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LordAculon's study reeked of ancient tomes and records. The man obviously enjoyed documents, and many were strewn across his desk being worked on. Behind the massive imported Dir wood desk, a deep dark grey color, sat a man whose skin seemed to have a similar color. Obviously of Laan descent, though his curly black hair had no grey in it, Lianna could sense that he was not a young man. Purebred Laan like this one could look like this to seventy or more in some cases.

"I'm so glad that the priests saw fit to send a Paladin to take care of my problem but...," the powerful son of Count Nanguard seemed not to know what to say. "Well, do you feel that you're up to this particular task...what was it agai...ah, yes, Lianna is it? Do you think Lianna that the...environment...is one in which you can work successfully?"

The environment he refered to was the estate of the Marquis Of Greensward who, if not more powerful in a technical sense than the Count Nanguard, was far more wealthy. And, as always in Kaitaine, wealth was the final determinant of position. Even Lianna knew who Greensward was. The Greensward name meant speculation in fine commodities - most importantly dyes.

Without waiting for a response from Lianna, Lord Aculon continues unabated, making his question merely rhetorical, asking another following right on the first, "Your religious association is with the temple of Lady Luck? I have to say have never heard of that temple producing a paladin. Not that I doubt your credentials."

Aculon's gaze pauses momentarily on the sword that Lianna carries. "It's just that...well it all seems a bit irregular. Don't you think? I think that there's something vastly amiss on the Greensward Estate, and I'm sticking my neck out by asking for a Paladin to investigate it. If this goes wrong, it'll mean disaster for my family potentially."

He looks at Lianna meaningfully, and a touch patronizingly.

"If the gods agree with your suspicions so far as to agree that a Paladin should be the one to investigate further", Lianna said drily, "then a little irregularity may be the least of our problems. Though I can assure you that I will not seek to make the situation any more - irregular - than it is already, except by necessity, nor will I mention the source of my information to those to whom it is not already obvious. Since the lots chose me as the one to do the investigation, I can only assume that the Fates deem that I am the most appropriate for the task." Unless of course the Mistress of the Fates was having one of her little jokes, but there was no need to mention that to him.

Her hair, as dark as his own, was braided back in a more severe style than he was probably used to seeing, and her clothing less revealing than fashion would have dictated. But then, she had no need to use her appearance to gain influence, and to do so in her current role would only have heightened his feeling of "irregularity."

Lord Aculon, she knew from past experience, did not like irregularity. Life, in his opinion, should be ordered and orderly. A place for everything, and everything in its place. And that preference could be an advantage or a disadvantage, depending on circumstances. On the last occasion she had had cause to notice it, it had made it remarkably easy to find the rare volume she had been asked to "liberate" from his collection, but very hard to disguise its absence. And today, it had led Lord Aculon, a genuinely pious man, to sense something that went far beyond irregularity, and to report it, but also led him to distrust the help that came in response. So far, it seemed, the Lady was being even-handed in her blessings.

"What is that makes you believe that something is so vastly amiss?" she asked seriously. "The priests you spoke to told me what you told them as best they could, but an oral repetition of a conversation is never as accurate as a scribe's copy of a document. I would prefer to hear it from your own lips, to be sure that nothing of the truth as you know it is omitted or distorted." Flatter his interests, flatter his importance... and never lose sight of the real reason for asking. He had eyed her sword earlier, fearing it as a weapon, not something he was used to in his presence. He should have feared it for other reasons.

« Inufil. Listen in to this. Check him out.»

¤You want me to tell you if he's lying?¤ The mental touch was amused, condescending.

«I'm not that naive. He's a noble, so if his lips are moving, he's probably lying. I want you to tell me when he's stretching the truth, and when he's lying to himself.»

¤Work it out for yourself. You need the practise.¤ But she knew he would check her findings, and correct her if need be.

And while her automatic reaction was to assume that Aculon was framing Greensward for something, or hoping to gain advantage by causing a real secret to become public, she also knew enough of the Marquis to suspect that there really was something untoward to find. Her mother rarely spoke of him, but he was one of the few nobles whose patronage she avoided rather than sought. Her former colleagues had spoken with longing of the contents of his manor, but also with unease of those who had tried to investigate further, and had somehow met with accidents. And the priests - disapproving mainly of his unwillingness to contribute to any temple, but also, less publically, there had been an undertone of fear. Aculon might well have started this for his own benefit - or thought he had. He, too, could be influenced by the Lady. But she and Inufil would end it.

"Well," Aculon begins thoughtfully to relate his tale, "people have been reported to have been dissapearing about the estate. Actually, this is not a new phenomenon, in my opinion. Directly, I'm concerned about the recent disappearance of Lady Marsa of Elonse, and her three handmaidens, and the dissapearance of some streetworkers who were supposed to be doing repairs to the sewers on the estate about a month ago. These are common knowledge, and some have noted the coincidence of them occuring on or near the Greensward estate."

"What's less known, however, is that this is part of a larger pattern of dissapearances that goes back for quite some time. I don't have records for all of it, but it seems that this may have been going on for years now. I've heard rumor that some of the lower class try not to have any business with the place, superstition saying that it's haunted. But it seems that this superstiton is based, again, on disappearances that have occured about the place, to people of this class." Aculon looks slightly appalled by all of this. "If you take the word of some, the numbers may be in the dozens."

