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Lost Sun Killer Myth: Tracking Down the Suspect's Residence

F or the next few days, Krahe dedicated a portion of her time to stalking Sorayah. Barzai made it a trivial matter, as she could be quite far removed from her target for limited periods of time. Additionally, Sorayah became somewhat careless when Krahe stopped coming to the Society after the attack.

It didn’t take long to track down where she lived, and somewhat to Krahe’s disappointment in her quarry, there seemed to be no third or fourth location. On the third day, at a time when she knew Sorayah was out, she tried skimming into the basement through the locked outside door, but found herself ejected.

Frustrated at her own carelessness, Krahe let out a heavy sigh.

She probably conducts human charcoal experiments in there. Of course it’s warded. Just hope my skimming attempt didn’t leave a mark.

Rather than try again, she hit the door with a simple appraisal attempt. The Prospector’s Eyes detected magic from the door, but, being what they were, they didn’t give her much info beyond that. Upon examination, there were the remnants of an inbuilt lock and turning handle core, but it was now held shut by an external padlock with a familiar maker’s mark—the same maker’s mark as a Dregsteamer belt. She squatted down, looking into the keyhole, and though it was sealed on the other side, she still managed to shove her pinkie into it. A grin took hold on her face when she felt it; Isotope. The tiniest bit, like a draft going into a door hidden behind a bookcase, but undeniably there.

Before she left, Krahe took another moment to get a close look at the lock. Thick, heavy, sturdy, but seemingly mundane, with a wide keyway. The Prospector’s Eyes detected no magic coming off of it. There was a good chance something on the other side would prevent her from opening the door, but there was no harm in picking the lock and trying to get in this way either.

This plan to pick the lock went out the window when she returned to the safehouse and found Casus sleeping there. She brought it up to him once he woke. A curious, respirator-like mask sat on the coffee table alongside an empty coffee cup and some pill bottles. Krahe only recognized the Purge Pills. The Banisher’s pallid countenance betrayed the fact he had made heavy use of the Silberblut Coupler recently.

“Sounds like a Kristoffen lock. Their locks are notorious for being some of the best you can find for a reasonable price. If you need to get into a building with one, perhaps consider skimming inside instead. Assuming it’s not warded against such intrusion, of course.”

“That’s my problem; it is warded. I don’t know to what degree, but I couldn’t just skim inside. Not through that door, at least.”

“Hrm… Why exactly do you require entry into this building? Assuming, that is, you are willing to share that information.”

Given the fact this was a secondary investigation and the fact the church would inevitably be involved when she resolved it, she saw no reason to keep it from Casus: “I’m fairly sure someone at the Lost Sun Society is practicing the arts detailed in the Human Charcoal Letters; manipulating people into undergoing Adustocorpus, then using their bodies as fuel for artifacts that allow them to use anathema without risk to themselves. Not certain of the motive. Could be power, eliminating competition, simple curiosity.”

“The Human Charcoal Letters?” the Banisher asked with a serious tone. “I see, they are why you required elevated access. Is this matter related to Hashem and his Benefactors?”

“No. I just happened to come across a lead while I was trying to get in contact with Yao,” Krahe said, summoning a cigarette and placing it into the corner of her mouth. She lit it with just a touch of her thumb.

“I could—” Casus started.

“Don’t even think about it,” Krahe interrupted. Exhaling a long puff of smoke, she gave him a chiding look over the top of her glasses. “Yesterday was the third day in a row I found you slumped down by the door with your coupler still on. I ought to report you to Firminus for doing the exact shit he told you to stop. Bet you haven’t even been properly oiling your arm. Besides, you would be overkill. I need to break into an apartment building, not demolish it.”

Casus shrank back somewhat, furrowing his eyebrows in a look of befuddled surprise.

With an amused grin, Krahe took another puff of her cigarette and asked, “What? Did you think I wouldn’t take graft maintenance seriously? Forget that I used to be more graft than original flesh? I bet you haven’t even realized why your arm is getting slower. The A-Three Tricep Bundle is fucked.”

At that, Casus raised his arm, twisting it well beyond a normal range of motion.

“How did you…”

“Come on, I’m not an all-knowing genius. Firminus guessed that would be the issue when I last visited him. When I went for my final post-graft checkup, he wouldn’t stop bitching about how you ran out on him before he could even start with the maintenance.”

“I could not help it. An urgent alert came in from the Central Temple. I will take care to visit him tomorrow.”

“An urgent alert, huh? What was it?”

