Page 41 of By Mistake
"Never thought we'd simply walk into Farthing's home and help ourselves," Andrus said as they stood in an obnoxiously ornate entryway that had everything from overblown marble statues to velvet walls and gold trim on literally everything. "This is hideous."
Oresti sighed dramatically. "So I should cancel the purple velvet wallpaper I arranged as a gift?"
"I will choke you with it and then bury you wrapped in it," Andrus retorted.
Chuckling, Oresti pushed further into the house.
His footsteps echoed on the marble floor, emphasizing how empty the house was, not even a single servant remaining.
Behind them, clerks and guards came through the door and quickly dispersed to begin exploring the house.
He'd also brought along a few mages, who immediately set to work looking for any traps and other nasty surprises, wardings in strange places, other things that would require Oresti's attention.
Shimari could do all of that himself, but he may as well use the resources he had. Shimari still needed rest anyway.
"Hardly," Shimari said. "You both fed me quite well this morning."
Andrus's cheeks flushed, but he didn't say anything, only hurriedly opened the nearest door and stepped inside.
"Be careful!" Oresti said.
"That room is safe," Shimari replied. "I would have stopped him otherwise. Go poke around. We're fine down here. Call if you need me."
Oresti lifted his arm in acknowledgement then headed upstairs, because he had a feeling that anything of importance was not kept on the ground floor.
It was either going to be up, well away from where the average person could easily reach it, or in a hidden basement like at Andrus's house.
Though he couldn't see Farthing wanting to go to that much trouble all of the time.
People like Farthing were ultimately lazy when it came down to it.
The upstairs was mostly comprised of unused bedrooms, with a few dedicated to things like sewing, music, and other pastimes. At the end of a narrow hall that was easy to overlook, though, he found what he sought: a door heavily locked and warded. "Three keys seems excessive. Shimari."
Shimari appeared beside him and placed a hand on the door. "This requires his blood to break, one second." He vanished, then reappeared after a couple of minutes. Hand covered in blood, he placed it on the door, and his eyes glowed as he broke down the warding.
"I'm impressed the blood still works." Oresti went through the countless keys on the heavy ring his father had given him, meticulously trying each one until he had all three locks undone.
He turned the knob and pushed the door open, but didn't step in quite yet.
The smell of patchouli and evergreen wafted into the hallway, and Oresti wrinkled his nose.
He hated patchouli; it reminded him of the miserable fucking math tutor who'd been certain Oresti must be a spoiled brat somehow cheating his way through lessons because he so rarely struggled.
Thankfully, that tutor hadn't lasted long, and the woman that replaced him had been much smarter and kinder.
Shimari stepped into the room first and looked around, nose wrinkling the same as Oresti's. "No further traps that I can sense right now. I'll do a more detailed exploration, but I think he relied on nobody making it this far and didn't bother with further protections inside."
"Probably too lazy to maintain them," Oresti said as he stepped inside. "So what is Andrus up to?"
"He wandered into the back areas, I think to see how the servants lived, the state of the kitchen, and so forth."
Oresti smiled faintly as he swept his gaze over the study.
It was entirely in dark browns and blues, with very little else to lighten the oppressiveness.
Every wall save the one the door was on had been fitted with bookshelves, and they were full to bursting.
The wall immediately behind the desk seemed to be entirely personal journals, from multiple people over at least a few generations.
An odd choice, Farthing's family didn't seem the type to leave such damning information behind.
But who knew, maybe the books were written in code or only included boring things.
Ignoring them for now, despite the curiosity gnawing at him, Oresti focused on the desk.
There wasn't really anything of interest, just the usual financial ledgers, correspondence, and other miscellany you'd expected to find on a noble's desk.
He'd started drafting a letter to some Aunt Mildra , a name that sounded vaguely familiar but did not bring up anything in Oresti's mind.
He'd have to ask Alina or Latasha later.
