The Aresan Clan is published four times a week (Tue, Wed, Fri, Sun). You can see what's been written so far collected here. All posts will be posted under the Aresan Clan label. For summaries of the events so far, visit here. See my previous serial Vampire Wares collected here.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Aresan Clan pt 52

Noone then snuffed the flame of the oil lamp, which was not generally burned during the daylight hours, continuing: “Amida, I want you to look after Arrs while we search his room. I want Eloh with me, since he’s already searched through the two rooms. Amida, you make sure that he remains in the courtyard, and we’ll do our best to keep our investigations short. We don’t want to linger there.”

The three of them left the gallery together, and they watched Amida enter the courtyard. Arrs was there, still busy with cleaning around the mill. Was Amida was in position, Eloh and Noone disappeared down the hall towards Arrs’ room.

Eloh kept watch in the hallway, while Noone stepped inside. As soon as she opened the door, she realized that there wasn’t much to find here. She pulled back the sheets to look at the mattress. The tick of the mattress was a large sack made of a hemp canvas. At one end, was an opening, folded over and buttoned shut to hold the straw inside. Noone unbuttoned it and look at the chaff stuffed within. To all appearances it seemed untouched. She buttoned up the mattress and arranged the sheets as they had been before. The bed had not been made, its sheets simply tossed aside when Arrs arose from it this morning. Nonetheless, Noone arranged the sheets as they had been when she entered the room. She then looked through Arrs one traveling bag, finding there, as well, nothing of interest.

Noone stepped out of the room and closed the door, telling Salles, “Tell Amida that we’re moving on to Jule’s room.”

Salles walked through the halls to the courtyard, and walked up to Amida, who was casually leaning against a wall and watching Arrs while he worked. Eloh whispered in her ear, and Amida shifted her attention to Jule who was also working on cleaning up the mills, moving scraps of wood and bits of ash that were to be processed and recycled.

Noone and Salles met in front of Jule’s room and she stepped inside while Salles again remained outside. Within moments of stepping into the room, Noone found what she had been looking for: a round, cylindrical earthenware container with several small holes on the top and bottom and a hook-shaped handle extending from the top. The base was removable and as she pulled it out, she found in the middle a stand for holding a candle and some hardened beeswax drippings around the edge. She put this back in place as she had found it. She ventured over to the bed. Lifting the bedspread and pulling back the sheets, she looked at the mattress. As she looked at the end where it opened up, a few stray straws were just sticking out from within, in a way that suggested Jule had removed a handful or two of straw and had dropped a few in the process.

After straightening the mattress and sheets, Noone pulled the bed away from the wall to see the stack of books that Salles had spoken of. There she saw them, in a row of small stacks. She picked up the first book she to catch her eye, its cover decorated by a flaming eagle. When she opened it, she recognized the script of the fire tongue, and saw the title, the Hermeticon. It was a holy work in the Fourth Order canon. She wanted to read it. She’d never had a chance read a copy of this sacred book, but when she turned out to look into the hallway, she saw Eloh mouthing to her, “hurry up.”

Noone quickly put everything back in its place and then exited the room closing the door. Her and Salles casually walked away, crossing the courtyard. When Amida saw them, she fell behind them in step towards Noone’s office.

Noone sat at her desk and turned to Amida and Salles, telling them, “Jule’s our man.”

“What do you we do?” Amida asked, “Do we lock him up?”

“No,” Noone said, “We watch him. There may be yet more we can learn. In fact, I strongly suspect that there is much more to learn. And we are not going to find it out by asking him politely.”


<-- Go to Part 51         Go to Part 53 -->

You can see what's been written so far collected here.

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