Casus smiled, leaning forwards. “I know where Semzar Hashem will be not too long from now. The alert was a trustworthy source from his inner circle asking for a secure evacuation into Seven Spokes custody. Thanks to my request for priority on any matters pertaining to the Hashem heir, I was alerted first. The man wanted protection until Hashem was dealt with, erasure of his bounty record, permission to legally operate his gambling business, and to have his grafts looked at by a sanctioned grafter. This, in exchange for giving his testimony and leading us to Semzar. He even offered to have us bring in an Inquisitor to prove he was telling the truth.”

“How does our man know where to find the brat?”

“I will get to that part soon…” he said, standing up and stretching to the sound of popping joints. “Once my throat is not dry as a desert.”

A few minutes later, two cups of coffee steaming on the table, Casus began recounting the incident.

***

Casus had never ventured into this area of Audunpoint before. Considering the unusually high number of gangsters, he couldn’t help but notice that building. The one with blocked-out windows and Evoy lingering about the entrance. It screamed trouble.

He knew he was all but begging for trouble by coming here. That was, after all, why he had gone so far as to don a disguise that concealed his nature as a Banisher. However, a man in subtle full-body armor and a long coat drew attention all the same. At least he’d had the good judgment to avoid using anything identifiable as Church equipment. That was a mistake he had only made once, and it had nearly cost him his life. As he was, he looked like someone who absolutely didn’t want to be seen in this part of town, but also wanted the ability to protect himself, which meant he had a bare minimum level of plausible deniability; the local gangsters couldn’t reasonably walk up and start trouble right from the start.

He was currently equipped with The Black Magnum Coupler. A unique urban stealth model designed to make the wearer forgettable, emitting a weak sensory deterrence enchantment. Adding onto its stealth design, it emitted a minimal magical aura mimicking a normal person, and no two Black Magnum suits looked the same. Its combat capabilities were slightly superior to a Dregsteam Coupler with the high velocity cartridge, but its cost was over twenty times that unit. It also had the unique feature of a self-contained, ultra-low-interference design, meaning he was able to wear the Silberblut Coupler under the Black Magnum suit without issues.

Rather than a belt, the coupler was a lower face mask that expanded out to form the helmet and then the rest of the suit, and it was a monolithic black box unit, without a typical catalyst or voidkey-adjacent power source. It was not a well known or widely produced model, certainly not enough to be known to some random gangsters; it was just one out of Casus’ collection of couplers, which he had begun during the time he was not yet able to handle Silberblut. It also hadn’t been produced in over a century since the introduction of the Black Magnum G, the improved model, but Casus personally far preferred the original’s aesthetics.

At the moment, his greatest concern was that Evoy building, particularly one of the Evoy out front—a huge, spiky specimen with thick chitin. Casus nearly did a double take when he saw him, briefly thinking it was a war-morph. Simultaneously to his relief and concern, the giant Evoy lacked most of the signs of a war-morph. It was just a freakishly large and powerful individual… But considering his demeanor when interacting with his two lackeys, he would likely pick a fight for any reason—or even no reason at all—if Casus grabbed his attention. He felt the giant Evoy’s gaze pass over him, linger for a moment, then move on a moment later. One of the Black Magnum’s chief advantages was the sensory suite, featuring strong visual amplification, B-piercing appraisal capabilities, and even an audio telescope.

As he made his way to the building that had been stated as the meeting place, Casus kept an eye on the giant Evoy to ensure he didn’t stand up or do anything else to suggest he intended to attack him. It even had built-in triggers to reduce sound and darken the field of vision to counter bright flashes and deafening noises.

Moreover, it had its own small voicebox, which he would use to speak instead of his own voice so that his identity would not be revealed.

On the approach, Casus’s attention was immediately captured by a row of wanted posters with surprisingly accurate portraits of Lady Blackhand, at least in terms of appearance. The portrayal of her was still exaggerated, just like it was on the previous, even less accurate posters. She was depicted with a malicious grin on her face, her left arm glowing orange with fanged maws opened along its surface, running its fingers through her hair. Her gun was raised to the side of her face, drawn to the exact specifications of a true Pattner rather than the reproduction it likely was. Rather than bearing the designs or watermarks of any agency, they bore a serpentine design, openly claiming:

WANTED: Dead or Alive

“BLACKHAND”

500,000 DD

There was no delivery address, but then, they probably assumed anyone who did the job would already know where to take her, or would be able to find out. Right below the row of posters for Lady Blackhand, similar ones for himself were found:

WANTED: Dead or Alive

Casus Aristedes

“Mamon Knight Silberblut”

500,000 DD

He didn’t give much thought to the bounty payment; it was clearly just an amount that Hashem thought would suffice to get the target killed through sheer volume of attempts. That is, whichever Hashem of the father-son duo was responsible for these posters. No doubt they would figure out some way to shave the cost down if someone actually delivered. When he entered the building, Casus immediately knew it was a gambling house. Many pairs of eyes lingered on him as he slowly walked across the floor, approaching the bartender. “I am here in regards to the owner’s inquiry into a refurbished Samstani slot machine for sale.”