He checked the desk over for secret compartments, and found three, but even those held nothing of particular interest just: money, some notes on an illegal control spell he'd never finished working out, and some rather raunchy drawings of a woman Oresti was fairly certain would never let Farthing anywhere near her.
Hmm. He'd give those to Alina and let her speak with the woman about possible betrayal in her ranks.
Setting those aside, he turned his attention elsewhere, not even certain what he was looking for, really.
Farthing was dead, there was nothing they needed to prove anymore, no further schemes they needed to worry about.
The loved ones of the murder victims would never see justice, but at least they'd know the killer was dead.
"Aha," Shimari said. "Look at this."
Oresti abandoned the journals he'd just started to look through and rounded the desk to join Shimari at the bookcase directly opposite it on the far side of the room. Shimari kicked a book on the bottom shelf, and the bookcase swung open slightly with the faintest creak. "No wards?"
"None at all," Shimari said in disgust as he pulled the secret door open and led the way into the room.
Oresti whistled. Here was the sort of thing he'd been looking for.
Volume after volume of magical tome, some of them highly illegal.
One wall was given over entirely to drawers and cabinets, the very same kind in Oresti's dressing room.
His held jewelry, scarves, other miscellany required for all his many outfits, especially the fancy ones for formal events, like his crown.
These though…well, some of them did indeed hold jewelry, but all of it contained power of some sort.
From the way Shimari growled, his eyes glowing red, that power had come by way of especially foul means.
"Some of these are minor demons, some of them are human.
He ripped out the souls of actual mages.
There are other beings here, as well. Two succubus, which is concerning for a lot of reasons.
Brownies, not surprising. Nasty little fellow, even worse than I realized, and that's saying something.
One would think having Renik of the Hunt in your pocket would be enough, but for some, there's no such thing as enough . "
"Well, he should have learned it, because if he had, he might still be alive. All that and he still wanted Kressen."
"I wouldn't be surprised if his goal was to have all five of us," Shimari said, dumping the various bits of soul-containing jewelry into his pockets. "He would not have been the first to try. None has ever succeeded."
"I'd wager because they don't secure you first."
Shimari smiled sharp as the blade of a scythe. "I cannot express enough how remarkable it is our little pet summoned me by mistake. In lieu of a brownie. If anyone could capture all five of us, it would be him, and he'd just be annoyed about it."
Oresti laughed softly. "Yes, yes he would.
" He poked around the rest of the cabinets, which had more books that Farthing never should have had, some more ordinary type valuables, and a disturbing collection of vials of blood, each one meticulously labeled with the person it had been taken from.
Thankfully, Oresti did not see his own or anyone from his family, or Andrus's.
He'd already known that, because if Farthing had possessed Andrus's blood, he could have gotten into the house whenever he wanted, but it was reassuring to see that for fact anyway.
Even though the man was dead now, and none of this mattered anymore. He didn't think Farthing's death would really get through his head for at least a few months. Leaving the room, he fetched a mage and a clerk and set them to cataloguing and packing up the secret room.
Shimari flitted off back to Andrus, and Oresti returned his attention to the journals. Specifically, he searched out which ones had belonged to Farthing's great grandfather, Elemus Farthing. The man who had initially summoned and bound Kressen, sent him to kill Shimari. When that had failed…
Oresti read, pausing only when someone needed his attention as the people he'd brought set to work in earnest cataloguing and packing up anything of even remote interest to him, investigators, or the crown.
When he'd finished, he set the book down. Shimari, you two should come up here.
They appeared barely before he'd finished speaking, and Andrus asked, "What's wrong?"
"Elemus Farthing killed Prince Kolik, and you'll never in a hundred years guess the real reason why."
Andru's brows drew down sharply, "What do you mean? It was because of the magic laws, right? Did he seriously write down that he killed him?"
"Yes, plain as day. He regretted it, according to his journal, said he succumbed to an anger he should not have."
Shimari scoffed. "He didn't feel bad enough to confess and keep the Bothwell family from suffering for it, so I doubt he felt any such thing."