"I don't want to slander anyone, but I will say that once you meet Greensward, that you'll find that he's a man of such character as might be involved in something nefarious," Aculon picks up a stack of parchments, already meticulously stacked, and tries to make the stack even more perfect. "Or it could be some curse on his house, I know not. But it's high time that somebody discovered what's going on at the Greensward estate. Lady Marsa's disappearance alone merits a search for her."

"As do the others," Lianna murmurs. The implication that the disappearance of mere commoners is of no relevance annoys her, though she knows well enough that this is how nobles think.

Lianna has some observations right off, which she can simply feel Inufil agreeing with, as a patronizing adult agrees with a child. First off, Lianna's assumption about Aculon's motives are certainly accurate. He wants the Marquis to suffer - why precisely isn't clear, but Aculon feels real antipathy that even his highly controlled demeanor can't mask entirely.

Second, everything he says, continues to match what she knows about the Marquis from her mother and other sources. While his motives might be to do harm to the Marquis, it's quite possible that this isn't all fabricated. Certainly the recent disappearances are fact. But the question of the "dozens" of commoners said to be dissapearing from around the area is likely a case of Aculon getting somebody to say what he wants to hear by spreading some money around. Again, not that he'd manufactured the information, simply that he's probably willing to listen to anyone who cared to come in to get a reward and say that they knew about some dissapearances in the area. Quite possibly he's been conned.

On the other hand, Lianna is aware of a place not far from the Greensward estate that is, in fact, known amongst street folks for being a place to avoid. Just a bit "downhill" (meaning towards the docks) from the estate is "Mezzian Tunnel," actually a sewer outlet that some less savory sorts have used on rare occasion as a conduit to get into the wealthy part of the city above without being seen. Connected with the complex underground systems of the city, it is rarely used even by theives because they get lost occassionally once inside. Which, of course, had lead over the years to rumours of some monster inside of it.

Other parts of the underground were considered safe by the people that Lianna formerly spent her time with. But Mezzian Tunnel had a reputation for people going in, and not coming out. And there was the connection with the lost sewer workers. But, then, perhaps they just got lost, too.

In any case, the Marquis is far from above suspicion, dissapearances about his estate or not. People who have crossed him have disappeared from their own estates, much less his. To say nothing of the rumours of blackmail, and threats. It's said that he isn't a man to let anything stand in the way of getting what he wants.

Lianna processes this all in just a moment. Aculon notes her thinking and says, "That's about all I know. I smell a cult at work here. I don't know why, but perhaps he's secretly an Andaran and he takes people for some dark ritual. Those cat-people all think that they're above everyone else's morality."

Aculon looks furtively back and forth at some documents on his desk, knowing that this accusation was a little out of line in several ways. On the other hand, he's has a point about the followers of Andaras, generally. For a supposed god of wisdom, the cat cultists pay little heed to generally accepted convention. Still it's not like they're worshippers of Scalu or Z'taar, or other of the dark gods of Charon. To accuse them of human sacrifice is, from all Lianna knows of them, just not true. And there is nothing to indicate that Greensward has anything to do with the cat god, either.

"A cult?" She considers this, apparently taking it seriously, unlikely though it seems. The question to her mind is not whether the cat cultists have anything to do with the disappearances, but why Aculon seeks to black their name. "A lead worth following up, certainly. Are there any names within the cult you feel are particularly worth attention? Other than that, Lady Marsa would seem to be the obvious approach to the problem. Not because she is any more important that other victims in the eyes of the Gods, but simply because she is more visible. Does she have family or close friends I should speak to, who might know more?"

"Yes, Marsa's brother is Lord Stebular, whose estates are located not far from here in actually," Aculon replies. "He was there the night she disappeared, but had become separated from their group and did not suffer the same fate as the rest. You might also inquire about it at the Marquis' estate where they might be able to relate the details of the event," Aculon relates offhandedly.

Lianna notes to herself that while he apparently doubts her ability to move in the social circles of the Greensward estate, he was also pushing her towards confronting the problem directly. Did he want it solved? Or did he merely want to cause trouble? Either way, she dislikes both being pushed and taking the obvious solution.

"As for the Andaras cult, there is a suspicious character named Lord Hochist who is a known Andaran who tends to end up at the social affairs thrown by the Marquis. He might be worth asking after."

She merely nods, making a mental note of the name.

"Oh, also, before I forget, there's been some trouble at the estate with a woman named Aranis, a whore in the employ of the Marquis who was recently imprisoned. I wonder if she'd be willing to talk?" he says suggestively. Then frowning with distaste, "Her type are completely unprincipled."

"She will probably try to lie," Lianna agrees. "Or just invent something to blacken the name of anyone she dislikes. Many people do, I've found. Don't worry. She'll fail." And if he wanted to regard that as a gentle hint and a warning, that was entirely up to him...

"Well, that's plenty of potential leads to follow up. My thanks, you've been very informative. Which to start with, I wonder? Lord Stebular, perhaps. Or this Aranis, while she's still available to talk. Going straight from you to the Greensward estate, and then asking awkward questions, would perhaps be a little too obvious."

In fact she has no intention of going straight to Aranis in any case - she would find out about her first, from other sources. Like the competition... But it was still a good question - which lead first?

"Let's see what the Lady suggests, shall we?" There's a hint of mischief, not quite suppressed, at the edges of her smile. He can't object to a religious rite as being "irregular", can he? She pulls a die from her pouch. "One to three is Lord Stebular, four to six is Aranis." And she tosses the die....

The die rolls for a long time and comes up ..... 6!

Onward to Lianna looks for facts