A thumb pointed to a recessed door in the back of the room. Hammer-forged black iron. Tougher than anything in this building. These doors were one of the Heavy Ironworks’ best products, as they came with a door frame and were thus highly breach-resistant relative to their price. Such was the Ironworks’ business model: Advanced manufacturing applied to achieve above average quality/price ratio. He didn’t think he could break the door down in a reasonable time unless he transformed into Silberblut.

The peephole slid shut, and the door opened for him. The guard, an Inax woman in a pinstripe suit, slipped out and shut the door behind him when he entered. External sounds fell silent, and Casus made his way through the short hallway to a well lit, but windowless room. There was a table with quite a few chairs.

The whole room gave off a markedly more refined feeling than the rest of the gambling house, from the dark wood floor to the walls and furniture. It was… still nothing much compared to a church safehouse.

There was only one man at the table, whom Casus presumed to be his contact. He appraised him, and it stuck without an iota of resistance. The man was a Lv. 17 Occultist. His attribute scores were nothing special, and he didn’t bother trying to dig further. What grabbed his attention were not the man’s system readouts, but his appearance; more specifically, it was his head. A heavy-duty optical apparatus was affixed to it, a type that had been neither made nor sold in this region in at least twenty years. Its design was emblematic of certain Samstani manufacturers aligned with strongly synthetic-leaning grafters. Even more eye catching was the swelling and scabbing, both proof of recent installation and subpar-at-best aftercare.

“Ah, Mister…” the man began.

“Ahmed,” Casus answered.

“Mister Ahmed, thank you for coming on such short notice regarding my inquiry into that Samstani one-armed bandit you offered for sale. I am Cassius; as of recently also known as Seer, for a reason I am sure is, heh… plain to see. I am the proprietor of this humble establishment. As you can surely understand from seeing the front of the house, the machine’s self-adjusting mechanism would do wonders for my business.”

The visored man went on and on with an undeniably sleazy smoothness of speech. As his words shifted over to the contract of sale, he brought out a paper, but curiously went out of his way to not look at it. It was typed, and had quite a number of mistakes. Considering its contents, Casus assumed the man had typed it quickly and without looking at neither the paper nor the keyboard:

DO NTO SHOW THIS TEXT TO ME. MY OCULAR GRAFT MAY BE COPMROMISED.

I can find Semzar Hashem for you. I’ll make this same claim befoer an Inquisitro if I have to.

The terms of my coopreatoin:

Firstly: Protection until Sezmar is gone.

Secondly: A total wipe of my bounty record.

Thirdyl: Full legal permit to operate my estabilshment as-is. It’s alreafy nine-tenths of the way above-boar, I jsut need the papers.

LAST: I demnad that an orthrodonx grafter examins this thing onmy head and removes any and all malicious modificatnios, icnluding trakcers, kill switches, etc.

answer as if you are answernig to my offer for the slto mahcine

After looking over the paper and folding it away inside his coat, Casus answered, “Yes, I do believe we could work out something along your suggested terms of purchase. The matter comes down to the manner, time, and method of delivery, as well as any potential issues you believe may arise. I am not familiar with this region, you see. How much danger, do you think, such a delivery would face? Additional insurance is, as always, available. I would hate to see the machine meet an untimely end; far too often we have seen them stolen before they could reach their destination and dismantled for parts when the thieves realized the machine wouldn’t open for anyone not designated by the rightful owner…”

“It er… would be best to see it delivered as soon and as securely as possible. Such is life in the Free Cities, the cost of true freedom is caution, as they say…” he trailed off, clearing his throat. With a joking tone that would’ve convinced any normal person, he added, “Why, if you had it right here, I would take it on the spot!”

They sat in tense silence for a few seconds.

“Are you certain?” Casus asked.

“Of course. My employees already know to look out for a courier and not cause them any trouble. You know how security personnel can be, and they have been even more on edge these past months, first with the Evoy moving in and then that Blackhand woman coming around…”

“Alright. Regarding the first stipulation of the contract—the additional security equipment—would you prefer to have the delivery made here, or pick it up in person?”

“In-person pickup would be preferable.”

