her way over to a chair. "You're right, I'd better sit down." Her voice suddenly held a weariness it hadn't before. "Yes, I remember her. She was such a cute little girl, and so tragic a story. She was so smart, speaking at the age of two. Do you know how she got her nickname? When she was brought in to us, she was curled up in a ball crying the words 'fire' over and over again. She had suffered some burns, so she must have been caught in a fire. That was about sixteen years ago, in during the spring floods, so a fire then would have been unusual. In fact the only fire I can think of that happened then was when the Temple of Azpiazu was burned by an arsonist." She sniffed. "Didn't do them much good. Thing just showed up somewhere else the next day, totally untouched. Different colour, of course." Queriche's eyebrows went up at this. Alfvaen had told odd stories about the Temple of Azpiazu. He didn't know much about the trickster-god, but he knew about the Temple. Once it had showed up in the middle of Low City, and one man who went in came out with a bag full of gold. Of course, another went in and came out with a frog for a hand, but those were the risks one took. "Can you tell us about Fire's parents?" he asked. He expected some sort of response similar to Ararita's, but instead Ristania just said, "I recall thinking that Fire's parents must be noble, because when I asked the man who brought her to us about the parents, he said they were peasants, but he was obviously lying. So I thought that she must be a noble child, whose parents had been killed, and she was being protected in this way. I didn't tell her this, because I was afraid someone would find out and she would be killed." Queriche nodded. He knew that this went on--in fact, some nobles wilfully abandoned their children, especially illegitimate ones, to hostels. This might be all that had happened, too. "If you see her, give her my love," Ristania added. "She was always one of my favourites. Is she doing well?" "She seemed to be," Queriche said. "She's an adventurer now." "She was adopted by our sensei's... ahh trainer's brother almost ten year ago." Toshima added. "She is an excellent student." She sighed. "I always thought she might. You know, Low City kids always want to grow up as adventurers, when they're young. The only people they ever see walking around in Low City with money, going somewhere, doing something, are adventurers. They usually just end up joining a gang, or something. But I knew Fire was different. She'd really make it." She smiled. "I knew she'd make it." They heard footsteps on the stairs. "Aunt Ris?" a voice called. "That'll be my niece," Ristania said. "Come in, Drisana, these nice gentlemen were just telling me about one of the children I knew from the hostel." "Have you been up, Aunt Ris?" Drisana said, ignoring her. "You know you shouldn't be up. She's not well," she said to Queriche and Toshima. "Half the time I can't even make sense of her. I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to leave so she can get some rest." "No trouble, ma'am," Queriche said. "We were just leaving anyway. Thank you, Ristania," he said. "I hope you feel better soon." "Now what?" said Toshima. "We know almost nothing. We don't know anything about the man who brought her to the Hostel, and I doubt Ararita's going to tell us. All we have to go on is this 'Fire' thing, and some disappearing temple." "Then we go to the Temple," Queriche said. "Well, at least the clues lead a straight line; sometimes too many leads can make it hard determine where to go next." Queriche raised an eyebrow. "You seem to speak from some experience. I take it this is not your first investigation?" "We have had some items take from our dojo, ah training hall. I assisted Master Kitsune in retrieving them." Toshima replied with a smile. Queriche nodded. Toshima had some rough edges, and some problems knowing when to let someone else do the talking, but he had potential. *** Moriarty was just about to leave for a talk at the Mage Guild when he saw a package on the table he hadn't noticed before. How the hell had that gotten there? There was a note attached, which read: "Please give this to Fire upon her return. ---Kitsune-bi." The signature was also done in Etarus'ian script. Right beside it was a sack of coins with another note: "Although it scarcely needs to be said to someone in your line of work, keep your eyes open. There may be more danger involved in Fire's case that you first assumed. Be sure to warn your friend, and remember, evil forces are always afoot because they are lousy fliers. The money is to compensate for the additional risk. Good luck. ----Kitsune-bi" "Lousy fliers. Ha ha ha. This guy hasn't seen the demons I have, obviously," he muttered. This was just wonderful. Queriche in more danger than he knew--good thing he had this Toshima guy along, unless _he_ was the danger...aah, Q could handle himself. The extra money could come in handy, though. Looked pretty hefty, although if it were that Etarus'ian stuff it'd be a pain to get changed... And how the hell had it gotten onto his desk? He considered, then shrugged. He didn't really want to know that bad. And he did want to go see this Draxil Mandobar guy's talk. -- --Alfvaen(Editor of Communique) Current Album--Stan Ridgway:Mosquitos Current Read--Piers Anthony:Firefly "And every now and then a bird wouldn't fly by, and someone would say, 'What wasn't that?'" --Jane Siberry