Seer went on talking in circles for a short time, and Casus played along until he managed to steer things in the right direction in a way that wouldn’t sound suspicious to any possible listeners-in. He wasn’t worried about Seer’s graft—it was a purely ocular piece, and he hadn’t noticed any signs of auditory grafts. It was a matter of possible unwelcome ears in the immediate vicinity; it was a common misconception that a room having outside-in sound insulation also meant the opposite.

The two men made their way out of the back room, and exited through the front to keep up the facade of a friendly business relationship, talking about a whole lot of nothing as they went. Doing it so openly lessened the appearance of suspicious activity. Unfortunately, someone took suspicion all the same. Casus realized this quite quickly, as, being a Banisher, he did have an eye on his back, and could thus easily see the large Evoy following them.

Casus recalled Krahe mentioning her encounter with a large Evoy and naming him “Tsetse” after a kind of giant stinging fly from her world. The name took root in Casus’ mind, because he hadn’t had a particular name for that man until now.

Tsetse’s gaze, despite being ever pointed in their direction, never focused on them, and he turned into a different street too abruptly. At this point, Casus wasn’t too worried about the Evoy, he was merely paying attention to his surroundings. However, before they could get anywhere close to the nearest branch temple, Tsetse just so happened to be there right past a bend, waiting for them. He was leaning on a wall, his giant form making even this otherwise casual stance seem aggressive.

Viewed from this close, it was obvious there was something off about his body. He couldn’t quite place it, but an alarm went off in his mind that even an Evoy this built shouldn’t look like this. Only war-morphs were ever this bulky, but they were bulky in ways different to Tsetse.

“Unlucky,” he said, craning his armored neck towards the duo. His empty, composite eyes shifted, focusing on Seer. “Someone wanted an eye on you, skinbag. Didn’t want you doing something stupid. And you—”

“Unlucky. Too close. Nice suit. Look-away field. Looks expensive.”

His manner of speech was different, that much Krahe made clear when Casus recounted this part, but it wasn’t just that. Everything about his demeanor had changed. There was no more uncontrolled, bubbling anger. He didn’t spout slurs and diatribes willy-nilly. The posturing of a big bully had been replaced by cold professionalism.

“Feel free to remind me when trying to buy a new slot machine for my gambling house became something stupid to do,” Seer retorted, masterfully hiding the fear in his voice with irritation, leveling the flyman with the unflinching, stone-faced glare of his visor.

Tsetse shrugged. “It never did. I will come along. See for myself. Maybe I was wrong. I doubt it.”

“Fine, go on.” Seer gestured uncaringly for Tsetse to proceed.

With a tinge of smugness, Tsetse refused. “No, I walk behind.”

“Very well,” Casus said, walking ahead. He tapped Seer on the back to signal him to move, and as they approached, Tsetse tensed in place, obviously expecting an attack. Casus, however, just walked on by. Once they had passed, he leaned over to Seer and spoke just loudly enough to be overheard. “I do not expect that even seeing the slot machine in person will suffice to satisfy our insectile friend.”

The true purpose was to get his hand on his helmet and twist the dial on its side once. A quasi-liquid, shadow-like substance began spilling out of his respirator; so dark that it appeared like a hole in the world. A waterfall of the same followed from under his coat, racing across the pavement. Despite Tsetse’s blindingly fast reactions given his size, the moment he came into the substance’s vicinity he was enveloped in a whirlpool of cosmic blackness. It quickly coalesced into sticky threads and restrained the Evoy, covering his eyes and mouth as well as binding his arms to his body. As this took place, Casus quickly made his escape while dragging Seer along. The reason he used the low-output coupler charge was that the full-power version was designed for the wearer’s escape; it would tremendously enhance his mobility and stealth, but Seer would be left behind.

Tsetse unfortunately turned out to possess far greater capabilities than previously expected. He not only broke free of the Black Magnum’s restraints quite quickly, but also caught up with the duo only one street over. His arrival was heralded by deep, thunderously loud buzzing as he flew overtop the apartment buildings with a strange grace that belied his non-aerodynamic build. Casus didn’t recall seeing anything on Tsetse’s back to suggest that he had wings; he thus concluded they had to be constructs. This was supported further by the fact his wings were covered in hemolymph and began rotting away the moment he landed, sending up a spray of dust and pebbles as his armored feet broke several cobblestones.

While the slight tremor threw Seer off his feet, Casus regained his bearings and faced Tsetse properly this time. Taking into account Tsetse’s intense killing intent, his previously observed speed, his build, and the fact he had freed himself so quickly, Casus arrived at the conclusion that trying to win this using the Black Magnum would pointlessly endanger both himself and Seer.

***